Do you really own the device you purchased?

Sounds confusing right?

Let's take a simple scenario – you purchase a smart phone, un-box it and powered up, initial boot completes, you enter your email and device is ready for use. Now you stand staring at home screen of new device swiping left and right, let's touch app drawer icon and it there goes... lots of apps pre-installed for your convenience.

You start exploring these convenience apps one by one, accepting complicated “terms of use” where needed and after playing around a while you realize that most of these pre-installed apps are absolutely unnecessary and proceed to delete them.

What happens next? The result:

To make story short, pre-installed convenience apps (called 'bloatware') cannot be deleted from a device that you thought you owned. Why? Because a corporate seeking ROI thinks these apps are best for you regardless of your opinion.

Story does not end here, let's think about:

• Any idea how these companies use your personal information/data? No
• Any idea what access privileges bloatware enjoy that you have to live with? No
• Any guess why terms of use have to be so tricky and lengthy? No

Lets take a step further and look at desktop PCs and laptops. Does it not seem like every manufacturer is telling us that we have been living a wrong and unproductive life? And its only them to tell us “best thing for you” as if we are morons having no idea about choice.

Now are you getting what I mean by “owning the device you purchased”? Let's look into breaking free.

'Own' a device

This part may sound too difficult (for some may be) but not at all – it is only a matter of willingness and exploring a few web pages to get going.

Smart phone devices

• Rooting the device: Rooting (or gaining super user access) gives you absolute authority over the device bringing everything at your disposal. Be it removing bloatware or installing apps requiring root access such as an app to manage device's storage the way you want, for example. Files needed for rooting each device vary by make and model but procedure conceptually remains same.

• Custom ROMs: At the end of day, every device has a processor meaning every device has to have an operating system – the same goes with smart phones. Fun and most adventurous part begins when you break free from bloatware loaded stock ROM shipped by manufacturer to install custom ROM of your choice, developed and maintained by faithful community of developers. Custom ROMs come with many features including new and creative user experiences, access to hidden features, improved battery life and best of all giving you an opportunity to do the device 'your way'.

• Firewalls: If you still feel need for full control on apps sending and receiving data, you can install firewalls to allow or restrict apps access. This makes sure nothing happens without your explicit permission.

Laptop and desktop PCs

It's all about Windows: No it's not, it just gets shipped with most of new personal computers sold without consumers' choice to have it pre-installed or not.

Unless you are not running a special purpose software that largely requires Windows platform, world is open and free to experiment with Linux. Wine (a Linux compatibility layer for Windows programs) runs most of Windows programs and games successfully on Linux.

Let's see this way, if you are into elegant and beautiful looking personal desktop then rest assured you have not seen anything yet. If it is about security and proven stability than Windows is not even coming close to it.

Linux world is full of options – as a starter you may be interested in exploring Solydkx or Zorin or Ubuntuand after gaining some experience may consider advanced (and my favorite) Manjaro and Antergos Linux (or even most elite Arch Linux) distributions to have complete choice about building your own desktop from bare bones OS.

You can play around safely in Linux using LiveCDs or installing on virtual PCs as both of the methods are non-destructive of your current setup.

What is gained or lost?

Be it rooting and installing custom ROMs on smart phones or installing Linux on your PC – every tool and software is open source, community driven and totally free. The process of experimenting with software gives you good knowledge about devices and not to mention yet again, the way you want your device to be. This at times saves unnecessary hardware upgrade costs, software licensing costs including fun of rejuvenating old devices using simple tools available at our disposal.

Believe me, the day you experiment with your device it will be a life long different vision of how you see your devices.

In the end, its all about freedom of choice not just the freedom of buying certain piece of hardware to have a signature device being an extension of yourself.

Thoughts and comments welcome!

Note: Rooting or installing custom ROM on your smart phone will void its warranty, you've been warned!

Mahi Ve - Cover by Masala Coffee

6 Toxic Behaviors That Push People Away: How To Recognize Them In Yourself and Change Them

In my line of work, I hear from hundreds of people a month, and connect with professionals in a more public, open way than ever before. Through this experience, I've seen scores of toxic behaviors that push people away (including me). And I’ve witnessed the damage these behaviors cause – to relationships, professional success, and to the well-being of both the individual behaving negatively, and to everyone around him or her.

Let’s be real - we’ve all acted in toxic, damaging ways at one time or another (none of us are immune to it), but many people are more evolved, balanced, and aware, and it happens only rarely in their lives.

