Linked List: October 8, 2013

Tuesday, 8 October 2013

Qualcomm Backtracks From Claim That 64-Bit in A7 Is a Marketing Gimmick ★

Agam Shah, reporting for IDG:

“The comments made by Anand Chandrasekher, Qualcomm CMO, about 64-bit computing were inaccurate,” said a Qualcomm spokesperson in an email. “The mobile hardware and software ecosystem is already moving in the direction of 64-bit; and, the evolution to 64-bit brings desktop class capabilities and user experiences to mobile, as well as enabling mobile processors and software to run new classes of computing devices.”

Qualcomm did not provide further comment.

You know it’s bad when your own PR department cashes in your claim chowder.

Capo 3.0 ★

I don’t play guitar, but if I did, I’d be all over this. Capo is an amazing tool for “reverse engineering rock and roll”, and remains a forward-looking inspiration for Mac app UI design.

John Paczkowski: Apple Will Hold Fall iPad Event on October 22, iPad Mini Going Retina and Getting A7 ★

John Paczkowski:

The fifth-generation iPad is expected to feature a thinner, lighter design akin to the iPad mini’s, and an improved camera. It will run Apple’s new 64-bit A7 chip. The second-generation iPad mini will be upgraded with a retina display and also see the A7 incorporated into its innards. It’s not clear whether Apple’s new iPads will feature the Touch ID fingerprint sensor that recently debuted on the iPhone 5s, though that has been rumored.

The date seemed rather obvious, given that it coincides with last year’s announcement schedule. Apple is a company of patterns; if they held separate iPhone and iPad events on Tuesdays 11 September and 23 October last year, then held an iPhone event on Tuesday 10 September this year, it was pretty obvious Tuesday 22 October would be the date for the iPad event this year. And given that they haven’t refreshed the iPad lineup since last year’s event, it was even more unlikely that there would be no iPad event.

Interesting to me is Paczkowski’s reporting that the iPad Mini is going retina and getting the A7. The current Mini is running the A5, so if Paczkowski is right, the Mini is going to skip an entire generation. I know nothing about Apple’s plans for the Mini this year, but simply as an observer, I find that unusual.

Nest Protect: A Smart Smoke Alarm ★

Steven Levy, writing for Wired:

Nest believes that voice communication boosts safety. The company cites a study by Australian researchers that indicates children are more likely to sleep through a standard alarm than a human voice. But introducing language into a smoke alarm system was a surprisingly complex step involving engineering, psychology, and thespian prowess. Nest scripted its brief messages carefully and auditioned its voice actors as if it were casting the next Hunger Games movie. User experience designer David Sloo asked for a female voice because it projects better though the device’s small speaker. For the American English version (eventually Nest will use a voice native to each market), he chose a 37-year-old mother of a toddler. Somehow, Sloo felt, a maternal characteristic shone through.

Nest is fascinating. Tony Fadell is clearly trying to bring Apple-level design and innovation to product categories we’ve all written off as too mundane to think about.

HP Chromebook11 ★

$280 Chromebook laptop from HP. Has a fun design — white plastic with Google-colored accents — and charges via USB.

Jony Ive Helped Design One-Off Leica Camera ★

It’s a shame it isn’t going to be mass-produced.

Panic’s New Logo ★

Cabel Sasser:

I could spin a yarn about how new logo really represents our apps themselves — a sharp, accurate core of precise engineering wrapped in friendly, warm creativity — but I’d totally be making that up.

Nice work. As a long-time fan of Panic’s work, I have a certain fondness for the old logo, but the new one definitely fits.

In Conversation With Antonin Scalia ★

Fascinating, wide-ranging interview with U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia by Jennifer Senior for New York Magazine. Part of what makes it such an interesting interview is how far apart Senior’s and Scalia’s world views are. Dahlia Lithwick, writing about the interview for Slate, asked Senior to comment on the schism:

I asked Senior whether this felt accurate. She replied, “It’s embarrassing, but the overlap between our worlds is almost nonexistent. It explains why the left and the right both responded so enthusiastically to this piece. Each side sees its own view, affirmed. One sees a monster and the other sees a hero. It’s extraordinary, actually. The O’Reilly constituents think he’s speaking sense; the Jon Stewart vote thinks virtually everything the guy says is nuts.”