June 2012
2 posts
4 tags
Picplz Shutting Down Permanently
From an e-mail I received yesterday:
On July 3, 2012, picplz will shut down permanently and all photos and data will be deleted. Until then, you can log in and download your photos by clicking on the download link next to each photo in your photo feed. Thank you for your support of picplz and we apologize for any inconvenience this may cause you.
What can I say? Not all Instagram clones are as...
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Mike Daisey and the "badge of honor" →
I found this at Stephen Hacket, who’s saying Mike Daisey blasted Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher on the D10 interview with Tim Cook. Now, I’m not an English native and I really hope “blasted” is some irony, because Daisey should shut the hell up and swallow his lies. Mossberg’s aggressiveness is isn’t aggressive enough for what Daisey has done, but he’s...
May 2012
46 posts
5 tags
Therefore
René Descartes walks into a bar. The bartender asks “Would you like a beer?”. Descartes says “I think not” and promptly vanishes.
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Helvetica in Motion
Cool. Watch it.
Original article and comments, here Like | Follow | RSS
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Hammer.js - easy multitouch gestures for sites →
Hammer.js is a small library for handling touch events. You can add tap (touch/click), double tap, hold, drag (touchmove/mousemove), swipe, and transform (pinch) events to any website. Comes as a jQuery plugin as well. Go check the demo. [via]
Original article and comments, here Like | Follow | RSS
3 tags
Kafka →
I loved this:
Facebook is Kafka with a thumbs-up button.
Brent Simmons is damn right. But then again, some people need to graduate MIT and work in its research labs to understand the importance of social media how Facebook changed people.
Original article and comments, here Like | Follow | RSS
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Tim Cook: "I'm not Steve Jobs' replacement" →
Tim Cook about Steve Jobs:
Steve was a genius and a visionary. And you know, I’ve never viewed my role as to replace him. I think he’s an irreplaceable person. Steve was an original. I don’t think there’s another one of those being made. I’ve never really felt the weight of trying to be Steve. It’s just not who I am. It’s not my goal in life. I am who I am, and I’m focused on that and being a...
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Tim Cook: "We didn't invent the tablet" →
We didn’t invent the tablet market. It was there. We invented the modern tablet.
Tim Cook said that at D10. Now, for starters, it takes a lot of courage to say it, especially in a context in which all haters say “Apple didn’t innovate anything, it’s just marketing, they’re copycats.” That’s one. The second, here’s what Cook says about...
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The HDD is not enough. For Adobe, of course
That’s the standard Adobe Reader, occupying my Air’s hard drive. It takes 416 MB to read text. Speechless. Well done, Adobe.
Original article and comments, here Like | Follow | RSS
6 tags
Different TV stations, same content. Sharing the... →
The stations here compete for viewers, but they cooperate in gathering the news — maintaining technically separate ownership, but sharing office space, news video and even the scripts written for their nightly news anchors. That is why viewers see the same segments on car accidents, the same interviews with local politicians, the same high school sports highlights. The same kind of sharing takes...
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Apple is clearly going oh!-so-down →
Cook wants key players in Washington to know they now have an open line to the chief executive in Cupertino. That was the message aides briefed on the meetings said Cook conveyed in sit-downs with House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.)
Yeah, Apple is clearly going down. I mean, it’s not like Tim...
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All your houses are belong to Facebook →
Two robbers have paid a visit to a house in south-eastern Australia, hours after a teenager posted a photo on Facebook of a large sum of cash. The masked men, armed with a knife and a club, struck the home of the 17-year-old girl’s mother in the country town of Bundanoon on Thursday, police say.
Because Facebook is for meeting nice new people.
Original article and comments, here Like |...
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Yup, rating agencies underperform. And use... →
Just read an article and remembered about this:
McGraw-Hill Cos., owner of Standard & Poor’s, has “underperformed its potential” and should break into four parts, shareholders Jana Partners LLC and Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan proposed. […] The company “has consistently underperformed its potential and traded at a sizable discount,” Jana said in the filing.
Well, what do you know?
...
