Linked List: April 13, 2010

Tuesday, 13 April 2010

Please Make the iPhone Weather Application Location Aware 

Sometimes all you need is the right domain name.

Inside Apple’s Automatic Graphics Switching in the New MacBook Pros 

Nice report by Chris Foresman:

Apple’s approach in the new 15” and 17” MacBook Pros differs from Optimus in two key ways. The first is that the switching is all handled automatically by Mac OS X without any user intervention (though there is actually a System Preference to deactivate it, if you choose). Apps that use advanced graphics frameworks such as OpenGL, Core Graphics, Quartz Composer or others will cause the OS to trigger the discrete GPU. So, when you are reading or writing Mail, or editing an Excel spreadsheet, Mac OS X will simply use the integrated Intel HD graphics. If you fire up Aperture or Photoshop, Mac OS X kicks on the NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M.

Details, Details, Details 

Michael Gartenberg on today’s new MacBook Pros.

Cisco as Palm Buyer? 

Makes as much sense as any of the other companies rumored to be interested.

HTC Studying Whether to Have Own Smartphone Software 

Bloomberg:

HTC Corp., Taiwan’s largest mobile-phone maker, is studying whether to equip phones with its own operating system, a move that may intensify competition with Google Inc. and Microsoft Corp.

They’re considering acquiring Palm.

2009 World Series Championship Rings 

Home opener at Yankee Stadium is being played right now, as I type, against the Angels — which means Hideki Matsui, World Series MVP, was there for the ceremony.

Tim Bray on Life at Google 

Great writing. (Love the comment on jumpsuits, too.)

Microsoft Outsourcing IT Services 

Todd Bishop:

Infosys Technologies Ltd. will manage Microsoft’s internal IT services worldwide under a three-year deal announced by the global outsourcing company this morning. According to an Infosys news release, those services will include technical assistance for employees at their desks and from centralized help desks, in addition to management of “applications, devices and databases in 450 locations across 104 countries.”

Infosys is headquartered in Bangalore. Neither Apple nor Google would ever consider outsourcing IT. It’s a point of pride at both Apple and Google just how little they spend on IT compared to typical Fortune 100 companies (which typical companies, of course, use Microsoft infrastructure).

Update: Bishop posted an update with a response from Microsoft, in which they claim this is not a change so much as a consolidation of third-party support services. And, a little birdie informs me that Apple “heavily leverages” Infosys as well.

Update 2: After reading the above update, another little birdie emailed to clarify that Apple uses “Infosys and other outsourcing companies for code development of internal systems, not for support,” and that Apple low head-count low-cost support costs are indeed a source of pride and a selling point to their customers in the enterprise. And then yet another little birdie suggested that Radar, of all things, is one such system that is maintained by outsourced developers.

Flip Slide HD 

Interesting, but it does not seem worth $279 to me.

I Have a Simple Question 

Nick Bilton, adding to his report on what Eric Schmidt told guests at a party regarding a purported iPad competitor Google is working on:

According to a guest at the party, Mr. Schmidt offered one other piece of information: the Google device will run Adobe Flash content and games.

This is good news for Adobe, but not for Apple.

Why is this not good news for Apple?

Brent Simmons on NetNewsWire for iPad and iPhone OS 4.0 

Brent Simmons, in an interview with Mike Schramm at TUAW:

We’re not giving out the actual numbers, but I will tell you this, and I think this is very cool. The iPad app, within five days, made us more money than the iPhone app has in its existence over the last six months or something. And it’s only priced double, $9.99 versus $4.99. So, that says a few things. One, I think it’s a better app, our app on the iPad. And being there on day one is huge, since everyone’s looking for apps. But, yeah, even with a much smaller user base so far, it’s just done so well.

Strategery 3.1 

Strategery is a great Risk-like strategy game for the iPhone, and now, iPad. I’ve linked to it before, but the recent 3.0 update was a step backward in several regards. The just-released version 3.1 puts it back on my list of favorite iPhone OS games. $2 gets you a universal binary that’s native for both iPhone and iPad.

(The only downside: it requires iPhone OS 3.1, so you can’t use it on an iPhone that’s running OS 3.0.1 for use with samizdat AT&T tethering.)

Dan and Martha 

Pretty cool.

‘House’ Season Finale Filmed Entirely With Canon 5D Mark II 

Greg Yaitanes, director of the episode, thinks the footage looks better than that from their regular cameras.

Update: Another WordPress site craps out. Google has it cached, though.

This, More Than Any Other Reason, Is Why I Can’t Wait to Abandon AT&T 

MG Siegler:

It’s now been over a year since Apple unveiled tethering as a part of iPhone 3.0 OS. At the time, while 22 carriers around the world were announced to be supporting it, in the U.S., all Apple could say was that AT&T would be supporting it “later.”

Twitter Reveals ‘Promoted Tweets’ Ad Plan 

Claire Cain Miller, reporting for the NYT:

The advertising program, which Twitter calls Promoted Tweets, will show up when Twitter users search for keywords that the advertisers have bought to link to their ads. Later, Twitter plans to show promoted posts in the stream of Twitter posts, based on how relevant they might be to a particular user.

Update: Twitter’s own announcement.

Long-Awaited Update to Apple II Laptops 

Now with Intel Core i5 and i7 processors.

Correction: Apparently these are Macintoshes, not Apple II’s. I conflate these legacy Apple platforms, sorry.

Wawa to Celebrate Billionth Free ATM Withdrawal  

Local note: if you’re ever in the Philly area and need an ATM, look for a Wawa convenience store.