October 13, 2012
World of Heineken ∞
Om Malik is in Amsterdam and stopped by Heineken. I’m so jealous.
October 12, 2012
Kindle sold ‘at cost’ ∞
Amazon Chief Executive Jeff Bezos confirmed on Thursday that the online retailer sells its Kindle e-reader “at cost”, with profit coming instead from sales of online content.
That’s one way to do it I suppose. Or you could just design great products and make money on all of it.
NextGuide updated with iTunes, Hulu, Netflix, Amazon ∞
NextGuide, my personal favorite TV Guide app (that I built at the company I run), is now updated to include Amazon Prime and Amazon Instant Video alongside live TV, Hulu Plus, iTunes, and Netflix. It’s really a great experience to browse all providers simultaneously and to search for shows and actually know where they are watchable.
Looks very interesting.
New Rolling Stones single – Doom and Gloom
Just in case you had any doubt that the old guys can still rock.
Video’s really cool, too.
Watching ‘Looper’ in a theater? Bring headphones ∞
CNET:
To encourage repeat viewings of his latest flick, writer-director Rian Johnson released an audio commentary track that you can listen to on your iPod.The director of the sci-fi action movie “Looper” wants you to bring an iPod into the theater to listen to details of how each scene was filmed.In a Tumblr post, Johnson, who also directed the AMC TV show “Breaking Bad,” provides a downloadable MP3 file to be played during the movie.
This is a really interesting idea and I wonder if it will catch on. I’m a huge fan of commentary tracks on DVDs.
A $15 quadrillion dollar phone bill ∞
Huffington Post:
There are large phone bills and then there are insane phone bills. Solenne San Jose, a woman from Pessac, in the Bordeaux region of France, received an utterly insane one.After she terminated a contract with the phone company Bouygues Telecom early, San Jose was told that she would have to pay a cancellation fee. The bill she received was for a mind-blowing €11,721,000,000,000,000, the Herald Sun reported. That’s around $15 quadrillion.
The best line in the story is, “San Jose had a hard time convincing the phone company that was the case.” WHY!? How hard should it be for even a mindless bureaucrat to acknowledge that the bill might just be incorrect?
Canned PB&J Sandwich ∞
ThinkGeek:
A Candwich Canned Sandwich is one tasty DIY treat, just waiting for you to crack it open. When you pop the top of your Candwich Canned Sandwich, you’ll hear an audible hiss of magic, and out will spill the contents to make one yummy sandwich. And best of all, each Candwich Canned Sandwich has a 1 year shelf life…
I almost threw up just reading about this.
This stupid will make your head hurt ∞
I don’t think so, and the TechBargains.com survey strongly suggests iPad mini is a foolhardy endeavor.
Don’t blame me when your head hurts. Even his own readers make fun of him.
This week’s piece of shit article from Forbes ∞
Larry Magid:
…but let’s not get too excited about Apple once again catching up with its competitors.
Wait, Apple invented the modern tablet and yet they are catching up to the competition?
I’m predicting a snooze fest not because of lack of interest in the product or lack of theatrics during the announcement but because I’d be very surprised if we see anything incredibly revolutionary relative to what we’ve seen in other tablet announcements.
So let me get this straight. If Apple sells a gazillion new tablets and people are excited, it will be a snooze fest? But if they don’t sell any, it will probably be a failure, right?
The only snooze fest is that article.
Apple to pay SBB for iOS 6 clock design ∞
The Verge (via Daring Fireball):
Apple has agreed to pay the Swiss national railway (SBB) for use of its iconic clock design in iOS 6’s Clock application.
Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed.
The iOS 6 clock design was unmistakably the same as the Swiss national railway’s design. Glad to see Apple do the right thing.
One-third of consumers likely to buy an iPhone 5
New research from 451 Research/ChangeWave Research shows that demand for Apple’s new iPhone 5 is strong and will remain that way.
The survey of 4,270 primarily North American consumers shows an “unprecedented degree of consumer interest” in the iPhone 5. Results show that one-in-three people are “Likely” to purchase the new iPhone, while 19% are “Very Likely” and 13% said they were “Somewhat Likely” to buy the iPhone 5.
To put these numbers in perspective, Changewave did the same survey when the iPhone 4S was released and 10% said they were “Very Likely” and 11.5% said they were “Somewhat Likely” to buy.
Even though some reporters made a big deal out of Apple’s change to the Lightning connector in the new iPhone, consumers don’t agree. The majority of respondents said it was “Not Much of a Problem” (31%) or “No Problem At All (26%),” according to the survey.
Of course, the biggest knock on the iPhone 5 so far has been with Maps, but again consumers had a different view. Nine-in-ten users (90%) reported it was “No Problem at All” or they “Haven’t Experienced Any Problem”, while 3% characterized it as a “Very Big Problem” and 6% said it was “Somewhat of a Problem.”
