About a Boycott: After Starbucks Caves, U.K. Sets Sights on Tech Giants
On December 11, Slim Smith decided to take Shindig!, the cult British music magazine he publishes, off Amazon.co.uk. With Christmas just around the corner, it was a risky move. But Smith was so angry about Amazon’s tax evasion that he didn't want the site to make any money from his magazine, even if the decision cost him sales. “On a personal level, I don’t have to shop at Amazon, but this magazine I publish was being sold there. That put me in a bit of quandary,” he told me. READ MORE >>
Silicon Valley Needs to Stop Fighting and Sign a Free-Trade Agreement
The most dramatic trade war in the world today isn’t being waged between nations, but in cyberspace. And instead of tariffs on, say, grain or cars, the barrier is blocked apps. READ MORE >>
Silicon Valley’s Profit-Killing Provincialism
JOHN SCHNIPKOWEIT shouldn’t have problems finding investors. A few years ago, he started and sold a business that set up WiFi hotspots at hotels and airports. His new project, a Facebook application that helps organize after-work sports leagues, employs seven people and is doing well in private beta testing. In Silicon Valley, which loves ideas that disrupt hidebound folkways, it’d get funded in a second. READ MORE >>
“Smug, Snide, and Off the Mark”: An Ohioan Responds to Walter Kirn
According to my new, less tolerant understanding of American democracy gained by reading, in this magazine’s words, Walter Kirn’s “definitive Ohio hit piece,” the future of our country depends on the whims of a Midwestern electorate worthy of coastal scorn because they find national politicking a bit off-putting and rent their golf clubs. READ MORE >>
“Re: Nate Silver, most amusing thing about this election is watching political pundits make sports fans look like PhD mathematicians,” tweeted ESPN basketball writer John Hollinger earlier this week. READ MORE >>
Michael Saylor, The Id of Web 2.0
On a recent Friday morning, Michael Saylor appeared before a think-tank audience to cheerfully predict the end of the world. Newspapers and televisions? Obsolete in a smartphone-enhanced future. Banks and wallets? Ditto. Textbooks? About to “dematerialize.” Also doomed: Algebra teachers. READ MORE >>
Apple's latest earnings are in, and they're characteristically whopping: With a big bump from the iPhone 5, the world's most valuable company has brought in $156.5 billion this year. That's more than Facebook, Google, and Microsoft combined. READ MORE >>
