All this time and I never knew who these people were.

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.

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.

That’s a lot of people.

Ben Brooks talking about an article written by Tim Moynihan:

I don’t give a damn about this camera, but I think it offers an interesting glimpse at the market. That is: consumers are looking at the wrong specs. Traditionally in this segment it was all about megapixels, but now it seems to be all about: optical zoom and Wi-Fi. Both are horrible features to care about, let alone to base a decision on.

Ben’s right. Consumers tend to focus on specs far too often when making a decision, but when you focus on the wrong specs, you can’t possibly make an informed choice. Things like Wi-Fi are just part of what you expect to be there — those are features you say “oh, and it has Wi-Fi, right?” when you are ready to buy. That’s after you’ve already investigated all of the important things.

Jim Romenesko:

This FAQ for Gannett journalists receiving iPhones was distributed today at the chain’s papers.Q: I like my non- iPhone device. Can I just stay with that?A: If the company owns the device, the answer is no. iPhone is the only device that can do all the things we want you to be able to do. Also, iPhone is the only device for which we have training, support and unlimited data lined up.

PCMag:

Apple has built a completely new, faster, cleaner, and more intuitive digital video editing package. While some professionals are still kicking and screaming about the changes it brings, we predict they’ll eventually be won over by Final Cut Pro X’s significant speed and usability advances. Meanwhile, prosumer video enthusiasts get a less daunting upgrade path to a pro-level Mac editor.

FCPX has come a long way.

[Via AI]

Wired Threat Level:

A one-of-a-kind website enabling the online sale of pre-owned digital-music files got a legal boost late Monday when a federal judge refused to shutter it at the request of Capitol Records.The brief ruling by U.S. District Judge Richard Sullivan of New York did not clearly outline the reason for the decision. But in a transcript of a court proceeding Monday, he said that Capitol is likely to prevail at trial.

“Used MP3s”? Sounds shaky at best…

LA Weekly:

Like many people, Petrick had come to rely on his cellphone. He wasn’t as good as he used to be about memorizing phone numbers. Excitedly, he recalled one person’s cell number and dialed it.His elation, however, quickly turned to anxious frustration as the automated voice told Petrick that he could not place a collect call to a cellular phone. He could only call out to a land line. Trouble was, he hadn’t memorized any land-line numbers.“I realized right away that I had a problem,” Petrick says.

It’s really only problem if you are, like Petrick, in jail at the time of trying to make that phone call. How many of us would be caught in the same pickle? I don’t know anyone with a landline and I couldn’t tell you anyone’s cell phone number.

Jim Cramer talking about how all of the football players pulled out their iPhones to capture the moments at the end of the game.

But what matters to me is that when everyone else is paying $3 million per commercial, Apple paid nothing and easily had the best ad of all.

[Via DF]

This is so cool.

Chris Ziegler posted a good look at Chrome for Android on The Verge.

MG Siegler brings up a good point:

Second, it’s only compatible with Ice Cream Sandwich which is currently on — wait for it — 1% of Android devices.

So congrats to those 1%, I guess.

BGR:

Impressive data points from Apple’s record-setting holiday quarter continue to trickle out, and new estimates suggest that the company accounted for a staggering share of mobile profits in the fourth quarter of 2011. Morgan Keegan analyst Tavis McCourt wrote in a research note on Tuesday that Apple took in approximately 50% of all mobile industry revenues last quarter. Even more impressive, the analyst says Apple’s high-margin iPhone lineup accounted for more than 80% of all mobile phone profits. Read on for more.

How can this be if Android is winning?

Matt Burns for TechCrunch:

Honeywell filed a multi-patent infringement lawsuit against Nest Labs and Best Buy yesterday. The suit alleges that Nest Labs is infringing on seven Honeywell patents. Honeywell is not seeking licensing fees. The consumer electronic conglomerate wants Nest Labs to cease using the technology and is actually looking to collect damages caused by the infringement. Damages? Bullshit. This is about killing the competition.

As we noted yesterday, Nest Labs is the maker of the learning thermostat, and it’s founded by Tony Fadell, who used to run Apple’s iPod division. Matt Burns offers a good explanation of Honeywell’s complaint against Nest. It’s infuriating that, given Honeywell’s patents, it hasn’t bothered to create as good a product as Nest’s.

Phil Goldstein:

A royalty fee of 2.25 percent would have cost Apple more than $1 billion in 2011 iPhone sales alone.

If you can’t make a decent product yourself, sue someone that does.

Engadget:

The NERF Lazer Tag system is getting an update for 2012 that lets you pair your blaster with an iPhone or iPod touch. The top of the plastic guns now sport a slot for your iDevice which, when loaded with the Lazer Tag app, provides you with an augmented HUD view.

This looks insanely fun. Look for the guns to come out this summer for $70 for a set of two, and click through to the article to see an image of the guns. (There’s an app screenshot, too, but it doesn’t show gameplay).

John Gruber:

Have you noticed that Safari’s hovering-over-a-link pointing-finger cursor looks a little different in Mac OS X 10.7.3? It’s not just that the finger is at a slightly different angle — it’s a new UI resource that scales gracefully to larger sizes.

He’s right, I hadn’t noticed.

New York Times:

But unlike other big-ticket corporations, it doesn’t have an inventory of widgets or gadgets, cars or phones. Facebook’s inventory consists of personal data — yours and mine.Facebook makes money by selling ad space to companies that want to reach us. Advertisers choose key words or details — like relationship status, location, activities, favorite books and employment — and then Facebook runs the ads for the targeted subset of its 845 million users.

It shouldn’t be news by now, but it’s worth reinforcing that when you use Facebook, Google Plus and other social networks, you are the product they’re selling to advertisers. Social networks have their place, but there’s an essential transaction happening that you need to be aware of: trading your privacy and your personal data to use the service. Forewarned is forearmed.

Ryan Cash interviewed me about The Loop and posted it today.

Shawn Blanc posted a good story on that question.