Linked List: June 4, 2013

Tuesday, 4 June 2013

App Store Description Previewer 

Simple web tool from Bjango for iOS developers; gives you an approximation of where your app description will be truncated.

The Sketchnote Typeface 

Mike Rohde:

Sketchnote Text, Italic and Bold were built from hundreds of hand-drawn glyphs, and variations on glyphs. These added characters allowed Delve to create Contextual Alternates — multiple variations on each character which help recreate variations in handwriting and can be accessed with tools that support this OpenType feature, like InDesign.

One of the best handwriting fonts I’ve ever seen.

Apple Will Appeal ITC Import Ban on Older iPhones, iPads 

John Paczkowski:

“We believe the ITC’s Final Determination has confirmed Apple’s history of free-riding on Samsung’s technological innovations,” Samsung said in a statement to AllThingsD.

Verizon Wireless Extends NFL Deal 

Matthew Futterman and Spencer Ante, reporting for the WSJ:

Next year, the National Football League will begin to show Sunday afternoon games from customers’ home markets on Verizon Wireless phones, adding more of television’s most valuable content to the growing inventory that users can watch on mobile devices. The league is already showing games from Sunday, Monday and Thursday nights on Verizon phones. Typically, only one game is played on those nights, while about 10 to 12 are played across the country on Sunday afternoons.

Verizon Wireless will pay the NFL $1 billion over four years, according to a person with direct knowledge of the terms.

That is nearly 40% more than Verizon agreed to pay when it signed the current four-year, $720 million agreement in 2010, a growth rate similar to what the NFL and other sports leagues have received in their latest TV deals.

Tablets not included, only phones.

Facts vs. the Law 

Philip Elmer-DeWitt:

The first rule of law, goes the old lawyers joke, is that if the facts are against you, you argue the law. The second rule is that if the law is against you, you argue the facts. Based on each side’s opening arguments on the first day of U.S.A. v. Apple, it’s clear that the Department of Justice is leaning heavily on the facts and Apple on the law.

Camera Noir 

New iPhone camera app that does one thing and does it well: high-contrast black-and-white photography (reminiscent, dare I say, of the late lamented Gotham filter). I’ve been beta testing it, and gotten some good shots with it over the past month. A steal at $1.99.

The White House Takes Aim at Patent Trolls 

Julie Samuels, writing for the EFF:

Frustration with patent trolls, and momentum for reform, has been building for some time now. Today, the stakes got even higher when the White House announced that it was actively taking on the troll problem. This is big news, and not just because of the seven legislative proposals the White House recommends (more on those below). Even more important are the five executive actions the President intends to take with or without congressional help.

The news here is good.