Apple...what Recession?

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Look at this graph from macrumors!  EXPONENTIAL!

Bullets from Matt Richman's "takeaways" from Apple's (Q4) 2011 earnings.

  • With a record $13.06 billion in profits, it was Apple’s best quarter ever — by far.
  • Apple has sold more iOS devices than Android devices combined.

And of course, there's the amazing fact that Apple's Profit alone ($13 billion) was great than Google's total revenue ($10.6).  (via fmanjoo)

Here's just one more kicker... HP PC sales at 15.123m where iPad sales topped out at 15.43m (via gerrymcgarry)

As always, the haters will always hate, but the numbers speak for themselves.  Congrats to the team and here's to an amazing 2012!  Can't wait for the iPad 3 and the iPhone 5 and my new Macbook Pro!  It's going to be a costly 2012 all around!

The First App for Mac Worth Buying

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I've been using Sparrow for a little over 5 months in beta and today, Sparrow has launched it's veritable 1.0 for $9.99 on Apple's Mac App Store.

Primed for Gmail centric users, 1.0 takes the look and feel of the browser translating it to an app that closely resembles Twitter's Mac client (formerly known as Tweetie for Mac.)  A joy to use, it's robust interface easily replaces what Apple's Mail client lacks.  While still lacking IMAP support for other providers, Sparrow is readying version 1.1 converting it to a full-featured mail client that will be compatible with other IMAP services. Download it today and change the way you communicate!

For others wondering if a "lite" version will be released, as noted by @sparrowmailapp in response:

@splee Yes, Sparrow Lite has been submitted at the same time than Sparrow and hasn't been reviewed yet by Apple.

Just Announced: Google TV

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Come one, come all, here comes Google's answer to the living room. Aptly named Google TV, the geeks at Mountain View have just recently launched their new portal with videos, demos and FAQs forging the way for this autumn season's cluster of new television consumption devices. Featuring Search, Google Chrome and Adobe Flash 10.1, apps like Netflix, Twitter, CNBC, Pandora, NBA Game Time, Amazon's VOD and Gallery and even HBO, Google aggressively catapulting themselves as the God box for your living room. Eclipsing what Apple TV represents, Google is launching with just about every other company providing them content and support. Other features include, using your mobile telephone as a remote, "Fling" (the ability to send the website or show you are watching on your mobile phone with a press of a button), YouTube in full screen HD, watch and simultaneously browse and even create TV Playlists!

With my recent crashing of our Samsung UN46C8000 46-Inch 1080p 3D 240 Hz LED HDTV, I'm all for letting Google into my living room and letting the programmers do their thing. Now only if I can find a way of wiping the Samsung OS off of my television and loading up some Google TV goodness...there's an idea! Get it this fall on a Sony Internet equipped television or the new Internet Top Box by Logitech dubbed as Revue. Check out the video below!

Review: iTunes Ping

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So i downloaded iTunes 10 last night to play with the social networking component Ping. I didn't listen to the Apple Press Event yesterday so I didn't know what to think. I had this grand idea that it would integrate with all the other social networking sites that I frequent (Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, etc.). I also though that it was kind of weird since there are existing online music sites that have integrated social networking and have a very mature model, like LastFM. I also thought to myself that this could be something huge with the 100 Million worldwide users of iTunes. That's a huge user base to start with! With that being said, there is a very high bar for Ping to at least get close to. In the few hours that I've had to play with Ping I have to say, I don't get it. What is the point to Ping? Upon activating Ping to my iTunes account the options are very rudimentary. Basic stuff about you and what picture you want to use as your avatar is available to you. If you have an acccount, you've been asked this a Million times over.

You are then asked a simple set of questions to gauge your musical tastes. Strike 1: I can only choose 3 genres of music I like.  I"m very eclectic with my choice in music. This does not set well with me.  Strike 2: When asked what albums to represent the music I like, I'm limited to 10 items. This DOES allow me to get past the 3 genres failure, but I'm going to need more than a couple minutes to define myself with 10 albums. To some audiophiles, this is going to take more than a couple minutes.

Getting past the account creation part, I'm still confused by the use. In my opinion there aren't enough people that are registered on the site to get any value. I THINK the point is to find like minded people who are making reviews on the music they purchase via iTunes and befriend them because they have similar musical tastes as I do. Since the release last night, none of my Real Life friends are not on. I value their input 1st before some random person I met on the interwebs.

Getting past the Friend finder, I attempt to register for a couple artists that I want to follow. I start off with their suggestion for Dave Mathews Band. Hey, Under The Table Dreaming, was like the anthem to my 1995. My knee-jerk response is, this has potential. I can see some simple posts by the band about Tours, Music, and Videos from the band and comments from their fans. Honestly, most of the posts are pictures from their current tour. OK, this is starting to look like all the other social networking sites now.  It even has it's own comment bombers that want to peddle their get-rich-quick schemes. I followed Jack Johnson as Ping suggested and I see several comments to his posts about how to get a free iPhone.

