Month: October 2011

Clayton Christensen and Siri

Clayton Christensen and Siri: But it takes time. Like any truly useful breakthrough, it takes a long time to mature. And also like any disruption, the potential of Siri is rooted in four principles:

  • Humble early goals which it accomplishes well
  • A large population of enthusiastic adopters who give it sustenance
  • Plenty of headroom in improvement giving it areas to grow into with positive feedback
  • A patient sponsor who makes a stable living

There’s no magic to it. In fact it’s banal. These are only the principles that every parent uses to raise a child.

[I’d love for a large population of enthusiastic adopters to give Noah sustenance. Queue starts on the right… thanks! :)]
Source: asymco

Was it ever mine?

Was it ever mine?: How different this notion is from a sense of scarcity, of needing to learn to let go each and every time we give.  I find this notion freeing.  We approach giving with the knowledge that what we are giving away was never ours; we approach giving with a sense of humility and with the knowledge that good fortune has played a role in our own good circumstances, and we are passing on a bit of that good fortune to another.

[Very well said. I can’t help wonder if this notion eases my ability to give. That is, if it was never mine, it’s easier to give. What if I consider it all mine? Is it harder? Still working on this for myself.]
Source: Sasha Dichter’s Blog

Samsung Lawyer Cannot Tell Samsung Tablet From Apple iPad

Samsung Lawyer Cannot Tell Samsung Tablet From Apple iPad: John Paczkowski, AllThingsD:

Fielding questions from U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh, Samsung attorney Kathleen Sullivan was asked if she could distinguish between Apple’s iPad and Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1, which Koh held up for all the court to see. Her reply, as first reported by Reuters: “Not at this distance, your honor.”

The distance in question was ten feet.

I bring this up not (solely) for mocking purposes, but because it underlines something that many people I’ve heard from about this case don’t seem to get. Apple is not, to the best of my knowledge, claiming that they’ve patented fundamental and obvious things about iPad-like devices, they’re claiming that Samsung deliberately copied the iPad. There are a lot of tablet makers that Apple is not suing, and Samsung was not chosen as an arbitrary example.

[every market has this. Designers do there thing and if it transits at all it gets knocked off. Talk to anyone in the jewelry or “shmata” business. That doesn’t make it right, good, or anything, but only the largest companies can actually afford to do anything about it.]
Source: Coyote Tracks

Jamie Chung Captures the History of Apple

Jamie Chung Captures the History of Apple:

Jamie Chung photographs the history of Apple products for Bloomberg Businessweek. The magazine’s latest issue pays tribute to the late Steve Jobs and his visionary legacy at Apple. Chung’s photographs chart the history of Apple products, from the very first computer Jobs created to the iPhone and the iPad. The slideshow includes commentary from Jobs, the company’s history, and product information.

Chung captured the new and old Apple products in a computer archive in New York City. The shoot was a nostalgic for Chung as he’d once had one of the company’s older models. He says he is “glad to participate in the tribute to Jobs’s legacy.”

See more of Jamie Chung’s photographs of Apple products here.

[Beautiful.]
Source: The Bernstein & Andriulli Blog

Film Grenade

Film Grenade: The camera “captures an image at the highest point of flight—when it is hardly moving.” It “takes full spherical panoramas, requires no preparation and images are taken instantaneously. It can capture scenes with many moving objects without producing ghosting artifacts and creates unique images.” You can see it at work in this video

[Sleek.]
Source: BLDGBLOG

Occupy Election Day

Occupy Election Day:

A picture named thinkUsa.gifI guess he thought that was funny. I don’t. I think the vote is sacred. I don’t care who you vote for, but the thought that one American would even think to deprive another American of their vote, is well un-American, in the extreme.

Helping people get to vote is a very powerful way to flex political muscles in a totally legal way. And prove that there is no specific agenda for the #OWS movement. Help all kinds of voters get to the polls. If a member of the ruling class needs help, we’ll help. Anyone means anyone.

There’s a pulse to this thing. I get that now. We have a really big election coming up in 2012, but the one this November is important too.

[Yeah, there’s some awful stuff being brought to the for. Here’s hoping that sunshine will disinfect the country.]
Source: Scripting News

Everyone cries, nay, weeps at the thought of it all.

The Cycle Wherein Apple Creates A Product And People Copy It And Then “Improve” Upon The Design And Then People Ask Apple To Do The Same “Improvements” And Apple Doesn’t And Then People Get Mad At Apple And Apple Keeps Making More Money Than Everyone Else:

Of course, technology pundits don’t pay attention to these kinds of things. They see a competitor to Apple, and how they have made an improvement, and they now want Apple to do the same. Apple then doesn’t. Everyone cries, nay, weeps at the thought of it all. In fact, when gadgets reviewers (supposedly unbiased) review a new Apple gadget, they take points off if the screen isn’t larger. Who says a larger screen is better? Doesn’t matter. Android has it, and so Apple needs to do it to stay competitive.

[All developers have to put up with this. Be true to *your* vision.]

via Daring Fireball