Plus retina MacBook Pro screen problems, the open data triumph around the green belt, Jolla aims to challenge Android (and iPhone), and more
A quick burst of 9 links for you to chew over, as picked by the Technology team
*Mobile Web overtakes desktops in China as over 50% of new Internet users come from rural areas >> The Next Web![ext]()
*
Mobile phones have become the most common way for Chinese citizens to connect to the Internet, meaning the mobile web has surpassed desktops. This is largely thanks to rural areas, which are driving over 50% of new Internet users in the country.
The latest numbers come from a report issued by the state-linked China Internet Network Information Centre (CINIC![ext]()
) and cited by On Device Research![ext]()
.
*Photo by lukew >> Instagram![ext]()
*
Some guy using a Surface in a Starbucks. Hang on..
*Apple - Think Twice >> The n Bells:![ext]()
*
I purchased a few months ago a Retina MacBook Pro. When it arrived, I was happy and smug, as only an Apple-geek with the shiniest kit in town can be.
However, through day-to-day use I noticed strange lines appearing on the screen. First, when the unlock-screen presented itself, it seems to have a slight transparency to the desktop.
Once I noticed it, it seemed to get worse, though this might be because I knew about it & saw it more often, or because it did actually get worse. Either way I was getting less and less happy with my new shiny thing. I would work on a document, flick to working on some photos & there would be not-so-mysterious lines appear 'over' the images.
It wasn't long before I did some searches and found out that this was in fact something known as ghosting - a problem occurring with some of the retina MBPs.
Half of all the screens are made by LG; half by Samsung. The LG ones have the problems, the commenters say. (They also offer a simple Terminal script to find out which screen a "retina" laptop has.)
*The new opengov data poster child ? >> edparsons.com![ext]()
*
You may not like the symbology used in this map.. but you can't deny that the "Interactive map of England's green belt![ext]()
" published by the Telegraph Newspaper yesterday is an another important milestone in the opening up of Government Geodata.
It is important for a number of reasons..
Firstly it liberates data that was previously difficult/expensive to obtain from the Department for Communities and Local Government both displaying it on a Google Map, but also making it available for download as a shape file for use by others - Kudos !
Secondly and rather parochial I accept, it is an example of data that was based on Ordnance Survey mapping published on the web.. not exactly case law but a good precedent supporting the view that a feature must exist as an object in the original OS data for it to be derived !
Thirdly and I would argue of most importance is that this data is really useful.. it is timely as it helps to inform the current debate around the planning system, and it is of real interest to citizens who can easily view areas protected by the planning system close to their homes !
Seems that there is healthy competition in data journalism!
Parsons is geospatial technologist at Google in the UK... and former CTO at Ordnance Survey.
*Lenovo takes on Apple, Samsung >> WSJ.com![ext]()
*
Lenovo says its smartphone business is unprofitable, without disclosing the loss. But its market share in China, where the company sells most of its phones, soared to 15% in the third quarter from 1.7% a year earlier. That placed Lenovo second only to Samsung, with 16.7%, and well ahead of Apple, with 6.9%, according to Gartner. The research firm predicts that Lenovo will become the No. 1 smartphone vendor in China this year.
Lenovo Chief Executive Yang Yuanqing said recently that the company hasn't been able to generate a profit in smartphones in part because of its investment in marketing and sales. He expects the business to become profitable in China in two to three quarters, he said...
Still, some analysts are skeptical about whether Lenovo can be successful world-wide.
"The strategy of initially seeking a large market share in terms of volume, and then trying to increase margins later, rarely works," said Nicolas Baratte, CLSA's head of technology research for the Asian-Pacific region. Price competition keeps margins thin, he said.
Dramatic. (Subscription required.)
*Here comes the first real alternative to iPhone and Android >> Quartz![ext]()
*
Jolla cannot possibly take on Google and Apple head-to-head, and it doesn't plan to. Rather, the company, which is rapidly becoming a Finnish-Chinese hybrid with headquarters in both Helsinki and Hong Kong, and an R&D operation in a yet-to-be-named location in mainland China, plans to nurture and grow an entirely new mobile "ecosystem" -- meaning the phones, the operating system that runs on them, and the apps that run on that. And it plans to do it in China because that is the one market producing first-time buyers of smartphones fast enough to give such a scheme a chance.
