Barnako.com

Now Apple has saved me hundreds of dollars

The iPhone 4.0 update? Meh!

I just adjusted the Bills feature in Microsoft Money, deleting the anticipated $250 iPhone I thought I'd be buying in September when my two-year AT&T contract expired.

No need to upgrade to 4.0. 

Multitasking?  You've got to be kidding.  The primary beneficiaries of that feature will be tow trucks and body shops as more people slam into each other while tweeting/e-mailing/Pandora listening/and Keynoting.

iAds?  What's that mean to me?  No consumer benefit there.

Remember folks.  It's a phone!

Computerworld's done a nice roundup of OS

How I made $4,000 listening to my wife

 Donna got her iPad on Tuesday, six weeks before her birthday.  At breakfast, she said she couldn't wait until May 27.  But that's OK. Four weeks ago I bought 200 shares of Apple.

I boosted my position in Apple because I listened to her questions about the iPad.  She heard the pre-release hype and started asking me things like "Can I do e-mail on it?" and "Can I watch jewelry-making tutorials on YouTube on it?." 

This non-tech woman who is frightened of our Harmony remote control was drawn to the iPad and ... !!!! ... what it could do for her!  She was imagining ways she could incorporate it into her life, ways that didn't involve a 'computer' but were part of her life.

That's when I bought more Apple stock, March 9 at $220. Not bad, a gain of 10% in less than a month.

Now, the second shoe has dropped.  And it bodes well for the AT&T position I took on in January.  I bought it primarily for the 6% dividend, fearing of course that the share price could take a hit if and when Verizon gets an iPhone. I'm not so worried now.

Because, Donna now wants to return the WiFi iPad and get a 3G-enabled model.  This morning she said, "Well, you know the selling point on the iPad has been its mobility. She said,  "If I'm in the car (She REALLY likes maps.) or at a meeting or having lunch, I might not be able to get e-mail or show somebody my Web site."

Now, this also means the iPad will become the gift that keeps taking.  Not only will I have to pay the 10% restocking fee to return the unit, but then I'll have another $%!#$% monthly data subscription fee to pay.

Donna's no dummy.  Couple of college degrees, a 15-year retail business she bootstrapped to international success and notice, and now a she's crafting artful, imaginative, custom jewelry (donnabarnako.com). 

My point is that all the comments from the tech bloggers, about the iPad, aren't worth a bucket of warm spit.  They are not the market.  I am not the market.  My wife is the market, and to judge by the reaction so far, so are her friends.   So, too, is the 11-year-old girl she met yesterday who began drooling on the iPad.  (She already owns an iPhone!) So is her high school brother. 

None of these people think of the iPad as a "computer."  Neither does Apple. Did you hear the word "computer" in the Oscar show TV ad for the product.  Nope.  I didn't either.

The iPad is going to be big.

iPads arrive under police guard

The Reston, Va. Apple Store opened early this morning as nearly 150 people lined up for their shot at getting an iPad.  Two lines formed, one for people without reservations and the other for would-be impulse shoppers. Store staff passed out water and cookies to people waiting.

The presence of two county Sheriff's cars was interesting.  Turned out the officers were inside the store to watch for shoplifting rather than on duty in case frustrated or unruly customers.

Among the dozens and dozens of iPad owners who walked out the door, a few posed for pictures but none came out holding their conquest above the heads and crowing loudly.  Most, it would seem, went to their homes to observe their own ritual of unboxing.

Inside the store, easily a dozen iPads were on display for demonstration.  And even after the store opened for normal business, after 10 a.,m., it was easy to score 15 minutes of up-close-and-personal time with the new device.

Overheard in the store ... the inventory of iPads arrived Friday night at about 11 ... there was plenty of extra inventory so people in the un-reserved line stood a good chance of taking one home ... two to a customer ... buyers were primarily male and appeared to be between 25 and 40.

Why I bought Apple stock yesterday

The iPad is going to be a stone cold smash! 

Donna told me so.

Donna is my wife, who has been wrasslin' with a Windows machine for the past three years. During the winter, whiel we were away, she used my MacBook and found that the keyboard wasn't so terrible and unusable.

Then she was mousing around YouTube, looking for a video about a jewelry-making technique. She found it, and then YouTube showed her there were others, dozens of them.  That's when the lightbulb went on.

She'd heard about the iPad and asked if she could watch these tutorials on it.  "It would be so much more convenient if I could watch them while I'm working," she said.  (same thing as reading a book and working along to the directions!).  Yes, I told her. "Wow," she said, and immediately told me she wants an iPad for her birthday.

