Linked List: August 28, 2012

Tuesday, 28 August 2012

‘Ever.’ 

MG Siegler, quoting Marissa Mayer circa 2005:

“There will not be crazy, flashy, graphical doodads flying and popping up all over the Google site. Ever.”

It’s easy to call hypocrisy on this one, or to argue that Mayer’s absence is already being felt. But I’m not so sure. This thing is certainly more prominent than any previous promotion Google has put on its home page, but, the Nexus 7 is also the best device the company has produced to date. It deserves a more prominent promotion than, say, any of the Nexus phones to date. I’m going to hold my claim chowder card on this one until they sell this sort of promotion, as opposed to using it for their own product.

Perceptions Matter 

Quentin Fottrell, reporting for MarketWatch:

Gazelle.com reports a 50% increase in Samsung smartphones over the past three days, which has led to a 10% drop in prices for those devices. “Consumers seem to be jumping ship,” says Anthony Scarsella, chief gadget officer at Gazelle.com. “We expect this trend to continue, especially with this latest verdict.”

$1 billion isn’t that much money, either to Apple or Samsung. But the PR value of this verdict is far higher. (Via Jim Dalrymple.)

Watermark 

Manton Reece:

I’m renaming Tweet Marker Plus. Its new name — to better reflect its gradual move away from Twitter and syncing — is Watermark.

As part of the relaunch it immediately gains a new feature: App.net posts.

‘Undoubtedly’ 

Mike Wehner, Yahoo News:

The iPhone 5 will also undoubtedly feature near-field communication (NFC) technology, allowing the phone to be used as a virtual wallet at retail stores.

Listening to Users 

Dave Winer:

You only learn where a product needs improvement through serious long-term use. Users gain that kind of experience, but reviewers and pundits generally do not. Their observations tend to be superficial. That’s why reviews written after a few days using a product often miss the mark. The real greatness or lack of greatness in a product doesn’t show up for a few weeks or months. Sometimes even longer.

This was a secret of mine, because most of my competitors not only didn’t listen to their users, but they didn’t even use their own products.

I’m lucky enough to be acquaintances — and in many cases friends — with the developers of many of my most-used apps. And in every single case, they are heavy and devoted users of their own apps.

Why There’s a Weird Bulge on Google.com 

Nexus 7 scores the most valuable advertising space on the entire web.

Stealing Sheep 

Nice appreciation of type design titan Frederic Goudy by Jason Santa Maria.

AnandTech: NFC Unlikely in New iPhone 

Brian Klug and Anand Lal Shimpi for AnandTech:

Given the primarily metal backside of the new iPhone, it’s highly unlikely that NFC is in the cards for this generation. In fact, given the very little space at top and bottom dedicated to those glass RF windows, you can almost entirely rule it out.

Dalrymple says yep.

I remember hearing about NFC support six months ahead of the iPhone 4. So much potential, but it just never went anywhere.