Now that the Kindle Fire has officially been announced, we can stop speculating and start anticipating it. The Amazon Tablet will go on sale for $199 which prices it well below the iPad. In fact, you could buy two Kindle Fires and a Kindle Touch for the price of an iPad. The Kindle Fire has already had an impact on the tablet market as Blackberry lowered the price of its Playbook. In my last post, I suggested that Amazon was taking a loss to drive their content sales, and UBs agrees: Then you get to the actual product. With all the hoopla surrounding the Kindle Fire, the pricing suggests it's not going to be a direct competitor with the iPad. However, it appears that the Kindle Fire will tell us whether there is a tablet market outside the iPad:
If the sum of all is more than the value of the individual platform products, we should be seeing substantial interest in the Kindle Fire – more than in any other Android tablet to date. The Kindle Fire will deliver answers that no other Android tablet has done so far. Ultimately, I believe that the Kindle Fire will either confirm claims that there is a tablet market outside the iPad or silence most proponents of this market.
The 7 inch tablet could just be Amazon's initial entry into the market, to establish its presence. There are rumors that Amazon will come out with a 10 inch tablet following the initial release:
According to a Digitimes report, Amazon has tapped Foxconn to produce the larger model. China-based Foxconn is also responsible for manufacturing the bulk of Apple’s iPad. Another Chinese firm, Quanta, however, is manufacturing the 7-inch Kindle Fire. Quanta is also the manufacturer of the BlackBerry PlayBook, although it recently announced that it was cutting production lines for RIM’s tablet, dismissing 1,000 employees from its Taiwan factory.
Regardless, the Kindle Fire seems to already have stirred excitement amongst the masses. Amazon is already cleaning up:
eDataSource, a leading provider of online competitive intelligence, estimates that sales of Amazon's new Kindle Fire reached 95,000 units during the first day that the device was made available through Amazon's website.
The question is why will this be a hit as opposed to other Android tablets. Amazon has let it be known what their tablet is about:
The Kindle Fire has a very smooth purchase-and-use path. Boot, choose from a curated list of options, buy something, enjoy. It's different enough from the successful iPad in size, usage and price that this holiday season may finally see us go from a one-tablet nation to a two-tablet zone. Anyone else trying to break through with a tablet should take a lesson from Amazon here. Tell us what it's for.
The Kindle Fire appears like it will have a better user experience than the other Android tablets because its users will know what to expect when they use it. Apple does a great job of catering first to the user then working on the product that caters to those needs. The Kindle Fire could be the product that combines the great hardware of Android with a positive user experience.
Although Chris Christie did not discuss a potential bid for the Republican nomination for President, it did not stop people from asking him: The guy appears to be very charismatic and you can see why so many people want him to run for President. I wholeheartedly agree with him that if you are going to run for President, you have to be up for it. It's a taxing job and you heart has to be in it.
That hasn't stopped important figures from urging him into the race:
The renewed consideration about a White House run came after prodding this week from some Republicans he idolizes, including former First Lady Nancy Reagan, former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, and former President George W. Bush, sources said.
The people want him in the race and other leaders want him in the race, what's holding him back? Even Romney says it would be fun to have Christie in the race:
"Chris is a great friend, a great guy, a colorful character," the former Massachusetts governor said Wednesday at a campaign event in Manchester, N.H. "Who knows? Maybe he'll get in. I think it'd be fun if he got in."I
That sounds wrong coming from a potential competitor right? May be it's more a sign of the weakness of the current crop of candidates. The voters seem undecided. Romney, who is the current favorite, has not won any of the straw polls thus far. Rick Perry, the other frontrunner, hasn't won either. There is a lot of indecision between the Republicans, and that's because one candidate hasn't risen above the others. The GOP is hoping so: An old Northeast Republican Moderate eh? I like the sounds of that, but don't we already have one of those? What makes Christie different from Mitt Romney? I don't know.
The other main question is whether it's too late. He still has some time:
Late October appears to be the latest someone could get in, gear up, and run in the early states, given all the requirements and needs of a campaign.
It would be best if he announced sooner rather than later to meet all the deadlines. Campaigning is another story.
Ultimately, it's about who raises fervor within the party and rejuvenates and unites a divided party. It appears that Christie could be that guy. The best candidate, Mitt Romney, has never garnered enough enthusiasm. Interest in Perry cooled down just as fast as it heated up. The rest of the candidates don't seem to be legitimate contenders. Christie will either win the race or make it abundantly clear who should win the race.
