Linked List: January 29, 2013

Tuesday, 29 January 2013

Netflix’s Goal: To Become HBO Faster Than HBO Can Become Netflix ★

Nancy Hass profiles Netflix for GQ. Talking to Netflix chief content officer Ted Sarandos:

He hopes to make at least five new shows a year, he says, leaning back on a sofa in his Beverly Hills office in an anonymous-looking suite. His dream project: a Netflix series created by Warren Beatty. “He’s great in long form,” Sarandos says. “His only problems have been when he’s constrained.” Sarandos is also warming up Jodie Foster, who directed an episode of Orange Is the New Black. “The goal,” he says, “is to become HBO faster than HBO can become us.” His seductive pitch to today’s new breed of TV auteurs: a huge audience, real money, no meddlesome executives (“I’m not going to give David Fincher notes”), no pilots (television’s great sucking hole of money and hope), and a full-season commitment.

(Via The Verge.)

The Amazing Amazon ★

Matt Yglesias:

That’s because Amazon, as best I can tell, is a charitable organization being run by elements of the investment community for the benefit of consumers. The shareholders put up the equity, and instead of owning a claim on a steady stream of fat profits, they get a claim on a mighty engine of consumer surplus. Amazon sells things to people at prices that seem impossible because it actually is impossible to make money that way.

A Lip Reader Deciphers the Umpire-Manager Arguments of 2012 ★

So great. But I love this interchange between Dodgers skipper Don Mattingly and umpire Tom Hallion:

DM: No, it’s only to wake up, wake the fuck up!

TH: You can’t say that, Don!

DM: I can’t say ‘wake up’?

TH: You didn’t say that.

DM: [Obscured] What’s the difference in ‘wake the fuck up’ and ‘wake up’?

‘Who Needs a 128 GB iPad?’ ★

Todd Haselton:

So I guess I’m curious. Who really does need a 128GB iPad, aside from those who just have tons of videos, music and photos?

I think Apple’s PR announcing it answers that. Professional users:

iPad continues to have a significant impact on business with virtually all of the Fortune 500 and over 85 percent of the Global 500 currently deploying or testing iPad. Companies regularly utilizing large amounts of data such as 3D CAD files, X-rays, film edits, music tracks, project blueprints, training videos and service manuals all benefit from having a greater choice of storage options for iPad. The over 10 million iWork users, and customers who rely on other incredible apps like Global Apptitude for analyzing team film and creating digital playbooks, Auria for an incredible 48 track recording system, or AutoCAD for drafting architectural and engineering drawings, also benefit greatly from having the choice of an iPad with more storage capacity.

Back to Haselton:

I think most consumers will be better off either buying a full featured laptop, such as the MacBook Air, or for portability, the Surface with Windows 8 Pro.

For some users, sure. But a lot of people — most people, even? — would rather have an iPad than a MacBook Air, no matter the price difference. People like working on the iPad not because it’s cheaper (or at least not only), but because, for them, it is better. (And specifically for people who are looking for a device with more storage capacity than a 64 GB iPad, the Surface Pro seems like a poor choice.)

Anyway, the fact that Haselton thought to write this makes me even more convinced that Apple’s timing of this announcement is no coincidence.

500px Returns to the iOS App Store, Now Rated 17+ ★

Darrell Etherington:

Toronto’s 500px got its popular photo sharing iPhone app back on the iTunes App Store today, following a takedown that Apple said stemmed from multiple user complaints about pornographic material. The app returns with an age-gate warning, advising that the content in the app is for 17+ audiences, and also adds a new “Report Photo” button to help users quickly tag things they find offensive for potential removal from the network.

The app still has a category for “Nude” photos for logged in users, however, which is an impressive allowance on Apple’s part. Perhaps the company is realizing that it should be rethinking how its no-porn policy works in the wake of Vine’s unfortunate “Editor’s Pick” incident, and the general porn problem that network faces.

Or perhaps nothing has changed, and 500px could have avoided the problem by rating the app 17+ from the start. I’m no fan of capricious App Store rejections or censorship, but the hubbub over Apple’s removal of 500px from the store has struck me as misguided. The app has a built-in “Nude” category — the surprise to me is that it was ever not rated 17+.

I do have a few questions for Apple, though: If the rating was the only problem, could Apple have not just changed the rating and left the app available in the store? Was the new “Report Photo” feature essential to 500px getting back into the store?

Amazon Misses Estimates on Earnings, Revenue, and Guidance ★

And the stock has jumped up 10 percent after hours. I need a drink.

Loose Grip, All Right ★

Poornima Gupta and Noel Randewich, writing for Reuters, “Apple’s Grip on Carriers, Suppliers Loosens”:

Asked whether carriers are now in a better position to negotiate lower prices with smartphone makers such as Apple, Fran Shammo, chief financial officer of Verizon Communications, said having four strong platforms - Apple, Android, Windows and BlackBerry - is leading to more competitive pricing.

“The more operating systems we have to compete in this area the better the competition,” he told Reuters.

Yet Verizon’s just-reported quarter showed the iPhone accounting for 63 percent of all smartphone activations, outselling Android about 2-to-1. Those numbers are higher than ever for Verizon. 84 percent of smartphones sold by AT&T were iPhones. And Reuters is saying these numbers show Apple is “losing its grip”?

