Links 2-11-11: Mubarak resigns, iAds in peril, PayPal micropayments
Top of the Interwebs:
Egypt Influence Network via Kovas Boguta
The big news of the day is resignation of Egyptian dictator President Hosni Mubarak. After the disappointing speech last night, during which Mubarak declared he would not step down, this morning, around 11 a.m. EST, there was some surprise as it was announced he had resigned. The resignation is a definite victory for Egypt’s citizens, though the country’s future remains uncertain. Egypt celebrated heartily after the announcement and the media covered it in various different ways, according to their audience.
This is a big deal and a huge victory for Egypt, democracy and people in general. After Mubarak’s departure the military is now in control. What’s to come now? No one is sure. Whether this will turn out well in the long run is something we will have to wait and see.
Self-aggrandizement:
There are a lot of devices and technological toys out there. When they all fail, I depend on my Kindle.
It’s a miracle (tool)!
Starting to play with HTML5? It may be time to amp up your style reset code. Eric Meyer has the new CSS for you.
Worth looking at today:
Apple may soon be releasing an iPhone Nano, a super-small, super-cheap ($200) version of their most popular device. This is coupled with rumors that Apple may be planning a universal SIM card to free you from your carrier. It could very well be a nightmare for the mobile carrier industry. Then again this is the same company that tied their phone to AT&T.
After Salesforce.com’s CEO talked about rewarding employees for social network contributions, GigaOM put up an interesting article speculating on a world where employees are paid based on their Klout (or similar) score.
It wasn’t too long ago that people were saying that you could make more money running ads on a mobile app then selling it. While it may be true for Android, it turns out that Apple’s iAds are having trouble finding advertisers. Could it be that Jobs usual high-handedness and egotism may be backfiring? (via)
Despite attempts to refinance it’s debts, bookseller Borders is going bankrupt. Their stock has fallen significantly and its attempts to sell online and enter the eReader field have mostly been a failure. It looks like this may be the beginning of the end for paper books along with brick-and-mortar bookstores with one commentator seeing a 50% reduction in five years.
PayPal has launched a micropayment solution. Will it be enough to keep them relevant in the rapidly growing field of digital transactions, or are they headed for a fall? (via)
Nokia has given up on their own mobile OS and will have most of their new phones running Windows Phone. Symbian is now a franchise platform, which means ‘we’ll keep supporting this until you let it die.‘ Their planed new OS, MeeGo, will be relegated to an open-source project with plans to ship a few devices running the system. Translation: ‘We’ll just drop MeeGo on the developer community and sit back to see if it ever has a hope of becoming profitable.’
Random extras:
How Conan became an internet darling.
Yahoo goes after the tablet audience.
Motorola Xoom (Android) Tablet to cost $800+1 month of data service.
Preview image via
