Linked List: March 6, 2013

Wednesday, 6 March 2013

ComScore: iPhone Taking Share From Android in U.S. Smartphone Market 

Waiting for the Wall Street Journal to explain how this is bad news for Apple.

CallingVault 

Great new service, sort of like Google Voice but private. CallingVault provides you with a new phone number that you have complete control over. You get call forwarding, SMS, voice mail, etc. — but the main appeal is that you get the freedom to give this number out to just about anyone and everyone, because CallingVault gives you the ability to filter and block calls from unwanted numbers. Like most of you, my only phone today is my mobile phone, and I never feel comfortable using that number when, for example, ordering products online. CallingVault provides you with a number you can distribute freely.

The website is great too, really well designed. Plans start at just $3.25/month — cheap.

Update: A bunch of readers have asked how CallingVault is better than Google Voice. For me: privacy (from Google), and a general discomfort with “free” services. I also think the interface is better.

I’m Sure Someone Can Explain This to Me 

Mozilla general counsel Harvey Anderson last May, regarding the restrictions of Windows RT that prevent a native Firefox app:

Unfortunately, the upcoming release of Windows for the ARM processor architecture and Microsoft’s browser practices regarding Windows 8 Metro signal an unwelcome return to the digital dark ages where users and developers didn’t have browser choices.

Why does this matter to users? Quite simply because Windows on ARM — as currently designed — restricts user choice, reduces competition and chills innovation. By allowing only IE to perform the advanced functions of a modern Web browser, third-party browsers are effectively excluded from the platform. This matters for users of today’s tablets and tomorrow’s PCs. […]

The prospect that the next generation of Windows on ARM devices would limit users to one browser is untenable and represents a first step toward a new platform lock-in.

But Mozilla’s own Firefox OS offers no browser choice. This is something other than rank hypocrisy how?

2010 Microsoft Wrote Some Checks That 2013 Microsoft Can’t Cash 

Hope you’re hungry, because this is some hearty claim chowder.