TechReview | What's Really Wrong With Twitter & Why Trump Lost in Court

Domain Mondo's weekly review of technology news:

Features •  What's Really Wrong With Twitter and Why Trump Lost at the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals: 

•  What's Really Wrong With Twitter $TWTR (NYSE: TWTR):

$TWTR shares declined 16.62% Feb 9-10

Not Enough Americans Can Figure Out Why on Earth Use Twitter | WolfStreet.com: "Twitter now has reported net losses – as accounted for under the required Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) – every year of its existence. Pretty soon it adds up: Over the past four years, those losses amounted to $2.2 billion. One of its own key metrics, monthly average users (MAU), inched up 4% globally to 319 million. But in the US, where election and post-election brouhaha should have boosted the metric, it remained stubbornly flat sequentially, at 67 million and was up only 3% year-over-year." See also Twitter $TWTR Q4 2016 Earnings LIVE Webcast Feb 9 | DomainMondo.com.

Actually, Wolf Street is only partly right. The REAL problem with Twitter is that it is not mobile web friendly. To effectively use Twitter on a mobile device (e.g., smartphone), even just to view the streams of tweets, you have to download and install the Twitter App and then sign-in. Don't believe me? Try going to Twitter.com on your mobile web browser without signing-in to Twitter, and try viewing more than one twitter feed or stream. The problem with Twitter is that it is a media platform, and today, ANY general media platform trying to attract "users"--viewers or consumers of content--that relies solely on an app, and is effectively unusable on the mobile web, is a #FAIL [compare Twitter's mobile web experience to YouTube.com via a mobile web browser].

•  Why Trump Lost at the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals:

The U.S. government didn't even try to win:

Ninth Circuit opinion, page 26

There's nothing like coming to Court unprepared. "The Government submitted no evidence to rebut the States' argument."  End of argument. For more, see UPDATE: Ninth Circuit Denies Stay of TRO, State of Washington vs Trump | DomainMondo.com.

Other Tech News:

•  But Trump is getting his share of  'wins'--“We support the Administration’s policies to level the global playing field and make U.S. manufacturing competitive worldwide through new regulatory standards and investment policies.”--Intel CEO Brian Krzanich in an email to Intel employees.--Intel and Trump tout new $7 billion investment to create 10000 jobs | TheHill.com: Intel Corp. announced a $7 billion investment Wednesday [Feb 8, 2017] that the company projects will create 10,000 new jobs. The company will use the $7 billion to complete its Fab 42 factory in Chandler, Arizona, Intel CEO Brian Krzanich said at a meeting at the White House with President Trump. Krzanich said the decision to make the announcement with the White House was borne out of Intel’s support for Trump’s economic and trade policies.

•  Net Neutrality: "Republican policymakers generally agree that the current rules' prohibition of blocking, throttling and fast [internet] lanes should stay in place, but they want to vanquish provisions that gave the FCC expanded regulatory power. How they'll go about doing that is still an open question. And Snapchat, like other companies who rely on broadband networks to reach consumers, knows the devil is in the details."--Axios.com

•  Brexit didn't hurt tech investment in the UK: "The report, which was based on data compiled by research firm PitchBook Data, showed that private equity and venture capital firms invested more than 6.7 billion pounds ($8.1 billion) in U.K.-based companies, up from 5.6 billion pounds in 2015. The closest rival [in Europe] was the Netherlands, which pulled in 1.3 billion pounds over 2016."--Bloomberg.com. See also Apple CEO Cook 'optimistic' about UK's future after Brexit: BBC | Reuters.com.

•  Chrome OS + Android Apps: Chromebook Pro: life in beta |TheVerge.com: "... engineers at Google ... have been spending the last six months or so bringing Android apps to Chrome OS. Android phones have a ton of great apps, but their web browsers pale in comparison to what you can get on a Chromebook. And vice versa ..."

