Rumors of new iPad 3 heat up!

You may have just unwrapped your new iPad 2, but rumors are already swirling about the iPad 3.

The always-fertile field of Apple rumors is once again blossoming furiously, as tech observers pore over the most minute tidbits of information to speculate on the future of the market-leading Apple tablet.

While much of the chatter is just that, there are a few details to be gleaned in all the usual fervor that precedes an Apple “iLaunch.”

It was January 2010 when Apple unveiled the “magical” iPad,introducing much of the general public to the concept of a tablet computer for the first time.

With the massive Consumer Electronics Show set for January 10-13 and MacWorld/iWorld — billed as “the world’s ultimate fan event” for Apple lovers — scheduled for January 26-28, observers are wondering whether Apple could soon roll out the third generation of the device.

On Thursday morning, the conventional wisdom in the blogosphere seemed virtually sure that Apple would do so. But by Friday, many tech pundits were saying there’s no way it will happen.

Tomorrow? Who knows?

“We’ve entered a post-iPhone news cycle, when iPad rumors are surfacing with full force,” wrote Leslie Horn for PC Magazine. “Of course the launch date has been discussed quite a bit, as it goes with any anticipated Apple device. … But the reality with an Apple gadget is that we’ll have to wait and see.”

Other tidbits making the rounds? That a new model will be rolled out February 24, which would have been Steve Jobs’ birthday, or in March, the same month the iPad 2 was introduced.

Richard Shim, an analyst at research firm DisplaySearch, told CNETthat a January release date might be wishful thinking.

January is “a little suspect,” Shim told the blog. “When they make them available they want to have as many as possible. And my sense is that they will wait rather than make them immediately available.”

But from folks who monitor the supply chain of Apple components in Asia and other analysts, a few plausible details have emerged:

Faster processor. Several reports have suggested that the new iPads will have a new, faster processor that will offer quicker browsing, gaming and other activity.

Apple recently started using a plant in Austin, Texas, to manufacture computer chips, according to a Reuters report and other sources. Analysts have speculated that facility, owned by Samsung, could be the source of the new processors.

Sharper screen. It’s also a relatively safe bet to expect a higher-resolution screen, an upgrade that’s been a staple in most new permutations of Apple’s mobile products. Reports of a much stronger battery have also surfaced in multiple places and seem to have some merit.

Voice control. One can’t help wonder whether Apple will add Siri, the iPhone 4S’s voice-control “virtual assistant,” to the new iPad as well.

A cheaper iPad. Also possible is that Apple will attempt to address, in some way, the recent success of the smaller, simpler Kindle Fire tablet from Amazon, which costs $300 less than the entry-level iPad 2.

No single tablet computer from Apple’s competitors had gained much traction until Amazon rolled out the Fire this holiday season. The company says it sold more than 4 million Kindles in December, and most of those are believed to be Kindle Fires.

How Apple may address that competition has prognosticators split.

Taiwan-based DigiTimes, which sparked much of Thursday’s speculation with a report that the new iPad will be unveiled in January, also reported that the company will roll out two new tablets and that the iPad 2 would get a price cut to let it compete more directly with the Fire.

(It should be noted that DigiTimes has a somewhat spotty track record, doing pretty well with reports out of its native Taiwan but missing the mark more often on other news).

The same site quoted unnamed sources just two weeks ago saying that Apple would be unveiling a 7-inch tablet to match the Fire, a departure that would seem unlikely unless it was in the works well before Amazon’s new gadget was announced.

Shim attempted to throw cold water on the concept that Apple will take a step back in features to try to snuff Amazon.

“They don’t want to create any hint of a second-class product,” he told CNET. “They have no reason. They’re selling as many as they can make. And this next-generation device is going to reinforce that supply-demand dynamic.”

.XXX for sale…

It’s either a new, safer era for adult content on the Web or the first step in creating a digital porn ghetto, depending upon who you ask.

On Tuesday at 11 a.m. ET, more than 100,000 websites are expected to go live with the new .xxx domain.

The suffix was approved as a “top-level domain” address last year by ICANN, the international not-for-profit that coordinates Web addresses. The idea, they say, is to more safely organize content that has become, like it or not, common on the Web.

“The Internet is home to a wealth of content, suitable for a wide range of ages and values,” reads a statement on the website of ICM Registry, which is responsible for handing out the new domain names. “The adult entertainment industry has, and always will, account for a large amount of this content and while it is enjoyed by some, it is not suitable, or of interest, to all Internet users.

