Involving: a gimmicky S4 release, a scathing JP Morgan senate report that is unrealistically outraged, and Veronica Mars gets a kickstart – what a model!
Good morning
The headlines:
- Galaxy S4.
Link: comes with a hands-free kit.
The new Samsung is here, and it allows you to read articles with your eyes.
Oh. Wait.
I was going to attempt to be balanced, but then realised that it’s just not as much fun. This may come back to bite me in about 4 months time when I decide to make the switch because, like, reading on your phone while you’re eating is a pain if you need to keep touching the screen. On the other hand: TV. But whatever.
The new S4 also allows you to take a photo with both the front and rear cameras at the same time, and then merge your face into the second photo.
Um. That’s Photoshop.
Dear Samsung. Did you make a new phone or did you recycle some apps? This question… It’s why your share price dropped after your unveiling.
- Senate probe.
Link: JP Morgan.
The Senate report on the London Whale saga has been released and it’s full of scathing.
But this is old news – of course there were some irregularities. If you dig deep enough into anything, you find irregularities. Or are we still clinging to the delusion that moral perfection is more than a possibility – it’s the norm? And/or that human error is rare and never found in big corporations?
We must be real. Human error and management bias in favour of their own bonuses are just part of the cost of doing business.
- Veronica Mars.
Link: kickstarter.com
Veronica Mars is one of those cancelled series that had a cult following, but got cancelled anyway.
The director had a movie script and went onto kickstarter.com yesterday to try and raise money for it. Over $2 million raised in nine hours.
The important part of this story: think about the guy that started kickstarter.com! I mean – it’s a magnificent business model.
He has set up a site that brings together project-starters and people with extra money. The project-folk set up a list of rewards for varying levels of pledge (eg. “more than $10” backers get a signed poster of the movie; “more than $100,000” backers get all the other rewards plus dinner with the cast; etc), with kickstarter carrying none of the liability for the carry-through. Kickstarter only collects the pledged amounts if the project-backing exceeds the fund-raising target.
And then kickstarter gets a portion of the funds raised before they hand the money on to the project-people.
How awesome to be the middle-man.
That’s all for now.
Have a good day.
