Sharif Sakr for Engadget quoting UK provider EE:
“Following customer feedback, Facebook has decided to focus on adding new customization features to Facebook Home over the coming months. [..]”
That’s one way to say “nobody is buying it in the US, so why bother elsewhere?”.
Jim O’Leary on the Twitter blog:
This is a form of two-factor authentication. When you sign in to twitter.com, there’s a second check to make sure it’s really you. You’ll be asked to register a verified phone number and a confirmed email address.
In general this is awesome news and definitely a step into the right direction. The biggest issue though: Because it is currently only based on SMS, it doesn’t work everywhere.
And to add a little insult to injury: while trying to add your phone number, it shows a list of carriers – in my case in Germany, it’s E-Plus, O2, T-Mobile and Vodafone. But despite showing the carriers, I personally can confirm, that O2 doesn’t work. And I’ve heard that Vodafone or T-Mobile don’t work either. That said, I wouldn’t be surprised if it doesn’t work with E-Plus.
I’m surprised that Twitter didn’t launch with support for Google Authenticator, and as such, also with compatibility for other TOTP apps.
Bogdan Petrovan for AndroidAuthority.com:
Amidst a flurry of negative reports, a glimmer of hope for HTC – the One is selling relatively good, moving five million units since launch.
Not as bad as one might have thought, even though the company’s disarray certainly doesn’t sound to good for the company.
(via The Verge)
David Heinemeier Hansson – Twitter's descent into the extractive:
“I wonder how long this one will last?”, asked the Web to his friend Email. “Who knows”, said Email, “Facebook is still around”. “Aye”, nodded the Web, “Winter might be longer this time around, but inevitably Spring will return”.
There’s been another recent uproar due to Twitter enforcing their no more than 100k token policy on newer 3rd party Twitter clients. Two of the most recents clients targetted were Tweetro for Windows 8 and Tweet Lanes for Android. Matthew Panzarino has another great piece on this issue, reacting to Marco Arment’s earlier post:
As far as other developers that are using Twitter’s API to provide either a whole service or a component service inside their app, I think that it’s still too murky to say whether they need to bail. Arment thinks they should, based on the way that Twitter is changing the rules about clients, but, although I understand where he’s coming from, I feel that it’s too early to call this one.
As of this moment, any developer working with Twitter’s API, whether it’s a client or another type of app that is currently in favor, can’t be entirely certain about their livelihood. Right now these apps may be on a path that runs parallel to Twitter’s business plan, but what happens when that path zags?
Note: You can also find me on App.net.
Arno Frank for Spiegel Online (via Kiki Sanford):
In the 1950s, Soviet engineers built a massive city in the Caspian Sea off the coast of Azerbaijan. It was a network of oil platforms linked by hundreds of kilometers of roads and housing 5,000 workers, with a cinema, a park and apartment blocks. Gradually disintegrating but still closely guarded, this astonishing place inspired a fiery scene in a James Bond movie.
I would love to do some old-fashioned urbex there.
Tom Phillips for Eurogamer:
In a watershed moment for Nintendo: the Japanese developer has released its first paid-for iOS app.
A version of the existing 3DS Pokédex app is now available for iPhone, iPad and iPhone devices (thanks, Serebii).
Initially just for release in Japan, the download also comes with in-app purchases.
Granted it’s just a Pokémon encyclopaedia, but nonetheless an interesting development.
Élyse Betters for 9to5Mac – Report: Samsung will not increase price of A-series processors:
An unnamed Samsung Electronics official told The Hankyoreh (via TheStreet) that prices will not see an increase, and he further explained that prices are “set at the beginning of the year and aren’t changed easily.”
Wait, you’re telling me Samsung can’t just change their prices?
I just got an email from Google’s Play Store, stating that my Nexus 4 is on its way here. I wasn’t sure my order really got through although I got a receipt. Here’s the story.
Yesterday morning I basically had the Play Store device page for the 16 GB Nexus 4 on a 30 second refresh. The day before Stefan Keuchel, PR spokesperson for Google Germany, told his followers on Twitter that the devices would start selling between 8:30 at 9:30 am. So it wasn’t too difficult to plan that hour into the morning routine. Just sit at your desk and look for changes on the site. Nothing too difficult if you’re using multiple displays to do multiple things at once.
So, at around 9:12 the sales went live, I added the device to my cart, went to check out, selected my address and credit card – I added it the day before, so I could be sure it wouldn’t be an issue – clicked on order and all I got was an error message. Great, Google’s shop failed in a bad way due to many people collectively decided to order some devices. Continue reading
Emil Protalinski for The Next Web – Security hole allows anyone to hijack your Skype account using only your email address:
We reproduced the attack, step-by-step, and managed to access the Skype accounts of TNW writer (with permission) Josh Ong (as well as editor Matt Brian to verify again) with only their email addresses. Essentially, that email address is used to create a new account with your own email address tied to it. Then, minus a couple of key steps, you can use a password reset token to gain access to your target’s account.
You better change your email to an address nobody knows. Hint: Gmail supports the + operator in addresses. So yourusername+totallysecretaddition@gmail.com arrives at yourusername@gmail.com.
Update: The Verge reports that Microsoft is disabling password resets.
Google’s newest Nexus devices – Nexus 4, Nexus 10 and Nexus 7 with 3G – are available from various European Play Stores now, go grab them while they’re hot. There’s also a 20 Dollar bumper in case you want one for your Nexus 4. Nexus 10 and Nexus 4 are available in two capacities, Nexus 7 with 3G is also available now. Shipment (of a Nexus 4) is due in 3 to 5 days according to my receipt.
I wonder how real world battery performance of the Nexus 4 will turn out. Reviewers so far came up with mixed results.
Some of you with the older Galaxy Nexus can already get the newest Android 4.2 directly from Google. Thanks to Pau Oliva on Twitter, here’s the Nexus 7 update (zip). More info on how to install it is available at Android Police.
Update (9:28 CET): Nexus 4 with 8/16 GB is already sold out here (German Play Store). No “add to cart” anymore, it’s back to email notification.
