Linked List: December 27, 2010

Monday, 27 December 2010

Worst Headline of the Day 

Ars Technica headline: “Apple: we’ll sell 21 million iPhones in first quarter of 2011”.

An accurate headline, given the article’s sources: “DigiTimes: Apple will sell 21 million iPhones in first quarter of 2011”. Considering DigiTimes’s shaky track record regarding Apple rumors, there’s a big difference.

Update: The headline has been updated to “Apple rumor: we’ll sell 21 million iPhones in first quarter of 2011”. But who is the “we”?

Tapulous: Christmas iPhone App Download Traffic Is Double Last Year’s 

Dan Frommer:

TTR4 has been the #1 free app for several days, and is cranking in the downloads. Tapulous tells us that peak Christmas downloads reached 45,000 per hour, and that holiday download traffic is twice the levels of last year. (It also boasts that TTR4 is the #1 app in 37 countries, so that gives you an idea of what it’s like to truly be at the peak of downloads and activations.)

Father Creates iPad App to Help Disabled Son ‘Speak’ 

Tom Breen reports:

Victor has a rare genetic disorder that delays development of a number of skills, including speech. To help him and others with disabilities, his father, Paul, and some of his students at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem have created an application for the iPhone and iPad that turns their touch screens into communications tools.

Facebook for iPhone Usage Statistics (Requires Flash Player) 

Looks like a nice Christmas for Apple: a million new Facebook for iPhone users in a single day. Here’s the corresponding chart for Facebook for Android. Android’s slope is impressive, but shows no spike for Christmas. I think the difference here is the iPad and iPod Touch.

Update 1: There is no native iPad app for Facebook, so maybe the difference is just the iPod Touch?

Update 2: Also worth pointing out, perhaps, that while Facebook’s Android app is growing fast, it isn’t catching up to the iPhone app. The Facebook for iPhone app gained about 4.5 million users for the month, going from 53 to 57.5 million users. The Facebook for Android app gained about 4.25 million users, going from 17 to 21 million users.

Amazon: Third-Gen Kindle Is Their Best-Selling Product of All Time 

Amazon PR:

“We’re grateful to the millions of customers who have made the all-new Kindle the bestselling product in the history of Amazon — surpassing Harry Potter 7,” said Jeff Bezos, Amazon.com founder and CEO. “We’re seeing that many of the people who are buying Kindles also own an LCD tablet. Customers report using their LCD tablets for games, movies, and web browsing and their Kindles for reading sessions. They report preferring Kindle for reading because it weighs less, eliminates battery anxiety with its month-long battery life, and has the advanced paper-like Pearl e-ink display that reduces eye-strain, doesn’t interfere with sleep patterns at bedtime, and works outside in direct sunlight, an important consideration especially for vacation reading. Kindle’s $139 price point is a key factor — it’s low enough that people don’t have to choose.”

Short version: Lots of people are buying both Kindles and iPads. (I own both and I’m glad I do.)

Another great stat: on their peak day this year (Monday, November 29), Amazon sold 158 items per second.

Samsung Hub: Samsung Galaxy Player to Be Announced at CES 

Samsung Hub:

Samsung has announced a new Android-based Galaxy Player that will be showcased next week at the CES 2011. Samsung says the new music player takes inspiration from its successful Galaxy S phone and is spec’d similarly sans the cellular connectivity.

The 9.9mm thick Galaxy Player (YP-GB1) runs on Android 2.2 Froyo OS and features a 1GHz CPU, 4-inch Super Clear LCD screen supporting up to WVGA resolution (800×480), T-DMB, SoundAlive audio enhancing technology, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 3.0, 3.2MP rear camera with front facing camera for video calling, GPS, HD video playback, microSD card slot, Android Market and Samsung Apps access and a 1200mAh removable battery.

The first true Android-based iPod Touch competitor. Wonder what the price will be.

The Most Reliable (and Unreliable) Hosted Blogging Services 

Spoiler: Tumblr is unreliable.