Linked List: January 6, 2010

Wednesday, 6 January 2010

Engadget’s Live Coverage of Steve Ballmer’s CES Keynote 

One odd takeaway: what Microsoft once called “tablet PCs”, it now calls “slate PCs”. This strikes me as beyond coincidence regarding the hype from MacRumors’ story that Apple has the trademark and domain name for “iSlate”. I honestly think Microsoft renamed these things on the basis on a rumored name for Apple’s tablet, just to try to fuck with them. (I can’t wait for all the stories, when Apple unveils The Tablet with some name other than “iSlate”, that Apple changed the name at the last minute because of these Microsoft jobbies.)

Anyway, all these “slates” announced tonight are just tablet PCs running Windows 7 — a terrible interface for a touch screen. Nice job, Ashlee Vance of the New York Times.

Maybe Microsoft thinks they’re somehow sticking it to Apple by taking the “slate” name first, but everything tablet-related they announced on stage was boring non-news. The only cool stuff they announced (Natal) isn’t going to ship for close to a year. This is a comparison they want to draw with Apple? I’m left with the impression of a company that’s flailing.

Microsoft CES Keynote PR Leaks Early; HP Slate Device Is Just a PC 

Can you imagine the PR from a Steve Jobs keynote leaking early?

Garrett Murray’s Initial Nexus One Impressions 

Good take from an iPhone user and developer.

The Annals of Newspaper Technology Journalism 

Rupert Neate, reporting for The Telegraph from CES on how “Microsoft was on Wednesday night expected to upstage Apple by announcing a ‘tablet’ handheld computer before its Californian competitor”:

Steve Ballmer, chief executive of Microsoft, was expected to reveal the device during a speech to officially open the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas.

The device could be a major blow to Apple, which is widely expected to unveil its tablet, thought to be called iSlate, on January 27. It will also challenge e-readers, such as Amazon’s Kindle and Sony’s eReader.

I like Andy Ihnatko’s take better.

Um, OK 

Paul Thurrott, reporting from CES in Las Vegas:

I spent about an hour and a half meeting with [Lenovo] this morning and while I am charitably described as a ThinkPad fanboy, the truth is, they just make the best notebooks on earth. And now they’re getting even better. It’s dizzying. I posted a bit about this yesterday, but there is so much going on here. In fact, their near-final version of a tiny notebook with a breakaway tablet screen absolutely kills anything Apple could possibly announce later this month. It’s not even close.

Total Number of Apps 

Greg Stein on the uselessness of touting the 100,000 total apps in the iPhone App Store as a deciding factor:

Google stopped putting the “pages indexed” on its front page many years ago because it realized a key principle: the value is in the results, not the quantity.

As I wrote in October, if the sheer number of apps available for a platform is inherently an advantage, we’d all be using Windows. It is good for Apple and good for iPhone users that there’s so much developer interest in the platform. But what matters most is quality. I think the iPhone wins there too, but there’s no easy way to make that comparison numerically.

Netflix to Wait 28 Days Before Renting New Releases From Warner Brothers 

The lack of delay for new releases is one of the main reasons I still use Netflix rather than relying on iTunes. Sad to see them cave.

Update: A slew of reader feedback arguing that this is a good deal on Netflix’s part, especially for access to more streaming content. And John August says it’s not a bad thing. Could well be that I’m just biased because I disagree with the trade-off.

David Pogue Reviews the Nexus One 

Two of his dings against it:

The Nexus can accommodate memory cards up to 32 gigabytes (a 4-gigabyte card comes with it) — and yet, inexplicably, the Nexus allots only a tiny 190 megabytes of storage for downloaded apps. [...]

There’s no physical ringer on-off switch (you have to do it on the screen), and therefore no way to tell by touch if the ringer is off, as you can on the iPhone and Palm phones.

Google’s Nexus Name Irks Estate of Author Philip K. Dick 

Would it kill Google to cut them a check?

John Martellaro on How Apple Does Controlled Leaks 

Former Apple marketing manager John Martellaro:

Monday’s article at the Wall Street Journal, which provided confirmation of an Apple tablet device, had all the earmarks of a controlled leak. Here’s how Apple does it.

Update: To be clear, I’ve never gotten such a “controlled leak”, nor do I know anyone who has. I think you can count on one hand, with fingers to spare, the reporters Apple does this with. I’m not even sure there’s anyone other than the WSJ.

AT&T Says They’re Launching Five Android Devices 2010 

Once this happens, there will be Android phones available from all four major U.S. carriers.

The State of Newspaper Web Design 

Speaking of Greg Storey, he’s got a nice piece on just how far even design-minded newspapers have to go to make the shift from paper to digital.

Bruce Schneier’s TSA Logo Contest 

This should be good.

The Steve Jobs on Magazine Covers Page 

85 magazine covers featuring Steve Jobs, from 1981–present, curated by Sam Kuo. See also: the 10 best list at SPD. (Via Greg Storey.)

MacBreak Weekly, Episode 174 

Yours truly was a guest on this week’s MacBreak Weekly, with Leo Laporte, Alex Lindsay, and Andy Ihnatko. Talking about, of course, The Tablet and the Nexus One.