Linked List: March 10, 2014

Monday, 10 March 2014

‘You Have to Understand How People Use Technology to Give Your Readers Context.’ ★

Charles Arthur reviews Yukari Iwatani Kane’s Haunted Empire:

Haunted Empire: Apple After Steve Jobs is a terrific book title.

Pity the book doesn’t live up to it. Or, indeed, provide us with any clear indication of whether the company best known for its iPhones and iPads (let’s call it an “empire” for convenience) is indeed haunted.

File this one under “scathing”.

‘Staircases to Nowhere’ ★

Mike Bracken, writing for Movies.com:

Staircases to Nowhere originally began its life as an 18-minute short film — culled from interviews that were part of The Elstree Project, an oral history of the movie studios at Elstree and Borehamwood in England. Response was so overwhelmingly positive that the project was expanded — and the full-length Staircases to Nowhere is now the only modern documentary about The Shining to be endorsed by Warner Bros. and the Kubrick Estate.

Bitcoin ATMs ★

Adrianne Jeffries, reporting for The Verge:

The ATM experience is far from seamless, however. To use it, you must submit your phone number, a PIN, a government ID, a palm vein scan, and let it take your photo.

Is this a joke?

‘Heart of a Gambler’ ★

On this week’s episode of The Talk Show, special guest Glenn Fleishman joins me to discuss Bitcoin — how it works, the problems it solves, where it’s going, and more. Also, Apple’s “goto fail” security bug, and some Jeopardy and Blackjack game theory.

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Candy Crush IPO ★

James Surowiecki, writing for The New Yorker:

The I.P.O. is no surprise, given King’s domination of the booming mobile-game business, but it’s likely to end badly, because King is part of a venerable tradition: the one-hit wonder. Like Coleco, with Cabbage Patch Kids, or Ty, Inc., with Beanie Babies, King’s business is dependent on its one star product; although the company has more than a hundred titles, almost eighty per cent of its revenue comes from Candy Crush. King has done a great job of making money from the game, and of keeping it fresh, but Candy Crush is still a fad, and, like all fads, it will fade. Indeed, as King’s filing makes clear, the number of people who pay for the game has already begun to taper off, as have sales and profits. […]

The company Harmonix, which launched Guitar Hero and Rock Band, games that in their day were as huge as Candy Crush, ended up being sold, after a few years, for fifty bucks and a pile of debt.

iOS 7.1 Lands With CarPlay, Improved Fingerprint Scanner ★

Also, it crashes less. I knew it was going to ship one of these days.