iakttakelser (observations)

#Apple Q1: @asymco graphs makes my heart sing!

2012-01-27T20:05:00.001+01:00

I love numbers, but I love beautiful graphs even more. The master of Apple graphs is, in my opinion, Horace Dediu in asymco.com, where you find a lot more. He has now updated Apple's scorecard, and I love to put in my blog!

Updated: Apple and their Chinese workers; and how China reacted on NYT allegations.

2012-01-27T19:56:00.000+01:00

Update: There have been reaction to the NY Times article in China. They point to other American companies, which are hiring way more abusive contractors. One state:

If people saw what kind of life workers lived before they found a job at Foxconn, they would come to an opposite conclusion of this story: that Apple is such a philanthropist. - Zhengchu1982

Original: The Western world manufacture most of it's goods in China. Apple also does that. And for Apple as well for all other brands using China in manufacturing, there is an ethical dilemma; Chinese workers has horrible working conditions in comparison to workers in the West - and they are paid quite low.

This is old news. Apple has joined the Fair Labor Association, and filed the first report recently. The report describes the problems they have discovered, and how they are trying to resolve it.

It's ironical and unfair to criticize Apple, just when they are speeding up the effort to minimize bad working conditions.

A letter to Apple's employees from Tim Cook are sited in 9to5mac.com:

"We will continue to dig deeper, and we will undoubtedly find more issues. What we will not do — and never have done — is stand still or turn a blind eye to problems in our supply chain. On this you have my word. You can follow our progress at apple.com/supplierresponsibility."

Why not support Apple's effort and instead take a look at Chinese and Korean companies like ZTE and Samsung?

Laughable comments from the Verge and TechCrunch, trying to bully Apple, again...

2012-01-26T19:45:00.002+01:00

The Verge and TechCrunch both managed to spin bullying comments on Apple today. After Apple shocked the market, someone still want to spread laughable contents. I don't know if I should laugh or cry. I just feel sad!

Here's the headlines:

The Verge: 7.6m iPhones sold, Android sales growingTechCrunch: AT&T Set Sales Records For Both iPhone And Android

Shame on you, both!

Apple's State of the Union and "The Innovators Dilemma" @ClayChristensen

2012-01-26T14:49:00.000+01:00

The Newyorker: Laurene Powell Jobs

Seeing Steve Jobs wife listening to Obama's homage to her husband in The NewYorker, inspired me to write.
Apple is now earning about the same amount as the Norwegian Goverment on oil and taxes. We're five million inhabitants. Compare that to the fifty thousand working in Apple. Apple makes hundred times what the richest goverment in the world.

So somehow Apple financial conference call is their State of the Union. And it's equally important to the rest of the world. I would actually say more important.

Apple has, as the first company I'm aware of, solved what Clay Christensen named "The Innovators Dilemma".

I took a train-trip to Oslo yesterday, and tried to elaborate this, writing on Notes on my iPhone. But looking at it today, it's not that good. It's difficult stuff to express. But I try again:

Clay Christensen lays out three rules for product innovation in the case study, telling that the product must be:
- Simple, reliable and convenient
- A platform in which feature, function, and styling changes can be made quickly and at low cost
- Have a low prize point

Adding the way Apple seems to attract "Nonconsumption" by exploring new markets, and the press and competitors ignorance and joking about their products, I see Apple fulfilling a lot of Christensens disruptive innovation "template". Finally there is of course the proof of the pudding: the numbers. The financial numbers Apple released Tuesday show explosive growth. So I add these three points:
- Noncomsumption
- Press, competitors and market analyst ignorance
- Explosive growth

Sitting in the train, I spotted both iPhone, iPad and MacBook Air as product which could fit the template. And I would add iBooks Author and Apple TV as well. The last two are in the coming however. And that's only cover some of Apple's recent products.

I need more thinking, reading and writing though. Do you have recent Apple products you want to add. Or do you have any comments to my "innovation template"?

I keep you posted!

#Apple Q1 reporting: My tweets and initial comment

2012-01-25T20:43:00.001+01:00

Photo from Apple.com

I still feel overwhelmed after the Apple' conference call for 2012 Q1 last night. I'm repeating 37 million iPhones sold to myself, over and over, and don't get it. Their best-selling phone is the 4S 64G! And according to CEO Tim Cook, Apple didn't even notice Amazon Fire on their radar!

This is very amazing news. It will clearly impact most of us, since Apple just now is the most valuable company in the US. But I will have to digest this some days...

Well, here are the tweets I did send out when the result was released and during the conference call. They were numbers or cites I considered important:

Apple reported a record $13.06 billion for its fiscal first quarter of 2012 - via @jdalrymple
Revenue Of $46.3 Billion, 37 Million iPhones Sold - via TechCrunch
15M iPads - via Gizmodo
$13.87 per diluted share.
Gross margin was 44.7 percent, compared to 38.5 percent last year via - MacRumors
twitter Apple announces Q1 2012 earnings, sells a record-breaking 37 million iPhones | TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog - mjac.me/wE2Ny5
5.2 million Macs (26% unit growth)
Here's Apple Q1- Press Info - mjac.me/xhs1yI
iPhone more than doubled the sale from last quarter - from 17 to 37 million phones!
Apple added $38 billion in cash last year | asymco -
over 600,000 copies of iBooks Author have been downloaded since last Thursday- via Ars Liveblog: mjac.me/y3T8DV
315 million cumulative iOS device sales
iCloud is "off to a great start" with more than 85 million customers as of today
Apple Store almost 22,000 visitors per store, per week
Tim Cook: We attribute it to a "breathtaking" customer reception, iOS 5, Siri, incredible camera with advanced optics.
Cook: We could not be happier. We thought we were betting bold, but we didn't bet high enough.
twitter I'm certainly not alone w/ 64Gb! RT “@asymco: iPhone 4S was the most popular iPhone. High "mix" of the higher priced products.”
In terms of components, in general the component environment is favorable. 1 of the elements that let us over-achieve on margins
Don't know what to say, not what to think. My wife is sleeping and want to dance!
My favorite $Apple TV sold 1.4M in Q1. 4.2 last fiscal year. Cook: It's still a hobby ;)
I feel the need for strong words! MG Siegler @parislemon is brilliant: • A "Holy Fucking Shit" Quarter - mjac.me/x4Y29B
Cook: When I looked at the data in the US on a weekly basis after Amazon launched the Kindle Fire, there wasn't an obvious effect
Cook: we continue to believe that there's much MORE cannibalization of Windows PCs by the iPad
Cook: ... we see the iPhone be a catalyst and the iPad comes after the iPhone, and in several accounts, the Mac follows that

Less than 2 hours to Apple 2.0's Q1 2012 "Whisper" Numbers @parislemon

2012-01-24T21:18:00.001+01:00

MG Siegler in Parislemon are reporting Philip Elmer-DeWitt's compilation of 6 different analysts.

If he’s close, my prediction from October 18 (the day Apple announced Q4 numbers) that this quarter would not only be Apple’s first $30 billion quarter, but first $40 billion quarter, looks very good. Elmer-DeWitt’s numbers have revenues coming in at a cool $42.76 billion.

Such a number would constitute a massive blow-out. Apple’s previous revenue record is $28.57 billion, hit in Q3 2011. Again, if the numbers hold, Apple could see a quarter almost exactly 50% better than their previous record quarter. That would be insane.