WASHINGTON, Sept 28 (Reuters) - The Obama administration on Wednesday asked the U.S. Supreme Court to back the centerpiece of Barack Obama's sweeping healthcare overhaul -- the requirement that all Americans have health insurance.
The appeal was largely expected as a high court ruling against the law could be a fatal blow to the president's signature domestic policy achievement and could have major implications for his re-election bid.
The case is important because healthcare reform has been on of the corner stones of Obama's presidency. Additionally, the ruling will come down only a few months before what should be a heated reelection campaign for the President. Obama supporters are confident:
“We believe that a prompt resolution of the constitutionality and severability of the individual mandate is in the best interest of individuals, employers, states, and the federal government. We are confident in the merits of our legal arguments, and we look forward to presenting them to the Supreme Court.”
What may be more concerning than the constitutionality of the law at this moment, is the rising costs of healthcare:
Even a slow economy can't stop healthcare costs from rising. A new report by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Health Research & Educational Trust shows that the cost of employer-provided insurance rose 9% this year — even as workers and their families were cutting back on trips to the doctor's office — and has more than doubled over the last decade.
Costs are growing out of control since Obamacare was passed:
The report was based on interviews with more than 2,000 employers between January and May. Researchers found that premiums rose three times faster from 2010 to 2011 than they had the previous year, pushing the average cost of policies for single workers to $5,429 and for families to $15,073.
“As this survey shows, the president’s promise that his partisan health law would lower costs was just empty rhetoric,” Sen. Orrin Hatch (Utah), the top Republican on the tax-writing Senate Finance Committee, said in a statement. “The fact is employers aren’t hiring, in large part, because they have to spend more and more money on health insurance.”
And Paul Ryan is always lurking with a fiscally responsible plan:
“Giving patients and consumers control over healthcare resources would make all Americans less dependent on big business and big government for our health security; give us more control over the care we get; and force health care providers to compete for our business,” Ryan said.
Until there is a ruling on this, healthcare will continue to be a hotly contested issue. In addition, all the Republican presidential candidates have said that if they are elected, they will repeal the law. The shelf law for Obamacare might not be that long anyway.
On a more concerning note, at the moment, it appears that healthcare reform may not reduce the cost of healthcare, thus making the law expensive. This will make it anti-jobs because company growth will be restrained by these costs. Furthermore, with our national debt crisis, it is important that the legislation we pass has a positive effect on our economy. I'm not convinced that this is the right move for that.
I've been meaning to write about Herman Cain for a while. As a black Republican businessman, he seemed out of place in the Republican Presidential race, but he always spoke with precision and confidence. Even before his Florida straw poll victory, I thought he was making a strong run as a potential Vice Presidential candidate. Needless to say, I learn more about an issue or a person when I write about them and I have to do the research.
So let's start off with a little background; unlike the rest of the candidates, Herman Cain has no experience in political position. He's a career businessman:
Cain, 65, grew up in Georgia and graduated from Morehouse College. He became a turnaround artist, rescuing the Burger King outlets of Philadelphia. From there, he went to Omaha, where in 1986 he took over and stabilized Godfather’s Pizza with clever advertising and aggressive downsizing.
By the early 1990s, Cain had started to transition out of day-to-day management at Godfathers and delve into politics. In 1992, he was appointed to the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City. In 1994, he became head of the National Restaurant Association, a post he held for five years.
He's a turnaround specialist, something he's highlighted in all the debates. The US is in need of a turn around, and he feels he's the best man for the job. This isn't the first time he's run for office. He ran for President in 2000 and he ran for Senate in 2004. Despite those failures, he left an impression:
But despite his lack of political success, he managed to attract the notice of a radio executive with his rich, booming voice. His campaign manager became his producer. He trademarked the expression “The Hermanator Experience.”
The two main talking points of his campaign have been the 9-9-9 tax plan he wants to institute and the Chilean social security model he wants to implement.
Most economists agree that a national sales tax would raise the relative tax burden on low- and middle-income earning taxpayers. "The main reason is that low- and middle-income households consume more of their income than high-income households do," said William Gale, senior fellow for economic studies at the Brookings Institution. "Another way of saying that is high-income households save more of their income than low-income households do."
Basically, if all people consume the same amount of taxable goods and services, if you have a lower income, whatever is taxed is going to be a higher percentage of income.