Since then, she's read more about the iPad; saw the Oscar night ad, and has been telling friends about the iPad.  It reads books, you can do e-mail with it, it has lots of apps.

Bottom line: this non-computer person has become a tech Evangelist.

If the iPad can capture Donna's imagination, it will dot he same for millions of other people. They'll use it.  They won't call it a computer. They will just buy it.  It will just work.

I'm hung

Spent a few hours this morning at the Great Falls Library 'hanging' my photo exhibition. 

We started with some very thin mono filament, like cat gut but very fine.  Finally settled on using picture wire, easier to handle and see. 

Even while we were working a woman inquired about seeing the show.  Donna said there'd been an "equipment malfunction," so we weren't ready yet.

"Its here through March," Donna said, and the woman replied, "Great."

So, the show is on.  Y'all come.  It's in the Small Conference Room.

Special holiday hours?

 Hah!  More like Special Holiday No Hours.  This is the sign posted at our local Post Office.

 
 

Where's Glick going?

• Glick's leaving Fox: http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/12/23/alexis-glick-leaves-fox-business/

She could show up on Bloomberg TV.

Bloomberg's media guys know they have to turn up the wattage at the dullest business network on earth.  They thought that Margaret Brennan, who they hired from CNBC,  was hot.  In fact, she's not.  And the rest of the 'talent' lineup is competent but not attractive.

Glick is.  She lights up the screen.  Bloomberg says it is serious about competing with CNBC. She can bring viewers - if she can work within the BBR culture.  And that is a big if, if not a deal killer.  It's not a place known for encouraging programming initiative or imagination.  I mean, the biggest new programming they've added in a year is Charlie Rose reruns.

One fillip, which I am sure Glick will have wherever she goes, is equity and/or profit participation.  Her brand is strong enough that she can demand/expect ownership.

Stupid Washington Post, V. 3.0

I didn't mean for this to be a series.  But, when you come upon a fat turkey, you gotta pull the trigger.

Big story in DC this morning, of course, is (speaking of turkeys) last night's 45-12 embarrassment of the Redskins by the Giants.  An awful game.  Awful.  As Bruce Alan, an anchor on WTOP said this morning, the only bright spot after that game is that there's just one more this season.

My home delivery copy of the New York Times has the Skins game results.  The Giants won "by pounding the Redskins the way the snow pounded the area around the District of Columbia over the weekend."

By contrast, the Post's Sports page's lead is ... wait for it! ... "Marquis signs on with the Nationals."  Also above the fold, a story about 
"the USOC-IOC divide" which is getting wider. 

The only mention of the Skins game is a little box at the top of the page which says, "Redskins play late ... too late for this edition."

You can't make this stuff up, right?  Does the Post home edition go to bed at 8 p.m.?  If The Times can do it, whatsamatter with the home boys?

Stupid Washington Post.

As Emily Litella might say, 'Never Mind'

Nikki Finke says Avatar is blowing the doors off theaters worldwide, weekend gross nearing $250 million - despite the east coast blizzard.

Good thing I can't short movies.  Hey ... maybe there's an opportunity.  You can bet on elections ... why not movie grosses?

An iceberg to sink 'Avatar'?

For months, the drumbeat of hype for 'Avatar' has been growing louder, climaxing with a midnight Friday opening. 

First results are OK, money-wise, but I'm betting the weekend is disappointing at the box office because of the Charlotte-to-Boston blizzard that will produce more crickets chirping in theaters than moviegoers applauding James Cameron's CGI-fest.

From my perspective, reviewers have been "kind" to the almost three-hour film.  Rotten Tomatoes gives 'Avatar' an 82.  The movie gets a '10' for geekiness, but more like a '5' for the story.

Combine that less-than-enthusiastic welcome for the film with a snowstorm that will leave theaters closed, or at best, empty and I think Cameron's cinema adventure has trouble recovering.

Come Monday, when the east coast is digging out, it's going to be difficult to rebuild the enthusiasm.

Furthermore, if the gear-heads who did catch the midnight show, or even the folks who see the film south of the Mason-Dixon and west of the Appalachians, have the same kind of 82% reaction the critics' did, then I think word of mouth could also hurt the $350-$500-million dollar production's chances.

In other words, 'Avatar' has challenges:

• Fewer people will go the opening weekend. 
• That will result in a "less than expected' dollar gross at the box office. 
• Word of mouth threatens to combine with some reviewer's negative comments and 'must see' interest in the film is diminished.