Power consumption + more

Power consumption

Daring Fireball: Safari vs. Chrome: Power Consumption – interesting article power consumption. Power consumption has come a long way, when I got my first laptop, an old Apple PowerBook 165, it would last me a couple of hours in the university library if I wasn’t able to find a power outlet.

With the first Intel powered MacBook Pro was just about able to last a days worth of note taking at a conference if I was careful. The jump between these two machines power consumption was hardware. It is interesting how Apple Safari is now focusing on software performance to effect a positive difference in power consumption.

Consumer behaviour

social@Ogilvy | Social data accuracy on LinkedIn and Facebook – interesting study but context also matters

Finance

China considers limiting third party online payments-Shanghai Daily – presumably the Chinese government feels that limiting third party online payments has anti corruption and tax dodging benefits. It would also be a good why of preventing capital flight out of China via third party online payments. More finance related content here.

Gadgets

Samsung confirms its next Gear smartwatch will feature a rotating bezel for zooming, controlling apps | VentureBeat – interesting interface change

Samsung plans to ‘adjust’ Galaxy S6 and S6 edge pricing in response to poor quarterly earnings | VentureBeat – interesting that Edge is thrown in the mix. Has it really gone from under supply to discounting in one quarter

How to

How to make someone unfollow you on Twitter | Gadgette – genius. Soft blocking is capitalising on how blocking forces someone to unfollow you. It doesn’t reinstate them as a follower when you unblock them

Luxury

brandchannel: Hermès, Bagged by PETA, Sees Jane Birkin Protest Her Namesake Bag – will people buying the Hermes Birkin actually care?

straight from the track to the road, sin automotive sets R1 RS into production – if I was 14, I would have had a poster of this on my wall, now it feels incongruous on the road

Media

The Financial Times deal is part of a more global stance for Nikkei—and for Japan | Quartz – nice article that puts the Nikkei deal into a broader perspective

Q. and A.: Ma Xue on Why China Has Embraced Korean TV – The New York Times – interesting hypothesis that the Chinese government stepped in to prevent overinflation of foreign entertainment licence prices

Online

Flickr Bringing Back Pro: Pay to Get Badge, Analytics, and No Ads – interesting moves and some UI tweaks

Google search now lets you avoid lines by showing the busiest times at millions of places and businesses – intersting data to build a programmable world

Security

Here’s What’s Next for the Future of Amphibious Warfare | VICE News – reminds me of the aircraft carrier sprawl in Neal Stephenson’s Snow Crash. In this novel, refugee rafts and ships were secured to an aircraft carrier to cross the Pacific to the US. This seems to be similar to the seabasing model articulated as the future of amphibious warfare. My big question (admittedly based on watching saving Private Ryan etc as my only source of reference) is would this model present too large a target for defence forces? What’s the advantage of this approach to amphibious warfare?