Linked List: September 27, 2011

Tuesday, 27 September 2011

T-Mobile Chief Marketing Officer Posts Open Letter ‘About the iPhone’ 

One-word translation: Sigh.

PlayStation Web App 

Charles Ying:

This is the new PlayStation Video Unlimited service. This PlayStation app runs at a full 60 frames per second (when you see it on a PS3), has tons of 3D graphics effects, full-speed 1080p video playback, and a fluid, hardware accelerated, animated user experience. What you may not know is that this is a web app.

Looks great.

Andy Rooney to Retire From ‘60 Minutes’ 

What a great career.

Volkswagen’s New Beetle Page 

Now scroll.

Instagram 2.0 Filters 

Owen Billcliffe has a comprehensive look at the filters in Instagram 2.0:

Across the board distinctive elements of each filter have been compromised. Filters that were washed out are now more contrasty. Filters that were contrasty are now more washed out. They’ve all drifted towards the same look.

I agree with his conclusions. Live previewing of filters and larger image sizes are nice ideas, but they’ve yanked the carpet out on the old filters. Say what you want about the whole idea of applying gimmicky retro-style filters to camera photos, but at least previously, Instagram’s assortment of filters was distinctive. With these new ones, most of them are indistinguishable from one another. I find it way harder to choose one because the differences are so subtle, and that makes the app less fun to use.

That’s the bottom line: they made Instagram less fun.

Joe Hewitt: ‘Web Technologies Need an Owner’ 

Joe Hewitt:

Many people seem to assume that the Web will one day become the one and only client computing platform on Earth, therefore it must not be controlled by anyone. This is a dangerous assumption. The HTML, CSS, and JavaScript triumvirate are just another platform, like Windows and Android and iOS, except that unlike those platforms, they do not have an owner to take responsibility for them.

It’s nearly impossible to make radical change through consensus. Be sure to read his follow-up too:

So, my definition of the Web then is resources loaded over the Internet using HTTP and then displayed in a hyperlink-capable client. This definition is liberating. It helps me see a future beyond HTML which is still the Web.

Be Careful What You Wish For 

May 2007 Reuters story:

Nokia Oyj hopes Apple Inc.’s highly anticipated iPhone will boost consumer appetite for pricier mobile phones with features such as music and video, Nokia’s Chief Financial Officer said on Monday.

So-called smart phones allow users to surf the Web, take photos, enjoy music and video and sometimes games, in addition to making calls. Many are priced above $400, before subsidies by mobile carriers.

He was right.

John Calhoun’s Mac Classic ‘Glider’ Coming to iOS 

Blake Patterson, writing for Touch Arcade:

Calhoun told me that, from the view of an old-school designer, he absolutely loves iOS as a game platform. He got out of game writing way back when largely because the “big guys” came in and basically stole the show from indie developers like himself. He sees iOS as an excellent opportunity for indies to get their work out there and embraced by gamers, and it’s a notion backed up by so many one-man home runs we’ve seen since the App Store went live.

In a way, the old Mac gaming era was reminiscent of today’s iOS — lots of creativity from small indies. The difference is the size of the audience, tiny then, humongous now.

September Collapse of Red Sox Could Be Worst Ever 

Nate Silver crunches the numbers.

‘Let’s Talk iPhone’ Apple Event Next Week 

Something tells me there’s only one new iPhone.