In my few hours of exposure to this feature of iTunes, I'm at a lose of how they are going to bring something new to the social networking environment. As I mentioned before there are several existing behemoths that do this job well. I'm reminded of LastFM and their format. They allow their users to discover new music, follow the artists tour schedules and even has a wiki like interface for fans to dump their knowledge about the band. LastFM also allows the users to listen for free. Apple, why didn't you just partner with them? There's an existing user base with lots of content?

That brings me to my point; this experiment into social networking via iTunes brings no value add for me. I've already spent the time on other sites like Facebook's Liked pages, MySpace Music, and LastFM to want to recreate in Ping. The current Ping user base is not very helpful and the artists that are using it are few. I think Ping might have some growing up to do before it becomes useful. I think I"ll let it sit for a month and come back to it and see what it's become.

Additional Links:

iTunes Ping: http://www.apple.com/itunes/ping/

LastFM: http://www.last.fm/

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/

MySpace Music: http://www.myspace.com/music

Twitter: http://twitter.com/

Dave Mathews Band: http://www.davematthewsband.com/

Jack Johnson: http://jackjohnsonmusic.com/

Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose

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Upon initially receiving Tony Hsieh's new book, Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose, I was excited that adellelijah.com had been given a chance to review a pre-release.  However, it did come along with the simple pre-condition that I write a review, good or bad, but that's what we do!  Even better, adellelijah.com has an extra copy to giveaway!  What a way to kickoff a new week for adellelijah! Tony Hsieh blasts right off by giving you a very short and dirty introduction to his success.  Reading the first paragraphs, it is simply amazing to how much he has accomplished in his relatively young life.  Starting around the dot-com era, living through the tech bubble and rising triumphantly, the Zappos CEO believed and persevered.  Following him every step of the way through his journey from his first endeavor as a young teenager to his latest and greatest accomplishment gives wonderful insight to the passion within his entrepreneurial spirit.  With his honest, conversational writing style, Delivering Happiness transforms a stack of bound paper to a dialogue with Tony Hsieh.  In my opinion, he should release an audio book.  It's like reading a book, then watching a movie, then reading the book again; you associate the characters with the actors faces instead of your own.  In this case, you'll be able to actually hear the passion that Tony speaks of.

As he progresses through various projects, one grows with him not only as a reader but as a friend.  Sacrificing his entire material life, to have it pay off in a truly rewarding way and then finding out that it is within passion that true success comes from, makes for a beautiful story.  Fairytale as it may be, happy endings do happen and it is to those that really put forth the extra 10%.  Tony expands that further by saying that improving yourself by 1% on a daily basis, at the end of a year, you can be THAT person; the person you always wanted to be.  Change doesn't happen overnight, but overtime through trials, tribulations, parties and rewards.

Little anecdotes sprinkled throughout the book make it a keeper sure to be with highlights splayed across its pages.  Hints geared to any future CEO or Management Department on how to please it's employees, and take risks by exposing internal flaws coupled with a proven outline on how to create a better company culture make Delivering Happiness an essential guide to those willing to adapt and change for the better.  Personally, I want to take the ideas from his book and introduce them to everyone in the world but even more specifically to those within my industry.  Perhaps Southwest Airlines might have an amazing turnout or perhaps they already have a company wide Culture Book, but I'm willing to bet other airlines would be a little hesitant to go all out and create a Culture Book of their own.  That might explain those successful versus those stuck in between a rock and a merger!

The wonderful 'End Game' Chapter gives you a cut and dry outline to determine the proper steps and ways to maintain a constant stream of happiness.  Through questions and recognition, one is able to set out the final goal and realign his or herself.  True, most persons lie within the garnering aspect of wealth, but those lucky enough to understand the commitment, not only in mind and body, but spirit as well, are the ones who truly rise above.  You could say that Tony has reached this enlightenment or maybe he was born with it.  Read it, you won't regret it!

"...pursue the highest purpose first... - @dhbook p.237"

If you want to win a copy of Tony Hsieh's new book Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose, leave a comment below and we will select a reader at random and announce the winner this Friday, June 11th 2010.  Goodluck!

Notes:

1) adellelijah.com received free advanced copies of the book, and our opinions of the book are honest, not bought, paid for or sponsored by.  It really and truly is a tremendous read.

2) If you blog, e.g. adellelijah, check out http://www.deliveringhappinessbook.com/contact/apply-for-an-advance-copy/ and apply.  It's that simple.

3) If you have any other questions that we cannot address or ones that you would like to address to the Delivering Happiness Team, follow this link: http://www.deliveringhappinessbook.com/contact/

4) And of course, buy the book already and do so by kindly using this link -->  Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose