Linked List: February 25, 2010

Thursday, 25 February 2010

‘Mandrake, Have You Ever Seen a Commie Drink a Glass of Water? Vodka, That’s What They Drink. Never Water.’ ★

Dr. Strangelove is out on Blu-ray and it’s magnificent. (Buy it from Amazon and I’ll get a kickback.)

Dan Frakes on Apple’s Shareholders Meeting ★

Dan Frakes:

As usual, there were also a number of off-beat comments and questions, ranging from suggestions that Apple invest in Tesla Motors (Jobs: “We were thinking of a toga party, actually”) […]

‘Find My iPhone’ Rescues Two Stolen Phones at Busch Gardens ★

Great story.

Inside Apple’s Shareholders Meeting ★

Philip Elmer-DeWitt, relaying information from unnamed attendees at today’s Apple shareholders meeting:

Another shareholder then asked a longwinded Q about what Apple/Jobs fears. “What keeps you awake at night?” … Jobs deadpans: “Shareholders meetings.” Audience erupts in laughter.

Tim Berners-Lee Rejects Adobe’s HTML5 Procedural Arguments ★

Tim Berners-Lee:

I agree with the WG chairs that these items — data and canvas — are reasonable areas of work for the group. It is appropriate for the group to publish documents in this area.

FontShop Now Licensing Web Fonts ★

Including great families like DIN and Meta. Even better, they work with Typekit for cross-browser compatibility and ease-of-use.

Sirius Posts Profit, Sees Big Subscriber Growth ★

Reuters:

Sirius XM Radio Inc. posted its first quarterly profit since its merger and said it expected to add 500,000 new subscribers in 2010 as the recovery in the car market boosts demand for satellite radio.

Looks like they’re going to make it.

Dan Frommer Says Palm’s Decline ‘Shows That Apple Is Screwed Without Steve Jobs’ ★

Obviously, this is the pessimistic take on the “What happens to Apple post-Jobs?” question:

Palm is basically Apple, Jr. And if a bunch of Apple geniuses can’t kick butt on their own at Palm, how are they going to kick butt without Steve at Apple?

He has a point, insofar as that Palm is staffed with many former Apple employees, and, in terms of design and feel and concept, WebOS is the most Apple-like, by far, of any other software platform in the world. But Frommer’s logical presumption that Palm’s former Apple employees are interchangeable with those who are at Apple today is headache-inducing.

Worse, with regard to mobile, today’s Palm — the Rubinstein-led, stocked with former Apple people, WebOS Palm — only came into existence after the iPhone debuted. For the sake of argument we can concede that the team at Palm today is just as talented as the team under Jobs at Apple and it still might not be enough to dig the new Palm out of the hole it started in.

As I stated in my talk at Macworld this month, what Apple will be like post-Jobs is simply unknowable.

About PeepCode’s Blog ★

Pushing the limits of per-post art (and code) direction. Geoffrey Grosenbach explains in detail how it works.

Apple Posts Audio From Tim Cook’s Q&A Session at Goldman Sachs Conference ★

Smart stuff. (Via MacDailyNews.)

Citibank Blocks Bank Account of Startup Fabulis, Citing ‘Objectionable Content’ on Company Weblog ★

Very odd, since (a) there doesn’t seem to be anything even vaguely “objectionable” anywhere on the company’s weblog, and (b) even if there were, what business is it of Citibank’s?

Fabulis describes itself as a “network that connects gay men with amazing experiences down the block and around the world”.

Palm Slashes Guidance, Stock Tanks ★

Not good.

Khoi Vinh and Nicholas Felton Comment on Their Layer Tennis Match Last Week ★

“Exhibition” or not, this was a great match. I particularly loved the cohesive branding they established.

Motorola Droid Now Just $50 at Amazon ★

Four months after debuting as the top-of-the-line Android handset, the Droid is now selling on Amazon for just $50 (with a Verizon contract). Still can’t upgrade it to Android OS 2.1, either. (Via Kontra.)

Ibis Reader ★

Pure web app e-book reader for iPhone and Android. Install it on your iPhone home screen and it acts like a regular app, including the use of local storage for your saved books.