Cute little button economics

Missmarketcrash is hopelessly addicted to the new iPhone. I know, I know - I am late to all of this and it is not anything new. You are correct, but, I still cannot help thinking about it even if this is old-hat. It is new to me.

This morning we plugged the little iPhone into a big amp and speakers and spent breakfast-time listening to digital radio stations from all over the world, courtesy of WunderRadio. We went from the lower east side of New York to Hungary, a stop by London, and then, over to Japan whilst eating our toast. Japan was the big winner, providing us with the category of "anime" music that was simultaneously simple and complex and suited the spirit of the little iPhone.

I've yet to find the best sowpods dictionary application or something to make my son practice his violin but I am confident these things will be found with a bit more time. Time is the thing here. The iPhone seems to be my little crystal ball that revealed how the internet of the future will continue to be shaped. It is what they have hoped for, and, it seems to be coming true. I actually paid £3.00 for the little WunderRadio. I have never paid for content on the internet. So, here goes the future. You might read I am both disappointed and slightly pleased.

The Financial Times has a free mobile iPhone application downloadable from Apple. It is a bit of a lure that might result in a paid-for subscription. If I am feeling old-fashioned and do not wish to download the little app, I can just bookmark FT through Safari and up it will pop rather than downloading a cute little button. But the button is easier.

Application downloading does seem like something one is less inclined to shrug away from paying for. It is relatively new and we are being trained that it might cost money. It provides a simple just-press-the-button-and-enter-your-password-and-we-will-charge-you interface that simply and cheerfully shifts consumers into more paid-for internet content. Newspapers must be crossing their fingers. I quite like newspapers so this is the kind of thing I'd like to see rescue them.

On the other side of things, I am grateful that there will always be something for free. Like this.

Rubik's Cube Accounting

Vivid dreams about Rubik's cubes and accounting woke me with a start last night.  In my dream, someone had just invented a 3-D accounting tool based on the Rubik's Cube.  I was sitting at a formica table under a fluorescent light across from a man in a brown suit watching a demonstration.  It was amazing and a neat way of fitting several "realities" together so they matched on all sides.  As well,  they could be linked to other cubes though sometimes that caused unforseen shifts...

Since when has Missmc ever concerned herself with accounting?  The only logical source for this dream might be either this or this.  The first This concerns itself with accounting changes that are available to Apple that might just make it look much more rosy for them.  The second This is not accountancy per se but is in effect, a way of looking at how things are going.  And they appear to be going nowhere in this article about idle cargo-less ships parked off the coast of Malaysia.  

The dream progressed to that part where the Rubik's cube accounting man was proposing that Q1, Q2, Q3 and Q4 be customized and given names rather than Q's.  He proposed that  companies ought to give evocative titles to each quarter before they happened and then try to fit the reporting in to match.  That would replace the numbers with a "story" and make for much better annual report reading.  Imagine...

Q1 - "Making Worlds" (ht Daniel Birnbaum)

Q2 - "The Texture of Time" (ht Nabokov) 

Q3 - "Perception and Paradise"

Q4 - "Expanding Horizons"

Well.  The mind runs with possibilities and shaping references abound.  There is sound evidence from all this that I would make a most unsuitable accountant!  But creativity is helpful in the most unlikely places...