Half of U.S. Homes Own Apple Products

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Half of U.S. homes own Apple products – USATODAY.com:

"That's more than 55 million homes with at least one iPhone, iPad, iPod or Mac computer. And one-in-10 homes that aren't currently in that group plan to join it in the next year. But Apple doesn't have to worry about brand saturation any time soon. Americans don't stop with just one device. Homes that own least one Apple, own an average of three. Overall, the average household has 1.6 Apple devices, with almost one-quarter planning to buy at least one more in the next year. "It's a fantastic business model — the more of our products you own, the more likely you are to buy more," says Jay Campbell, a vice president of Hart Research Associates, which conducts the CNBC survey along with Bill McInturff. "Planned obsolescence has always been a part of the technology industries sales model, but Apple has taken it to a whole new level.""

(Via USA Today.)

Oral History of The Sopranos

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Oral History of The Sopranos:

Next month's Vanity Fair has a Saturday worthy longread, an oral history of The Sopranos. It's been about 5 years since the show ended, and for the most part, the major figures have not had much to say about it. There's nothing groundbreaking, but it's good if you were a fan. On the response to the show. TERENCE WINTER (writer, executive producer): One F.B.I. agent told us early on that on Monday morning they would get to the F.B.I. office and all the agents would talk about The Sopranos. Then they would listen to the wiretaps from that weekend, and it was all Mob guys talking about The Sopranos, having the same conversation about the show, but always from the flip side. We would hear back that real wiseguys used to think that we had somebody on the inside. They couldn't believe how accurate the show was.

(Via kottke.org)

James Cameron Goes For A Swim

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James Cameron goes for a swim:

Director James Cameron is now the record holder for deepest solo dive after his submarine, "Deepsea Challenger" made it to the bottom of the Mariana Trench a couple hours ago. The sponsors of the expedition are James Cameron, Rolex, and National Geographic making me think this will turn into a film someday. Another fact which makes it seem like I'm making this all up, which I'm not, is Paul Allen is live-Tweeting the entire thing.

(Via kottke.org)

Technology & Related Concepts That Need To Die

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Joel's Technology Hit List

Monday Morning Rant, 26 March, 2012
  1. Skeumorphism in design
  2. Adobe Flash
  3. Adobe Air
  4. The concept of "write once, deploy everywhere" code (web standards being the exception, of course)
  5. QR codes
  6. Comic Sans and Marker Felt
  7. WPTouch WordPress plugin. Just don't.
  8. Websites serving up a "get our app!" splash page to iOS users prior to serving the requested page
  9. Websites refusing to serve page requests and insisting you get their app
  10. Websites who serve up a mobile version, but when you switch to the "full version" it forwards you to the homepage
  11. Websites serving up mobile versions only to iPads
  12. Using Powerpoint to make documents that should have been made in Word/Pages/Plain Text.
  13. Using Powerpoint to send images as if it were a zip file.
  14. Having www. in front of your domain name. I will add to this list over time. If you have any further suggestions, please let me know.

Mozilla: Firefox Needs H.264 Support To Survive Shift To Mobile

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Ryan Paul, at Ars Technica:

One year later, Google still hasn't followed through with that commitment. Mozilla says that it can no longer afford to wait for Google to do what it has promised. In his blog post, Eich explained that H.264 has become too deeply entrenched in the mobile space to be easily displaced and that browsers that don't support it are jeopardizing their own future relevance. "H.264 is absolutely required right now to compete on mobile. I do not believe that we can reject H.264 content in Firefox on Android or in B2G and survive the shift to mobile," he wrote. "Losing a battle is a bitter experience. I won't sugar-coat this pill. But we must swallow it if we are to succeed in our mobile initiatives." Someone over at Mozilla finally wised up. ∗

Ode To The "Computer Guy/Gal"

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Internet friend, Michele Catalano on asking someone you know who "works with computers" to "fix" your own computer:

And really, most of the time he doesn’t mind. He likes you. He wants to help you. Then you call and say “Gee, I really want to get this fixed right away. Can’t you come over on your way home from work?” and he just spent all day in front of a computer and all he wants to do is go home and eat dinner and NOT sit in front of the computer. But he does it anyhow. He does it on a Saturday when we should be kicking back. He does it on a holiday when everyone is in your backyard enjoying a barbecue and you dragged him into the house to show him how your AOL doesn’t load up. On behalf of my boyfriend, and all other people who “work with computers” and get asked day after day to fix things for free, here’s a few guidelines. Be thankful. If he spent three hours at your house fixing something you fucked up that would have cost you $200 to get fixed by the Geek Squad, show your appreciation. Offer him a 50. Offer him dinner. Send him a damn thank you card or something. Don’t just say thanks and promise to call him again next time something screws up. Go read all of it. Send this to your friends. Send this to your family. JUST READ IT. This post is basically the description of what it has been like to work on anyone's computer…friends, family, co-workers, in-laws, ANYONE for the past 18 years or so of my life. Thankfully, I now do much more complicated (and get paid to do so) things for work than just "fixing printers" anymore. It also takes a lot of self-control on my part to not jump in when I see our own help desk people performing a task in a way that I consider insufficient, but I have to stop and tell myself. No. You hate this. This isn't your job anymore. Also, it helps that I tell family that I refuse to work on any machine anymore that isn't made by the Apple Corporation.