I do apologise for this not being new content. I haven’t had much time to tap away at the keys, you see. However, I have stumbled across a few really interesting sites and blog posts over the weekend and following, is one of them.

I found this post on a new blog I have subscribed to, Branding Strategy Insider:

What are the most powerful marketing words in the English language? Since the early 60’s researches in advertising and academia have presented various findings. All agree the power lies in ten to twelve words. Here are the results chronologically:

1961: You, Easy, Money, Save, Love, New, Discovery, Results, Proven, and Guarantee

Source: [Vidette-Messenger (Valparaiso, Ind.), Nov. 1, 1963, p. 4; Lowell (Mass.) Sun, Nov. 4, 1963, p. 5; Northwest Arkansas Times, Nov. 7, 1963, p. 4; etc.]

1970: The 12 most persuasive words in the English language are: you, money, save, new, results, health, easy, safety, love, discovery, proven and guarantee. According to the claim of researchers in the Yale psychology department.

Source: [Fresno (Calif.) Bee Republican, Jan. 20, 1970, p. 7; Yuma (Ariz.) Daily Sun, Jan. 20, 1970, p. B6; Burlington (N.C.) Daily Times-News, Jan. 20, 1970, p. 6A; etc.]

Here’s an Associated Press item from January 1972, in which the list takes on significance by being quoted from the Canadian Consumer Magazine:

The Canadian Consumer Magazine quotes a research report saying that the 12 most persuasive words in the English language are: You, money save, new, results, health, easy, safety, love, discovery, proven and guarantee. Note that the three-letter word “sex”, didn’t make the top 12.

Source: [Gettysburg (Pa.) Times, Jan. 17, 1972, p. 9; Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune, Jan. 31, 1972, p. 12; etc.]

Bill Gold repeated the list in his Washington Post column “The District Line” in July 1978.

In a recent issue, Trends reported that a study by experts had identified the 12 most persuasive words in the English language. They were listed as: “money, save, new, you, results, health, safety, easy, guarantee, discovery, proven and love.” Trends also mentions that public relations people and advertising copy writers are wondering how the study managed to overlook “free,” which along with “new,” was long considered one of “the best-selling words in the language.”

Source: [Washington Post, July 27, 1978, p.12]

Enjoy,

PJG

A short while ago Amazon released its ‘revolutionary’ eBook reader, the Kindle. When I first saw it, I didn’t know what to think. I kind of agree with Zack Klein, in that it looks surprisingly like the ‘Pontiac Aztek of e-readers‘. Well get this - but watch the video first… If you want:

Amazon’s new Kindle ebook device sold out almost immediately after going on sale. And there won’t be any more available until after Christmas:

Kindle Availability
Due to heavy customer demand, Kindle is sold out. Because orders are prioritized on a first-come, first-served basis, please ORDER NOW to reserve your place in line. Your Kindle will not arrive by December 24th. Note that Kindles cannot currently be sold or shipped to customers living outside of the U.S.

The device, which sells for $400, also is unavailable outside of the U.S. So if you want one now, you have to go through eBay or another second hand retailer.

And it isn’t going to be cheap. Prices range up to $1,500 on eBay. The average final price is $830, and one person paid $1,500 (see Terapeak). So if you want one, you’re going to have to pay.

Couldn’t help myself; had to show you the hideous, hideous Aztek. Believe it or not, this is the 2005 model. Looks at least a kajillion times its age in terms of design.

Source: TechCrunch

One of my favourite Get a Mac ads.

“Mapping out routes for its drivers, drastically reducing the number of left-hand turns they make helped the company shave 28.5 million miles off its delivery routes, which has resulted in savings of roughly three million gallons of gas and has reduced CO2 emissions by 31,000 metric tons”. - According to the NY Times…

Prime Minister Helen Clark has entered the blogosphere, posting a rebuttal to The Press political reporter Colin Espiner’s On the House blog over her criticism of journalism standards.

Source: Stuff.co.nz

I always thought geeks were obsessed with Windows computers but this assumption changed over time. Before too long, Linux seemed to be the geek OS (operating system) of choice.

Well, after working 5 months at my current workplace, the assumption has changed again, Apple OSX seems to be the geek OS of choice. I reckon at least 75% of our (my workplace) 300+ strong workforce are Mac users - oh that stat impresses me, so so much.

There are many arguments in circulation as to why people choose Macs. Some say it’s because Mac users are little snobs with nothing better to do than obsess. Others say it’s because they are employed in the film/music/design sector. Well, I think the following, rather lengthy and book-like explanation is spot on:

I want to share with you all a profound moment of clarity I’ve had today.

