Journal Of Life

2013年8月4日星期日

Nexus 7、Chromecast、Moto X、Google Fiber 讓 Google 全面往硬體產品衝 ( Moto X、Nexus 7、Chromecast、Google Fiber push Google into a hardware company? )

電視串流業者Hulu和時代華納旗下的家庭電影院（HBO）宣布正與Google合作，將透過Google的電視棒Chromecast播放它們的收費訂閱節目。

Google上月推出售價35美元的Chromecast，插在電視的HDMI槽即可透過Wi-Fi無線傳輸，在電視上播放影片。這款電視棒可搭配採用Google Android作業系統的裝置，或蘋果的iPhone。

Hulu和HBO的加入，將可壯大Chromecast的內容，使Google更能與Roku和蘋果TV競爭；這兩大對手也提供網路傳送的內容在電視和行動裝置上播放。Google已表示，未來將爭取納入Pandora媒體的音樂串流服務，並和其他內容供應商合作。

總部設在洛杉磯的Hulu在聲明中說：「我們正積極與Google合作，以便把Hulu Plus納入平台中。」

時代華納的HBO也表示，正與Google磋商，將把HBO Go加入Chromecast平台。

Hello Moto X

After Google acquired Motorola Mobility last year, I wondered what was next for the smartphone company. It spent ages clearing out its pipeline of smartphones that were already in development before rumors of an X Phone made in America started making the rounds. In those early X Phone days, Rick Osterloh, Motorola’s SVP of Product Management said the team that worked on the device was plopped in front of a whiteboard and asked to describe the product they wanted to make. That brainstorming, plus loads and loads of user testing, came together in the form of the Moto X.

Motorola isn’t the same company today as it was when Google snapped it up last year — it’s smaller, leaner, and if recent reports are indication, gutsier than ever. The Moto X is that new Motorola’s coming out party, and I think they’ve finally got something worth celebrating.

Before I launch into a lengthy harangue about how this phone makes me feel, let’s dig into the X’s vital statistics. Just about those rumors were true, folks: 4.7-inch AMOLED display running at 720p? Yep. 10-megapixel “ClearPixel” camera with 1080p video recording? You bet. Android 4.2.2.? Check. microSD card slot? Sadly, no. That would all make for a decent, if unremarkable little smartphone, were it not for what the Moto X packs inside its plasticky frame.

The real star of the show Motorola’s X8 chipset, which actually consists of a 1.7GHz dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro, Adreno 320 GPUs, 2GB of RAM and specialized processors meant to handle natural language processing and information from the X’s myriad sensors. If that thing sounds familiar, well, it should.

Verizon and Motorola’s recent Droid launch took some of the shine off the X’s more intimate event this morning. Why? A lot of the X8-centric features that seemed to make the Moto X so smart — those always on voice commands, the motion-sensitive Active Display, and the twisty camera activation gesture — will in all likelihood wind up on most of Motorola’s new phones going forward, the Droid Ultra line included.

Oh, and the device is expected to launch very soon. Think the end of August/early September — it all depends on when Motorola’s carrier and distribution partners make their announcements. Speaking of carriers, AT&T and Verizon will both sell the 16GB black and white versions of the X for $199 (on contract, of course) when it launches later this month, but only AT&T customers will able to customize them using the MotoMaker website. Additional caveat: it seems like the 32GB storage upgrade can only be purchased from MotoMaker for the time being, which is frankly pretty lame.

Not a particular fan of either carrier? That’s fine too: the Moto X will also be available for purchase as an unlocked device, and as a developer edition with an unlocked bootloader (for easily hackability), though Motorola doesn’t seem to have locked down pricing for either version just yet.

