Linked List: July 1, 2010

Thursday, 1 July 2010

Google Acquires ITA, Leading Online Travel Reservation Company ★

Greg Sterling:

ITA is behind the reservations systems for many major airlines around the world, as well as travel sites such as Kayak, Orbitz, Hotwire and many others. Bing Travel also relies on the software. Google, if allowed to complete the acquisition, would thus own the “infrastructure” behind its direct competitor’s travel product.

Why settle for indexing the world’s information when you can own it?

Macworld Tests iPhone 4 Battery Life ★

Impressive improvement over the 3GS (but, I feel spoiled by the iPad).

AnandTech on the iPhone 4’s Antenna and Reception ★

Detailed analysis by Brian Klug and Anand Lal Shimpi at AnandTech. They show a decided drop in signal strength when “holding it wrong”, but conclude that the antenna is significantly improved overall:

From my day of testing, I’ve determined that the iPhone 4 performs much better than the 3GS in situations where signal is very low, at -113 dBm (1 bar). Previously, dropping this low all but guaranteed that calls would drop, fail to be placed, and data would no longer be transacted at all. I can honestly say that I’ve never held onto so many calls and data simultaneously on 1 bar at -113 dBm as I have with the iPhone 4, so it’s readily apparent that the new baseband hardware is much more sensitive compared to what was in the 3GS. The difference is that reception is massively better on the iPhone 4 in actual use.

Mr. Fish on Rolling Stone ★

Spot-on.

TechCrunch Reports Tapulous Acquired by Disney ★

Erick Schonfeld of TechCrunch reports that Disney has acquired Tapulous, the makers of the popular Tap Tap Revenge iOS games. Update: Confirmation from Tapulous and Disney.

Don’t Eff With Fudgie the Whale ★

Speaking of Rogue Amoeba, Paul Kafasis has a good piece on his personal weblog on the bizarre saga of Carvel Ice Cream and the “free ice cream for life” card they gave to Lindsay Lohan.

Andy Ihnatko’s iPhone 4 Review ★

Andy Ihnatko’s detailed iPhone 4 review is just great. Here’s one tidbit I hadn’t noticed:

The iPhone 4 is 4.4 times faster than its predecessor when uploading. That’s a high enough increase that I insisted that the iPhone 4 submit to an immediate drug test.

It’s due to the iPhone 4’s improved implementation of HSDPA (which arrived with last year’s iPhone 3GS) and its brand-new support for HSUPA. Yes, take a guess at what the “D” (download speed) and the “U” (upload speed) stand for in those respective acronyms. The upshot: the iPhone 4 can make better use of all of the improvements that AT&T has been making to its network, and it shows immediately.

Pulsar 2.0 ★

Nice update to Rogue Amoeba’s Mac client for XM and Sirius satellite radio; highlights include a new UI look and the ability to pause live radio.

Microsoft Should Take a Look at the Latest Version of Photoshop ★

Roz Ho, whom long-time Apple watchers will remember as the former head of Microsoft’s MacBU and frequent onstage presence during Apple keynotes, led Microsoft’s Kin effort:

Roz Ho is corporate vice president for Premium Mobile Experiences at Microsoft, where she leads the team working on KIN. She has been responsible for the integration of Danger Inc., which was acquired by Microsoft in April, 2008.

I’d say the quality of the image manipulation on her bio photo (to knock her out from the background) is emblematic of the work her team produced with the Danger acquisition.

Jim Dalrymple on the Latest Verizon/iPhone Rumors ★

The well-sourced Jim Dalrymple has heard the same thing I have:

Apple already has a Verizon compatible iPhone. It’s not that they have to rush around Apple HQ and start building the thing for a January launch with Verizon — it’s already there and being perfected all the time. As Gruber pointed out, think of this like the Mac OS X Intel version. People were shocked when they learned that Apple had parallel builds of OS X for Intel and IBM, but they had them for years.

But adds this:

Here’s where my thoughts differ a little bit from Bloomberg. I don’t believe a deal has been finalized with Verizon. It’s reasonable to assume that the two companies are in negotiations and the Bloomberg article is just another negotiating tactic, but I don’t think a deal has been signed.

New Kindle DX ★

New dark “graphite” body, higher-contrast 9.7-inch e-ink display, and the price is down to $379. I just can’t see buying this over an iPad, though.

Some Trouncing ★

Dennis Kneale, in a piece titled “Google Trounces the iPhone” for The Daily Beast, offers only these reasons (along with Google’s embrace of “openness”):

Both are digital dreams, but the Droid X (the X is for “extreme,” though it also will resonate with fans of porn. Brand bonus!) does some cool things iPhone can’t, such as shooting high-def video, which can be linked by broadband cable directly into your HDTV set and played instantly.

Sure would be great if the iPhone 4 could shoot HD video.

Matt Taibbi on Major Corporate ‘Journalism’ ★

Matt Taibbi, regarding Lara Logan’s criticism of Michael Hastings’s explosive profile of Gen. Stanley McChrystal:

If I’m hearing Logan correctly, what Hastings is supposed to have done in that situation is interrupt these drunken assholes and say, “Excuse me, fellas, I know we’re all having fun and all, but you’re saying things that may not be in your best interest! As a reporter, it is my duty to inform you that you may end up looking like insubordinate douche bags in front of two million Rolling Stone readers if you don’t shut your mouths this very instant!” I mean, where did Logan go to journalism school — the Burson-Marsteller agency?

I don’t think it’s hyperbolic in the least to say that the argument comes down to whether a journalist’s job is (a) to report what is true, important, and interesting; or (b) to report what those in power want reported.

Engadget: Hands-On With Hulu Plus ★

Ben Drawbaugh:

The bottom line is that while we doubt Hulu Plus will really spur the cord cutting that many think it might, but it will be a great supplemental source of content for those who can’t get enough TV.

Joshua Topolsky Reports on What Went Wrong With the Kin ★

Joshua Topolsky, reporting on information from “a reliable source”:

It seems that after doing some initial work on these phones based around Danger’s proprietary Sidekick OS, Andy Lees — the SVP of Microsoft’s mobile division — instructed everyone to go back to the drawing board and rebuild the OS based on Windows CE. It appears the company didn’t want a project that wasn’t directly connected to its Windows kernel. This move allegedly set the release of the devices back 18 months, during which time [Verizon] became increasingly frustrated with the delays.

Mindless “Windows everywhere” politics. 18 months is forever in this industry. And why in the world did they buy Danger if they were just going to scrap the OS anyway? What a mess.