Linked List: February 28, 2010

Sunday, 28 February 2010

Merlin Mann on The Atlantic’s Dropping of Full-Content RSS Feeds ★

Merlin Mann:

This reeks of the same bush-league decision-making that hobbled Hulu, gets music fans sued, and keeps high-quality content locked in a tower like an aging virgin — too special to be manhandled by the riff-raff who are reluctant to pony up the lavish dowry that was the fashion fifty years earlier.

The good news: it’s a bug in The Atlantic’s updated CMS — full-content feeds are coming back. But so while Merlin’s arguments don’t apply to The Atlantic in particular, they stand as a fine essay on the turning point traditional paper-and-ink publications are facing.

iPhone, Android, and WebOS Demographics Via AdMob Survey ★

I question whether the survey group is representative of the platforms as a whole, but some of the numbers are striking. Android skews heavily male, for one thing. But by far the most striking stat in these results is the number for 17-and-under users:

iPhone: 13%
iPod Touch: 65%
Android: 7%
WebOS: 2%

For the phones, 17-or-younger is the smallest demographic. For the iPod Touch, on the other hand, it is by far the largest. More evidence that the iPod Touch is the strongest competitive asset for iPhone OS.

Deep Insight Into Apple From Morgan Stanley Analyst Kathryn Huberty ★

Thank goodness AppleInsider is here to bring me wisdom such as this, from analyst Kathryn Huberty:

“We expect Apple to launch new iPhones in June that offer both a lower total cost of ownership and new functionality, potentially including gesture-based technology.”

Huberty, of course, is the analyst who 10 months ago set a target for Apple’s April 2010 stock price at $105. As of Friday, it was over $204. I’m sure investors who listened to her advice then have a certain gesture for her.

They’re All Out of You ★

The Macalope:

So far, 2010 has been dominated by non-stop iPad speculation and Macworld Expo, but it’s time to get back to basics: jerks!