Linked List: March 23, 2012

Friday, 23 March 2012

MacUpdate March 2012 Bundle ★

My thanks to MacUpdate for sponsoring this week’s DF RSS feed to promote their March 2012 bundle. 11 great Mac apps for just $49.99. At the top of the list: VMware Fusion 4, Drive Genius 3, and PDFpen 5. Each one of those three apps retails for a regular price higher than the price of this bundle.

Also included: ForkLift, Typinator, DesktopShelves, Snapheal, Boom, Phone to Mac, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, and Worms Special Edition. Total retail value: $379 — all yours for just $49.99. Offer ends March 28.

Progressive JPEGs: How to Publish Hi-Res Photos for iPad on the Web ★

Duncan Davidson:

After reverse engineering the limits and then later being pointed to the documentation about the limits, a birdie dropped a hint into my inbox telling me to try using a progressive JPEG file. Within just a few minutes, several people also chimed in noticing that the large iPad hero image is a progressive JPEG. I’ve not used progressive JPEGs in years, but following the lead of the birdie and the crowd, I gave it a shot. Lo and behold, it’s indeed the ticket to large JPEG joy on the iPad Retina display.

Coming Soon: Smartphones Running Last Year’s New Version of Android ★

Daniel Shen, DigiTimes:

The supply of smartphones running on Android 4.0 will increase substantially starting the second quarter of 2012, with mid-range to high-end models coming from brand vendors including HTC, Samsung Electronics, and Sony Mobile Communications. […]

Smartphones running on Android 4.0 account for only 2-3% of all Android phones in use currently, the sources indicated.

You don’t need sources for that. You can just check with Google’s own usage numbers.

Windows 8 Is Retina-Ready ★

Devin Coldewey, AOL/Techcrunch:

All the talk these days is of the new iPad and its magical screen. Apple isn’t the only one who can do that, you know. In fact, most display makers are looking forward to post-HD resolutions as one of the big selling points of the next generation of displays. Other tablets are already approaching iPad levels of pixel density and it would be foolish of the likes of Google and Microsoft not to be planning for it.

Fortunately, Microsoft is well aware of the trend and has plans in place for dealing with pixel-dense displays (or “Retina” to the vulgar).

Good for them that they’re ready for it, but let’s see some shipping products before we start slapping them on the back. That’s why Apple gets all the praise for the iPad display: it shipped.