Google Fiber光纖上網已經開放至幾個城市

Google Fiber有三種服務方案，單純存取Gigabit網路服務的每月使用費為70美元，若要同時使用Gigabit網路及電視服務的月費則是120美元，這兩項服務皆免收300美元的網路建構費，第三個方案則是免費的5Mbps網路，但民眾必須支付一次性的300美元網路建構費。

Google在堪薩斯市測試的1Gb光纖上網服務終於推出，Google Fiber有三種服務方案，單純存取Gigabit網路服務的每月使用費為70美元，若要同時使用Gigabit網路及Fiber TV電視服務的月費則是120美元，第三個方案則是免費的5Mbps網路。

Google 去年於美國堪薩斯州堪薩斯市正式推出 Google Fiber 光纖到府服務，理想可達到上下傳 1000Mbps 的速度、實際運作後也有近乎 700Mbps 表現。這回德州奧斯汀丁市將成為第二個可享用 Google Fiber 的城市，服務將在明年登場。

分析

Google 產品策略與動作越來越快，市值已經超越 Microsoft，如今 Google 已經推出 Nexus 7、Chromecast、Moto X、Google Fiber 四項產品，讓 Google 全面往硬體產品衝；
原來 Google 策略及生意模式看，竟將平台、搜尋、加值服務放在前三位，硬體是很小一部份，現在看來還需觀察 Moto X 是否很成功，若 Moto X 很成功，將是 Android 市場新變數。
台廠須由半導體、品牌、關鍵零組件、差異化創意找出市場空間，否則，台灣價值就是微利代工；

2013年8月2日星期五

蘋果雲端儲存服務領先群雄 ( Apple lead media cloud business ) - Dropbox 、Google Drive 將緊追 ( Apple Inc. iCloud is a most amazing growth of Cloud service in world wide )

調查：美國雲端媒體服務蘋果居領先地位

iCloud became world wide top cloud storage service

蘋果 (Apple)(AAPL-US) 在眾多科技領域中，都維持領先地位。一份由 Strategy Analytics 所做的調查顯示，在雲端媒體服務，蘋果也是美國榜首， iCloud 及 iTunes Match 市占達 27%，遙遙領先其他競爭者。

據《ZDNet》報導， Strategy Analytics 調查發現，2012 年第 3 季的雲端媒體服務，iCloud 及 iTunes Match 用戶占 27%為最高，其次是 Dropbox 的 17%，Amazon Cloud Player 以 15% 緊追其後，其次才是 Google Drive 的 10%。

蘋果能取得領先的關鍵之一，是他們自 iOS 5 以來，就力推 iCloud 媒體同步，而他們在 MP3 及平板和智慧型手機，都有強大的市占，帶來雲端服務的優勢。

Strategy Analytics 數位媒體部主任 Ed Barton 表示，雲端領域中，「音樂」是最重要的戰場。包括蘋果、Amazon 及 Google，約 90% 利用雲端儲存音樂。即使 Dropbox 比例不是這麼高，也仍有 45% 比例儲存音樂。

iCloud is still a big market share among Cloud service

一如預期，年輕人最常使用雲端媒體服務，這次的調查中，20-24 歲美國人使用的頻率最高。不過另一方面，多達 55% 受訪者並不使用雲端媒體服務，也顯示這個領域還需要更長期的經營發展。

Mailbox Cost Dropbox Around $100 Million ( Dropbox 併購 Mailbox )

Dropbox + Mailbox aim at platform service as iCloud

Disrupt alumnus Dropbox made the second in a series of super-savvy, super-early stage acquisitions today, picking up hyped-up email management app Mailbox in an acquisition that we’re calling “DropMail.”

We had been hearing that Mailbox was raising money, piquing the interest of Andreessen Horowitz among others, which is why today’s news that the company sold to the harmoniously named Dropbox didn’t come as a surprise. Sometimes an acquisition is the easiest way to raise resources for growth — especially when you’re tackling as expensive a problem as email. And have a six-figure wait list.

And we’re hearing that this particular acquisition was not cheap — The post-pivot startup cost the storage company “well over” $50 million, according to multiple sources. And we’ve heard that that the price was around $100 million in cash and stock.

Yahoo had also made inroads with the email platform, founded by IDEO veteran Gentry Underwood, which makes sense considering the brand decline of Yahoo Mail as well as the latter company’s dismal mobile traction. But Dropbox’s allure and sympatico vision made more sense for the fledgling startup, whose impressive numbers gave co-founders Drew Houston and Arash Ferdowsi the courage to take a swing at email.

In any case, we can probably expect to see Dropbox handling email attachments real soon.

Dropbox Acquires Snapjoy And Puts Photos Into Its Focus ( Dropbox 併購 Snapjoy )

Less than one week after Dropbox aqui-hired Audiogalaxy to beef up its cloud music ambitions, today comes news of another acquisition, this time focused on another form of media, photos: the cloud-storage giant is buying Snapjoy – like Dropbox, a Y Combinator-alum — which lets users aggregate, archive and view all of their digital photos from their cameras, phones and popular apps like Flickr, Instagram and Picasa, and then view them online or via an iOS app.

