Tuesday, June 12, 2007
MacBook Pro
Today I am blogging from my new macbook pro. I am slightly saddened to be leaving my ibook behind. We have been very close over the last 18 months. It was time to move on after the LED screen, faster processor, new gfx card and 2GB of RAM. Well hopefully this mac will be as friendly as my last. Now I wonder why I sold some AAPL yesterday??? Oh well. Off to bed. I have a production update at 6:30 am tomorrow to implement messaging and a featured boxing section. Looking forward to it but I have my eyes on the horizon with fantasy sports, xml scores and updates to the user profile design.
Monday, June 11, 2007
No Buttons and No Business
This is a tale of two companies, one novice investor and a typical Monday. Basically I like to trade stocks, not frequently but I do like to invest in companies that I believe are best of breed or undervalued to use some trendy trading terms. Let's start with today. I traded half of my position in Apple. I am a mac person through and through. I love my mac and all the ways it is nothing like windows. I also have loved my holdings of Apple originally purchased about a 18 months ago for $52. But today I left my loyalties behind because I felt that my instincts about Apple's Iphone shortcomings could actually come true. It's one thing to be a great device for music, another for scrolling applications, another for state of the art web browsing, pictures, phone calls, email, texting, wait stop! This is where my worries mount. Today macrumors.com blogged the apple wwdc in real time. Though I didn't pay attention every step of the way I did stumble upon an alarming post. The head of development for the iphone had trouble typing on the iphone's touch screen. Ugh!
I would expect this from Microsoft but from Apple, no way. But ultimately my instincts could be true. Without a tactile keyboard, like I have on my blackberry, text addicts could have less than a stellar experience. Ever used touch screen applications to buy train tickets or get cash? Ever had to push your selection multiple times or accidentally push the wrong option? No matter how great Apple will be at all of the other extremely bold innovations, one way the Iphone could fall short: the keyboard. This is the deal breaker of all deal breakers. This is something that could take an awesome product and turn it into a disappointing phone. Remember it is a phone, meant for communication via text and voice. If this misses the mark does it matter if the music player is the best ipod of all time? No it doesn't. I hope they prove naysayers wrong but with no buttons it will be a tall task.
Second, a word used with clever marketing as a yodel from the distant hills of silicon valley. Yahoo! Wait strike that I mean Yahoo. No exclamation point. Not that it is needed but if there was ever a time that the web portal needed an exclamation point now is the time. I sold all of my Yahoo when it was reportedly being courted by another exclamation free company, Microsoft. If only for a day, the speculation drove the stock price up 10%. I quickly got out, the rumors subsided and the stock sank back into mediocrity. It ultimately is a portal with amazing potential that remains in identity crisis. Ultimately it is a business that has lost sight of its business. Are they still in the search game? Are they a force in the social networking world? Are they an information portal? An entertainment company? Who knows. But it's safe to say that corporate is still eager to spit out mundane and highly ambiguous mission statements as if they are trying to explain secret technology to a board of eager onlookers at a web conference. Stop hiding. Stop guessing. The company needs direction and purpose. The best way to step forward is to lose the baggage that is keeping them back. Goodbye Terry. It's been real. A reality many will soon not forget. If there was any doubt that an old studio exec could lead a technology company into the next era of the web, well, you proved that you are not only not qualified but not competent to do so. Here's to Yahoo receiving an exclamation point from the market, its investors and its users. All of which are tired of hearing about Google's plan to take over the world. Do what you do best. Take advantage of an enormous worldwide population of dedicated users and lose the baggage. We love the nimble, exciting and innovative Yahoo! Not the big media stalwart. Get back to the basics. You can start by laying out a concrete plan.
I would expect this from Microsoft but from Apple, no way. But ultimately my instincts could be true. Without a tactile keyboard, like I have on my blackberry, text addicts could have less than a stellar experience. Ever used touch screen applications to buy train tickets or get cash? Ever had to push your selection multiple times or accidentally push the wrong option? No matter how great Apple will be at all of the other extremely bold innovations, one way the Iphone could fall short: the keyboard. This is the deal breaker of all deal breakers. This is something that could take an awesome product and turn it into a disappointing phone. Remember it is a phone, meant for communication via text and voice. If this misses the mark does it matter if the music player is the best ipod of all time? No it doesn't. I hope they prove naysayers wrong but with no buttons it will be a tall task.
Second, a word used with clever marketing as a yodel from the distant hills of silicon valley. Yahoo! Wait strike that I mean Yahoo. No exclamation point. Not that it is needed but if there was ever a time that the web portal needed an exclamation point now is the time. I sold all of my Yahoo when it was reportedly being courted by another exclamation free company, Microsoft. If only for a day, the speculation drove the stock price up 10%. I quickly got out, the rumors subsided and the stock sank back into mediocrity. It ultimately is a portal with amazing potential that remains in identity crisis. Ultimately it is a business that has lost sight of its business. Are they still in the search game? Are they a force in the social networking world? Are they an information portal? An entertainment company? Who knows. But it's safe to say that corporate is still eager to spit out mundane and highly ambiguous mission statements as if they are trying to explain secret technology to a board of eager onlookers at a web conference. Stop hiding. Stop guessing. The company needs direction and purpose. The best way to step forward is to lose the baggage that is keeping them back. Goodbye Terry. It's been real. A reality many will soon not forget. If there was any doubt that an old studio exec could lead a technology company into the next era of the web, well, you proved that you are not only not qualified but not competent to do so. Here's to Yahoo receiving an exclamation point from the market, its investors and its users. All of which are tired of hearing about Google's plan to take over the world. Do what you do best. Take advantage of an enormous worldwide population of dedicated users and lose the baggage. We love the nimble, exciting and innovative Yahoo! Not the big media stalwart. Get back to the basics. You can start by laying out a concrete plan.
Monday, June 04, 2007
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