Patrick and Myke were kind *enough* to have me on as a guest. We talk about what I would install on a stripped down MacBook Air 11″. We also discuss throwing fish, so you should at least be interested in that.
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Enough Episode 33
Patrick and Myke were kind *enough* to have me on as a guest. We talk about what I would install on a stripped down MacBook Air 11″. We also discuss throwing fish, so you should at least be interested in that.
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After approving NBC buyout, FCC Commish becomes Comcast lobbyist
Nate Anderson: >Four months after approving the massive transaction, Attwell Baker will take a top DC lobbying job for the new Comcast-NBC entity, according to reports. This shows a complete disregard for all Americans.
Nate Anderson:
>Four months after approving the massive transaction, Attwell Baker will take a top DC lobbying job for the new Comcast-NBC entity, according to reports.This shows a complete disregard for all Americans.
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WikiTrust
Kevin Poulsen on the agreement WikiLeaks makes its employees sign: >The confidentiality agreement (.pdf), revealed by the New Statesman, imposes a penalty of 12 million British pounds– nearly $20 million — on anyone responsible for a significant leak of the organization’s unpublished material. The figure is based on a “typical open-market valuation” of WikiLeaks’ collection,…
Kevin Poulsen on the agreement WikiLeaks makes its employees sign:
>The confidentiality agreement (.pdf), revealed by the New Statesman, imposes a penalty of 12 million British pounds– nearly $20 million — on anyone responsible for a significant leak of the organization’s unpublished material. The figure is based on a “typical open-market valuation” of WikiLeaks’ collection, the agreement claims.Trust, I hear, is hard to come by among thieves. ((Don’t bother emailing me about this. Stealing private information with the hopes of profiting off of it is, right or wrong, stealing. ))
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Top Grossest Apps
Neven Mrgan: >Then Apple added in-app purchases, and decided to include those when calculating apps’ earnings for the Top Grossing list. The result? The list is completely dominated by fake-money compulsion engines. The very fact that these are the top grossing apps signals just good they are at vacuuming money out of pockets. This change really…
Neven Mrgan:
>Then Apple added in-app purchases, and decided to include those when calculating apps’ earnings for the Top Grossing list. The result? The list is completely dominated by fake-money compulsion engines. The very fact that these are the top grossing apps signals just good they are at vacuuming money out of pockets.This change really irks me since Top Grossing used to be where one could easily find excellent apps. Now it is just an extension of the Top 25 Free apps category.
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Googlers and Windows Machines
MG Siegler: >Since the end goal of Chrome OS is clearly to end Windows dominance both in the workplace and the world in general, someone asked what percentage of Google employees still use Windows machines at work? Answer (according to Sergey Brin): 20%. That’s staggeringly low.
MG Siegler:
>Since the end goal of Chrome OS is clearly to end Windows dominance both in the workplace and the world in general, someone asked what percentage of Google employees still use Windows machines at work?Answer (according to Sergey Brin): 20%. That’s staggeringly low.
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Sprint’s Offensive Ad Pulled
Ina Fried: >The ad, which ran on a number of political Web sites and in various newspapers on Tuesday, depicts a man in a dress similar to that worn by the spokeswoman for T-Mobile. The ad featured the tag line “It makes sense if you don’t think about it”–also a play on T-Mobile’s advertisements. The…
Ina Fried:
>The ad, which ran on a number of political Web sites and in various newspapers on Tuesday, depicts a man in a dress similar to that worn by the spokeswoman for T-Mobile. The ad featured the tag line “It makes sense if you don’t think about it”–also a play on T-Mobile’s advertisements. The ads were funded by Sprint and created on behalf of a number of groups opposing the proposed $39 billion deal.Be sure to click through to take a look at the ad, great stuff.
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Facebook Apps May Have Leaked Millions of Users’ Personal Data
Nathan Olivarez-Giles and Jessica Guynn: >Among the information that could have been accessed is data from user profiles, pictures and Facebooks chats between users. >”Fortunately, these third parties may not have realized their ability to access this information,” said Nishant Doshi, a Symantec spokesman in a company blog post. “We have reported this issue to…
Nathan Olivarez-Giles and Jessica Guynn:
>Among the information that could have been accessed is data from user profiles, pictures and Facebooks chats between users.
>”Fortunately, these third parties may not have realized their ability to access this information,” said Nishant Doshi, a Symantec spokesman in a company blog post. “We have reported this issue to Facebook, who has taken corrective action to help eliminate this issue.”Well, at least they didn’t know until they posted about it in the Los Angeles Times.
