Linked List: August 28, 2013

Wednesday, 28 August 2013

Nintendo:

The new Nintendo 2DS system gives you all the features of the Nintendo 3DS and Nintendo 3DS XL, minus 3D viewing. And the price makes the world of Nintendo games even more accessible.

It’s $129. I say they should just give in and start making iOS games. They’re not going to win this battle.

Update: “Isn’t this like telling Apple to give up on hardware and license Mac OS to other PC makers?” numerous readers have asked. Maybe a little, but it’s a bad comparison. The main thing is it never seemed to me — never — that Apple was incapable of producing excellent industry-leading hardware. They just needed focus and better execution. Nintendo, to me, looks incapable of producing handheld hardware that can compete with the iPhone or iPod Touch. I think they’re out of the game and might never get back into it. If they can do it, great — where by “do it” I mean produce a device that’s a better buy for $250 or so than an iPod Touch. But I don’t think they can do it. And if they can’t do it, their next best bet is to expand to making iOS games. I’m not saying drop the DS line and jump to iOS in one fell swoop. But a couple of $9.99 iPhone/iPad games to test the water wouldn’t hurt.

HTC Developing China-Focused Mobile Operating System ★

Eva Dou, reporting for the WSJ:

HTC Corp. is developing a mobile-software system specifically for Chinese consumers, people familiar with the project said, part of a big bet that the smartphone maker hopes will help revive sliding sales.

Development of the smartphone operating system — slated to be introduced by year-end — is being closely monitored by HTC Chairwoman Cher Wang, the people said. The software involves close integration with Chinese apps such as the Twitter-like microblog Weibo, they said.

I’d be curious to hear just what is actually better about this system than Android. The article offers no such details, other than a Chinese government concern that the nation’s mobile user base is too dependent upon Android.

Jeff Atwood-Designed CODE Mechanical Keyboard ★

Very cool that Atwood would undertake such an endeavor, but I can’t help but suspect it’d sell better with a Mac layout than a Windows one. I’m tempted to try one, but for $150 I don’t want Windows-style modifier key caps.

Update: Ends up you can order OS-specific meta keys for an extra $6, and apparently they’re easy to pop on yourself. I’d get one, but now it’s sold out.

Measles Outbreak in Texas Linked to Anti-Vaccination Church ★

Liz Szabo, reporting for USA Today:

All of the school-age children infected in the Eagle Mountain outbreak were home-schooled, health officials say. Texas requires children be vaccinated before attending school.

In an Aug. 15 statement, Eagle Mountain’s pastor, Terri Pearsons, said she still has some reservations about vaccines. “The concerns we have had are primarily with very young children who have family history of autism and with bundling too many immunizations at one time,” she said.

Tell me again how there’s no link between religious zealotry and dangerous anti-scientific views.

ReadQuick Now Universal ★

Back in January I linked to a new iPad app called ReadQuick, a read-later app with an innovative presentation: one word at a time, streaming at whatever speed you find comfortable. Like I wrote then, I don’t use it personally, because I read just fine the traditional way. But a lot of people don’t, and I find it fascinating that many people read better this way. I got a bunch of emails from readers back in January thanking me for linking to ReadQuick, because it works so well for their reading style.

Anyway, now it’s a universal binary with native iPhone support too. (Maybe it should have been iPhone-first? With this flash-card style presentation, ReadQuick might work better on iPhone than iPad.)

Blind Browser ★

Nifty idea from Charlie Deets: a browser for web designers working on retina displays, to test how sites look on non-retina displays.