Brian X. Chen:
A store employee, Diego Aguirre, demonstrated an internal application running on iPod Touches that, for the last few weeks, has had the ability to show the in-store location of a shopper who has come to pick up a purchase.
That’s nifty.
The release of iPhone 4S was enough to propel Apple into the smartphone sales lead in the UK for October.
According to data from market research company Kantar, Apple’s iPhone sales accounted for 42.8 percent of sales during October. Apple’s main competition, Android, finished at 35 percent for the month.
Noting the loyalty of Apple users, Kantar said it wasn’t just older phones that people upgraded to the 4S.
“Most of these loyalists tended to own previous generation devices such as the 3G or 3GS models.” said Dominic Sunnebo, global consumer insight director. “However, 14% previously owned an iPhone 4, demonstrating that quite a few people bought themselves out of their contracts to get hold of the 4S.”
Verbatim on Monday announced its Ultra-Slim Bluetooth Keyboard, now available for $49.99. Available in black or white, the keyboard is designed to work with the iPad, iPhone, Samsung Galaxy Tab, Motorola Xoom and other tablet devices.
The keyboard is independently powered using built-in batteries, which recharge when connected via a USB cable either to a computer or wall charger. A case is included.
The Ultra-Slim Bluetooth Keyboard works with any device that supports HID keyboards and Bluetooth.
Evelyn M. Rusli, for the New York Times:
Several start-ups have also rebuffed Zynga this year, including Rovio. This summer, Rovio, the maker of the popular mobile game Angry Birds, walked away from discussions of a deal worth roughly $2.25 billion in cash and stock, three people briefed on the situation said.
Zynga is the social game developer behind Facebook hits like FarmVille. The company is preparing for an Initial Public Offering (IPO) of stock, and many expect that there will be an exodus of talent from the company after employees who get big stock option packages are able to convert those options into cash.
Nick Bilton, for the New York Times:
Michael Altschul, senior vice president and legal counsel for CTIA, the wireless industry association, said a study that it conducted more than a decade ago found no interference from mobile devices.“The fact is, the radio frequencies that are assigned for aviation use are separate from commercial use,” Mr. Altschul said. “Plus, the wiring and instruments for aircraft are shielded to protect them from interference from commercial wireless devices.”
“Better safe than sorry” is the crux of the FAA’s rationale against allowing people to use electronic devices, but it seems pretty silly. Then again, so do a lot of government regulations.
Now that is a legendary guitar. Looks like it’s only at the Hollywood location though.
Great site for board game fans.
Matt Gemmell:
There’s an entire spectrum of terms available besides ‘copied’, ranging from “inspired by” to “plagiarised”, and it’s not necessarily a bad thing to be influenced by the work of others. The key is to ensure that you’re consciously agreeing with a design, rather than just aping (mimicking unthinkingly – a definition which no doubt does our hairy cousins a grave disservice). Sadly, much of the technology sector simply apes.
Brilliant article from Matt.
The app features:
I beta tested this app and it was amazing.
Elvis Costello on the pricing of his new box set:
Unfortunately, we at www.elviscostello.com find ourselves unable to recommend this lovely item to you as the price appears to be either a misprint or a satire.All our attempts to have this number revised have been fruitless but rather than detain you with tedious arguments about morality, panache and book-keeping – when there are really bigger fish to filet these days – we are taking the following unusual step.If you should really want to buy something special for your loved one at this time of seasonal giving, we can whole-heartedly recommend, “Ambassador Of Jazz” – a cute little imitation suitcase, covered in travel stickers and embossed with the name “Satchmo” but more importantly containing TEN re-mastered albums by one of the most beautiful and loving revolutionaries who ever lived – Louis Armstrong.
Quite an unusual step. The album is currently listed on Amazon for $202.
Fantastical is the Mac calendar you’ll actually enjoy. Create events with simple sentences like “Go to lunch with John on Tuesday” or “Summer vacation 6/9-6/16.” Easily locate and search for your events with Fantastical’s beautiful and easy to navigate calendar. Fantastical works with iCal, BusyCal, Entourage, and Outlook and is compatible with OS X Lion and Snow Leopard.
Try Fantastical now for free, or purchase it from the Flexibits Store or on the Mac App Store for only $19.99.
Huffington Post:
With a 50 percent discount on the $540 phone for the first 1,000 buyers, lines started forming in front of Pacific Place mall on Thursday night. By daybreak, impatient shoppers started rattling the gates.And when rumors spread that the new smartphones – commonly known as Bellagio – had already sold out, the crowd of 3,000 went crazy. Several people fainted in the crush.
Well, at least RIM can stir a crowd somewhere.
Laurie Burkitt, for the Wall Street Journal:
China’s Ministry of Education announced this week plans to phase out majors producing unemployable graduates, according to state-run media Xinhua. The government will soon start evaluating college majors by their employment rates, downsizing or cutting those studies in which less than 60% of graduates fail for two consecutive years to find work.
Either that, or build more Starbucks.
Benjamin Wallace, for Wired:
In the public’s imagination, overnight the bitcoin went from being the currency of tomorrow to a dystopian joke. The Electronic Frontier Foundation quietly stopped accepting bitcoin donations. Two Irish scholars specializing in network analysis demonstrated that bitcoin wasn’t nearly as anonymous as many had assumed: They were able to identify the handles of a number of people who had donated bitcoins to Wikileaks. (The organization announced in June 2011 that it was accepting such donations.) Nontechnical newcomers to the currency, expecting it to be easy to use, were disappointed to find that an extraordinary amount of effort was required to obtain, hold, and spend bitcoins. For a time, one of the easier ways to buy them was to first use Paypal to buy Linden dollars, the virtual currency in Second Life, then trade them within that make-believe universe for bitcoins. As the tone of media coverage shifted from gee-whiz to skeptical, attention that had once been thrilling became a source of resentment.
