Linked List: May 31, 2011

Tuesday, 31 May 2011

Why Majd Taby Hates Chrome and Continues to Use It ★

Nice nitpicky UI critique of Chrome for Mac by Majd Taby, along with praise for what Chrome gets right.

Florian Mueller on Lodsys’s Suit Against Seven App Developers in Eastern Texas ★

Florian Mueller:

For the app developers who have been sued, this is now a very critical situation. As I explained in my Lodsys FAQ, patent litigation in the United States is extremely costly. The most important thing for those app developers is to clarify with Apple — and to the extent that Android apps are involved, with Google — whether they will be held harmless and receive blanket coverage including possible damage awards.

Twitter Photo Storage and Account Integration in iOS 5 ★

MG Siegler on Twitter’s imminent but as-yet-unannounced photo-hosting service:

We’ve heard from multiple sources that Twitter is likely to have a big-time partner for such a service: Apple. Specifically, we’re hearing that Apple’s new iOS 5 will come with an option to share images to Twitter baked into the OS. This would be similar to the way you can currently share videos on YouTube with one click in iOS. Obviously, a user would have to enable this feature by logging in with their Twitter credentials in iOS. There would then be a “Send to Twitter” option for pictures stored on your device.

So close to the bigger story, but yet so far. Imagine what else the system could provide if your Twitter account was a system-level service.

Zaky: Apple’s Cash to Exceed $300 Billion by 2015 ★

Andy Zaky:

If it then carried that 2013 0.00% growth rate into 2014, the company would have $230 billion in cash or just about $250 in cash per share. 2015 it would have $300 billion in cash or $330 in cash per share. Again, that assumes 0.00% growth for 2013, 2014, and 2015. So if Apple grows 0.00%, then by 2015, it will have more cash per share than the stock is trading at today.

Lodsys Responds to Apple, Files Lawsuits Against App Developers ★

These motherfuckers — or is it motherfucker, singular? — aren’t going to quit. Details on the Lodsys “blog”.

Security Update 2011-003 Addresses Mac Defender Malware ★

Apple:

The OSX.MacDefender.A definition has been added to the malware check within File Quarantine. […]

The system will check daily for updates to the File Quarantine malware definition list. An opt-out capability is provided via the “Automatically update safe downloads list” checkbox in Security Preferences.

1966 Prediction of the Home Computer ★

“What the wife selects on her console will be paid for by the husband at his counterpart console.”

(Via Jim Coudal.)

Federal Government Loosens Its Grip on the BlackBerry ★

Michael S. Rosenwald, reporting for The Washington Post:

Kundra, the U.S. top information officer, said, “The line between work and home in terms of technology is beginning to blur.” Asked what he typically hears from workers about government- or corporate-provided technology, Kundra said, “It’s not a question of whether they don’t like it. They despise it.”

Kundra’s answer to the issue of people using unauthorized devices is simple: Give them what they want. Like many federal workers, he carries two devices — a BlackBerry (for work stuff) and an iPhone (for personal stuff). And like many people, Kundra says he wants to be a “one-device guy.” He recently began pondering a radical idea with federal agencies: Let workers use whatever mobile device they want, apply strict security settings, and have the government pay a stipend for service.

WHO: Cell Phone Use ‘Possibly Carcinogenic to Humans’ ★

I think it’s quite possible that this issue could be the single greatest long-term threat to Apple. I’d hate to see today’s handset makers turn into yesterday’s tobacco companies.

Update: To be clear, the WHO is more or less saying that a link can’t be ruled out. And on the flip side, University of Maryland physics professor Bob Park:

All cancers are caused by mutant strands of DNA. Electromagnetic radiation can’t create mutant strands of DNA unless the frequency is at or higher than the blue limit of the visible spectrum the near-ultraviolet. The frequency of cell phone radiation is about 1 million times too low.

More from Park here on the question of cell phones causing cancer.

Apple Announces iWork for iPhone and iPod Touch ★

Apple PR:

Apple today announced that its groundbreaking iWork productivity apps, Keynote, Pages and Numbers, are now available for iPhone and iPod touch, as well as iPad.

Guess the keynote is full.

Skype Installs EasyBits Go CrapWare on Windows Without Users’ Prior Knowledge ★

Bradley Wint:

This morning I was notified that Skype needed third-party access to an executable called easybitsgo.exe, and I was quite suspicious because I knew I had not installed in applications recently and saw no other dialog boxes with information about this app. I did a virus scan immediately thinking my system may have been over-ridden with malware similar to those fake anti-virus apps.

It turns out the program is legit and was actually installed via Skype itself. After doing a quick check, it seems the EasyBits company produces a number of game apps and is supported by many major brands including HP, Dell, Acer and Skype among others, however I did not give a care since I was not interested in having such program installed on my machine. Finally, after checking the Skype forums, it turns out many users reported a similar circumstance.

8.5 billion dollars.

Joe Clark on E-Book Typography ★

This year-old Joe Clark piece for A List Apart pairs well with this weekend’s link to Paul Luna on e-book typography. Don’t miss Clark’s sidebar with illustrated examples.

(While I’m at it, I’ll sneak in a link to Clark’s scathing response to Ben Yagoda’s piece in Slate on “logical punctuation”. This strikes me as cranky even by Clark’s standards, and is more about Slate’s appalling typesetting than about where periods and commas should be placed in relation to quotation marks.)

‘Pads’ ★

Michael Mulvey on the use of “pad” in tablet product names.

It’s About the Hashbangs ★

Dan Webb makes a strong case against hashbang (“#!”) URLs.

Asus Unveils ‘Padfone’ ★

Showmanship, Asus-style.

(Don’t miss the decals on their spokesmodel.)

Apple Announces WWDC 2011 Keynote ★

Apple:

Apple CEO Steve Jobs and a team of Apple executives will kick off the company’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) with a keynote address on Monday, June 6 at 10:00 a.m. At the keynote, Apple will unveil its next generation software - Lion, the eighth major release of Mac OS X; iOS 5, the next version of Apple’s advanced mobile operating system which powers the iPad, iPhone and iPod touch; and iCloud, Apple’s upcoming cloud services offering.

Unusual for Apple to spell out in advance what a keynote will cover, and particularly to reveal a new product name. (This press release is Apple’s first acknowledgement of the name “iCloud”.) Why? I think to continue setting expectations that there will be no new hardware products announced.