Whether your toxic behavior is a common occurrence, or once in a blue moon, it’s critical for your happiness and success that you are able to recognize when you’re behaving badly, and shift it when it emerges.

The 6 most toxic behaviors I see every day are:

Taking everything personally

In the powerful little book The Four Agreements, don Miguel Ruiz talks about the importance of taking nothing personally. I teach this in my coaching programs and my bookBreakdown, Breakthrough as well, and there is so much pushback. “Really, Kathy – don’t take anything personally?”

People are toxic to be around when they believe that everything that happens in life is a direct assault on them or is in some way all about them. The reality is that what people say and do to you is much more about them, than you. People’s reactions to you are about their filters, and their perspectives, wounds and experiences. Whether people think you’re amazing, or believe you’re the worst, again, it’s more about them. I’m not saying we should be narcissists and ignore all feedback. I am saying that so much hurt, disappointment and sadness in our lives comes from our taking things personally when it’s far more productive and healthy to let go of others’ good or bad opinion of you, and to operate with your own heart, intuition and wisdom as your guide. So yes – don’t take anything personally.

Obsessing about negative thoughts

It’s very hard to be around people who can’t or won’t let go of negativity – when they dwell on and speak incessantly about the terrible things that could happen and have happened, the slights they’ve suffered, and the unfairness of life. These people stubbornly refuse to see the positive side of life and the positive lessons from what’s transpiring. Pessimism is one thing – but remaining perpetually locked in negative thoughts is another. Only seeing the negative, and operating from a view that everything is negative and against you, is a skewed way of thinking and living, and you can change that.

Treating yourself like a victim

Another toxic behavior is non-stop complaining that fuels your sense of victimization. Believing you’re a victim, that you have no power to exert and no influence on the direction of your life, is a toxic stance that keeps you stuck and small. Working as a therapist with people who’ve suffered terrible trauma in their lives but found the courage to turn it all around, I know that we have access to far more power, authority, and influence over our lives than we initially believe. When you stop whining, and refuse to see yourself as a hapless victim of fate, chance or discrimination, then you’ll find that you are more powerful than you realized, but only if you choose to accept that reality.

Cruelty - lacking in empathy or putting yourself in others shoes

One of the most toxic and damaging behaviors – cruelty – stems from a total lack of empathy, concern or compassion for others. We see it every day online and in the media – people being devastatingly cruel and destructive to others just because they can. They tear people down online but in a cowardly way, using their anonymity as a weapon. Cruelty, backstabbing, and ripping someone to shreds is toxic, and it hurts you as well as your target.

I had a powerful learning experience about this a few years ago. I came into the house one day in a nasty mood, and shared a mean, sniping comment to my husband about the way a neighbor was parenting her child through one of his problem phases. In less than 24 hours, that very same issue the parent was dealing with came home to roost in my house, with my child. It was as if the Universe sent me the message that, “Ah, if you want to be cruel and demeaning about someone, we’ll give you the same experience you’ve judged so negatively, so you can learn some compassion.” And I did.

If you find yourself backstabbing and tearing someone else down, stop in your tracks. Dig deep and find compassion in your heart, and realize that we’re all the same.

Excessive reactivity

An inability to manage your emotions is toxic to everyone around you. We all know these people – men and women who explode over the smallest hiccup or problem. Yelling at the bank teller for the long line, screaming at your assistant for the power point error he made, or losing it with your child for spilling milk on the floor. If you find that you’re overly reactive, losing it at every turn, you need some outside assistance to help you gain control over your emotions and understand what’s at the root of your emotionality. There’s more to it that appears on the surface. An outside perspective – and a new kind of support – is critical.

Needing constant validation

Finally, people who constantly strive for validation and self-esteem by obsessing about achieving outward measures of success, are exhausting to be around. Those men and women who get caught up in the need to prove their worth over and over, and constantly want to “win” over their colleagues or peers, are toxic and draining.

Overly-attaching to how things have to look and be, and to achieving certain milestones and accomplishments rather than going with life in a more flexible, easy manner, can wear you out and bring everyone else around you down . There is a bigger picture to your life, and it’s not about what you achieve or fail at today. It’s about the journey, the process, the path - what you’re learning and applying, how you’re helping others, and the growing process you allow yourself to engage in.

Stop stressing over the particular outcomes like, “I need that promotion now!” or “My house has to be bigger and more beautiful than my neighbor’s.” Your desperate need to prove your success and build your self-esteem through outer measures of success is (sadly) apparent to everyone but you, and it’s pushing away the very happiness outcomes you’re longing for.

