Don’t tell Merlin and the 3×5 lovers, or they won’t ever stop talking about this.
Speaking of Credibility
CNN recently laid off at least 50 staff, including several photojournalists, in favor of affiliate contributions and iReport – CNN’s user-generated content department which does not pay users for their submissions. To many inside the industry and out, the move seemed based on flawed reasoning that might best be summarized by Stephen Colbert’s quip on the subject: “Why buy the cow when you can have it shakily videotape its own milk for free?”
[…]
CNN attempts to mitigate the predictably chaotic and non sequitur submissions from its almost 1 million registered users by offering online journalism tutorials (shown above), but only 7% of iReport content is vetted for wider use by the organization. Critics are skeptical these educational efforts are enough to turn iReport into a dependably quality product.
An LTE iPhone
Steven Sande at TUAW references this article at the Houston Chronicle concerning the iPhone and LTE. In it, Dwight Silverman says:
Presumably, if the next iPhone comes with LTE, it will use newer-generation chipsets and Apple will have tuned iOS for battery longevity. But I’m not optimistic. I’m also hoping that any LTE phone Apple offers will come with a setting that turns it off and allows users to drop back to 3G when battery life is more important than raw speed.
I don’t think Apple will ship an LTE-equipped device until it can ensure the average user can enjoy good battery life with faster data enabled. Most people wouldn’t know how or when to turn off 4G.
Speaking of Messy Pants…
It is amazing how many people yell “Oh, shit!” as something terrible happens in front of them. Wow.
The Dark Knight Rises
The Next Six Months
I’d be on the edge of my seat, but we all know how this will end.
On the Difference Between Apple and Google
Fear of Apple is about losing control over the software on our computers. Fear of Google is about losing control over our privacy.
I think Gruber nailed this one right on the head.
There’s an element of irony here, though. In 1984, Apple painted IBM as Big Brother, the all-knowing, all-powerful overlord that turned citizen into mindless drones.
Today, IBM is a shadow of the empire it once was. Instead, Google now holds that position of power, with all of our data being used to serve ads. A quick scan of my Address Book shows that over 75% of my contacts have a Gmail account listed.[1. In reality, more of them probably do, as I have a lot of corporate contacts in there.] To say that Google is an Internet powerhouse is a massive understatement.
I’d much rather use Apple’s “closed” services than see ads based on keywords in my email.
If Apple were to remake that ad, I don’t think IBM would be who that sledgehammer was hurled at.
Flash Ships for ICS
The latest Android Flash player has a few known issues, however. StageVideo using On2 and Sorenson does not work on ICS devices, and Seeking while video is paused will not update the frame on ICS device. Also, the OS does not prioritize incoming calls, so audio remains playing before and after call is received, and the enter key does not work on the multi-line text input field.
Sounds great.
Long Live Birdfeed
I’m totally behind this. As much as I like Tweetbot, Birdfeed was probably the best Twitter app I ever used on an iPhone.
Dr. Drang, on Type2Phone
Dr. Drang, on the little app that allows users to type on their iOS devices via the Mac:
What isn’t wonderful, at least not initially, is what goes on in the Type2Phone window as you type. Every keystroke shows up in a little white chiclet which scrolls from right to left as you type. It’s really distracting.
[…]
So what you see on your Mac is not what appears on your iPhone; it’s more like the output of a keylogger program. Weird.
I understated how weird the UI is in my original post, but I agree with Dr. Drang — ignore the Mac’s screen, and this thing is a serious efficiency booster. I’m still using it quite often, especially with my iPhone.
The Macalope, on CNet
Clearly, CNet has no bias. Well, other than the bias for conventional wisdom.
Crothers, it should be noted, famously declared that the iPad had “met its match in the [HP] TouchPad”. If this is the analysis that a supposed lack of bias brings, give the Macalope bias every time.
18 Ways to ~/Library
While I understand Apple’s motives here—I’ve had to troubleshoot more than a few Macs on which an inexperienced user had munged the contents of ~/Library—there are plenty of valid reasons a user might need to access their personal Library folder.
Thankfully, there are tons of ways to get it back.