“The writing has long been on the wall for any premium Android maker: as soon as low end hardware became ‘good enough,’ there would be no reason to buy a premium brand,” said Ben Thompson, an analyst at Stratechery.com in Taipei.
That’s a great quote from Ben, and so true.
“We have not discussed nor do we have any plans to launch an MVNO,” said an Apple spokeswoman in a statement on Tuesday.
Being a mobile carrier seems like a shit show to me.
Fantastic article from Shawn Blanc. I’ve spent far too much time working and not enough time enjoying life.
James Cook:
Here is how it works: When someone using iCloud Voicemail is unable to take a call, Siri will answer instead of letting the call go to a standard digital audio recorder.
iCloud Voicemail can relay information about where you are and why you can’t pick up the phone to certain people. But the coolest feature of the service is that Siri will transcribe any incoming voicemails, just as it does with anything else you say to it.
This makes sense to me. Google’s been doing this for quite a while now, but the service is surprisingly bad, considering how good Google voice is. Hopefully Apple will be able to figure out how to make the service work reliably.
I haven’t seen this in action, but it sounds cool.
Struggling to return strong profits, Samsung has slashed the retail price of its flagship smartphones — the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge — by €100. After the deduction, the revised cost of the 32GB variant Galaxy S6 is €599, whereas its Galaxy S6 Edge counterpart will slightly break the bank at €699. The smartphones were launched just four months ago.
[…]
The company is also rumored to launch two new smartphones, namely the Galaxy S6 Edge+ and the Galaxy Note 5 in the coming days.
Throw shit at the wall and see what sticks.
This is very cool. Great find by Tina Roth Eisenberg.
I love this song.
Brett Terpstra:
My point is, optimism is not the shining light of the enlightened human being. I’m tired of reading “inspirational” quotes on Facebook about how optimism is a goal we should all strive toward. Optimism and pessimism are not light and dark sides, they’re complementing halves of the same token. We need each other, you and I.
Interesting read.
Eddie is just such a great player.
When I first wrote my review of Apple Watch review and follow-up in June, I had lost 40 pounds. I noted that I still had a little way to go to reach a goal I had set about 11 months ago—today, I made it. […]
My thanks to Hullo for sponsoring The Loop this week. You already know the ergonomics of your desktop workstation are important; have you considered your sleep ergonomics? Hullo customer Matt writes:
“I’m kind of shocked myself at how big a difference it’s made, and surprised to find myself writing one of those seemingly overenthusiastic reviews, but Hullo deserves it. So worth it—the ability to precisely shape the pillow so that it supports my neck just right is something I’ll never want to give up!”
Check out Hullo for 60 nights. If you don’t like it, just send it back for a refund.
A great read from Jeffrey Zeldman. I especially liked this:
(Hint: if you’re thinking about leaving your job, you probably want to.)
If you ever wondered what swear words are popular around America, this story maps it out for you—literally.
Great app. I’ve been using Reeder for years.
Using insights from our more than 500 million Shutterstock downloads, discover which emotions businesses, marketing agencies, and media organizations are using to design an ongoing relationship with their customers.
I’m not a fan of infographics, but I did find this fascinating.
Are you a metalhead or a bot?
Brilliant.
As security researcher Nicholas Weaver put it in a (now deleted) tweet, ”Imagine if Windows patches had to pass through Dell and your ISP before they came to you? And neither cared? That is called Android.”
The way Android users get updates is just so screwed up.
Anyone that’s every listened to me talk about guitars knows how much I love Taylor. Their workmanship, attention to detail, and tone are second to none. I just got this beauty today.
“It was just right there,” he told Ars. “It was hovering, I would never have shot it if it was flying. When he came down with a video camera right over my back deck, that’s not going to work. I know they’re neat little vehicles, but one of those uses shouldn’t be flying into people’s yards and videotaping.”
Some drone owners are morons. There was a case in California where firefighters were trying to get a blaze under control and people with drones prevented helicopters from getting into the air. Jesus people, use your common sense.
Theodor Geisel, aka Dr. Seuss, is one of the best children’s authors ever.
Om Malik:
Whether it is the fear of carrier overages, or just the preconceived notion that WiFi is faster, most of us continue to log into WiFi expecting it to be blazing fast. But it isn’t really true, both from my personal, anecdotal and totally unreliable point of view and from a data-backed view. Most of the popular public WiFi platforms like Starbucks WiFi, Xfinity, hotel WiFi and a whole lot of others are quite slow compared to a good LTE connection—especially Verizon, which is pricey but reliable.
This is so true. I connect to WiFi just assuming it will be faster than LTE, but many (most) times it just sucks.
AppleInsider has a roundup of the early reviews. Good for Microsoft if they’re able to pull this off—the last couple of releases alienated many of their users.
If I used a case, this is what I would have.
My friends Dave Wiskus and Joe Cieplinski have started a new band and podcast called Airplane Mode. In the first episode they tell the story of how they moved to New York City and started a band.
Much respect to Apple and the developers of these apps for helping make people’s lives better.
We are happy to announce that estimates in Billings Pro have come to the iPhone and iPad. Now you can create, edit, and send estimates from anywhere.
This is a great feature for Billings Pro mobile apps.
Nice.
Much respect to all the companies taking part in this initiative.
Pope Francis on Sunday became the first person registered for next year’s World Youth Day festivities, using an iPad to sign up while addressing thousands of pilgrims and tourists in Saint Peter’s Square.
“Thanks to this electronic device, I signed up as a simple pilgrim,” Francis said, declaring himself the first person registered for the next edition of the Youth Day celebration while flanked by two Polish youths.
Nice.