January 2012
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Paul Carr vs The Daily Mail
As the Daily Mail Online passes the New York Times, Carr points out that not all Daily Mails are equal:
If all of this sounds at odds with your own experiences of the Mail, dear American readers, that’s because you’ve only ever read the Daily Mail online. And the Daily Mail Online and the Daily Mail newspaper are as different as chalk and AIDS.
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I'll be speaking at London Social Media Week's...
Social Media Week this year is Feb13-17, and I’ll be involved in one or two of the events in the London wing of the event, specifically speaking at the Ignite event on Feb 15, starting around 7pm:
Ignite started in Seattle about 5 years ago and is the brainchild of Brady Forrest, Technology Evangelist for O’Reilly Media, and Bre Pettis of Makerbot.com. Basically, it’s a presentation style...
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There's a Top Cat film coming out? Or will it be...
A generation of children in the UK need to know if the continuity announcer will get the name wrong again.
BBC: And now on BBC 1, Boss Cat!
Theme Song: “dah dah, dah dah, dah, Top Cat!”
Children watching: “giggles, they got it wrong… again!”
Hat tip to Digital Spy.
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The AP on how to handle a fast moving news story
“We both agreed, again like [Saturday] night, with something this high stakes we would rather be behind and be right than be ahead and be wrong,” Anthony said.
In this case it was on the death of Joe Paterno, but can we have more of this, and less of “first!” please?
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Piracy blog post on "stealing" quotes a scene...
There is a certain irony when a blog post about piracy and “stealing” quotes from Office Space:
You Don’t Understand. It’s, uh, very complicated. It’s, uh, it’s, it’s aggregate so I’m talking about fractions of a cent that, uh, over time, they add up to a lot.
Surely that scenario for that scene is in fact “stolen” from Superman 3. And yes, it’s...
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CD's stand for Cool Delivery or something equally...
Rob Manuel, in praise of CDs:
CDs don’t pause between tracks like your iPod/Spotify. This matters on albums that are meant to run together. Say Dark Side of the Moon. These records are broken by this [MP3] tech. If I was Roger Waters I’d take a shit in Apple’s office and refuse to stop shitting until this was fixed.
There are some more sensible reasons as well, but as a Mike Oldfield fan, I...
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Why the 99 cent app is killing traditional app...
Food for thought from David Barnard on App Cubby around the pricing of mobile apps and the race to zero for purchase price on apps, even with the big-ticket apps and games available for the mobile platforms. But Barnard goes beyond the problems for developers, and suggests this is what Apple intended:
…Apple’s policies and the design of the App Store itself initiated and even accelerated...
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We don't know if Instagram is coming to Windows...
…but it makes for great headlines on all the tech sites this morning. My favourite bit of “responsibility chain” is on WP Central:
…FastCompany is citing an unnamed source that Microsoft may have worked out a deal with the developers behind Instagram for an official, certified Windows Phone version.
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McQueen, Dunaway, Kiel, in The Terminator
Loving this one, via the photoshopped Movies from another Dimension…
…which reminds me of the Hugo winning short story “Impossible Dreams” by Tim Pratt. If you like the poster, you’ve got some reading to do over a coffee!
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Jaiku: 1 Feb 2006 - 17 Jan 2012
A little corner of the internet, with its the data, connections, heritage, and history, has died.
Google just switched off the Jaiku server.
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I never saw Jack Dorsey as a Bond villian
If Willy Wonka built a financial institution, instead of a chocolate factory, it would look something like Square. During an interview at the company’s San Francisco offices with Mr. Dorsey, we sat at a square table, in a square glass conference room — all of which are named after a famous town squares from around the world. Mr. Dorsey was eating nuts out of a square bowl. (Don’t worry, the nuts...
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The last PSP game I'll ever buy
…because any future games will need to work on the PS Vita as well, so it’s a goodbye to UMD as The Playstation Show welcomes 2012 with a bit of Solid Snake action and MGS Peacewalker
[audio:http://www.archive.org/download/tpcpsp_132/tpc_ps_20120116_132.mp3] MP3 - Show Notes - RSS Feed
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Samsung Windows Phones look too much like Samsung...
