Linked List: August 1, 2009

Saturday, 1 August 2009

Pre-Order Snow Leopard From Amazon ★

Amazon is now accepting pre-orders for Snow Leopard and the Snow Leopard edition of the Mac Box Set. Order through these links and you’ll help support Daring Fireball thanks to Amazon’s affiliate program.

The Wal-Martification of Microsoft ★

Good piece from Rafe Colburn. In short, you get what you pay for.

Steve Jobs, the Anti-Internet ★

Dave Winer:

Steve Jobs is the anti-Internet. The Internet is utilitarian, it works, but it’s ugly. Jobs’s stuff is so beautiful that when taken to its logical conclusion, and he’s almost there now, it’s so dazzling, so beautiful that you fail to see that it is also useless.

Splendid NYT Infographic on Music Sales ★

Interesting and informative graph comparing the sales of music in various formats over time. (The graphic accompanies this column by Charles Blow on the music industry.)

FCC Opens Inquiry of Apple’s Ban of Google Voice Apps for iPhone ★

Fawn Johnson and Amy Schatz, reporting for Dow Jones:

The Federal Communications Commission has launched an inquiry into why Apple Inc. rejected Google Inc.’s Internet-telephony software for the popular iPhone, another sign of the Obama administration’s stepped-up scrutiny of competitive practices in the technology industry.

In letters sent late Friday to the two companies and AT&T Inc., the FCC asked why Apple rejected the Google Voice application for the iPhone and removed related applications from its App Store. The letter also seeks information on how AT&T, the exclusive U.S. iPhone carrier, was consulted in the decision, if at all.

The FCC’s letter to Apple (PDF) asks very pointed questions about what, if any, AT&T played in this decision, and asks Apple, “What are the standards for considering and approving iPhone applications?”

This should be good.