Macgasm

In the case of a free market economy, prices are supposed to rise and fall with the numbers of players in the system, and the value a product has in the market. Generally speaking, more people selling the same product should mean a price push downwards. That over-simplistic explanation of free markets just took a wacky hit the last couple of days. Apple should be falling all over themselves to make sure the price of their e-books is competitive with Amazon’s prices. But instead, Amazon is finding themselves in a world of re-negotiation with book publishers because companies like Macmillian think e-book prices should be more than $9.99. It’s not really coming as a surprise, considering a business wants to maximize their profits, and the quickest way to do that is to raise their prices, but what is coming as a suprise is that instead of Apple fighting with publishers to get prices comparable to the $9.99 price point that Amazon had negotiated, they’ve instead decided that more expensive ebooks were fine by them.

Now Amazon has been finding themselves under increased pressure to give into the demands of publishers who favor Apple Inc’s model over the Amazon model. These price changes directly affect a major area of Amazon’s business. Kindle sales will be the only potential loss in this move. Having cheaper e-books and a cheaper e-book reader means a lot to financially conscientious consumers. Could this be a case of a company taking the profit from one sector and moving it to another group? An increase in price generally means a decrease in sales, and finding the market equilibrium (aka economic sweet spot) where sales and price meet up is going to be crucial in determining the success of their product, because apparently the iPad has become a Veblen good.

Editor’s Note: Just in case you have absolutely no idea what a Veblen good is, wikipedia defines it as follows: “Veblen goods are a group of commodities for which peoples’ preference for buying them increases as a direct function of their price, as greater price confers greater status, instead of decreasing according to the law of demand.”

Sounds a little bit like Apple products doesn’t it?

An ill-advised picture of the author, working at the Apple Store.

Apple has recently created and added the positions of Market Leader, Store Leader, Expert and ASLP Associate to their job opportunities page on www.apple.com.

Straight from Apple, here’s what these new positions will entail at their brick-and-mortar locations:

• Market Leader: Help architect our future.  Be a leader of leaders.  Get ready for your perfect job, one that encourages you to think strategically yet stay connected with your teams.  Do you have premium brand regional or director level experience? If so, prepare to innovate, create and inspire.
• Store Leader: Store Leader may be the official job title, but Visionary is more like it. We’re looking for people with premium-brand retail store or district leadership experience who are ready to take it up a notch.
• Expert: You’ve gotten a taste of the retail life and you’re hooked — so much so that you want to take your game to the next level. Your friends call you an expert, a savvy confident professional who has turned a passion for sales into a career.
• ASLP Associate: In college you discovered yourself—as well as an amazing amount of untapped potential to lead. Now you’re ready to put it to the test and launch your career.

Let me know if you guys get sick of hearing this, but I used to work at the Apple Store. Therefore, I know the following about the Expert position to be certain:

1. This position was announced at an internal store meeting in October 2009.
2. When Apple makes changes to their retail stores, these changes take at least a few months to go into effect.
3. Since I left Apple (November 2009), I confirmed with an employee that the company has made no move to hire Experts.

I think the Expert position is a great idea. It’s hard to know the ins and outs of every Apple product, and these roving “Geniuses” will make it easier for walk-ins to have their products troubleshooted. I can also see new employees utilizing them as an information resource.

Here’s another thing about working at the Apple Store: it’s an organized mess. Every quarter, new initiatives are rolled out by the company as well as store management. Last summer’s initiative focused on “certifying” employees in products, software and operating systems. When I was first hired, training classes were held after-hours to teach new hires how to (for example) use the point-of-sale system at the cash register.

These initiatives never last (in my experience), which could be why Apple has created a Store Leader position. I think employees would benefit from one person controlling and maintaining initiatives in an otherwise chaotic environment.

As for Market Leader, it’s obvious. Apple’s retail side is growing at a fast rate, and they need more management at upper levels to support it.

ASLP Associate hearkens back to a similar program Apple ran in the past to train recent college graduates for retail careers. This program was put on hold when the U.S. economy failed in 2009. Since Apple has been a smashing financial success for the past year, it makes sense that the program is up and running once again.

