In the end, using iWork for the iPad is a lot like going to the moon. It might be a nice place to visit, and it may even be fun to bounce around for a bit, play a little golf, or buzz around in that sweet little moon buggy, but in the end, it’s not a place I’d like to live, or even stay for any extended amount of time. iWork is decent, but there is only so much you can do for an office suite without a full keyboard and a mouse.
Category: General Tech
Instapaper Pro 2.2.3 Released
Details here. It’s a great app, and on my favorite on the iPad.
Gizmodo Keeps Pumping iPhone for Hits
They just keep posting stuff — this story doesn’t even include anything new, just links to the week’s news.
Massive traffic is addicting, I guess.
iPad Unable to Save Media Alone
Technology, of course, can’t save publishing unless publishing gets on board and saves itself. The industry, however, has not been up to the task. Their heads are so far up their old approaches that they can’t (yet) see a way out.
Police Investigating Gizmodo’s iPhone Prototype
CNET:
Silicon Valley police are investigating what appears to be a lost Apple iPhone prototype purchased by a gadget blog, a transaction that may have violated criminal laws, a law enforcement official told CNET on Friday.
Apple has spoken to local police about the incident and the investigation is believed to be headed by a computer crime task force led by the Santa Clara County district attorney’s office, the source said.
HTC Passes on Palm, Lenovo Looks Positive
Shares of Hong Kong-listed Lenovo rose as much as 5.9 percent percent to a 23-month high on Friday, helped by expectations of strong growth in the sector and speculation that it could bid for the U.S. company once considered a pioneer in the smartphone space.
“A most suitable candidate will be a mainland Chinese company,” said Lu Chialin, an analyst at Macquarie Securities in Taipei. “They’ve got a lot more free cash and don’t have the brand presence in the United States, so that will all give them that boost they need.”
On Gizmodo
First, I’m fascinated by their apparently cavalier attitude regarding the legal implications of their actions. I’m not offended by their decision to obtain this unit and publish everything they were able to ascertain regarding it. It simply boggles my mind the stakes they have effectively wagered that Apple will not pursue this legally.
Second, publishing the name, photographs, and personal information of the Apple engineer who lost the phone is irrelevant to the story. It was the dick move to end all dick moves. Gizmodo is, ostensibly, a gadget site. The interest of their readers in this saga regards the phone. Publishing his name did not clarify in the least bit how they obtained the phone. The people whose identities I’d like to know are those who obtained and then sold the phone, not the guy from Apple who lost it. There is no interest served by outing him other than taking sociopathic glee in making a public spectacle of someone who made a very serious but honest mistake.
Now It’s Just Bullying, Gizmodo
In other news, Github user digdog has posted a Cocoa app that will block Gizmodo via DNS. Brilliant.
History Repeats Itself
The blogs have been filled for three years now with the constant wailing of the technorati complaining bitterly about the iPhone’s, now the iPad’s, closed system.
It’s nothing new.
The Mac now connects to everything, but the first Mac did not. It was designed to always have a fixed amount of memory—128k—with no way of ever expanding it. The core of the OS was in ROM, not RAM. It was Steve’s vision that if you made every single computer with the same exact OS and the same amount of memory, developers would always have a fixed platform for which to develop, making their jobs easier.
Apple Asks Gizmodo for iPhone Back
Bruce Sewell, Senior Vice President & General Counsel wrote this letter to the blog:
It has come to our attention that GIZMODO is current in possession of a device that belongs to Apple. This letter constitutes a formal request that you return the device to Apple. Please let us know where to pick up the unit.
Brian Lam replied:
Happy to have you pick this thing up. Was burning a hole in our pockets. Just so you know, we didn’t know this was stolen [as they might have claimed. meaning, real and truly from Apple. It was found, and to be of unproven origin] when we bought it. Now that we definitely know it’s not some knockoff, and it really is Apple’s, I’m happy to see it returned to its rightful owner.
Photoshop CS5 Gets Reviewed
David Girard over at Ars Technica:
It’s truly impressive that Photoshop CS5 is successful at adding a lot of useful, engineering-heavy features in CS5, all while porting over to a new and stable Cocoa 64-bit code-base on OS X. And it’s encouraging to see that a program that has no real competitors isn’t just being phoned in. Against the on-going daytime drama of “Apple vs. Flash,” Photoshop is still just a great program and CS5 is a worthwhile update for a broad cross-section of users. My complaints are about minor issues—things like the low-res preview in HDR Merge Pro or window layering with AIR filters—can be addressed in a x.1 update without really slowing people down in the meantime. Nine thumbs up.
Checkbook Journalism
Chairman Gruber just linked to Gawker’s Nick Denton tweet about the iPhone 4G prototype that was posted on Gizmodo this morning:
Yes, we’re proud practitioners of checkbook journalism. Anything for the story!
That is a bold statement. And one that has gotten a lot of people into trouble in the past — ABC comes to mind quickly.
While I’m not sure that what the gang over at Gizmodo does is legitimate journalism*, this doesn’t help their case much. Paying for a story is a big no-no to most journalists. Of course, Gizmodo have stepped over the line before, as have several blogs in the attempt to be first with a breaking story.