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A Facebook phone? But, why? →
OK, so there are rumors of a Facebook phone coming soon. Like, really? Are you serious? But, why? For instance, the Facebook app is responsable for draining 3 percent of your Android phone for each charging cycle. Compare that to the 13% used by the touchscreen and the 4% used by the system to keep the phone logged in to the network. Imagine a Facebook phone. If the Facebook Android app uses...
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Soundcloud Downloader. I'm a pirate, baby! →
When I saw ‘Drive,’ I fell for the soundtrack. ‘College’, I mean. I’m not a fan of d’n’b and its bastard dubstep, but I like electronic music. Old-school electro, whose parents descend from psychedelic and synthesizers. The ‘Drive’ sountrack is just that, and the French dude David Grellier is doing a hell of a job with his project College. What...
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From retrofuturism to the future of television
About a week ago, I attended RoNewMedia, a regional conference on new media and technology. In the third and last day of the event, the main topic was media and content. And some of the speakers were talking about the everlasting subjects of streaming, video on demand and payments. Now, it happens that a local Apple premium reseller gave me an Apple TV 1080p to play with for a couple of weeks. And...
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Silicon Valley, destroying the world? →
Nope, but it’s fun to use PandoDaily-like titles when quoting PandoDaily. Anyway, here’s something about WordPress founder Matt Mullenweg:
Mullenweg said he’s concerned that Silicon Valley is creating products that are so engaging that they’re also incredibly distracting, to the detriment of creativity and productivity. He fretted that some of these socially disruptive technologies...
4 tags
Sources familiar with the matter →
Stop quoting “Sources familiar with the matter”, Asian websites lazily thrown into Google translate, Apple Supplier Press Releases or the way Tim Cook holds his coffee cup in the morning; it’s lazy shitty reporting and only serves to make you look like an asshole when you’re inevitably proven wrong or called out on your bullshit.
I love this piece. Read it all. It’s about how Apple rumors...
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Absinthe 2.0 is out, jailbreaks iOS 5.1.1 devices →
Absinthe 2.0 is finally here to jailbreak your device. This release has been a large collaborative effort between Chronic-Dev Team and iPhone Dev Teams (Jailbreak Dream Team.) This jailbreak supports firmware 5.1.1 ONLY and is again one of the most easiest jailbreaks to use.
The long awaited jailbreak software is here. Yet another chance to jailbreak my device and I don’t want to do it....
6 tags
The hyperlocal myth
Stowe Boyd asks what happened to the hyperlocal hype. Well, nothing happened to the hyperlocal, that’s what happened with the hype. You see, I used to work for a local newspaper. A county newspaper with only a few reporters. In our town - an almost 80.000 people community - we were three reporters and one editor. We were publishing about 10 articles a day. I was responsible with sports, some...
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Comma man returns →
I love how Ben Yagoda explains English grammar. Today, another good article. Now, I’m a grammar freak by default (well, not an English grammar freak, as long as I’m not a native speaker, but I’m trying to become one) and I’m quite interested in this stuff. But what I love the most is the fact that The New York Times actually promotes good punctuation. That’s something...
7 tags
Sir Jonathan Ive →
The formerly known Jony Ive is, starting today, a knight. No more Jony. It’s Sir Jonathan Ive, now. Check out this Telegraph interview. After you finish reading, check out the second part of the interview. Yup, “Simplicity isn’t that simple.”
Original article and comments, here
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Fitch fails. Again. Now, downgrading Japan →
So, Japan’s economic strategy is to lower its public debt starting 2021. So, it’s OK to have a big public debt in the next few years. But not for Fitch, the rating agency that remembered Japan is a country. A real country. That exists! And that has a public debt, a good enough reason for downgrading. So, Fitch downgraded Japan’s rating from AA to A+. If you’ll soon find out...
6 tags
What Microsoft learned from Apple →
Gruber has a point:
Overall, Windows 8 continues to strike me as ambitious, different, and carefully considered. Microsoft clearly sees why the iPad has been so successful, and they’re being smart: they’re learning from iOS and adapting, not copying.
I have a few friends at Microsoft (by the way, they say Romanian is the second most spoken language at Microsoft) and I know they’re really...
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The shift from "tech innovation" to "social...
