“Greece became the first developed nation to be cut to emerging-market status by MSCI Inc. (MSCI) after the local stock index plunged 83 percent since 2007.” — Bloomberg
The crazy camera market just got crazier: here is a Samsung Galaxy Mirrorless camera.
“Shortcutting settings or grabbing content was another use-case envisaged by the NFC pushers. Phone owners would be tapping their devices to NFC tags stuck on movie posters to get content downloaded to their handsets, or be sent to a URL to watch a film trailer (an idea which has been kicking around since the turn of the century, I might add). This sounds like exactly the sort of not-IRL scenario that gets dreamt up in marketing departments. If that’s the best you’ve got NFC, you need to try a lot harder. And an NFC tag for pre-setting an in-car phone profile? Oh pleeease.” — Welcome to the club, TechCrunch.
The app is now pulled from the store.
Atlanta
Google Wallet and other NFC payment companies attempt to appeal to the those paying. Square’s customers are the merchants. This makes all the difference.
Taxi drivers are the best case study. In NY, NFC is nearly ubiquitous in cabs, and I have yet to meet a cabbie who’s encountered a user. One recent driver even broke it himself, because the rare person who attempted a NFC transaction would clog the back of his cab for minutes attempting to push a purchase, before falling back to plastic.
In Chicago and Atlanta, all the cabbies use and love Square. In Chicago, most cabs have official credit card machines, but drivers will stop you and insist on using Square instead.
This is because Square charges 2.75% per swipe while cab operators charge drivers 7-8% per swipe for the privilege of using the company owned machines.
Square’s product is built for merchants, who have existing pain, cost, and inconvenience. NFC and Google Wallet target customers, who still aren’t sure why a credit card needs to be fixed.
As a result, ever driver in Chicago insists on Square and drivers in New York are disabling NFC.
“Probably the most impressive feature I’ve seen in a long time is Pentax’s Astrotracer feature, which melds the camera’s Shake Reduction capability with the GPS position data. Because the camera can tell not just where it’s located but which direction it’s pointing, it can compensate for the rotation of the Earth by rotating the sensor inside the camera to match the motion of the stars. It’s a very cool trick, one that essentially undoes the usual star traces normally seen in night exposures.” — Digital Photography Review
"Designed by Apple in California" -
Wow. Click through, watch the video. With the new Pro, the new OS designs, and this statement it’s crystal clear: Apple is now Ive’s vision and Cook’s operation.
If Job’s Apple was the intersection of technology and liberal arts, Ive’s Apple looks to be the intersection of technology and emotion.
It’s a brand new era. How exciting.
[video]