The Daring Fireball Linked List

Wednesday, 27 Aug 2008

Chase Jarvis: Advance Testing the Nikon D90 ★

Speaking of amazing cameras, the upcoming Nikon D90 DSLR shoots video. Video, I say, with all the exposure and depth-of-field control of an SLR camera. Should sell for around $1300.

I’m not aware of any other SLR that shoots video, included the just-released and similarly-priced Canon EOS 50D.

PCalc for iPhone 1.0.2 ★

My favorite App Store app keeps getting better. New in version 1.0.2 is a very nifty multiple-undo implementation — just swipe the numeric display to go back one level in the undo stack. (In addition to being a better calculator than Apple’s, PCalc is a full-fledged unit calculator too.)

iPhone Password Lock Can Be Bypassed With Double-Tap of Home Button ★

The worst part is Apple fixed this months ago for the 1.1 OS.

Red Digital Cinema ★

Terrific profile in Wired by Michael Behar on Red Digital Cinema. Founded and led by Oakley founder Jim Jannard, their Red One movie camera is, dollar-for-dollar, the best and most amazing camera in the world. It sells for $17,500 — but if you think that sounds expensive, consider that the equivalent film camera rents for $25,000 per month, not including the (very expensive) cost of film.

The most amazing part is that the core technology didn’t come from a company like Canon or Sony — Red created it themselves.

Social Networks: The Case for a ‘Pause’ Button ★

Merlin Mann on FriendFeed’s “fake follow” feature.

‘All the Parts’ ★

iPhone commercial banned in the U.K. for claiming “all the parts of the Internet are on the iPhone”. Flash and Java are cited as exceptions.

Tuesday, 26 Aug 2008

PMC Software: Build Your Bundle ★

Buy great software for a great cause.

Update: Hold your horses for now. Seth Dillingham, who put this promotion together, emailed to say he can’t keep up with the orders that have been placed already.

Mike Lee Forced Out of Tapulous ★

Here’s the thing about Tapulous. Their apps are good, and their popularity is well-deserved. But they’ve struck me all along as the iPhone development shop that most resembles the dot-coms from a decade ago.

Venture-funded teams that give everything away for free make it hard for smaller indie shops which are trying to turn an honest profit by charging for their software. But they also inevitably wind up being run by business guys, not product guys. Mike Lee is a product guy.

Coda 1.5 ★

Free update to Panic’s excellent $99 “hyphen-busting all-in-one web development app”. New features include Subversion support, multi-file search and replace, and much-improved syntax coloring.

I wrote about Coda 1.0 in April last year.

Mouse Events in MobileSafari ★

Peter-Paul Koch explores the way touch events map to web-standard “mouse” events in MobileSafari.

Monday, 25 Aug 2008

A Tale of Two Tetrises ★: Jason Snell on Tris and Tetris and the little things, like fast launch times, that make a big difference with casual iPhone games.
Tris ★: Noah Witherspoon is pulling his free Tetris clone Tris from the App Store under pressure from The Tetris Company, who own the Tetris copyright. The official iPhone Tetris from EA costs $10 and takes 30 seconds to launch.
The Birth of a Faster Monkey ★: Mike Shaver announcing TraceMonkey, the next-generation JavaScript engine for Firefox. The preliminary benchmarks are stunning.
John Nack on ‘Dear Adobe’ ★: Adobe’s John Nack on “Dear Adobe”, a site where users file their own one-liner gripes about Adobe. Adobe’s problems are real, but at least they’re listening and have a sense of humor about it. There is no one at Apple in a position to respond like Nack has to an equivalent “Dear Apple” site.
YouTube Comment Snob ★: Firefox extension that filters YouTube comments based on grammar, spelling, punctuation, and capitalization. Via Andy Baio, who has a screenshot demonstrating the results.

