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Linked List: December 1, 2006

Friday, 1 December 2006

Pixel-pushing Jedi masters. Count the logos. (Via Andy Baio.)

Ben Ward’s Dashboard widget client for Twitter. Pretty cool for a buggy beta.

By the way, my spidey sense says Twitter is going to be one of those “everyone’s using it” big deals pretty soon.

Parallels Desktop for Mac Build 3036 Beta ★

New Parallels Desktop beta adds some insanely cool features, including the ability to boot from your Boot Camp partition, and a “Coherency” mode that lets you intermingle Windows app windows with Mac windows. Remember, you heard it here first: Windows is the new Classic. (Thanks to Scott Piggott.)

Update: Here’s a screenshot.

Microsoft Still Doesn’t Know How to Make a Web Site ★

So totally lame. Microsoft’s zune.net web site (they don’t own the zune.com domain) is using a lame browser-sniffer to serve up the CSS stylesheet. Camino isn’t in their list, so the whole site looks like it was coded in 1994.

Documentation for DragThing 5.7 Theme Format ★

Along with the second public beta of DragThing 5.7, there’s now documentation for the new theme format.

Griffin iTalk Pro Recorder ★

Griffin finally ships an iTalk audio recorder for 5G iPods. $50. (Via Larry Angell.)

Come Together ★

Fake Steve, on the negotiations to get The Beatles catalog on the iTunes Store:

We’re having a few issues with Paul, or Sir Paul, as we have to call him. Friggin Ringo is good to go; he’d sell his toenail clippings on eBay if it would make him a buck.

SketchFighter 4000 Alpha 1.0 ★

I’ve been looking forward to this game from Ambrosia since last December. Designed and programmed by Lars Gäfvert, SketchFighter is like Defender crossed with notebook doodles. From the description:

SketchFighter also boasts a unique synthesis of exploration and action game play, which has you alternately blasting cute little lady bugs into oblivion and then puzzling your way through the hand-drawn challenges presented to you.

I coughed up the $19 for a license after playing the demo for just 10 minutes. It’s an extraordinary game.

And, oddly enough, the pen featured on the SketchFighter artwork, and which Gäfvert used to create all of the artwork in the game, is the very pen I carry with me everywhere I go: the black Pilot Precise V5.

Threadless Manufacturing Their Own T-Shirts ★

Dissatisfied with existing shirts — Fruit of the Loom’s are too boxy, American Apparel’s are too thin — Threadless has decided to manufacture their own custom t-shirts.

iPhony ★

Just in case you’re certain, absolutely certain, that Apple is on the cusp of announcing a mobile phone, here’s another hit from the DF archives: a New York Times story from August 2002 regarding analyst speculation that Apple was on the cusp of announcing an “iPhone”.

From the DF Archives: ‘Closed Is Open’ ★

Speaking of Apple’s supposedly “closed” iPod/iTunes architecture, this fireball from October 2003 is a real hoot in light of the last three years of iPod success and Microsoft’s Zune initiative.

It’s funny, really: with the Zune, which doesn’t use PlaysForSure DRM and which instead uses its own DRM that doesn’t work with PlayForSure players, Microsoft has effectively stabbed every PlayForSure device maker in the back. That’s openness, Microsoft-style.

Jackass of the Week: Pete Mortensen ★

Pete Mortensen, after noting that even iPod chargers are outselling Zunes at Amazon:

And what’s funny is that I can’t really understand why the Mac never had the same kind of runaway success. The limitations of the iPod are similar to those of the Mac, its closed architecture, cheap clone knock-offs, everything. But for some reason, Windows bowled over Apple, while the iPod continues to get more popular by the day.

The iPod is “closed” compared to what? I know, you can’t (officially) run your own software on an iPod. And Apple has been stingy with licenses for FairPlay DRM (a few crippled Motorola cell phones and a couple of HP-branded iPods a few years ago). But you can’t run your own software on SanDisk or Creative or Microsoft players, either. Zune’s marketplace is every bit as “closed” as the iTunes Store, and while PlaysForSure is licensed to several manufacturers, it’s not open — you have to pay Microsoft for a license. It’s just a closed system with a handful of licensees.

The iPod is not succeeding despite “limitations”; if anything the iPod has fewer limitations than its competitors. (How many others fully support both Mac OS X and Windows?) It’s certainly possible for someone to create a rival player that is more open — a lot more open — than the iPod, but it doesn’t exist today.

As for why the Mac never took off similarly: “Why 2004 Won’t Be Like 1984”.