Apple has removed Airfoil Speakers Touch from the iOS App Store >> Rogue Amoeba
Apple is <em>still</em> pulling this crap? Give an explanation at the very minimum.
apple
ios
apps
8 hours ago
Today, we’ve been informed that Apple has removed Airfoil Speakers Touch from the iOS App Store.1 We first heard from Apple about this decision two days ago, and we’ve been discussing the pending removal with them since then. However, we still do not yet have a clear answer on why Apple has chosen to remove Airfoil Speakers Touch.
Apple is <em>still</em> pulling this crap? Give an explanation at the very minimum.
8 hours ago
No-cost desktop software development is dead on Windows 8 >> Ars Technica
Flipping heck. Former Microsofties are appalled.
development
programming
microsoft
8 hours ago
Microsoft wants Windows developers to write Windows 8-specific, Metro-style, touch-friendly applications, and to make sure that they crank these apps out, the company has decided that Visual Studio 11 Express, the free-to-use version of its integrated development environment, can produce nothing else.<p>
If you want to develop desktop applications—anything that runs at the command line or on the conventional Windows desktop that remains a fully supported, integral, essential part of Windows 8—you'll have two options: stick with the current Visual C++ 2010 Express and Visual C# 2010 Express products, or pay about $400-500 for Visual Studio 11 Professional. A second version, Visual Studio 11 Express for Web, will be able to produce HTML and JavaScript websites, and nothing more.
Flipping heck. Former Microsofties are appalled.
8 hours ago
Just say "No." >> Dustin Curtis
Curtis explains why it shouldn't have, and how this tells us more (as if we needed it) about Yahoo right now.
design
programming
yahoo
management
8 hours ago
Yahoo has <a href="http://axis.yahoo.com">just announced Axis</a>, a browser extension thing and mobile app that “redefines what it means to search and browse the Web [sic].”
Curtis explains why it shouldn't have, and how this tells us more (as if we needed it) about Yahoo right now.
8 hours ago
Google releases new copyright transparency report >> Electronic Frontier Foundation
Also covered elsewhere on this site.
google
copyright
9 hours ago
Striking is the sheer volume of takedown notices Google receives: in just the last month, it processed over 1.2 million requests for Search alone, from 1,296 copyright owners and 1,087 reporting organizations. That scale allows it to present trends in the data that might not otherwise be apparent. For example, even in the case of notorious "pirate" sites like The Pirate Bay, Google has received takedown notices for less than 5% of their indexable pages.<p>
On the other hand, this report also provides a clearer look into the abuse of copyright tools. Google explains that it's complied with 97% of takedown requests received between July and December of 2011, but also provides examples of obviously invalid copyright requests it's received.
Also covered elsewhere on this site.
9 hours ago
Google Privacy Inquiries Get Little Cooperation >> NYTimes.com
google
streetview
12 hours ago
Mr. Caspar asked [in spring 2010] to see the hard drive [with the Wi-Fi data collected from Street View]. Google said handing it over could expose it to liability for violating German telecommunications law, which prohibits network operators and other data managers from disclosing the private communications of their clients.<p>
This made no sense to Mr. Caspar, who explained that as data protection commissioner [for Hamburg] he was empowered to receive the data. Finally, in autumn 2010, the company yielded and gave Mr. Caspar the hard drive. By this point, Hamburg prosecutors had opened a criminal investigation.<p>
Google was equally resistant with the American authorities.
12 hours ago
Apple is still exploring ways to make stylus worthy of iPhone and iPad >> Unwired View
Wait... did someone say <em>haptic?</em> Hang on, though - <em>stylus?</em> (Thanks @PaulJReynolds for first, aha, pointer)
apple
patent
13 hours ago
The stylus with haptic feedback, comes with a built-in haptic actuator and a short-range wireless receiver. The vibration commands are sent via tiny wireless transmitters built into the bezel of your iPad.
Wait... did someone say <em>haptic?</em> Hang on, though - <em>stylus?</em> (Thanks @PaulJReynolds for first, aha, pointer)
13 hours ago
Google's Goggles Spotted on Streets of SF >> Technology Review
Oh, yeah, battery life.
google
glasses
augmentedreality
wearable
16 hours ago
Like Google's press images for what it calls "Project Glass," the glasses Brin wore while walking down King Street were lens-free with a small, clear prism-like display mounted above the right eye. It wasn't clear if the glasses were completely self-contained, or if they were wired to what appeared to be a smart phone in his left hand. Brin, who has been seen sporting the headgear before, wasn't using them at the moment, though - he said they were out of power.
Oh, yeah, battery life.
16 hours ago
Modern Browsers >> Aventine
16 hours ago
After some experimenting with what you do and don't need to get the Moog Google Doodle of a few days ago:
google
browser
html5
In the end, the conclusion is that a ‘modern browser’ according to Google is a browser which sends ‘Chrome’ as its UA string and supports Flash or the Web Audio API.<p>
Can we instead on production sites standardize on something like “this site requires (experimental) features not yet present in your browser” (Thanks @getify for the idea) and a link to instructions on how they can update their browser, or if it is a browser specific feature, information about the feature and why it isn’t yet supported in their browser of choice.
16 hours ago
The Guardian's n0tice experiment and why media businesses should build APIs >> TheMediaBriefing
Get excited and build stuff.
notice
api
guardian
16 hours ago
The Guardian has led the way in API-based development since 2009 and now its spinoff hyperlocal social network <a href="www.n0tice.com">n0tice</a> has <a href="http://about.n0tice.com/2012/05/22/announcing-n0tice-org-the-open-journalism-toolkit/">launched its own set of API tools</a> to entice users and brands to build things using its content and functionality.
Get excited and build stuff.
16 hours ago
Meet Mike and Maaike, the design studio ushering Google into hardware >> Co.Design
17 hours ago
Interesting: just as Google acquires Motorola, it also buys a design studio. Maybe hardware really is where the money is.
design
google
phone
17 hours ago
How 100 iPads saved Greece $140 billion >> Fortune Tech
19 hours ago
Philip Elmer-DeWitt:
With the aid of a custom app uploaded specifically to 100 iPads so that the Greek leadership team trying to coordinate thousands of bondholders around the world signing off the default-in-all-but-name could connect to clearing services and back offices. (<a href="http://www.tovima.gr/finance/article/?aid=450030">Original article interviewing Apfel in a Greek paper</a>.)
Since they could have afforded laptops, you should consider: what other advantages did the iPad bring? (Thanks @rquick for the link.)
greece
debt
ipad
I got a London call last week from Bob Apfel, a Brooklyn neighbor (and fellow Oberlin College graduate).<p>
"Two weeks ago," he began. "I completed the debt restructuring of Greece."
With the aid of a custom app uploaded specifically to 100 iPads so that the Greek leadership team trying to coordinate thousands of bondholders around the world signing off the default-in-all-but-name could connect to clearing services and back offices. (<a href="http://www.tovima.gr/finance/article/?aid=450030">Original article interviewing Apfel in a Greek paper</a>.)
