​Starting in the 19th century, transportation technology emerged which changed the world. Railroads, automobiles, and airplanes all brought freedom of travel never before imagined in history. Revolutionary changes are still happening in the 21st century, but they’re now in the form of moving data. 

​It seems that every hardware, media, and telecom company is chasing media content these days. And with good reason. Competing solely on the basis of price is a brutal business. Original content is one of the few things proven to engender customer loyalty and cause people to switch to your service. 

​The latest owner satisfaction survey by Consumer Reports magazine actually had Tesla ranked above any other car company in the world. And yet, this is despite recent insider information which revealed that  as many as 90% of Tesla’s vehicles roll off the assembly line defective. If these are both true, what does that say about Tesla and their customers?

Even though Apple’s iPhone X now has the best screen of any smartphone in the world and the new iMac Pro has enough power to impress even jaded computer enthusiasts, I find the Apple Watch to be Apple’s most exciting product. Both because of what it means to the future and because of the large performance gains that it gets every year. But there is one aspect of the watch that Apple is still improving quite slowly: Podcasts.

​On Sunday morning, I heard liberal economist Paul Krugman attempt to downplay the impact of the Republican corporate tax cuts. He argued that the impact on jobs would be minimal, but he didn’t explain why. I thought it might be helpful to explain where he must be coming from. Because even if he’s right, everyone should be happy.

Brett Williams had an interesting piece in Mashable last week detailing how the Apple Watch has taken over the wearables market.
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​I was listening to the MacWorld podcast recently when an interesting question popped up. Would Apple (AAPL) ever make iTunes purchases available to Android users? The consensus on the show was that, no, Apple would never do that because it’s not the type of thing that they would do. 

​When Apple (AAPL) released the first-generation Apple Watch back in April of 2015 it took a fair amount of criticism for being slow. But now with over two years of using an Apple Watch, I actually appreciate using the first-generation version, aka Series 0, even more now then back in 2015. Apple greatly improved watchOS with the third and fourth iterations. A first-generation Apple Watch on watchOS 4.2 is a fundamentally different device. One that is still worthy of use today. 

​USA Today has a story out written by Natasha Vaughn that describes how prices on popular toy items are getting driven up by “toy bots”.

​There were two “threats” regarding Apple’s iPhone that were getting repeated so much early in 2016 that a lot of people started to believe them. First, that software platforms posed a threat to Apple’s premium iPhone business. Second, Android was dragging down smartphone average selling prices for everyone and Apple needed to cut the iPhone’s price to stay competitive.

​To this day Tesla (TSLA) refuses to share quality data as forthrightly as other automakers. But with the recent mass layoffs at Tesla some of the former employees are revealing the real story behind the scenes, and it isn’t a pretty picture. Reporting for Reuters, Alexandria Sage writes about how former Tesla employees are communicating what the recent internal quality metrics are like. 

​The tension between moving data vs moving people/packages is disrupting many industries. Another business coming to grips with new technology that threatens their bread-n-butter is the movie theatre business. Will movie theatres respond more like retail stores or video game arcades? 

Writing for Seeking Alpha, Michael Wiggins De Oliveira expressed his sentiment that Apple’s services business doesn’t get enough respect by investors.  

​Apple (AAPL) has taken a fair amount of criticism lately for the way that it handled its MacBook Pro redesign. Well known iOS developer Marco Arment snubbed Apple’s latest MacBook Pro when he crowned the 2015 model as the best laptop ever made. Although, his written criticism was fairly benign compared to his verbal criticism. I don’t disagree with Marco but that’s because I’m not a heavy MacBook Pro user so I’m not going to say he’s right or wrong. What I will say is that I recognize the underlying currents behind the redesign and I’m not so sure it’s all Jony Ive’s doing. Or at least, not the design group’s alone. 

​Jon Evans at TechCrunch wonders out loud if it may be OK for Tesla’s (TSLA) customers if the company goes bankrupt leaving the investors to reap their just rewards. 

I formed my world view on how to classify technology while I was working at NASA’s rocket test facility at Stennis Space Center. The best minds at NASA argued that technology is all about either moving things (pounds) or data (information). And moving data is the more consequential of the two. This core belief led me to invest in Bitcoin. 

​Dennis Green at Business Insider offered an explanation for why he’s decided to stop using the iPhone X and go back to a Plus and it brings up a lot of feeling I’ve had about Apple’s (AAPL) new iPhone lately.

The Android Authority has a report by Oliver Cragg warning Samsung fans not to get their hopes up too much on the next Galaxy S9 being some kind of iPhone X killer phone. 

​One of my favorite television shows of all time is Arrested Development. It’s a comedy about the dysfunctional Bluth family that runs a housing business. In one episode, when faced with imminent bankruptcy the company president comes up with a plan to keep them afloat. They will build a fake model home in order to announce a big new development project that doesn’t exist. When investors start to give them their deposits they’ll be able to use that money to get their current creditors off their backs.
 
This is essentially what Tesla did this week. I’m sure a lot of Tesla fans are scratching their heads on why Tesla would start taking deposits on a truck and new roadster when they have their hands full with the Model 3. That’s because it’s all a show for Wall Street to prevent the stock price from collapsing. Just like the Bluth family’s fake model home, Elon Musk needed to bring in some investor cash and prop up investor hopes. 

​I was listening to an interview with former automotive executive Bob Lutz this week talking about his views on the future of the automotive industry. I agree with most of what he thinks. Driving will one day be illegal and driving automobiles will be like horses today. A hobby for rich people. The concept of the automobile brand will fade away and smaller automotive companies that don’t add anything of value outside of their brand will too. 

I just finished reading some comparisons of Google’s Pixel Buds compared to Apple’s AirPods, and I can’t help but think that this is a continuation of a theme lately. Apple is leaps and bounds ahead of everyone else when it comes to tech innovation, whether you’re contemplating the AirPods and their proprietary new W1 chip, the iPad Pro’s 120ghz screen and magical Apple Pencil, or the fact that someone finally made FaceID work. Even if you look at Samsung’s turf, displays, the iPhone X now has a better display than any Samsung phone ever. And this is an Apple-designed display which Samsung had nothing to do with the designing, only screwing it together. Because they didn’t design it, you’ll never see this screen in any Android phone. 

​Chris Matyszczyk over at CNET wrote about Microsoft’s Satya Nadella joking with a couple of journalists to “get a real computer”.

J​ust prior to Apple’s (AAPL) big release of the iPhone X, CBS Philly had a report on a potential backlash against smartphone addiction which results in the uptick in sales of dumb phones.

​When the Apple Watch first debuted in early 2015, I was struck with the genius of including the crown on the side to handle scrolling and zoom tasks. It didn’t block your view or get your screen smudged. I used it so much that I would instinctively reach for it on my iPhone at times. If you’re scrolling through a bunch of data on a narrow screen, it seems easier to use a small dial than long swipes on the glass. 

​The real problem with Tesla (TSLA) isn’t even spoken about very much in the press. It isn’t that Tesla can’t build enough of the Model 3s, it’s that Tesla can’t afford to. And if Elon Musk says that the Model 3 gross margins are great, be very worried. Because if Elon Musk goes out of his way to emphatically state something, it typically means that the complete opposite is true.