Linked List: September 23, 2011

Friday, 23 September 2011

Lanbito.com 

My thanks to Lanbito for sponsoring this week’s DF RSS feed. Lanbito is an online form builder optimized for creating forms that look great on the iPhone and iPad. They’ve built two terrific user experiences. On the one side, their drag-and-drop form builder lets you create and design your forms easily. On the other side, the forms you create look and feel just perfect in mobile web browsers. They’ve got a bunch of great themes to choose from, shortened URLs perfect for tweeting, and the data from the forms is saved to Google Spreadsheets.

It’s a great service with a clear purpose. And you can try it free of charge, for up to 100 form entries for month.

AnandTech Reviews Apple’s New Thunderbolt Display 

Anand Lal Shimpi:

The real improvements here are obviously those enabled by Thunderbolt. Apple is turning its line of displays into docks for its mobile computers rather than just external displays. It started with integrating MagSafe and has culminated in GigE and FireWire controllers now a part of the display. For MacBook Air owners who don’t have options for these high speed interfaces to begin with, the Thunderbolt Display is a must-have. If your MBA is a secondary or tertiary computer that only gets taken on trips perhaps the Thunderbolt Display isn’t so life changing. For those users who have moved from older MacBook Pros to the 13-inch MBA however, the Thunderbolt Display is a wonderful companion.

Not bad for a platform that’s losing to Android.

Amazon Press Event Next Week 

Interesting that they do these in New York.

Update: A bunch of readers question why I think that’s interesting, given that the publishing industry is centered squarely in NYC. I didn’t say it was surprising, just interesting — it showcases that Amazon is playing to a different audience. Less focused on the device’s hardware and software, more focused on the media content the device will allow users to enjoy.

Here’s the Thing About Apple’s ‘Recent’ Success 

Grant Huhn:

Apple is doing, and has been doing, things much different than any company — in any industry — for at least the past ten years. Apple’s products and operation are vastly superior. Many people have recognized this all along. Some people will never recognize it.

It’s just now the numbers confirm it.

I think it started as soon as Jobs took the helm in 1997. Everything that’s happened since is epitomized by that bondi blue original iMac.

Business Insider, Over-Aggregation, and the Mad Grab for Traffic 

Ryan McCarthy on Business Insider’s Huffington Post-style practice of regurgitating the original work of others:

And, of course, Business Insider isn’t alone in the practice of repurposing content for no other reason then keeping pageviews. But surely, in each case, Business Insider is actually keeping us one click away from interesting, original coverage, not bringing us closer to it or informing us about it.

Sites like The Huffington Post and Business Insider are the inevitable result of an advertising model that counts page views. CPM is a corrupting revenue model; sites like HuffPo and BI are what you get when you’ve mastered that model.

A Business Insider Retrospective 

Marco Arment:

I wonder if they’ll reprint this one.