Linked List: March 30, 2010

Tuesday, 30 March 2010

Backup service for WordPress sites. Great idea.

Engadget: Google to Begin Decoupling Apps and Components From Android OS ★

The idea is to fight the current Android fragmentation, where there are still phones being sold with OS 1.5, 1.6, and 2.0, and with no upgrades to the current 2.1 in sight, that future versions of the OS will have all major apps and components upgradeable via the Android Market. Chris Ziegler writes:

Put simply, Google’s been iterating the core far faster than most of its partners have been able to keep up.

Google has been iterating quickly, but the problem is that carriers aren’t interested in any updates at all for phones they’ve already sold. The carriers have learned nothing from the iPhone, or, maybe they just don’t care about Android as a platform.

So, in the end, OS version fragmentation may be less of a problem for Android users — two years from now. Current Android users, except for Nexus One owners, are shit out of luck. Hope you like Android 1.6 if that’s what your phone shipped with.

Mac OS X 10.6.3 ★

Lots of security fixes.

Apple’s iPad Guided Tour Videos ★

Well-done, as usual.

Cost of First-Generation Apple Products, Adjusted for Inflation ★

43 iPads for one Apple Lisa.

Google Working on Improved Support for Flash Player in Chrome ★

They’re going to make Flash Player part of the default Chrome browser installation. Unclear if this applies to Chrome OS, too.

Leaked Screenshots of Microsoft Office for Mac 2011 ★

Icon for the Save button is still a floppy disk, despite the fact that Apple hasn’t sold a machine with a floppy drive for a decade.

Update: Email from a DF reader:

I help out in an elementary school, sometimes in the computer lab, and always get a laugh out of how there is absolutely no way to convey to a bunch of 8 year old kids which button they should click to save without physically pointing it out or describing the one next to it.

Tell them to “click the disk” and they look around for a CD icon. Tell them to “click the floppy disk” and they laugh at the word “floppy.” The machines have floppy disk drives, but the kids have never seen them used.

Photos of Dew-Covered Insects ★

Neat.

TomTom Add Lifetime Maps/Traffic to Some Devices ★

The standalone GPS market is fighting for relevance.

Engadget Says It’ll Be Named ‘iPhone HD’ ★

I hadn’t heard anything about a name, but “HD” makes sense given the 960⁠ ⁠×⁠ ⁠640 display. If they’re going to call it the HD, then perhaps the main camera will shoot HD video, too? I don’t see how a phone named “HD” could have a camera that only shoots standard-def video.

Engadget also reports a possible introduction event date of June 22. Last year Apple announced the 3GS at the WWDC keynote in early June. If WWDC is held the week of, say, June 7, I wouldn’t bet against an announcement then.

Free MapQuest iPhone App Adds Voice Navigation ★

Stan Schroeder:

It’s quite inevitable, really: after Google announced free turn-by-turn GPS navigation for Android devices — followed by Nokia’s decision to offer the same on its smartphones — the price of full-featured GPS navigation apps on other platforms is hurtling towards zero.

Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff Gets It ★

Marc Benioff:

The future of our industry now looks totally different than the past. It looks like a sheet of paper, and it’s called the iPad. It’s not about typing or clicking; it’s about touching. It’s not about text, or even animation, it’s about video. It’s not about a local disk, or even a desktop, it’s about the cloud. It’s not about pulling information; it’s about push. It’s not about repurposing old software, it’s about writing everything from scratch (because you want to take advantage of the awesome potential of the new computers and the new cloud—and because you have to reach this pinnacle). Finally, the industry is fun again.

(I’m loving these guest columns at TechCrunch.)