Linked List: September 27, 2010

Monday, 27 September 2010

Apple’s Share of the Mobile Advertising Market ★

Olga Kharif, reporting for Businessweek:

Apple will end the year with 21 percent of the market, according to estimates provided to Businessweek.com by researcher IDC. Google’s share will drop to 21 percent, from 27 percent last year, when combined with results from AdMob, the ad network it bought in May. Microsoft will drop to 7 percent, from 10 percent.

Apple only started selling mobile ads earlier this year. But even if Google’s share is down, the market is growing so fast that their revenue from mobile ads is growing.

Speaking of ‘True Grit’ ★

Here’s John Wayne receiving his Oscar for his performance in the original, back in 1970. Now that’s how you receive an award. (And what a lineup of nominees.)

Amazon Launching Their Own Android App Store ★

A little birdie tipped me to this over the weekend. It’s Android, but it’s unclear which devices it’s going to work on. One problem this solves for Android developers and users: Amazon takes payments in more countries than Google Checkout does.

Trailer for ‘True Grit’ ★

The Coen Brothers’ remake of the classic Western, starring Jeff Bridges, Matt Damon, and Josh Brolin. Yes.

BlackBerry Tablet OS Application Development ★

Two options: HTML/JavaScript/CSS web apps, and Flash.

HP Has No Plans to License WebOS ★

Harry McCracken:

TechCrunch’s Michael Arrington asked Todd Bradley, executive VP of HP’s Personal Systems Group, whether the company had any intention of licensing WebOS, which it acquired when it bought Palm, to any other company. He gave a definitive “no,” and if that decision has been publicly stated before, I’d missed it.

BlackBerry PlayBook ★

Announced today during RIM’s developer conference. 7-inches diagonal, runs the QNX OS that RIM bought earlier this year. The demo is very attractive, with a UI aesthetic that strikes me as a cross between iOS and WebOS. (The app-switching presentation is very WebOS.) The tech specs are interesting: 1 GHz multicore processor, 1 GB of RAM, and it pairs with a BlackBerry phone for tethered network access. Looks like an iPad in standalone product shots, but when you see someone holding it, you can tell just how much smaller a 7-inch display is.

But: It’s not shipping until “early 2011”, and prices haven’t been announced yet. That means it’ll be competing not against today’s iPad, but the second-generation iPad.

U.S. Senate Legislation to Create Internet Blacklist ★

Aaron Swartz has started a campaign to stop COICA, proposed legislation to create an Internet blacklist in the U.S. From the fact sheet:

What exactly does it do?

The bill creates two blacklists of Internet domain names. The first can be added to by a court, the second by the Attorney General. Internet service providers (everyone from Comcast to PayPal to Google AdSense) would be required to block any domains on the first list. They would also receive immunity (and presumably the government’s gratitude) for blocking domains on the second list.

Don’t make me quote Ben Franklin again.

Fraser Speirs on the iPad in Education ★

Fraser Speirs:

So many people have asked me to explain the educational impact of the iPad. I simply can’t yet get to grips with everything that’s happening. Put simply, the iPad deployment has transformed our school. Not evenly and not everywhere yet, but it’s coming.

Gourmet Live ★

Speaking of iPad editions of magazines, Gourmet Live has launched as a free app. There’s a big difference between Gourmet and other iPad magazines — the print edition of Gourmet was closed by Condé Nast a year ago. Gourmet is now only an iPad app. Here’s Anil Dash on how they did it and the thinking behind it.

Jason Schwartzman Introduces The New Yorker iPad App, in a Short Film Directed by Roman Coppola ★

For the time being, alas, you have to pay for each issue as an in-app purchase. Print subscribers can access an iPad-optimized version of their web edition, but they don’t get issues in the iPad app — and the web interface doesn’t work offline. In short: it’s an interesting first step, but not yet a replacement for a print subscription.

Also: the letter from the editors about the iPad app.

Segway Company Owner Jimi Heselden Dies in Segway Accident ★

The Guardian:

The flamboyant former miner at the head of the Segway scooter company has died in a freak accident by sliding on one of the miniature two-wheelers off a cliff.

Jiminy.

U.S. to Propose New Internet Wiretap Regulations ★

Charlie Savage, reporting for the NYT:

Essentially, officials want Congress to require all services that enable communications — including encrypted e-mail transmitters like BlackBerry, social networking Web sites like Facebook and software that allows direct “peer to peer” messaging like Skype — to be technically capable of complying if served with a wiretap order. The mandate would include being able to intercept and unscramble encrypted messages.

Let’s hope this goes nowhere. I’ll let Ben Franklin speak for me: “Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.”