Carphone Warehouse had a brochure in their stores just before Christmas extolling the virtues of Android and the handsets they were selling. Just flicking through it yesterday, I noticed something amiss on the third page...
Specifically the right hand side...
Thing is, neither of the Android devices I have use that icon, instead they use this:
However, the icon in the brochure shows up twice in the top 5 Google image search results on 'google maps icon', I wonder where it might come from, maybe the actual location depicted on the icon itself?
Mind you, the copy in the brochure isn't much better. Given the recent uproar about Experia X10s not getting Android 2.2 I wonder what the likes of Trading Standards would make of this:
The Guardian/Observer have just put up an article that at first glance makes one of my recent posts look pretty stupid.
Whereas I was disparaging newspaper execs belief that the iPad would be their saviour, according the Graun/Observer's headline:
iPad 'newspaper' created by Steve Jobs and Rupert Murdoch
Apple and News Corp reportedly set to launch joint iPad news publication exclusively via download
From that, and the following article, you might well think that Apple is as involved in this as News Corp.
However, if you go and dig out the original article - which is the sole attributed source for the Graun/Obs piece - you'll note that:
- Steve Jobs isn't mentioned until the very final paragraph
- Whilst it does say that Jobs and KRM have been in discussions, it shouldn't be any real surprise that two corporate moguls talk every now and again - and bear in mind that the Murdochs seem to be frequent guests aboard Larry Ellison's navy, yet I don't recall seeing any stories about Oracle and News Corp being close business partners
- There's no mention of Apple having any involvement, any more than any of the thousands of other apps on the App Store
which gives a rather different impression.
The Daily project certainly exists, and it may well be that Steve Jobs has some sort of presence at its launch, but there's no evidence of any real Apple involvement at this point in time. I also have to wonder how strategic this project is - with a quoted headcount of just a hundred people, and more of an emphasis on light news and features than "serious" journalism, it seems more akin to the late UK freesheet TheLondonpaper than any of News Corp printed titles.