HTHTFH

Amazon.com Remains Strong Despite Offending Gay Community

Not sure what you mean here. AMZN most likely made what they thought was a rational business decision based on demographics and customer research (probably without consulting the ghost of Jerry Falwell).

Any pressure they and other businesses get these days is probably the exact opposite of what you suggest, as the story itself proves. The same thing happened not long ago when gay groups fipped out over not being able to place personals with eHarmony, who promptly capitulated and changed their policy. No word on how many new subscriptions they got out of the deal.

If AMZN thought they could sell tons of these books they would be on the front page, but fact is the market isn't there and overpromoting their availability was seen as an unacceptable risk to their image and mainstream sales.




On Apr 13 11:45 AM raytayzmd wrote:

> ...like other media, AMZN probably got pressure from convervative
> groups regarding "adult" material...and -- like other media -- AMZN
> tried to comply...unfortunately, AMZN got caught and bloggers picked
> it up and made a fuss -- UNLIKE other media...on any given television
> station, how many "gay" shows are there?...how many newspapers have
> "gay" lifestyle sections?...so let's be fair...at least AMZN is addressing
> the issue and correcting it.

Consumer Credit Drops Sharply

Stories like this are exactly why I think people are too optimistic too soon about some purported recovery. Nobody wants to face the music.

Amazon: Dirty Little Secrets Persist

Whats it trading at now? 40 times earnings? And as so many consumers are up to their butts in credit card debt, the Amazon purchases will taper off the average family budget over the next several months. Not a great short term outlook (and no, the Kindle doesn't count for much).

Is Office Coming to the iPhone?

The alternatives just don't compare to Office. I use Open Office it on Linux. For a freebie, its pretty damned good, but it lacks the serious bells and whistles like track changes and better formatting that keeps Office in the lead. Hence, for work I use Word/Office.

And no, I haven't messed with any Apple-related software since Pagemaker and QuarkXpress many moons ago. Maybe now they've improved, but who cares? Admit it, MSFT got this one (mostly) right.

How iPhone Use Differs from Other Smartphones

The G1 is much better suited to the kinds of shopping activity cited as iPhone territory. I can not only look up reviews and prices, but there is a program that lets me use the phone camera as a bar code scanner to do this. The iPhone does NOT have this capability-!

Steve Jobs has not decreed the program (Shopsavvy) worthy of the iPhone yet, but one would hope that happens soon. With the G1, there is no waiting for corporate big brother approval thanks to open-sourced Android software.

Once Shopsavvy shows up on the johnny-come-lately iPhone I'm sure Apple will still continue with the bogus "Only on the iPhone" ad campaign, just like they did with Shazam.

New Microsoft Ad Targets High Cost of Macs

Boy, the fanboys are out in full force! Guess MSFT really struck a nerve with this one.

Here's the truth behind the fanboy's affliction:

"When you ask white people about Mac’s they will say “oh, it’s so much better than Windows,” “it’s just easier to use,” “they are so cutting edge,” and so forth. What’s amazing is that white people NEED to meet people who use Windows to justify themselves spending an extra $500 for a pretty looking machine."

stuffwhitepeoplelike.c.../

New Microsoft Ad Targets High Cost of Macs

The uncomfortable truth for MAC is no matter which one you buy (MAC or PC), three to five years later it depreciates into nothing.

So do you want to lose $3k over the next three to five years or only $699?

For people not concerned about the cool factor, the answer is obvious.

Can Apple Remain the Unique Innovator It Was, Without Steve Jobs?

"...They marry the OS to the Things, Marketing Plans, Business Models to create an unstoppable juggernaut for market dominance."

Market dominance? A juggernaut OS should be found on a bit more than only 4% of the worlds computers. That scarcity is often mistaken for OS security too, which it is not.

Yes, AAPL has a loyal and growing customer base, but for now, other than Starbucks lounges and college campuses, MSFT is still the business and government standard.

Can Apple Remain the Unique Innovator It Was, Without Steve Jobs?