In order to get its operating system and, eventually, Jolla-branded phones, in front of enough Chinese, the company has partnered with the largest mobile chain retailer in the country![ext]()
, D.Phone. Not only will D.Phone sell Sailfish-powered phones through its 2,100 outlets; it is also part of the Sailfish Alliance, a group of software and hardware companies that will all be able to add standards and code to the open-source OS.
*One less iPhone purchased: day one with the Nexus 4 >> John Battelle's Search BlogJohn Battelle's Search Blog![ext]()
*
He likes it, though in terms of wanting to plug it into his computer he still seems to be living in the past. (Thanks @hotsoup for the link.)
*FTC nominee Joshua Wright to skip Google cases >> Politico.com![ext]()
*
Wright, a professor at George Mason University, has never been paid directly by Google. But he has faced scrutiny because some of his academic research has been funded indirectly by the search company, and the nominee previously has defended the company against the FTC's ongoing antitrust probe.
To allay those concerns, Wright told the Senate Commerce Committee staff that he's not going to take part in agency enforcement decisions -- antitrust or otherwise -- regarding Google for two years, two sources confirmed to POLITICO on Friday.
*Android performance case study: Falcon Pro >> Curious Creature![ext]()
*
Romain Guy is a software engineer at Google:
My goal in this article is to show you how you can track down and fix performance issues in an application, even if you don't have its source code. All you need is a copy of the latest Android 4.2 SDK - the new ADT bundle makes setup a breeze. I would highly recommend you download the application to apply the techniques described here on your own. Falcon Pro is unfortunately - for you - a paid application and I will therefore provide links to various files you can download to follow my analysis.
Simply but effectively told.
You can follow Guardian Technology's linkbucket on Pinboard![ext]()
. To suggest a link, either add it below or tag it with @gdntech on the free Delicious![ext]()
service.
Reported by guardian.co.uk 21 hours ago.
A quick burst of 9 links for you to chew over, as picked by the Technology team
*Mobile Web overtakes desktops in China as over 50% of new Internet users come from rural areas >> The Next Web
*Mobile phones have become the most common way for Chinese citizens to connect to the Internet, meaning the mobile web has surpassed desktops. This is largely thanks to rural areas, which are driving over 50% of new Internet users in the country.
The latest numbers come from a report issued by the state-linked China Internet Network Information Centre (CINIC
) and cited by On Device Research.*Photo by lukew >> Instagram
*Some guy using a Surface in a Starbucks. Hang on..
*Apple - Think Twice >> The n Bells:
*I purchased a few months ago a Retina MacBook Pro. When it arrived, I was happy and smug, as only an Apple-geek with the shiniest kit in town can be.
However, through day-to-day use I noticed strange lines appearing on the screen. First, when the unlock-screen presented itself, it seems to have a slight transparency to the desktop.
Once I noticed it, it seemed to get worse, though this might be because I knew about it & saw it more often, or because it did actually get worse. Either way I was getting less and less happy with my new shiny thing. I would work on a document, flick to working on some photos & there would be not-so-mysterious lines appear 'over' the images.
It wasn't long before I did some searches and found out that this was in fact something known as ghosting - a problem occurring with some of the retina MBPs.
Half of all the screens are made by LG; half by Samsung. The LG ones have the problems, the commenters say. (They also offer a simple Terminal script to find out which screen a "retina" laptop has.)
*The new opengov data poster child ? >> edparsons.com
*You may not like the symbology used in this map.. but you can't deny that the "Interactive map of England's green belt
" published by the Telegraph Newspaper yesterday is an another important milestone in the opening up of Government Geodata.It is important for a number of reasons..