Since they could have afforded laptops, you should consider: what other advantages did the iPad bring? (Thanks @rquick for the link.)
19 hours ago
Android- and iOS-powered smartphones expand share of market in 1Q 2012 >> IDC
Puts smartphone shipments at 152m, up 50% year-on-year. Android is 59%; Apple + Samsung is 75m, or half the total. A two-horse race.
apple
samsung
android
ios
smartphone
19 hours ago
Smartphones powered by the Android and iOS mobile operating systems accounted for more than eight out of ten smartphones shipped in the first quarter of 2012 (1Q12). According to the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, the mobile operating systems held shares of 59.0% and 23.0% respectively of the 152.3 million smartphones shipped in 1Q12. During the first quarter of 2011, the two operating systems held a combined share of 54.4%. The share gains mean that Android and iOS have successfully distanced themselves from previous market leaders Symbian and BlackBerry, as well as Linux and Windows Phone 7/Windows Mobile.
Puts smartphone shipments at 152m, up 50% year-on-year. Android is 59%; Apple + Samsung is 75m, or half the total. A two-horse race.
19 hours ago
Eroding smartphone subsidies: carriers increasingly adopt customer-unfriendly upgrades >> Stop the Cap
Ow. That's going to slow smartphone adoption thoroughly. Carriers in other countries are doing the same.
smartphone
us
yesterday
The American wireless industry is increasingly taking a page from the airlines, adopting irritating fees and surcharges while curtailing the perks and rewards that used to come with customer loyalty and family plans that routinely run into the hundreds of dollars.<p>
Sprint, Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile all have a nasty surprise in store for customers who have not upgraded their smartphones in the last year or so: the equipment upgrade fee. Sprint and AT&T both charge $36 per phone, Verizon Wireless now charges $30, T-Mobile $18.<p>
Verizon customers are especially peeved because that wireless company used to reward loyal customers with a $50 credit off any new phone at contract renewal time. Today, instead of getting “New Every Two” discounts, Big Red will charge you $30 for every new phone when you renew your contract.
Ow. That's going to slow smartphone adoption thoroughly. Carriers in other countries are doing the same.
yesterday
Motorola will be Google’s most interesting project yet >> SplatF
yesterday
Intriguing options laid out by Dan Frommer: it could soar, or be a faceplant, or be somewhere in between. If it soars, the potential is thought-provoking.
business
google
motorola
yesterday
Internet Explorer 10 will Ship with Adobe Flash >> Windows 8 Secrets
Flash will be built in, so this doesn't (strictly) break the "no plugins" rule for IE10. And it will update directly in the browser. Still isn't as good for security as not having Flash, though. It's also retrograde - the web is going mobile and Flash is not part of it.
flash
adobe
microsoft
windows8
metro
charlesarthur
yesterday
Two years ago, Microsoft declared that the future of video on the web would be powered by HTML 5. Today, however, a lot of web video content is still delivered via Adobe Flash technology. So, in a somewhat surprising move, Microsoft is integrating Flash directly into Internet Explorer 10 on Windows 8 and doing so in a way that does not undermine the safety and reliability of the Metro environment.
Flash will be built in, so this doesn't (strictly) break the "no plugins" rule for IE10. And it will update directly in the browser. Still isn't as good for security as not having Flash, though. It's also retrograde - the web is going mobile and Flash is not part of it.
yesterday
Google did not infringe Oracle patents -jury >> Reuters
Very important win for Google. A mistrial on certain elements is still feasible, as is an appeal. So this isn't over. But it's half-over.
google
oracle
oraclegoogle
yesterday
Google Inc's Android mobile platform has not infringed Oracle's patents, a California jury decided in a high stakes trial fought by the two Silicon Valley giants over smartphone technology.
Very important win for Google. A mistrial on certain elements is still feasible, as is an appeal. So this isn't over. But it's half-over.
yesterday
HP launches multi-year restructuring to fuel innovation and enable investment >> Yahoo! Finance
Because people aren't innovative. Cash in the bank is innovative.
hp
jobs
yesterday
As part of the restructuring, HP expects approximately 27,000 employees to exit the company, or 8.0% of its workforce as of Oct. 31, 2011, by the end of fiscal year 2014. The company is offering an early retirement program, so the total number of employees affected will be impacted by the number of employees that participate in the early retirement plan. Workforce reduction plans will vary by country, based on local legal requirements and consultation with works councils and employee representatives, as appropriate.
Because people aren't innovative. Cash in the bank is innovative.
yesterday
Resistance is futile? Memristor RAM now cheap as chips >> The Register
A team at UCL has come across a good memristor material while trying to develop LEDs.
memristor
ucl
flash
yesterday
The HP-popularised memristor device is a form of ReRAM – resistive RAM – and is fairly expensive to make. Metal oxide-based ReRAM technology promises to combine minimum memory speed with NAND non-volatility and be able to provide higher capacities than NAND, which is thought will cease to be usable as process geometries go down past 10nm. ReRAM dies will need less electricity to run and will take up less space than equivalent capacity NAND.
A team at UCL has come across a good memristor material while trying to develop LEDs.
yesterday
Permanently unhide Library >> Red Sweater blog
A quick trip to the Terminal can fix it, or he has an app for that.
apple
mac
osx
yesterday
When Apple shipped Mac OS X Lion 10.7, the “Library” folder located within every user’s home folder, which had previously been visible to users in the Finder, was made invisible. To access the Library folder, users must now hold down the option key while selecting the “Go” menu in the Finder.<p>
This is probably a good move for the vast majority of Mac users, but for folks with even a small amount of interest in tinkering with the configuration files and caches of various applications, it’s an outright nuisance.
A quick trip to the Terminal can fix it, or he has an app for that.
yesterday
One Billion Internet Users >>Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox
yesterday
Written in December 2005:
Nielsen returned to the post in 2012 to note that the 2bn mark was passed in early 2011, just six years after the first, and four years earlier than he had expected. Most of the growth was in Asia, which should hit a billion in 2012. But he thinks that we won't see the second doubling to 4bn before 2017. He reckons it will be 3bn by then. Make a diary date...
china
internet
social
statistics
It took 36 years for the Internet to get its first billion users. The second billion will probably be added by 2015; most of these new users will be in Asia. The third billion will be harder, and might not be reached until 2040.
Nielsen returned to the post in 2012 to note that the 2bn mark was passed in early 2011, just six years after the first, and four years earlier than he had expected. Most of the growth was in Asia, which should hit a billion in 2012. But he thinks that we won't see the second doubling to 4bn before 2017. He reckons it will be 3bn by then. Make a diary date...
yesterday
Olympic organisers shut down “Space hijackers” protest Twitter account >> Index on Censorship blog
We can think of other questions too.
olympics
copyright
london2012
yesterday
The Space Hijackers had been using an altered version of the 2012 logo on their site and their Twitter page.<p>
The Olympic organisers are notoriously prickly about branding, but also about protest, and laws introduced after London won the right to host this years games could potentially <a href-"http://www.indexoncensorship.org/2011/11/olympic-ideal-puts-money-before-democracy/">place restrictions</a> on protest for the duration of the Olympics and Paralympics.<p>
It could be argued that the logo in itself was a justifiable reason for the suspension: but you have to seriously ask: is anyone actually going to confuse the Space Hijackers account for an official Olympic account?