Want that killer 25% employee discount? Start firing up your resumes.

No a whole lot to say about this, but the video’s pretty funny.  These guys decided that they’d make a sandwich that looks like an iPhone.

Here’s the video

[Thanks for the tip Jon Wingård]

I bought MobileMe for one year, and I ended up using it for only one thing: Bookmark synchronization. It was a great way to keep Safari on my iMac, MacBook Pro, and my iPod Touch on the same proverbial page. Being as that was the only feature I ever used, I dropped MobileMe after my year was done. After that, I needed to find a way to keep my browsers synced. I looked around, and I found a free solution that is far superior to the MobileMe syncing. It’s called Xmarks.

This gem of an application and web service allows you to sync your bookmarks to all four of the major browsers (Depending on platform and version, natch). If you use Firefox on Windows and Safari on OS X, a quick set up process on both systems, and you’re ready to rock and roll.

Interestingly, it also lets you securely sync your saved passwords as well. After going through another layer of set up, you’ll never have to re-enter your passwords again. This feature is invaluable to me. I have saved passwords to hundreds of sites. Re-entering all of them would drive me absolutely crazy. This feature alone makes me love this app.

Best of all, your bookmarks are available on their web site after you login to your account. Even if you’re using someone else’s computer, you can still find that one link you saved last month about the seven layer dip. This has massive potential for butt-saving.

So, what do you think about Xmarks? Does it fit your needs? Comment on this post or hit me up on Twitter.

Photo Credit: CJ Sorg

Since I switched to using Apple’s computers five years ago, I’ve been amazed with their excellent customer service.  Apple really knows how to take care of their customers.  This point can’t be driven home any clearer than how Apple is offering a 15% bonus when you return a defective 27” iMac.  That’s right you heard me correctly.  This is how customer service is done right.

Try to get this same level of service from the likes of Dell or HP.  It’s just not going to happen.  I know I’m going to catch flack over this, but it’s simply the truth.  I’m not saying that they won’t let you return a defective item, but they’re not going to give you any sort of bonus for it, that’s for sure.

When we purchased our iMacs from Amazon.com, my wife’s Bluetooth receiver wasn’t working properly.  I contacted AppleCare support, and they walked me through several troubleshooting steps.  At the end, they suggested that I take my wife’s iMac to an Apple Store, and have a Genius further troubleshoot the issue.  The AppleCare representative then made an appointment for me.

We took my wife’s iMac to our local Apple Store where we had a very helpful and knowledgeable Genius look at the iMac.  He troubleshot the issue for about twenty minutes trying different scenarios.  All had pointed to a defective Bluetooth receiver.  He asked how long ago did we purchase the iMac.  I told him it was a little over two weeks.  He said no problem.  I need a manager for an exchange override, and we are going to get you a new iMac.  I was amazingly stunned and surprised.  I explained to him that I purchased the iMac from Amazon.com, and not from a Apple retail store.  He said that is no problem, we still can perform the exchange.

He then walks out with a brand new iMac in the box, and asks me if I would like them to transfer the data from the old iMac over to the new one.  This includes all the installed software as well.  They are basically cloning the hard drive.  I told him sure, how much will that be to do.  He said it’s free of charge, it’s all part of the service.  Again, I was surprised to hear him say that.  That’s a word you don’t hear to often now a days is service.  So I told him sure that would be great, that’s one less thing I have to do when I get home.  They couldn’t perform the data transfer at that moment; however, it was ready for pickup the next day.

When I picked up the iMac, I asked them if I could check it out, and verify that everything was there.  They said sure, no problem.  They set it up for me, and everything was there as promised, data and applications.

This is a major reason why I am, and will continue to be an Apple customer.  With this level of service I can feel confident in buying their products, and knowing that if something goes wrong I will be taking care of.

