By John Gruber
WorkOS launches auth.md — an open protocol for agent registration.
Linked List: January 16, 2008
Wednesday, 16 January 2008
- Apple’s Documentation Is Wrong Regarding Web Clip Icon Size? ★
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Ends up you get better results if you create a PNG file larger than 57 × 57 px. (Via Jon Hicks.)
- Explanation for 24-Hour Movie Rental Playback Window: Placating Cable Companies ★
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Saul Hansell:
Amid the frenzy, it’s worth noting that Apple did not get Hollywood to change the key restrictions it had placed on Internet downloads. Once people start watching their rented movies, they can only see them for a 24-hour period. (Apple does allow a movie to be started on one device and finished on another.) The studios want to keep this restriction so Internet rentals have the same terms as cable pay-per-view movies.
Hansell doesn’t quote a source for that, but I heard the same thing from someone in the know here at the Expo: the 24-hour playback limit was imposed by the studios, specifically because they (the studios) didn’t want to antagonize cable (and, I suppose, satellite TV) companies selling video on demand with 24-hour expirations.
They’re idiots, because I think they’d make more money with a longer window, say, 48 or 72 hours, because more people would rent movies.
- Best Unintended Irony in the History of Book Cover Design ★
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Quite a find by Jonathan Hoefler.
- First Look: iPhone 1.1.3 ★
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Dan Moren has a nice rundown of what’s new in the iPhone 1.1.3 update.
- Skyhook Wireless ★
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This is the company Apple has partnered with to provide “where am I?” positioning in the iPhone/iPod Touch Maps app based on nearby Wi-Fi networks. The iPhone also gets positioning information via Google based on cellular towers, but the Touch, obviously, only gets positioning data based on Wi-Fi. A few Touch owners here at the show report that it works great, at least here in San Francisco.
- Hands on With the MacBook Air ★
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Jason Snell has a hands-on look at the MacBook Air. By the way, any readers who’ve already ordered an Air, I’d love to hear why (and let me know whether I can publish your comments).
- More on Custom iPhone ‘Web Clip’ Icons ★
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Cameron Hunt:
Most people have Mint in a subdirectory like /mint/. This is a problem if you want to set an iPhone favicon for your root domain but change the favicon in subdirectories. This is because the iPhone looks in the root directory for the icon. That is, unless you tell it different. The friendly Apple engineers look for a special link tag before looking in the root for “apple-touch-icon.png”.
- Paul Boutin on the MacBook Air ★
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Like me, Boutin was hoping for ubiquitous wireless networking. The more I think about this, the more certain I am that it’s just silly that my phone always has a network and (as of yesterday) knows where it is, but my Mac doesn’t.