Partysaurus Rex
New short film by Pixar. You’ll see it in theaters if you go to see Finding Nemo 3D.
Apple’s rumored Oct. 23 iPad mini event ∞
John Paczkowski:
People familiar with Apple’s plans tell us that the company will unveil the so-called “iPad mini” on Oct. 23 at an invitation-only event.
Yep.
Ubuntu One cloud service reaches Mac in new beta ∞
Jon Fingas for Engadget:
For all of the many directions Ubuntu One’s cloud storage has gone, it hasn’t headed the Mac’s way. Official clients have been the province of Linux devotees (naturally, Ubuntu is recommended) and their Windows friends across the aisle. A newly available Mac beta puts all three major desktop platforms on an even keel, very literally — the OS X port is almost identical to what you’d get in Linux or Windows, including a few rough points where other interface concepts clash.
Ubuntu One is a cloud service integrated into the Ubuntu Linux operating system. Similar to iCloud, SugarSync, Dropbox and other services, Ubuntu One lets you synchronize data between multiple devices. The service is free to sign up for and gives you 5GB of storage (additional storage is available for a fee).
After some time away from it, I recently installed Ubuntu 12.0.4 as a virtual machine on one of my Macs, and I’m really pleasantly surprised with how far it’s come. Canonical deserves a lot of credit for turning Linux into a user-friendly alternative to OS X and Windows.
Gangnam style tattoo ∞
I like it. I’d never do it, but I like it.
Smartwatch concept ∞
I like this. Lennart Ziburski didn’t just do a shrunken iPhone, but a whole new concept.
October 11, 2012
The five most unpleasant sounds in everyday life ∞
The Guardian:
Scientists from Newcastle University have drawn up a table of the least pleasant sounds we may encounter as part of everyday life.They tested reactions to 74 different noises both in outward response and more closely via small changes in the brain.The results are published in the latest issue of the Journal of Neuroscience and show, among other things, that acoustically anything in the frequency range of around 2,000 to 5,000 Hz was found to be unpleasant.
I’m not going to tell you what they are – you’ll have to click through to see for yourself. Then, you will be forced to listen to them out of curiosity. Then you will find yourself in pain – just like I was.
This electric motorcycle could be the best of both worlds ∞
New York Times:
Zipping around on a motorcycle can be fun, but being in a downpour or an accident on one is not. Driving a car is safer and more comfortable, but traffic and parking can be annoying. What if you got rid of the bad parts of both?You might end up with something like the C-1, an electric motorcycle that looks as if it came out of the movie “Tron.”
As a rider myself, I have a hard time calling this thing a motorcycle but as a “single person urban transport vehicle”, it’s kind of interesting. Make sure you watch the video from the company to see how the fascinating gyroscopes work to keep the “rubber side down”. It will be interesting to see if this ever becomes a real shipping product.
Apple hires Samsung chip designer ∞
The gadget maker has hired Jim Mergard, a 16-year veteran of Advanced Micro Devices who was a vice president and chief engineer there before he left for Samsung. He is known for playing a leading role in the development of a high-profile AMD chip that carried the code name Brazos and was designed for low-end portable computers.
Put up or shut up Google ∞
John Kirk with a message for Eric Schmidt:
The proof is in the profits. If you don’t the have profits, you don’t have the proof. And if you don’t have the proof, then please, just stop talking.
Schmidt also said that the majority of TVs would have Google in them by now too. How’s that working out for you Schmidt?
Some people shouldn’t be allowed to write
Farhad Manjoo in July, more than two months before the iPhone 5 was announced:
And yet the iPhone sure has become boring, hasn’t it? I find it difficult to get worked up, anymore, about Apple’s signature mobile device. Last month, I yawned through the company’s announcements at its developer conference.
Farhad Manjoo in October after actually using the iPhone 5:
Hold Apple’s latest gadget for just a few minutes and you’ll marvel at the existence of such a remarkable object.
And writers wonder why readers lose trust in them. Here’s a thought — why not wait until you actually get to use a product before blasting it as boring. I know, it’s a crazy thought.
Photo backgrounds in Web design ∞
Some good examples of how it can work if done right. Unfortunately, not everyone does it right.
The Samsung Galaxy S3 Mini ∞
Wait, I thought Samsung thought bigger was better? Now it seems to be back to throw anything against the wall and see what sticks.
Does your guitar say ‘I Am a Douchebag?’ ∞
That’s funny.
App Store trade-off ∞
And that’s the problem with the new search results on the App Store: If I’m trying to select just one app from a list, and that app isn’t the first one, then I have to go through an inefficient horizontal swipe until the one I want is selected.
