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Today we talk about recent developments on two stories we have covered on Down to Business English: Gold & Digital Print Media
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Skip: Hello everyone this is Skip Montreux reporting from Tokyo, Japan.
Dez: And this is Dez Morgan reporting in from Abu Dhabi in the UAE.
Skip: And you are listening to Down to Business English
Skip: A great big warm hello to all of our listeners. Thank you so much for downloading Down to Business English today.
Dez: And an even warmer welcome to any of you listening in for the first time.
Skip: I second that. I’m glad you have found us. So Dez how are things going with you?
Dez: Pretty hectic actually, what with work and my private life I seem to be all over the place at the moment.
Skip: Welcome to my world Mr. Morgan. My life is always hectic and there just never seems to be enough hours in the day to get things done.
Dez: I’ll tell you something else that is all over the place.
Skip: OK and what would that be?
Dez: Today’s episode of Down to Business English, that’s what.
Skip: What do you mean by that exactly?
Dez: Well, so many of the stories that we have covered so far on D2B have really developed since being recorded. I thought that on today’s episode we could have something of a round up edition.
Skip: A round up edition? An update to some of our past stories.
Dez: That’s what I was thinking, yes.
Skip: That is a brilliant idea.
Dez: So let’s do it let’s get D2B Down to Business the round up edition.
Dez: I will start off with an update on our story on the Kindle, the iPad, and digital print media. It was episode 32 I believe.
Skip: That’s right back on May 29 of this year. In that episode you concluded that the iPad and Kindle could probably coexist since they are intended for different purposes and different audiences.
Dez: That I did. But everything has changed now that Amazon has brought out a whole new range of Kindles, including the colour Kindle Fire.
Skip: Tell me about the Kindle Fire.
Dez: How does a full colour touch screen with free cloud storage, over 10,000 movies and TV shows that can be either streamed or downloaded, along with all of the usual email and eReader software sound to you?
Skip: Sounds pretty impressive.
Dez: And you haven’t heard the most impressive part yet which is the price.
Skip: Go on.
Dez: Well the Fire is only available in the U.S. at the moment but the price there is just $199 which compares very favourably with the cheapest iPad at $499.
Skip: Wow it seems Amazon might be onto a winner there.
Dez: If it works as well as Amazon claims then you could well be right. For the price of an iPad I could get a Fire the latest Kindle ebook reader which also has a touch screen and still have change in my pocket. Hey have a guess what Amazon have called their eReader?
Skip: You know, I heard about this, it’s called the Kindle Touch isn’t it?
Dez: It is, I wonder how Apple feels about that with their iPod Touch.
Skip: I guess you can’t copyright an everyday word like touch still I am sure the irony is not lost on Apple.
Dez: I imagine it isn’t.
Skip: Related to this topic I reported on famous Canadian company way back in September of 2010 in D2B episode 14 where I discussed Research in Motion, or RIM for short, the company that makes the Blackberry phones and tablets.
Dez: Haven’t they been having some problems with the Playbook tablet?
Skip: That they have. There is a rumour floating around that RIM had to withdraw some of their flagship tablets from the shelves due to issues with the installed software.
Dez: Ouch. Things are not looking too rosy for RIM it would seem.
Skip: No they aren’t. Their stock price has dropped like a stone to the point where Carl Icahn, the multimillionaire investor has been buying enough shares to try and get himself a seat on the Board.
Dez: He did that same thing at Motorola I believe.
Skip: He did and when he got on the board he split Motorola into two separate entities one of which, Motorola Mobile was bought by….?
Dez: Easy, Google. You’ll have to try a bit harder than that.
Skip: I might have known you would know that. Anyway moving on if Carl Icahn does get a seat on the Board he will probably push RIM to make some pretty big management changes and sell off some of its patents to release shareholder value. At least that is what he usually does.
Dez: So he’s more interested in the short term then?
Skip: That is what his critics generally say but hey RIM is constantly losing market share to Apple and Google’s Android OS, so maybe a change is called for.
