differences

Cultural differences loom large in Microsoft-Yahoo

When you look at the cultural differences between Microsoft and Yahoo, you don't need to look much further than a floor plan.

Microsoft has been a company of offices, where workers toil individually at their piece of a collective project. Yahoo, by contrast is a Silicon Valley archetype where workers sit in cubicles and tend to work collaboratively.

The folks in Redmond are known for being hard-charging and competitive, both internally and externally. Yahoo, meanwhile, tends to be more collaborative, sometimes to the point of inefficiency.

There are philosophical differences as well. Yahoo has been a huge proponent of … Read more

Is the 'I can't hear the difference' myth killing the speaker business?

Sophisticated baby boomers and Gen Xers pride themselves on their ability to appreciate the finer things in life. They're wine snobs, crave gourmet food, drive exotic cars, buy 1080p high definition TVs, but for some bizarre reason think low-end speakers are just dandy. At a New Year's Eve party I polled perfect strangers about their hi-fi systems, and the three men and one woman all said that, sure, music was once really important, but now it's mere background. And they now owned very small systems, because "I can't hear the difference anymore."

Hmmm, I … Read more

Do all amplifiers sound alike?

A reader wrote asking the age old question--Do all amplifiers sound alike? "Mr. Guttenberg, I've been enjoying what you write about since I am a budding audiophile. A guy I know claims that amplifiers do not alter the quality of the sound and pointed me to a web site with a $10,000 challenge by Richard Clark that states that the human ear cannot discern the differences between amplifiers. What are your feelings on the subject and do you think there is any merit to this man's challenge?"

Well, I do believe that there are important … Read more

Shocker: Men like black phones

Now that the Mayo Clinic has settled the question of cell phone safety in hospitals, it's time to turn our attention to research that really matters: What colors do men and women like?

A study commissioned by phone retailer MPhone has surmised that both genders generally like the same models but want different colors. (Stop the presses!) The report also contained the blockbuster finding that "men were twice as likely to buy black phones," according to Gadgets Weblog.

And how reliable is this research? Consider this statement from an MPhone rep: "While we know who is … Read more