Tag Archives: music

March 17, 2025 · 21:50

The what? Cry me a river.

Yup this happens. I am in the mindset to cry a river as Cookie Tim (apparently the CEO of Apple) screwed up the application design of Apple products to such a degree that several apps are now lagging and giving me less joy and appreciation of what Apple does at present. In Music, Keynote, And Photos and a few more items. These three hit me personally. So as such if I can give Cookie Tim a hard time I will. As such when the BBC gave us ‘Global smartwatch sales fall for first time’ I was interested in reading that ‘news’. News by Imran Rahman-Jones. So first we see “Global sales of smartwatches have fallen for the first time, new figures indicate, in large part due to a sharp decline in the popularity of market leader, Apple.” That is nothing short of weirdly imaginative and a lack of reasoning has applied. Then we get “Market research firm Counterpoint says 7% fewer of the devices were shipped in 2024 compared to the year before. Shipments of Apple Watches fell by 19% in that period, Counterpoint says.” And the first thing I wonder is where is the data? I am decently convinced (like 80%+ certain), I could drill holes in that, possibly the size of the grand canyon. So where is my view? Well, the general setting is that “Samsung introduced a rectangular smart watch, the Samsung Gear, in 2013, two years before the first rectangular Apple Watch.” And yes, Apple ruled that market in the beginning. As I personally see it I reckon that in a short time Apple had that market for about 70% and Samsung for 30% And when you consider that in 2025 Android has 71.75%, IOS has 27.78%, So there is a large abundance of non-Apple systems. So Apple did something extremely right in those days. The larger setting that the BBC seemingly overlooks is that the consumer gets a watch once and then some time later another one. You see, these bad boys cost a few shillings and as such plenty of people cannot afford one. So I bought my Smartwatch last year and I expect that this device will last until at least 2027 and it is not as expensive as the Apple variety (and I am an Android fan). As such, at present we have iTouch, Garmin, HardHat, GadPro, Nexus, Huawei, Withings, Amazfit, Xiaomi, Imoo, HiFuture (all iOS options) and some of these are being marketed as ‘the economical choice’ the iTouch is less than $50, whilst the Apple Watches come at well over 1000% ($500+). As people cannot afford a lot of stuff and some are still new in the Smartwatch category, Can you blame them for selecting the cheaper option at present? 

As the article is blatantly short on ‘data’ can you blame me for not believing a word that the BBC prints here? That is besides the lack of the words ‘pricing’, ‘price’ and ‘expensive’ in this article. Another reference is “Another large contributor to the global sales drop was India, which fell from 30% of the market to 23%.” It seems like an issue that is until you realise that in India “In 2023, Android held a share of 95.17 percent of the mobile operating system market in India. This was followed by Apple’s iOS, a distant second, with 3.98 percent market share.” (Source: Statista), so when you consider that a 7% drop over a market they only have for 4%, the drop is negligible. But the BBC wanted something to write about, how about we write about the lack of data in this setting? Oh, wait they are already screwing this up in regards to the Hamas setting. As such this lack is merely laughable. 

Another setting I dropped over (not in this article) was “So, it makes sense for users to buy an iPhone, especially if they already have a Mac, iPad or even the Apple Watch.” Now this isn’t a given, but I reckon that a smartwatch lacks vision if you do not have the proper smart phone. 

So is there a real setting?
Actually the article gives us that “the fact a rumoured high-end Ultra 3 model never materialised.” This could be a reason, but that implies that these customers from 2024 are merely waiting for a release in 2025, so they aren’t gone, there are merely set in a waiting pattern awaiting the go signal. I would be in the same setting with the MAC Studio (if I could afford one). Why select the M4Max over an M3Ultra, it would make more sense waiting until the M4Ultra comes (and perhaps at that time I could afford one). So we have two settings, the affordability (in this economy) and the technology when it comes available as well as the realistic option that there is a market saturation, or near that setting and with a dozen brands Apple will lose a few notches and that too is missing from the article. It gives us ‘how great’ Chinese brands are doing, but there is more than China. There is a flood of brands coming to the customers now and as Apple staff (in their shops) are ‘indoctrinated’ to do the Apple talk in a few ways, they are losing market share there too. I reckon that it is the price of depending on teenagers doing the job because they look fresh and appealing. I reckon that it is costing Apple more than they realise. It is a choice and I reckon it is no longer the better choice.

Still that doesn’t excuse the BBC article, it is as I personally see it shoddy all by itself. 

Have a great day this Monday.

