Linked List: November 5, 2014

Wednesday, 5 November 2014

This is kind of amazing — it’s the full Uber app running as a web app. Really well done. I discovered this via this Designer News comment from Brock Whitten; he’s under the impression that this is what the Uber mobile app is using behind the scenes, that the mobile app is just a thin webview wrapper around this mobile web app. It might be for some platforms, but I don’t think that’s true for iOS — there are a lot of little things that are subtly different between the iPhone app and this website, even when running on an iPhone.

Rip-Off of the Week: Lenovo S90 ‘Sisley’ ★

You expect things like this from Samsung and Xiaomi, but not from Lenovo. Just shameless. (The comment thread on this one is worth a skim too, but don’t start reading them with a beverage in your mouth.)

CNN Election Commentators Used Microsoft Surface Tablets to Prop Up Their iPads ★

You can’t just expect people to switch to an altogether unfamiliar device because of a corporate sponsorship. iPads are essential tools for many people. Familiarity matters. Microsoft needs to focus on getting people to want to use Surface tablets, not use them because of a corporate sponsorship. This is just embarrassing.

It’s Really Alex King’s Share Icon ★

I knew this, but at some point forgot — that sideways-V-with-three-nodes share icon was created by my friend Alex King back in 2007, released under four different open source licenses.

Google Maps Updated With Material Design ★

Other than the status bar differences, it pretty much looks exactly the same on iOS and Android. Same colors, same fonts, same icons. New features include OpenTable and Uber integration.

Matias Duarte on Google’s ‘Share’ Icon ★

Matias Duarte, “one year ago” (that’s the actual granularity of the time stamps in Google Plus), on why Google’s iOS apps use Google’s share icon:

The share icon Google uses in its properties (and the share icon that Android endorses) is a popular opensource icon and one that we feel well describes the connective nature of sharing. In a sense you could say we believe it’s part of our brand and that Google’s brand is to embrace the open and universal standard.

I keep wanting to say “Android’s share icon” instead of “Google’s share icon”, but the more I think about it, the more clear it is that Google is pushing a meta platform UI style, and Android is just one outlet for it. I don’t think they see their iOS apps as being Android-style, but rather Google-style.