Tim Cook, Apple COO, in january 2009, after Macworld Expo keynote. Picture by Valery Marchive (LeMagIT) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
There had been a bit of a build-up in the press, looking forwards to Apple’s 19th March announcement of how it intends to spend its cash mountain of $250+ billion. Nice problem to have and the media had some fairly whacky suggestions for how the Cupertino coffers might be flushed onto a grateful world. These included giving every employee a Cessna, paying it’s Chinese workers a bonus, building “another Internet” or delivering cutting-edge research. All charming stuff but the announcement from CEO Tim Cook and CFO Peter Oppenheimer went down the expected path (released 30 minutes before the press call on March 19th anyway) and offered up something tasty to the shareholders.
Apple intends to pay dividends of the order of 1.8% yield (around $2.60 per share) quarterly. It also plans to meet future employee share scheme allocations with shares bought back from the open market (around $10 billion). That leaves a healthy domestic cash pot for an acquisitions and for good corporate practice. Peter Oppenheimer avoided answering what Apple intends to do with its foreign (i.e. non-USA) cash pile of $100bn which he otherwise says cannot be brought onshore due to the huge, ensuing tax liability. Nothing fishy here, I imagine, just a lack of ideas.
All solid and sensible stuff. Dull and (arguably) predictable, it is the wise path to tread with so much money and recognises that Apple is doing bloody well and needs to keep doing well. It needs to keep its employees happy. It needs to keep shareholders happy. It needs to sustain its share price by maintaining interest in its shares – and perhaps presaging lean times (and by this I mean ‘quieter times’ – fewer new product announcements ). Stuff that would have been verboten when Steve Jobs was around.
The background noise of media speculation – quieter of late – still expects a new TV product from Apple, plus a more evolved business model for programme distribution. But what else could come out of Cupertino ? Sir Jony Ive can design a beauty, Tim Cook can build it and deliver it – no question – but who will actually think of that next big thing for Apple ? Listening to their corporate press conference, it was like listening to an IBM, a Microsoft, a British Telecom, a modern corporate drone. I am disappointed that the question is not being asked – the press has gone back to sleep after this unimaginative and eminently sensible announcement from Cook on cash. Could Apple just decay or bloat into another Microsoft, bereft of ideas with the cupboard filled by Jobs plundered and bare. Hope not.
March 25th, 2012 in
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Technology | tags:
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Cupertino California,
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Formula One 2010 Rd.3 Malaysian GP: Lewis Hamilton (McLaren) during Friday 1st Free Practice session. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Another shuffle of the deck for the new 2012 formula one season sees McLaren come up trumps again and occupying the front row for tomorrow’s Malaysian Grand Prix. Schuie takes 3rd in a nice change for Brawn’s Mercedes, and Mark Webber joins him on the second row, with Vettel sulking down in 6th. Nicely done by Lewis Hamilton on pole but can he hold off Jenson on the start to keep his place in the race this time ? A quick word for Laughing Boy, Kimi Raikonnen who got a superb 5th on the grid for Lotus-Renault, with team-mate Grosjean in 7th. Lotus should be able to mix it up tomorrow. Ferrari still can’t quite get there and Massa must be a tad twitchy at the moment. Should be a great race. Bring it !
Daniel Ricciardo testing at Jerez, Spain for Torro Rosso in February
It has been a mixed few years for Grand Prix racing. After a less than gripping 2011 season, fans are checking out the pack down under for this year’s opening race in Melbourne. Not too may rule changes – gone are blown diffusers – with DRS and KERS remaining on the cars. The pre-season testing and practice sessions gave no clue as to the form so all eyes on qualifying to get a clue … and very entertaining it was too. Some new-ish faces, including home boy Daniel Ricciardo driving the vastly improved Torro Rosso – a welcome relief from his debut last season with HRT, the team who failed to qualify for this weekend’s race under the 107% rule (banishing De La Rosa and Karthikyan before Q2 got underway). Engine donor Ferrari fared poorly with a car that looked a right handful for Alonso who went gardening in Q2 and left Massa to save the Scuderia, failing dismally it has to be said; he scraped through Q1 to go out in 16th in Q2.. Whether Felippe will ever re-capture his pre-Hungary magic is moot given the gelded form of the prancing horse this year.
