Linked List: July 5, 2012

Thursday, 5 July 2012

Understanding Twitter 

Dan Frommer:

The biggest factor driving Twitter today is that it wants to remain an independent company. There were previous opportunities to become part of Google or Facebook or whatever, but now Twitter wants to remain its own property. To become a strong, independent company, Twitter must build a large, profitable business, sooner than later — or the dream is over. It’s possible, but it will require change, which makes people uncomfortable.

Pogue on the Nexus Q 

David Pogue:

It won’t take you long to join the chorus of critics who’ve tried out the Q and had the same reaction: “What the — ?”

Pogue on the Nexus 7 

David Pogue:

But the Nexus tablet is sweet. Its hardware and software smoothness rival Apple’s, and its luxury humiliates the Kindle Fire. In short, it’s possible that this tablet may finally help solve Google’s chicken-and-egg problem. Maybe once it becomes popular, people will finally start writing decent apps for it, and more movie and music companies will come to the Google Play store.

Patent Troll Stalks Travel Site Hipmunk 

Jeff John Roberts, writing for GigaOm:

Despite its high-tech sounding name, i2z is simply a Texas shell company run by a California lawyer that is targeting internet and travel companies including Kayak, Google, Yelp and Microsoft. Under i2z’s business model, known as patent trolling, firms that don’t make anything collect patents in order to extract licensing settlements from companies that do.

In a new twist, trolls have begun laying in wait for start-ups to receive funding before pouncing. That is what happened to hand-crafted goods marketplace Etsy earlier this year.

Bastards.

Why iPad Apps Should Be OK Usability-Wise on a 7.8-Inch iPad 

I was going to write pretty much this exact thing, but lucky for me, Joel Bernstein saved me the typing.

Corrupt App Store Binaries Crashing on Launch 

Marco Arment, investigating a crash-on-launch bug in Instapaper:

Lots of anxiety and research led me to the problem: a seemingly corrupt update being distributed by the App Store in many or possibly all regions.

And this is happening to other apps, not just Instapaper, updated in the last few days.

Marco is also doing some fun follow-up on Twitter, looking at the attribution of various tech news sites linking to and/or rewriting his reporting on the issue.