We can think of other questions too.
yesterday
The Facebook Fallacy >> Technology Review
2 days ago
Michael Wolff:
A dramatic exposition of what happens when growing inventory (space to put ads in) meets limited advertising numbers. Extreme, but none of it seems impossible.
advertising
business
facebook
prediction
Facebook is not only on course to go bust, but will take the rest of the ad-supported Web with it.<p>
Given its vast cash reserves and the glacial pace of business reckonings, that will sound hyperbolic. But that doesn't mean it isn't true.
A dramatic exposition of what happens when growing inventory (space to put ads in) meets limited advertising numbers. Extreme, but none of it seems impossible.
2 days ago
Data in the Fast Lane >> Microsoft Research
(Thanks @PaulJReynolds for the link.)
microsoft
data
2 days ago
The team, led by Jeremy Elson in the Distributed Systems group at Microsoft Research Redmond, set the new sort benchmark by using a radically different approach to sorting called Flat Datacenter Storage (FDS). The team’s system sorted almost three times the amount of data (1,401 gigabytes vs. 500 gigabytes) with about one-sixth the hardware resources (1,033 disks across 250 machines vs. 5,624 disks across 1,406 machines) used by the previous record holder, a team from Yahoo! that set the mark in 2009.
(Thanks @PaulJReynolds for the link.)
2 days ago
Video: Angry Birds Space trojan & drive-by Android >> F-Secure Weblog
2 days ago
On Monday, we released our <a href="http://www.f-secure.com/weblog/archives/00002363.html">Mobile Threat Report for Q1</a>, and in that report we mention there's a growing number of mobile trojans that "deliver on their promises". What do we mean by that?<p>
Well, in the past, mobile malware often offered something such as "free" mobile web services as bait, but then, during installation, the trojan would display some kind of decoy error message.<p>
At that point the folks installing the trojan would typically search for answers, either because they were suspicious or because they were troubleshooting. That would then lead to actual answers on forums that what they had in fact installed was a trojan. These days, when even non-nerds have smartphones, the bait is quite a bit different.<p>
No decoy messages. The "bait" actually works. Here's a video of trojan installing a working copy of Rovio's Angry Birds Space as it compromises the phone.
Scary.
android
malware
charlesarthur
Well, in the past, mobile malware often offered something such as "free" mobile web services as bait, but then, during installation, the trojan would display some kind of decoy error message.<p>
At that point the folks installing the trojan would typically search for answers, either because they were suspicious or because they were troubleshooting. That would then lead to actual answers on forums that what they had in fact installed was a trojan. These days, when even non-nerds have smartphones, the bait is quite a bit different.<p>
No decoy messages. The "bait" actually works. Here's a video of trojan installing a working copy of Rovio's Angry Birds Space as it compromises the phone.
Scary.
2 days ago
Why The iPhone's Success Has Women To Thank
It's about the advertising, although this focusses on the US. Is there a gender bias in phone adverts here?
iphone
advertising
2 days ago
It’s no <a href="http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/who_uses_pinterest.php">Pinterest</a>, but according to data from now Google-owned Admob, iPhone users were split pretty evenly along gender lines in February of 2010, with women accounting for 43% of iPhone owners. As for Android, that number was at 27% - less than a third. In 2011, a<a href="http://blog.hunch.com/?p=51781"> survey</a> of 15,818 Hunch users found that iOS users are more likely to be female, while Android users still trend male. But why?
It's about the advertising, although this focusses on the US. Is there a gender bias in phone adverts here?
2 days ago
Apple maintains top mobile PC share in Q1’12 on strong iPad shipment growth >> DisplaySearch
2 days ago
Rather weirdly, DisplaySearch lumps together tablets and laptops and netbooks into a "mobile PC" category, which isn't very informative. More informative is the table for tablets, which suggests (even if you take Apple's shipments as 11.2m, as Apple says, rather than the 13.2m given here) that Samsung only managed to ship one-tenth as many. It's looking like the iPod market.
ipad
tablet
2 days ago
Ryanair taking the biscuit >> Speed Communications Blog
Not illegal. But ethical? Can anyone confirm this?
ryanair
cookies
2 days ago
Andrew’s tweet read:<br />
“Ryanair exhibit A. Looked up fare yesterday, total £123.00. Returned today and fare is £237.00. Flushed cookies. Fare back to £123.00.”<br />
What this means is that Ryanair has purposefully tracked when Andrew’s visited the site, looked at a specific fare and not made a booking. Usually this sort of thing is done for targeted advertising across other sites, but Ryanair it seems has something else in mind. The next time Andrew visited the site to look at the same fare he had look at previously, Ryanair had hiked up the cost. I assume this is to get a customer to worry that the cost will go up further and book a trip there and then.
Not illegal. But ethical? Can anyone confirm this?
2 days ago
Joaquín Almunia statement on the Google case >> European Commission
2 days ago
Just in case you haven't read in detail what he said, with the "four points" (vertical search, content copying, ad exclusivity, ad portability) where the EC is concerned Google is abusing its dominance.
The summary seems to be: change how you do things, or get fined and be forced to change.
google
antitrust
almunia
charlesarthur
I have just sent a letter to Eric Schmidt setting out these four points. In this letter, I offer Google the possibility to come up in a matter of weeks with first proposals of remedies to address each of these points.<p>
If Google comes up with an outline of remedies which are capable of addressing our concerns, I will instruct my staff to initiate the discussions in order to finalise a remedies package. This would allow to solve our concerns by means of a commitment decision – pursuant to Article 9 of the EU Antitrust Regulation - instead of having to pursue formal proceedings with a Statement of objections and to adopt a decision imposing fines and remedies.
The summary seems to be: change how you do things, or get fined and be forced to change.
2 days ago
The world’s hottest digital markets: a music map >> paidContent
3 days ago
Surprising reason why Germany and France buys lots of CDs: because classical music sells well. Lots of interesting nuggets from a neat map.
business
digital
europe
music
3 days ago
Fugitive hacker Christopher Doyon, or Commander X, tells why Anonymous ‘might well be the most powerful organization on Earth’ >> National Post
Summer's coming. (Doyon's in Canada; he's not stronger than the police.)
anonymous
hacking
3 days ago
Q: As strictly an online army of hackers, how powerful is Anonymous?<br />
A: Anonymous is kind of like the big buff kid in school who had really bad self-esteem then all of a sudden one day he punched someone in the face and went, “Holy s— I’m really strong!”
Summer's coming. (Doyon's in Canada; he's not stronger than the police.)