The No. 1 Career Mistake Capable People Make

I recently reviewed a resume for a colleague who was trying to define a clearer career strategy. She has terrific experience. And yet, as I looked through it I could see the problem she was concerned about: she had done so many good things in so many different fields it was hard to know what was distinctive about her.

As we talked it became clear the resume was only the symptom of a deeper issue. In an attempt to be useful and adaptable she has said yes to too many good projects and opportunities. She has ended up feeling overworked and underutilized. It is easy to see how people end up in her situation:

Step 1: Capable people are driven to achieve.

Step 2: Other people see they are capable and give them assignments.

Step 3: Capable people gain a reputation as "go to" people. They become "good old [insert name] who is always there when you need him." There is lots right with this, unless or until...

Step 4: Capable people end up doing lots of projects well but are distracted from what would otherwise be their highest point of contribution which I define as the intersection of talent, passion and market (see more on this in the Harvard Business Review article The Disciplined Pursuit of Less). Then, both the company and the employee lose out.

When this happens, some of the responsibility lies with out-of-touch managers who are too busy or distracted to notice the very best use of their people. But some of the responsibility lies with us. Perhaps we need to be more deliberate and discerning in navigating our own careers.

In the conversation above, we spent some time to identify my colleague's Highest Point of Contribution and develop a plan of action for a more focused career strategy.

We followed a simple process similar to one I write about here: If You Don’t Design Your Career, Someone Else Will. My friend is not alone. Indeed, in coaching and teaching managers and executives around the world it strikes me that failure to be conscientious about this represents the #1 mistake, in frequency, I see capable people make in their careers.

Using a camping metaphor, capable people often add additional poles of the same height to their career tent. We end up with 10, 20 or 30 poles of the same height, somehow hoping the tent will go higher. I don't just mean higher on the career ladder either. I mean higher in terms of our ability to contribute.

The slightly painful truth is, at any one time there is only one piece of real estate we can "own" in another person’s mind. People can't think of us as a project manager, professor, attorney, insurance agent, editor and entrepreneur all at exactly the same time. They may all be true about us but people can only think of us as one thing first. At any one time there is only one phrase that can follow our name. Might we be better served by asking, at least occasionally, whether the various projects we have add up to a longer pole?

I saw this illustrated some time ago in one of the more distinctive resumes I have seen. It belonged to a Stanford Law School Professor [there it is: the single phrase that follows his name, the longest pole in his career tent]. His resume was clean and concise. For each entry there was one impressive title/role/school and a succinct description of what he had achieved. Each sentence seemed to say more than ten typical bullet points in many resumes I have seen. When he was at university he had been the student body president, under "teaching" he was teacher of the year and so on.

Being able to do many things is important in many jobs today. Broad understanding also is a must. But developing greater discernment about what is distinctive about us can be a great advantage. Instead of simply doing more things we need to find, at every phase in our careers, our highest point of contribution.

Why 9-5 Won't Work For Millennials

My mother is sixty something and anxiously counting down the days till she could retire her nurses uniform for good. She's been working consistently for 40 years, and when she speaks of retiring I can sense relief still mixed with a bit of anxiety.

The sense of relief is obvious, but it boggles me that after 40 years of dedicated work, rarely calling in sick and in fact winning awards for her diligence and treatment of patients, that my mother is still concerned about whether or not she will be financially secure once she calls it quits.

I see the position my mother is in right now and as much as I admire all that she has done - raising three kids on her own on top of 60 hour work weeks - I look at her and say to myself "that can never be me." I can not, under any circumstances, put in that amount of work to still not feel completely secure about my future. Furthermore, I don't want to wait till the latter years of my life to be able to live with the level of freedom that comes with formal retirement.

"Freedom 55 has no appeal to our generation"

I believe that I speak for most Millennials when I say 9-5 isn't enough. Please understand that when I use the term 9-5 I use it loosely to refer to restriction. The barriers that accompany the 9-5 life - feeling replaceable, not getting paid according to quality of work, scheduled breaks, the hurdles to really create measurable impact - none of these boundaries are in line with how we Millennials hope to make our mark.

We want more for ourselves, expect more from ourselves, and are willing to put in the work to ensure more is the outcome. But the work we put in can not necesssarily be quantified by hours. We aim to be judged by the impact our output creates, not the time spent in an office or workstation. We want to enjoy our lives to the fullest right now, concurrent to our most social years. Freedom 55 has no appeal to our generation.

