Linked List: July 23, 2010

Friday, 23 July 2010

My thanks to Navel Labs for sponsoring this week’s DF RSS feed to promote ReadMore. ReadMore is an iPhone app that works as a reading log — a diary of your reading habits and a motivational aid to get through more books. It tracks your reading sessions, holds your notes, and gently prods you to, well, read more. Think of it as Nike Plus for reading. And: it looks great.

Check out the demo video on the website to see how it works. Buy ReadMore on the App Store for just $2.

iPhone and Android Customer Satisfaction ★

CNN buried the most interesting tidbit in this piece on the results of a Yankee Group survey:

77% of iPhone owners say they’ll buy another iPhone, compared to 20% of Android customers who say they’ll buy another Android phone.

That’s incredible, if accurate.

Update, 26 July 2010: It’s not accurate; see Carl Howe’s explanation for details.

Sean Dunne Interview With Keir Dullea on ‘2001’ ★

“He said, ‘You’ve just been offered the lead in Stanley Kubrick’s next film.’”

What Happened to HyperCard 3.0? ★

Geoff Duncan, writing for TidBITS back in 1998:

Apple already had a scripting language and authoring tool in HyperCard, and it was soon a done deal. HyperCard 3.0 would be re-implemented on top of QuickTime using QuickTime data formats, turning HyperCard 3.0 into an editor for interactive QuickTime movies. Projects authored in HyperCard would inherit all of QuickTime’s color capabilities and would work in any application — and on any platform — that supported QuickTime. The beleaguered, enervated HyperCard group became part of the high-profile, well-funded QuickTime group, and HyperCard aficionados rejoiced.

That HyperCard 3.0 existed and was built entirely on top of QuickTime is not a rumor. Apple was a very different company in the ’90s, and they showed development versions of HyperCard 3.0 in public several times. But then it was killed. Here’s a discussion thread on MacInTouch from 2002 wherein several people claim HyperCard 3.0 was “Steved” — that Jobs killed it because he “thought you could do everything in Cocoa and ProjectBuilder that you could do with HyperCard.”

That’s one explanation. But I’ve also heard stories that Macromedia pressured Apple to kill it — more or less telling Apple that if they shipped HyperCard 3.0, Macromedia would drop support for the Mac OS from Shockwave and, yes, Flash. If any readers out there know more about this story, I’d love to hear it. Confidentiality guaranteed.

Update: Two little birdies with good memories — and, as they say, familiarity with the matter — have written to state that it was killed simply as part of 1998 Apple’s belt-tightening refocusing of the company on core, essential products and technology. And one suggested that HyperCard 3.0 wasn’t nearly as close to being ready to ship as some reports suggested.

iOS 4.0 Performance on iPhone 3G ★

It’s a lot funnier if you have an iPhone 3GS or 4.

Update: Several readers who’ve experienced this claim that a DFU restore helps significantly.

Verizon Quarterly Results ★

Strong quarter, but they don’t break out how many Droids they activated. (AT&T said they activated 3.2 million iPhones.)

Will It Optimize? ★

Another splendidly intricate post from Peter Ammon. Only of interest if you enjoy puzzles on GCC optimizations.

Joshua Topolsky’s Windows Phone 7 Hands-On Preview ★

Based on a preview hardware unit from Samsung. Looks good, actually. The only serious problem they have is that they’re so far behind.

The Apache-Apple Event Bridge (AAEB) ★

David Dantowitz:

The Apache-Apple Event Bridge or AAEB enables you to run AppleScripts via Apache on Mac OS X 10.4, 10.5, and 10.6 (both client and Mac OS X Server).

The Web’s Five Most Endangered Words ★

Dave Pell:

The new national pastime: Baseball, hot dogs, apple pie and making determinations and judgments without a full set of facts.

Electronista: ‘Microsoft Hopes Employees Will Write WP7 Apps in Spare Time’ ★

Headline of the day.

White iPhone 4 Delayed Again ★

Apple:

White models of Apple’s new iPhone 4 have continued to be more challenging to manufacture than we originally expected, and as a result they will not be available until later this year. The availability of the more popular iPhone 4 black models is not affected.

Every smartphone maker has trouble manufacturing white ones. It’s an industry-wide problem.

Nokia Profit Falls ★

Sales are up 1 percent, but profit is down 64 percent.

Free iPhone 4 Case Program Starts ★

Chris Foresman:

For current iPhone 4 users who want a new Bumper or other case, you’ll have to download the iPhone 4 Case Program app from the App Store. When the app launches, you sign in with your Apple ID, and you’ll be presented with a selection of cases to choose from. Currently you can choose either a black Bumper or one of seven cases from InCase, Belkin, Griffin, and Speck.

Doing it through an app is a clever idea. Also interesting: only the black bumper is available through this program.