May 2011
52 posts
9 tags
Is Twitter "Cutting the Cord"?
John Gruber, commenting on MG Siegler’s report on the rumors of Twitter Photo integration in iOS 5: So close to the bigger story, but yet so far. Imagine what else the system could provide if your Twitter account was a system-level service. What’s the bigger story? Could it have anything to do with something Gruber himself alluded to in April? I think so.
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Let Us Explain Why You're Going To Hate Us Even... →
No one knows why, but Lodsys is still answering questions on their blog. On why they’ve started litigating third party developers: Lodsys chose to move its litigation timing to an earlier date than originally planned, in response to Apple’s threat, in order to preserve its legal options. Translation: TIME TO CASH OUT!
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The Problem With Microsoft's Idea of Social
Microsoft seems to take great pride in the social media integration that’s built right into the Windows Phone platform. By creating a very focused platform designed with deep integration of messaging services within the operating system itself, Microsoft has adopted a specific design philosophy with Windows Phone which seeks to sets them apart from other Android, webOS and iOS devices. With the...
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iCloud a Reality at WWDC →
Apple went ahead and revealed the 3 subjects they they’ll be discussing at WWDC, revealing the existence of their iCloud service in the process. I’m in agreement with Stephen Hackett, who thinks the announcement is simply to set expectations from the get go. Apple rumors these days, especially those concerning iOS devices, have a tendency to make their way into mainstream media. It...
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Rumor: Twitter is Launching it's Own Photosharing... →
Alexia Tsotsis reporting for TechCrunch: “According to multiple sources, Twitter is on the verge on announcing it’s own built in Twitpic competitor. Like tomorrow, if things go according to plan (naturally this post might change that).” And the snowball just keeps rolling, and rolling…
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Shawn Blanc Interviews Chad Sellers on The Amazon... →
SHAWN: How are you giving Amazon your application? When you update your app, how do you get that update to Amazon? CHAD: Currently, I email it to them. They are working on an online submission system, but it doesn’t exist yet. It’s non-ideal, but they processed my latest update very quickly. Just cut. No time to measure...
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“There is a way to do things where, if you find something you’re passionate...”
– All Together Now - May 28th 2011 1. Shawn Blanc 2. Mark Benioff 3. Steve Lyb 4. Ed Oswald 5. Michael Scott All Together Now is a collection of quotes picked from the web this week and curated together into a particular perspective of my own.
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Instapaper as a Writing Tool
Up until recently, I couldn’t come up with a reason to purchase Instapaper, Marco Arment’s popular reading archive application. From all the recomendations I was hearing, I had downloaded the free version of the application last year to try it out. After doing the initial setup, I never went back to it. I never had the urge to “read later”. Shame on me. I thought the...
8 tags
More Square Than NFC
It was only a matter of time, but Google finally made the first move in the digital wallet arena, announcing Google Wallet, a new service adopting Near Field Communication technology to enable Android users to make contactless payments for all sorts of transactions. Along with the help of MasterCard, Sprint and CitiBank, Google is looking to redefine the point of sale experience for both...
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LTE iPhone Still a Ways Off →
Steve Lyb, on the probability of an LTE iPhone sometime in the near future: So let’s say that, staying true to AT&T’s timeline, 15 cities will have LTE (I refuse to call it 4G) by this time next year, if not later. Battery issues aside, could you really imagine Apple releasing a phone with such porous LTE coverage this soon? File this one under 2012, folks. I agree. While we might see an...
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“Anyway, I hope you get to show your hair to Oprah.”
– Excerpt from Opera Software’s “Best of Oprah mails to Opera”. Both funny and strange to see the sorts of things people write to Oprah about. What I like the most is that she also gets emails from widow’s of deceased heads of states, like the rest of us.
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The People Upstairs are Doing Their Jobs
General reactions to the new Nook announced today by Barnes and Noble were generally enthusiastic. I’m most surprised by how they’ve been able to go from having zero hardware manufacturing exeprience hardly two years ago to releasing a credible device that seems up to the task to challenging the Kindle head-on. I didn’t think it’d be possible for them to climb such a...
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Nothing Wrong with Some Friendly Competition
Today, Barnes & Noble announced an all new Nook eBook reader, eschewing it’s the previous model’s bells and whistles and instead focusing on the essentials: Great form factor, excellent display and most importantly, great price. With the introduction of this device, it’s safe to say that the eBook market, just hitting it’s stride, is entering a period of healthy...
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Ed Bott, Crusader of the Flood →
More “reporting” from Ed Bott on the “growing” Mac Defender situation and Apple’s response to the “flood of customer calls” they are getting on the issue. How big is this flood, you ask? According to his anonymous “sources”, Apple might have received between 60 000 or 125 000 on the matter. Wow that’s big. Apple sold 3.6...
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Microsoft Delivers Windows Phone 7 Update...This... →
Good coverage from Engadget over at Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 VIP Preview Event. Lots of interesting new features announced for “Mango”, the next software update for WP7. No new hardware announcements unfortunately. When is it available? This fall. Great. Should have just called the event “Don’t Forget About Us Yet.”