And while others may see this as us feeling entitled, I feel that we are, and to a large degree already have, changing the way people, employers, governments define "career." We are entitled to control our own futures, to feel certain that if we work effectively and efficiently that we will be rewarded with financial security.

So call us what you want, but by the time I am sixty something we Millennials will have changed the world more sharply then many generations before us. And we will have done so with a smile on our face every step of the way.

11 Simple Concepts to Become a Better Leader

Being likeable will help you in your job, business, relationships, and life. I interviewed dozens of successful business leaders in my last book, Likeable Business, to determine what made them so likeable and their companies so successful. All of the concepts are simple, and yet, perhaps in the name of revenues or the bottom line, we often lose sight of the simple things - things that not only make us human, but can actually help us become more successful. Below are the eleven most important principles to integrate to become a better leader:

1. Listening

"When people talk, listen completely. Most people never listen." - Ernest Hemingway

Listening is the foundation of any good relationship. Great leaders listen to what their customers and prospects want and need, and they listen to the challenges those customers face. They listen to colleagues and are open to new ideas. They listen to shareholders, investors, and competitors. Here's why the best CEO's listen more.

2. Storytelling

"Storytelling is the most powerful way to put ideas into the world today." -Robert McAfee Brown

After listening, leaders need to tell great stories in order to sell their products, but more important, in order to sell their ideas. Storytelling is what captivates people and drives them to take action. Whether you're telling a story to one prospect over lunch, a boardroom full of people, or thousands of people through an online video - storytelling wins customers.

3. Authenticity

"I had no idea that being your authentic self could make me as rich as I've become. If I had, I'd have done it a lot earlier." -Oprah Winfrey

Great leaders are who they say they are, and they have integrity beyond compare. Vulnerability and humility are hallmarks of the authentic leader and create a positive, attractive energy. Customers, employees, and media all want to help an authentic person to succeed. There used to be a divide between one’s public self and private self, but the social internet has blurred that line. Tomorrow's leaders are transparent about who they are online, merging their personal and professional lives together.

4. Transparency

"As a small businessperson, you have no greater leverage than the truth." -John Whittier

There is nowhere to hide anymore, and businesspeople who attempt to keep secrets will eventually be exposed. Openness and honesty lead to happier staff and customers and colleagues. More important, transparency makes it a lot easier to sleep at night - unworried about what you said to whom, a happier leader is a more productive one.

5. Team Playing

"Individuals play the game, but teams beat the odds." -SEAL Team Saying

No matter how small your organization, you interact with others every day. Letting others shine, encouraging innovative ideas, practicing humility, and following other rules for working in teams will help you become a more likeable leader. You’ll need a culture of success within your organization, one that includes out-of-the-box thinking.

6. Responsiveness

"Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it." -Charles Swindoll

The best leaders are responsive to their customers, staff, investors, and prospects. Every stakeholder today is a potential viral sparkplug, for better or for worse, and the winning leader is one who recognizes this and insists upon a culture of responsiveness. Whether the communication is email, voice mail, a note or a tweet, responding shows you care and gives your customers and colleagues a say, allowing them to make a positive impact on the organization.

7. Adaptability

"When you're finished changing, you're finished." -Ben Franklin

There has never been a faster-changing marketplace than the one we live in today. Leaders must be flexible in managing changing opportunities and challenges and nimble enough to pivot at the right moment. Stubbornness is no longer desirable to most organizations. Instead, humility and the willingness to adapt mark a great leader.

8. Passion

"The only way to do great work is to love the work you do." -Steve Jobs

Those who love what they do don’t have to work a day in their lives. People who are able to bring passion to their business have a remarkable advantage, as that passion is contagious to customers and colleagues alike. Finding and increasing your passion will absolutely affect your bottom line.

9. Surprise and Delight

"A true leader always keeps an element of surprise up his sleeve, which others cannot grasp but which keeps his public excited and breathless." -Charles de Gaulle

Most people like surprises in their day-to-day lives. Likeable leaders underpromise and overdeliver, assuring that customers and staff are surprised in a positive way. There are a plethora of ways to surprise without spending extra money - a smile, We all like to be delighted — surprise and delight create incredible word-of-mouth marketing opportunities.

10. Simplicity

"Less isn't more; just enough is more." -Milton Glaser

The world is more complex than ever before, and yet what customers often respond to best is simplicity — in design, form, and function. Taking complex projects, challenges, and ideas and distilling them to their simplest components allows customers, staff, and other stakeholders to better understand and buy into your vision. We humans all crave simplicity, and so today's leader must be focused and deliver simplicity.

