Linked List: September 7, 2012

Friday, 7 September 2012

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Jeff Bezos’s ‘Upgrade Treadmill’ ★

Glenn Fleishman, writing for TidBITS:

To the first point, the upgrade treadmill, that hits home much more closely to the Android ecosystem, which has multiple manufacturers producing new models seemingly monthly, even though the new models often run older versions of Android that lack marquee features, and older models are often incapable of being upgraded after even a single version release.

Apple, by contrast, has a three-to-five year window of support for older equipment (iCloud compatibility aside!).

‘The Secret Race’ ★

Christopher Keyes, writing for Outside on Lance Armstrong teammate Tyler Hamilton’s doping exposé, The Secret Race:

Here’s the reality: The Secret Race isn’t just a game changer for the Lance Armstrong myth. It’s the game ender. No one can read this book with an open mind and still credibly believe that Armstrong didn’t dope. It’s impossible. That doesn’t change the fact that he survived cancer and helped millions of people through Livestrong, but the myth of the clean-racing hero who came back from the dead is, well, dead.

Kindle Fire Ads Can’t Be Turned Off ★

John Moltz:

Barf.

Wait, that wasn’t emphatic enough.

BARRRRRRRF.

Makes me queasy too, but maybe they can pull it off in a non-intrusive way? Seems like they have with the e-ink Kindles.

Lab126 Job Openings ★

Remember a few days ago, when a single job opening for an “Industrial Designer” at Valve led to articles stating that Valve was “getting serious about hardware”? You know who seems to be getting serious about hardware to me? Amazon. Their Lab126 hardware division has over 200 job openings.

Interesting, too, that many of them are located in Cupertino.

Nice Seats ★

A very handsome man attended last night’s Washington Nationals game.

‘The Moltzphone EXTREMO III DX’ ★

This week’s episode of The Talk Show, in which I’m joined by very special guest John Moltz. We discuss discuss the new phones from Motorola and Nokia, next week’s Apple event where the iPhone 5 is expected to be introduced, the Chinese phone maker that has already shipped an iPhone 5 knockoff, and the world’s worst ex-girlfriend.

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Nokia Did Not Need This ★

Brian X. Chen, writing for Bits:

The company has since amended the videos to include a disclaimer. Stephen Elop, the company’s chief executive, has asked the company’s chief ethics officer to look into the matter, according to a Nokia executive who declined to be named.

Their fraudulent camera demos have gotten far more publicity than the phones themselves. This is a disaster for Nokia.

Jackass of the Day: Andrew Couts ★

Andrew Couts, writing for Digital Trends:

No — what I really want to see from Apple is something so mind-blowing, so thunderously outrageous, that it would send shockwaves around the globe and immediately earn a place in the history books.

I want to see Apple announce absolutely nothing.

Is there a school somewhere that teaches you how to write these sort of willfully stupid articles about Apple?