Sanely Great

Here my concept: automatical conversion of units in ebooks, based on reader’s location.

Now let me expand on that.

First of all, I’m using Amazon as an example as it’s the largest provider of ebooks (I think), but the concept also applies to Apple’s iBooks store and other publishers of electronic books.

The concept comes from trying to solve one of my frustrations with reading English written books: I’ve no problem understanding every little word and phrasing, but I do ocasionally get stuck when reading portions using imperial units (as I primarily am accustomed to the metric system used in Europe).

Just to give you a quick example: I’m currently reading Tim Ferris’s amazing book The 4-Hour Chef and this units conversion stuff is constantly slowing me down and dilluting the overall experience. When I read “230-lb” my mind has to translate that into “104 kg”, and that’s something that shouldn’t happen, it breaks your reading concentration and the understanding of the content. Trying to make sense of recipes and ingredients’ quantities (after all, it’s a cooking book at its core) is made easier by using both oz and mg, as well as Celsius next to Fahrenheit, and that’s a damn good thing done by Tim when writing the book.

But my point is: not all imperial units were translated into metric ones and, most important, this shouldn’t be Tim’s job to begin with.

This should be something done automatically by Amazon. And it can be accomplished in more than one way:

- you could be asked when you’re buying the ebook if you prefer imperial or metric units and, upon choosing a variant, be provided with the appropriate ebook containing only the units of your choice

- the Kindle reader app could detect your location and switch automatically the content version of the book to match the ones used in that country/area

- I’m sure there are other ways that developers could come up with to try and solve this annoyance

Here’s me hoping that I don’t have to do math in my head when trying to enjoy a great book. Because I suck at math.

“Progress is made by lazy people looking for easier ways to do things.”

There’s no secret that Apple’s the richest company in the world. Through its stock value (although this fluctuates somewhat, depending on the stupid rumour of the day) but foremost through its enormous cash in the bank reserve: over $100 billion.

But how did Apple get to have such a huge amount of money in its pockets? First of all, their products are great. They’re designed and engineered to be the best and people are buying them like crazy. That’s common knowledge. But there’s also something else that sets Apple apart and enabled them to reach this high level of financial health: their huge, way above industry average, profit margins.

Though margins for the Mac line, for example, are just above 20%, the biggest cash cows are now the iPhone and the iPad, with profit margins above 40% and even reaching into the low 50% at times. To give you a comparison, Samsung (who is Apple’s closest competitor so far) has a profit margin that’s only recently reached 20% for its phones division.

It has long been Apple’s philosophy to go for the profit margin rather than for the market share. And the latest reports have consistently shown Android gaining more market while Apple keeps on raking in the lion’s share of the money. Which strategy is the right one? Well, so far Apple’s thinking has brought the financial results to which a company can only dream of.

Naturally, there are two opinions at hand here: “Android is winning” and “Apple’s still winning”. The “market share” argument is always brought about by the Android fans and the Apple-hating part of the tech press (and since hating Apple always produces the most pageviews, this trend has caught on real fast in the online press world). And the counter-argument here, coming from the Apple tech writers and bloggers, is pretty obvious: since Apple is still making the most money, they’re still the king of the hill and Android will never beat it.

Since I am somewhat a part of the latter world, I tend to agree with the conclusion: Apple is still very much in the driving seat of the tech car. But what I cannot understand is the undisimulated content from the Apple suporters when their argument regarding Apple’s money supports this cause. Here’s my problem with this: I know Apple’s making all that money, that they’re a more than healthy company because of this and they’re constantly producing beautiful products; but why in hell should this make me happy?

Unless you’re an AAPL stock owner (which most of the people aren’t), I see no reason to be this excited when I’m arguing that Apple’s money making ways are something good. Why? Because Apple would be a rich company if they’d have a profit margin of, let’s say, 25% for their mobile devices. That’s approximately half of what they make right now.

You know what would make me happy? If I could buy the cheapest retina iPad for $375 instead of $500! Apple would still make $125 on the deal and I would be able to buy these more often than now. Everyone wins. Now that would be something to be happy about; as opposed to being content to pay much more and smilingly argument your article about how Apple’s winning because it makes the most profit out of all the companies in the tech world.

Apple® today announced it has sold over two million of its new iPhone® 5 in China, just three days after its launch on December 14. iPhone 5 will be available in more than 100 countries by the end of December, making it the fastest iPhone rollout ever.

Nice way to start sales in the largest country in the world. I bet yesterday would have been a great day to buy AAPL stock.

So yeah, it’s finally here: the iPad mini. And while everyone is talking about it, I’ll allow myself to feel a little frustrated about having the newest iPad (3rd gen) for only 6 months. Go ahead and read everything about the launch.

Many people have been asking for widgets in Notification Center since iOS 5. iOS 6 added the Share Widget to the Stocks and Weather Widgets. It would be amazing if Apple let developers create companion Widgets for their apps.

Too soon for an iOS 7 wishlist? It’s never too soon, and Chad has some interesting things he looks forward to in iOS 7.

 

Just like I was saying, we know now for sure. What we don’t know is what will be presented there, besides the all touted iPad mini/nano/air thingy. We’ll see on the 23rd.

So all these rumours are pointing towards a 23 October event to launch the new smaller iPad. Now, as far as I know Apple tends to send the event invites about one week shy of the actual event, so…if the official invites start showing up tomorrow in tech inboxes, we’ll know for sure.

Noting that Facebook was counting some mobile users twice, Jacobs wrote on March 22: “Please explain to us how you determined that your metrics are not overstated.”

Only eight days before the IPO, on May 9, did Facebook make clear in a filing that daily mobile customers were increasing faster than advertising growth, potentially hurting revenue and profits. It was the strongest public signal that the IPO could fall short of its high expectations.

I thought from day one that Facebook’s stock was highly over-evaluated. Now it seems they also knew it and fought to make huge money from the get go, fully realizing that the IPO price would drop afterwards. Must be nice to be an enthusiast amateur investor who bought that fast selling initial stock only to see it now at half value.

After a long, lucrative career writing financial self-help books and giving seminars, “Rich Dad Poor Dad” author Robert Kiyosaki has filed for bankruptcy for one of his companies after losing a $24 million court judgment.

Kiyosaki’s Rich Global LLC filed for bankruptcy after being ordered to pay nearly $24 million to the Learning Annex and its founder and chairman, Bill Zanker.

Oh, the irony. If you fail to see it you have no place reading here.