The new Pebble Time smartwatch launched on Kickstarter and has raised $5 million dollars in half a day.

Fast Company is labeling it as “the battle” against Apple and Andoid smartwatches.

Not quite. At least not for Apple.

The Apple Watch is going to start at $349 and go up $10,000 (at least) for the 18K gold version. Pebble’s watch is under $200.

While I’m sure there’s quite a bit of overlap between people who backed the Pebble Time and people who want an Apple Watch the target markets are different. Pebble Time sales won’t affect Apple Watch sales very much the same way Honda Civic buyers don’t influence BMW buyers—even if those BMW buyers are buying “entry level” models.

My first impression of the Pebble Time is how awful the hardware looks. My second impression after watching the video is how fun and thoughful the interface and animations are.

—Buddy Guy’s mother to Buddy, heard onSonic Highways

Great homage to McSorley’s Old Ale House by Robert Day (hat tip Mark):

I’ve lost track of the 1960s. At least its chronology. It’s not a matter of Puff the Magic Dragon, but the decade seemed scrambled even as it was happening. No narrative; all abstract montage. Everything used. But not much signed. More than all the flowers gone. In my case: a book, a friend, a girlfriend. I never sent the letter I wrote–but then, neither did she.

The summer after the afternoon when I had been looking at John Sloan’s painting in the Gaslight Tavern, I am sitting in McSorley’s “Wonderful Saloon” on East Seventh Street just off Third Avenue in New York City–not far from The Cooper Union.

It is my first trip to Manhattan, and I have already discovered that the A-Train is more than track three on my Columbia Record Club LP; that there is a hospital with the same name as a lip-kissing, candle-burning American poet; that the White Horse Tavern has (not unlike our Gaslight Tavern) a used bookstore (more than one) close by; and that Henry James’s Washington Square is my Washington Square–at least mine because that summer I am living in an apartment facing the east side of it.

I lived two blocks down from McSorley’s (at 100 East 7th Street) from 2000 to 2005. It’s a special place in NYC and I’ve shared many, many, MANY light & darks with friends there.

Apple Inc. Closes At $775 Billion Market Cap via Twitter

This week Michael and Bryan discuss Bryan’s computer woes (again), Palm V’s and Dope Wars, dirty snow in NYC, Apple’s supposed plans to make a car, self-driving cars, subways, Bill Murray, and the Oscars. The episode opens with the exhaust from a 1970 Ford Gran Torino King Cobra Boss 429.

Listen Now (and subscribe on iTunes)

Taken from the awesome movie, Birdman.

The Verge: Former GM CEO warns Apple against making cars

Dan Akerson, who ran General Motors for less than three and a half years, issued a stern warning to Apple this week against making a car. In an interview with Bloomberg, he noted that making cars was hard. “A lot of people who don’t ever operate in it don’t understand and have a tendency to underestimate,” said Akerson, who has held no other executive positions in the automotive industry. “They’d better think carefully if they want to get into the hard-core manufacturing,” he said of Apple. “We take steel, raw steel, and turn it into car. They have no idea what they’re getting into if they get into that.”

This sounds very similar to what former Palm CEO Ed Colligan said about Apple’s entry into the phone market in 2006:

We’ve learned and struggled for a few years here figuring out how to make a decent phone,” he said. “PC guys are not going to just figure this out. They’re not going to just walk in.’

Is Apple going make it’s own car? Are they going to buy Tesla?

I don’t know.

I just know I’d love to be a fly on the wall in Apple’s labs because they’re working on some awesome stuff. Guaranteed.

Image taken from Twitter

via Next Draft

Portrait of a Letterpress Printer from • of two lands • on Vimeo.

Last week BGR posted this infographic of where all of Apple’s revenue comes from:

It’s important to emphasize the story that isn’t being told in the above image:

All the revenue from the Mac, iPad and iPhone are inextricably linked to the “minuscule” revenue from Services. The ‘Services’ category includes the iTunes Store, the iOS App Store and the OS X App Store.

If you remove Apples services, everything else evaporates.

Canalys on Android Wear devices:

Over 720,000 Android Wear devices shipped in 2014 out of a total of 4.6 million smart wearable bands. Though the Moto 360 remained supply constrained through Q4, Motorola was the clear leader among Android Wear vendors. LG’s round G Watch R performed significantly better than its original G Watch, while Asus and Sony entered the market with their own Android Wear devices. Pebble meanwhile shipped a total of 1 million units from its 2013 launch through to the end of 2014. Continual software updates, more apps in its app store and price cuts in the fall helped maintain strong sales in the second half of the year. ‘Samsung has launched six devices in just 14 months, on different platforms and still leads the smart band market. But it has struggled to keep consumers engaged and must work hard to attract developers while it focuses on Tizen for its wearables.’ said Canalys VP and Principal Analyst Chris Jones.

Language is important.

Shipped does not mean sold.

I’d love it if some of these Android Wear vendors strapped on some balls and bragged about how many devices they sold.

—R. Buckminster Fuller via Form & Construct

See last post.