3 days ago
China market: Booming sales of Windows Phones could be short-lived, say sources >> Digitimes
Party poopers.
nokia
china
windowsphone
3 days ago
According to Michel van der Bel, COO of the Greater China region at Microsoft, sales of Windows Phones have accounted for 7% in China's smartphone segment recently, compared to a 6% share for Apple's iPhones.<p>
The strong sales enjoyed by Lumia phones at present are typical short-term results for the newly launched model, and it remains to be seen whether the sales momentum will continue, commented industry sources.<p>
Given that sales of iPhones totaled over five million units in China in the first quarter of 2012, it would be difficult for Windows Phone models to yield the same results in a quarter, the sources commented.
Party poopers.
3 days ago
WoA tablet PCs struggling to hit price targets >> Digitimes
While Digitimes has a shaky reputation, the post-purchase point is an important one.
windows8
tablets
3 days ago
WoA (Windows on ARM) tablet PCs, based on estimated general BOM costs of US$300-350 for 10-inch tablet PCs and US$150-200 for 7-inch models, are struggling to meet vendors' price targets for competition against Apple and Amazon's tablet PC products because of the additional US$90-100 fee for Windows 8, according to Taiwan-based supply chain makers.<p>
The average price of tablet PCs has been dropping rapidly sine the launch of Amazon's Kindle Fire. But PC brand vendors, who are used to price wars, are nevertheless struggling to compete, because unlike Amazon they do not see additional revenues from post-purchase content sales.
While Digitimes has a shaky reputation, the post-purchase point is an important one.
3 days ago
Samsung begins blocking unofficial S-Voice requests >> TheNextWeb
Doing it on device ID.
samsung
voice
galaxy
3 days ago
<a href="http://androidcommunity.com/samsung-s-voice-leaked-for-all-ics-devices-20120520/">The S-Voice APK</a>, which contained services that were exclusive to the Galaxy S III, allowed owners of other Ice Cream Sandwich-powered smartphones to install Samsung's new voice assistant (its Siri rival) and perform commands on their devices.</p>
<p>It appears that in the last 24 hours, Samsung (and its partner Vlingo, the technology behind the voice functions) have begun detecting requests from non-supported devices and blocking them, displaying the message: "Network Error. Please Try Again."
Doing it on device ID.
3 days ago
Smartphone hijacking vulnerability affects AT&T, 47 other carriers >> Ars Technica
Complex, and presently theoretical… apart from the test that the researchers carried out using some smartphones, in which they spoofed a variety of sites, including banks. (Thanks @rquick for the link.)
ip
malware
security
hacks
3 days ago
Ironically, the vulnerability is introduced by a class of firewalls cellular carriers use. While intended to make the networks safer, these firewall middleboxes allow hackers to infer TCP sequence numbers of data packets appended to each data packet, a disclosure that can be used to tamper with internet connections.
Complex, and presently theoretical… apart from the test that the researchers carried out using some smartphones, in which they spoofed a variety of sites, including banks. (Thanks @rquick for the link.)
3 days ago
Tour the Pyramids Online >> Discovery News
Then again, the real pyramids don't have Lara Croft pinging around them. The site itself is interesting, though note that (1) needs Firefox in 32-bit more (2) you need to download and install a 3D browser plugin. (Thanks @TehGreatGonzo for the link.)
pyramids
3d
archaeology
3 days ago
Indeed, this is not just another too-clean looking and ultimately boring 3-D virtual tour of Egypt's famous archaeological site.<p>
"Many 3-D models of ancient sites have more to do with fantasy and video games than with archaeology. The colors, surfaces and textures are not researched and appear quite flat or unrealistic," Peter Der Manuelian, Philip J. King professor of Egyptology at Harvard University and director of the MFA's Giza Archives, told Discovery News.
Then again, the real pyramids don't have Lara Croft pinging around them. The site itself is interesting, though note that (1) needs Firefox in 32-bit more (2) you need to download and install a 3D browser plugin. (Thanks @TehGreatGonzo for the link.)
3 days ago
Why Wasn't I Consulted? The web's fundamental question >> Paul Ford
3 days ago
A really fascinating, thought-provoking essay.
One wrinkle: the web is increasingly being used via mobile. He thinks that's different from the non-mobile-screen web. Does that change the question? (Thanks @nomster for the link.)
internet
publishing
web
charlesarthur
A sitcom works better on TV than in a newspaper, but a 10,000 word investigative piece about a civic issue works better in a newspaper.<p>
When it arrived the web seemed to fill all of those niches at once. The web was surprisingly good at emulating a TV, a newspaper, a book, or a radio. Which meant that people expected it to answer the questions of each medium, and with the promise of advertising revenue as incentive, web developers set out to provide those answers. As a result, people in the newspaper industry saw the web as a newspaper. People in TV saw the web as TV, and people in book publishing saw it as a weird kind of potential book. But the web is not just some kind of magic all-absorbing meta-medium. It's its own thing. And like other media it has a question that it answers better than any other.
One wrinkle: the web is increasingly being used via mobile. He thinks that's different from the non-mobile-screen web. Does that change the question? (Thanks @nomster for the link.)
3 days ago
Windows 8 Release Preview: RIP, Aero (2003-2012) >> Windows Supersite
4 days ago
Paul ThurrottL
He suggests it's for battery life. But also that "I’m starting to see more clearly what’s happening here and starting to accept that Windows is growing into something that isn’t so much for me anymore as it is for some mythical tablet user base that may or may not appear in the future…Windows 8 isn’t even Windows anymore. It’s a tablet OS that’s been grafted onto Windows like a monstrous Frankenstein experiment."
Strong words from someone who has rarely had anything but praise for Microsoft's desktop work.
microsoft
metro
Microsoft quietly revealed this week that it will kill off the Aero glass interface in Windows 8 and replace it with a flat, Metro-like Explorer that’s more in line with the company’s current design mantra. But this change isn’t just about obfuscation. It’s about the Windows team abandoning the very market that drove Windows’s success for over 25 years in order to chase a coming and potentially illusory market for tablet devices.
He suggests it's for battery life. But also that "I’m starting to see more clearly what’s happening here and starting to accept that Windows is growing into something that isn’t so much for me anymore as it is for some mythical tablet user base that may or may not appear in the future…Windows 8 isn’t even Windows anymore. It’s a tablet OS that’s been grafted onto Windows like a monstrous Frankenstein experiment."
Strong words from someone who has rarely had anything but praise for Microsoft's desktop work.
4 days ago
Apple fires back in lawsuit over Siri’s performance >> WSJ Law Blog
apple
siri
lawsuit
4 days ago
Apple Inc. is defending its voice-recognition software Siri - she of the iPhone 4S - against claims that it doesn't perform as advertised.</p>
<p><a href="http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2012/03/12/so-sirious-iphone-user-sues-apple-over-voice-activated-assistant/">A cluster of lawsuits</a> seeking class action status in Oakland, Calif., allege that iPhone 4S commercials and company statements about the phone were false and misleading. Siri, they say, is brilliant on TV, but she's dim in reality…<p>The plaintiffs don’t say how the advertisements are misleading, or how their personal experiences relate to those advertisements, Apple said. And if Siri so disappointed them, they could have — but did not, apparently — avail themselves of Apple’s 30-day return policy, the company said.
