Linked List: January 21, 2011

Friday, 21 January 2011

Olbermann Leaves ‘Countdown’ on MSNBC ★

Bill Carter, on Keith Olbermann’s abrupt exit from MSNBC:

Keith Olbermann, the highest-rated host on MSNBC, announced abruptly on the air Friday night that he is leaving “Countdown with Keith Olbermann” immediately.

The host, who has had a stormy relationship with the management of the network for some time, especially since he was suspended for two days last November, came to an agreement with NBC’s corporate management late this week to settle his contract and step down.

In a closing statement on his show, Mr. Olbermann said simply that it would be the last edition of the program. He offered no explanation other than on occasion “all that surrounded the show – but never the show itself – was just too much for me.”

Sourcebits ★

My thanks to Sourcebits for again sponsoring this week’s DF RSS feed. Sourcebits is a contract developer specializing in iPhone, iPad, mobile, Mac, and web software. Their iPhone apps have been downloaded over 4.5 million times from the App Store, and they have a growing list of Android and BlackBerry apps, too. If you’re looking for software development services, check out Sourcebits’s website for examples of their work — for the iPhone, the iPad, Android, and more.

‘They Were There’ — Errol Morris Film for IBM ★

30-minute film by Errol Morris, commissioned by IBM to celebrate the company’s centennial. Music by Philip Glass. I’ve only watched the first minute and I’m hooked. (Thanks to DF reader Scott Ivers.)

Nilay Patel: ‘Android Source Code, Java, and Copyright Infringement: What’s Going On?’ ★

On the other hand, Nilay Patel argues that it doesn’t matter whether the files in question were just tests, or even whether they shipped in actual Android handsets:

From a legal perspective, there’s no question that these files create increased copyright liability for Google, because the state of our current copyright law doesn’t make exceptions for how source code trees work, or whether or not a script pasted in a different license, or whether these files made it into handsets. The single most relevant legal question is whether or not copying and distributing these files was authorized by Oracle, and the answer clearly appears to be “nope”. […]

Why does this matter? Because we’re hearing that Oracle is dead-set on winning this case and eventually extracting a per-handset royalty on every Android handset shipped.

Idea to Market in 5 Months ★

Nice write-up from Dan Provost on his and Tom Gerhardt’s experience bringing The Glif to market.

Regarding Today’s Allegations of Copied Sun Java Code Found in Android ★

Ed Burnette has seemingly debunked these allegations from Florian Mueller that Google’s Android source code improperly contains Java code from Sun. As the saying goes, “A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.”

Nilay Patel on Wearing an iPod Nano as a Watch ★

Nilay Patel, back in November:

And here’s the biggest problem: you can’t just glance at your wrist and check the time! The screen is completely dark when it’s asleep, so you have to reach over and hit the wake button with your other hand to see the time, and worst of all, hitting the wake button doesn’t light the screen up instantly — there’s a significant and noticeable delay of over half a second before the clock is displayed. We’d love to see something like the Nokia N8’s AMOLED screen tech that dimly self-illuminates with zero power draw to display a clock while asleep used here — it feels like a perfect solution.

Relevant today because I just got my TikTok band for the Nano, as my reward for backing the wildly-successful Kickstarter project. The TikTok is everything I could have hoped for: the Nano fits perfectly and the wristband is supple and comfortable. But for the reasons outlined by Patel above, the current Nano just isn’t ideal for use as a full-time wristwatch. I can definitely see using this when I run though.

But just playing with the thing makes me realize that wearable computers are inevitable. Imagine a Nano with an always-on display and a Bluetooth connection to your iPhone, allowing the Nano to serve as a status display for live information.

TestFlight: Over-the-Air Installation of iOS Beta Apps ★

I beta-test quite a few iOS apps. The regular process for installation is a bit of a pain — download new beta, drag to iTunes, confirm that you want to replace the previous version, connect iOS device via USB, then sync. A few of the apps I beta test have switched to TestFlight (while TestFlight itself was still in beta — it’s betas all the way down). Compared to the regular process, TestFlight is magic. Way less hassle for testers to install the apps, and, from what I hear, less hassle on the developer’s side too. In short, it just works.

Ovum Analysts: iPad Will Be Surpassed by Google by 2015 ★

The Telegraph:

By 2015, however, when 150 million sales are expected, the proportion of tablets based on Apple software will have plummeted to 35 percent, the analysts Ovum said. […] The main beneficiary will be Google, and by 2015 its share of tablet sales will have risen to 36 percent, Ovum said, edging ahead of Apple, currently the world’s most valuable technology firm.

So we’re predicting things four years out now. Let’s look at Ovum’s track record from four years ago.

June 2007:

Apple has set itself a target of 10 million units by the end of 2008, but we think this will be a challenge. The device is selling at a high price point and will not be a mass market device.

Apple wound up selling around 14 million iPhones in calendar year 2008. In March 2007, regarding whether Apple would ever open the iPhone to third-party developers:

Even if [the iPhone] is opened up to third parties, it is difficult to see how the installed base of iPhones can reach the level where it becomes a truly attractive service platform for operator and developer investment,” Cripps countered.

The Ovum analyst added that even if a Software Development Kit (SDK) was to be released, Mac OS X developers would have a hard time porting desktop variants of their software to the iPhone due to basic differences in elements such as the user interface and form factor.

Apple’s apparent ditching of conventional application paradigms for mobile phones seems ill-advised if the company really wanted the iPhone to be perceived as a smartphone and to take on mobile juggernauts such as Nokia, Microsoft and Motorola.

Well, I have to admit they nailed that one.

Why Is Eric Schmidt Stepping Down at Google? ★

Ken Auletta, at The New Yorker:

Was Eric Schmidt pushed or did he jump? Both.