Plus Samsung blames PR firm over StackExchange rumpus, the Surface RT mess analysed, Motorola's on Moto X, and more
A burst of 8 links for you to chew over, as picked by the Technology team
*Twitter. A Digital Experience >> Behance*
UX/UI specialist Fred Nerby tries to redesign Twitter so that it will
"create a deeper engagement and visual experience through content and communication between users, artists, magazines and motion pictures… and all other distributors world wide."
Because everyone's desire is to be a passive consumer of "distributors'" content, right?
--------------------
*False Lenovo security report only strengthens world's top PC maker >> CIO.com*
Earlier this week, the Australian Financial Review reported that Australia and other Western countries were blocking Lenovo hardware from secure locations because investigations have discovered some kind of malicious vulnerabilities. Only one problem: The Australian Department of Defense says the report is false. This forced those who picked up the story to publish a disclaimer.
Something should have occurred to folks writing the story. Why, in the midst of a huge NSA dust-up on spying and during a time when folks were mostly focused on mobile devices, would there be an investigation on PCs from China? You'd think every investigator would be looking at American-sourced gear and services instead.
To be precise, the Australian DoD denial includes the words "There is no Department of Defence ban on the Lenovo Company or their computer products; either for classified or unclassified systems."
--------------------
*Frosted glass effects — why I switched to Android after all these years >> Andreas Göldi*
Göldi is CTO of Pixability:
A few minutes after installing the IOS 7 beta I just knew I needed to switch to Android.
I have found myself using more and more Google apps on my iPhone over the past 18 months or so. Google Maps replaced (surprise) Apple Maps, Gmail replaced Apple Mail, Chrome replaced Safari. I did voice search through Google's search app, not Siri. And so on. Why? Because Google's services are not only much more powerful but also very neatly integrated. The amazing Google Now is the best example for that.
In fact, I was already using a Google phone running iOS underneath, and there's simply nothing in iOS 7 that makes me think I might switch back to Apple's stock apps.
There's just frustration that iOS 7 has barely caught up with Android's current state.
Alternatively...
--------------------
*App updates for iOS 7 >> furbo.org*
Craig Hockenbery:
While cranking along on the update, a couple of thoughts occurred to me: how many other developers were doing the same thing and were they going to commit fully to iOS 7? The depth and breadth of the changes in iOS 7 makes it difficult to support older versions of the OS.
So I just asked. I also included a simple question that any developer who was actively working on an update would be able to answer as a sort of CAPTCHA.
After a little over 24 hours, I had my answers:
An overwhelming number of developers are updating apps for iOS 7. Of 575 valid responses, 545 developers indicated that they were working on an update for iOS 7. That's an adoption rate of 95%!
Of those developers who were working on an update, I then calculated how many were going to require iOS 7 (and drop support for iOS 6):
Just over half of developers (284 of 545) were leaving the past behind. Initially I was surprised that this number was so high, but then I remembered how much time and effort I was putting into my own work :-)
--------------------
*Trends in Pricing and Duration >> The Kickstarter Blog*
September 2010:
A couple of weeks ago we linked to Craig Mod's gorgeous and thorough breakdown of his Kickstarter project Art Space Tokyo. In the post Craig sampled other popular projects on Kickstarter, and explained how their choices and outcomes affected the way he constructed his project. Craig also offers some advice on optimal pricing and project length to future project creators. We were intrigued and impressed by Craig's research and conclusions, and we've now compiled data from our entire database to see how it holds up. Let's dig in.
Fascinating analysis of how to structure a Kickstarter (or crowdfunding) project so that it hits its target. Would be great to see this updated.
--------------------
*Samsung blames ad agency for trying to bribe developers >> The Verge*
Samsung has admitted that developers were offered money to mention its developer competition on the popular developer community Stack Overflow. In a statement issued to The Verge, the company condemns the actions, noting that they were "clearly against Samsung Electronics corporate policy." The company claims it wasn't aware of the situation, and as soon as it found out that a PR firm was offering cash for content, it cancelled the plans. "We remain committed to engaging in transparent and honest communications with consumers."
The followup to last Friday's revelation by Delyan Kratunov. This seems to happen awfully often with Samsung. Another time, its Taiwan branch paid students to diss HTC on some forums. And the sum involved - $500 for four questions per developer - suggests a very big marketing budget.
--------------------
*Fixation on margins: the Surface RT debacle edition >> Hal's (Im)Perfect Vision*
Former Microsoft general manager Hal Berenson:
The other day a friend of mine made two astute comments. The first was that the only real problem with the Surface RT was that it lacked applications. The second was that if Microsoft had given away the millions of unsold Surface RT systems implied by the $900m write-down then the application problem would have been solved. So why didn't Microsoft do exactly that? That is, sell several million Surface RT systems at bargain basement prices to seed the market?
In other words, why not do what Google does with its Nexus products? Because Microsoft couldn't bear to copy Google; it wanted to copy Apple. Insightful post.
--------------------
*No Moto X for the UK, other 'cool and exciting' devices in the portfolio planned for Europe >> Pocket-lint*
Rik Henderson:
"It doesn't mean that Europe is not a key priority for Motorola," we were told by a UK spokesperson. "Essentially, the Moto X is the first device in a new product portfolio, basically a new family of devices.
"Because it is the first one, the Moto X has had a real buzz around it, but the US launch is not about the US being Motorola's priority at all, there are devices coming to Europe. We can't share what they are as of yet, but they are from the same family. They are cool and they are exciting and there is a lot in Europe coming up."
What does "the US launch is not about the US being Motorola's priority at all" mean?
--------------------
You can follow Guardian Technology's linkbucket on Pinboard
To suggest a link, either add it below or tag it with @gdntech on the free Delicious service. Reported by guardian.co.uk 4 hours ago.