Firstly it liberates data that was previously difficult/expensive to obtain from the Department for Communities and Local Government both displaying it on a Google Map, but also making it available for download as a shape file for use by others - Kudos !
Secondly and rather parochial I accept, it is an example of data that was based on Ordnance Survey mapping published on the web.. not exactly case law but a good precedent supporting the view that a feature must exist as an object in the original OS data for it to be derived !
Thirdly and I would argue of most importance is that this data is really useful.. it is timely as it helps to inform the current debate around the planning system, and it is of real interest to citizens who can easily view areas protected by the planning system close to their homes !
Seems that there is healthy competition in data journalism!
Parsons is geospatial technologist at Google in the UK... and former CTO at Ordnance Survey.
*Lenovo takes on Apple, Samsung >> WSJ.com
*Lenovo says its smartphone business is unprofitable, without disclosing the loss. But its market share in China, where the company sells most of its phones, soared to 15% in the third quarter from 1.7% a year earlier. That placed Lenovo second only to Samsung, with 16.7%, and well ahead of Apple, with 6.9%, according to Gartner. The research firm predicts that Lenovo will become the No. 1 smartphone vendor in China this year.
Lenovo Chief Executive Yang Yuanqing said recently that the company hasn't been able to generate a profit in smartphones in part because of its investment in marketing and sales. He expects the business to become profitable in China in two to three quarters, he said...
Still, some analysts are skeptical about whether Lenovo can be successful world-wide.
"The strategy of initially seeking a large market share in terms of volume, and then trying to increase margins later, rarely works," said Nicolas Baratte, CLSA's head of technology research for the Asian-Pacific region. Price competition keeps margins thin, he said.
Dramatic. (Subscription required.)
*Here comes the first real alternative to iPhone and Android >> Quartz
*Jolla cannot possibly take on Google and Apple head-to-head, and it doesn't plan to. Rather, the company, which is rapidly becoming a Finnish-Chinese hybrid with headquarters in both Helsinki and Hong Kong, and an R&D operation in a yet-to-be-named location in mainland China, plans to nurture and grow an entirely new mobile "ecosystem" -- meaning the phones, the operating system that runs on them, and the apps that run on that. And it plans to do it in China because that is the one market producing first-time buyers of smartphones fast enough to give such a scheme a chance.
In order to get its operating system and, eventually, Jolla-branded phones, in front of enough Chinese, the company has partnered with the largest mobile chain retailer in the country
, D.Phone. Not only will D.Phone sell Sailfish-powered phones through its 2,100 outlets; it is also part of the Sailfish Alliance, a group of software and hardware companies that will all be able to add standards and code to the open-source OS.*One less iPhone purchased: day one with the Nexus 4 >> John Battelle's Search BlogJohn Battelle's Search Blog
*He likes it, though in terms of wanting to plug it into his computer he still seems to be living in the past. (Thanks @hotsoup for the link.)
*FTC nominee Joshua Wright to skip Google cases >> Politico.com
*Wright, a professor at George Mason University, has never been paid directly by Google. But he has faced scrutiny because some of his academic research has been funded indirectly by the search company, and the nominee previously has defended the company against the FTC's ongoing antitrust probe.
To allay those concerns, Wright told the Senate Commerce Committee staff that he's not going to take part in agency enforcement decisions -- antitrust or otherwise -- regarding Google for two years, two sources confirmed to POLITICO on Friday.
*Android performance case study: Falcon Pro >> Curious Creature
*Romain Guy is a software engineer at Google:
My goal in this article is to show you how you can track down and fix performance issues in an application, even if you don't have its source code. All you need is a copy of the latest Android 4.2 SDK - the new ADT bundle makes setup a breeze. I would highly recommend you download the application to apply the techniques described here on your own. Falcon Pro is unfortunately - for you - a paid application and I will therefore provide links to various files you can download to follow my analysis.
Simply but effectively told.
You can follow Guardian Technology's linkbucket on Pinboard
. To suggest a link, either add it below or tag it with @gdntech on the free Delicious service.
Reported by guardian.co.uk 21 hours ago.