Linked List: July 30, 2013

Tuesday, 30 July 2013

Regarding Nexus 7 and iPad Sales in Japan ★

Chris Burns, writing for Slashgear, regarding a BCN survey that was cited by Google itself last week:

According to BCN’s claim, Google’s Nexus 7 took 44.4 percent of the Japanese tablet market while the iPad took just 40.1 percent of that same market in the month of December. This study was done on a total of 2,400 electronics stores throughout the nation, with the following notable exclusions:

Softbank

KDDI

Apple Store

Other than at those stores, though, the Nexus 7 did great in Japan.

Now That It’s in the Broadband Game, Google Flip-Flops on Network Neutrality ★

So Google was for net neutrality, but no longer because it affects their broadband aspirations.

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before.

Anyway, don’t be evil.

AnandTech Catches Samsung Cheating on Galaxy S4 Benchmarks ★

Shocking that a company as scrupulous as Samsung would resort to this. Shocking.

Good One for the ‘Android Fragmentation Is Overblown’ Crowd ★

David Berlin, lead for the BBC iPlayer Android team:

Today we have an Android development team that is almost 3 times the size of the iOS team.

Update: See also: Open Signal’s Android fragmentation report.

iOS 7 Beta 4 Contains References to Fingerprint Scanner in Home Button ★

Mistake on the part of the iOS 7 build team, or a deliberate teaser? There’s no way this wasn’t going to be found. I suspect it’s a mistake.

Russian Mugger Attempts to Steal Phone From the Wrong Woman ★

You never quite know when footage like this is fake, but I think you’ll enjoy it regardless. (Via Mac McClelland.)

Network World: ‘Why Bob Mansfield Was Cut From Apple’s Executive Team’ ★

Steven Max Patterson, writing in Network World, alleges that Mansfield was shown the door because Apple remains reliant on Samsung for semiconductors. He has no sources for this; the piece seems entirely based on his own speculation. That’d be OK if it were presented as such, with an angle like “Here’s what I think really happened…”. It’d be wrong, but it’s OK to be wrong in an opinion piece. But the headline reads as straight reporting, as does his conclusion:

It looks like Mansfield has been held accountable for the TSMC production glitches and the persistence of Apple’s dependency on arch competitor Samsung for its most strategic components — the SoC heart and brains of its mobile devices.

Based on everything I’ve heard, this is just completely and shamefully wrong.

Update: They’ve now prefixed the headline with “Opinion:”.