Frank Schoetzau's Journal

hartmut esslinger’s early apple computer and tablet designs: “designboom met hartmut esslinger shortly before his presentation in hong kong and in that occasion we were given the first book copy. he introduced us into the strategic planning of apple and his personal friendship with steven jobs. in this article, designboom takes a look back at esslinger’s designs of the early 80’s, where the images document prototypes, concepts and explorations of apple’s computers, laptops and tablets.”

(Via TechCrunch.)

Eine Nation isoliert sich: Ab 2050 soll es in Deutschland nur noch klimaneutrale Häuser geben. Millionen Hausbesitzer müssen das Energiesparkonzept umsetzen. Doch bei Gebäudeisolierungen können erhebliche Probleme und Risiken auftreten.

“Es ist ein Milliardengeschäft: Mindestens 70.000 Euro müssen Eigentümer aufwenden, um ihr Haus energetisch zu sanieren. Doch ihnen fehlen verlässliche Angaben, welche Auswirkungen das hat.” (DIE WELT)

“Mehrere Studien belegen einen höheren Energieverbrauch bei gedämmten Wohnhäusern. Die Ergebnisse sind besonders brisant, weil die Bundesregierung die Energieeinsparverordnung weiter verschärfen will.” (DIE WELT)

parislemon:

If this is accurate, Samsung is on pace to pay Microsoft upwards of $2 billion to use Android this year. That’s Microsoft, not Google.

HTC, which barely made money last quarter after profit fell 57%, may be paying Microsoft around $500 million to use Android this year. That’s Microsoft, not Google.

Meanwhile, Microsoft is paying $1 billion to Nokia each year to ensure they keep using Windows Phone. This is the same Windows Phone operating system that Microsoft charges a fee for OEMs to use. Including Nokia.

Aside from Apple, the entire smartphone ecosystem is very fucked up.

Germany was an organizer of and is by far the largest contributor to the European Financial Stability Facility, which totals a staggering 726 billion euros ($924 billion). That number will rise and, when combined with earlier funds and loans, Germany’s share will easily exceed the country’s total annual federal tax revenues. Imagine the U.S. being willing to guarantee more than $2 trillion to bail out Mexico.

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2115038,00.html

Es hilft weder den Kindern in Afrika noch der Umwelt, führt aber zur Rohrverstopfung.

parislemon:

That’s not IBM. That’s not HP. That’s Dell.

But you’ll notice the trend. Everyone is getting out of the PC business because it’s a shitty business to be in.

IBM was way ahead of the curve (and is reaping the rewards as a result). While seemingly insane at the time, HP had the right idea last year (then backtracked and got burned last quarter). Now Dell.

You often hear the argument that Apple will eventually be squeezed in their high-margin hardware businesses. That cheaper components will drive costs down and cheap products will win. But that “win” comes with an asterisk. It’s a short-lived win. Eventually, it will turn to a loss both figuratively and literally. 

One of Apple’s strengths is the quality of their products, which allows for better margins. But their real strength is staying ahead of trends. Apple dropped “computer” from their name in 2007. They saw the writing on the wall. They still make computers, but they have long since become a secondary business massively trumped by other businesses (first the iPod, then the iPhone, now the iPad).

Dell lacked such foresight. Maybe it’s too late now, or maybe not. But I like John Gruber’s suggestion.

Update: As Jack Schofield points out, Dell actually did drop “Computer” from their name in 2003. The difference is that when Apple did it, they were actually becoming a different company. Dell was doing the same old — though they were thinking about getting into printers. Which is funny for an entirely different reason.