Linked List: February 2, 2012

Thursday, 2 February 2012

If you’re as disappointed as I am with the Susan G. Komen for the Cure foundation’s decision to drop funding for breast cancer screening at Planned Parenthood, do what I did: donate to Planned Parenthood.

(Cupertino-area readers, take note: Planned Parenthood is a registered 501c3, and thus eligible for a matching donation from Apple.)

iTunes Store Credit 20 Percent Off ★

The good news: Best Buy is selling iTunes gift cards at 80 cents on the dollar.

The bad news: you have to shop at Best Buy.

Microsoft Pushes for Plugin-Free Web ★

John Hrvatin from the Internet Explorer team:

The transition to a plug-in free Web is happening today. Any site that uses plug-ins needs to understand what their customers experience when browsing plug-in free. Lots of Web browsing today happens on devices that simply don’t support plug-ins. Even browsers that do support plug-ins offer many ways to run plug-in free.

Metro style IE runs plug-in free to improve battery life as well as security, reliability, and privacy for consumers.

How long until Google joins the party?

Five-Year-Old Analyzes Logos ★

Astute and adorable.

Backpedalling ★

Shawn King on Violet Blue’s odd response to having it pointed out that the Macworld/iWorld “booth babe” she wrote about was not a booth babe:

All is not lost. I have a solution for Violet Blue and ZDNet. First, offer a public apology to Piroska Szurmai-Palotai. Secondly, restore the story to its original writing. Yes, both are embarrassing actions but ones that real journalists recognize must be done from time to time. Offer a sincere mea culpa to both the developer, the Mac Community and to journalists everywhere.

And finally, offer to pay for the same booth for Ms Piroska Szurmai-Palotai and her company at next year’s Macworld.

See also this follow-up.

Caviar and Champagne ★

This week’s episode of America’s second-best podcast features discussion regarding Macworld/iWorld, the evolution and future of cameras and camera makers, and Apple’s Chinese manufacturing partners.

Brought to you by FreshBooks and MailChimp.

Zuckerberg’s Share ★

Nick Bilton and Evelyn Rusli, reporting for the NYT on who’s profiting from the Facebook IPO:

Mr. Zuckerberg, 27, has 533.8 million shares, worth $28.4 billion based on a company valuation of $100 billion, or $53 a share. He also has undisputed control of the company, a remarkable achievement since the company has received financing from some of the world’s top business minds. He owns 28.4 percent of the company outright and he controls 57 percent of the voting rights. […]

Bill Gates controlled only 49.2 percent of Microsoft as it went public in 1986. Google’s co-founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, each owned about 15 percent of their company when it went public in 2004.

I’m not much interested in and don’t use Facebook, so I seldom write about them. But that Zuckerberg was able to hold onto so much stock and an astounding majority of the voting rights is proof that his success is no fluke. The guy must be a badass at the negotiating table.

Dangers of Fracking ★

Clever, informative website by Linda Dong.

Having a Wee Bit of Trouble ★

Siri comes to Scotland.

Comparison of First Seven Quarters: iPod, iPhone, iPod ★

Nice little chart from the great Horace Dediu. If you asked me what the most underrated aspect of Apple is today, I’d say it’s the speed at which iPad sales have grown. The iPhone took off fast, but the iPad has taken off way, way faster. I suspect many Apple watchers consider the iPad an iPhone-like success — but it’s far bigger.

Dalrymple: ‘Apple Will Not Hold an Event in February’ ★

As usual, I would not bet against Jim.

Red Blooded ★

Sweet video for a sweet notebook; effects all done in-camera.

Not Everyone Copies Apple ★

Interesting contrast between the new CEOs of Apple and Sony.

The Global Handset Business in One Chart ★

Informative data visualization by Benedict Evans.

‘Think Profit’ ★

MG Siegler compares Apple’s profit-focused business approach to Amazon’s:

As their dance with the dreaded red line proves, Amazon isn’t anywhere close to operating the way Walmart does yet. In fact, Amazon’s margins are so slim that Facebook, which just filed to go public today, recorded nearly double the profit of Amazon last year ($1 billion versus $631 million). That’s pretty crazy when you think about it.

Avid Studio for iPad ★

$5 video-editing iPad app from Avid. No word on an Android version.

Like Royal Weddings ★

Nat Torkington:

Tech Giant IPOs are like Royal Weddings: the people act nice but you know it’s a seething roiling pit of hate, greed, money, and desperation that goes on a bit too long so by the end you just want to put an angry chili-covered porcupine in everyone’s anus and set them all on fire. But perhaps I’m jaded.

Bonus points for tagging the post with “porcupines”.

Apple Passes LG to Become World’s Third Largest Mobile Phone Manufacturer ★

Eric Slivka, MacRumors:

Apple’s share of the market hit 8.7% in the fourth quarter and registered at 6.0% for the full year. Steve Jobs famously noted during the iPhone’s 2007 introduction that Apple was shooting to take 1% of the massive overall mobile phone market, and the company has clearly exceeded that goal and can now set its sights on a 10% quarterly share during the next spike in sales.

I’ve long held that Apple’s share of the overall phone market is a far more interesting metric than their share of “smartphones”. All phones will soon be smartphones.

Dixons Apparently Sucks ★

Ben Rooney, writing for the WSJ:

Presumably Mr. Browett interviews really, really well, and perhaps Apple CEO Tim Cook has yet to visit a PC World or Currys (Dixon’s face of retail in the U.K.), but the two retail experiences are poles apart.

Apple stores are the epitome of tasteful design, with no visible cash registers, highly trained staff and an exacting attention to visual appeal; think gleaming white counters, bleached wood floors, minimal and tasteful signage.

Currys and PC World are more in the “stack ‘em high, sell ‘em cheap” end of retail, with all of the associated aesthetic appeal of that school of selling: garish purples, violent yellows, stacks of products, cluttered, aggressive, frenetic.

You can argue that Target (Ron Johnson’s gig prior to his Apple stint) isn’t much like an Apple Store either, but at least Target is tasteful, places value on design, and strives for a pleasant shopping experience. Those are values shared with Apple. Dixons and PC World seemingly share no values with Apple.

I’m not implying that Browett was hired to or intends to Dixons-ify the Apple Store experience — just pointing out that it’s a curious hire, also given how rarely Apple hires executives from outside the company.