“Regardless of your views on adult content, it’s here to stay, so let’s be adult about it.”

The group says that creating the suffix will act much like .gov, .edu or .org, giving Web users a heads-up about what sort of site they are visiting based on its Web address alone.

In theory, that would help keep people from stumbling into porn by accident and make it easier for parents to keep their children away from the sites. It also would let users who want to view adult content know that they’re visiting a safe, legitimate and legal site.

Porn, or the promise of porn, is frequently used online in suggestive links that mask viruses, phishing attempts and other harmful malware.

By applying for a .xxx site, webmasters, adult performers, studios and others become part of a “sponsored community,” agreeing to operate legally and within agreed-upon business standards. Each .xxx site will be scanned daily with McAfee protection tools, which ICM says will help make them among the Web’s safest destinations.

But as you might expect, not everyone is pleased with the move.

Some religious organizations have argued against the new .xxx names, saying that creating them amounts to an endorsement of porn.

“The establishment of a .xxx domain would increase, not decrease, the spread of pornography on the Internet, causing even more harm to children, families and communities,” said Patrick Trueman, CEO of Morality in Media and former chief of the U.S. Department of Justice Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, when ICANN was voting on the plan.

The new .xxx sites will be tagged in a way that will make it easy for parents, employers or others to block them on their networks. Parents can block adult sites via parental-controls settings on most computers’ control panels or by installing parental-control software.

To protect their reputations against porn purveyors who might seek to capitalize on their name, some universities and businesses have bought .xxx domain names that correspond with their .edu or .com addresses. For example, Penn State in September paid $200 each for four .xxx domains: Penn State, PSU, Nittany Lions and The Pennsylvania State University, according to the university’s student newspaper.

The proliferation of .xxx addresses doesn’t mean porn will disappear from .com sites. Adult sites that buy a .xxx domain are free to keep their .com or other current URL as well.

Those who oppose the .xxx domains on moral or religious grounds are being joined by critics from the opposite end of the spectrum.

Some in the porn industry fear that creating the opt-in domain could just be a first step toward making it mandatory. Then, they say, it would make it all too easy for a government somewhere to censor adult content by simply blocking access to all .xxx sites.

Playboy had been leading the charge against the new branding.

Manwin, the Luxembourg-based company that runs Playboy.com and other adult sites, has filed suit in California to stop the implementation of .xxx and said last week that it won’t do business with or allow its content to be used on any sites using the suffix.

“We oppose the .XXX domain and all it stands for,” said Fabian Thylmann, managing partner of Manwin, in a news release. “It is my opinion that .XXX domain is an anticompetitive business practice that works a disservice to all companies that do business on the Internet.”

But not all in the industry are lined up against it.

“We believe the future of adult entertainment online is in the .xxx top level domain,” said Adam Osborn, head of digital at Paul Raymond Publications. “We see a huge benefit in the adult community having an online space dedicated to our content.”

The cost of registering a .xxx domain name can vary dramatically, from a few hundred dollars to simply keep someone else from using an address to much more for sites that may direct hundreds of URLs to the same content.

ICANN has established rules to prevent the early-Internet phenomenon of “cybersquatting,” when someone pays the fee and grabs a name apparently associated with someone else. For example, WhiteHouse.com was, for years, a porn site. (Like most U.S. agencies, the real White House uses .gov.)

The ICM has set up an arbitration system to resolve complaints when someone claims an address applicant has improperly taken a URL that should be theirs.

Sell the Potential, not the Present

Image via Wikipedia

So there you are on day one of your new venture. You’ve thought long and hard about your new idea and you’re ready to build a great company that is going to change the world. Now it’s time to attract customers, employees, and investors. No problem, right?

Except for the fact that you have absolutely nothing to offer anyone because your company does not have an office, a product, or a single employee! So how do you get started with this world-changing vision if you have few assets to leverage?

The simple answer – sell the dream, baby, sell the dream!

The Vision is the Asset

A startup company has only one asset – the vision of what the company might be someday. Today it’s just some poor guy burning through his life savings hoping all his hard work will pay off. No one wants to quit their job to go work for that vision!

Yet employees will jump out of bed to work for a vision they believe in, even if the paycheck isn’t there just yet. Investors get excited about the idea of making an enormous return on a single investment. And customers are always interested in the next best product from the next best company. You need to become all of these.

