Linked List: December 9, 2011

Friday, 9 December 2011

Apple: Motorola Patent Win Won’t Keep iPhones From German Holiday Shoppers ★

Still, a big win for Motorola in German patent suit.

iPad 2 as a Serious Writing Machine ★

James Kendrick:

What makes the iPad 2 and keyboard combo so effective for my writing is the “one app at a time” nature of the tablet. The running app takes up the entire screen, and thus my focus. There are no distractions presented while writing, just inputting words on the screen.

This is liberating for a writer, and I find I can write more, and better, on the tablet system than on a “real” computer. There are no menu options competing for my attention, no updates needing to be run, just an app on the screen.

See also: Harry McCracken’s similar piece from a week or so ago.

I’m starting to feel like an old fogey, using a Mac for all my writing.

HP to Contribute WebOS to Open Source ★

Better than just shooting it out back, but what’s the practical upside of this? What devices will it run on? WebOS contains some brilliant ideas and great design, but let’s face it: it still has catching up to do. Who’s going to be motivated to do that hard work now?

I hope I’m wrong, but I think this is just the difference between putting your dog down and letting it free on a distant mountain road.