I was buying a Mac keyboard for my sister for a Christmas present. My sister has a Mac and wanted a Mac keyboard. So there I was. I got to the checkout and I found myself slightly ashamed to be actually buying a Mac product. I mean $69 for a really basic USB keyboard??? It’s worth half that.

So I started complaining to my wife on the way home that I just don’t get Mac users and their over-priced hardware. And what I was really thinking as I was driving was, ‘What a bunch of noobs.’ Anyone who is a PC enthusiast has thought it at least once. Go on, admit it! You think they must just be thick or sucked in by the slick marketing and minimalist packaging.

But we are wrong. And this is my revelation…

Their entire view of tech is fundamentally different to us…I mean on a fundamental level. It’s different. And here it is in a nutshell:

‘They don’t care about technology. They just care about what they can do with it.”

Let that sink in for a bit. Now I’m going to take you on a guided visualisation. Close your eyes…well maybe not…

Now imagine that you’re a second-gen digital native. Home computers existed well before you were born. You’ve never used a camera that requires film. You text so much your thumb is your most mobile digit, you live on Facebook, and you would rather lose your wallet than your mobile phone. You don’t even have a landline.

You want to view your photos, edit HD digital videos, play your music and generally bum around on-line. You probably use a laptop cause you want to do it all from the couch. Tech is everywhere, pervasive, omnipresent. You don’t really think about it. You just use it.

That’s a Mac user, because that’s exactly what Macs deliver. Macs (in all their forms) are friendly, welcoming, stylish (they are…admit it) and they work. You can do all the things you want to do in a tech world and it’s all pretty simple. I mean half of what they want to do is already built into the operating system.

And here’s the beautiful thing. Say someone wants to do something new with their Mac. Like setup a wireless network in their house. They go a shop. Probably a Mac shop. And there is one thing to do it. Airport Extreme. Not twenty variations with various driver issues and all sorts of dohickys and thingemebobs. Just one. I couldn’t believe it today when I was looking at the Airport Extreme (something else my sister was coveting). $259. I saw that it supported wireless N and I’m thinking there is no way my sister had wireless N. So I ask if there is a wireless G version that costs less. Of course not. I’m not thinking Mac. One thing. It’s that simple.

So they buy the Airport Extreme. They take it home. They plug it in. It probably gives them a hug the first time they turn it on. And it works. They plug in an external hard-drive. And there they go. Home network with remote storage.

It’s really a wonderful thing actually. Macs allow all the people who don’t have the inclination to pour over a myriad of hardware or software reviews (which I love to do as I’m such a geek) access to all the same cool tech tools (in a hardware and software sense) as we have. Sure they may not be the best in their class, or the cheapest, or the most efficient. But overall they work, they are hassle free, they are easy to use, and they look nice to have around home.

See you’ve just got to look at it like they do.

I like my car. I have a CRV. It’s good. It drives well, I can fit stuff in it, its relatively safe and it looks alright. While I have a general interest in how it works, I’m not really interested in modifying the suspension, or adjusting the computer controlled fuel-injection system, or whatever else it is that car heads do. My car is a Mac. Most cars are really. But to a car head….what am I? A noob.

So don’t denounce our Mac using brothers and sisters, embrace them! For they are tech lovers just like us. They have just come to the same place via a different path. And next time I buy my sister a pressie that’s white and glossy, I won’t be ashamed. I’ll feel warm in the knowledge that she has found her own way to the place where I live.

What can I say to that. Not a lot. Pretty accurate I think.

Source: Whirlpool

Ok, the time has come for me to ask a favour. If you, my loyal readers have any suggestions at all as to what you would like to see, read or experience on this site, please let me know. Please flick an email to:

suggestions@pajago.com

I’m happy to reply to any queries as well. Come on guys, let me know.

Thanks for your loyalty, PJG.

One of my favourite websites, Valleywag, today commented on Apple’s intention to open an additional 40 stores in 2008. Currently, Apple operates over 200 stores internationally. It’s likely that next years expansion efforts will focus on the international markets. To support this assumption, Apple is in the process of building a flagship store in Sydney.

Ron Johnson, Apple’s Head of Retail recently told the media that there ‘will be a larger number of international stores among the 40 or so that will opening in fiscal 2008′.

Bec and Lleyton Hewitt apparently have a stake in online venture, eSwap.com.au. I wonder how it goes for them.

Doris Lessing, winner of 2007’s Nobel Prize in Literature on the Internet:

“We are in a fragmenting culture, where our certainties of even a few decades ago are questioned and where it is common for young men and women, who have had years of education, to know nothing of the world, to have read nothing, knowing only some speciality or other, for instance, computers”.

Ok. Sure why not.

Source: TechCrunch