December 2011
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One More Thing About The HBO Plan... →
After my post last night about HBO breaking its cable addiction, a number of you pointed out that this will never happen because HBO is owned by Time Warner.
That’s true — but remember that Time Warner Cable hasn’t been affiliated with Time Warner since 2009. They share a name (which they use under license), but they’re a completely independent company. Time Warner owns HBO, not...
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OS X 10.7.3 Beta Reveals HiDPI Support →
More smoke around that “Retina” MacBook Pro fire…
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Dear HBO
First and foremost, I love your content. You’ve produced several of my favorite shows over the years, and the hits keep on coming. I’d love to watch Game of Thrones now, but I can’t. You see, the only way to get your service is to be a cable subscriber, and several months ago I cut the cord.
The recent news that you’ve reached agreements with Cablevision and Time Warner...
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In other 6 month news…
Eric Schmidt says Google will release its own version of “The Hobbit.”Of “the highest quality.”In “6 months.”Trailer is coming “soon.”
— Merlin Mann (@hotdogsladies) December 21, 2011
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The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey Trailer →
Familiar. Different. Awesome.
One year away…
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Microsoft, Nokia Flirted With Disaster — Er, RIM →
No surprise here, except that it could be a joint bid. Can three companies now in different stages of failing in mobile team up to win? Do three wrongs make a right?
My favorite part though:
According to two people close to the company, RIM executives have approached other smart-phone makers, including Samsung Electronics Co. and HTC Corp. about licensing RIM’s new operating system.
...
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This Week In Douchebaggery: AllThis →
Awesome. So glad I was included on the notable list of people using the service even though I’ve never heard of it and have obviously never signed up.
At least Joel Housman and others were on the case to call out the “douchebaggery”, as Housman puts it. Looks like they removed all the profiles they created for people.
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Three More Years! Three More Years! →
Well, it looks like the fears were unfounded. Google has renewed their search agreement deal with Mozilla for Firefox.
It’s a multi-year agreement (lasting at least three more years), with neither side disclosing the terms. But we’ll at least partially see them next year when Mozilla posts their revenue numbers. I just wonder if the terms are the same as they have been given the rise...
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‘The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the... →
Wow, time flies. I remember seeing it in the theater and thinking it was pure magic. It was easily one of the greatest films I’ve ever seen in a theater because I was totally transported back to being a little kid and reading the books.
I also remember the rumors for years that the movie was getting made than it wasn’t getting made — with plenty saying it would be impossible to make....
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Bond Producers Want Daniel Craig For Five More... →
Casino Royale was excellent and Quantum of Solace was incredibly “meh” (for good reason), but the producers of the latest Bond film, Skyfall, have seen enough that they’d like to sign Daniel Craig to do five more Bond films.
That would give Craig 8 Bond films in total. Roger Moore was in 7. Sean Connery was in 6 (7 if you include Never Say Never Again, which I don’t).
...
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Ben Brooks' Review Of The Verge: 9.4782829183 →
I hate to sound like I’m incessantly ripping on The Verge — though, admittedly, I am — but Ben Brooks nails this.
I like The Verge, but I realize that I mainly like it because it’s Engadget with better visuals. It’s not really anything new (though they’re getting into user reviews — good luck with that. I have a feeling that the vast majority will be complete crap and...
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Circles Volume Slider Differentiates Google+ →
Interesting thought by Josh Constine. Perhaps the way for Google+ to find its audience is not by focusing on some small thing that Facebook or Twitter does and doing it better, but by going above them and focusing more broadly on making you connect socially with everyone.
The Circle problem remains though. For the massive network to work, you need Circles. And making them is fine, but no one is...
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"Why Now?" →
Nice quick post by Chris Dixon reflecting on why certain web-based marketplaces are taking off now when they haven’t in the past. The key:
I asked Roelof Botha the “why now” question regarding web-based marketplaces. He said something I thought was really interesting: marketplaces depend on trust, and trust requires knowing the reputation of a prospective counterparty. Today, for the first...
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Actual Google Goggles →
Riffing off the earlier “wearable” computing report, Seth Weintraub reports that Google is working on actual Google Goggles. Supposedly, it’s a project that Sergey Brin is working on inside “Google X” and will be Google-branded hardware — but not Android-based.
Interesting — though my first thought is this.
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AT&T Ends Bid To Buy T-Mobile →
Oh, AT&T.
I suspect their next move will be a lot of complaining that the government is now the reason why they’re so inept — something which they already have started doing in the end of this letter.
As for T-Mobile, I would bet that they use some of that huge $4 billion breakup fee from AT&T to enter into negotiations ASAP with Apple to bring the iPhone to the last of the big...
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The Dark Knight Rises Trailer →
Speaking of The Dark Knight Rises, the first official trailer has just hit.
Yes, that’s Hines Ward.
Yes, this is going to be awesome.
Anyone else getting a 99% vs 1% vibe? Can Christopher Nolan actually pull that off?
That chant is already stuck in my head.
Update: The embed.
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Google, Where The Best Of Everything Is... →
“In the next six months we plan to market a tablet of the highest quality.”
That was Google Chairman Eric Schmidt speaking to reporters in Italy yesterday.
For those keeping score at home, that’s now three major things Schmidt has promised in the next 6 months.
At LeWeb a couple weeks ago, he promised that third-party developers would start writing the best apps for Android...
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Wearable Computing And The Next Hub →
Nick Bilton reports on Google’s and Apple’s efforts to push the envelope on “wearable” computing (think: iPod bracelets or Android watches).
Currently, most people still have a desktop or a laptop as their main hub for their computing lives. Mine is still my two year old iMac.
In five years, the smartphone will be the main hub for most people. Desktops and laptops will...
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"The fire rises." →
If, like me, you saw Mission: Impossible Ghost Protocol on IMAX this weekend, you saw the prologue to The Dark Knight Rises. And, like me, you probably couldn’t understand half of what was said.
No clue if this was an IMAX extreme sound issue or if this was the way director Christopher Nolan wanted it. But — above is a link to the full script of the prologue.
Obviously, this is a big...
