Gizmodo got their hands on it, and I have to admit, this thing looks legit.
Category: General Tech
Next iPhone Leaked?
Whatever this device is, it sure looks nice.
I Bought a Palm Pre Plus. And I Like It.
Background:
Back in January, I switched from the iPhone to 3GS to the Motorola Droid. In a lengthy piece titled “ Why I Switched to Android,” I outlined the reasons I chose the Droid.
None of that has really changed. Android is a great platform, and the Droid is a killer handset.
So why did I buy a Palm Pre Plus? Well, my 18-month old son smashed my phone and I needed a replacement. I decided to give Palm a shot at it, and so far, I’m pretty happy.
Opera for iPhone Downloaded 1 Million Times
Opera Software’s Internet browser for Apple’s iPhone was downloaded more than one million times during the first day when it was available to consumers, the Norwegian firm said on Thursday.
[…]
“Apple said ‘Yes’, and iPhone users around the world said, ‘Yes, please’,” Opera said in a statement.
Crazy.
Graphics Switching and the New MacBook Pros
Chris Foresman, over at Ars Technica:
Apple’s approach in the new 15" and 17" MacBook Pros differs from Optimus in two key ways. The first is that the switching is all handled automatically by Mac OS X without any user intervention (though there is actually a System Preference to deactivate it, if you choose). Apps that use advanced graphics frameworks such as OpenGL, Core Graphics, Quartz Composer or others will cause the OS to trigger the discrete GPU. So, when you are reading or writing Mail, or editing an Excel spreadsheet, Mac OS X will simply use the integrated Intel HD graphics. If you fire up Aperture or Photoshop, Mac OS X kicks on the NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M.
‘Perplexing’
Joshua Topolsky, on Microsoft’s new Kin phones:
The Kin is perplexing to me, and doubly so due to Microsoft’s recent announcement of Windows Phone 7 at Mobile World Congress (with a follow-up showing at MIX10). It was literally one month ago that the company was extolling the possibilities and benefits of its completely rethought OS, a ground-up, reboot effort from the Windows Mobile team. An OS which taps into the Zune ecosystem, plays Xbox Live games, is built around the concept of social networking integration (sound familiar?), will have rich apps and great options for developers, and is built for state-of-the-art hardware. So, how does the company move from its halo mobile devices to the Kin and have it make any kind of sense? From high-end, iPhone-stomping phones, to two devices which are seriously under-spec’d (4GB, really guys?), severely lacking in services (no apps? no calendar?), and questionably designed (uh, the Turtle). How does this make sense for Microsoft, and more importantly, the consumer? Is the Kin customer the people featured in the brand’s advertising – scruffy, savvy, urban twenty-somethings who love technology but don’t want technology to get in the way of having a good time – or is it for someone else entirely? And is that the point?
On Progress
Like the Mac, the iPhone debuted with a huge technical lead over its competitors. But this time, Apple is determined not to squander its advantage. Instead, it’s front-running as hard as it possibly can. Anything that has any chance of slowing down “the progress of the platform” has simply got to go. And the best way Apple knows to ensure platform progress is by controlling its own destiny in every way that it can. That means, among other things, no middleware vendors, no encouragement of cross-platform development (either explicit or implicit), and complete, arbitrary control over every application’s presence on the platform.
Trashed Laptops
PCWorld’s entire slideshow is gut-wrenching, but be sure to check out the 13th entry.
Peeking Inside the iPad
The New York Times has a neat, Flash-based interactive page showing the insides of the iPad. It really is a battery with a computer strapped to it.
Jobs Weighs in on Section 3.3.1
Steve Jobs, in an email to Tao Effect’s Greg Slepak:
We’ve been there before, and intermediate layers between the platform and the developer ultimately produces sub-standard apps and hinders the progress of the platform.
I’m not one to put a stamp of approval on everything Jobs says, but I think he is right on the money on this.
Twitter Buys Tweetie
I’m happy to say that as of today Twitter is the proud owner of Tweetie - and I’m joining their mobile team and starting work on turning Tweetie.app into Twitter.app, for iPhone and iPad.
Holy crap. This could be a big blow to third-party apps, who may find it difficult to compete with an “official” Twitter app.
Adobe’s CTO Weighs in on SDK Issue
First of all, the ability to package an application for the iPhone or iPad is one feature in one product in Creative Suite. CS5 consists of 15 industry-leading applications, which contain hundreds of new capabilities and a ton of innovation. We intend to still deliver this capability in CS5 and it is up to Apple whether they choose to allow or disallow applications as their rules shift over time.