Linked List: June 14, 2012

Thursday, 14 June 2012

AnandTech: MacBook Pro Retina Display Analysis ★

Best line in Anand Lal Shimpi’s splendidly detailed 1,800-word first look at the new MacBook Pro With Retina Display: “Although I’m still saving a bit for the full review”.

Amazon’s Markup of Digital Delivery to Indie Authors Is Around 129,000 Percent ★

Interesting numbers from author Andrew Hyde. Amazon and Apple both advertise a 70/30 split for e-books, but only Apple actually pays 70 percent — Amazon tacks on several dollars in “delivery fees”.

Nokia to Cut 10,000 Jobs as Elop Tries to Stanch Losses ★

Diana ben-Aaron, reporting for Bloomberg:

Nokia Oyj reduced its earnings forecast for the second time this year and said it will cut as many as 10,000 more jobs and shut production and research sites in Chief Executive Officer Stephen Elop’s biggest overhaul.

The stock fell 18 percent to the lowest level since 1996, pushing Nokia’s market value below $10 billion.

Brutal news. I really hope Nokia pulls out of this — they’re doing some great work lately.

Time to Offer Magazines on Apple’s Newsstand ★

Amy Chozick, reporting for the NYT:

Time Inc., once the magazine industry’s most ardent opponent of selling subscriptions through Apple, will make all of its magazines available via Apple’s newsstand, the two companies said Wednesday. […]

“For a magazine or brand like People or Time, a tablet will become an increasingly important part of the experience,” Ms. Lang said. “Our goal is to offer content where our consumers want to read it.”

Things change quickly. A little over a year ago:

But selling through the App Store, giving Apple a share of the revenue and, more important, letting Apple keep subscriber information secret unless subscribers specifically demand otherwise?

“We have chosen not to do that,” Mr. Sachs said in an interview, “because when we look at who to partner with, the key parts of our principles include of course making sure that the look and feel of products is great for consumers and the ability to set pricing terms, but also receiving key consumer data about subscribers.”

Lessons From the Failure of Readability’s Author Payment Plan ★

Greg Cox:

Dash has repeatedly and correctly pointed out that Readability is not the only company to derive revenue from a read-it-later service. Competitors Instapaper and Pocket do much the same thing for their users. On the face of it Readability, which tried to compensate publishers, should be more popular with authors than competitors who make no attempt to do so. Right?

Wrong. It turns out that many authors care less about the money, and more about the fact that Readability is representing them without their consent. As a publisher, I understand this reaction and it isn’t entirely rational. Even if the financial outcomes were equivalent for Readability and Instapaper, and even if the user experiences they offered were identical, I would find it easier to accept Instapaper deriving direct benefit from someone buying their app than to accept Readability deriving benefit from collecting revenue on my behalf.

Agreed.

Readability Scraps Failed Payment System ★

Richard Ziade, Readability:

Out of the millions — yes, millions — of domains that flowed through Readability, just over 2,000 registered to claim their money. As a result, most of the money we collected — over 90% — has gone unclaimed. As of today there’s nearly $150,000 in earmarked money sitting in a separate, untouched bank account.

This is a double failure. First, 90 percent of the money went unclaimed. No surprise there. But second: there was hardly any money to distribute in the first place. Look at how little money Marco Arment — who did sign up for the system — earned through Readability. Embarrassing.