I didn’t really got as far as reading the article - I’ve first spotted the link in a Facebook group -, but I’ve seen the title of an article from The Atlantic: “The Golden Age of Silicon Valley Is Over”. Then, I’ve seen that Stephen posted about this too. I still didn’t got to read the whole thing, I just didn’t have the time. But, as I was...
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Rating agencies must die. Now. →
Greece is a a country that went into a loop. An economic disaster loop. It’s been there for a while, it’s going to be there for another, it won’t go out of the crisis anytime soon. And after a couple of years of disaster, here comes Fitch, the rating agency, in 2012, downgrading Greece from B- to CCC. I mean, now. Just now. They probably got lightning struck and, suddenly,...
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The essence of blogging →
Blogging is not about being stiff and rigid in your writing, but being flexible and flowing with ideas. It doesn’t matter if everyone agrees with your thoughts. In fact, that would be really boring — but you write it anyway. […] Blogging is also about trust. If you’re readers know that you are writing from your heart, they will listen. They will engage you, and in the process you will learn...
4 tags
MG Siegler got a new layout. An honest opinion
Because I know he follows my tumblr (and all my posts here are crossposted on tumblr) and, most probably, he’s going to read this too: that new layout is no fun. First, it’s ugly. Second, there’s a reason why TechCrunch kept the blog structure after its most recent redesign: usability. There’s a reason why TNW quit the “frontpage sections format” for the...
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The trouble with Retina Displays on Macs →
9to5Mac reported that Apple is working on adding Retina Displays to MacBooks. My first though would be “cool”. I don’t know how, but it always hits me the moment exactly after I find the news interesting: why would Apple do that? You can understand the decision when it comes to iPhones and iPads - a higher resolution on small displays is heaven, it’s not everyday you...
4 tags
Frank Zappa - Transylvania Boogie
You might wonder why the heck have I tagged this post as “tech”. Well, because the song called Transylvania Boogie, belonging to Frank Zappa, is one that I had never heard before I started to play the Progressive Rock radio station on the Apple TV I just received for a quick “experience” testing.
Right now, besides AirPlay and radio, I can’t do crap. I can’t...
6 tags
Apparently, you have to be Time magazine to be... →
Finally someone bigger. It’s not like I didn’t write about how lame DigiTimes is when it comes to Apple sources. It’s not like I wasn’t writing a few days ago about how unprofessional writers there at CNet are when they copy/paste rumors from DigiTimes. Oh, well, I’m not Time magazine. But I’m so glad someone actually wrote about how full of crap DigiTimes is....
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“Nillionaire
adj. Someone having little to no money”
– Stolen from some picture pinned on Pinterest. Kinda like young entrepreneurs, right?
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Pebble: $10 million raised in two months. Now...
A few weeks ago, when the Pebble watch was at “only” $5 million, I was tweeting that it’s going to pass 10 million. Then, when it got close to 15 days left and was barely getting over 7 million, I started to doubt my guestimate. But, as you can see, the Pebble watch passed, three days ago, the 10 million limit. The guys now have more than 67.000 backers and $10,181,600 to receive...
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One month old tech startup, already sold. Is it...
When I started this article, I remembered I read about Betteridge’s Law of Headlines, which states that Any headline which ends in a question mark can be answered by the word ‘no’. I’d normally say this is true. But here’s a nice story (another one) about three guys that met, one day, and thought about starting a small business. Long story short, they made their own hackathon, got in...
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Finding pr0n on Instagram →
TechCrunch has a good story. It’s not just about Instagram (it’s about the full-of-porn-tumblr too), but it’s interesting exactly because of Instagram. I never thought of it as a NSFW place to go and, probably, neither lots of other people. Maybe it’s because of Instagram’s policy and algorithms, that never let “nudity-tagged” pics to hit the streams, hell...
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Apple products in 40 percent of 2011's top movies →
Now, that’s wowing.
The bottom line: Apple products were in more than 40 percent of top movies last year, an advantage as traditional advertising falls flat.
All the details, in BusinessWeek.
