Linked List: October 31, 2011

Monday, 31 October 2011

Android Hardware-Buttons Are (Conceptually) Broken ★

Christoffer Du Rietz, on the Android “back” and “menu” buttons:

The sad thing is about all this is that having made the decision to use these buttons from the start, Google has locked itself in a mess of a UI-model. All Android apps would have to be redesigned should they want to change it around and fix this. In short, they’re stuck with a UI that sucks and they can’t fix it because they didn’t think it through thoroughly before the first launch.

Looks like they’re trying to fix this starting with the Galaxy Nexus by eliminating the hardware buttons but drawing them on-screen in the OS. Presumably, a future API revision could allow for apps that don’t need these buttons. Anyway, agree with his criticism of these two buttons completely. The Back button taking me somewhere unexpected was perhaps my single-biggest complaint both times I tested an Android phone.

The other lesson: the importance of getting things right, from the outset. If you’re designing just an app, you can fix many design errors later; if you’re designing an app platform, though, it’s hard to fix system-wide design errors without breaking existing apps.

AppleInsider: ‘Apple Reportedly Questioning Future of Mac Pro’ ★

AppleInsider:

Although the Mac maker has reportedly developed a revision to the existing Mac Pro that may or may not see the light of day, people familiar with the matter said management as far back as May of 2011 were in limbo over whether to pour any additional resources into the product line.

You don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.

New iPhone 4S Commercials ★

These are some of the best ads I’ve ever seen. I love how in the Siri spots, the only faces entirely in the frame are the kids. Note too, that the narrator never says “Apple”.

Apple Spending Big Next Year on Retail and Cloud ★

Erica Ogg:

Apple is doubling down on its retail and cloud operations. The company says it will spend about $8 billion in capital expenditures in 2012, which is almost twice as much as the $3.4 billion it spent during fiscal year 2011, which ended Sept. 30. Apple doesn’t willingly telegraph its plans, but thanks to its annual filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, we get a peek into where the company plans to invest its money next year.

That’s a big jump, and that’s interesting. But, if you really want your mind blown, read Horace Dediu’s take on these expenditures, and how they correlate strongly to iOS unit sales. Apple is implicitly forecasting another year of 100 percent iOS unit sales growth in 2012.

Josh Clark on ‘Edge Gestures’ ★

Josh Clark on the new four-finger switching gestures on the iPad in iOS 5:

I’m a huge fan of the spirit of these gestures, but I’m not crazy about the execution. I wish Apple had followed the interaction already adopted by other platforms, including BlackBerry Playbook, Nokia N9, and the next version of Microsoft Windows. All of these platforms use edge gestures, a technique that is at once more internally consistent and more deferential to individual apps.

There’s Nothing Wrong With Streaming Live TV ★

Chris Martucci:

From what I can gather, Gruber opposes the idea of “live streaming TV.” By that he means the cable TV we’re all used to — programs air at certain times, and that’s when we can either watch or record them for later viewing.

That’s not quite my stance. I’m not opposed to live traditional TV in any sense. What I’m thinking though, is that live streaming TV is the old way. It’s the established paradigm for how a TV works, what it does. You turn it on, pick a channel, and you see whatever is “live” on that channel right now.

Apple is only going to get serious about TV if they find a way to get past that paradigm. The old way of making cell phones, for example, was to make a device that was primarily designed for voice calls, with dedicated green/red hardware buttons for starting/terminating calls. Apple’s phone design still supported voice calls, of course, but relegated the entire phone experience to just another app. So maybe “live TV” would be just another app on an iTV. The base level of the experience, conceptually, would be a home screen full of apps, and old-school live streaming TV — if you have cable or satellite or whatever — would be one of those apps.

I’m just tossing ideas out here. I wouldn’t be surprised if Apple never gets more serious about TV than it already is with Apple TV — a $100 box you attach to whatever TV set you want. But what I’m sure about is that if Apple does start selling its own TV sets, they’re not going to have much in common with TV sets as we know them. Apple undertakes major new initiatives only after figuring out a new way that shows that everyone already in the market is doing it wrong.

iOS 5 Bugs: Disappearing Wi-Fi Personal Hotspot ★

I ran into this bug after restoring my new 4S from a backup of my iPhone 4. Resetting the network settings did the trick.