In an email of talking points circulated by Microsoft spokespeople, the company addresses the various rumors about today’s new MacBooks, preemptively claiming that they will be overpriced, underspec’d and locked down. They offer charts comparing the feature lists of similarly priced Windows and Mac notebooks and make numerous accusations of an “Apple Tax.” The email is interesting: nothing they say is incorrect, but none of it is new. Most importantly, all of it misses the point completely.
Most Apple buyers are fully aware that they could purchase a cheaper computers from another manufacturer — after all, Apple’s hardware specifications aren’t exactly closely guarded secrets. Telling them this again and again won’t win any converts, but it will, in a way, “rally the base” of fervent Apple critics online and elsewhere.
I think it’s downright sickening that any school would consider a trip to a retail store as a legitimate field trip. Consumer advertising has no place in education. The fact that the U.S. public education system is in such a sorry state that this is even possible doesn’t mean Apple should encourage it. It’s appalling.
I attended a Domain Driven Design course on Monday at Skills Matter offices. Eric Evans led the course and put forward a very interesting theory that the quality of a software system is proportional to the skills of the second worst programmer.
The explanation for the idea is that everyone on the team knows who the worst programmer is, so senior developers are closely monitoring everything that he does and cleaning up problems. The work of the second worst programmer is not monitored with that attention so he has the chance to do some real damage.
If we didn’t know better, we’d swear that some marketing genius at Microsoft came up with the entire premises of The Office, Extras and, hell, probably even grew Rickey Gervais himself in a magic test tube. Such is the mastery the of cringe-inducing humor found in Microsoft’s promo videos.
This latest is one of the best, and we challenge you to get more than half way through before hiding your eyes in your hands, your teeth so on-edge that it feels like you have been rubbing a mixture of Ajax and cocaine into them for the past week. With a wire brush.
Adobe is aware of recently published reports of a ‘Clickjacking’ issue in multiple web browsers that could allow an attacker to lure a web browser user into unknowingly clicking on a link or dialog. It has been determined that this potential “Clickjacking” issue affects Adobe Flash Player.
[..]
Adobe is working to address the issue in an upcoming Flash Player update, scheduled for release before the end of October.
If you don’t want to wait that long, here is a better solution.
Today’s blog stupidity was only matched by the gullibility of traders who acted on the rumor. And with electronic trading and a few traders capable of wielding so much power, individual investors are essentially helpless.
It’s not true. The rumor is not true. But the reaction to it just goes to show the enormous insecurity some traders suffer toward Apple and its shares. And how easy it is to manipulate this stock. That in itself is an unfortunate risk factor investors have to accept if they’re going to put their hard-earned cash into this company.
How unfortunate. But such is the ridiculous climate on Wall Street right now. I hope they find this guy who wrote this post. But all the traders who dumped Apple shares based on that garbage have some searching of their own to do. Soul-searching. Selling first and asking questions later is the work of amateurs.
I saw the rumor yesterday, and it took me all of 10 seconds to find out it wasn’t true. I think “amateur” is too friendly a description.
We have decided to drop the non-disclosure agreement (NDA) for released iPhone software.
We put the NDA in place because the iPhone OS includes many Apple inventions and innovations that we would like to protect, so that others don’t steal our work. It has happened before. While we have filed for hundreds of patents on iPhone technology, the NDA added yet another level of protection. We put it in place as one more way to help protect the iPhone from being ripped off by others.
However, the NDA has created too much of a burden on developers, authors and others interested in helping further the iPhone’s success, so we are dropping it for released software. Developers will receive a new agreement without an NDA covering released software within a week or so. Please note that unreleased software and features will remain under NDA until they are released.
Thanks to everyone who provided us constructive feedback on this matter.
“The interesting thing about cloud computing is that we’ve redefined cloud computing to include everything that we already do. I can’t think of anything that isn’t cloud computing with all of these announcements. The computer industry is the only industry that is more fashion-driven than women’s fashion. Maybe I’m an idiot, but I have no idea what anyone is talking about. What is it? It’s complete gibberish. It’s insane. When is this idiocy going to stop?
