Michael Gartenberg
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- Fri, 26 Jan 2007 16:13:03 -05:00
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RSS FEED IDEMS: Michael Gartenberg
- The New Influenltials
Understanding the new influencers and being able to identify them is going to be critical for most companies going forward. The impact of these folks is huge and it's going to be felt in a big way going forward. The impact of an individual blogger, for example, might be negligible. What about 100. Or perhaps a 1,000. What about 10,000.
Ignoring these folks is a big mistake.
Engaging them the wrong way an even bigger one. Don't even think about it without reading this report first from my colleague Emily Riley. It's must reading for anyone who needs to understand the impact of social media and marketing.
Fri, 26 Jan 2007 16:11:31 -05:00 - Cut Copy and Paste for Windows Mobile Smartphones
It's annoying but one thing you can't do with a Windows Mobile Smartphone is cut, copy and paste when editing text. It's a legacy thing from the days when Smartphone as a platform wasn't designed for QWERTY keyboards. Fortunately, there's a utility called Scissors Mobile that seems to do the trick. If you have a Q, Dash or Blackjack, this is for you. I personally haven't tried it (i haven't run into the need for it in my personal use) but if you've tried it, let me know how it works.
Thu, 25 Jan 2007 20:16:45 -05:00 - Excellent Smartphone Analysis
Michael Mace offers some of the best analysis of the smartphone and mobile data markets. If you don't know Michael, he's an ex-Apple and Palm exec who is one of the most knowledgeable folks I know in the mobile space.
Michael, analysis like this is way to valuable to just give away :)
Thu, 25 Jan 2007 15:29:36 -05:00 - Back from the slopes
Excellent skiing up in Killington. The weather was great, cold enough for snow but not too cold. Hard to come back but ready for the big Vista launch next week in NY (if you're going to be there, let me know). Lots of stuff going on it seems.
I took the new OQO with me as well as the Dash so i've been keeping up with the world, lots of stuff going on it seems. (The Dash is too good a traveling companion. It works in many places where I should have just left the darn thing behind. If you got email from me over the last few days, it probably came from on top of a mountain.) Connections were good but only GPRS or 1XR. Email was ok but web browsing was slow. Slinging was out of the question. WiFi was advertised but the signal didn't reach the condo we rented. Lots to catch up on here, look for more regular posts next week.
Wed, 24 Jan 2007 21:27:14 -05:00 - TOG on iPhone
Bruce Tognazzini gives some analysis of the iPhone UI. Who is Bruce Tognazzini? Known as Tog, he was hired at Apple by Steve Jobs and Jef Raskin in 1978, and founded the Apple Human Interface Group. Yeah, he was responsible for a lot of the way that Macintosh worked :) He sums up what makes the iPhone interesting rather well.
"The origins of these bits and pieces, however, is not what's important about the iPhone. What's important is that, for the first time, so many great ideas and processes have been assembled in one device, iterated until they squeak, and made accessible to normal human beings. That's the genius of Steve Jobs; that's the genius of Apple."
Well worth the read especially if you're going to fnd yourself in the business of competing with Apple.
(if you haven't read either of his books, you should stop what you're doing and go order them, they're as relevant today as they were when they were published, perhaps even more so)
Fri, 19 Jan 2007 10:18:08 -05:00 - $1.99 for 80211n
Apple will charge customers $1.99 to enable the 80211.n functionality in some of their recent machines. Almost every Macintosh that has one of Intel's Core 2 Duos shipped with 802.11n. I asked Apple about this and was told
"The nominal distribution fee for the 802.11n software is required in order for Apple to comply with generally accepted accounting principles for revenue recognition, which generally require that we charge for significant feature enhancements, such as 802.11n, when added to previously purchased products,"
Now, I don't know if accounting rules mandate this. I'm not an accountant (if there is an accountant out there that knows if this is correct, please let me know) but I don't see Apple lying about this to get an extra two bucks from their customers. Frankly, they could have just done nothing and let those machines stand. I applaud Apple for doing the fight thing for customers by offering the update and given recent issues they had with the options backdating stuff, I'm not surprised they're taking a conservative approach to what's kosher and what's not. Let's face it, two bucks isn't a big deal and i'm amazed some folks are making a fuss about this.
Thu, 18 Jan 2007 17:15:14 -05:00 - I am a total idiot, but have a million bucks i'd like to put into a hedge fund
I was in a book store last night and noticed the following book. Hedge Funds for Dummies. No seriously, I mean it.
Two small points.
1. If you really are in the target market for this book, perhaps the hedge fund is not the best way for you to invest.
2. I find it amazing that people buy books targeted for "dummies" or "idiots" and choose to identify themselves as such!
Are people proud to feel they're an idiot? I'm trying to picture the consumer who walks into the book store and says, "Hmmm.. I am a total idiot, but have a million bucks i'd like to put into a hedge fund... but I don't know anything about the subject.... let's see, any books out there are for me?"
Is there some pride in stupidity that i am not getting? How about a celebration of intellgence instead of idiocy? OK, i'll get off the soapbox now.
Thu, 18 Jan 2007 10:21:41 -05:00 - When Reporters Set Agendas Instead of... Well, Report
From the department of we don't make this stuff up. I got the following email from a reporter. I've edited slightly to protect the identity of the pub, reporter and story.
Hi Michael.l I'm writing a story on XXX for XXX publication. I should precursor this by asking if you feel XXX has failed in the market. If you are a big fan of XXX and think it has really happened, your opinion might not work for this story.
I declined the interview.
Wed, 17 Jan 2007 11:49:28 -05:00 - No Java on the iPhone
Scoble wonders about Java on the iPhone after talking with Sun's CEO.
Nope. Not happening (although the browser supports JavaScript which may be causing some confusion.
Update - John Markoff of the NY Times asked the same question. Here's the answer her got.
Markoff: "What about all those plugins that live within Safari now, like Flash or like Java or like JavaScript?"
Jobs: "Well, JavaScript's built into the Phone. Sure."
Markoff: "And what are you thinking about Flash and Java?"
Jobs: "Java's not worth building in. Nobody uses Java anymore. It's this big heavyweight ball and chain."
I guess Mr. Schwartz's pitch to Mr. Jobs wasn't successful after all.
Wed, 17 Jan 2007 10:38:20 -05:00 - A little statistical humor before I break
I was looking at some numbers earlier in the day and they reminded me of this old story.
It seems there are three statisticians who go hunting. The first aims at the bear and misses widely to the right. The second aims and misses widely to left. The third one jumps up and down and yells "we got him!".
People often say numbers don't lie. That's not true, numbers lie all the time.
Tue, 16 Jan 2007 18:03:48 -05:00
