iPhone 4, iPad, and Androild tablets oh my!

It's $187.51 to make a 16gb iPhone 4and they sell them for 600 to AT&T. The've sold over 14 million units of the iphone 4 since launch, this means Apple has made at least 4 billion in profit on them.
iPad, I don't know the cost per unit but I imagine it's about $220-230, if not a little less, yet even the refurbished 16GB is $449. 
Android tablets... Google is waiting for hardware manufacturers to make them. This is blah. Google could sing 1 billion dollars into designing a tablet, make the money back many times over in 6 months and it would be a superior device. But aha, the cool part is, Google could go to Hon Hai Precision/Foxconn like Apple, and build it with off the shelf components, make an awesome tablet, and probably only spend a million in r&d making it.... and forget advertising, the damn thing would sell itself. They could then sell the device for 250-350 and absolutely own the tablet market... Google, if you are listening get into the hardware busines! PLEASE!

"Jar of Hearts; Who do you think you are?" an open letter to Mark Stern and SyFy/NBC Universal on the cancellation of Caprica

This is a very well written open letter to SyFy... check it out

 

"Well, SyFy, at least you're consistent.

Back in, oh, 2007, I seem to recall watching an enjoyable series called The Dresden Files, which was rolled out on the then "SciFi" Network. As with Caprica, your network brutally axed the show with very little warning, and then attempted to blame everyone else except yourselves for why the series failed (the audience was never there, the actors moved on, no advertising money, etc).

Fast forward to November 2010. Not only do you swiftly and brutally pull the plug on Caprica for similar reasons, but you don't even commit to airing the REST of what was supposed to be the first season in the U.S.. You just yank it; yank it, in favor of wrestling, I might add. This is important later, so pay attention.

I sensed blood in the water when Paula Malcomson (Amanda Graystone) moved on to take a leading role in this season's Sons of Anarchy. But never in a million years did I believe a network was capable of what you've done. I can't even recall, in the history of recent modern television, when a show was scrapped in the middle of the d@mn season even before Christmas (SyFy Claims the final episodes will air in the U.S. in 2011; that and two bucks will get you on the NYC Subway). But then, I paused, (it's healthy to do that, from time to time,) and remembered poor Harry Dresden. Specifically, I recalled how you bent Jim Butcher over by not even bothering to tell him, the author of the books on which the series was based, that the series was canceled until the Fall season was starting, sans The Dresden Files. "

See the rest HERE

TV Looking Glass: The Tuesday Night Death Slot

There is so much truth to this... seriously if things are going to get cancelled, they move it to this time slot or to Sunday's at 10. It's how you ditch a show, and blaim it on ratings not network or advertiser lack of interest.

 

"Unlike the 8 o’clock time slot which seems to allow for the success of multiple prime-time television shows, the 10 o’clock time slot on Tuesday nights seems to be a “death slot” -– meaning it is mutual-assured-destruction (M.A.D.) for just about any show unlucky enough to be broadcast at that time.

Saturday nights are generally known as “dead” nights, and prime-time television series have not been programmed on Saturday nights since the late 1990s. Alas, the weekend curse seems to have spread to Friday nights, and now it is notoriously known as a “TV show killer” night. Only shows sent to certain death are broadcast on Friday nights. Good examples are “Smallville,” “Supernatural” and “Medium,” which are all in the midst of what is thought to be their final seasons. Fridays are also good for shows with an uncertain fan base such as “The Good Guys” –- it allows it time to develop an audience kind of under the radar. Fridays also used to be known as “sci-fi” Fridays which changed to Syfy Fridays after the network changed its name." See the rest HERE

 

 

 

Save Caprica campaign launches

Just another brief article on what my current passion is... saving Caprica.

 

 

"There's been a mixture of reaction to Syfy's announcement that it's killed off its Battlestar Galactica prequel, Caprica, before its first season has finished broadcasting. And with the remaining episodes shuffled to some anonymous part of 2011 for transmission, Syfy is instead focussing its energies on a new, presumably more action-packed BSG prequel, Blood & Chrome."

 

See the rest HERE

San Francisco toy ban takes the ‘happy’ out of Happy Meals

While I think unhealthy meals shouldn't be rewarded with toys... this is the merchant and consumer's choice, not the government's choice... this really bugs me.

 

 

 

"Ronald McDonald isn’t smiling.

On Tuesday, San Francisco became the first major U.S. city to ban restaurants from offering a free toy with meals that fail to meet certain nutritional guidelines. Happy Meals must now be healthy meals.

The city’s Board of Supervisors voted 8-3 to preliminarily approve the ordinance, enough to ensure it cannot be vetoed by Mayor Gavin Newsom, who won his bid to become lieutenant governor on Tuesday and who opposes the bill. If it passes a final vote next week, the law will come in to effect in December of 2011." See the rest HERE