∑ Insanely fun, and in less than 2 hours I will report from the Apple telephone financial result conference! I will tweet during the conference, and later publish a compilation of the tweets.

iBooks 2 and Author are infact true disruptive innovation - in 5 tweets

2012-01-23T20:49:00.000+01:00

Critizing Apple for lack of innovation on textbooks is questionable. Apple fulfill all points on disruptive innovation from @ClayChristensen.

@ClayChristensen "Innovators Dilemma" case study:
1) Simple, reliable, and convenient

@ClayChristensen "Innovators Dilemma" case study:
2) Product platform in which feature, function, and styling changes can be made quickly and at low cost

@ClayChristensen "Innovators Dilemma" case study:
3) A lower price than mainstream product, even though their cost in use is often higher

iBooks Author fulfills 1) and [it's] format fulfills 2). iBooks 2 textbook prize fulfill 3). Apple couldn't done a better job from an innovators view!

Remark: It's challenging and interesting to try to formulate inside twitter's 140 character limits.

Hvordan Microsoft Ribbons la Word åpent for konkurranse #innovation

2012-01-23T20:37:00.000+01:00

Husker du første versjonen av Word for Windows? Den var en befrielse i forhold til WordPerfect. Dette er historien om hvordan et særlig dårlig valg av brukerflate, gjorde Microsoft Office åpen for konkurranse.

Grensesprengende innovasjon er underlig. Den er ofte høyst overraskende. En av driverne i innovasjon er at kunder og produsenter utvikler seg forskjellig. Produsenter lager stadige forbedringer, mens kundene utvikler seg noe langsommere. Ufravikelig kommer en dag da kunden innser at han bruker en forsvinnende liten del av produktet.

Tilbake til Microsoft Office; bak en enkel og tilsynelatende uskyldig UI, øket MS funksjonaliteten ved hver versjon, helt fra Word for DOS til idag. Det var en offentlig hemmelighet at de fleste Office kunder bare brukte noen prosent av funksjonaliteten.

Dette ville Microsoft gjøre noe med. De kunne ha laget Word mer minimalistisk og enkelt, men bestemte seg istedet for å synliggjøre mer av funksjonaliteten i sine ny knappevinduer - Ribbons.

Deres hensikt var at siden brukerne så all funksjonaliteten, ville de også utnytte denne bedre. Og noen superbrukere gjorde dette og var begeistret. Men de fleste strevde, og neste versjon gjorde Microsoft det mulig å fjerne hele Ribbon'et.

Men da hadde allerede skaden skjedd; Mange så hvor mye funksjonalitet det fantes i Office, og at de ikke trengte denne. Hvorfor skal jeg betale tusenvis hvert år når jeg bare bruker en brøkdel?

Microsoft begikk en kardinal-feil. Istedet for å starte et nytt og radikalt enklere Office-prosjekt gjorde de faktisk Office enda mer komplisert og mindre intuitivt.
Samtidig dannet det seg et marked for enklere tekstbehandling, både på nett og på Apple.

På Apple var fokuset mindre funksjonalitet, men brilliant utførelse. Det skjedde også en "appifisering", en modulisering hvor forskjellige apper utførte hver sin spesialiserte oppgave; en for skriveprosessen, en for formatering og en tredje for publisering.

På nettet ble Google Docs bedre og bedre, raskt bra nok for litt enklere bruk. Samtidig hadde Google samarbeidsverktøy som vi aldri hadde sett i MS Office. Apple appifiserte sin Office pakke iWorks for både iPad og iPhone. I tillegg strømmet det på med nye tekstbehandlere på App Store.

I dag i slutten av januar 2012, er Office under angrep. Office mangler små, enkle apper for iOS, og deres Mac pakke er utdatert og alt for plasskrevende for de små MacBook Air maskinene.

Jeg sitter å skriver denne blogg-posten i appen IA Writer.

Programmet gjør en ting. Lar meg skrive på fullskjerm uten forstyrrelser, og dimmer alle andre setninger enn den jeg skriver på nå. For å skrive raskt og konsentrert, særlig i omgivelser med støy, finnes det ikke noe bedre program som jeg vet om. Programmet synkroniserer via iCloud til min iPad, men dessverre ikke til iPhone. Etterpå kan jeg bruke Blogsy på iPad for å publisere til Blogger.

Forstyrrende innovasjon er virkelig underlig. Jeg trodde aldri at noen kunne ta markedet fra Office. Men akkurat nå skjer det. Om noen kvartaler vil vi se det på Microsoft sitt regnskap. IT bransjen er virkelig full av overraskelser!

iBooks Author / iTunes U app signs of student-centric learning? @ClayChristensen Disrupting Class?

2012-01-20T16:03:00.000+01:00

Clay Christensen expects tutoring tools to be of the first step of student-centric learnings. See this illustration from his book:

iBooks Author is a iWorks-like tool to create textbooks for iPads that can contain text, pictures, video and 3D animation. It can also do simple assessments through quizzes.
iTunes U app, together with iBooks 2, let the teacher create courses containing ebooks, documents, videos, where checkmarks can indicate the teacher on what has been consumed.

To me, it seems like we have got an Apple take on the student-centric learning disruption!

Just to paraphrase myself: while reading Clay Christensen let us see disruption unfolding in the past,

Apple make us experience disruption live!

See it yourself. Here is the link to the video from Apple's Education event in the Guggenheim Museum in New York.

Updated: New hydrogel stanches blood flow fast, cheaply

2012-01-19T19:29:00.000+01:00

Updaated: The Atlantic reports that researchers at John Hopkins University, has managed to use hydrogel to grow scar-free tissue for burn victims.
Hydrogel should be part of the "home apotek/drugstore" everywhere. Stemming blood is lifesaving, Read CNet article here.

My tweets on #Apple's Education Event: iBooks 2, iBooks Author and iTunes U app

2012-01-19T19:18:00.000+01:00

The following tweets show the most recent first. So it best to read from the end and upwards...

mortjac Morten Jacobsen

Mac App Store - iBooks Author - mjac.me/AvZjoI

2 minutes ago Favorite Reply Delete Buffer

mortjac Morten Jacobsen

#Apple's event: Phil: Apple exists at the intersection between liberal arts and tech; nowhere is that truer than in our love for education

5 minutes ago

mortjac Morten Jacobsen

#Apple's event:iTunes U: Full courses with video, documents, apps, books. You can see the syllabus, assignments. Teacher posts and updates.

6 minutes ago

mortjac Morten Jacobsen

#Apple's event: Cue: When I'm done with (my iBook), I switch back to iTunes U and check off the assignment as complete

9 minutes ago

mortjac Morten Jacobsen

#Apple's event: Today, we're announcing iTunes U app. The syllabus, interactive material, the reading material, and more—full online courses

12 minutes ago

mortjac Morten Jacobsen

#Apple's event: Cue: Over 1,000 universities are already using iTunes U to deliver education content.

14 minutes ago

mortjac Morten Jacobsen

#Apple's event: Cue: The second thing we're doing for education is Reinventing Curriculum.

15 minutes ago

mortjac Morten Jacobsen

#Apple event: McGraw Hill: Hard at work with Algebra 1, Biology, Chemistry, Geom, Physics

mortjac Morten Jacobsen

#Apple event: Pearson: They've made Algebra 1, Biology, Environmental Science, and Geometry. Used by 4 million students worldwide.

26 minutes ago Favorite Reply Delete Buffer

mortjac Morten Jacobsen

#Apple event: Supported by 90% of editors: Including Pearson, McGraw Hill, and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. $14.99 pr. textbook.

27 minutes ago

mortjac Morten Jacobsen

#Apple event: Anyone can create stunning, interactive books. From textbooks to cookbooks to travel books to whatever you can imagine.

29 minutes ago

mortjac Morten Jacobsen

#Apple event: Beautiful templates, multitouch widgets, photos, and videos, extend with HTML5 and JavasScript, and publish to iBookstore.

30 minutes ago

mortjac Morten Jacobsen

Nytt verktøy for å lage interaktive e-books for iPad. Bruker Pages lignende Mac program, tester på iPad og publiserer på iBook - alt på 5m.

31 minutes ago

mortjac Morten Jacobsen

Apple's education event: 2 initiatives: #1 Reinventing textbooks with iBooks 2 #2 iBooks author - Mac app - similar to iWork - WYSIWYG

38 minutes ago

mortjac Morten Jacobsen

#Apple's ed. event: Immediate feedback on your answer, regarding whether you're right or not. Lots of options for layouts and question types

mortjac Morten Jacobsen

#Apple's ed. event: Immediate feedback on your answer, regarding whether you're right or not. Lots of options for layouts and question types

48 minutes ago

mortjac Morten Jacobsen

#Apple's education ev.: In iBooks 2, our digital textbook reviews include a summary, and then a multiple choice question with image answers.

49 minutes ago

mortjac Morten Jacobsen

#Apple's education event: 2 initiatives: #1 Reinventing textbooks with iBooks 2

56 minutes ago

mortjac Morten Jacobsen

#Apple's Education Event: One thing we hear louder than anything else is Student Engagement, inspiring kids to want to discover and learn

1 hour ago

mortjac Morten Jacobsen

#Apple's Education event: Sometimes we are just so tied into standardized testing... that we lose sight" of what these kids really need

1 hour ago

mortjac Morten Jacobsen

I'm following Macworld.com and theverge.com liveblogs from #Apple's Guggenheim event. Waiting for something that could disrupt education!

What's the implication of the new graphs from @asymco for your studies, investment and work?

2012-01-19T14:10:00.002+01:00

I just listened to Horace Dediu telling the story behind his wonderful new graphs on the IT industry, published on http://asymco.com. Listening, while looking at the graphs on my iPad here are some immature thoughts on what the implications for these graphs could have for me and others:

1. What platform should I study, PC or mobile?

2. Which company should I buy from or invest time and money on?

3. Which company could I trust in the long run?

These graphs covers the time from 1975 - 2012. That's 37 years, and really my whole marriage and my whole career. One could really memorize the past looking at these graphic stories!

Personally I was late to bet on Apple. It's only two years since I made the transition to Mac. The iPhone 4S is the fourth mobile from Apple. I was however selling Macs a year in the early -90.

The last graph somewhat yealls at me that the only company that have lived through the whole IT era, and that has relevance to individuals are Apple.

I'm really looking forward to Apple's educational event which start in an hour, and the disclosure of their financials the 24th at 23:00 local time!

I keep you posted!

Reading and writing on disruption of textbooks @ClayChristens Disrupting Class, as I eagerly waiting for Apple's event on education

2012-01-19T11:27:00.000+01:00

I working on the sixth blogpost on my Disruption Class serial. Just today it happens to be on disrupting textbooks and their value network. I'm in the 5th. chapter of Disrupting Class by Clayton M. Christensen, and look:

What it means is that the entire network for creating education materials, making the decision about which material to adopt, and delievering content to students must and will change.

And in order to create this the technology must change:

...modular design, makes it simple and inexpencive to build and upgrade the product.

And what could be more simple to use than an textbook editor, which are exactly what we bloggers expect today.

And how could it look like. People knowing Apple points to a textbook by Al Core:

Exciting times!

Oppdatert: "Forstyrr klassen" @ClayChristensen om innovasjon i offentlig skole

2012-01-18T19:35:00.000+01:00

"Disrupting Class" er en bok av bl.a. Clayton M. Christensen. Han er professor på Harvard Business School i USA og har arbeidet med "Disruptive Innovation Technology" som på norsk blir "Forstyrrende innovasjon teknologi".

Disruption, som jeg oversetter med forstyrrelse, har også andre mulige synonymer på norsk; banebrytende, revolusjonerende, skjell-settende og foruroligende. I Clays sammenheng dreier det seg om nye produkter eller tjenester som forstyrrer noe som allerede eksisterer. Tenk bare på hvor raskt mobilen har fått den røde telefonkiosken til å forsvinne!

Jeg blitt kjent med denne "forstyrrende innovasjon teknologi" gjennom Horace Dediu i asymco.com. Han har vært student under Clay, og deltar i Forum for Growth and Innovation. Horace bruker teknologien for å analysere Apple.

Hovedverket til Clay er "The Innovators Dilemma" eller "Innovatørens dilemma". Jeg bet meg merke i tittelen siden det var den eneste boken Steve Jobs omtalte til sin biograf. Dette er en fantastisk bok for alle som er opptatt av innovasjon.

Jeg har en kone som er svært engasjert og involvert i pedagogikk, så da jeg så tittelen "Disrupting Class" blandt Clays bøker, skjønte jeg det kunne være noe for henne. Og da er veien kort til bloggen min.
"Forstyrrende klasse-modell" har 9 kapitler. Jeg tenker meg en blogpost for hvert kapittel. Her er de engelske tittelene:

Why Schools Struggle to Teach Differently When Each Studen Learns Differently
Making the Shift: Schools Meets Society's Jobs
Crammed Classroom Computers
Disruptively Deploying Computers
The System For Student-Centric Learning
The Impact of the Earliest Years on Student's Success
Why so many Students seems Unmotivated
Improving Education Research
Organizing to Innovate

Jeg kommer til å forsøke å oversette titlene i hver enkelt post.

Følg med på en interessant reise innenfor pedagogikk og innovasjon

Forstyrrende utplassering av datamaskiner. Kap. 4 i Disrupting Class av @ClayChristensen #pedagogikk

2012-01-18T19:33:00.004+01:00

Dette er femte post i serien om forstyrrende innovasjon i den offentlige skolen. Den første posten var Forstyrr klassen. Den andre posten er Hvorfor strever skolen med individuell opplæring? Den tredje posten var Gjennomføre endringer: La skoler gjøre samfunnets jobb. Den fjerde var Data presset inn i overfyllte klasserom.

I dette kapittelet peker Christensen på hvor mye som allerede har skjedd. Han går også grundig til verks og forklarer hvordan en kan lære å se om en utvikling er forstyrrende eller bare en forbedring. Jeg kommer til å vektlegge det siste.

I USA øket deltagere fra offentlige skoler i fjernundervisning fra 45 tusen til en million fra år 2000 til 2007. Og han spør seg selv hvordan dette har kunnet skje. Det er jo få som ikke går på skolen i USA.

