Linked List: February 9, 2012

Thursday, 9 February 2012

Today’s Social Media Landscape Explained With Donuts ★

A little sad that Flickr doesn’t even warrant a mention.

Kodak to Stop Selling Digital Cameras ★

Dana Mattioli, reporting for the WSJ:

The decision to shutter the business, which Kodak says will save it more than $100 million a year, is the strongest symbol yet of the sea change in consumer electronics and decades of missteps that forced the former blue-chip company to seek bankruptcy protection last month.

A sad fate for a once-great company. But when not selling a product saves you $100 million a year, you know you were in the wrong business or doing business wrong.

Google Wants 2.25 Percent Royalty for Every iPhone Sold ★

Florian Mueller:

Google’s letter spans over four pages but fails to provide satisfactory answers to those burning questions. With sincere intentions, Google could have put on a page — or a page and a half — everything that other companies in the industry, and consumers using the ubiquitous standards over which Motorola is suing others, need to be reassured about. Look at Apple’s and Microsoft’s concise and crystal clear statements. Why can’t Google provide clarity like that? Because its four pages aren’t meant to improve anything. Google is basically saying that it will do exactly what Motorola is already doing now.

Apple can be a dick about patents. Microsoft can be a dick about patents. But of the three, only Google is a hypocrite about patents — against their use as a competitive weapon only until they have their own to use.

Windows on ARM to Include Traditional Desktop Interface ★

Steven Sinofsky:

Using WOA “out of the box” will feel just like using Windows 8 on x86/64. You will sign in the same way. You will start and launch apps the same way. You will use the new Windows Store the same way. You will have access to the intrinsic capabilities of Windows, from the new Start screen and Metro style apps and Internet Explorer, to peripherals, and if you wish, the Windows desktop with tools like Windows File Explorer and desktop Internet Explorer. […]

Some have suggested we might remove the desktop from WOA in an effort to be pure, to break from the past, or to be more simplistic or expeditious in our approach. To us, giving up something useful that has little cost to customers was a compromise that we didn’t want to see in the evolution of PCs. The presence of different models is part of every platform. Whether it is to support a transition to a future programming model (such as including a virtualization or emulation solution if feasible), to support different programming models on one platform (native and web-based applications when both are popular), or to support different ways of working (command shell or GUI for different scenarios), the presence of multiple models represents a flexible solution that provides a true no-compromise experience on any platform.

Count me in as one who suggested they go Metro-only on ARM. I believe this is a grave error on Microsoft’s part; that they’re ceding the future of personal computing to Apple and the iPad by doing this.

WSJ: Google Developing Home Entertainment System ★

Amir Efrati and Ethan Smith, reporting for the WSJ:

Google Inc. is developing a home-entertainment system that streams music wirelessly throughout the home and would be marketed under the company’s own brand, according to people briefed on the company’s plans.

The effort marks a sharp shift in strategy for Google, which for the first time would design and market consumer electronic devices under the Google brand.

If Amazon can get into the hardware business, why not Google too? I have to presume that such a device would work with video, too, not just audio. Audio-only doesn’t make any sense to me.