Linked List: February 24, 2011

Thursday, 24 February 2011

Amit Singhal and Matt Cutts, Google:

Many of the changes we make are so subtle that very few people notice them. But in the last day or so we launched a pretty big algorithmic improvement to our ranking—a change that noticeably impacts 11.8% of our queries—and we wanted to let people know what’s going on. This update is designed to reduce rankings for low-quality sites—sites which are low-value add for users, copy content from other websites or sites that are just not very useful. At the same time, it will provide better rankings for high-quality sites—sites with original content and information such as research, in-depth reports, thoughtful analysis and so on.

They don’t mention “content farms” specifically, but Danny Sullivan reports that the update indeed targets them.

What You Need to Know About Thunderbolt ★

Dan Frakes and Dan Moren, kicking ass for Macworld.

MLB.com at Bat 2011 ★

Guaranteed spot on my first home screen. MLB gets it.

TSA Officer Pleads to $30,000 in Theft ★

Sam Wood, reporting for The Philadelphia Inquirer:

Al Raimi, 29, of Woodridge, pleaded guilty Thursday to a charge of theft by a government officer. Raimi worked as a lead officer at a security checkpoint at the airport. Between October 2009 until Sept. 8 2010, Raimi said he stole the cash from airline passengers. Raimi then “kicked up” some of that money to his immediate supervisor, Michael Arato. “In exchange, Arato allowed Raimi to continue stealing,” said Asst. U.S. Attorney Erick Kanefsky in a statement.

The Motorola Xoom Browses to Motorola’s Xoom Website ★

Heck of a job, Motorola.

Andy Ihnatko’s Xoom Review ★

Andy Ihnatko:

The XOOM is a powerful, functional alternative to the iPad. It’s nicely-built, it’s fast, and it can fill the same sort of role in your life as the iPad.

But the state of the tablet world is still a simple one from a consumer perspective. Any tablet without an Apple logo on it has to provide a fast and clear answer to the question “But why would I buy this instead of an iPad?” A tablet that costs a bit more than an iPad and has little by the way of extra functions is going to struggle.

Great review overall. Can’t believe Ihnatko went along with Motorola’s all-caps spelling of “Xoom”, though.

Robert Scoble’s Xoom Review ★

He likes it:

So, take this all together and I really love the new Motorola Xoom. I will be buying it because it’s the best of the Android-based devices I have seen and I need one to track all the apps over the next year and compare them to what’s on iPad.

But:

That said, will I recommend my dad get one? No. Not this year. Why? No apps that have been specifically designed for the 10-inch tablet, which in my experience does demand new apps. Yes, Android phone apps “stretch” to bigger sizes a lot better than iPhone apps did when stretched up, but sorry we haven’t seen great apps like the History of Jazz, Aweditorium, NPR, BBC, Flipboard, Heritage, etc, like what you see on iPad.

The apps are ALL that matters for the market and Android does NOT have them yet.

The core question for the Xoom and all other upcoming tablets: Why buy one instead of an iPad?

Engadget’s Xoom Review ★

Joshua Topolsky:

Yes, gone are the hardware buttons of yesteryear — 3.0 replaces the familiar home and back buttons with virtual incarnations, then adds a couple of extra pieces for good measure. Along with those two main buttons, Honeycomb introduces a multitasking icon which pops open a list of recently used apps along with a snapshot of their saved state. The back button is also a little more dynamic in 3.0, shifting between a straightforward back key, and a keyboard-hider when necessary. If your app utilizes the menu key on Android phones, you get an icon for that as well. The home button will take you back to your main views, but it can’t get you to your apps. Instead, Honeycomb introduces a new (and somewhat confusing) button — an “apps” icon which lives in the upper right hand corner of your device. You might think that comes in handy, but you can only access your app pages from the homescreen of the tablet, meaning that you have to use a two step process to get to your app list. We’re not totally clear on why this isn’t another button that lives along the bottom of the device with the rest of the navigation, and frankly it proved confusing when we were trying to get around the Xoom quickly.

Sounds great. (To the Xoom’s credit, though, Topolsky’s testing shows the Xoom getting closer to iPad-quality battery life than Mossberg’s did.)

Walt Mossberg’s Motorola Xoom Review ★

Headline: “Motorola’s Xoom Starts Tablet Wars With iPad”. Funny, given how many reviewers used the same phrase in their reviews of the now-forgotten Samsung Galaxy Tab back in November. On battery life:

I performed the same battery test on the Xoom as I have on other tablets. I played video constantly with the connectivity turned on and the screen at almost full brightness until the battery died. Alas, while the Xoom claims up to 10 hours of video playback, I got just 7 hours and 32 minutes. By contrast, on the same test, the iPad, which also claims 10 hours, logged 11.5 hours, or four hours more.

That’s still better than I expected from the Xoom, given the battery life I’ve seen on Android phones. I haven’t yet seen or used a Xoom, but what strikes me about it is that the 16:9 display means the device is clearly intended to be used horizontally. (The location of the “Motorola” and “Verizon” logos stamped on the front face reiterates this.) The iPad’s 4:3 aspect ratio works well in both orientations. The one thing a 16:9 display ought to be better for is video playback, right? But:

I couldn’t locate a working video download or rental service, though Google says these will be available soon.

The Talk Show, Episode 31 ★

I thought our discussion of the new App Store subscription stuff was pretty good. This week’s show is brought to you by the fine folks at Typekit.

Speaking sponsors for The Talk Show, we have a few spots open for the month of March. If you have a product or service you’d like to promote to the world’s smartest and best-looking podcast audience, get in touch.

Apple’s Updated Mac OS X Lion Page ★

Lots of cool stuff, but don’t miss the “Gestures and Animations” video. Coincides with the release of the first developer preview of Lion, via the App Store.

Update: One more notable change:

Lion Server is now part of Mac OS X Lion.

So Mac OS X Server isn’t dead, it’s just no longer a separate product. You can turn any machine running Lion into a server. It’s just a built-in feature (but you need to specify the machine as a server when you install the OS — it’s not a switch you can flip later on). Very cool.

Apple’s Thunderbolt Page ★

(Galileo) Galileo
(Galileo) Galileo
Galileo, figaro

Manton Reece: 30% of the Future ★

Manton Reece:

The iTunes Music Store wasn’t a business in its own right; it helped sell more iPods. The App Store shouldn’t be a huge revenue stream; it makes the iPhone and iPad better.

The iTunes Store was and remains a business in its own right. Its mission isn’t selling music, or movies, or TV shows, or apps, but building an end-to-end system, a platform that allows people to easily buy anything digital. If you think the App Store shouldn’t be “a huge revenue stream” then you’re not seeing things the way Apple does.

Donate to the New Zealand Red Cross ★

They need our help.

New MacBook Pros ★

As widely predicted. So: new developer preview of Lion, new FaceTime app for Mac, and an all-new lineup of MacBook Pros — and none of these things warranted a spot in next week’s event.

Apple Launches $0.99 Mac FaceTime App on Mac App Store ★

Curious that it’s not free. How many people will hang on to the free beta version to avoid paying a buck?

Update: Dan Moren tweets:

Apple told me that the FaceTime $1 charge for existing Mac users is regulatory related (remember the $2 802.11n patch circa 2007?).

But then how could the Mac App Store itself be a free download?