We first got wind of this deal via an anonymous tip — and then tracked down what was happening. The news has also been confirmed by Dropbox and Snapjoy themselves.

Dropbox will learn Pinterest to aim at Photo platform service?

The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed — or, more precisely, in the words of co-founder Michael Dwan, the price was “A furlong of sunshine or a bucket of rainbows, whichever is less.” Dwan says other companies were also knocking on Snapjoy’s door — but declined to say who. Other investors in addition to Y Combinator included SV Angel, Quotidian and the Start Fund, along with Jawed Karim, Yael and Noam Shazeer and Garry Tan.

I asked Dwan why he decided to sell. The simple answer is scale. “The user experience we always wanted was limited by our development capacity and the economics of scale,” he told me in an email exchange. “Dropbox has some of the best talent in the world and is operating at incredible scale, so a lot of the barriers are removed. The equation in my mind is simple: (Mac + Windows + Android + iOS + Linux + Web clients) * rock solid infrastructure * 100 million users = infinite possibilities.”

Dwan declined to give any details on how many users Snapjoy has signed up, or any other usage metrics, or how many people have been subscribing to its paid tier versus only using the free service.

The move is a sign of how Dropbox continues to “move up the value chain,” extending its touchpoints and service offerings to customers beyond simple storage facilities. The move opens Dropbox up into being more of a full-service digital photo center, rather than just a place to store your jpegs as backup or when your own hard drive runs out of space.

It’s an interesting time in the world of photos — with companies like Instagram under the microscope over what it may or may not decide to do with its users’ data; services like Flickr extending its functionality as a place to create pictures as much as it is a place to store and share them; and Twitter also entering the fray. Snapjoy potentially gives Dropbox its own oar to dip into the stream. It will also put it into closer competition with Facebook Photo Sync. Right now the two partner on filesharing in Facebook Groups, but with moves like this into photos, a bread-and-butter area for Facebook, we could see that relationship changing.

Dwan tells me, and Snapjoy also notes in a blog post, that it will continue to serve its existing customers — a possible sign that the service will live on in another form as part of Dropbox — but for now it’s closing itself to further sign-ups. It looks like Dwan, who co-founded the company with JP Ren, and others are relocating from Boulder, Colorado, to San Francisco. Whether that will be the full, existing team of six people or only a part is still being worked out.

Just as the Audiogalaxy acquisition played to Dropbox’s existing popularity as a place to store music, this, too, could give Dropbox a chance to expand how its users make use of photos stored in Dropbox’s cloud — already a popular use of the service. Dropbox, interestingly, had previously extended its photo capabilities on Android; Snapjoy’s iOS focus, therefore, is complementary to that.

Apple buys Locationary, a startup building a Wikipedia for location

Apple has acquired a Canadian startup called Locationary, which uses crowdsourcing and game mechanics to create a database of up-to-date location and business information data, reports AllThingsD.

Apple will no doubt use Locationary’s location data services to make its maps much more accurate.

分析

在雲端媒體服務，蘋果也是美國榜首， iCloud 及 iTunes Match 市占達 27%，遙遙領先其他競爭者，其次是 Dropbox 的 17%，Amazon Cloud Player 以 15% 緊追其後，其次才是 Google Drive 的 10%；這分析發現 Microsoft 的 Skydrive 提供更大雲端儲存空間，但市占卻是最低，因此，雲端儲存媒體是以方便性及其他平台實用性為生意為主；
由雲端儲存媒體服務延申至雲端儲存媒體及應用平台生意模式，Dropbox 併購 Mailbox 及 Snapjoy 往應用服務平台生意模式發展，Google Drive 早已將已將 Google docs、Google music 與第三方應用服務軟體結合直接攻向雲端應用服務平台模式來提升市占率；
依 Apple iCloud 雲端媒體應用服務平台生意模式，未來 Dropbox 及 Google Drive 最能跟上 Apple ，台廠仍須思考那一種雲端媒體應用服務平台生意模式適合台灣，否則，tablet 及 smart phone 持續低價化時代，台灣電子產業要往那裡走？
同時值得注意 AAPL 並購 Locationary，同時正仔細看一些 social apps 公司，讓雲端媒體應用服務平台更完整；