The Magazine ∞
A magazine for people who love technology, especially the internet, mobile, truly great personal computers, and related fields influenced by technology such as photography, publishing, music, and even coffee.
A new iOS technology magazine from Marco Arment, the founder of Instapaper.
Review: iPod nano and iPod touch
I’ve been using an iPod since October 2001 when Apple first introduced the product that “puts 1,000 songs in your pocket.” We’ve come a long way since then, but one thing that hasn’t changed is my love for the iPod.
My favorite iPod of all time was the first generation nano that you could use with a lanyard. I wore that everywhere I went for years. It was the perfect size and with the lanyard it was always around my neck.
The new iPod nano reminds me a lot of that first generation model, albeit with better design and technology. The iPod nano literally fits in the palm of my hand — it’s really tiny, but since the large screen takes up almost the entire face of the device, it’s very easy to navigate and use.
The first thing you will notice about the nano is the funky new interface. The icons are circular and colorful, so they’re different from those on the iPod touch. I like them. They give the nano a fun feeling and people will immediately understand what each icon does.
Simplicity is a very important feature with a product like the nano that will end up in the hands of everyone from kids to grandparents. That’s not because people wouldn’t be able to figure it out, but because the nano does one thing and it does it extremely well — it plays your content. It should be easy.
Each icon on the nano is about the exact size of my thumbprint, so it’s just perfect. After tapping on an icon, you navigate through the iPod using left and right swipes on the screen. It’s really pretty simple.
There is also a Home button that will take you back to the home screen at any time, which will be familiar to anyone with an iPod touch or iPhone. There is also an On/Off button on the top of the nano.
The Volume buttons on the left side of nano also allow you to Play/Pause the music by pressing in the center of the buttons. Apple effectively added another button on the device, but they were very clever in doing it. I really like that button because it means I don’t have to wake the nano if I need to quickly pause the music — I just press that center button.
I don’t put videos or photos on my iPod, but you can if you want. I use my iPod nano for music, so I sync as much of my favorite music as I can and go. Currently I have 1,257 songs or 125 albums on the nano and I still have 7.2GB free.
If you have Bluetooth headphones or have a car that is Bluetooth-enabled, the nano has got you covered. With Bluetooth 4.0 built-in, the nano will let you do away with all the wires and still give you access to your music.
I already know that this iPod nano is destined to be one of my favorite devices ever.
The iPod touch
I was shocked when I unpacked the iPod touch — it actually makes the iPhone 5 look big, and that’s saying something since it’s one of the smallest devices on the market.
The iPod touch shares a lot of features with the iPhone 5 including the great screen. From the minute you turn on the touch, it is familiar. That’s because it also runs iOS 6, the same operating system that powers the iPhone 5.
The iPod touch comes with FaceTime, Maps, Passbook, App Store, iTunes Store, Notes, Reminders, Game Center and access to more than 700,000 apps that can be downloaded with your Apple ID — 175,000 of those are games and entertainment titles.
Of course, the iPod touch can play video too and with iTunes you have access to 190,000 TV episodes and 45,000 movies. You can also get 1.5 million books and more than 26 million songs. That’s a lot of content.
For me, the best thing on the iPod touch is iCloud. I have all of my music in the cloud now using iTunes Match and I like to have access to it on my devices. All I need is a Wi-Fi connection and I can download any of my songs or albums from iCloud anytime I want.
iCloud also syncs all of my other data from my iPhone, iPad and Macs with the iPod touch, so I can check email, look at my Notes, Reminders, Calendars or Contacts should the need arise.
Even though I have those options, I still try to use the iPod touch as a consumption device. Of course, my music is the most important thing, but I do put some videos and movies on the touch as well. The larger screen makes it very easy to watch something when I’m away from the TV.
One place the iPod touch excels is in the gaming market. I’m not much of a gamer anymore, but I still like to race every now and then and the touch ensures I don’t need a separate device.
I think that’s the real power of the new iPod touch — it really excels at everything. Music, movies, video, iCloud, gaming, surfing the Web, email. It just does it all and it does it all very well.
For Apple, the iPod touch is the perfect stepping stone for people to move up to the iPhone when they are ready. The devices are similar in so many ways. They get you hooked and keep you for life.
Bottom line
The iPod nano and iPod touch are the most significant updates Apple has released to this product line in years. The competition just doesn’t have a chance.
Eric Schmidt is such a scumbag ∞
The Android-Apple platform fight is the defining contest. Here’s why: Apple has thousands of developers building for it. Google’s platform, Android, is even larger.
Schmidt steals whatever he can from Apple while sitting on the company’s board and then slithers away like a slug.
The Wendy’s logo ∞
I always liked Dave Thomas, the founder of Wendy’s.