Android’s most serious problem right now is fragmentation: with each new phone, it seems, comes a different version of the OS. In theory, these differences are superficial, and come down to handset manufacturers’ and carriers’ custom interfaces, which sit atop a mostly unchanged Android core. In practice, it’s much worse.
Just look at the current top tier of Android devices. The Motorola Droid runs Android 2.0. The HTC MyTouch 3G and G1 on T-Mobile run Android 1.6. The HTC Hero, a newer phone than the MyTouch and the G1, is still stuck on 1.5, along with the even newer Motorola Cliq, which shares one parent—Motorola—with the 2.0-loaded Droid. Why is this something to worry about? Remember Google Maps Navigation, the free turn-by-turn app for Android? It only works on Android 2.0 and 1.6. An app written by Google doesn’t even work on every new Google phone. Imagine how things are with third party apps. (Spoiler: it’s a shitshow.)
posts
‘The Naughiest Of Fonts’
On Mac UI
When your defense of your Mac UI design is that Adobe and/or Firefox do it in their Mac apps too, you’ve got a problem.
VLC Development Dying?
Since May of this year, VLC has been desperately looking for Mac developers to help out on the project, but it appears none have stepped up to lend a hand. As of this month there are basically no Mac developers working on VLC, and as a result the project is nearing the end of development for OS X. This is bizarre to have happen given the rising popularity of the Mac; however, this is the nature of open-source projects, which require the active support of the community.
Psystar Receives Death-Blow
The US District Court for the Northern District of California has just permanently forbidden wannbe Mac cloner Psystar from selling modified versions of OS X, providing any tools that enable users to bypass the OS X kernel encryption, and / or intentionally aiding anyone else from infringing Apple’s OS X copyrights in any way.
I’m surprised it took this long.
The New iPhone iDisk Icon is Ugly
Lots of fixes, though:
• Auto-complete email addresses when choosing recipients for a shared file
• File sharing emails are automatically saved to your Mail account’s Sent folder
• When viewing an image, tap and hold to save it to your photo roll or copy it to another app
• Maximum setting for cache size is now 500MB (up from 200MB)
• Faster downloads
• Various bug fixes
• Localizations for Chinese, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Italian, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swedish
I Told You it Was a Bucket of Tears
Ars Techinca’s Chris Anderson on the disconnect between Snow Leopard Server and the iPhone:
Apple needs to clarify exactly which features work and do not work on an iPhone regarding Mac OS X Server. It needs to get its act together and offer, at the very least, the same push functionality for e-mail, contacts, address lists, and calendars as an ActiveSync-enabled server. Apple has done push notifications before and should easily be able to do them again, or it could license ActiveSync and apply it to SLS. Apple also needs to make Address Book Server iPhone-compatible. That an iPhone works better with a Microsoft or other third-party server remains illogical. It demonstrates that Apple is not putting the effort into Snow Leopard Server required to make it into a standout product, and remains a baffling yet easily filled gap in Apple’s otherwise strong server offerings.
Israeli Border Guards Shoot MacBook
Young American woman travels over to Jerusalem to meet some friends, see the sights, live the life. Overzealous border security officers ask her a bunch of questions, take issue with her answers, and a few well-placed bullets later she is allowed entry into the country with a somewhat altered MacBook in tow. So what can we all learn from this incident? Firstly, back up all the data you consider important; B, Israeli policemen don’t mess about; and 3, distressed laptops look gorgeous no matter how they got there – just look at the way the glass trackpad has wrinkled up from the force of the bullet penetrating near it, it’s a borderline work of art.
Nielsen Names Apple ‘Brand of the Decade’
In terms of politics and world events, this has been a wild decade, but on the marketing front, one thing has remained constant: Apple’s emotional connection to consumers, who reward it with an almost cult-like loyalty. Though the brand almost petered out in the ’90s, last year consumers told Interbrand that Apple was the thing they couldn’t live without and the one they found most inspiring. Why? Perhaps it’s Apple’s vaguely antiauthoritarian stance (epitomized in its iconic “1984” ad). A true-in-practice focus on relentlessly improving its products also helps. But maybe it comes down to this: Most brands are run by committee, but this one is the embodiment of a living, breathing person. Steve Jobs is Apple in the way that Richard Branson is Virgin. Of course it helps when you’re a brilliant marketer who happens to be the CEO.
Operation Chokehold
On Friday, December 18, at noon Pacific time, we will attempt to overwhelm the AT&T data network and bring it to its knees. The goal is to have every iPhone user (or as many as we can) turn on a data intensive app and run that app for one solid hour. Send the message to AT&T that we are sick of their substandard network and sick of their abusive comments. THe idea is we’ll create a digital flash mob. We’re calling it in Operation Chokehold. Join us and speak truth to power!
The 500-mile Email
This type of troubleshooting makes me happy I’m in I.T. … and sad I’m a consultant.
On Backing Up Files
Jeff Atwood of Coding Horror lost his web files:
So when, exactly, is International Backup Awareness Day? Today. Yesterday. This week. This month. This year. It’s a trick question. Every day is International Backup Awareness Day. And the sooner I figure that out, the better off I’ll be.
I’ve got an alarm set on iCal for me to backup both my Wordpress install and MySQL database every Friday evening.