4 days ago
Google says it won China's approval for Motorola deal >> Reuters
So now we'll get to see what Google's plans for Motorola actually are. Let's hope it's a lot more than (counter)suing Apple, Microsoft and Nokia over Android.
google
motorola
smartphones
charlesarthur
5 days ago
Google said on Saturday that Chinese authorities have approved its $12.5 billion purchase of Motorola Mobility Holdings, the last regulatory hurdle to a deal that would allow the world's No. 1 Internet search engine to develop its own line of smart phones…<p>A main condition of the deal is that the Android system remain free and open for five years, said a source who is familiar with the Chinese approval but not authorized to discuss it.
So now we'll get to see what Google's plans for Motorola actually are. Let's hope it's a lot more than (counter)suing Apple, Microsoft and Nokia over Android.
5 days ago
The Internet at the dawn of Facebook >> The Atlantic
6 days ago
In 2004...
And plenty of other fascinating facts from the year when Facebook was born and Google floated.
2004
google
Britney Spears was Google's most popular search query -- followed by Paris Hilton, Christina Aguilera, and Pamela Anderson. (Yes! Pamela Anderson!)
<br />Janet Jackson's Super Bowl wardrobe malfunction was the most searched term to date on Lycos.<br />
people still used Lycos.<br />
The Howard Dean campaign was pioneering grassroots organizing and fundraising on the Internet.
And plenty of other fascinating facts from the year when Facebook was born and Google floated.
6 days ago
Today Is Just the End of the Beginning for Mark Zuckerberg >> PandoDaily
Because, as she points out, after an all-night hackathon, nobody's going to be able to count their fingers, let alone their fortunes.
facebook
ipo
6 days ago
Think about it: this may well be the only time Zuckerberg will take a company public. That moment of being in New York and ringing that bell is something many entrepreneurs dream about. And he’s forgoing it. Instead, he’s pulling an all-night hackathon with the team as I write this post. It may be posturing but, if that’s the case, it’s brilliant posturing.
Because, as she points out, after an all-night hackathon, nobody's going to be able to count their fingers, let alone their fortunes.
6 days ago
Under construction – ITER in LEGO >> Scientific American Blog Network
6 days ago
It's possible this will work before the real thing. It's certainly going to be finished a lot sooner. (Thanks @spikediswhack for the link.)
lego
iter
6 days ago
How Yahoo Killed Flickr and Lost the Internet >> Gizmodo
6 days ago
The ever-readable Mat Honan on how Yahoo didn't get Flickr right, even though it was poised to do so in 2005 with social sharing. Why? Corporate Development. (Thanks @TehGreatGonzo for the link.)
flickr
yahoo
charlesarthur
6 days ago
U r bias: Top 10 tech troll catchphrases >> CNET UK
6 days ago
Slow news day? I'm never coming to this site again.
trolling
internet
commenters
charlesarthur
6 days ago
Windows Phone takes China by storm - already 7% market share, ahead of iPhone >> WMPoweruser
Intriguing. What's not mentioned is who the makers are of these Windows Phone phones. HTC? Samsung? ZTE?
windowsphone
apple
7 days ago
When Microsoft announced at the launch of Windows Phone Tango handsets in China that passing the iPhone in China was just an interim goal on the way to overtaking Android, it did seem rather grandiose.<p>
It seems Microsoft was right however, with Michel van der Bel, COO Greater China Region at Microsoft saying that a mere 2 months after the launch Windows Phone 7 handsets already had a 7% market share in China, ahead of the 6% of the iPhone there.
Intriguing. What's not mentioned is who the makers are of these Windows Phone phones. HTC? Samsung? ZTE?
7 days ago
Browsers and Apps in 2012 >> Tim Bray
Keep this in mind for a little lower down. Read Bray's post first, though.
apps
html5
mobile
7 days ago
It’s like this: The browser’s doomed, because apps are the future. Wait! Apps are doomed because HTML5 is the future. I see something almost every day saying one or the other. Only it’s mostly wrong.
Keep this in mind for a little lower down. Read Bray's post first, though.
7 days ago
Web Intents – The Next Wave Of Web Apps >> Ido's Blog
Fabulous idea. Android Intents is a great concept.
w3c
web
intents
7 days ago
One of the greatest strengths of the web is that the the ease of linking allows innovative new apps to succeed without asking anyone else's permission - but up until now that hasn't applied to integrations between web apps. Web Intents is an emerging <a href="http://dvcs.w3.org/hg/web-intents/raw-file/tip/spec/Overview.html" target="_blank">W3C specification</a> inspired by Android's Intents system that aims to solve the problems of communications.</p>
<p>Here are some <a href="http://bleeding-edge-tlv.appspot.com/#12" target="_blank">slides that explain the main concepts</a> from a pervious talk.
Fabulous idea. Android Intents is a great concept.
7 days ago
French privacy watchdog to quiz Google on policy change >> BBC News
google
privacy
7 days ago
France's data protection watchdog has set up a meeting with Google to closely examine its controversial privacy policy.<p>
The search giant consolidated 60 privacy policies into one single agreement in March. The EU expressed concern over the legality and impact of the change.<p>
France's information commission, the CNIL, said it was not yet "totally satisfied" with Google's explanation of the amendments.
7 days ago
iPhone market share in the USA: 50% of Q1 sales >> Benedict Evans
7 days ago
Evans works for Enders Analysis. Here's a little bit from his latest report:
More to come today.
android
iphone
smartphones
Roughly 50% of all the smartphones sold in the USA in Q1 2012 were iPhones. This is very different to the global picture:<p>
Android is outselling iPhone by more than 2:1 on a global basis. But in the USA, Apple is massively outselling Android. That has obvious implications for where (mainly US-based) developers should be placing their efforts.
More to come today.
7 days ago
State of the Appnation – A Year of Change and Growth in U.S. Smartphones >> Nielsen Wire
html5
app
smartphones
7 days ago
Roughly a year ago when we summarized the state of smartphones at the Appnation conference, less than 40% of mobile subscribers in the U.S. had smartphones. Today, one in two mobile subscribers has a smartphone and that figure is moving steadily upwards.<p>
By most measures, it has been the year of the App once again, driven mostly by the rise of Android and iOS users who have more than doubled in a year and account for 88% of those who have downloaded an app in the past 30 days. In just a year, the average number of apps per smartphone has jumped 28%, from 32 apps to 41. Not only is the 2012 smartphone owner downloading more apps, they are increasingly spending more time using them vs. using the mobile web — about 10% more than last year.