Leave a comment

Filed under Finance, IT, Media, Science

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

November 23, 2024 · 20:11

Reinvention

That is the thought of the day. We all reinvent ourselves. Shakespeare was reinvented several times through Hamlet in movies and plays. I particularly liked the version with Ethan Green Hawke. I liked the approach of an adaptation that kept the Shakespearean dialogue but presents a more modern setting, with technology such as video cameras, Polaroid cameras, and surveillance bugs. It makes for an amazing view in a new setting. I like it because someone took the trouble of reinventing the play, not merely the stage of the play, but reinventing the concept of the wheel. I like that. We can have version after version but when you make the car it drives a hovercraft it becomes something else entirely. Who would have guessed that the series I loved as a kid (Battlestar Galactica) could become the stuff of legends by Ron Moore. He pulled it off. What was just a decent dreary thing kids loved would become the version adults would revere. Lorne Greene was the version we adored when we were young and was decades later replaced by Edward James Olmos. The lieutenant that stood standing next to Don Johnson and Philip Michael Thomas became the stuff of legends as he gave greatness as William Adama (callsign “Husker”). Reinvention does that and as I see it, I gave the BlueRay a 96% rating, one of the highest rating I ever gave a TV series. As such reinvention is key to decades of entertainment. It enabled me to create the movie ‘How to Assassinate a politician’ (aka ‘Essay’). From there I started the stage of Residuam Vitam a miniseries where death is the central player and the views we have becomes altered in the hands of 8 billion, but only after people die. And the stage of Atheism becomes a new player, being it a tender one. So when we set the stage of history it becomes another matter. That let me to the beginning of us all. Erich Anton Paul von Däniken, the  Swiss author of The Gods Were Astronauts and he was not wrong. The origin of the Greek gods was just that and they came from the Sombrero galaxy (galaxy M104). I explore that in Kenos Diastima and it forms in me as a TV series (three seasons). Where it is not merely what we look like, it sets the stage of how we are set up. This rotates in another direction as Engonos the later series. Engonos translating as ‘Grandson’ where the first season was the view that he has, the second season shows us where it still is about the gods and the third season (for now) is shaped as the hidden trap the gods set for all of us and the hidden levers they set up their own system to never be held to any kind of account. So how is that seen when they are themselves their own creators?

Reinvention is key in all of this. I tried to ‘sell’ the script of ‘How to assassinate a politician’ to Dubai Media (as islam is centre in all of this) then I also tried to approach Saudi Broadcasting Authority (SBA) and I can report with saddened intonation that I was unsuccessful. This media is not my stage. I created stories and I create what could be seen as dialogue. I believed that there was an islamic market for people, especially as islamophobia becomes an overwhelming issue and I personally believe that these idiots and morons hiding behind ‘Free Palestine’ to destroy anything they can like cheap Football Hooligans and soon that setting will grow tired on too many people and we get new fields of malice and destruction. In that I felt that I was able to corner a new market and with the Dutch politician Geert Wilder (before he became Prime minister of the Netherlands) I saw a story emerge where Arabic children saw their way to wrote him to death and we see his demise five times over. The setting where a movie was played in Dammam, Amsterdam and The Hague helped as I saw that this had never been done before. No matter how you reinvent things, it helps for the stage to be new and largely unknown to the watching audience. I thought I saw an option. However Dubai media and the Saudi Broadcasting Authority seemingly did not see it that way. My view was a story that appealed to millions of Islamic viewers and they? Perhaps they saw an immature script. That part is speculative as they never gave me any feedbacks (other than we have other projects running). 

You see reinvention also sets you up for two settings. The ego of others and the ego of self. The ego of others is what it is. You can cry, you can sulk and this setting merely is. The ego of self is different. It wants to believe in self, but the truth is that it also needs criticism of self to endure and see the brighter life of what could be. This is what I see in Hamlet (2000) and Battlestar Galactica (2004) they did more then endure. They reinvented themselves in more ways and we all enjoyed what came from that. The only thing I can do is to reinvent more and more. Games, stories, movies and ideas. I particularly like to reinvent in a different format. What was a scrolling game could be an sandbox RPG, what was a book could become a movie with a difference and there are other ways too. The idea in one form could be reinvented in other forms because it attracts a new audience. Look at Star Trek it went from the original series into the next generation and now there is Strange New Worlds. Yet for the most it attracts the same audience. That can be an option. To grow from the original audience to include a larger audience. This is what was achieved with Picard and it was an amazing achievement. But it is not a trajectory I am on (and I have no starting audience). Still the boundaries of reinvention are vast and there are so many corners to see. I merely hope that I find a corner that will find appeal to an audience.

All this looks nice (and academic) but there is a hidden corner is any creator (in me too). It is the setting of the imperfect creator hypothesis. It is what it is. The only way around that is to reinvent the reinvention. I sets the value of imperfection at bay but it also creates more doubt in self. A vicious circle to say the least. But any creator loves the battle that goes on inside ones self. The stage of creation and doubt goes on an on and perhaps at some point I will see one of my creations become a reality. 

Have a great day and seek the sunlight if you can. Not really an option in Vancouver, but in Sydney it was 30 degrees today with full sun during this day.

Leave a comment

Filed under Media, movies, Religion, Stories

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

August 8, 2023 · 22:26

Moments of remembrance

This comes out of the blue. I knew of the event, I saw the messages pass by. Yet until the BBC article (at https://www.bbc.com/news/live/world-66432558) I had no idea what an impact she had. I remember the single Nothing Compares to U, I have the single CD, I also bought the album but that is pretty much as good as it got. I was one of millions that got the song and until recently I was unaware that it was a song made by Prince. It was then that I learned that she had dwarfed him with his one song. I am not dissing Prince, he has made his mark on the world of music, but to be that good and then to be surpassed by someone with your own song takes a special kind of musician (or singer) and Sinead was that. 

