Earlier this week we heard what seemed like interesting, unexpected, and exciting news from beleaguered Barnes & Noble and their epic struggle to make second place a viable place, with their Nook battling against mighty Google’s Kindle. Here’s a typical cheerleading article about this. But is there a darker underlying truth to this? Quite possibly so. First, to put this into context, let’s take a quick recap on the situation prior to the announcement. The [...]
I’ve recently been getting junk/spam type text messages on my cell phone. This felt way more intrusive than regular spam emails and unwanted phone calls. Text messages are typically ‘interruptive’ type events – you stop what you are doing to look at the message, whereas with email you can choose when you check your email. And, of course, depending on your phone and messaging plan, you might find yourself paying for the cost of receiving [...]
Good morning ‘Waste not, want not’ has been my motto for a long time now. It is amazing how many experiences can become Travel Insider articles – it seems a shame to waste an interesting or learning experience so I try to write about them whenever possible. Our feature article this week about in-car emergency kits arises from one such experience a week or so ago. Hopefully after reading the article you’ll be spared the [...]
On Wednesday the Department of Justice announced that it had filed a lawsuit against Apple and five book publishers – Simon & Schuster, Hachette, HarperCollins, Macmillan and Penguin. The suit alleges an illegal conspiracy to raise the prices of eBooks when Apple launched its iPad in 2010. Prior to that time, publishers generally sold books and eBoosk alike to distributors and retailers on the basis of the title having a notional recommended retail price, and [...]
Good morning Another week with quite a lot of additional content, and it is hard to know which of the other three blog entries I posted during the week to point you to first. And, in a totally different context, it was a busy weekend, with the first stirrings of spring causing me to spend part of both mornings mowing the lawn for the first time this year. I guess that is a good thing. [...]
I wrote a week ago about being tricked/trapped into spending $5.80/gallon for gas (when the going rate everywhere else was $3.80 or less) while returning a rental car to Orlando Airport. The good news is that the relentless march of modern technology increasingly offers us solutions to such problems. In a new article, I detail four different types of products that can give you real time information, in your car, telling you what local gas [...]
Good morning Anna and I are now back from our time in the Orlando area, and – as promised – here is a huge newsletter and lots of other articles to compensate for the very short one last week. Last week’s hotel stay was a helpful reminder, of sorts, to be stranded in a hotel with appallingly slow and sometimes totally stopped internet service. We take these things for granted, and plan our business lives [...]
The iPad 3 was generally well received when announced on 7 March, and its first day of sale last Friday, 16 March was preceded by the usual lines of people waiting overnight to be first into an Apple store on Friday morning. We first commented on the iPad 3′s release here, and also discussed if you should buy an iPad 3 and pointed out the six biggest disappointments of the iPad 3. Now that many [...]
Good morning I had mildly commented on the computer system changeover for UA/CO last weekend, and suggested you keep on top of any issues that might be arising. I tried not to indulge in any greater fearmongering because I thought that surely this changeover would have been massively tested and trialed and would be routine and user-transparent. Boy, was I wrong. But if you’re not a subscriber to Joe Brancatelli’s excellent newsletter, and/or if you [...]
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