ambition, n.: an earnest desire for some type of achievement and the willingness to strive for its attainment
Thinking about ambition reminds me of Steve Jobs’ 2005 commencement address at Stanford. The words “stay hungry” have followed me ever since reading them. Read more »
The Apple TV is facing stiff competition from Google TV and others, like Roku, for consumer dollars. But is that really where it stands to gain the most? The blue screens of death we see all too often in retail displays say otherwise. Read more »
Research in Motion finally unveiled its much-rumored BlackBerry tablet yesterday, and it looks a lot more impressive at first glance than the company’s most recent handset, the Palm Pre-like Torch. But is this a game-changing device, or will it stumble out of the starting gate? Read more »
They say marijuana is a gateway drug; meet Apple’s new innocuous gateway gadget. Think twice about buying just because of that attractive $99 price point for the new Apple TV. It could cost you a whole lot more in the long run, if Apple’s plan succeeds. Read more »
Is there an area of your life or business where you just can’t seem to get a grip? I was thinking about this recently over something that’s been frustrating me for quite some time — not consistently sticking with an exercise routine. Read more »
Choose to spend an hour one way, and you miss out on all the other ways you could have spent that hour. But have you ever thought about opportunity cost as it relates to the products and services you offer within your business? Read more »
You’ve come up with your big idea, and now comes the hard part: Getting the word out about your business and, more importantly, hanging in there while you get the word out about your business. The hard part now becomes not giving up too soon. Read more »
In this two-part post, I’m going to talk about managing “busy-ness,” or what Timothy Ferriss describes in “The 4-Hour Workweek” as “working for work’s sake.” As your business grows and your workload increases, it becomes more and more important to manage “busy-ness.” Read more »
There comes a point in your business when you reach a Catch-22 situation. Your workload is maxed out, you want to continue growing, but you’re at a difficult point where you can’t quite afford help, but you can’t survive and grow successfully without it. Read more »
My last visit to an Apple Store was a week ago when I picked up my new iPhone 4 and, though I’ve visited the stores plenty of times before, waiting in line reminded me of what makes Apple’s retail plans such a success. Read more »
You might have noticed that your number of Twitter followers has dropped to zero today. Twitter is currently undergoing maintenance to fix a bug, and as part of that process follower/following counts have temporarily been reset to zero. This isn’t the first time this has happened. Read more »
I’m fascinated by successful people, those who say, “This is how I want my life to look,” and then they go create it. I find them interesting because most people don’t live like that. Most people aren’t willing to put in the work, the “emotional labor.” Read more »
As you may have heard, Apple plans to shut down streaming music service Lala.com at the end of May. At the time, speculation ran rampant that Apple was planning on using the service to launch its own streaming music venture. Read more »
London newspaper the Evening Standard reported a very interesting rumor following Apple’s quarterly financial report Tuesday. According to the British paper, Apple is in talks with ARM Holdings, the U.K. company that designs the chip used in the iPhone, along with a huge percentage of the chips found in mobile devices in general. Read more »
Many businesses set up Facebook pages when everyone was jumping on board to see what all the hype was about. Yet they didn’t know what to do with those pages in the longer term, and now they languish across Facebook. Read more »
Recently I’ve been surprised by how hard it is to find anything that I would call remarkable. Everything seems to be declining in quality, and a lot of people seem to be indifferent when it comes to the quality they bring to their work. Read more »
The rumors of Adobe being bought by Apple come up every so often. Apple could easily afford such a purchase and the results would be interesting. I would love to see Adobe restructured by a company like Apple. Adobe has many applications that are the gold […] Read more »
The real work begins when everything is turned upside down. You want to take advantage of new opportunities, but in order to do that, you have to adjust your systems, support and tools to accommodate that growth and expansion. Read more »
Apple’s Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook wasn’t shy about the company’s focus through 2010, in a conversation with Goldman Sachs analyst David Bailey. The talk took place at the Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference this Tuesday in San Francisco, and was given before an audience […] Read more »
When you’re trying to run your own business, you need time to experiment and try new methods and approaches to your systems and your work, but you also need time to reflect on what’s working so that you can modify your direction as you go. Read more »
What’s the one thing you need to do on a regular basis to keep your car running? It needs fuel or else it stops running. Every car needs refills — just like every business needs clients to bring in income. However, a car runs better and […] Read more »
I put myself squarely in the “Working Mac User” category. My MacBook sees daily use in an Enterprise. I freelance write about the Mac and use mine in school. Outside of web surfing and the occasional game, very little of my time at the keyboard is […] Read more »
This is another post in our Small Biz Corner series where each month we cover a specific topic specific to Small Businesses who use Macs. If you need something more powerful than iCal, but don’t need Snow Leopard Server with CalDav, then BusyCal from BusyMac Software […] Read more »
If there’s one thing I’m figuring out, especially lately, it’s that you have to be willing to make the approach. You have to be willing to ask for what you want. Ask the person to be a guest for your blog or podcast. Ask to be covered on another person’s site or radio show. Ask someone to join you for lunch or coffee. Just ask. Read more »
The effect of Apple’s still speculative tablet on the electronics industry continues to amaze me. Not only has it prompted countless computer makers to join the fray and release their own slate devices, but now it’s affecting e-book pricing policies over at the biggest player in […] Read more »
Maybe I am too set in my ways, but I never even really tried using Bing all that much when it was released. I also found it too busy. Sure, I’m all for beautiful sweeping nature photography, but not on my search page. So I stuck […] Read more »
While social networks are rarely viewed as corporate services, they can help make you a smarter business person and provide value on several levels. It’s time to exploit social networks for your business, and here’s how. Read more »
This shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone, but a former senior marketing manager at Apple posted an article today “confirming” that the company does indeed purposely leak information in order to amplify the buzz surrounding an upcoming product, or for any number of other reasons. The […] Read more »
Many readers expressed an interest in knowing more about my accountability partnership, so here’s a follow-up to my previous posts, answering the questions that were raised. Q: Is an accountability partner the same as a business coach? A: I don’t think so. While they have similarities, […] Read more »
Do you somehow still doubt that the App Store is a huge money-making enterprise, at least for a lucky few? Then consider the news that Tapulous, the development studio behind the wildly popular Tap Tap Revenge rhythm game franchise, rakes in a cool million every month. […] Read more »
Yesterday, I wrote about the value of having an accountability partner. This is the perfect time to set up a partnership with someone for the New Year. Here are a few tips to help you make the most of the relationship. Read more »
Welcome to a new monthly series from TheAppleBlog. Each month we will cover a a specific topic specific to Small Businesses who use Macs. As a small business owner/sole proprietor, connecting with customers is hard. There are all sorts of communication tools available, with social media […] Read more »
An accountability partner is someone who can help you stay on track toward reaching your goals and creating a life and business by design rather than default. January marks three years that my accountability partner and I have been meeting, and I cannot say enough about […] Read more »
Despite early reports that the iPhone wasn’t selling so well in Japan (LINKS), due at least in part to the overabundance of really cool phones available there that do things like allow for live TV watching, it seems that Apple is in fact doing remarkably well […] Read more »
According to information gathered from parts suppliers for Apple’s iPhone 3GS, the handset is headed for a record quarter. Apple’s Taiwanese suppliers for the iPhone’s components have reported a 31 percent increase in volume of orders placed for the parts. Read more »