Han trekker så fram avanserte kurs som er vanskelig å tilby fra små eller utenbys skoler. Også elever som har hjemmeundervisning, har droppet ut og førskoleelever. Fjernundervisning er den første data-bølgen. Senere vil elevsentrert dataundervisning gi eleven til å lære tilpasset sin intelligens, læremåte og tempo. Når det blir virkelig, vil alle ha tilgang til gamle dagers privatlærer i rike familier. Han som tilpasset alt for sin elev.

Presset på skoler for å drive elevene til å mestre grunnferdighetene som kreves i nasjonale prøver, tar ressurser fra andre fag.

Om å kunne gjennkjenne forstyrrende utvikling

Hvordan skal en vite om noe nytt er forstyrrende eller en forbedring. Christensen peker på at forstyrrende teknologi lager en s kurve i løpet av utbredelsen. Hvis han lager denne som en graf hvor den vertikale linjen er logaritmisk med verdiene 10 1, 0,1 0,01 0,0001 og 0,00001, kan denne brukes til å se hva slags innovasjon vi har med å gjøre, og samtidig vise hva som kan skje i fremtiden.

Hvis minst 4-5 punkter viser en rett linje, indikerer det en forstyrrende utvikling. Da kan en trekke linja videre og se når den treffer forskjellige markedsandeler.

Under har Christensen lagt inn data for fjernundervisning fra 2000 til 2007 hvor økning var fra 45 000 til 1 million kurs i året. Linjen blir her rett, og vi har å gjøre med en forstyrrende innovasjon.

Her kan vi se at i 2020 vil elevsentrert undervisning være på 50%.

Fire faktorer som kan øke hastigheten i utvikling er teknologi som gjør læring mer engasjerende, forskingsresultater om elevsentrisk læring som kan implementeres i programvare, lærermangel og press på offentlige tilbud.

Christensen avslutter kapittelet med en mulig strategi mht. lærer organisasjoner fremtidens klasserom og en titt på det fremtidige virtuelle klasserom. Begge rimelig forskjellig fra norsk virkelighet, så jeg lar være å kommentere disse.

I neste kapittel vil elevsentrert læring være tema.

If you consider smartphones as computers, Windows dipped below 50% units sold in 2011 @asymco

2012-01-18T08:37:00.003+01:00

People are doing more of their computer work on tablets and smartphones.

They are always connected. They have better UI. They have more sensors like GPS and camera. It's way easier and cheaper to buy software. They are the personal computers for the majority who never have owned a PC. For us that have used PCs for a long time, they tend to be our favorite personal computers.

Yesterday Horace Dediu in Asymco.com had a post dealing with just that assumption; that the PC statistic should include iOS and Android. What a nice view resulted from that!

The third view is with the addition of iPhone and Android.

This last view corresponds to the data in the first graph (line chart). If iOS and Android are added as potential substitutions for personal computing, the share of PCs suddenly collapses to less than 50%. It also suggests much more collapse to come.

John Gruber frames it:

The graph in question — extreme though Dediu admits it is — should be terrifying to Microsoft and its shareholders. Maybe Intel too.

MacBook Air - on it's 4th. birthday, it still hasn't any real competitors. Boy, what a disruption!

2012-01-16T15:37:00.000+01:00

The MacBook Air turns four years old today, noted TUAW, and I will also congratulate.

Today I've ordered my wife the new MacBook Air 13. I've the 2010 version. Every day I'm surprised of how good, fast, silent it is. My Air has in fact the same specification as my wife's old HP NX7400 from 2005. While my wife hate her HP, I love my Air. And now she's getting one herself. It will be the first time my wife has a better PC than myself. I don't know how I will handle it. While writing this some ideas are popping up; I will try to get the iPad 3. I think that will calm me down until Summer 2013. And I recently got the 4S, and I'm still in awe using that.

But why is the Air so good? Is it possible to draft some thoughts based on the work on disruptive innovation theory I'm dealing with these days?

I think so and here are some points:

Photo from tuaw.com

The original MacBook Air from 2008 was the lightest and smallest in the market. That attracted non-comsumption. People who couldn't use notebooks because they were to heavy. It was also quite exspencive.
My 2010 Air had only a tiny 128Gb harddisk. But the iCloud made harddisk storage way less important. And the SSD made the system extremely fast. See my post Notes on recent hard-disk industry disruptions, where I discuss this in depth. 11' and 13' are quite small screens, but the OSX Lion inclusion of iPad technology, has also made the screensize less important.
The increase in processor speed on the 2011 version made the Air to an unbeatable portable. Apple has maintained the prize and removed the white MacBook, while increasing storage and processing power.

Intel are said to poure US$300M to help Apple competitors create something similar called Ultrabooks. They will have a long way to go however. 4 years experience, a brilliant iPhone, iPod and iPad business, an Air-optimized OS and portables growing about 40% is quite difficult to beat.

So happy birthday MacBook Air! You're the best portable I've ever had!

Data presset inn i overfyllte klasserom. Kap. 3 i Disrupting Class av @ClayChristensen #pedagogikk

2012-01-16T12:58:00.002+01:00

Dette er fjerde post i serien om forstyrrende innovasjon i den offentlige skolen. Den første posten var Forstyrr klassen. Den andre posten er Hvorfor strever skolen med individuell opplæring? Den tredje posten var Gjennomføre endringer: La skoler gjøre samfunnets jobb.

I denne posten behandler jeg 3 kapittel: Crammed Classroom Computers.

I snart tredve år har amerikansk skole prøvd å benytte data for å forbedre undervisningen. Gang på gang har de trodd at data kunne hjelpe på problemene i den offentlige skolen. USA har i løpet av disse tre tiår brukt over 60 milliarder dollar på datautsyr. Effekten på indre motivasjon hos elevene, er heller liten.

President Clinton satte følgende målsetting for innføring av data i offentlig skole i 1996:
- Moderne PCer og lærehjelpemidler til alle elever
- Klasserom kablet til hverandre og til verden utenfor
- Gjøre data-assistert undervisning til en integrert del av pensum, og like engasjerende som video-spill
- Gjøre lærerne rede til å bruke og undervise med hjelp av teknologi

Det som har skjedd er at skolen har brukt data til gradvis, istedet for banebrytende, forbedring av undervisning. Da blir data bare nok et krav til lærere og elever og effekten blir liten.
Forrstyrrende innovasjonsteori viser at hvis en skal få til noe banebrytende, så må tilbudet gå til de som ikke har noe!Organisasjoner har nemlig ikke en naturlig evne til å fornye seg, med mindre lederen aktivt styrer prosessen.

Det viser seg også at det å presse noe som skal være radikalt nytt inn i et eksisterende marked er både dyrt og skuffende. Dette fordi nye forstyrrende teknologier aldri virker bedre enn allerede etablerte prosesser i deres eget marked.

Sony TR-55 fra 1955

Christensen trekker frem Sonys transistorradio og deres seier over RCA store radioer og tv. RCA oppfant i 1947 transistoren, og brukte nesten en milliard dollar for å forbedre den slik at den skulle kunne overta radio-rørene. I 1955 lanserte Sony en reisetransistorradio for ungdom. Den hadde dårligere lyd enn de store møblene til RCA, men var et alternativ for de som ikke hadde radio selv. I 1959 kom Sony med reise TV, og skapte et helt nytt marked for de som ikke hadde hatt råd til de gamle store TVene. I slutten av 60-årene ble transistorteknologien så god at RCA hadde kunnet bytte ut radio-rørende, men da var de allerede forsvunnet fra markedet.

