Linked List: July 20, 2010

Tuesday, 20 July 2010

Help Menu Search as Shortcut Button ★

Great tip from Mark Dalrymple: instead of remembering keyboard shortcuts for dozens of different menu items, just use the Help menu (Command-/) and start typing the name of the menu item you want. Sort of like LaunchBar for menu items.

Update: Ends up the standard shortcut is Command-Shift-/, not plain Command-/. (It’s like Command-?, get it?) I’ve been using this technique ever since the search field appeared in the Help menu, and long ago changed my system-wide Help Menu shortcut to Command-/ to make it easier to type. (You can change it, or any keyboard shortcut, in the Keyboard panel of System Preferences.)

Doesn’t Sound Smart to Me ★

Donald Melanson for Engadget:

The latest addition was revealed in Australia by Toshiba’s Mark Whittard, who showed off a prototype of a so-called “Smart Pad” tablet but unfortunately revealed few details about it. He did say that it would have both HDMI and USB connectivity, however, and that it could run either Android or Windows 7 — Toshiba apparently hasn’t decided which, though. There’s no indication of a price either, but Whittard says Toshiba is looking to launch it “before October.”

So it’s launching in three months and they don’t know what the OS is yet?

Macworld’s Live Coverage of Apple’s Quarterly Finance Call ★

Tim Cook has reiterated several times that Apple is selling both the iPhone 4 and iPad as fast as it can make them. They can’t make either of them fast enough to meet demand.

Apple Reports Third Quarter Results ★

Apple:

The Company posted record revenue of $15.7 billion and net quarterly profit of $3.25 billion, or $3.51 per diluted share. These results compare to revenue of $9.73 billion and net quarterly profit of $1.83 billion, or $2.01 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. […]

Apple sold 3.47 million Macs during the quarter, representing a new quarterly record and a 33 percent unit increase over the year-ago quarter. The Company sold 8.4 million iPhones in the quarter, representing 61 percent unit growth over the year-ago quarter. Apple sold 9.41 million iPods during the quarter, representing an eight percent unit decline from the year-ago quarter. The Company began selling iPads during the quarter, with total sales of 3.27 million.

Andy Zaky did pretty well in his predictions.

Dan Fierman Interviews Bill Murray ★

Bill Murray:

I have developed a kind of different style over the years. I hate trying to re-create a tone or a pitch. Saying, “I want to make it sound like I made it sound the last time”? That’s insane, because the last time doesn’t exist. It’s only this time. And everything is going to be different this time. There’s only now. And I don’t think a director, as often as not, knows what is going to play funny anyway. As often as not, the right one is the one that they’re surprised by, so I don’t think that they have the right tone in their head. And I think that good actors always — or if you’re being good, anyway — you’re making it better than the script. That’s your fucking job. It’s like, Okay, the script says this? Well, watch this. Let’s just roar a little bit. Let’s see how high we can go.

Curious Use of the Present Tense ★

Netbook News reports: “ASUS EP101TC Now Shipping With Android”; where by “now shipping” they mean “set to ship in January” — and where by “with Android” they mean “not with Windows CE”.

(You can see the same mockup of the Eee Pad on this slide from Steve Ballmer’s presentation at Microsoft’s Worldwide Partners Conference just a week ago. How many Windows tablets is Ballmer going to promote that never wind up shipping with Windows?)

John Paczkowski on Friday’s Secret Antenna Test Lab Tour ★

John Paczkowski:

Smartphone antenna design requires compromises. The trouble is, the public doesn’t expect compromises from Apple.

MacPaint and QuickDraw Source Code ★

The Computer History Museum:

For those who want to see how it worked “under the hood”, we are pleased, with the permission of Apple Inc., to make available the original program source code of MacPaint and the underlying QuickDraw graphics library.

The crown jewels of the original Macintosh: the most amazing part of the system software and the best app. I don’t think it’s hyperbole to say that QuickDraw’s source code was the most valuable in the world.

Love this anecdote about Bill Atkinson:

A reporter asked Steve Jobs, “How many man-years did it take to write QuickDraw?” Steve asked Bill, who said, “Well, I worked on it on and off for four years.” Steve then told the reporter, “Twenty-four man-years”. Obviously Steve figured, with ample justification, that one Atkinson year was the equivalent of six ordinary programmer years.