512 Pixels

Here are some thoughts after playing with Twitter 4.0 for iPhone:

• The new look is very clean. The tweets are on little sheets that sit above a textured background. I like this, as the old app felt really cluttered to me.
• The swipe feature from Tweetie 2.0 is gone. In fact, this new app feels nothing like Tweetie.
• That said, this new app feels fast. Moving between tweets and other screens involves no waiting on my iPhone 4.
• The compose button has a little feather on it. Adorable.
• The tabs across the bottom include Home, Connect, Discover and Me. Direct Messages are now buried under the Me tab.
• The Discover tab is pretty useless for me. It includes search, Stories, trends (including promoted ones), recommendations on who to follow and more. Seriously, I’m never going to use most of this stuff.

All in all, it’s clear to me that Twitter is trying to steer people toward areas of the service where things like promoted trends and stories can be seen easily. While that’s understandable, I really am not a fan of it taking up so much room in the iPhone app. With no way to re-arrange the default tabs across the bottom, I’m stuck with something I don’t want — Discovery — and am left with something I need — Direct Messages — too far away.

I’m sticking with Tweetbot on my iPhone.

Update: Chris Herbert pointed out that the Me tab has a few tricks hidden away.

The West Memphis Three were convicted of murder in 1993, but were released this summer after a re-trial. Sean Flynn’s GQ piece take a look at these men’s lives post-release.

via longform.org

Hey, look who made the top of the list!

Also, have you visited the Dogcow Shrine?

Memphis Newspaper Guild president Wayne Risher:

With sadness and regret, I must inform you that the Memphis Newspaper Guild was notified today, Tuesday morning, by The Commercial Appeal that 9 Guild covered employees will lose their jobs by Dec. 20 as part of a reduction in force. The company, confirming rumors that had been swirling for the last few months, said job reductions would be made to cut expenses and achieve efficiencies in the business. The company said names of affected employees could be released to the guild later today.

Management gave this breakdown in cuts in guild-covered jobs by department: 1 in editorial, 2 in accounting, 2 in online services, 1 in advertising, 3 in operations. No information was provided on cuts of non-guild-covered employees, although it is our understanding the reduction is building-wide. This notification begins dialogue between the Guild and the company designed to avoid unnecessary hardships, as provided in our collective bargaining agreement. We stand ready to advocate on the affected employees’ behalf to make sure they receive proper credit for unused vacation/holiday time and other benefits.

This week, The Commercial Appeal rolled out its new online paywall, as well:

The paywall is part of a larger digital gameplan. Here’s the deal for print subscribers:

As a subscriber to The Commercial Appeal, you receive all access to the newly-developed mobile apps as a value-added feature. The convenience of accessing the information you want wherever you are via a mobile device is one of the most significant innovations in journalistic history. We will continue to provide the value you expect from the most trusted source of news in Memphis.

Non-subscribers, $9.99 a month brings full access to the newspaper’s web site and mobile apps for iOS and Android. Daily passes can be purchased for 99¢. One account can be used on up to five devices.

The CA announced these changes at the end of October.

The paper still offers a Kindle version for $6.99 a month.

I fully understand that newspapers like the CA makes less money than they used to, but firing people in online services, advertising and editorial the week a new paywall goes up just doesn’t make a lot of sense to me.

I’m still on the fence about paying. I probably will spend the ten bucks a month, but I’d like to know the CA is doing everything it can to keep people employed.

This is yet another genius post over on Scoopertino.

Failure is always an option.

Also, holy crap. via @imyke

This store is gorgeous.

Maciej Ceglowski of Pinboard:

So stop getting caught off guard when your favorite project sells out! “They were getting so popular, why did they have to shut it down?” Because it’s hard to resist a big payday when you are rapidly heading into debt. And because it’s culturally acceptable to leave your user base high and dry if you get a good offer, citing self-inflicted financial hardship.

Like a service? Make them charge you or show you ads. If they won’t do it, clone them and do it yourself. Soon you’ll be the only game in town!

I just don’t get people who refuse to pay for iOS apps or good web services. I paid for Pinboard, Tweetbot, Instapaper, MarsEdit and a hundred other apps and services because they are all part of my workflow. Without them, I’d be stuck using something else.

Something that would probably worse.

via Marco Arment

This week on the world’s most downloaded Wikipedia-related podcast, Myke and I discussed kangaroos.

Sean Hollister at The Verge:

Starting in late February, developers can submit apps starting at $1.49 and charge as much as $999. We’re not sure why Microsoft chose to set the bar above the 99-cent mental barrier, but there’s some great news for developers when it comes to revenue share — like other app stores, Microsoft will take 30 percent of the proceeds at first, but reduce its cut to 20 percent after your app does $25,000 in sales. More reason to have a blockbuster program, we guess! There’s also a 70–30 split for in-app transactions, but only if you use Microsoft’s billing system — the eBay app, for instance, uses PayPal and doesn’t pay Microsoft a thing.

Seems … familiar.

Robert McMillan at Wired:

For some doctors at Johns Hopkins, the iPad can save an hour to an hour and a half per day — time that would otherwise be spent on collecting paper printouts of medical images, or heading to computer workstations to look them up online. Many doctors say that bringing an iPad to the bedside lets them administer a far more intimate and interactive level of care than they’d previously thought possible.

Harrison Weber at The Next Web:

From reputable news organizations to gossip magazines, everything is moving online. And to keep the flow of information going, content providers need profits. Everyone knows heaping revenues lie in advertising.

He calls out giant web sites like CNN, Mashable and more for having advertising that is distracting and even hides content.