Dez: Time will tell, Skip. Now I would like to move on to our last topic. Finish this sentence, all that glitters is not….?
Skip: Gold.
Dez: Indeed. We reported on Gold last year in episode 13 of D2B. And at that time Gold was at an all time high and was climbing.
Skip: I remember that.
Dez: However, for investors in gold today, the past few weeks have most certainly not been a glittering success.
Skip: Aren’t you one of those investors Dez?
Dez: Yes I am. And have the scars to prove it.
Skip: So gold is down then?
Dez: You can say that again. It came crashing down from a high of over $1900 an ounce to about $1650 today. And gold’s little sister silver fared even worse, down from above $40 to just below $30 today.
Skip: It really sounds like the party over. Did gold reach a peak and is now on it’s way down?
Dez: That question does keep me awake at night but in my opinion this correction is the precious metals taking a breather before continuing upwards.
Skip: Why do you say that?
Dez: Well all of the reasons that people initially bought gold still hold true today. A lot of countries are creating new money to bail out their economies which makes the value of the paper currency go down.
Skip: Okay.
Dez: Political and financial uncertainty in the Eurozone makes the safety of precious metals attractive and of course they are protection against inflation.
Skip: Sounds to me as if you are trying to to convince yourself that that is true.
Dez: Well maybe I am a bit but I still see gold as having a glittering future even if it is getting a bit beaten up right now.
Skip: I certainly hope so, because I really hate it when you cry, it’s embarrassing.
Dez: Me too, so let’s not dwell on it.
Skip: Good idea. Why don’t we get D2V… Down to Vocabulary.
Skip: Just before we get started with vocabulary today, I would like to mention that all of our past episodes are available online, so if you are a new listener and didn’t hear the original stories that we are updating today, it would be very useful to go back and listen to them. You can get them off our website or through iTunes. In fact, if you are not already subscribed through iTunes, I encourage you to take a moment and do that. It really is the best way to receive the show.
Dez: That is a very good suggestion. Shall I get things started?
Skip: By all means.
Dez: First up today is the phrase to second something. This phrase is most often used in formal meetings. In a formal meeting, after an issue has been discussed, someone will put forward a proposal, or motion. They would say something like, “I move that this committee accept resolution 19088.” Before that motion can be accepted, someone else in the meeting must announce “I second that”. So when you informally say “I second that” it simply means that you agree with what another person has just said.
Skip: So at the beginning of the show when Dez welcomed all the new listeners, I said that I second that because I agree with his statement. I think that’s pretty clear. I move that we proceed with today’s vocabulary.
Dez: I second that.
Skip: Okay, next up is the adjective hectic. We’ve explained this word on a past show but it is worth reviewing. Hectic basically means very, very, very busy. It also carries with it the connotation that the situation is confusing.
Dez: In the story, I mentioned that my schedule recently has been pretty hectic.
Skip: And I took that to mean you have a lot to do lately. So Dez, how are you managing with everything? Are you hanging in there?
Dez: Only just. Here is another example. The retail industry is always hectic during the winter holiday seasons. Christmas shopping makes it one of the busiest times of the year.
Skip: Christmas! Wow, that is just around the corner.
Dez: Yes it is. Moving on, I would like to now talk about the word round up. The title of today’s show is “the round up episode”. And as Skip explained in the opening, a round up is the same as an update.
Skip: It can be used as a verb as well can’t it?
Dez: That’s right. As a verb to round something up means to quickly finish something. For example, at the end of a meeting you might say, “Okay everyone, we’re almost out of time. Let’s quickly round up what we’ve covered today.”
Skip: Nice example. Following on is the noun copyright. A copyright is a legal right given by the government to the creator of something, to print, publish, perform, record or film their creation. Only that person has the right to use that work.
Dez: So without a copyright, anyone can use the work without permission?
Skip: Yes, that’s right.
Dez: Does it only apply to books, music, and other works of art?
Skip: Correct. In the story you mentioned that Apple can’t copyright the word ‘touch’. In other words the government would never let such a common word be copyrighted by a company. But just as a side note, Apple did try to copyright the word multi touch when they released the iPhone, but the government turned them down
Dez: Are you sure about that? I thought that Apple had copyrighted multi touch.
