Linked List: March 6, 2012

Tuesday, 6 March 2012

Fraser Speirs: ‘We Need to Talk About Android’ 

Fraser Speirs:

You’re either buying into a platform or you’re buying gadgets. The fundamental disconnect between the apprently solid Android engineering that’s happening at Google and the actual packaging and deployment that’s happening to end-users is turning into a real problem. To my mind, it’s a dealbreaker for schools or anyone thinking beyond their next carrier subsidy.

Toy Shining 

Toy Story meets The Shining — perfectly-cast storyboards by Kyle Lambert. (Via Andy Baio.)

Ben Brooks on Readability 

Ben Brooks:

Lastly I just think they are largely a copycat business with a free model and a heavy focus on UI design over UX design.

Like Brooks, I’ve never been comfortable with the way they collect money on behalf of publishers. And their app is nowhere near as good as Instapaper.

Speaking of Obama 

From zero to the U.S. president’s daily briefing in two years.

iOS Ebb and Flow 

Chris Sauve examines iOS version fragmentation:

Some folks have told me that it is unfair to compare iOS and Android on this metric because iOS is effectively just three devices (iPod Touch, iPad, iPhone), whereas Android is a multi-manufacturer ecosystem with dozens of devices. This line of thinking is extremely frustrating to me. Developers and users don’t care that the two platforms aren’t the same. Users want the most recent features and security updates, and will demand them either directly (by complaining) or indirectly (by making a different purchasing decision), and developers want a unified base to minimize testing. Android apologists can list off the differences between the two all day long but it doesn’t change the fact that more versions with smaller share is worse for, at the very least, developers and users.

I expect major-new-version adoption rates for iOS to get even better now that Apple has implemented over-the-air software updates.

AT&T Clarifies Data Limitations on ‘Unlimited’ Data Plans 

Joel Hruska, writing for Hot Hardware, which I swear is not a porno site:

So bits of data are just $10 per GB if you buy 3GB in advance, but $67 per GB if you buy a 300MB plan — and this somehow reflects the reality of a competitive situation, or maps in some reasonable fashion to issues like spectrum usage and bandwidth availability. The goal here is to push 3GB+ users with unlimited plans over to tiered options where they’ll pay at least $40 for that use. If this was truly about keeping the network balanced, AT&T would implement a throttling solution that didn’t choke users by as much as 95% once they exceeded the 3GB threshold. It would also offer data plans that created more reasonable tiers of service. As things stand now, AT&T has a major selling point — if you exceed 300MB a month on the $20 plan, you’ll actually end up paying $40 — $10 more then you’ll pay with that nice, roomy 3GB option.

Don’t get me wrong regarding yesterday’s piece on AT&T “unlimited” plan users — AT&T’s data plans have never been fair and the “unlimited” plan was never honest.

Ed Bott on the Real Estate Devoted to Advertising in Google Search Results 

Actual search results are falling below the fold.

AP: ‘New iPad Expected to Have Modest Upgrades’ 

Peter Svensson, writing for the AP:

Apple is expected to reveal a new iPad model on Wednesday, with a sharper screen and perhaps an option for faster wireless broadband. The upgrades are relatively minor, but the iPad is secure in its position as the king of tablets.

I suspect this is a prelude to much of tomorrow’s post-event coverage, echoing the initial tech press reaction to the iPhone 4S. But if a faster processor, more RAM, a double-the-resolution retina display, a better camera, and maybe even LTE networking make for a “modest” update, then what would it take for the iPad 3 to be deemed an immodest update? A fusion energy source? Teleportation? A camera that sees into the future?

With Microsoft-Designed Touchscreens, What Could Go Wrong? 

Nick Bunkley, reporting for the NYT:

The Ford Motor Company began adding touch-screen control systems to some of its most popular models two years ago as a way to stand out from the rest of the industry and draw in new customers.

But after many buyers grew frustrated with flaws in the system, known as MyFord Touch and developed with Microsoft, Ford’s quality ratings plunged and a feature meant to increase loyalty instead damaged perceptions of the company.

