Linked List: April 15, 2010

Sony Announces ‘Division Two’ Vaio Laptops 

This does not sound like a good idea:

Sony is to launch a “division two” of VAIO laptops that are made and designed by other manufacturers.

NSA Chief Loves His iPad 

“Wonderful.”

Google Announces First Quarter 2010 Financial Results 

Revenue up 23 percent year-over-year, net income up even more.

Eyeballs Still Don’t Pay the Bills 

David Heinemeier Hansson on Ning’s layoffs:

Are you kidding me? The company has blown through $120M of VC funding over six years, built up massive traffic, yet just had to slash and burn, and you’re saying that “traffic growth is no longer good enough”. How the hell was it ever good enough?

Reminds me of First Citiwide Change Bank’s business model.

Dave Johnson Predicts Ubiquitous iAds 

Dave Johnson:

I gave $200 to Apple, and another $100/month to AT&T. Why does Apple now deserve additional revenue on an on-going basis just because I run apps on my phone?  You might say, “but wait, Dave — this is designed to help developers continue to release free apps.” If that’s true, why are paid apps also allowed to use iAd? Mark my words — in a year or so, pretty much all apps will use banner ads. Not just free ones.

Consider them marked.

Don’t Play The Tray 

Neven Mrgan on the iPhone OS 4 fast-switching tray:

Trying to “clean out” your tray is not a habit you want to get into. It’s pointless, and besides, you can never win - as soon as you run another app, in the tray it’ll go. It’s like the world’s worst game of Whac-A-Mole. Instead, learn to see the tray as a “recent apps” area. If you’re in the middle of one task - say, writing an email - and you need to switch to something for a second — say, looking up a spelling — then the tray is your friend. But once you’re done with that, you’re done.

Scoble Asks Why iPad Production Is Behind Demand 

Scoble’s third guess:

The focus groups that Apple talked with didn’t hype it up enough with the people studying the groups. This is because they, themselves, didn’t have the apps (the iPad without apps is pretty lame, actually).

Apple never does focus tests. Even the engineers at Apple working on iPhone OS 4 didn’t get to see the iPad while it was being developed.

As for why production is falling behind demand, I think it’s simply a factor of Apple’s conservatism. Better to have demand outstrip supply than the other way around. Worked out well for the original iPhone. Note too that Apple can afford to let demand outstrip supply for a few months, because it’s not like those who can’t get their hands on an iPad right now have any alternatives to choose from.

Tim Conneally Reviews the WebStation Android Tablet 

Someone will make a decent Android-based tablet eventually, but this piece of junk goes to show just how much work will be involved to create such a thing. I mean, crikey, a stylus?

‘I Live for Myself and I Answer to Nobody.’ 

Jon Patrick on Steve McQueen. (Via Dunstan Orchard.)

Errol Morris on Stupidity 

Errol Morris:

My definition of a stupid person. A stupid person is a person who treats a smart person as though they’re stupid.

See also: the Dunning-Kruger Effect.

New 3D Buildings for New York City in Google Earth 

Screw Liberty City — let’s get a version of Grand Theft Auto set in the real deal.

Photographs of Vintage Computers 

Great photo essay in Time. (Via Michele Seiler at Coudal.)

Don’t Forget About Clang 

Rainer Brockerhoff:

In other words, it’s no coincidence that Apple is now instructing developers to switch to Clang-supported languages and their Clang-wrapping IDE (Xcode).

Lukas Mathis on iPhone OS 4.0 

Good overview of the new UI features. Mathis is skeptical on the utility of the task switcher.

Regarding “folders”, I’ll add that they’re not really folders at all, not in the sense of the Mac. There is no “folder” icon, nor any folder object that you create as a first step. There is no nesting. You just pile icons on top of each other. What iPhone OS 4 folders resemble most is the “stacks” concept that has been rumored for the Mac desktop ever since Copland was a bright shining beacon ahead of us. I think it’s great. (Note also that on a hypothetical 960⁠ ⁠×⁠ ⁠640 iPhone display, the tiny 9⁠ ⁠×⁠ ⁠9 thumbnail icons on the container icons will be more legible.)

DFW’s Circles 

Slate:

Below you’ll find the complete list of words that David Foster Wallace circled in his American Heritage Dictionary.

(Via Chris Pepper.)