Interesting. There’s potential to help fine-tune work environments to make employees happier and, presumably, more productive. There’s a big brother aspect to this. Hopefully, the “Don’t be evil” motto is still in effect at Google.
Business
Interview with Microsoft exec on Office, Bing and Microsoft’s future direction
Qi Lu is an Executive Vice President at Microsoft and runs Bing Search, Skype, and Office. Office for iPad was the result of his group’s efforts. This interview was interesting, but I thought the real value was to get to know him.
How a typeface change can save the government $400 million
This is an incredibly clever idea that makes sense. Just took a teenage science whiz to think of it. Thinner typeface equals less ink. Read the post for details, but this is genius.
Microsoft: The enemy of my enemy is my friend
An interesting take on the release of Office for iPad.
Heidi Roizen: What I learned negotiating with Steve Jobs
Heidi Roizen has long time ties with the Apple universe, including a stint as Apple’s VP of World Wide Developer Relations from 1996-97. This is a great story.
Twitter and Billboard to create continuously updated song charts
I think this is a clever idea. It’ll be interesting to see if this catches on with the industry.
The making of 2048 (in a weekend)
To complement the earlier post about the Threes team, here’s some background on the creation of 2048.
Building the next Pixar
This is not quite what you think. This is not about building an animation studio, but about using the techniques that Pixar leveraged into their great success to produce your own great success.
The Threes team talks ripoffs vs originality, walks through their development process
It’s the nature of the App Store that as soon as original hits the store, the cloners start their copiers. There’s been a lot of talk about Flappy Bird and the huge number of clones it spawned. But it’s true of just about every successful app. The Threes team weighs in with their take on this.
Be one of first 50 to bring an iPad to any Microsoft Store, get free year of Office 365
See the post for details. Can’t beat free!
Microsoft selling Office 365 within iPad apps, Apple getting 30 percent cut
While one of the big holdups for Office for iPad was getting the software just right, another was Apple’s policy that apps that sell things — including subscriptions — use Apple’s in-app purchase mechanism and hand over 30 percent of that revenue to Apple.
This had been a big sticking point historically, so it was one of the key question marks looming over this launch.
Indeed, Microsoft does offer Office 365 subscriptions within the just-released Word for iPad and the other Office apps and, yes, it is paying the 30 percent cut, Apple confirmed to Re/code. Microsoft declined to comment on the matter.
Wonder if that was the real sticking point that kept iPad versions of Office in the can? Maybe the previous regime refused to budge, newer thinking prevailed? Just a thought.
Re/code review of Office for iPad
Bonnie Cha takes the new Office suite for a spin.
Satya Nadella and the iPad Office rollout video
Follow the headline link to watch Satya Nadella discuss Microsoft’s cloud and mobile strategy and, more importantly, watch the rollout of Microsoft Office for iPad.
I have to say, I find Nadella likable. Certainly more likable than that last guy.
Microsoft Office apps now live in the App Store
As promised in their press briefing today, Microsoft Excel, PowerPoint and Word went live in the App Store at 11a PST today.
Apple offers “Refund for In-App Purchases made by a minor”
Apple sent an email today to its iTunes account holders who have made in-app purchases. The email gave account holders the chance to ask for a refund for any and all in app purchases made by a minor.
I think this is beyond fair. The text of the email is in the post.
Political move? Russians shelve iPads
Journalists spotted that ministers at a cabinet meeting were no longer using Apple tablets, and minister Nikolai Nikiforov confirmed the changeover “took place not so long ago.”
He said the ministers’ new Samsungs were “specially protected devices that can be used to work with confidential information.”
Something smells fishy here.
Nikiforov denied that Russia was clamping down on US technology in response to Western sanctions imposed over its takeover of Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula.
Ah, that was it. Walks like a duck, quacks like a duck. Political bullshit is what it is.
App Annie releases monthly App Store and Google Play gaming numbers
There is a ton of great data to sift through. Amazing how big an impact Flappy Bird had on the App Store. Check the post for my top 3.
Apple patents iPad smart cover with built-in gesture aware keyboard
On March 27, 2014, the US Patent & Trademark Office published a patent application from Apple that reveals an all-new iPad smart cover configuration that includes a keyboard panel. One of the aspects of this design which differentiates itself from Microsoft’s Surface tablet cover is that Apple’s keyboard has been uniquely designed to double as a multi-touch gesture keyboard eliminating the need for a touchpad.
I like the premise, the idea that you can gesture on the surface of the keyboard itself.
