Advertising isn’t just the disruption of aesthetics, the insults to your intelligence and the interruption of your train of thought. At every company that sells ads, a significant portion of their engineering team spends their day tuning data mining, writing better code to collect all your personal data, upgrading the servers that hold all the data and making sure it’s all being logged and collated and sliced and packaged and shipped out… And at the end of the day the result of it all is a slightly different advertising banner in your browser or on your mobile screen.

Remember, when advertising is involved you the user are the product.

Why do I think Facebook doesn’t share these views.

The new version now includes the Master EQ 432.

Screens is a screen sharing VNC client for the iPhone and iPad. I’ve been using it since it was first released and love it.

Two separate sources have told me that’s how much Google (GOOG) offered to purchase WhatsApp. The bid did not come with promise of a board seat, unlike the Facebook agreement.

I’m not surprised.

When Mark Zuckerberg says he wants to “connect the world’s people,” it’s not some gentle, humanist statement. Zuckerberg intends to own the communications layer of the world we live in — if today’s $16-plus billion acquisition of messaging service WhatsApp is any indication. Facebook grew up inventing the world’s leading social network for sharing with everyone you know, and it now owns what could be called the world’s largest private social network. Between the two companies, about 1 billion photos and 30 billion messages are sent per day.

While Facebook slaved away creating a utility used by 1.25 billion people, WhatsApp has replaced an essential utility for many, SMS. WhatsApp is used by over 450 million people every month, and often in places Facebook and its Messenger app had little success reaching, like Spain and Switzerland. By filling in the gaps with WhatsApp, Facebook’s communication pipes are thicker and spread far wider than ever before. The company commands an enormous portion of the world’s messages and photos sent per day. And don’t forget that WhatsApp users send a whopping 200 million voice messages per day. For many, WhatsApp has likely replaced voice calls as well.

Good read.

Liourdis, who writes on Greek Wikipedia as “Diu,” faces monetary and criminal penalties over the article he edited. The article mentions that Katsanevas was called a “family disgrace” in the will of his father-in-law, former Greek Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou. In the will, Papandreou also accused Katsanevas of trying to exploit his name to further his political ambitions.

The Wikimedia Foundation is defending the case. If this case goes the wrong way, it will set a precedent that may have a long term chilling effect on Wikipedia and on publicly consumable writing, in general.

Brian Krzanich is the CEO of Intel. He did a very candid AMA (Ask Me Anything). To me, this was the highlight. A refreshingly candid answer.

Q: How did Intel miss out on the mobile/tablet market and what is it doing now to compensate?

A: We wanted the world of computing to stop at PC’s…and the world.. as it never does… didn’t stop innovating.. The new CEO of Microsoft Satya said it well the other day… our industry does not respect tradition, it respects innovation…. i think he was 100% right.. and it’s why we missed the mobile move.

Not sure what to make of this. Is the App Store being gamed, or are people being careless with their .99? Follow the links in the story to get the big picture. There are a lot of them.

I found this one in particular, a review page for the game on Touch Arcade, particularly enlightening. Not the review itself, but the comment thread below the review. From the comments:

There’s no way these downloads are legit. I think the app store is getting played right now. Not just by this game, but also Flappy Bird. The developer of that game was asked directly and didn’t deny it.

If download numbers are being manipulated in some way, that’s theft and Apple is the victim (assuming money is not really coming in and Apple is paying money out). And I can’t imagine Apple will allow that to continue. It’s a large ecosystem, and there are always scammers looking for edge cases they can exploit.

And as reader Brandon pointed out in the comments, if gamed download numbers are pulling money away from legitimate apps, then those app developers are being victimized as well.

Cool to see this progress. Can’t wait to visit. Maybe by WWDC 2015?

Tesla CEO Elon Musk today confirmed in an interview with Bloomberg that his company “had conversations” with Apple. Musk went on to say that he could not comment on whether the conversations had revolved around any kind of acquisition, but he did confirm that at the current time, an acquisition of Tesla seems “very unlikely.”

The fact the two companies talked means nothing—they could have been talking about iOS integration instead of an acquisition. However, if Apple were going to get into the car business, Tesla would be the perfect partner. They are cool, environmentally friendly, and they care about design and the user.

Facebook Inc will buy fast-growing mobile-messaging startup WhatsApp for $16 billion in cash and stock, as the world’s largest social network looks for ways to boost its popularity, especially among a younger crowd.

These prices are out of control.

The Atlantic:

A new study from the Transportation Research Initiative at the University of Michigan looks at global driving fatalities with up-to-date World Health Organization data. Around the world, deaths in fatal car crashes are 1/6th as likely as dying from a common health problem, like heart disease. In the U.S., where road crashes account for just 2 percent of deaths, individuals are 13 times more likely to die from cancer.

Here is the map of driving fatality rates per capita, with the most deadly countries (led by Namibia) in red and the safest countries (led by the Maldives) in green.

Of course Maldives is the safest – they’ve only got ten cars in the whole country. Good to see the countries I drive in most often are relatively safer for any number of reasons.

Even Google knows how creepy Google Glass is.

Civic groups and the production crew of the Korean film based on the death of a Samsung Electronics employee claimed Wednesday that Lotte Cinema abused its position as one of the nation’s leading cinema chains to block moviegoers from seeing the film.

“Another Family” is about a real-life father’s quest for truth about the leukemia death of his young daughter who had worked at one of Samsung’s semiconductor plants for four years.

