February 2011
82 posts
Tweet-By-Phone From Egypt →
This is just all kinds of awesome.
January 2011
117 posts
Let's Talk iPhone Profit Share... →
The latest charts are a great reminder of this: While Rivals Jockey For Market Share, Apple Bathes In Profits.
Certainly having a huge market share means something. But not nearly what it used to mean in the mobile industry. It used to be that the dominant force (Nokia) also dominated in terms of profits. Not anymore.
How Will The MacBook Air Change The MacBook Pro? →
Agree with much of this. The new MacBook Air is the MacBook Pro’s worst enemy. When I got the new 13” MBA, I stopped using my 15” MBP completely. And it was a top-of-the-line i7 decked out with RAM and an SSD. In fact, I just sold it.
Apple will need to fundamentally alter the MBP line.
I would imagine the standard MacBook or the 13” MBP will be killed off. Maybe even...
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Why Doesn't Every Blog Have Its Own Quora? →
The simple answer is that the key to Quora is its centralized repository of knowledge (and the way that knowledge is surfaced through social signals).
There are plenty of Q&A plugins. Formspring has a way to post to your website, and Tumblr has an “Ask” feature. But aside from very popular people with very popular blogs, this doesn’t do much to get knowledge from brains...
How Dare They Downvote My Answer On Quora! →
Dear Scoble, Quora is not your blog. It never was your blog. It will never be your blog. Act accordingly.
Or, as Dan Kaplan puts it, “tame your ego, chill out with the fluffed-up rambles, the pointless photos and the naked self-aggrandizement.”
Google To Become App Incubator →
So Google basically will hire app developers and pay them a nice salary for them to do their thing. But they must do it on Android.
Interesting tactic…
Javier Bardem As The Villain In Bond 23? →
If he accepts the role, the new film could be very, very good.
[via /film]
Nokia Android Phones Or Nokia Windows Phone... →
My guess would be for Nokia partnering with Microsoft to build Windows Phones rather than with Google to build Android phones.
Obviously, a big part of that is Elop’s Microsoft ties (and the fact that he is said to have stayed on a bit longer after making his move known within Microsoft — something which probably wouldn’t have happened if it was considered at threatening move or...
Hulu As A Web-Based Cable Operator →
It’s interesting that when Hulu launched, it was dubbed the “iTunes-killer” or the “YouTube-killer”. But now neither of those two are its biggest rival. Instead, Netflix is by far. At the time, Netflix was simply a DVD rental-by-mail service. Things change.
Also interesting how much in-fighting there is when the networks own so much of Hulu. Meanwhile, there’s...
Brit Henry Cavill To Play American Superman →
As a fan of The Tudors, this pleases me.
Interesting too that Brits have now been cast as Batman (Christian Bale), Spider-Man (Andrew Garfield), and now Superman — all American superheros. (Garfield was born in the U.S., but grew up in England and naturally speaks with a British accent.)
Resurrection Of The Internet Kill Switch →
You’d have to believe the U.S. Government wouldn’t be stupid enough to try to pass this legislation right now, right? I mean, seriously. Anyone? No?
That said, you’d have to imagine that the core motives behind this isn’t to shut down things like social networks, but rather infrastructure stuff, as is stated. But there’s probably way too much gray area in such a...
An Offer You Can't Refuse. Or Could, But Probably... →
A fascinating move on a number of levels. Though it’s important to note (as Y Combinator’s Paul Graham does) that this deal has nothing to do with the Y Combinator organization itself. It’s simply between the investors and the startups coming out of each class.
This means that YC LP Sequoia (or anyone else) could do the same thing if they wanted to.
Of course, most firms would...
Matt Cutts Fixes Google →
Cutts:
The net effect is that searchers are more likely to see the sites that wrote the original content rather than a site that scraped or copied the original site’s content.
Haven’t done enough article searches yet to confirm it’s better, but this was definitely a major, major problem. Glad Cutts and team to finally went after it.
MSFT Eeks Out The Profit Win Over Apple →
As I suspected, Microsoft still had the slight edge over Apple in profit this past quarter. But it’s down to about a half billion dollars. Next quarter, it’s over.
Meanwhile, they’ve fallen about $7 billion behind Apple in revenue.
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Nominees for the 83rd Academy Awards →
Solid list for Best Picture — even if they ridiculously do include 10 now. Glad to see Winter’s Bone included.
AT&T Combats Verizon's Unlimited Data Plan With,... →
Weird how the move away from unlimited data was originally being sold by AT&T as a great thing for customers because it would make their bills cheaper. I’m confused as to why AT&T feels the need to match Verizon on this at all?
Oh that’s right, because the move away from unlimited data and the excuse for it was just pure bullshit. And now the Verizon iPhone has them scared...
Do We Still Think Quora Is A Stupid Fad? →
Quora is clearly such a stupid thing hyped up by TechCrunch that has no future and is evidence of the next Bubble. It’s the dumbest thing ever. It’s so dumb that a co-founding partner of a big time private equity firm is leaving his cushy life to go work for the startup.
Clearly, like every TechCrunch commenter, he also believes there’s nothing to it. He just wants a seat on...
$20 A Month For iPhone Hotspot Heaven →
An extra $20 a month gets you 2 GB worth of WiFi Hotspot goodness. The downside is that each gig over the 2 is another $20.
Still, well worth it.
