September 2011
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AOL Is Building A MapQuest Social Network Called... →
In a week of bad names, this has to be the absolute worst.
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Oracle: Bad Ass Motherfuckers
Now that Steve Jobs has stepped down as CEO of Apple, I’m starting to realize that one of the things I might miss most are the posts he would do on Apple’s site from time to time. You know, like the dismantling of Flash.
Unlike most corporate-speak which consists of bland nonsense glazed with PR buzzwords — which is always a complete and utter waste of time to read, Jobs’ post...
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Google Analytics Goes Realtime →
It’s almost unbelievable to me that it has taken Google Analytics this long to go realtime.
Interesting to see how this affects Chartbeat (which I use and love). But Newsbeat (the Chartbeat tool specifically for publishers) still kicks Google’s ass here.
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AOL + TechCrunch One Year Anniversary: A Look Back... →
One year ago…
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An Update On Our Motorola Acquisition →
Google is not having a very good day.
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Fake Steve Jobs: Funny. Real Dan Lyons: Sloppy,...
Like everyone else, I used to be a big fan of Fake Steve Jobs. Then he was revealed to be Dan Lyons. The magic was over. The 15 minutes was over. He had to go back to doing his actual job — though not before he got a book out of it. But it can be hard to go back.
Today, Lyons writes a post disguised as a takedown of my Kindle tablet scoop from a few weeks back. But if you go one layer deeper,...
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"Free"
Buried under the massive Kindle news is something arguably more important: Microsoft just got Samsung to pay them to use Android.
This means that two of the major Android OEMs (Samsung and HTC) now pay Microsoft to use the “free” Android OS. The third (Motorola) was just bought by Google.
Think about that for a second.
Samsung was really the last remaining hope in the Android OEM...
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On Fire
Looks like I nailed most things about the Kindle Fire, including the name, ship date, and details. I was a little off on the price though. At first, I heard $249 — then I said it was in flux a few days ago. $199 is very impressive and even more aggressive.
Put simply: this is going to be the Android tablet that people buy. But most people will have no idea that it’s an Android tablet.
...
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Google's Biggest Threat Is Google →
Say what you will about their recent maneuvers, but it’s pretty clear that Page is trying his damnedest to make sure Google doesn’t atrophy like Microsoft did.
Claire Cain Miller reporting:
“There are basically no companies that have good slow decisions,” Mr. Page said in a rare public appearance at Google’s Zeitgeist conference in Paradise Valley, Ariz. “There are only companies...
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Open Answers For McKay Thomas
McKay Thomas wrote an open letter to me on his site, and he brings up some good questions regarding Facebook’s new subscription feature, so I figured I’d respond in the open as well.
His questions:
Have you ever used Facebook exclusively for people you have met and want to keep track of?
Yes. In fact, that’s exactly how I used Facebook before the subscription feature launched....
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Did you know that the Japanese Shinkansen train... →
connectedtravelling:
In 2004, due to typhoons, the Shinkansen total annual delays were 42 seconds. It was a disgrace to Japan. (source)
If a train were to be late for 5 minutes, everyone receives a free journey and an apology from the conductor. If a train is delayed 10 minutes, it would be in the newspaper.
So to say train delays are serious business would be an understatement. And last...
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Will TechCrunch lose its effing edge? →
Fuck, I swear a lot.
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Netflix Secures Streaming Deal With DreamWorks →
While the cable companies may not be directly involved here, they should be really worried about deals like this. These types of deals will keep coming, and over time, the value of cable television service will continue to fall.
I just wonder how long it will be until HBO goes direct? That is, how long until you can buy it for a monthly fee without needing cable service at all? Because I’ll...
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‘Bond 23′ Screenwriter Hints at Blofeld Appearance →
Ernst Stavro Blofeld hasn’t been in a Bond film since the 1980s. The sad thing is that now most people would probably consider him some sort of Dr. Evil rip-off.
Still, consider me very intrigued.
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A Slightly More Blurry Fall →
Yep. BUT the original plan was indeed to release the “Retina” iPad this fall. It was simply delayed until early next year due to component shortages and a manufacturing hiccup, I hear.
As John Gruber notes, Apple releases things when they’re ready to go, not around some arbitrary timetable. The Retina iPad was originally going to be ready to go this fall. Now it’s not. So...
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Bing Bleeding Billions →
It’s not just that Microsoft is losing money online, it’s that they’re bleeding it. And it’s getting worse, not better. The company has lost $9 billion online since they started breaking out the numbers in 2007 — $2.5 billion of that was in the past year.
And Bing has accounted for $5.5 billion of the total losses.
And what is Microsoft spending all that money on?...
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Engadget Distro →
While it seems a bit odd, I like this concept. Taking your best longer-form content, adding polish to it, and distributing it on its own via a tablet (meaning, of course, the iPad). It turns a fast blog into a more leisurely magazine.
