Too niche, not enough profits. My Radioshack plan...
1. Sell off all the inventory.
2. Rebrand, lose the name Radioshack because it's the definition of cheaply made, overpriced garbage. It's embarrassing to even be seen in that store.
3. Go with a minimalistic store layout, like the Apple store (http://cdn.iphonehacks.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/AppleR...), because existing stores look like a warehouse or junkyard. Carry higher end phones, tablets, ebook readers, laptops, headphones and accessories.
4. Sell some cables and things cheap to get people in the door. Instead of selling an HDMI cable for $100, sell it for $5, so people walk in the door, and don't feel like they're being screwed over. Then, when they're inside, they can play around with the expensive hardware, and potentially walk away with a tablet.
That makes me wonder if the dancing light creates more risk. What happened when the light turned green in the video? I know what I did, I carefully started watching the green man, waiting to see if he would also dance, or do something cool. Do you really want people crossing the street, being less likely to look both ways because they're busy watching to see if the light does something fun? If a car runs a red, I feel like more people would be caught off guard with this light.
Or what about the ocean? It's 4km deep on average, so why not just drop the weights there? No need for setting up tracks or carrying the weight up a mountain.
They're starting incredibly small with 10 publishers. Users have a bigger incentive to signup when ads will be removed from a large number of sites they visit. For example, if I just use Imgur, why don't I just upgrade to Imgur Pro for the same price, get the ads removed, and the extra Imgur perks? Now, if Google ads would be removed from a dozen of the most popular sites I visit, then yes, I'd consider it. I'm hoping this doesn't fail due to lack of publishers. Google has a tendency to lock everyone out for too long, so I'm worried it'll be another invite only flop.
Arial is one of the best fonts available on the web at the moment. Sure, it's crappy, but it's sharp and readable on low resolution displays. New fonts are much better designed, but they're blurry and difficult to read at the small sizes used for body text, because there simply isn't enough pixels on your average display.
Once 4K and 5K monitors become normal, we can wave goodbye to Arial, but I get the feeling it's going to stick around for another 5 or 10 years.
I'm not concerned about it being used against me. Like most people, I'm not going around committing crimes on a daily basis or trying to hide nuclear launch codes. I just like to have a right to some privacy in my daily life, and I don't think every detail needs to be logged and available to the world.
The scary part is that you can't protect yourself easily from those around you. For example, let's say you like to maintain your privacy, and you're careful about anything you post online, you're careful not to have an always on microphone, such as the Echo, you're careful not to have a smart television with a video camera connected to the internet in your living room, etc. That's great, and up to you to decide, but what about your friends house?
I mean, when you visit your friend, stop at a girlfriends apartment, or hang out with people at the pub, are you checking if they have any of these devices? Do you search their shelves for an Echo? Do you ask everyone at the restaurant if they have a smartphone with a microphone connected to the internet?
It's impossible to avoid things like this in your life. The second you walk outside, you're surrounded by cameras and microphones that can be streaming anything, to anyone.
Facebook is another example. You might say, I don't want to enter where I live, or where I went to school, I feel that's sensitive information. Well, since you refuse to give up that information, Facebook just encourages your friends to squeal. Hey, does John Doe live in X or Y city? Did you go to university with John Doe? Hey, why don't you upload more photos of John Doe, and tell us the time and location that photo was taken. Actually, no need to tag him, we'll just detect his face, and use the date the photo was created.
It's not going to be long until you can search a person, and see a timeline of their life based on data from third parties. Let's watch John Doe's life for 2018. Oh look, Jan 15, he appears in the background of a tourists photo by the Eiffel tower. Jan 21st, we detected is face on the metro in southern France. Oh, Jan 28th, a car dash cam finds him walking down a street in Italy. Oh, his phone was on and we can see he was in Jane's apartment Feb 1st. Let's pull the audio from the microphone on Jane's television for that day.
1. Sell off all the inventory.
2. Rebrand, lose the name Radioshack because it's the definition of cheaply made, overpriced garbage. It's embarrassing to even be seen in that store.
3. Go with a minimalistic store layout, like the Apple store (http://cdn.iphonehacks.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/AppleR...), because existing stores look like a warehouse or junkyard. Carry higher end phones, tablets, ebook readers, laptops, headphones and accessories.
4. Sell some cables and things cheap to get people in the door. Instead of selling an HDMI cable for $100, sell it for $5, so people walk in the door, and don't feel like they're being screwed over. Then, when they're inside, they can play around with the expensive hardware, and potentially walk away with a tablet.