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Submission Summary: 0 pending, 124 declined, 43 accepted (167 total, 25.75% accepted)

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Apple

Submission + - iPhone: 46% of Japanese Smartphone Market (appleinsider.com)

Submitted by
MBCook
MBCook writes: "Despite claims earlier in the year that the iPhone was hated by Japan (later disproven), the iPhone has been doing well in the land of the rising sun and the evidence is in. Apple has taken 46% of the Japanese smartphone market, cutting the 27% market share of the previous lead, Advance Sharp W-Zero3 (Japanese site), in half. The article includes a large chart of the market share of Japanese smartphones over the last 3 years."
Programming

Submission + - Revenge of the Computer Nerds: Global Warming Code (americanthinker.com)

Submitted by
MBCook
MBCook writes: "It is fascinating to watch the mainstream media in America duck (and/or make excuses for) the greatest scam in modern history: the "science" behind man-made global warming. Even more entertaining, and far more enlightening, is to follow the analyses by the experts in computer programming of the recently disclosed methods used by the Climate Research Unit (CRU) from the University of East Anglia. [...] The bottom line is that if this kind of code were to be used by, say, an insurance actuary — or by someone writing banking software or for tracking the stock market — the programmer would immediately be fired...and probably face criminal prosecution."

Submission + - The Voynich Manuscript Decoded? (edithsherwood.com) 1

Submitted by
MBCook
MBCook writes: "The Voynich Manuscript has confounded attempts to decode it for nearly 100 years. A person named Edith Sherwood, who has previously suggested a possible link to DaVinci, has a new idea: perhaps the text is simply anagrams of Italian words. There are three pages of examples from the herb section of the book, showing the original text, the plaintext Italian words, and the English equivalents. Has someone cracked the code?"
Bug

Submission + - The Real Reason the Droid's Camera Fixed Itself (gizmodo.com)

Submitted by
MBCook
MBCook writes: "When the Droid was shipped, it was plagued with a lousy autofocus bug. But then, it magically seemed to fix itself. Did Verizon secretly update all the phones from afar? Nope. The explanation is much weirder than that. The autofocus routine uses a timestamp and contained a rounding error with a 24.5 day cycle."
Desktops (Apple)

Submission + - Why Apple Leaves Low-End to the Competition (businessweek.com) 1

Submitted by
MBCook
MBCook writes: "Apple's approach causes it to neglect huge swaths of the market. For example, the company serenely ignored analysts' advice that it "had to" break into the hot netbook market. It has avoided the fast-growing segment of low-cost, lightweight consumer notebooks. Entering those markets could boost Apple's share even further. But the move would take a toll on profit margins and fight the company's commitment to choose what types of products it believes best serve its customers' needs. CEO Steve Jobs has dismissed the low end of the market, saying: "We don't know how to build a sub-$500 computer that is not a piece of junk." Apple has clung to its retrograde philosophy, fighting a tide in which manufacturers target products at minutely sliced-and-diced subsectors of the market. But the philosophy still works, and, happily, Apple is unlikely to outgrow it."

Submission + - Verizon: How Much Do You Charge Now? (nytimes.com)

Submitted by
MBCook
MBCook writes: "David Pogue is once again calling out cell phone companies (Verizon specifically) on their customer hostile practices. He starts out discussing Verizon doubling their ETFs. The story then takes a very interesting turn with the confession of a Verizon employee who is disgusted with the ease of accidentally triggering data usage. "The phone is designed in such a way that you can almost never avoid getting $1.99 charge on the bill." The employee estimates Verizon takes in over $300 million a month this way."
Desktops (Apple)

Submission + - Herd Mentality: Why Only Apple Can Be Different (daringfireball.net)

Submitted by
MBCook
MBCook writes: "Yesterday John Gruber posted a great article titled Herd Mentality. Following up on a piece earlier in the week on the calls for an Apple netbook to join everyone else, the article makes an observation on why Apple is so different. As the only computer manufacturer with it's own OS, only Apple can differentiate themselves from the pack on software.

