Apple’s 5G iPhone conundrum | TechCrunch

September 11, 2018September 10, 2018 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Wednesday is Apple’s big product release day, where analysts expect the company to release the next edition of the iPhone. While the usual upgrades to the screen, CPU, and storage are expected as always, one major lingering question is how the company is going to handle 5G, the next-generation telecommunications standard.

The conventional wisdom among analysts is that Apple will ignore 5G in 2018 and 2019 just as it took extra time to rollout 3G and 4G chipsets in its phones. A typical example of this analysis comes from Chris Smith at BGR, who says that “We already saw what Apple did when 4G LTE came out. The company waited for carriers actually to offer decent coverage before launching the first 4G iPhone. That was the iPhone 5, by the way, which launched more than a year after the first Android-based LTE phones came out.”

Crypto Market is Crashing Hard Again, Here’s Why | Mashable

September 6, 2018 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

The cryptocurrency market is bleeding for the second consecutive day, with prices of most popular coins down double digits in the last 24 hours.

Bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency by market cap, is down 12.4% in this period according to CoinMarketCap and is currently trading at $6,426. Other coins are having it even worse: Ethereum is down 20.5%, Ripple is down 13.3%, Bitcoin Cash is down 20.1% and EOS is down 22.3%.

For Ethereum, the second largest coin by market cap, this is the low point of the year. The cryptocurrency hasn’t been priced this low since August 2017.

Facebook, Twitter executives head back to Capitol Hill for another grilling | Money CNN

September 6, 2018 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

The Senate Intelligence Committee’s hearing on foreign use of social media to influence US politics took place Wednesday morning with two of the big tech companies that senators wanted to hear from present — and one empty chair.

Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey were in the room and testifying. Google had offered to send Kent Walker, its senior vice president of global affairs, but the committee declined, saying it wanted someone more senior. Google did not offer anyone. So next to Sandberg and Dorsey was an empty chair, with a placecard for Google.

A new study finds how much unions contribute to higher wages | Fast Company

September 4, 2018September 3, 2018 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

In the past 40 decades, regular working Americans have barely seen their salaries grow, while around them, the cost of housing and basic needs have skyrocketed, as has pay for business executives. What’s behind this decline? Economists and political scientists often point to the decline of labor unions in those same years as a major contributing factor to the current environment of soaring business profits and meager worker salaries.

The White House Allegedly Has A Marijuana Smear Squad. Cannabis Experts Say Bring It On. | Forbes

August 31, 2018August 30, 2018 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

The Trump administration has supposedly assembled a team of federal agency leaders for the purpose of promoting negative views on U.S. cannabis legalization. Cannabis industry members and advocates say the effort would be deeply misguided, and ultimately too late.

On Wednesday, BuzzFeed News reported that the White House has “secretly amassed” a committee of federal agencies meant to “combat public support for marijuana and cast state legalization measures in a negative light” while also “attempting to portray the drug as a national threat,” based on interviews and documents acquired by BuzzFeed.

30 Years Ago, Women Entrepreneurs Couldn’t Do This One Simple Thing | Small Business Trends

August 30, 2018August 29, 2018 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

The other day, I read an article that blew me away. Writing in Forbes, entrepreneur Deborah Sweeney reminds us that until 1988, women entrepreneurs could not get business loans without a male relative as a cosigner. It didn’t matter if the male relative was even involved in the business, or if he was under 18; he was essential to experienced businesswomen getting the loans they needed to grow their companies.

“As a 43-year-old female CEO, it is difficult for me to get over that in my lifetime women business owners had to rely on men to obtain a business loan,” Sweeney writes.

Astell & Kern A&futura SE100 Hands-On Impressions | Digital Trends

August 29, 2018August 28, 2018 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Astell & Kern is one of those pesky audio companies that just won’t stop innovating, like that annoying classmate who was always pushing the grade curve and reminding the teacher of that missing pop quiz. This utterly meticulous engineering is what has kept the niche brand in business so long, and it’s also what leads to impressive evolutions like the company’s new A&futura SE100 portable player ($1,700).

What could happen next after Michael Cohen, Paul Manafort convictions | Business Insider

August 28, 2018August 27, 2018 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Last week featured some of the biggest drama of President Donald Trump’s tenure so far.

In courtrooms separated by about 200 miles, Trump’s former longtime lawyer Michael Cohen pleaded guilty to eight counts of federal felonies, two of which were campaign-finance violations that he said Trump “directed” him to make, while the president’s ex-campaign manager Paul Manafort was convicted on eight felony counts while the jury was hung on another 10 counts he faced.

So what’s next?

Who is Your Customer? | Peter Mehit

August 27, 2018August 27, 2018 ~ CBPS ~ Leave a comment

We all need more customers. Growing top line revenue is survival. Without setting the table, you have no chance to make a profit, or even just stay in the game. With so much hype around the internet and social media, more established forms of marketing are being discounted. Yet the elevation of social media, which is a tactic, as an end all, be all strategy to reach your customer, does a disservice to those who must plot the direction of their company’s marketing efforts.

No where is this more apparent than in small business where owners and managers are bombarded by sales pitches for different types of tactics. Some owners will be swayed by a good pitch and buy the tactic. Others will not feel comfortable and will not do anything. If neither of these persons has identified their customer, neither choice is helpful to their business.

Continue reading “Who is Your Customer? | Peter Mehit” →

Uber ‘to focus on bikes over cars’ | BBC News

August 27, 2018 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Uber says it plans to focus more on its electric scooter and bike business, and less on cars, despite the fact it could hurt profits.

Boss Dara Khosrowshahi said that individual modes of transport were better suited to inner city travel.

He also forecast users would make more frequent shorter journeys in future.

“During rush hour, it is very inefficient for a one-tonne hulk of metal to take one person 10 blocks,” he told the Financial Times.