Got to love the alleged view of the UK mobile networks:
Citing an “extremely reliable” source, [Professeur Thibault] first goes on to address the absence of a Focus S equivalent in Europe which is apparently due to carriers’ unwillingness to stock a device that looks so similar to the Galaxy S II. If there were ever a good incentive to not be lazy with design for Samsung, that...
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Catch up on the Windows Phone news with the AAWP...
It’s been a busy week in the Windows Phone world, what with CES, new models, and some great app announcements. What better way to catch up on all the news and make sense of it with the All About Windows Phone Team and our weekly podcast?
In this episode… we bring you all the Windows Phone related news from CES. There’s discussion of the Microsoft keynote, upcoming Xbox Live...
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The journalist's dictionary guide to CES
James Kendrick:
This fantastic gadget is our reference design. We call it that because we’re a component maker, not a device maker. We can’t get device makers to buy enough of our chips, so we built this pretty device to show how smart we are. Since we don’t sell devices and nobody is buying our chips, you won’t see this after the show, ever.
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How are third party apps working out for Spotify's...
It’s all well and good talking about how many people are engaging with applications in Spotify, how many companies are writing software to work inside the sandbox, and to start working on the metrics to provide the developers a revenue stream… but how much more money is flowing back to the artists because of all this action? Or is the money staying with the developers, Spotify, and the...
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A bowl of Petunias, Star Wars, and Red Tails
One line, at the end of the BBC report on George Lucas’ latest film project, “Red Tails”, has me worried.
If his film does well at the box office, Lucas said he had a prequel and sequel planned.
Oh no, not again.
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Android isn't fragmented, it's differentiated (and...
Eric Schmidt:
Differentiation means that you have a choice and the people who are making the phones, they’re going to compete on their view of innovation, and they’re going to try and convince you that theirs is better than somebody else… Fragmentation, however, means that you have an app and it runs on one device but not the other
You know, everyone can drive a truck through...
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Politics is tough when even the cryptic crosswords...
Down.
8. Miliband upset in cut vacillation (10)
Which, as any smart cryptic solver can spot, is “indecision”
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Is this the answer to paying a restaurant bill...
Loving the idea of “Phone Stack”, where everyone puts their mobiles face down in the middle of a table before starting a joint meal - first person to answer a phone that rings, pays the bill for everyone.
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Will Netflix UK herald access fees on the UK...
The problem with Netflix in the UK is hat there’s barely enough room for all that iPlayer streaming. The UK networks are already screaming at the BBC for a carriage charge, what’s going to happen when Netflix (which takes up some 30% of US internet traffic) gets some real traction on this side of the Atlantic?
Netflix is hardly likely to want to see operators charging more money to...
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Can Spotify in the US convert enough users to...
Remember when Spotify couldn’t get into the US market because the major labels in the US didn’t think they could convert enough of the free users to premium members?
It’s crunch time, as the six month “unlimited streaming” period comes to an end and Spotify fans in the US will be asked for $5 a month. How many of the subscriber base will move to the...
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Samsung have only sold seventeen Android...
…or maybe they’ve sold eleventy-million and one. That’s the problem when you don’t tell people your sales figures - we’ll start to make them up. Charles Arthur of The Guardian:
And yes, for journalists it is frustrating to be driven to roundabout language such as “believed to be the world’s largest smartphone seller”. I’m far from the only...
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Nudge-nudge, wink-wink, the real reason that HTC's...
There are going to be a lot of people telling HTC why they have had their profit drop, and I suspect that the advice will match the affiliations and personal wish list of the commentators. So expect a lot of geeks to suggest the major reason for this drop is the lack of an open boot loader on their Android handsets; high-end tech blogs to just know it’s because they insist on using Sense UI...
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Internet is not a human right. Really, er, what...
