Linked List: December 18, 2013

Wednesday, 18 December 2013

Nick Bilton’s ‘Hatching Twitter’ to Be Developed as TV Series ★

Ryan Tate, reporting for Wired:

On Wednesday, film and TV house Lionsgate announced that Nick Bilton’s bestselling book on the creation of Twitter will become a TV series, in one form or another.

Bilton, a New York Times columnist, will write the teleplay and serve as producer. Allison Shearmur, one of four executive producers behind the hit movie Hunger Games, will act as executive producer.

Let’s play casting agent. Kevin Connolly as Jack Dorsey.

Walt Mossberg’s Final Column for the WSJ ★

Walt Mossberg:

This is my last column for The Wall Street Journal, after 22 years of reviewing consumer technology products here.

So I thought I’d talk about the dozen personal-technology products I reviewed that were most influential over the past two decades. Obviously, narrowing so many products in the most dynamic of modern industries down to 12 is a subjective exercise and others will disagree.

Pretty good picks, I’d say.

In Online Shopping, Touch Appears to Beat Click ★

Megan Woolhouse, reporting for The Boston Globe:

When consumers participating in the study reached out and touched an image on a touchscreen, the experience nearly rivaled their feelings of touching merchandise in a brick-and-mortar store, according to the measure of satisfaction used in the study.

“It’s kind of surprising how strong the effect is,” said S. Adam Brasel, a Boston College business professor and lead author of the study. “And we’re not necessarily aware it’s taking place.”

This seems like a big deal.

$400 for The Information Is About What’s Missing, Not What’s There ★

Hunter Walk, on The Information:

For me the value in The Information is not solely in what they’re providing but what they’re leaving out. The ~two articles a day are both interesting. Because they’re not playing a page views game, they don’t need to overload me with 25+ posts every 24 hrs. The site is spartan because they don’t need to worry about IAB units. A small number of writers building their beats give me the chance to see each journalist’s style distinctly, not settle into some random byline slot machine of varying quality.

Some folks are raising an eyebrow on the price tag. “What are you getting that’s worth it?” Strangely my reply is as much about the 80% I’m not getting as the 20% they’re delivering. And I think that’s what Jessica is going for.

Agreed. The Information is an example of what you can do when you’re not chasing pageviews.

LG Launching Its First 4K Monitor in January With 31-Inch Ultra-Widescreen Panel ★

Interesting super-wide form factor — seems like an interesting alternative to side-by-side dual displays.

New Mac Pros Available Starting Tomorrow ★

It’s a Christmas miracle.

And no surprise 4K Cinema Display announcement, which means that if you want a new 4K display (or three) to go with your new Mac Pro, dude you’re getting a Dell. All joking aside, I’m disappointed and a little baffled that Apple doesn’t yet have a 4K display. It’s un-Apple-like to leave money on the table.

Michael Mace: ‘Has Microsoft Gone Nuts?’ ★

Michael Mace, on the rumor that Microsoft might license Windows Phone to handset makers free of charge:

Nice idea, Microsoft, but you’re closing the barn door not only after the horses left, but after the barn burned down.