Mental Floss:

If you fondly remember being surrounded by two or three tons of solid Detroit steel with a whip antenna on the front from which you could tie a raccoon tail or adorn with an orange Union 76 ball, and enough leg room that you didn’t suffer from phlebitis on long road trips, then you might also miss a few of these.

I’m not old enough to remember tail fins or suicide doors but I certainly remember vent windows and the floor mounted dimmer switch!

Don’t listen to Google’s bullshit about being open. Creepy as fuck, yes; Open, not so much.

Another example of the evolution of mobile tech and its interaction with the human body. The Lumo Lift catches you slouching, buzzes to let you know, communicates all this to your iOS device.

Interesting, though not surprising, that this is available for iOS devices at launch, with a promise of Android support in the future.

Om Malik:

If it is allowed to gobble up its number two rival, Time Warner Cable, Philadelphia-based Comcast will become the largest broadband provider in the United States, and perhaps the largest outside China. The two companies together will control about half of what is called triple-play services — video, voice and internet — in the U.S. The two companies together would have about 33 million broadband connections that brought in about $18 billion in broadband revenue during 2013.

The numbers are almost too much to comprehend.

Scott Knaster takes us on a tour of some of his favorite Easter eggs from the Mac’s early days. This list is hardly complete, but it is a fun bit of nostalgia.

Remember the notorious naked Zebra Lady hidden in a version of MacPaint? Oh, I do. Have any Easter egg favorites of your own?

Around half of U.S. consumers are hoarding their old iPhones in cupboards and sock drawers — representing an inventory worth around $13.4 billion in total.

Guilty as charged. I’ve got three.

According to the annual “Mobile Mountain Study” conducted by research group OnePoll for resale site SellCell.com, this figure is down from the 55% of people who admitted to holding onto their old smartphones last year — although the total amount of money being left on the table is up from last year’s sum of $9 billion, thanks to the growing smartphone market.

Interesting analysis from Seeking Alpha (free reg-wall) makes the case that Tim Cook has just set a floor (albeit temporary) for the price of Apple stock with the recent Apple buyback and Carl Icahn’s reversal of his pursuit of a much larger buyback.

The news of Apple actually staying true to its word by making the buy-back truly opportunistic and not just a blind buy-back like so many other companies is a clear sign that the company truly believes in its products, valuation and future growth. Additionally, it puts a new temporary floor in the price of the stock. Since $500 is where the company views itself as being cheap, that is now where the Street will view it to also be cheap. Since this announcement, the stock has hence shot back up into the $535 range.

This type of move on the company’s part is brilliant, in my opinion. It reminds me back in 2011, when Warren Buffett did something similar on his own Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A) (BRK.B) shares stating that the current price (then 110% of book value) was undervalued and he intended to buy them back. Similar to what just happened to Apple’s stock, Berkshire shares after that announcement almost immediately shot up in price and a new floor had been created.

From the Supplier Responsibility report:

At Apple, we believe in making complex things simple. We strive to design products that are intuitive and enrich people’s lives. Behind that simplicity lies one of the biggest supply chains on the planet. Products like iPhone, iPad, and Mac all depend on the contributions of more than a million people across the globe, employed by both Apple and our hundreds of manufacturing partners.

Each of those workers has the right to safe and ethical working conditions. So we audit deep into our supply chain and hold our suppliers accountable to some of the industry’s strictest standards. In fact, we care as much about how our products are made as we do about how they’re designed.

On limiting the length of the work-week:

We’ve strengthened our programs to help suppliers protect student interns and other at-risk workers. We’re continuing our efforts to end excessive work hours. In 2013, our suppliers achieved an average of 95 percent compliance with our maximum 60-hour workweek.

On adding oversight training to the supply chain:

To address the shortage of qualified environment, health, and safety (EHS) personnel in China, we launched the Apple Supplier EHS Academy — a formal, 18-month program we believe to be one of the most comprehensive EHS training and education programs in any supply chain. In 2013, over 240 personnel representing factories with over 270,000 workers enrolled in this program. The EHS Academy will improve worker health and safety throughout the industry.

