Links for Saturday October 19^th, 2013

• Expectations for Apple's October 22 Event: iPads, Mac Pro, and More: This all looks pretty good (with the exception of the Apple TV — I'll be pretty surprised if that receives a hardware update). I agree with the discussion in the latest Accidental Tech Podcast — I think there will be two iPad mini's announced: a cheaper, lower-end one with non retina display (think the current iPad mini, maybe with an A6 CPU). And a higher end, more expensive, retina iPad mini (with either an A6X or an A7 CPU). So, Apple will basically have a range of iPad options, starting at around $300, and going up to nearly $1k.

• This is how a Helsingin Sanomat journalist tried to save Nokia: This is an amazing story. Make sure you read all the way to the end. (via Daring Fireball)

• The Economics of a Hit TV Show: Long article examining how TV and cable networks work. I thought this was interesting:

  "AMC Networks earned $1.25 billion in revenues in 2012, about 41.7% of which came from advertising, and 58.3% came from distribution and affiliate fees."

  This is why the networks aren't rushing to put all of their content on iTunes (or any other Internet-based distributor). Apple is only offering the networks a distribution fee, there is no advertising fee. Unless Apple innovates on the content pipeline (making it cheaper to make quality shows) or dramatically increases what they're willing to pay (to make up for the 40+% lost advertising revenue), iTunes (and Apple TV) will always be at best a second-class citizen.

  And I don't think that jives with Apple's aspirations for revolutionizing the living room. (via Paul Graham on Twitter)

• HP Chromebook 11 Review: Anand dives into the new HP Chromebook, and concludes:

  "My only complaint about the Chromebook 11 really boils down to silicon selection. Samsung’s Exynos 5250 is just too slow. A pair of Cortex A15s running at up to 1.7GHz draws too much power and doesn’t deliver the sort of multitasking performance that we’ve come to expect in 2013. You can forget about having a good experience multitasking while playing YouTube videos. Streaming music in the background while you surf the web is about as far as you’re going to be able to push the Chromebook 11 without incurring significant lag. There are clearly better options on the market today, either Snapdragon 800, a quad-core A15 based design or my personal pick for this type of a machine: Intel’s Bay Trail."

  I was actually pretty tempted by this machine when I saw the announcement, but I think that this kills it for me. It's a little disappointing that HP got so close to making an amazing machine, and fumbled at the 1 yard line.