512 Pixels

Joshua Topolsky:

It’s not the next generation Apple device, it’s not a wowee-zowee LTE experiment, and it isn’t a revolution in mobile computing. What it is, however, is a big chance to give a large portion of America’s smartphone users a crack at a phone they’ve likely been lusting after for some time. It’s also an opportunity to give relief to long-suffering AT&T customers in the form of a usable, reliable phone (not to mention a good way to kill many of the jokes the current phone’s calls have created). While it isn’t all rainbows and flowers (the data speed issues or the voice / data considerations could be a dealbreaker for some), it does kind of feel like Apple and Verizon did the impossible: they made the best smartphone in America just a little bit better.

I’m ordering mine in a few hours.

Ian Hines:

Developers, take note. I will always support a business that’s accessible, approachable, and welcoming of feedback over a faceless, distant one. No matter how good of an ad campaign the latter can muster. And I imagine I’m not alone.

No, Ian, you’re not alone.

Marshall Kirkpatrick, the lead writer for ReadWriteWeb:

Sometimes news blogs are so real-time that it feels like 30 extra seconds of thinking more before publishing could be competitive advantage.

At The Daily launch today in NYC:

New times require new journalism. Our challenge was to take the best of conventional journalism… and combine it with the best of new technology. Simply put, the iPad demands that we completely reimagine our craft.

There is a growing segment of educated and sophisticated consumers who do not read daily newspapers, but still consume media. This restricts their interests to what has been predefined.

The magic of good newspapers – and good blogs – is a deft editor’s touch.

While I have nothing but distaste for the things Murdoch does in the name of journalism, he’s right about this.

Derek James for Cracked, on a great theory about Ferris Bueller’s Day Off:

Cameron creates Ferris in his mind. Ferris is the total opposite of Cameron: he’s fun, spontaneous and has a loving family and foxy girlfriend. At the beginning of the film, the imaginary Ferris convinces a bed-ridden Cameron to “borrow” his dad’s Ferrari 250 GT California and cruise all over Chicago. Given Cameron’s crushing social incompetence, it’s likely that Sloane is fictional too and represents a girl that he has a crush on.

This theory explains the more fantastic elements of the film. For example, the whole city of Chicago rallies around the “sick” Ferris. This represents Cameron’s miserable home life and how he yearns for friends and family who give a shit. Or, perhaps Bueller is a guy Cameron knows but isn’t friends with, and his fantasy is based on what he imagines life to be like for the “popular” kids at school–everything is easy and the world revolves around them.

A brilliant take on a great film.

Joshua Schnell, on 9 to 5 Mac’s iPad 2 LCD:

If “acquiring” an “iPad 2 Display” from someone allegedly on a “Chinese production line” counts as a leak, then we’ve got ourselves a rumor. 9 to 5 Mac has teamed up with iFixYouri to get their hands on what appears to be the iPad 2 display.

If you haven’t noticed all the “appears” and “alledgedlys” just yet, now’s the time to make sure you’re noticing them, because there’s not much proof that these things are legit. 9 to 5 Mac hasn’t even tested the device yet. They’ve just posted some photos online. Apparently “acquiring” iPad parts, which are likely stolen, is easier these days than finding someone who knows what to do with them.

Boom.¹

I stumbled across this two-part video outlining Apple’s factory in California that churned out the Macintosh SE and other models the other day. Very cool.

Meh.

Damn it, I hate this country some days.

Josh Wisenbake on AFP548 takes a look at the state of the world without the Xserve in it.

Steve Hayden, who worked on Apple’s “1984” ad:

I continued working on Apple until 1994, when it became clear that there wasn’t a single person left at the company who understood or appreciated the Apple brand. IBM was more interested in being Apple than Apple was, and I found a better audience in Armonk than I did in Cupertino.

What an incredibly dark 10 years for Apple — from the Macintosh launch to the Michael Spindler years. Spindler. Don’t remember him?

That’s the point I’m trying to make.

Editor’s Note: Ben Brooks posted this moments before I did. Click here for an explanation.

I’ve been doing this for months, and haven’t missed Simplenote as the middleman.