One thing I’ve never liked about content on the web is that 99% of it looks like absolute shit. There’s plenty of good content (including pictures), but...
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Tumblr's Dual Citizenship →
bijan:
The more I spend time on tumblr and pay attention to my own interactions, the more they are in sync with the data & metrics we see in the boardroom and on quantcast.
The vast majority of interaction and engagement happens in the Tumblr feed which is called the Tumblr Dashboard. This behavior…
I love all of what Bijan Sabet is saying here about Tumblr. It’s a powerful...
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Instagram 2.0 →
Awesome. Free. Get it.
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See Pearl Jam Play "Do the Evolution" in Pearl Jam... →
Grantland has a clip from the documentary directed by Cameron Crowe. Cannot believe this song is 13 years old.
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Another Fun Data Point
When Apple’s market cap hits $400 billion, they’ll be worth more than Microsoft and Google — combined.
They’re now less than $20 billion away from that happening.
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The Birth Of Qwikster →
Netflix CEO Reed Hastings first apologizes for a lack of communication, and then gives his thoughts about the recent price changes and separation of DVDs and streaming (which is still the right move, as Hastings reiterates).
The wording is good. Amazingly, it doesn’t sound like the total bullshit you usually read in such posts. But here’s my favorite part:
For the past five years,...
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What Needs To Be Said
All day, I kept telling myself I shouldn’t say anything. Then I realized: what the fuck? Be honest.
I found Paul’s post tactless. And I found Erick’s response inappropriate. Perhaps both are fitting given the entire clusterfuck that is this situation. But both are also quite sad.
Many of you are watching TechCrunch unravel before your very eyes. That sucks. It sucks for me too....
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“One of the best pieces of advice I ever got, back when I was 23 and newly out of...”
– John Lilly
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Barry Diller Skewers AOL For Firing Michael... →
As Jason notes, Diller doesn’t nail this, but he’s more right than wrong.
Disrupt is now over. There will be time to reflect on just how fucked up this has been.
Stay tuned.
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Djokovic Mows Down Nadal To Win U.S. Open →
It’s amazing that over the past few years the discussions have evolved from whether Federer is the best ever, to whether Nadal will be the best ever, to now whether Djokovic may eventually be the best ever.
These are three of the best players ever and they’ve come back-to-back-to-back.
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"Following" →
Hugo Miller:
Direct discussions between the two companies about the future of Motorola Mobility’s patent portfolio had begun in early July following Google’s failed bid to buy Nortel Networks Corp.’s patents, according to the document.
But wait, I thought the whole Nortel thing was a ruse, a rope-a-dope. It simply could not have been the catalyst of this deal. Motorola must be lying in their...
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“Let me put the matter another way: this may be the worst movie Pauly Shore has...”
– A.O. Scott reviewing Bucky Larson - Born to Be a Star
Wow. The movie has a 12 rating on Metacritic and a 0% on Rotten Tomatoes.
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The Andyroid →
The Macalope:
Somehow, in the early 1990s Apple bred a mobile technology killer robot. Cyborg.
No, wait… android. Andy Rubin.
Andyroid.
We’re through the looking glass here, people. It was staring us right in the face the whole time. All the pieces are starting to fall into place.
OK, so Apple makes this Andyroid and, through the mismanagement endemic to the company at the time, it’s...
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Breaking Bad Now On Netflix Streaming →
If you haven’t watched yet, now you have no excuse. Seasons 1 through 3 are available (season 4, the current one, is not yet). This is going to kill a lot of productivity.
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The New Apple Advantage →
Great insight from John Gruber. While we all can see and appreciate Apple’s design — it’s what we don’t see that actually gives them their bigger competitive advantage: manufacturing and scale.
Apple has slowly been perfecting this over time. And newly minted CEO Tim Cook has undoubtedly been the key to this. Now that Apple has grown into a massive consumer electronics company,...
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Exclusive: Android ‘Jelly Bean’ →
Chris Ziegler:
Update: We’re hearing from another well-regarded source that Jelly Bean is in the running for the name, but that the choice hasn’t yet been finalized by Google; for what it’s worth, the pickings are fairly slim for desserts with “J” names, so Jelly Bean seems like a solid choice.
LOL on so many counts. An “exclusive” story on the name “Jelly Bean” that...
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The Day Apple Won The Flash Fight →
A good step forward.
All I know is what I continue to see. Every time my browser (Chrome) crashes, it’s related to Flash. Every time my CPU usage goes above 25%, it’s related to Flash.
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Sprint's Unlimited iPhone 5 →
If the price was right, I could be tempted by this. Sprint seems to be the only carrier that is somewhat customer-friendly anymore in terms of their plans.
Of course, they only are because as the distant third place player, they have to be.
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Does It Come In Peach? →
Great to see Google still remain committed to iOS with a new Blogger app. But are they serious about this color scheme?
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ryanherring asked: How do you carry around your MacBook Air? Any suggestions for bags, cases, etc.?
