January 27th, 2008
By GadgetManiac
1.12 billion mobile phones were shipped during 2007, with Nokia increasing it’s market share to 40% or 134 million units. Samsung was in 2nd place with 161.2 million units, and Motorola in 3rd at 159 million…and Apple with its iPhone sold about 4 million phones for a world market share of about 0.35%.
In view of Nokia’s commanding market share, Barron’s asks Is It Time To Buy NOK? … currently at 34.58.
By way of perspective, 271 million personal computers were sold up 2007, up 13.4% over the previous year. Number 1 was HP with 18.2% market share or about 50M units. Dell was 2nd at 14.3%, Acer at 8.9%, Lenovo at 7.4% and Toshiba with 4%.
So what does all this mean? Well for 1 thing, the world should become a more productive place. Bureau of Economic Analysis & Bureau of Labor Statistics numbers show that in the US labor productivity and multifactor productivity in the services sector exceeded that of the goods sector. One might expect that at least part of that difference was due to higher adoption of better computers and smart(er) phones.
Mobile phone shipments head for 1.2 bn in ‘08 – EE Times, 01/24/2008
HP Trumps Dell in 2007 PC Sales - NewsFactor, January 17, 2008
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January 27th, 2008
By GadgetManiac
So what’s up with 3D printing? …Mahalo Daily sent Veronica Belmont to Next Engine to find out.
Ms. Belmont discovers out that 3D scanned models are often sold to Second Life users for use in that game, but with most clients still being industrial in nature…think auto parts. Veronica positions 3D printing as a kind of precursor to the fictional Star Trek Replicator.
…the interview was quite low key & somewhat bland, which is unfortunate because some people such as Prof. Tom Easton over at Technoprobing consider 3D Printing to be the next big thing, and destined to “kill a number of businesses and even industries”.
Next Engine: 3D Scanning – Mahalo Daily, January 24 2008
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January 27th, 2008
By GadgetManiac
The MacBook Air the way it should’a been designed…
“The innovative now-you-see-it, now-you-don’t port hatch flips down to reveal (and closes to hide) all the ports you really need: 3 USB 2.0 ports, 5 FireWire ports, Floppy drive, and iPod Shuffle in your MacBook. Even the MagSafe power connection has been reconsidered and slimmed to fit MacBook AirCraft.” lol
flickr – by nybras.rodrigo, January 26 2008
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January 26th, 2008
By GadgetManiac
In case you’ve ever pondered just how to win an Oscar, scholarly help is available. Some dedicated individuals have expanded the corpus of human knowledge by applying a statistical fine-tooth-comb to 171,539 performances by 39,518 actors in 19,351 films that produced a total of 1,394 Oscar nominations from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, in order to find the answer.
If you have the time you can read the entire 11,449 word treatise below, or the 5-second version as follows: “to get an oscar stick with scorcese, leo, it’s the team, not you”.
I’d Like to Thank the Academy, Complementary Productivity and Social Networks – California Center for Populaion Research
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January 26th, 2008
By GadgetManiac
Vacuum brewed coffee has played second or 3rd fiddle to more popular techniques …like drip, percolate, French press, espresso and even Turkish and more recently pod-based coffee makers… for quite some time. The relative unpopularity of vacpot or siphon-brewed coffee, as it’s also called, is due to the more extensive cleanup effort, even though some say the resulting coffee is better.
The recently-opened Blue Bottle Café in San Francisco with the country’s only halogen powered siphon bar probably will not revive the fate of vacuum-brewed coffee…although it’s a step in the right direction. Exotic-looking with it’s penta-core Bluetooth-enabled halogen-heated control-panelled $20,000-priced base station, the Japan-sourced thing is supposed to produce an amazing pot of coffee. Nice, but we’re waiting for the USB powered laser based model.
At Last, a $20,000 Cup of Coffee – NY Times, January 23 2008
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January 26th, 2008
By GadgetManiac
According to a study by the Technology Policy and Assessment Center of the Georgia Institute of Technology, China’s Technological Standing as estimated by Georgia Tech has increased from 22.5 in 1996 to 82.8 in 2007, the #1 position. By comparison the US peaked at 95.4 in 1999; it is now down to 76.1.
Good news for China, but not so good for the United States. How did this happen? …it looks like research & development has followed design & engineering, which in turn followed low labor rates, to the far east.
And after sales & marketing are also outsourced, nice catchphrases such as “Designed by Apple in California, Assembled in China” will become just “Made in China”.
Technology-based Competitiveness of 33 Nations – Georgia Institute of Technology, January 22, 2008
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January 25th, 2008
By GadgetManiac
Here’s another review of Steve Jobs himself, as opposed to a review of 1 of his products…
Business Week Magazine had a look at one of Steve’s keynote addresses and liked what they heard. They were kind enough to distill their analysis & resulting advice (on how to be more like Steve when making a presentation, and less like your old boring self) into 10 main points:
1. Set the theme. 2. Demonstrate enthusiasm.
3. Provide an outline. 4. Make numbers meaningful.
5. Try for an unforgettable moment. 6. Create visual slides.
7. Give ‘em a show. 8. Don’t sweat the small stuff.
9. Sell the benefit. 10. Rehearse, rehearse, rehearse.
Interesting but the reviewer left out some important points, such as it helps to become cool, develop charisma and earn creds….those are tougher.
The BW list of hints & tips somewhat overlaps a perhaps better list from Presentation Zen entitled 6 Presentation tips from a Steve Jobs keynote.
Deliver a Presentation like Steve Jobs – Business Week, Jan 20 2008
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January 25th, 2008
By GadgetManiac
Midem is described as the world’s largest music industry trade show, and runs this year in Cannes, January 27-31…think of it as a rave with powerpoint slides.
Much on the minds of the partyers, er attendees at Midem 2008, will no doubt be the just-released 2008 Digital Music Report from IFPI, which says that while digital music sales rose 40%, sliding CD sales drove total music sales down 10% in 2007. Reuters describes how music moguls will be reviewing their 3 main digital music business models, namely A-la Carte, Subscription and Ad-supported, why those models are not generating sufficient income for the industry, and what to do about it…
…eg, Scott Cohen of The Orchard sez models…schmodels! Whatever scheme is put in place still won’t generate enough cash money. Scott argues that the best way forward is for music users to be charged at the point of connection…if he has his way, look for your phone bill or internet connection fee to increase by about $1 per month. …ouch.
Sounding out radical music models – Reuters, Jan 25 2008
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January 25th, 2008
By GadgetManiac
Motor Trend Magazine took a spin in a prototype of the soon-to-be-available 2008 Tesla Roadster, that electric sports car that’s been in pre-production since before 2006. In a factual and surprisingly accolade-free article, the driver’s highpoints were that the Roadster is “unbelievably efficient”, and has an acceleration described as “bizarre”.
The remainder of the article talks about the car’s thousand pound 6,831-cell lithium ion battery, transmission troubles as well as management & organizational challenges facing Tesla Motors. $98,000.
In other news, Tesla Motors itself has just announced that the Roadster has met all Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards…there had been some concerns about electric shock from arcing power cables and electrolyte spill from the ginormous battery resulting from a crash. Roadster crash test pics are here.
First Drive: 2008 Tesla Roadster - Motor Trend, Jan 23 2008
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January 25th, 2008
By Daryl Brown
It took a while but Service Pack 1 (SP1) for Microsoft Exchange 2007 is finally here. For some of you this launch won’t change much but for those of us that use the OWA (Outlook Web Access – http://ex7.mail2web.com/) the impact is very significant. Read the rest of this entry »
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