Selv om de fleste elever på amerikansk skole har tilgang til PC, benyttes den lite; 24 minutter i uka i 5 klasse og 38 minutter i 8 klasse.

I kapitlet konkluderer Christensen med at undervisningspraksis har endret seg lite med innføringen av PC. Den har ikke radikalt endret undervisningingen, og elevenes indre motivasjon synes heller ikke styrket.

Kjernepunktet for Christensen er å ta i bruk data på en *forstyrrende* måte. Og hvordan dette kan gjøres i skolen er emnet for neste kapittel. (og post ;)

Indian farmers get healthcare w/heart-surgery for 22¢/month - @DrDeviShetty' disruptive innovation

2012-01-13T11:55:00.002+01:00

I apologize if some of the information this post are inaccurate or wrong. I was not able to repeat the full show online to verify my notes. The Indian English dialect, also made me struggle. Please note me, and I change it!

Dr. Devi Shetty just explained on BBC Hard-talk how to solve the worlds health-care problem. He explained that public healthcare was possible when people worked to they were 60 and died at 65. Now, in comparison, people live to they are 95. There exist no public entity that can provide enough healthcare in these circumstances.

Health-care has to been delivered way more effective and cheaper means, and Shetty are proving it in India. There his largest heart-surgery hospital has more than a thousand beds. That compared to the biggest US ones at 150 beds.

And it isn't only for advanced surgery. His private healthcare surgery in India is providing 4 million farmers health insurance, including heart surgery, for 22¢ a month. That's less than the cheapest Indian cigaret package! And to provide another comparison. India has 750M mobile phones who pay 150 rupees each month.

BBC Hardtalk just aired (10:30 Norwegian time) a fantastic conversation between Stephen Sackur and Devi Shetty, where Stephen clearly are shocked by the groundbreaking story of Devi Shetty. A 3 minute version can be seen here (sorry, it request flash;). If you live in the UK you can see it here.

This seems to follow Clay Christensen advices in disruptive innovation:
- Devi Shetty offers heart-surgery to non-consumption.
- He's gradually reducing the cost. Every day all his doctors, nurses and medical technicians get a profit and loss report on SMS of yesterday work. They have with that mean driven down the cost from 120K rupees to 60K.
- People pay different. 40% pay 60K and 60% pay less.

Devi Shetty is also creating a large hospital in Cayman Island to provide high quality surgery for US and the Caribbean, to non-consumers in this part. If this succeed, he will start in Africa!

Gjennomføre endringer: La skoler gjøre samfunnets jobb. Kap. 2 i Disrupting Class av @ClayChristensen #pedagogikk

2012-01-11T11:56:00.001+01:00

Dette er tredje post i serien om forstyrrende innovasjon i den offentlige skolen. Den første posten var Forstyrr klassen. Den andre posten er Hvorfor strever skolen med individuell opplæring?

Denne posten dekker bokens andre kapittel, Making the Shift: Schools Meets Society's Jobs. Her forteller Christensen hvorfor det er så mye vanskeligere for offentlige skoler å gjennomføre grunnleggende endringer. Han påpeker at i næringslivet vil endringer vil normalt skje med brukere som ikke har tilgang til eksisterende tjenester eller varer. I den offentlige skolen er derimot *alle* allerede inkludert, så skolen må finne andre måter å gjøre nyskaping på.

Christensen går så igjennom det han kaller "forstyrrende innovasjonsteori", og gir deretter en kort oversikt over USAs offentlige skole historie.

Forstyrrende innovasjonsteori forklarer hvorfor organisasjoner strever med visse typer innovasjon, og hvordan det kan utvikles forutsigbar suksess innenfor innovasjon.

USA offentlige skoles historie viser at endring i offentlig skole er mulig: Fire ganger har skolen tatt på seg nye målsettinger i løpet av det siste hundreåret:
- Bevare demokratiet og innprente demokratiske verdier (etter dannelsen av USA)
- Tilby noe for alle elever (fabrikkarbeideres barn fikk tilgang til skolen)
- Gjøre Amerika konkuransedyktig (for å møte konkuransen fra Sovjet)
- Fjerne fattigdom ("No Child Left Behind" initiativet)

Her ser vi hvordan de fire målsetningene ovenfor illustrert med verktøy fra Christensens teori

Historien viser at når den offentlige skole gis den nødvendige kompetanse og forståelse, kan den gjennomføre fundamentale endringer. Vi vil derfor undersøke om data-assistert undervisning kan slå bro over gapet mellom standarisert undervisning og individuell læring.

I neste kapittel skal vi se på forsøkene som er blitt gjort med data i skolen i USA. Om hvorfor dette er blitt gjort galt, og hva som må gjøres hvis den skal lykkes.

Updated: Notes on recent hard-disk industry disruptions - inspired by @ClayChristensen and @asymco

2012-01-10T21:25:00.000+01:00

IBM's RAMAC, the first computer with a hard-disk. Worth $160K. From IBM Museum.

Update: Prices on SSD, or memory harddisks, will fall from US$ 1.60 to below one dollar in 2012, according to IDC. This, combined with the price increase for traditional harddisks after the flooding in Thailand, could increase the speed of the shift from spinning disks to solid state memory.

The Innovators Dilemma of Clayton Christensen, has been a bit frightening for me, ever since Horace Dediu, @asymco, told me about it when we met in Helsinki last year. But as I call myself a General Ledger Visionary, I'm also a bit restrictive to read opinions too close to my ideas. I'm actually afraid of loosing some naivety...

But, times passes and there have been some much written and talked about about Clay Christensen, since Steve Jobs revealed that "The Innovators Dilemma" was the only book worth mentioning. So I finally just had to read it! I did, and what a book! I'm breathless reading it through during my free times in the Christmas family camp we're having at our home.

Clay took me through many industries which experienced technological breakthrough that changed their world. He focus on two industries, hard-disk and excavator. Hard-disk is a natural interest for me as and IT professional, but the excavator business was, surpringly, fascinating.

Since I'm recently got and SSD drive by changing to Macbook Air 2010, I've benn surprised of my high satisfaction of the Air in comparison to the Windows portables I used before - even if the earlier laptops had a lot better specifications than the Air. For me this has been a paradox in itself. That an portable with poor technical specification gives me way better satisfaction that the powerful machines I used earlier. I really didn't get it!

I've tried to formulate this paradox to family members, and based on that experience, here are my take on it.

My main reference for my observation is my Apple Macbook Air 2010 13" and my wife's HP nx7400 2005, which also was the my PC up to 2009, albeit with more RAM and HD.The Air has 1.86 MHz Core Duo, 2 Gb RAM 128GB SSD, 64 Gb memory card and 13" screen.The HP has 1.93 Celeron Duo, 2 Gb RAM and 80 Gb hard-disk and 15" screen. Clay informs that the common size for 2005 was 350 Gb (after the HP I happened to have an Acer - 2009 and an white Apple Macbook - 2010). The HP and the Air have very similar specifications, if you don't count on the SSD, they at least seems so. But the user experience of the two are quite different. The Air has stellar performance, the HP is a drag.

The need for storage did increase all the years from 1983 to 2011, all to 1 Tb. It decreased brutally with the Air in June 2011, and even more when iCloud arrived. I've dropped a lot of programs, and haven't moved all my data from my earlier PCs. Still, my Air is a bit to small. I still doesn't have room for my non-iTunes music. But I've considered to change from the 500 Gb HD I used as backup to a 64 Gb Memory card.

