Linked List: March 17, 2012

Saturday, 17 March 2012

My thanks to Sparrow for sponsoring this week’s DF RSS feed to promote their brand-new version for the iPhone. It’s a full-fledged alternative to iOS’s built-in Mail app, and it’s really quite remarkable. On the practical side, it’s loaded with features that make reading and writing email efficient. Just one example: swipe on a message in a message list to reveal a shortcut bar of actions for that message — very reminiscent of the way most popular Twitter apps for iPhone work. On the look-and-feel side, the UI is extremely polished, with a delightful attention to detail.

Federico Viticci’s review at MacStories delves into the whole UI in great detail. For a quick overview, you can’t beat Sparrow’s own demo video. Writing an email client is no small undertaking, let alone writing a good one. I don’t hesitate to call Sparrow one of the most ambitious and bold third-party iOS apps I’ve ever seen. Buy Sparrow for $3 on the App Store.

Theaters Won’t Cancel Performances or Issue Refunds for Daisey’s ‘Agony and Ecstacy of Steve Jobs’ ★

Edward Champion:

When I contacted theater companies on Friday afternoon, it was evident that they were more taken with the “engaging” nature of Daisey’s show rather than its veracity. DJ from New York’s The Public Theater informed me that the three remaining performances of Daisey’s show scheduled on Saturday and Sunday were still on. There were no plans to cancel.

But what of theatergoers who might have believed that Daisey’s story is real and who booked tickets in advance of these allegations?

“We don’t offer refunds,” said DJ.

Unbelievable.

Apple, China, and the Truth ★

Great piece by Evan Osnos, reporting from Beijing for The New Yorker:

But Daisey lied. He made up things about his trip, and the show’s attempts at fact-checking failed to uncover them. It all fell apart when Rob Schmitz, a seasoned reporter who is the China correspondent for the public-radio program “Marketplace,” got suspicious and tracked down the translator who’d worked with Daisey. It’s worth a listen, but, in short, Schmitz discovers that Daisey made up scenes, never took notes, conflated workers, never visited a dorm room, and so on. Watching it unravel from Beijing makes me wonder: What does the debacle say about how we all look at China? Why were so many people so eager to believe it?