Linked List: June 27, 2011

Monday, 27 June 2011

Austin Carr, writing about HP’s WebOS and TouchPad for Fast Company:

Ironically, in order to compete with Apple, HP is taking a page from Apple’s playbook. Steve Jobs’s strategy has always been to control both the hardware and the software it runs on. While other PC makers, including HP, have relied on Windows, Apple’s Macs have always come with Mac OS, an operating system designed specifically for its hardware. Apple has followed the same approach when expanding to the iPhone and iPad with iOS. “Everyone is figuring out that if you want to survive, you really want to control the experience end to end,” McKinney says. “The ability to control both the hardware platform and OS is absolutely critical.”

Music to my ears. Here’s what I wrote about HP back in October 2009:

Operating systems aren’t mere components like RAM or CPUs; they’re the single most important part of the computing experience. Other than Apple, there’s not a single PC maker that controls the most important aspect of its computers. Imagine how much better the industry would be if there were more than one computer maker trying to move the state of the art forward.

Introducing: American McCarver ★

For the last nine years, I’ve written for one weblog: this one. Now it’s two.

Greg Knauss, Michael Sippey, Jason Snell, Philip Michaels, Mike Monteiro, and yours truly bring you: American McCarver. It is, ostensibly, about sports. All sports. Especially baseball. There will be a podcast.

A Tale of Two iPhones ★

MG Siegler:

That’s the latest rumor making headlines today, based on a report by Deutsche Bank’s Chris Whitmore, an analyst. Now, analysts typically have a horrible track record when it comes to correctly predicting Apple moves. And when I say “horrible”, I mean that you’d have a better shot correctly predicting what Apple is going to do by throwing darts at a board… with a blindfold on. But — there has been some evidence that backs up this latest claim (which is probably why they made it in the first place).

Right. “Analyst says something” should almost always be taken as punditry, not news. But there is a bit of evidence for this amongst the scraps of information that have leaked regarding new iOS hardware. And, more importantly, it makes strategic sense. Eventually Apple is going to expand the iPhone to multiple tiers. Not just “last year’s model, this year’s model”, but multiple new products. It’s just a matter of when.

Examine the history of the iPod to see how this will play out. They’ll press technologically at the high end, and they’ll expand into the mid-range market with lower priced models. Why not now?

Ian Betteridge: ‘How Apple Could Fix Final Cut Pro X, in 187 Words’ ★

Take out the “at least” from the last sentence, putting a hard deadline on progress, and you get it down to 185 words.

U.S. Supreme Court Rules That Video Games Are Protected by the First Amendment ★

Can’t remember the last time I was deeply pleased by a majority opinion written by Scalia:

“Like the protected books, plays and movies that preceded them, video games communicate ideas — and even social messages — through many familiar literary devices (such as characters, dialogue, plot and music) and through features distinctive to the medium (such as the player’s interaction with the virtual world),” Justice Scalia wrote. “That suffices to confer First Amendment protection.”

Strange bedfellows in the ruling: Scalia’s opinion was joined by Kennedy, Ginsburg, Sotomayor, and Kagan.

Josh Mellicker on Final Cut Pro X ★

Josh Mellicker:

What I would have done (were I in charge), is continue to sell Final Cut Studio 3 and brand the new app simply as “Z”. A brand-new editing app. Think of the buzz! Think of the awesome logo!

Of course, people would immediately ask, “What’s the future of FCP7?”, and “Will there be an FCP8?” and Apple’s position would be, “We might add minor, incremental features to FCP7, but we feel FCP7 is a stable, full-featured app, and is working well for millions of people, so don’t expect major changes or a major new version anytime soon (or maybe ever). FCP is the standard for professional editing. We are focusing on developing Z until it has feature parity with FCP7 and is ready for professional use, and at that time we recommend pros look into switching to it.” Pulling the plug on FCS3 prematurely was a bad move — all downside, and what’s the upside?

Easier would have been to call this release “Final Cut Express X” — or even just “Final Cut X” — making it clear that right now, today, this is a replacement for the existing Final Cut Express, with the implicit or maybe even explicit understanding that while it’s not yet a replacement for Final Cut Pro, it will be.

Larry Jordan on Final Cut Pro X ★

Larry Jordan:

When I was talking with Apple prior to the launch, they told me that they extensively researched the market to determine what needed to be in the new program. In retrospect, I wonder what people they were talking with.

Dave Winer on Mozilla and Firefox ★

Dave Winer:

The problem for them, if they choose to view it as a problem, is that web browsers are done. Feature-complete. No one can think of anything to add that anyone wants, because there are no more features to add. Sadly, this happens to product categories. It happened with word processors twenty years ago. Spreadsheets, around the same time. Windows was done when XP shipped. Mac OS, yeah it’s done too. I haven’t used any of the new features. And by “new” I mean features introduced in the last eight years or so.

Software products have lifecycles. They reach a point where all they need is maintenance. Make sure it runs on new hardware. Fix security issues as they arise. Optimize. (Firefox could sure use that!) Teeny little tweaks that are almost unnoticeable.

A bit hyperbolic, for sure, but there’s a lot of truth here. I’m more interested in the new stuff in iOS 5 than I am in the new stuff in Lion. iOS still has major holes. It’s a new frontier. Mac OS X is settled territory. That’s not to say that major changes and additions can’t be made to settled territory, but it doesn’t bring the same sort of excitement.

TSA: Keeping Us Safe From Adult Diapers ★

CNN:

The Transportation Security Administration stood by its security officers Sunday after a Florida woman complained that her cancer-stricken, 95-year-old mother was patted down and forced to remove her adult diaper while going through security.