Welcome to Visualizer from MSN. We hope you enjoy this new way of experiencing music and images. Simply select a song and our Visualizer app will browse Flickr for a relevant photo to match with the song lyric. This month we’ve teamed up with UK record label Ninja Tune for a great selection of tunes from the likes of Pop Levi, Bonobo and Hexstatic.
By selecting ‘Write’ you’ll also be able to submit your own lyrics, poems or random thoughts to an instrumental track and share with friends. Give it a whirl now!
As with any new feature or product we trial on MSN, we’d welcome your feedback and suggestions. Ping us an email (msn.music@hotmail.co.uk) and let us know what you think.
Check it out for yourselves – This reminds me of Microsoft’s iPhone/Android App – PhotoSynth and Cool Iris by LiveShare . These are the type of consumer projects Redmond needs to work on.
Today, Apple updated its pro video editing software – Final Cut Pro. The update should appear when you open the App Store application, as FCX was a digital download only. While FC X has been live for seven months now, it hasn’t received the fan fair as most of Apple’s products. Its massive differential from FC 7 left pro users extremely upset and its initial release left countless pro features missing. The backlash forced Apple to quickly release an update, which calmed the storm for some time but recently, more and more pro users have left the FC platform for either Adobe or Avid. So, what do we get with this much needed update, well here is Apple’s Press release:
One World Trade Center, more simply known as 1 WTC, and formerly known as the Freedom Tower, is the lead building of the new World Trade Centercomplex in Lower Manhattan of New York City. The 105-story supertall skyscraper is being constructed in the northwest corner of the 16-acre World Trade Center site, occupying the location where the original 8-story 6 World Trade Center once stood. The building is bound to the west by West Street, to the north by Vesey Street, to the south by Fulton Street, and to the east by Washington Street. Construction on below-ground utility relocations, footings, and foundations for the building began on April 27, 2006. On March 30, 2009, the Port Authority confirmed that the building would be known by its legal name of One World Trade Center, rather than the colloquial name, Freedom Tower.
Source: Picasa
If you have a Google+ account and want to hang out with the Commander & chief – join in at 5:30pm ET/2:30pm PT. While the event isn’t open to everyone, as questions being answered were submitted weeks ago to the President, it will be interesting to participate in the White House’s continuing inroads into Social Media. Click here and join in….
Source: TheVerge
In 2009, thousands of Internet users were asked to remake “Star Wars: A New Hope” into a fan film, 15 seconds at a time. Contributors were allowed to recreate scenes from Star Wars however they wanted. Within just a few months SWU grew into a wild success. The creativity that poured into the project was unimaginable.
Source: StarWarsUncut
Netflix, Hulu and LOVEFiLM are all ways to enjoy movies and TV shows but now a somewhat beautifully+ludicrous thing has happened. Paramount has decided to start selling their movies direct at www.paramountmovies.com - sounds good right? After all, I’ve always said: “Why would I pay any third party service, when I can get it straight from the source?” So when I heard the news, I got super excited but then I visited Paramount’s website and I started crying…
As Devin Coldewey so eloquently put it over at TechCrunch and the reason for my tears:
As the service is still in its infancy and the selection is fairly limited, this strikes me as more of a testing-the-waters thing, checking the system for leaks and so on. That has to be the case, really, because there’s no marketing behind the effort and the prices aren’t even close to what they should be. Want to buy an HD digital copy of Braveheart? $20, please….
That’s right – $20 for Braveheart direct from Paramount! Let me take a look over at Amazon…… Pricing ranges from $1.15 and go to $18.90 for the BlueRay Version. Shouldn’t buying direct be cheaper? Come on Hollywood and Paramount! This is why video is in the dark ages on the internet - idiotic suits, in tall buildings, making decisions about things they have no idea about. I seriously can not wait until the music and movie industry crumble into ash!
Source: TechCrunch
Source: Nasa
Apple made $46.33 billion in the Q1 2012 quarter but how much money is that really. Well, @orbuch & @n_quinlan created a site to put that crap-load of cash in perspective. Essentially, it’s viewer submitted equivalents to Apple’s revenue for the quarter, like the example below. If you wanna join in, visit the site by clicking here.