Vint Cerf may stand up and say that “the internet is not a human right”, but I wonder if he’s aware of the Estonian Constitution? I wasn’t aware of one of the finer points of this until Liam Clark mentioned it on the Nul Points! Eurovision quiz: their constitution does label internet access as a human right (and as such every library in Estonia has free Wi-fi for all)....
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Who takes pictures from inside a Russian Rocket...
Sneaking into a rocket factory? In Russia? And then posting all the pictures online? Who says life can never be like a video game…
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Chinese Whispers style reporting is why tech blogs...
Paul Thurrott on the whole one hundred million dollars of PR for Microsoft and Nokia stories going around. This is why blogging rumours on top of rumours on top of guesswork to chase page-views really damages a lot of tech reporting online.
I’ve been sitting on this information for weeks so that Microsoft can make its big announcement at CES this coming week. But with these leaks, as with...
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What happened to Symbian in 2011
Quite a lot actually, as we detail all the major stories and events over on All About Symbian.
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John Carpenter's "The Thing", starring Pingu
Wrong. So wrong. So perfect.
http://youtu.be/ToCq_c3wOM8
Pingu is the new Kurt Russell.
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Five UK Tech Companies to Watch in 2012
As everyone gets back to work after the holidays, everyone is wondering what the next big thing is going to be… apart from the companies that are going to be award that label during the next twelve months. That would be the companies who have been working away, in some cases for years, to become the overnight sensation of the year. So who are the tech start-ups and digital companies from the UK...
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How many different screen sizes does Android have,...
The problem with Android? Let’s start with screen sizes and what programmers do with the size.
In the bad old days when I was creating layouts for Windows Apps (we used to call them programs…) we never assumed what size or shape the user’s screen was. Even if we had known the resolution, the user could have resized the window, scaled their fonts, or done any of a dozen things to change the...
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Rewriting Clarke's Laws for the YouTube generation
So, it appears that we need to revise the third law to “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from CGI”
BL on Metafilter.
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Spotify's 'business by obscurity', as Adele tops...
Adele is the most played artist on Spotify in the UK, which is nice but what I really want to know is…
1: How many times was the track “Rolling in the Deep” played?
2: How much did that earn her label (XL, which isn’t one of the ‘majors’)?
3: How much of that slice of the subscriptions was passed on to Adele?
Yes, I’m sure we’ll see these in the...
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Techmeme and last year's top predictable tech...
No real surprises in the Tehmeme top stories of 2011 - lots of Apple news, big companies doing very stupid things, and the obsession with US mobile networks and when they’ll get an iPhone. But were these stories the big stories because of or in spite of the chase for page views?
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Sum up WebOS? Not enough resources and a flawed...
The choice of webkit:
After some internal debate, the company chose to have WebOS rely on WebKit, an open-source software engine used by browsers to display Web pages. Mr. Mercer said that this was a mistake because it prevented applications from running fast enough to be on par with the iPhone. But a former member of the WebOS app development team said the core issue with WebOS was actually...
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When something is sold out, it's not Microsoft...
Lots of gnashing of teeth in the Windows Phone world as the ChevronWP7 team, who provide a legal method to unlock any Windows Phone device to run homebrew software, announce they are halting sales of the unlock “token” at 10,000. The reasoning is simple, the contract with Microsoft is for a maximum of 10,000 tokens. It’s not Microsoft being evil, or pulling the rug out from under...
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Does it matter how accurate the "Musicians to...
The BBC have noted their hits and misses from previous “Sound of the year” lists, and found five names they’ve predicted over the last nine years that are hits. Who much of the success is because they got a kick of momentum by appearing on the list (Plan B?), and how much is down to how well they were marketed (the failure of Little Boots) isn’t discussed.
You know what...
December 2011
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Scotch and Wry, that vital ingredient of a...
As the rest of the world celebrates New year’s Eve and bringing in 2012, there’s the little matter of Hogmanay. You might think it’s just a fancy Scottish word for the start of a three-day party (which it is), but it’s a special time of year. And for those of us who watched the new year come in on TV, it’s the point of year where we all miss Rikki Fulton’s...
