Linked List: May 2, 2008

Friday, 2 May 2008

“Facebook is Webkinz for adults.”

I Think Cringely Is Off His Meds Again ★

Cringely:

So why, then, was Apple quietly shopping around its entire professional application business to prospective buyers at the recently completed National Association of Broadcasters show in Las Vegas? These include Aperture, Final Cut Pro, Logic, and Shake — applications that are hardly also-rans in their segments and none of which are antiquated in the least.

That sounds crazy to me, and it’s the first I’ve heard of this rumor. But his explanation is even nuttier:

It seems obvious to me, however, that there is only one real reason why Apple would sell off its professional applications and that’s to avoid antitrust problems when/if Apple buys Adobe Systems as I predicted at the beginning of the year.

Even if Apple were to buy Adobe (a big if), and if that acquisition raised anti-trust concerns, Apple would sell the competing Adobe apps, not their own current ones. (And Cringely’s suggestion that Sony might buy Apple’s apps is nutty too — none of these apps have Windows versions, so none would run on Vaios.)

Update: So, after fishing around a bit: Selling off the pro apps division? Doubtful, but there are rumors floating around about it. Buying Adobe? Not in the cards. The only reason Apple would sell off the pro apps division would be to keep the company smaller and more focused; buying Adobe would make Apple bigger and less focused.

NYT: Microsoft and Yahoo in Merger Talks ★

Looks like it’s all come down to a dollar or two in share price.

So Much for That Price Drop ★

Cleve Nettles at 9to5 Mac, back on February 10:

We just got a tip that Apple is planning on dropping the prices again on the iPhone and iPod Touch line within the next month or two - perhaps at the late February event, perhaps as late as mid-April. Our tipster says that Apple will drop the prices by $100.

Or maybe by zero.

Blu-ray Player Sales Slowing ★

Sales are slow because most people can’t see the difference between Blu-ray and upconverting DVD players (which cost just $70 or so).

Firefox 3 Background Window Appearance Bug Fixed ★

Fixed in source and the nightly builds, should be in the next public beta.

DoubleTwist ★

My thanks to DoubleTwist for sponsoring this week’s DF RSS feed. They’re a venture-funded startup in San Francisco founded by DVD Jon and Monique Farantzos, is hiring Cocoa developers — one full-time in San Francisco, one contractor.

Want to send a video shot on your cell phone to a Facebook friend or sync your iTunes library to your PSP? doubleTwist takes care of protocols and format conversions so that you can enjoy your media without technical headaches.

Sounds like a great gig for anyone interested in media format transcoding and social networking.

New Digs for The Deck ★

The Deck moves to its own domain and a swell new design by Jim Coudal. Even better, new member sites: Chip Kidd (!), Dean Allen, Ze Frank, and Aviary. I was going to say something flattering about these sites, but Zeldman did it for me, with more flair.

When I joined The Deck just a bit over two years ago, DF was the fourth site in the network. Now, there are 29. But the basic idea remains the same:

Each one of these principles is contrary to the conventional wisdom in web advertising — most sites that draw revenue from advertising attempt to cram as many ads as possible on each page, in as big and garish a format as possible. Yet I feel strongly that our policies make for a superior experience both for you, the reader, who is neither distracted by animation nor insulted by “punch the monkey” nonsense, and for the sponsors, who do not have to compete for attention from other advertisers on the same page.

Syncman ★

New €10 utility syncs contact data between Address Book and Gmail. (Via Macintouch.)

Times ★

Attractive, inventive new $30 news reader for the Mac. I don’t think it’s for me, but it’s interesting.

Dell’s New U.K. Keyboard Layout ★

New Dell Vostro laptops in the U.K. have a new keyboard layout where the entire bottom row of letters has been shifted one key to the right — rendering them completely unusable for anyone with even rudimentary touch-typing skills. This is so stupid it’s hard to believe it’s not a prank. (Via Kieran Healy.)

Addictomatic ★

Spiffy new web site from Dave Pell (with development by Alex King and design by my pal Bryan Bell). Pell describes it thusly:

Addictomatic searches the best live sites on the web for the latest news, blog posts, videos and images. It’s the perfect tool to keep up with the hottest topics, perform ego searches and feed your addiction for what’s up and what’s now.

I’d say it’s sort of like a cross between a news search engine and an RSS aggregator.

Keyboard Nerdery: The Apple Extended Keyboard II and IBM 101 ★

Derek K. Miller gets it:

I spent many a year pounding my fingers on an Extended II, in university and as a freelance technical writer. The IBM 101 is a very different beast, also built like a tank but with a more metallic, punchy feel, and an audible note to its astoundingly loud typing sound.

He’s got photos of his collection over at Flickr.

For what it’s worth, I’ve gotten a slew of recommendations this week from IBM keyboard aficionados, recommending keyboards from Unicomp, a company that still makes IBM-style keyboards with buckling spring key switches.

BusinessWeek Cover Story on Rising Mac Share in Businesses ★

There’s also this preamble on their Byte of the Apple weblog, where Arik Hesseldahl writes:

A Yankee Group survey that is soon to be published, found that of some 250 companies surveyed, 87% of them have some Macs in their organizations, whereas this number was only 48% two years ago.

For a market that remained relatively stagnant for about 20 years, that’s a remarkable change for just two years.