Fresh data on the straying of teenagers from Facebook to other social media platforms. I wonder what is behind this trend. Is it the trend of parents on to Facebook that is driving their kids away? Is it the lure of the apparent (but not actual) temporariness of SnapChat?

Really happy this went through. The proposal for rolling out 67,500 new iPads to Los Angeles schools was laid out in July, 2013. After 6 months of in-fighting, the proposal was adopted, with a compromise on the number of iPads.

In voting for the $115 million proposal, the board sided with schools Superintendent John Deasy, who has championed the iPad effort since its inception in July 2013. An oversight panel advised against the large tablet buy, recommending 38,500 units would be more than enough for the district’s purposes. School staff requested 67,500 iPads, but the final number will be somewhere in between, the board said.

The delay in approving the proposal means there is a newer iPad available than was in the original proposal.

In other developments, Deasy announced that Apple Inc., the maker of the iPad, had agreed to provide the latest tablets at no additional charge. Until now, the district has been locked into paying top dollar for a discontinued model.

Great move, Apple. Nicely done.

Are you kidding me, Starbucks?

The Starbucks mobile app, the most used mobile-payment app in the U.S., has been storing usernames, email addresses and passwords in clear text, Starbucks executives confirmed late on Tuesday (Jan. 14). The credentials were stored in such a way that anyone with access to the phone can see the passwords and usernames by connecting the phone to a PC. No jailbreaking of the phone is necessary. And that clear text also displays an extensive list of geolocation tracking points (latitude, longitude), a treasure trove of security and privacy gems for anyone who steals the phone.

Apparently this is a purposeful choice for them, a choice between security and convenience.

“A company like Starbucks has to make the choice between usability to drive adoption and the potential for misuse or fraud,” said Charlie Wiggs, general manager and senior vice president for U.S. markets at mobile vendor Mozido. “Starbucks has opted to make it very convenient. They just have to make sure that their comfort doesn’t overexpose their consumers and their brand.”

“Yes, it does surprise me,” said Gartner security analyst Avivah Litan. “I would have expected more out of Starbucks. At least they should have informed consumers.”

And apparently Starbucks could have done that. Two executives — Starbucks CIO Curt Garner and Starbucks Chief Digital Officer Adam Brotman — said in a telephone interview that they have known for an unspecified period of time that the credentials were being stored in clear text. “We were aware,” Brotman said. “That was not something that was news to us.”

So how does Starbucks respond?

Starbucks is downplaying the potential for customers to be victimized and claims that it has made (vague and unspecified) changes that alleviate the problem. Brotman said the issue should no longer be a concern because “we have security measures in place now related to that” and “we have adequate security measures in place now.” He declined to say what those security measures were, but said that customers’ “usernames and passwords are safe,” because Starbucks has added “extra layers of security.”

Yeesh!

Buried in this article on the Nest acquisition is this little gem:

Researchers in 2011 were even able to use a similar approach to determine what movie was being watched on a television set by making energy profiles of each film. This was achieved by observing that a television’s electricity load will vary over time depending on whether dark or light scenes are being displayed to the viewer.

Although the researchers in question relied on very granular data from the television set, Danezis worries that such techniques could one day offer smart-home companies an X-ray view of your home.

Here’s a link the research. Basically, they used an energy profile to determine what you were actually watching.

To me, that’s the real value of this Nest deal for Google. Google has so much to learn about you and your habits, and this is their first foray beyond the screen. The Nest thermostat learns about when you leave your home, when you are home for extended periods, etc. The name of this game is extrapolation. Are you suddenly home for extended periods? Does this mean you lost your job? Perhaps some nice help wanted ads on your refrigerator would be appropriate.

Struck by two things here. First, and most obvious, check before you buy, people. This is your hard-earned money. If you heard about Google buying Nest and just can’t resist, make sure you know the proper stock symbol before you hit add-to-cart.

Second, and most interesting to me, people were rewarded for this mistake, at least until the roller coaster went back down again. Apparently, this sort of confusion happens periodically. Nestor, Inc. trades over-the-counter under the symbol NEST. The question is, did an actual savvy investor spot this name confusion and buy Nestor as soon as the Nest acquisition was announced, then sell at the top?

