From the various tech/geek blogs:
Via Singularity Hub comes word that Square, the smartphone credit card swiper, is going to be sold at Wal-Mart. The device has been available through other electronics retailers for a while, but, as with everything else in retail, once WallyWorld gets its hands on something, it goes to a whole new level. Square makes it easy for almost anyone to accept credit card payments. You don’t even need to be a business to use their service, and they charge less than other credit card processors. Making the readers available through the world’s largest retailer is a brilliant move to grab a big share of that market.
The Register says that the end of the road is officially in sight for music CDs. According to their report, the record labels plan to stop issuing albums in CD format by the end of 2012, moving to all-digital-download distribution. Unquestionably this has been an inevitability for years, but I was surprised to learn from this story that they still sell so many more CDs than downloads even at this point. Of course, part of that may be because so many people don’t BUY digital music.
Also totally over: 3D. Not just 3DTV, which never even got off the ground in the first place, but the bloom is off the rose for 3D movies too. In the end, 3D has failed AGAIN for the same reasons it has failed every other time: it’s expensive, it doesn’t work all that well, it gives people a headache, and the content sucks donkey balls. To me, the bigger surprise was that anyone really thought this time would be any different.
