Linked List: June 28, 2011

Tuesday, 28 June 2011

Steven Levy: ‘Inside Google+’ 

From Steven Levy’s detailed behind-the-scenes story on Google+ for Wired:

One variation that users will notice comes in interface design — conspicuously, in Circles. With colorful animations, drag-and-drop magic and whimsical interface touches, Circles looks more like a classic Apple program than the typically bland Google app. That’s no surprise since the key interface designer was legendary software artist Andy Hertzfeld.

Hertzfeld, of course, is the publisher of Folklore.org, the wonderful archive of “anecdotes about the development of Apple’s original Macintosh computer, and the people who created it.”

Google+ Introductory Videos 

I don’t want to place a bet that these things are going to take off — and the more I learn, the more it seems clear that “Google+” is an umbrella name for several individual services, rather than a single unified thing — but these introductory videos are really well done. Note that the UI screenshots are even set in Helvetica, not Arial. Some of the best evidence of good taste at Google I can ever recall.

Sidenote: Regarding mobile clients, Google writes:

Starting today Google+ is available on Android Market and the mobile web, and it’s coming soon to the App Store.

Not the “iOS App Store” or “iTunes App Store”. Just “App Store”.

Tom Coates on Google+’s Prospects 

Tom Coates:

Fundamentally, Google is a utility. No one wants to hang out at their power company.

Metric and Calibre 

Sibling sans serif typefaces by Kris Sowersby, with a shared core alphabet. They differ because of “genre”-specific letterforms for certain letters — geometric for Metric, grotesque for Calibre. Thus Metric feels more like, say, Futura, whereas Calibre feels more like, say, Helvetica.

Google Swiffy 

New from Google:

Swiffy converts Flash SWF files to HTML5, allowing you to reuse Flash content on devices without a Flash player (such as iPhones and iPads).

Google Explains Google+ 

Pretty clear explanation of features, purpose, and scope. Sort of the anti-Wave. (Flash-based, alas.)

The Google Plus Social Network 

Like Microsoft in its heyday, Google seems not just willing but downright eager to take on any competitor with a successful platform.

WebKit to Support Native-Style Momentum Scrolling in iOS 5 

Among numerous other improvements for mobile web apps, iOS 5 beta 2 includes support for native-style momentum scrolling. See also: this post at FunctionSource, which includes this demo. (The demo won’t be impressive unless you’re using iOS 5b2.)

More proof that Apple wants to kill the open web.

Google Claims 500,000 Daily Android Device Activations 

Ryan Kim, writing for GigaOm:

Now with Honeycomb (an Android variant) tablets hitting the market, the device activations are being supplemented by larger tablet devices, not just smartphones. Indeed, almost every company is putting out a tablet these days, most built off of Google’s Android operating system. 

I’m curious where Kim found statistics that suggest Honeycomb tablets are contributing significantly to this number. Everything I’ve seen suggests that Android tablets aren’t selling.

How We Treat Our Computers 

Yep.

Update: Fireballed; cached here.

200,000 Apps Is What They Want 

Jason Fried, disputing the idea that app store library size doesn’t matter:

When people spend a few hundred bucks on a phone, and sign a long term contract, they want something more fundamental: They want to know they’re making a decision they won’t regret over the next two years. What are they going to want to do with this phone over the next two years? They aren’t sure. Maybe they’ll want to play some games. Maybe they’ll want to store some recipes. Maybe they’ll want to make a movie. That’s why 200,000 apps matter.