APPL will be right back where they were the last time Steve Jobs was thrown out of the picture and John Scully was in. Anybody remember some of the crappy offerings from back then? The apple "laptop"? System 7? Ugh. Once Steve is gone, he's gone for good and so is the company.

Whole Foods Market: Still a Premium Stock?

Whole Foods? More like Whole Paycheck.

Gun Stocks: Shooting Up

Wasn't it S&W who sold out to the Clintons? The company went into the tank after they struck some kind of a deal that resulted in a de facto boycott by consumers and dealers. S&W never recovered until the company was bought back from its British parent company a few years later.



On Mar 07 10:36 PM Gun Money wrote:

> My next gun purchase will be a M&P 40 cal. . I dont have any
> S&W pistols just a couple of revolvers. I like what S&W
> does and their quality. No offense to Ruger owners, but after he
> sold us out to the Klintoons, I'll never buy a Ruger!. How ever......
> If I can make a few bucks I may buy some stocks and hold on to them
> long enough to make more Gun Money!!!!!

Apple and Amazon's Open Embrace

True enough, and even then how many people fit that category? Have you noticed the utter lack of people reading books in airports these days, especially young people? Anyone under the age of 25 was nursed on the teat of a hand held game controller, back seat DVD players and bottles of ritalin. Couple that with a public school system that doesn't challenge them with concepts like summer reading lists, or even homework, and you can see what we've been producing. I'm not letting foreign kids off the hook either - kids from Asia who do better in school still rarely read books in their spare time. Kindle will therefore be a small niche filler.



On Mar 08 10:22 AM constantnormal wrote:

> If we had ubiquitous wifi availability, then one could look at the
> Kindle as an "always-on" portal to written content -- there are more
> things written than just hardback books, like magazines, newspapers,
> comics (color will eventually come to the Kindle).
>
> But there is a dearth of open access wifi in this nation, and in
> most parts of it, of wifi access of any sort. The Kindle is going
> to have a long runway before it takes off and threatens the magazine
> rack.
>
> It must come down in price -- A LOT -- and improve in capability
> (color, for instance, is a requirement before comics and a lot of
> magazine content is practical) before it really goes mainstream,
> and there must be widespread access to open wifi.
>
> Until that happens, it will remain a toy for rich folks who spend
> a lotta time in airports/airplanes and would like to have a lightweight
> library to accompany them.

2009 Depression Will Be Nothing Like 1929

Agreed, this is a fallacy, but for different reasons. The economy was hardly on the mend at 1932. FDR raised taxes three or four times and was itching to go to war against Germany as a distraction for how bad things were here. He got his wish when Germany declared war on the US after we declared war on Japan.

Though WW2 did not end the depression, WINNING the war probably did. Think about it: what was the state of the world at that time? Europe and much of Russia were in shambles, Japan was nuked, China was just raped by Japan and India was little more than a colonial backwater. The only ones in a position to grow were the US, Australia and NZ. By sheer size and resource potential, we had a massive head start. Couple that with a baby boom of producers (before the welfare state kicked in much later), and it's no wonder the US grew like it did.

We won't get that kind of a head start this time. We got cocky and blew it.


On Mar 06 12:04 PM freddyv wrote:

> On Mar 06 09:54 AM Harry Tuttle wrote:

Yeah, And the iPod Wasn't a Threat to the Walkman, Either…

Some of you Apple people are becoming positively insufferable. The author (and Steve Jobs) suggested that the iPhone can handle games the same as whatever device Sony throws at it. The current iPod/Touch devices do not have suitable interfaces for anything but the most boring games.

Sure, Apple could come out with more buttons. Alas, adding buttons = new device = not the iPhone. So it's open season until we see what they can actually generate.

2009 Depression Will Be Nothing Like 1929

If this article were written by a 20-something kid, I could understand it. But someone of the authors age should know better.

Reasons why this one is different (and presumably not as bad): the Internet...
...are you kidding me?