Linked List: November 30, 2010

Tuesday, 30 November 2010

When You Should Give Your Android Phone a Factory Reset ★

Ryan Whitwam:

In an ideal world, your Android phone would run like a dream forever. This being real life, we can’t always expect that sort of robust performance out of our devices. Things can happen that slow your phone and damage the experience. Maybe you install a lot of apps, and some of them are acting a little mischievous, or maybe something has just gone wrong deep down in the system where you have little chance of fixing it. At times like this, you could agonize over tweaks and possible fixes, or you could spend time uninstalling different combinations of apps. But maybe wiping the phone clean and starting over is the best overall option sometimes.

I am not going to crack any jokes about this. I am not going to crack any jokes about this. I am not going to crack any jokes about this.

Anonymity Breeds Contempt ★

Julie Zhuo:

Even in the fourth century B.C., Plato touched upon the subject of anonymity and morality in his parable of the ring of Gyges. That mythical ring gave its owner the power of invisibility, and Plato observed that even a habitually just man who possessed such a ring would become a thief, knowing that he couldn’t be caught. Morality, Plato argues, comes from full disclosure; without accountability for our actions we would all behave unjustly. […]

Psychological research has proven again and again that anonymity increases unethical behavior.

The Claim Chowder Is Really Piling Up Today ★

John Paczkowski:

Two years. Three at the most.

That’s how long Acer CEO Gianfranco Lanci figures it will take his company to overwhelm the iPad and commandeer Apple’s early lead in the tablet PC market.

Unit sale share only, or profit share too?

More Thurrott ★

Paul Thurrott, taking a quote from this NYT story way out of context (boldface his):

The New York Times asks, “With so much going for them why, eight months after the iPad’s release, is the design of so many of those apps so boring?”

To which I answer: They’re boring because the iPad is boring.

I actually feel bad for him and his sad, small little world. Imagine being a tech enthusiast and finding the iPad boring.

How to Compete With Free ★

Time, on how the iTunes Music Store succeeded in the face of file sharing:

It turns out that there is something that can compete with free: easy.

PCWorld: ‘Apple Is Getting Desperate in the Mobile Arena’ ★

Katherine Noyes:

I believe Apple’s iPhone is rapidly becoming a niche device. Its restrictions are too numerous, its approach too condescending, and its choices too few to have the broad appeal it needs to succeed on a grander scale in the long run.

In short, Apple may always have its share of fans among consumers who don’t mind living in its “walled garden,” but there’s no way it can compete in the market as a whole with the diverse, compelling and powerful platform that is Android.

Filed away for future claim chowder.

Paul Thurrott: ‘How Apple Can Fix the iPad in 2011’ ★

Is there anyone who thinks Thurrott’s choice of the verb fix in lieu of, say, improve does anything other than show what a dick he is?

Mac of the Future: The CPU ★

Nice to see Anand Lal Shimpi writing for Macworld.

Hybrids vs. Trucks: Comparing Sales Over the Last Decade ★

Interesting data visualization work by Mike Kruzeniski.

James Clark: XML vs the Web ★

James Clark:

But this vision seems to have been lost sight of over time to the point where there’s a gulf between the XML community and the broader Web developer community; all the stuff that’s been piled on top of XML, together with the huge advances in the Web world in HTML5, JSON and JavaScript, have combined to make XML be perceived as an overly complex, enterprisey technology, which doesn’t bring any value to the average Web developer.

‘Simple Trumps Complete’ ★

Netflix chief product officer Neil Hunt on what they A/B test, and what they’ve learned.

David Pogue: ‘Lessons Learned in 10 Years on the Tech Beat’ ★

Pogue, looking back on his ten years as the NYT’s tech columnist:

Things don’t replace things; they just splinter. I can’t tell you how exhausting it is to keep hearing pundits say that some product is the “iPhone killer” or the “Kindle killer.” Listen, dudes: the history of consumer tech is branching, not replacing.