Linked List: July 31, 2012

Tuesday, 31 July 2012

Samsung Angers Judge by Sending Rejected Evidence From Apple Trial to the Media 

Nilay Patel:

The Apple vs. Samsung trial was always destined to be a circus, but Samsung’s already causing trouble on the first day of testimony: Judge Lucy Koh is furious that the company sent the press rejected evidence after the court overruled repeated attempts to introduce it at trial.

Anyone else get the feeling Samsung thinks they’re going to lose this? From Samsung’s accompanying statement:

The excluded evidence would have established beyond doubt that Samsung did not copy the iPhone design. Fundamental fairness requires that the jury decide the case based on all the evidence.

Are they insinuating they want the jury to see this? That last sentence sounds like something that could come back to haunt them.

The WebKit Inspector 

Terrific guide to the WebKit Inspector by Majd Taby. (But note that it’s three months old, and thus doesn’t cover the even-better brand-new but much-maligned Inspector in Safari 6.)

New Command-Line Utilities in Mountain Lion 

“caffeinate” is a fun name.

Google Delays Nexus Q Launch 

Google:

When we announced Nexus Q at Google I/O, we gave away devices to attendees for an early preview. The industrial design and hardware were met with great enthusiasm. We also heard initial feedback from users that they want Nexus Q to do even more than it does today. In response, we have decided to postpone the consumer launch of Nexus Q while we work on making it even better.

Shocker.

The Stupid, Lame, and Lazy Mountain Lion Headlines 

At this point, you stand out more by not writing obvious pun headlines.

Sam Biddle on Sony’s SmartWatch 

Sam Biddle:

No. Absolutely not. No one should own this, no matter their lifestyle preferences or moral views. I promise you — you won’t like it. The Sony SmartWatch is pathetic, frustrating, and empty. There’s no way to justify spending $150 on this — this ripoff of a thing. It’s easily gulped down at first under the guise of luxe gadgetry, but spending any more than a few minutes swiping with despair reveals just how much of a bad practical joke this thing is.

Always fun to read a review that doesn’t mince words.

Andrew Sorkin’s Suggestions for an Apple Shopping List 

Dealbook’s Andrew Ross Sorkin made a list of potential big acquisitions on which Apple could spend its $117 billion (and growing ever more rapidly) cash hoard:

  • Nuance
  • Twitter
  • Path
  • RIM
  • Square
  • Sprint

The only ones on that list that make sense to me are Nuance (under Apple’s oft-cited rule that the company seeks to “own and control the primary technology” in everything they do — speech recognition is now one of Apple’s primary technologies) and maybe Square.

Acquiring Sprint makes no sense, unless you think of the iPhone and iPad as U.S.-only products, which also makes no sense. I could see Apple buying RIM for its patent portfolio after RIM goes bankrupt, but that’s more likely to happen through a consortium, like the Nortel deal.

It’s hard to spend $117 billion wisely.

Inge Druckrey: Teaching to See 

Captivating, beautiful 37-minute documentary on the teaching of Inge Druckrey.

Hulu Plus Arrives on Apple TV 

Nice.