I suppose one of the great mysteries of the 21st century will be what makes Steve Jobs tick, eh?

Amplify’d from www.inc.com

Ram, This Is Steve

That's "Ram", as in Ram Arumugam, an upset iPhone/iPad app developer from Seattle and "Steve", as in Steve Jobs. The headline is a direct quote from the opening line of a phone call Mr. Arumugam took two hours after Apple rejected his latest iPad app (Economy for iPad).

That's right, he got a call from the big guy himself. It's a story that first made headlines in the local paper. Read more at www.inc.com

If that doesn't give you a laugh, I don't know what will.

Amplify’d from www.csectioncomics.com

iPhone vs. Android vs. BlackBerry

Read more at www.csectioncomics.com

Turning down the Nobel Peace Prize 78 times! Whoa.

Amplify’d from www.rakeshjhunjhunwala.in

My heart is filled with so much goodness, grace and benevolence that appreciation for all life simply pours forth from this ridiculously good looking body.

I have turned down the Nobel Peace Prize an incredible 78 times simply because I don’t want the unnecessary attention for being such an exemplary example of a fantastic, kind, generous being ever ready to help my fellow human.

I am the most humble person in history. Every single person who has read My Secret Journal knows for a fact that I never make a big deal about my phenomenal achievements .They know that I always keep a low profile. Read more at www.rakeshjhunjhunwala.in

Amplify’d from www.bnet.com

Recession Result: Consumers Learning They Don't Need You

As the economy fizzles along and people buy less, they are learning something you may not want them to know.

They can do without your product very well, thank you.

Listen to what John Quelch, a marketing professor at Harvard Business School, tells Inc. com in The Demand Economy.

“”The longer and deeper the downturn, the more likely that coping behaviors people have adopted to deal with having less money will become ingrained.” Read more at www.bnet.com

" 'The impact of an external event, such as an economic recession, can't easily be teased out of the change over time,' Groves wrote. 'It would be useful to such inference to see whether persons considering marriage before and after the recession were making different decisions. It would be useful to know whether those couples most affected by the recession (e.g., losing a job, having a home foreclosed), were more prone to put off marriage relative to those unaffected by the recession. But these estimates were not part of the ACS report.' "

I think the entire report (and the various links/references) are definitely worth a read, but also serve to remind us that data can be read several different ways.

Amplify’d from pewresearch.org

Imagine that you see two people in the distance walking alongside each other down a busy sidewalk. Maybe they are a couple. Maybe they just happen to be heading in the same direction. In a crowd of people on a city street, it's hard to tell.

That same challenge arises when researchers look at possible links among social, economic and demographic trends. Two trends are heading in the same direction, but are they related? Correlation, the statisticians frequently warn, is no guarantee of causation. Read more at pewresearch.org

Paul is just a brilliant writer. What I particularly like about his posts is that they are always thoughtful and not necessarily from the same bandwagon that everyone else is on. If you're not subscribed to his blog, you should be.

Amplify’d from paulseaman.eu

Starbucks’ PR tweets stink

I’ve just laughed out loud at Lucy Kellaway’s Weekend FT story about Twitter, and Starbucks’ allegedly smelly toilets, that’s now doing the rounds as Lavatorygate.

For those who missed it, here’s a recap. Armando Giovanni Iannucci, the political satirist, Twittered to his 80, 000 followers:

“Still surprised that, despite their market dominance, Starbucks haven’t eliminated the slight smell of lavatory you get as you enter.” Read more at paulseaman.eu

Amplify’d from www.copyblogger.com

Landing Page Makeover Clinic #29: InShapeAtTheOffice.com

Baolin Liu wants to help fellow office workers stay strong and fit, both in and out of the office. He’s developed an exercise program designed to assist even the most sedentary office worker … or micropreneur who puts in too much tush-time in her comfy, almost-ergonomic desk lounge.

But I digress …

Baolin is using article marketing to drive prospects to his page. But his bounce rate is nearly 91%. And sales? Well, they’re not happening. Read more at www.copyblogger.com

Amplify’d from paulseaman.eu

Voodoo PR versus “Voodoo Academia”

Richard Edelman’s Voodoo Academia replies to Professor Aneel Karnani of the University of Michigan’s Business School’s WSJ article The Case Against Corporate Social Responsibility. But who’s voodooing whom?

Here’s the essence of Professor Karnani’s case:

“Companies that simply do everything they can to boost profits will end up increasing social welfare. In circumstances in which profits and social welfare are in direct opposition, an appeal to corporate social responsibility will almost always be ineffective, because executives are unlikely to act voluntarily in the public interest and against shareholder interests.”

Here’s the essence of Mr. Edelman’s reply:

“[Edelman's case studies] demonstrate that contrary to Karnani’s assertion, the decision isn’t whether to run an effective, “smart” business or a socially responsible, engaged one. Performance with purpose (a term used by PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi) is not an either/or proposition.” Read more at paulseaman.eu

Amplify’d from www.businessinsider.com

Here's Twitter's Big Problem: It's Not Going Mainstream

The last few months have begun to confirm a conviction we've long held about Twitter--that, in its current form, it's not likely to become a huge mass-market phenomenon.

Given that the tech community is obsessed with Twitter and that Twitter already has an astounding 145 million users worldwide, that may seem a ludicrous hypothesis--but other data backs it up.

For starters, check out the chart we published this morning from Gawker Media. The chart shows the social-media referrals to Gawker's sites over the past year.  The main trend in the chart is the collapse of Digg and the rise of Facebook.  But an important lesser trend is that Twitter (green) hasn't grown much as a referral source over the past year, especially relative to Facebook and--surprise--Stumbleupon.

See more at www.businessinsider.com

I've been playing with paper.li recently myself and love it for all the reasons Neville listed below. I figured, why try to reinvent the wheel?

For anyone who's asking, "Why?" here's your answer.

Amplify’d from www.nevillehobson.com

Connect your community with a Twitter daily newspaper

About a month ago, I discovered Paper.li, a service that aggregates content linked to by people in a Twitter community into an online newspaper. It’s one of the most useful ways I’ve found for surfacing news and information I might otherwise have missed entirely. Read more at www.nevillehobson.com