Linked List: January 30, 2014

Thursday, 30 January 2014

Bloomberg: ‘Microsoft Said to Be Preparing to Make Satya Nadella CEO’ ★

Dina Bass, Peter Burrows, and Jonathan Erlichman, reporting for Bloomberg:

Microsoft Corp.’s board is preparing to make Satya Nadella, the company’s enterprise and cloud chief, chief executive officer and is discussing replacing Bill Gates as chairman, according to people with knowledge of the process.

TechCrunch: Nest Team Will Become Google’s Core Hardware Group ★

Romain Dillet, writing for AOL/TechCrunch:

Recently, Google acquired Nest, and TechCrunch has learned that Google has big plans for the team behind the connected device company. […]

Moreover, Fadell managed to attract great Apple engineers when he started working on Nest. They wanted to follow Fadell’s plans and were good engineers. And that’s exactly what Google was looking for when it acquired Nest. When it comes to budget, Google is willing to let the Nest team use as many resources as it needs. In other words, the company is getting serious about consumer hardware, and Motorola was just a false start.

That’s what I thought, right from the start. The key is Tony Fadell’s ambition and track record. He’s not looking to make Google thermostats; he’s looking to change the world.

Google selling Motorola to Lenovo isn’t a sign that Google isn’t interested in Apple-style hardware/software product development — it’s a sign that they’ve found a much better way to do it in Nest.

John Kirk on Unifying iOS and Mac OS X Into One System ★

John Kirk:

Last week, Phil Schiller, Craig Federighi and Bud Tribble were interviewed as part of the Mac’s 30th anniversary. They — in no uncertain terms — slammed the door shut on the idea that Apple was planning on merging iOS (the operating system for their phones and tablets) with OS X (the operating system for their notebooks and desktops). […]

“And that”, I thought to myself, “finally puts an end to that discussion.”

Boy, was I wrong.

Kirk’s argument pairs well with the aforelinked piece by Dr. Drang. If you design a system that affords generous touch targets, it’s going to feel simplistic while using a mouse/trackpad and keyboard. And if you design a system well-suited for a mouse/trackpad and keyboard, it’s going to be terrible to use with touch.

MacBook Touch ★

Dr. Drang, showing a screenshot of his MacBook, explaining why Mac OS X wouldn’t work well as a touchscreen OS:

Look at all the targets. If they were all increased to a size that’s easy to tap with a fingertip, there’d be very little room left on the screen for content.

This is why iOS apps are so simple. More features means more big targets on the screen, which means less room for what you’re supposed to be looking at and working with.

This Is Not a Conspiracy Theory ★

New documentary film project with a novel distribution/funding plan, from Kirby Ferguson (Everything Is a Remix). Great premise, can’t wait to see where he takes it.