7 days ago
How Mark Zuckerberg Hacked the Valley >> Businessweek
7 days ago
Worth reading today, of all days.
facebook
zuckerberg
7 days ago
Smartphone Market Shares after Q1 - It's the digital jamboree year of smartphone bloodbath >> Tomi Ahonen
7 days ago
Ahonen isn't very happy about what's happening to Nokia. (He used to work there.) Also has calculations for smartphone installed base by platform, which puts Android top at 328m, then Symbian (299m) and iOS (178m) from a total of just over 1bn.
android
smartphones
ios
7 days ago
Not every problem with Android should be called "fragmentation" >> Phonearena
Isn't it more likely that the developers evaluate the opportunity cost of each platform, and cut their cloth accordingly? If they don't find it worthwhile to test, say, Temple Run on 1,000+ devices, that's not their "fault". It's their rational judgement of investment return. If you can't make money, you won't spend money. It's the classic bootstrap challenge of every ecosystem. (Thanks @beardyweirdy666 for the link.)
android
fragmentation
7 days ago
And, that leads us to the number one issue cited as a problem: developer support. Developers claim the platform is too troublesome because of device specific variations, but the reality is that it's just that developers don't think they make enough money to justify that work. This could be because of the single listing and therefore single purchase of apps [for both phones and tablets], but it's really just a vicious cycle where developers don't put enough support into the ecosystem, and so the ecosystem doesn't support developers.
Isn't it more likely that the developers evaluate the opportunity cost of each platform, and cut their cloth accordingly? If they don't find it worthwhile to test, say, Temple Run on 1,000+ devices, that's not their "fault". It's their rational judgement of investment return. If you can't make money, you won't spend money. It's the classic bootstrap challenge of every ecosystem. (Thanks @beardyweirdy666 for the link.)
7 days ago
Legacy computer errors dog child support payments >> UKAuthority
That's £59m owed to parents. Real people affected by real mistakes.
nao
childsupport
8 days ago
While tens of thousands of cases had transferred from the CSCS system to the CS2 system, the correct arrears balance did not transfer with them. This was because the information had been archived and, on transfer to CS2, these balances were not picked up by the system, the NAO [National Audit Office] said.
In addition, a number of cases managed off the primary IT systems, on a separate clerical case database, did not have opening arrears balances entered onto that database. In compiling the accounts the commission has estimated that this would have led to an understatement of the overall arrears balance by £59m at 31 March 2011.
That's £59m owed to parents. Real people affected by real mistakes.
8 days ago
How the professor who fooled Wikipedia got caught by Reddit >> The Atlantic
8 days ago
A great read, but important too for understanding why some parts of the internet are weak for fact-checking:
analysis
reddit
wikipedia
If there's a simple lesson in all of this, it's that hoaxes tend to thrive in communities which exhibit high levels of trust. But on the Internet, where identities are malleable and uncertain, we all might be well advised to err on the side of skepticism.
8 days ago
Android Fragmentation Visualized >> OpenSignalMaps
Amazing graphs. The number of devices, screens and resolutions is boggling.
android
fragmentation
google
mobile
8 days ago
Fragmentation matters to the entire Android community: users, developers, OEMs, brands & networks. It's a blessing and a curse.</p><p>
The Blessing. Fragmentation allows users to take their pick from thousands of devices. You can choose from phones with 3D screens, projectors, CDMA, GSM, or even CDMA & GSM. You may not care that Tag Heuer has made an Android phone but at least one person does (and they use OpenSignalMaps). It's a triumph for Android that as a single OS it can target so many markets.</p><p>
The Curse. The proliferation of devices with their associated screen sizes, internal hardware and custom ROMs creates some difficulties. We spend a lot of time making the app presentable (or at less functional) on exotic devices - this is the most common request we get from app users.
Amazing graphs. The number of devices, screens and resolutions is boggling.
8 days ago
Introducing the Knowledge Graph: things, not strings >> Official Google Blog
Google is in effect moving to the semantic web. It's a huge move. Our take <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/may/16/google-unleashes-new-seach-tool">here</a>.
google
search
8 days ago
Take a query like [taj mahal]. For more than four decades, search has essentially been about matching keywords to queries. To a search engine the words [taj mahal] have been just that—two words.</p><p>
But we all know that [taj mahal] has a much richer meaning. You might think of one of the world’s most beautiful monuments, or a Grammy Award-winning musician, or possibly even a casino in Atlantic City, NJ. Or, depending on when you last ate, the nearest Indian restaurant. It’s why we’ve been working on an intelligent model—in geek-speak, a “graph”—that understands real-world entities and their relationships to one another: things, not strings.
Google is in effect moving to the semantic web. It's a huge move. Our take <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/may/16/google-unleashes-new-seach-tool">here</a>.
8 days ago
Why Tech CEOs seem so dumb >> Buzzfeed
technology
8 days ago
Being wildly successful in tech is about anticipating change, and altering the status quo; being the 14th chief executive of a stodgy old major tech company is about extracting as much value as you can from the success it's already had. The CEOs of the Time Warners and Sonys and Yahoos and RIMs and even Microsofts of the world are experts only on their respective companies' existing businesses. They say things that sound stupid to us because they're not us, and because their goal for tech (to maximize profits at their companies) is not the same as ours (to get more awesome stuff that makes our lives better). They're not even really talking to us. They're talking to their boards.
8 days ago
Google could be inviting more friends to Nexus party >> Gigaom
Retail partners could be interesting (does it just mean "Amazon"?) Selling devices through Google's own site worked so well for the original Nexus One that <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.co.uk/2010/05/nexus-one-changes-in-availability.html">Google dropped it within four months</a>. It said: "The web store.. remained a niche channel for early adopters, but it’s clear that many customers like a hands-on experience before buying a phone, and they also want a wide range of service plans to chose from." Anything changed since May 2010? (Thanks @modelportfolio2003 for the link.)
android
google
nexus
9 days ago
<a href="http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB10001424052702304371504577406511931421118-lMyQjAxMTAyMDEwNTExNDUyWj.html">The Wall Street Journal</a> reports that the new strategy will accompany the launch of Android 5.0 - to be known as Jelly Bean, in keeping with Google's sweet tooth for Android code names – and involves several Android vendors. Several devices, including both tablets and unlocked smartphones, will be sold directly through Google's Web site and through some unnamed retail partners.
Retail partners could be interesting (does it just mean "Amazon"?) Selling devices through Google's own site worked so well for the original Nexus One that <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.co.uk/2010/05/nexus-one-changes-in-availability.html">Google dropped it within four months</a>. It said: "The web store.. remained a niche channel for early adopters, but it’s clear that many customers like a hands-on experience before buying a phone, and they also want a wide range of service plans to chose from." Anything changed since May 2010? (Thanks @modelportfolio2003 for the link.)
9 days ago
Sprint defends iPhone deal >> WSJ
Sprint doesn't expect its iPhone investment to pay off before 2015. Even so it seems to think it better than T-Mobile's position. (Thanks @rquick for the link.)
sprint
iphone
9 days ago
[Sprint CEO Dan] Hesse pointed shareholders to other benefits of the iPhone, noting that the device helped provide protection against litigation over Google Inc.’s Android operating software and allowed it to trim a costly loyalty program put in place to prevent customers from leaving for other carriers offering the device. Sprint activated 3.3m iPhones over the past two quarters, compared with 11.9m at AT&T Inc. and 7.5m at Verizon Wireless.</p><p>
“If you have any doubt go look at T-Mobile’s net subscriber numbers,” Hesse told shareholders. T-Mobile USA is the only major carrier without a deal to carry the iPhone and has lost contract customers in 10 straight quarters.
