January 2013 – Page 3 – atmaspheric

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.

1/10/2013

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

via Nokia Boosted by Brisk Lumia Sales – WSJ.com.

1/10/20131/10/2013

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.

1/10/2013

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

1/9/2013

keyboard pants

via BruceS.

1/9/20131/9/2013

Minimalist, Chainmail Shoes

PSFK spotted this pretty amazing looking minimalist running shoes called PaleoBarefoots and I have to say I’m very curious about what they are like.

A quick googling and I can see they are quite expensive, though on second thought given the materials, you probably don’t need to worry about replacing them anytime soon, so perhaps it’s more of an investment.

The trail running I’ve been doing has been via New Balance MB010 which I love. They’ve got a 4mm drop which I thought would be a good intro to minimal running and so far that’s been accurate. They also have a waterproof upper which has been great on the trail and recently in the snow as well keeping me both warm and dry. I’ll probably switch it up when the weather gets warmer to something more breathable.

1/9/2013

Giant Squid Captured

10 feet long and 1KM down … via WSJ

1/9/2013

Massif Management: Surf Photographers

More Salty Pictures via slideshow at the link below. #solid.

This past fall, Jonathan Feldman formed Massif Management, a photo agency that represents a group of young surfers who are also photographers. “They’re ‘surf photographers’ insofar as they shoot waves and wave riders, but they’re also working across any number of different genres, from art and fashion to travel,” Feldman told me. “Still, for all these guys, surfing is an abiding passion, and I think you feel the presence of the ocean in their photos, even when they’re working away from the water. They make salty pictures.”
via The New Yorker.

1/8/2013

If I pay is it mine?

Solid piece on The Verge about the risks and rewards of paid vs free apps for the end user and your data. People assume that if it’s paid there’s likely to be more of an implied trust your data and time spent accruing the data is safer than with free where you are more likely to monetized. Things are far from black and white however as plenty of companies still sell access to you or even sell ads on top of the experience. Others go bust or get acquired changing the original plans. What’s needed is a sure-fire system to get your data out when the time comes …

Mike Masnick at Techdirt nicely covered this recently as well.

1/8/20131/8/2013

Polaroid Instant Prints are Back

It looks like it’s official that Sakar will be producing the Polaroid iM1836. The device will be the first Android-powered compact interchangeable-lens 18 MP smart camera and will come loaded with the latest Android 4.1 ?%

Oh and if you’d like to get some professional Polaroid prints they’ve got you covered (again) as well.

1/8/2013

BTW, games are serious in China

The online gaming market reportedly represented over 90 percent of revenue, bringing in $9.1 billion (RMB 56.96 billion). Mobile gaming still represented a small part of the market, with just $520 million (RMB 3.24 billion) in revenue. Dedicated gaming devices, which operate in a legal grey area, accounted for just 0.1 percent of sales.

Looking ahead, the report expects the Chinese game market to swell to $21.7 billion (RMB 135.2 billion) by 2017 with a projected annual growth rate of 12.4 percent.

via The Next Web.

1/8/20131/8/2013

Samsung’s New Smart TV

Stunning screen resolution … the real trick is how it works with your craptastic cable box. I’m still holding steady for the hopeful Apple TV, but this sounds really, really good.

Here’s a quick breakdown of what Samsung’s Smart TVs can do:

The menu is divided into five panels for live TV, movies or TV shows, your personal photos/videos/music, social content recommendations from services like Twitter, Facebook, or YouTube, and apps.

The interface recommends what to watch based on what’s stored on your mobile devices and what your friends like.

You can control the TV with your voice or motion gestures.

If you have a Samsung smartphone or tablet, you can beam video content to and from your Smart TV. It’s similar to Apple’s AirPlay.

via Business Insider.

1/7/20131/7/2013

App to App Connectivity

Fred Wilson brings up a great point this morning about connectivity between mobile apps, or perhaps the challenge therein.

As you’ve no doubt noticed its far easier to move between systems on your desktop vs mobile. His example of clicking on a link from within Facebook mobile to buy something on Etsy rings true. Instead of being pushed into an app where you are likely to be logged in, you are typically dropped off on a mobile web page where you essentially start fresh adding a bit of friction into the equation.

Android does offer intents which allows you to send an action to a particular app but it’s also a bit unwieldy. There’s no way to edit the list and instead your are more often than not presented with a list of all the apps on your device who have registered themselves as shareable. On iPhone every app developer has to choose how to share out which leads to tons of inconsistency. For basic social sharing it’s not terrible but if you want to a really use the content in a more meaningful way … Good luck.

I’ve seen some apps enable app links so a click opens the app but this is rare and can fail as a standard option as you have to assume there’s an app installed. I would love to see some choices when setting up bookmarklets (app vs web) and having a way to limit the android intent list to those that matter would start us off in the right direction.

1/7/2013

Nvidia Project Shield

No it’s not for the Avengers, but instead Full Android, Hi-Def gaming in your hand … If I was perhaps a bit more hardcore, I’d already have a windows gaming PC which would make this that much more powerful as sadly that’s the core requirement for accessing PC or Steam Games. What they should really do is simply do a deal with Steam directly.

In addition to supporting all of the games available to Android devices and the games in the Tegra Zone, the Shield also has the ability to stream games from a home Windows PC equipped with a GeForce GTX 650 (or higher) graphics card to the handheld device over Wi-Fi, letting users access their library of PC games, including games in the Steam library, while on the go. It access the games on the home PC and run them virtually on the Shield. In the future, Nvidia says that it will add support to stream content from the Shield to a television wirelessly, so you can watch video and play games on your TV display without being tethered by wires. Of course, with support for the standard Android platform, the Shield also has access to the hundreds of thousands of apps that are available in the Google Play Store.

via The Verge and @marceloeduardo

1/7/2013

Roku and TWC

Time Warner Cable is going to let you use a Roku to access your cable subscription. While this isn’t fully decoupled service it’s still pretty awesome for Roku owners. Being able to do everything through a single box – that’s not your crappy cable box – would be excellent.

“The availability of a service like TWC TV on an open platform represents significant milestones for both Time Warner Cable and Roku as well as for the industry overall,” said Anthony Wood, Roku’s founder and CEO. Unfortunately, there are some restrictions to just how “open” that experience is. Like the TWC TV apps for iOS, Android, and the desktop, compatible Roku hardware will need to be running on a subscriber’s home network to access live TV; you won’t be able to stream your favorite channels remotely. And while over 300 stations will be available, you’ll obviously be limited according to whatever’s included in your cable package. via The Verge

1/7/2013