City Comforts, the blog

Forget about the Apple TV -- the big kahuna is the Apple Automobile

Charlie Rose has spent the latter half of this week with segments and interviews devoted to Steve Jobs. The video above features discussions with former Google CEO and current Google Chairman Eric Schmidt, Wall Street Journal reporter and friend of Jobs, Walt Mossberg, and Marc Andreessen, a venture capitalist and the creator of the Mosaic web browser and Netscape.

via osxdaily.com

A wortyhwile interview. For me the take-away thought is simple:

Apple is the current master of human interface engineering. When will an auto manufacturer beg Apple to ask it to re-think and re-dsign the human interface? The total environment which the person uses to control the auto? I am sure that Jobs has thought of it and hope that Apple will eventually work on it. It would be nice if it were an American manufacturer (or at least one with heavy American employment.)

Midweek Tech Scan: Why does Microsoft own Skype? | Crosscut.com

Microsoft keeps pushing ahead on several fronts in the consumer area, including one of the more mysterious acquisitions in the tech field.  This past week, Microsoft completed the acquisition of Skype, that ubiquitous, pioneering computer based phone service that makes it possible to talk to people worldwide for free — if they have a Skype app on their computer — or call land lines and cell phones at low cost.

via crosscut.com

I wonder if it might have made even more sense for M'soft to spend $8.5 billion by using the $$$ to make an operating system as good as Apple's? To protect its own franchise and dominance in operating systems rather than getting into a new business? Ya know, re-design the Windows OS from the ground up, as Jobs did with the Mac OS ten years ago. The core of the company is still Windows. True? Wouldn't sticking to its knitting be wise? Apple is great but it is still run by human beings down there in Cupertino and so with all its resources, why can't M'soft be competitive? I have to admit that I haven't seen a Windows OS for a year or two, so maybe there is huge progress. (I guess that is why we will have a M'soft store in U Village so people like me will eventually get curious.) And if there is a reason to care, I live here in Seattle and so I would like M'soft to do well -- employment, my neighbors, support etc etc -- and be interested in buying a Windows product. Some day. But not now. Just too clunky.

Will book publishers be able to maintain primacy as ebook publishers?

via www.idealog.com

My own thoughts:

Legacy publishers will survive to the extent that they can act as curators -- as "a good housekeeping sign of approval" (that probably dates me) that a book is worthy. They don't have to vouch for a book in any specific sense much less agree with its opinions -- but simply that the book is in some way "serious."

Of course that does leave room for others to get in on the curatorial role. We might see "imprints" from major, respected opinion leaders. Why not one by Bill Clinton? or Paul Krugman? or Stewart Brand?  Stephen King? etc etc or name anyone you respect.

Would such an eminence get into the nitty-gritty of editing, design, promotion, marketing etc etc? Probably not directly though their editorial judgment would be a real and key factor in the success of their "publishing company." So while figure-heads might work, I question their staying power.

My point is that once you get rid of physical books -- no responsibility to manufacture, warehouse, transport etc etc -- what is a publishing company besides 

1. the judgment that a "book" (whatever _that_ turns out to be) is worthy of being read, 

2. editing to take a raw manuscript into a finished ebook, and 

3. promoting/marketing.

Legacy publishers may be able to thrive -- counter-intuitively -- precisely because it is so easy to "self-publish." How do you, as a reader, separate the wheat from chaff? The curatorial function comes to the fore.

 

 

The "serendipitous encounter"

It applies not only to people but to books, maybe even on-line. Here is an interesting insight:

Google has something all of these platforms don't have: a specialism in "discoverability". If Google can somehow leverage its skill in this area, then there is a possibility that it could open up a world of published content online in a way that even Amazon has been unable to so far. Google could begin to replicate the bookstore experience, particularly the serendipitous nature of many purchases -- or to put it another way: books found when searching for something else.

via thebookseller.msgfocus.com

"books found when searching for something else."

That's how the best friendships are found.