Sprint doesn't expect its iPhone investment to pay off before 2015. Even so it seems to think it better than T-Mobile's position. (Thanks @rquick for the link.)
9 days ago
Thailand signs the world’s largest educational tablet distribution deal >> Digital Trends
Now consider what those childrens' reaction will be to a standard PC when they're older. (Thanks @undersinged for the link.)
tablet
android
education
9 days ago
Thailand reportedly also looked at some of China’s largest tablet manufacturers, such as Lenovo and Huawei, but the pricing per unit was too high for its budget. Conversely, a lower bid from another company was offered but rejected by the government, perhaps due to less specs for the value.</p><p>
The select device model, priced at $81 per unit, is the Scopad SP0712: An 7-inch Android device running the 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich operating system. It’s also got 1GB of RAM, 8GB of internal memory, 1.5 GHz single core CPU, and comes in four color options: Red, blue, silver, and gold. Shenzhen Scope will also set 30 help centers around the Southeast Asian country to provide user support specifically for tablets received from the campaign. Not too shabby of specs for tablets for elementary school students.
Now consider what those childrens' reaction will be to a standard PC when they're older. (Thanks @undersinged for the link.)
9 days ago
What's the best cellphone ever >> Wolfram|Alpha
9 days ago
Changed since last week.
search
siri
apple
9 days ago
The Immobile Web >> Jason Grigsby
9 days ago
Slides from a presentation by Jason Grigsby about smart TV. The key problem with Smart TV right now: you can't know whether or what you're supplying content to.
smarttv
google
googletv
9 days ago
An interesting case of Mac OSX malware >> Microsoft Malware Protection Center
It's pretty sophisticated.
malware
mac
9 days ago
In June 2009, Microsoft issued security update MS09-027, which fixed a remote code execution vulnerability in the Mac version of Microsoft Office. Despite the availability of the bulletin (and the passage of time), not every machine is up to date yet – which is how nearly three years later, malware has emerged that exploits the issue on machines running Office on Mac OS X. Fortunately, our data indicates that this malware is not widespread, but during our investigation we found a few interesting facts we’d like to share with you.
It's pretty sophisticated.
9 days ago
Skylanders is bigger than Angry Birds, says Activision Blizzard >> VentureBeat
9 days ago
From 9 May:
Skylanders is huge with kids with games consoles, who swap accomplishments in school playgrounds. They haven't gone away just because games consoles have arrived.
games
skylanders
angrybirds
In a conference call, Eric Hirshberg, CEO of the Activision Publishing division, made a surprisingly direct statement on the success of Skylanders, the new toy/video game hybrid for consoles and iOS devices. With 30m toys sold and $100m in revenue across toys and games in the quarter, said Hirshberg, Skylanders made more money than the entire business of Rovio’s Angry Birds franchise. Rovio announced today that Angry Birds has been downloaded more than 1 billion times, across both free and paid versions.
Skylanders is huge with kids with games consoles, who swap accomplishments in school playgrounds. They haven't gone away just because games consoles have arrived.
9 days ago
Google in Africa: It’s a hit >> The Economist
africa
business
google
monopoly
9 days ago
Faster downloading speeds have helped make Google’s YouTube video-viewing more popular. Young urban Africans organise YouTube parties. The company is also trying to help African governments digitise information and make it freely available to their citizens. Many rulings in the higher courts of Ghana, for instance, are going online.</p><p>
Yet critics complain that Google is buying up enormous amounts of virgin digital land in Africa at virtually no cost. Within a couple of decades, without the regulatory oversight of the African Union or African governments, they say, Africa’s internet life will be almost entirely in hock to the Google giant. Even the company’s decision to go slow on seeking profits from Africa by offering cheap deals has been attacked by African would-be rivals, which say that such tactics are only extending Google’s unfair advantage.
9 days ago
Lightbox is joining Facebook! >> Lightbox blog
Chomp, chomp, chomp. Not buying the company, just acquiring the team.
facebook
lightbox
charlesarthur
9 days ago
Today, we’re happy to announce that the Lightbox team is joining Facebook, where we’ll have the opportunity to build amazing products for Facebook’s 500+ million mobile users.</p><p>
This means we’re no longer accepting new signups. If you’re an existing user, you can continue to use Lightbox.com until June 15 and you can download your photos from here.</p><p>
Facebook is not acquiring the company or any of the user data hosted on Lightbox.com. In the coming weeks, we will be open sourcing portions of the code we’ve written for Lightbox and posting them to our Github repository.
Chomp, chomp, chomp. Not buying the company, just acquiring the team.
9 days ago
Steve Ballmer's Microsoft >> Dustin Curtis
Completely agree - the Forbes article is ridiculous linkbait nonsense. Read Dustin Curtis's piece instead: it's well-argued and rational.
business
microsoft
charlesarthur
9 days ago
You can call Steve Ballmer many things, but you cannot call him the <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/adamhartung/2012/05/12/oops-5-ceos-that-should-have-already-been-fired-cisco-ge-walmart-sears-microsoft/3/">"the worst CEO of a large publicly traded American company today"</a> as Forbes's Adam Hartung did in a recent article. It's easy to see Microsoft as a bumbling fool of the tech world, but when you look closely at its business, the company's core competencies, and Ballmer's decisions, a coherent picture begins to form. It's a picture of a company being run from a very rational and respectable set of philosophies.
Completely agree - the Forbes article is ridiculous linkbait nonsense. Read Dustin Curtis's piece instead: it's well-argued and rational.
9 days ago
Robbie Bach’s four startup lessons from Xbox and Zune >> GeekWire
10 days ago
Bach left Microsoft abruptly in 2010. Here he looks back at what Microsoft got right (and wrong) in the launch of the original Xbox and the Zune. As you may know, one of them went better than the other.
microsoft
xbox
zune
10 days ago
Nokia's last stand: can the 147-year-old company design its way back? >> Wired UK
10 days ago
Lengthy writeup of where Nokia is at the moment. We would humbly submit that if you've read our interview with Marko Ahtisaari, and other Nokia coverage, you know most of this already. But read it and see what else you get.
nokia
10 days ago
Apple OS "really vulnerable", claims Kaspersky Lab CTO (UPDATED) >> Computing News
That hissing noise? The deflating sound from all the sites which had written "OMG APPLE GOES TO KASPERSKY FOR VIRUS HELP" stories. Not that Apple isn't facing a problem. But it's not going to Kaspersky for the solution.
apple
malware
10 days ago
[Kaspersky CTO Nikolay] Grebennikov originally stated that Apple had invited Kaspersky Lab to work with the company on improving its security, but has since issued a clarification. The company has now said that its analysis of OS X was "conducted independently" but that "Apple is open to collaborating with [Kaspersky] regarding new OS X vulnerabilities."</p><p>
In Computing's original interview, Grebennikov was specifically asked three times if Apple had requested Kaspersky Lab's assistance.
