"The margins for Kindle content are thin. Very thin. Apple runs its content business at break even though it transacts billions of items per month. The amount of content that needs to pass through the Kindle ecosystem (with lower prices than Apple charges) will need to be astronomical to make it profitable on the shortened cycle time the iPhone enjoys."
— Horace Dediu on the Kindle Fire’s $199 price and what it means for Amazon and market disruption. (via parislemon)
(via parislemon)
Facebook, you have won another battle in the social media wars and Google wants to move past it with out drawing attention to it.
In case you didn’t notice, Google+ just pivoted in stealth mode and changed the name of their “Huddle” feature to “Messenger.” Messenger, the name of Facebook’s new app that does the same thing is a group texting application. Here is more information about Facebook’s solid Messenger app. This has been changed in their latest update on the app store.
What does this mean? In my opinion, it looks like Google realized that their Huddle feature wasn’t being used and perhaps people didn’t understand what google huddle would be used for. I can agree that I didn’t use google huddle at all and preferred Facebook Messenger to group texting. It’s too early to say if this new update and a name change will make a difference.
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery
These past few months, the war has been a little quiet between Facebook, Twitter and Google but lately Facebook has been making moves to show their imitation of their competitors main strengths; Twitter Following and Google Plus Circles
Let’s see what Facebook created:
Subscriber Lists: Now you can subscribe to someone’s feed on Facebook so you could see their “Public” posts with out having to be their ACCEPTED “Friend”.
This is a feature that Twitter accomplishes when you “Follow” someone and that Google Plus satisfies when you place someone into one of your “Circles.”
Is this going to take off? I’m not sure. It’s in Twitter and Google Plus’s DNA to follow people and the simplicity makes it work. On Twitter, you click the follow button to follow anyone. On Google Plus, you assign them to a Circle right from the get-go. It’s just what you do. In either case, it doesn’t matter if they are your friend or not. On Facebook, there is more left to decide and in the end you have more to do manually.
In Facebook’s defense, I do have to say this looks good and it could be the best choice of action in their wheel house. The Subscribe option is pretty smooth but it may only be used by those Facebook fans that want to say something to those Google Plus and Twitter users who prefer that over Facebook. So right now there are the early adopter Google Plus users, the established Twitters and two groups inside Facebook…the ones who think Facebook is better than everything else and the rest that just dont care. The next few months will show us how large the latter group is.
What do you think about the change? What are you going to do?
My wife an I made the decision a few years ago to cancel cable. I think I was a little intoxicated at the time but that’s neither here nor there. The one piece of television I didn’t factor into missing so much was football. I mean seriously…what’s better than college football?
Although we cancelled the cable, we never cancelled the cable modem connection. We were never going to turn off the internet. So, naturally, I kept Xbox Live busy with Netflix Instant, movies on demand, and the occasional Gears of War multiplayer Horde match. Today, on September 3rd 2011, I can say that Microsoft has done it right with their ESPN app (see picture above).
Microsoft, together with ESPN, have remade their Xbox Live just in time for college football Saturday. I am so excited because I can tell you, it’s pretty awesome. Here are the features, pictures and controls you now have at your fingertips:
What you are looking at here is a shot of the Michigan Wolverines football game (displayed on the left) with the list of college scores updated live on the right (Using the “NCAAF Scoreboard” option). Down below is a channel changing option to see little snippets of different sports games going on right now. Notice the controller options in the bottom right (is that really a split screen option?)
Boom. That just happened. You can, with no cable contract, watch multiple games at one time on a “Split Screen mode.”
My opinion? Microsoft and ESPN just hit the game winning field goal to win the game. I am thrilled to watch college football this weekend from the comfort of my couch, without any cable contracts! I only hope the Oregon game is going to be televised later today. We shall see…
Have you checked this out yet? Let me know what you think and how it compares to your cable and satellite dish option.
