Linked List: December 20, 2013

Friday, 20 December 2013

Pixate Freestyle 

My thanks to Pixate for sponsoring this week’s DF RSS feed. Pixate Framework is a free library that makes it possible to style native iOS apps using CSS. It’s really native, too — no webviews required — and works with all native iOS controls.

This week they launched a new open source project called Freestyle. Freestyle is a companion CSS framework designed to help Pixate users work faster and keep their style sheets centralized and organized. They describe it as “Bootstrap for native mobile apps”.

Download Pixate Freestyle at pixate.com.

Reuters: RSA Security Took $10M From NSA to Push Weaker Encryption 

Joseph Menn, reporting for Reuters:

As a key part of a campaign to embed encryption software that it could crack into widely used computer products, the U.S. National Security Agency arranged a secret $10 million contract with RSA, one of the most influential firms in the computer security industry, Reuters has learned. […]

Undisclosed until now was that RSA received $10 million in a deal that set the NSA formula as the preferred, or default, method for number generation in the BSafe software, according to two sources familiar with the contract. Although that sum might seem paltry, it represented more than a third of the revenue that the relevant division at RSA had taken in during the entire previous year, securities filings show.

If this is true, RSA might as well just shut their doors and turn out the lights, because no one will ever trust them again.

The Only Thing Weirder Than a Telemarketing Robot 

I think Alexis Madrigal has solved the mystery of the amazing telemarketing robot that called a Time reporter last week.

Update: Madrigal has written a feature-length follow-up, “Almost Human: The Surreal, Cyborg Future of Telemarketing”, and it’s a gripping read. It’s amazing to me how a system that could have only existed in science fiction a decade ago can come to life, yet seem so extraordinarily mundane.

QSKit: Q Branch Standard Kit 

One last Vesper-related link to complete the trifecta. Brent Simmons:

We just posted Q Branch Standard Kit — QSKit, for short — to GitHub.

It’s a bunch of categories and utilities that we find useful in multiple apps (both Mac and iOS). Nothing earth-shaking or high-tech — just solid stuff. With tests.

Consider it an early Christmas present from us to the community that’s given us so much.

App Store Best of 2013 

Speaking of Vesper, it was a real thrill to see it included in the App Store’s Best of 2013. I’m proud of what we did in 2013, but 2014 is going to be even better.

(For the curious: work on sync continues unabated.)

App Santa: Award-Winning Apps, Discounted for the Holidays 

A slew of great indie apps at great prices — including Vesper, on sale for just $2.99.

BlackBerry Posts Huge Loss 

Ian Austen, reporting for the NYT:

BlackBerry reported a $4.4 billion loss and a 56 percent drop in revenue for its fiscal third quarter on Friday and said it would step back from its once-core handset business through a partnership with the Asian contract manufacturer Foxconn. […] The third-quarter loss included a $2.7 billion write-down mainly related to BlackBerry 10 phones. Of the 4.3 million BlackBerrys purchased by consumers and businesses during the quarter, 3.2 million were models that use the obsolete BlackBerry 7 operating system.

Last one to leave, please turn out the lights.