You can’t make this stuff up. On a serious note, my thoughts go out to his family and friends.
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Recent Articles
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Segway boss Jimi Heselden dies in scooter cliff fall
You can’t make this stuff up. On a serious note, my thoughts go out to his family and friends.
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Atari 1200 & A300 Concept Sketches
Some very neat concept sketches for Atari 1200 & A300. [via Core 77]
Some very neat concept sketches for Atari 1200 & A300.
[via Core 77] -
Six Reasons Why David Rowan’s Not On Facebook
David Rowan: Some day you should take time to read those 5,830 words: it’s Facebook that owns the rights to do as it pleases with your data, and to sell access to it to whoever is willing to pay. Yes, it’s free to join — but with half a billion of us now using it…
David Rowan:
Some day you should take time to read those 5,830 words: it’s Facebook that owns the rights to do as it pleases with your data, and to sell access to it to whoever is willing to pay. Yes, it’s free to join — but with half a billion of us now using it to connect, it’s worth asking ourselves how far this “social utility” (its own term) is really acting in the best interests of society.
Yep.
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Plenoptic Lens [Video]
This is amazing, a camera lens that captures infinite depth of field, meaning that you post production you can set where you want the focus to be. This is very, very cool. [via Matthew Buchanan on Twitter]
This is amazing, a camera lens that captures infinite depth of field, meaning that you post production you can set where you want the focus to be. This is very, very cool.
[via Matthew Buchanan on Twitter] -
Landscape Docking on iPad Coming Soon?
These pictures show the possibility of Apple adding a dock connector port on the landscape side as well as keeping one where it is. I love the idea, and would love to have the extra port – what I don’t love is how, well how less than attractive this would be. [via iA on Twitter]
These pictures show the possibility of Apple adding a dock connector port on the landscape side as well as keeping one where it is. I love the idea, and would love to have the extra port – what I don’t love is how, well how less than attractive this would be.
[via iA on Twitter] -
‘Task Management OverKill’
Stephen M. Hackett talking about his search for the best task management solution: For me and my simple needs, Things and OmniFocus are overkill. With systems like this, I spend more time entering tasks than doing them. When I was using Things, by the time I was done going over the day’s to-do list, it…
Stephen M. Hackett talking about his search for the best task management solution:
For me and my simple needs, Things and OmniFocus are overkill. With systems like this, I spend more time entering tasks than doing them. When I was using Things, by the time I was done going over the day’s to-do list, it was time for lunch. OmniFocus just gives me seizures.
I can say that without a doubt I have had these same problems at times – OmniFocus is amazingly difficult to just ‘use’ instead of tinker with and can be confusing at times. That said, and as I have said before, OmniFocus is killer on the iPad – it is everything I need and more. The perfect solution for me, OmniFocus on my Mac and iPhone for capture and reference, OmniFocus on my iPad for true task management in a way that doesn’t get in my way.
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Got to Love Facebook Commenters
Facebook posted the linked note about their downtime that lasted 2.5 hours for some (gasp!) – the best part though are the comments (on Facebook I always find the comments to be the best part). Here are some choice ones: Apparently people 814 liked that Facebook went down: The zigging and zagging: It really effected…
Facebook posted the linked note about their downtime that lasted 2.5 hours for some (gasp!) – the best part though are the comments (on Facebook I always find the comments to be the best part). Here are some choice ones:
Apparently people 814 liked that Facebook went down:
The zigging and zagging:
It really effected me:
The I didn’t read/understand the post guy:
He wants some free cash, and who can blame him?:
The sane one (kinda):
Sometimes (most of the time) I amuse myself.
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Andrew Sendonaris on Moving to a Mac
Sendonaris lists a bunch of little things that he did not expect to annoy him upon getting a MacBook Pro, this tidbit though is by far the funniest (to me): There is no equivalent of MS Paint. There is Paintbrush, which you can download for free, but it does not have all the features of…
Sendonaris lists a bunch of little things that he did not expect to annoy him upon getting a MacBook Pro, this tidbit though is by far the funniest (to me):
There is no equivalent of MS Paint. There is Paintbrush, which you can download for free, but it does not have all the features of MS Paint.
Wow, when was the last time you heard someone say “it does not have all the features of MS Paint”?
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Floating Nuclear Power Plants
Sounds harmless, just throw these things out in the Arctic Ocean – no problem, afterall: “We can guarantee the safety of our units one hundred per cent, all risks are absolutely ruled out,” says Mr Zavyalov. [via Kotkke]
Sounds harmless, just throw these things out in the Arctic Ocean – no problem, afterall:
“We can guarantee the safety of our units one hundred per cent, all risks are absolutely ruled out,” says Mr Zavyalov.
