Tens of people show up for Microsoft launch

Written by

George Canellis sent in this picture from the Microsoft Store at the Walt Whitman Mall. Even though nobody showed up, Microsoft employees were only letting a few people in at a time. […]

Returning the Microsoft Surface already

Written by

I’m typing this with gritted teeth. My 24 hours with the half-baked Surface have been a frustrating challenge, a mix of love and hate. I want want want this to work, but one problem after another have led me to come to the conclusion – a temporary one at least – that this thing just isn’t ready to ship.

Why do I get the feeling this will be happening quite a bit.

Daedalus Touch text editor for iPad

Written by

The text editor that suits your iPad! No file lists, no folders, no documents in the classic sense — just paper stacks and an infinite amount of sheets. Edit and navigate by standard gestures, all perfectly mapped to the tasks at hand. Interacting with digital texts never felt so natural.

Plus: Dropbox, Box.com and WebDAV Sync, ePub export, RTF creation, Markdown support, and then some. Grab it this week at The Loop Special price of just $2.99!

Amazon reports $274 million loss

Written by

Amazon.com Inc. posted a loss of $274 million, or 60 cents per share, in the July-September period. That’s down from earnings of $63 million, or 14 cents per share, a year earlier.

And this is what happens when you sell your shit at cost.

Apple posts $8.2 billion fourth quarter profit

Written by

Apple today announced financial results for its fiscal 2012 fourth quarter ended September 29, 2012. The Company posted quarterly revenue of $36.0 billion and quarterly net profit of $8.2 billion, or $8.67 per diluted share. These results compare to revenue of $28.3 billion and net profit of $6.6 billion, or $7.05 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. Gross margin was 40.0 percent compared to 40.3 percent in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 60 percent of the quarter’s revenue.The Company sold 26.9 million iPhones in the quarter, representing 58 percent unit growth over the year-ago quarter. Apple sold 14.0 million iPads during the quarter, a 26 percent unit increase over the year-ago quarter. The Company sold 4.9 million Macs during the quarter, a 1 percent unit increase over the year-ago quarter. Apple sold 5.3 million iPods, a 19 percent unit decline from the year-ago quarter.

Shelby 1000

Written by

Carroll Shelby represents everything that is a muscle car. I want this.

Turn It UP! Guitar Documentary

Written by

Hosted by actor Kevin Bacon, TURN IT UP! includes interviews and performances with Les Paul, Slash, Robby Krieger (the Doors), Paul Stanley (KISS), Carl Verheyen (Supertramp), Rick Vito (Fleetwood Mac), Jerry Cantrell (Alice in Chains), Albert Lee, Steve Lukather (Toto), and the legendary B.B. King–plus many more.

You can help get this movie released by supporting it on Indiegogo. One of the many perks is getting a guitar lesson from Robby Krieger, guitarist for The Doors. There are a lot of other cool things you can get with your donation too.

I know the husband and wife team that put this movie together and was actually around for some of the shooting. This is a great project to support.

Typographic choices

Written by

I’ll admit, I hate many of the fonts I see. It’s an important decision that escapes a lot of people.

Microsoft threatens to make more hardware

Written by

Steve Ballmer talking to BBC News:

“Is it fair to say we’re going to do more hardware? Obviously we are… Where we see important opportunities to set a new standard, yeah we’ll dive in.”

Great, just what we need.

Now Microsoft is trying to piss me off

Written by

A new Surface ad shows a guy jumping into a pool with his guitar. I’d throw every surface ever made into the water before I harmed a single guitar.

Whaaaaaa

Written by

Roger Cheng for CNET:

Apple, I thought we had a deal.I buy one of your products, and I’m guaranteed roughly a year feeling like I’ve got the latest and greatest that Apple has to offer. That’s primarily been your product cycle, and it’s worked out fairly well for everyone.

Apple didn’t make any such deal that I know about. They’ve always released products when they were ready to — this week is no different. If you ever get such a commitment from a company, I want to know about it.

Besides, your iPad works the same as it did before the announcement. Nothing got turned off, it functions perfectly.

[Via Shawn King]

AnandTech reviews the Microsoft Surface

Written by

I don’t believe Surface is perfect, but it’s a platform I can believe in. What I’m most excited about is to see what happens after a second or third rev of the design.

A very detailed and mostly positive review.

Schiller on the iPad mini

Written by

“The iPad is far and away the most successful product in its category. The most affordable product we’ve made so far was $399 and people were choosing that over those devices,” Schiller said.“And now you can get a device that’s even more affordable at $329 in this great new form, and I think a lot of customers are going to be very excited about that,” Schiller said.

Translation: We are going to sell a metric shit ton of these things.

Amplified: Nobody Is Allowed To Touch It

Written by

Jim Dalrymple and Dan Benjamin discuss Apple’s press conference, the release of the iPad mini, the refresh of the Macbook Pro, iMac, and iPad lineups, and government adoption of the iPhone.Sponsored by Shutterstock (use code DANSENTME10 for 30% off), MailChimp, Hover (use code DANSENTME for 10% off), and CacheFly

Forbes Bullshit

Written by

I read a piece this morning by Ewan Spence at Forbes that just left me shaking my head in disbelief. Spence called the iPad mini “little more than a ‘me-too’ product” — I guess he forgot that Apple invented the modern tablet category and that every Google tablet is actually the “me too” product.

Spence made a point of saying that “in all of my time covering Apple launches,” alluding to his supposed expertise on the subject — all I can say is he couldn’t have been paying attention to Apple’s strategy over those launches.

What Apple is doing with the iPad is the exact same thing they did with the iPod. Release it and then come back and fill in the category with other products.

Oh and he also used the “this isn’t Steve Jobs Apple” line. Come on Ewan, at least be original.

iMac

Written by

Om Malik:

While rest of the crowd was taking time playing around with the iPad Mini, I spent my time with both the 27-inch and 21.5-inch models of the new iMac. And after 10 minutes, I knew I wanted one. First, the display screen, while not eligible for Apple’s Retina label, is drop-dead gorgeous. The color and the contrast is amazing. The dreaded reflections are almost nonexistent. You cannot resist the urge to reach out and touch the screen and flick things around much like on an iPad.

I agree completely. You just won’t believe your eyes when you see this new iMac.

How we got to the iPhone

Written by

Shaun McGill takes a look back at the the last two decades of mobile devices leading up to the iPhone. This piece is almost 12,000 words, so make sure you have some time.