February 9, 2012
Written by Jim Dalrymple
Slate:
Canadians might love the Super Bowl, but we hate the commercials.Not the commercials you get to watch. I’m talking about the ones we get stuck with in Canada.What does that mean? When America got an overproduced Bud Light Platinum ad, British Columbia got a lightly droll spot for a domestic IPA, Alexander Keith’s. Around the time America was watching John Stamos peddle Greek yogurt, British Columbia was learning about job creation and infrastructure. Shortly after America watched a joyful promo for NBC shows such as Community, British Columbia watched a local advertisement for — I kid you not — an actual community college.
Americans have no idea how annoying this is. Canadians see and hear all the hype about the Super Bowl commercials and, come game time, we get ads for Speedy Muffler King.
Written by Jim Dalrymple
Federico Viticci, MacStories:
Today’s Tweetbot releases are just another example of a subset of users that think developers should keep on updating their apps, even adding completely new iPad versions, for free, forever. This kind of controversy seems to take place every time a major iPhone app is released as standalone on the iPad, or vice versa. So I’d like to formulate a quick thought on the subject.
As I said on Twitter when the tempest in a teapot over the $3 cost of TweetBot for the iPad started – it’s three dollars…you have an iPad. See the disconnect?
Using today’s market cap numbers, Apple is worth $459.2 billion and RIM is worth $8.2.
And RIM said in 2007 that the iPhone wouldn’t impact their business. Good call RIM.
Written by Jim Dalrymple
Fire up those guitars people. First prize is a Taylor guitar.
Written by Jim Dalrymple
The Leaning Tower of Switzerland?
New York Times:
Engineers performed extensive renovations on the legendary Leaning Tower of Pisa in Italy, sharply reducing its tilt. The repairs ended its status as leaning-est tower, moving it to somewhere in the middle of the pack and touching off a competition, which still simmers, for the crown.The matter seemed to have been settled a few years ago, when Guinness World Records in London awarded the title of “Farthest Leaning Tower” to one that accompanies a solid red brick church in the village of Suurhusen, in northern Germany. It leans at an angle of 5.19 degrees, compared with the Pisa tower’s 3.9 degrees.
Who knew there was so much competition for the tile of “building most likely to fall over soon”.
Written by Jim Dalrymple
ShackNews:
EA has just announced Mass Effect Infiltrator for iOS, a companion app that will help boost your “Galactic Readiness” in Mass Effect 3. Increased readiness will help enable players get the best ending possible in the trilogy’s finale.
It’s coming “soon.” Hopefully it’ll be better than Mass Effect Galaxy, a forgettable Mass Effect game that came out in 2009.
Eastman Kodak Co., struggling to reinvent itself in the wake of bankruptcy, announced Thursday plans to “phase out dedicated capture devices” as part of a refocus of its consumer business. That means that Kodak will no longer sell its own lines of digital cameras, pocket video cameras or digital picture frames.
Instead, Kodak plans to expand its brand licensing program to include companies in these markets. So it’s possible you’ll continue to see Kodak-branded digital cameras, just not ones actually made by Kodak.
On the consumer end, Kodak plans to continue to create and sell retail photo kiosks and digital dry lab systems (like the ones you see in pharmacies and other retail locations), inkjet printers, Kodak apps for Facebook, “Kodak Gallery” digital photo products, camera accessories and batteries and “traditional” film capture products and photographic paper.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is dumping RIM’s BlackBerry from its list of officially supported mobile devices, according to a memo sent from the organizations CIO.
According to the memo sent by Joseph F. Klimavicz, NOAA Chief Information Officer and Director for High Performance Computing and Communications, support for the BlackBerry will continue until May 12, 2012.
The U.S. government will instead supply workers with new iPhones and iPads. Klimavicz says the organization will now support the iPhone 4 and above with iOS 5 and above. The iPad 2 and above with iOS 5 and above will also be supported.
The memo, dated February 3, 2012, didn’t say when the government would furnish workers with the new Apple products.
Written by Jim Dalrymple
PCWorld:
The user names and passwords clipped from Foxconn on Wednesday can be used to place fraudulent orders from the company’s clients, the hackers said in a statement accompanying a torrent file containing the stolen data. Foxconn has taken its services site offline.
The group, Swaggsec, said that they didn’t do this as a result of working conditions at Foxconn factories (contrary to earlier reports). Instead, it looks like they did it just because they could.
Written by Jim Dalrymple
Jason Kottke:
Maybe I’m being old-fashioned here, but this seems unequivocally wrong. Any app, from Angry Birds to Fart App 3000, can just grab the information in your address book without asking? Hell. No.
I bet Apple will change this behavior.
Written by Jim Dalrymple
The Globe and Mail:
In another blow to troubled Canadian smartphone maker Research in Motion, energy drilling giant Halliburton Co. says it will replace its company-issued BlackBerrys with competitor Apple’s iPhone.A spokeswoman for the Houston, Texas-based firm says the plan will roll out over the next two years as it phases out 4,500 BlackBerrys from its operations.
Yesterday we told you that the Gannet newspaper company is handing out iPhones. We’ll hear more of these stories as time goes on.
