On my way to a doctor’s appointment this morning, I was listening to WBAP; the morning news crew is hysterical. During a commercial break, the station plugged it’s “On Demand” services, MP3 and WMA audio files of show broadcasts, nationally syndicated ones excluded, of course.
The on-air advertisement for the service had a line about joining the WBAP “Pod Squad,” a reference to dumping the audio on to your iPod. Everyone’s favorite digital audio player is the only such device referenced on the On Demand page, though it is misspelled as “iPOD.”
iPod, podcast, Pod Squad. Is it any wonder Gates and Ballmer have the willies over Apple’s digital music strategy?
[Leftist mouth-foamers beware: WBAP showcases those evil, twisted, right-wing neanderthals known as “conservatives”. Don’t say I didn’t warn you, though I’m sure they’d appreciate any ratings bump they can get.]
Tag: tech
The company Michael Dell said should be sold off and the money given to its shareholders is kicking his butt:
Overall customer satisfaction with the PC industry is unchanged from a year ago at 74, but changes within the industry give Apple a commanding lead. The PC maker maintains big improvements from 2003 and 2004, holding at 81 for a second year. Apple’s sales are up 33%, net income has grown 300% and its stock price has nearly tripled over the past year. A slew of product innovations and an emphasis on digital technologies and customer service have been very successful for Apple with a high degree of customer loyalty as a result.
Dell is a different story. Based on a strategy of mass customization, the #1 PC maker worldwide has been a leader in customer satisfaction for several years. This quarter, it suffers a sharp drop in ACSI, down 6% to 74. Customer service in particular has become a problem, and service quality lags not only Apple but also the rest of the industry. Customer complaints are up significantly with long wait-times and difficulties with Dell’s call-center abound. Still, competitive pricing as a result of Dell’s direct-sales business model keeps overall customer satisfaction slightly above other competitors, with the exception of Apple. Whether Dell’s declining satisfaction will have a negative impact on the company’s stock performance remains to be seen; however, ACSI history has shown that changes in customer satisfaction often signal similar changes in future financial performance. Apple’s stock price is up 35% for the year-to-date, whereas Dell’s is flat.
[Via MacInTouch, emphasis in quoted text added. –R]
This must be one of those things that keeps Bill Gates up at night. Windows Vista, the next version of Microsoft’s flagship operating system, already has its first virus.
[Via MacInTouch.]
I finally attempted, once again, to set up POP access to my Gmail account in Mailsmith. I used all of the settings found on the Configuring other mail clients page, made sure to check “Leave Mail on Server”, and like any good technology, it all just works.
For sale: Toshiba PCX1100U cable “modem,” with one 10BaseT port, one USB port, one 12V DC port, and one co-axial, aka, cable, port. Item is 3.5 years old, still in working condition as of two weeks ago, when it was taken offline. Includes AC adapter, and Ethernet patch cable for connecting to PC or router. Cheap. All offers considered.
Dear readers, I am seeking a personal backup solution for Windows XP that will allow me to back up a user folder to CD. Preferably cheap, preferably easy, though I would say of the two, easy is the higher preference. Retrospect is not in the running, please do not suggest it. Please leave your recommendations in the comments, for others to enjoy. Thanks!
I’m installing a new hard drive in my wife’s PC, to replace the 5+ year-old that has died. I dutifully noted the part number and serial number for warranty registration purposes, since this drive has a 5-year warranty itself. Calling it a “serial number” may be stretching it, however: Y2CJECZE.
Can you call a string a “serial number” when only one of the characters qualifies as a numerical value?
OWC announced today it is now offering 1 Terabyte (TB) of RAID storage for $979.99. Wow.
ATPM staffers lead glamourous lives, let me tell you. When we’re not unemployed (moi), running our own businesses (Michael and Evan), or working for others (Lee, Ellyn, and practically everyone else), you might find one of us interning for a popular magazine. I thought Wes had hit the big-time when he got to wander around Manhattan, challenging perfect strangers to lightsaber duels.
Now, in the August 2005 issue of PM (not yet online), Mr. Meltzer’s in print, taking part in the “Shred Reckoning” personal shredder comparison. For the record, that is not Wes’s photo used in the test document.
What do you do when you perceive a major computer company has totally ripped off your software and tout their version as a major feature of their latest operating system?
Why, you sell out, of course.
MDJ publisher Matt Deatherage, ever the trooper, offers this bit of analysis on the MacJournals-Talk list, even though he’s laid up with an illness:
Kind of a “widget wow” moment. Anyone think there will be about six billion more new Konfabulator widgets in the next 3 months? Apple just got trumped on the “we’re making our widget format available for free to more users” strategy; now Dashboard may be the underdog in the long-term.
(Just for the record, my original notification of the sale came from Matt’s post to the list.)