I just ran across a link to Jacqui Cheng’s 15-page review on Ars Techinca of the original iPhone, and it feels like that thing was released a lifetime ago
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Apple Remembers Jerry York
“Jerry joined Apple’s Board in 1997 when most doubted the company’s future. He has been a pillar of financial and business expertise and insight on our Board for over a dozen years,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “It’s been a privilege to know and work with Jerry, and I’m going to miss him a lot.”
It’s rare that Apple ever looks back, especially to the late 1990s, when the company was in pretty bad shape. Most people — including me — hadn’t really ever heard much about York or his contributions to the company, but it would seem he was instrumental in bringing Apple back from the brink.
The Price of 3G
Jason Snell, in his defense of the 3G-equipped iPad:
Let’s face it: One of the things that stinks about the American cellular industry is that it’s been built around a subsidy-and-contract business model. When you buy a phone, it’s generally discounted in exchange for your agreement to pay a monthly fee for a couple of years. Non-subsidized devices generally still pay high prices for service, and it’s still a pain to cancel. The iPad’s 3G service has none of these drawbacks: It can be set to auto-cancel and requires no commitment.
The Kindle, the iPad, and the Discussion of Devices vs. Services
Amazon just released an application that gives Kindle users the ability read their content on the Mac. This adds the Mac to a long list of otehr devices taht can be used to access Amazon’s Kindle services.
More importantly, it is another step in what they company has slowly been doing over the last year — turning the Kindle from a device into a service. It’s gone from a device-only service to something that doesn’t Kindle to use it. The Mac, Windows and mobile applications can be used directly with each other, without any Kindle hardware in the middle.
A Decision to be Free
I remember how much I used the iPhone when I had it (ALL THE TIME). It was convenient and I never had to think. If someone asked me a question I could Google the answer in a few seconds. Instead of forcing myself to remember things I could just store them on the phone. There was no reason to use my brain because the iPhone was available to me at all times. There was also the constant urge to be online reading/updating/playing/learning things.
Open Source in a World of Cloud-Based Data
The world in which open source software was born is very different from the world we’re heading to. Less than a decade ago, a major concern of the computing world was that much of the capability and innovation was locked up in closed software held by major corporations, like Microsoft. Open-source software addressed that. But look where innovation lies today: companies like Google (and few others) –built on the backs of open-source technology, mind you – can now perform tasks that not long ago were the realm of science fiction. Today, you can speak a question into a tiny handheld gadget, and find out where to get good pizza. But think for a moment how Google can do this reliably and quickly: it’s their data. They’ve amassed a massive, proprietary database of search queries, written text, and voice samples that allow the Google Voice Search app on the iPhone (and algorithms in Google’s cloud servers) to distinguish “pizza” (said in on a noisy street in a Jersey accent) from “piece of” or the city “Pisa”. Tim was careful to point out: it’s not the closed algorithms that make this work. Peter Norvig from Google has said it himself: Google doesn’t have better algorithms than everyone else. They just have more data.
Anti-Jedi Discrimination in the U.K.
Star Wars fan Chris Jarvis, 31, was told he would have to leave if he did not take it down.
Chris is a member of the International Church of Jediism - based on the sci-fi films - whose doctrine states that followers should be allowed to wear hoods.
But when he protested, security escorted him from his local branch in Southend, Essex.
He filled out a complaint form - and received a formal letter from the JobCentre Plus branch’s boss just three days later.
Rube Goldberg Competition for Teens
Ars Techinca’s Chris Foresman:
In recent years the US has begun to lag in education for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), and a number of efforts are underway to address this issue. We know that giving kids hands-on experience is one of the best ways to spark and keep their interest in STEM-related fields, and to this end, high schoolers all over the country are getting an opportunity to learn and apply STEM knowledge by participating in the annual Rube Goldberg Machine Contest.
#0044CC Worth $80 Million?
Sharon Chan of the Seattle Times:
Paul Rey, user experience manager for Bing, said his team intensively researched what kind of blue to use for search results. They sent various users flights of blue shades, including different hues and different saturations.
The blue color used for links in Bing’s predecessor, Live Search, was more pale. “Live Search was a faint blue that was like, ‘Hey … here are your results,’ ” Rey said. “It lacked confidence.”
My Problem with Macworld’s Website
Nine out of the latest 20 stories on Macworld’s front page aren’t related to Apple.
Most of those nine are cross-posted from other IDG sites. I understand that Macword is a sister publication of non-Apple sites, but I think the ratio is a little bit off. Even more annoying is seeing the same items in Macworld’s and PCWorld’s RSS feeds. I’ve unsubscribed to both.
Don’t get me wrong — I really like Macworld’s Apple coverage. I just wish their site wasn’t bogged down with stories about Twitter and Google.
Nexus One a Flop?
74 days after the iPhone was introduced at $600 a pop (six hundred dollars), one million were sold. The Droid, at $200: 1.05 million. The Nexus One? An estimated 135,000 units. By any measure, that’s a total sales flop.
That sure does suck. I think several forces are at play: T-Mobile being the initial carrier, the support issues that plagued the device its first few weeks on the market and the lack of retail presence. (Apple is one of the only companies that can sell thousands of devices without anyone seeing it first. The iPad is the most recent example, but the first iPhone was only available for people to look at and touch when it went on sale in 2007.)
Internet Explorer To Support HTML5
While they still have a long way to go, it’s nice to see Microsoft start to move in the right direction with their browser.