Some elements on the recent status on hard-disks as I observe it:

- iCloud removes the need to have all your backups, mail, music, video, photos and app-documents on your Mac. In that way iCloud brake the yearly increase of hard-disk, by reducing the data storage. It is expected that this will continue for video, films and series.

- Versioning of datafiles, is another storage saver. When you can reverse to earlier versions in documents, spreadsheets and presentations, there is no need to store the versions as different files.

- Syncronization is so practical, that I've started removing apps not using the iCloud.

- Lastly, I've to add that Apple just bought a SSD controller company. They have delivered the means to extend the life of SSDs.

The Back to the Mac initiative, where Apple took the best from the iPad and iPhone back to the Mac, has infact reduced my personal storage need from 1 Tb to 194 Gb, ie 80%.

This make the standard Air a valid alternate for me. And that’s also the case for a lot of others. The Air is currently Apple's best selling portable ever.

I would propose the hypothesis:

Apple, by reducing their customer need for storage on their PCs, have paved the road for the SSD as the most desirable choice for storage on portables.

I do think this is planned for. And further his points to that Apple may be using their disruption knowledge to orchestrate new disruptive technologies.

And while Clay Christensen made us see the disruption unfold in the past,

we can now watch Apple making repeated disruptions live!

Hvorfor skolen strever med individuell opplæring. 1 kap. i @ClayChristensen Disrupting Class

2012-01-10T11:08:00.002+01:00

Kragerø høyere almenskole

Hvorfor strever skoler med å endre undervisningen når alle lærer på forskjellig vis, - eller
Why Schools Struggle to Teach Differently When Each Student Learns Differently.

Først et lite ord om meg selv. Jeg er en selvlært innovatør. Jeg er ikke skolert i hverken pedagogikk eller engelsk. Derimot har jeg starter flere virksomheter basert på egne oppfinnelser innenfor finans. Min egen utdannelse er forøvrig i kirkemusikk. Og jeg er en blogger. Jeg er derfor svært takknemlig hvis noen påpeker feil i min forståelse av boken eller oversettelser!

I forrige post ga jeg en introduksjon til boken. I dette kapittelet viser Christensen at alle lærer forskjellig, og han tar utgangspunkt i Howards forsking på intelligens. Her er Gardners definisjon:
- Evne til å løse problemer en finner i dagliglivet
- Evne til å definere nye problemer
- Evne til å skape eller tilby noe som det settes pris på i ens egen kultur

Gardner opererer med hele 8 forskjellige typer intelligens:
- Språklig
- Logisk/matematisk
- Romlig - evne til tredimensjonal visualisering
- Kroppslig kinetisk
- Musikalsk
- Inter-personalt (kommunikativ)
- Selverkjennende
- Natur-iakttakelse

Elever har også forskjellige måter å lære på; notere, diskutere, prøve ut og så videre. Og de gjør det i forskjellig hastighet; langsomt, middels eller raskt. Christensen viser dermed til at det er en uendelig variasjon av læring.

Skolen er i motsetning bygd opp med samme undervisning for en større gruppe. Og alt i henhold til en læreplan. Skolens konformitet står i sterk motsetning til elevenes individuelle læringsmåter.

For å begynne å nøste opp i konflikten mellom standardisert undervisning og individuelle lærebehov, trekker Christensen fram de to motsetningene integrert og modulært. Som eksempler nevner han Apple og Dell, og Windows og Linux. Skolens dilemma beskriver han som: standardisert undervisning i motsetning til tilpasset læring.

Dagens offentlige skole kaller han som tett integrert; både i tidsdimensjon, lagvis og i fysisk utforming. Ulempene ble så sterke at en allerede på 60-tallet begynte med tilpasninger for barn med spesielle behov.

Etterhvert blir det mange med spesielle behov - hele 10%. Det blir også dyrt; $22 tusen Vs $9 tusen for hver elev i året. Som i Norge, er det en kamp om få denne statusen og å få nok midler til å følge opp.

Christensen beskriver dette dilemma på nytt:
…siden elever har forskjellige intelligenstype, læringsmåte, tempo og utgangspunkt har ALLE spesielle behov.

Er det i det hele tatt mulig å gi alle tilpasset opplæring i en standardisert skole? spør Christensen, og mener at data-assistert opplæring kan, hvis det benyttes på en riktig måte, gi en mulighet for å nærme seg dette målet.

I neste kapittel vil Christensen vise hvordan "forstyrrende innovasjon teori" og historien om USAs offentlige skole kan gi et fundament å arbeide etter.

To buksestørrelser ned på fire uker - 4 grunner til å prise serien #nrkplus

2012-01-03T11:06:00.000+01:00

Håper ikke Helene Sandvik og #NRKPuls svikter oss som bare har iOS! Vi trenger også å gå ned på buksestørrelsen!

Jeg er imponert over NRK Puls! To buksestørrelser ned på fire uker er en genial tittel på et program som tar tak i noe som de fleste sliter med - litt overvekt. Hvem har ikke slitt med å kneppe igjen buksa!

To buksestørrelser ned på fire uker er genial av flere grunner:

Tittelen refererer til hver enkelt individ, den er relativ mht. vekt og størrelse mm.
Fire uker er en veldig passende tidsramme for å gå inn i en pinefull periode
De bruker to grupper av arbeidskolleger
En gruppe med kvinner og en med menn
Bra oppfølging på NRK.no/puls med timeplan og videoer
De henvender seg til den alminnelige seer for å få han med

Jeg tente på dette. Det var akkurat en slik motivering jeg tenkte nå. Kona ble også med. Den eneste nedturen var da vi skulle se styrketreningen på iPad. Den vises ikke fordi den er laget for den utgåtte flash-standarden.

Har ikke NRK fått med seg at de fleste som benytter mobil på nettet er folk som har Apple enheter? Hvis ikke se på TechCrunch artikkelen fra igår.

Gjelder ikke #NRKPuls "Gå to buksestørrelser ned på fire uke" for folk flest; de med iPhone og iPad?

2012-01-03T10:33:00.001+01:00

Vi som er mest på nettet vil også se Yngvar levende!

I USA er bare 52% av mobil browsing på iOS enheter. Man kan anta at andelen er større i Norge, siden vi har en av høyeste iPhone tetthetheter i verden.

Hvorfor skal ikke vi vanlige folk få se videoer?

Hvorfor utelukker dere folk flest?

Dere burde vite bedre enn de fleste at Adobe Flash har blitt avsluttet fra produsenten.

Gi også mobilbrukere anledning til å gå ned to buksestørrelser!

Dette er dårlig behandling av den største seergruppen deres!

If you embrace the Post-PC, you likely drop Dropbox and rely on iCloud - via @Gruber

2011-12-30T15:08:00.001+01:00

This illustration explains iCloud at it bests!

Wired has a long post on Dropbox vs. iCloud. They are telling the interesting story on how Dropbox manage to break into OSX Finder, what Apple's own MobilMe wasn't able to. But the comparison of two is almost absent. And the huge shift of moving the data from the PC to the iCloud are barely mentioned.
Some iCloud features, other than storage, that are making it disruptive are:

Lack of filesystem user interface
Filesystem implementation of versioning reduce storage of different versions of same documents
User experience enhancement of synching create strong incentives to people to use iCloud-prepared apps
Backup of devices apps and data gives user a much more secure mobile life

The first feature is the most important. User who can manage to forget the filesystem will have huge advantages in the ability to absorve new Post-PC work styles and processes.

