Smart move by Amazon. I’ll be interested to see what happens to in-app purchases in comiXology. I can’t imagine them changing them to try to cut Apple out since that’s what really drives the app. But, then, they don’t have in-app purchases in the Kindle reader.

(Via Matt Alexander)

Tubefilter’s Sam Gutelle:

Joseph Garrett currently runs one of the most popular YouTube channels in the world, and he’s going to try to use his influence to teach his fans. The Brit, who goes by Stampylonghead on YouTube, announced at MipTV that he will launch an educational channel alongside his partner network, Maker Studios.

Garrett was one of the Minecraft YouTube video producers I interviewed for my piece in The Magazine. This seems like an excellent fit.

Maker is now owned by Disney.

Condoleezza Rice joins the Dropbox board of directors.

Here’s a cynical take on this. Clearly in this era of NSA revelations this is a terrible message to be sending to users of their service. It is, however, a great message to be sending to big data companies that might be looking to acquire you. “WE’RE WILLING TO SCRAPE EVERYTHING, COME GET US!”

I don’t know, maybe it’s just tone deafness. But maybe it’s just a message that’s not for you, the Dropbox user.

Macrumors:

Apple’s iPhone continues to grow in popularity with U.S. teenagers, according to Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster’s latest semiannual teen survey…

Reminder: Piper Jaffray’s surveys do not include low income teens. Also, Apple has been a Piper Jaffray client in the past.

This has been a reminder.

From the Heartbleed Q&A:

How common are the vulnerable OpenSSL versions?

The vulnerable versions have been out there for over two years now and they have been rapidly adopted by modern operating systems.

Two years. But just imagine how long that bug could have survived if the source code had not been available to gazillions of users.

Looks like open source is still looking for some developers who think giving code security audits on a Saturday night sounds like a good time. That’s the worst OK Cupid profile ever.

Episode 14 of America’s most wanted dadcast talks about other people’s kids who are the worst, aren’t they? Not your little angels, of course, I’m talking about other people’s kids.

Apple press release from Macworld 2003:

Burton Snowboards and Apple® today unveiled the limited-edition Burton Amp, the world’s first and only wearable electronic jacket with an integrated iPod™ control system.

(Image here.)

Much like today’s wearables, it was a huge success. They sold literally dozens of them.

While dedicated jackets didn’t catch on, it was pretty common to wear an iPod while skiing or snowboarding during the heyday of the iPod. Now, I hardly ever see anyone wearing headphones. Presumably safety won out, which is a good thing.

Wired asks: “Microsoft Is Suddenly a New Company. But Is It Too Late?”

This is like asking if someone who has a broken leg and a bloody nose should be put down. No, it’s not “too late”. How do we know this? Because Apple was in much worse shape when Steve Jobs came back. Is it going to be easy? Probably not. But come on.

If you like what you read on this Very Nice Web Site, I hope you’ll consider sponsoring or making a donation.

You can now sponsor the site directly through The Syndicate and rates are very reasonable. Get in touch and help me help you. Which also helps me.

It’s complicated. I have a chart here somewhere. But, anyway, it all works out for everyone is what I’m saying.

Dave Feldman:

In late 2012, we decided to launch Emu on Android first. It went against the conventional wisdom at the time, but we saw a real advantage. Sixteen months later, we’re back on iOS: Emu for iPhone launched on April 2. Here’s why Android didn’t work out for us and why you should think carefully before going Android-first.

This is just his company’s story, I’m sure it’s possible to ship for Android first and be successful, but fragmentation is not just a city in Utah.

In fact, I checked. It’s not a city in Utah at all.

(Via Ryan Bateman)