His whole system will make the lower classes pay more while the upper classes pay less. Now, I've already said that taxes need to be lower for the US to be competitive, but I don't think it makes sense to increase taxes on people who already are having trouble making ends meet. Yes, you want a society that encourages economic advancement, but you also need a minimum standard of living across the board. This is the United States where we tout our economic opportunity and high standards of living. Instituting a national sales tax is a straightforward attack on the lower classes.
But while the reform's supporters argue it has been a major success story, officials both inside and outside Chile now increasingly question whether the high costs and modest investment returns have doomed Piñera's original promise: a decent retirement income for workers at a savings for the government.
Social Security has come under fire because of the uncertainty surrounding its future. The government has misappropriated funds, so this would be another way of protecting individuals. The problem is that it doesn't provide enough income for the retired:
A recent report by the Chilean government brought more grim news, forecasting that as many as half of all workers won't be able to save enough to receive the minimum pension when they retire—even after paying into their accounts for 30 years—and will therefore rely on government subsidies. More than 17 percent of Chile's retirees now continue working because they can't afford to live on their pensions, according to that study, and another 7 percent want to work, but can't find jobs.
Despite this, the model has been praised and used as the basis of models in other countries. I think it is important that someone takes a greater look into this and challenges Cain in the next debate. He can't tout a program that doesn't get real results. Praise is one thing, results is the real thing.
Here’s the problem: To finance benefits at promised levels for those 55 or older, we would need to continue to collect payroll taxes from today’s working-age population. However, we would also propose to divert a significant share of those payroll tax into personal accounts. In effect, we would be trying to spend the same dollar twice, and we would do it trillions of times.
This doesn't seem like a worthy endeavor considering our country's tricky financial situation.
One thing is for certain, he is very confident: And he'll need it because his Florida win has brought him under fire as people begin to think whether he is a viable candidate for Presidency or not. It's uncertain whether his tax plan will work:
"I don't understand how the 9-9-9 plan -- which includes both a national sales tax and an income tax while purporting to repeal the 16th Amendment at some point -- can be taken seriously by anyone who feels we are already overtaxed," said Andrew Nappi, director of the Florida 10th Amendment Center.
And has it been vetted:
Zimmermann, a Romney supporter, said, "I don't know anyone who has vetted the 9-9-9 proposal and confirmed it as a viable plan."
Top aides in Iowa and New Hampshire quit earlier this year, saying Cain wasn’t taking the early states seriously. One former staffer recently alleged that staff members tried to cover up the role of a gay campaign adviser. He refuses to name the economic advisers who helped come up with his plan. In May, Cain said he couldn’t talk about foreign policy until elected.
That makes me believe that he hasn't taken himself seriously up to this point. If he really wants to make a run for this, he will aim for the transparency necessary to be a viable candidate. Until then, Herman Cain will be a bump in the road for the front runners. You cannot ignore potential skeletons in your closet and run for president. You will have people make you reveal that information as you rise a legitimate candidate. You should do your best to be prepared.
Now that Cain has one Florida, he best be prepared. He's been shooting for the stars; now the stars will be shooting back.
(Reuters) - Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O), which revolutionized reading with its Kindle e-reader, is expected to unveil a tablet computer next week that analysts say will seriously challenge Apple's (AAPL.O) market dominating iPad.
Indeed, the big question is whether it will challenge Apple's iPad. The iPad has been hugely successful and Apple is selling every tablet that they can make. Everyone wants to know if Amazon's tablet, which will reportedly be called the Kindle Fire, will be a threat to the iPad:
Ultimately, it’s a question of how much Amazon has in common with Apple. If they have enough of the same DNA, that fact may separate the color Kindle apart from every other Android tablet on the market — and give Cupertino a run for its money.
The big deal with Apple has been their execution in delivering their products and for the iPad, it's been with Apps:
Today, there are almost half a million iPhone and iPod apps. In the space of less than two years, there are almost 100,000 iPad apps. I don’t know exactly how many Android tablet apps there are, but I do know that any time I’ve used an Android tablet, I have a heck of a time finding decent Android tablet apps (there are thousands of excellent Android phone apps). Tablet developers are clearly building their iPad versions first and, given the 25 millions iPads already sold, likely achieving their greatest success on the iOS platform.
Mashable believes that Amazon has a similar built in ecosystem that'll enable the Kindle Fire to thrive:
Amazon has one big advantage over virtually every other Android Tablet manufacturer: it understand user interfaces. No other competitor, aside from Apple, runs such an active and varied website for consumers. The Seattle-based retailer has been perfecting Amazon.com’s interface for 16 years. When Amazon was just books, it was pretty straightforward — but as the company added other product categories, it struggled to find an rational interface metaphor. Even so, Amazon was the acknowledged leader in the space. When it introduced tabs, all other online retail sites tried them as well.
