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Boot up: dead web?, handheld jet engines, big iPhone excitement, and more(Guardian Web Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) A burst of 11 links for you to chew over, as picked by the Technology team Why the web still matters for writing >> Matt Mullenweg's blog Ben Thompson (making a guest post): Many were quick to once again declare "The Web is Dead," but I'm not sure that conclusion makes sense, at least for writing. First off, Flurry's numbers don't account for webviews within mobile apps. On my site, Stratechery, 37% of my iOS traffic comes from webviews (Android doesn't break out the difference), which on Flurry's chart would fall mostly in the Twitter slice. More mass market sites likely take up some percentage of Facebook time, as well. That said, it's striking how little written content appears on Flurry's chart; the only category that is primarily about written content is news, and even that includes video. And yet, pageviews on WordPress.com and Jetpack are up 27% year-over-year, new sites ranging from small blogs like Stratechery to huge sites like FiveThirtyEight continue to launch and grow, and multiple startups (and competitors!) continue to find writing something worth investing in. So is the web dead or not? Ubuntu One : Shutdown notice >> Canonical We are sorry to notify you that we will be shutting down the Ubuntu One file services, effective 1 June 2014. It is no longer possible to purchase storage or music from the Ubuntu One store. The Ubuntu One file services apps in the Ubuntu, Google, and Apple stores have been removed. As always, your content belongs to you. If you have already uploaded any content you can simply download your files onto your PC or an external hard drive. While the service will stop as of 1 June, you will have an additional two months (until 31 July 2014) to collect all of your content. After that date, all remaining content will be deleted. Explanation given: "the free storage wars aren't a sustainable place for us to be, particularly with other services now regularly offering 25GB-50GB free storage. If we offer a service, we want it to compete on a global scale, and for Ubuntu One to continue to do that would require more investment than we are willing to make." So long, and thanks for all the wooden, scotch-taped, leather-stitched, linen-backed fish >> Skeu It! We missed this going quiet at the end of 2012, but the wider range is still hilarious. Compiled by an ex-Apple staffer who now works at Google on... user experience design. Samsung's Galaxy S5 has plenty of upgrades — so why does it feel so meh? >> Ars Technica We grabbed a real medical pulse oximeter that a medic would use in the field to compare the measurements to the S5. While the S5 is capable of an accurate bpm measurement, its biggest problem is that the "one shot" style of measurement leads to a lot of inaccuracies. Even while doing our best to follow its don't-move-and-don't-make-noise instructions, we found the bpm measurement would wildly swing by up to 20 points while doing back-to-back readings. If you're relying on the Galaxy S5 for an accurate bpm, at minimum you'll have to take a "best of three" approach to find consensus. We find a 50% failure rate unacceptable for any tool that claims to measure something, so you can throw the Galaxy S5's heartbeat sensor onto the "gimmicky nonsense" pile. Even if this worked reliably, what would the point of it be? Anyone interested in keeping track of their heart rate would be much better served by a fitness device that can perform measurements while the wearer is moving and making noise. One-shot monitoring just isn't very useful. 451 Research's latest ChangeWave survey finds record consumer interest in next gen iPhone >> Changewave Hard to get the URL to stick, but here's the relevant part: The results show very strong advanced interest for a next generation iPhone – 14% of respondents say they're Very Likely and 26% Somewhat Likely to buy the "iPhone 6" in the future. (By comparison, the figures for March 2013 were 9% and 17%, and for March 2012 15% and 18%.) While the "iPhone 6" findings are still speculative, they point to enormous consumer interest in the next gen Apple iPhone. Meanwhile, Apple's biggest competitor – Samsung – is seeing a burst of momentum in planned smart phone buying over the next 90 days, led by demand for the new Galaxy S 5. A total of 28% of respondents who plan to buy a smart phone in the next 90 days say they'll purchase a Samsung – a 9-pt surge from our previous survey in December. As the following chart shows, this is the second jump in a row for Samsung – and it's now at an all-time high for a ChangeWave survey. What mobile can learn from the PC Industry >> Tech.pinions Ben Bajarin: The two largest markets from an install base standpoint of smartphones are China (approx 525m currently) and the US (approx 225m currently. Per my PC observations I'll focus on these two markets. They're very, very different. Mobile games, living room entertainment, and a market that might not exist >> Medium Michael Dempsey (a New York-based writer, not the UK journalist): With Amazon launching Fire TV this morning, a set-top box that doubles as a gaming console, I couldn't help but think: Will Amazon be the ones to crack the non-mobile Android video game console space that people are so positive exists, even though Ouya, with plenty of press and support, is failing? Or is the gaming industry still years away from getting to where the film industry is today? A place where independent no longer means lower quality or less entertaining. Handheld jet engines take extreme sports to the next level >> DVICE Speed demons, take note: your ship has come in. Whether you're into skateboarding or skiing, there is now a device that will let you do it faster than ever. The Thrusters, by Dreamscience are basically four tiny jet engines that you strap to your stomach and turn on when you want an extra burst of speed. Powered by an on-board battery pack, the four electric jet engines have already been tested by paragliders, skaters, skiiers and snowboarders. In fact, snowboarder Jamie Barrow hit a top speed of 50 miles per hour when he took the Thrusters prototype out to a frozen lake near St. Moritz, Switzerland. "Strap these to a skateboard and I think you're sorted, Mr McFly." A galaxy of loopholes greets Samsung's S5 launch >> WSJ Jonathan Cheng and Min-Jeong Lee in Seoul: That brings us to SK Telecom, whose storefront in downtown Seoul was free of Galaxy S5 promos, though an employee snapped to attention at the mention of the device. There were plenty of loopholes, he explained, pointing the reporters toward a Galaxy S5 on display by the front door. Korean regulators technically allow anyone whose two-year contract has expired to upgrade to the new smartphone. Alternatively, anyone who has lost a phone can replace it with a new Galaxy S5, even during the carrier's sales blackout. Although any phone registered as "lost" has to stay out of sight for at least six months, he said that he had done just that for a few customers the other day. Would we be interested? (The reporters declined.) An SK Telecom spokeswoman confirmed the rule, but emphasized that the phone has to be properly documented as lost before a customer can buy a new phone through the carrier. SK Telecom's more open-minded approach may be one small reason why it's the dominant player in the market here. According to South Korea's Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning, SK Telecom accounted for 49% of the country's smartphone subscribers, as of the end of February. KT is next with 30% of the market, while LG Uplus brings up the rear with 21%. Officially, only UPlus can presently sell the S5. Unofficially... Exclusive: Apple vs. Samsung docs reveal Galaxy Tab was a flop and Samsung knew it >> Apple Insider Samsung's internal documents indicate that the company's own public representation of its competitive position in the tablet market was not true, and that the company appears to have intentionally misled its own investors and the analysts covering its business with false statements about the health of its tablet sales. Shocker; based on documents released in the latest Apple-Samsung patent trial. Samsung doesn't include figures for smartphone or tablet sales in its official financial documents; it "guides" analysts towards the figures that are publicly announced. Heartbleed, explained >> xkcd Put like this, it's amazing that it has taken two years to discover this bug. 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. (c) 2014 Guardian Newspapers Limited. |