Retina Technology Blog - Latest Comments

Re: RSUs vs Options.

HalibetLector — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 17:12:57 -0000

Another thing you have to watch out for when your company gets bought is the company converting your stock options to SARs (Stock Appreciation Rights). It's still better than RSUs, but it's not real stock when it vests. You don't get dividends, but you do get to sell it for whatever the stock is worth.

Re: RSUs vs Options.

netik — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 18:39:13 -0000

Regardless of the option strike price, because given the current climate, if the company never goes public and decides to merge with someone else, what happens is that in the options situation, they have to take care of your options and pay you out. In the RSU situation, they can choose to negate your options entirely.

Maybe, just maybe, you get lucky and they cut you some RSUs at a low strike price and said company actually increases in value (i.e. Google) -- Then you're ok. But if the gods that be give you a choice, take the fucking options.

Also be wary of options agreements which contain 'claw back' provisions, like the bullshit Mark Pincus decided to pull with Zynga employees. They're just as shitty.

Re: RSUs vs Options.

GlennKelman — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 13:12:39 -0000

Regardless of the option strike price?

Re: RSUs vs Options.

netik — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 22:55:45 -0000

They are never preferable.

Re: RSUs vs Options.

GlennKelman — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 18:32:57 -0000

Yes, agree on all points except the strike price on options can be quite high for companies that are growing, in which case RSUs might be preferable?

Re: Predicting the End of the World with Mathematica

tax Attorney — Fri, 20 May 2011 11:27:51 -0000

The thoughts are very well laid out and it was
refreshing to read. I was able to find the information that I was looking
for. I just wanted to leave a comment as a token of appreciation. Thanks!

irs tax relief | tax lawyer | irs tax relief

Re: Speaking Engagements for 2010

Mawar — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 04:42:27 -0000

Hi John. You are no doubt a very experienced and knowledgeable professional in this field. hence, we would like to invite you to come to Malaysia for our conference. it'll be great if we could have you on board! let me know how may i contact you. my email is mawar.mustaffa@comfori.com

Re: Speaking Engagements for 2010

Oleg Bunin — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 12:55:23 -0000

My email is oleg.bunin@ontico.ru
Thanks!

Re: Speaking Engagements for 2010

Oleg Bunin — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 12:55:03 -0000

John, hello!

How can I connect you? I want to send you invititation to one more conference ;))

Re: Dear apple, what the Dock?

Brian Go — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 21:17:48 -0000

Hmmm.... I don't use my dock much, but decided to try out the dock that came with my 1st gen 2g iPhone. Conclusion... We have SYNC. I never use the thing so next time you're in Boston, you can have it.

Re: Dear apple, what the Dock?

Paul — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 06:43:48 -0000

Apple isn’t the only maker of iPod cables, and iPod charge/connection cables can be bought by consumers for $1.60 each. This is no more than one would pay for MiniUSB. Furthermore, since MiniUSB by itself only does half of what the dock connector does, Apple would have to extend the format in order to maintain their current feature set. Other smartphone manufacturers already do this – devices supporting MiniUSB are using incompatible proprietary extensions to the standard to allow things like extra power input, serial I/O audio I/O and video I/O – so it’s not much different to the iPhone when you move beyond just charging and syncing the phone (and, as I showed above, there is no gouging going on for that). Given the massive momentum behind the dock connector, there are huge downsides for them to changing to a different format (if they did so, they would be accused of gouging customers because they would force the obsolescence of millions of accessories), and given the lack of any pervasive use of microUSB, there’s not much of an upside to doing so, for either consumers or for Apple.

As far as *docks* (you know, the topic of discussion) are concerned, its even less of an issue – Apple’s devices are about the only place one can even say there is a standard. The connector itself is a small part of the issue for docks – not only do the connectors have to be compatible, the devices also need to fit. Standardisation in docks is *impossible* unless smartphones standardise the shape, size, and connector placement in their phone. (ie: it’s impossible) Even within most individual companies, connector placements and form factors vary wildly. This is why most docks are for one device only, even if the actual connector is standard.

Apple have been fairly set on a form factor & connector placement since the original iPod, and have been merely making things smaller and thinner along the way (excluding the iPad). This means they *can* have a universal dock, big enough to fit the older devices, but with inserts to make newer devices fit nicely. This is what they do – and what *only* they do. Is there *any* other manufacturer that has a forward compatible dock?

Re: Dear apple, what the Dock?