McLaren look to be the front runners – qualifying on the front row with Hamilton taking pole – and with a decisive margin over Red Bull. So far they are most likely to be challenged closely by Mercedes. Nico Rosberg drove a great last session but ended up being pipped by the master, as Schumacher seems to have got the measure of the new Brawn chassis and popped in to take 4th on the grid. 3rd place went to a hugely impressive drive from young Romain Grosjean, returning to F1 in triumph from his GP2 championship last year. The Frenchman thoroughly deserves his seat with the Renault team – now sporting the heritage title of Lotus-Renault - making a mockery of the return of team mate and perennial Laughing Boy, Kimi Raikkonen, who managed a piss-poor 18th. Mark Webber looked less sure of himself or the new Red Bull, despite being on home turf. It has always been here, and at the British GP, where Mark tends to eclipse his charging team mate, Vettel, of whom several pundits are mumbling that a 3rd sequential championship is a strong possibility. Certainly the boy wonder drove well but his experience is closely married to the form of Adrian Newey’s beast from Milton Keynes. His chances depend to a large extent on the car and it remains to be seen if he can drive beyond its capabilities, despite a well-deserved clutch of gongs.
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March 17th, 2012 in
Formula 1,
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Daniel Ricciardo,
Formula One,
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Mark Webber,
McLaren,
Michael Schumacher,
Nico Rosberg,
Red Bull,
Romain Grosjean,
Scuderia Toro Rosso,
Sebastian Vettel |
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Image by Getty Images via @daylife
The tech world is tuning into what TechRepublic calls, in a somewhat hand-wringing fashion, the fragmentation of Android. This refers to the multiple flavours of the Google open-source operating system that has become a somewhat hyped darling of the mobile world. Each manufacturer has taken a version and modified it for its own hardware, frequently tying the user to their particular Android build. One might feel this spawns instant frustration for the owner but this rapid differentiation of the operating system is not necessarily “a bad thing”. Any open source product is open to re-working such that different development streams occur. With most such software of course, the user is traditionally more tech-savvy and will select their optimal version with a degree of awareness, often re-compiling the version from the source code with possibly their own tweaks and customisations. For phone and tablet consumers, this is not an option; however technically competent they may be. The key is that they still gain access to homogeneous applications via Android Market – any differentiation where such apps are no longer genuinely portable will quickly kill that particular branch. The variation in Android versions is usually to take advantage of a specific manufacturer’s hardware. Manufacturers do make the re-vamped source code available – see HTC’s development site – but realistically users of a particular piece of hardware are locked in.
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Simply awesome are these videos via NASA from the International Space Station
Earth | Time Lapse View from Space, Fly Over | NASA, ISS from Michael König on Vimeo.
Around the World in 90 Minutes – Every 90 minutes, astronauts aboard the International Space Station experience just that. Recently, crew members took a series of light-sensitive videos looking down at night that have been digitally fused to produce the above time-lapse video. Many wonders of the land and sky are visible in the eighteen sequences, including red aurora above green aurora, lights from many major cities, and stars in the background. Looming at the top of the frame is usually part of the space station itself, sometimes seen re-orienting solar panels.
Worth checking the NASA site regularly as there are frequent postings of similar beauty
November 23rd, 2011 in
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Space,
Technology | tags:
APOD,
Earth,
images,
International Space Station,
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NASA,
space,
video |
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Image via Wikipedia - The tangled web of deceit ?
The New York Times is reporting on results from a German tool which has been measuring ISP performance globally. Its fascinating, if unsurprising, results show that European customers suffer most from throttling of bandwidth by ISPs. The UK is the worst market for this and the Max Planck Institute singles out British Telecom – BT plc – as the major offender. No shock really to those of us who have endured BT’s variable network performance for the last decade. Traffic shaping is one thing – having defended BT’s productisation of a full Content Delivery Network in the past – but what appears to be a deliberate attempt by the former PTT to limit its backhaul capacity and related costs by ripping off its customers should be a scandal. How sad then that Ofcom has so far made no response. Another triumph for the insipid regulator in the wake of its less-than-glorious enforcement of ‘guidelines’ on misleading claims of capped versus uncapped internet access plans and labelling of speeds in advertising for broadband services in the UK.
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November 20th, 2011 in
Online,
Technology | tags:
ADSL,
broadband,
BT Group,
Carphone Warehouse,
Content Delivery Network,
Internet service provider,
New York Times,
Ofcom,
Rip Off Britain,
TalkTalk |
2 Comments
The New Zealand All Blacks - Rugby World Champions 2011 Image via Wikipedia
A nail-biting finish to this year’s Rugby World Cup saw the All Blacks hold off a determined French side to secure the 2011 Championship – their first since the inaugural competition back in 1987. The final in Auckland was a fitting climax to a wonderfully executed and exemplary tournament from the Kiwis. It never ceases to amaze how friendly Rugby crowds are – and never more so than in New Zealand for this competition. From smaller, provincial stadia such as Rotorua to the iconic Eden Park, fans of every nation mixed with humour, respect and friendship. The organisers went to great lengths to involve the locals in the build-up for the games and fostered support for all the incoming nations as local schools and clubs ‘adopted’ countries. Some feat given the depth of feeling here for the All Blacks, and a real testament to New Zealand hospitality. A significant (European and Asian) ex-pat community obviously helps but you could see everything from polite encouragement to overt banners, make-up and kit for all of the teams, with especial cheering given to the smaller nations such as Tonga. It remains to be seen whether the tournament was an economic success for New Zealand (apparently, the IRB – owners of the global Rugby Union ‘brand’ – have coined it in already !) but, apart from the opening night hiccup and its transport chaos in downtown Auckland, RWC2011 has run like clockwork.
