Boris Mann's Link Blog
Apple iWallet - The giant awakes? | MobilePaymentsToday.com
It DOES say something if Starbucks has the most successful mobile payment app. Paying is actually quite pleasant, but signing up and in general making changes to your account are hard and clunky.
The rest of the article is about the possibility of Apple doing an iWallet + NFC. The more I look at NFC, the more I am doubtful about its rollout.
Tim Cook on the “Law of Large Numbers” | asymco
Tim Cook on the size of the opportunity in mobile phones.
A theoretical write up of how Apple TV might work. It looks like Bluetooth 4.0 is finally delivering on a lot of the promises of the technology from over a decade ago.
The combined result of the Microsoft debacle, changes to the PC industry and the refusal of PC manufacturers to support Linux is that Apple is the only company which now seems competent enough to make a decent personal computer that you can actually use for software development.
While the whole world is looking forward to NFC, you can leave it up to Apple to think of a different standard.
This is one of the reasons I’m not particularly hot on NFC - I think that what Apple chooses could have a very large effect on the market.
Under the policy unveiled today by CTIA-The Wireless Association, mobile apps for games and social networking will be rated for age-appropriate content on a five-point scale from “everyone” to “adults only.” The voluntary program will be operated by the Entertainment Software Rating Board, which has run similar ratings for computer and video games since 1994.
Apple Joins Google in Skipping New Mobile-App Ratings for Sex, Violence - Bloomberg
The phrasing of “awaiting backing from Apple and Google” is interesting. If *I* were Apple and Google, I wouldn’t participate in a US-centric ratings system like this. The fact that it’s operated by the people who run ratings for computer video games doesn’t fill me with confidence, either.
One revolution I’m sure is coming is the remaking of the print publishing industry. As I’ve said before (link), once about 20% of the reading public has electronic devices, an established author can make more money bypassing print and selling direct through e-readers. I think the new Kindle line, and especially the entry-level Kindles at $99 and below, will finally push us past the 20% threshold. It will take a couple of years to play out, but this will force the long-awaited restructuring, or destruction, of the traditional book publishing industry.