11. Gratefulness

"I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought, and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder." -Gilbert Chesterton

Likeable leaders are ever grateful for the people who contribute to their opportunities and success. Being appreciative and saying thank you to mentors, customers, colleagues, and other stakeholders keeps leaders humble, appreciated, and well received. It also makes you feel great! Donor's Choose studied the value of a hand-written thank-you note, and actually found donors were 38% more likely to give a 2nd time if they got a hand-written note!

The Golden Rule: Above all else, treat others as you’d like to be treated

By showing others the same courtesy you expect from them, you will gain more respect from coworkers, customers, and business partners. Holding others in high regard demonstrates your company’s likeability and motivates others to work with you. This seems so simple, as do so many of these principles — and yet many people, too concerned with making money or getting by, fail to truly adopt these key concepts.

Are we already over Wearable Technology?

I've been wearing a Nike FuelBand for about 3 years now. I'm actually on my 3rd one (2 original and now on the SE version) having had the first 2 fail and been replaced by Nike in London - great customer service I have to say.

But despite enjoying the novelty of the points collection, the smooth, slick Bluetooth data transfer to my iPhone App and the pretty stellar batter life (usually around 8-10 Days) - essentially.. it's a watch.

Sure it's the watch I wear every day without fail, it's great in the dark and it does tell the time - but this is hardly the promise of the much heralded age of Wearable Technology.

Prove the utility. Fast.

I am struggling to remember how many years running it has been "the year of mobile" but I am pretty certain we are running onto a "decade of mobile" and even now most large brands / companies / agencies *ahem* are yet to truly embrace mobile.

This in some ways is hardly surprising as digital marketing and technology has grown up in a broadband first world - whereas in emerging economies it's far more appropriate to talk about "mobile natives" than the "digital natives" of the US and Western Europe.

However wearable technologies, be they wristbands / eyeware (Glass) / heartbeat monitors or cameras - need to overcome the same hurdle that mobile has been facing for so long - proving the utility.

More than just health tracking.

One area we see the utility case is in health. Devices in this space are seemingly appearing on a monthly basis and may even be a contributor to the stagnating personal health market in the UK.

According to Mintel the average spend by UK consumers on a gym membership rose just £2 between 2009-2014 (£40 - £42) - whilst in the same time period we have seen an explosion of health tracking devices from Jawbone, Nike, Adidas, Withings and many others besides.

However if we are to hold the actions of Google with any weight, (which I'm going to suggest is probably wise...) the world's largest mobile OS believes we are all going to be doing a whole lot more than tracking our steps with Android for wearables - unveiling a suite of new devices using it's scarily accurate Google Now predictive assistant technology.

The platform certainly shows a lot of promise - and finally adds the style factor to the tech which for many consumers is the ongoing barrier - but only in the implementation and ease of use - not to mention price are we likely to see them win the war on this one.

Time to close the gap.

The hype machine is good at killing a valuable idea - and I certainly believe many of the devices on show right now are valuable ideas, and could even be great - but as with every technology revolution we need to find ways of solving a essential human problem.

Right now it's hard to make a case that these devices do that problem solving orders of magnitude better than the current high end smartphone you already own, and already have gotten so used to carrying around that you can't go with out it.

The wearable tech industry may need to be willing to sacrifice the do-it-all smartphone model to succeed - and crucially build services that will sit on top of these that solve those problems.

Enabling The Next Internet Wave In China

The leaders of China’s Internet success stories are rapidly becoming part of China’s establishment, interacting frequently with senior government leaders. Last week, for instance, several China Internet CEOs were part of Xi Jinping’s trip to Seoul. As they have these opportunities to spend time with policymakers, what should they be arguing is necessary for the next era of China’s Internet economy to be as successful as the one they have already profited from so well?

