Linked List: November 30, 2013

Saturday, 30 November 2013

Black Friday Shopping Numbers for iOS and Android ★

Jay Yarow, summarizing Black Friday e-commerce numbers from IBM and Adobe, both showing iOS with an overwhelming lead over Android;

However, this is still a jaw-dropping gap in usage between the two platforms. It suggests that the focus on smartphone market share misses a bigger picture about how the platforms are actually used.

No shit.

Reverse Engineering Vermeer’s Secret Tool ★

Kurt Andersen, writing for Vanity Fair:

David Hockney and others have speculated — controversially — that a camera obscura could have helped the Dutch painter Vermeer achieve his photo-realistic effects in the 1600s. But no one understood exactly how such a device might actually have been used to paint masterpieces. An inventor in Texas — the subject of a new documentary by the magicians Penn & Teller — may have solved the riddle.

Bond 50: The Complete 23 Film Collection With Skyfall ★

On sale today only at Amazon: all 23 EON Bond movies on Blu-Ray, for just $100.

Update: 14 Kindle editions of Ian Fleming’s James Bond novels, $2 a pop.