Linked List: January 5, 2011

Wednesday, 5 January 2011

Flickr for Windows 7 and Windows Phone 7 (Flash Video) 

Looks good — far more interesting than Flickr’s lame, buggy iPhone app. But it’s not shipping yet.

Micro-USB vs. Apple’s 30-Pin Dock Port 

I mentioned on this week’s The Talk Show that one of the little things that’s struck me while using a Nexus S over the last few weeks is that the Micro-USB port is much smaller, and aesthetically more elegant, than the proprietary 30-pin adapter port on Apple’s iPods and iOS devices. Usually it’s the Apple technology that’s “smaller and more elegant”. So why has Apple stuck with the 30-pin port? For one thing, it does more than USB: it transmits video and stereo audio. How long does Apple stick with this? The iOS-based Apple TV 2 has a Micro-USB port, but doesn’t need video or audio to go out over that port because it also has HDMI.

Kool-Aid 

Joe Wilcox on Samsung’s just-announced Series 9 laptops:

Samsung has the eye-popper of the Consumer Electronics Show (OK, so far), and it’s sure to make MacBook Air owners whine with envy (that is if they’re between Apple Kool-Aid fixes). Hell, I want one. The Samsung 9 Series packs big performance in a little package.

So MacBook Air owners are Kool-Aid drinking cultists, but sane, rational Joe Wilcox is declaring something he’s never used or even seen in person a “MacBook Air killer”. OK. (It is a nice-looking laptop.)

Android 3.0 Preview Video 

“Built entirely for tablet”.

Samsung’s Catchily-Named RMC30D Universal Remote Control 

Looks vaguely familiar. Can’t quite put my finger on what it reminds me of, though.

Future iPhone Parts Caught on Video? 

Andrew Munchbach:

A firm named GlobalDirectParts has put together a fairly extensive, five-plus minute video showcasing what they claim to be parts from Apple’s next generation iPhone (referred to as the iPhone 5 in the video). We get a crystal clear look at the charging-port flex-cable and outer aluminum skeleton of the device. There are several key differences between the iPhone 4 parts and the new parts we are being shown — displayed side by side in the video — including the absence of several of the black, plastic strips on the casing.

Crazy. My guess is that these are parts from N92, the upcoming (but as yet still unnannounced) CDMA iPhone 4. But why a SIM card slot? World compatibility?

Update: The video was pulled by YouTube, “due to a copyright claim by Apple, Inc.” SmartPhone Medic has a few pictures of the same parts, and, frankly, a few still photos are all you need to get the gist.

Idea: Crowdfund a Mission to Put a Monolith on the Moon 

David Friedman:

The goal: Erect a monolith on the moon. (See 2001 for reference).

Is there an upper limit to the amount of money you can raise on Kickstarter? Because I guesstimate this project will require about half a billion dollars. So I only need to find 5 million geeks-like-me worldwide who think this is a cool enough idea to donate 100 bucks. That seems pretty doable, especially considering Kickstarter’s rule that nobody has to pay anything if I can’t raise all the money I need, so people can donate with confidence.

Best Kickstarter idea ever.

The Amazon Appstore 

Amazon:

You may have seen the buzz in Android blogs and forums about Amazon doing something… appy!  Today Amazon.com launched the Amazon Appstore Developer Portal.  You can find the Portal at developer.amazon.com.  It is a new self-service tool that allows mobile application developers — Android developers in particular—to join our Appstore Developer Program and submit apps for the upcoming launch of the Amazon Appstore for Android.

My guess is that this will be much more successful than Google’s Marketplace. Amazon knows how to sell stuff. Here’s their FAQ (but you have to be signed into an Amazon account to see it). Same terms as Apple — 70 percent cut of the selling price, and $99 a year to join the developer program. Regarding DRM:

For each app that you submit to the Appstore, you can choose to apply DRM or make your app available without any rights management constraints. If you do choose to apply DRM to one of your apps, you must use the DRM system provided by Amazon through the Amazon Appstore Developer Portal.

Sidenote: months ago, I heard from two separate iOS developers who were contacted by Amazon. The pitch: Amazon wanted them to port their iPhone apps to Android, specifically for inclusion in Amazon’s app store. I’m curious to know how successful this outreach has been for Amazon.

Usually I have an instant yea or nay reaction to a logo redesign. This one, I don’t know. It still feels Starbucky at least. I think I’ll go with “yea”.

MacTech’s Virtualization Benchmarks 

Extensive benchmarking of running Windows on Mac OS X using Parallels Desktop 6 and VMware Fusion 3.1.

Update: This one was fireballed for a while earlier, but it’s back now.

Newton 2.0 

Speaking of John Battelle’s Apple predictions, here’s one from last year:

Apple’s “iTablet” will disappoint. Sorry Apple fanboys, but the use case is missing, even if the thing is gorgeous and kicks ass for so many other reasons. Until the computing UI includes culturally integrated voice recognition and a new approach to browsing (see #4), the “iTablet” is just Newton 2.0.

In hindsight, I think the use cases for the original iPad are simplicity and delight.

“Newton 2.0” was intended as a disparagement, in the sense that the Newton never sold well. But I still say that Apple’s competitors could do a lot worse than copying UI ideas from the Newton.

‘User CSS’ Safari Extension 

Nice Safari extension by Kridsada Thanabulpong for customizing the CSS for any web page. (Via Mark Otto, who created a black-text-on-white-background stylesheet for DF.)

Justin Williams on Windows Phone 7 

Justin Williams on the Samsung Focus:

Windows Phone 7 as an operating system is a delight to use, and I really look forward to where Microsoft plans to take it going forward. The biggest hurdle it faces right now is the lack of quality applications. There may be 5000 apps, but 4990 of them are junk.

Insightful, detailed review.

All About the Ads 

Kyle Baxter on Google’s motivations for Android:

Google isn’t a web application company—they’re an advertising company. That’s what they do best, and that’s what drives their company. Of Google’s $23.6 billion of revenue in 2009, all but $760 million of it was derived from advertising, and nearly 70 percent of it was from Google’s own websites.

Everything Google does must be understood within this context.