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No iAds for Kids
Federico Viticci: >Mike Zornek, developer of the free Dex app for iPhone and iPod touch (a Pokèmon browser application), relays an email from the iAd Network Support team in which an Apple employee explains how iAds may not be displayed anymore in apps targeted to “young children” because of the advertisers’ preference to not show…
Federico Viticci:
>Mike Zornek, developer of the free Dex app for iPhone and iPod touch (a Pokèmon browser application), relays an email from the iAd Network Support team in which an Apple employee explains how iAds may not be displayed anymore in apps targeted to “young children” because of the advertisers’ preference to not show ads to this particular audience.This is a good change in policy for everyone but the developers. Apple benefits because they won’t have to worry about children being targeted with advertising — something lawmakers always have problems with. Advertisers benefit for the same reasons too. Parents and children benefit from seeing less ads.
The unfortunate part is that lesser advertising systems might begin to be used in place of iAds, which could get ugly for consumers.
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“Screwed” vs An Evolving Market
[iFlow Reader Staff](https://www.iflowreader.com/Closing.aspx): >We put our faith in Apple and they screwed us. This happened even though we went to great lengths to clear our plans with Apple because we did not want to make this substantial investment of time and money blindly. Apple’s response to our detailed inquiries was to tell us that our…
[iFlow Reader Staff](https://www.iflowreader.com/Closing.aspx):
>We put our faith in Apple and they screwed us. This happened even though we went to great lengths to clear our plans with Apple because we did not want to make this substantial investment of time and money blindly. Apple’s response to our detailed inquiries was to tell us that our plans did not infringe their rules in any way, which was true at the time, but there is one little catch. Apple can change the rules at any time and they did. Sadly they must have known full well that they were going to do this. Apple’s iBooks was already in development when we talked to them and they certainly must have known that their future plans would doom us to failure no matter how good our product was. We never really had a chance.First things first: Apple didn’t “screw” iFlow, and they certainly didn’t *screw* iFlow. If anything screwed iFlow it was the very thing that drew them to iOS to begin with: the platform success and an evolving business model.
Every good business person knows that in order to be successful in the long term you need to have a flexible business. You need to be able to respond to changing laws and changing environments. So iFlow, Apple didn’t screw you — you screwed yourselves. Linking your success to being able to sell one app in one market screwed you and it can and will happen to others.
To say that Apple screwed iFlow is to also say that Apple directly came after iFlow and said “time to end these guys”. Instead Apple changed a rule that effects everyone in the app store, especially Amazon — not just iFlow. It’s also not fair to say that you cleared it with Apple and that Apple knew they were going to screw you — they likely didn’t know that, at least not the people you talked with. With 50,000 plus employees do you (iFlow) really (naively) believe that all of Apple’s employees were privy to the development of iBooks?
It sucks that iFlow can’t figure out an alternative, but it’s not Apple’s job to help iFlow run their business. The people they should really be pissed at is the publishers not allowing a flexible pricing model for changing distribution methods — but that probably wouldn’t get them on the Hacker News front page.
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Your Photos are *Your* Photos
Jeff Cormier: >Twitpic’s recently amended terms coincide with the announcement of a new deal which sees the service partnering with news agency WENN to sell on the media photos posted by celebrities on Twitter. The new licensing deal ensures that users retain the copyright but by uploading photos service, the company is able to exploit the…
Jeff Cormier:
>Twitpic’s recently amended terms coincide with the announcement of a new deal which sees the service partnering with news agency WENN to sell on the media photos posted by celebrities on Twitter. The new licensing deal ensures that users retain the copyright but by uploading photos service, the company is able to exploit the photos for commercial gain.and:
>The only real way to ensure you remain in control of your uploads is to upload images to a private server or use a service such as Mobypicture which says it will not try to profit off the back of your work. But if you’re a user of any of the above apps, or any app for that matter, read the ToS, and if you have any questions, which no doubt many will (including yours truly) contact the creator of application.
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Quote of the Day: Chuck Skoda
“One of the reasons I’m happy Android is around — it’s helping keep malware off my iPhone.” — Chuck Skoda Responding to [this](http://www.mobilecrunch.com/2011/05/10/400-percent-increase-in-android-malware-mobile-security-threats-at-record-high/) report.
“One of the reasons I’m happy Android is around — it’s helping keep malware off my iPhone.”Responding to [this](http://www.mobilecrunch.com/2011/05/10/400-percent-increase-in-android-malware-mobile-security-threats-at-record-high/) report.
