Linked List: November 17, 2011

Thursday, 17 November 2011

Interesting usage data from ComScore. Check out the graph showing which devices are used at which hours of the day — “tablets” skew heavily toward morning coffee and after-dinner usage. And by “tablets” they mean the iPad:

Although tablets have yet to be widely adopted, they already contribute nearly 2 percent of all U.S. Web browsing traffic, driven almost exclusively by the iPad, which currently accounts for more than 97 percent of all tablet traffic. More notably, iPads have also begun to account for a higher share of Internet traffic than iPhones (46.8 percent vs. 42.6 percent of all iOS device traffic), despite accounting for only half of the number of iPhones in use.

‘HD’ ★

David Pogue:

Then, on the “Learn More” page, there are nine more references to the Nook Tablet’s ability to play high-definition video. “HD videos stream smoothly.” “Enjoy HD Video.” “The best in HD entertainment.” “Netflix and Hulu Plus pre-loaded to instantly watch HD movies.” “Streaming HD videos and more.” “Supports HD content up to 1080p.” And so on.

Hmm. Well, I don’t know about you. But if I read all of this, I might come away with the impression that the Nook Tablet can show high-definition video!

Well, guess what? It can’t.

Marco Arment Reviews the Kindle Fire ★

Marco Arment:

I’ve read part of a book, three magazines, and a newspaper. I’ve played two games and watched four TV shows from two sources. I’ve also taken far too long to set up my email, failed to find a good RSS reader, turned a lot of pages accidentally, repeated taps that did nothing the first time, and crashed a few apps and the Fire itself.

Scathing.

iPhone 4S Demand ★

Greg Bensinger, reporting for the WSJ Digits weblog:

Verizon Wireless customers may have to wait more than three weeks for the device, according to the carrier’s website. That compares with as much as 21 days at AT&T and up to 14 days at Sprint Nextel. While some tech blogs have suggested Apple’s manufacturing isn’t keeping pace, the carriers point to unexpectedly strong demand for the handset.

Apple Removes ‘Texas Hold’em’, Its Only iOS Game, From App Store ★

I suppose it was starting to show its age, but why not update it? It was a pretty good game.

WTF Mobile Web ★

Nice collection of shitty mobile web experiences, curated by Jen Simmons and Brad Frost.

Josh Topolsky Reviews the Galaxy Nexus ★

He likes it:

I want to note that moving around all of these screens is buttery smooth. There’s no lag, no stutter. Animations are fluid, and everything feels cohesive and solid. It’s like Ice Cream Sandwich is more “there” than previous versions of Android. Additionally, there are repeated motifs that really work, such as the concept of swiping left of right through panels of an app to get at different pieces or layers of content. That’s used throughout the OS now, and it makes a lot of sense.

If you’re like me, you’re skeptical about this, because every time a new Nexus phone has arrived (along with a major revision of the OS), the initial reviews have been along the lines of, “Hey, Android finally got its act together”, but then when the excitement wears off it turns out the whole thing is still a jumbled mess and second-rate (at best) experience and we’re really supposed to wait for next year’s Android.

But there aren’t many buts in Topolsky’s review of the Galaxy Nexus and Android 4.0.

Half-n-Half ★

This week’s episode of America’s favorite podcast. Topics include: the new AIM for Mac app, Muji gloves, the Kindle Fire, the imminent revamped Netflix “tablet” app, and further discussion of Walter Isaacson’s Steve Jobs biography.

Brought to you by Shopify and Squarespace.

Visualization of the Day ★

Scroll down a bit to see every phone sold by Apple and Samsung in the U.S. today.

Glenn Fleishman Reviews the Kindle Fire ★

Glenn Fleishman, writing for The Economist:

Early reviewers carped that the Fire was sluggish, and its web performance poor, especially compared to the iPad 2. That Babbage did not share this impression may be thanks to a last-minute operating system update that was required when first powering up the device. Once updated, the Fire was not perky, perhaps, but nor was it painfully slow. Some on-screen buttons did not respond unless tapped right in the middle and firmly, and swiping and dragging have a noticeable delay compared to an iPad. But that delay, even after hours of use, did not niggle as it does on other Android-based tablets.

Perhaps some of the performance/responsiveness gripes from Mossberg, Topolsky, et al were due to prerelease software.

I Just Want to Say One Word to You. Just One Word. ★

Interesting 8-minute video from Nokia on the design of the Lumia 800, their first flagship Windows Phone.

I got to spend a few minutes playing with a Lumia last night, and speaking of nothing other than the hardware, how it feels in your hand, it’s an exquisite device. The only other phones that I’ve used that feel as nice in hand are the original iPhone and iPhone 4(S). Nokia seems to be shying from calling the material it’s made out of “plastic”, because plastic so often feels cheap. They’re calling it polycarbonate, and they probably should, because it has the opposite of a cheap feel — it feels like a premium product. Good texture and a palpable sturdiness. (The plastic of the iPhone 3G(S), in contrast, always felt a little cheap.) The curves of the Lumia’s sides and back are an interesting contrast to the iPhone 4, too — the Lumia is curved where the iPhone is angular, and the iPhone is curved where the Lumia is angular. (See Edward Tufte’s aforelinked criticism of the iPhone 4’s “aggressive edges”.)

I saw at least a half dozen new Windows Phone devices, but the Lumia stood apart, in my mind. The other thing that struck me, looking at so many devices at once, is that Apple has only shipped three iPhone hardware designs, total. Three.

Touchscreens Have No Hand ★

Edward Tufte:

There is no such hand in touchscreen computer devices. The touchscreen has no texture variation, has no physical surface information, is dead flat, reflects ambient light noise, and features oily fingerprint debris when seen at a raking angle. Also the elegant sharp edges that encase many touchscreens require users to desensitize their hands in order to ignore the physical discomfort produced by the aggressive edges. Last year in Cupertino, I yelled at some people about touchscreens that paid precise attention to finger touches from the user but not to how the device in turn touches the hands of the user (and produces divot edge-lines in the flesh).

Beautiful little essay, but it’s pretty clear Tufte is not a fan of the iPhone 4(S) hardware.

The Rise in Android Malware ★

Jim Dalrymple:

Android is definitely winning… the race for the most malware, that is.

According to a new study from the Juniper Global Threat Center, malware on Android rose an incredible 472% since July 2011. That’s only a few months.

Let me take the devil’s advocate position here. Of course Android has more malware than iOS. For the same reason that Mac OS X has more malware than iOS: they’re open to unsigned, un-reviewed apps from anywhere. The question should not be whether malware for Android exists, but whether it’s a real problem for typical Android users. If you shop for and install apps only from, say, Google’s own Android Market and Amazon’s Appstore, how likely are you to encounter it? If you went out and examined 1000 Android phones in the real world, how many of them would have some sort of malware on them? Those are the questions that matter, and this report doesn’t answer them.