Sam Rijver

Twitter Completely Slams the Door on Tweetro; Refuses to Offer Exemption to User Token Limits ∞

This is the response Tweetro's developer got from Twitter after he reached out because he hit that 100k user token limit. Tweetro is currently the only Windows 8 Metro Twitter app I know off:

“Thank you for reaching out to get clarification on our developer policies. As you know, we discourage developers from building apps that replicate our core user experience (aka “Twitter clients”). We  know that there are developers that want to take their passion for Twitter and its ecosystem to unique underserved situations. As such, we have built some flexibility into our policy with regard to user  tokens – which went into effect September 5th, 2012.”

“…Unfortunately, It does not appear that your service addresses an area that our current or future products do not already serve. As such, it does not qualify for an exemption.”

More in Richard Hay's piece on WindowsObsever.com

Marco Arment translates this to:

In other words: “Even though we don’t currently have a Windows 8 client, we might have one in the future, so yours isn’t allowed.” /.../

Now we know: “work with us directly” means “die”.

I've said this before but this pretty much also means Android tablets will never have a good Twitter client. Which is something very much missing in the Play Store, with currently a similar amount of apps available as Apple has in its store.

• windows8
• android
• twitter

Boycott on Google News leads to 5% loss in web traffic: Brazilian newspapers ∞

Speaking of Google's impact on websites, it does really do depend on the type of site, size and reputation. Brazil's news sites probably where quite popular before they refused the be indexed any longer.

Knight center for journalism:

According to the National Association of Newspapers in Brazil (or ANJ in Portuguese), members that followed the association’s recommendation to abandon Google News have seen a decrease in web traffic of only 5 percent.

“The (newspapers) themselves believed that the 5-percent loss was a price worth paying to defend our authors’ rights and our brands,” said Ricardo Pedreira, ANJ’s executive director in a phone interview with the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas.

I would agree with this. But would also like to add that this way they're also bolstering their defense for the moment Google decides to enter the Brazilian news market with their own product.

• google

Google Casts a Big Shadow on Smaller Web Sites ∞

NYT:

STARTING in February, Jeffrey G. Katz grew increasingly anxious as he watched the steady decline of online traffic to his company’s comparison-shopping Web site, Nextag, from Google’s search engine.

In a geeky fire drill, engineers and outside consultants at Nextag scrambled to see if the problem was its own fault. Maybe some inadvertent change had prompted Google’s algorithm to demote Nextag when a person typed in shopping-related search terms like “kitchen table” or “lawn mower.”

Interesting piece on Google's impact on semi large websites. With a glaring omission though, never does this piece mention Google's move into affiliate marketing (price/product comparing websites).

Google is great for webmasters right up untill the moment Google itself decides to enter the webmasters market.

• google

Drinking Establishment (Check). Highly Anticipated Mobile Phone Release (Check). Lost Phone (Check) ∞

Here's what Jim Dalrymple has to say about this one:

Sounds ridiculously familiar. Google can’t help but copy Apple, can they?

It's funny. Because it's true.

An alternate universe – Marco.org ∞

Apple’s products say, “You can’t do that because we think it would suck.” Microsoft’s products say, “We’ll let you try to do anything on anything if you really want to, even if it sucks.”

[…] The Surface is partially for Microsoft’s world of denial: the world in which this store contains no elephants and Microsoft invented the silver store with the glass front and the glowing logo and blue shirts and white lanyards and these table layouts and the modern tablet and its magnetic power cable. In that world, this is a groundbreaking new tablet that you can finally use at work and leave your big creaky plastic Dell laptop behind when you go to the conference room to have a conference call on the starfish phone with all of the wires and dysfunctional communication.

Marco descbribes his experience with both the new Microsoft Surface and their new (temporary) stores.

Nice read and I'm still very anxious to try a Surface myself. I was at the Dutch Windows 8 launch party for the press and there where no Surface tablets, not even one.

Angry PR people ∞

Speaking of press events I attended. I remember writing a post based on some remarks made during an Asus Press event. I wrote it sure didn't look like the 101 and Slider would receive the Jelly Bean update. A very pissed off pr rep phoned me and called me a dirty liar.

With 4.2 hitting on monday and the fact it's very quit on this subject the last few months I don't see the change for the update increased. Asus hasn't made a liar out of me yet.

• android
• asus

Observed difference between Microsoft and Apple

While the official Microsoft Brand Store in Amsterdam opens tomorrow, today the Dutch tech press was invited to check it out. While I was there I played around with a bunch of hardware and my numbers of questions I have about both hard- and software increased by the minute. A lot of stuff (gestures and 'ways to do thing') where pretty much indiscoverable (even for me, I write about this stuff!) and the plethora of hardware with different options and support didn't make things easier. Touch/No Touch, Trackpad with gesture support / Trackpad without gesture support, RT / Windows 8.

Honestly, even the people representing Microsoft at this event today didn't know enough to comfortably answer my questions. The touch devices I could handle, especially after getting some tips from fellow writers. The non-touch devices tilted the fuck out of me.

After visiting the first (and only) Microsoft Brand Store we also walked to Apple Store in Amsterdam. There I made the photo you see above this post. Both grandparents and little children using the iPad, without needing any assistance from a genius. No questions about this product (did I mention Microsofts Store did have a bunch of hardware but listed no prices?), just enjoying the hell out of one.

• windows-8
• ios
• apple
• microsoft

Windows RT: Skype Surprise

Ed Bott just posted an article on ZDnet about Skype on Windows RT and how Microsoft is keeping quite quit about it so far:

Come next Thursday, when customers start taking delivery of the first batch of Windows RT-based Surface machines, I’ll be shocked if Skype isn’t front and center. It might even make it into TV ads, with Surface users sitting down instead of dancing.

It's interesting they haven't talked about Skype much. I'm thinking this is because Skype is a very well know piece of software on pretty much every platform and that they might have felt taking about Skype would promote other platforms. And talking about Skype would open a door for every tech blogger to talk about how horrible Skype can be.

But Skype is a really nice asset for Microsoft to have and I hope they will devote some time during the launch event demonstrating Skype. Since Skype is available on both Android and iOS they could actually argue Skype can replace a lot of traditional phonecalls. I would love to see them demomstrate Skype by calling an Android and iPhone user, I think it would translate well for them marketing wise. Being cross-platform is a massive pro vs. Facetime. The apps on iOs and Android do need to be improved though, they can be quite quirky¹.

Great Skype integration in Windows RT and Windows 8 Phone (or whatever it's called, I honestly don't know) could be an important unique selling point, provided it isn't such a massive battery suck Skype is on my iPhone.

• skype
• surface
• windows-rt

Apple's Invite Decoded

It's been a few days and after exstensive consideration I think I finally cracked Apple's latest invite!

But I'll let you guess the outcome.

UPDATE: Turns out, some of you don't get it. A sepia filter might help.

• apple

Google Just Announced Another Netbook ∞

Dieter Bohn, The Verge:

Google is making the case for the Chromebook to become everybody's second computer with a new model retailing for only $249. Available Monday, the new Samsung Chromebook is based on its Exynos 5 Dual ARM processor, which has essentially been a smartphone or tablet dual-core processor to date. The device is Wi-Fi only, has an 11.6-inch screen, 16GB of storage, and 2GB of RAM, and Bluetooth — and it has an SD card slot to expand storage further. It weighs 2.5 pounds and is 0.8 inches thick with two USB ports and an HDMI-out port.

If I was in the market for a Netbook I would consider this one, seems like a pretty solid offering for the money.

• chromeos
• google
• chromebook