Passed a store the other day. The sign read 99 CENTS! And the subtitle was, “Everything $1 and up”.
The 99 cent store was never popular because there’s some magical power about the price that is a penny less than a dollar. No, it’s because it represents an attitude, that this stuff is CHEAP. Not absolute cheap, just relatively cheap. Not even a good value, just cheap. Cheap compared to its non-cheap competition.
At the other end of the spectrum, the prices at the Hermes store appear to be missing a decimal point or two. The attitude is, “wow, this stuff is expensive.” It’s not about what you get, it’s about how it feels to pay that much.

by Seth Godin
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This week we have Craig Kanarick, blogger at EXP.

Tepid to Warm reactions from Analysts to Apple TV Revision / Amazon to Sell ABC and Fox Shows for 99-Cents Each / Ars Technica Says No Update for Old Apple TVs to Add new Apple TV Features / UBS Analyst Likes Apple Product Lineup Heading Into Holidays / Apple Excludes New iPods in Last Week of Back-to-School Mac/iPod Promotion / Macworld Says iTunes 10 Hoses iTunes Automator Actions / iTunes 10 Fixes 13 Flaws for Windows Users / Live Nation and Ticketmaster to Provide Concert Info for iTunes 10 / Apple Nixes Ringtone Maker in iTunes 10 / The Ping/Facebook Connect Disconnect / Ping.fm Big Beneficiary of iTunes 10 Social network Ping / IDC Names Apple Most Environmentally Friendly Cellphone Maker / WSJ Says T-Mobile to Lose German iPhone Exclusivity Soon / Net Applications Numbers Show iOS Beating Linux and Android Online / Apple Ships Fourth Developer Build of Snow Leopard Update with Two Known Devices / Apple Posts iOS 4.2 iPad Update Promo Page / Sony Beats Apple in the PMP Space in Japan for Month of August

by Ken Ray
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One way to start every morning with your team is to have them check in. Go around in a circle and let people update and contribute. It’s not a silly exercise, in that it helps people speak up and it communicates forward motion.
Another way, probably a better one, is to have each member of the team announce what they’re afraid of. Two kinds of afraid, actually. Things that might fail and things that might work.
What are you, chicken?
Yes, we’re chicken. We’re afraid. The lizard has us by the claws.
So, tell us. What are you afraid might happen that would destroy, disintegrate, or dissuade–that would take us down? And what are you afraid of that might work, thus changing everything and opening up entirely new areas of scariness?

by Seth Godin
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Two years. Can you believe it’s only been two years since we started browsing the internet faster than a potato can tear through the air? Well, Google can, and it’s certainly not been sitting around during that time, improving Chrome‘s JavaScript performance by a factor of 3, and throwing in a litany of additional features, like tab side-by-side view, themes, auto-translation, and bookmark and preference sync across machines. To celebrate the anniversary, the company’s uploaded version numero 6 to its stable channel, which brings a few more GUI optimizations and some bug fixes to the table. Hardware graphics acceleration isn’t yet included in the public release, but it too shall be joining the party before long.Chrome is now 2 years old! Google celebrates with release of version 6 originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 03 Sep 2010 06:25:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink   |  Chrome Blog  | Email this | Comments

Chinese telecom giant Huawei — which has been playing the Android game with major carriers around the world for some time now — has selected IFA to debut the Ideos, a new entry-level model running Froyo in a variety of colors. Huawei’s press release calls the Ideos “the world’s first affordable smartphone” — which seems like a bit of an overstatement (okay, a huge overstatement) to us — but really underscores the fact that this thing is going to be launching for somewhere between $100 and $200 unsubsidized in Europe, Asia, and both North and Latin America. It’s got 3G, WiFi, mobile hotspot capability for up to eight devices, and was apparently developed in direct partnership with Google, a sign that Mountain View is serious about taking Android 2.2 across the entire price spectrum.

We checked out the Ideos today and were pretty impressed; clearly, you’re not going to mistake it for an EVO, a Droid X, or a Defy, but Huawei has definitely put some effort into engineering this thing so that they were able to make it cheaply without making it feel like it would come apart in your hands. The company is quick to note that 2.8-inch capacitive displays aren’t very common — and though we could’ve definitely used HVGA instead of the Ideos’ QVGA, we were pleased with the responsiveness, both from a processor performance perspective and a touch sensitivity one. Add in the support for 7.2Mbps HSDPA and the stylish colors (black, yellow, blue, and purple) and Huawei might just have a winner here. More on this one when launch carriers start to come out of the woodwork. Follow the break for the full press release.
Gallery: Huawei Ideos hands-onContinue reading Huawei Ideos hands-onHuawei Ideos hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 03 Sep 2010 06:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

Despite signs that the economic recovery is losing steam, the outlook for online holiday sales remains upbeat. Still, the uncertain economy does pose complex challenges for retailers’ holiday season preparations. How they manage inventory will be a critical success factor, so smart retailers are working more closely with supply-channel partners to deal with different consumer-demand scenarios.

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