Photo Credit: ubergizmo.com

[via @ubergizmo.com]

External hard disks are a must for keeping up to date back ups of your data. Be it USB, FireWire, or eSata, almost everyone is using one. There isn’t any argument about whether or not you should use one, but should you leave it spun up all the time? Let’s break down the pros and cons of leaving your external drive spun up:

Pros: Instant access to your files, no delay when opening save dialogues.
Cons: Incessant noise, potentially more wear and tear on the platters.

For some folks, time is the most important factor. They just cannot wait for the disk to spin up when they want to access it. Frankly, the delay while the drive spins up when you open a save dialogue is a tad ridiculous. If the OS handled the drive better, it would only spin them up if you attempted to access it.

On the other hand, external drives tend to be very noisy. My iMac is whisper-quiet. When I walk into my bedroom, I can’t even tell that anything is powered up… Until my godforsaken FireWire drive decides to spin up. I am then treated to the glorious sound of whirring for the next minute and a half. If I had to deal with that noise pollution all the time, I would go absolutely bonkers.

It should be noted that there is some debate about wear and tear on drives. Some people argue that they’ll last longer if you keep them spun up. Others argue the exact opposite. As far as I can tell, there is no conclusive scientific data either way. As long as your drive is stationary — therefore not likely to be dropped — this really shouldn’t be much of a factor.

So what about me? I let my drives spin down because I hate the noise so very much, but the decision is up to you. There are good reasons on both sides of the table. What do you do with your external drive? Comment on this post or hit me up on Twitter to let me know your thoughts..

Photo Credit: broma

When you hear the word “Kindle,” most people think of the eBook reader from Amazon. With its E Ink display, buttons to turn pages, and no back light. That is what a Kindle is, and it does those things very well; just ask anyone who owns one. However, this is going to change.

Yesterday, 9to5Mac reported that Amazon has purchased a company called Touchco.  They will be moving the six man team form New York to Cupertino, California.  They will be working in the Kindle Hardware Division.  In an attempt to stay competitive with the likes of Apple’s iPad, Amazon is apparently switching from the E Ink screens to a full color LCD screen.  This new screen will employ a technology called interpolating force-sensitive resistance.  Below is a description of the technology:

“Touchco’s technology uses resistors that are sensitive to different levels of pressure. It has said its screens can distinguish between the touch of a finger and the pressure of a pen or similar pointing device. The company had designed its technology to work well with full-color LCD screens, similar to those used in the iPad and Hewlett-Packard’s coming line of tablet PCs. The technology could allow Amazon to introduce a full-color touch-screen Kindle, raising the question of whether the device’s current displays, which are made by a company called E Ink will play a role in the next round of reading devices.”

So, that raises this question:  Is Amazon going to remove the E Ink screens from their Kindles, or will they somehow incorporate them? This may be a risky move for Amazon because they’re changing the main part of the Kindle to compete with the iPad.  For the hardcore eBook users that prefer the E Ink screen over a color LCD screen, they might think twice about purchasing a new Kindle. Maybe it might just have the opposite effect, though. When people see how reading is on Apple’s iPad, they might change their minds.

In any event, Amazon is making a bold move, and I applaud them for this.  Staying competitive and on the cutting edge is always risky. Ask Apple. They know this all to well.  For the most part, this has been very fruitful for Apple. No pun intended.

Photo Credit: The New York Times

[via @9t05Mac]

Patently Apple reported yesterday the good people of One Infinite Loop have filed a patent for iPad’s bezel, a new technology which would make the tablet’s border touch-sensitive.

The technology, dubbed a “smart bezel”, would have imbedded touch areas  in the border of iPad’s screen. They could be visible or invisible. And they could control everything from volume to gaming controls, depending on usage and placement.

Other patent documentation illustrates a “touch wheel” very similar to the physical one integrated with iPods. Another shows how a user would activate the touch bezel with certain gestures, meaning that a casual swipe on the bezel would not activate its features:

These patents are clear examples of Apple thinking differently (sorry, had to go there!) The tablet computing industry is in its infancy, and the features and UI of iPad are only the beginning. With these kinds of ideas, Apple is set to revolutionize (again) the way in which people interact with their computers.