posts

Dustin Karnes, on HTC Sense, Motorola Blur and Samsung’s TouchWiz:

I’m not saying I don’t like these UI overlays. I simply think that the manufacturers should give users the options to shut off these overlays without having to hack their devices or download home screen replacements to do it. I know they’re probably just trying to keep us loyal, but hey – we already bought their device, shouldn’t that be enough? So, manufacturers, if you’re listening, take this to heart, and give us the freedom to choose what our open-source experience should look like.

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Jim Dalrymple:

Analyst are predicting that Apple will begin work on its 7-inch iPad very soon. They are wrong.

The fact is, Apple already has a 7-inch iPad. They have had one of the smaller devices since they started making the 9.7-inch iPad that we have now.

To be clearer, the two devices were developed at the same time. They have pretty much the same specs, except, of course, the 9.7-inch model has a lower density screen than its smaller counterpart.

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Earlier today, a beta version of an iOS 4.1 jailbreak was released, just before the official iPhone Dev Team release was due. While a little unusual to see an exploit by another group so close to an announced release, it seems that there is a lot more going on behind the scenes than what’s on the surface.

According to iPhone Dev Team member Joshua Hill, Geohot’s new Limera1n jailbreak uses an ill-advised, unstable exploit to get into iOS. By showcasing an exploit other than the iPhone Dev Team’s exploit, Geohot is giving Apple two bugs to squash, not just one, making future jailbreaks more difficult.

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Earlier this week, my post on the media reporting Verizon iPhone rumors as fact was picked up in its entirety by Josh over at Macgasm. I was more than happy to let them re-publish it as a guest post.

Well, it turns out that was just the beginning. I’m happy to announce that I am the newest contributing writer on the site. I’m excited and honored that Josh and his team want me on-board.

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Miguel Helft:

After more than three years of using only AT&T cellphone networks, Apple is now making a version of the iPhone 4 for Verizon’s network, according to a person who is in direct contact with Apple. Apple and Verizon will begin selling the phone early next year, said the person, who agreed to speak on condition of anonymity because the plans were supposed to be confidential and he did not want to alienate his contacts at Apple.

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Eric Spiegelman:

Because the iPhone allows all of us to be amazing photographers now. And something needs to happen about that.

This feeling has been eating away at me for some time now because I feel like a cheat when I shoot something amazing with my phone. Take my last two shots, which I’m very proud of. They cause me a lot of self loathing. Look at how amazing my photo of the Urban Lights sculpture at LACMA is. It’s a total lie. I understand framing, I understand the rule of thirds. I don’t understand how to work with light, especially not dusk, which was when this photo was taken. My Photoshop skills are rudimentary. Yet I created an Amazing Photograph because my phone has Lo-Mob on it. Fuck you, me.

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Xmarks:

Thank you Xmarks users. You told the world it was simply unacceptable for our service to shut down and it worked. Thanks to your passion, Xmarks now has multiple offers from companies ready and willing to take over the service and keep making browser sync better and better!

This is not a signed, sealed done deal yet. But with multiple offers on the table we’re pretty confident that Xmarks will continue on with no service interruption. Our style of transparent blog updates has worked so well in this process we want to continue that approach and share this news with you. Some may accuse us of masterminding this whole process; I wish we were that clever! Instead we give the credit to our user base, who spoke up in a way that caught the attention of bloggers and journalists around the world and, in turn, generated new options for the service to live on.

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Way back in the dark ages before the App Store, the only way to add functionality to an iPhone was through Safari. In iPhone OS update 1.1.3, Apple added webclips, an easy way to launch into a web app from the iPhone’s homepage. While these were not full-featured apps, it wasn’t a bad compromise. While they didn’t offer much in terms of integration ¹ with the rest of the OS, they did allow users to more easily pop in and out of websites designed specifically for iPhone use. Twitter clients abounded, as did to-do apps and news apps.

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While I usually don’t quote entire posts, this one from my buddy Kevin Lipe is worth it:

What I don’t get about this whole thing is this: Why the hell does Adobe feel like it has to “beat Apple”? Adobe makes application software and browser plugins. Apple makes computers, phones, and operating systems (and yeah, they have pro apps, but ask anybody who uses them: they sort of half-ass all of that these days).

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The New York Times:

Steven A. Ballmer, Microsoft’s chief executive, recently showed up with a small entourage of deputies at Adobe’s corporate offices in San Francisco to hold a secret meeting with Adobe’s chief executive, Shantanu Narayen.

The meeting, which lasted over an hour, covered a number of topics, but one of the main thrusts of the discussion was Apple and its control of the mobile phone market and how the two companies could partner in the battle against Apple. A possible acquisition of Adobe by Microsoft were among the options.

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Criticism ¹ at its finest. Be sure to check out Entry #186.

[via @mynameispj]

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MG Siegler:

Now, I of course don’t know for sure that Apple fed WSJ this story — but let’s look at the recent history. In January, as rumors were swirling about the iPad, the WSJ had a story suggesting the tablet computer could run around $1,000. At the time, I pointed out why this reeked of Apple setting expectations low so they could blow them out of the water. A few days later, a former Marketing Manager at Apple backed this up. The result? Steve Jobs on stage announcing the iPad would start at just $499. Boom.

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