Linked List: June 27, 2007

Wednesday, 27 June 2007

reader.mac.com 

Holy shit: iPhone-only web-based RSS aggregator from Apple. No more making fun of Apple for not eating their own “web apps as iPhone SDK” dogfood. I tried loading it with Safari 3 set to spoof the iPhone Safari user agent string, but all I got was a blank window.

Given that it’s hanging off Mac.com, I wonder if this means Apple will be encouraging Windows-based iPhone users to sign up for .Mac? That sounds crazy.

(Via Neven Mrgan, who, by the way, has written his own web-based app for iPhone.)

Fake Steve on Heilemann’s New York Magazine Piece 

Fake Steve:

Executive summary for those of you too lazy to read the entire awful eight pages: Everyone in the phone business is scared about the iPhone, and they’re hoping it will be a flop, but nobody (including John Heilemann) can say yet whether it will sink or swim; Steve Jobs is a dick and everyone hates him and if the iPhone fails his career is over.

Porticus 1.0b2 

Free Mac app for managing the MacPorts package manager (for installing Unix-level software for Mac OS X). (Thanks to Jesper.)

Valleywag: The iPhone Scorecard 

Nick Denton:

The first four hands-on reviews of Apple’s new wonderphone came out yesterday. The critical consensus? Buy the amazing device, if you can afford it.

Nintendo Pounds Sony and Microsoft in Sales 

Wii unit sales are higher than PS3 and Xbox 360 combined — and they still can’t make them fast enough to satisfy demand. Nintendo’s market cap has surpassed Sony’s. Love it.

Apple: iPhone Questions and Answers 

iPhone supports VPNs:

What kind of security features does iPhone offer?

You can protect your iPhone with a four-digit password, which is then required whenever iPhone is turned on or wakes from sleep. For secure Internet access, iPhone supports industry-standard Wi-Fi security and virtual private networking (VPN).

Poor Baby 

Tom Yager is pouty because Apple hasn’t sent the mighty InfoWorld an iPhone review unit yet.

Bloggers will buy iPhone for a shot at scooping us big guys on reviews, and of course, once they’ve spent their money and signed their 2-year contract commitment to AT&T, anything less than a glowing review is out of the question.

Sure, that’s right — bloggers are never critical.

Lightroom 1.1 

James Duncan Davidson on the just-released Lightroom 1.1 update. I just upgraded and the process was super simple. Attention, everyone else at Adobe: Please copy from the Lightroom team.

Laura Ries, iPhone Doubter 

Laura Ries, self-proclaimed “marketing guru” and branding consultant:

If the iPod is the biggest success of the 21st century then iPhone is likely to be the biggest flop of the 21st century.

Her explanation is more crap about how the iPhone is “convergent” and the mass market only goes for “divergent” gadgets. I can’t believe anyone pays for consulting advice like this.

Apple: iPhone Keyboard Demo 

Clever detail I hadn’t seen before: You can place the insertion point using a loupe-like magnifying UI.

Managing Humans 

Very clever web site from Michael Lopp, promoting his excellent new book, Managing Humans.