Over the past year or so, there have been a number of stories of iPads school rollouts where kids were finding ways to override the iPad’s intended use (for education), overriding the firewall to gain general access to the internet. The situation became a PR problem for Apple. Sounds like they’ve solved it.
iPad Air named “Best Mobile Tablet” at the GSMA Mobile World Congress in Barcelona
Congratulations to Apple. Well earned.
Why Nokia took on an Android phone project when they were about to join with Microsoft
Terrific speculative piece from Seeking Alpha (free reg-wall).
To understand where Nokia is coming from with the Nokia X it’s important to keep in mind that developing a new phone platform, even one based on Android, takes time. Product development cycles can run into many months, even for a phone using an OS that the manufacturer is already experienced with, and using hardware based on existing products.
Really interesting. Sounds about right.
An oral history of Ghostbusters
The story of how this all came together, told by the Ghostbusters team.
More people around the world have cell phones than ever had land-lines
Wow. The title says it all. Amazing to me that there are about the same number of cell phone subscriptions (subscriptions, not cell phones) as people on the planet.
Inside the high-stakes battle to control how you talk to friends
The nature of the mobile landscape has changed. This article gets to the heart of why Facebook bought WhatsApp, but goes much further. Great read.
Twitter restores @N username to original owner
About a month ago, Shawn King posted a story about a Twitter user who lost his high-value Twitter name (@N) to an alleged extortionist. If you haven’t read that story, I’d encourage you to go back and read it. Fascinating and a bit scary.
There was a lot of speculation about what Twitter would do to make this right. Now we know.
“Order had been restored”
This tweet came from Naoki Hiroshima’s Twitter account yesterday evening. Glad to see this happening. Surprised it took so long.
Apple expands “Made for iPad” program to include iBeacon
Smart move on Apple’s part. They have opened enrollment for an iBeacon version of its Made for iPad program. If you want to use the iBeacon name, you have to meet the iBeacon criteria. This insures the level of quality stays high.
Skier loses iPhone on slope, comes back with metal detector
[VIDEO]This really hit home for me. Once, long ago, I was night skiing, and my contact lens popped out of my eye. It was a hard lens (do they even make those anymore?) and it was tinted blue. I searched and searched, on my hands and knees. It was cold and windy, but very well lit. After about a half an hour, I actually found the lens. And, I believe, I acted exactly the same way as this guy did.
If you don’t want to watch the whole thing, once he starts searching, jump to about 2:30 for the finding part.
What indie artists make from sales vs. streaming
Successful indie artist Zoë Keating shared the details of last years income on line. Kirk McElhearn walks us through the numbers. Amazing how much she makes from sales via iTunes, etc. vs how little she makes from streaming.
How to minimize the harm from the theft of your Mac
If you own a Mac, this is well worth reading.
My residence was recently broken into (the alarm malfunctioned on entry and only went off as the thieves left) and two Mac laptops were taken. Luckily, I have good insurance and had an up to date Time Machine backup.
Over the past week, I’ve learned some additional things I could have done to prepare for this eventuality. My house had also been broken into ten years ago.
Here’s a summary of what you should do to prepare your Macs right now for the possibility of theft. It won’t eliminate theft but it will greatly reduce the damage from such events and make it more likely that your device will return to you.
One thing that I did not know was how easy Apple has made it to encrypt your external backup drive. Here’s a link to show you how to do that.
Good stuff.
Hometown hero Tim Cook profiled in his local paper
There’s much to enjoy in this profile from Robersdale, Alabama’s Baldwin Register. I think what I liked the most was the sense of incredible pride that clearly came across, pride in their hometown hero. Don’t miss the slide show at the top with pics of Tim Cook in high school.
iOS background monitoring exploit
The FireEye blog announced an iOS proof of concept that was able to run in the background and record a user’s actions:
We have created a proof-of-concept “monitoring” app on non-jailbroken iOS 7.0.x devices. This “monitoring” app can record all the user touch/press events in the background, including, touches on the screen, home button press, volume button press and TouchID press, and then this app can send all user events to any remote server, as shown in Fig.1. Potential attackers can use such information to reconstruct every character the victim inputs.
