July 2012
52 posts
3 tags
The next Instagram →
Anil Dash considering which mobile video sharing service will be the next Instagram:
This dilemma is currently playing out in video sharing, where the apps Viddy and Socialcam are locked in a tight race to become “the Instagram of video.” There are small variations between them—a design choice here, an input method there. But aside from the fact that Viddy limits users to 15 seconds per clip, the...
San Diego fireworks show mishap →
An entire 20-minute fireworks show explodes at the same time. ABC News reports that it was due to “premature ignition”. Sounds like a personal problem to me.
Carriers are the biggest threat to innovation →
Nilay Patel writing for The Verge:
And carriers rarely want what’s best for their customers. “The carriers have always been wary of ‘excessive’ innovation in the mobile space because of the danger that it might make mobile service cheaper,” says Columbia Law School professor and The Master Switch author Tim Wu. If companies like HTC and Samsung were able to compete...
1 tag
Apple Stores per ten million people
Reuters reported today that there is only one Apple Store for every 216 million people in China. This got me thinking and I decided to figure it out for the rest of the countries that have one or more Apple Store. The chart below shows the number of Apple Stores for every ten million people. Unsurprisingly, the U.S. has the most and China has the least. I was surprised, however, that Germany and...
3 tags
What is the Higgs boson? →
A great, easy to understand, explanation of the Higgs boson. Much better than something presented in Comic Sans.
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A week with Tumblr
When I decided to start a column, one of the first decisions was choosing a publishing platform. In the past, I have used many: Blogger, Moveable Type, Wordpress, TypePad, and I wrote my own from scratch before any of those existed. My criteria was simple: something simple to set up, easy to customize and with iOS support. Tumblr seemed to meet these criteria, so I decided to give it a shot. Here...
1 tag
Stop not linking →
Matthew Panzarino does a top notch job calling out the practice of burying source links:
In the end, you have to have some sense of your self worth and the benefit of what you’re bringing to the story, or the story isn’t worth writing about at all. If you’re sourcing someone and not providing an inline link, it’s because you fear that your readers will go there and not come back because you added...
1 tag
The next Microsoft →
Andrew Kim did an absolutely fantastic job redesigning Microsoft’s entire brand and image in three days. Don Draper needs to hire this guy immediately.
4 tags
Disruptions everywhere
In a great piece yesterday, John Gruber correctly argued that Apple’s iPhone didn’t disrupt the cell phone industry, it destroyed it by disrupting the computer industry. Also yesterday, Microsoft announced that Windows 8 upgrades for some users would be just $40. This is another, different, type of disruption arguably caused by Apple.
In recent years, Apple has sold upgrades to OS X...
3 tags
Google's Nexus 7 tablet infringes Nokia patents →
The Inquirer:
The Google Nexus 7 is already in hot water, as Nokia claims that the tablet infringes some of its patents.
Loaded headline. There’s a big difference between Nokia claiming that the Nexus 7 infringes its patents and the Nexus 7 actually infringing its patents.
2 tags
Leaked BlackBerry 10 roadmap →
With the help from an anonymous source, we have gotten our hands on what appears to be a BlackBerry 10 Roadmap for 2013! Boo-ya!!
If you believe this, I’ve got a leaked roadmap for a unicorn that’s being released in Q1 2014. Nice try, RIM.
1 tag
Apple tweaks Genius Bar →
The designers’ solution to Genius Bar crowds was to pivot the GB table by 90-degrees so that it’s perpendicular to the rear wall of the store, and to eliminate the iconic kids seats and tables.
Smart redesign. I’ve never seen kids sitting in the kids section, but have sat there many times myself waiting for a Genius Bar appointment.
2 tags
The iPhone and disruption →
What’s happened over the last five years shows not that Apple disrupted the phone handset industry, but rather that Apple destroyed the handset industry — by disrupting the computer industry. Today, cell phones are apps, not devices.
Right on.
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The difference between a patent and a patent...
Twitter’s pull-to-refresh “patent” made headlines a few months ago. Most people assumed that Twitter already owned a patent. For example, the New York Times:
This includes a somewhat controversial patent that was awarded to Loren Brichter, a former Twitter designer, for the pull-to-refresh feature on a smartphone. Some worried that Twitter would use the patent to sue other app...
3 tags
Asymco on RIM's tailspin →
Horace Dediu on RIM’s rapid decline. His charts are always fantastic. It’s not surprising that Nokia and LG are performing worse than RIM:
The number of BlackBerry phones sold fell 41% year-on-year in the last RIM fiscal quarter. Sequentially the fall was 30%. Though surprisingly poor, I note that Nokia’s smartphone business fell even more dramatically last quarter (down 50% y/y and...
A weekend with Chrome for iOS
We took Chrome for iOS for a spin this weekend, tucking Safari into a folder and using Chrome exclusively on the iPhone and iPad. By Monday morning, Safari was back in the dock.
Chrome for iOS is impressive. Despite reports to the contrary, it often felt faster than Safari. Its interface brings many elements from the desktop and Android versions of Chrome, such as bookmark syncing, tab syncing...
June 2012
10 posts
1 tag
Did Twitter just deliver third party apps a death... →
Third-party Twitter apps like Tweetbot provide a much better experience than the native Twitter app. What don’t they provide? Ads. Eventually Twitter needs to sell out and cash in.
3 tags
Don't annoy users →
In commenting on our earlier piece regarding default third-party apps in iOS, John Gruber made a good point:
No, Apple’s worst nightmare is someone buying an Android phone instead of an iPhone. If you buy an iPhone, Apple wins, that’s all there is to it.
It may not be Apple’s worst nightmare if a user replaces all of the core apps with Google apps, however, it is indicative that the user...
2 tags
Apple granted a preliminary injunction against... →
Koh granted the injunction because “Apple has articulated a plausible theory of irreparable harm” due to a “long-term loss of market share” and “losses of downstream sales.”
Samsung had a bad week.
The Nexus 7 looks fantastic
Google really hit a homerun this week with the announcement of the Nexus 7, a 7” tablet starting at $199. The Nexus 7 is clearly the best non-iPad tablet on the market. Any questions about performance, build quality or display quality have been answered by my favorite gadget reviewers:
Joshua Topolsky writing for The Verge:
Google’s Nexus 7 isn’t just an excellent tablet for $200. It’s...
