Category: Tech

The Semiotics of “Rose Gold”

Am I the only one to see the yet-to-be released iPhone 6S Rose Gold as Red Gold or Rolex Everose ?

Rose gold, however, has quite a different symbolic valence. Deliberately adulterated, it is gold that has an inclination to be something else. Rose gold is perverse. Unlike yellow gold—but like its cooler cousin, white gold, which is an alloy with nickel or manganese that has also risen and declined in popularity throughout the years—rose gold is subject to the vagaries of fashion. The desire it stimulates is inherently temporary. In rose gold, a substance of enduring value is transformed into a consumer item with the half-life of all things modish. Rose gold is decadent. It is gold for people who already have enough gold gold.

For the sake of colour-comparaison, here are three watches in different gold cases :

From left to right : Patek 1518 (rose gold), Cartier Santos Dumont Squelette (red gold), Rolex Day-Date (everose gold)
From left to right : Patek 1518 (rose gold), Cartier Santos Dumont Squelette (red gold), Rolex Day-Date (everose gold)

→ The New Yorker

Goldman vs. Bloomberg

Will Goldman ever turns Bloomberg into Blackberry ? Ain’t a sure thing.

It’s something like the social register for the global one percent, mixed with the Gutenberg press and a little bit of the iPhone. Getting even more reductive, it’s the ball in tennis: it’s hard to imagine the financial industry without it. As such, many banks and hedge funds gladly shell out the $21,000 or so per unit. Some trading floors, in fact, resemble primal villages in which the biggest bosses can be identified as the guys with the most terminal screens mounted on their desk. Bloomberg L.P. throws off around $9 billion in revenue, making it about as valuable as the N.F.L.

→ Vanity Fair

Fluid Coupling

The enterprise stood as a place of “legacy” and “security” which prevented mobile or other forms of computing. Paradoxes emerged wherein an administrative assistant had more computing power in his pocket than the CEO had in her data center; where the same assistant would know what was happening faster than any of the bosses. Homes had better connectivity than offices and productivity at small firms increased faster than at big firms. Incidentally, even the slowest enterprises were faster then the government. The bigger the firm, the slower and stupider it seemed. Were large firms employing dumb managers or did being a manager in a large firm make you dumb?

→ Asymco

Podcasts Aren’t An Overnight Success

Listening to podcasts has been an evening habit for me and I’m happy to hear that there success is spreading. I’m also thankful for there work as it’s always a thrill to listen to there conversations. 

When Myke Hurley and Stephen Hackett launched Relay FM, they expected to build a small independent network of weekly tech podcasts. Just a year later, Relay FM features 16 different shows and delivers 1.5 million downloads every month. Building this loyal audience was an overnight success six years in the making.

→ TechCrunch

Lunch with the FT: Neil Shen

It is getting late. After prodding doubtfully at a bright yellow jellylike substance that turns out to be mango salad dressing, the smartphones on the table begin to vibrate and beep once more. “Venture capital is a regret business,” concludes one of China’s most successful investors. And with that he finally turns his attention back to the gyrations of the market.

→ Financial Times