Linked List: November 16, 2012

Friday, 16 November 2012

This week on America’s favorite podcast, special guest star Glenn Fleishman joins yours truly to talk about Jeopardy, independent media (including Glenn’s new role as Executive Editor of The Magazine), Microsoft’s and Apple’s executive shake-ups, and more.

Brought to you by two outstanding sponsors:

Gridditor: Brand-new innovative photo editor for iPhone and iPad.
Tonx: The best coffee in the world, shipped fresh to your door.

Twitter Is Pivoting ★

Dalton Caldwell:

Nonetheless, Peter Chernin’s announcement shows us the future of Twitter: a media company writing software that is optimized for mostly passive users interested in a media and entertainment filter.

Netflix CEO Says Amazon Losing $1 Billion a Year on Streaming Video ★

There are many companies that are hard to compete with. Amazon, though, is just plain crazy, because they don’t care about profits and seemingly don’t have to.

Shitty Software Patent of the Week: The Page Turn ★

Nick Bilton:

If you want to know just how broken the patent system is, just look at patent D670,713, filed by Apple and approved this week by the United States Patent Office.

This design patent, titled, “Display screen or portion thereof with animated graphical user interface,” gives Apple the exclusive rights to the page turn in an e-reader application.

Yes, that’s right. Apple now owns the page turn.

Paul Thurrott: ‘Windows 8 Sales Well Below Projections’ ★

Paul Thurrott:

One of my most trusted sources at Microsoft confirmed Windows 8’s weak start this week. And with all of the drama surrounding Windows 8 and the recent, unexpected departure of Windows chief Steven Sinofsky, rumors are sure to swirl.

Uh-oh.

Google Struggling With Nexus 4 Demand ★

Product launches are hard.

(It occurs to me that, at only $299 and unlocked, the Nexus 4 is the Android equivalent of an iPod Touch I’ve long wished for — modern hardware specs, current OS, no contract, $300 or less. No wonder demand is high.)

Fireballed: Cached here.

The Verge: HTC Droid DNA Review ★

Like I thought, that amazing 440 PPI display comes with a few catches: scrolling hiccups and poor battery life.

Questionable Science ★

Jim Dalrymple on a story in the L.A. Times predicting the Kindle Fire HD will outsell the iPad Mini by 2 to 1 — based on searches at CouponCodes4u.com.

The Cost of Mobile Clicks ★

Horace Dediu on Google’s declining operating margin:

The bottom line is that an individual click is not as valuable as it used to be. Would a larger volume of mobile usage be a reason? Google won’t say.