Linked List: December 22, 2008

Monday, 22 December 2008

Noted for the Claim Chowder File 

Michael Robertson, former CEO of MP3.com

The iPod is dying off and in a few years it will be just a footnote in history. Hardware advances ensure mobile phones are destined to be the next generation MP3 player.

Maybe what Apple should do is make some iPods that do more than just play music.

Update: Surprise, surprise, it ends up the web site Robertson is claiming will relegate the iPod (and iTunes) to a footnote is his own creation. He certainly proved his genius with that whole MP3.com thing.

People Will Talk 

Matthew Bogosian on a curious ad for Jawbone:

I came across this advertisement in The New Yorker (Dec 22, 2008) and thought I would point out the amazing differences in post-production of the 2 images. The first image of the Indian-looking woman has scars on her face and facial blemishes. The second image of the Caucasian is heavily retouched to give her perfect skin and rosy cheeks. Hmm… What is this supposed to mean?

You can see the difference in the scans he posted, but it’s even more pronounced looking at the ad in print.

John Hodgman on Rick Warren and Etcetera 

John Hodgman:

I have confidence that, in no short order, Prop 8 will be repealed, and the gay marriage debate will look as absurd at the miscegenation debates of the 20th century do now. I have confidence this will happen not because it is merely right, or because the electorate will suddenly love gayness, but because opposition to gay marriage has no logical foundation in a civil society that is premised on equality.

That’s it exactly.

PCalc Lite for iPhone 

New in the App Store: a free, light version of James Thomson’s outstanding PCalc.

Andy Mangold’s Monopoly Repackaging 

Perfect design work by Andy Mangold:

Monopoly, in spite of being the classiest of all board games, unfortunately is packaged just as boringly and uncreatively as every other garbage board game on the shelves. So, I decided to repackage it… turning the class up to 11.

(Via Michele Seiler.)

Newsweek on Steve Jobs 

Newsweek columnist Dan “Fake Steve” Lyons wrote the Steve Jobs profile for Newsweek’s “The Global Elite” special issue. The subhead describes him as “the ailing creator of the iPhone and iPod”. Lyons has been hammering on Jobs’s health since June. Maybe the guy is in fact ill — I don’t know. But at what point has Newsweek published any evidence whatsoever that he is “ailing”?

Keep in mind that Lyons is the guy who wrote in June, “If Jobso is still running Apple at year-end, I’ll be shocked.”

Chris Breen Reviews Radioshift Touch 

Chris Breen:

Radioshift Touch performs well. Unlike WunderRadio, which has crashed several times, Radioshift Touch behaved itself in my testing. And its stability versus that of WunderRadio’s helps explain why Radioshift Touch offers far fewer streams than WunderRadio.

Rogue Amoeba’s Paul Kafasis explained that he felt the open source ffmpeg engine used by WunderRadio to stream Windows Media Audio files wasn’t reliable—it was prone to crashing and takes down any application using it. Also, its results were hit and miss—some streams play and other don’t. And, from my experience, he’s right. As I said, Radioshift Touch has proven to be more stable than WunderRadio—there are occasions when WunderRadio offers a stream that simply won’t play.

Another case of more not necessarily meaning better.

A Signature Cadence 

Rands:

Mostly, I like the authentic tone that came with Web 2.0.

Craig Hockenberry’s Instructions for Setting Up iPhone Beta Testing 

As Hockenberry says, Apple’s instructions for setting up iPhone beta testing are not well-documented. His instructions are the best reference I’ve seen.