J. Eddie Smith, IV on why he takes notes in OmniFocus:
>The biggest advantage of putting note-ish things into a regularly-reviewed inbox of any kind is that the notes always get a second look. I process my inbox nearly every day.
I never thought about doing this, but he makes a pretty compelling case for it.
Om Malik:
>And when he says Windows Mobile, he does mean Windows Phone 7 operating system.
Seriously? The “he” in the above is referring to Frank Meehan, chief executive officer (CEO) of INQ. If you haven’t heard of INQ it is likely because of the fact that they are a company that would actually consider going back to a Windows Mobile platform.
Tess Stynes:
>Hewlett-Packard Co. unveiled a new desktop computer Monday, just days after the technology company disclosed plans to sell or spin off its personal-computer business.
Excellent translation of Frank X Shaw’s recent blog post on the state of “post PC” by Brian S Hall:
>Posted by **Frank X. Shaw**
>Corporate Vice President, Corporate Communications, Microsoft
>*Translation: Remember. I’m paid to do this.*
He did a really great job in the entire post, well worth the read.
The Macalope:
>Because, when it comes to the mobile business, RIM is kinda like HP—just without any shred of self-awareness. While HP’s covering its face and crying “Uncle!”, RIM’s doubling down like a gambling addict. Now the company is apparently trying to build its own music service.
RIM and HP were very much in the same position — and while I may make fun of RIM constantly — at least RIM didn’t quit when the going got tough (for better or worse).
If you are having layout issues on your site, but they only crop up on your iPhone? Yeah give this a look-see. This page specifies that the default is `none`, but I am here to tell you that this is not the case.
Groklaw:
>And for all of those naysayers who have shouted Google is not doing enough to protect Android app developers and that Android app developers should cave to the Lodsys demands, you need to reconsider your position.
One of the few things Google has done recently that *actually* shows a commitment to “defending Android”.
A really neat way of displaying footnotes without causing the reader to lose place.
This is an interesting one, Shawn lost power at his place halfway through the recording, and well it made the entire show better. Also we talk about wallets and weather again.
Thanks to [Paste Interactive](http://pasteinteractive.com/) for sponsoring the show.
My thanks to Scheduling App for sponsoring the RSS feed this week to promote their excellent scheduling software for companies.
I don’t have any employees, but I share an office with another company. I watch everyday as they are constantly having scheduling issues that an app like this would solve. This looks like a pretty clever way for managing employees and their time — this is an aspect of your business that you shouldn’t struggle with.
There’s a 30 day free trial with no credit card required, and you can use the coupon code BROOKSREVIEW for 50% off your first paid month.
Still torn on whether to implement this. Thoughts?
Shawn and I talk about this on this weeks podcast a bit (not out just yet), but I wanted to touch on a few things about this.
1. The $400 per device number probably is not accurate, this was not a buyback for just Best Buy — likely for all retailers. I would guess the number is $200 per device if not lower.
2. It is not clear whether HP wants these devices back and thus are repaying retailers for the wholesale prices paid, or if HP was contractually obligated to do this once they canned the project. My guess is the latter which is why all of the devices are still on sale at Best Buy and other retailers, and buyback would mean that those sales would likely stop immediately.
All we know is that there is a $100 million dollar charge as a result of unsold TouchPads — any reporting beyond that is pure speculation.
Mein FinanzNachrichten is reporting:
>In addition, HP reported that it plans to announce that it will discontinue operations for webOS devices, specifically the TouchPad and webOS phones. HP will continue to explore options to optimize the value of webOS software going forward.
WebOS is like Matt Damon’s character in Good Will Hunting — where there is a ton of potential that is being held back by the people in control of that persons/OSs life. WebOS just needs a company that cares about more than short-term profit — a hard shoe to fill in the current economy.
Luke Wroblewski walks through all the things that the iPhone home button can do. An example meant to show just how difficult it would be to remove the button in exchange for gestures.
Smart move by AT&T to drop the $10/1000 message plan, and actually this is probably better for consumers. Here’s why: before the customer had to guess how many messages they will be sending, with the new plan the message is clear, “do you plan on sending text messages or not”.
I am not saying that charging more is a good thing, but it’ll likely solve a lot of problems for parents that, in the past, hoped their kids would stay under a 1,000 messages a month.
John Paczkowski, writing for a site with dark colored text, on Google’s motivations for buying Motorola:
>A validation of Apple’s business model and a tacit acknowledgement that Google feels the company’s unified approach to hardware and software is the way to go — especially in mobile.
I don’t buy it. If that is the leading motivation you buy HTC — they make superior products at this point. This was first and foremost about patents, anything else Google gains is just icing on the cake.
Andrew Sinkov on the Evernote blog talking about the acquisition of Skitch:
>The full version of Skitch, which used to be $19.95 in the Mac App Store, is now completely FREE! There are no more trial versions, because you don’t need them. No more ads and no more restrictions, either.
A nice move here too.
Bloomberg:
>Hewlett-Packard Co. (HPQ), the world’s largest computer maker, is in talks to buy Autonomy Corp. for about $10 billion and plans to spin off its personal-computer business, people with direct knowledge of the matter said.
IBM did a similar move with Lenovo for the very same reason: there is very little money to be made in the Windows PC market. Very little. I do believe IBM actually has done much better financially since spinning off its PC division — there’s something to be said for this move.
My question: where does this leave WebOS?
Stacey Higginbotham:
>So Michael Dell is stuck trying to find a way to reinvigorate a consumer business where its name is synonymous with the aging PC, while developing tablets and other mobile devices to sell to both consumers and businesses.
It’s interesting just how far Dell has fallen and how little value that name carries in today’s consumer mind. Dell is not only taking a beating from Apple, but HP has its own OS for mobile now and Google has its own hardware company for mobile now — Dell is getting hammered from every angle.
Dell could possibly be the RIM of the U.S. PC market.
Arik Hesseldahl writing in the ‘cloud’:
>According to one source who’s seen internal HP reports, Best Buy has taken delivery of 270,000 TouchPads and has so far managed to sell only 25,000, or less than 10 percent of the units in its inventory.
Yikes.
>This source suggested that the 25,000-unit sales number may not account for units that consumers return to stores for a refund.
These numbers are just so hard to believe. Even if *you* think that the iPad is a better than the TouchPad — it is hard to believe that a retail juggernaut the likes of Best Buy can’t find more than 25,000 people that hate Apple enough to roll the dice on a TouchPad.
[Once again](http://www.marco.org/2010/12/31/there-really-isnt-much-of-a-tablet-market) (all together now): there is *no* tablet market — just an iPad market.