Jean-Louis Gassée’s Monday Note: What’s the use of offering more than 500,000 wares if customers can’t find their way through the gigantic bazaar? …the iPhone has sold in ever larger numbers (we’ll soon see if the December quarter number crossed … Continued
How much do music and movie piracy really hurt the U.S. economy?
Freakonomics: Supporters of stronger intellectual property enforcement argue online piracy is a huge problem, one which costs the U.S. economy between $200 and $250 billion per year, and is responsible for the loss of 750,000 American jobs. These numbers seem … Continued
AT&T, T-Mobile file for spectrum transfer approval
Greg Bensinger for the Wall Street Journal: T-Mobile USA and AT&T filed a request with the Federal Communications Commission for approval of the transfer of $1 billion in wireless airwaves AT&T promised as a result of the failure of its … Continued
350,000 textbooks downloaded from Apple’s iBooks in three days
AllThingsD: Within days of its debut, Apple’s iBooks textbook store had already racked up a significant number of downloads. According to Global Equities Research, which monitors Apple’s iBook sales via a proprietary tracking system it doesn’t much care to discuss, … Continued
Bloom County now available in iBooks
Mobile Nations: Birkley (sic) Breathed’s Bloom County was my two favorite comic strips growing up, and now it’s starting to become available in iBooks. From Bill the Cat’s run for president to Milo’s skewering of Senator Bedfellow to Oliver’s landing … Continued
Ringtone interrupts, violist plays along
Remember the story from earlier this month of the “iPhone that stopped the “New York Philharmonic”? It has happened again but with much more amusing results. Slovakian musician Lukáš Kmit was play a solo on his viola in a synagogue … Continued
Tablet and eBook ownership nearly double over the holidays
The Pew Research Center: The share of adults in the United States who own tablet computers nearly doubled from 10% to 19% between mid-December and early January and the same surge in growth also applied to e-book readers, which also … Continued
New CEO: RIM needs better focus
Peter Kafka for AllThingsD: Research In Motion isn’t broken, so no need to break it up. But it needs better internal focus, and better external focus, too. That’s the takeaway from new RIM CEO Thorsten Heins, who told analysts this … Continued
How Kodak squandered every digital opportunity it had
Mashable: Kodak has finally formalized what had been expected for years — it’s gone bankrupt. In the past 15 years, digital technology changed photography dramatically, and Kodak, a former heavyweight in the analog film business, got left behind. In fact, … Continued
Algebra, meet the iPad: A year long study explores learning with the iPad
KQED’s interview with John Sipe, senior vice president, national sales manager at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt: Since last fall, 400 California middle school students have been using the iPad to learn Algebra with Houghton Mifflin Harcourt’s Fuse program. This first app, … Continued
Star Wars Uncut
Star Wars Uncut: In 2009, Internet users were asked to remake “Star Wars: A New Hope” into a fan film, 15 seconds at a time. Contributors were allowed to recreate scenes from Star Wars however they wanted. SWU has been … Continued
Heading to San Francisco for Macworld | iWorld? Check out these apps
Smart Movie Making’s Tony Myers: Going to San Francisco for the 2012 Macworld | iWorld expo? Here’s a list of useful apps to help you get the best out of the city, especially if you are new in town. San … Continued
Rolling luggage that can charge your electronics too
Yanko Design: All ye weary travelers with a strolley in tow; I understand your pain for finding available sockets, just to juice up ye gadgets. Ah, I suck at poetry but you get my drift right? So here we have … Continued
China’s challenge to the iPad raises a red flag
Reuters: China Communist Party members can now carry tablet PC to verify identification cards, read the blogs of cadres and manage state-owned firms without fretting that using a bourgeois Apple Inc iPad will ruin their street cred. Enter RedPad Number … Continued
The Milky Way and storms over Africa
