Dear Friends,
It is about this time of year that Artie’s chat status starts reading, “The days are getting shorter and I hope it snows soon.” It is roundly frowned upon here, but while we think about ways to extend the summer, it is clear that we are heading toward the end of the season. The nights are getting cooler and the harvesting of vegetables and fruits is in full swing. The big maple tree by my garage is already showing tinges of fall color. Nevertheless, it is summer and time for barbecue and sweet corn. I stopped at the local farm stand after hours on the way home from work the other evening, and I had to just smile as I picked up some corn and fresh tomatoes. The basket with money in it was still there, and I definitely rounded up as I left the cash for my goods in the basket before I drove away.
My blueberry bushes have been very prolific this year; I think I have had blueberries in every conceivable combination, and we have frozen a bunch of them for the winter. Apples are next, and we have already harvested some from our Golden Delicious tree to make applesauce.
Apple continues to protect and enhance their intellectual property even as Google strengthens their patent portfolio with the acquisition of Motorola this week. Patent battles are heating up with a lot of lawyers pulling down the huge fees. Seems like a stimulus program for lawyers. Patent law does seem to be broken as technology advances. Some lawyers make their living by suing or threatening to sue companies for alleged violation of obscure patents. Fighting these claims can be very expensive, so paying the settlement is the path of least resistance and expense. This has spawned a whole industry of patent trolls.
On the other hand, a company such as Apple that is in the vanguard of technological innovation must be able to protect its inventions so that they can actually come to market. Apple pushes the window of technology, seemingly with a shiny crystal ball that sees trends before the rest of the industry. Take, for example, the new MacBook Air. There are many innovations in this very popular product, but one thing that is remarkable is how Apple changed the prevailing paradigm for laptop computers when they first introduced the MacBook Air. No optical drive, OMG! In the beginning, it was a major shift in thought process to consider a computer without an optical drive. After all, how are you going to load software, watch movies or back up your Mac onto DVD? Well, Apple had answers for all of those questions. Here, you need an optical drive? Buy this inexpensive alternative or use your officemate’s drive over the network. Or hey, you don’t really need a drive because you have high-speed Internet and we have the App Store to download software directly to your computer or the iTunes Store to download movies and music. Suddenly, as we talk to customers we can ask, “Do you really need an optical drive?”
I have used a MacBook Air pretty much since they were first introduced. I initially had the external optical drive on my desk but actually never used it. The other major technological breakthrough Apple made with the MacBook Air was the use of solid state drives that make the MacBook Air one of the thinnest and lightest laptops ever while increasing data reliability by eliminating the moving parts of a standard hard drive. It is this type of vision from Apple that has allowed them to be in the lead on technology.