On ethical sourcing of materials:

The ethical sourcing of minerals is an important part of our mission to ensure safe and fair working conditions. In January 2014 we confirmed that all active, identified tantalum smelters in our supply chain were verified as conflict-free by third party auditors, and we’re pushing our suppliers of tin, tungsten, and gold just as hard to use verified sources. To heighten smelter accountability and help stakeholders follow our progress, we are releasing, for the first time, a list of the smelters and refiners in our supply chain along with their verification status.

There’s a lot more here, but this is excellent work. Apple should be proud of their efforts to fix a problem that is pervasive in the electronics industry. This is making a difference in ways that will not be obvious, but are incredibly important.

The friendly takeover comes as a surprise after months of public pursuit of Time Warner Cable by smaller rival Charter Communications Inc, and immediately raised questions as to whether it would pass the scrutiny of anti-trust regulators.

I can’t imagine how this will go forward. First NBC-Universal, now Time Warner Cable.

The combined company would divest 3 million subscribers, about a quarter of Time Warner’s 12 million customers. Together with Comcast’s 22 million video subscribers, the roughly 30 million total would represent just under 30 percent of the U.S. pay television video market.

The new cable giant would tower over its closest video competitor, DirecTV, which has about 20 million video customers.

To me, this does not sound like anything but bad new for subscribers.

Another great looking release from Beta Monkey Music.

IDC collectively referred to iOS and Android as accounting for 93.8 percent of all smartphone shipments in 2013, describing the two platforms as pursuing opposite strategies without referencing the fact that Apple earns the majority of the world’s handset profits. “Android relied on its long list of OEM partners, a broad and deep collection of devices, and price points that appealed to nearly every market segment,” wrote IDC’s Research Manager Ramon Llamas, without providing any context on how that strategy resulted in lost profits for the majority of manufacturers who use Android, including Google’s own Motorola subsidiary. “Apple’s iOS, on the other hand,” Llamas continued, “relied on nearly the opposite approach: a limited selection of Apple-only devices, whose prices trended higher than most. Despite these differences, both platforms found a warm reception to their respective user experiences and selection of mobile applications.”

This report and comments from IDC just stink. The iPhone took over 87% of the handset profits worldwide.

Will Connors for the WSJ:

Samsung recently won an order for roughly 7,000 smartphones from the U.S. Army and is close to an order for several thousand devices from the U.S. National Security Agency, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Surely they’re aware of all the malware on Android, right?

Bruce Lee often told students that if they already thought they “knew” everything, they should leave his class.

“If your cup is full, you cannot fill it. So first, empty your cup.”

Things like this can apply in so many circumstances. People that “know” everything are a pain.

I’ve been hearing a lot about this app in recent months, so I downloaded it and will give it a try. Everything I’ve heard is that this is a really great community with pros like Zakk Wylde contributing, along with regular guys like me.

I really like Ben Bajarin’s analysis.

TechCrunch:

Former Daily Show correspondent John Oliver returned to host this year’s Crunchies, the tech industry awards show co-hosted by Gigaom, VentureBeat, and TechCrunch. And he didn’t pull any punches.

Absolutely not safe for work but funny nonetheless.

Vice:

Artist Simon Menner was recently granted permission to spend some time with the German Army and its snipers. During the two occasions he visited, he captured the soldiers’ remarkable ability to blend into their environment, producing images that appear to be simple landscape shots until you look close enough to spot the barrel of a gun.

None of these guys would get me. Mostly because I don’t go into the woods.

Peter Cohen has some interesting thoughts on what the Mac will look like in 30 years. I think technology is moving so fast, we won’t even recognize the computer industry in 30 years. Whether it’s a Mac, iPad, or some other combined post-pc device, we’ll be living in a different world with different needs.