Good Thing You Don’t Need to Use the Trackpad Much on a Notebook 

Sean Hollister at The Verge reviews the new Dell XPS 13, and had some serious problems with the trackpad:

The problem is that the Cypress drivers are all over the place. I tried three different versions of the software and manually tweaked every setting I could, and couldn’t find a single combination that both allowed for smooth two-finger scrolling and decent palm rejection. The pad is sensitive enough and close enough to the keyboard that it’s almost impossible not to hit it as you type, and the software’s not always smart enough to keep you from jumping a line when you do. There’s no way to easily and quickly turn off the touchpad while you’re typing, and scrolling can be exceptionally jerky, too. Also, no matter which version of the software I used, the Cypress pad was sluggish to respond to gestures like scrolling, pinch-to-zoom, and tap-to-click, which meant that the laptop only did what I told it to do after a noticable delay. Eventually, I gave up and switched to a mouse. I suspect you’d do the same.

That’s pretty much everything wrong with Windows PCs in a nutshell: dicking around with “drivers” and settling for a crummy experience anyway.

Gabe Glick: ‘The Case for an iOS Aperture’ 

I’m thinking more iPhoto than Aperture — mass market, not pro market — but I’d be happy to be wrong.

Apple Names All-Time Top App Store Apps 

Some interesting apps in these lists.

iPad 3 and Photography 

Neven Mrgan:

Every announcement of iOS hardware has included new software as well; it only makes sense, whether iOS itself is getting an update at the time or not. So, what new app will we get this week?

Photography seems like the obvious target. All of Apple’s creative apps have been ported to iOS with the exception of iPhoto. The built-in Photos app overlaps iPhoto slightly. What aspects of iPhoto aren’t there on iOS today?

I speculated along similar lines during last week’s episode of The Talk Show. My thinking is three-fold:

  • We’ve already got iMovie and GarageBand for iPad. iPhoto seems like a glaring omission.
  • A good way to predict what’s coming next for the iPad is to ask yourself what sort of things are keeping regular people from using an iPad as their main computer. Photo management is the biggest one I can think of.
  • A retina display iPad should make photos look amazing.
The Obama Poster Project 

Like Wes Anderson films? Support Obama’s reelection? Then the artists at The Obama Poster Project have some excellent posters, t-shirts, and associated swag to offer. Ka-ching.

Why Eileen Brown Thinks Google’s New Unified Privacy Settings Make Great Business Sense 

Eileen Brown:

Remember, you explicitly created that Gmail account, so you could get early access to Google+.

What a load of crap. Gmail was launched in 2004. Google Plus launched in 2011. Arguments like this show how deluded Google supporters can be when trying to defend Google’s questionable privacy actions.

And no one is arguing that these changes don’t make “great business sense”. The argument is whether they make good privacy sense. And they don’t.

Inaccessible iPhone Apps 

Speaking of Joe Clark and accessibility, he’s got strong words for some popular new iPhone apps.

The Hands That Feed 

Interesting piece by Chris Hofstader regarding accessibility advocacy groups:

While slamming Apple at their annual convention, they celebrated Google with lots of presentation slots for their Android system. As I wrote above, Android accessibility is poor at best but NFB probably got a fat contribution from Google and, as any advocate knows, money talks, accessibility walks.

(Thanks to Joe Clark.)

Mat Honan on What to Expect at Apple’s Event Tomorrow 

Mat Honan:

How important? Here is an anecdote: A major player in the consumer electronics industry had an event planned on Wednesday morning at the same time as Apple’s announcement. It was a chance for an intimate group of technology journalists to meet with a C-level executive, and to walk away at the end of the meeting with unreleased products to review. [...]

Nonetheless, [Redacted] had to reschedule its event due to lack of interest. Too many inky hacks pulled out to cover Apple instead. We, the Press would rather sit in a dark room, unable to ask tough questions or actually touch and test an Apple product, than do our job. We would rather serve as a gateway for Apple’s live action press releases.

Good piece overall; Honan captures just how strong Apple’s attention gravity is. But, to quibble, the last two years there were hands-on demo areas where everyone invited could touch and inspect the new iPads — and if you try hard enough, you can ask questions.

Pictures of People Scanning QR-Codes 

As busy as you’d expect.