Linked List: February 9, 2013

Saturday, 9 February 2013

Almond+ 

My thanks to Securifi for sponsoring this week’s DF RSS feed to promote the Kickstarter project for Almond+, the follow-up to their popular and highly-regarded Almond Wi-Fi router. Almond is the top-rated router on Amazon (number two is Apple’s Airport Extreme), and Almond+ looks to be a better product in every way.

Almond+ offers a touchscreen UI for configuration — no need for a Mac or PC for setting it up or making changes — easy home automation, fast gigabit ethernet speeds, powerful signal range, and all the latest Wi-Fi standards. It’s a really nice hardware design too, suitable both for mounting on a wall or being placed on a table or shelf. All this for just $99 — reserve yours on Kickstarter today.

Surface Pro 128 GB Immediately Sells Out 

Paul Thurrott:

Based on the many emails I’ve received, it paid to shop early online. I heard from several readers who purchased the 128 GB version of the Surface Pro from Microsoft’s online store just after midnight ET and were able to complete the sale. But those who woke up and tried to purchase one at a normal hour were thwarted: The Surface Pro 128 GB is now listed as “out of stock” at the Microsoft Store and Staples. At the time of this writing, Best Buy reports having them for sale, but readers who attempted this purchase tell me this isn’t the case.

Those who show up at Microsoft retail store locations are reporting “Apple-like” lines.

Maybe they should have gone 128/256 instead of 64/128 — seems like people are willing to pay for the extra storage on the Pro, and it would have helped differentiate the Pro from the Surface RT. (Would love to see some photographs of those “Apple-like lines”, though.)

Update: Virtual Pants:

My local (Northern Virginia) Microsoft store sold out in 15 minutes, which means there wasn’t much to sell. The local Best Buy sold out too, but only received one unit. The local Staples received and sold a whopping two units. Selling out on launch day doesn’t mean very much when there isn’t anything to sell in the first place.

It’ll be interesting to see if Microsoft announces opening weekend sales numbers in a few days.

Tesla Model S vs. the East Coast 

John M. Broder, test-driving a Model S on the east coast in winter:

I began following Tesla’s range-maximization guidelines, which meant dispensing with such battery-draining amenities as warming the cabin and keeping up with traffic. I turned the climate control to low — the temperature was still in the 30s — and planted myself in the far right lane with the cruise control set at 54 miles per hour (the speed limit is 65). Buicks and 18-wheelers flew past, their drivers staring at the nail-polish-red wondercar with California dealer plates.

Nearing New York, I made the first of several calls to Tesla officials about my creeping range anxiety. The woman who had delivered the car told me to turn off the cruise control; company executives later told me that advice was wrong. All the while, my feet were freezing and my knuckles were turning white.

The Porsche 911: An Ode to Iteration 

50 years of iterative refinement.

John E. Karlin, Designer of the 20th Century Telephone, Dies at 94 

Margalit Fox, writing for the NYT:

And when, not long afterward, the dial gave way to push buttons, new questions arose: round buttons, or square? How big should they be? Most crucially, how should they be arrayed? In a circle? A rectangle? An arc?

For decades after World War II, these questions were studied by a group of social scientists and engineers in New Jersey led by one man, a Bell Labs industrial psychologist named John E. Karlin.

Love the bit about the white dots on rotary phones.