Linked List: December 3, 2012

Monday, 3 December 2012

Quartz on Jolla 

Christopher Mims has an interesting piece for Quartz on Jolla, the spin-off from Nokia’s MeeGo mobile platform. Some interesting ideas in there. But I don’t get the headline at all: “Here Comes the First Real Alternative to iPhone and Android”.

This is sheer sensationalism and the laziest sort of tech punditry. When something is announced but as-yet unreleased — like Jolla — it’s easy to project upon it whatever one wants. You might not like Windows Phone 8 or Blackberry, but they are alternatives to the iPhone and Android. You can go into a store today and buy one. Jolla, today, is vaporware. And it’s silly to argue that there haven’t been other alternatives: Palm’s WebOS, Symbian, and yes, MeeGo. It’s just that they all failed. The iPhone and Android have forged a duopoly not because there are no alternatives, but because they’ve beaten all the alternatives.

News Corporation Shuts Down The Daily 

Memo from the editor and publisher, announcing that the last issue will be December 15.