What about Android? Elop admitted at Fridays event that Nokia had also courted Google in the months leading up to its decision to back Windows Phone, but the company felt that Android was heading in the wrong direction, with "prices, profits, everything" being pushed down at a rapid rate as the Android platform commoditizes. "The ... value would be moved out to Google, essentially," he said. He also noted that Google was very eager to snatch Nokia from Microsoft, noting that a Google/Nokia "duopoly" would have had a "decisive impact" for Android. "Were the swing factor," he said. "We can swing it to Android or swing the industry over to create a third ecosystem." Google has since downplayed the loss of Nokia publicly, of course.

via Paul Thurott.

A large swath of blizzard warnings, winter storm warnings, freezing rain advisories, winter weather advisories and winter storm watches are in effect, stretching from new Mexico and the Southern Plains northeastward through the Midwest and into the upper Mid-Atlantic and New England.

via NOAA Environmental Visualization Laboratory.

The more people buy iPhones and iPads, the more software developers and media companies want to write applications for them, as various as games and digital magazines. And consumers are more likely to buy iPhones and iPads when more entertainment and information applications are available on them. The combination of hardware, software and services is what corporate executives, economists and analysts call a platform. Successful technology platforms sustain and reinforce growth. And this self-reinforcing cycle is known as a network effect. It helps the platform owner and raises a barrier to competitors. “Apple has hit that magical combination of gradually shifting from a product to a platform strategy,” says Michael A. Cusumano, a professor at the Sloan School of Management at M.I.T. and author of “Staying Power: Six Enduring Principles for Managing Strategy and Innovation in an Uncertain World” (Oxford University Press, 2010).

via NYTimes.com.

It has long been true that California on its own would rank as one of the biggest economies in the world. At present it would rank 8th, falling between Italy and Brazil on a nominal exchange-rate basis. But how do other American states compare with other countries? Taking the nearest equivalent country from 2009 data reveals some surprises. Who would have thought that despite years of car-industry hardship, Michigan's economy is about the same size as the whole of Taiwan's

via The Economist.

An unexpected and unwanted text message from a wireless company prematurely exploded a would-be suicide bomber’s vest bomb in Russia New Year’s Eve, inadvertently thwarting a planned attack on revelers in Moscow, according to The Daily Telegraph. The would-be suicide bomber was planning to detonate a suicide belt bomb near Red Square, a plan that was foiled when her wireless carrier sent her an SMS while she was still at a safe house, setting off the bomb and killing her. The message reportedly wished her a Happy New Year...

via Wired.com.

A very good assessment of the SOTU. The quote here doesn't characterize the President's speech, but it was funny enough to highlight.

That is the winning side in American politics: you tell inspiring stories and sell soap bubbles.

via TIME.

I received a letter that ends, as far as I am concerned, the discussion about 3D. It doesn't work with our brains and it never will.

via Roger Ebert's Journal.