Enterprise mobile services vendor Good Technology reported that Apple’s iPad accounted for more than 91 percent of enterprise tablet deployments, while iPhone represented 54 percent of smartphones activated by the more than 2,000 companies using its services in the fourth quarter, giving iOS an overall 73 percent share of mobile devices in the enterprise.

iPhone earned 87.4% of global handset profits:

Despite efforts seeking to portray Apple as having experienced a disappointing winter quarter, the reality is that Apple brutally dominated the slowing global handset market, syphoning off 87.4 percent of the industry’s global profits.

That’s domination.

The Verge:

Sources familiar with Microsoft’s plans tell The Verge that the company is seriously considering allowing Android apps to run on both Windows and Windows Phone. While planning is ongoing and it’s still early, we’re told that some inside Microsoft favor the idea of simply enabling Android apps inside its Windows and Windows Phone Stores, while others believe it could lead to the death of the Windows platform altogether. The mixed (and strong) feelings internally highlight that Microsoft will need to be careful with any radical move.

First the report of Nokia releasing an Android phone, then this. Curiouser and curiouser.

Grantland:

Go to any speedskating race and you’ll see them: the happy hordes of fans from the Netherlands who have come to support their athletes in their nation’s most dominant sport. They carry HUP HOLLAND HUP banners and bells; they have their own band, called Kleintje Pils, which means “a little bit of beer.” And at the end of the night, they flock to the Holland Heineken House — in most cases, to celebrate another win.

Much like the Brazilians at soccer events, the Dutch have more fun than anyone at speed skating events around the world. And the words “Heineken House” must bring a tear of joy to the eye of The Loop’s Publisher.

TIME.com:

Today’s Flickr has more than 10 billion photos. It hosts 1.8 million groups, which are being joined by 50,000 new members a day.

I’ve been a member since 2005 but have almost left a couple of times. Good to see it’s having a bit of a resurgence.

Just so spot on and damned funny! Borowitz is genius. [Via MG Siegler]

I have long had the opinion that Google is like Microsoft when it comes to user interface. Steve Jobs famously said, “The only problem with Microsoft is they just have no taste.” I’d say it’s really a question of priorities. To Jobs and to Apple, taste is every bit as important a part of a product’s value as function. Both equal in importance, both critical components in any successful product.

When Google was readying the release of Gmail, they had a long laundry list of features to add and, apparently, a contact manager was low on the list. Here’s a Twitter back-and-forth with Google design lead Kevin Fox:

Ryan Sarver: can someone who used to work at Gmail finally explain to me why Gmail contacts are so bad? Contacts/identity feel so important to G strategy

Kevin Fox: Blame me. While readying for launch, contacts was last on the long to-do list. Though improved, it’s been sidelined ever since.

Ryan Sarver: I have added you to my personal blacklist :) any idea why they don’t see it as key to identity and graph? Such an underutilized asset

Kevin Fox: Honestly I think it’s lost in the chasm between ‘products-not-features’ and a master social strategic plan. A real loss.

The fact that Google released the product this way is one thing. The fact that such an important corporate interface and asset has been allowed to languish is, to me, inexcusable.

Insightful marketing post from the Harvard Business Review on the difference between sharing as much information as possible versus just sharing the very best, keeping the bar really high. [Via Andrew Ellard]

Lots to chew on here. To me, the most interesting of these charts is the R&D expenditure as a percentage of net sales. Some pretty wild swings there.

The National Portrait Gallery is running an American Cool exhibit. I will definitely go see this.

The portrait depicts a bearded Jobs from 1981, riding a motorbike between meetings at Apple. Portraits and subjects were selected according to four criteria — that the focus must have made an original artistic contribution, with a signature style; that they must have in some way been rebellious or transgressive; that they must have iconic status; and that they must have left a significant cultural legacy.

Certainly that couldn’t be more true for Jobs. Rebellious, iconic, and leaving a significant cultural legacy.

Now you can run 64-bit Windows on your Mac.

Apple issued two versions of its Boot Camp Support Software on Tuesday, both of which contain Windows Support Software (Windows Drivers) needed to run 64-bit versions of Windows 7 and Windows 8 on Intel-based Macs.