The Guardian’s top 50 television dramas of all time
Buffy not #1? No Dexter? Although the funniest part is the level of cluelessness in the comments. If some of the Buffy haters on there actually have seen any episodes they must have been the expurgated versions the BBC prepared for daytime TV. Because it’s a children’s programme obviously. One that has to be heavily cut for pre-watershed airing.
There are certain works of art that achieve all that they set out to do; and others that change the direction of their very art form. Peter Aspden thinks ‘Avatar’ does both [From Simply out of this world]
At last a commentator who isn’t an idiot!
My cheap USB hub died the other day. Inside is a bit wibbly wobbly so I’m not surprised. Let’s see if the new one lasts longer.
First Nokia sued Apple. Then Apple sued Nokia. Last week, Nokia went to the International Trade Commission and requested a ban on the import of infringing Apple products. Today, Apple asked ITC to ban the import of infringing Nokia products. This game of patent-infringement ping pong dates back to October, when Nokia first sued Apple for violating 10 patents, including holdings related to GSM, UMTS and wireless LAN. About a month and a half later, Apple countersued, claiming that Nokia was attempting to steal their technology. Since then, both sides have filed further lawsuits claiming further patent violations of various sorts. This week, the squabble’s stage has moved to the International Trade Commission. A few days ago, Nokia requested that the ITC ban the importing of any and all Apple products, from MacBooks to iPhones, that make use of the patents in question. Today, Apple fired back, requesting the same ban on Nokia’s mobile phone imports. The ITC’s evaluation process takes 15 months, so don’t worry about these companies’ products disappearing from shelves anytime soon. But Apple’s latest filing reminds us that we shouldn’t expect this this legal game of anything-you-can-do-I-can-do-better to go away anytime soon. [Bloomberg][From Nokia Moves To Ban Apple Imports, Apple Moves To Ban Nokia Imports [Lawsuits]]
So what’s the next step then? An undisclosed settlement?
HBO is stoked about how ‘Thrones’ is coming together… [From HBO: ‘Games of Thrones’ dailies ‘fantastic’]
They’ll run out of books in the series if GRRM doesn’t speed up a little. But I am looking forward to seeing this if it gets greenlit.
Got some free time on your hands? Feel like reading the entire Avatar screenplay? Well, you’re in luck because 20th Century Fox has decided to make the entire piece available online for FREE! [From Read the Full Avatar Script Online Legally and for Free]
I finally got around to seeing this (in 3D) yesterday. I think Mr Cameron has another hit on his hands. I may go see it again.
Remember how with the iPod, year after year, we were inundated with punditry arguing that the iPod would suffer the same fate as the Mac — “superior technology beaten in the market by cheaper commodity products because Apple tried to maintain too much control”. Or some similar analogy. That didn’t work out well for those pundits.
I haven’t seen as much of that with the iPhone, but Henry Blodget is giving it the old college try, positioning Android as the Windows in the analogy. Now, it’s true that Android is open and the iPhone isn’t, and Android is definitely gaining attention and market share. But the analogy has no legs. The mobile OS market today bears almost no resemblance to the PC market of the ’80s. Blodget can’t even muster an argument as to what Apple should be doing differently. Really: What? License the iPhone OS to other handset makers? Give me a break.
Anyway, this argument is stupid if for no other reason than that iPhone sales are still growing fast.
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With hindsight it seems that argument didn’t even apply to the Mac/PC situation in the first place! Different forces were at work.
Apple this morning announced that more than 3 billion apps have been downloaded from its App Store by iPhone and iPod touch users worldwide. This comes nearly 9 months after it first hit 1 billion downloads served, and just over 3 months since it reached the 2 billion downloads mark. No doubt, the holiday season helped increase the number of downloads so rapidly. But still: 1 billion additional downloads in 3 months and one week is just incredible. When the 2 billion mark was reached, Apple also said 85,000 apps were available in the App Store at the time, but the company chose to stick to download numbers only for this announcement, although they said 100,000 apps were published to the store separately at the beginning of November 2009. Steve Jobs in a statement, said: “Three billion applications downloaded in less than 18 months–this is like nothing we’ve ever seen before. The revolutionary App Store offers iPhone and iPod touch users an experience unlike anything else available on other mobile devices, and we see no signs of the competition catching up anytime soon.” Nice jab there, Steve, and excellent timing with the official announcement of Google’s Nexus One phone just around the corner. Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0[From Apple’s App Store: From 2 To 3 Billion Downloads In Just Over 3 Months]
All the new iPhones and iPod Touches sold this Christmas probably helped.
Nokia executive vice-president Rick Simonson, in an interview with The Economic Times:
By 2011, our efforts will start producing results, as we will be
at par with Apple and RIM in smartphones. Not only we draw level
with them, we will also win the war because, in addition to email,
we will be adding content, chat, music, entertainment and several
other features, which will soon become very critical for success
of any company in this space.Even with where Apple (and RIM) will be in 2011, or even with where they were in 2009? And in what way have “content, chat, music, and entertainment” not been key factors in the iPhone’s success since 2007?
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Nokia are thrashing.
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