Linked List: June 17, 2010

Thursday, 17 June 2010

Scorsese on Kubrick 

Martin Scorsese:

Like all visionaries, he spoke the truth. And no matter how comfortable we think we are with the truth, it always comes as a profound shock when we’re forced to meet it face-to-face.

(Via Jim Coudal.)

Joe Barton Would Like to Apologize 

“To Brownie, who let’s face it, really was doing a heck of a job.”

John C. Welch on the Actual Installer Inside Adobe’s Flash Player 10.1 ‘Installer’ 

John C. Welch:

If you download Flash, you get the ‘normal’ installer, which has all the silly chrome and the even sillier insistence that you quit browsers, etc. That kind of thing is really annoying, because it makes pushing the update out quite the pain in the keister.

However, if you crack open that installer, (ctrl-click on it and select “Show Package Contents” for the uninitiated), and go into the resources folder, you see a lovely file called “Adobe Flash Player.pkg”. That, dear readers, is a standard Mac OS X installer, that does not start forcing you to quit browsers. It is therefore, because of format and design, quite compatible with any number of IT tools, such as Apple Remote Desktop and others.

Good to know, but why do they bother with the wrapper installer, though? I mean look at this.

Dan Moren on Air Video 

Dan Moren:

InMethod’s Air Video helps eliminate that dilemma by allowing you to stream video over the network from your home computer. No more syncing, no more making sure you erase old videos to free up space, and, best of all, you don’t even have to convert videos into a compatible format.

Flash Player 10.1 Now Available for Windows, Mac, and Linux 

I missed this last week when it was news:

Our Mac engineers, with some help from the Safari team, made significant changes to Flash Player for Macs. Here’s a partial list of the work we completed for Argo. First and foremost, Flash Player 10.1 is a full-fledged Cocoa app (though legacy Carbon support remains for some browsers that require it). We now leverage Cocoa events, use Cocoa UI for our dialogs, leverage Core Audio for sound, Core Graphics for printing support, and use Core Foundation for bundle-style text. […]

The overall performance improvements of Flash Player for Mac users will result in faster video playback, more efficient CPU utilization, and greater battery life.

No idea why they’re using a custom installer, though.

‘Ended on a Brown Note’ 

Speaking of interviews with my friends, Jeremy Fuksa conducted a great interview with Adam Lisagor back at SXSW.

iPhone 4 Confirmed to Have 512 MB of RAM 

That’s twice the amount in the 3GS and the iPad.

‘This Phone Is an Asshole’ 

Jack Shedd:

I’ve noticed an odd tendency in Android device reviews. Their flaws, always major and always awe-inspiring in their insipidness, are inevitably attributed more to the device itself than to the underlying Android operating system. There’s a sense, not just from reviewers, but from fans of the device, that what Android really needs is just killer hardware.

Which is just absolute horse shit.

WWDC 2010 Session Videos Already Available 

At this rate, next year’s videos will be out before I even sober up. Even better: they’re available to all registered Apple developers, not just WWDC attendees, free of charge. (Last year they cost $500 for non-attendees.)

‘The Real Concern to Me Is Five Years From Now. Ten.’ 

Speaking of Paul Kafasis, TMO’s Dave Hamilton has a good interview with him from WWDC last week, ranging from Rogue Amoeba’s history to the future of Mac OS X.

Vuvux and Audio Hijack Pro 

Speaking of the World Cup, Rogue Amoeba’s Paul Kafasis has a post explaining how to use Vuvux — a free Mac OS X AudioUnit plugin from Prosoniq — to filter out the vuvuzelas. (Don’t miss the discount code for Audio Hijack Pro at the end.)

N+1: World Cup Preview 

I guess it’s a little late to link to a preview, but I love the way Jeff Blum wrote these short team summaries. (Via Thom Fries.)

Criterion Box Art 

Inspiring design work. (Via Kottke.)

David Pogue Reviews Sprint’s HTC Evo 

Sounds great: the Wi-Fi hotspot drains a full battery charge in an hour, you can’t get a full day of stand-by out of a full charge, it takes six minutes to connect to 4G (if you happen to live in one of the few cities with 4G coverage), and as for video calling:

After two days of fiddling, downloading and uninstalling apps, manually force-quitting programs and waiting for servers to be upgraded, I finally got video calling to work — sort of. Sometimes there was only audio and a black screen, sometimes only a freeze-frame; at best, the video was blocky and the audio delay absurd.

To make video calling work, you have to install an app yourself: either Fring or Qik. But we never did get Fring to work, and Qik requires people you call to press a Talk button when they want to speak. The whole thing is confusing and, to use the technical term, iffy.

Neven Mrgan on the Various Sizes of iOS App Icons 

I’m sure designers working on other platforms worry about such details, too.

Another Wonderful ‘Yes/No’ Dialog Box From Microsoft 

Their Mac apps are part of the fun, too.

First iOS 4 Multitasking-Aware Apps Appearing in App Store 

But just a week ago, Pocket-Lint told us to expect “massive delays” waiting for apps to support these features.

iFixit’s New Mac Mini Teardown 

Kind of amazing how little there is inside.

YouTube Video Editor 

Very Google-y.

Moyer Stymies Yankees 

The winning pitcher for the Phillies in their 6-3 victory over the Yankees at Yankee Stadium last night? 47-year-old Jamie Moyer, whose fastball tops out around 81 MPH. He’s two years older than Yankees manager Joe Girardi. He pitched a gem.

Full Steve Jobs D8 Interview Now Available for Download on iTunes 

John Paczkowski:

In the weeks ahead, we’ll continue to post full streaming videos of all D8 interviews here at AllThingsD.com, where they will be available indefinitely. We’re posting two videos per week, and have already published sessions with Steve Jobs, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and director James Cameron on-site.