There’s a lot of new beginnings in September. It’s the beginning of the school year. It’s the beginning of the TV season. It’s the beginning of Apple TV season.
This September, Apple will launch their new Apple TV system. It was supposed to be revealed in March, but other things, like the iWatch, took first priority over that. It’s given them time to fix tweaks and make a leaner, meaner Apple TV. For instance, the Apple A8 system has been improved by ?touch pad technology, on-board storage, and an operation system in which the consumer can upload Siri voice control. Apple TV is coming a long way from it’s 2012 debut. Remember that set top box? The set top box that hasn’t yet seen improvement, or even refreshing? Apple is depending on a busy fall and even busier upcoming holiday shopping season (I don’t even want to think about that time of year yet! It’s still summer for goodness sake!). They’re hoping the success of the next few months will lead to their own subscription internet-TV service. That’s been a dream of theirs for years. According to an Apple spokesperson, that dream should come true in the next year. Keep in mind Apple TV’s hardware service is different and will be separate from the TV service.
Logically, that makes perfect sense. I know many of you anticipate yet another way to stream TV. But what if Apple TV concentrates of the TV service first and you get the service? After a hard day, you turn it on for a night of entertainment. That night turns to frustration because the hardware is dysfunctional and can’t bring you quality service. What if you invite friends to watch the big game on Apple TV,(disclaimer: I don’t know how sports are going to play into Apple TV’s system) and the hardware won’t let you? Imagine the embarrassment on your face. You’ll hear it for months. So isn’t it better for Apple TV to take care of their hardware issues before working on their TV subscription?
Now we all know about the Amazon fiasco back on July 15, when their Amazon Prime Day sale ended in humiliation. I hope Amazon got that behind them. It certainly seems that way.
According to Silicon Valley insiders, Amazon is moving to their next ambition: the drive-in grocery store. Don’t confuse this with their delivery service. Here is how it’s expected to work: you order your groceries online. You schedule a pick up at a grocery store. On the way, someone is packing up your order. By the time you drive up, they’re ready for you to be picked up and taken back home. If the world’s biggest online retailer can pull this off, that would bring an additional challenge to a grocery industry already caught up in a whirlwind of change. We see that change from questions about the food (the GMO debate) to the way we pay for them (Apple Pay). The debut location is expected to be in Sunnydale, CA, the heart of Silicon Valley. Real estate developers are already preparing 11,600 square foot building for grocery housing and pick up. They even have an address planned for pickup: 777 Sunnyvale Saratoga Road. Amazon isn’t confirming or saying anything about this alleged new project. Neither is the real estate developer.
I must stress this. Amazon hasn’t yet confirmed this new endeavor. So why even write about it? Imagine if Amazon grocery drive-up services are successful. Imagine if that success travels across the country. Can you imagine how much more power and influence that would give Amazon, already one of the most powerful corporations in the world today? But I can’t imagine getting groceries online and then going to pick them up and be done with it. Call me old school, but there’s something sacred about looking around for brands, produce and price. There’s something about smelling the fruits, feeling the vegetables, asking the butchers about the meat, and indulging the free samples. Yes, I even like to squeeze the Charmin every once in a while. Can you do that with Amazon grocery drive up?
Controversial dating service Ashley Madison was hacked. All 37 million accounts have been compromised and threatened.
For those unfamiliar with Ashley Madison, it’s a dating website that encourages adulterous relationships. In fact, their slogan is, “Life is short, have an affair.” ?Hackers threaten to release nude photos, hook up plans and sexual fantasies for all 37 million customers unless Ashley Madison shuts down their website once and for all. Avid Life Media, Ashley Madison’s parent company, confirmed this massive breach. A hacking organization called The Impact Team claimed responsibility. They’ve already leaked some of the data they broke into. Now they’re threatening to name names, credit cards to the company profiles to the fantasies, pictures and potential hook ups. An Impact Team spokesperson messaged, ?”Shutting Down Ashley Madison and Established Men will cost you, but non-compliance will cost you more.” Yes, Impact Team also went after Established Men, a website catering to older men looking for much younger women. They threatened to name names and profiles if Established Men wasn’t shut down completely. Avid Life Media says they’re working with authorities to bring these hackers to justice.
I find it interesting they didn’t go after Cougar Life…yet. That’s a site targeting older women looking for younger guys. But that’s another issue. You may not agree with what Ashley Madison is doing morally. I don’t. But hacking is not the way to express your disapproval. Don’t be fooled. The Impact Team hackers are not moral crusaders. In fact, they’re more wicked than Ashley Madison. They could have carried out peaceful protest. They could have put up videos raising awareness. They could have lectured and taught what adultery can do to families. But they just had to pay wrongdoing with outright evil. That’s what this hacking is…evil. Plus, Ashley Madison’s services are protected by free speech and the Constitution. Impact Team’s actions are illegal and I hope they are prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. An old wise man once said, “You can’t answer curses for curses and blows for blows.” How can anybody condone or support The Impact Team?
