Linked List: September 19, 2014

Friday, 19 September 2014

And speaking of Jason Snell, this week he launched his new post-Macworld home: the perfectly named Six Colors. So good. Instant RSS subscription.

The whole Macworld thing is still a bit of a shock, but I think it’ll all work out for the best in the end. This gets Jason back to what he does best: writing.

‘Orson Welles of the Genre’ ★

Also speaking of podcasts, Horace Dediu, Jason Snell, and yours truly were the guests on the latest episode of Moisés Chiullan’s Electric Shadow, talking about Apple and their use of cinema and cinematic techniques.

The Rebound ★

Speaking of nerdy tech podcasts, there’s a good new one: The Rebound, starring my pal John Moltz.

‘Twenty-One Thousand Words’ ★

New episode of The Talk Show, with special guest Rene Ritchie.

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Swatch Inventor on Apple Watch: ‘I Would Definitely Wear It’ ★

Elmar Mock, inventor of the Swatch:

The Apple Watch is by far the most attractive of the smartwatches. I would definitely wear it. Don’t forget that the early smartphones did not immediately replace conventional mobile phones. When the iPhone first launched, Blackberry was sure that consumers would notice the lack of a keyboard and Nokia was convinced that the big screen would put users off…

The True Cost of a Subsidized iPhone 6 ★

Ed Bott:

Those contract prices include a $450 subsidy by the carriers, who are not in the business of giving money away. And they make sure they recover that subsidy. In some cases, they end up charging you hundreds of dollars more than you would lay out if you simply bought it outright.

After you add that device to your shopping cart, you then have to select a monthly plan and agree to pay the price of that plan for two years.

And guess what? For the three carriers that dominate the U.S. mobile market, the monthly prices for contract plans are significantly higher than those you will pay if you buy the phone outright or finance the full retail price.

The FTC ought to step in and force the carriers to clearly tell you the true price you’ll pay for your phone over the course of your two-year contract. And kudos to T-Mobile for being the only U.S. carrier with honest pricing.

Remember Flash Player? ★

[Posted this 30 minutes ago thinking it was a new story, but it’s from 2011. ZDNet’s “Related Story” widget fooled me, sorry about that. Still interesting to me re: the Lynch angle.]

Good to know the guy who was responsible for Flash Player at Adobe is now in charge of the software for Apple Watch. The optimist’s angle is that Kevin Lynch was just doing his part as a team player. But his evangelism for Flash Player for mobile devices looks downright silly in hindsight.

The Line for iPhones 6 at Flagship Fifth Avenue Apple Store Stretched 12 Blocks ★

Good time to take a look back at Henry Blodget’s 2011 prognostication: “Android Clobbering Everyone, iPhone Dead in the Water”.

Android L to Offer Full Device Encryption, on by Default ★

Craig Timberg, the Washington Post:

The next generation of Google’s Android operating system, due for release next month, will encrypt data by default for the first time, the company said Thursday, raising yet another barrier to police gaining access to the troves of personal data typically kept on smartphones.

Android has offered optional encryption on some devices since 2011, but security experts say few users have known how to turn on the feature. Now Google is designing the activation procedures for new Android devices so that encryption happens automatically; only somebody who enters a device’s password will be able to see the pictures, videos and communications stored on those smartphones.

Good news for everyone, but seriously — how many years until a majority of Android users are running Android L or higher? Five?

Android Browser Flaw a ‘Privacy Disaster’ for Half of Android Users ★

Peter Bright, writing for Ars Technica:

A bug quietly reported on September 1 appears to have grave implications for Android users. Android Browser, the open source, WebKit-based browser that used to be part of the Android Open Source Platform (AOSP), has a flaw that enables malicious sites to inject JavaScript into other sites. Those malicious JavaScripts can in turn read cookies and password fields, submit forms, grab keyboard input, or do practically anything else. […]

Google’s own numbers paint an even worse picture. According to the online advertising giant, only 24.5 percent of Android users are using version 4.4. The majority of Android users are using versions that include the broken component, and many of these users are using 4.1.x or below, so they’re not even using versions of Android that use Chrome as the default browser. […]

Just how this fix will be made useful is unclear. While Chrome is updated through the Play Store, the AOSP Browser is generally updated only through operating system updates. Timely availability of Android updates remains a sticking point for the operating system, so even if Google develops a fix, it may well be unavailable to those who actually need it.

It’ll all work out in five or six years when most Android users are running 4.4 or higher.