Steven Levy Interviews Jeff Bezos

post from Daring Fireball on 14 November 2011 11:03:50 PM. © Daring Fireball

Interesting take on software patents:

Levy: Some years ago, there was some controversy when Amazon got apatent for its 1-Click shopping. Now, technology patents are sowidespread that they?re seen as a real hindrance to creativityand innovation. Has your thinking changed?
Bezos: For many years, I have thought that software patents shouldeither be eliminated or dramatically shortened. It?s impossibleto measure the toll they?ve had on the software industry, but onbalance, it has been negative.
Levy: But without software patents, you wouldn?t have exclusiverights to 1-Click shopping.
Bezos: If that were the price of having a dramatic reduction insoftware patents, it would be great.

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Read The Full Article:
http://www.wired.com/magazine/2011/11/ff_bezos/all/1

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Disney's Muppets Come Alive On The Small - iPhone
- Screen With Viddy

post from prMac on 14 November 2011 09:15:00 PM. © prMac

Viddy announces In anticipation of soon-to launch film Disney's "The Muppets," Disney and Viddy, the leading mobile social video app, launch The Muppets PackTM, featuring some of the beloved Muppets brought to life in video clips, the Muppet Pack offers fans a unique opportunity to create personalized interactive video clips with their favorite characters. Featuring high-level motion production effects, the app brings high-resolution Muppets to an iPhone screen for use anywhere, anytime.

Read The Full Article:
http://prmac.com/release-id-33800.htm

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Two Fun Mobile Products for Holidays Win CES
Innovations Awards

post from prMac on 14 November 2011 05:52:00 PM. © prMac

Bluetrek Technologies is proud to announce Bluetrek's Carbon Fiber Bluetooth Headset and Speaky, the most friendly carkit, are winners of Prestigious Ces Innovations 2012 design and engineering awards. Products entered in this prestigious program are judged by a preeminent panel of independent industrial designers, engineers and members of the media to honor outstanding design and engineering in cutting edge consumer electronics products across different product categories.

Read The Full Article:
http://prmac.com/release-id-33803.htm

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Decorate your desktop with amazing uDesktop 1.0.1

post from prMac on 14 November 2011 05:28:00 PM. © prMac

Aperio Lux has announced the release of uDesktop 1.0.1 for Mac OS X. uDesktop is a program allowing you to access thousands of widescreen wallpapers for the desktop of your Mac. The program's interface is simple and intuitive. All images are grouped by category and resolution. You can browse the images by date acquired or popularity. uDesktop lets you not only download wallpapers for your desktop but also to access all previously downloaded ones from the Downloads section.

Read The Full Article:
http://prmac.com/release-id-33799.htm

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Josh Topolsky on the Kindle Fire

post from Daring Fireball on 14 November 2011 05:03:53 PM. © Daring Fireball

Josh Topolsky:

I am confused about a number of decisions here, however. Unlikethe PlayBook, iPad, or pretty much any other tablet on the market,the Fire has no hardware volume controls, meaning that you have togo through a series of taps (especially if the device is sleeping)to just change the volume. The Fire also has no “home” button —simply a small, hard-to-find nub along the bottom used forsleeping and waking the device, and powering up and down. Thatmeans that Amazon had to create software navigation for gettingaround the tablet, which would be fine… if the home buttonwasn’t always disappearing into a hidden menu. Also, I foundmyself accidentally pressing the power button when I was typing orholding the tablet in certain positions, causing the Fire to thinkI wanted to shut it down. I’m not sure why it’s located where it’slocated, but it seems like a poor choice to me.

Man, do I love The Verge’s video reviews. They look great and are very tightly edited. If you’re going to skim, just jump to the bottom and watch the video.

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Read The Full Article:
http://www.theverge.com/2011/11/14/2560084/kindle-fire-review

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David Pogue on the New Kindles

post from Daring Fireball on 14 November 2011 05:03:53 PM. © Daring Fireball

The new e-ink models sound great. The Fire, though:

Most problematic, though, the Fire does not have anything like thepolish or speed of an iPad. You feel that $200 price tag withevery swipe of your finger. Animations are sluggish and jerky —even the page turns that you?d think would be the pride of theKindle team. Taps sometimes don?t register. There are noprogress or ?wait? indicators, so you frequently don?t knowif the machine has even registered your touch commands. Themomentum of the animations hasn?t been calculated right, so thewhole thing feels ornery.
Magazines are supposed to be among the best new features. Mostoffer two views. There is Page View, which shows the originalmagazine layout — but shrunken down too small to read, andzooming is limited. Then there is Text View: simple text on awhite background. It?s great for reading, but of course nowyou?re missing the design and layout, which is half the joy ofreading a magazine. And Text View sometimes loses words, cartooncaptions and so on.

A 7-inch screen might be great for books, but how could anyone think it would work for what we think of as magazines? Try to find a 7-inch magazine on the (non-virtual) newsstand.

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Read The Full Article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/14/technology/personaltech/the-fire-aside-amazons-
lower-priced-kindles-also-shine.html?pagewanted=all

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Robots Figure Prominently in Many of the Ideas

post from Daring Fireball on 14 November 2011 04:03:22 PM. © Daring Fireball

Front-page NYT story by Claire Cain Miller and Nick Bilton on Google’s secret “Google X” lab:

Fleets of robots could assist Google with collecting information,replacing the humans that photograph streets for Google Maps, saypeople with knowledge of Google X. Robots born in the lab could bedestined for homes and offices, where they could assist withmundane tasks or allow people to work remotely, they say.

That’s what we need to allow for a remote workforce. Robots.

Among the items that could be connected: a garden planter (so itcould be watered from afar); a coffee pot (so it could be set tobrew remotely); or a light bulb (so it could be turned offremotely). Google said in May that by the end of this year anotherteam planned to introduce a Web-connected light bulb that couldcommunicate wirelessly with Android devices.

Why was this story on the front page of The Times?

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Read The Full Article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/14/technology/at-google-x-a-top-secret-lab-dreamin
g-up-the-future.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all

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The Inquirer Leaving The Inquirer Building

Local note. Bob Fernandez, reporting for The Philadelphia Inquirer:

Saying it would be part of a renaissance on East Market Street,Philadelphia Media Network Inc. will vacate the iconic 86-year-oldhome of The Inquirer and Daily News for new space in the renovatedformer Strawbridge & Clothier store.

Sad, but a sign of the times. The Inquirer Building is everything a newspaper building should be.

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Read The Full Article:
http://www.philly.com/philly/business/breaking/20111114_Inquirer__Daily_News_movi
ng_to_former_Strawbridges_building.html

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Siri Sends a Message

Guy English:

I wanted to ask Blodget a few questions about this piece thathe?d written for Business Insider. It appeared to me like he wastalking out of his ass.

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Read The Full Article:
http://kickingbear.com/blog/archives/256

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Microsoft on the Google Admosphere

The infographic is the best part. What’s interesting to me isn’t the exact message, but the degree to which Microsoft is setting its company-wide sights on Google as its primary opponent. Here’s another recent example — “Google Graveyard” — from the same Microsoft weblog. Google has put itself in a position where both Microsoft and Apple view Google as the company they want to beat. Facebook too, really.

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Read The Full Article:
http://blogs.technet.com/b/whymicrosoft/archive/2011/11/14/google-atmosphere-or-a
dmosphere.aspx

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