Today I saw the BBC article with images (image below is from the Independent) and then it hit me. To have thousands of people pay respect to a musician takes a very special kind of musician. 

And it seems important to me that we stop for a moment to remember her, not because of what I say, but when that many people want to pay their last respect, when millions more on a global level say goodbye to this woman. There is no doubt that this woman was special and to coin a phrase, as far as I can tell nothing compared to her. Born in Dublin on December 8th 1966. This Irish lady’s best-selling album was “I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got” which sold over 4.95 million copies. That puts her in the highest ranking order, especially as this album was released in 1990. This puts her right up there with Elton John, Phil Collins, Whitney Houston and Madonna. I never knew this until I started to dig a little. And no matter how we like her music (or not), that is an achievement worth remembering. So I take a moment of silence, I bow to her album and raise a glass in her honour. I do not know much about her, or her life. But the massive amount of people paying her last respect give me moment to realise that not knowing her makes me the lesser person. There was no intent, but the realisation that what she achieved was beyond remarkable needs to be remembered and that is what I am doing now.

I would like to end with something profound, but words fail me at this time. So take a moment and pause. Think of the people you knew in the past, the movies they were in, the music they made and think of the happy feelings these moments instilled.

Have a great day.

Leave a comment

Filed under Media

Tagged as , , , , , ,

June 8, 2023 · 12:48

Timing Matters

This thought came to me last night after I have had a few negative encounters with places like JB HiFi and likeminded places. First off, JB Hifi (et al) did nothing wrong. They were all as kind and as customer service minded as needed. What was the small fact is that I had a few dollars at my disposal and I wanted to catch up with music by Bowie, Kraftwerk, Enigma, Supertramp and a few others. None were available. Moreover there is a whole range of other musicians that would not normally be available in Australia. Then I remembered the larger setting. It was IP, but not mine. It was a Dutch entrepreneur named Hans Breukhoven who created the Dutch chain ‘Free Record Store’. It was as impressive as JB HiFi or the Virgin Megastore. He came up with the idea where people selected an album and it would be created at the spot. In the 90’s this was too new, too forward thinking, but I reckon he had the right idea. Now we rely on Spotify, but why? And when bandwidth becomes an issue, places like Spotify will have a problem. What matters is that this idea by a place like Amazon (most likely) could create a special store in the larger cities first, creating such a place. Allowing people to connect to music and strongly local music. 

You see there is no clear number of expats globally, but some sources state it is well over 250,000,000 people. Consider that there are that many people that cannot connect to their original music. We can give you a list, but that list becomes too large and too overwhelming. New York Alone has an expected 3.4 million expats. As such one store offering them a whole range of music done at that point and offered to these people become a viable solution now. After that places like London, Paris, Amsterdam and like minded locations become a next setting. It is becoming more and more easy to create high quality CD’s, the elements are there, the printing options are there and it is not out of the realm of possibilities that a place like Amazon will partner with a place like QuickCopy and complete the circle. Where do you find local Italian music? Name a nation and the names will come pouring out. The idea that Hans Breukhoven had was spot on, he was merely too early with the idea and he left us without seeing it come to fruition. Yet I reckon that this is registered IP and they might want to consider talking to Amazon about it. Amazon is not the only player, but it is the most viable player to make it work and I reckon that an element that has the ability to become a billion dollar industry should not be ignored, but that might merely be me. 

No matter how it turns out for me, I reckon that there is a market which is now becoming large enough to take another look at the ideas that some rejected over the last few decades, but that might merely be me.

For those with the simple setting that I should rely on Amazon, they are not incorrect. You see, I believe in supporting my own local hooker (a term from the 70’s). I get that Amazon is soon the only option for me, but that implies that the local shops have failed and I believe that it is my duty to offer them a solution, even if Amazon is added to it, unless they partner with QuickCopy, making my believe sound fine. You see, it is not merely about the music we all like. How about musicians like Abadi Al-Johar, Adriano Celentano, Sakis Rouvas, Liesbeth List, Rufus Wainwright or Gustavo Cerati. I know merely two of them. But the world is larger than me and the setting of someone wanting an album now is not out of the realm of possibilities and when we have that running. People will have an evolving mind towards movies. DVD’s is an option, but Blu-Rays not yet (as far as I know). A station where distribution will lose out of, merely because they cannot have all and that tracks will have to evolve and the idea that Hans Breukhoven had a few decades ago is now starting to make more and more sense. And I get nothing out of this, which is not a prerequisite. I believe that in this world, in this economy we will need to put all hands on deck to start making an impact. This today was mine, I have had a few ideas in the past and I merely added another one. I do not reject anything because it is not part of my bottom line, that is the stupid approach of a local thinking manager. It is as someone once said Think Local, Act global and I am merely doing my part.

Enjoy the day, soon you are merely one day away from the day before the weekend.

Leave a comment

Filed under Finance, Science

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,