Linked List: May 20, 2010

Thursday, 20 May 2010

The WSJ:

Facebook, MySpace and several other social-networking sites have been sending data to advertising companies that could be used to find consumers’ names and other personal details, despite promises they don’t share such information without consent.

iPads Outselling Macs ★

No surprise. It’d be surprising if they weren’t.

Matt Drance: ‘Google Rewrites History’ ★

Matt Drance is obviously mistaken. If Google says they created Android to prevent the iPhone from imposing a “draconian future”, it must be true even if the timeline doesn’t add up, because Google is open and their motto is “Don’t be evil” and Vic Gundotra learned his straight-shooting ways at well-known good guy Microsoft.

Engadget’s Coverage of the Google I/O Day Two Keynote ★

Updated mobile OS, an updated mobile web browser they claim to be the industry’s fastest, new richer mobile ads, on board with Adobe’s definition of the “full web” including Flash, and an upcoming home entertainment TV platform. I don’t think there’s a single thing Google talked about today that isn’t directly competitive with Apple.

Ars Technica: ‘Hands on With the Kindle Reader for Android’ ★

Ends up it doesn’t have a built-in store — kicks you out to a web page, just like on the iPhone.

Google TV ★

Could be something when it actually ships.

Hot Stuff ★

Ross Miller for Engadget on the Flash-enabled Android 2.2 browser:

Battery and heat are also of concern: the pre-release beta we have, according to Adobe, lacks hardware acceleration. Ergo, our beloved handset got piping hot after about 30 minutes of heavy video watching, and the battery indicator in the upper right had a sizable dent.

I’m sure an update that runs fast and cool is right around the corner.

Headline of the Day ★

John Paczkowski on Vic Gundotra’s explanation for why Google made Android: “But We’re Just Fine With the Two Men, One Company, One Search Engine Model”.

Which Is It: Jane Austen Title or Still From ‘Demolition Man’? ★

Tricky quiz. (Via Matt Drance.)

iPad Weather Apps Roundup ★

Jeff Merron reviews four iPad weather apps for Macworld.

Mobile OS Web-Browsing Share Among Tumblr Visitors ★

Fascinating numbers from Tumblr — the OS-breakdown by percentage for visitors to all Tumblr-hosted weblogs. High numbers for the Mac, and Android does quite well among mobile devices.

Adobe’s Revenue by Division ★

Creative tools remains their core asset.