I wrote a review of the new relaxation iPhone app Thunderspace for TidBITS. I highly suggest checking this one out, it’s great.
Feature phone sales dropped by over 20%. This is a trend I can’t see reversing, at least for the West.
My favourite part about this beautifully designed website/infographic is the timer at the top of the page, but the most impressive number here has to be the number of YouTube views per second to Google searches. I wouldn’t have expected that.
Then there’s this:
10 years ago Skype, Facebook, YouTube, Reddit, Twitter, Tumblr, Dropbox, and Instagram didn't exist.
SpaceX must be one hell of a place to work.
From an interview by Brad Stone for Bloomberg Businessweek:
One of Google’s convictions is that bringing Internet connectivity to less-developed countries can lead to all sorts of secondary benefits. It has a project to float broadband transmitters on balloons. Can bringing Internet access to parts of the world that don’t have it help solve problems?
Gates:
When you’re dying of malaria, I suppose you’ll look up and see that balloon, and I’m not sure how it’ll help you. When a kid gets diarrhea, no, there’s no website that relieves that. Certainly I’m a huge believer in the digital revolution. And connecting up primary-health-care centers, connecting up schools, those are good things. But no, those are not, for the really low-income countries, unless you directly say we’re going to do something about malaria.
The iOS version of Downcast is one of my most-used iPhone apps. Now there’s a companion Mac app, I’ll be listening to even more podcasts.
Josh Centers has a great review of the app over at TidBITS, if you’d like to find out more.
My thoughts? If you’re starting with nothing and want to get into the world of podcasting apps, try Instacast. If you’re a Downcast user — like me — and don’t want to migrate between apps, the Mac app is a nice addition, although there are some bugs in the 1.0 release (iCloud playlist syncing isn’t working quite right for me).
Genius.
Jeffrey Grubb reports for VentureBeat:
The mobile-based future is here, and publisher Electronic Arts is reaping the rewards. EA reported today that it made more money through Apple’s App Store than any other retail distributor. That includes its own Origin digital-download service.
When the consoles die, what comes next? Mobile. Some of the numbers are very impressive:
Real Racing 3 also continues to generate revenue for the publisher. The racing game reached 45 million downloads and averages around 2 million daily active users.
That’s a lot of racers. EA’s chief operating officer Peter Moore comments on the strength of Apple’s App Store:
“Apple was EA’s biggest retail partner as measured by sales. That is a first.”
A first indeed.
If it’s going to get you from Los Angeles to San Francisco in 30 minutes, it’s going to be fast, that’s for sure.
If it wasn’t Elon Musk pitching this idea, I’d call foul — but when you look at Musk’s previous endeavours, Hyperloop starts to look less like a question of “Really?” and more like a question of “How much?” and “When?”.
If the entire video release is as awesome as this clip, it's going to be pretty special. The highlight? Possibly the hired gymnasts and stunt performers who grind various metals to shower the stage with sparks.
Plus, those double bass pedals. Damn.
Did someone say VR? This truly takes the RC hobby to another level. Imagine the possibilities of a long-ranged first-person video on a model helicopter or plane — or even an RC supercar like the Traxxas XO-1.
The future marches on.
If you already know what IFTTT is, you’ll be extremely excited about this frankly gorgeous app. All the power of IFTTT in your pocket. Plus, the design smells very much like iOS 7 to me.
If you don’t know what IFTTT is, check out this simple guide — you’ll probably fall in love.