I’ve been wondering for a while what the next next thing should be for the iPhone. If you think about where drops in hardware costs are going, you an start to see when certain capabilities start to virtually be free. That’s how we ended up with two cameras on each iPhone 4, as they are basically free.
So what’s next? How about drops in the cost of the touchscreens themselves? The nintendo DS has had more than one touchscreen.. They keep being able to make bigger/cheape screens.. So why not two? If you need to use two apps (or same app) at the same time, just turn to the back of the phone and power up the 2nd screen. Then just switch between them. Open that safari link to the other screen with the hours for your favorite restaurant and then pop up the google map directions on the other.
It’ll happen…
I buy a lot of things on Amazon.com. I buy more things using their iPhone app than most people buy period. Right after ordering some baby gear today I thought about the whole online sales tax issue. Given that I live in California, I have paid the use tax that is on the California state tax form where you’re supposed to declare the value of tax-free, out-of-state purchases that you have made. Most people probably don’t fill this portion out. And who knows whether one gets it right.
But should one have to pay this sales tax?
The thinking for has always been that the state is losing revenue that it needs to pay for services, etc. Which I understand. But the thought I had today was how much I avoid shopping at stores like Babys R Us because I drive all that way, burning fossil fuels, adding greenhouse gases into the air, using up city streets, state highways and interstates all to find a store which doesn’t have what I am looking for. So if I don’t make that journey, aren’t I saving the various forms of government hard and soft costs to deal with that added strain I place on the infrastructure and environment?
But what about the “cardboard commerce” and all of its overhead? Well, cardboard is supposedly one of the most recycled and re-used materials, so perhaps it’s not as much of a cost as the plastic bags that many of these stores add to the world. What about the transportation infrastructure? Well, properly used, I would imagine that a UPS truck delivering all of these packages is like commuters using a train or bus – better than individual cars. Plus, as with most transportation fleets these days like taxis, buses, etc. they are more likely to use non-gasoline alternatives.
So perhaps the savings to the infrastructure and environment mean that I am decreasing my burden on the governments around me and thus perhaps I don’t need to pay as much of the taxes for those goods I am getting in a slightly better, more efficient way.
I don’t know the numbers. Your thoughts?
This one’s a little “out there” but fun. It’s been sitting around in a notebook for a while, so I can’t really tell you when I came up with it. The idea is this:
You’ve been sitting for hours watching a baseball game. It’s been a good game, but it’s been tied for a few innings and we’ve gone into extra innings. It’s starting to get cold, they’ve probably stopped selling bear, and you’ve had all the peanuts you can shuck. So what now?
Well, the idea is that when a game goes into extra innings… perhaps just when it’s been a few innings (say they just finished the 10th), it’s now times to force something to happen. Even better, it’s time to get those cold, dedicated fans into the action.
So if a game goes into the 11th inning, and for each inning thereafter, each team has to pick one fan from the stands to come into the game for one of the professionals. This should shake things up, but the game still might go on for a while. Perhaps it’ll end up with all fans on the field?
I guess it might be a disadvantage to the visiting team to have to use one of the fans, even if they try to screen them, as they might be fans for the home team and help throw the game. So perhaps the vaunted “home field advantage” should come at a price. If you can’t win the game using that advantage by the 10th inning, you then get the “home field disadvantage”, this would be where only the home team has to replace a professional with a fan.
Of course that would give the visiting team an advantage, but you’re a hometown fan, if you really believe in your team, you know they can win no matter who they have on the field.
In global strategy, we were doing a business case on an Australian wine company. As I was sitting there trying not to yawn (I’m not a wine drinker), I came up with the thought “why doesn’t anyone sell Jug brand wine?” It wouldn’t have to be in an actual jug, though one of those oversized wine bottles would work. But the idea is that it’s a tongue-in-cheek brand. It would just have a plain white label with “Jug” written in a simple, black font.
I can just see the website now: drinkjug.com
I got a Kindle for Christmas and I’ve ready quite a few books on it since. I also have the Kindle app for my iPhone and it’s handy that they allow me to sync my place between the two, so I can read on my iPhone when it’s dark and on my Kindle most of the time.
But this feature has it’s limitations. It all comes down to the concept of “Sync to the Furthest Page Read.” In 98% of the cases, this has worked exactly as I would have hoped. The furthest page I’ve read to is the last page I read to, but it hasn’t worked in all cases.
I was reading a book where I was following the hyperlinked footnote notations to the endnotes at the end of the book. Well, even when I followed the link in the endnote back to the page where I was reading, the next time my devices tried to sync, the “furthest” page was that page at the end with the endnote. So I was unable to pick up on my iPhone where I left off on my Kindle.
I’ve emailed them that they should explore this concept, but what should someone do? Have we really figured out the whole ebook referencing abilities? There’s no more page numbers, but rather indications of how far in terms of percentages you are through the book. Or should I say the file. There’s a lot of stuff tacked on to the ends of some ebooks and they are lumped into that percentage. I finished all of the real material in one book at was just at about 78% completed.
There should also be some way to indicate in the Kindle (or any ebook) when you’ve “finished” it. Kindle doesn’t have any way of knowing what books have been read or which have not. It goes along with other sorting problems that leaves you will a long list of books that gives you little information to go on…