Original article and comments, here
5 tags
What can Apple lose after dropping Google Maps →
MG Siegler in TechCrunch:
Apple may be the largest user of the Google Maps API right now. It’s not clear if Google charges Apple for this or not. Or if they’re about to start, as they have with other third-parties.
I think Apple doesn’t pay a penny. First of all, because they don’t really have to. Second, because being the largest user, iPhone users will - doh! - use Google Maps....
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Apparently, Gmail hates Chrome
Funny thing how two Google products can’t stand each other. Of course, I’m kidding, but I kid you not publishing the image above. That’s a real GMail error shown in Google’s own browser, Chrome (which, by the way, has autoupdates turned on). For posterity (unless you want to click the picture for the larger size,) here’s what the error states:
We’re sorry. It...
7 tags
HP's VP of Industrial Design is not a designer?
Stacy Wolff is HP’s Vice President of Industrial Design. He holds a bachelor of fine arts degree in industrial design from Michigan State University. That pretty much makes him a designer. What doesn’t make him a designer is his lack of eye in design. Check this out:
I think if you look at the new Spectre XT, there are similarities in a way, not due to Apple but due to the way...
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PandoDaily is going so down →
When I wrote, about a month ago, that PandoDaily is not going down, instead is just slowing down after kicking Mike Arrington and MG Siegler, I was such an optimist. Truth is, Sarah Lacy’s project is not based on journalism. Right now, it’s becoming some sort of tabloid. And Milo Yiannopoulos has a good analysis. However, I was right: it’s bad management. It’s just a matter...
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Here's another reason to trust DigiTimes →
Apple will launch the 7 inch iPad mini in August, will launch a 10 inch iPad before Christmas and the iPhone 5 is coming in September. This is what the great professionals working for DigiTimes.com are saying. Bullshit. I’m ashamed to see websites I trust quoting DigiTimes. What the hell, people? Are you kidding? It’s you saying DigiTimes is not a reliable source and you still publish...
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And I thought CNet is a reliable news source....
I do have a problem with news outlets like CNet when their editors trust unreliable news sources. As a journalist, I triple checked my info before writing an article. As a journalist, I know you’re cheating on your readers when you’re copy/pasting news from unreliable sources. It’s not fair to republish rumors and blame the source when you knew right from the start that the...
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The "rule of the three" in technology
I might be writing an absolutely stupid rant here, but I find myself looking at a pattern. I’m reading tons of stuff about technology, both business-wise and technical-wise and I follow most of the trends news. And most of these news, if you’re looking at the big picture, led me to believe there’s an unwritten “rule of the three” in technology. This can only be...
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Apple drops Google Maps, replaces it with... →
Back in March, Apple shifted away from using Google Maps in its iPhoto for iOS map in favor of OpenStreetMap (OSM), the open-source mapping service that relies on the public for edits similarly to Wikipedia. […] As of May 1st, the acknowledgements under iPhoto’s settings page now credits “OpenStreetMap contributors,” with a link back to the site.
It was about time. I...
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Nope, iWatch won't exist
John Gruber has a point, the only way Apple can hurt business like Pebble or LunaTik is to launch similar products. MG Siegler, on the other hand, doesn’t. Because Apple shouldn’t be thinking about launching any wrist device. Not yet. It’s not something Apple would do, not this soon, at least. What Apple does is copying and improving stuff. LunaTik is merely a strap and Pebble is...
4 tags
“When you do something noble and beautiful and nobody noticed, do not be sad. For...”
– John Lennon
April 2012
69 posts
5 tags
Art.sy invites →
I can invite 5 people to Art.sy. Whoever is interested in getting a new account, please feel free to leave a comment below. If you’re reading this on Tumblr, click on the “Original article & comments” link below this paragraph. You’ll be able to leave a comment using the Facebook plugin. The first five who request an invite, will receive it. Thanks.
Original article and...
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“I do not want and I will never ever be Traian Băsescu’s* prime-minister. I...”
– Victor Ponta***, March 19, 2012. __
* Whenever a government ends its term, according to the state laws, the president has to appoint a new prime-minister. Traian Băsescu is Romania’s president since 2004. ** Emil Boc is a former prime-minister. He ran the government from December 22, 2008, to...