10 Tech Quick Takes:

1. Japan's Sharp may break ground on $7 billion U.S. plant in first half: source | Reuters.com
2. Facebook closing 200 Oculus VR Best Buy pop-ups due to poor store performance | BusinessInsider.com
3. Amazon And Google May Face Antitrust Scrutiny Under Trump | Forbes.com
4. Xiaomi reportedly wants to build its own SoCs, break free from Qualcomm | ArsTechnica.com and Xiaomi Goes All-In On Retail to Revive China Smartphone Sales | Bloomberg.com.
5. NSA contractor indicted over mammoth theft of classified data | Reuters.com
6. Hillary Clinton server continues to haunt her | WashingtonTimes.com
7. Exposing The Vulnerability Of Motorola Solutions (NYSE:MSI) | SeekingAlpha.com
8. For Chinese Home Buyers, Seattle Is the New Vancouver | WSJ.com: "Canadian city’s tax-policy changes appear to be driving overseas investors south."
9. The Smartest Ways to Use Your Smartphone in the Car | WSJ.com
10. The End of Employees | WSJ.com

-- John Poole, Editor, Domain Mondo  

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Best Chromebooks 2016 & Android Apps on Chromebooks (videos)

The best Chromebook (2016):

Chromebook is the future of computing: Chromebooks are wonderful computers that can get a surprising amount of work done. This episode of the Verge's 'This Is My Next,' sorts through the available models to find the best of the bunch. Video published July 26, 2016.

A real shift in personal computing is the arrival of Android apps on Chromebooks: Attention, College Students: Chromebooks Are About to Get Awesome | WIRED.com: "Later this year ... the Google Play Store is coming to Chrome OS. That means millions of Android apps on your Chromebook, which is going to change Chromebooks completely. Touchscreens will be more important; new sensors and processors will probably be integrated."

Android Apps on Chromebook:

Video above: Lisa Gade of MobileTechReview demonstrates Android apps and the Google Play Store running on the Acer Chromebook R11, one of three Chromebook models that currently support Android apps on Chrome OS (the Asus Chromebook Flip an the Pixel are the other two--see list below for more models to be supported later in 2016-17--Google will add this milestone feature to a host of Chromebooks later in 2016 and in 2017. If you own one of the three supported models, you can enable developer builds in your Chromebook’s settings to try it yourself. Tested: Evernote, Mission Impossible, Microsoft Word, Asphalt 8, note taking apps and more from the Play Store. Also compared are the web vs. Android app version of some apps like MS Word (hint, the web version is often better suited to a laptop style device).

The Acer Chromebook R11 is an 11.6” Chrome OS laptop with a very pleasing 1366 x 768 IPS touch screen, 360 degree hinge, 4 gigs of RAM, a quad core Intel Celeron processor and an ample selection of ports. It sells for around $300. Video published on Jul 26, 2016. Domain Mondo also recommends looking at Acer Chromebook 15 (with 4 GB Ram) which is one of the models to be enabled for Android apps (see list below).

More information:

• Android Apps on Chromebook - Google Search
• Use Android apps from the Chrome Web Store - Chromebook Help
• Google Chrome blog chrome.googleblog.com

Chrome OS Systems Supporting Android Apps (source: The Chromium Projects 12Aug2016):

• Use the Google Play Store and Android apps on many Chromebooks (see Google Chrome blog).
• "The Chromebooks, Chromeboxes, and Chromebases that will be able to install Android apps are listed below. We'll update this list as new devices are added."
• "For the best experience with Android apps on Chromebooks, we recommend purchasing a device from the list below."
• Even if your Chromebook isn't on this list, it will continue to get other new features and improvements.
• Chromebooks that will work with Android apps in June/July 2016 - Android apps are now available on the dev and beta channel for: Asus Chromebook Flip; Acer Chromebook R11 / C738T; Google Chromebook Pixel (2015).

Chromebooks that will work with Android apps later in 2016/2017 (list via The Chromium Projects, supra, list to be updated here):



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