Linked List: July 23, 2009

Thursday, 23 July 2009

I’m Starting to Feel Bad for Rob Enderle ★

Just a few hours before Microsoft announced their worst quarterly financial report in company history:

“I’m expecting some really good news in terms of outlook for [Microsoft],” Enderle told CNBC. […]

Enderle said Microsoft has been executing well in the last several months. “They brought out a solid advertising campaign,” he said. “Microsoft has always been under-marketing and now they’re marketing well.”

Google Latitude for iPhone, But Only as a Web App ★

Google’s Mat Balez, announcing the Google Latitude for iPhone web app:

We worked closely with Apple to bring Latitude to the iPhone in a way Apple thought would be best for iPhone users. After we developed a Latitude application for the iPhone, Apple requested we release Latitude as a web application in order to avoid confusion with Maps on the iPhone, which uses Google to serve maps tiles.

Translation: Apple rejected their native iPhone app.

Jeff Bezos Apologizes on Amazon’s Behalf for Removal of Books From Kindles ★

A big apology for a big mistake, with no minced words. Admirable.

Palm WebOS 1.1 Restores iTunes Syncing ★

Palm:

Oh, and one more thing: Palm webOS 1.1 re-enables Palm media sync. That’s right — you once again can have seamless access to your music, photos and videos from the current version of iTunes (8.2.1).

Looks like Palm wants to make it a game. (Via Dieter Bohn.)

$4.99 ‘Super Hits’ Albums at Amazon MP3 ★

I’m a sucker for these discount greatest hits collections. (Disclosure: make-me-rich affiliate link.)

Apple Releases New Final Cut Studio, All Apps Still Only 32-Bit ★

Apple today released new versions of the entire suite of Final Cut Studio apps: Final Cut Pro 7, Motion 4, Soundtrack Pro 3, Color 1.5, and Compressor 3.5. A little birdie tells me that none of these apps are 64-bit compatible yet, and I suspect they’re all still using Carbon. I can’t find any mention of 64-bit compatibility on the Final Cut Studio tech specs page.

At least Adobe was up-front about the latest version of its CS suite still being 32-bit only. And Lightroom 2 shipped a year ago with full support for 64-bit mode, which means Adobe still has more shipping 64-bit “pro” Mac apps than Apple does.

Microsoft Revenue Falls $1B Short of Projections; Shares Tumble After Hours ★

Ouch:

The global slump in PC sales left a bigger dent than expected in Microsoft’s earnings in the latest quarter, pushing its sales down by 17 per cent from a year before and its after-tax profits down by 29 per cent.

The software giant’s shares slipped nearly 7 per cent in after-market trading on the news, which came as a setback after signs from other big tech companies that the worst of the downturn might lie in the past.

They’ve just finished their worst fiscal year ever. Or perhaps just their worst year yet.

New Details in Case of Foxconn Employee Suicide ★

Evan Osnos, reporting for The New Yorker:

A reporter at the newspaper Southern Daily claims to have viewed surveillance footage of two sessions of Sun’s interrogation and says that they show no evidence that he was beaten or locked up. If true, this would contradict earlier reports in the Chinese press alleging that Sun was beaten.

White Sox Pitcher Mark Buehrle Throws Perfect Game ★

Watch this video clip of center fielder Dewayne Wise making a circus catch to rob Gabe Kapler of a home run and preserve the perfect game.

AT&T CEO: iPhone Won’t Be Exclusive Forever ★

Ina Fried, reporting for CNet:

“There will be a day when you are not exclusive with the iPhone,” Stephenson said, speaking at Fortune’s Brainstorm: Tech conference here. However, he declined to get into details on the company’s negotiations with Apple.

Translation: It’s over.

Bazaar Version Control ★

In light of my earlier mention of Mercurial and next-generation version control systems, it’s also worth mentioning Bazaar. Probably even less common than Mercurial, but arguably even more elegant. Part of the reason I’ve procrastinated so long on switching from Subversion is that all three of Git, Mercurial, and Bazaar are tempting. It’s an embarrassment of riches compared to the days when CVS was the only established open source version control system.

See also: Dave Dribin’s “Why I Chose Mercurial”, an excellent and thoughtful comparison of all three from December 2007.

NPD: Apple Has 91 Percent of Market for $1,000+ PCs ★

Joe Wilcox on Apple’s growing domination of the high end of the computer market. This is what has Microsoft acting so defensive: Windows still has overwhelming unit sale market share, but it is now almost entirely at the low end of the market.

Think of it this way: You can now predict with a high degree of accuracy whether someone bought a Mac or Windows PC knowing only the price they paid.

PeepCode: Meet Mercurial ★

I’ve been dissatisfied with Subversion all along. They set out to make a better CVS than CVS and succeeded, but that was a low bar. The two new revision control systems that have caught my eye are Git and Mercurial. Of the two, Git is more widely-used, but Mercurial seems more elegant. What sealed the deal for me was this $9 screencast on Mercurial by my friend Dan Benjamin. It answers exactly the right questions: why would I want to use Mercurial, and how do I start?