Linked List: May 14, 2010

Friday, 14 May 2010

Epic Flyers Game Seven Comeback to Complete Epic Series Comeback ★

Can’t say I’m a big hockey fan, but my hometown Flyers were down three games to none against the Boston Bruins, then fell behind 3-0 in game seven — and came back to win. The only downside to this wonderful sports story is, uh, wait, sorry there isn’t any downside.

Night Stand ★

My thanks to Spoonjuice for sponsoring this week’s DF RSS feed to promote Night Stand, their excellent clock apps for iPad and iPhone/iPod Touch.

The latest version for iPhone includes new features like multiple alarms, per-alarm volume settings, and math puzzles to solve for inveterate snoozers. (I could have used that last feature when I was in college.) The iPad version is designed from the ground-up for the iPad’s large display — a new UI and high-resolution themes. It’s a big hit, and deservedly so.

Both apps are currently just $0.99 each on the App Store.

Google Abandons Direct Sales of Nexus One ★

It’s not entirely clear from this post by Andy Rubin, but I think what this means is that Google is giving up on direct sales, and that the Nexus One will soon no longer be available in an unlocked carrier-free form.

Gizmodo Summer Internships ★

A great opportunity to stain your career right off the bat.

How Secure Is Flash? ★

Ed Bott:

Yesterday, I rattled off some disturbing statistics about vulnerabilities in Flash Player and asked Adobe, “So, how are you planning to convince us that you’ve gotten serious about security?” No one from Adobe has gotten back to me on that one.

Litl ‘Webbook’ Drops in Price from $699 to $399 ★

I sincerely wish them luck, but I think they’re a year too late to have a chance.

Brian Lam’s Email to Steve Jobs Regarding Gizmodo’s Stolen iPhone Prototype ★

OCR’d from today’s unsealed affidavit (PDF) by Jason Snell. I love how Lam is trying to get better access from Apple in the future while simultaneously extorting written admission that the unit was indeed Apple’s.

Also, Lam misreported the contents of his own email to Apple chief counsel Bruce Sewell. As published on Gizmodo, Lam’s email to Sewell read:

Happy to have you pick this thing up. Was burning a hole in our pockets. Just so you know, we didn’t know this was stolen when we bought it. Now that we definitely know it’s not some knockoff, and it really is Apple’s, I’m happy to see it returned to its rightful owner.

P.S. I hope you take it easy on the kid who lost it. I don’t think he loves anything more than Apple except, well, beer.

Lam later edited the published version to omit the quip about beer. But according to the affidavit, the postscript, as sent to Sewell, in fact read:

P.S. I hope you take it easy on the kid who lost it. I don’t think he loves anything more than Apple except, well, beer. Maybe some spankings.

What a dick.

Apple Sort of Kind of Maybe Responds to Adobe ★

MG Siegler:

Now, it may be a complete coincidence, but the timing is interesting, to say the least. This morning, Apple starting emailing its customers to let them know that “Adobe CS5 is here.”

Roommate Informed Apple and Police Regarding iPhone Thief ★

Kim Zetter:

Police closed in on the man who found and sold a prototype 4G iPhone after his roommate called an Apple security official and turned him in, according to a newly unsealed document in the ongoing police investigation.

The tip sent police racing to the home of 21-year-old Brian Hogan, and began a strange scavenger hunt for evidence that a friend of Hogan’s had scattered around the Silicon Valley community of Redwood City. Police recovered a desktop computer stashed inside an area church, a thumb drive hidden in a bush alongside the road, and the iPhone’s serial number stickers from the parking lot of a gas station.

Good luck with the argument that they didn’t know the phone was stolen. It’s funny that his roommate knew how to contact Apple Security. Perhaps Hogan should have asked her for help with the telephone while ostensibly trying to return the phone. Like I’ve said, these guys are like characters out of a Coen brothers movie.

Asked the value of the phone, Apple told the police “it was invaluable.”

Ought to make for an interesting civil case against Gawker Media.

Gnash ★

GNU’s free and open source SWF player:

Gnash supports many SWF v8 features and ActionScript 2 classes. with growing support for SWF v10 and ActionScript 3.