Then there's pricing:
But I doubt Amazon cares if it takes a small loss on the tablets. They’ll be putting a fully functional, Internet and media-ready portal to all of its products in the hands of millions of existing customers. (How many people do you know who do not have an Amazon account?)
Amazon has features like Amazon Prime and the Amazon App Store which can give it a pricing advantage over the iPad, while still being a profitable entity for the company.
The hat trick with an Amazon tablet will lie not with whether Amazon can offer a device that integrates its storefront and services—that's an easy bet, and a foregone conclusion given its history with Kindle e-readers. The real question is whether the company can produce a tablet with an interface that's natural, visually pleasing, and functionally spot-on for how it will be used by consumers.
The Tablet market isn't easy to break into:
If, with this tablet, Amazon can finally make a product that's a standout star with its interface and usability, the tablet has legitimate potential to be a threat to Apple's iPad. But if the company doesn't nail the interface, it runs the risk of offering yet another ho-hum tablet in a crowded landscape, albeit a ho-hum tablet with, presumably, a better-integrated media consumption and e-book experience than most. One can hope.
Amazon is late to the Tablet party, but only Apple is really having fun in the party. Other companies have made attempt to compete with the Cupertino giant, but have come up short. The iPad is a jack of all trades, and it has the support of Apple's application Arsenal. Amazon seems to be the one company that can compete with Apple on the application front, with its App Store, but the fact is the tablet, itself, has to be good in order to compete.
Amazon is taking a risk by entering the tablet market, but if they get it right, it could be a huge win for the company.
Barack Obama gave a speech to the Congressional Black Caucus on Saturday:
President Obama won accolades from supporters praising his speech to the Congressional Black Caucus Saturday night, but not everyone is convinced the president is invested in his recommitment to fighting Republicans and helping minority communities.
He has urged them to support him:
"I expect all of you to march with me and press on. Take off your bedroom slippers, put on your marching shoes. Shake it off. Stop complaining, stop grumbling, stop crying. We are going to press on. We've got work to do, CBC," he said.
Not everyone is happy with him:
"We have a president that yesterday says to the Congressional Black Caucus take off your slippers, implying that black people with 16.7 percent unemployment are staying home in their slippers. I doubt it. They are all looking for jobs and waiting for the president to come up with a plan," said Cheryln Harley LeBon, a member of the national advisory council of the Project 21 black leadership network and former senior counsel to the Senate Judiciary Committee.
"If [former President] Bill Clinton had been in the White House and had failed to address this problem, we probably would be marching on the White House," Cleaver told “The Miami Herald” in comments published Sunday. "There is a less-volatile reaction in the CBC because nobody wants to do anything that would empower the people who hate the president."
They can't react like they normally would because the President is black. They are backing him only because of his race. As an organization, it makes sense to protect future black leaders who might want to run for office from the bias that would come from this, but it certainly doesn't them right now. Obama's presidency has not been kind of blacks across the United States. African Americans have one of the nation's highest unemployment rates. These are the people who helped get him elected, and he's taken them for granted.
Maxine Waters had this to say:
She is saying what needs to be said. There was great optimism when Obama was elected, but the black community has had to be very patient to get him to help them as he has tried to address national issues. They've suffered:
The CBC has been holding a series of town hall meetings and jobs fairs across the country, where Waters said people have been "circling the blocks to get a chance to talk to employers."
"They want to know that we recognize, and that the president recognizes the pain that is in the African American community," she said.
They continue to be patient, but how long can you be patient? While Obama needs to make a national appeal, he has to give blacks something in order for them to vote for him in the next election. I'm not saying that they won't vote for him next election. I'm saying that they might not vote at all.
Obama can't risk alienating this part of his base. Things are bad. He needs to get find a way to make things better, or else he's toast.
Yesterday, the Saudi Arabia Monarch gave women the right to vote:
King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia on Sunday granted women the right to vote and run in future municipal elections, the biggest change in a decade for women in a puritanical kingdom that practices strict separation of the sexes, including banning women from driving.
