Henrik Carlsson's Blog

All things me.

Passar på att grilla.

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Passar på att grilla.

Rapid sales on Amazon’s new eReaders/tablets, because they’re good or because they’re cheap?

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According to SplatF Amazon’s new Kindle Fire is their best-selling electronics device, even though it’s only available for pre-order. However, what surprises me is this:

The new $79 Kindle is no. 2, and various Kindle models actually make up the top 12 gadgets on Amazon right now.

The Kindle is available in three versions, the color-display tablet called ”Kindle Fire”, the touch screen eReader ”Kindle Touch” and the no-touch but cheap ”Kindle”. The $79 model that Dan Frommer mentions is the one that’s basically the same old Kindle as before, i.e. just a cheap eReader without touch and likely with crappy controls.

Based on this I guess that a lot of Kindle customers are very price-sensitive, so it’s likely that even the Fire will compete on price rather then features.

There will not be an iPhone called the 4S!

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Next week (Tuesday, to be specific) Apple will host an iOS-related press event. As far as we all know they will likely talk about the finished version of iOS 5 and reveal one or more new iPhones. There has been a lot of speculation over what the new iPhone(s) will be like. A popular theory is that there will be two new versions, one brand new iPhone 5 and something that is more like an evolution of the iPhone 4. An earlier theory said that the new iPhone would just be an updated 4.

Both these theories have given wind to the idea of an ”iPhone 4S”, much like the 3GS which was a beefed-up 3G. I’ll go on record and say that there will not be an iPhone called the 4S. The only reason the 3GS was called that was that it was the third iPhone and the second one already had the number three in it.

So my guess is that if there is just one new model it will be the iPhone 5, whether it’s a ”revolutionary” update or just a beefed-up 4. If there will be two models, they will both likely feature the numeral 5 in their name.

Now, let’s se if Apple proves me right or wrong.

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Jag postar den här igen eftersom det blev en sån strålande ”accidental penis” på väggen bakom kandelabern.

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Jag postar den här igen eftersom det blev en sån strålande ”accidental penis” på väggen bakom kandelabern.

More iteration

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The iteration of this sites design is slowly progressing. Out of the four points I presented in my original post about the design update, one is now complete and the others is in progress.

Iteration part II

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The other day I wrote a post about some things that needed to be changed on this blog. That change-process has now begun. Some content has been removed from the content area and moved to the sidebar.

You’ll need a Facebook account to sign up for Spotify

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According to information directly from Spotify you can no longer sign up for a Spotify account, be it an ad financed free account or a premium account, unless you have a Facebook account.

Unfortunately you will need a Facebook account to access Spotify from now on, unless you already have an account set up.

A my friend Emil put it in a tweet, being able to use your Facebook account is a good thing, being forced to do it is a bad thing. I like it when modern more or less web-related companies integrate with each other, but when membership in one requires you to be using the other it’s really not a good thing.

My opinion on Spotify in general

I’ve had a Spotify account for a really long time now. It’s always been a premium account, except for the first few months. I’ve been fairly happy with the service and selection they provide. However one thing about Spotify has bothered me. (The same goes for any other company that provides streaming media.) No matter how long I’ll be a member, nothing of what I chose to listen to will be mine. The second I quit my membership I will lose the ability to listen to the songs. Contrast this with money spent on a download service, like iTunes. When I pay for a download I purchase something. If I chose to throw away my iPod and iPhone, thrash my Mac and burn my iPad to ashes, the right to listen to the music I’ve purchased is still mine. Any computer or computer-ish device that can play AAC audio files enables me to listen to my purchased music. (Yes, of course I must make sure the actual files are present on the device.)

This is by no means Spotify’s fault. It’s an inherent flaw in the streaming business model. To some people it’s no problem, and to me the benefits of Spotify has counterweighted the limitations of the nature of streaming. However, I’ve noticed that I don’t listen to as much ”new” music as I would need to in order to really make full use of Spotify’s benefits.

Spotify’s change to the free accounts

Some time ago Spotify changed the terms for free accounts and made some cheap accounts available. Suddenly the free accounts had a limit to how many songs could be listened to in a month. This really pissed of some people. Apparently some people still thinks free music should be part of the human rights. (Let’s save that discussion for some other day.)

This didn’t really change anything for me. If anything it was just an indication that the advertising didn’t pay off as good as some people thought and that Spotify felt a need to limit the free accounts in order to gain more paying customers.

Spotify and Facebook

So far Spotify’s collaboration with Facebook hasn’t changed anything for me, since the new rules only apply to accounts created now and in the future. However, if it does start to apply to old accounts I will likely cancel my Spotify subscription and start spending the $10 a month in the iTunes Store instead. I currently don’t have a Facebook account and I will not create one just because Spotify wants me to. I pay money to Spotify to listen to music, not to have them forcing me to get a Facebook (or any other social network) account.

Men så här fint blev det.

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Men så här fint blev det.

Det positiva är att det inte kan bli rörigare än så här.

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Det positiva är att det inte kan bli rörigare än så här.

Iterating the design

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As I wrote earlier today, this blog needs some sort of design re-make in order to better distinguish the actual post content from all other page content.

What to do?

This is a list of what I think needs to be done.

Apart from that I should also spend some time making it more responsive, since right now it’s more of an adaptive design.

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