A really fascinating read. Long.
Bitcoin, for the uninitiated, is a form of online currency not linked to “real world” money, so supposedly is less traceable – it rose in public awareness along with a service called Silk Road, a server that lets people buy and sell narcotics – where bit coin was the preferred currency.
Wallace’s piece examines the history of bitcoin, the forces behind its creation and ascension, and what has ultimately led to its downfall as well (bitcoin’s value has dropped precipitiously).
I’d like to thank My Living Desktop for sponsoring this week’s RSS feed on The Loop.
Time to bring your desktop to life. Since 2005 My Living Desktop has been bringing a unique cross between a Video Desktop (moving wallpaper) and a traditional screensaver to your Macintosh. My Living Desktop adds a whole new dimension to your computing experience by turning your Mac’s desktop into a beautiful, moving environment… complete with soothing sounds.
My Living Desktop provides a wide array of stunning, relaxing high definition video scenes shot from all over the world that you can use on your desktop and as a screensaver. You can even import your own movie segments to create a truly personal and unique desktop environment.
Michael Surtees:
Ultimately I really liked the concept of collecting information without having to do much at the time of it being on. Up hasn’t gone far enough with creating options for the person using the device to start slicing the data in ways to make it meaningful information.
As Michael points out, adding these types of features won’t be difficult for Jawbone.
Remember when Microsoft said they’ve had Siri technology for more than a year? I wonder if they actually tried it.
Bloomberg:
AT&T Inc. (T), with its T-Mobile USA takeover facing regulatory opposition, is preparing the biggest remedy proposal yet to the Justice Department to salvage the $39 billion deal, according to a person familiar with the plan.The company is considering an offer to divest a significantly larger portion of assets than it had initially expected, said the person, who declined to be identified because the plan isn’t public. Though the exact size of the disposals hasn’t been determined, they could be as much as 40 percent of T-Mobile USA’s assets, the person said.
AT&T has billions riding on the outcome either way. They’re motivated to make it happen no matter the cost.
Frugal Dad has posted an interesting infographic that shows just how consolidated news, information and entertainment is in the United States. The results are truly astonishing: six megacorporations control 90 percent of what we read, watch, or listen to. It’s more important than ever to treat what you’re being told with a healthy dose of skepticism.
They’re encouraging people to embed the infographic on their Web site, so we’ve shared it with you.
Source: Frugal dad
Apple has posted Black Friday shopping specials on its US online store Web page, available only on November 25, 2011.
The company has discounted MacBook Air, MacBook Pro and iMac systems by $101, with savings also available on iPod nano, iPod touch and iPad 2. Apple has also cut prices on accessories like the Time Capsule backup and network base station, Magic Mouse and Magic Trackpad, and Wireless Keyboard.
Discounts on third party accessories including headphones, bags, carrying cases and speakers are also available.
If you’re an IT manager considering whether to update your organization to BlackBerry Enterprise Server v5.0, you may want to act now. If you upgrade to BlackBerry Enterprise Server v5.0 before December 31st, 2011, you’ll receive a free BlackBerry PlayBook tablet
Because $300 off just wasn’t enough.
BGR:
AT&T said Thursday that it has withdrawn its application from the Federal Communications Commission to acquire T-Mobile USA. AT&T and Deutsche Telekom said they will instead focus on fighting an antitrust lawsuit brought against the proposed $39 billion merger by the Department of Justice. AT&T made the announcement Thursday following the FCC’s decision earlier this week to hold an administrative hearing regarding the purchase. The FCC said it was unsure the acquisition would create jobs, as AT&T has promised.
Microsoft’s Craig Mundie says they have had Siri-like functionality in Windows Phone for more than a year.
Steve Lyb:
The problem with Stamped is that it correlates popularity of your stamps to quality. It makes the assumption that because you like something – and use up one of your “limited stamps” to demonstrate this as a showing of quality – that others will be inclined to agree or incited to try out whatever you stamped. I don’t think that could be further from the truth.
I agree.
Aravind Ajith:
In order to save some time the next time you go hunting for WordPress themes be sure to note these five essential ingredients that make up a great WordPress theme – for any type of website.
The Loop uses WordPress, but we used a custom designed theme.
You just have to love this kid!
Rian van der Merwe:
I’m worried that the wells of attention are being drilled to depletion by linkbait headlines, ad-infested pages, “jumps” and random pagination, and content that is engineered to be “consumed” in 1 minute or less of quick scanning – just enough time to capture those almighty eyeballs.
Rian has some images of Web sites that he doesn’t like and some thoughts on the dilemma facing publishers and readers.
Brent Simmons on trying to read a news story:
I was there because I just wanted to read something. Words. Black text on a white background, more-or-less. And what I saw — at a professional publication, a site with the purpose of giving people something good to read — was just about the farthest thing from readable.
This is exactly why Peter and I changed The Loop. It’s about the content and with the help of $3 per month memberships from readers (which includes a full text RSS) and weekly sponsorships from companies, we are able to provide a readable Web site.
I literally laughed out loud at this:
“There are 10 million people in the World of Warcraft because Chuck Norris allows them to live!”
John Carmack has released the source code to the legendary first-person shooter Doom 3. The code can be downloaded via the Github.com Web site.
Carmack made some changes to the source code to comply with license restrictions – most notably, the removal of code used for shading commonly referred to as “Carmack’s Reverse.” The technique was the focus of a patent dispute between Id Software, Carmack’s company, and Creative Labs, which patented the process in 1999.
Also, the actual game data has been removed, of course, so you can’t just compile the code and get a working game. But the Doom 3 source is of immense interest to game developers interested in seeing what makes the game tick – and perhaps incorporating some of that code into their own products.