• Enhancing workforce skills. It should be obvious to all that universities should be graduating students equipped with the technical and business skills to succeed in operating companies. It is, however, entirely obvious today that they are not. Government action to make university curricula relevant for the growth in internet related jobs is.
• Sustaining openness to international ideas and capital. China has profited greatly from an Internet industry structure that encouraged the development of China relevant business models and local champions to deliver them. Yet often inspiration and stimulation for the business model came from outside China. And today, much of the world is looking to China’s internet leaders for their own inspiration. There is very much a two-way flow of ideas and investments. This benefits everyone.
• Enhancing data protection for individuals from businesses who are using their data. Many private companies and state-owned enterprises hold vast amounts of information on their customers. While new laws have been passed regarding how they are allowed to use such data, what permissions they should obtain, and the like, consumer confidence in the system is low. It could take only a few high profile breaches of personal information (e.g. from a bank or a telco) to have Chinese citizens pull back from providing their personal data so freely online. It is essential that China’s leading Internet companies are seen to be role models in data protection.
• Encouraging national markets. Most Internet businesses are born national. Yet regulations at a city or provincial level can hold back the development of efficient national markets that would benefit consumers. Constraints on selling second hand cars across provincial boundaries is one example. Policymakers should roll back regulations that constrain markets to the provincial or city level.
• IP protection. Increasingly, China’s internet leaders are developing a substantial amount of in-house intellectual property. They want to be certain they can protect this IP in China and internationally as they globalize. Ensuring they can get swift redress when they find their IP being used by others is key. For an Internet player guilty of using someone else's IP, a small financial fine in 12 months is almost irrelevant when a business is growing at Internet speed. Courts need to decide quickly if a business model is legitimate or not.

Swift action on these levers will place China’s Internet industries in a much stronger position to succeed going forward.

Apple Jacks The Headphone Port

Apple maybe set to end its use of the standard 3.5mm headphone connector — the mini plug — in favor of its proprietary connector, the Lightning port. If it was to do that, new iPhones, iPads and iPods wouldn't work with old headphones. It's had more than a few industry folks and Apple fanatics upset, to say the least.

To make sense of the issue, All Things Considered contacted a couple of writers in the field. Host Audie Cornish spoke with Gordon Kelly, a contributor to Forbes, about the technological and business implications of Apple's switch. He says the Lightning port could theoretically improve audio specifications and additional "smart headphone" functionality, and that the company has little to lose — with a lot of profit to potentially gain. You can hear that conversation at the audio link above.

Cornish also recently sat down with 9to5Mac writer Jordan Kahn to discuss why the Lightning port might be good for consumers in the long run and how Apple has always been ahead of the industry game. You can read a transcript of that conversation below.

Explain how you learned about this. What's the sign that Apple might make this change?

Apple has introduced these new guidelines for manufacturers that allow them to build headphones that connect to an iPhone or iPad through the Lightning connector. That's the same small connector on the bottom of an iPhone or iPad that is currently used to charge the device. Apple first introduced the connector a couple years ago with the iPhone 5 to replace its old 30-pin connector.

Now that Apple is allowing companies to build headphones that connect with the Lightning connector, that might be the first hint that Apple could remove that old, legacy headphone jack from devices down the road.

Even the hint or rumor of something like this seems to put a scare in markets, right? Because essentially you can leave a bunch of devices orphans when they change technology. Everyone else's devices can become obsolete.

It's a possibility. If we look at past examples of similar things Apple has done, usually they come out with an adapter solution that will allow these new Lightning headphones to work with your legacy device that still uses the headphone jack or vice versa. I'd imagine we'll see solutions like that at least for a few years, until people make the transition to the new technology.

The speculation is heightened, because Apple just paid around $3 billion for the headphone company Beats Electronics. Does this news help make sense of that deal?

Certainly, if the new Lightning headphones are something that Apple is going to push as its next innovation in audio. That'll, I imagine, be something that trickles down to Beats, and I imagine Beats would come out with a pair of Lightning headphones. We'll have to see where Apple takes it and what manufacturers do with it.

There was a lot of speculation that the Beats deal was more about the streaming music service, but I think that Apple has made it pretty clear that they're also interested in the headphones side of the business. If they are really interested in pushing these new Lightning headphones, I think Beats would be the perfect outlet to do that.

Obviously, this goes way beyond Apple, right? You're talking about a legacy technology — the headphone jack — that's been around for ages. What's the reason for Apple fiddling around with it?

I think that the Lightning connector does provide some benefits to headphone manufacturers. One of those is the ability to draw power from the iPhone. Right now, when a company makes a pair of headphones that have high-end audio processing features like active noise cancellation, they actually have to build a battery into the headphones. With the Lightning connector, they'll be able to draw power from the device itself. That could save manufacturers money and bring these high-end audio features to cheaper headphones. So it might be a win for consumers at the end of the day, depending on what manufacturers do with the technology.

How big a deal is it when Apple moves from an industry standard?

They've never been shy about doing it in the past — the disk drive on their Macbooks, the Flash in the browser on their iPhones. It does cause a bit of a stink among consumers and reviewers when the change first happens, but Apple usually tries to be ahead of the curve and predict what technologies are going to become legacy technologies. And with the examples we've just mentioned, they've been successful with it.