Linked List: June 21, 2012

Thursday, 21 June 2012

Bloomberg: ‘Microsoft’s Surface Tablet Said to Be Wi-Fi Only in First Models’ ★

Ian King and Dina Bass, reporting for Bloomberg:

Microsoft Corp.’s Surface tablet computer, unveiled this week to compete with Apple Inc.’s iPad, will initially go on sale without a connection to mobile-phone networks, according to two people familiar with the matter.

Two thoughts. First, I’m curious what percentage of “enterprise” iPad sales are Wi-Fi-only. I see an awful lot of dressed-for-business travelers using them in airports, but, then again, most airports have Wi-Fi. Second: Nokia.

Andy Baio on the Gray Market for iOS Beta Activations ★

Andy Baio:

If you’re a diehard Apple fan that desperately wants to run a buggy beta version of iOS 6 right now, your only legal option is to shell out the $99 to join the iOS Developer Program. Affordable for a developer, the barrier to entry is high enough to keep out casual fans from accidentally bricking their phones and cluttering up the Genius Bar.

But over the last couple years, a cottage industry’s popped up around illicit UDID activations — startups exploiting Apple’s Developer Program to sell access to prerelease iOS software, usually for less than $10 per device. The craziest thing? Apple doesn’t seem to care.

Must be a boom-and-bust seasonal business. Huge surge of interest with iOS 6 now, but who was using these services, say, a month ago? And I’m curious to see whether Apple remains ambivalent about these services now that Baio has shined a light on them.

Jacqui Cheng Reviews the New MacBook Air ★

A nice year-over-year improvement from the 2011 models, and a huge upgrade from the 2010 ones.

Regarding the Latest Kindle for iPad Update ★

Speaking of Daily Exhaust, I agree with Bryan Larrick regarding the text formatting changes in the latest Kindle for iPad update: it’s a regression, not an improvement.

Half-Baked ★

I noted the same thing Michael Mulvey did about Microsoft’s Surface event:

But the solid hardware isn’t what has me perplexed. It’s the complete lack of software demonstrations. It’s ironic, isn’t it? Here’s a company who’s made billions of dollars selling software for over 30 years, and when it comes time to debut the device launching them into the future, they don’t bother to allocate even a few minutes to showing off how well software runs on it?