Paul — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 05:33:17 -0000

> I assumed it was meant for the dock that I owned, but this adapter was meant for some device which clearly didn’t match any thing that Apple has ever produced.

As implied by the name, the universal dock adapter is an adapter for the universal dock, which Apple produces, and which supports every iPod other than the first and second gen, and every iPhone. http://store.apple.com/us/prod... Other apple products with docks also employ the universal docking mechanism, as do the bulk of third party docks. But universal docks are bigger, and they’re uglier, so maybe people prefer the device specific ones.

>(Did you know the audio out is provided by a microphone in the base of the dock, which connects to an amplifier and then the audio out jack? It does.)

Okay, now you’re trolling. Firstly, the iPhone don’t necessarily make any noise while doing audio out, and furthermore, iPods could do audio out before they had speakers! In fact, just a few paragraphs later you provide the true mechanism for audio out – http://pinouts.ru/PortableDevi... – Pins 3 & 4 on the dock connector do audio out. Maybe you should read before you write.

In general I would suggest that you read before you buy, too, but your original purchase goes beyond that. Just *looking* at the dock tells you it’s not backwards or forwards compatible – it *can’t* be, by necessity of its form! (universal docks don’t have this form and thus *can* be compatible) The fact that these docks don’t implement the internal hardware to make them forward compatible for the 3 people worldwide that dremel away at the dock to fit is about as far from treating their customers like bullshit as you can get.

Re: Dear apple, what the Dock?

bound008 — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 04:32:31 -0000

thats great advice...

if you buy android you won't have to worry about a choice in docks or battery life, because you won't have either.

Re: Dear apple, what the Dock?

dudebro — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 03:56:29 -0000

Hurr, sell something called a universal dock adapter then say it does not work with the old dock yeah it's his fault!

Re: Dear apple, what the Dock?

anondude — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 03:52:02 -0000

I dont even..

You are why i cry my self to sleep at night. Honestly every other god damned cell company uses mini/micro usb and guess what IT FUCKING WORKS FINE! Can you name me any other company that uses purely proprietary connectors on phones? Nokia the last hold out stopped last year. Hell every god damed thing has usb except apple.

Re: Dear apple, what the Dock?

Arpee — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 01:03:19 -0000

i feel really good i didn't get an iphone

Re: Dear apple, what the Dock?

1stlucci — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 00:58:37 -0000

j,

why are there ads on your blog?

Re: Dear apple, what the Dock?

tankadin — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 00:29:31 -0000

Steve Jobs talks you into trying anal and now you're angry because he's going too deep.

Re: Dear apple, what the Dock?

Vash — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 00:16:57 -0000

You know, the original iPhone dock works perfectly with the new iPhone 4. Try it out.

Re: Dear apple, what the Dock?

Guest — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 22:08:46 -0000

It's certainly stupid, but that doesn't mean it's unlikely. I can well imagine they'd do that, in their intensely controlled world of digital rights management. Can't have a device actually outputting copyright data in a form that could be copied with even analogue audio over jack-plug levels of losslessness...

Re: Dear apple, what the Dock?

Never — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 20:40:19 -0000

I have John's Android. He can't have it back.

Re: Dear apple, what the Dock?

Matt — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 20:14:47 -0000

It's pretty awesome that the AppleFanBoy2069 response is "SUCK IT UP AND TAKE IT IN THE WALLET", while the Android response is "Oh, one aspect of your phone displeases you? Please take a look at my swiss-army-knife-phone that is obviously superior". Then there are the others, namely "DISREGARD THAT I SUCK COCKS".

Re: Dear apple, what the Dock?

You can't spell — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 20:09:08 -0000

Yes. San Faggottycisco, to you. Please don't visit, we don't want to hire any more trash collectors.

Re: Dear apple, what the Dock?

JT — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 20:06:40 -0000

It only works if the customer keeps giving them money after being shit on. Apple fanboys will eat whatever Apple gives them, some of them might complain, but when the next iphone comes out, each and every one of those people will go back for another serving.

Once you've shown your corporate overlord that nothing can stop you from giving them money, you've removed all incentive to provide a decent product, haven't you?

The consumers are the cause of this. Apple won't change until people hold them accountable, and no one who buys Apple is interested in that.

Re: Dear apple, what the Dock?

JT — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 20:01:26 -0000

Because the iphone is put on public display, and the dock is not. When your goal in buying a phone is to flash it around like "bling" to impress other idiots, you're not worried about what your dock looks like.