This is my new favorite Safari extension. It blocks links to apps (and more) from opening iTunes, halting the link at the browser.
posts
On Voice and Data
As announced, the Verizon iPhone is based on CDMA. The current GSM-based iPhone allows for both Data and Voice simultaneously. CDMA, in its current state, cannot replicate this feature of GSM. This means that you cannot talk and be surfing the web at the same time.
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It’s not just that tethering and hotspot will not work. Absolutely NO data will work while on a phone call. No apps can be sending or receiving data while on a phone call. This means no Email, no Twitter, no Pandora and no tethering while on a phone call.
More on the Home Button
These gestures do mean that you don’t have to use the Home button. But there’s a serious discoverability problem with them. The physical Home button is impossible to miss. That it is the one and only button on the faces of these devices is a big part of why normal people are able to pick them up, start playing with them, and figure out how to get around with no help. How in the world would a normal person figure out or guess that they need to do a “five-finger pinch” to get back to the home screen?
iOS 4.3 Beta Adds Gesture Navigation to iPad [UPDATED]
Really, really impressive. Who needs the home button anymore?
Update 1: Hot damn.
Both Sides Now
Verizon’s Lowell McAdam, to BusinessWeek:
We probably worked six or nine months on the technical side of this and saw we could make this work. Then we did the commercial side. The commercial deal took us a day.
[via Mac Stories]
The Open Internet
Network neutrality is the idea that your cellular, cable, or phone internet connection should treat all websites and services the same. Big companies like AT&T, Verizon, and Comcast want to treat them differently so they can charge you more depending on what you use.
This is a great way to explain net neutrality to the non-geeky people in your life.
[via Ian P. Hines]
24 Hours With a Magic Trackpad
A guy I work with bought a Magic Trackpad a few weeks ago, and has been raving about it. Since I haven’t used one outside of a quick demo at the Apple Store — and don’t use the trackpad on my MacBook Pro much — I thought it would be interesting to use one for a solid 24 hours.
I’ll be updating this post throughout the day, into tomorrow morning. Be sure to stay tuned…
On Verizon-Installed Crapware
Apple’s Phil Schiller, via Ars Technica:
We want the experience to be the same for every iPhone user. So there are no special Verizon Apps preinstalled. AT&T offers customers some apps via the App Store. I’ll let Verizon comment if they are working on anything for that.
I told you Apple wasn’t going to take crap from the wireless carrier. Even the Mobile Hotspot is in the Settings app.
Update #1: Charity: water Birthday
A week ago, I announced I am donating my 25th birthday to Charity: water.
I’m happy to announce that $100 has been donated to the cause — 25% of my modest $400 goal. That is enough for 5 people to have clean water. Amazing.
I’d love to meet the pledge before my birthday on January 28, so please consider donating to a great cause.
I’ll update the total weekly, so don’t worry, I’ll bug you at least two more times.
Google Chrome Dropping H.264 Support
Google’s Mike Jazayeri, Product Manager for Chromium:
We expect even more rapid innovation in the web media platform in the coming year and are focusing our investments in those technologies that are developed and licensed based on open web principles. To that end, we are changing Chrome’s HTML5 video support to make it consistent with the codecs already supported by the open Chromium project. Specifically, we are supporting the WebM (VP8) and Theora video codecs, and will consider adding support for other high-quality open codecs in the future. Though H.264 plays an important role in video, as our goal is to enable open innovation, support for the codec will be removed and our resources directed towards completely open codec technologies.
On Verizon, iPhones and Compromises
So the Verizon iPhone is going to use CDMA, like most other smartphones the carrier options. Sadly, CDMA has a major flaw — data and voice can’t co-exsist. If you’re on a call, you can’t surf. If you’re surfing, data gets interrupted, or the call goes to voicemail. I’ve seen both.
Of course, AT&T’s 3G doesn’t suffer from this flaw. AT&T is sure to make that point to consumers over and over from now on.