[via Kotkke] -
Another Way to Think About Facebook’s Worth
Mathew Ingram on the Facebook valuation: In reality, of course, every economist knows that things are only worth what people will pay for them, and since no one has actually paid $33 billion for Facebook, we shouldn’t really say that it is worth that much, or that Zuckerberg is worth $6.9 billion. But then, no…
Mathew Ingram on the Facebook valuation:
In reality, of course, every economist knows that things are only worth what people will pay for them, and since no one has actually paid $33 billion for Facebook, we shouldn’t really say that it is worth that much, or that Zuckerberg is worth $6.9 billion. But then, no one has paid $165 billion for Google either.
Very true, but what I really take issue with is saying that Zuckerberg is worth $7 billion because of it – you are only worth what you have in liquid assets (obviously a matter of opinion). Facebook is anything but liquid.
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David Heinemeier Hansson: Facebook is not worth $33,000,000,000 [UPDATED]
David Heinemeier Hansson: Facebook has been around for seven years. It has 500 million users. If you can’t figure out how to make money off half a billion people in seven years, I’m going to go out on a limb and say you’re unlikely to ever do. Now this was all fun and games until…
David Heinemeier Hansson:
Facebook has been around for seven years. It has 500 million users. If you can’t figure out how to make money off half a billion people in seven years, I’m going to go out on a limb and say you’re unlikely to ever do.
Now this was all fun and games until somebody promised the Newark schools $100 million in stock based on the fantasy valuation of his under-profiting company. But now it’s real. They’re selling the skin before they shot the bear or peeing their pants to get to the hut or whatever you want to call it. It’s just not good, alright?
In the end it’s the kids that get hurt.
[Updated: 9/23/10 at 2:44 PM] Just to be clear I don’t think Facebook is worth this much money. A business (or any other good really) is only worth what someone is willing to pay you for it. I don’t see people lining up to buy Facebook.
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Something That Scrolls Worse than Flash on a Mac
This HP Slate video should be all the proof you need that Windows does not make a good touch interface. [via Daring Fireball]
This HP Slate video should be all the proof you need that Windows does not make a good touch interface.
[via Daring Fireball] -
Contxts – Mobile Sms Business Cards
Very neat service. [via Swiss Miss]
Very neat service.
[via Swiss Miss] -
Seven-Inch Tablets Are Just Plain Wrong
There have been a lot of rumors and rampant speculation about the possibility of Apple shipping a seven-inch version of the iPad. We ((that is everyone not at Apple in the super secret iPad division)) know nothing, except that Samsung (with the Samsung Galaxy Tab) is going with seven-inches and various other Android based tablets…
There have been a lot of rumors and rampant speculation about the possibility of Apple shipping a seven-inch version of the iPad. We ((that is everyone not at Apple in the super secret iPad division)) know nothing, except that Samsung (with the Samsung Galaxy Tab) is going with seven-inches and various other Android based tablets seem destined to be the same size.
This small size sounds great if you think about it, surely it will be lighter and more portable. Seven inches is a huge difference though, you lose almost 3 inches off the iPad size and for what? Well you get a smaller device that still doesn’t fit in your pocket and doesn’t have the screen real estate to be really great.
The problem isn’t that tap zones become much smaller, the problem is the onscreen keyboards get much smaller. I can’t type on the iPad keyboard in it’s portrait orientation, it is too small to try and touch type, and far too large to comfortably thumb type. That leaves an awkward and slow hunt and peck method of typing portrait orientation. Everything changes though in landscape orientation, all of a sudden I get a large keyboard that I can touch type with, using about 8 fingers (still too small for pinkies). The iPad keyboard in landscape view is truly the best soft-keyboard I have ever used, and it is quite usable at that.
A seven-inch tablet though, well that would be a massively smaller keyboard in landscape orientation. So much so that I would guess it would be faster thumb typing in the portrait view than it would be trying to cram 3 fingers on the landscape keyboard. Now this of course is pure speculation on my part as I have yet to use a tablet with a seven-inch screen, but here are some things I do know for sure:
- From the edge of the furthest keys my MacBook Pro keyboard is about 10.75” long.
- From the edge of the furthest keys on the iPad (landscape) it is about 7.75” long.
- The Samsung Galaxy Tab looks to be 7.48” long and assuming 0.5” for a bezel that leaves only 6.48” for the keyboard (Source)
- The a 6.5” keyboard is only 0.6” wider than the iPad keyboard in Portrait
At seven-inches then, the scale of the device to the size of a normal adult hand is just wrong. With a seven inch screen it will be far from comfortable to type on. Just take a look at this picture from Endgadget and tell me that you think that keyboard is big enough to type with both hands? In fact I bet you will run into the same problems that you would with the iPads portrait keyboard – you just won’t want to use it.