While you cannot completely ignore where you are today, you should not let that define the prospective opportunity your company offers. From a practical perspective, most startup companies evolve so quickly that they’re not even worth describing in current terms. Your focus should be on getting the company to where it will be, not dwelling on its position today.

What you are is what you Intend to be

Apple Computer has been long honored for having one of the most cult-like followings among employees, investors and customers. Apple founder Steve Jobs created a vision that the company would develop “insanely great” products and the people surrounding him believed it as much as he did. As a consequence, they do create these amazing products (we love you, iPod, iPhone, iPad) because they believe so passionately in the vision of what they intend to become.

Think of yourself as an author telling the story of what your company will become. The author is the visionary and the messenger — seeing the vision and sharing it with others. You can envision what your office will look like, what your product will sell for, and how happy customers will be when they purchase the product. Give that vision color and detail. Have fun with it. The more those around you can see the vision as clearly as you, the more likely they will be to accept it as their own.

Keep in mind who you are selling the dream to and how your dream affects their well being, not yours. Don’t try to impress potential investors by telling them how rich this new idea is going to make you, tell them how rich you are going to make them! Paint the picture in a prospective employees mind by telling them how great their job is going to be day-to-day, not just how great the company will be in the future. You’re asking these people to take on a considerable risk so you need to make the prospect of a big return as tangible and visible as possible.

It’s true if you Believe it

Even more important than selling the vision is believing that you can execute on it. Anyone you are talking to will need to be convinced that your vision will actually become a reality, and that comes with bit of planning and a whole lot of optimism. If it weren’t for the wild-eyed optimism and belief that a crazy vision could become a reality, companies like eBay, Amazon and now Google would never have succeeded.

Consider the fact that Google had a vision to become the leading search company at a time when competitors like Yahoo and Excite had already dominated the search engine space and many thought there was no room to compete. Within just over five years they went from a simple vision to an IPO reality based on selling a dream that most thought could not possibly come to fruition.

Make the Vision Huge

Don’t be shy about making your vision huge. The great thing about being a startup is that anything is possible – so let it be! It’s OK to dream a little bit. Amazon.com wasn’t built on the prospect that they might sell a few books. They dreamed of being the world’s largest on-line book store from the beginning and that’s exactly what they became.

If you’re going to dream, dream big.

Nail Art Advertising

TrendCentral: KIA Motors recently tapped into the nail art trend to promote their “smALL” sized KIA Picanto, proving that one really can pack big things into compact spaces. The auto maker created a stop-motion ad campaign that caught the attention of some hip folks. Being the first-ever nail art stop motion is pretty impressive, but what’s even more noteworthy is that it took only 25 days to create this masterpiece. Each nail took two hours to paint, using 1,200 bottles of nail polish for a total of 900 fingernails. Working out the math, that equals one outstanding piece of advertising that has really nailed its target market.

The Taco That Changed the World (or At Least, American Farming)

Image by wallyg via Flickr

If you lump all fast-food restaurants into the same profit-driven-pushers-of-unhealthy-food category, you may want to delineate a new group: Sustainable Farming Advocates.

Chipotle, the fast-casual Mexican-inspired chain with 1,100 locations across the U.S. that has been serving up healthy food made with organic and local produce since 2008, has just announced the creation of a nonprofit foundation targeted at increasing the amount of sustainable farming practiced by American farmers. They’re the only U.S. fast food chain committed to organic and local produce (10 million pounds coming from a 350 mile radius of each location just this year), and they buy more naturally raised meat than any other restaurant—proving not only that it can be done, but that it can also be affordable and excel in flavor. Chipotle’s success may be one of the examples that led McDonald’s to agree to begin purchasing cage-free eggs, and moved one of its former executives to develop a healthy fast food chain set to launch in the near future.

The Chipotle Cultivate Foundation will use its funding to support family farms and ranchers developing sustainable practices and youth-targeted education programsfocused on food and healthy eating. In a statement from Steve Ells, founder, chairman and co-CEO of Chipotle, he says that, “By creating the Chipotle Cultivate Foundation, we are extending our reach beyond our restaurants and will be supporting organizations and people that are working to improve individual family farms, animals and the environment, and youth and education programs.”

Don’t think they’re serious? Chipotle also released a video this week featuring country music star and president of Farm Aid, Willie Nelson, singing Coldplay’s “The Scientist” over an animated video of a farmer who turns his small family farm into an industrial operation that includes drugging livestock and creating pollution before a change of heart reverts him “back to the start”—the song’s refrain, where he embraces sustainability and better food.