That hissing noise? The deflating sound from all the sites which had written "OMG APPLE GOES TO KASPERSKY FOR VIRUS HELP" stories. Not that Apple isn't facing a problem. But it's not going to Kaspersky for the solution.
10 days ago
How Pixar almost lost Toy Story 2 to a bad backup >> Tested
10 days ago
Simply scary. Hurrah for offsite backups.
toystory
unix
backup
linux
10 days ago
Microsoft Xbox plays more web video than iPhone, iPad, or Android >> AllThingsD
10 days ago
This is great. Knock yourselves out arguing over the interpretation of the pie chart, the mysterious absence of other devices (Wii, PS3?), the non-inclusion of "PC" devices... there's enough here for days of argument. (It also shows how misleading the phrase "more than" can be.)
video
xbox
ios
10 days ago
Sexism-in-tech: how to be an entitled prick >> Tom Morris
10 days ago
Think of this as a warmup for the next link. (Read it first though.)
sexism
10 days ago
Dresscode: Blue tie and male >> Elektronista
This may be more complex than it looks. One commenter says that Mads Christensen, the compere, is a Danish comedian, and that his talk was actually ironic and in effect a reproach to the plethora of guys in the room. Others say that Christensen isn't - that he's just a jerk. Can anyone elucidate?
dell
sexism
charlesarthur
10 days ago
So here I am at Dell’s huge and very professional summit with founder Michael Dell, top people from Microsoft and Intel, impressive power points, expensive commercials, matching polyester ties and all that jazz, and then the – by Dell chosen – moderator starts to rejoice the lack of women in the room. “The IT business is one of the last frontiers that manages to keep women out. The quota of women to men in your business is sound and healthy” he says. “What are you actually doing here?” he adds to the few women who are actually present in the room.
This may be more complex than it looks. One commenter says that Mads Christensen, the compere, is a Danish comedian, and that his talk was actually ironic and in effect a reproach to the plethora of guys in the room. Others say that Christensen isn't - that he's just a jerk. Can anyone elucidate?
10 days ago
The $144,146,165 Button >> notes.unwieldy
10 days ago
Conrolling defaults in user interface design can make people very much more wealthy.
ui
user
defaults
10 days ago
Scholar: regulating Google results would violate First Amendment >> Ars Technica
True, but misses the point. The FTC's beef is with Google cross-promoting products such as its Google shopping comparison, or maps, or video, in its search results. When Google doesn't have a competitor in a space, the other product appears highly in search results. As soon as Google has a product, the rival vanishes from useful search results. Using the monopoly (search) to demote others in a space is, arguably, abuse of monopoly power.
Microsoft's promotion in the 1990s of Internet Explorer on Windows used its engineers' judgements about what material users would find useful in browsing the web, but that didn't stop it being an abuse of monopoly. (Thanks @modelportfolio2003 for the link.)
copyright
google
law
10 days ago
The new Google-commissioned paper, written by well-known UCLA law professor Eugene Volokh and attorney Donald Falk, argues that such regulations would be preempted by the First Amendment. Google's search engine, they write, "uses sophisticated computerized algorithms, but those algorithms themselves inherently incorporate the search engine company engineers' judgments about what material users are likely to find responsive to these queries."<p>
The authors argue that this selection process is no different, constitutionally speaking, from a newspaper editor selecting wire stories to run, a guidebook deciding which attractions to feature, or a parade organizer choosing which floats to include. The courts have ruled that all of these editorial processes are fully protected by the First Amendment.
True, but misses the point. The FTC's beef is with Google cross-promoting products such as its Google shopping comparison, or maps, or video, in its search results. When Google doesn't have a competitor in a space, the other product appears highly in search results. As soon as Google has a product, the rival vanishes from useful search results. Using the monopoly (search) to demote others in a space is, arguably, abuse of monopoly power.
Microsoft's promotion in the 1990s of Internet Explorer on Windows used its engineers' judgements about what material users would find useful in browsing the web, but that didn't stop it being an abuse of monopoly. (Thanks @modelportfolio2003 for the link.)
10 days ago
The Android income statement >> asymco
10 days ago
Horace Dediu:
Dediu points out in an earlier post that it's strange how, given the unexpected (even by Google) number of Android devices in use, that the benefit hasn't shown up clearly in Google's revenues and profits. Is the company just hiding how good a business Android is, or is it not that good compared to desktop search?
google
android
asymco
When playing with the assumptions, it becomes clear that the model is most sensitive to the revenue per device and total devices in use. The profitability is entirely dependent on those figures as variable costs are a percent of sales and fixed costs are limited by talent constraints.</p><p>
For example, if revenues per device drop to $4.50/yr then the operating margin drops to 38%.</p><p>
Now we can calculate some of the more interesting figures. For example:<br />
• Android OEMs receive $0.76 on average per device per year<br />
• Android Operators receive $1.07 on average per device per year (including Play)<br />
• Android Developers, as a group, receive $1.94 per device per year (including Play and AdMob)<br />
• Google receives a contribution of $2.75 per device per year from Android</p><p>
Again, these figures are very sensitive to the revenue per device (currently assumed to be $6.50).
Dediu points out in an earlier post that it's strange how, given the unexpected (even by Google) number of Android devices in use, that the benefit hasn't shown up clearly in Google's revenues and profits. Is the company just hiding how good a business Android is, or is it not that good compared to desktop search?
10 days ago
Fact-checking Digitimes, the Taiwanese Apple rumour source that keeps crying ‘wolf!’ >> TIME.com
10 days ago
Harry McCracken digs into some of the (in some cases literally) fabulous stories emanating from Digitimes. How much should you believe it? You probably already know the answer, but it's worth seeing how it fares when he goes through a sample of 25 stories from the past two years.
apple
digitimes
charlesarthur
10 days ago
3d
acer
acquisitions
adobe
advertising
africa
algorithms
amazon
analysis
analytics
android
anonymous
antitrust
antivirus
aol
api
app
apple
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apps
appstore
arm
arrington
asus
asymco
bing
bitcoin
bittorrent
blackberry
blogging
broadband
browser
browsers
business
camera
cameras
carrierIQ
censorship
ces
ces2012
charlesarthur
charlessarthur
china
chrome
chromebook
chromeos
cisco
cloud
cloudcomputing
coding
comic
comments
computing
cookiegate
cookies
copyright
css
css3
cyberattack
cyberwar
data
datajournalism
dell
design
developers
development
digital
domains
dropbox
ebook
ebooks
economics
education
email
facebook
filesharing
finance
firefox
flash
flickr
flip
foxconn
fragmentation
freeourdata
funny
galaxy
games
gender
geolocation
gizmodo
google
google+
googlemaps
googleplus
googletv
government
graphics
grooveshark
groupon
guardian
h264
hack
hackers
hacking
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hardware
history
honeycomb
hp
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ibm
icecreamsandwich
icloud
ics
imessage
infographics
innovation
instagram
intel
interface
internet
internetexplorer
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ipad
iphone
iphone4S
iphoneprototype
ipo
ipod
itunes
java
javascript
jobs
johngruber
joshhalliday
journalism
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kindlefire
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