Linked List: May 24, 2011

Tuesday, 24 May 2011

Before and After: Joplin, Missouri 

Unreal devastation.

Dell XPS 15z 

Looks like something I’ve seen before, but I can’t quite place it.

MacBooks Top All Consumer Reports Laptop Categories 

Jim Dalrymple:

If you were wondering how good Apple’s MacBook line of portable computers are, the answer is simple — they are the top computer in every category on Consumer Reports.

Yeah, but those Consumer Reports guys are biased in favor of Apple.

Apple: How to Avoid or Remove Mac Defender Malware 

Like I said, measure twice, cut once.

FDX Reader 

Niche app for reading Final Draft .fdx screenplay files on the iPad. I’ll bet everyone in Hollywood has a copy of this on their iPad by next week. Really well-done, great attention to detail, and John August — the screenwriter who had the idea for the app — has even put together a downright Lisagorian intro video.

Tall and Narrow 

Tim Bray on tablet orientation:

As in, portrait not landscape. It’s the way to go. Which is to say, tablets should be held with the short bits at the top and bottom.

I agree. For everything except watching video and playing certain games, I prefer to hold my iPad in portrait orientation. One of the things I find curious about Android tablets and the BlackBerry PlayBook is that they’ve all chosen to go 16:9. To me, 16:9 tablets only look right when held in landscape — they look too skinny when held in portrait. Considering all the things they copy from Apple, it seems weird not to copy the iPad’s 4:3 aspect ratio. 16:9 is ideal for video, but 4:3 is a good trade-off for a device intended to be used in portrait much of the time.

Update: Lots of feedback from iPad users who strongly prefer landscape. OK, so let me try again: 4:3 is a good balance for a device that’s meant to be used in either orientation.

Oooooohhhhhhh Yeah 

Perfect column by Bill Simmons on Randy “Macho Man” Savage:

We look back at the eighties ironically now — everything is much funnier now then it was then, whether it’s outfits, haircuts, movie plots, political incorrectness or even a sweeping lack of self-awareness. Savage tapped into those faults better than anyone. He was the eighties, for better and worse.

Ballmer’s Latest Acquisition 

Jean-Louis Gassée makes the case that Microsoft should have acquired Nokia instead of Skype.

Kobo eReader Touch Edition 

I missed this yesterday, but Kobo unveiled a soon-to-ship $129 touchscreen e-ink reader, too. The video sure makes it look like touch-response latency is pretty poor, though, for things like dragging to scroll around a PDF.

Barnes & Noble’s New Nook: First E-Reader With a Black-and-White E-Ink Touchscreen 

Barnes & Noble beats Amazon to the e-ink touchscreen punch. I have to say, this looks like a much better device than the Kindle 3. The keyboard and pagination buttons on the Kindle are junky, and the keyboard is a waste of space. Touchscreen is the way to go.

Also: this new Nook is built on top of Android, but that’s just an implementation detail. The entire user experience is from Barnes & Noble. $139, ships June 10.

Update: Apparently Sony has had touchscreen e-ink readers for a while now. So this Nook won’t be the first one, but it might be the first good one.