A big fat zero
When you invest in a Kickstarter, you are helping a company get their legs, giving them the money they need to achieve stability with zero risk. The risk is foisted onto those initial investors. Is that a fair trade?
Why Minecraft creator canceled port to Oculus VR in response to Facebook purchase
Yesterday, we posted about Facebook buying virtual reality company Oculus VR. Before that deal, Minecraft was exploring a deal to bring a version of the incredibly popular gaming environment to Oculus. But once the Facebook deal was announced, Markus Persson, Minecraft creator, tweeted this:
We were in talks about maybe bringing a version of Minecraft to Oculus. I just cancelled that deal. Facebook creeps me out.
Google announces massive price drops for its cloud computing services and storage
These are pretty huge price drops. Google just become very competitive with Amazon on cloud services. Hardware prices have been plummeting, but cloud service prices have been slow to come down.
The secret room where the iPhone software was born
To go along with the Greg Christie interview, the Wall Street Journal also ran this small piece that focused on the room in which the iPhone was developed and tested.
Remember the Million Dollar home page? It still exists
The million dollar home page was conceived back in 2005 by a student in Wiltshire, England as a way to pay for his education. The idea was, create a single web page, 1,000 by 1,000 pixels, then sell each pixel on the page for $1 each. The hope was, the page would go viral and bring value to the advertising embedded in the page. Read the post for an update on where things stand today.
Interesting social experiment, and an interesting read.
Cut the Rope developer challenging King’s “Candy” trademark in EU courts
ZeptoLabs, the maker of Cut the Rope, is challenging the trademark in EU court. Re/code speculates that this might be a publicity stunt.
Google Glass joins forces with Luxottica Group, makers of Oakley, Ray-Ban, other high end eyewear
I think this is a logical move on Google’s part. Certainly this will improve the look of Google Glass, but there’s only so much you can do without reducing the footprint of the Glass module itself.
Amazon sends out eBook settlement credits, auto adds them to customer accounts
Last December, publishers Hachette, HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster, Macmillan, and Penguin settled their eBook price fixing suits. This morning, Amazon sent out their credit notifications. Here’s mine. Interesting that the credit is for “some” of my past Kindle book purchases. … Continued
The emails that led to accusations of an Apple and Google wage-fixing cartel
From Mark Ames at PandoDaily:
Back in January, I wrote about “The Techtopus” — an illegal agreement between seven tech giants, including Apple, Google, and Intel, to suppress wages for tens of thousands of tech employees. The agreement prompted a Department of Justice investigation, resulting in a settlement in which the companies agreed to curb their restricting hiring deals. The same companies were then hit with a civil suit by employees affected by the agreements.
This week, as the final summary judgement for the resulting class action suit looms, and several of the companies mentioned (Intuit, Pixar and Lucasfilm) scramble to settle out of court, Pando has obtained court documents (embedded below) which show shocking evidence of a much larger conspiracy, reaching far beyond Silicon Valley.
Confidential internal Google and Apple memos, buried within piles of court dockets and reviewed by PandoDaily, clearly show that what began as a secret cartel agreement between Apple’s Steve Jobs and Google’s Eric Schmidt to illegally fix the labor market for hi-tech workers, expanded within a few years to include companies ranging from Dell, IBM, eBay and Microsoft, to Comcast, Clear Channel, Dreamworks, and London-based public relations behemoth WPP. All told, the combined workforces of the companies involved totals well over a million employees.
More info in the post.
BaseCamp in middle of denial of service attack
Are you a user of 37Signals’ Basecamp project management app? If so, things might be a little slow to respond this morning. From their Twitter account this morning at about 10a ET, US:
We are experiencing a DDoS attack. All apps may be slow to respond while we investigate. Stay tuned for updates.
Just FYI.
UK proposes close of tax loophole, iTunes VAT to move from 3% to 20%
From the Guardian:
George Osborne’s latest budget could spell an end to 99p song downloads by closing a tax loophole that meant consumers were paying VAT at very low foreign rates on online purchases of books, music and apps.
The chancellor will bring in new laws making sure that internet downloads are taxed in the country where they are purchased, meaning web firms such as Amazon and Apple will have to charge the UK’s 20% rate of VAT. At the moment they are allowed to sell digital downloads through countries such as Luxembourg, where the tax rate is as low as 3%.
In a little-noticed announcement, Osborne said he would used this year’s finance bill to impose the new law from 1 January 2015.
Read the post for more and a clarifying post from Kirk McElhearn.
Tony Fadell, Nest founder, now with Google, interviewed by The Sunday Times
The interview is behind a paywall. You can read a few quotes shared by Loop reader Rob Richman on his blog.