The Downside

Social Q&A site Yedda (competitor to my own site Answerbag), sent me an interesting email today. For some reason, “based on the information in my profile,” they think I know something about “that smell.”

I always wonder why people copy business models that haven’t taken off. If you’re going to improve upon the model, that’s cool, but if the existing model isn’t exactly a hit, why copy it with the exact same model?
Amazon apparently looked at barely-recognized mobile Q&A service AskMeNow and said to their collective selves, hey [...]

Ever have a loved one die, but think that a boring old wood coffin just doesn’t do them justice? Well, your prayers have been answered. Thank you Oxford Coffins for giving us Colored Coffins. Here are a few of my favorites:

And for all your death and dying needs, be sure to check [...]

According to the Wall Street Journal, Yahoo is rumored to be buying Facebook for 1 billion dollars. That’s right, 1 billion. (Full disclosure: I own stock in Yahoo.) Bambi Francisco confirms the rumor, but says a deal is still a ways off.
Why, one may ask, would Yahoo need Facebook? Perhaps [...]

Six years ago, those of us in the Internet industry saw a massive collapse. It was created by a huge influx of money into any company with a .com in its name as VCs hoped to take companies public based on their number of users and brand awareness rather than their basic business fundamentals. [...]

With Microsoft’s release of the Zune today, we are that much closer to my orgasmic scenario of having our media accessible anywhere, any time. While it has some neat forward-looking features like wireless filesharing, some marketing genius decided to release the Zune in white, black, and brown…way to counter those geek vs. cool-guy Apple [...]

The new Tivo Series 3 debuted yesterday, finally offering HD recording, lagging behind previous offerings from DirecTV and Sony. On the surface this is great news, but the downside is that this beast will run you $800. (In all fairness, the products from DirecTV and Sony are in the same price range.)
Clearly this [...]

In my browsing of Yahoo! News in the morning, I have come across this ad several times. What in blue blazes is going on in this picture, and why does it make me want to apply for mortgage? Someone needs to have a little talk with the ad designers over at Lowermybills.

Here’s the tally:

Launch delayed
$500 price point at launch (while Xbox 360s will likely be going for $350 by then)
400,000 units for US Launch, 100,000 for Japanese launch due to difficulties in producing BluRay drives
BluRay games will load slower than HD-DVD (Source: A cross-platform game developer)
And perhaps worst of all, Sony can’t produce BluRay discs fast [...]