Also, still no word on AT&T offering this feature at all.
Danny Sullivan On 6 Months With Google Voice... →
A good overview of the experience. I’ve been up and running for a few days now. So far so good. The experience isn’t perfect, but it’s worth it. As Sullivan puts it, “I control my number now.”
Further, number porting is a brilliantly simple way to cancel your current contract. It’s perfect if say, you have a certain phone on AT&T that is about to come to...
A Gym That Makes You Pay For NOT Going →
I LOVE this idea.
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Introducing The iCard →
Not surprising to hear that NFC is coming to the iPhone given that this is already built into the Nexus S. But good to hear nonetheless.
Interesting that it’s said to be built into the iPad 2 as well…
They key here is it being tied into your iTunes account (or some variation). That would be beyond a massive win for both NFC and Apple.
Imagine if they could get a cut of all those...
WatchThe Incident: Sweded
Ha ha. Nice.
Too Many Cooks In The Kitchen, Or Too Few? →
The “Cook = Ballmer” angle has really kicked into high gear today. Putting aside the obvious fact that they’re two different people working for two different companies, this still doesn’t ring true to me.
While it is true that Ballmer has run operations for Microsoft prior to his role as CEO, he’s known for something else. As Jobs himself said in 2004 interview...
Immaculate Reception, or, A MobileMe Mystery →
I love this. I’ve now done the same thing in Japan and France as well. You stop by the local Apple Store as the hub to sync for the day, update your apps, and upload pictures.
Now, if only Apple Stores started serving coffee. Or better, beer. I’d never leave. And I suspect they know this, which is why they don’t serve either.
[via John Gruber]
How Microsoft plans to market against the iPad →
Misdirect, stall, and pray.
Given what we’re seeing from Apple, Google, HP/Palm, and even RIM in the space, Microsoft is really, really screwed here.
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The Pmarca Guide to Personal Productivity →
An oldie that I had missed when it was originally posted, but Hunter reshared. I love pretty much everything about this list.
In particular, I love the idea of not keeping a schedule. Yes, it does sound crazy, but having scheduled meetings is by far the main killer of productivity for me.
That’s not to say I don’t find meetings useful, I do, there’s just something about knowing...
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I’m at The Crunchies (San Francisco, CA)
“Woooo!”
Follow me on Gowalla
Android source code, Java, and copyright... →
The back-and-forth bitchfest over the issue is arguably more interesting than the issue itself.
This seems like the most straight-forward argument yet. The law doesn’t distinguish between test code and non-test code. If you violated a copyright, you violated it.
That may or may not be the case, we’ll see.
But here’s why this really matters:
Because we’re hearing that...
Big Bang At Google: Larry Page To Replace Eric... →
Everyone is still digesting this news. Some stuff is trickling out. More will. But my immediate reaction is that I’m very impressed that Google would make such a ballsy move when they’re at a high point. Most companies wait til it’s far too late and/or they’re content to coast on past successes. Not Google. I’m not exactly sure why just yet, but this renews my faith...
Samsung Galaxy S Vibrant will get Froyo tomorrow,... →
Awesome! Only took several months to get the 2.2 update. 2.3 update should be here by June! Or July! Or Never! Joy!
T-Mobile USA Seeks $3 Billion Sales Growth, Mulls... →
Google seems a logical partner, no?
AT&T killing some upgrade discounts, raising fees... →
You might think that with AT&T about to lose a bunch of customers to Verizon, they would tweak things to make them more favorable to entice some people to stay.
Nope.
All of these are pretty ridiculous, but the absolute worst is the raising of the MicroCell price. I mean, WTF?
Maybe they assume with all those customers getting offloaded to Verizon, not as many customers will need the...
Apple Releases Second Beta of iOS 4.3 to... →
It looks like gestures will destined for iOS 5, not iOS 4.3. This is merely a preview for devs.
So that pretty much kills the idea of iPad 2 having no buttons, right? Right.
Apple's blow-out quarter: The bloggers called it,... →
It’s pretty amazing how bad professional Apple analysts are at analyzing Apple. It’s almost as if they’re competing to see who can be the most wrong at this point.
And what’s really sad is that their predictions for new Apple products are usually worse.
At some point, don’t you have to answer for this kind of performance?
AT&T Simplifying Texting Plans →
A good reminder of just how big of a rip-off text messages are. Remind me again why they just don’t include them in your data plan?
Oh, that’s right. Greed.
Microsoft readies more West Coast retail stores →
I wonder if Microsoft will disclose how well these stores are doing in their earnings call next week?
Besides when Microsoft tweets about them or when there’s a story about another one opening across from an Apple Store. I never hear a peep about them. Ever.
I don’t think I know anyone who has ever even been to one. Or who has any desire to go to one. Not even just to check it out.
Hathaway to play Catwoman in next Batman →
Batman has found a nemesis for his next cinematic adventure – and it looks like a love interest, too. On Wednesday, Warner Brothers Pictures announced the first new cast members for “The Dark Knight Rises,” the third Batman movie to be directed by Christopher Nolan, the “Inception” and “Memento” filmmaker. Joining Christian Bale, who returns as Batman and his daytime alter ego, Bruce Wayne, is...
Cameron Crowe’s ‘Pearl Jam Twenty’ To Be Released... →
Cameron Crowe. Pearl Jam. Documentary. There.