The features have reduced my need for storage from 1Tb to less than 200Gb!

My advice is to delete your Dropbox and trust your data to iCloud. It will only better and better in many years ahead! And as a bonus, your can change to MacBook Airs. That's quite a benefit!

Thanks to John Gruber in DaringFireball.net for linking to it.

Even @Aftenposten cannot let you subscribe on-line!

2011-12-24T14:12:00.000+01:00

I thought a printed newspaper was the right thing for my 86 year old Alzheimer dad, and went to http:www.ap.no and started the process. When I filled it out form and pressed continue it warned me that it was lacking information:

That's ok if there were field to fill out! But there weren't.

Calling them wasn't any better. A grim voice reminded me every minute that I was proceeding in the que. After 15 minutes I lost my patience and mailed a bid acid mail trying to subscribe that way.

So now I will await to see if Norway's biggest newspaper can handle subscriptions at all. I don't have high expectations...

@5by5 podcasts are way more fun than #NRK - the Norwegian National broadcast

2011-12-14T22:28:00.000+01:00

I love listening to radio. Even more than listening to podcasts. But Dan Benjamin in 5by5.tv has managed capture my listening hours for four weekly excellent and fun podcasts. All of them with a bias in favor of Apple:

The Critical Path with Horace Dediu. Horace tend to mainly cover disruption theory and mobile statistics and economy.
The Talk Show with John Gruber. Gruber is an excellent columnist in his Daring Fireball.
Build and Analyze with Marco Arment. Marco is the sole developer of Instapaper, a "read later" app which make mobile effective for reading websites.
Hypercritical with Jon Siracusa. Jon is also a developer, but caught my mind when he was the first to question the new Steve Jobs bio. And did it really well.

I use Instacast for iPhone to grab the podcasts I subscribe to.

Each of the shows has a duration of more than 60 minutes, so Dan Benjamin's shows are effectively stealing time from my longtime listening to the Norwegian National broadcaster (NRK). And that's impressive. 5by5.tv is a quite lean operation in comparison to NRK radio!

@asymco: The Theater of Disruption - relevance for classical conserts also?

2011-12-14T21:15:00.001+01:00

Hoon Lee (from IMDb)

Horace Dediu in another great podcast with actor Hoon Lee discuss disruption in the theater and performing arts. Dediu made me think of what could be done with classical concerts.

I've some experience in live classical consert production. I actually have a small concert hall in my house, and in 7 years from 1975 I offered 7 concert yearly, with the best musicians I could find. The conserts was financed by public funds.

During the 7 year of high quality concerts, however, the public diminished from a average of 60 to 20. And at twenty I decided to quit.

After that I've always been looking for ways to revive the classical concerts, and your discussion gave me some ideas.

Based on my experience I very well remember the immense value of the natural sound and sight. I even denied the National broadcasting in Norway to tape concerts.

But also the silent communication between the musicians and the public are extremly valuable; When you come to a concert, or theater, you know you have to be present in your mind. You have to concentrate just here and now. In recorded music you can always take a break, and listen better another time. But this can easyli become a false strategy. I, at least, almost never go back to the recorded stuff.

The reason I prefer live radio and TV to recorded ones may be just that. I know this is a one-time happening, and that's make me aware, awake and consentrated.

Finally there is also communicated other experiences both ways. The musicians often feels if the public is "taken", and that inspires them even further.

Here are some thoughts that may relate to all live acoustic performances:

You cannot provide people with real sound and view. So we have to educate people to come for that.

We can give them the next best experience: A realtime performance.

Broadcast every performance in realtime world wide.

Just accept a finite number of viewers.

Perform you show in all the worlds continents so that people can come and experience you live.
Make economic productions with for instance Apple devices
Distribute a season globally as an app.

Let people reserve realtime and real shows from the app.
Let people pay a small amount for each show.

Use youtube recorded shows to create interest.

Alicante Airport employees at their best! #spain

2011-12-07T16:45:00.001+01:00

When arriving at Alicante I forgot my favorite rock. It's very long and very black.
I happened to have to take care of others, but the lady at Swissport promised to take care.

Yesterday I warried a lot about it, preparing myself for a possible loss. However, 6 weeks after it was still there, she just handled me the rock with a smile. She wouldn't let me take photo, so I went to AENA, the airport authorities to tell the story and take a photo there.

I'm very impressed and thankful for taking care of my stuff. Happy Christmas to Alicante Airport!

My #iPhone is my PC, but only when the #iCloud connect it so my other Apple devices.

2011-12-05T21:19:00.001+01:00

iPhone 4 is still going strong by me!

I "feel" that the iPhone is my PC. It simply feels the most personal and intimate device using my data and media. Even when writing on my Mac, I write to my iPhone. The iPhone is the tool I've hired!

iCloud is a main driver. Before iCloud, it was a lot of work to move data to and from my devices.

My iPhone, it started with the 3G, took over PC tasks from day one, both consumption and creation stuff. For each version, the iPhone takes a bigger part.

When I got the iPad, it took some stuff from the iPhone and some from the PC. My iPad work was hampered by lack of synchronisation and the required.

The iCloud, is the gamechanger. I could characterize my PC as the iCloud and my mobile devices, and that's including Apple TV.

So I actually has four versions of a personal computer with different screen sizes.

I expect Siri to contribute further in the thansition of IT from desktop to phone.

Horace Dediu: Presentation is the new frontier. And the iPad app is the new tool. @Asymco on Mac Power Users.

2011-12-05T21:16:00.001+01:00

I just listened to the 5By5.tv show called "Worklflows with Horace Dediu". Horace told the story about how his presentation of research has moved from blog, to podcasts and finally to live presentation using motion charts. And he saw the possibility to let it move further to general available app.

It's very refreshing to listen to Horace. He always gives me a lot of inspiration, and new ideas are plenty after an hour with him.

Make yourself happy by listenting to the show!

The Steve Jobs glass stairs are in Apple Store Valencia, and we can see them in less than 10 hours!

2011-12-02T23:09:00.001+01:00

sanmarcos stair. CC
http://www.flickr.com/people/sanmarcos/

Apple Store Valencia are about to open. At 9:00 AM the doors are opened. The Spanish newspaper lasrovincias.es tells that the Valencia store even has the Steve Jobs invented glass stairs.

The picture show another store.

I'll be there with a friend when the store opens!

Apple is opening it first "real" store in Valencia, Spain on Saturday. And I will be there!

2011-11-30T22:51:00.001+01:00

Foto: Las Provicias

The Spanish newspaper El Mundo confirms: Barberá: 'No es la quinta tienda de Apple en España sino la primera singular', which means that the mayor of the city says the fifth store is the first real one.

It's 18 months since I was at an Apple Store last time. But finally Apple Store comes near one of my homes. Not exactly at home. It's about 150km away. But in comparision to Madrid, it's at home.

I have a lot of expectations. Expectaion to the location and expectation to the architecture chosen. Horace Dediu did some magic numerical analysis on Apple's balance sheet, and came up with that Apple spend near $10M in preparing a new store. So I'm imining something really cool in an old Spanish way.