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HP Should Stop Thinking Aloud →
Matt Warman, reporting for the UK Telegraph: Speaking at a press conference in Cannes, Mr Cador said that “In the PC world, with fewer ways of differentiating HP’s products from our competitors, we became number one; in the tablet world we’re going to become better than number one. We call it number one plus.” That line is just the bestest. Found through Ben Brooks
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“Therefore, Apple requests that Lodsys immediately withdraw all notice letters...”
– - Bruce Sewell, senior vice president and general counsel for Apple, in a letter sent to today to Lodsys. Probably not what Mark Small was betting on. It’ll be interesting to see if all this ends right here or if Lodsys is gonna push all their chips across the table… Full Letter can be...
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Less Ping is More Ping
One of my favourite things about Skype is an option that let’s you set your mood message to display instead what is currently playing in your iTunes library. It’s laughably simply, but it has been a conversation starter more times than I care to remember and a source of some great musical discoveries. Naturally, when Apple announced Ping, its’ music themed social network, I was...
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Consistency, or Lack Thereof →
Great, exhaustively detailed post by Steve Lyb, taking to task Twitter’s Ryan Sarver pronouncements on the importance of consistency. I think Sarver’s mistake was confusing the terms “consistency” and “control”. Whoops.
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“The truth is hard to tease out. Partly because Mac OS X still makes up a...”
– Jacqui Cheng, reporting for Ars Technica, with a balanced and fair survey of the Mac Denfender frenzy. Note that she did not attend the Ed Bott school of journalism. Via Daring Fireball
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“I would imagine most of the people who are calling are fairly panic-stricken.1...”
– All Together Now - May 20th 2011 1. Ed Bott 2. Lodsys 3. John Gruber 4. Ben Brooks 5. Shawn Blanc All Together Now is a collection of quotes I’ve culled from the web this week and which I’ve curated together into a particular perspective of my own.
7 tags
Why Not Charge?
In another blow to third party developers, Twitter announced a new policy regarding API access for direct messages. It’s a hard dish to swallow for both developers and users. While the news hasn’t been exactly welcomed with open arms, it’s not exactly surprising either. As Twitter continues to try and find ways to monetize their service, it’s becoming apparent that they...
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Two Hypothetical Thunderbolt Scenarios
Scenario # 1 In the summer of 2012, Apple introduces the next generation versions of the iPhone and iPad. These devices have a new 30 Pin Dock Connector port capable of accepting both USB and Thunderbolt connections. In an agressive move by Apple, both the iPad and iPhone ship with a Thunderbolt 30-Pin cable in the box as a standard option. A USB cable is sold seperately. Updates to Mac laptops...
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An AppleCare support rep talks: Mac malware is... →
An excerpt from Bott’s forthcoming novel: “Journalist Like Me” Dude gets paid for this. via Astro Aficionado
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What's More Likely...
…to happen first, a completely untethered iPhone or one that connects only via Thunderbolt?
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From the Desk of Captain Obvious: HP Picks USB 3.0... →
Looks like the lines are being drawn. via Daring Fireball
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The Syncing Music iCloud Cerberus
Stephen Hackett shared his thoughts on the iTunes music cloud service the other day and I’ve gotta say, his best case scenario sounds pretty awesome: If Apple called me up, and asked me what I would want out of a cloud music server, these would be the major points: Purchased music automatically being pushed to the cloud and my local library. Let me sync/cache songs from the cloud to my iOS...
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iTunes Redux: Tabs & Queue
Let’s be clear, this isn’t going to be a pedantic exercise on how Apple should redesign iTunes. I’m severely lacking the credentials to do such things. Instead, you should consider this as my simple vision of changes I’d like to see made to iTunes, if only because as a software I use daily, I think they would be neat and perhaps even useful. Broad strokes changes, not...
He Is Legend: The Astros Fan Who Ran On The Field... →
Awesome.
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10 Reasons for Geeks to Love HP webOS →
This list was brought to my attention by Dan Benjamin, who mentionned it on last thursday’s Daily Edition. 1 I recommend reading the comments on the page. 2 I don’t think those 10 points are compelling reasons why a developer should write their apps on webOS rather than on Android or iOS. Apple might just need 1 reason. I should mention that I really hope webOS gets a second...
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Instantly Convinced →
I often wonder why I’m so convinced Apple products are the best. Yes they work and look great but there’s other computers and phones, made by other companies, that really aren’t that bad and that I even find enjoyable. I’d like to own a Palm Pre and I often run Windows 7 on my Macbook Pro. Yet, if anybody asks me what company they should get their phone or computer from,...
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“Google still treats new markets in its typical Google way (beta everything)1,...”
– All Together Now - May 13th 2011 Google/Microsoft Edition 1. Paul Miller 2. Andy Ihnatko 3. Peter Bright 4. Mat Honan 5. Steve Lyb 6. Ben Brooks All Together Now is a collection of quotes I’ve culled from the web this week and which I’ve curated together into a particular...
