Rian van der Merwe:
Tech journalists can write about privacy and the virtues of quitting Facebook all day long. The rest of the world won’t even hear about it, because they’ll be too busy getting immersed in the lives and identities of the friends they agree with.
He’s right.
Here’s a riff from the new album, which is due in June.
As seen on Reddit’s Hockey subreddit. (Click on the image to go to the gallery to see it larger.)
We often hear about how popular Macs are in schools or business from market research firms, but it’s interesting to hear from the students.
Hewlett Packard Co-chairman Ray Lane has stepped down from his position at the company, and is taking two other board members with him. Lane is leaving following a narrow re-election, and G. Kennedy Thompson and John Hammergren, also both elected by a close margin are departing as well. All three are departing in part due to their roles in the Autonomy acquisition scandal that rocked the company in 2012.
I would say the walls are starting to crumble, but I think that started years ago.
Esquire:
No American drinks foam. Give one a glass a third full of the stuff at almost any bar, and he’ll indignantly ask, “The hell is this?” Especially for a pilsner. But the exception to this rule is Hospoda, a restaurant in Manhattan that pours the best drafts you’ll find….its bartenders use Hospoda, a unique tap system to pump out four unique pours, each of which enhance the act of drinking in their own way, because of, yes, the foam.We thought we’d introduce you to them, and tell you how they pour such strange and delicious drafts.
I may never get to Manhattan again so one of you needs to go to this restaurant and tell me just how wonderful and delicious this beer is.
Forbes contributor Laura He translated Cook’s apology.
From above the world of “Cars.”
Michael Mulvey’s wife’s reaction when he told her about Facebook Home.
Except it has one major flaw.
The entire dashboard is one giant touchscreen. “But hey, that’s so modern. So Tesla,” you might say. And you would be right – but this is where Tesla’s desire to distinguish itself from any old performance sedan ended up shooting itself in the foot.
Some interesting thoughts.
Om Malik:
In fact, Facebook Home should put privacy advocates on alert, for this application erodes any idea of privacy. If you install this, then it is very likely that Facebook is going to be able to track your every move, and every little action.
Very true.
Sad day.
From comScore market research firm:
133.7 million people in the U.S. owned smartphones (57 percent mobile market penetration) during the three months ending in February, up 8 percent since November. Apple ranked as the top OEM with 38.9 percent of U.S. smartphone subscribers (up 3.9 percentage points from November). Samsung ranked second with 21.3 percent market share (up 1 percentage point), followed by HTC with 9.3 percent share, Motorola with 8.4 percent and LG with 6.8 percent.
And Apple is making ground on Google:
Google Android ranked as the top smartphone platform with 51.7 percent market share, while Apple’s share increased 3.9 percentage points to 38.9 percent. BlackBerry ranked third with 5.4 percent share, followed by Microsoft (3.2 percent) and Symbian (0.5 percent).
So, let me get this straight. Apple is widening the gap on Samsung, but analysts think Apple should be more like Samsung. Not only that, it’s closing the gap between iOS and Android, even though it’s competing with hundreds of Android devices.
And Apple is losing how?
Christina Bonnington gives us a rundown on all the new terms you’ll need to know in order to understand Facebook Home. My favorite is “Chat Heads.” And by “favorite” I mean I don’t really give a shit.
And there you have it — Google and Facebook just want to serve us ads. I still believe it could work out for Facebook.
Jordan Golson for MacRumors:
Facebook claims users turn on their phone 100 times per day, and, among other things, is redoing the lock screen on the Android phone to give users a slideshow of photos and updates from their Facebook News Feeds.
This isn’t a bad idea for Facebook and its users. Facebook is making itself the center of the user experience and that could work very well for them.
I love these types of stories and insights into how things get done.
Netflix has announced that the new “anthology” season of Arrested Development will arrive — all 15 episodes at once — on May 26. The show, which ran on Fox from 2003 to 2006 and won an Emmy for Outstanding Comedy Series, will bring back its entire cast, including Jason Bateman, Will Arnett, Jeffrey Tambor, Michael Cera, David Cross, and many, many more.
Fox killed the show before its time, but Netflix has resurrected it and is releasing it the same way as it did House of Cards: all at once.
An internal Drug Enforcement Administration document seen by CNET discusses a February 2013 criminal investigation and warns that because of the use of encryption, “it is impossible to intercept iMessages between two Apple devices” even with a court order approved by a federal judge.
It has been six weeks since we launched the first preview of Edge Reflow. I want to thank all of you who have downloaded Reflow, given it a try and told us what you are looking for in a next generation web design tool. The team has been hard at work on our next preview release, and today I’m excited to announce that it is available to download from Creative Cloud.
Edge Reflow is an app for Adobe Creative Cloud users who are creating content for the Web and are interested in creating responsive designs. Changes to the new version include better styling and layout tools, improved performance and better stability.
The company is partnering with Best Buy and will open 1,400 Samsung Experience shops within the retailer’s existing stores.
And who pioneered the store-within-a-store concept back in the 1990s, first with Comp USA and then later with Best Buy and other retailers?
Samsung, have you ever had an original idea?
1 Why is Chrome spawning a new browser engine?
The WebKit maintainers wouldn’t let us attack Apple directly, by changing WebKit in ways that would make it perform badly on OS X and iOS.
Because they share a rendering engine, developer effort to ensure Chrome compatibility currently benefits Apple platforms for free. To prevent this, we must make Chrome and WebKit behave differently.
Hilarious.
Safari for iOS was responsible for 61.79% of total mobile internet traffic during the month of March, an increase from 55.41% in February. Safari’s closest competitor for mobile browser dominance was Google’s Android browser, which had a 21.86% share of Web traffic in March.
Once again this brings up the obvious question — what are all the Android people doing with their phones?
Very clever idea.
Staff were informed of the shutdown this morning, according to a reliable Kotaku source. Some 150 people were laid off, and both of the studio’s current projects—Star Wars: First Assault and Star Wars 1313—were cancelled. Disney will still use the LucasArts name to license games, but the studio is no more.
Very, very sad, and the end of an era in video games. While the LucasArts brand didn’t get started until 1990, George Lucas’ movie production company Lucasfilm produced games under the Lucasfilm Games label in the 1980s, for 8-bit computers of the era include Apple II. In addition to Star Wars games, LucasArts created popular adventure games like the Monkey Island series, Full Throttle and Sam & Max; military sims based on World War II scenarios and others.
LucasArts was acquired by the Walt Disney Company in October of 2012 when Disney acquired Lucasfilm.
Often, you’re not buying the song so much as the license that lets you hear the song.
I believe that if I pay for it, I should own and that should include the ability to resell it if I want.
Note: I linked to the print version because Businessweek was using popups and multiple pages to show the story.
I want one.