Recent Articles

Florian Mueller with the bad news to Android “partners”:
>The decision is an embarrassment for Google, which waited almost a year and a half after Apples first patent lawsuits against HTC before it provided this kind of support to HTC, and then apparently failed to do this the right way. Too little, too late. If Google had assigned all substantial rights to HTC by truly transferring those patents to the Taiwanese company as opposed to imposing limitations and restrictions, Apples motion wouldnt have succeeded. But Googles support for the Android ecosystem has clear limits.

Bummer, guess it sucks to not be Motorola.

Lukas Mathis on wher to place, and when to use, a ‘back’ button in iOS:

>To the user, there’s a spatial system that conveys how screens are arranged, and which button should be used, depending on where she wants to go.

That explains why non-standard placment drives me nuts.

Great story of how OS X and Intel came to be, told by a wife of the engineer responsible for it.

The Macalope:

>Gladwell seems to want Jobs to have been something he wasn’t, but that doesn’t mean he won’t be remembered for his own contributions.

That post for Gladwell sounded too stupid to even read, glad ‘Lopes read it for me.

Cory Doctorow writing about what users give out in search of ‘free’:
>Even if you read the fine print, human beings are awful at pricing out the net present value of a decision whose consequences are far in the future. No one would take up smoking if the tumors sprouted with the first puff. Most privacy disclosures don’t put us in immediate physical or emotional distress either. But given a large population making a large number of disclosures, harm is inevitable.

Rachel Metz:

>It’s clear that the fledgling service has a ways to go, though. Currently, much of the on{X} experience takes place in a Web browser: You can only add, modify, or code rules from the website. The mobile app allows you to delete or turn off rules, or view the activity log related to individual rules.

>Still, Weitz thinks users will be drawn to on{X}, since we’ve long desired the kind of automated intelligence that can alert us in the morning if it will be a cold day.

It’s an interesting project by Microsoft to create an IFTTT type app for Windows phone. What’s lame is that all work needs to be done in the browser and in JavaScript, which makes the above statement seem silly, IFTTT can alert you of cold weather, no JavaScript needed. This is the type of service though, that iOS needs, an Automator/Keyboard Maestro like tool for iOS.

Fantastic, *subscribed*.

My thanks to this week’s RSS sponsor, Harvest.

Harvest is one of the best ways to track the time you spend on billable projects. When you have clients like Happy Cog, well you are doing something very right. I’m not a user, but the only reason for that is because I don’t bill based on time — otherwise I would be right there using it.

Be sure to check out all the screenshots because they have some great looking tools and reports.

Clever macro from Gabe over at Macdrifer, kicking myself for not having thought of this.

Peter Kafka summarizing and summary, notes:

>If you want a reason to be skeptical about this, you’d note that Facebook is a comScore client, and that the two companies worked together last summer to produce a study about the way brands use Facebook.

That’s a typo, I assume, it should read: “You should be skeptical about this, because Facebook is a comScore client.”

>In this episode Shawn and Ben talk about grilled cheese bacon burgers, shooting at cats with automated paintball rifles, what does “GTD” mean anyway, the craziness of Apple rumors leading up to WWDC, traveling with only an iPad, and using a Mac mini as a server.

Brought to you by the fine folks at [Igloo Software](http://igloosoftware.com/origami) — they are giving away an Origami case for the iPad.

Shawn Blanc:
>The iPhone’s display is its preeminent hardware feature — everything else is secondary. If the next iPhone has a bigger display it will be because Apple decided bigger is better.

Yes, a thousands times, yes.

A great post by Dr. Drang talking about how Microsoft could re-learn stuff they used to know from Instapaper:

>Maybe Steve Ballmer should ask Marco for advice.

If you don’t get why Office on iOS is important for Microsoft, then read this.

MG Siegler taking down ridiculous statements from the Chairman of Creep:

>The same is true for the vast majority of new startups — I talk with dozens each week. The refrain: iOS first. Android second. Down the road. At some point. Maybe.

Great post and paints the sad consumer side of Android: slow updates, lack of top developer support, and on.