Linked List: February 9, 2011

Wednesday, 9 February 2011

One More Reason for Putting the iPad on a Fall Update Schedule ★

In the midst of a Twitter discussion regarding my piece today positing a move to the fall for future iPad hardware announcements, Lessien writes:

Curious, as it might suggest that there’s no more real headway for the Fall event to be iTunes/iPod only.

That’s a good point. The iPod Touch is popular and lucrative, but it’s not a big secret. For four years in a row, Apple has released a new iPod Touch in the fall that, spec-wise, is pretty much just like the new iPhone released a few months prior. The music players continue to sell well, but they’re old news. A new top-of-the-line iPad could headline the fall event for the next few years.

Nokia and Microsoft, Sitting in a Tree… ★

Carol Hymowitz and Dina Bass, reporting for BusinessWeek:

Nokia Oyj is close to announcing a software partnership with Microsoft Corp., a bet that together the two companies can better challenge Google Inc. and Apple Inc., according to a person with knowledge of the discussions.

Breaking the Web With Hash-Bangs ★

Excellent piece by Mike Davies on the new JavaScript-dependent site structure (and URLs) used by all Gawker Media sites:

The main problem is that LifeHacker URLs now don’t map to actual content. Well, every URL references the LifeHacker homepage. If you are lucky enough to have the JavaScript running successfully, the homepage then triggers off several Ajax requests to render the page, hopefully with the desired content showing up at some point.

Far more complicated than a simple URL, far more error prone, and far brittler.

Via Jeremy Keith, who compares this style of web design to breaking Postel’s Law.

Dell Drops the Adamo Laptop Line ★

Brooke Crothers, CNET:

First revealed — with much fanfare — at CES in 2009, the Adamo was a worthy competitor to Apple’s groundbreaking laptop. Like the Air, it had an aluminum casing, was eye-catchingly thin (at 0.65 inches), used solid-state drives long before they came into wider use, and packed ultra-power-efficient Intel Core 2 Duo processors.

But the Adamo, like the earlier MacBook Air models, was pricey, starting at around $2,000, when it was launched in March 2009.

So it wasn’t really a “worthy competitor” at all. Did you ever think you’d live to see the day when Dell couldn’t compete with Apple on PC pricing?

Flash Player 10.2 ★

Speaking of Flash:

Today, we’re launching Flash Player 10.2 for Windows, Mac, and Linux. We’re especially excited that this release introduces Stage Video, a full hardware accelerated video pipeline for best-in-class, beautiful video across platforms and browsers.

Prediction of the Week ★

Galen Gruman, yesterday: “Why HP might ditch WebOS for Android.”

HP Plans to Integrate WebOS Into PCs ★

I called for HP to create its own OS back in 2009. Smart move. They’ve been under Microsoft’s thumb for 20 years.

The BBC Shows by Example Why Apple Is Right to Keep Flash Off iOS ★

Daniel Danker, on BBC iPlayer apps for mobile platforms:

For iPad it’s straightforward, but for technical reasons we can’t bring the app to every single Android device. To download and use the app you’ll need a device that uses Android version 2.2 and has Adobe Flash 10.1 Player installed. Our Flash streams need a powerful mobile phone processor and a Wi-Fi connection to ensure a smooth viewing experience, which means that only newer, more powerful Android 2.2 devices connected via Wi-Fi can support the Flash 10.1 streaming experience.

I.e., rather than write a native Android app, they’re going to use Flash. If iOS supported Flash, it seems a safe bet that they wouldn’t have written native iOS clients, but would have used Flash there, too. You can always bring extra batteries, right?

Tomi Ahonen Summarizes Everything That’s Wrong With Nokia ★

Tomi Ahonen thinks that purported memo from Nokia CEO Stephen Elop is a forgery. It seems pretty clear that the memo is genuine, but Ahonen’s reasons for doubting it are fascinating:

Then he supposedly writes “While competitors poured flames on our market share, what happened at Nokia? We fell behind, we missed big trends, and we lost time.” This again smacks of ill-informed US based views of Nokia. “… we missed big trends” (?) WHAT? Excuse me? I can accept, definitely, that Nokia has recently been executing poorly, and its early steps in new areas have been clumsy. But ‘missed’ big trends? Which trend has Nokia missed. Name even ONE! Touch screens? Before iPhone! Internet phones? Nokia did the world’s first. Consumer smartphones? Nokia invented that. Gaming phones? Nokia had years before the iPhone ever heard of Angry Birds. An app store? Nokia followed this trend from Japan five years before Apple launched its first app store. A developer community? Nokia has had it for more than a decade. Apps? Nokia has a whole unit that sells apps and services. Maps? Nokia bundles those on the phones. Money? Nokia launched Nokia Money long ago. Dual SIM phones, Nokia did that years ago. What trend is it that Nokia has supposedly missed. MISSED?

Keep in mind that Ahonen is a former Nokia executive. I think his view probably matches that of Nokia’s long-time managers. In their view, Nokia merely has a problem with “execution”.

Where he (and Nokia, but apparently not Elop) are wrong is in thinking of these things as checklist items. Touchscreen, check. App store, check. Gaming, check. The trend Nokia missed out on? Kick-ass production values, quality, and experience.

Update: BBC News confirms the memo is genuine.

HP TouchPad ★

The software looks great, it really does, but:

Planned availability this summer.

Summer feels like a long time away. If my theory is right, they’re not only going to be months behind the iPad 2, but if they slip until late summer, they might bump up against the release of the iPad 3. And not only did they announce this with a distant ship date, they did it with no word on pricing.

(Maybe the “Palm” brand isn’t dead? The TouchPad page is hosted at palm.com. They’ve got pages for the Veer and Pre 3, too. None of these three products are shipping. And still no WebOS phone without a hardware keyboard.)

Engadget’s Live Coverage From HP’s ‘Think Beyond’ WebOS Event ★

Looks like the “Palm” brand is dead, but that makes sense from HP’s perspective. The news thus far:

The HP Veer is an upcoming credit-card-sized WebOS phone (sure isn’t credit-card-thin, though).
The Pre 3 looks fast, but isn’t coming until “summer”.
The TouchPad is physically almost identical to an iPad. The software looks really good. It really seems like WebOS was meant for a device like this.

Best demo: tapping a Pre phone against the TouchPad to transfer an open web page from the TouchPad to the Pre.

Sparrow 1.0 ★

Sparrow, the most interesting new Mac email client in at least a decade, hits 1.0. Get it on the App Store for $10. Not quite there for me, yet, but it’s close. The Gmail-specific features are very clever.

Education Is for Everyone ★

Inkling CEO Matt MacInnis on designing and developing accessible e-textbook software.

Nokia Cancels First MeeGo Phone Before Launch ★

Reuters:

Nokia has stopped developing its first smartphone using the MeeGo operating system, two industry sources close to the company said.