Instapaper’d for a rainy afternoon.
Sponsor: O’Reilly Titles on Inkling ⇢
For years, those who’ve wanted to teach themselves programming have been caught between the trusted content found in books and the ease of use with online materials. Now, O’Reilly Media and Inkling have teamed up to reimagine the world’s most trusted technological resources for iPad, iPhone, and the web.
From embedded coding sandboxes to notes with web links, syntax highlighting, and more, books in the Animal series, Missing Manual series, and others are amplified with Inkling-only features not found in any other e-book version. Copy-and-paste bits of code as you go on your laptop, or drill down into the logic behind the syntax when reading on your iPad or iPhone.
Budding developers and tech enthusiasts alike now have some of the world’s best tech resources right at their fingertips. Watch a video that shows how it all works, and shop for books.
Bad Apple Tattoos ⇢
My dogcow tat didn’t make the list, thank God.
The CD Turns 30 ⇢
Andrew Everard:
Today’s a significant anniversary in the history of recorded music: the world’s first CD players were announced in Japan on October 1st, 1982.
The Verge Reviews the Kindle Paperwhite ⇢
I can’t wait to get mine. I’m genuinely excited about this gadget.
A Love Letter to the eMate ⇢
Andy Welfle:
The Apple device that holds perhaps the dearest place in my memories was my Apple Newton eMate 300. With the power of a PDA in the body of what we would now call a “netbook”, the eMate was introduced less than a year before Apple pulled the plug on the Newton line. It was intended to be used primarily in the classroom, and had an IrDA port that students could use to “beam” information to the teacher. I have to say that after years of asking around, I’ve never known anyone who used eMates in their classroom.
‘Where am I?’ ⇢
Last night, I joined the inThirty podcast crew to discuss Apple’s maps, and the growing chasm between Apple and Google.
On the Design of a Theoretical Retina iMac
Since the introduction of the MacBook Pro with Retina display, Apple fans have been longing for another Mac with such a caliber of screen. Desktop fans, unsurprisingly, have wanted Apple’s latest technology to come to the iMac.
When thinking of an iMac with Retina display, lots of factors come to mind — price and availability of panels big enough, mainly. But the way Apple would build such a beast is also worth considering.
Apple took the Retina MacBook Pro as an opportunity to move forward with the internals of the machine, adding on-board RAM and SSD storage. However, the screen itself also changed rather drastically. The Retina display isn’t covered with as thick of glass as non-Retina machines.
Apple uses the glass to keep the display and housing together, and to hide the mounts in the bezel that are used to keep the LCD in place.
(The matte MacBook Pro swaps the glass for an aluminum bezel in front of the display to keep things sandwiched together.)
Currently, the iMac also uses a glass panel to keep things nice and neat, however, unlike the MacBook Pro, where the glass is applied with adhesive, the iMac’s glass panel is held on with magnets. The aluminum frame behind it screws in to the back of the machine. The glass keeps everything looking nice and neat. If Apple moved to thinner, adhesive-stuck glass on the iMac, I don’t see how the current design would continue to work.
The white G5 and Intel iMacs of 2004–2007 didn’t have a sheet of glass, using a white plastic bezel to hide the mount points around the display.
(Before adding the iSight camera, these iMacs opened from the back, as opposed to getting to the internals by removing the display. Would Apple go back to that design? I know lots of technicians who would welcome it.)
As a desktop user at home, I would love to see Apple release a Retina iMac soon. Doing so, however, would more than likely require some significant changes to the iMac as we know it.
Colbert Interviews Breaking Bad’s Vince Gilligan ⇢
Great piece.
Tim Cook, on Maps ⇢
Apple’s CEO:
At Apple, we strive to make world-class products that deliver the best experience possible to our customers. With the launch of our new Maps last week, we fell short on this commitment. We are extremely sorry for the frustration this has caused our customers and we are doing everything we can to make Maps better.
We launched Maps initially with the first version of iOS. As time progressed, we wanted to provide our customers with even better Maps including features such as turn-by-turn directions, voice integration, Flyover and vector-based maps. In order to do this, we had to create a new version of Maps from the ground up.
Interestingly, Cook lists numerous alternatives customers can use.
Good for Apple.
On the Lack of Street View in Apple’s Map App ⇢
The lack of Street View is a step backwards, without a doubt.
On Clickwheel Games ⇢
I had blocked these from memory.