The Vancouver Sun:

A new survey shows that four Canadian cities – led by Vancouver – are the highest ranking in North America for quality of life.Ottawa, Toronto and Montreal take the next three places respectively in the 2014 Mercer Quality of Living rankings.

I live here and it really is a spectacular city.

Yahoo News:

When the co-pilot on flight ET-702 from Addis Ababa to Rome locked himself in the cockpit while the pilot went to the bathroom and announced a hijacking, Italian and French fighter jets were scrambled to escort the plane through their respective airspaces.

But although the co-pilot-turned-hijacker quickly announced he wanted to land the plane in Switzerland, where he later said he aimed to seek asylum, Switzerland’s fleet of F-18s and F-5 Tigers remained on the ground, Swiss airforce spokesman Laurent Savary told AFP.

This, he explained, was because the Swiss airforce is only available during office hours. These are reported to be from 8am until noon, then 1:30 to 5pm.

If only the bad guys kept the same hours.

Sara Wachter-Boettcher:

Public speaking is tough. You’re trying not to say “um” too much or speak too fast or crash your presentation or poop your pants or do any of the million horrible things that, in those first few minutes you’re up on stage, feel way too possible.

Very funny, but so true.

“If you’re starting a company and thinking about where your value comes from, it’s increasingly design,” Ev Williams.

Great article.

I loved this. My favorite line:

Q: The Internet is always ready to pounce when you step out of line. Do you read any of that?
A: No. I also don’t tweet. I don’t tweet for a very simple reason, which is that I drink.

[Via Daring Fireball]

Follow the link to an infographic that compares Bluetooth Low Energy and NFC, side-by-side. Click on the image for a larger version. Pretty interesting.

The MacBook Pro on Jimmy Fallon’s Late Night desk was like a cast member, a regular. Apple was always a part of the show and was listed as a sponsor in the credits. Something has changed.

When Jimmy made the move to the Tonight Show from Late Night, he took his MacBook Pro with him, but not the Apple logo. NBC went out of their way to cover the logo with a skin. Apple is also no longer listed as a sponsor in the credits. What gives?

My guess (and totally a seat of the pants guess, at that) is that The Tonight Show asked Apple to back the cash truck up to the stage door if they wanted to keep the logo on Jimmy’s desk. If so, that’s too bad. Everyone knows it’s a Mac. It just looks a little goofy. Do something about this, willya Jimmy?

Last Saturday, a controversial referee’s call disallowed a goal that would have given the Russian men’s hockey team a 3-2 lead. The game ended up going to overtime and was won in shootouts by team USA. The ruling was that the net was off its moorings at the time of the goal. Interestingly, US goalie Jonathan Quick was the one who knocked the goal off its mooring, albeit unintentionally.

That rule will now be changed, giving the referee the opportunity to make a judgment call and award the goal if the ref feels that the goal would have been scored regardless of the displaced net.

Personally, I loved the game. I would rather win cleanly than benefit from an obscure rule. Here’s hoping the Russian team makes it far enough so we get a rematch. That will be a game to watch.

What happens when a company gives a leadership role to someone who was a leader at Apple?

Apple Inc. (AAPL) is known for producing great products, like the iPod. Now Google Inc. (GOOG) with its acquisition of Nest Labs Inc. and its Apple alumni founder Tony Fadell, is hoping it produces great leaders who can replicate that success as well.

It’s a gamble that has proved disappointing for companies from Palm Inc. to J.C. Penney Co.

Fadell, who oversaw development of Apple’s iPod, was a star attraction in Google’s $3.2 billion purchase of home-management startup Nest. Just as Apple’s music player sparked the company’s shift from a niche computer maker into dominance in mobile devices, Nest may help Google push its software and services into a new generation of connected household items.

Fadell will have to break the run of ex-Apple executives who have yet to replicate the iPhone maker’s success at their new employers. Managers at Apple — distinguished by its secretive culture and narrow focus on a few products — don’t necessarily flourish at companies with more traditional and cooperative structures.

“Apple is not known for producing leaders — it produces products,” said Ram Charan, a management consultant who has acted as an adviser to Jack Welch, former General Electric Co. chairman and chief executive officer, and Ivan Seidenberg, former chairman and CEO of Verizon Communications Inc.

Fascinating read.

This year, we’re going to hear a lot about iBeacon technology. A wide variety of sports stadiums and shops have started to incorporate iBeacons into their overall flow. This could be a tremendous experience. Or an annoyance.

The key is to anticipate the consumer needs and think benefits, not features. Every unasked for iBeacon interaction should have a clear benefit to the receiver. Unasked for marketing pushes will get old very quickly and tarnish the technology in consumer’s minds.

From the linked article:

The next six months will see some winning and losing iBeacon-enabled experiences, and businesses will need to quickly mature their approaches and become more customer-centric. Our key recommendations include:

• Establish the expectation for valuable, relevant messages through your app’s regular push notifications
• Use individual app preferences and behaviors to tailor beacon-triggered messages
• Use responses to those messages as additional signals about users’ interests and preferences for ongoing segmentation
• Build logic and trigger management into iBeacon deployments, including frequency caps and timing delays so you don’t over-message your audience
• Leverage dwell times and distances from iBeacon to finesse messaging

To keep shoppers tuned in and turned on, relevancy rules. If it’s done well, your customers will feel as if they’ve gained a personal shopper — an advocate, even — someone looking out for them, finding them the best deals and delivering personalized service where and when it’s needed most.

These are good thinking points. Let’s get this right. I’m looking forward to the coming wave.

Of course, Candy Crush’s ridiculous strength could also be King’s greatest weakness.

We’ve seen this before.

What a great story.