Skip: I think you are referring to the technology behind multi touch. Apple has patented that technology, but they were unable to copyright the word itself.
Dez: I see. A patent is similar to a copyright but applies to technology rather than art.
Skip: Exactly. Can you give an example of copyright….or patent?
Dez: Of course. The background music you are listening to right now is not copyrighted. If we used copyrighted music, we would have to pay a license fee to the owner of the copyright. An expense that we would like to avoid in order to keep costs down.
Skip: Good. How about patent.
Dez: The last year has seen the outbreak of patent wars between the major players in technology. Google is suing Apple, Apple is suing Samsung, Samsung is suing Apple, and Microsoft is suing Google. They all are claiming that the other is using their patented technology without permission.
Skip: That is a story all in itself, isn’t it. Everyone please note the difference between the American pronunciation patent….
Dez: ..and the British pronunciation, patent…
Skip: But we should move on.
Dez: Yes. Next I would like to introduce the idiom to drop like a stone. I think it’s easy enough to imagine what happens to a stone if you drop it. It falls straight downwards, very quickly. In the story Skip said the stock price of Research in Motion, the makers of the Blackberry, had dropped like a stone. In other words it has fallen downwards, very quickly.
Skip: Yes, it has fallen roughly 50% in the past 6 months. Here is another example.Some people thought that Apple’s stock price would drop like a stone after the death of Steve Jobs. However, although it slightly dipped, it quickly rebounded and is currently pretty much holding steady.
Dez: A very big moment in business history indeed. And for those of you wondering why Down to Business English didn’t cover Steve Jobs’ passing, we should explain that we had just done an episode on his resignation in August where we looked back over his career and impact.
Skip: And our last Newsletter however is dedicated to Steve Jobs. Our next word today is the noun entity. This is a common business term that describes an individual company. It is often used to make a legal distinction between a parent company and its independent subsidiaries.
Dez: In the report Skip talked about how Motorola split the company into 2 separate entities, one of which was acquired by Google. These two entities were completely independent of each other.
Skip: And another example is how Fox News in the U.S. is a completely separate entity from Fox Entertainment. Even though they are both owned by Rupert Murdoch and his News Corp. empire, they are 2 distinct companies and are run independently of each other.
Dez: Appropriate example. Finally today, we have the casual phrase to take a breather which means to take a rest, or a pause from an activity. In the story I stated that I believed the precious metal market is taking a breather at the moment. In other words, I thought that prices are only pausing at current values before starting to rise again. Skip, can you give us another example?
Skip: I most certainly can. Recently, I have started running again.
Dez: Really?
Skip: Yes, I have. Now I used to be able to get a good 5 km in before taking a break but now I can only run a couple of clicks before I have to take a breather.
Dez: We should stop smoking. I bet you would see an improvement pretty quickly.
Skip: Yes, but what would happen to our podcasting voices? Anyway that is all the time we have for Vocabulary and Phrases today. We highly recommend that you listen to the report again and focus on those key words.
Skip: Thanks Dez. As usual it has been a blast!
Dez: You too Skip. Just before we sign off, I’d like to remind everyone to drop by the site, download a copy of the PDF for today’s episode and sign up for the Newsletter. Our website address is downtobusinessenglish.com .
Skip: Great idea Dez. Both the Newsletter and the PDF are valuable study tools. One more time that’s downtobusinessenglish.com . Also, I want to give a great big shout out to Marta Innocenti. Marta is one the hosts of the very popular English learning podcast My American Friend. Marta was kind enough to mention Down to Business English on a recent podcast and I just wanted to return the favor.
Dez: Yes, thank you Marta.
Skip: My American friend is aimed at more general english words and phrases and is definitely worth checking out. You can find My American Friend on iTunes. Thanks for listening everyone. See you next time.
Dez: Bye for now.
Skip: How’s your voice?
Dez: Really Skip, its time we gave up that filthy habit.
