Linked List: September 3, 2008

Wednesday, 3 September 2008

Straight Out of Compton 

John Siracusa:

It’s not that any particular feature of Chrome is so wonderful, or even that the sum of those features puts Safari back on its heels in the browser wars. It’s the idea that someone other than Apple has taken such clear leadership in this area. Google Chrome makes Safari’s user interface look conservative; it makes Apple look timid.

Tilt Scrolling in Instapaper Pro 

Adam Lisagor on the innovative “tilt scrolling” feature in Instapaper Pro.

The Future of the Instapaper iPhone App 

Marco Arment, developer of the terrific Instapaper iPhone app (and the Instapaper web site):

I compiled a feature list for what I want in Instapaper.app 2.0, and it’s huge. It’s easily 6 months of work. I can’t do this and anything else — it has to just be this. I can only devote a few hours per week to Instapaper as it is. But if I can pull off the product I want for 2.0, I’ll really have something amazing.

Instapaper (and, now, the new $10 Instapaper Pro) is one of my very favorite iPhone apps. In a nut, you set up a free account (super quick setup!), then use a bookmarklet in MobileSafari (or any desktop browser) to flag web pages you wish to read later. The Instapaper iPhone app stores local versions of these web pages, so you can read them (a) offline; and (b) in a text-only iPhone-optimized format.

If you like to read and haven’t at least tried the free version of Instapaper, you’re missing out.

Being the Platform 

David Weiss, reacting to Chrome:

Today, it’s clear to me why I’ve felt this way: Google isn’t interested at all in “being a citizen” or part of a platform, they are interested in being the platform. If you look at the way Chrome is designed, it’s not so much designed to be a good browser, as much as it is a good operating system for web applications. Google’s desire is very much the same as Microsoft’s, except abstracted a little higher up the stack. They want to own the platform upon which web applications are built, just like Microsoft wants to own the platform upon which desktop applications are built.

Hence the “each tab is a separate process” architecture behind Chrome. The idea is that it makes every web app an independent citizen. It turns Chrome into a meta platform that sits atop a traditional “OS”. Chrome is to web apps what preemptive multitasking is to an operating system — a way to keep one wedged or crashed task from bringing down the whole environment.

NFL TV Distribution Maps 

Via Kottke, a terrific resource for NFL fans wondering which games will be available on their local TV stations.

McCain’s Voice Mail to Palin 

“Is this some sort of joke? Am I getting punked here?” (Via Scott Simpson.)

Pinkerton 

Mike Pinkerton, long-time Mac web browser developer, and one of the leaders behind the Gecko-based Camino, is also involved in Google’s efforts to create a Mac browser based on Chromium.