Linked List: November 8, 2011

Tuesday, 8 November 2011

The check-yourself-out feature on the new Apple Store iPhone app seems too good to be true, no?

Strobe offered an “app delivery network” for HTML5 web apps, and employed the team behind the SproutCore web app framework.

WebOS Fate Remains Undecided ★

Josh Topolsky:

HP CEO Meg Whitman just told a room full of Palm and HP employees that the company doesn’t yet know what to do with webOS. “It’s really important to me to make the right decision, not the fast decision,” she told those gathered with her on the HP campus, adding that a decision would come in the next three to four weeks. This comes as a bit of a surprise, as reports recently swirled that the computer-maker has been in discussions to sell off the troubled mobile platform to the highest bidder. “If HP decides [to keep webOS], we’re going to do it in a very significant way over a multi-year period,” she said, adding that “it’s a very expensive proposition, but HP can make that bet.”

Translation: they tried to sell it but no one was buying at a good price.

In general, I favor taking extra time to “make the right decision, not the fast decision”, but time is of the essence here. My sense is that the team is dispersing — the talent is moving on. So the longer HP waits, the less valuable WebOS becomes, because more and more of the smart and talented people behind it will have left. Same goes if they decide to keep it.

When you’re faced with a “we need to stop the bleeding” problem, you need a fast decision.

The Social Graph Is Neither ★

Maciej Ceglowski:

Imagine the U.S. Census as conducted by direct marketers — that’s the social graph.

Social networks exist to sell you crap. The icky feeling you get when your friend starts to talk to you about Amway, or when you spot someone passing out business cards at a birthday party, is the entire driving force behind a site like Facebook.

Khoi Vinh: On the Grid ★

Brief interview with my friend Khoi Vinh on grid-based graphic design. A beautiful short film, not a mere “video”.

A Brief Rant on the Future of Interaction Design ★

Bret Victor:

Pictures Under Glass is an interaction paradigm of permanent numbness. It’s a Novocaine drip to the wrist. It denies our hands what they do best. And yet, it’s the star player in every Vision Of The Future.

The iPhone is only the beginning — the first drop — of touch-based design.

‘Thirteen Movie Poster Trends That Are Here to Stay and What They Say About Their Movies’ ★

Not sure about the “here to stay” part — a bunch of these strike me as flash-in-the-pan trends — but it really is striking just how derivative and formulaic many movie posters are. Update: Worth noting that the original source of these compilations is Christophe Courtois.

Adobe Announces More Layoffs ★

Adobe:

In order to better align resources around Digital Media and Digital Marketing, Adobe is restructuring its business. This will result in the elimination of approximately 750 full-time positions primarily in North America and Europe.

This follows a 680-person layoff in 2009, and a 600-person layoff in 2008.

Here’s how the company describes itself:

Adobe is investing aggressively in Digital Media and Digital Marketing, two growing market areas. In Digital Media, the company is the industry leader in content authoring solutions, enabling customers to create, distribute and monetize digital content. In Digital Marketing, the company intends to be the leader in solutions to manage, measure and optimize digital marketing and advertising.

In my ideal world, Adobe would describe itself instead as follows: “Adobe makes best-of-breed tools for creative professionals.”

Add Tasks to Things or The Hit List With Siri ★

Siri doesn’t (yet) offer much in the way of interoperability with third-party apps. But because iOS “reminders” are, behind the scenes, stored using CalDAV, to-do apps that offer CalDAV support can sync with them.

‘Built to Be Flexible’ ★

Thom Holwerda:

However, I always recalled seeing a video where alongside the BlackBerry-esque prototype, Google also showed off a device with a full touch screen.

As it turns out, my memory isn’t playing tricks on me. We’re talking November 12 2007, and Google released the first SDK for Android. Other than the keyboard-driven BlackBerry-esque style, the SDK also supported touch screens just fine. And, just as I remembered, Google showed off a reference design with a full touch screen (and, by the looks of it, it’s capacitive) — looking suspiciously similar to the HTC Dream, the first Android device — including gestures and flicks.

So in November 2007 — 11 months after the iPhone was unveiled publicly — Google demoed an Android prototype with a 3.5-ish-inch touchscreen. But watch the demo video. That prototype seemingly has no way to type, and most of the UI is driven not by direct on-screen touch but by a BlackBerry-style menu driven by a hardware D-pad and select button under the screen. Web page zooming is done with buttons on the side of the device. It’s like a BlackBerry with a touchscreen. Every single difference between this 2007 prototype and the first actual consumer Android phone a year later was in the direction of being more like an iPhone. And in the years since, Android’s evolution has continued almost solely in the direction of iPhone-likeness.

Android fans would be better-served going with the “Good artists copy, great artists steal” defense.

Back to Holwerda:

Android was never intended to run on just one form factor. Android runs on everything from candybar touch screen phones to qwerty-phones, and everything in between.

Yeah, I see all sorts of Android phones that look like BlackBerrys and candy bars. Tons of them.

Heck, there was a race to get Android running on laptops, and even before Android was well and ready for it, it was dumped on tablets.

In other words, unlike iOS, Android was built to be flexible, and run on many sorts of devices, with different screen sizes and form factors.

Have you ever read something that made you wonder if you’ve been zapped into an alternate universe? That.

Schmidt Claims Google Won’t Favor Motorola, Android Not a Rip-Off of iPhone ★

Reuters:

“In general, with all of our partners, we told them that the Motorola deal will close and we will run it sufficiently and independently, that it will not violate the openness of Android… we’re not going to change in any material way the way we operate,” Eric Schmidt told reporters on his visit to South Korea on Tuesday.

Kudos for being honest: Google already favors some handset makers over others.

In response to a question on criticism by the late Apple co-founder, Steve Jobs, that Android phones ripped off its flagship iPhone, Schmidt said, “the Android effort started before the iPhone effort.”

Kudos for being honest: Android started as a BlackBerry rip-off, then changed to an iPhone rip-off in 2007.

Apple Acquired 3D Mapping Company C3 Technologies ★

Nice scoop last week by Mark Gurman at 9to5 Mac. Be sure to check out the demo video.

Obviously, Apple wants to extricate itself from depending on Google for mapping services. Recall Tim Cook’s 2009 manifesto:

“We believe that we need to own and control the primary technologies behind the products we make, and participate only in markets where we can make a significant contribution.”

I think mapping is a primary technology for mobile computing.

Ben Brooks on Consumer Reports’ ‘Recommendation’ of the iPhone 4S ★

His URL slug says it all.