Linked List: June 18, 2010

Friday, 18 June 2010

Sourcebits 

My thanks to Sourcebits for again sponsoring this week’s DF RSS feed. Sourcebits is a contract developer specializing in iPhone, iPad, mobile, Mac, and web software. Their iPhone apps have been downloaded over 4.5 million times from the App Store, and they have a growing list of Android and BlackBerry apps, too. If you’re looking for software development services, check out Sourcebits’s website for examples of their work, such as Night Stand HD, the latest version of their iPad clock featuring six photorealistic designs.

Glenn Fleishman on Apple’s New ‘Find My iPhone’ App 

Yet another reason Apple ought to consider making MobileMe free of charge for iOS users.

O2’s Response to iPhone 4 Shortage 

O2:

iPhone stock will be extremely limited in the UK at launch and not everybody who wants one will be able to get one straight away. We want to make sure that our existing customers get priority so until at least the end of July, only existing O2 customers will be able to get an iPhone 4 from us.

Clever way to deal with the shortage — reward loyalty.

The Making of Pixar’s ‘Day & Night’ 

Mind-bending short — wonderful in 3D, and I generally dislike 3D — at the top of Toy Story 3. (And Toy Story 3 is wonderful.) (Via Andy Baio.)

Dale Peterson, My New Favorite Republican 

This is truly one of the best political ads I’ve ever seen.

New MobileMe Web Mail Now Available to All Members 

So now Apple’s web mail has a better UI layout than their desktop app. I really like that three-column iOS-inspired layout. (Also note that you can use the arrows keys to navigate between messages and mailboxes — up/down and left/right — in ways that you can’t in Snow Leopard Mail.)

Update: I know that many other mail programs use three-columns layouts (was Outlook first?); what’s iOS-inspired about the new MobileMe web mail is the style. Helvetica everywhere, minimal chrome, and the four-line-per-message name/subject/body-preview middle column. Compare this new three-column MobileMe mail to Letterbox, a hack for Mac OS X Mail to add a three-column view. Letterbox feels like the existing Mac OS X Mail with a different column layout; MobileMe Mail feels like iPad Mail.

Adobe’s Custom Flash Player Installer Is Inaccessible on Both Mac OS X and Windows 

Lioncourt:

Last week, Adobe released version 10.1 of their Flash player plugin for both the Mac and Windows operating systems, which included a large number of security fixes. Much to the frustration of visually impaired users, the installer application, which had previously been accessible, was rendered inaccessible with screen readers on both operating systems. This, of course, means that many visually impaired users are stuck using an older version of the plugin, along with all its known vulnerabilities.

Yet there’s a perfectly accessible real installer right inside the crummy shell installer’s package.

Palm: ‘We Don’t Know What the Hold-Up Is’ on Mobile Flash 

Who would have ever thought Adobe would let Palm down this way?

Lakers Beat Celtics for NBA Championship 

I despise the Lakers, so it made me queasy to watch them celebrate a game seven win over the Celtics on their home court. Warm congratulations to all of their rotten fans.

But what struck me the most watching this series, and especially game seven, is what an ugly, ugly game the NBA has devolved into. No beauty and very little strategy offensively from either side. No ball movement, and lots of standing around. Very hard to believe that these are the two best teams in the league. The Lakers shot just 33 percent from the field and yet clearly deserved to win the game. For decades, a game seven in the Finals between the Celtics and Lakers resulted in basketball at its very best. Now, it’s basketball at its worst. Brutal.