Linked List: June 29, 2010

Tuesday, 29 June 2010

Richard Gaywood on the iPhone 4 Signal Issue 

Best piece on the issue I’ve seen so far:

If you’re in a strong signal area, you may not ever see the effect, because even with the attenuation from holding the phone you’ll still have plenty of signal left over. But that doesn’t mean you aren’t going to be affected by the issue unless you are never, ever in a weaker signal area — and the second test above suggests that 3G data transfer rates are still going to be slower anyway.

His conclusions: with a strong signal, iPhone 4 reception is slightly worse when “holding it wrong”, but you’re unlikely to notice. But with a marginal signal, how you hold the iPhone 4 matters very much.

Lee Brimelow’s Blog Post on the iPad’s Lack of Flash Needs an Update 

His top three examples for why the iPad needs Flash: FarmVille, Hulu, and CNN.com, all of which now offer Flash-free alternatives for iOS devices.

Update: Make that his top four reasons.

Bloomberg: Verizon iPhone in January 

Amy Thomson, reporting for Bloomberg:

Verizon Wireless, the largest U.S. mobile-phone company, will start selling Apple Inc.’s iPhone next year, ending AT&T Inc.’s exclusive hold on the smartphone in the U.S., two people familiar with the plans said.

I’ll believe it when I see. Who’d leak this now? Apple? No way. Why distract from the just-released red hot iPhone 4? Makes more sense as a leak from Verizon, intended to placate existing customers thinking about jumping ship.

But, who knows? This report from Bloomberg seems certain. Let’s see who else gets the same leak.

Pikes Peak International Hill Climb 

Shot (but not edited) using an iPhone 4. (Via Jalopnik.)

Hulu Plus 

New $10/month subscription service from Hulu, with a lot of content and support for HD streaming to the iPhone and iPad, and a slew of other TVs and devices. Not (yet?) on the list: Android.

I must be confused, because I thought Hulu was the biggest reason why Apple needs to add support for Flash to iOS. (Good luck using Flash to watch HD streaming video, Android users.)

Another Nail in the Pageview Coffin 

Mike Davidson:

This weekend, msnbc.com launched a sweeping redesign of the most important part of their site: the story page. The result is something unlike anything any other major news site is offering and is a bold step in a direction no competitor has gone down (yet): the elimination of pageviews as a primary metric.

Bravo, MSNBC.com. I love it.

David Kassan Paints a Portrait Using Brushes for iPad 

Yet another guy who didn’t get the memo that the iPad is for consumption, not creation.

How to Put a Phone Call on Hold With iPhone 4 

The FaceTime button replaces the Hold button; to hold a call, press-and-hold on the Mute button.

iPhone 4 vs. HTC Evo and Vice-Versa 

Profanely funny.

Cross-Browser Kerning-Pairs and Ligatures Using CSS 

News to me: text-rendering: optimizeLegibility. Not sure why this isn’t on by default — performance, I guess. (Via Naz Hamid.)

Vin Scully 

Tyler Kepner on 82-year-old Vin Scully, who’s been calling games for the Dodgers since 1950 — eight years before the team moved from Brooklyn to Los Angeles. With Mel Allen and Harry Kalas gone, Scully is indisputably the voice of baseball.

Why Do People Play FarmVille? 

A.J. Patrick Liszkiewicz:

Again: if FarmVille is laborious to play and aesthetically boring, why are so many people playing it? The answer is disarmingly simple: people are playing FarmVille because people are playing FarmVille.

Update: Says DF reader James Murray via email, FarmVille is like a “Ponzi scheme of attention.”