Linked List: December 14, 2008

Sunday, 14 December 2008

Joe Kissell on the now-in-beta Mac version of Backblaze, an online backup service that’s been available on Windows since September.

Seadragon Mobile ★

The first iPhone app from Microsoft: a free mobile version of Seadragon, their gigapixel image browsing and zooming system. Works great, very fun, and makes good use of the iPhone’s touch gestures. I especially like the “Running the Numbers” piece.

iPods Dominating Amazon’s MP3 Bestseller List ★

Remember a few years ago, when the conventional wisdom held that lower-priced knockoffs were poised to swoop in and that Apple’s domination of the MP3 player market was sure to soon end? Well, it hasn’t happened yet. Right now, iPods occupy 21 of the top 25 spots on Amazon’s MP3 player bestseller list, including spots 1 through 17. The only non-iPod on the list that costs more than $70 is the black 120 GB Zune ($240), at #18. (Amazon recompiles the list hourly, so it might look different by the time you read this.)

Also worth noting: the iPod Touch occupies the top two spots on the list, for the 8 and 16 GB models respectively. The $399 32 GB Touch is at #6 (but Amazon sells it for $370). I doubt that means the Touch is outselling the Nano overall, because the Nano lineup is broken up between 18 different models (nine colors in two capacities), but it’s further evidence that the iPod Touch is growing into a smash hit product. The iPhone OS market is a lot larger than the number of iPhones sold.