My Current iPhone Wallpaper features LaLa from TikiBarTV, one of my favorite podcasts, that gets updated about once ever 6 to 10 years.

RENT:

Finally got to talk to John again about seeing RENT on Friday. I’m kinda excited, a bunch of us are going, including MJ & Jason. Should be fun, though… it’s weird because I’m sure everyone else has seen it live, but me… nope. Despite the ‘pop culture’ category on here, I rarely watch TV, go see movies, and plays… hah. Now, ask me what piece of software is in the works at Apple or the real occupation of the creator of Wonder Woman (and what he’s even more famous for) and I’m your man.

Work:

Dear god… I put stuff on eBay and Amazon for a living. It’s both the coolest and saddest thing in the world all at once. But at least I never have to hear about people’s bowel movements. Now when people over-share, it’s about the cruise they’re about to go on. So much more fun this way.

Facebook:

I just joined the Nerdist group (which is the fan group for Chris Hardwick’s blog) over on Facebook. Combine that with the fact that I have willingly listed myself as a ‘Star Trek’ fan over there… and well, you can see why I go on so few dates.

So, Apple has decided to join with (Product)Red and create a killer candy apple (fittingly) red iPod nano. The iPod Nano (Product)^Red retails at the same price as the regular Nano, $199US.

Many people online are dismayed that Apple is only donating $10, or 5%, of their total sales of the new iPod. Apple happens to be the most forthcoming, stating a specific amount. Other companies involved either state percentages of sales, profits, or even wholesale prices to figure their donations.

The one of the moregenerous companies, according to sources, appears to be Gap which is has a huge line of 40 (Product)^Red items. Gap is also donating 50% of profits of these items. Motorola will donate $17US(£10) to (Product)^Red.

To figure out how much companies are actually donating, let’s set the playing field level. We know that the iPod is $200 so we’ll use $200 as our guideline. Some companies donate based on profits or wholesale, we’ll set the estimated profit margin to 50%. That means that if a product costs a dollar to make, it’d be sold for $1.50. A $200 product with a markup of 50% would have a wholesale cost of $133.34 and profits of $66.66.

Please note that a 50% markup is an estimate based on years retail experience. Very, very few products are ‘keystoned’ (set to a 100% profit) anymore. IE, $2 product cost $1 to make.

So how much are other companies donating in comparison?

Obviously, Apple’s donation is fairly middle of the road. American Express’ donation is nearly pathetic, donating just $2 out of the baseline $200.

On an interesting note, Apple UK only claims a ‘Portion’ of the price. I believe we can assume that Apple is probably donating the same amount in the US and in the UK. If you convert $10US to British Pounds, Apple is donating £5.37, which pales compared to Motorola’s donation.

Many people have also stated that Apple has broken (Product)^Red tradition by calling it the iPod Nano Product Red. It appears that this is the standard for some in the US version, as Converse and Gap are also marketing their products by the item name followed by (Product)^Red. Motorola’s efforts are all over the place using both conventions. American Express calls their card American Express Red, which creates a separate convention all their own.

Especially now that Front Row runs on it with my AirClick.

Video will return when it’s not ass.