There have been rumors going around that Stephen Elop would kill the Bing and Xbox divisions if he becomes the CEO of Microsoft. Despite the Bing and Xbox divisions not offering any clear profit just yet, they’re still integral to Microsoft’s long term strategy. It wouldn’t make much sense to just discard them.

Microsoft shouldn’t hire any CEO who wants to kill Bing and Xbox

It’s important to be a little wary of this kind of anonymous, unsourced commentary. It may not be accurate, and it may be agenda-driven. This kind of “thinking” appeals greatly to short-term investors who are more interested in boosting the next quarter’s numbers than the long-term health of the company. The anonymous leak could, therefore, tend to make Elop seem more appealing to Wall Street.

Conversely, the leak shows a lack of strategic thinking and somewhat undermines the Xbox One, a product that launches in a couple of weeks. That’s not likely to inspire confidence in a CEO candidate.

Charles Arthur explains on The Guardian why an 80% market share might only represent half of smartphone users.

TheNextWeb lamented Nike’s choice not to bring their FuelBand app to Android.

For many, this glaring omission in Nike’s technological armory is astounding given that, well, Android represents somewhere in the region of 80% of the smartphone market.

MarketWatch reported that Android achieved a market share of 80.6%.

It’s simply wrong, though, to extrapolate from that to think that four in five smartphones in peoples’ hands are Android-powered. Here’s the reality: at the time this was written, more than 40% of the smartphones in use in the US (a key market for Nike) were iPhones. Only about 51% of the smartphones in peoples’ hands in the US are Android phones. The ratios are more in Android’s favour elsewhere, but nowhere outside of China (and perhaps India) would you find four in five smartphone owners using an Android phone.

Data from Google’s Android developer dashboard paints a different picture.

The newest software, “Jelly Bean” (which actually covers three different numbering versions), accounts for 52.1% of the devices. Yet Jelly Bean is the software powering all those new Android phones – the ones that were the 80% in the past quarter. Clearly, the installed base doesn’t reflect the market share number.

If market share of tablets drops from 50% to 30%, does it mean that less tablets were sold?

No, that’s not what that data tells you. What if the total number of tablets being sold has doubled? If last year there were 100m tablets sold in total, and this year 200m, then last year the figures would be 50m tablets and this year 60m. (Those aren’t the numbers. They’re just for illustration.)

So if you don’t have the absolute numbers, you don’t know what’s happening.

Splat F lists the touted Twitter killers that weren’t.

Seems like Twitter has more than nine lives.

Despite Samsung and LG recently introducing phones with curved displays, I remain highly doubtful that Apple will introduce an iPhone with a curved display anytime soon, if ever. Aside from showcasing the technology for curved displays, there still isn’t any real practical use for a curved phone. A curved display would make much more sense on a wearable device, though.

The continued rumor of a larger iPhone, possibly with 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch displays is also welcome and continues to gain traction.

Apple Said Developing Curved iPhone Screens, Enhanced Sensors

Apple Inc. (AAPL) is developing new iPhone designs including bigger screens with curved glass and enhanced sensors that can detect different levels of pressure, said a person familiar with the plans. Two models planned for release in the second half of next year will feature larger displays with glass that curves downward at the edges, said the person, declining to be identified as the details aren’t public. Sensors that can distinguish heavy or light touches on the screen may be incorporated into subsequent models, the person said.

The New York Times Bits reports on the resignation of Acer CEO JT Wang.

Acer is the fourth-largest PC maker in the world, but it has been hit hard by a decline in sales of desktop computers as more consumers and businesses turn to tablets and other devices. The company said Tuesday that its sales in the most recent quarter were 92.15 billion Taiwan dollars, down 12 percent from a year ago. It posted an after-tax loss of 13.12 billion Taiwan dollars, or $446 million, for the quarter.

Another company that was not able to adapt to the winds of changes fast enough. This resistance to change is perhaps reflected in the article’s comments section.

Apple reports on government information requests(PDF) includes a silent alarm to warn users if it had been forced to comply to such requests.

But another aspect of Apple’s report today stands out as a bold and clever move. Senior Counsel & Free Expression Director at Center for Democracy & Technology Kevin Bankston, formerly an EFF Attorney, noted an interesting claim in the document. Specifically, Apple stated specifically that it had never received a PATRIOT 215 order.

The very last line of Apple’s report today states “Apple has never received an order under Section 215 of the USA Patriot Act. We would expect to challenge such an order if served on us.”

The cleverness of this becomes evident when you realize that if it had received such an order, it could not disclose it under current rules surrounding national security orders for user data. This tactic of announcing ‘nothing’ with regards to a government subpoena for data is known as a kind of ‘warrant canary’. Basically, Apple says that at this point it has not received any such order. But, if that phrase stops appearing in future transparency reports, this acts as a ‘canary in a coal mine‘ that indicates to users that it may have been forced to comply with such an order and not disclose it in the future.

Clever indeed. Apple is trying its best to be socially responsible by including such a silent alarm.