Sunday, 24 Aug 2008

iPhone 3G Antenna Test ★: Swedish lab puts it through controlled testing; ends up the iPhone 3G compares well against 3G phones from Sony-Ericsson and Nokia.
USA Basketball Returns to the Top ★: Gold for the U.S., but Spain played a terrific game.
MobileMe Syncing ★: Insightful, albeit pessimistic, take on the science of syncing.
Radar Magazine’s Ugliest College Campus in the U.S.: Drexel University ★: They’ve pretty much got my alma mater nailed:

Cracked sidewalks, decrepit classrooms, structural blight, megatons of gray concrete, and a giant, looming smokestack will leave you wondering what brutalist fiend slapped together this sorry excuse for a campus. There are just three athletic fields (two of which are Astroturf) for 13,000 students; the only other strip of vegetation at Drexel is endearingly called the “rape garden”.

Saturday, 23 Aug 2008

MacBook Air Update ★: Released by Apple yesterday:

This update is recommended for all MacBook Air computers, and addresses issues with video playback and processor core idling.
Olympic Taekwondo Fighter Banned for Life After Kicking Referee in Face ★: Well, that’s one way to file a post-match protest. (Via Justin Williams.)

Friday, 22 Aug 2008

Wurdle ★

Addictive fast-paced iPhone word game from Semi Secret Software. Terrific use of the touch screen for gameplay — just drag your finger to trace the words you find. $2 at the App Store. (Via Scott Simpson.)

iPhone GUI PSD ★

Free library of iPhone UI controls for use in creating interface mockups in Photoshop.

Red-Light Cameras ★

Vito Rispo, on the danger of red-light cameras:

In fact, six U.S. cities have been found guilty of shortening the yellow light cycles below what is allowed by law on intersections equipped with cameras meant to catch red-light runners. Those local governments have completely ignored the safety benefit of increasing the yellow light time and decided to install red-light cameras, shorten the yellow light duration, and collect the profits instead.

Despicable. (Via Jack Shedd.)

How to Launch Software ★

Aaron Swartz:

I’ll call this technique the Gmail Launch, since it’s based on what Gmail did. Gmail is probably one of the biggest Web 2.0 success stories, so there’s an argument in its favor right there. Here’s how it works.

BusinessWeek on Apple’s Ambitious iPhone Plans ★

Peter Burrows, reporting for BusinessWeek:

While final sales can’t be known until after the fact, clues are emerging as to Apple’s production plans. As of mid-August, they were ambitious, BusinessWeek has learned. Apple plans to build 40 million to 45 million iPhone 3Gs in the 12 months through August 2009, according to a person familiar with the company’s plans.

That’s a pretty big number.

DS Media Labs ★

My thanks to the iPhone game studio DS Media Labs for sponsoring the Daring Fireball RSS feed this week. Two of their games are coming soon to the App Store: LightBikes (“an ’80s throwback thriller in which you and up to 4 other players via Wi-Fi”), and Dark Age of Reality (an MMO for the iPhone that uses GPS). Already in the store is FLOverload, a clever $2 race-against-the-clock puzzle game.

(DS Media Labs are hiring, too.)

Thursday, 21 Aug 2008

Gawker on Microsoft’s Decision to Hire Jerry Seinfeld as a Spokesman for Vista ★

Ryan Tate:

Yes, because if there’s one surefire way to convince everyone Vista is cool, cutting edge and not liable to get frazzled by life’s minor complications, it’s hiring a 1990s sitcom star and professional kvetcher! Who, um, very visibly owned a series of Macs on his show.

Mobile Computer Compares Web Browsing Speed Between BlackBerry Bold and iPhone ★

Julian Prokaza:

Unfortunately, as excellent as it is in delivering a desktop-like web browsing experience on a small screen, the BlackBerry Bold’s web browser is just far too slow to be a serious alternative to the iPhone. The Bold is the first BlackBerry with 3G support, but even over a more reliable Wi-Fi connection, our iPhone 2G repeatedly finished downloading a web page several seconds before the Bold had even got past a blank screen and a “Requesting…” message. Even with just its 3G connection active, the Bold still lagged behind the iPhone 2G with its EDGE connection. Either Apple is doing something right or RIM is doing something wrong with their respective web browsers, but whatever the case, it’s a pretty poor show for the Bold.

Scroll down and watch the side-by-side video shootout. It’s painful.