Microsoft Office 365 Home Premium ★

Microsoft:

The new offering includes the latest and most complete set of Office applications; works across up to five devices, including Windows tablets, PCs and Macs; and comes with extra SkyDrive storage and Skype calling — all for US$99.99 for an annual subscription, the equivalent of US$8.34 per month.

That’s a good deal, and the student deal is even better: $80 for a four-year subscription — just $20 per year.

(Why does their video try to get me to install Silverlight? They have an HTML5 H.264 alternative, because that’s what I get on iOS. Why not serve that version to everyone?)

Surface Pro Available Storage Space ★

Ben Gilbert, Engadget:

That 64 GB, $800 Microsoft Surface Pro you plan on buying next week? Maybe you should temper your storage expectations a bit, as the base model actually only allots 23 GB of that space for use. The larger 128 GB version offers a bit more space at 83 GB, but is still losing a massive 45 GB of space to the full Windows 8 operating system and various included applications.

There’s no such thing as “no compromise”. Every design decision involves some element of compromise.

Regarding the Idea of an iPod Touch ‘3G’ as Apple’s Low-Cost iPhone ★

The Verge forums, “Crunkfish” makes a suggestion that I see on Twitter and in my email frequently: that Apple should make an iPod Touch with cellular networking.

It’s a fine idea, but without carrier support it wouldn’t work, and I don’t think any major carrier would support it. Data-only connections and VOIP for all “phone calls” are surely the future, but they are not the present.

Records From Miami ‘Aging’ Clinic Implicate Major Sports Stars in PED Scandal ★

Blockbuster report from Tim Elfrink of The Miami New Times:

The names are all included in an extraordinary batch of records from Biogenesis, an anti-aging clinic tucked into a two-story office building just a hard line drive’s distance from the UM campus. They were given to New Times by an employee who worked at Biogenesis before it closed last month and its owner abruptly disappeared. The records are clear in describing the firm’s real business: selling performance-enhancing drugs, from human growth hormone (HGH) to testosterone to anabolic steroids.

Interviews with six customers and two former employees corroborate the tale told by the patient files, the payment records, and the handwritten notebooks kept by the clinic’s chief, 49-year-old Anthony Bosch.

Among the implicated: the New York Yankees’ Alex Rodriguez.

Update: A-Rod denies the whole thing.

iOS vs. Android Version Adoption ★

While we’re comparing iOS and Android, Doug Hamlin compares version adoption numbers:

Meanwhile, I was reminded via Timehop yesterday how much I hated the Android Honeycomb emulator two years ago, which got me wondering where Android version (specifically that two-year-old Honeycomb) adoption sits. Turns out, according to Google’s own numbers, that Gingerbread, the version prior to Honeycomb is the undisputed leader of the market with a 47.4 percent share.

Nothing new here, but an inconvenient truth for the “Android is winning” crowd.

Akamai Mobile Browser Stats ★

Mikey Campbell, reporting for AppleInsider:

According to Akamai, during the third quarter of 2012 there were more Google Android Webkit browser users accessing content over cellular data networks than those using Apple’s Safari. However, by expanding the data to include all networks, not just those designated as “cellular,” Safari was shown to have dominated the mobile browser market with slightly more than a 60 percent share. Using this same scope, Android users accounted for about 22 to 23 percent of the total.

So Android devices outsell iOS, but they’re used for cellular networking about evenly, and iOS devices are used for Wi-Fi so much more than Android that, in terms of overall network consumption, iOS devices consume almost triple what Android devices do. Still haven’t seen a reasonable theory explaining this from the “Android is winning/the Apple bubble is popping” camp.

Blu-Ray Claim Chowder: Shaw Wu ★

Speaking of Blu-ray, here’s some five-year-old claim chowder:

In a report issued to clients early Thursday morning, American Technology Research analyst Shaw Wu cited sources who say the Cupertino-based Mac maker, which already occupies a seat on the Blu-ray consortium, is set to begin shipping some of its computers with support for the next-generation DVD format. […]

However, Wu hedged his bets somewhat, saying there is “a smaller chance Apple may use a combo Blu-ray/HD-DVD drive to ensure full compatibility and not get involved in the format wars.”

Philips Exits Consumer Electronics Business ★

Robert Van den Oever, reporting for the WSJ’s The Source:

“Our consumer lifestyle business was margin dilutive to the group, so it was time to decide to move away from consumer electronics,” said Frans van Houten, Philips’s chief executive. “Since we have online entertainment, people do not buy Blu-ray and DVD players anymore,” Mr. Van Houten said.

Steve Jobs, back in 2008:

“Blu-ray is just a bag of hurt.”

‘Why the Imminent Release of a 128 GB iPad Is Unlikely’ ★

Didn’t take long for this claim chowder from Adrian Kingsley-Hughes to cook.

That Didn’t Take Long: Apple Announces 128 GB iPad 4 ★

$799 for the Wi-Fi model, $929 for cellular. Timing-wise, note that Microsoft’s Surface Pro, which goes on sale in a week, starts at $899 for 64 GB model. That’s not an apples-to-apples comparison, tech-spec-wise, but I think half the problem Microsoft faces is that most people don’t understand the difference between Surface and Surface Pro.