Facebook Acknowledges The Real World Others Haven’t

Introducing the Facebook Card, a New Type of Gift Card

Beginning today, people can give their friends gifts to Jamba Juice, Olive Garden, Sephora, and Target all on one reusable gift card from Facebook.

Gift Cards are a special pet of mine. I’ve written about them before:

The Gift Card Advantage
Google Play Wakes Up To In-Store Gift Cards
Google Play Gift Cards: No Credit Card Required

The real world is that we are bankrupt. Gift Cards acknowledge that fact. They let people who have had their plastic revoked — or who have cut up their plastic to kill their debt slavery — still have access to buying on the Net.

This new Facebook Card goes one further, reaching out the non-Net real world.

This is a huge paradigm shift.

How long before they add partners like supermarkets and drug stores? So Facebook friends can help out other Facebook friends who might need help getting groceries or paying for a prescription? (Note: Target already deals in pharmacy scrips!)

If you don’t see how huge this is, you’re just not paying attention.

This is epic huge.

A Change The Apple App Store Needs ASAP

Update: Someone on Twitter objected to this post. He missed the point. People who don’t have iPads would do this search, which is the entire point. For the longest time, Android apps could be searched for only on an Android phone or tablet. Google got smart and allowed web access, all of Google Play is now on the Net. You can also search for iOS apps and books via the Net now too. This post is valid (why else does iTunes still allow search?) and your shortsighted objection is why you fail — and also why the App Store is a mess.

Today I decided to play a little game.

It’s called Let’s Pretend I Finally Decided To Buy An iPad.

So I went to the App Store to look up one of the functions I need to carry out on any tablet: Photo Editing.

The Archos 97 Titanium Tablet Is Garbage

It has been downgraded from junk status to outright garbage.

Just look at the two videos after the break to see the truth for yourself.

Shocked? Only An Idiot Would Be.

GDP Shows Surprise Drop for US in Fourth Quarter

TV: The Following, Episode Two

Galaxy Note 8.0 Pricing Puzzle

Several reports today about the leaked alleged price of the upcoming Galaxy Note 8.0. I cut to the chase and went to the main source, which turned out to be Staples(!) in Germany.

Here is that listing:

eBillions Of eBooks

Amazon.com Announces Fourth Quarter Sales up 22% to $21.27 Billion

Jeff Bezos honks:

We’re now seeing the transition we’ve been expecting. After 5 years, eBooks is a multi-billion dollar category for us and growing fast — up approximately 70% last year. In contrast, our physical book sales experienced the lowest December growth rate in our 17 years as a book seller, up just 5%. We’re excited and very grateful to our customers for their response to Kindle and our ever expanding ecosystem and selection.

Boldfaced emphasis added by me.

Just five years for that to happen.

And Bezos was expecting it.

While the Big Six/Four clutched their pearls and did nothing.

What were they expecting? Illegal collusion to save them?

Wake up, move fast, or die.

Philips: Killed By Microsoft

Philips Exits Consumer Electronics

Their end began when they invested heavily in the Windows CE-based “Palm-Size PC,” producing the sleek-looking Nino.

Galaxy Note 10.1 Can Multi-Window All Apps Now

When the Galaxy Note 10.1 was finally available, it got scragged in just about every review. The heart of the beatings were about the limited functionality of its key multi-windowing feature. It was basically limited to apps from Samsung.

It seems that hackers have taken that limitation and thrown it away with a new custom ROM that allows all apps to use multi-windowing. Drool over the video:

Notice how it can now do split-screen better than Windows 8! There’s no fixed pane resize, it’s entirely up to the user. That’s how Windows 8 should have worked all along.

From being a tablet I never would have considered before, the Galaxy Note 10.1 is now back in my decision tree. This also gives me a lot of hope for the upcoming Galaxy Note 8.0. Hackers could likely modify this ROM to work on that and make it crazy useful.

Recommended: Toogles

Toogles is an alternative interface to YouTube.

It is wicked fast, even on my crap PC.

I’ve found it so useful for quickly searching YouTube that it’s now a bookmark right next to YouTube on my browser bar and I go to it first for searching.