512 Pixels

Most impressive, but the need for a special tool to loosen the logic board is lame. I suppose it’s better than tearing into the Mac mini with a set of putty knives.

John Gruber has addressed (once again) why his ever-popular site Daring Fireball doesn’t have comments:

What makes DF an efficient and effective soapbox is exactly that it is not noisy. My goal is for not a single wasted word to appear anywhere on any page of the site.

[…]

Comments, at least on popular websites, aren’t conversations. They’re cacophonous shouting matches. DF is a curated conversation, to be sure, but that’s the whole premise.

Unsurprisingly, I had two other comment-related stories waiting for me at Google Reader this morning. First, Derek Powazek, who turned off his site’s comments after a recent redesign:

I don’t think the problem is that people are stupid. I think that people, when given crappy tools, with almost no oversight, no incentive to behave, and no semblance of real identity, often behave stupidly.

The choice is not really to have comments on or off. The choice is: What is the level of community interaction you want to foster on your site? What’s the purpose of the site, and is community interaction part of that purpose? Too many people don’t think about these questions as deeply as John Gruber clearly has.

I turned off comments in the last redesign of powazek.com because I needed a place online that was just for me. With comments on, when I sat down to write, I’d preemptively hear the comments I’d inevitably get. It made writing a chore, and eventually I stopped writing altogether. Turning comments off was like taking a weight off my shoulders. It freed me to write again.

John Hicks has also weighed in:

Derek just echoed some of my thoughts, and helps me explain why I’ve turned of my comments recently. I feel able to post more often now, it’s just spare time that I need now.

Spam is also a reason. It used to be that posts over 5 weeks ago would attract comment spam, nowadays it’s a matter of a few hours. While Textpattern does a good job of filtering off a lot of the crap, there are always a few that sneak through. As a discussion system blog comments feel broken.

ForkBombr — since day one — has been in the ranks of comment-free sites. I’ve had emails and tweets asking me to turn them on. ForkBombr was even used in a presentation here in Memphis at a “Social Media Camp” as an example of what not to do. I’ve been approached in person on the subject. Talking about blog comments at a bar is sure way to win over friends.

Comments are distracting to readers and time-consuming to writers. That said, I’m always humbled when I see my readership grow (which it has steadily from the beginning) and even more humbled when people want to talk to me about something I’ve written. I want to communicate with my readers, but doing it via comments isn’t my cup of tea. If you want to get ahold of me, you can reach me via email on the “Contact Me” page, same as always.

Besides, exchanging emails back and forth is far more engaging than just leaving your idea on my doorstep in the form of a comment.

Whitson Gordon:

The hack isn’t super complex, but it will require a little work (including soldering). You can’t just plug the MiFi in, unfortunately, but this hacker figured out all the little quirks and fixed them fairly easily. He hooked the MiFi up directly to the iPad’s battery for power, removed the power button (which turns the MiFi off after 30 minutes of inactivity) and replaced it with his own, small on/off switch, accessible from the SIM card slot. You’ll also have to remove half of the speaker set within the iPad to fit the oddly-shapped MiFi in.

Pretty ballsy. I like it.

My guess is that the HDMI port requires some fancy drivers not in the normal builds:

[ Via Apple Support Downloads]

Lots of goodies in this one.

Neil Hughes:

Problems arose on Apple’s website with the eligibility check for existing AT&T customers. Many who attempted to pre-order iPhone 4 on Tuesday morning encountered a screen that read “Your request couldn’t be processed. We’re sorry, but there was an error processing your request. Please try again later.”

[…]

Issues even extended to AT&T’s website, where error messages informed customers that the site was not currently available. AT&T is the exclusive wireless carrier of the iPhone in the U.S. The company’s online site, along with Apple’s, was also plagued by slow speeds due to high demand for iPhone 4.

Just imagine how bad it will be on launch day.

The removal bottom panel reminds me a lot of the iMac G4. The days of cracking these things open with putty knives are over.

Check it out.

Update: Engadget has a hands-on. The new Mac mini doesn’t look much bigger than Airport Extreme.

Robert Scoble snagged this photo of the new iPhone’s display with a Canon EOS 5D Mark II during Apple’s hands-on event at WWDC last week. It looks amazing — be sure to view the original 5616 x 3744 shot.

Jeff Carlson:

Taking advantage of the Dropbox API, Habilis has created a simple service that lets you email files to a personalized address and have them appear in your Dropbox.

Brilliant, and a must-have for any iPad owner with a Dropbox account.

Shawn Blanc has put together a great chart showing what Apple device he prefers for different tasks throughout his day:

Looking at how regularly I reach for my laptop, and how well it handles nearly everything I do all day, it would seem as if my iPad were simply a luxury. Quantitatively, yes. But qualitatively, it’s a different story. Because the scope and feature checklist of the iPad (and iPhone) alone do not accurately convey the value added.

Perhaps a more accurate comparison of devices and tasks would not be based on tasks at all, but rather on context and use-case scenarios. My laptop is what I use at my desk. The iPad is usually with me when I’m on the go or in the living room. One device is not relegated to one type of task. All are for work and, and all are for leisure — the quantity and quality depends mostly on the context.

CNET’s Scott Stein:

Realistically, there will probably be a period of about 5 to 10 years where iOS and OS X devices will grow closer and closer together, sharing features, until one evolutionary OS/system pops out in the end. My bet’s on “OS 11.” Maybe that’s what Steve Jobs purportedly was e-mailing the other night regarding the future of Macs.

Glenn Fleishman:

Jobs said from stage, and an Apple engineer later told InfoWorld, that over 500 WiFi networks were in operation. Not 500 WiFi adapters or connections—in an audience of 5,000, there could have been thousands—but 500 distinct networks.

Most of these networks were apparently generated by people using a MiFi, a cellular gateway from Novatel Wireless, sold by Verizon Wireless and Sprint Nextel, which relays 3G networks over WiFi.

However, after examining the video from the event and discussing it with two veteran WiFi gurus, it seems almost certain that the MiFi was only part of the problem. A flaw in the pre-release iPhone 4 iOS was clearly another element. Apple’s public relations confirmed receipt of a request for comment, but none was forthcoming.

Fleishman puts forth a pretty good argument — the whole thing is a good read.