Linked List: December 8, 2011

Thursday, 8 December 2011

The New, New Twitter: 10 Big Takeaways ★

Dan Frommer:

Twitter is trying to de-emphasize private messaging by moving it a layer deeper in the user interface. I’m guessing there are a bunch of reasons for this, not limited to: Simplicity, perhaps relatively low usage by most users, potentially confusing rules around DMing, and that more public content is probably better for Twitter’s product and advertising goals. Some long-time and hardcore Twitter users are probably going to be upset about this, but one of Twitter’s strengths has always been its willingness to design for its mainstream users at the expense of its geek users.

Sounds about right. (Not that I’m happy about it personally, but that I agree with his analysis of why Twitter is de-emphasizing private messaging.)

Nick Bilton on the New Twitter UI ★

Nick Bilton:

You can look at the changes on Twitter similarly to the advent of a graphical user interface that made its debut in early-1980s computers. The design was called WIMP and stood for “windows, icons, menus and pointers.” Before WIMP, the only way to use a computer was by writing code, something most people couldn’t even comprehend.

After this major change in computing, programmers could still interact with the computer by writing code, but mere mortal humans could now interact with the computer through a graphical interface that wasn’t as intimidating. Twitter’s new design does the same thing for users who are afraid of the @ and # symbols. They still exist for people who want access to them, people who don’t understand these tools can completely ignore them.

Simplification may well be the publicly-stated goal of today’s new Twitter UI. But I don’t buy a word of Bilton’s analysis. The new Twitter UI doesn’t hide @username mentions or #hashtags. They’re all still there. Two of the big icons on the four tabs at the bottom of the screen are “@” and “#”. I totally agree that the way many people — most people? — use Twitter comes across as gibberish. The way people whom I follow use it, though, is what’s actually simple: just write short ideas concisely and clearly.

Maybe today’s new Twitter UI is better for new Twitter users. But even if that’s true, it’s not because it hides @ and # symbols the way that the Mac did away with the code-driven command line. And frankly, I don’t buy that’s simpler at all. In the old Twitter, you saw only what you asked to be shown (by following people). Now, they’re showing you all sorts of things you never asked for and can’t control.

Pre-Lit ★

Episode 70 of America’s favorite numismatics podcast, The Talk Show. Topics include Carrier IQ, getting rid of the U.S. penny, Starbucks, Apple’s Grand Central Terminal store, The Verge, Johnny Carson and David Letterman, the Apple TV rumors, and more.

Brought to you by the fine folks at Squarespace and Smile Software.

Nintendo’s Miyamoto Stepping Down as Game Design Chief to Work on Smaller Games ★

Chris Kohler, Wired:

“Inside our office, I’ve been recently declaring, ‘I’m going to retire, I’m going to retire,’” Shigeru Miyamoto said through his interpreter. “I’m not saying that I’m going to retire from game development altogether. What I mean by retiring is, retiring from my current position.”

“What I really want to do is be in the forefront of game development once again myself,” Miyamoto said. “Probably working on a smaller project with even younger developers. Or I might be interested in making something that I can make myself, by myself. Something really small.”

Is there any other artist who is more universally agreed-upon to be the best who ever worked in their field? We could argue all day about the best-ever filmmaker, novelist, painter, or musical act. I don’t think you can argue with Miyamoto being the best-ever video game designer.

What Eric Schmidt Actually Said About Developing for Android First ★

Speaking of Eric Schmidt, it ends up CNet’s Stephen Shankland misquoted him yesterday. Schmidt did not say:

Whether you like Android or not, you will support that platform, and maybe you’ll even deliver it first.

His actual words were:

Whether you like ICS or not, and again I like it a great deal, you will want to develop for that platform, and perhaps even first.

I’m disappointed that Shankland got the quote slightly wrong, but, I think what Schmidt actually said fits even better with my analysis of what he meant — that sheer unit sale numbers alone will make developers want to support Android first. Numbers alone don’t explain iOS’s developer support. As Anil Dash pointed out last night, Symbian remains the world’s most-used smartphone OS. Unit numbers haven’t helped them.

‘It’s a Key-Logger’ ★

Reuters, reporting on Eric Schmidt’s comments on Carrier IQ:

Schmidt said: “Android is an open platform, so it’s possible for people to build software that’s actually not very good for you, and this appears to be one.”

“It’s a key-logger, and it actually does keep your keystrokes, and we certainly don’t work with them and we certainly don’t support it,” he told an Internet freedom conference in the Dutch city of The Hague.

I think “It’s a key-logger” is at best a gross over-simplification of what Carrier IQ is, but that sure is a hell of a thing for the chairman of Google to say about it.

Google Currents ★

New from Google: their long-rumored Flipboard ______. Feel free to fill in the blank with your choice of competitor or rip-off.

Update: It’s US-only, at least for now. I guess that’s what happens when you work with big corporate media “partners”, but it sure leaves a bad taste in the mouth. The future of media is not about geographical restrictions.

Carrier IQ Interview ★

Speaking of good work from The Verge, Sean Hollister and Dieter Bohn conducted a lengthy interview with Carrier IQ vice president Andrew Coward.

My takeaway is that they’re taking a sort of “Guns don’t kill people; people with guns kill people” defense — that Carrier IQ doesn’t log or transmit keystrokes, messages, and visited URLs; carriers and phone makers misusing Carrier IQ tools do those things.

Republican-Backed Bill Would Allow Telemarketers to Call Cell Phones ★

Ugh:

Although telemarketers have to have “express consent” before they can call your cell phone, this bill would mean that if you ever give your phone number when buying anything, you will have given businesses the ability to call you endlessly — and use up minutes you paid for.

Android: A Visual History ★

Almost unbelievably comprehensive look at the history of the Android platform, by Chris Ziegler at The Verge. Not only is it good work, but it’s presented in a perfectly readable single-page view.

The Verge is simply one of the best publications in the world. Period. Nobody is doing stuff like this better than they are.

Piezo ★

New from Rogue Amoeba: Piezo, a gorgeous, super-simple $10 audio recording app from Rogue Amoeba. Available from their website, and, in a first for them, from the Mac App Store.

RIM Changes Name of New Operating System ★

Ian Austen, reporting for the NYT:

Less than two months after Research In Motion announced that its new operating system to revive the BlackBerry brand would be called BBX, the company has changed its mind. Now, it will be called BlackBerry 10.

The late change followed the granting of a restraining order on Tuesday by a federal court in New Mexico to a small Albuquerque-based software maker, Basis International, that has long used the name BBx.

Has anything at all — anything — gone right for RIM in the last two years?

It’s the Smiley At the End That Makes It Work ★

Reuters:

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev caused shock and jeers on Wednesday after an obscene insult directed at political opponents appeared on his official Twitter feed. […] The offensive post appeared to have been retweeted on the MedvedevRussia feed at 33 minutes past midnight, according to cached copies of the feed and a notification of the post received by a Reuters reporter.

“It has become clear that if a person writes the expression ‘party of swindlers and thieves’ in their blog then they are a stupid sheep getting fucked in the mouth :)” the post read.

Don’t Get Too Specific, There ★

Reuters, “Verizon Wireless Blames Technical Issue for Outage”:

Verizon Wireless blamed technical problems for an outage on its recently launched high-speed, 4G network, which prevented some U.S. customers from accessing the Internet for about 24 hours.

What else could it have been? A prank? A magic spell?