Virtually the entire internet is speculating talking about what Apple will roll out in its hotly anticipated – and badly needed – refresh at WWDC 2013. I could repeat all the claims about OS X 10.9, iOS 7, Mac Pros, and Retina Macbook Airs. Instead, I’ll just link you to Justin Williams’s CarpeAqua, which provides … Continue reading WWDC
It looks like Moleskine and Evernote are teaming up, and have launched an Evernote-branded notebook, along with a 3-month premium membership to the online note-taking service. It’s very interesting to see Moleskine’s attempt to hitch its wagon to a product for the smartphone crowd, and Evernote’s desire to classily separate itself from the myriad of … Continue reading New Tech, Old Tech
Amazon first took down Borders, and now it’s got its sights on the US Treasury. Now that Bezos & Co. are done capturing the book world, it’s going after currencies, announcing that it will be issuing “Amazon Coins” to Kindle owners for use in the development and purchase of games and apps on the Kindle platform. The exchange rate will be 100 Amazon coins to $1 US – though no word from Amazon if there will be any equivalent of the Federal Reserve in order to prevent a Bitcoin-like run-up in price. Continue reading “Digital Wallet, Here We Come!”
The new Samsung Galaxy S4 is so powerful complicated, it has an Easy Mode – the rough equivalent of the big-button jumbo remote control you’d buy for your parents as a joke when they turn fifty. Apple has an easy mode too. It’s called iOS. Continue reading The Next Big Thing, Simplified
With Marissa Mayer at the helm, Yahoo! is on a spending spree. In an effort to become a new online hub for video, the company snapped up the rights to stream episodes of Saturday Night Live – previously a Hulu special – and recently attempted to purchase the popular French video site DailyMotion. However, the government of President Francois Hollande has expressed its objections to the takeover, and sought to block the deal. Continue reading “France Wants Foreign Capital, Except When it Doesn’t”
I love how loyal Microsoft Word is to subject-object prioritization. Continue reading A Word About Word
Yesterday, Samsung announced that it started production on the Galaxy Giant, a 58.3-inch Android smartphone that stands almost five feet tall. The phone packs a 1.4GHz Snapdragon processor, 16GB of onboard memory, and the usual layer of TouchWiz. Samsung made it clear that “this is not a tablet or television. It’s simply a large smartphone that we know our customers will love.” Cynics, who felt that the “phablet” definition no longer applies, have dubbed the device a “tonolith,” after the large obsidian slab featured in Stanley Kubrick’s 1968 film, 2001: A Space Odyssey. Continue reading “Samsung Launches New Phone, Dubbed Tonolith”
T-Mobile, in many respects, has its back to the wall. It did not carry the iPhone until this week. Its 4G network still lags behind those of Verizon and AT&T. And one year ago, AT&T dropped its $39 billion acquisition plans, in light of opposition from the Justice department. And its relatively small hold on the US phone market has meant that the T-Mobile still lags among the big four phone carriers.
Guess which firm and founder fits the following example:
A once-dominant company, brought to its knees by competition from Apple and Amazon, is faced with dropping sales, a sinking share price, and angry shareholders. In walks the silver-haired founder of the company, who volunteers part of his reduced, if still substantial fortune, in order to buy the company and save the brand.
I recently rediscovered Apple’s 2008 commercial for the original Macbook Air, and was surprised to find that it packed the same visual, emotional appeal that it did five years ago – even in the post-PC, iPad-centric era.
Silicon Spatula 