» Target $200 iPad promotion ends Saturday
I traded in our beloved original iPad for a $200 gift card. Sure, you have to spend it in Target, but a first generation iPad is not worth $200. So, if you’ve got one lying around that still powers on, go. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but Target actually sells iPads. So, you could get a first generation mini for $100. Or you could get $100 of Legos and $100 of boxer briefs. I don’t know, they sell practically everything.
They will need the model number, so you should wipe it but you’ll have to start the setup process to get that which you can do in the store.
» Microsoft’s anime fetish
I lived in Japan for about a year and a half and this still seems weird to me.
Imagine the marketing meeting where Steve Ballmer reviewed the sketch of Silverlight girl. And now you cannot un-imagine that.
» Sample bias
TUAW’s Mike Wehner finds an amusing set of survey results:
According to a press release published today from digital magazine company Catalog Spree, 66 percent of consumers will use a tablet to shop for holiday gifts this year. If that figure strikes you as odd, that’s probably because it’s not even close to accurate.
You can click through to see the logical fallacy but two thirds seems a little unlikely when only about a third actually own tablets.
» ‘Does Microsoft need a turnaround expert?’
Watts Martin makes the case for Stephen Elop as Microsoft’s next CEO.
…Elop understands the importance of user experience. Bill Gates is a brilliant guy but he never had any interest in being a tastemaker, and on a good day Steve Ballmer has the taste of a Nacho Cheese Doritos Locos Taco.
I don’t know who would be a good pick. Elop does seem better than a lot of the other choices, but there are so many ways Microsoft could screw this up that I continue to find it baffling that Microsoft investors merrily continue to tick the stock up.
Nothing but blue skies and kittens!
» Windows Phone overtakes iOS in Italy
From there it’s just a hop skip and a jump to overtaking Android by the end of the year.
No, you stop bringing that report up.
» ‘Workplace Equality Is Good for Business’
Tim Cook writing in the Wall Street Journal in support of the Employment Nondiscrimination Act.
Those who have suffered discrimination have paid the greatest price for this lack of legal protection. But ultimately we all pay a price.
I look forward to hearing how this is good news for Samsung.
(Hat tip to Guy English for a non-paywalled link.)
» Sponsor: Techi.com
My thanks to Techi.com for sponsoring the Very Nice Web Site RSS feed this week.
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» ‘The New Rules of Tech Journalism’
Seconded.
» Inside baseball
You have to be a follower of the Apple community to appreciate this story from Paul Kafasis, but you’ll get a kick out of it if you are.
All for the funnies
OK! OK! You twisted it out of me! I’ll tell you which iPad I’m getting!
God, you’re so nosey.
I’m not going to tell you which iPad you should get, of course. I’m not sure how anyone could really do that. Particularly with you. You’re so flighty. Like that time in college when you went paleo, pescetarian, vegan and then back up the spectrum until you were working at a slaughterhouse all within a week. Anyway, you have issues is what I’m saying.
As for me, I’m getting a 32 GB WiFi iPad Air. My iPad has been a third generation since they came out and for the last year I’ve been coveting my wife’s iPad mini. (I’m lucky it’s my wife’s and not my neighbor’s wife’s otherwise I’d be breaking twice as many Commandments.) The mini’s still a good size for gaming and it’s the perfect size for reading and, of course, you can use a keyboard with it and do some writing.
The only only problem for me with the mini is comic books. Yes, I love me some comic books and reading them on anything short of a 10-inch screen is tiresome. So, that is my deciding factor. Everything else I can do roughly the same on a mini — reading, writing with a Bluetooth keyboard, playing games — but reading comic books is a totally different experience as you’re forced to use the frame-by-frame navigation instead of reading the full page. Comic books weren’t meant to be read that way, my friends. You can’t do it. It’s against their nature. An unholy act. You’ll go to hell for even trying it. Straight. To. Hell.
Before the Air was announced, my plan had been to get a mini and keep my 3rd-generation iPad for reading comic books, which was not a great plan because then I’d have to stack devices on my nightstand. But given that Apple’s managed to shave almost a half a pound off the iPad with the Air, I’m all in on the Air.
I’ll also pick up either the Logitech Ultrathin Keyboard cover or the Thin Type Keyboard for Belkin.
The 32 GB is just because I can’t fit on a 16 GB iPad anymore and WiFi because I don’t travel much so I’m content to tether to my phone, particularly now that I’m on Verizon. I’m sure they exist, but I don’t think I’ve ever been to a place that gets AT&T and not Verizon. That I know of. Heh-heh.
(?)
Anyway, there you go.
Seriously, I have no idea why you care about this.