My thanks to dozeo of sponsoring the Very Nice Web Site RSS feed this week.

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Happy meetings!

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Sponsorship by The Syndicate.

Is good for the parts supplier that’s part of a giant conglomerate that has its hands in everything from phones to toaster phones to, I don’t know, uranium? They probably mine uranium.

“Samsung Electronics recently asked Apple for a significant price raise in the mobile processor known as application processor,” the person was quoted as saying in the report. “Apple first disapproved it, but finding no replacement supplier, it accepted the increase.”

Jim Dalrymple calls this “Samsung’s dick move” but if Samsung can negotiate a better deal for themselves, they should. We’ve lauded Apple’s ability to manage its suppliers for years. It’s up to them to keep up the magic.

I wondered about this when I played with the Touch Cover at the Microsoft Store. The plastic seemed quite stiff but I thought the iPad Smart Cover is plastic, too, so it’ll probably be OK.

The thing I didn’t thinks about is that the plastic on a Smart Cover doesn’t hide any components like on the Touch Cover and it’s also never bent completely over during normal use. You can bend segments over completely but when  you roll it up the most acute angle it forms is about 40 degrees. The magnetic metal hinge does all the real work. Also, the Smart Cover is only plastic on one side.

The Smart Cover for the iPad Mini does have a plastic hinge but, again, the plastic doesn’t hold components and seems softer and more flexible than that on the Touch Cover.

If this were Apple someone would be saying they need to be recalled. But nobody expects a quality Windows PC product so it’s cool. (I am not, at this point, advocating such a recall, just being a jerk as is my wont. Please recommend my jerk skills on LinkedIn.)

If this is an endemic problem, it’s kind of a big deal since Microsoft is so heavily pushing the Touch Cover from a use perspective and, more importantly, a design perspective. People love the “click!”, the tearing not so much.

Also, I love how many comments on the Guardian’s piece about this have been moderated.

Owen Williams:

Despite the fact that I’ve been using Windows 8 for the past three weeks, I somehow managed to overlook a rather stark feature in the OS: ads.

Uh… what?

The Verge:

Microsoft’s Office for iPad, iPhone, and Android is a reality. Although Office Mobile has been rumored and reportedly spotted in the wild, Microsoft has remained persistently quiet about its plans for the product. The Verge has learned through several sources close to Microsoft’s plans that the company will release Office versions for Android and iOS in early 2013.

zzzzzzzzOh, god, sorry. Dozed off for a minute there.

I’m sure there’s a core set of business users who will find this awesome for $6 a month, but I’ve got to think that most consumers have moved beyond massive office suites since the Clinton administration. Back when we printed a lot they made more sense, but now? Everyone’s needs probably vary, but I personally use Numbers for some financial stuff and Pages every now and again when I have to print out a letter like to my court-appointed…

When I have to print out a letter. Pivot tables and charts and presentations? Who am I, Douchey McDouchestein?

…

I’m not, by the way.

Hey, turns out there is a 16 GB Surface. It’s the 32 GB Surface.

The Verge:

Microsoft has revealed exactly how much free space new Surface owners are left with after taking into account Windows RT and system-related files. For the 32GB version of the new tablet, users have access to only 16GB of storage, with the remaining half taken up by Windows recovery tools, Windows RT, Microsoft Office, and built-in apps.

Buh? By contrast, my 32 GB third generation iPad has 28 GB of usable space. Of course, you could probably get a hunk of the Surface’s space back by deleting Office, but the ability to run total awesomeness like Office is the Surface’s key selling point.

But this is another problem with Microsoft’s “one device that does it all” scheme. How reasonable is it to have your one device have only 16 GB of free space? Or even the 48 GB of the “64 GB” Surface? Not very. So the truth is, you can’t realistically have one device that can do it all. You’ll have to have more than one. And if you have to have more than one, why not have them designed for different use cases?

Yeah, I know. I don’t know why I keep having this argument, either.

My thanks to Igloo Software for sponsoring the Very Nice Web Site RSS feed this week.

Now say hello to Q – it’s the latest update to Igloo’s cloud intranet platform.

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And because email-enabled content is fully integrated into the Igloo platform, it just works. You can upload documents, start discussions, or create a wiki article. In fact, when you receive email notifications on content, you can add a comment just by replying to the email.

It’s a great way to keep your team engaged with an intranet they’ll actually like. Learn more about Q or get started with a free trial.

Mark Coddington on why political pundits hate Nate Silver. Read the whole thing, but here’s Coddington’s own executive summary:

When journalistic objectivity is confronted with scientific objectivity, its circuits are fried.

It’s fine to argue against Silver’s methodology, but the guy shows his work. He’s not stuffing things together to get a result he wants. Calling him a hack is just saying “I don’t believe in math or probability.”

I’ve gotten a lot of questions about why I didn’t link to anything about a yacht that was recently reported on throughout the Apple world.

Well, perhaps I didn’t say anything because I’m contractually obligated not to. Ever think of that?

Please note, I’m not saying I am contractually obligated against speaking about this yacht, but I’m not not saying that either. Just to be perfectly clear.