2013年8月1日星期四

底特律聲破產未給政府減少經常性支出決心 - 馬政府勿再用『改革』來增稅了，要用『改革』來降低經常性支出

兩稅合一改革財長：社會有共識再適時推出　

前副總統蕭萬長建議廢除「兩稅合一」，財政部傾向調整扣抵率。財政部長張盛和表示，財政部已委託學者進行檢討報告，今年底前報告出爐後再來研議，重要社會改革若無社會共識，不可能改革成功，因此，財政部將在凝聚社會共識後，再適時推出。

財政部長張盛和指出，「兩稅合一」自民國八十七年實施至今已十六、七年，也到了應該興革的地步，財政部已委託學者進行相關研究，研究報告預計年底前出爐，到時再來進一步研議，目前並未設限，但若全面廢除，變化將會非常大，涉及的所得稅法條文很多，若只調整扣抵率，變化則小一些。等報告出來後再說，現在不必說得太具體。財政部也會在社會有共識的前提才會推出。

『等報告出來我們會觀察適當時機，一項重要社會改革如果沒有社會共識不可能改革成功，我們凝聚社會共識以後，適當時候再來推出。』

底特律破產山姆大叔為何不救

汽車城掙扎數月終於墜崖

　　底特律的經濟崩潰是長期惡化的結果。多年來人口減少、工業衰退造成的積重難返，即使是州政府指派的破產管理專家也無法在幾個月內將這輛沖向懸崖的「汽車」拉回正軌。幾個月來，「破產」一直是懸在緊急財務管理人奧爾和底特律所有市民頭頂上的達摩克利斯之劍。當破產終於成為解決之道后，底特律仍然前途未卜。破產可能意味著裁員、出售資產、增加各項費用和減少基本社區服務，儘管州長稱破產程序反而能讓該市得以改善長期以來都很糟糕的公共安全和市政服務，底特律人還是高興不起來。

　　同樣鬱悶的還有底特律的債主們，他們不確定自己的債款能收回來多少，或者究竟還有沒有可能收回來。其他人則擔心底特律破產後，可能導致許多企業和商家重新考慮他們在這座城市的業務。不過，通用汽車公司首先發表聲明稱，它並不認為底特律破產會對它在該市的業務產生任何影響。今年3月由州政府委任的底特律緊急管理人奧爾最終沒能成為點石成金的魔術師，此前他曾經試圖說服底特律的債權持有人、工會和養老基金委員會允許底特律少還他們一部分錢，但沒有成功。根據破產申請文書，底特律有超過10萬名債主，包括退休個人、公務員、銀行和企業、財產持有者。最大的債主是兩大公共僱員養老基金。底特律公務員退休管理系統持有20億美元，而警察與火警局退休管理系統持有14億美元。目前仍有一些市政工作者提出訴訟，要求阻止州長斯奈德批准底特律破產，他們認為破產可能導致養老金和退休人員福利發生變化，而這兩項福利都是受州法律保護的。

破產對底特律意味著什麼

底特律經常性支出太高，公務體系借債度日終付出代價

　　如今的底特律街頭到處是人去樓空的摩天大廈、廢棄不用的廠房車間，衰草圍繞的住宅樓更是目不暇接。底特律已經有20多年被稱為全美最危險的城市之一，命案發生率如今已達40年來的最高水平。過去10多年，底特律一直靠借債勉強度日，由於還債的壓力日益增大，財政枯竭的危險一天比一天大。據統計，底特律每1美元的財政收入中，便有38美分用於還債，而這一數字在2017年將增加至65美分。密西根州州長斯奈德表示，除了申請破產保護，底特律已經無路可走。

　　底特律為何申請破產，用最簡單的說法就是：欠債太多。底特律到底欠了多少債？目前流傳的債務金額可能為180億美元，或許高達200億美元。政府官員稱，底特律已無法履行對市民或債權人的責任，例如最近未能向該市養老金系統支付一筆近4000萬美元的付款。在底特律，市民要等待58分鐘才能接通警方電話，在2013年第一季度，僅有1/3的救護車處於服務狀態。整個城市有7.8萬座被遺棄的建築。自2000年以來，失業率幾乎增加兩倍，底特律政府已經無法執行城市的最基本服務，更別提對債權者負責。

