Google, What Were You Thinking?

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Google got caught with its hand in the cookie jar. Stefan Magdalinski, writing for Mocality:

Since October, Google’s GKBO appears to have been systematically accessing Mocality’s database and attempting to sell their competing product to our business owners. They have been telling untruths about their relationship with us, and about our business practices, in order to do so. As of January 11th, nearly 30% of our database has apparently been contacted. ... I did not expect to find a human-powered, systematic, months-long, fraudulent (falsely claiming to be collaborating with us, and worse) attempt to undermine our business, being perpetrated from call centres on 2 continents. The news coming out these days about Google is all sunshine and peaches, huh? Make sure you read Stefan's entire post.

Why I Hate Android

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MG Siegler, writing on ParisLemon.com:

Apple, for all the shit they get for being “closed” and “evil”, has actually done far more to wrestle control back from the carriers and put it into the hands of consumers. Google set off to help in this goal, then stabbed us all in the back and went the complete other way, to the side of the carriers. And because they smiled the entire time they were doing it and fed us this “open” bullshit, we thanked them for it. As Marco Arment put it: Remember when Google argued for net neutrality? They’ve been pretty quiet about it recently. If you read anything on the web this month, for me, please read MG's post. I agree with him 100 percent.

Gina Trapani ports Todo.txt from Android to iOS, 40% More Sales On First Day

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Co-host of the TWiT network's This Week in Google podcast and highly regarded Android proponent, Gina Tapani, has ported her Todo.txt Android app to iOS:

I announced the app went on sale yesterday morning on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+, then Lifehacker ran a post on it. It got no other press coverage. I announced the Android app release in exactly the same way on January 24th of last year (minus Google+, which didn't exist then). If my Googling skills serve me right, Lifehacker did not run a post the day the Android app went on sale, though they did the week before when I was beta-testing it. The first day of iOS app sales was solid: just around 365 apps sold, compared to the 215 I sold on the first day of Todo.txt Touch's availability in the Android Market. That means the iOS app sold 40% more units under somewhat similar conditions as the Android app on release day. Her whole post is worth the read as she discusses how the project came together (it's open source) and some of her thoughts on working on an iOS app in comparison to an Android app.

Nikon Announces the D4

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Boy, that was fast. You can already preorder the just-announced Nikon D4, which will ship in February, from Amazon. The Verge has a hands-on preview already posted. Vlad Savov writes:

You know you're in for a treat when Nikon decides to upgrade the very top of its camera range, the single-digit DSLR flagship. Taking over from the D3s is the D4, a $6,000 camera that gleefully upgrades just about every spec from its predecessor while also weighing less and lasting longer on a smaller battery. Notable features: * 10/11 frames per second continuous shooting in FX-format for up to 150 frames * Nikon FX- format (35.9 x 24.0mm) CMOS Sensor with 16.2 effective megapixels * Full 1080p HD broadcast quality video * View simultaneous Live View output on external monitors and record uncompressed video via HDMI terminal * Multi-Area Mode Full HD D-Movie: FX, DX (1.5X crop) and New 1920X1080 (2.7X) Crop modes settings They also have posted an excellent comparison of the D4 against the D3s, D3x, Canon EOS-1D X, EOS 5D Mark II, and Sony Alpha A900. And finally, for those of you who just want to look at it, a photo gallery of the D4 shows you every angle you could want to see. Also, Strobist noticed something very cool: