New and old Techmemes. About the redesign.
Author: Aulia Masna
Former tech journo, used to write for Macworld, DailySocial, e27. Ex , ran a national startup initiative program in Indonesia. Very much into the news.
How the US lost out on iPhone work
This incredible investigative report by the New York Times takes a look behind the scenes on why Apple outsources its manufacturing work to Chinese companies and workers.
The company held out for as long as it could to maintain manufacturing within US borders but eventually caved in and in 2004 shut down its last US plant in Elk Grove, California, which was making Macs. The former plant now serves as a call center for Apple.
As to whether the US can reclaim manufacturing jobs from China, this part is damning:
Another critical advantage for Apple was that China provided engineers at a scale the United States could not match. Apple’s executives had estimated that about 8,700 industrial engineers were needed to oversee and guide the 200,000 assembly-line workers eventually involved in manufacturing iPhones. The company’s analysts had forecast it would take as long as nine months to find that many qualified engineers in the United States.
In China, it took 15 days.
The Atlantic last year calculated how much an iPad would cost if it was manufactured in the US, it was $1,140. That point was rebutted but then the rebuttal itself was claimed to have been taken through a misunderstanding. If this is all too confusing to follow, let’s take this discussion back to the point in the NY Times article.
“What U.S. plant can find 3,000 people overnight and convince them to live in dorms?”
China’s Foxconn can and has done this.
MPAA chairman Chris Dodd threatens to cut funding to US politicians over SOPA failure
“Those who count on quote ‘Hollywood’ for support need to understand that this industry is watching very carefully who’s going to stand up for them when their job is at stake. Don’t ask me to write a check for you when you think your job is at risk and then don’t pay any attention to me when my job is at stake,”
This is an incredible statement from a former Senator who is chairman of the MPAA and is one year away from being eligible to directly lobby the government.
CrunchFund partner MG Siegler has harsher words to say about Chris Dodd.
More on Chris Dodd’s statement.
MPAA chairman Chris Dodd threatens to cut funding to US politicians over SOPA failure
The Pirate Bay press release on SOPA
Brilliantly written and this paragraph at the end is precious
Some facts (years, dates) are probably wrong in this press release. The reason is that we can’t access this information when Wikipedia is blacked out. Because of pressure from our failing competitors. We’re sorry for that.
Hollywood drops support for Obama for siding with Silicon Valley
Hollywood drops its support for Obama? Maybe they need to update their business models like when the movies went to home projectors and then to televisions, then to video cassette tapes, optical discs, and now digital stream/downloads.
It’s technology. Adapt and make money off of it, or attack and be hated, reviled, and abandoned by the consumers.
These Hollywood big guns keep making boatloads of cash off every new technology that they decry, it’s almost like putting on a show for nothing.
Piracy is about access. Look at how the video game industry transformed itself with online multiplayer games. Video game networks like Blizzard’s Battle.net, Microsoft’s XBox Live, and Sony’s PSN are doing well fending off pirates by limiting access to only legitimate members.
Look at how the music industry is being converted into digital. Not fast enough to make money? It’s only been just over a decade since consumers began to embrace digital downloads and less than a decade since iTunes Music Store debuted. iTunes makes it really easy for people to acquire music legally. Spotify and Rdio are doing the same thing for streaming services.
Content business is going digital and Hollywood should have been working with Silicon Valley on how to make money off of that instead of attacking those who take advantage of their lack of foresight. On that note, how would you transform entertainment?
Hollywood drops support for Obama for siding with Silicon Valley
Limits to being on social networks
On the internet you’ll easily find me on Path, Twitter, Tumblr, Google+, and Instagram, but I’m not sure if I can manage yet another social network.
Instagram is already being neglected although I still check it from time to time, Facebook has been off my radar for a while, and I’ve even reduced my time on Google+, no longer as active on it as I used to be six months ago. I haven’t logged on to Koprol in a long time. I can’t even say much about soundcloud, 8tracks and last.fm. I’m sure there are other networks that I’ve signed up for in the past and completely forgot about.
From the looks of it, I can only pay attention to five or less social networks. How about you?
When choice becomes overwhelming
Choice is good, but being flooded with a barrage of options will only confuse consumers. There is a point at which choice becomes overwhelming and actually detrimental. Ever been to a fancy restaurant where they preset the table with three different kinds of spoons and forks each and two or three knives?
Ever seen the range of cars on Toyota Japan’s website? Not only does it become overwhelming, it’s also wasteful.
Device manufacturers should cut down on options and offer a more limited range of models that serve wider interests and use-cases. Clarity over obscurity.
New Google accounts now integrate Gmail and G+ accounts
Not sure what the big fuss is with Google’s new account creation.
When you create an Apple ID, you can use that for iTunes, iCloud, Apple Discussion Forums, and product registrations. When you create a Live email account with Microsoft, you get XBox live account, SkyDrive, device registration, etc.
So when you create a Google or a Gmail account, it makes sense to have all Google’s services tied into that one account. Makes it easier to remember login credentials. If you want to have separate logins for separate services, make separate accounts. Not hard and plenty of people do that anyway
Star Wars Uncut. The best fan-created movie ever.
If you have two hours to spare, watch this. Can hardly take my eyes off it.
Thoughts on Siri
Tim Bajarin for Time:
Indeed, it’s pretty clear to me that Apple has just scratched the surface of the role Siri will play for them in driving future revenue. At the moment, we are enamored with its ability to enhance the man-machine interface. But that’s just the start. Siri is actually on track to become the first point of entrance to “search” engines of all types tied to major databases throughout the world. It will become the gatekeeper to all types of searches, and in the end control which search engine it goes to for its answers.
Apple may not have to compete directly with Google and Microsoft on the search engine front to be a force in search. With Siri, Apple gets to be the gatekeeper to the hundreds of specialist search engines if it manages to pull off deals with databases such as Craigslist, OpenTable, Apartment Finder, AirBnB, Edmunds, IMDB, and the like.
The key to this is being able to pull off the deals. Right now, Siri works with Yelp and Wolfram Alpha. Many (but not all) of those database or search sites make money off display advertising, which will be completely bypassed by Siri users. To have Siri scour their databases and deliver the results directly to users would undermine the very lifeline of their existence.
Not all of those sites will agree to what Apple may propose but Apple could do two things; buy out enough range of specialist search sites to further legitimize Siri, or convince them that Siri will eventually be the preferred way for millions and millions of people around the world to look for information that they will bypass websites and search apps anyway, thereby depriving the sites of visitors. Apple could say that turning down Siri would mean turning away customers.
If Apple were any other company, it might tack on iAds on Siri but at the moment, it doesn’t seem likely. Perhaps one could think of Siri as iTunes, a unified place to seek out relevant bits of information from many different sources. Of course, the business model would be different. People wouldn’t pay for premium search options, or would they?
Ever thought of Siri operating in a similar way to a cable TV service offering a multitude of subscription packages of search databases with a free basic set? Might have crossed the minds of people in Cupertino but given how iTunes is there to disrupt that very business model, it might seem unlikely for Apple to adopt it, not to mention putting people off.
Siri might not be fully working around the world at the moment and whether Apple will earn revenue out of it remains to be seen, after all, Siri is still in public beta and it might take Apple a while before it’s ready for a proper roll out.
It’s a bit difficult to imagine Apple allowing the next iPhone to be released while still carrying a beta version of Siri.
[update] Or Apple could add ability to purchase things online from Siri.
AuliaSays 