A burst of 8 links for you to chew over, as picked by the Technology team
*Twitter. A Digital Experience >> Behance*
UX/UI specialist Fred Nerby tries to redesign Twitter so that it will
"create a deeper engagement and visual experience through content and communication between users, artists, magazines and motion pictures… and all other distributors world wide."
Because everyone's desire is to be a passive consumer of "distributors'" content, right?
--------------------
*False Lenovo security report only strengthens world's top PC maker >> CIO.com*
Earlier this week, the Australian Financial Review reported that Australia and other Western countries were blocking Lenovo hardware from secure locations because investigations have discovered some kind of malicious vulnerabilities. Only one problem: The Australian Department of Defense says the report is false. This forced those who picked up the story to publish a disclaimer.
Something should have occurred to folks writing the story. Why, in the midst of a huge NSA dust-up on spying and during a time when folks were mostly focused on mobile devices, would there be an investigation on PCs from China? You'd think every investigator would be looking at American-sourced gear and services instead.
To be precise, the Australian DoD denial includes the words "There is no Department of Defence ban on the Lenovo Company or their computer products; either for classified or unclassified systems."
--------------------
*Frosted glass effects — why I switched to Android after all these years >> Andreas Göldi*
Göldi is CTO of Pixability:
A few minutes after installing the IOS 7 beta I just knew I needed to switch to Android.
I have found myself using more and more Google apps on my iPhone over the past 18 months or so. Google Maps replaced (surprise) Apple Maps, Gmail replaced Apple Mail, Chrome replaced Safari. I did voice search through Google's search app, not Siri. And so on. Why? Because Google's services are not only much more powerful but also very neatly integrated. The amazing Google Now is the best example for that.
In fact, I was already using a Google phone running iOS underneath, and there's simply nothing in iOS 7 that makes me think I might switch back to Apple's stock apps.
There's just frustration that iOS 7 has barely caught up with Android's current state.
Alternatively...
--------------------
*App updates for iOS 7 >> furbo.org*
Craig Hockenbery:
While cranking along on the update, a couple of thoughts occurred to me: how many other developers were doing the same thing and were they going to commit fully to iOS 7? The depth and breadth of the changes in iOS 7 makes it difficult to support older versions of the OS.
So I just asked. I also included a simple question that any developer who was actively working on an update would be able to answer as a sort of CAPTCHA.
After a little over 24 hours, I had my answers:
An overwhelming number of developers are updating apps for iOS 7. Of 575 valid responses, 545 developers indicated that they were working on an update for iOS 7. That's an adoption rate of 95%!
Of those developers who were working on an update, I then calculated how many were going to require iOS 7 (and drop support for iOS 6):
Just over half of developers (284 of 545) were leaving the past behind. Initially I was surprised that this number was so high, but then I remembered how much time and effort I was putting into my own work :-)
--------------------
*Trends in Pricing and Duration >> The Kickstarter Blog*
September 2010:
A couple of weeks ago we linked to Craig Mod's gorgeous and thorough breakdown of his Kickstarter project Art Space Tokyo. In the post Craig sampled other popular projects on Kickstarter, and explained how their choices and outcomes affected the way he constructed his project. Craig also offers some advice on optimal pricing and project length to future project creators. We were intrigued and impressed by Craig's research and conclusions, and we've now compiled data from our entire database to see how it holds up. Let's dig in.
Fascinating analysis of how to structure a Kickstarter (or crowdfunding) project so that it hits its target. Would be great to see this updated.
--------------------
*Samsung blames ad agency for trying to bribe developers >> The Verge*
Samsung has admitted that developers were offered money to mention its developer competition on the popular developer community Stack Overflow. In a statement issued to The Verge, the company condemns the actions, noting that they were "clearly against Samsung Electronics corporate policy." The company claims it wasn't aware of the situation, and as soon as it found out that a PR firm was offering cash for content, it cancelled the plans. "We remain committed to engaging in transparent and honest communications with consumers."
The followup to last Friday's revelation by Delyan Kratunov. This seems to happen awfully often with Samsung. Another time, its Taiwan branch paid students to diss HTC on some forums. And the sum involved - $500 for four questions per developer - suggests a very big marketing budget.
--------------------
*Fixation on margins: the Surface RT debacle edition >> Hal's (Im)Perfect Vision*
Former Microsoft general manager Hal Berenson:
The other day a friend of mine made two astute comments. The first was that the only real problem with the Surface RT was that it lacked applications. The second was that if Microsoft had given away the millions of unsold Surface RT systems implied by the $900m write-down then the application problem would have been solved. So why didn't Microsoft do exactly that? That is, sell several million Surface RT systems at bargain basement prices to seed the market?
In other words, why not do what Google does with its Nexus products? Because Microsoft couldn't bear to copy Google; it wanted to copy Apple. Insightful post.
--------------------
*No Moto X for the UK, other 'cool and exciting' devices in the portfolio planned for Europe >> Pocket-lint*
Rik Henderson:
"It doesn't mean that Europe is not a key priority for Motorola," we were told by a UK spokesperson. "Essentially, the Moto X is the first device in a new product portfolio, basically a new family of devices.
"Because it is the first one, the Moto X has had a real buzz around it, but the US launch is not about the US being Motorola's priority at all, there are devices coming to Europe. We can't share what they are as of yet, but they are from the same family. They are cool and they are exciting and there is a lot in Europe coming up."
What does "the US launch is not about the US being Motorola's priority at all" mean?
--------------------
You can follow Guardian Technology's linkbucket on Pinboard
To suggest a link, either add it below or tag it with @gdntech on the free Delicious service. Reported by guardian.co.uk 4 hours ago.