8 tags
Fresh Squeeze
I’m terrible at pressing juice. It once took me about 12 oranges to extract enough liquid for a glass. Much easier from concentrate. I’ve realized I’m the same with using software. I tend to stick to the basics, never exploring further, never peeking under the hood. I use a few shortcuts here and there and I almost never customize the applications I use. I don’t even...
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"Is the Freedom Promised in 1984 Being Revoked?" →
I’m pretty upset they waited making this change until I revamped my room into a dustless work space so I could upgrade. I had the suction cups in my hands and everything. Nothing could go wrong. See Marco
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“…hell, the hearing was titled “Is Humpy-Dumpty Being Put Back Together...”
– - Nilay Patel, over at This is my Next, covering the Senate Hearings over the AT&T/T-Mobile merger. If you aren’t already, I highly suggest you get informed about what is going on with the mobile carriers in the United States. If you’ve been following technology news at all in...
“According to Samsung’s press release, the 3G model includes 100MB of data per...”
– - This Is My Next on the newly announced Chromebooks from Samsung and ACER. I guess they figure that’s how much data you’ll use before you buy another laptop.
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When one isn't enough. →
Today at Google I/O, it was all about updates to their computing platform that fits into all sorts of mobile devices both big and small, syncs your stuff with the “cloud”, has a new revamped app store and for which people are pretty excited about. They gave a device away to attendees.* Yesterday at Google I/O, it was all about updates to their OTHER computing platform that fits into...
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Number Crunching Google Music Beta →
I did some math* concerning the Google Music Beta that was announced today at Google I/O. Let’s make the assumption that the average size of a song is about 5MB. It’s about 6-8MB per song for my iTunes library but I’ll gander that most people still listen to poorly encoded music. Let’s also assume that Google isn’t using any fancy compression when uploading or...
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A Brief Review of the Playbook and Xoom Tablets
Today, like any potential customer might, I decided to go and take a look at the Blackberry Playbook and the Motorola Xoom. I went to two stores, a Telus mobility store and Best Buy. Here’s a summary of the experience: At Telus, the Xoom did not turn on. I got the Playbook to open on the homepage. I opened the calendar application. I didn’t know how to get back out* At Best Buy,...
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R.I.P. Skype →
I know it haemorrhages money and all (That’s Ballmer’s problem anyway) but I love using Skype. It’s helped me keep tons of relationships with friends and loved ones. I wanna say please don’t f**k it up, but that fact this merger is happening at all means it’s probably too late.
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“…Google has apparently decided that it would rather launch a reduced...”
– This particular strategy is working wonders lately. Via All Things D
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"Let us count the ways" →
Interesting that alot of these “problems with iTunes ” articles are either about minutiae or from Windows users. via @danfrakes
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iTunes Redux
Apps have been on my mind lately, none more than iTunes. iTunes is almost always working on my Macbook Pro, and I stream all my media through it to my AppleTV. I use it daily and I will more than likely be doing so long into the future. It’s great most days, but all too often, I seem to find it lacking in one area or another. I wish it was better at being a control center for my media,...
“When these investments are complete, in a few months, there’s a very good chance...”
– Michael Arrington, back in April, demonstrating how tough it is to be both the press and the news at the same time. Complete troll.
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"How Heavy is the Bag?" →
Marco Arment, with some thoughts on “needs” and how you should take into consideration the transportation of your computer. Always good to know we agree on some things.
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"The Soap Opera Effect" →
If you haven’t been listening to any of the 5by5 podcasts, hosted by Dan Benjamin, then I highly suggest you do so. One show I might suggest for you this weekend is Hypercritical, featuring John Siracusa ranting on all sorts of Apple related topics. I’m linking to this week’s episode because it features a good discussion about the pros and cons of the “Apple switiching to...
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Interrogation
The next time you go out and purchase a computer, instead of endlessly comparing specs between models, ask yourself these questions instead to help you decide. - Who will be using this computer? How computer savy are these people? - Where is this computer going to be used? - Will you need to carry this computer? If so, in what, and with what? - What will you be doing with this computer? Try to...
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“It’s not about performance specs, it about user experience and how people use...”
– Ben Brooks making a great point, but not before going on his own long tirade about specs and performance. Maybe he can’t, but I can find a ton of reasons to pick a 13” Macbook Pro(which I own*) over a 13” Macbook Air, all having to do with how I use computers. The point is that...
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“RIM is very good at making the same phone over and over again.* Their history...”
– All Together Now A collection of people I read and respect, spelling out, as one, the writing on RIM’s wall. * Marco Arment ** Ben Brooks *** Joshua Topolsky ****MG Siegler *****The Macalope ******John Gruber (linked list)
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“My hunch is that we will hear something from Apple later this year about...”
– MG Siegler, over at Techcrunch, talking about future Thunderbolt enabled iPhones. When I wrote about Thunderbolt the other day, it struck me that the most obvious way for Apple to push Thunderbolt adoption was through it’s stable of highly successful iOS devices. It’s inevitable, but I...