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Gallery: Nokia N97 hands-on part II: the reckoning

Continue reading Nokia N97 hands-on part II: the reckoning

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

Nokia N97 hands-on part II: the reckoning originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 04 Dec 2008 17:06:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

The Official Google Reader Blog announces a handful of changes to Google Reader today, most notably in the form of a visual refresh designed to bring a more streamlined look and feel to Google's popular newsreader. That means less visual clutter, more space, and a softer, less saturated skin. Beyond that, the new Reader update adds collapsible navigation to each section of the sidebar, improved options for sharing items with friends, and the option to hide unread counts for any section of readerlike your friends' shared items. As a final (and probably least exciting) addition, Google has created more feed bundles for subscribing to a topic en masse (e.g., music blogs, Nascar, etc.). Keep reading for more detailed screenshots of the new features.

Collapsible Navigation

Hide Unread Counts

New Feed Bundles

We're not seeing the update on our accounts yet, so if you're in the same boat you're likely to see it on yours within the next few days. Still not happy with the simplified Google Reader? Try recently mentioned Helvetireader for another minimalist Reader skin.

Jenna Bilotta / Google Reader:
Square is the new round. On the Reader team, we know that the old adage change is good isn't always true. Sometimes, change is just change. In this case, we hope that these decisions both improve your Reader experience today, and pave the way for additional improvements down the line.

Google Reader has just launched a major redesign to its interface, addressing many of the top concerns of users of the popular RSS reader.

In addition to simply looking way more clean and inviting, Google has introduced more collapsible navigation options, a new section for friends, additional feed bundles, and perhaps most welcoming to power users: the option to hide those intimidating unread items counts, which can quickly swell to hundreds or the dreaded 1,000+ when one spends more than a few hours away from the service.

Personally, I'm most stoked about the separation of friends shared items from my RSS subscriptions. While I'm a big fan of shared items, combining them in the all items view created a lot of clutter, especially since Google Reader didn't account for duplicates - multiple friends sharing the same story. Meanwhile, the hide options are handled on a per subscription basis, creating a lot of flexibility in terms of deciding how overwhelmed you want to feel inside of Google Reader.

The Google Reader team has a full explanation of the changes available on their blog.

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Why would anybody invest with Jim Simons? Everybody knows where his love and attention and money is concentrated: in the $8 billion Medallion Fund, which charges 5-and-44 but which in any case is closed to outside investment and basically just runs the money of current and former Renaissance employees. It's up more than 58% this year.

On the other hand, if you're not a current or former Renaissance employee, your choices are limited to the Renaissance Institutional Equities Fund (down 14.8% this year) and the Renaissance Institutional Futures Fund (down 15.6%): it seems that relatively little of the Medallion stardust has settled on the newer franchises.

The problem of course is one of incentives. When you consider how much personal money he has in Medallion, it's easy to see how Simons would have every incentive to concentrate on Medallion to the detriment of RIEF and RIFF. People invest in them all the same, much as they buy mass-produced Shun knives when they can't get a Bob Kramer original. But they can't be very happy with the results right now.

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, iPhone

Apple saw the iPhone's market share triple over the past year, capturing 12.9 percent of the worldwide smartphone market, according to a new Gartner analysis.

For the quarter ending September 30, iPhones accounted for 3.4 percent of the market in 2007. That figure was more than 3x higher on the same day in 2008.

Nokia is the leader worldwide in smartphone sales, with 42.4 percent of the market. BlackBerry maker Research in Motion comes in third with 15.9 percent. In North America, Apple is in second place behind RIM, with iPhones accounting for over a quarter of all smartphones.

Gartner analyst Roberta Cozza also noted that this quarter marked the first time iPhone sales exceeded those of Windows Mobile devices; that's pretty astonishing when you consider how many flavors of WM handsets are out there.

[Via Macworld.]

TUAWiPhone triples market share in Q3 2008 originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 04 Dec 2008 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.