via Death and Taxes.
Forced Desktop Activation for Mobile?
Popped a SIM into a Galaxy Note and found this lovely message. There’s no way around the activation process on the desktop which makes little sense to me. I’m not a new or novice user and this is far from the first device I’ve even activated on AT&T. Having gone through the desktop process now I see they want to make it theoretically easier for a user to add their account credentials and tweak some basic home screen settings, but that’s really not hard in your hand. It would be nice to see a choice.
I can’t even use the Note until a code gets sent back to the handset.
Actually … with a few extra taps back you can apparently exit out and start with a Google Account, but that’s not exactly obvious.
Amazon’s AutoRip!
Amazon just announced a very cool new service that will enable cloud access to any of the CD’s you’ve purchased (some limitations) from them. When I think back through the decade+ purchase history, this is considerable for me. I can’t believe it took this long to even get this going as they’ve been able to validate purchase for a long time and have had a cloud streamer for a while as well. I’ll have to really check this out out to get a feel for how it really works.
Meanwhile back in 2004 …
via The Verge
Nokia on the rise?
Nokia shipped 4.4 million Lumia devices in the fourth quarter of 2012, bringing its total smartphone shipments to 6.6 million devices, the first increase in smartphone shipment numbers in a year.
But the Finnish handset maker still expects its main devices and services unit to record a fall in net sales in the fourth quarter of 2012, to €3.9 billion ($5.10 billion) from €6 billion a year earlier, with total device shipments projected at 86.3 million units, down from 113.5 million. Nokia is due to report its full fourth-quarter earnings on Jan. 24
Developers on Project Shield
The key takeaway from developers, however, is that even if Project Shield doesn’t take the market by storm, something along the same lines will do soon.
via PocketGamer.biz.
Aereo CEO on Bundles and Fees
More power to Aereo … I’ve played with a demo account and it works quite well. Tempting even.
Ad Age: So broadcasters shouldn’t have dual revenue streams, like cable channels?
Mr. Kanojia: I don’t know their business at all. All I know is the current paradigm is this: They have [broadcast] spectrum. They are required to program in the public interest and to offer it widely for free. You are allowed to have an antenna. There is no prohibition on where you have it; it can be on your roof, your window or 50 feet away; in my computer or in the cloud. Tell me what the dispute is? Because you didn’t see it coming? That is really what it is.
Ad Age: But since fees are so important to broadcast now, why shouldn’t they fight it?
Mr. Kanojia: Technology catches up. When the VCR came out there was the same hyperbole: It’s going to kill television. They made billions. It spawned a whole industry of home video. These technologies [Aereo] are single-cast, they know where you are. I think they are just ignoring that technologies like these are immensely helpful in attracting younger audiences and are helpful in creating new ad models.
via Advertising Age