MG Siegler got his hands on the Amazon tablet. From what he describes, it sounds like a killer product. Thankfully, it is expected to be sold alongside traditional e-ink Kindle readers.
This part is especially telling:
They are not working with Google on this. At all.
It’s clear Amazon wants to control its own destiny here. Which is good.
File this under “WTF.”
People who alter or destroy works of art and our cultural heritage for profit or as an exercise of power are barbarians, and if the laws of the United States continue to condone this behavior, history will surely classify us as a barbaric society. The preservation of our cultural heritage may not seem to be as politically sensitive an issue as “when life begins” or “when it should be appropriately terminated,” but it is important because it goes to the heart of what sets mankind apart. Creative expression is at the core of our humanness. Art is a distinctly human endeavor. We must have respect for it if we are to have any respect for the human race.
Say what you will about this piece, I don’t think Steve Jobs is doing anywhere near the amount of good someone like Bill Gates is.
This is some great solution-finding from a goverment group I didn’t think was in to that sort of thing.
Congrats, Jim and Peter. The site looks awesome.
On the taptaptap Twitter account:
To all of you asking if we plan to make Camera+ for Android, we’ll consider it when Google stops being evil. In other words, slim chance.
Boom.
This is an idea I’ve had (and researched pretty thoroughly) since freshman year in the dorm: the ultimate tool for writing text. A “real” computer is overkill, and an iOS device, with its color LCD screen and multitude of apps, isn’t ideally suited to be a tool for writing text. What is needed is something closer to the Kindle: a (mostly) single-purpose, self-contained device with an always-on wireless connection (whether that’s through 3G like Whispernet or through WiFi) in which every facet of the design of the hardware and software is geared toward one thing: being an efficient tool for translating ideas into words. Essentially this device would be the translation of an application like Byword or TextMate into hardware.
I was invited co-guest with Dave Caolo on this week’s Bro Show. We chatted about Steve Jobs’ resignation, iTunes Match and the HP Touchpad.
Oh, and Dave had to leave halfway through the show. What a slacker.
Your documents are cross-platform by nature. You can edit them in any text-capable application on any operating system. Transporting files requires no zipping or archiving, and the filesize is as small as it can possibly get.
That’s the main reason I use Markdown for as much as I possibly can. My life is a stack of plain text files, and I want them to last as long as possible.
In the 14 years since Jobs regained control of his company in the summer of 1997 after a long, bitter exile, Apple shares have increased a stunning 110-fold. Having surpassed rival Microsoft a year ago, Apple’s $350 billion in market capitalization places it behind only ExxonMobil as the most valuable company in the world. Apple has made money so quickly and so prodigiously that it holds an outrageous $76 billion in cash and investments—an awesome sum thought to be parked in an obscure subsidiary, Braeburn Capital, located across the California border in Reno because the state of Nevada doesn’t have corporate or capital-gains taxes.