In which we start by looking at how to think about buying new phones… And then pivot into a discussion of major economic transitions. Like robots.

Links

• Carriers dropping subsidies:
  • “T-Mobile faces war of words after killing subsidies, contracts” (CNET)
  • “Verizon Wireless moving away from contracts and phone subsidies” (Ars Technica)
  • “Sprint to end two-year contracts - now here come the deals” (CNN)
• Motorola Razr
• “Pre to postmortem: the inside story of the death of Palm and webOS” (The Verge)
• How Blackberry Fell (The New Yorker)
• MMS (multimedia messaging hack)
  • on iOS: “iOS bug lets anyone crash your iPhone with a text message” (The Guardian)
  • on Android: “950 million Android phones can be hijacked by malicious text messages” (Ars Technica)
• Xiaomi
• Windows Phone
• From the Garden to the City
• Previously on the show:
  • 1.18: Keep on Keepin’ On

Before You Go

The Atlantic’s new Notes (blogging) section, with “comments” via email. Perhaps particularly relevant to our listeners is their response to Chris’ email. Note that they followed up a couple days after the episode was recorded with a personal email noting that they’d launched

Music

• “Pirates”, by Heptagon Heaven. Used by permission.
• “Winning Slowly Theme” by Chris Krycho. Slowly winning the “can’t get it out of your head” spot in every listener’s inner ear.

Sponsors

Many thanks to the people who help us make this show possible by their financial support! This month’s sponsors:

• Jeremy W. Sherman
• Jeremy Cherfas

If you’d like to support the show, you can make a pledge at or give directly via Square Cash.

Respond

We love to hear your thoughts. Hit us up on Twitter, App.net, Facebook, or via email!