Open up your mind and say, ahh...

One of the tropes of broadcast sports is the partnership of the guy describing what’s happening on the field (an artifact from radio) and the guy doing color commentary, riffing on the why of what happened and predicting what might happen next (heavy on the cliches).

Most of us have both of those voices in our head.

If your play by play announcer is doing a poor job of accurately describing the world as it is, it’s worth taking a hard look at how often that’s happening and whether it’s pushing you to make poor decisions.

The color commentary is a bigger issue: Is the constant whining/bragging/doom and gloom or blaming the voice does helping you do better work? It’s suprising to me that you can watch a successful person at work and not realize that her inner voice is congratulating her all day (or cutting her down). That voice likes to take credit for being accurate and important, but it rarely is.

If the voice isn’t affecting your work, then it’s a waste of time, a distraction, and worthy of extinguishing. On the other hand, if it’s helping you do better, bring it on.

Whenever you start a project, you should have a plan for finishing it.

One outcome is to declare victory, to find that moment when you have satisfied your objectives and reached a goal.

The other outcome, which feels like a downer but is almost as good, is to declare failure, to realize that you’ve run out of useful string and it’s time to move on. I think the intentional act of declaring becomes an essential moment of learning, a spot in time where you consider inputs and outputs and adjust your strategy for next time.

If you are unable to declare, then you’re going to slog, and instead of starting new projects based on what you’ve learned, you’ll merely end up trapped. I’m not suggesting that you flit. A project might last a decade or a generation, but if it is to be a project, it must have an end.

One of the challenges of an open-ended war or the Occupy movement is that they are projects where failure or victory wasn’t understood at the beginning. While you may be tempted to be situational about this, to know it when you see it, to decide as you go, it’s far more powerful and effective to define victory or failure in advance.

Declare one or the other, but declare.

Target has confirmed that it will be introducing 25 Apple mini-shops within its stores this year.

Last week, rumors that the discount retailer might be partnering with Apple started to circulate, but the company revealed to the New York Times on Thursday that it will officially test the store-within-a-store concept at various locations. The news came after Target announced it will be partnering with several specialty stores to attract more shoppers to its locations.

Starting May 6, participating boutiques will come to Target for a six-week trial period and then be replaced by another participating brand. Stores involved in the program — called The Shops at Target — include the Candy Store, Polka Dog Bakery and home goods retailer Privet House. However, Apple is not a part of the program.

“One of the reasons our guests love shopping at Target is our design partnerships. They create excitement and leave even the most loyal Target shoppers wondering what we’ll do next,” Brian Robinson, Target’s director of fashion and design partnerships, said in a statement. “With The Shops at Target, we’re building on that sense of discovery by offering our guests a chance to experience one-of-a-kind specialty stores and boutiques through collections that have been specifically tailored to their wants and needs.”

Although Target is already carrying some Apple products, the store-within-a-store concept will be an extension of that and likely feature floor space and signs dedicated to the brand.

Will you be checking out the Apple mini-stores in Target? Let us know in the comments.

If you think parents are keeping tabs on their kids’ Facebook profile pages and pictures, you’re absolutely right.

According to a new infographic released by market research firm Lab42, parents are keeping a watchful eye on their child via Facebook, with many checking out their pages daily (43%).

The study — which was conducted among 500 social media users – found that 92% of parents are Facebook friends with their children (of all ages) and more are turning to the site to monitor their kids’ interactions. Safety was named as the top reason for looking at their profiles (40%), followed by curiosity (15%).

But 55% of parents are also making sure the site isn’t it interfering with homework, chores or other activities. Other top concerns include not spending enough time with friends and family (45%), the potential of meeting strangers (41%), bullying others (17%) and being a victim of bullying (16%).

Meanwhile, a high majority – 72% — even have their kids’ Facebook passwords. (Lab42 didn’t provide details on which age demographics for their kids fall into this category.)

However, kids are also checking out their parent’s Facebook pages too. In fact, they are almost equally writing on their parent’s wall (54%) and commenting on photos (51%) as their parents. But even still, it’s mostly the parents initiating the friend requests, with 55% sending it rather than receiving.

Although most children make fun of their parents for their lack of Facebook knowledge (76%), most parents consider themselves very proficient (67%).

For more stats on parent-child interactions on Facebook, check out the infographic below.

Shaadi.com Launches “Angry Brides” Facebook Game. Indian matchmaking giant Shaadi.com (#39 on Fast Company’s list of Most Innovative Companies of 2011) has launched a Facebook game to tackle dowry, a thorny matrimonial issue in India. In the game, “Angry Brides,” players play a many-armed bride who can hurl shoes, veggies, even knives, at dowry seeking targets. –NS

–Updated 10:00 a.m. EST

Delhi High Court Issues Summons To Facebook, Google. A Delhi High Court has issued summons to Google, Facebook, and other Internet companies in an ongoing battle in India over user content on websites. The issue swirls around religiously offensive and other “objectionable” content on the websites, which the companies are being asked to take down. The companies have been asked to appear in court on March 13 and face criminal charges for allegedly hosting inappropriate content. –NS

–Updated 8:30 a.m. EST

iPhone 5 Could Run On T-Mobile. T-Mobile’s chief technology officer is optimistic about the network’s involvement in Apple’s iPhone 5. The hardware that Apple will put in the new phone, Neville Ray said, will be compatible with T-Mobile’s unique AWS wireless network. –NS **UPDATE: T-Mobile has released a statement saying “Mr. Ray was speaking generally to chipset advancements available to all phone manufacturers,” and that T-Mobile has no knowledge of Apple’s product roadmap.

