Kevin Meyers

Business, tech, sports, media, and other cool stuff.

Why I'm selling my iPad

Apologies to Vivek Wahda for stealing his post. And apologies to Semil Shah for not listening to him, when he tried to talk me in to keeping it. But after a few months of ownership, my iPad just isn't doing it for me anymore. I've put it on eBay.

I can come up with a list of thousand reasons why. I found it awkward to hold on the bus. It didn't replace anything in my bag. The new Kindle came out that's much lighter and cheaper, and since the main app I was using on the iPad was the Kindle, there was no reason for me to carry around a giant iPod Touch.

But the real reason why? I got a new gadget that's way cooler than the iPad. Here it is:

iphone-4-facetime.jpg

Yeah, the iPhone 4. It does everything that the iPad does, but it fits in my pocket. And it makes calls. And it multitasks. And it has folders. And Face Time.

So, sorry, Steve Jobs. You've out-innovated yourself. The iPhone 4 has eliminated my need for an iPad. So to eBay I go.

PS - The saddest person to see the iPad go is my 19-month old son, Jack, who loves watching Toy Story on the iPad. But I'm sure we can figure something out for him. Like, I don't know, not watching so much TV?

The Journey Begins! « Munching to Mend

Thus begins my food blog!  I will write and document my new life on the anti-inflammatory diet with hopes that I can spread the word and the success for any readers I might attract.  The diet has only a few rules, albeit pretty hard to follow…

1. Overbalance your intake of monounsaturated fats vs. polyunsaturated fats.  This means no red meat, but lots of fish (omega 3′s are great), nuts, olive oil, and avocados

2. No processed or refined sugars.  This is basically no processed foods, white flour, or sweets. Try telling this to someone who considers it a necessity to always know where the closest candy store is and lives across the street from one of the best pizza shops in Philadelphia!

3. Load up on fruits and veggies.

4. Always choose whole grains.  Goodbye bread basket!

5. No dairy fat…ugh, but I LOVE ice cream and cheese!!

via munchingtomend.wordpress.com

My sister Maggie is starting a food blog to document her new diet to combat hereditary arthritis (does that mean I'm at risk?). Looks pretty cool - I look forward to watching it develop. She's great.

Rug shopping

The view from my office window does not suck

Look at the size of that claw!

Someone's afraid of the lobsters we're having for dinner

Bought a bed at Costco - it's good to have an SUV

Why Target's Political Donation was a Dumb Move

via online.wsj.com

As you may have read, Target made a dumb move recently. They made a donation to a political group in Minnesota to support pro-business candidates in statewide races. Makes sense, right? Good move.

Not so fast. That same pro-business group also happens to give money to a gubernatorial candidate who opposes same-sex marriage. Oops. Turns out lots of gay people, and lots of straight people who support same-sex marriage (including yours truly) shop at Target. They weren't too psyched about this news, understandably. And now they're boycotting Target.

So here's the deal, Target. Donating corporate money to political campaigns is really dumb. However, it's not dumb because you risk alienating half of your customer base. It's dumb because that's not what your shareholders want you to do with your money. Target shareholders don't want to invest in a political action committee. They want to invest in a discount retailer. If Target shareholders believe that the election of conservative candidates will increase the value of their Target shares, they can vote with their own wallets, by donating their personal money to support conservative causes.

If Target has an extra $150,000 lying around, it should use that money to improve its business. Invest it in a new marketing campaign. Spruce up an old store. Give your best people a raise or a bonus. And if you can't think of anything else to do with it, just hang on to it. Your investors will reward you for having a strong cash balance, and I'm sure at some point in the next few years you'll think of something productive to do with $150,000 that will directly impact your bottom line and those of your shareholders.

I should note that, although I personally support gay marriage, I am not participating in the boycott. In fact, I just dropped some dough at Target yesterday. And maybe I'll donate some of the money I saved by shopping at Target to a pro-gay marriage candidate.