Source: AppleMadeMoreThan
Source: TheDieLine
“…On May 1, 1947, 23-year-old Evelyn McHale leapt to her death from the 86th floor observation deck and landed on a United Nations limousine parked at the curb. Photography student Robert Wiles took a photo of McHale’s oddly intact corpse a few minutes after her death. The police found a suicide note among possessions she left on the observation deck: “He is much better off without me … I wouldn’t make a good wife for anybody”. The photo ran in the May 12, 1947 edition of LIFE Magazine[32] and is often referred to as “The Most Beautiful Suicide”. It was later used by visual artist Andy Warhol in one of his paintings entitled Suicide (Fallen Body)…”
Source: Wiki
Last week, the New York Times published an article written by Charles Duhigg and Keith Bradsher intitled: “How the U.S. Lost Out on iPhone Work”. It was a brilliant article detailing the realities of why China constructs 70%+ of Apple’s products and why America can’t compete with China’s factories/workers. The article got so much praise, that now there is talk of it winning the Pulitzer but in its brilliance, there were some shockingly sad realities about America’s manufacturing past/present/future.
Let’s start at the beginning. About a year ago, President Obama came to California and had dinner with silicon valley’s heavy weights – C.E.O.s from companies like: Netflix, Genentech, Oracle, Google, Intel, Facebook and Apple. At the dinner, each C.E.O. was asked to have a question ready for President Obama. As the story goes, when the late Steve Jobs (C.E.O. of Apple) was talking, President Obama interrupted him and asked: “what would it take to make iPhones in the United States? Why can’t that work come home?” Without blinking, Steve Jobs looked at the President and responded: “Those jobs aren’t coming back.”
Why aren’t those jobs coming back? Why can’t we complete with China and its workers? Why is Apple, a company with cash assets now worth almost 100 Billion and a stock price that puts it only second to Exxon (market Cap) not doing more to return some of that wealth back to America. These are some hard questions to answer and unknown to most of us, these questions have some very uncomfortable answers. Answers that not only define our country and what it has become but also, how we live and buy things. Here is where the answers start:
Weeks before the first unveiling of the iPhone 4, Apple decided to make last minute changes to the screen – last minute changes that effected every aspect of the iPhone’s assembly line. The decision to change the screen was made in the afternoon – by midnight, the whole assembly line was re-worked for the proper changes and the foreman of the factory woke up 8,000 workers (middle of the night) – putting them to work (each had been given a biscuit + some tea). 96 hours later, the factory was producing 10,000 iPhones a day – with production ramping up daily.
Charles Duhigg and Keith Bradsher go on to point out that executives they spoke to said: “The speed and flexibility is breathtaking…There’s no American plant that can match that…” when speaking of Chinese factories. So, Here is where we start to see the real divide:
Similar stories could be told about almost any electronics company — and outsourcing has also become common in hundreds of industries, including accounting, legal services, banking, auto manufacturing and pharmaceuticals.
But while Apple is far from alone, it offers a window into why the success of some prominent companies has not translated into large numbers of domestic jobs. What’s more, the company’s decisions pose broader questions about what corporate America owes Americans as the global and national economies are increasingly intertwined.- New York Times
So let’s go back to President Obama’s question to the late Steve Jobs: “Why can’t that work come home?” The sad reality is not so complex but it is tragic on many levels and Mr. Jobs was right in saying: “Those jobs aren’t coming back.”
1) The Establishment: The established factory and factory cities in China make moving full scale manufacturing back to America nearly impossible. At just one of Foxconn’s factory cities, nearly 1 million people work, sleep, live and eat. Imagine moving all that infrastructure back stateside.
2) The Chains That Bind: The established Asian supply chains would make mass production, assembly and changes much more expensive, if factories were located in America. The majority of the hundreds of small parts that make up the iPhone 4S are made in Asia – meaning that they would need to be shipped all the way to America for assembly.
3) Information Economy: While America has quickly adopted an information economy, we have also abandoned the manufacturing economy that made this country grow. We no longer have the facilities necessary to bring jobs back (look at Detroit’s buildings) and if we were to start building our infrastructure, it would take years to catch up to China.
4) They’ve Got Skillz: While skilled workers can be trained anywhere, China has industrialized training – with specific manufacturing positions being filled within 2 weeks. Workers go to training schools, within massive factory cities and study 15+ hours a day. This is expected in China and the average factory worker has “submitted” to this type of treatment/work. Americans have never experienced this type of industrialized learning and treatment, at least not in the last 3 generations. Maybe during the industrial revolution and after the 1929 stock market crash, did American workers see that type of life.
5) I’ll work for 30¢/Hour: The most prominent difference between manufacturing jobs in China and America are the laws. This includes hundreds of labor, safety and wage laws. What is the minimum wage law in your state? $8.25/Hour? How about 30¢/Hour and you work a 36 hours work shift! That’s right – there have been reports of people working 36 hours straight.
