512 Pixels

The Soviet moon program is nuts, and undeserving of being stuck in Apollo’s shadow.

Mathew Ingram:

Some proponents of newspaper paywalls — including a columnist in the Columbia Journalism Review — argue that charging readers for content results in better journalism than the free and advertising-supported model used by many digital publishers. But the evidence for this assertion is dubious at best.

Nilay Patel at The Verge:

The MP3 player market is dead, and Apple doesn’t seem to know how to move on.

There was a glimmer of hope a year ago, when Apple updated the previous watch-sized iPod nano with new clock displays and even began selling nano watch bands in its retail stores. The nano wasn’t a very good watch, but the potential was blindingly obvious — it was Bluetooth and a connectivity protocol away from being the ultimate iPhone accessory. It felt like a brewing revolution in wearable computing that guaranteed an extra $149 in revenue from every iPhone owner.

While Nilay’s piece might be a tad linkbait-y in nature, I’m inclined to agree with his point: the iPod nano — more than any other Apple device — seems like a product of the past. I own and use a Shuffle when I work out and ride my bike, and I use my iPhone just about everywhere else. I don’t see much room in my life for the Nano, and when I think about it, it really doesn’t make much sense for me to try to fit it in.

What a dud.

Eric Slivka at MacRumors:

Just an hour after pre-orders for the iPhone 5 went live, Apple Store shipping estimates for new pre-orders have already slipped to two weeks in the U.S., U.K., Canada, Germany, and Australia. Once transit times are accounted for, users pre-ordering now may not receive their iPhones until nearly two weeks after the official launch date of September 21.

In related news, I am super tired after getting up at 2 AM to order a 32 GB in black.

Larry Olmsted at USA Today:

With a big bustling outdoor deck along namesake Central Avenue, smoke everywhere, and a constant flow of people in and out of the main part of the restaurant, Central BBQ looks more like a Florida beach bar at spring break than your typical Southern barbecue joint. On busy days this is exacerbated by outdoor coolers filled with ice and beer, and maybe a whole hog in the portable smoker alongside the restaurant (the main industrial smoker, half in, half out of the building, is going around the clock). The staff, dressed in tie-dyed T-shirts, are more evocative of Ben & Jerry’s than other venerable Memphis smoke palaces. Central has a youthful vibe about it, and because it is a place to linger over beers and enjoy the good weather, it is popular with college students.

Central is just around the corner from my office, and is at the top of the list of places I take out-of-town guests.

Reminds me of the good old days. I WANT TO GO BACK.

via @panzer

Looking forward to digging through some of this.

I’m going to be tired Friday.

Myke and I talked at length about Apple’s event today, but I thought I’d write out some of my thoughts here.

The obvious news here is the iPhone 5’s bigger screen. At 4 inches and 1136 x 640, the new layout is 16:9 — perfect for movies in landscape, and no wider. Apps that don’t scale or fit will be letterboxed at the top and bottom.

While I know very little about app development, from the people I’ve spoken to today, moving to this new screen shouldn’t be nearly as much work as going to Retina was. In short, Apple changed the physical screen size of the iPhone in the easiest possible way.

The question, though, is why. For five years, the iPhone has had a 3.5 inch screen.

As with most things, I think a combination of factors are at play.

With LTE on board, Apple presumably needed to increase the size of the battery. As this image shows, Apple is using the increased height provided by the larger screen to include a bigger battery. Here’s Dave Caolo:

According to Apple, users can expect up to 8 hours browsing time on LTE, up to 8 hours on 3G and up to 10 hours over Wi-Fi. Total standby time is listed as 225 hours. The iPhone 4S delivered up to 6 hours browsing on 3G, up to 9 hours over Wi-Fi and total standby time up to 200 hours.

Another factor could be the general direction of the market toward bigger phones. Maybe it was just time for a change.

Maybe Jony Ive’s hands are bigger than they look on video.

Ahem.

The iPod classic looks like it lives to see another day.

The new iPod touch, the newly-redesigned iPod nano and colorful but boring iPod shuffle will be out in October, alongside a new version of iTunes.