NEWS
Apple opening an "iOS Development Centre" in Naples, Italy No doubt this is a little bit of pork barrelling thanks to Apple's tax troubles in Italy and in the EU in general, but Apple has announced that they plan to open what they call an iOS App Developmenet Centre, in Naples, Italy. We don't know when, we don't know who Apple will partner with, we don't know what's in the curriculum and who the development centre is targeted at. The headline sounds great, but there's no meat on those bones. Could be a worthless initiative or could be great. Let's see what Apple does.
Google doesn't make all that much money out of Android As part of a legal case Oracle (the dudes who maintain the Java programming language) is involved in with Google regarding the use of Java in Android without paying for it, Oracle revealed that Google has reaped US$31b in revenue and US$22b in profit via Android, since 2008. Google doesn't split this detail out in their financial reports, so this is the first time we've seen how much money Android brings in. For some context, the iPhone had $32.2b in revenue just last quarter alone.
GM unveils Maven, a car sharing company I've reported a bit on GM's moves lately, like giving $500m to Lyft, buying Sidecar and the Chevy Bolt, because GM is the Sony Walkman to Tesla and Apple's iPod. So its interesting to see that today they've announced Maven, a wholly-owned subsidiary of GM, that will let people share cars around their city. Pretty much like GoGatch here in Australia. Clearly GM sees themselves as more than just a company that makes cars, kinda like how a telco sees themselves as more than just a dumb pipe for Internet access. How this turns out for GM, we'll just have to wait and see.
California reckons banning strong crypto on smartphones is a good idea too Just last week New York introduced a bill to make it illegal to sell a device that has security strong enough that law enforcement can't crack. Now California is introducing something very similar. This is targeted at security like whole disk encryption, where the entire device's storage is encrypted and there really is no way for the police to look at what's on a suspect's phone. The bills are still not law, but they're trying, oh man are they trying.
Australian Stock Exchange embraces the blockchain The ASX has enlisted a US company, Digital Asset, to assist it in making the ASX trade shares and stuff using the blockchain technology used in Bitcoin. Whilst it won't use Bitcoin directly, it will use the concept of the blockchain to update the ASX's trading platform. If you don't know what the blockchain is, this video might help explain why it's such a big deal and a bigger deal than Bitcoin itself.
COOL SHIT
The tale of Zano's failed crowdfunding project - by Kickstarter Remember when Kickstater enlisted a journalist to find out what the hell went wrong with Zano, a very promising looking crowdfunding project that launched on its platform? That report is now available for all to read. Basically everyone involved with the project over exaggerated their expertise and constantly dug themselves into holes, promising stuff they had knew pretty reasonable chance of never happening - *sad trombone*.
Jonathan Blow, creator of Braid, has a new game - The Witness Braid is one of the seminal indie games, kicking off dozens of other games hoping to emulate its success. Its creator, Jonathan Blow has been busy making a new title - The Witness - a puzzle/exploration game coming to the PS4 and PC on Jan 26th. Braid was a huge success so there's a lot for Jonathan to live up to with his new game, but from all reports it should be a hit with fans who love puzzle games.
A speech about how awful the Internet is, but also good at the same time This talk from Richard Kyanka (aka Lowtax), a man responsible for the Something Awful forums, was given in 2005, but it is as relevant as ever today. There's some solid chuckles in it, but the message at its core explains why there's so much weird shit on the Internet. People who were into dumb stuff like being an adult and wearing a nappy and taking a shit in that nappy and getting another adult to change them, used to never have a way to meet other people into that, so they (rightfully) assumed that they're weird and broken and never acted on that impulse. But then comes along the internet, other pants shitters manage to meet up and create a "safe space" and there you have it, pants shitting is a legit thing people indulge in and don't feel ashamed.
Here endeth the sizzle (until tomorrow!) --Anthony
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