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Twitter Comments
Justin Blanton on using Twitter as your comment system of sorts: >Not only is feedback via Twitter less formal (in my eyes anyway), it’s generally more convenient than email (for both parties), not to mention that tweets are much easier for me to respond to because I’m severely length-constrained and don’t feel guilty for being…
Justin Blanton on using Twitter as your comment system of sorts:
>Not only is feedback via Twitter less formal (in my eyes anyway), it’s generally more convenient than email (for both parties), not to mention that tweets are much easier for me to respond to because I’m severely length-constrained and don’t feel guilty for being as concise as possible, or for not exploring every caveat.I use a dedicated Twitter account and publish on it as I would an RSS feed. I get a lot of feedback on both the @brooksreview account and my personal Twitter account — I think it’s a great medium for short comments. I am sure it saves me a ton of emails as well.
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WeatherSnitch is Back
Justin Blanton: >Well, version 1.0.5 was released yesterday, and as I speculated would happen, they’ve added an option to remove the ads. Also, following Fahrenheit’s lead, they now offer the option to display the current temperature as a badge on the icon. I’m thrilled they made these changes and it will be a tough call…
Justin Blanton:
>Well, version 1.0.5 was released yesterday, and as I speculated would happen, they’ve added an option to remove the ads. Also, following Fahrenheit’s lead, they now offer the option to display the current temperature as a badge on the icon.I’m thrilled they made these changes and it will be a tough call with this app back in the mix.
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Fair Use Laws
Craig Grannell: >It’s also worth noting that these online services appear in part to be relying on fair-use laws. This is why they are rolling out in the US. In the UK, they’ve a much tougher battle, given that the UK essentially lacks even basic fair-use law. For example, it’s not legal in the UK…
Craig Grannell:
>It’s also worth noting that these online services appear in part to be relying on fair-use laws. This is why they are rolling out in the US. In the UK, they’ve a much tougher battle, given that the UK essentially lacks even basic fair-use law. For example, it’s not legal in the UK to copy any media, even for personal use. The only exceptions are time-shifting of television content and backing up software, although more recent legislation demands that the second of those things not circumvent copyright protection.That’s pretty interesting. It’s always hard to know where other countries stand on these issues when you live in the U.S. — we are both dense and xenophobic here. I find it hard to believe that such legislation will stand for much longer, then again lots of money is spent on lobbyists.
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Quote of the Day: Andy Ihnatko
“Microsoft doesn’t have to make back the purchase price. They have to make something of Skype, not from Skype. If they fail to grow as a company, I’m going to conclude that Microsoft has officially and deliberately taken themselves off the list of “A”-list innovators.” — Andy Ihnatko
“Microsoft doesn’t have to make back the purchase price. They have to make something of Skype, not from Skype. If they fail to grow as a company, I’m going to conclude that Microsoft has officially and deliberately taken themselves off the list of “A”-list innovators.” -
The Health Risks of Sitting All Day
All in a nice infographic for you.
All in a nice infographic for you.
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Interesting Things Microsoft Can Do With Skype
Following the acquisition, here are some interesting things that Microsoft could do to take Skype to the next level: 1. Integrate Skype in Outlook. Not so that you can Skype a contact from within Outlook, that’s too obvious. Wouldn’t it be neat if you had a 50MB attachment to send and Outlook just sent that…
Following the acquisition, here are some interesting things that Microsoft could do to take Skype to the next level:
1. Integrate Skype in Outlook. Not so that you can Skype a contact from within Outlook, that’s too obvious. Wouldn’t it be neat if you had a 50MB attachment to send and Outlook just sent that over the Skype protocol for you?
2. Finally rid of the world of MSN messenger.
3. Sell a Windows Phone 7, uh, phone with only 3G data and no talk time on it — leveraging only Skype as the calling means.
4. Start licensing the technology to be used in other apps and other services, thus increasing the user base. (Facebook)
5. Start charging for it (MS knows how to charge for things).
6. Turn it into a serious business tool to compete with WebEX.
7. Build in the ability to remotely control another users computer for troubleshooting (like LogMeIn does).Of course we also run the risk that:
1. Skype gets five more words added to its name.
2. And a number for good measure
3. Microsoft is complacent and does absolutely nothing with it.I think Microsoft overpaid for Skype, but I don’t think Skype is necessarily screwed because it is owned by Microsoft.
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Microsoft Officially Acquires Skype for $8.5 Billion
If you look on the colophon it will disclose that I am a shareholder in Microsoft. Now that you know this, you should also know that this acquisition makes me completely uncomfortable. I think Ballmer overpaid for something he has no clue what to do with.
If you look on the colophon it will disclose that I am a shareholder in Microsoft. Now that you know this, you should also know that this acquisition makes me completely uncomfortable. I think Ballmer overpaid for something he has no clue what to do with.