Linked List: April 21, 2009

Tuesday, 21 April 2009

In Defense of Eye Candy 

Stephen P. Anderson in A List Apart, on the importance of aesthetics:

Researchers in Japan setup two ATMs, “identical in function, the number of buttons, and how they worked.” The only difference was that one machine’s buttons and screens were arranged more attractively than the other. In both Japan and Israel (where this study was repeated) researchers observed that subjects encountered fewer difficulties with the more attractive machine. The attractive machine actually worked better.

Why Time Capsule Is Doomed to Suck 

Louis Gerbarg on why over-the-network Time Capsule backups seem overly prone to corruption. (I gave up on backing up to my Time Capsule after just a few months.)

Update: This comment on Gerbarg’s post is interesting. All of my own Time Capsule corruption problems were pre-10.5.6; I guess I should give it another try.

Capo 

New $39 app from Christopher Liscio/SuperMegaUltraGroovy:

Capo is a musician’s best friend. It lets you slow down your favorite songs, so you can hear the notes and learn how they are played.

I have no musical inclination whatsoever, but the UI for Capo is so pretty that it makes me wish I did so that I could use it. Love those custom scroll bars.

Web Fonts 

Type designer Tal Leming on the licensing problems with embedded web fonts.

Details on Windows 7 Starter Edition’s Three-App Limit 

Ed Bott:

In short, when I used this system as a netbook, it worked just fine. […] If I tried to use this system as a conventional notebook, running multiple Microsoft Office or OpenOffice aps, playing music in iTunes or Windows Media Player, and using third-party IM programs, I would probably be incredibly frustrated with the limitations of Starter Edition.

So “netbook” users don’t listen to music or run IM programs. Uh, OK.

Also, a few DF readers have emailed asking how this is different than Apple’s “no third-party background apps” policy for the iPhone. For one thing, Apple isn’t trying to up-sell you on a more expensive “edition” of iPhone OS — it’s not an artificial constraint imposed upon customers who pay less money, but a design decision. If you disagree that the iPhone’s background app policy is a good idea, go ahead and buy an Android G1 or a BlackBerry or whatever instead. The danger I see for Microsoft is that the more they push Windows users to consider alternatives, the more of them who will switch.

Update: DF reader Michael Tofias, via email: “Worse yet for Microsoft, doesn’t this encourage the browser to be the OS?” Exactly. How is it in Microsoft’s interest to discourage users from using Windows-specific apps and instead use web apps?

Windows 7 Starter Edition Only Runs 3 Applications at Once 

They might as well name it “Windows 7: We Hold You in Contempt and Dare You, Fucking Dare You, to Try Something Else Edition”. (Via Slashdot.)

NCC-1701 

Free Star Trek icons from The Iconfactory.

Are App Store Customers Good Customers? 

Garrett Murray:

This kind of thing continually reinforces something I’ve thought about a lot since the App store was released, which sounds horrible to say but it might be true: Apple is creating an ecosystem of the kind of customers I don’t want.

It’s very difficult to read Murray’s story and not conclude that his customers who are leaving these reviews on the App Store are a bunch of assholes.

U.S. Military Buying iPhones and iPod Touches for Use in the Field 

Benjamin Sutherland reports for Newsweek:

Apple gadgets are proving to be surprisingly versatile. Software developers and the U.S. Department of Defense are developing military software for iPods that enables soldiers to display aerial video from drones and have teleconferences with intelligence agents halfway across the globe. Snipers in Iraq and Afghanistan now use a “ballistics calculator” called BulletFlight, made by the Florida firm Knight’s Armament for the iPod Touch and iPhone. Army researchers are developing applications to turn an iPod into a remote control for a bomb-disposal robot (tilting the iPod steers the robot). In Sudan, American military observers are using iPods to learn the appropriate etiquette for interacting with tribal leaders.

(Thanks to Chris Pepper.)

43 Folders Features Kara Swisher 

Merlin should have used the photo from Swisher’s Wikipedia entry, which is where All Things D seems to get their “author” photos for Voices.