February 2012
2 posts
2 tags
Research Roundup: Responsibility reports from... →
If you’re wondering how the other tech firms that have their wares manufactured by Foxconn fare in supplier responsibility, Dave Chartier’s made a handy list of all the annual reports.
Here's a reason why Siri is only on the iPhone 4S →
In short: the A5 chip in the iPhone 4S has massively-enhanced noise-cancellation silicon.
January 2012
13 posts
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Wilson Miner - When We Build →
Back in November I was fortunate enough to be in the audience at Build when Wilson gave this talk. It was utterly mesmerising to watch then, and the video is now live on Vimeo.
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Macworld 2012 →
Just a quick reminder that I’ll be in San Francisco from tomorrow, for Macworld | iWorld. If you’re planning to be at the show, make sure to stop by the Realmac booth in the OS X Zone. I’ll also likely be at the TUAW meetup. See you in San Francisco.
Codify at Tap! The iPhone and iPad magazine →
Shameless self promotion alert, however my review of Codify for Tap! magazine, which I contribute app reviews to most months, is now online.
Stanford offering a free Online Human-Computer... →
Consider me signed up.
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Distance: long essays about design, published... →
Another terrific-sounding tech / design periodical looking for backing on Kickstarter.
Immobile Apps →
Nick Bradbury has some great points on testing mobile apps. Our flat has truly shitty cellular data, and the WiFi doesn’t extend to one level of our basement flat - and it’s painful to see so many apps that appear to simply not have been tested on GPRS.
In developing Happening - which I recently retired from the App Store - I spent a tonne of time testing the app in the GPRS hotspot...
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Slender →
If you’re a developer looking to manage the images used with your Xcode projects, this looks massively handy. Slender checks your projects for Retina images (and that their dimensions match the @1x images), removes images that are no-longer needed, and a lot of other useful bits.
It’s $5 on the Mac App Store.
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Netflix launches in the UK →
The catalogue is a little dated, but for £5.99 a month I’m not going to complain - especially if it ramps out with more over the coming months.
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Five Years
Beside my desk, there’s a drawer. In it are some gadgets: three Palm Pre devices, two iPods, an iPhone 3G and most treasured of all, my original iPhone. From time to time, I’ll take it out. Remind myself of its cold aluminium shell. The plastic antenna cover, the light far-less dense body compared with its seemingly-vacuum-packed 4S-branded successor. The screen that’s just a...
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See you at Macworld? →
I’m massively excited to be heading to Macworld in a couple of weeks time. We have a small booth in the OS X Zone (Booth 228), so if you’re in town be sure to stop by and say hello.
Oh, and if you’re still considering going to Macworld but haven’t registered yet, we’ve got 100 Exhibit Hall passes (normally $15) available. Just visit this link to claim your pass.
How the badly maimed BBC can stand up to parasitic... →
Great piece by Polly Toynbee for The Guardian.
December 2011
20 posts
“While the video game industry at large continues unabated with complex games...”
– Faruk Ates on Gamification Fatigue
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Jason Hirschhorn & Paul Carr’s TOP FOURTEEN worst... →
Hilarious.
Subtraction.com: Subscribing to The New York Times →
I had no idea that NYT pricing was such a minefield.
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“… [W]hen you publish trashy, low-quality idiocy masquerading as technology...”
– Low points in tech journalism; we seem to be having rather too many of them
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Samsung: no ICS upgrade for Galaxy S and Galaxy... →
For the unaware, TouchWiz is Samsung’s own glitzy skin over Android - which apparently uses up precious ROM space on the device, making the Galaxy S and Tab unable to update to the latest version of Android: Ice Cream Sandwich.
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The Icon Handbook →
If you build software, use icons in anything, or simply want a great-looking book on icon design, Jon Hicks’ new book should be on your Christmas list.
I was fortunate enough to see a PDF of the finished book1 just before it went on sale yesterday: it looks truly incredible.
The Analog and LittleSnapper icons are featured in the book. ↩
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Justin Williams' Ultimate Developer and Power... →
Lots of great apps and hardware here.
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“It looks like a human was involved in choosing what went where,” Marissa told...”
– Marissa Mayer addressing Google designers, as quoted in “In The Plex” by Steven Levy — via Buzz
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iOS: A visual history →
Nice run-down by Dieter Bohn at The Verge.
Why Spotify can never be profitable →
Quite the read.
“… To many people, Facebook’s “frictionless” sharing doesn’t enhance sharing; it...”
– The end of social - O’Reilly Radar
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Google's Flipboard Competitor Currents launches →
There’s also a Producer app for content publishers (that requires Chrome, alas).
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Jawbone pauses UP production to fix bugs →
About time, given the scathing reviews. The full statement from the company is here.
Engadget reviews the Jawbone Up →
Seems fair, and critical given what I’ve seen from others who’ve picked one up. Steph and I were sorely tempted with the Apple Black Friday discount, but until I’ve heard something more concrete on fixes for the bricking issues I’m passing on it.
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Gowalla is Going to Facebook →
Officially announced on the Gowalla blog:
Gowalla, as a service, will be winding down at the end of January. We plan to provide an easy way to export your Passport data, your Stamp and Pin data (along with your legacy Item data), and your photos as well. Facebook is not acquiring Gowalla’s user data.
Whilst some of the team are heading to Palo Alto, my good friend (and designer...
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“On page 331 of the printed version (in chapter 25), Isaacson quotes Steve Jobs...”
– Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson, A Review, via Buzz Andersen.
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Facebook acquires Gowalla →
Congratulations to the folks at Gowalla on the deal. If you’re also wanting to get your Gowalla data out, this exporter will come in handy.
CarrierIQ Gets Hit With Senate Investigation →
That didn’t take long.
November 2011
25 posts
3 tags
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The Revolution According to Steve Jobs →
Fascinating piece by Stephen Levy at WIRED.
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Little Printer →
Interesting idea from BERG, but I’m not at all sold on Little Printer. If there’s two things I loathe it’s receipts and consumables - and Little Printer prints on receipt-sized pieces of paper.
To quote Alex Morris:
Kudos to BERGLONDON for creating so much hoohah about a printer but please think about how inanely useless this is.
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Justin Williams on iPad Magazines →
Tonnes of good points in here.
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GitHub for Mac 1.1 →
Super-slick update to an incredibly useful app.
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CSS3 Toolkit →
Handy new app that allows you to visually build CSS3 styles and generates the relevant styles for you to use. It’s $13.99 on the Mac App Store.
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Revamped Xbox 360 dashboard to launch on December... →
Looks pretty slick - and clearly inspired by Windows Phone 7’s Metro UI.
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Pixar's "Brave" Trailer →
Certainly looks good, and a little different from Pixar’s previous movies.
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Enabling Remote Debugging via Private APIs in... →
Terrifically useful if you’re testing in the iOS Simulator.
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How the BBC's HD DRM plot was kept secret … and... →
Terrific reporting by Cory Doctorow.
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Google's new WiFi Collection Opt-Out →
Excellent UX from Google, as ever:
We’re introducing a method that lets you opt out of having your wireless access point included in the Google Location Server. To opt out, visit your access point’s settings and change the wireless network name (or SSID) so that it ends with “_nomap.” For example, if your SSID is “Network,” you‘d need to change it to “Network_nomap.”
As Dan Frommer quips on...
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Shawn Blanc reviews the Jawbone UP →
Overall he likes it - and even though I’ve seen a surprising number of reports about the device bricking, I still want one for Christmas.