As much as I love Macworld, I have to say that the one indispensable website in our community is Daring Fireball — an indie website.
As cool as Twitter is, its early success in our community was due entirely to Twitterrific. And it took The Iconfactory to come up with the word “tweet” and the bird logo for Twitter.
It took Loren Brichter to invent pull-to-refresh in Tweetie.
It took Marco Arment to invent the entire read-later category with Instapaper.
Amen.
via Bombtune
From Studio Oefner
The Disintegrating series representing a staggering amount of work- has been created from hundreds not to say thousands of shots. Each car has been dismantled completely, from the body shell to the smallest screws, then photographed piece by piece in a specific position to obtain the illusion of an exploding car.
Fuck. Me.
From the NY Daily News:
Tech giant Microsoft is in negotiations to open its first ever New York City retail store on Fifth Ave., sources told the Daily News.
The deal, at 677 Fifth Ave. near 53rd St., would give Microsoft a splashy presence on the top retail corridor in the country and put it just a stone’s throw from its biggest rival Apple’s iconic glass cube store.
Not a good idea.
Remember, Microsoft is the very antithesis of strategy.
Repeat after me: Microsoft: Software, Services, Enterprise. Microsoft: Software, Services, Enterprise.
That new focus on Microsoft as a productivity company could spell the end for projects like Surface Mini, or even the larger ARM-based versions of Surface. Calculations by Computerworld suggest that Microsoft has lost $1.7 billion on Surface hardware, including the $900 million write-off for the Surface RT last year. That’s a huge loss for something Nadella describes as an effort to “stimulate more demand for the entire Windows ecosystem.” Microsoft has thrown similar amounts of cash at Xbox over the years, but the Xbox 360 sales have proven there’s demand for Microsoft’s games consoles.
—Tom Warren, The Verge
Microsoft has lost $1.7 billion on Surface hardware. Well done!
I’m trying to remember if Apple ever lost money on the iPad?
Oh that’s right, they never did.
This week Michael and Bryan discuss diesel engines, dream cars, Countaches, the smells of burning clutches & burning brakes, farming ancestors, perplexed Baby Boomers, Millennials, Gen Xers, ignorant SF artists, The New York Times endorsing weed, poppy seeds, cordless phones and space travel. The episode opens with the exhaust from a ’70s Mercedes 220D (diesel).
Weekly Exhaust Episode 11
via Jay Mantri
via imgur
From Cassandra Khaw at the Verge:
The wreckage of a drone has been found outside of a maximum security prison in South Carolina, according to Reuters. It is believed to have been used in an attempt to smuggle phones, marijuana, and tobacco into the Lee Correctional Institution. The discovery precipitated an investigation that would later lead to the arrest of 28-year-old Brenton Lee Doyle and a search for a second suspect.
Welcome to the future.
Was former BlackBerry CEO Thorsten Heins actually right about tablets? While we laughed at Heins’ prediction last year that tablets would be dead in just a few years, there’s now some evidence to suggest that he might have been onto something. In an interview with Re/code, Best Buy CEO Hubert Joly says that tablet sales at his stores have been absolutely plummeting this year while PC sales have actually experienced a rebound in the wake of Windows XP’s demise.
“Tablets boomed and now are crashing,” Joly tells Re/code. “The volume has really gone down in the last several months. But I think the laptop has something of a revival because it’s becoming more versatile. So, with the two-in-ones, you have the opportunity to have both a tablet and laptop, and that’s appealing to students in particular.”
—Brad Reed, Former BlackBerry CEO’s bold prediction might actually be coming true
The era of tablets is over? I say no fucking way. Especially for non-professionals who don’t need all the extra complexity that comes with laptops.
Only time will tell.
Update: It always helps to read the source of the information you’re reacting to.
So here’s what Walt Mossberg at Re/Code asked Best Buy CEO Hubert Joly:
You said the tablet had “crashed.” Do you believe it’s going away?Yeah, “crashed” is a strong word. So, the tablets have been an unbelievable phenomenon. I don’t think there’s a category that ever took off so quickly and so big in the history of tech.
The issue has then been that, once you have a tablet of a certain generation, it’s not clear that you have to move on to the next generation.
This I agree with this 100%.
Last year I upgraded to an iPad 3 from an iPad 2, and despite the lower resolution screen, I was ok with my 2. I don’t want to have to upgrade my iPad every year.
My iPhone? Now that’s a different story. My iPhone is much more integral to my daily life than my iPad. I also don’t expect as much from my iPad. I use it mostly for reading, watching videos/movies and surfing the Web.
One ongoing Harvard study indicates that people form more lasting and accurate memories if they believe they’re experiencing something alone. Another indicates that a certain amount of solitude can make a person more capable of empathy towards others. And while no one would dispute that too much isolation early in life can be unhealthy, a certain amount of solitude has been shown to help teenagers improve their moods and earn good grades in school.
—Leon Neyfakh, The power of lonely
Anyone who engages in anything creative–writing, painting, dancing, designing—already knows about the power of solitude. Alone is actually important to everyone.
The best thing Apple could do to increase the quality of apps is remove every top list from the App Store.
I hope Apple realizes how important it is to everyone — developers, customers, and Apple — that they make changes to encourage more high-quality apps. If they’re trying to boost iPad sales and increase differentiation between iOS and Android devices, that’s the first place to start.
But that won’t solve the biggest problem. (Neither will upgrade pricing, trials, or any other theoretical panacea.)
—Marco Arment, App Rot
