Linked List: January 13, 2011

Thursday, 13 January 2011

Marco Arment makes the case that the plethora of Android devices has numerous downsides. One point of several:

The manufacturers and carriers have very little incentive to maintain the software on devices that are still relatively new and under contract, because they want everyone buying the newest ones instead. We’re already seeing carriers and some manufacturers refusing to release new Android versions to handsets that were launched as recently as 6 months ago, even though most users bought them with 2-year contracts.

He also mentions the lack of cases for any individual Android phone, compared to the iPhone, where there are just two form factors covering the last three years of iPhones: 3G/3GS, and 4. Update: Maybe two-and-a-half form factors, given the slightly different positioning of the mute toggle on the just-announced CDMA iPhone 4. But still.

Apple, News Corp. Delay ‘The Daily’ iPad Publication ★

Peter Kafka:

Apple and News Corp. have made a joint decision to push back next week’s planned launch, according to sources familiar with the companies’ plans. The delay is supposed to give Apple time to tweak its new subscription service for publications sold through its iTunes platform.

“Weeks, not months”, say his sources.

Peter Bright: ‘Google’s Dropping H.264 From Chrome a Step Backward for Openness’ ★

Peter Bright:

Video distributors wanting to support both Flash and HTML5 users will have to encode twice; once in H.264, for Flash users, and again in WebM, for HTML5 users. This doubles the computational cost, doubles the storage requirements, and as an added bonus will tend to hurt quality. This is inconvenient for a small site with one or two videos; for sites like SmugMug it’s an enormous headache. They can either suffer the doubled costs and complexity, or ignore HTML5 altogether and stick with Flash.

It looks like sticking with Flash and ignoring <video> is indeed what SmugMug may end up doing. And who can blame them? Flash works for almost every Internet user, and Flash supports H.264.

Practical vs. idealistic thinking.

Claim Chowder: Joe Wilcox on Verizon and Apple ★

Joe Wilcox, on Saturday:

Verizon isn’t AT&T. The United States’ largest cellular carrier isn’t accustomed to taking crap from handset manufacturers. Verizon controls everything on its network and is quick to customize handsets with its software and services. […] Perhaps 18 months ago, Verizon would have ceded more to Apple

I’ll leave the claim chowder rundown to commenter “iphonedroidberry”:

So, to recap, here is how Verizon “takes no crap from suppliers”, and how Verizon “is in the driver’s seat”, and how Verizon “won’t cow before Jobs” and how Verizon “set the terms of the deal”:

a) no V-cast software
b) no Verizon software/bloatware/crapware (of their own or of their partners)
c) no Verizon selling of games music or apps
d) no Verizon branding on the hardware
e) no Verizon control of software/firmware or updates
f) no Verizon control of scheduling of release dates for software updates
g) NO exclusivity deal for a USA CDMA version of iPhone

Beyond those tiny little things, if you overlook items a thru g, yes, Verizon is definitely wearing the pants in the Apple/Verizon relationship.

Jon Stewart on the Verizon iPhone ★

Seven-minute sketch on The Daily Show, all about the Verizon iPhone and how shitty AT&T is. This is what I mean about this being bigger news than all phone-related news at CES combined.

(Ironically and alas, the video requires Flash Player.)

What Is an App? ★

Ian Bogost:

I’ve been thinking about this question a lot over the past year. It may sound silly, given the ubiquity of the word, but despite all the “apps” on our phones and webpages and other devices, I’m not sure we have a good sense of what it means, or what that meaning implies.

I disagree with his analogy at the end of the piece, but it’s a thoughtful take, and I do agree with his basic premise: that there’s something deeper going on than a mere shortening of “application”.

Linguists Vote ‘App’ Word of the Year ★

The AP:

The tech slang “app” was voted the 2010 “Word of the Year” Friday by the American Dialect Society, beating out Cookie Monster’s “nom, nom, nom, nom.”

The shortened slang term for a computer or smart phone application was picked by the linguists group as the word that best sums up the country’s preoccupation last year.

I don’t think there can be any argument that Apple pioneered this usage, but it’s still just a word. That’s what we call computer applications now: apps. “Apps”, no matter who coined it, are not specific to Apple platforms.

But: Apple’s trademark application isn’t for just plain “app”. They’re asking for a trademark on “app store”. There’s a department store chain with a registered trademark for “Christmas Tree Shops”. “The Container Store” is a registered trademark. Given those, could Apple get “The App Store”?

But: I would think that I could open a store called “The Gruber Container Store”, or “The Daring Fireball Christmas Tree Shop”. I suspect that what Apple wants to block with this trademark application is something like “WebOS App Store” or “Windows Phone App Store”. So the more I think about it, the more I think Microsoft is right, that Apple shouldn’t be granted a trademark on just plain “app store”. It’s true that Microsoft has a trademark for “Windows”, but they aren’t selling actual windows. Whereas Apple’s App Store is a literal store for apps.

‘Make It Better’ ★

Fun little typographic animation by Climent Canal and Sebastián Baptista.

Six-Year Google Trends Chart for ‘App’ ★

There’s a decided spike in mid-2008, and a steady climb ever since. And if you check the trend for “app store”, it doesn’t even exist as a common search term until mid-2008.

I don’t know whether “app store” should be trademarkable. I’m leaning toward no, that it is too generic, and that they should only be granted trademarks for Something App Store — Mac App Store, iOS App Store, iTunes App Store, etc. But a lot of companies have gotten trademarks for pretty generic words when they’re used in a specific context. Steve Jobs has been using the word “app” for as long as I remember, easily back to the NeXT years. I remember thinking it always sounded awkward, too cutesy, whenever he said it, because it wasn’t in common usage.

Microsoft Seeks to Block Apple ‘App Store’ Trademark ★

BBC News:

The company says the term is too generic and competitors should be able to use it.

“An ‘app store’ is an ‘app store’,” said Russell Pangborn, Microsoft’s associate general counsel. “Like ‘shoe store’ or ‘toy store’, it is a generic term that is commonly used by companies, governments and individuals that offer apps.”

“The term ‘app store’ should continue to be available for use by all without fear of reprisal by Apple.”

I agree. Just like the generic term “Windows”. Or “Office”. Update: See this piece for further, better-reasoned thoughts on this.

President Obama’s Speech at the Memorial in Arizona ★

A very good speech. (It’s encoded using H.264, both wrapped in Flash and as a direct download. Still looking for the WebM-encoded download link.)

Ed Bott on Google’s H.264 / WebM Decision ★

Bott on H.264:

There’s no royalty trap. The fear implicit in this entire argument is that when the H.264 license has to be renewed in 2016, MPEG LA will unconscionably raise those rates. If that fear were legitimate, would more than 800 companies, including Google, have already decided to license H.264? Maybe they actually read the license agreement, which specifies that “the License will be renewable for successive five-year periods for the life of any Portfolio patent on reasonable terms and conditions. … [F]or the protection of licensees, royalty rates applicable to specific license grants or specific licensed products will not increase by more than ten percent (10%) at each renewal.”

So the most the rates can go up is 10 percent, once every five years. Yet many of the supporters of Chrome and Mozilla’s position on H.264 vs. WebM cite “uncertain future licensing” terms as a primary reason. Don’t buy it.