It should be embarrassing to companies like Dell and Sony [...] that they're stuck selling computers with the same copy of Windows installed as the no-name brands.

"

Submission + - The Kafka-esque Nightmare of Palm App Catalog Subm (livejournal.com) 1

Submitted by
MBCook
MBCook writes: "Jamie Zawinski, shortly after the release of the Palm Pre, wrote two free software programs for the phone: a Tip Calculator and a port of Dali Clock. In trying to get the apps published to the App Catalog, he has had to sign up to be a developer twice, fax contracts around, and been told (apparently incorrectly) that he was not allowed to release free software for the phone, and asked to give PayPal his checking account number.

It's been two weeks, and I have received no reply. In the months since this process began, other third-party developers seem to have managed to get their applications into the App Catalog. Apparently these people are better at jumping through ridiculous hoops than I am.

"
Toys

Submission + - How Hollywood Tie-Ins Saved Lego (nytimes.com) 2

Submitted by
MBCook
MBCook writes: "The New York Times published an article on Saturday profiling Lego, and how tie-ins with movies have helped save the company.

"Even as other toymakers struggle, this Danish maker of toy bricks is enjoying double-digit sales gains and swelling earnings. In recent years, Lego has increasingly focused on toys that many parents wouldn't recognize from their own childhood. Hollywood themes are commanding more shelf space, a far cry from the idealistic, purely imagination-oriented play that drove Lego for years and was as much a religion as a business strategy in Billund."

The article also mentions coming Lego Stores, a Lego board game, how Lego now allows sets with violence (like a gun for Indiana Jones), and how since 2004 Lego has cut part count nearly in half by encouraging re-use of parts and stopping one-off pieces."

The Media

Submission + - Danish Expert Declares Vinland Map Genuine (newsdaily.com)

Submitted by
MBCook
MBCook writes: "A Danish expert named Rene Larson has finished a study of the infamous Vinland Map and declared it genuine. "All the tests that we have done over the past five years — on the materials and other aspects — do not show any signs of forgery," he said at the press conference. He and his team studied the ink, the paper, and even insect damage. They believe that the ink, which was discovered to contain titanium dioxide in 1972 and thus supposedly too new for the map to be genuine, was contaminated when it was being dried, causing the contamination."
It's funny. Laugh.

Submission + - United Breaks Guitars (davecarrollmusic.com)

Submitted by
MBCook
MBCook writes: "In 2008, musician Dave Carroll was starting a tour of Nebraska when he an the other passengers on his flight saw the baggage handlers break a $3500 guitar by throwing it around. He contacted United immediately, before the flight left, as well as many times after and has been given the runaround. So what's a musician to do? He is writing three songs about United, asking people to vote for their favorite, and trying to get over 1,000,000 viewers. The first song is up on YouTube. He ended his story this way:

So, thanks United! If my guitar had to be smashed due to extreme negligence I'm glad it was you that did it. Now sit back and enjoy the show.

"
Wii

Submission + - Atari Sub-Sub-Contractor used ScummVM for Wii Game (blogspot.com)

Submitted by
MBCook
MBCook writes: "In several recent releases, it seems that Atari published games for the Wii based on ScummVM. Atari contracted Majesco, who contracted a company named Mistic Software with offices in the Ukraine. When the fact the GPL was being violated was brought to Atari's attention, they were kind at first until it was discovered that Nintendo doesn't allow open source software to be used with the Wii SDK, so updated documentation mentioning the GPL wasn't an available solution. So what happens to the games?

"There is a period of time in which all current copies have to be sold. Any copies beyond this period or any reprints get fined with quite high fine for each new/remaining copy. The remaining stock has to be destoryed [sic]."

Atari and Majesco seem to have been very nice about this whole thing, but had their hands tied by the agreement with Nintendo."

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