Update: Prokaza has updated the article, stating that the comparison was flawed because the BlackBerry was using the cellular network rather than Wi-Fi. The bottom line remains that web browsing performance on the Bold seems poor.

Great Olympic Moments on YouTube ★

Jason Kottke:

One of the best ways to watch the Olympics is to chase down all the references made by NBC’s commentators on YouTube and watch them in addition to (or instead of) the regular telecast. Here are some of the ones I’ve found.

Design and Branding of the Olympic Games ★

Colour Lovers has an excellent collection of posters from each summer Olympics since 1896. My favorite is from the Tokyo games in 1964, with Mexico 1968 and Moscow 1980 right behind. Don’t get me started again on the upcoming London 2012 branding.

Palm Treo Pro ★

The new Palm Treo Pro is only available in the U.S. unlocked. It costs $549 and runs a version of Windows Mobile. Good luck with that, Palm.

Scott Stevenson’s Kodak Zi6 Review ★

Looks like Kodak is shipping the Zi6, their Flip-esque $180 HD video camera. Scott Stevenson:

The hardest thing to explain is how satisfying the overall experience of using the thing is. If you just glanced at the product site, you might think it’s a somewhat awkward, bulky device. But that’s not the impression I’m left with. It completely gets out of the way and just delivers great-looking video with minimal fuss and super-simple import.

Wednesday, 20 Aug 2008

Marian Bantjes and Her Toothbrush ★: Marian Bantjes, posting on the Objectified weblog:

If everything in our lives were afforded the design attention that my toothbrush has, we would sit in chairs that floated while tickling our troubled backs, have tables that yielded at our aching elbows while remaining firm on top, walk on floors that tingled like active sand, and sleep on pillows that would never allow our ears to flatten against our heads.
Very Meta ★: YouTube clip, uploaded from TapeDeck 1.1, of the MacBreak Weekly guys talking about how cool TapeDeck is.
Ed Baig Confirms iPhone OS 2.0.2 Addresses 3G Connectivity Bugs ★: USA Today’s Ed Baig:

Apple acknowledged Tuesday that a software update for the iPhone partly fixes the connection snags that have caused a global firestorm for the new iPhone 3G.

Though mum on details, Apple spokeswoman Jennifer Bowcock said on Tuesday, “The software update improves communication with 3G networks.”

Tuesday, 19 Aug 2008

Another iPhone SSH Client Comparison ★

Including a brief look at a fourth SSH client in the App Store, the plainly-named “SSH”.

What Makes for a Good Blog? ★

Pretty good list from Merlin Mann.

Ain’t That the Truth? ★

Nedra Pickler, reporting for the AP on McCain’s vice presidential selection (emphasis added):

His top contenders are said to include Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. Less traditional choices mentioned include former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge, an abortion-rights supporter, and Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman, the Democratic vice presidential prick in 2000 who now is an independent.

(Via Atrios.)

Things Touch 1.1 ★

Cultured Code’s $10 iPhone task manager now syncs with the Mac version of Things via Wi-Fi.

Comparing Apple’s MobileMe Contrition With Google and Netflix ★

Adam Engst nails it:

Both MobileMe Mail and Google’s Gmail went down on 11-Aug-08 for a few hours. Apple’s recent email doesn’t mention that outage as part of the rocky transition, and the only acknowledgment I could find of it was a pair of entries in the MobileMe System Status page (bookmark this page, folks!). There was no mention of the outage on the semi-anonymous MobileMe Status blog at all, with the most recent posting being from 29-Jul-08, claiming that lost email had been restored and promising (but not delivering) another post later in the week.

Google, in contrast, quickly posted a highly apologetic message on the Official Gmail Blog titled “We feel your pain, and we’re sorry.” It outlines in reasonable detail what went wrong, why it happened, and what Google is doing to prevent the problem in the future. I don’t know if Google offered paying subscribers for Google Apps for Domains Premier Edition (who are guaranteed 99.9 percent uptime) a credit, but since Gmail is free to most users, an apology is mostly what’s warranted.

