Linked List: June 2, 2009

Tuesday, 2 June 2009

The Tonight Show With Conan O’Brien ★

Hilarious cold opening for Conan O’Brien’s first night as the fifth-ever host of The Tonight Show. (I like that Conan’s set evokes the old Carson set.) And a good new song by Pearl Jam to close the show.

‘Partly Cloudy’ (iTunes Store Link) ★

Partly Cloudy, Pixar’s new five-minute short that is being shown in theaters before Up, is available from the iTunes Store for $2. It is, as you might expect, terrific.

Project Natal ★

Have you ever noticed that when Microsoft makes a product announcement that people actually get excited about, it’s almost always for a product that isn’t scheduled to ship for a year or more? The Project Natal demo sure looks cool, but Microsoft has long ago burned through its “cried wolf” credibility for me. This thing is vapory even by Microsoft’s standards. Let’s see it when it ships.

Mike Davidson on Typekit ★

Mike Davidson on Typekit:

In evaluating its promise, it’s important to examine the following characteristics, in order of importance: compatibility, functionality, legality, ease of use, and hackiness.

I concur with his assessment.

Creating New Documents ★

Lukas Mathis on the conceptual shortcomings of the standard Macintosh experience for creating new documents. Smart, and ties in nicely with my “Untitled Document Syndrome” piece.

Apple Rejects EFF Updates App ★

Another ridiculous rejection: A dedicated feed reader for the EFF’s RSS feed was rejected by Apple because one of their current weblog posts links to a Hitler parody video. The weblog post in question can, of course, be read using MobileSafari, and the video in question can be watched using the iPhone YouTube app.

Last.fm, CBS Unequivocally Deny TechCrunch Story on Sharing User Data With RIAA ★

Either Mike Arrington has uncovered a major privacy violation and cover-up, or he is a complete shitbag who has shredded the meager remains of his credibility.