International Space Station: This video was taken by the crew of Expedition 30 on board the International Space Station…The complete pass is over southern Africa to the ocean, focusing on the lightning flashes from local storms and the Milky Way … Continued
Remembering Etta James
The “Matriarch of the Blues”, Etta James, died on Friday morning. She toured with Little Richard while still a minor and had her first hit at 15. She was a six time Grammy winner and one of the few artists … Continued
Laura Dekker, youngest sailor to circumnavigate the globe
The Telegraph: A year and a day after she set out to sail single-handed around the globe, Dutch teenager Laura Dekker finished her 27,000 mile voyage on Saturday night. Miss Dekker has had to cope with weeks of solitude, ocean … Continued
POTUS sings Al Green as your ringtone
Obama for America: President Obama was inspired to sing a bit of Al Green during a recent campaign stop at the Apollo Theater. And now you can have his rendition of “Let’s Stay Together” as a ringtone. Don’t you hate … Continued
Apple, America and a squeezed Middle Class
The New York Times: Apple had redesigned the iPhone’s screen at the last minute, forcing an assembly line overhaul. New screens began arriving at the plant near midnight. A foreman immediately roused 8,000 workers inside the company’s dormitories, according to … Continued
Microsoft comes out in support of Washington State Marriage Equality Legislation
Microsoft News Center: As other states recognize marriage equality, Washington’s employers are at a disadvantage if we cannot offer a similar, equitable and inclusive environment to our talented employees, our top recruits and their families. This legislation would put Washington … Continued
“Aww! We just got Samsunged!”
Another slightly amusing ad from Samsung poking fun at iPhone buyers. Samsung will supposedly unveil the commercial during the upcoming Super Bowl. Interesting way to blow through $3.5 million dollars – the cost of a 30 second ad during the … Continued
Google+ now boasts 90 million users
Network World: Google CEO Larry Page announced yesterday that Google+ now boasts more than 90 million users worldwide, more than double the number of users it had in the previous quarter. Page also said that engagement on the social networking … Continued
Truly unprecedented in iBooks 2
David Smith: All Apple is doing with this restriction is saying that if you directly profit from this free tool and platform that we have created, then we deserve our cut. Which seems entirely fair to me. The range of … Continued
Camera-less iPhone 4, iPhone 4S on sale in Singapore
Yahoo! News: The camera is normally a big selling point, but in Singapore Apple’s iPhone 4 and 4S are now available without the function — to cater to military personnel banned from taking image-capturing devices into army camps. Camera phones … Continued
Kno CEO Rashid to Apple: “Now we will fight on who has the better product”
TechCrunch: One of the highest profile digital textbook startups is Kno, which started out with its own oversized tablet but now focusses on delivering textbooks through its iPad app. On the surface, things don’t look so great for Kno, but … Continued
Vinnie Jones teaches CPR
Is this the best PSA ever or what?
How to install iBooks Author on Snow Leopard
Digital Tweaker: Anyone can create a book for iBooks with Apple releasing the iBooks Author app in the Mac Store. It uses simple drag and drop features with Word files and images so that everything is done for you. Since … Continued
Too many gadget choices: product lines simplify as fatigue sets in
Joshua Topolsky at The Verge: I pressed the companies on whether or not technology manufacturers were simply producing too many gadgets, outpacing real consumer demand with iterative, insubstantial changes. “Are we creating demand where there isn’t any?” I asked. He … Continued
E.O. Wilson calls iPad textbooks ‘a miracle’
Apple’s education event in New York on Thursday revealed the company’s plans to change the way textbooks are used by students in both K-12 and college environments using iPads. But is Apple overstepping its bounds? iPads in schools are still … Continued
Apple’s new math or why a $15 eBook = a $75 book
AllThingsD: McGraw-Hill normally sells high school textbooks for $75 a pop. Now it says it will sell electronic versions of the same books, via Apple, for $15 apiece. How can the publisher make that work? “Volume,” says McGraw-Hill CEO Terry … Continued