Linked List: June 25, 2007

Monday, 25 June 2007

Reuters: ‘With Hype High, iPhone May Have to Fight a Flop’ ★

Yes, it does seem like a flop in the making, what with all the people wondering just how early they need to get in line to buy one on the first day they’re available.

[Harvard computer science professor David] Platt […] says the iPhone will likely miss the mark despite its cool look in TV commercials, because it was designed more to please engineers than a regular consumer.

Yes, it does, what with all of Apple’s talk about engineering apps like “YouTube” and “Safari” and “SMS”.

“You can imagine iPhone will be the miracle box that solves all problems … but when you actually have your hands on it and realize it takes five or six button presses to get something, then you start to get annoyed,” he said.

Uh-huh. My jackass stamp is nearly out of ink again, and it’s only Monday.

$40 Adjustable Notebook Docking Stand ★

That’s more like it. (Thanks to Justin D’Onofrio.)

MiniMail 1.0 ★

Remember Derek Powazek’s idea a few weeks ago for a “Mail Mini Player” analogous to iTunes’s mini player mode?

Well, OliveToast Software turned it into a real product.

Floater ★

I could totally use this, but there’s no way in hell I’m paying $300 for it.

Rolling Stone: ‘The Record Industry’s Decline’ ★

Brian Hiatt and Evan Serpick:

Record sales are tanking, and there’s no hope in sight: How it all went wrong.

Opera Mini vs. iPhone ★

Bizarre, unfunny, very awkward spoof of Apple’s “Get a Mac” ad campaign from Opera, wherein they seek to establish Opera Mini as the mobile browser for people who can’t afford an iPhone.

Verizon CEO: No Need for iPhone Killer ★

Marguerite Reardon, reporting for CNet:

“The way we come at this is to let the iPhone hit the market,” [Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg said. “I don’t think it changes the game plan for how we approach the market. But we need to see the impact. The burden is on (AT&T and Apple) to prove the market will change.”

Translation: “Our plan is to hope that iPhone is a disappointment, because if it’s actually as good as it looks, we don’t have an answer.”

Seidenberg also added that he thinks the iPhone will actually help drive business for Verizon’s high-end smart phones and advanced data services.

Yeah, that’s the ticket: people who want an iPhone will go to Verizon and buy something else instead.

“The iPhone will add excitement and stimulation to the market,” he said. “If we have done our job, then we will be a beneficiary. I hope it does reasonably well.”

Translation: “I hope it gets 15 minutes of battery life, crashes frequently, and bursts into flames.”

David Chartier: ‘Eight Apps I Want on the iPhone’ ★

Pretty good list. NetNewsWire, Yojimbo, and iChat top my list. (You realize that iPhone Safari apparently doesn’t do RSS, right?) I hadn’t thought about an iPhone equivalent of TextExpander, but Chartier’s right that it’d be a great idea for iPhone (or any device with a “peck at it” keyboard).

Quick Look and Excel Files ★

One thing that stuck out to me regarding Leopard’s upcoming Quick Look feature is the built-in support for displaying Excel files. It also displays things like PDF and Word files, but Mac OS X’s built-in support for those formats is old news. But the Excel file format support is new. (iPhone’s Mail app can also display them.)

Makes me wonder whether this is finally the year Apple adds a spreadsheet to iWork, and whether this Excel file reading will be available to third-party apps just like for Word files. For my own personal needs, I’d be happy with the spreadsheet equivalent of TextEdit.

On Corporate Security and the iPhone ★

Rui Carmo:

I find it interesting that IT managers in the US have stated they won’t support the iPhone because it would entail (in their eyes) opening their IMAP servers to the Internet.

I had to read that twice to make sure they meant that, and I couldn’t believe IT (if you’ll pardon the pun).

Haven’t these people heard of operator managed services? There’s no need to open your servers to the Internet!

WebKit’s New Element Inspector ★

Daniel Jalkut on the new-and-much-improved WebKit Element Inspector, which is itself implemented in HTML and CSS, and so which can be used to inspect its own UI.

Dialogs in TextMate ★

Very clever use of Cocoa bindings: TextMate allows scripts to display user interfaces designed in Interface Builder, using nothing more than nib files and shell scripting — no actual Cocoa programming required.

Oddica Limited Edition Robot Trilogy Collector’s Tin ★

Oddica:

The Oddica Robot Trilogy is a Limited-edition Robot Extravaganza that comes in a collectible stainless steel can; only 55 cans will be produced, each with a numbered card.

Each set contains 3 shirts, 3 buttons, and 2 limited-edition stickers in a screenprinted tin.

Global Nerdy: ‘The World Needs More Dialog Boxes Like This’ ★

Aegisub, a Windows app for adding subtitles to video, has a dialog box specifically advising against the use of Comic Sans. (Thanks to Nick Matsakis.)