Very interesting, but I’ll stick with my jeans and t-shirt for now.

This is very cool.

[Via Swissmiss]

Apple Inc will refund consumers at least $32.5 million to settle a longstanding complaint that the technology company billed U.S. consumers for charges incurred by children through mobile apps without their parents’ consent.

Or, you know, you could just look after your kids and take responsibility for what they do.

This is the best sounding Boss pedalboard I’ve heard in years.

A facelift, but you’ll definitely still recognize it. I have one of these that’s 10 years old or so.

This is good if you use cover images.

First, let’s get the most mysterious thing about the Galaxy S5 out of the way: Yes, it will come in both metal and plastic versions as has been rumored, with the metal version costing around 800 Euros and the plastic model coming in at around 650 Euros. It’s pretty much similar to what Apple has done.

Maureen O’Connor writing for New York Magazine:

There is such a thing as too much information for you. There is such a thing as information the speaker will later regret. But if an audience is willingly and pleasurably consuming the information, then by definition, that is the right amount of information for them. Assuming the information in question is yours to share — your life, your ideas, your stories, your pictures, your theories about elf genealogy in Lord of the Rings — you cannot share too much of it. There are no captive audiences on the Internet.

I enjoyed this article.

Recode:

The principle of the idea is that the speech of 300 million Americans is more important than the profit-making activities of four or five companies.

Unfortunately all too often “principle” falls to “commerce”.

Such a great article by Dan Hon at Wired.

I wish I understood how these sorts of mosaics are created. This must start life as a photo, no? Amazing work.

Tim Cook’s Q&A with the Chinese media and the Wall Street Journal is an interesting read. My favorite quote is this one:

When you really back up and look at what’s happening in China the usage numbers are staggering. Fifty-seven percent of the mobile browsing in China is done on iOS devices. Now there are many different views of unit market share and you can choose to look at whichever one you think is most reputable, but for us that is not our North Star, we don’t get up in the morning saying we want to sell the most, we get up saying we want to make and create the best, and so that’s our strategy and it doesn’t change.

To me, that has always been Apple’s strength, a focus on making the best possible product, one that changes people’s lives.

Umoove Experience: The 3D Face & Eye Tracking Flying Game starts off by registering your eye and head position, then lets you use very subtle movements to fly around a virtual world.

I downloaded the game, took it for a spin. I suspect there’s a bit of a learning curve here as I spent more time crashing into the ground or moving randomly than I did going where I wanted. But I definitely get the concept.

I love the fact that this tech is completely software driven. It’ll be interesting to see where it heads next. The company released an API in closed beta back in March, 2013, so third party developers can add the technology to their own apps.

Interesting list.

In this interactive storybook app for kids, step into a dog’s world and experience the arrival of a family’s first baby from a lovable canine’s perspective.

As a father and a dog lover, I love this.

I bet this will get a lot of use.

After switching back to iOS from Windows phone, Eric Shupps praises and chastises Apple and Microsoft for things they did right and wrong with their respective hardware and software.

John Siracusa:

Geekdom is not a club; it’s a destination, open to anyone who wants to put in the time and effort to travel there. And if someone lacks the opportunity to get there, we geeks should help in any way we can. Take a new friend to a meetup or convention. Donate your old games, movies, comics, and toys. Be welcoming. Sharing your enthusiasm is part of being a geek.

As the big dog of desktop publishing in the ’80s and ’90s, QuarkXPress was synonymous with professional publishing. In fact, it was publishing. But its hurried and steady decline is one of the greatest business failures in modern tech.

I don’t know I’ve seen so many professionals that relied on an application, hate the app and company as much as Quark.

Today I Found Out:

Before a story about toys, before monsters went corporate, before anyone went searching for Nemo, and before twenty seven Academy Awards, Pixar was a high-end computer hardware company whose clients included the government and the medical community.

Many think Pixar sprung fully formed from the genius of Steve Jobs. This story does a good job of showing the history of the company long before Jobs was ever involved.

Great conversational tone in this interview.