Of course I have some problems that I hope will be solved at the Genius bar. And I'm as always looking for some nice accesory.

Oh boy. I feel like it's Christmas eve. I've can hardly wait…

#iPhone data effiency 50% better than Android - Sprint

2011-11-29T18:16:00.000+01:00

Apple has chosen to reduce the speed on the chip in order to reduce battery drain.

Earlier reports indicate that iPhone uses the half of processor and memory resources in comparision with Android handset. Earlier, the CEO of Sprint are revealing that iPhone also use the 3G network way more efficient:

On its quarterly earnings call, Sprint CEO Dan Hesse said iPhone users would provide at least 50 percent more lifetime value than other smartphone users because of network efficiency and less churn.

∑ Quality programming isn’t cheap, and is never free.

Updated: I've reorganized my Google reader. Now it's way easier to distinguish pearls and crap! #rss

2011-11-29T18:02:00.000+01:00

Update: I've done further refinements. "Best English blogs" has moved Android and PC Magazine to "blogs misc". So now the two top folders, really give the best of the bests!
I've also sat all the other folders to magic sorting, so I get the most read at top.
My feeds, my OPML now just waits for the magical RSS reader. I gave Newrack a try, but in vain. It didn't connect to Google...

I've done some editing of my RSS feeds coming into my Google reader account. I created more folders, and moved some subscriptions. I now have the "creme de la creme" or AAA on top, and the "Best English blogs" as second.

My objective is to alway be able to read the most important news and posts fast and not miss any of them. AAA represent the writers that's most important to me just now.

Dirty blogs however, are not "that" dirty. I just put what I think is more crappy, but still so important that I should keep an eye on there. It's feed like Gizmodo and Gawker, you know.

Well, I'm pretty happy with the clean-up, and looking forward to easier reading!

Why #Apple will dominate the future in computing via @asymco @cultofmac Updated

2011-11-29T11:39:00.000+01:00

I expect that we will interact with something like this Windows Phone prototype in the future.

Because Apple has dominated and are dominating the User Experience field, where desirable devices excites people in three decades. And while Apple earlier was the underdog, it is now the Goliat - the biggest and most profitable IT provider in the world. Mike Elgan explains it like this:

Apple is the only company I’m aware of that understands the primacy of human nature, biology and psychology in interface design.

Apple was first make the mouse, the clickwheel and the touch commonly available for input, and has just added voice - Siri. Horace Dediu wrote a great post on that in his Asymco blog, and concludes:

My disruptive hypothesis for Siri is that it shifts the competition from platforms positioned on a device to a “coupled” super-platform dependent on broadband and infrastructural computing.

Just after collecting enough data and observing patterns in it that give us clarity, It looks like things are about to change all over again.

According to Elgar's great post Why Apple Will Dominate the Gesture-Based Future, Apple will likely roar past Kinect when they will be adding air gestures. He concludes:

But in a few years, I believe people will see it as an Apple thing. Why? Because as interface design delves deeply into satisfying the hardwired human desire to interact with physical objects and human beings, Apple will dominate this space because that’s what Apple is really good at.

Elgan describes a huge iMac swiweled like a desk, where we interact using touch, air gestures and voice. I'm not sure I follow him on the device however. I instead foresee that the device will be the iPhone and the iTV, where we will do the main interaction, and that an iPad will be the device that some of us occasionally use to heavy programming and writing.

Elgan's post is great, it got me writing, and you should give yourself the gift to read it entirerly!

Tim Cook: Steve Jobs looked at Beatles as a Business Model

2011-11-28T21:15:00.000+01:00

You say you want a revolution,Well, you know,We all want to change the world.

Revolution on The White Album in iTunes — The Beatles

I was happy to hear the Apple Steve Jobs Memorial on my iPad today. It's a very beautiful and moving video. There was remarkable music performance of Coldplay and Nora Jones, and Tim Cook held a relieving speech, where he cited Steve on the Beatles:

My model for business is The Beatles. They were four guys who kept each others' kind of negative tendencies in check. They balanced each other and the total was greater than the sum of the parts. That's how I see business. Great things in business are never done by one person, they're done by a team of people.

Wow - what a surprising idea. As an admirer of both Beatles and Steve Jobs I need days to digest that!

Update: Just fixed some spelling errors. We were two teens facinated by Beatles. And one of us have his birthday. BTW he also have an iPhone so he understands the post!

Update: New #Apple revolution in retail - the new Apple Store #App eliminates the pain of shopping

2011-11-28T13:36:00.000+01:00

Update: There have been some discussion on how Apple can prevent that people steal with their new EasyPay. I assume that they have electronic fences set up, that check that you really have paid if you cross them. iOS 5 use this same new location technology to give you reminders when you enter a location.

New York Times discuss the matter in the post A Look at Apple’s Spot-the-Shopper Technology.

Original: It took some days more than I expected in my post A new #Apple revolution will greet the world today - and it come as an #app for the app to appear.

I wrote:

It’s insanely annoying to stand in line in order to let your money go - just to a Jobesian frasing. It’s really surprising the customers around the world have been willing to continue this stupid in line drilling. Well, from today Apple Store’s customers will not have to.

Just see the explanation in the app:

This is an revolution in retail. Scan, pay and walk out.

I've only seen that in Coop in Karlstad, Sweden, where Coop members could do the same.

Apple awaits 30% increase in sales from this and the ability to pick up products in the Apple Stores bought online. 9to5mac tells more.

I still think this idea is coming from Tim Cook.

Må jeg dø før, fordi jeg har spist Vita Hjertego'? Skal jeg lide for å ha fulgt LHL sitt råd?

2011-11-28T11:36:00.001+01:00

LHL (Landsorganisasjonen for Lunge og Hjertesyke) og helsevesenet har gitt meg råd om å spise Vita Hjertego' for å holde blodårene mine åpne.

Idag melder VG+ at Hjertego'-produktene inneholder palmeolje.

- Palmeolje øker konsentrasjonen av kolesterol i blodet, noe som igjen kan føre til hjerte- og karsykdom, sier ernæringsprofessor Svein Olav Kolset ved Universitetet i Oslo.

- NRK for et par dager siden.

Jeg vet ikke hva jeg skal spise lenger. Virkelig ikke.

Hva skal vi med helsemyndigheter når de lar produsenter skjule at det er dødelige stoffer i maten vi spiser?

Og hvordan kan vi stole på produsentene. Mills forteller at de har noe palmeolje i Hjertego' produktene. Og tilføyer at de hvertfall ikke har transfett. Men hvor mye er noe, og hvor mye tåler jeg.

Forøvrig har den spanske varianten, Flora pro-aktiv transfett.

Kan vi stole på de?

Kanskje ikke smør er så galt allikevel?

Instacast HD, an alternate way to enjoy a #podcast outside i#Tunes @vemedio

2011-11-27T18:24:00.001+01:00

@Vemedio has come up with Instacast HD for iPad. I've just started using and admiring their iPhone version, when the HD version was announced. So now I've paid for both...
Instacast on iPhone is making enjoying podcasts way better than iTunes. I've imported my podcasts from iTunes, and added quite a few. The podcasts are trickling in and notifies me when a new is ready.
Great stuff, highly recommended.

- via macstories