Thurrott Daily: February 4

Good morning. I’m in New York for two days of meetings, so here are a few tidbits from around the web.

2/4/2016 11:51:35 AM

Mozo has new cases available for the Lumia 950/XL

I know some Lumia 950 and 950 users are stressing out over the lack of availability of Mozo’s amazing and high-quality case replacements. ButMobileFun just got some new designs in stock. So check them out before they disappear too.

Apple Music for Android picks up support for microSD storage

Which, as the Verge points out, is a capability not offered to Apple Music on Apple’s own devices.

From the Google Play Store description:

• This update adds downloading songs to an SD card, so you can now keep more music offline.
• You can also see the full schedule of Beats 1 shows, making it easy to tune in to your favorite ones.
• Browse My Music by Composers and Compilations, which help you find music your classical albums or movie soundtracks.

2/4/2016 9:47:31 AM

Microsoft updates Bing app on Android and iOS

The standalone Bing app for Android and iOS was updated today with features that “help you shop faster and easier while saving money.” Here’s a rundown of what’s new:

• Price comparison: Shop confidently knowing how much retailers charge for the product you’re interested in. A barcode reader helps you look up products.
• Gas prices: GasBuddy-provided gas prices help you find the closest fuel stops with Bing Local. Just search for “gas” or go to “Near Me” and select “Gas” bubble from the places-near-me carousel.
• Deals: You can now browse deals directly from the homepage of the Bing App for iPhone. (This is in addition to the previous deals behavior in search results.)

“Trump Supporters: Microsoft Stole Iowa!”

The Daily Beast edges into our world and describes a new and feeble-minded conspiracy theory.

An elaborate conspiracy involving Microsoft, alleged vote rigging, and Marco Rubio has taken white supremacist Twitter by storm. Too bad it’s basically impossible.

Some of Donald Trump’s most militant supporters say the Iowa Caucus was rigged by Microsoft to deny their candidate a victory that was rightfully his.

Either the conspiracy is so vast that Microsoft infiltrated small Iowa towns and took over their precincts to give a candidate a slightly larger share of third place, or there is no conspiracy at all.

Yep. Really happened. In this country. In 2016.

Facebook: “Three and a half degrees of separation“

Facebook today said that its researchers have basically proven the “6 degrees of separation” thing. Except that it’s really 3.57 degrees of separation.

How connected is the world? We’ve crunched the Facebook friend graph and determined that the number is actually 3.57. Each person in the world (at least among the 1.59 billion people active on Facebook) is connected to every other person by an average of three and a half other people. The average distance we observe is 4.57, corresponding to 3.57 intermediaries or “degrees of separation.” Within the US, people are connected to each other by an average of 3.46 degrees.

My number was 3.39, btw.

Awesome new Simpsons search engine is the reason the Internet exists

There is an awesome new Simpsons search engine called Frinkiac. Here’s WIRED’s take:

ONE SITE. FIFTEEN seasons. Three million searchable screengrabs. This is the wonder that is Frinkiac, a compendium of Simpsons moments frozen in time, and the latest, best, most perfectly cromulent way to waste time on the Internet.

Frinkiac collects every quote from the first 15 seasons of The Simpsons, the most quotable show of the last two decades, and pairs them with screenshots from the exact moment they happened.

Or just read the official explanation. Good stuff.