The current version is 10, and has been out for two years. So is there an alternative to Flash Player? Sure. Is there an alternative that’s in any way useful, good, or relevant to modern Flash content? No.

Judge Orders iPhone Investigation Documents Unsealed ★

Bloomberg:

Search warrant documents in an investigation of the possible theft of an Apple Inc. iPhone prototype will be made public, a California judge ruled.

Judge Clifford V. Cretan in Redwood City today ruled against the San Mateo County District Attorney’s office, which argued that unsealing the documents will reveal identities of potential witnesses and compromise the investigation. Media organizations argued they should have access to the documents based on constitutionally protected free-speech rights.

Glenn Beck Has Nazi Tourette’s ★

Fantastic Daily Show piece from Lewis Black.

Mark Pilgrim’s All-in-One Almost-Alphabetical No-Bullshit Guide to Detecting Everything ★

Appendix A of his amazing Dive Into HTML5.

Proposed Apple Response to Adobe ★

This whole thing is a comedy gold mine.

Joe Posnanski on the iPad ★

Joe Posnanski:

I’m not saying you want an iPad or need one (or any of the upcoming tablets) — I don’t get commission. I’m just saying, what’s the big deal? It’s a computer and television and radio and newspaper and book and magazine and game console and Internet the size of a piece of paper and the width of a Mitch Albom book. It’s freaking amazing, that’s the big deal.

(Thanks to DF reader Jeff Feng.)

The ‘®’ Stands for ‘Open’ ★

Good snark from Adam Wilcox:

Dear Adobe, when the name of your “open” product contains two uses of ® then it isn’t open.

Open Source and Free Development Tools for Flash ★

Contra Jim Whimpey’s aforelinked refutation of Adobe’s “Choice” campaign, it is not the case that developers can only create Flash software using Adobe’s Flash Professional IDE. This page lists the free and open source ones. There also exist non-free third-party developer tools for Flash.

I still say Whimpey’s conclusion stands — it’s not the tools that make Flash a closed platform, it’s that the runtime, Flash Player, is completely controlled and defined by Adobe. Adobe’s argument is that Flash is an open part of the web but that there just happens to exist only one implementation, their own closed-source Flash Player.

HTML5 Video in iBooks ★

Just use the <video> tag.

Update: In a comment, Joe Clark points out that though it works in iBooks, using it is non-compliant with the ePub spec.

BBC News Is Apparently Living in Adobe’s Future ★

Jonathan Fildes, reporting for BBC News:

But Flash is commonly used to build smartphone apps. As a result, developers commonly used automatic translation tools — some built by Adobe — to convert Flash code to run on Apple gadgets.

These allowed developers to make applications once and then distribute them for use on various phones and operating systems, including Apple’s iPhone.

Which apps are these?

‘Considering’ ★

Bloomberg:

Sony Corp. is considering developing a tablet-style computer that would compete with Apple Inc.’s iPad, though it wants more evidence consumers will buy them, a company executive said.

A little late for “considering”.

Jim Whimpey on Adobe, Apple, and Openness ★

Succinct refutation of Adobe’s new “Choice” campaign.

This Is How Apple Rolls ★

I wrote the back-page column for the April issue of Macworld. A sort of overview of how Apple does what it does. I really like how this one turned out.

Survey of Retail Industry Experts Names Apple Top Store ★

Full survey results (PDF) available here.

Mick Jagger Goes Back to Exile ★

Mick Jagger, in an interview with the BBC, regarding the state of recorded music and Internet downloads:

But I have a take on that — people only made money out of records for a very, very small time. When The Rolling Stones started out, we didn’t make any money out of records because record companies wouldn’t pay you! They didn’t pay anyone!

Then, there was a small period from 1970 to 1997, where people did get paid, and they got paid very handsomely and everyone made money. But now that period has gone.

So if you look at the history of recorded music from 1900 to now, there was a 25 year period where artists did very well, but the rest of the time they didn’t.

A keener business mind in the music industry you will not find.