–Updated 6:45 a.m. EST

Google Doesn’t Index The @ Symbol. Google has confirmed to Mashable that it doesn’t index the “@” symbol, a Twitter standard, in its search algorithms. So, when you Google “@so-and-so” it’s equivalent to searching for “so-and-so,” thereby excluding Twitter accounts from top search hits. Twitter GC Alex Macgillivray, who tweeted his misgivings about Google’s “Search Plus You” policy, also tweeted his objection to Google’s indexing habits yesterday. –NS

Beats And Monster Splitting Up. Monster Cable Products, the manufacturers of the iconic Beats headphone line, will no longer be partners in creating their hugely popular earpieces. Beats will not renew its contract with Monster when their five-year deal lapses at the end of this year, Bloomberg reports, after the companies failed to agree on revenue shares and credit for the idea. –NS

Egging Halts iPhone 4S Sales In Beijing, Shanghai. Apple’s overwhelming popularity and limited store presence in China landed its iPhone 4S launch in a spot of trouble. Opening delays at a Beijing Apple Store rankled the assembled crowd, members of which had been waiting hours in the cold. Name calling and scrapping broke out and two members of the crowd egged the store. In response, Apple has decided to stop selling the iPhone 4S at Apple Stores in Shanghai and Beijing, and instead will route customers to their Web store and retail partners. –NS

Facebook Launches “Listen” Feature. The “Listen” feature, part of Mark Zuckerberg’s grand plan for Facebook unveiled at F8, is lauching today. Look for a musical note beside friends’ names in your chat sidebar. Hovering over them, you’ll see the “Listen With…” button, which will let you listen to the tune they’re listening to with a single click. –NS

–Updated 5:30 a.m. EST

Image: Flickr user dfinnecy

Yesterday’s Fast Feed: Manufacture Of Raspberry Pi Begins, Israel Hacker Publishes Saudi Credit Card Info, Sharp Won’t Make iPad 3 Screens, and more!

LAS VEGAS — For the past several years, almost every smartphone, tablet or other mobile device has used a microprocessor based on the computer chip technology of U.K.’s ARM Holdings.

That has finally changed with the unveiling at CES of the first mass-market smartphone that packs Intel technology, and it definitely won’t be the last.

So how does ARM feel about the new competitor encroaching on its effective monopoly? Pretty nonchalant, actually.

At least that was the impression we got from Jeff Chu, ARM’s director of consumer client computing, when he spoke the Mashable at the show. Chu for the most part shrugged off Intel’s official entry into mobile computing, noting that vast swaths of the mobile ecosystem have been optimized for ARM.

“We have 50+ processors on the market today that are in hundreds of phone models and hundreds of different tablets, with a billion apps running on them,” Chu said. “You’re bringing something different in there — does that make sense or not? Will they have apps? Maybe. Can they win on some benchmarks? Maybe, depending on how you spin it. But does it make sense to make that change?”

Breaking ARM

Chu’s right when he says the mobile world of today all ARM, all the time. ARM doesn’t make chips per se — it licenses its chip architecture to chipmakers such as Samsung and Nvidia, who then make customized processors for the likes of Apple and HTC. Intel’s architecture, known as x86, is made strictly by Intel, and the company’s chips power every Windows PC shipping today.

Moving the x86 architecture over to smartphones is something Intel tried to do before, and failed. The company had big plans for its Atom line of low-power processors, but they never gained traction. This time, though, Intel has real partners in the form of Lenovo and Motorola, with the first device officially announced, the Lenovo K800, and Android phone coming to China in the spring.

I got a chance to spend some time with the K800, and I was impressed how it rendered high-res graphics smoothly in a Call of Duty-style game. However, Intel itself admitted it had worked directly with the game creator to optimize performance for the phone, and it’s not known if games made generally for the Android platform would run as well.

“What does x86 then bring coming down into the phone market?” Chu asks. “They’re not bringing in low power consumption. They’re not bringing in a new level of sophistication. What is it they’re bringing in other than it’s x86?”

Performance Questions

Intel would argue that it’s performance. During Intel CEO Paul Otellini’s keynote, he showed multiple graphs that appeared to show Intel’s mobile chip (codenamed Medfield) outperforming competitors on browsing, javascript and graphics. Some independent tests appear to support the assertion. The specs don’t worry Chu, however.

“I think they showed a similar chart with Moorestown (a chip that was part of Intel’s previous stab at the mobile market) a couple of years ago,” Chu says. “It’s hard to really say what it is because there’s no detail in there. But you can pick different benchmarks. It’s like car commercials — greater power than X, Y and Z, and greater gas mileage than A, B and C.”

The Other Battlefront: PCs

Although Chu is aloof about Intel’s first smartphone, he lights up when talking about ARM-based chips taking a bite out of x86 in its traditional category — Windows machines. Microsoft had announced last year it was developing the coming new version, Window 8, for ARM devices, and announced a number of partners at CES 2012.

“The interesting thing is the PC space,” says Chu. “The advantage of ARM ecosystem moving into the PC ecosystem is it’s bringing in new entrants, new competition, low power consumption, always-on always connected mindset and the competition associated with it. You’re bringing all of that into a space that’s been highly uncompetitive for a while.”

So two monopolies in electronics are being shattered: Intel’s on PCs and ARM’s on mobile devices. What are you looking forward to in the coming months and years in both categories? Let us know in the comments.

BONUS: Intel Technology on Display at CES