Linked List: December 21, 2011

Wednesday, 21 December 2011

The Truth About Microsoft and CES 

Josh Topolsky:

It seems like the Cupertino method of choosing the time and place for your product launches has firmly steeped in the mind of the industry, and it raises the question as to whether broader shows such as CES have the long-term staying power compared with more focused events such as E3 or Mobile World Congress.

Typical fanboy.

‘Fuck Me? No. Fuck You.’ 

Did Microsoft leave CES — or vice versa? Get your popcorn.

iTunes Store Now Available Across Latin America 

Anna Heim, The Next Web:

From Argentina to Panama, from Chile to Venezuela, iTunes’ users across the region can now enjoy Apple’s content of all types. In other words, they’ll be able to buy songs from iTunes Music Store and to rent or buy movies in its “Peliculas” section.

The race is on to cover the globe.

The App Store and China 

Darrell Etherington, GigaOm:

When comparing the two countries, the Chinese App Store for iPhone devices was just 18 percent of download volume vs the U.S. at the beginning of 2011. By November, that share had climbed to 30 percent, meaning China jumped from less than a quarter to nearly a third over a 10-month period. The numbers are even more interesting when examining the iPad: China’s take is just south of 50 percent of combined downloads between the two countries.

I think sooner than later, China will be Apple’s biggest market.

Next Month to Be Final CES Keynote for Microsoft 

Microsoft:

After thinking about questions like these, we have decided that this coming January will be our last keynote presentation and booth at CES. We’ll continue to participate in CES as a great place to connect with partners and customers across the PC, phone and entertainment industries, but we won’t have a keynote or booth after this year because our product news milestones generally don’t align with the show’s January timing.

Sounds familiar.

15 Years Ago Today 

Apple acquired NeXT. Not a bad move.

(Good thing I wasn’t then yet writing DF, or I’d have to eat some claim chowder about their not choosing Be.)

Jesse Hollington on the iMessage/Stolen iPhone Thing 

Jesse Hollington:

On Apple’s side, a great solution to this particular problem would be to simply refuse to reactivate any services after a remote wipe until some type of authentication has occurred. However, there is something that everybody can do now and IMHO everybody should be doing anyway if you’re at all concerned about any GSM phone falling into the wrong hands...

Set a PIN code on your SIM card.

Update: Setting a SIM PIN isn’t as easy as it seems. Matt Drance:

Enormous omission: Many SIMs have default PINs. You can lock yourself out by “setting” a new one.

Here’s AT&T’s FAQ. The iPhone UI for this is indeed terrible — it gives you no indication that it’s prompting you for an existing PIN.

Santa’s Little Helper 

Speaking of four days from now.

Estimating Kindle Sales 

Amazon announced Kindle sales are running over one million per week. David Smith attempts to break it down by model. The Fire, almost certainly, is selling best.

(I’ll bet we start seeing a lot more Fires in our web server stats starting in four days.)

Amazon Makes the Fire Less Balky 

David Pogue, on the first over-the-air software update for the Kindle Fire:

Sure enough: the home screen “carousel,” a rotating shelf that holds all of your books, magazines and movies, now stops on a dime when you want it to. It takes only one tap to open something instead of several frustrating ones. When you do tap something, it opens faster and more fluidly. Page turns are smoother, especially in magazines.