From the Times: The average price for a Manhattan apartment this spring was a stratospheric $1.425 million. Stratospheric indeed. It was only four years ago that landlords and leasing agents were providing perks to push buyers to move into vacant apartments. Pretty crazy how fast the real estate pendulum swings. Continue reading New York, New York
From The New York Times:
At a conservative conference earlier in the year, Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, ridiculed the 2016 Democratic field as “a rerun of ‘The Golden Girls,’ ” referring to Mrs. Clinton and Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., who is 70.
From the always-proper Economist: The iPhone’s notification panel, with its imitation linen effect, was not descended from an object that was once made of linen. The switch that, say, allows you to switch an iPhone into Airplane Mode is not an on-screen replacement for what used to be a physical switch. In the early days of … Continue reading A Metaphor, Not a Skeumorph
Facebook has decided to shorten Warhol’s “Fifteen Minutes of Fame” to “Fifteen Seconds,” thanks to the new video functionality added to Instagram, which allows the user to take up to fifteen seconds of video – a full nine seconds longer than Twitter’s Vine app, and certainly one giant leap for mankind. That said, we would … Continue reading Fifteen Seconds
Virtually the entire internet is speculating talking about what Apple will roll out in its hotly anticipated – and badly needed – refresh at WWDC 2013. I could repeat all the claims about OS X 10.9, iOS 7, Mac Pros, and Retina Macbook Airs. Instead, I’ll just link you to Justin Williams’s CarpeAqua, which provides … Continue reading WWDC
It looks like Moleskine and Evernote are teaming up, and have launched an Evernote-branded notebook, along with a 3-month premium membership to the online note-taking service. It’s very interesting to see Moleskine’s attempt to hitch its wagon to a product for the smartphone crowd, and Evernote’s desire to classily separate itself from the myriad of … Continue reading New Tech, Old Tech
Amazon first took down Borders, and now it’s got its sights on the US Treasury. Now that Bezos & Co. are done capturing the book world, it’s going after currencies, announcing that it will be issuing “Amazon Coins” to Kindle owners for use in the development and purchase of games and apps on the Kindle platform. The exchange rate will be 100 Amazon coins to $1 US – though no word from Amazon if there will be any equivalent of the Federal Reserve in order to prevent a Bitcoin-like run-up in price. Continue reading “Digital Wallet, Here We Come!”
When it comes to Syria, the Obama administration is in a quandary. It has thus far provided more than $650 million in non-lethal aid to the Syrian rebels, but has also notably shied away from providing actual weaponry or logistical support. The result is a dangerous quagmire where the rebels have enough support to continue fighting, but not enough force to consistently repel government troops or inflict a blow strong enough to halt the mounting slaughter. Continue reading “Sitting on the Syrian Fence”
The new Samsung Galaxy S4 is so powerful complicated, it has an Easy Mode – the rough equivalent of the big-button jumbo remote control you’d buy for your parents as a joke when they turn fifty. Apple has an easy mode too. It’s called iOS. Continue reading The Next Big Thing, Simplified
With Marissa Mayer at the helm, Yahoo! is on a spending spree. In an effort to become a new online hub for video, the company snapped up the rights to stream episodes of Saturday Night Live – previously a Hulu special – and recently attempted to purchase the popular French video site DailyMotion. However, the government of President Francois Hollande has expressed its objections to the takeover, and sought to block the deal. Continue reading “France Wants Foreign Capital, Except When it Doesn’t”
Silicon Spatula 