Our series’ fourth month ends with, like Day 87, the Leica Camera AG M Monochrom. Ross Pollack captured the photo in Hong Kong, when he lived there. He is now stateside after residing a decade […]
Author: Joe Wilcox
Microsoft ‘Continuum’: Lucky Timing, Right Context
They say in business that timing is everything. Before Microsoft shown a spotlight on new Windows technology “Continuum”, earlier today, Gartner released a disturbing forecast strangely validating the concept.
The analyst firm predicts that currency devaluation will compel major computer manufacturers to raise prices as much as 10 percent—particularly across Europe and in Japan. Higher prices mean more consumers will do with leaner configurations, and many businesses will push back upgrades. All the while, PC makers will give customers less for more money by cutting back features to preserve margins and shifting sales priorities to markets where currencies are more buoyant.
Flickr a Day 119: ‘Staring Out Into The World’
The Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM lens is fabulous for portraits, too, as today’s selection shows. Daniel Lee shot self-titled “Staring Out Into The World” on Jan. 18, 2014, using the Canon EOS 6D. Vitals: […]
Flickr a Day 118: ‘Partly Cloudy’
The Skagit Tulip Festival ends in two days. If you live in Washington State, there is still time—and perhaps today’s selection will move you along. Howard Ignatius shot self-titled “Partly Cloudy” on April 4, 2015, using Nikon D800 […]
Apple Fiscal Q2 2015 Snapshot
If there be ghosts, Tim Cook should expect sleepless nights ahead. Surely Steve Jobs can’t stand to be so overshadowed by his successor, who takes Apple where the cofounder couldn’t: Massive earnings and margins. Today, after the closing bell, the company reported yet another ridiculously blow-out quarter, largely lifted by iPhone. If the smartphone market ever collapses, Apple Armageddon will follow. In the present, momentum is unstoppable.
Some perspective: Apple’s net income was more than two-and-half times Microsoft’s during the same time period (calendar Q1 2015)—and 3.8 times that of Google. To reiterate, those comparisons are put-in-the-bank profits, not revenues. By the numbers: $58 billion in sales, $13.6 net income, and $2.33 earnings per share. Wall Street consensus was $56 billion revenue and $2.16 EPS. Year over year, revenue rose 26.6 percent and net sales by 33 percent.
Shattered Dreams: When Apple Watch Falls From the Wrist
Saturday afternoon, new Apple Watch owner Ken Lecomte posted a frightening photo to Google+: His device with shattered screen. The spider-spray pattern is eerily familiar—one seen so many times—like an iPhone clumsily dropped to floor or pavement. The fruit-logo company boasts about the gadget being a wrist computer, but should it be as easily breakable as the other that customers carry?
I contacted him yesterday, and he shared his story, providing photos that also authenticate him as the watch’s owner. The problem with Ken’s story isn’t truthfulness but lies spun around it. Fanboyism is a cancer that spreads across any tale like his. Already, accusers flame his original post and others resharing it. Apple defenders are venomous. “I’ve been amazed with the amount of negativity”, he says. “It seems a lot of people just can’t believe that Apple could make a product that could break or have a design problem”.
Meanwhile, Apple critics call for label strapgate; there have been too many “gates” already. We don’t need another caustic moniker. In this toxic climate, legitimately aggrieved customers cannot easily step forward. The focus should be the device and whether there is a design flaw or owner error.
Flickr a Day 117: ‘Run Duckling, Run!’
For the second day we have a photographer with similar name—beginning with K and now C. I mean no teasing or offense calling out the interesting: Cat Burton shooting self-titled “Run Duckling, Run!” She captured […]
Responsible Reporting: Foreward
Today begins the serialization of my ebook Responsible Reporting: Field Guide for Bloggers, Journalists, and Other Online News Gatherers before its release into the public domain. I did similarly with Comic-Con Heroes: The Fans Who Make the Greatest Show on Earth. That book goes into the public domain on May 7, after my exclusive distribution commitment with Amazon ends.
Responsible Reporting was a labor of love. My profession is in a dramatic state of transition. I sought to provide a realistic treatise for the new journalism. New it is, steeped in ethical quagmire. I hoped to provide reasonable guidelines that accept how things are, rather than cling to how things were.
Flickr a Day 116: ‘Give Me a Ring’
Street photography this difficult looks too easy. Toronto, Canada-based Kat N.L.M. is the roving eye whose lens captures contrasting subjects—things that go oddly, yet somehow appropriately, together. Today’s selection is typical of his setup. You […]
Seventh Star Dreamer
In early 1979, I moved into my first apartment, for the rip-roaring rent of $40 per week. I had never lived alone before and spent much of my off-job time listening to music or songwriting. I wrote short “Seventh Star Dreamer”, lyric and melody, 36 years ago this month, sitting at the kitchen table late one afternoon.
By choice, I worked third-shift at a factory producing laminate tabletops. My typical day ended as most other people’s began. But there was something refreshing about my nocturnal lifestyle and evening walks, with stars above, to my job. The Milky Way inspired my writing.
From my catalog of other lyrics or songs posted for this year: “Cries by Day, Cries by Night“; “Dank Deep Eyes the Darkness“; “Disco Queen“; “Empire State“; “Road to Jericho“; “Surrealistic Pillow“.
Flickr a Day 115: ‘Princess and the Riot Cops’
Some photos demand attention for the perplexity they present. “What the frak?” is my question looking at pose and police. I want to know the context, the backstory, and there may be none other than […]
Take the Tidal Challenge
Lossless leader Tidal has a problem. Last month’s splashy relaunch let critics control the narrative, defining the streaming service as a tool for pampering the bank accounts of already successful musicians. But Tidal is something else: Affordable HiFi streaming for the listening elite—those people who want to enjoy music the way it was engineered, produced. The streamer should be the coolest thing, but the Jay Z ownership team fraked up the marketing messaging. Problem is fixable, but correction requires aggressive advertising, promotional pricing, and extraordinary exclusives.
For more than three weeks, I have listened to nothing but Tidal, and the service should challenge everyone signing up for the 30-day trial to do likewise. There is no other way for the majority of people to appreciate the aural benefits. The majority of potential subscribers are too accustomed to the muddy, mushy, overly-bassy sound of compressed, low-fidelity AAC or MP3 files. The brain and ears need to be freed from the habitual crappy sound to which they’re accustomed. iTunes is a prison. Spotify is another. Tidal will liberate you. But you must want freedom to attain it.