Linked List: June 5, 2013

Wednesday, 5 June 2013

‘A $5 App Isn’t Expensive’ 

Lex Friedman, writing for Macworld:

But, to a certain extent, it’s become a catch-22: Developers are pricing their apps too cheaply, because that’s what they think people will actually pay. And so long as they’re right, we as cheap customers are having a negative impact on a lot of both real and potential businesses.

How to Ask Tim Cook Questions 

Matthew Panzarino, on Tim Cook’s “he didn’t really say much” appearance at D11:

But these days they’re almost beholden to ask the ‘what’s next’ questions that everyone expects every year. If they don’t ask them, everyone will complain about them not doing so, and yet everyone complains when the same questions get the same non-answers. It’s got to be a tough position to be in. But my feeling on this, and I think that it’s shared by people both inside and outside of Apple, is that it’s time to start asking him better stuff.

The result of this can be seen in a series of videos from Cook’s visit to the Duke Fuqua School of Business that he filmed in April but were released just this week. The clips are a must watch. Cook talks about what he wants in employees, how to lead, how to collaborate and touches on several other great topics. There’s very little Apple specific stuff, though he mentions the company, but there’s a bunch of really interesting philosophical and tactical information that I’ve never heard him speak about anywhere else.

Asking Tim Cook (or any other Apple executive) questions you know he isn’t going to answer isn’t being a “tough” journalist. It’s just a waste of time and a rare opportunity. Sure, ask him up front if he’s willing to talk about upcoming Apple products, get his “no” on the record. But then move on to questions he might actually answer.

The Guardian: NSA Collecting Phone Records of Millions of Americans Daily 

Glenn Greenwald:

The document shows for the first time that under the Obama administration the communication records of millions of US citizens are being collected indiscriminately and in bulk — regardless of whether they are suspected of any wrongdoing.

The secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISA) granted the order to the FBI on April 25, giving the government unlimited authority to obtain the data for a specified three-month period ending on July 19.

Under the terms of the blanket order, the numbers of both parties on a call are handed over, as is location data, call duration, unique identifiers, and the time and duration of all calls. The contents of the conversation itself are not covered.

Brutal. And especially galling from a president who was a constitutional law scholar.

Joe Brown: AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint Throttle iPhone Data Speeds 

But T-Mobile does not.

Update: Brian Klug of AnandTech investigated Brown’s claims, and found them to be false.

‘A Grain of Salt’ 

Brian X. Chen, writing for the NYT Bits blog:

“We believe Samsung on the strength of strong Galaxy S4, S III, and Note II sales surpassed Apple to gain top share of the U.S. smartphone market for the first time since the iPhone 5 launch,” said Michael Walkley, the Canaccord Genuity analyst who conducted the survey.

That may look like a milestone, but the report should be taken with a grain of salt. The survey doesn’t include Apple’s retail stores, where many iPhones are sold.

Who shops at Apple Stores? No one, right?

ComScore U.S. Smartphone Numbers 

ComScore:

138.5 million people in the U.S. owned smartphones (58 percent mobile market penetration) during the three months ending in April, up 7 percent since January. Apple ranked as the top OEM with 39.2 percent of U.S. smartphone subscribers (up 1.4 percentage points from January). Samsung ranked second with 22 percent market share (up 0.6 percentage points), followed by HTC with 8.9 percent, Motorola with 8.3 percent and LG with 6.7 percent.

iPhone, “dead in the water”.

App Camp for Girls 

Indiegogo campaign to fund a great idea from Jean MacDonald:

App Camp for Girls wants to address the gender imbalance among software developers by giving girls the chance to learn how to build apps, to be inspired by women instructors, and to get exposure to software development as a career. Our goal is to grow our non-profit organization into a national force, with programs in multiple cities, helping thousands of girls.

I hope this project goes way, way over its $50,000 goal.

Stupid Calculation No. 1: Monophone 

Josh Orter:

Who among you haven’t wondered how many dried tears it would take to fill a salt shaker or how long it would take to sip an Olympic-sized pool through a straw? Doubtless, you’re similarly inclined to have contemplated the size of the screen that could be made if the displays were ripped out of every iPhone ever sold and combined into a single colossus. It’s likely still that you’ve imagined how it might appear looming above the Manhattan skyline. Wonder no more. Armed with pencil and paper, this exercise has been made with you in mind.