Tech links: 2013-07-13
Some technology links for the past week or so
Microsoft
Revealed: how Microsoft handed the NSA access to encrypted messages | World news | guardian.co.uk
Microsoft is cutting the price of its Surface RT tablets, base model to cost $349 | The Verge
With significant price cuts, Surface RT is a much better value at $350 — Tech News and Analysis
One Microsoft: Company realigns to enable innovation at greater speed, efficiency
Microsoft restructure: Ballmer pins hopes on bringing devices together | Technology | The Guardian
This is what I have been advocating for a long time for Microsoft. So it’s good to see the company move in this direction. WIll it work though?
Business Model
This is very true. I think it is driven by the ubiquity of free content. That drives down quality as free drives out paid content.
“This is happening because we’re not willing to pay for quality content. It’s that simple. Users need to understand that developers put a lot of time and money into these projects, and they have to be able to make that money back and make that spent time worthwhile.
Unfortunately, the vast majority have shown that they aren’t willing to help make a (worthy) game profitable by throwing money at it, so developers would lose interest (because let’s face it, the money is a very important part of why most people make games in the first place).
It’s the same reason why ads have become prevalent”
The Psychology Behind Freemium
Media
Guardian publisher ‘expected to report £35m loss’ – Telegraph
Mobile
T-Mobile: Our LTE network is in a constant state of flux — Tech News and Analysis
BlackBerry Z10 Prices Drop to $49 Amid Weak Sales – WSJ.com
Sprint Cuts Prices of Unlimited Data Plans – WSJ.com
ATandT is trouncing Verizon in LTE performance tests. Here’s ATandT’s explanation why
“Part of the explanation lies in congestion. Verizon’s network is hardly brimming over – it’s maintaining average speeds in excess of 10 Mbps – but it has more LTE devices on its network by virtue of having sold them for far longer. Cellular capacity is ultimately shared capacity so the more devices you have competing for airtime the slower everyone’s speeds will be. But this is quickly becoming less of a point of difference on their networks, considering smartphone replacement cycles are so short. Samsung and Apple just flooded both networks with millions of new Galaxy S 4s and iPhone 5s.
AT&T Senior EVP of technology and network operations John Donovan has an alternate explanation: AT&T took its time to build a better network.”
Samsung passes Apple’s iPhone in smartphone Web usage – report
Android dominating Europe with 70% market share, iOS 18%
Here’s why most users won’t be affected by the latest Android flaw — Tech News and Analysis
Internet
The stock market likes the new Zynga CEO, but it’s wrong. Here is why — Tech News and Analysis
Why does LinkedIn want to be a media company? It’s all about the data
The Best Cloud Storage Services that Protect Your Privacy
Amazon Drops Price Of EC2 Dedicated Instances By Up To 80% | TechCrunch
Google adds voice calling to Hangouts, promises ‘the future of Google Voice’ is here | The Verge
Dropbox Now Has 175 Million Users, Up From 100M In November 2012 | TechCrunch
Dropbox gets cloudier with API for syncing data, not just files — Tech News and Analysis
Elsewhere
“The major publishers say they needed to cut an ebook deal with Apple in order to blunt the force of Amazon’s monopoly — but they themselves helped construct that monopoly by insisting on platform-specific DRM.”
US court finds Apple guilty of conspiring to raise e-book prices
Barnes & Noble Nook HD review, performance and battery life | PC Pro
Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5 Review & Rating | PCMag.com
Adobe Creative Cloud review | PC Pro
Nikon D7100 Review & Rating | PCMag.com
Sigma 18-35mm F1.8 DC HSM Review & Rating | PCMag.com
PC Shipments Fall for 5th Quarter Even as U.S. Decline Slows – Bloomberg
PC shipments dropped 11% worldwide in Q2, Apple’s US growth slows 4.3%
PC shipments shrink 11 per cent in second quarter: report | Toronto Star
Comments are closed.