The Samsung fingerprint scanner at work
[VIDEO] Follow the headline link for another walkthrough of the Samsung Galaxy S5. More importantly, watch the video below the post to see the fingerprint scanner setup and performance. As has been widely reported, the scanner only works when you scan your finger straight down, towards the bottom of the phone, making it difficult, if not impossible to unlock the phone with one hand.
Steve Jobs statue heading for Apple Headquarters
This is pretty cool.
Harold Ramis, dead at 69
This is crushing news.
Ramis, a longtime North Shore resident, was surrounded by family when he died at 12:53 a.m. from complications of autoimmune inflammatory vasculitis, a rare disease that involves swelling of the blood vessels, his wife Erica Mann Ramis said. He was 69.
The xkcd take on Apple’s security kerfuffle
Someone on Reddit dug this up. Seems so very right. Heh.
The indie operating systems place in the smart phone race
Apple and Google and, to a lesser extent, Microsoft, have a huge lead in the smart phone mindshare race. Some might argue that the lead is unassailable. This article digs into the logic of what the indie OS providers are pursuing. Good read.
TekSavvy ordered to ID alleged movie downloaders
This article starts in a chilling way:
A Canadian internet service provider has been ordered to hand over the names and addresses of about 2,000 customers who allegedly downloaded movies online.
We’ve heard this sort of thing before. The pursuit of copyright protection can take on the nature of a patent troll using scare tactics to grab money from the guilty and innocent alike. But this case took an unexpected turn, thanks to case management judge Kevin Aalto.
How to get a job at Google
Thomas Friedman writing for the New York Times about the value of a high GPA, good grades, and the like to companies like Google.
The evolution of the importance of the developer
Fascinating read:
It’s simple: Businesses that are agile and willing to embrace cloud infrastructure will have an advantage over ones that don’t. And employers willing to accept the developer’s newfound prominence will fare better than ones that are slow to adjust to this new reality. As O’Grady puts it in his book:
“Developers are now the real decision makers in technology. Learning how to best negotiate with these New Kingmakers, therefore, could mean the difference between success and failure.”
Plan to divide California into 6 states advances
When I heard this, I filed it under “impossibly dumb rumor”. But no, the plan to split California into 6 more easily governable regions might actually come before the voters this year. I just can’t see it.
Allman Brothers live at the Fillmore East – Smoking guitar work
[VIDEO] When people list their favorite guitarists, an often overlooked name is Duane Allman. Allman was a brilliant blues guitarist, as evidenced by the video below. He died just a few months after this concert, killed in a motorcycle accident at the age of 24.
A little known fact is that Duane Allman played half of the guitar parts on Eric Clapton’s Layla. Clapton played all the Fender parts, Allman played all the Gibson parts.
Girl plays Mario Theme on Chinese woodwind that is eerily spot on
[VIDOE] Nintendo’s Mario theme played on Chinese woodwind sounds like it was written on it. Incredible.
Ford said to drop Microsoft Sync for in-car, move to BlackBerry’s QNX
If this is true, this is a big deal for both Microsoft and BlackBerry.
Ford Motor Co., struggling with in-car technology glitches, will base the next-generation Sync system on BlackBerry Ltd.’s QNX and no longer use Microsoft Corp.’s Windows, according to people briefed on the matter.
The technical details behind the bug that triggered Apple’s security update
Earlier today I posted about Apple’s recent security patches.
Follow the headline link to read Adam Langley’s take on the details behind the bug. [Via Matt Abras]
New York Times interview with new Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella
I enjoyed this read. One thing that struck me, time and time again, was the thought that none of these responses sound even remotely like Steve Ballmer.
How to get a Lego X-Wing
I found this story incredibly moving. It deals with dying, so don’t read it if you are not on solid ground, emotionally.
A very expensive ignored LinkedIn message
Wow! I’m guessing there’s a web site out there collecting stories like this.
Microsoft responds to slower Windows’ adoption rates by slashing prices
Microsoft is trying to make devices that run Windows easier to sell by making significant cuts to the license price. Might help them sell more tablets, but it’s a slippery slope.