　　美國媒體認為，底特律提出破產申請的消息令人震驚，但更值得關注的是它或許並非孤立事件。儘管多種因素將汽車城推進破產快車道，但它的退休金和債務問題也是許多市長和州長所擔憂的問題。底特律很可能成為全國政治辯論中的新武器，華盛頓財政保守派將以它啟動聯邦政府的長期債務問題談判，而民主黨則希望以此投入更多資金重建美國城市而不是重建喀布爾。底特律的問題已經出現很長時間，它究竟是底特律或者汽車行業的獨特問題，還是地方政府面臨的普遍問題？看起來底特律破產觸動了美國地方政府的某根神經，靠借債度日總是要付出代價的。

底特律相關訟案凍結公務員退休金面臨挑戰

在聯邦破產法院首次就底城破產案開庭後，聯邦破產法院法官羅茲24日裁定，凍結所有挑戰底特律破產申請案的訟案。羅茲裁定凍結所有關於破產案的訟案，包括控告密西根州長、財政廳長和急難經理歐爾的訟案。

　　破產法院將在8月2日決定本案的程序問題，未來的程序將決定聯邦破產法院是否繼續審理本案。

　　歐爾7月18日提出美國有史以來最大宗的都市破產申請案。羅茲同時宣稱，歐爾具有為市府處理公務的合法地位。羅茲在聽取律師發言後，做出暫停所有訟案的裁定。底特律的辯護律師在2小時的發言中，要求法官阻擋所有企圖阻止底城破產的訴訟案，辯護律師堅稱聯邦破產法院是唯一有權審理底城破產案的法院。

　　在下個階段的審理程序中，底特律市府必須證明無力償債，並且已盡力和債權人就償債問題進行協議，或債權人太多，而不可能進行協議。歐爾稍早表示：「市府無法就債務重整問題與債權人在庭外達成共識。」底特律申請破產之後，衍生出最讓公務員關切的問題，反倒成了：市府可對退休者背信嗎？鑑於美國許多都市都面臨退休金不足的窘境，如果政府對此問題不及早謀求對策，將來許多都市均可能面對警察、消防及其他服務被削減的問題。

　　美國一些州的州憲或法律保障退休者領取全額福利，底城所在的密西根州州憲即如此規定，但底城緊急經理歐爾表示，這些保證在破產法院無效，退休者將和底城許多其他債權人一樣，面臨退休福利打折的窘境。

　　底城破產涉及美國憲法第六條和第十修正案。第六條規定，美國憲法凌駕所有法律。第十修正案規定，憲法未授予合眾國、也未禁止各州行使的權力，由各州各自保留。

奧巴馬擬提議削減企業稅稅率以創造就業

據媒體報導，美國總統巴拉克-奧巴馬計畫當地時間30日提出“中產階級就業大協定”，該協定將削減美國企業稅稅率，並利用營業稅改革創造的數十億美元收入資助創造就業項目。

奧巴馬的目標是通過尋求一個同時令共和黨和民主黨滿意的方案來打破國會僵局。他將在亞馬遜公司位於田納西州查特努加市的工廠演講時概述這一目標。

分析

底特律經常性支出太高，公務體系借債度日終付出代價，底特律一直靠借債勉強度日，由於還債的壓力日益增大，財政枯竭的危險一天比一天大。據統計，底特律每1美元的財政收入中，便有38美分用於還債，最終只有破產能解決問題；
馬政府也一再用『改革』來增稅了，增稅無法解決中央、地方持續增加之經常性支出，增稅也無法解決錯誤的公務員退休俸制度造成之政府財政困難，這就是腐敗；
兩黨須正視中央、地方持續增加之經常性支出造成之國債問題，總不能政府支出分配 80% 以上都是公務員及相關經常性支出而造成勞工福利及產業升級之政府補助比重過低，而防礙 GDP 成長、阻礙勞工福利提升；
要提高政府支持率， GDP 成長、勞工福利提升才是重點，目前任何增加公務員及相關經常性支出都是負面的，增稅也是負面的，美國、中國都將以減稅資助創造就業項目，而台灣卻是一直用『改革』增稅來補中央、地方持續增加之經常性支出造成之國債問題，方向是嚴重錯誤。