Linked List: April 4, 2012

Wednesday, 4 April 2012

Farhad Manjoo:

In other words Honan might be right that Google has violated its own definition of evil, but doesn’t it matter that every one of its rivals also routinely violates Google’s definition of evil? Wouldn’t that suggest that it’s the definition of “evil” that needs updating, rather than Google’s own behavior, which seems perfectly in line with that of its rivals? If you’re going to knock Google for its ethics, you’d have a hard time conducting transactions with any tech entity other than Wikipedia and Craigslist. You’d have an especially hard time explaining people’s crazy love for Apple.

It’s not that Google is evil. It’s that they’re hypocrites. That’s the difference between Google and its competitors.

‘Putting You Back in the Moment’ ★

Joe Stracci on Project Glass:

There’s some incredible Orwellian doublespeak at work here, e.g., technology that “helps you explore and share your world, putting you back in the moment.” As far as I can tell, it doesn’t help you to explore your world at all. It helps Google to explore your world.

Right. Let’s pretend Google could actually build and ship something exactly like what they show in their concept video. Think about the data Google is collecting about the video’s protagonist.

The Type of Companies That Publish Future Concept Videos ★

Yours truly, back in November:

The designs in these concept videos are free from real-world constraints — technical, logical, fiscal. Dealing with constraints is what real design is all about. Institutional attention on the present day — on getting innovative industry-leading products out the door and creating consumer demand for them — requires relentless company-wide focus.

Project Glass ★

Google’s transition into the new Microsoft is now complete: fancy-pants sci-fi concept video to promote stunningly awkward augmented reality glasses.

Analyst Claims iPhone Tops Sales Charts at Each of Its U.S. Carriers ★

More iPhone carrier news from John Paczkowski:

“Our March checks indicated the iPhone continues to extend its market share gains,” Canaccord Genuity analyst Mike Walkley writes in a note to clients today. “In fact, we believe iPhones are outselling all other smartphones combined at Sprint and AT&T and selling at roughly equal volume to all Android smartphones at Verizon.”

U.S. iPhone Sales by Retail Channel ★

John Paczkowski:

More interesting, however, was the breakdown of the stores themselves. According to CIRP’s data, Apple sold 15 percent of all iPhones purchased in the U.S. during the period of the survey (retail, 11 percent; online, 4 percent). Meanwhile, AT&T sold 32 percent via its online and retail stores; Verizon, 30 percent — again, online and off — and Sprint, 7 percent.

And Best Buy? The big-box retailer sold 13 percent, just 2 percent shy of Apple itself. The remaining 3 percent is “Other,” which I’m told is a combination of retailers like Radio Shack and Walmart and respondents who received their iPhone as a gift and didn’t know where it was originally purchased.

It’s interesting that Best Buy sells almost as many as Apple itself, but more interesting is how dominant the carriers remain. Most people still buy their mobile phones, even iPhones, the same way they always have — by going into a carrier store.

Yahoo to Lay Off 2,000 Employees ★

Michael Liedtke, reporting for the AP:

The layoffs “are an important next step toward a bold, new Yahoo — smaller, nimbler, more profitable and better equipped to innovate as fast as our customers and our industry require,” Thompson said in a statement.

That rings a bell, circa 2008:

the steps we are taking are not easy for us as a company, but as we become more fit as an organization, decision-making will be faster and it will be easier for us all to get more done and stay focused on our strategy.

Well-Intentioned Scumbags ★

This week’s episode of The Talk Show. Topics include Instagram for Android, Papermill (a new Instapaper client for Android), why the Verizon iPad is far superior to the AT&T one, the Lumia 900, the Mac Pro’s future, and Readability.

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Bronson Watermarker ★

Remember Mike Evangelist’s story about Steve Jobs and the iDVD user interface?

On the appointed day, Evangelist and the rest of the team gathered in the boardroom. They’d brought page after page of prototype screen shots showing the new program’s various windows and menu options, along with paragraphs of documentation describing how the app would work.

“Then Steve comes in,” Evangelist recalls. “He doesn’t look at any of our work. He picks up a marker and goes over to the whiteboard. He draws a rectangle. ‘Here’s the new application,’ he says. ‘It’s got one window. You drag your video into the window. Then you click the button that says BURN. That’s it. That’s what we’re going to make.’”

That’s what Bronson is like, except for watermarking PDF files. $10 in the Mac App Store.

The Next Wave of iOS Apps ★

Erica Ogg:

Snapguide and Paper have two things in common. Both appeal to the creative side of mobile users, and both are themselves beautifully made and deceptively simple to use.

I think it’s these qualities that are going to provide a roadmap for more iOS apps to come that will appeal to the artsy, creative side of people, rather than the traditional consumption-oriented theme of what have so far been the most popular types of apps on Apple’s platform.