The kicker is that the MobileMe Status blog was in fact updated today, but only to state that the blog will no longer be updated. Apple’s biggest problem isn’t with its product quality (which, overall, remains very high), but with its communication to customers. The insulting “Bug fixes” release notes for the 2.0.1 and 2.0.2 iPhone OS updates are another example.

Three iPhone SSH Clients Reviewed ★

Ben Gross reviews iSSH, pTerm, and TouchTerm.

Blockbuster CEO ‘Confused by This Fascination That Everybody Has With Netflix’ ★

How does Jim Keyes still have the job as CEO? Netflix is kicking his company’s ass and he thinks Netflix is the company that’s doing it wrong:

Equally bewildering to Mr. Keyes is the emphasis on catalog size. Why would anyone want to watch anything other than new releases, he wonders.

“I don’t care how many movies are available to me. As my personal taste as a customer, I want to watch the new stuff so whether we have 10,000 movies or 200 movies doesn’t matter if I don’t want to see any of the movies that we have … our assortment is heavily weighted toward newer releases and mainstream staple titles.”

‘Flailing’, Eh? ★

Mike Arrington, extrapolating from his own personal experience with some apparent lemon MacBooks:

They need to get their house in order or they risk alienating all these new customers they’ve added over the last few years. The new buyers aren’t Apple fanatics and won’t sit quietly as they try to access broken services via failing hardware.

Let’s see what the just-released 2008 American Customer Satisfaction Index says:

Apple Inc. trounced rival computer makers selling Windows-equipped PCs by historic margins in an annual customer satisfaction survey, the poll’s chief researcher said today.

“We haven’t seen anything like this before, where a company scores 10 points over its nearest rival,” said Claes Fornell, the head of the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI), conducted quarterly by the University of Michigan.

Apple’s customer satisfaction score of 85, an ACSI record in the personal computer category, was 10 points higher than the closest competitor, Dell Inc.; 12 points higher than Hewlett-Packard Co.; and 13 higher than Gateway, which was acquired by Acer last year.

Is Apple perfect? No. Does it suck when you buy a new Mac that doesn’t work right? Yes. But is Apple doing a far better job than any of its competitors? Yes.

Daring Fireball RSS Feed Sponsorship ★

A heads-up to anyone considering sponsoring the DF RSS feed: summer’s sold out and fall is selling fast. There are only five unsold weeks for the remainder of 2008. If you have a product or service you’d like to promote to the DF audience, get in touch.

Monday, 18 Aug 2008

Apple Offers Additional 60-Day MobileMe Extension ★

This is in addition to the previous 30-day extension. At this rate, they’re either going to fix it or we’ll never have to pay again.

I wonder how many MobileMe customers there are? If there are a million — and I’m pretty sure they hit the million-customer mark a few years ago — then three free months of service costs Apple at least $25 million.

Is Linking to Yourself the Future of the Web? ★

Tim O’Reilly:

At the time, I noted the way that more and more information that was once delivered by independent web sites was now being delivered directly by search engines, and that rather than linking out to others, there were strong signs of a trend towards keeping the link flow to themselves.

This thought re-surfaced when TechCrunch launched CrunchBase. Now, rather than linking directly to companies covered in its stories, TechCrunch links to one of its own properties to provide additional information about them. I noticed the same behavior the other day on the New York Times, when I followed a link, and was taken to a search result for articles on the subject at the Times (with lots of ads, even if there were few results).

This is the natural tendency for any site using an ad model where page views are directly correlated to revenue. This is why news sites break up stories over multiple pages, too. It’s a crummy practice, and in the long run, sites that succumb to this temptation are doing so at the expense of their credibility. Readers learn, remember, and resent when links on a certain site tend to be a waste of their time.

iPhone OS 2.0.2 ★

Entire release notes: “Bug fixes.”

‘Someone Is Clearly Doing Their Job Horribly Wrong’ ★

Xkcd on the recent news that Premier Election Solutions (née Diebold) is blaming Windows anti-virus software for their voting machines “dropping votes” in Ohio.

MobileMe and (Lack of) Encryption ★

Thomas Robinson on the lack of SSL support in MobileMe’s web apps.