“We’ll make cloud computing announcements. I’m not going to fight this thing. But I don’t understand what we would do differently in the light of cloud.”
pple has gotten a significant amount of critical press surrounding its rejection policies in the App Store. A few high profile rejections have been widely reported and inspired at least one amusing comic.
Apparently, Apple has now started labeling their rejection letters with Non-Disclosure (NDA) warnings:
THE INFORMATION CONTAINED IN THIS MESSAGE IS UNDER NON-DISCLOSURE
Readers should note that Apple’s developer correspondence may have already been covered by the original NDA, but Apple is now making it clear.
They hate the bad press so much they want you to shut up. If you’ve been rejected, you’re no longer allowed to tell the world about it.
Now, why would a developer invest time in this platform?
Flickr user LuisDS discovered metadata on the creative copy of the “stereotyped PC user” and other photos appearing on Microsoft’s “I’m a PC” website that reveal they were produced using Macs running Adobe Creative Suite 3.
Microsoft code monkeys scrubbed the identifying information from the website stills overnight.
Apart from the ha-ha-this-is-funny, here’s a question for you marketing people: how can you, as an advertising agency, be able to create compelling advertising for a product you yourself have rejected?
Microsoft’s panicked reaction to these Seinfeld ads, yanking them from the air and severing ties with Seinfeld, isn’t because the ads were poorly received. And dropping these ads is a panicked reaction. Let’s not pretend it makes any sense that the Seinfeld spots were planned as a two-episode teaser all along. No one signs Jerry Seinfeld for $10 million in a much-heralded deal to make just two spots that only run for a grand total of two weeks. The most telling fact is that the firm that reached out to the media yesterday to explain that this sudden shift was supposedly the plan all along was not Crispin Porter, the advertising agency producing the campaign, but Waggener Edstrom, Microsoft’s PR firm. Advertising campaigns which are going according to plan do not need PR firms to assert such.
The reaction to the ads wasn’t bad, it was mixed (and/or baffled). But the spots were undeniably successful in one important regard: they were noticed and discussed. I suspect what sparked the panic is that the Seinfeld ads were too good, too accurate at capturing just what it is that Microsoft, as a company and brand, stands for: nothing.
Remember those awful Microsoft ads with Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Gates? Well, now you can forget them. Microsoft flacks are desperately dialing reporters to spin them about “phase two” of the ad campaign — a phase, due to be announced tomorrow, which will drop the aging comic altogether. Microsoft’s version of the story: Redmond had always planned to drop Seinfeld. The awkward reality: The ads only reminded us how out of touch with consumers Microsoft is — and that Bill Gates’s company has millions of dollars to waste on hiring a has-been funnyman to keep him company.
One new Microsoft commercial even begins with a company engineer who resembles John Hodgman, the comedian portraying the loser PC character in the Apple campaign. “Hello, I’m a PC,” the engineer says, echoing Mr. Hodgman’s recurring line, “and I’ve been made into a stereotype.”
What I’ve learned on marketing is that this is basically an explicit admission that Microsoft is the second-place brand. You never compare yourself to your competitors this way if you want to present yourself as number one.
Apple’s current practice of rejecting certain applications at the final hurdle - submission to the App Store - is disastrous for investor confidence. Developers are investing time and resources in the App Store marketplace and, if developers aren’t confident, they won’t invest in it. If developers - and serious developers at that - don’t invest, what’s the point?
You have to wonder if Apple wants the App Store to be a museum of poorly-designed nibware written by dilettante Mac OS X/iPhone OS switcher-developers and hobbyist students. That’s what will happen if companies who intend to invest serious resources in bringing an original idea to the App Store are denied a reasonable level of confidence in their expectation of profit.
[..]
That said, Apple is now selecting for anti-competitive reasons. It came to light today that an app that will deliver a capability I really, really want was rejected by Apple because it replaces a feature in Apple’s own software. The app is called Podcaster and it would allow one to update podcasts directly on the device over wifi. I sync my iPhone to my Mac Pro - should I have to go home to put a new episode on my iPhone? I’d buy that app in a heartbeat.
