Curated News (Page 21)

“All these problems go away when we realize that it’s ok to pay for stuff we like. We need to apply the normal real world economics to online pricing. Then companies can build products and charge a price commensurate with value.”

via Death to Freemium | Be a Better E-mailer

“This perception that stuff online should be free makes it harder and harder for new businesses to charge money for value.”

via Death to Freemium | Be a Better E-mailer

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“There’s a psychological barrier to paying online, and it needs to stop.

We pay for things in real life every day. We don’t hesitate to drop a fifty for a tank of gas, or $4 for a cup of coffee. But when it comes to paying for $5 for an online service that actually delivers significant value – it’s a no-no.”

via Death to Freemium | Be a Better E-mailer

“All in all, Apple sold 58.6 million devices (iPhones, iPads, Macs, and iPods) at an average operating profit of $263 a unit, an all-time profitability record. That means that each device sold — whether an iPad or the lowly Shuffle — on average earned Apple $263 before taxes. To put that in perspective: Nokia (NOK) made $3 per unit while Research in Motion (RIMM) made $57 per unit last quarter reported.”

via Apple’s Juggernaut - Seeking Alpha

“Big Data, has lots of potential applications. But, as Tim Berners-Lee noted today, the people benefiting from more sophisticated machine learning techniques are the people buying consumer data, not the consumers themselves. How many Big Data startups might help people see their lives in different ways?”

via The Jig Is Up: Time to Get Past Facebook and Invent a New Future - Alexis Madrigal - Technology - The Atlantic

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“For at least five years, we’ve been working with the same operating logic in the consumer technology game. This is what it looks like:

There will be ratings and photos and a network of friends imported, borrowed, or stolen from one of the big social networks. There will be an emphasis on connections between people, things, and places. That is to say, the software you run on your phone will try to get you to help it understand what and who you care about out there in the world. Because all that stuff can be transmuted into valuable information for advertisers.”

via The Jig Is Up: Time to Get Past Facebook and Invent a New Future - Alexis Madrigal - Technology - The Atlantic

“World changers want greatness. They believe they can create something radically better than everyone else, and they know that if they do, the money will follow.”

via Widget-maker, or world-changer? | FLO {thinkery}

“There’s a motivational benefit to having to put your day into words, and there’s a long-term data benefit to having a day-by-day account filled with keywords, project names, and little quips.”

via Track Thyself: Quantify Your Life For Productivity, Fun | Fast Company

“But what makes personal data useful and revealing is finding the sweet spot between curiosity and measurable data.”

via Track Thyself: Quantify Your Life For Productivity, Fun | Fast Company

“Find something more important than you are,” philosopher Dan Dennett once said in discussing the secret of happiness, “and dedicate your life to it.”

via How to Find Your Purpose and Do What You Love | Brain Pickings