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This is the blog for the Wakemate, a new gadget for mobile phones that is supposed to track your rem sleep cycles and help you consistently rise in the morning on the proverbial right side of the bed. I know this applies to me, so I queued up for the product, many months ago. The blog is a fascinating study in what it takes to produce a physical product–it's very, very hard (and crucial to get the details right at launch, and production delays are inevitable. Check out the combination of optimism, crisis and grind in the Wakemate's blog. (Also, Wakemate, if you're reading this, I'm ready for my shipment.)
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The biggest problem with the ongoing liquidity crisis in America is that we can't spend government funds on too-cool-for-school infrastructure solutions like this. (Then again, America rarely has, anyway… we're too busy widening highways to innovate on rails.)
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Jason got a kick out of linking to this Valley Girl segment from "Real People" last week. What he forgot to mention is that the host was Fred Willard!
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Incredibly, the dack.com Bullshit Generator is just as accurate and clever, 10 years on
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Come for the branding news, stay for the awesome time-lapse video of the repainting of a 747. Amazed at how much is done by hand
Moin Moin! How are you you? I have a fun toy for
Young people searched for your order. Hurrah! I really exactly,
what I was looking so long at the following from a dedicated
Author operated Web site. The Internet Web Site remote
discounted capital ships, harbor tugs and flattop.
The remote-controlled boats are gifts, you who at any time
should watch! So quickly in order: remote-controlled boat
(Translation via Google Translate. Also: I think it’s about time I turned off comments for good.)
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Love this. "Not that I’m rewarding her or discriminating against her on the basis of her physical appearance. I’m just stating a subjective personal opinion that does not represent the views of SterlingCooperMizuho or its subsidiaries."
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Great visualization on how Apple makes its money. With roughly 3% of the mobile phone market, Apple makes more profit than the rest of the industry combined.
That’s the gist of Steve Jobs’s hastily arranged and moderately defensive iPhone press conference today discussing the antenna-finger-reception issue.
There’s nothing press-conference-worthy about the issue, really, other than the fuss that’s being made. Apple felt the need to respond to its critics, which, I suspect, has more than a little to do with Consumer Reports’ product damnation earlier this week. Stodgy as it may seem, CU wields a lot of influence, as evidenced by its recent safety warning on the Lexus GX460, which forced Toyota to immediately suspend its sales. (Disclosure: I am a consumerreports.com subscriber.)
Apple’s sales are a combination of its near-flawless execution and the halo of respect and admiration the company receives for its products. With the iPhone 4, Apple wound up with a) a tangibly flawed product, whether it wants to admit it or not, however minor it may be; and b) the potential loss of some of that all-important respect and admiration. Apple had to try and remind people of its general excellence and plug the hole in the proverbial dyke.
Let’s analyze the specifics of the “solution,” then, which has been cited as potentially costing the company hundreds of millions of dollars. Apple will give away free bumpers to all its iPhone 4 customers. This has an opportunity cost of $87 million, given Apple’s $29 price point versus the three million phones already sold.
Seriously, though: that bumper’s $29 ask is laughable. It’s a molded plastic ring. A lay consumer can buy full-size iPhone cases for $1.50 for as few as 30 pieces in bulk. What do you think Apple’s wholesale cost is for three million, sourced directly from the manufacturer? Thirty cents? Maybe less?
At $0.30 per case, Apple’s big giveaway will cost the company $900,000 for the first three million, plus overhead. Given that Apple has brought in at least $600 million in revenue (probably a lot more) on those three million iPhone 4s, nine hundred grand seems like a pretty painless repair. (As an Apple shareholder, I should note that this pleases me.)
The iPhone 4 remains an incredible product, and Apple a remarkable company. Today’s press conference didn’t really change things one way or the other. Their hope is that with their case-and-refund announcement in place, the issue will quiet down, and people will feel good about buying and using the iPhone 4. We’ll see if it works.
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New in grammar: the jumper colon. I love this, not least because I often use colons in this way
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This is my favorite memory of the late Bob Sheppard: requesting that a full stadium of rowdy, Macarena-dancing fans would "please… do not throw socks… onto the playing field." I was at this game and laughed about it for years after. Bob Sheppard saying "socks." Jeter's recorded intro is a wonderful tribute that we'll be hearing at old-timers' day for decades to come