Written by Jim Dalrymple
Josh Davis:
If you post a pin to Pinterest, and it links to an ecommerce site that happens to have an affiliate program, Pinterest modifies the link to add their own affiliate tracking code. If someone clicks through the picture from Pinterest and makes a purchase, Pinterest gets paid. They don’t have any disclosure of this link modification on their site, and so far, while it has been written about, no major news outlet has picked up on the practice or its implications.
I use Pinterest and this is troubling. Yes, they need to make money but doing it behind the users back is a bit off putting.
Written by Jim Dalrymple
Om Malik:
First the news: Yes, the rumors are true. We are indeed buying the assets of ContentNext Media from Guardian News & Media Limited. And no, we are not disclosing the terms of the deal, except that we are buying the entire group of properties — paidContent.org, mocoNews.net, contentSutra and paidContent:UK and that a representative of Guardian News & Media will join our board of directors as an observer.
I have a tremendous amount of respect for Om and what he’s done. Good luck with this.
Written by Jim Dalrymple
Paul McCartney on iTunes
Apple has announced via iTunes that a stream of McCartney’s exclusive performance at Capitol Studios will take place at 7pm PT, 10pm ET on February 9 on iTunes as well as on your Apple TV. It’s the first time a live stream has been attempted through the Apple TV. Is this a test for the future? Or just shilling for the release of McCartney’s recent album, “Kisses on the Bottom”?
Written by Jim Dalrymple
John Brownlee:
Apple’s not serious about ditching Intel for the Mac, but even so, the next few years will be very interesting as ARM and Intel trade body blows. If Intel plays its cards right, come 2015, we could all be talking very seriously indeed about whether or not Apple will be putting Intel’s new mobile chips in the iPhone 8 and iPad 6.
Interesting rundown of the chips and what we may see.
Written by Jim Dalrymple
Flavorwire:
In her Venus project, Italian artist Anna Utopia Giordano remixes some of the most celebrated nudes of art history, giving them an extreme Photoshop makeover. The results are stark and varied.
Botticelli's Venus
I’ve seen several of these paintings in real life and it’s surprising that you don’t really think of them as being “nudes”. You definitely look at them as “great art”.
Pawngo is an online pawn shop – a service that provides secured loans in return for valuables, for people who need cash in a hurry. Over the past few days they’ve made a huge marketing misstep in Boston that’s drawn attention to them, but the wrong sort of attention.
First, some background: Boston’s beloved football team, the New England Patriots, squared off against the New York Giants in the Super Bowl over the weekend. With four minutes left in the game and up by two points, Patriots quarterback Tom Brady threw a pass to wide receiver Wes Welker – a catch Welker has, by his own admission, made a thousand times before – but it slipped through Welker’s fingers. Ultimately the Giants came from behind to win the game. At least for some Pats fans, that crucial drop was the turning point when the Pats’ loss was assured.
Pawngo decided in an ill-advised publicity stunt to deliver thousands of Butterfingers candy bars to Boston’s Copley Square. A sign accompanying the delivery read, “Thank you, Wes Welker.”
Needless to say, Boston didn’t react well to having its nose rubbed in the Pats’ loss. Patriots fans incensed by Pawngo’s callous attempt at publicity reacted negatively, excoriating the company on Twitter and other social networking services. What’s more, the City of Boston itself will be issuing Pawngo a $1,000 fine for illegal dumping, according to BostInno. Nestlé, makers of Butterfingers candy bars, have distanced themselves from the incident as well, noting that this was done entirely by Pawngo.
Pawngo co-founder Todd Hills took to the company’s Web site to issue an apology to Boston fans upset by the prank, calling it “a misguided and misdirected stunt” and suggesting “we all make mistakes.”
Judging by the reaction in the discussion thread beneath the blog post, Hills and Pawngo have many more fences to mend before Boston customers will forgive them. But who knows? Maybe they picked up some New York customers along the way.
Written by Jim Dalrymple
Reuters:
Next-generation software for BlackBerry’s smartphones is “ready to compete”, Research In Motion’s new chief executive, Thorsten Heins, told more than 2,000 technical developers on Tuesday, expressing confidence in RIM’s long-term future.
I hate to tell you this, but that train left five years ago.
Written by Jim Dalrymple
All this time and I never knew who these people were.
Written by Jim Dalrymple
Abdel Ibrahim talking about the Galaxy Note:
Don’t get me wrong, I wouldn’t mind a slightly bigger display on my iPhone, but not if it means a significantly bigger footprint. The prettier visuals just wouldn’t make up for the pain-in-the-ass portability factor, and you’d better believe I’m not alone in that sentiment.
Right.
Perfect fit. You’re welcome Samsung.
Written by Jim Dalrymple
Forty percent of Sprint’s 1.8 million iPhone sales in the fourth quarter were to new customers.The company reported total net subscriber additions of 1.6 million during the fourth quarter of 2011 – the best quarterly result in six years – bringing total ending subscribers to the highest level in the company’s history.
It was still a tough quarter for Sprint, reporting a net loss of $1.3 billion.
