» Nectar Elements
If you’re into the podcasting (and you really should be, everyone should be podcasting all the time), you might find Nectar Elements useful. On Turning This Car Around, we use it to reduce levels on each person’s track when they’re not speaking. Plus, it does other things that I don’t understand, but that one thing is enough to make it worthwhile.
Jon Armstrong insisted we all buy it because he does the editing and was tired of cleaning up our lousy tracks.
» Castro 1.1
Nice update to my favorite podcast app.
» Samsung apologizes to cancer-stricken plant workers
AppleInsider:
South Korean electronics giant Samsung on Wednesday issued a formal apology to workers who fell ill from cancer after exposure to toxic chemicals at the company’s semiconductor plants, saying that it should have acted more swiftly and would compensate the victims.
» This time for realz
Computerworld:
“With today’s Update Tuesday, if you are still on Windows XP you will not receive any security or non-security updates through Windows Update or Microsoft Update,” said Microsoft spokesman Brandon LeBlanc on a company blog.
Hard to get that monkey off your back.
» 10 Million Galaxy S5s… in 25 days
Bloomberg:
Samsung Electronics sold 10 million Galaxy S5 units worldwide in the smartphone’s first 25 days on the market, according to the Korea Economic Daily.
10 million units in 25 days. So, yeah, they did not sell more than the iPhone 5s on launch weekend in the U.S. If your site was reporting that as if it was serious news then your site is not a serious site.
Samsung outsells Apple in total phones which, hey, great for them. But Apple’s flagship phone still does better than Samsung’s. Stop making up phony statistics.
(Via Matt Milian and Ross Rubin)
» The 8 GB iPhone 5c
It’s being reported that Apple will soon sell an 8 GB iPhone 5c in India to help replace the discontinued iPhone 4. Turns out it’s already available in China.
» Sponsor: The Lead Cloak, by Erik Hanberg
My thanks to fellow Tacoman and veteran author Eric Hanberg for sponsoring the Very Nice Web Site RSS feed this week. Eric’s new book *The Lead Cloak* is on sale this week. I’m only partway in but it’s precisely the kind of science fiction I like. Here’s Erik’s tongue-in-cheek introduction for Very Nice Web Site readers:
Hi, my name is Erik and I live in Tacoma, Washington, just like John Moltz. One time I saw him when I was waiting in line at the Apple Store. Otherwise, we don’t know each other.
Anyway.
I wrote a sci-fi novel called The Lead Cloak, about a new technology in the future called the Lattice, which is like a super Internet. Basically, it does all the same things our Internet does today, but with a higher creep factor.
The book is really good. There’s an opening action scene that I like a lot, then some world-building about how the Lattice has shaped society, then a crazy plot twist that will keep you up reading well past midnight.
The ebook edition is on sale all this week for $0.99 on Amazon, the iBooks Store, Kobo, and Nook (it’s not even worth providing the link to the Nook Store, is it?).
If all that sounds interesting to you, you should check it out.
The Lead Cloak by Erik Hanberg: It’s about the kinds of things John’s Very Nice Website would cover 70 years in the future
Fake math
Every once in a while I stumble upon some bit of insanery that’s being discussed in the bizzarro world where Samsung and Android fandom is fed bogus statistics by companies that are not at all interested in releasing useful information but are just promoting their name.
Case in point:
“Galaxy S5 Reportedly Tops iPhone 5s in Launch Weekend Sales”
Huh. Is that a fact?
Well, no, actually, it’s almost assuredly not a fact. Here’s what the results from iQmetrix, a retail POS and ERP vendor, actually say:
The Galaxy S5 sold better at launch (April 11-13) than the iPhone 5s did on its launch weekend (Sept. 20-22, 2013). The S5 comprised 25% of total phones sold in the U.S., and 18% of total phones sold in Canada, during the period. The iPhone 5s comprised 18% of total phones sold in the U.S. during its launch weekend, and 13% of total phones sold in Canada.
So, ugh, let’s get this straight. Based on their numbers, which come from retail stores where they have a presence — read: does not include Apple Stores — the S5 made up a larger percentage of phones sold on its launch weekend than the iPhone did on its launch weekend.
You can see the obvious flaw in the pretend math here. Percentages are not unit sales. Without knowing the total sales on each day, you don’t have any idea which sold better. And the percentage of a couple days of sales is not a meaningful measure. Even if it was, this percentage doesn’t include Apple Store sales which, you know, might be significant.
Did the Galaxy S5 outsell the iPhone 5s in raw numbers in the U.S. on their respective launch weekends?
Well, we don’t know for sure. But I seriously doubt it.
» Do not pass Go
The New York Times:
Amazon has begun discouraging customers from buying books by Malcolm Gladwell, Stephen Colbert, J. D. Salinger and other popular writers, a flexing of its muscle as a battle with a publisher spills into the open.
Hopefully the Justice Department will step in and investigate Apple for this immediately.
» Apple maybe acquiring company for something
Apple is rumored to be close to acquiring Beats Electronics for $3.2 billion and half my Twitter stream says it’s for the music streaming service and the other half says it’s for the headphones and the third half says it’s for both.