6) I’ll buy that for a dollar: Buy “Made in America.” People have speculated the cost of an American made iPad 2. The numbers have ranged all the way up to $1,140 – please keep in mind that these are fact based estimates and not tested. Yet, for the sake of argument let’s say Apple made two versions of the iPad: One made in America and the other made in China – how would the average capitalistic american consumer react? Right now, you walk into an Apple store and see on the shelf two iPads – times are tough – the economy is hard – your wallet is not what it used to be. The Chinese iPad on the right has a sign that reads: $499 – the American made iPad on the left has a sign reading: $699 (they are the same iPad/build quality/specifications) what do you pick? I think it’s fair to guess that the majority of people would still buy the Chinese built iPad.
It’s not that we can’t compete – we aren’t even playing the same game. The average Chinese worker and the average American worker can’t compete, they live in two different worlds. Over the years, Americans have fought for standardized labor laws, protecting the standard of life and living they desired. China has essentially sold the majority of its population into slavery to the world. This is the brutal truth to why those jobs will never come back to America. It isn’t a matter of Americans not being able to put together an iPhone, its a matter of, “I won’t do it for 30¢/hour!” The “Jobs” issue is immensely complex and while I have done my best to cover the main points – this is not solely an economic problem. This is a social, economical, moral and cultural problem. Sadly, there will be no real solution and no “jobs” will come back to America until people truly understand what they are asking for when they say, “I want those jobs back!”
Charles Duhigg and Keith Bradsher have written what I consider, (hands down) the best article of the year….so far. Please go and read it in its entirety, as my summarization does not do it justice. You can find it here – New York Times.
Source: New York Times – Image Sources: Pic1 – Pic2 – Pic3
Source: Jim Richardson
Source: Pixel Joint
Tim Cook (Apple’s C.E.O) held an all hands town hall meeting yesterday and one of the key topics that he discussed was employee benefits. Rightly so, he went on to talk about how Apple has become a tech juggernaut, mostly by the hard work of its employees – thus he wanted to give back. Sometime in June, Apple will start giving any employee that has worked for the company more than 90 days: $500 off any mac (except the mini) and $250 off any iPad – this can be taken advantage of every 3 years. As of right now, employees get 25% off Apple products.
Source: Igmur
…We’re thrilled with our outstanding results and record-breaking sales of iPhones, iPads and Macs. Apple’s momentum is incredibly strong, and we have some amazing new products in the pipeline…
Was this Tim Cook’s way of hinting to an actual Apple TV set or was he talking about the upcoming iPad 3 or even the iPhone 5? Or are we reading too much into this and he was playing his role and drumming up PR for the coming quarters/stock price? Regardless, Apple looks to have some amazing products coming up this year.
Source: Apple
Once again, Apple has smashed analyst predictions and has released Q1 2012 revenue of $46.33 billion and record quarterly net profit of $13.06 billion. What does that mean? Apple is still essentially printing mountains of money and their cash/short term/long term assets amount to almost $100 billion. Here is the break down:
So where did all that cash come from, well Apple and its massive retail presence was super busy over the holiday quarter, selling: 37.04 million iPhones in the quarter – 128 percent unit growth Yr/Yr, 15.43 million iPads during the quarter – 111 percent unit increase Yr/Yr, 5.2 million Macs during the quarter – 26 percent unit increase Yr/Yr and 15.4 million iPods – 21 percent unit decline Yr/Yr. Tim Cook, Apple’s C.E.O. had this to say at the earnings call:
…We’re thrilled with our outstanding results and record-breaking sales of iPhones, iPads and Macs. Apple’s momentum is incredibly strong, and we have some amazing new products in the pipeline…
Not surprisingly, Apple iPhone 4S is the big story here – generating 53% of the quarters revenue. Weirdly, the 4S was widely written off, both by the press and tech journalists but it seems the public had no issue with its non-upgraded exterior look. Additionally, 58% of revenue is now taken in by international sales, China quickly becoming Apple’s new cash cow.
Besides hardware, Apple also generated cash from its services, like the iTunes store, App Store, retail stores and iCloud services, here is some interesting numbers for those revenue streams: 85 million iCloud users - 140 million App Store downloads on Christmas Day alone - 110 million visitors to Apple Stores. If you want more technical details about Apple’s Q1 2012 results – here is a recording of their live stream – Click here. So, where do we go from here and what does Q2 2012 look like?
We are very happy to have generated over $17.5 billion in cash flow from operations during the December quarter,” said Peter Oppenheimer, Apple’s CFO. “Looking ahead to the second fiscal quarter of 2012, which will span 13 weeks, we expect revenue of about $32.5 billion and we expect diluted earnings per share of about $8.50…
Source: Apple – Source: MacRumors – Source: New York Times