Archive for June, 2010

Have your money in your hand and be ready for the new iPhone

June 24th, 2010

Sleep-deprived fans brave rain for iPhone 4
What is it with this iPhone? Hundreds of fans flocked to stores in Japan to be the first buyers of the iPhone 4 as Apple rolls out the red-hot smartphone.

Sales
Sales of the iPhone 4, which boasts a higher-quality screen and longer battery life than the previous model, have blown past expectations, overloading systems and causing Apple and carriers to halt taking pre-orders as supplies run out. In Japan, where the gadget was launched before other countries due to the time difference, fans dressed up like iPhones and painted iPhones on their faces. The iPhone has been a huge success since it debuted in 2007, boosting Apple’s margins and transforming it into one of the world’s leading mobile device makers.

Shortage
However, the supply shortage, which an analyst said was worsened by a lack of LCD panels, could cap initial sales and hurt Apple when it faces a slew of new competitors, namely high-powered handsets based on Google Inc’s Android software. “The Droids are coming and current demand for the iPhone 4 implies a titanic battle between Apple and Google is imminent,” said industry tracker comScore in a statement.

7 per second
Sales last week ran at 7 per second, announced Apple last week, after more than 600,000 iPhone 4s were sold in a single day. The iPhone is Apple’s main growth driver, and is expected to soon become its biggest source of revenue as the company expands the smartphone around the globe. Some analysts estimate more than two-thirds of iPhone sales now come from overseas.

Video chat
The device, which offers video chat via WiFi, and a gyroscope sensor for improved gaming, comes less than a month after Apple’s iPad went on sale outside the United States and has beaten sales expectations. The iPhone 4 debuts in the United States, France, Germany and the UK later on Thursday.

The 1 million barrier
Apple unveiled the slimmer iPhone 4 earlier this month, kicking off its fastest-ever global product roll-out. BGC analyst Colin Gillis expects Apple to set a new record for being the first company to sell a million smartphones in a single day. But he warned that production snags might dampen supply and hurt initial sales. “It is very possible that the iPhone encounters production issues – a normal occurrence as a cutting-edge collection of technologies goes into scaled production,” he wrote. “This could create a situation where demand is greater than supply – limiting the number of iPhone 4 phones sold.”

18 countries
The latest phone would be available in 18 countries in July and 88 by September in the quickest-ever international roll-out for an iPhone, Apple had said when it unveiled the iPhone 4.

The waiting game
The forlorn waiters belied the excitement that has raged online the past week. On eBay, iPhone 4s had been going for thousands of dollars apiece, with one enterprising seller offering a black iPhone 4 at an exorbitant $15 000.

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This Is the Best Time to Bust Your Career Slump

June 22nd, 2010

Focus on the here and now. Do not live in the past, or too far in the future
If you are in a career slump you will recognize some of the symptoms even if they are only very temporary. The trick is to identify them quickly and to work out why they exist and how to get rid of them.

Sports stars
It’s not so surprising then that most of the work done in trying to bust a slump is focused on sport stars. They’re highly paid athletes who are expected to deliver peak performance at all times. What about you? Are you not a star performer?

Why do you work?
Are you a “because I have to” kind of person? Or are you on a quest to find your highest level of potential? You can answer that but what we are interested in is how star performers get themselves out of a slump.

Reduced performance
First, we need to understand that performance slumps can be caused by many things, but like in the world of the athlete, the first thing we should look at is the physical reasons. Most athletes under-perform at a first level because of a physical ailment. This is something you should be very aware of. What is your physical condition like? Never stop paying attention to your health. It could just be the one thing that is bringing you down. Once you’ve ruled out any physical reason for not performing to your peak, you should start to pay attention to your mental approach to work. Keep fit at all times.

Choice
You have a choice after you mess up. You can occupy your thoughts with over analyzing every detail of why you screwed up. You could also send your thoughts into the future and keep thinking “I must not screw up next time”. Trust yourself, and handle the very immediate challenge in front of you on its merits. Just do what needs to be done now! For this to happen you need to develop a strong self-belief mental script.

Mistakes happen
Accept that mistakes happen. Understand that no matter who you are and what the situation is, errors can happen. An athlete who doesn’t understand this will not know how to cope with failure. However, accepting that failure is part of the game allows you to reduce your stress and anxiety over this reality. It means you don’t see yourself as the source of failure. Rather you see yourself as a part of the success equation.

Perform at the highest level
There is nothing better than to see an athlete performing at their highest level with freedom. It is no different for any person in any job. Your greatest career goal should be to perform at your highest level with freedom. Wake up in the morning busting to get to work because you know that’s where you are performing at your best.

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The World’s Top 10 Places to Wed – And Survive a Break-Up

June 21st, 2010

Lonely Planet has compiled a list of desirable marriage places.
Leh, India
From Leh in the northern Indian region of Ladakh you depart for a two-day trip, from mid-July to mid-September only, across the “roof of the world”. Get married at the end of day one and test your bond on day two. This strenuous pass will take your breath away at 18,000 feet as you cross perilous swing bridges between canyons.

Tuscany, Italy
Why not make the wedding just as memorable for your friends as for you? Hire the main villa for you and your mates, and a series of connected cottages nearby for both sets of family. Get everyone to arrive the night before and meet up in the local pizzeria. The next day, be married in the little fresco-painted chapel on the property. Hold an evening reception on the lawns.

Manchester, England
Make an instant friend every night in one of Manchester’s myriad dance clubs, to assuage that break-up. You’ll immediately know you’ve found one of your kind at Poptastic or the Northern Monkey Music Club. Intellectuals can be found at the Best Indie Night in the World… Ever!

Western Cape, South Africa
Say your vows in a shark cage off Gansbaai, 100 miles southeast of Cape Town. Great white sharks are now on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species although critics maintain that humans are more endangered since shark-cage diving started, as the predators are encouraged to associate bait with us.

Antarctica
Join your life partner on the good ship Aurora to the largest continent on earth. Ecotourism honeymoon expeditions can include polar adventure activities such as sea-kayaking, scuba diving and camping.

Nicobar Islands
Marry at dawn somewhere along a line in the Indian Ocean where the sun creeps first onto hundreds of tiny islands, islets and rocks in the idyllic Nicobar Islands, a union territory of India, located in the Indian Ocean.

Buenos Aires, Argentina
The World Tango Festival, held in venues all over Buenos Aires, is a perfect opportunity to find a new partner. Workshops are run by the Great Masters of Tango, milongueros.

Elora, Canada
Just over an hour from Toronto, this rustic sandstone mill town preserves the pious ways of the old world, when couples huddled together through fierce Canadian blizzards. The local Mennonite community will teach you how to cook and sew. You’ll learn to survive without TV, takeaway, computer games, shoe therapy, haircuts or counselors.

Hustadvika, Norway
Chaotic, salt stained, yet free – stare out at the wild waves and contemplate how you got dumped or muse over the notorious history of this coast: ships have been sinking here since the Middle Ages. Then jump into an appropriately Scandinavian car and head down the Atlantic Road towards the western fjords and the fishing village of Kristiansund.

Aitutaki, Cook Islands
Nominated as the world’s most beautiful island by Lonely Planet’s founder, Tony Wheeler, it’s a way to escape the ex. Just an hour’s flight north from the Cook Islands’ Rarotonga, joins inhabitants who dance every night at alternating beachside restaurants or hire a moped for a circuit of the island and feel the breeze in your free-flowing, newly single hair.

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