Eric Wahlforss is one of the guys behind SoundCloud. This is where he jots down thoughts on the web, music and strategy, among other things.
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Kiko for sale
Kiko.com’s eBay auction reminds me of Adam’s and mine 24 Hour Dotcom. If only there existed an online marketplace just for buying and selling companies and company assets…
Jaiku.com Launches
Brings coolness a.k.a. rich presence to mobile phones.
12% Powerbooks
It’s just not a feeling anymore, hard numbers show that Apple is indeed gaining ground with their portables. Now they’re at 12%. I’m still confused after 2-3 years of waiting for the MacBook Nano (or MacBook Thin or whatever you want to call it). I never use my DVD drive, I don’t need 13.3” (12” was nicer, but it flew down the stairs one day).
So again, here’s my message to Apple: Look around you and realize that you have to make a portable computer that weighs in under a kilo. NOW!
Incredible book stats
Some almost shocking numbers on books in the U.S [via BuzzMachine]:
One-third of high school graduates never read another book for the rest of their lives. …
58% of the US adult population never reads another book after high school.42% of college graduates never read another book.
80% of US families did not buy or read a book last year.
70% of US adults have not been in a bookstore in the last five years.
57% of new books are not read to completion.
Most readers do not get past page 18 in a book they have purchased.Customers 55 and older account for more than one-third of all books bought.Number of publishers
1947: 357 publishers
1973: 3,000 publishers1980: 12,000 Publishers. The New York Times, February 23, 1981.
1994: 52,847 publishers. Books in Print.
2003: About 73,000 (plus those who publish through POD/DotCom publishers; they use the publisher’s ISBN block.)
78% of the titles published come from the small/self-publishers.Most initial print runs are 5,000 copies.
A larger publisher must sell 10,000 books to break even.
A book must move in the stores in six weeks.
On the average, a book store browser spends eight seconds looking at the front cover and 15 seconds looking at the back cover.Women buy 68% of all books.
Jerold Jenkins’ stats on writers:
81% of the population feels they have a book inside them.
27% would write fiction.
28% would write on personal development
27% would write history, biography, etc.
20% would do a picture book, cookbook, etc.6 million have written a manuscript.
6 million manuscripts are making the rounds.
Out of every 10,000 children’s books, 3 get published.
Taipei gets city-wide wifi
San Francisco may be the first city to provide free city-wide wifi, but Taipei becomes the first city in the world to roll out city-wide wifi (some 4000 hotspots, covering 90%). The uptake is slower than expected though, with only 40000 users out of 2.6 million so far. The reason? There are already so many free hotspots in the city that few people want to pay the monthly fee of $12.50!
Ideas for Startups
“The fact that there’s no market for startup ideas suggests there’s no demand”. Such a good way to put it! Paul Graham have more great tips on getting ideas for startups.
Yahoo aquires Upcoming.org?
I’m not sure I’m interpreting this correctly, but it sure looks like Yahoo buys Upcoming.org. It is coming from the horses mouth, after all…
First nail in the coffin for Flash?
Adobe buys Macromedia and suddenly SVG might get a revival! I’d really like to see that happen, as it is a much more Web 2.0 savvy technology than Flash will ever be.
Todd Dominey and Dave Shea has good posts.