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Ignore short term Amazon profit warnings... Amazon...
It doesn’t matter that Amazon are a little bit down in one quarter of earnings - especially if that loss was in part to the loss leading Kindle Fire. Loss leading Kindle Fire. Amazon is in it for the very long haul, and short term profit has never been their goal - long term profit is where they always look.
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Depression in the world of start-ups
Smart words (as always) from Violet Blue:
The signs and symptoms of depression can easily go undetected in tech culture; especially since we’re all trying so hard to show we’re happy and successful - and any sign of distress or unhappiness typically results in painful reinforcement, such as unfollows. I think it will still benefit everyone to know what the signs are. Rather than a blog post, I...
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The Rock Show looks back at the music of 2011
[audio:http://www.archive.org/download/TPCRock_Friday215/tpn_rock_friday_20111130_215.mp3] Mp3 File - Show Notes - RSS Feed
One final burst of music, as I take a look back at the music that has influenced The Rock Show podcast this year, and give them a little hurrah to see out 2011. With music from Ezra Furman, Jupiter Sunrise, The Civil Wars, The Jezabels, April Smith, and I Fight Dragons.
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The loss of Android's "open" definition is more...
I’m not going to jump to the conclusion that Andy Rubin deliberately deleted his famous “the definition of open” tweet. For someone who pays very little attention to his Twitter account, I’m more inclined to think the Twitter server farm is up to its usual tricks, rather than some evil plans, but it might be smart for Rubin to tweet it again:
the definition of open: “mkdir...
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Are "Famous Last Tweets" misguided journalism?
Is it just me or is the NY Times post on the last twitter messages from people who died in 2011 just a bit too creepy and SEO targeted to be considered a good basis for an article?
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When headlines attack someone switching blogging...
But here’s a thought — why don’t we take a moment and think about what’s actually happening before publishing a pre-written, sensationalistic story with a few new names pasted in? I’m going to warn you that what follows is long, and a lot of it links back to events that happened earlier in the year. But without that perspective, none of this Chris Grant news really comes into focus.
Darren Murph...
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Windows Phone reaches 50,000 apps in fourteen...
Only Apple got there faster, but Microsoft’s new mobile platform passed 50,000 apps submitted to the Windows Marketplace. Lots of pretty graphs and more numbers from Rafe at All About Windows Phone (and more commentary by myself at Forbes).
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The ICS Kindle Fires will help Amazon
And there we go - a bit later than I expected, but Amazon Kindle Fires are being flashed with clean Android ROM’s, in this case of 4.0 and the Ice Cream Sandwich build. To be honest this was always going to happen, and I think the few hundred Fires that will be flashed won’t worry Amazon.
Bezos will be happy with the extra PR and marketing going out there to help sell more catalogues...
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The TouchPad aftermarket proves nothing about its...
A small number of geeks, chasing after even smaller quantities of end-of-lined geek toys, are keeping the price high. That does not mean that the HP Touchpad would have been a commercial success, nor does it mean that the price is reflecting the general feeling of a machine that should still be on sale.
Geeks will buy one everything they can get their hands on. Selling a few thousand is easy....
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The Christmas Charts, almost exactly like I...
This year’s Christmas Top 40, for the record…
#13, Fairytale of New York, by The Pouges, ft Kirsty MacColl.
#17, All I Want For Christmas, by Maria Carey.
#34, Last Christmas, by Wham!
#36, Driving Home for Christmas, by Chris Rea.
#38, I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day, by Wizzard, ft Roy Wood.
#40, Merry Xmas Everybody, by Slade.
And not forgetting Smells Like Teen...
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Merry Christmas!
http://youtu.be/NrAwK9juhhY
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A Christmas lesson on the Scrooge Economics of the...
In the unlikely event that Boney M sold £1m-worth of Christmas records a year [Mary’s Boy Child, their Christmas album, and a few other rarities], the four band members would receive £357.14 each.
The Guardian.