Linked List: May 10, 2010

Monday, 10 May 2010

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers: ‘I Should Have Known It’ 

Best new Petty song in a couple of albums.

Sprint Bails on the Google Nexus One 

Weird, given that this press release came out just seven weeks ago.

Great Web Site, Pixar 

The official Toy Story 3 website, as seen on the iPad.

Update: Ends up there was a mobile-optimized site, but Disney wasn’t redirecting to it properly until sometime this afternoon.

Spark 

Speaking of multitouch, Anders Tornblad left a comment on the aforelinked weblog post from Matt Gemmell pointing to Spark, his multitouch demo for MobileSafari. Cool on the iPhone, super-cool on the iPad.

Putting the ‘Multi’ in Multitouch 

Matt Gemmell:

A friend of mine recently asked how many simultaneous touch events the iPad supported; I wasn’t sure, so I promised to write some code to conduct an experiment and find the answer.

Update: As a point of comparison, Palm’s WebOS devices support only five simultaneous touches, as does the iPhone.

NPD Group Says Android Phones Outselling iPhone in U.S. 

I think it’s all about Verizon — Android’s U.S. market share increase coincides exactly with the Motorola Droid’s debut. (And don’t forget that Verizon has a buy-one-get-one-free deal for all smartphones.)

Scott Horton on Legislative Changes to Miranda 

Scott Horton:

Other ways of approaching the same issues are suggested by the British model. Following years of police station abuse during the “troubles” in Northern Ireland — abuse that led to coerced confessions in dozens of cases, many of which were later overturned following embarrassing disclosures — Britain’s Conservative government under Margaret Thatcher introduced a series of changes in the Police and Criminal Evidence Act of 1984, which govern stopping, searching, and questioning suspects. These included the key requirement that an audio recording be made of all interrogation sessions. With the proliferation of high-quality recording technology, this capability is now nearly ubiquitous, and it would go a great length towards establishing a definitive record of interrogation sessions that would eliminate most questions about what was said and whether a witness was improperly coerced.

Lulu Now Offers Publishing to iBookstore 

Self-publishing to Apple’s iBookstore via Lulu:

All eBooks planned for iBookstore distribution must have retail pricing that complies with Apple’s guidelines. We will automatically price Lulu eBooks submitted to the iBookstore to meet these guidelines. The creator revenue that you receive per sale will be 80 percent of the profit after deducting Apple’s share. On a $9.99 book, for example, you will receive $5.60.

More information here.

NYT: ‘Attorney General Eric Holder Backs Miranda Limit for Terror Suspects’ 

Disregard for the Bill of Rights is not limited to Republicans:

Mr. Holder proposed carving out a broad new exception to the Miranda rights established in a landmark 1966 Supreme Court ruling. It generally forbids prosecutors from using as evidence statements made before suspects have been warned that they have a right to remain silent and to consult a lawyer.

Keep in mind that this is about the rights afforded to U.S. citizens.

Al Gore: ‘The Crisis Comes Ashore’ 

Al Gore on the gulf oil spill and the state of U.S. energy independence:

Starting 40 years ago, when America’s domestic oil production peaked, our dependence on foreign oil has steadily grown. We are now draining our economy of several hundred billion dollars a year in order to purchase foreign oil in a global market dominated by the huge reserves owned by sovereign states in the Persian Gulf. This enormous and increasing transfer of wealth contributes heavily to our trade and current-account deficits, and enriches regimes in the most unstable region of the world, helping to finance both terrorism and Iran’s relentless effort to build a nuclear arsenal.

The Omni Group Sells 5,000 Copies of OmniGraffle for iPad 

At $50 a pop, you can see why it has a spot in the App Store’s top-grossing list. Well-deserved, too — it’s a very clever app.

Jean Louis Gassée on HP and the Incumbent’s Curse 

Or, as Bob Dylan put it, “He not busy being born is busy dying.”