While this does not mean immediate freedom for women, it's an important first step in providing them with more liberty. This development comes in the midst of a critical time in the middle east:
“There is the element of the Arab Spring, there is the element of the strength of Saudi social media, and there is the element of Saudi women themselves, who are not silent,” said Hatoon al-Fassi, a history professor and one of the women who organized a campaign demanding the right to vote this spring. “Plus, the fact that the issue of women has turned Saudi Arabia into an international joke is another thing that brought the decision now.”
There's still a question of how much this will change the social environment. While they have instituted this law, it might just be for show. There are still a lot of customs that prevent women from having full liberty in life. There might be another purpose:
Some analysts described the king’s choice as the path of least resistance. Many Saudis have been loudly demanding that all 150 members of the Shura be elected, not appointed. By suddenly putting women in the mix, activists feared, the government might use the excuse of integration to delay introducing a nationally elected council.
Someone who knows more about women's rights than me had this to say:
“[Today's announcement] is definitely an important step forward that there is a promise that women will be allowed to vote in the next municipal election, but not a promise that means anything for the election happening now,” Sarah Leah Whitson, director of Human Rights Watch’s Middle East and North Africa division, told ABC News.
“This announcement does nothing to address the systematic and institutional discrimination against women which includes not only no right to drive, but no right to make decisions about their everyday lives, including the right to seek an education, the right to employment, the right to travel, the right to open a bank account, even the right to obtain medical care without the permission of a male guardian,” she said.
"It's a mixed feeling. On one hand he opens the door for her and on the other hand she is still banned from driving," said Mohammad Fahad Qahtani, a college professor and human rights advocate. "It doesn't save her from horrible treatment by government agencies and the courts. It's a symbolic gesture, but it is in no way enough to improve the lives of women."
So the way I see this, it seems like a symbolic measure rather than a landmark law. Yeah, women are gaining the right to vote, but that doesn't mean that it is instantly going to change society. If anything, it marks a victory in a much longer war to get women on equal standing in Saudi Arabia.
It might have taken 3 years longer than expected, but it's here:
The first $200 million aircraft was handed over to Japanese carrier All Nippon Airways three years behind schedule after persistent delays that cost Boeing billions of dollars.
It's special:
Boeing says the revolutionary carbon fiber design will hand 20 percent fuel savings to airlines struggling to avoid a new recession, and give passengers a more comfortable ride with better cabin air and large electronically dimmable windows.
Here's the Dreamliner taking off for the first time:
Free at last! Free at last! God almighty, it is free at last!
Remember when you were little and planes were cool? The world seemed so big, yet these planes made it seem so small. Now we take them for granted.
The Dreamliner is a big deal for Boeing:
The Seattle Times reported on Sunday that 787 program costs had topped $32 billion due to delays. That estimate raised questions, the newspaper said, over whether the new jet would make money for Boeing before "well into the 2020s, if ever."
Boeing declined comment.
Analysts say new jets typically cost closer to $15 billion.
They invested a lot in this aircraft. They need to win battles with Airbus for airline fleets. This new innovative vehicle can help them do that. One of the markets they want to really make a killing in is China:
BEIJING—Boeing Co. is engaged in "very advanced discussions" with Chinese airlines to revitalize sales there of its 787 Dreamliner, according to a senior sales executive, as the U.S. plane maker competes with rival Airbus for a greater share of the growing market.
It's a strategc measure:
Boeing officials say the company needs to win more orders in China, one of the fastest-growing commercial aircraft markets, where competition from Airbus is becoming stiffer. Airbus's China president, Laurence Barron, said in a separate interview Wednesday that it expects to account for a 50% share of China's commercial-jet market by 2013. Also speaking on the sidelines of Aviation Expo, Mr. Barron said he expects Airbus's market share in China to be 47% by the end of this year. Airbus is a unit of European Aeronautic Defence & Space Co.
And it has a lot of potential for the company:
Earlier this month, Boeing raised its 20-year forecast for China's spending on commercial aircraft by 25%, citing planned international expansion by airlines in what the company expects will become the world's second-biggest aircraft market after the U.S. In that forecast, Boeing said it expects Chinese carriers and others to spend $600 billion for 5,000 new commercial airplanes from Boeing, Airbus and other manufacturers. Boeing last year estimated that China would spend $480 billion on 4,330 planes over the next 20 years.
This is just a really neat airplane:
I can't wait to experience this in person. As a fan of engineering and technology, I think this plane is a fantastic innovation. I hope it does great. It sounds like it took to account many of the things that are happening in the world. Boeing is not only trying to be more fuel efficient, but it's also trying to provide a quieter, more comfortable experience. The Dreamliner is everything you want as far as a step forward.