Do you want a store in which every app in the “Productivity” category is a to-do list manager? That’s exactly what you’re going to get because, without some a priori assurance that your idea will be accepted, the only way to know what Apple likes and dislikes is to look at what’s already on the store. Clearly Apple can’t get themselves enough of those ticky boxes, so why not do “your take” on a list of text cells and checkmarks? Much safer bet than inventing something new.
Mudak on Minnesota Senate Recount: Challenged ballots: You be the judge Whatever else is true, Minnesota law would count this as a vote for Franken, even if they did it wrong.
One very important thing we shouldn't overlook is that the Republican Party tried all sorts of dirty tricks to convince potential Democratic voters either not to vote or to vote incorrectly, so it may not be purely voter stupidity. In Philadelphia, they were passing out brochures that said that, due to anticipated high turnout, Republicans should vote on Tuesday and Democrats should vote on Wednesday. *shrug*
John on Minnesota Senate Recount: Challenged ballots: You be the judge Well, three ways to look at this one I think:
1. It is pretty clear where the intention was since the machine's optical registration box was circled next to just one candidate.
2. This is a failure of the user interface. I read a similar discussion about web forms that are too strict about how user entered data is formatted. This form's interface, requiring the voter to fill in a small oval to cast their vote us clearly too strict.
3. This is being used as a mechanism to disqualify voters who are either too stupid to follow instructions, or too lazy to read them.
I'd say count the vote, and fix the user interface to be simpler and more tolerant of human impreciseness!
Roland Hesz on Yugo, 1953-2008 Yes, that's what I read too, so far Neelie Kroes holds out on it. I hope she can thwart the "oh, fuck capitalism, we are LOOSING!" movement.
Roland Hesz on Converting Dead Mormons into Homosexuals It is hilarious. What the Mormons declare is "Hey, God is Powerless!" and the Jews and Catholics who reacted with such a panic they did send the clear message "God is Powerless!".
How hilarious.
John Sinteur on Yugo, 1953-2008 you may want to time-stamp that comment, that zero may change to EUR 50b any second now.
News: 1, 2, 3.
Roland Hesz on Yugo, 1953-2008 So far the EU is sending 0EUR to help car manufacturers. It is still debated whether it's needed or not, however Germany stated that they will help Opel. But Germany is not the EU.
That's the current status of the car bailout in Europe.
John Sinteur on Yugo, 1953-2008 Have you seen how much money Europe is sending to struggling car manufacturers, including subsidiaries of GM?
Maarten on Yugo, 1953-2008 "We"? I didn't know you were going to help out! That's sweet of you.
Bill L. on Big Three CEOs Flew Private Jets to Plead for Public Funds I've never, n-e-v-e-r had to be at an airport 2 hours early. I've often wandered in with less than 40 minutes to my flight. Are we guessing that they have lots of luggage to check in and haven't bothered to check-in electronically?
Southwest, business select, one way, out one day and back the next, is $176 X 12 = 2,112. Not exactly 12 grand. 12k only pans out if you assume they "have" to travel first class.
The shortest flight listed is about 1 hour and 24 minutes. Ohh noes! How will they avoid spilling the corporate beans for nearly an eternity!
Are we to think that all the execs traveled on the same plane? Jet-pooling?
John Sinteur on Big Three CEOs Flew Private Jets to Plead for Public Funds You're forgetting one major cost factor: public image. This story is all over the news. At the cost of two or three extra hours, their image could have been one of real "cost-sensitve" CEO's.
Isn't that really worth it?
And any CEO not aware of public image is too stupid to be in that job.
Jason on Big Three CEOs Flew Private Jets to Plead for Public Funds How much time is lost by the GM representatives when they have to check in for a flight two hours early, or when the GM representatives are not to talk about business during the flight due to insider trading concerns?
The question is what is lost? When 12 people fly on a private jet it costs about $20,000. When 12 fly commercially to DC it costs about $12,000. Is a $8,000 savings worth the time lost?
Isn’t it really worth it in the long run?
http://nomedals.blogspot.com
