QOTD: Especially If Said iPhone Is in Someone’s Pocket

One rule: Ask for permission before touching anyone’s iPhone.

— A key point of etiquette in interacting with customers, as taught to Apple Store trainees, according to a New York Times report on them.

QOTD: And It’s Called Microsoft Bobbi …

Microsoft has had a similar capability in Windows Phones for more than a year, since Windows Phone 7 was introduced.

Microsoft Chief Research and Strategy Officer Craig Mundie says Apple is late to the game with Siri

QOTD: Likes Are Great. Money Is Better: Why Kickstarter Works.

Apparently a whole lot of people like something so much they’re not even willing to give it a dollar.

Australian designer Lewis Winter, bemoaning the limited effort many social media users expend to express their support, in a New York Times magazine piece on Kickstarter. The piece, written by the excellent Rob Walker (disclosure: I think Rob Walker is excellent), explains why Kickstarter’s crowdfunding model works where others fall flat. Well worth your time.

QOTD: That Said, Damning Google+ With Oldster Demo Praise

Google+ fills a void between public and private, it serves what is likely to be an older demo less interested in hooking up or hipstering out and more interested in the social utility it provides.

A VC Fred Wilson, in a later part of the same post on social networking companies.

QOTD: Keep Calm and Carry on, Twitter!

In any case, I hope Google+ succeeds. Given the blog posts saying this will kill Tumblr, Twitter, Foursquare, etc, you might wonder why I feel that way. Well first, I don’t think competitors kill companies and services. I think the vast majority of “deaths” are self inflicted.

A VC Fred Wilson, on the newest entrant into social networking game.

QOTD: About Those Amazon E-Book Sales…

“As a former Amazon Associate, I can tell you that a great many sales of Kindle Books are for the 99¢ complete Dickens, etc.”

–Movie critic and Web publisher Roger Ebert, providing some context for Amazon’s stat about Kindle e-books outselling print books.

QOTD: Still Think the Apple Store’s a “Painful Mistake” Now, Dave?

“I give [Apple] two years before they’re turning out the lights on a very painful and expensive mistake.”

— A 2001 prediction by David Goldstein, president of Channel Marketing, about Apple’s newly launched retail stores, which celebrate their 10th anniversary this week.

QOTD: Secret Service Agent Decides – Not a Fox Fan

Had to monitor Fox for a story. Can’t. Deal. With. The. Blathering.

— Message posted yesterday to the Secret Service’s official Twitter account. The agency later told the Washington Post that an employee “mistakenly believed they were on their personal account.” The tweet has been deleted, and the agency says it is “conducting appropriate internal follow-up.”

QOTD: So To The Class of 2011 I Say, "Where Do You Want To Go Today?" Go Forth And "Be What’s Next"

“To all the families and graduates, post-graduation please Skype on … I also have to tell you, a guy I know in Seattle has a son who goes to the school down the street here, UCLA. I saw him the other day, and he starts chirping at me, chirp, chirp, chirp. I said, “I’m going down to USC to speak.” Chirp, chirp, chirp, UCLA better, chirp, chirp, chirp. I had it. I whip out my Windows Phone, I Bing the university rankings, and I just show it to him right there in black and white, USC 23 – UCLA 25.”

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer works a handful of product mentions into his commencement address at the University of Southern California

QOTD: Microsoft Finally Gets to Take Off the Ankle Monitor

“Our experience has changed us and shaped how we view our responsibility to the industry. We are pleased to bring this matter to successful resolution, and we are excited to keep delivering great products and services for our partners and customers.”

Microsoft on the expiration of its 10-year antitrust consent decree