Linked List: July 8, 2010

Thursday, 8 July 2010

Charles Jolley Goes Full-Time on SproutCore ★

Charles Jolley:

In many ways, the iPad is the perfect web device. It’s a lean-back experience optimized around consuming content. With HTML5 (which mobile Safari does better than just about anything else), the kind of experience you can create on these devices is just really spectacular. You only need to use the NPR demo we wrote earlier this year for a few minutes to realize this is obviously the future of software.

For this reason I decided about a month ago to leave Apple and form a new company centered around helping companies bring great native-style app experiences to mobile devices. The center of this company, of course, is SproutCore. Monday was my last day at Apple.

Apple Approves iPhone 4 LED Flashlight Apps ★

They’re now allowed, provided they display a warning that extended use of the LED flash will dramatically affect battery life.

Aktiv Grotesk, Bruno Maag’s Would-Be Helvetica Killer ★

Patrick Burgoyne of Creative Review interviews typographer Bruno Maag, who so loathes Helvetica he created a new font to be used instead of it. Quite a rant.

Personally, I think Maag is a crank. Univers is a fine typeface, and if you want to argue that it’s better than Helvetica, I won’t agree, but I won’t argue. But his Aktiv Grotesk is worse than both Helvetica and Univers.

dConstruct 2010 ★

I’ll be speaking at dConstruct in Brighton, England on September 3. Great lineup of speakers, including Merlin Mann and Brendan Dawes.

Newly Published Mark Twain Essay: ‘Concerning the Interview’ ★

Mark Twain:

No one likes to be interviewed, and yet no one likes to say no; for interviewers are courteous and gentle-mannered, even when they come to destroy.

Google Updates Mobile YouTube Website ★

Quite competitive with Apple’s native iPhone YouTube app, and, as the demo shows, it offers the same experience on Android.

Some are making hay over the fact that it’s maybe better than the native iPhone app, but what I think is interesting is that it’s a better, simpler, clearer, less junky website than the “regular” (non-mobile) YouTube.

Worst Gadget Review of 2010? ★

Katherine Boehret seemed to really like the Kin when she reviewed it two months ago.

8,800 Active Kin Users on Facebook? ★

Adam Lein points to the Kin Facebook app’s stats page, which indicates there are 8,800 Kin-using Facebook users. If this is accurate, it means my little birdie was wrong about Microsoft only having sold 503 units. I’m not convinced this Facebook stat is meaningful, though.

Bluetooth 4.0 Specification Gets Official, Devices Expected by Q4 2010 ★

Leading the way in the new spec’s features: “low energy consumption”. Totally guessing here, but maybe this is something Apple would use for a next-generation Apple TV remote control?