512 Pixels

I just don’t get what kind of company would be okay with producing such a blatant rip-off.

Ryan Lawler:

FreeWheel reported that four-fifths of all mobile video views happen on Apple iOS devices. The iPhone and iPod touch each account for about 30 percent of all video views that happen on mobile devices, with the remaining 20 percent being attributed to Android devices, according to the report. Other devices account for less than one percent of all video views on mobile devices, according to FreeWheel.

Man, the lack of Flash is really holding Apple’s devices back.

Casey Johnston at Ars, on the HP Veer:

While webOS remains a promising platform with many desirable features, we ultimately found that the Veer, both in terms of physique and power, is not sufficient for anyone performing more than very light and infrequent tasks on their smartphones. The inclusion of a physical keyboard makes the phone decent for messaging (though its keys are quite small) but the size of the screen and the underpowered processor can make moderate to heavy use a chore. The Veer is targeted at those who want latitude in the capabilities of their communication device, but have only a light reliance on the various functions a smartphone can perform.

I really like WebOS, but it is staggering to me that the same company behind it can make such poor hardware on such a consistent basis. WebOS is screaming to be put on an iPhone-like form factor.

Come on HP, while Palm obviously couldn’t pull this off, I know you can do better. Give this great mobile OS the hardware it deserves.

Be sure to check out the crash sound for the Power Macintosh 6100/60AV. It is my favorite, by far.

I have a problem. I get anxious anytime I see a notification badge on my iPhone.

Be it Mail, Reeder or something else, those little red circles really get under my skin. I check my email constantly, am always refreshing Twitter and love marking RSS feeds as read just to kill the little bastards.

I — like most of you — am addicted to input. It’s a terrible side effect of growing up in the 90s, I suppose. But it’s slowly eating away at me.

I don’t blame Apple, or its terrible notifications in iOS. I really don’t blame the Internet, either.

I blame me.

I’m the one who signed up for all of these apps and services. I’m the one who went out and spent money on an iPhone. The phone can’t edit its notification settings, or what apps are installed on it. I’m the user; it is the machine.

While services like Twitter or Google Reader aren’t bad, my anxiety concerning unread items doesn’t add value to my life. It does quite the opposite, actually. I find myself constantly distracted my iPhone throughout the day, but to be honest, I don’t mind it. I like having little excuses to sink into my own little world, instead of working or connecting with those around me. Killing off red badges is really just a bonus.

But I know its not good for me.

So, what is someone like me to do? I’ve already canned Facebook and some other services that didn’t do much for me besides waste time. I’ve taken almost every game off of my computers and iOS devices.

This afternoon, I disabled push notifications for Twitter replies on my iPhone. I know this seems silly, but I get a ton of replies, and rarely — if ever — are they super urgent. I am still receiving notifications for direct messages, however, as I use them often for talking with people quickly and easily. Time will tell if they make the cut in a few days.

I’ve made a few other changes on my iPhone as well. I’ve removed non-critical email accounts from my iPhone. I’ve changed OmniFocus for iPhone’s badge settings to just show overdue tasks. Reeder and Instacast lost their badge, too.

Now, getting rid of the red circles doesn’t really solve my problem with wanting — no, craving — distracting input. A few days into the week, I’m still going to want to be distracted from real work. That said, I’m hoping that getting rid of some of the things that have added to this will help.

Baby steps.

Julie Samuels at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, on the Lodsys mess:

The law generally works to ensure that the party in the best position to address an issue bears the responsibility of handling that issue. In the copyright context, for example, the default assumption is that the copyright owners are best positioned to identify potential infringement. This is because, among other reasons, copyright owners know what content they own and which of their works have been licensed. Here, absent protection from Apple, developers hoping to avoid a legal dispute must investigate each of the technologies that Apple provides to make sure none of them is patent-infringing. For many small developers, this requirement, combined with a 30 percent fee to Apple, is an unacceptable cost. Even careful developers who hire lawyers to do full-scale patent searches on potential apps surely would not expect to investigate the technology that Apple provides. Instead, they would expect (with good reason) that Apple wouldn’t provide technologies in its App Store that open its developers up to liability – and/or would at least agree to defend them when a troll like Lodsys comes along.

I agree. Apple needs to step in and protect its developers.

Kawika Holbrook at 37signals:

Adding something is easy, adding value is harder. Is this thing I’m working on actually making the product more valuable for people? Can they get more out of it than they did before? There’s a fine line between adding value and subtracting value. Sometimes adding is subtracting. Too much catsup can ruin the fries. Value is about balance.

I’ve been thinking a lot about this for a while now. While 37signals raises this conversation about work projects, it’s applicable far beyond the office.

There’s a bigger post on this coming. Stay tuned.

[via Dave Caolo]

Shawn Blanc, comparing cloud music services like Rdio to Netflix:

However, I have a different attitude towards movies than I do towards music. I will maybe watch my favorite movies once or twice a year, at the most. A great album that I love I will listen to every day for months and months.

Movies are entertaining. Music is personal.

And so I don’t know if the paradigm that access is better than ownership has the same effect on our music library as it does for our DVD collection. The music we listen to, in many ways, is a definition and extension of who we are.

All this to say, that what excites me right now is the idea of access and ownership. I want to own my music, but I want to have it available anywhere and everywhere and on each of the music-playing devices that I own.

I totally agree, and it’s the thing that has kept me from really enjoying my Rdio trial membership.

I really hope that whatever Apple comes up with a solution that meets both needs Shawn has so elegantly described.

Tim Stevens:

The Kindle has been a huge success, no doubt about that, but we are continually amazed at just how big a success it has become. Amazon too, apparently. The company just issued a press release to announce that digital book sales have now exceeded sales of all print titles, both hardcover and paperback combined. As of April 1st, for every 100 print books that Amazon has sold (of any kind) the company moved 105 Kindle books, and no that doesn’t include downloads of free titles.

The tide is turning.

The 13-inch MacBook Air sure seems popular among people I read.

I don’t even know what to say about this.

Dave Caolo:

Your choice of UCT doesn’t matter. At all. Trust does. If a granite tablet and a chisel works for you, use it. Fancy notebook, iPhone, whatever. Just ensure that you know beyond a doubt that it will be available if and when you need it, 100% of the time. Floating on top of my mess is a ubiquitous capture tool. Thanks to some hard core behavior modification, I always know where it is.

One of the tennants of GTD is “Capture-Process-Organize-Do.” The other is “To each his (or her) own.” David’s bare-bones system is flexible enough to accommodate any work style or process. This is what works for me. Here’s hoping you found it useful.