June 26, 2015 will go down a very bad day in terrorism. Within hours, terrorist attacks in France, Tunisia and Kuwait left over 60 dead. Terrorist group Islamic State claimed responsibility for two of these attacks on Twitter.
To say this puts social media sites in a torn, uncomfortable position is the big understatement. A few days before, ISIS put a You Tube video of themselves carrying out several acts of mass murder. One hideous act included locking men up in a cage and lowering them in a swimming pool to drown to death. On one hand, versions of such monstrous acts would remain on You Tube. On the other hand, You Tube leaders declared they wouldn’t allow their medium to be a ?”distribution channel for this horrible, but very newsworthy, terrorist propaganda”. That’s the catch 22 facing social media executives today, and terrorist groups like ISIS know it. They even put up a You Tube video of themselves serving ice cream to children in Syria, as a recruiting tool. How do you walk the fine line between preventing terrorist from using social media as a recruitment tool and keeping the right to free speech Americans and many others around the world cherish?
This problem is by no means limited to the USA. In Europe, some countries order social media sites to block terrorist propaganda. In America, the Senate Intelligence Committee approved a bill requiring social media to report terrorist propaganda to federal authorities. I rarely say this, but I agree with the Senate. Like anything, free speech can be abused. Free speech should never be used as an excuse to glorify or promote murder, brutality, or torture of other human beings. And look at these guys who are exploiting free speech. ISIS and other terrorists don’t believe in freedom for anybody. Look at the way they treat anybody who doesn’t think or act like them. Why should we allow some psychopaths to hijack free speech from the rest of us?
Earlier this week, I talked about the mid-summer online showdown between Walmart over Amazon. The results are in. Amazon didn’t get beat yesterday. They got humiliated!
Amazon spent much time building up Amazon Prime Day, July 15, to be a summer version of Black Friday. They were supposed to offer deep discounts exclusively to Amazon Prime customers on wanted items. I guess many items weren’t wanted. The items on sale included knee braces, beer coolies, nose clippers and cat-training aids. They offered all the good stuff people fight in stores over (note the sarcastic tone). To say Amazon Prime Day was an underwhelming and disappointing experience is an understatement. One shopper tweeted how it felt more like April Fool’s Day than Black Friday. ?Another tweet joked about a sale on toys like Rock Em’ Robots. Rock Em’ Robots were popular back in the 1960s and ’70s. Another shopper was surprised Walmart had far better deals than Amazon did. Yahoo Finance did a comparison score chart between Amazon and Walmart based on categories such as relevance and shoppers’ experience. Walmart won the comparison game 14-8.
Maybe that’s because Walmart offered discounts to everybody, not just those in the Amazon Prime crowd. Maybe it’s because Walmart offered discounts on everyday products that people use in 2015, instead of items dug up from Uncle Jephthah’s yard sale from 1976. Walmart’s sale items included smartphones, TVs, printers, mattresses and bedding, and women’s clothing. Their discounts were on products that would’ve been pretty expensive to buy otherwise. For example, a 55-inch HDTV from Walmart would have cost around $400, half the regular cost. I’m not a Walmart fan, but they got it right this time. I think Amazon Prime Day was the biggest online flop since Apple Maps back in 2012. I hope Amazon learns a lesson from this. If you’re going to hype a day up like this, open it to everybody and give the people products worth buying. Do you think they’ll ever be an Amazon Prime Day 2?
Two major e-commerce superpowers are going head to head. Walmart and Amazon are in hand-to-hand combat for your credit/debit card.
Tomorrow, July 15, 2015, will be Amazon Prime Day. To honor Amazon’s 20th anniversary, they will offer deep discounts and thousands of deals. Shoppers can expect new deals as often as every ten minutes. This is in addition to Amazon Prime’s two-day free shipping and free online streaming entertainment. But there’s a catch. Only Amazon Prime members, those who pay $99 a year, can take advantage of Amazon Prime Day. They’re saying these deals are so good they’ll rival Black Friday. America’s leading retailer Walmart saw an opportunity. They called out Amazon for only giving certain people these special deals. One Walmart blogger said the retail conglomerate is, “…standing up for our customers and everyone else who sees no rhyme or reason for paying a premium to save.” So Walmart offers their own sale in direct contract to Prime Day. They’re offering deeper ‘rollback’ deals, lower shipping minimums, and what they call ‘atomic deals’. Could consumers expert a Walmart Prime Day? They’re working on it all summer long. A potential Walmart Prime Day may include benefits like a $50 charge for complimentary three day shipping for up to a year.
This competition between the top ?e-commerce retailer and top physical retailer is going to get interesting. Between you and me, I never liked Walmart. I don’t like the way they treat their employees, bullied small businesses out of house and home, and fueled the wealth inequality gap in this country. But they have a point about offering this deal only to Amazon Prime customers. Why should I have to pay almost $100 a year and join an exclusive club just to take advantage of a once a year deal? Don’t Amazon Prime customers get enough perks? Since this is only once a year, can’t you offer Amazon Prime Day to the general public? For once, is Walmart right?
