Apple - Renewable Energy →
Just in case anyone was wondering, the map on that page uses Google Maps terrain mode.
The Difference Between Google and Facebook →
BuzzFeed founder Jonah Peretti in a bizarre interview with himself:
Google’s core business is search. Search is private and nobody sees what you search for. As a result people search for things like nude celebrities, weight loss tips, and tax forms—all things that are too embarrassing or boring to share with you friends.
Facebook is for stuff that you want to share…humorous content lets friends laugh together, cute animals let you say awwww together, a charity drive lets you help people together, and emotionally charged shared experiences let people remember together.
As Facebook grows and evolves, more and more content is shifting into the Facebook bucket. Facebook isn’t killing Google, but it is putting Google in a smaller and smaller box. In a few years, Google might be entirely for porn, diet pills, and finding things that you discovered on Facebook but want to look back on a few days later. I am exaggerating a little but if I were Google, I’d be scared.
This is a good explanation for why Google should prioritize getting social right, but is also the best explanation I have seen for why I do not want Google to get into the social business. I do not want the same company that knows what I search for to be the same company that wants me to share stuff with my friends.
Ultimately, I am uncomfortable with both companies. I do not want either the company that knows what I search for or the company that wants me to share stuff with my friends to be the same company whose customers are advertisers.
Competition, Amazon, and E-Books →
David Carr, for the New York Times:
Remember that it was only after agency pricing went into effect that Barnes & Noble was able to gain an impressive 27 percent of the e-book market. Now Amazon has the Justice Department as an ally to rebuild its monopoly and wipe out other players. If the decision to charge the publishers was good for competition, why had the stock price of Barnes & Noble dropped more than 10 percent since Wednesday?
John Gruber called this a “good point regarding competition.”
I have been led to believe that competition is good because it lowers prices. However, competition is not inherently a good thing. For example, Kindle books are almost always more expensive than they used to be. This increase in price is the result of competition (from Barnes & Noble and Apple), and I struggle to see how it benefits me, the consumer. I only see it benefiting the publishers. I am not convinced that it harms authors, either. I do not know the ins and outs of how authors make money, but I do not see why authors need to publish with the current crop of publishers. This is what one critical publishing industry insider noted regarding Amazon’s entrance into publishing:
Funny thing is that it’s actually better for authors.
I do not know what the role of the Justice Department is, though. If their primary role is to increase (or preserve) competition, then it appears they should be going after Amazon, not the other publishers.
Zuckerberg on buying Instagram →
Mark Zuckerberg:
This is an important milestone for Facebook because it’s the first time we’ve ever acquired a product and company with so many users. We don’t plan on doing many more of these, if any at all.
Is this him admitting Facebook essentially messed up, that they should have bought Instagram earlier? I read it as Zuckerberg saying that their own mobile photo service was inadequate and they let Instagram get too big. That in the future, they plan to buy any service that looks like it might compete with Facebook while it is still small.
Original Muppet Show Pitch →
Leo:
College kids and intellectual eggheads will love the underlying symbolism of everything.
Apparently, CBS rejected this pitch.
Retracting "Mr. Daisey and the Apple Factory" | This American Life →
Mike Daisey:
I’m not going to say that I didn’t take a few shortcuts in my passion to be heard. My mistake, the mistake I truly regret, is that I had it on your show as journalism, and it’s not journalism. It’s theater.
Reminds me of The Social Network.
Best Weatherman Ever - Devour.com →
The Best Weatherman Ever:
It’s like Gargamel getting rid of the Smurfs: There’s no more blue anymore.
I’m not a “curator” – Marco.org →
Marco Arment:
Reliably linking to great work is a good way to build an audience for your site. That’s your compensation.
That’s part of what I aim to do with this blog: reliably link. Part of the reason I started this blog was because I did not like sharing links on Facebook. I didn’t want to bother friends and family with links they didn’t care about. Here, no one is forced to look at what I link to (though I do realize Tumblr has its own newsfeed).
Skating Amsterdam's Canals - Devour.com →
I really want to go to Amsterdam someday.
After 244 Years, Encyclopaedia Britannica Stops the Presses →
The New York Times:
After 244 years, the Encyclopaedia Britannica is going out of print.
Wow.
The Guts of a New Machine →
Steve Jobs:
Design is how it works.
This great quote comes from Rob Walker’s great article for the New York Times in 2003 on the creation of the iPod.
A couple of things I noticed:
First, Apple is frequently accused of not aiming for the mainstream with its products. Apple is accused of this by both Apple lovers and haters. The Apple haters say that Apple products are too expensive. The Apple lovers say that Apple doesn’t really care about market share, but only about making great products. However, this article points out numerous instances in which Apple realized that if they do not become mainstream they may cease to exist.
Second, in the New York Times’s article on the new iPad, there was this quote:
At times, Apple has wowed people by radically rethinking the design of its products. Several years ago, it overhauled its MacBook Air with a drastically thinner case. It gave the iPhone 4 a novel, hard-edged case that looked very different from the design of early iPhones.
This reminded me that it is impossible not to introduce bias and ideology into reporting. This paragraph implies that design is exterior-only. This is in direct contradiction with what Steve Jobs was getting at when he said, “Design is how it works.” The New York Times used the common definition of ‘design’ in its article on the new iPad. I suppose this is what is to be expected. However, using the common definition of a term is just as much an expression of ideology as it would be to use Steve Jobs’s definition of design.
(via John Gruber)
Against TED →
Nathan Jurgenson, for The New Inquiry:
Each new “big idea” to “inspire the world” and “change everything” pitched from the TED stage reminds me of the swamp root and snake oil liniment being sold from a wagon a hundred years past.
I generally like TED talks, but I understand his skepticism.
The Twitter Trap - NYTimes.com →
Meg Wolitzer:
The generation that had information, but no context. Butter, but no bread. Craving, but no longing.
While I am generally wary of middle aged parents complaining about technology, this op-ed by Bill Keller makes some good points.
Senator Olympia Snowe’s Latest Hard Choice - To Quit →
Jonathan Weisman, for the New York Times:
The looming Senate vote on a Republican plan to give employers the right to withdraw health care coverage based on religious and moral convictions put Senator Olympia J. Snowe in a tough but familiar position: weighing her own views as a Republican centrist against pressure from fellow Republicans to support the party position.
A longtime advocate of increasing access to health care and one of a dwindling number of Republican backers of abortion rights, Ms. Snowe believed that the language was too broad and could have unintended consequences. At the same time, an embattled Republican colleague, Senator Scott P. Brown of Massachusetts, had publicly backed it, and a “no” vote from Ms. Snowe, of Maine, could isolate him as he sought to fend off anger in his heavily Democratic state.
It was the type of difficult choice that led to her surprise announcement on Tuesday to give up on the Senate, and it reflected growing uneasiness among Republican moderates with the return to a focus on social issues and with demands for party purity in the Republican electorate.
Seems to me, these decisions should ultimately be made based on one’s own view of the right thing to do, not what will help the party or colleagues.
