Linked List: September 13, 2013

Friday, 13 September 2013

Nokia Was Working on an Android Phone While Microsoft Was Working on a Surface Phone 

Nice scoop by Nick Wingfield:

And now, it is clear that a Nokia Android phone was more than a possibility. It was real.

A team within Nokia had Android up and running on the company’s Lumia handsets well before Microsoft and Nokia began negotiating Microsoft’s $7.2 billion acquisition of Nokia’s mobile phone and services business, according to two people briefed on the effort who declined to be identified because the project was confidential. Microsoft executives were aware of the existence of the project, these people said.

And Tom Warren reports for The Verge:

While Nokia was testing Android in a variety of different ways, Microsoft was busy experimenting with a Surface Phone. Sources familiar with Microsoft’s plans have revealed to The Verge that the company built a number of prototype devices to test the viability of such a phone. We’re told that Terry Myerson, who now heads the Windows, Windows Phone, and Xbox operating systems, was in charge of the secret Surface phone project. We understand the company had originally considered the idea of its own phone devices as a “Plan B” if Nokia wasn’t successful with Windows Phone.

Think of all the wasted and duplicated effort between these two companies; if they were going to get married they should have done it two years ago.

Microsoft Posts, Then Retracts, Goofy Ad Mocking iPhone 5C and 5S 

Forget the issue of whether the guy they’re pitching to resembles Steve Jobs. That’s a non-issue. This is just a terrible ad.

The irony is that Steve Jobs himself explained it best: “The problem with Microsoft is they just have no taste. They have no taste and I don’t mean that in a small way, I mean that in a big way.”

Sonderklasse 

Craig Hockenberry:

Mercedes-Benz first introduced it on the S-Class line back in 1978. It was a revolutionary technology and the first hint of how digital electronics would change the course of the automotive industry.

The S-Class pioneered many other safety innovations: crash crumple zones, air bags and traction control are a few of the most notable. This line has also become synonymous with comfort and luxury: it was the first Mercedes to be available with an automatic transmission.

Right now there’s only one iPhone that runs 64-bit code, has the M7 motion co-processor, shoots 120 FPS slow motion video, and has a Touch ID sensor. Two years from now, these will be standard features across the line.

See also: similar thinking from Matthew Panzarino.

‘The Most Forward-Thinking Apple Yet’ 

Interesting analysis of this week’s Apple announcements from Sisir Koppaka. Bottom line: it seems like Apple has been quiet recently, but what they’re doing is laying groundwork.

Ray Dolby, R.I.P. 

What a legacy. The man’s name is synonymous with audio excellence.

Cubed Podcast, Episode 1 

New podcast featuring an all-star team: Ben Bajarin, Benedict Evans, and Ben Thompson. Nice.

Meet Hacking Team 

Adrianne Jeffries, writing for The Verge:

Ettercap was so powerful that its authors, ALoR and NaGA, eventually got a call from the Milan police department. But the cops didn’t want to bust the programmers for enabling hacker attacks. They wanted to use Ettercap to spy on citizens. Specifically, they wanted ALoR and NaGA to write a Windows driver that would enable them to listen in to a target’s Skype calls.

That’s how a small tech security consultancy ended up transforming into one of the first sellers of commercial hacking software to the police. ALoR’s real name is Alberto Ornaghi and NaGA is Marco Valleri. Their Milan-based company, Hacking Team, now has 40 employees and sells commercial hacking software to law enforcement in “several dozen countries” on “six continents.”

Microsoft Launches iPad Trade-in Promotion 

Never would have happened if Steve Ballmer were still alive.