For all of you who have been anxiously awaiting news, here’s a photo of my Kindle Fire HD 7″ in its Persimmon leather case (“So you won’t go off and leave it in a hotel or coffee shop …”) It is really well integrated into the Amazon ecosystem: If you look closely you can see Sir Humphrey, the Minister, and Bernard. I haven’t tried editing documents, yet, but it’s very easy to upload and read PDFs, Word docs, spreadsheets, etc.
The chi part. You can upload 250 songs from most anywhere — your iTunes library, for example — plus unlimited songs that you bought from Amazon, for free. Pretty good, huh? Then I get this email from Amazon:
“You may have noticed that songs from 8 CDs you have purchased from Amazon were added to your Cloud Player library. This means that high-quality MP3 versions of these songs are available for you to play or download from Cloud Player for FREE. You can find your songs in the “Purchased” playlist.”
I know I could have ripped them and then uploaded them via the online Cloud Player, but this saved me several hours of work, assuming I could find all eight CDs. So now, out of my 250 free song slots, I have 353 plus room for 104 more. Thanks Amazon!
We haven’t sworn off Apple, though. My wife replaced her old white MacBook/Snow Leopard from going on 5 years now with a new iMac. The big screen is great for playing with the photos that she uses as fodder for her paintings (ggrichardsart.com), and she’s taken to Mountain Lion like it was written for her.
There was one thing I knew about but didn’t really expect. You may have seen that Apple is now assembling some of their computers in the USA. It’s true:
Slightly East of New 
This is interesting Chet. I work in Electronics, and along with many of my
colleagues, we had pretty much counted Sony as being down and out.
Thinking they would only be around in 5 years as only a movie and
gaming entertainment company.
Notice the use of the phrases, “more nimble” and out from under “sprawling bureaucracy.”
All Very Boydesque
I know they still make good Broadcast and electronic cinematic products for the professional
market, but, were blind sided there similarly blind sided, as with the original Ipod, which begat the Iphone, and Ipad, over a decade ago, by computer based non-linear video editing
technologies.
They need a product(s), they need something new, that captures the imagination.
They also must compete on a price point and value basis with their imitators from China,
and thriving rivals from S Korea.
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/chief-executive-sony-headed-direction-toward-comeback-speed-071600736–finance.html
from today: Amazon’s Kindle Fire Burning Up The Android Chart
http://www.fastcompany.com/3005113/amazons-kindle-fire-burning-android-chart
The Android system and apps are amazing, certainly my own choice, as I cannot
stand Itunes! Though they have not caught up to Apple
in scale, scope and variety, I believe it’s only a matter of time until they surpass
Apple, with their open ended file sharing, and programing language to encourage 3rd party
enthusiasts. Open systems will always beat a closed and proprietary universe.
M
This is interesting, and with kind of a Boyd-esque aspect to it.
Is a superbowl commercial indicative of a company in trouble ?
In some cases I would argue, yes.
“One year, eight firms folded soon after spending millions on their high-profile spots. ”
http://ca.finance.yahoo.com/blogs/daily-ticker/superbowl-ads-worth-cost-132621378.html
In the same sense that air strikes can fit the profile of desperation.
In the example of positions in danger of, or being over run, for example.
Arguably in the same sense a reliance on airstrikes in a protracted
campaign can suggest a losing strategy.
In the heyday of the Iphone and Ipad, Apple hardly needed to advertise
on the Superbowl broadcast, but would have done so, mainly and really only
for the prestige.
And the moral is,
Things are not always what they seem to be,,,
Max