Linked List: October 9, 2013

Wednesday, 9 October 2013

‘This Will Cause Problems for Nokia.’ ★

Helsinki journalist Lauri Malkavaara got a Nokia E51 in 2008, couldn’t figure out how to use it, and wrote a letter to Nokia. Simple perspective, but incredibly prescient.

Cloudpaint ★

HTML5-based recreation of MacPaint, by Martin Braun. Well done.

(Via Dave Mark.)

Piper Jaffray Poll Shows iPhone and iPad Popular Among Middle- and High-Income U.S. Teens ★

I haven’t seen the actual report, but based on this bit in AppleInsider’s coverage:

Piper Jaffray’s survey is built on interviews with thousands of teens from high-income families (household income above $104,000) and similar visits with more teens from average-income families ($54,000). The study had a total participant pool of 8,643.

I would say AppleInsider’s headline (“More Than Half of Teens Own an iPhone, iPad Immensely Popular”) is wrong. The description of the methodology suggests that lower-income teens were not included in the survey.

But, still. This, like previous versions of the same survey, seemingly refutes the oft-trotted-out notion from Apple competitors that teens don’t like iOS products because they’re seen as being for old people. Examples here, here, here, and, perhaps most hilariously, here:

“Teens are telling us Apple is done,” says Tina Wells of the youth marketing agency Buzz Marketing Group. “Apple has done a great job of embracing Gen X and older [Millennials], but I don’t think they are connecting with Millennial kids. [They’re] all about Surface tablets/laptops and Galaxy.”

(Also worth noting: the iPad Mini seems curiously unpopular in this poll. Seems odd given the overall popularity of the Mini.)

The Prodigal Guide Reviews the Vertu Constellation ★

Timothy Barber takes a look at Vertu’s new £4,000 (roughly $6,000 USD) Android phone (which does have one interesting feature: a sapphire crystal display):

So is it worth it? OH GOOD LORD NO, of course not. If a £7,000 phone is for people who sneeze that kind of money without noticing, we can’t really see how a £4,000 phone isn’t. But Vertu, which has been heavily researching a fast-changing market as it goes through its own fast change post-Nokia, is going after a broader market, and judging that there’s a bunch of people to be tapped who’ll respond at the lower price point.

Remember “I Am Rich”, the $999 iPhone app that served no purpose other than as a statement that the purchaser could afford such an app? That’s Vertu.

Windows Phone 8.1 to Eliminate Hardware Back Button? ★

Paul Thurrott, regarding what he’s heard about Windows Phone 8.1:

No more Back button. Aping the iPhone navigation model, Microsoft will apparently remove the Back button from the Windows Phone hardware specification with 8.1. The Back button just doesn’t make sense, I was told: Users navigate away from an app by pressing the Start button and then open a new app, just like they do on iPhone. And the “back stack” is ill-understood by users: Most don’t realize what they’re doing when they repeatedly hit the Back button.

Yours truly on hardware back buttons, last year:

When it does exactly what you expect, the system-wide Back button is convenient. But when it doesn’t, it’s maddening.

Now That’s a Gold Phone ★

HTC mints five phones plated with 18-carat gold. Might be easier to get one of these than a gold iPhone 5S, though.