Everybody who doesn’t have an iPad squawks that iPads are for content consumption only, not for creation, often implying: you silly goose. Everybody who owns an iPad knows that this line of thinking is a load of crap. Yet it would seem these companies ((Samsung, Dell, possibly RIM)) making seven inch tablets don’t own an iPad because they are making devices sized for content consumption only – when there is a lot of people using iPads for content creation instead. ((Though in fairness content consumption still rules the roost for now.))
A seven inch tablet is not for content creation any more than an iPhone is – sure it’s possible, but only if you are a masochist. Q: Why would you limit your device from the start by making it too small? A: Because you bought into the hype that the iPad is a Kindle competitor, not a netbook killer.
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‘Get With the Program’
Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg talking to invective about the iPhone on Verizon and their 4G network: Hopefully, at some point Apple will get with the program. Right, because Apple is the one off course, not the fabled wireless industry.
Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg talking to invective about the iPhone on Verizon and their 4G network:
Hopefully, at some point Apple will get with the program.
Right, because Apple is the one off course, not the fabled wireless industry.
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Quote of the Day: Resources
The cliché is “People are your most valuable resource”. I would argue they are your only resource. Computers, desks, building, data centers… Whatever. All of those other tools only support your one and only resource: your people. –Michael Lopp
The cliché is “People are your most valuable resource”. I would argue they are your only resource. Computers, desks, building, data centers… Whatever. All of those other tools only support your one and only resource: your people. –Michael Lopp -
Review: Writer.
A while back I saw on Twitter that Oliver Reichenstein over at Information Architects was working on a new writing app for the iPad. That was right around the time e iPad came out, so it has been a while now. Since then we have had Simplenote which has gone from good to great. This…
A while back I saw on Twitter that Oliver Reichenstein over at Information Architects was working on a new writing app for the iPad. That was right around the time e iPad came out, so it has been a while now. Since then we have had Simplenote which has gone from good to great.
This morning met me with some real joy when I saw that iA had released their long waited writing app caller ‘Writer.’ pretty neat and at $5 I said why not and purchased it. Little did I know it is not compatible with iOS 4.2 beta 1 which I have installed on my iPad.
In fairness the only thing that doesn’t work is auto scrolling and scrolling at all in the ‘focus’ mode pain. Making the app annoying to use but not impossible.
The Only Thing You Need to Know
Doing a full review of Writers features would be a rather boring affair, it is a text editor that is full screen and syncs with your Dropbox. Simple enough. The one thing though that really truly sets Writer apart is the font that it uses.
The font is not Helvetica, it is not Georgia, the font is called Nitti Light and it is monospaced. Nitti Light is the best looking font I have seen rendered on the iPad to date. It is this font that makes Writer so good to use, in fact it is not just the font but the sizing, margins and line heights that have been chosen for it.
Using Writer feels like using an app where the developer spent 90% of his time making sure that the text looks just perfect on the screen – and they nailed it. If you love typography, or if you just love readable sharp looking fonts then you are really going to want to give Writer a try.
The Problems
Due to Writers incompatibility with iOS 4.2 beta I can’t really tell what is a problem as a whole or what is just a problem due to the beta iOS. One thing that I can say for sure though is that the syncing speed leaves a lot to be desired. Unlike with Simplenote you can’t just ‘close’ the app and know for sure that all the changes were synced back, it seems to me that you have to hit the sync button to get the changes to push back up, or at the very least wait a while.
This is probably something that can be fixed in future updates, but right now it is an annoyance that I have with an otherwise very good writing app.
Smoking Apples’ Milind Alvares has a more detailed review here.
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‘The first step to fixing the Android Marketplace has nothing to do with the Android Marketplace’
Kevin Fox on Android phones: When a phone ships with kitchen sink apps and those with overlapping or unclear functionality, the user feels like they’re using someone else’s tool and, yes, they can add to it and customize it, but a large portion of users will still feel there are places inside their own phone…
Kevin Fox on Android phones:
When a phone ships with kitchen sink apps and those with overlapping or unclear functionality, the user feels like they’re using someone else’s tool and, yes, they can add to it and customize it, but a large portion of users will still feel there are places inside their own phone that are fuzzy to them because they either don’t have a use for the functionality or simply don’t understand it.
[via DF] -
AngelGate
What a great summary by Matthew Ingram on GigaOm – all we know is that some rich people met and talked about stuff, and when Michael Arrington (of TechCrunch) showed up they didn’t say ‘hi’, even though they are his friends. Somebody is getting un-friended on the Facebook machine later.
What a great summary by Matthew Ingram on GigaOm – all we know is that some rich people met and talked about stuff, and when Michael Arrington (of TechCrunch) showed up they didn’t say ‘hi’, even though they are his friends. Somebody is getting un-friended on the Facebook machine later.
