Linked List: February 5, 2010

Friday, 5 February 2010

Radioshift is a Mac app that acts like a DVR for Internet radio stations. My thanks to Rogue Amoeba for sponsoring this week’s DF RSS feed to promote it. Radioshift has thousands of preset stations from around the world (including, for me, all my favorite stations here in Philadelphia) and a great interface, including the ability to schedule shows to be recorded automatically. Download it for free, and through the end of February, save 20 percent when you purchase using coupon code “DARINGRADIO”.

Plus, Rogue Amoeba is exhibiting at Macworld next week. See them at booth #1545.

Microsoft Joins SVG Working Group ★

Bill Clinton was president of the United States when SVG started.

Greg Knauss: ‘The Days of Miracles and Wonder’ ★

So good.

If Global Warming Is Real Then Why Is It Cold? ★

Funny, never heard that one before.

How Long in the Works Was the iPad? ★

Ken Segall:

My point is, Apple has always demonstrated tremendous common sense. It’s just hard to believe they’d choose the name iPhone OS if iPad was already on the drawing board. My inner Sherlock tells me iPad wasn’t even a twinkle in Apple’s eye until well after March, 2008.

There’s no argument about it that “iPhone OS” no longer makes sense as the name for this OS. The iPad HIG and developer documentation is chock full of features and APIs and guidelines that do not apply to the iPhone (or iPod Touch). So there are features in the iPhone OS which do not apply to the iPhone.

I still say the iPad has been in the works for a long time. Many, many years. Certainly not the iPad exactly as it was announced, but the general idea — the final design of an Apple product is the result of non-stop iteration. I could be wrong, and Apple, of course, isn’t going to say. But I’d say the awkwardness of the “iPhone OS” name is proof only that Apple picks names from the gut — names that feel right rather than think right. “iTunes” is exhibit A.

Clang Successfully Self-Hosts ★

Doug Gregor of the LLVM project:

We built all of LLVM and Clang with Clang (over 550k lines of C++ code). The resulting binaries passed all of Clang and LLVM’s regression test suites, and the Clang-built Clang could then build all of LLVM and Clang again. The third-stage Clang was also fully-functional, completing the bootstrap.

Is there any other type of project that offers the same potential for recursive satisfaction as a compiler that can compile itself? It’s a singular milestone for LLVM.

Engadget Staff’s Initial Thoughts on the iPad ★

Remarkably dismissive overall. Nilay Patel is the only one who sees the potential.

Sling and AT&T ★

Chris Foresman:

AT&T made headlines Thursday by announcing that it had decided to allow SlingPlayer Mobile for iPhone to stream video from a Slingbox over its 3G network. AT&T’s CEO claimed in the announcement that Sling Media modified the app to be more efficient on its network, but Sling has responded, saying it didn’t have to change a thing.

Update: Foresman has updated his article; seems Sling did do some lab testing with AT&T to prove that the app behaved well.

Apple: Core Location Not for Use Solely for Serving Location-Targeted Ads ★

Apple Developer Connection:

If you build your application with features based on a user’s location, make sure these features provide beneficial information. If your app uses location-based information primarily to enable mobile advertisers to deliver targeted ads based on a user’s location, your app will be returned to you by the App Store Review Team for modification before it can be posted to the App Store.

Movist, Alternative Video Player to VLC for Mac ★

Federico Viticci on Movist, an open source Mac video player:

Where Movist really outstands the competition is in file support. It’s the only app that played my .mkv files perfectly, even when VLC was crashing. Not to talk about .mp4 and .avi support, pretty obvious. Moreover, Movist plays .wmw files faster than Quicktime, and you can also switch from FFmpeg to Quicktime playback with a single click on a toolbar button. Awesome.