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It may seem a daft idea in these straightened times but there is a group working hard to bring Concorde back to life. The aircraft – or more properly the original project to create a supersonic transport, or SST – represents possibly the financial and political equivalent in the 70′s of the Suez crisis in the 50′s. Born from an occasionally grumpy and grudging trans-manche alliance – bettered only by the Chunnel – it came of age during a worsening global economic outlook. Poo-pooed by the Americans and challenged by the Soviets, it remains a wonder how this political hot-potato ever took flight. Since its demise in 2003, the current global financial meltdown is a singularly bad time to be talking about putting money into its resurrection. Concorde is certainly the least eco-friendly transportation system ever launched, accessible only by the privileged and an economic failure. However, a dedicated group of engineers, pilots, celebs and plain old enthusiasts are working to preserve and even to fly one of the remaining 12 airframes. It is a tall order. Most were brutally decommissioned and left rotting outside. Read the rest of this story »
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Yay ! Hell Pizza have responded (again) to the original New Zealand Herald article about their ‘missing’ donation to the KidsCan charity and the nasty, snotty outpourings of one of its directors – the charming Warren Powell. It has taken 3 weeks to get the latest version of the originally released response – which was pulled within an hour of publication – edited for public consumption. This latest release is a much watered-down version. No apology for Powell’s original (“… these dorks …”) email. No glowing tribute to the work of KidsCan. Still, they have coughed up as originally committed – it took a public shaming and pressure but, hey, PR makes the world go round.
We can confirm that we have now contributed $10,000 to the KidsCan Charitable Trust. We would like to acknowledge that the plight of the youngsters who benefit from donations to KidsCan telethon far outweighs any misunderstanding that may have occurred between HELL’s Pizza and KidsCan. We apologise to KidsCan for delaying our donation as a result of our misunderstanding.
“Misunderstanding” it may have been but it is a bit rich of Hell Pizza to write that “we are pleased that [Kidscan] have agreed to use the money donated … to help relieve the pressure on those children who face each day without sufficient food or clothing”. Typical that they manage to snatch arrogance from what should have been a well-meaning apology. Oh well. Apparently, Hell Pizza have already given “more than $175,000 to the Canterbury earthquake recovery”. So that’s alright, then.
Compare their new and old PR releases:
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Held up by current political hissy fits over the US budget deficit, debate over the Commercial Felony Streaming Act (Bill Number S.978) has stalled. As soon as the fiscal log-jam is cleared, it is likely this bill will re-appear. According to a report in The Economist, its enactment would mean that anyone who streams copyright material over the internet without permission of the owners and for their own enrichment (draft says more than $2,500 would be the benchmark) would be committing a felony. This carries penalties of up to 5 years in prison. Seems a tad harsh but highly reminiscent of the absurd Digital Economy Act 2010 in the UK – not so much in its provisions but in its blunderbuss approach to appeasing the media companies.
These pieces of ill-advised legislation have been rushed in – certainly in the case of the UK Act which was championed by Peter Mandelson as Business Secretary. The departing Labour government of Gordon Brown whistled in the Act, despite significant opposition and learned comment from the industry, possibly as some kind of sop or political payback to the entertainment industry. The panic and shortsightedness from the industry are all too apparent. There are clear lessons to be learned from the cassette tape levy fiasco of the 1980′s and, more so, from the resistance to the digitising of music content. Experience showed that, not only was their resistance somewhat wasted, but that a burgeoning and revitalised music industry resulted. The only downside was the dominance of a few new players – such as Apple. With its ground-breaking iTunes service, Apple deserved to blitz the sleepy musos with its fun, simple and (relatively) inexpensive proposition. People were pissed off with being over-charged for records and CDs in the 80s and 90s – that is what prompted the rise of illegal download services such as Napster, as well as peer-to-peer file-sharing and informal swapping of media files online. iTunes, and to some extent DRM technologies which attempted to prevent copying, made it OK to distribute music online. DRM has since been shown to be pointless. However, because the music publishers failed to get on board, their only choice was to license their material to other companies to sell rather than take the opportunity to embrace a wonderfully cheap new distribution model that would increase their margins.
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