Cheers for the Ears

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/15/health/15well.html

Trends that bear a look- No bull

Bob Metz of New York Times and CoiningMoney.com fame says you can expect Blue Ray to to give way to the flick set behemoths Block Buster and Netflix.

Better start watching the Times again for usable trends: especially the Science Times section on Tuesday and the Circuits section on Thursdays. Or then if you’re not afraid of missing something, you could stay tuned to Rhein Watch. Its a great screening tool but  as with all filters, some stuff is bound to escape through the grid.

Bob says there is a gang busters hearing aid that could set you back over $3,000 a year (rented only, the device is replaced when it quits) called Lyric out of Insound Medical in California. It would be great to hear without the screeches and whistles adding their decibels to the cacophony.  Sounds like they might have a resonate business plan if they can bring the price down an octave. Otherwise we think there are too many hearing impaired people who would rather buy their gas than hear their jazz.

Google’s CEO Eric Schmidt says his company is driven by some simple principles (note the spelling ...its not principals). In Business Week May 12 he says “let engineers spend 20% of their time on projects outside their jobs; find better ways to do something that’s important to people; work together (the best programing team is a telephone call); hire the brightest people; listen to people. Sounds pretty simple, but having a culture that encourages innovation seems to be the main success factor.