These things drive me crazy.

Love it. What an innovative idea.

According to Futuremark, “when a device is suspected of breaking our rules it is delisted”. Among those that have been delisted – in other words, sent right to the bottom of Futuremark’s official performance chart and stripped of their scores – are HTC’s One and One Mini smartphones, and Samsung’s Galaxy Note and Galaxy Note III tablets.

I’m shocked Samsung would stoop to such levels.

Fantastic story, sure to inspire treasure hunters the world over. James Howells jumped on the bitcoin bandwagon early, turning his computer into a mining device, generating a stash of 7500 bitcoins when the currency had little value. At some point, with the bitcoin value still relatively low, James accidentally trashed his computer and sold it off for parts. He kept the hard drive in a drawer, but tossed it in the trash at some point, in a moment of ill-fated housecleaning.

Since then, the value of each bitcoin has soared past $1,000, making his hard drive worth more than $7.5 million. And, no, he does not have a backup. Yikes.

I have to say, my expectations were mixed, with trepidation based on the ill-conceived video trailer but balanced by my anticipation of a story well told by a seasoned writer. As I’m sure the vast majority of us are, I am a big fan of Sir Jony Ive and his work and want his story to be treated just-so.

If you don’t already have this book in hand, take a read through the excerpt. Compelling story with lots of little details and some terrific images. The only thing I’d argue with is the author’s premise. Unsung hero, certainly. But “The Genius” takes away from the hard work done by so many other people, not to mention Steve Jobs. That quibble aside, there’s plenty to enjoy here.

Unless Apple makes some unexpected changes to Newsstand, it will not be helping publishers win that fight for attention. For The Magazine’s Fleishman, at least, that means it’s time to seek solutions outside the product that Apple once marketed as a great hope for publishers.

Says Fleishman: “I hooked my wagon to a star that has dimmed in Apple’s eyes.”

Jim and Dan talk about Thanksgiving Day rules, Black Friday, the value of AppleCare, how Jim keeps on top of the news, Samsung leaving Android, discounted phones, PrimeSense 3D, remote controls, Photo Stream, Jim’s robot tuning system, and more.

My Paper is a simple and easy to use RSS reader that is compatible with Feedly and Feed Wrangler.

And it’s free.

Ben Bajarin:

There is no single unified Android codebase which is dominating the world. There is no single Android app store, there is no single Android ecosystem. What does exist is a vast array of different platforms and different ecosystem running this underlying kernel called Android.

A little shocked about the National Helium Reserve part of the story.

This is such a great story, told by hockey tough guy and NHL referee, Paul Stewart.

Surprising. A Voxburner poll found that 62% of young adults (ages 16-24) prefer printed books over ebooks.

When asked which products currently available for download were preferred as physical objects, 62% agreed with books. Magazines and newspapers collectively had 47% prefer the physical form. Considering magazines are considered more visually attractive due to its use of imagery and glossy paper, these statistics show text-heavy books still have an audience with young people.

One of the fascinating bits about the study is the affection people develop for printed books. Printed books, especially hardbacks, tend to have deeper design elements than their ebook counterparts.

There is less affection towards electronic versions of books. Whereas age is shown in the spine of each book – and commitment by the size of one’s bookshelf – digital files have no distinguishing characteristic. Most books adhere to the same fonts, as defined by the standards of ebook readers, and e-ink displays are void of any images besides the cover due to the lack of color.

Interesting. This is definitely true in my house. My kids rarely read ebooks, even though they have access to iPads and Kindles.

I’m not sure why, but I enjoyed this and thought I’d share.

Designer Geri Reid has some good points here.

It’s good that Apple is having a shopping event, but don’t expect half-price savings on devices or Macs.

Barley has brought its inline editing abilities to WordPress, giving a lot more people the chance to use this software. This is pretty slick.

I rather enjoyed this article. The app was made out of necessity, which is the best kind.

Anchorwoman Katie Couric, who has hosted high-profile programs on all three major U.S. television networks, will head a team of global correspondents and help shape news coverage at Yahoo Inc., the Internet company announced on Monday.

Marissa Mayer is making some bold moves. I like it.

If you’re going to interview someone for a design job that involves CSS, you should take a look at this. As much as I love what designers do with CSS, I’d fail this quickly.

I have a number of close friends and family members who use hearing aids. This is a huge step forward. Not only can they now have hearing aids that are compatible with their iPhones, but they can now actually tune their hearing aids from an iPhone app. Brilliant!

Universal Audio posted some tips on using the Fairchild Tube Limiter plug-in on a number of instruments.

Juli Clover’s take on the 3D object sensing technology Apple just acquired when they purchased PrimeSense. As much as she sees, my guess is, Apple sees much more. Object sensing technology has been around since the 1970s, when Patrick Winston first wrote about computer vision and described the artificial intelligence algorithms needed for a computer to distinguish the corners that make up a room.

Devices like the PS4, Xbox One, and the smart TVs to which they send their signals can interpret the world around them, from facial features to body movements to subtle hand gestures. The interfaces are solidifying, reliability increasing. This stuff is consumer ready, about to make the leap from the niche gamer markets to the wider world around us. Imagine going to a store and gesturing to a device to find your brand of frozen broccoli, or waving to a parking meter to indicate how long you plan on staying and how you’d like to pay.

To me, this technology was made for the brains at Apple. I’m looking forward to seeing what they do with it.

I’ve seen some confusion over iCloud’s Photo Stream feature and whether it allows your photos to perpetually remain in the cloud. Apple could do a little more to help clear this up, but until then: Photo Stream and Shared Photo Streams are two related features that have different rules, and yes, there is a simple, official way to permanently store and share your photos with iCloud.

Nice article from David Chartier.

I definitely want to get in on this action. Back in the early 1900s, locals in Canada’s Yukon Territory placed bets on the exact moment when the river ice would melt. The stakes started as a round of drinks for the winner. Last year, the winner took home about $318,500. They use a specially constructed wooden contraption to determine ice breakage. When it moves a certain distance down the river, the clock stops.

Follow the headline link for all the details. Here’s a time-lapse of this year’s thaw, just to give you a sense of the process.

Back in 1991 (22 years ago yesterday), Nirvana was asked to perform on England’s Top of the Pops. Problem was, they were told they had to play off a backing track (pre-recorded instrumentals) with live vocals. As you might expect, Kurt Cobain and the band did not take things as seriously as the show would have liked. Watch for the not-so-subtle fake guitar-work, vocal mugging, and Dave Grohl’s wildly off-beat fake drumming. Love this.

This is a long article, but it’s worth reading. Randy was one of the greatest guitarists ever.

Ars Technica:

“We’ve heard a good bit in this courtroom about public key encryption,” said Albright. “Are you familiar with that?”

“Yes, I am,” said Diffie, in what surely qualified as the biggest understatement of the trial.

“And how is it that you’re familiar with public key encryption?”

“I invented it.”

Nice.

Scott Adams Blog:

My father, age 86, is on the final approach to the long dirt nap (to use his own phrase). His mind is 98% gone, and all he has left is hours or possibly months of hideous unpleasantness in a hospital bed.

I’d like to proactively end his suffering and let him go out with some dignity. But my government says I can’t make that decision. Neither can his doctors. So, for all practical purposes, the government is torturing my father until he dies

I can’t imagine how painful this must be for Adams and everyone else in this situation.