Mind the Gapp

Interesting article on Skype and how Microsoft can and does intercept messages.

Basically you should not have an expectation of privacy with these services.

Look like Mayer @ Yahoo is really getting things rolling @ Yahoo!

Here’s the entry for the redesign at Flickr’s blog.

Saw a reference to this was posted over on ‘Daring Fireball’.

The headline is:

Apple brand less ‘inspiring’, survey says

The basic idea here is that ‘someone’ did a survey around the how ‘inspiring’ Apple is versus Samsung. The upshot is that Samsung is now as ‘equally’ inspiring as Apple. I question the whole idea of brands being ‘inspiring’ but I digress.

The survey itself was done by the ‘marketing communications’ holding company WPP. They then have a web site at http://www.culturaltraction.com.

WPP is employed by….Samsung. See here.

So, the BBC takes a marketing survey executed by WPP for Samsung and presents it as ‘Business News’.

How is this NEWS? Is ANYONE paying attention to ethics?

See here.

Money quote:

According to Sculley, the next big thing will be sensors. “Not knowing anything about Apple, the next big area, I believe, is sensors.”

The key words in that sentence are “…not knowing anything about Apple…”

The company just fired the CEO. At least he’s honest.

As Groupon was becoming more popular among consumers I understood what the consumers were after. I never understood Groupon’s business model however.

See here.

John Gruber makes a very good point:

I, for one, don’t think there’s anything irrational about Amazon. I admire them greatly, and think they’re a devilishly clever company. Who I think is irrational are the Amazon investors who support Amazon’s continuing lack of profits.

For Amazon scale is the goal and not profit. That’s OK. Just hard to read about people complaining about Apple, beat down the stock and then see what is going on with Amazon’s stock.

This sucks.

Also in 2011, six Time Warner lobbyists persuaded the North Carolina legislature to pass a “level playing field” bill making it impossible for cities in that state to create their own high-speed Internet access networks. Time Warner, which reported $26 billion in revenue in 2010, donated more than $6.3 million to North Carolina politicians over four years. Eighteen other states have laws that make it extremely difficult or impossible for cities to provide this service to their residents.

Source article here.

An apology from Apple regarding Apple Maps.

See here.

I was wondering why Amazon seemed to suddenly drop it’s opposition to collecting local sales tax. Seems they have a new strategy. Local retailers in large cities should be very concerned.

Take a look at this article via Slate.

On another note… I got this link via John Moltz and his web site called ‘A Very Nice Web Site’. See here.

Google’s getting there.

Mossberg just posted this review.

So, if you live in the United States and like the 7″ form factor the competition in that space is heating up. Personally, I’ve tried a variety of the 7″ tablets and I’m just not convinced about the size. Looking forward to trying the Nexus 7 though.

Regardless, one key point is if you DON’T live in the U.S. what are your options with the Kindle Fire and the Nexus 7. For instance if you want to buy content (music, movies).

Answer: you don’t have many options…at least from the manufacturers Amazon and Google.

Why? Well, they don’t have agreements outside of the U.S. to sell content. My understanding is that these agreements are hard to negotiate and take quite some time.

Should be an interesting second half of the year…