Who says the Deck is dead?: Further reports that developers are making record profits from the Apple App Store, but only as long as the app is featured on the App Store deck. Once sales start to decline so do the profits quickly.
Unfortunately due to how easy it is to create an app and get it to market, this will likely mean more garbage apps added to the App Store for the sole purposes of short term gains.
Third-party mobile apps that have a long term vision have been a rarity in the mobile space. So far, it looks like the iPhone is falling into all the same traditional models of mobile apps.
The only difference is you don’t deal with the carrier, you deal with Apple.
Amazon's Kindle 2 Photos Leaked: It looks like Amazon is trying a bit harder to compete with Sony with the updated Kindle. While Amazon said there would be no new Kindle this year, I doubt they will be able to hold back an update from the holiday buying season.
Lets hope they offer some sort of early adopter credit.
A Real Cool Hand (via merlin)
I heard the news of Paul Newman’s death yesterday morning in a hotel in Sydney. It was gut wrenching news.
He was one of my favorite actors: The Hustler, Hud, Torn Curtain, Cool Hand Luke, Butch & Sundance, The Sting, Slap Shot, The Color of Money, Hudsucker Proxy… even Cars, I loved just about every movie he was in. He was a true talent, and one of the greatest actors of our time.
But I was also fortunate to see the effects of the other side of Paul Newman, having worked in a Children’s Hospital in Seattle, we saw first hand how money raised from the Newman Foundation—where all the money goes when you buy Newman’s Own products—helped save the lives of sick kids.
He was a truly talent and a great man.
Making money twice: Good write up from Jason on how 37signals makes a lot of money (about $765,000) by thinking smart and long term about their content.
My Dad, Jim Fling, sent me his thoughts on the Wall Street crisis, the state of the economy and why we should all be saying, “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore.”
My Dad is a smart guy, but he hasn’t figured out how to use the blog I setup for him yet, so I’m going to publish what he sent me here as I think it is a nice summary of the last few months and I think everyone should read.
My Fellow Americans,
Well the news just keeps getting better and better. The stock market is in disarray and the real value is plummeting and the fat cats are crying for a bail-out.
America, find something real substantial to hang onto bend over and brace your self. Here they come again and guess who is going to pay the bills for bad management, bad decisions, lack of oversight, lack of leadership? You are who else. This time it’s going to be some serious money. I hope you saved that tax rebate check that Bush sent to you. That $300 should help a lot. No wait, I’m sorry the estimated bill for this debacle will be equal to 1/3rd of the US economy. 5 Trillion and counting. Yes that’s TRILLION with a T. Don’t forget this is on top of the Freddy and Fanny bail out.
The government had to bail out AIG because they insured and guaranteed the overvalued sub-prime mortgages and other junk packages. If they did not the rest of the world would not loan the US money to cover our war in Iraq and our purchase of foreign oil. In short the US banks and the stock market have been borrowing money to pay for debt on collateral that has little or no value.
All of this bad news is not a big worry to most of the Wall Street bankers and hedge fund managers because the guys who did such a fabulous management job with these old solid financial companies, got compensation packages in the 100’s of millions of dollars. And now some of them will get large compensation packages when the government writes the checks for the bailout. Some Congressmen want to put some limits on the these compensations but the Republicans are saying it will take too long to work that out and the economy does not have time to wait. Sound familiar?
Republicans looking out for the fat cats.
Now I find it hard to believe that the 50% of the American public are even considering voting for a Republican president. I admit that this lack of regulation in the financial market started about 12 to 18 years ago and has gotten steadily worse but it is the credo of the republicans that cry for less regulation and less government interference. I guess government bail-out for bad policy is not considered government interference.
What can you do about these problems other that brace yourself?
If you are registered Republican, re-register Democrat now. Send a message.
Vote for Obama and other Democrats if they have a good platform and a plan for energy, fiscal responsibility, and education.
Join the Pickens Plan and demand Alternative energy and energy independence.
Join Obama’s on-line campaign and get on the phone calling voters encouraging them to vote for Obama and others that have a plan.
Conserve energy. Conservation is the cheapest, fastest and easiest way to import less oil.
I mentioned energy as an important consideration and a serious problem for our country, our economy and the planet.
You all know that we are the worlds largest user of oil and 75% of what we use is foreign oil. Oil has driven us to a senseless war and cost us giant chunks of our treasury and our personal budget.
The US will spend more that 10 trillion dollars in the next 10 years on foreign oil. That’s trillion with a big T and that’s money we cannot use here in the US for education, roads, healthcare, parks, pollution control, you name it. It’s money gone. No, I’m wrong, It’s money we borrowed because we don’t have the money. Oil producing states, China and other countries are financing our debt. The debt of your credit card, your mortgage, your student loan and your government. That’s why it was so important to bail out AIG so they will keep loaning us money and prop up the dollar.
I am sorry if you find some of the language in this piece offensive or crude. My intention is to get your attention and possibly make you mad. We should all be mad as hell. Our government and our financial leaders have done us great harm.
—Jim Fling
T-Mobile, Google finally unveil the first Android phone:
The T-Mobile G1 was announced today, the first Android device to ship.
Here are the details in brief…
The device will be the HTC Dream
It will have a larger touchscreen & and physical slide out keyboard
It will use T-Mobile’s new 3G network in 16 markets (EDGE everywhere else)
Wi-Fi
One touch access to Google apps
It will include the Android Market, a mobile app store similar to Apple’s
Access to Amazon’s Music store over Wi-Fi
No desktop data syncing, only “backend” syncing to your Google data.
It will cost $179 with a 2-year contract
Available on October 22 in Europe and the US
From what I’ve seen this is the same phone I played around with a few months ago, which is a bit surprising, as I thought I was looking at just a prototype.
I found the device to be a bit clunky in the hand and the UI didn’t have the best polish. Neither of these would be such a big deal in the current mobile phone market of a year and a half ago.
But today in the post-iPhone era, it might be tough to get people interested in somewhat traditional looking device.