December 2010
40 posts
3 tags
Android SMS Bug →
Android seems to have a couple of serious bugs in its SMS system - loading a different SMS thread than the one a user selects, and the sending of SMS messages to incorrect recipients to those the user selects. Android users everywhere will want to star this bug report to bump it up on Google’s radar.
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Best of Bootie 2010 →
Each year bootleg mashup Bootie releases a best of the year - entirely free of charge - for your listening pleasure. Just in time for the new year, there’s a new set of musical mashups including Katy Perry vs Van Halen.
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The Problem With Ping
It’s the end of the year, and every blog out there has its own 10 Top Failures to write about. Making almost every list out there is iTunes Ping - Apple’s widely-slated Music Social network. It’s easy to knock Ping (I’ll admit I’ve made a few in-person potshots about ‘the irony of the world’s most anti-social company wanting to build a social...
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FlickrTouchr →
If you’re worried about Yahoo’s plans for Flickr, this script (via Keegan Jones) will grab all your photos from Flickr and organise them in folders based on the Flickr photoset name.
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“App developers are watching what platforms make the most money. So, if you want...”
– Robert Scoble - Dear dad, don’t listen to my cheapskate brothers about iPad apps, via Dave Chartier
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Canabalt Goes Open Source →
Big move from the developers: the engine behind Canabalt is now MIT licensed for your use (the art, animation, sound and music all remain understandably proprietary).
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Macworld's Mac and iPhone-friendly alternatives to... →
Some good options if you’re looking to switch away from Delicious.
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Kyle Neath on URL Design →
A tonne of great points. Even if you’re not developing a web-app (and thus giving URL design a great deal of thought) some simple re-directs to help point visitors to an appropriate page make life so much easier1.
I sure wish all companies either used or re-directed /pr and /contact to an applicable page. ↩
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“Sometimes being sacked is as simple as coming to the end of a contract – and...”
– Adsense, no sense at all - what it’s like being sacked by a computer…
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Boy Genius Report offers some perspective on the... →
Pretty much sums up my view on the whole kerfuffle.
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This Race Is Far From Over →
A terrific look at the Palm Pre 2, iPhone 4 and Nexus S by Taylor Carrigan
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webOS finally reaches 5,000 apps →
Never mind the fact that Android and iOS have 100,000 / 300,00 apps respectively - the most worrying sign for Palm is that Windows Phone 7, launched just two months ago, is already at 4,800 apps.
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“You may have heard that Delicious is shutting down (or not?). Someone on Twitter...”
– Introduction to Andre Torrez’s Notes on “how to clone delicious in 48 hours”
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MG Siegler's 10 Favourite Tech Things for 2010 →
A great selection of the year’s tech products.
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“One problem is that information in oceanic magnitudes can confuse and confound...”
– The Hazards of Nerd Supremacy: The Case of WikiLeaks - The Atlantic
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State of Sync, Part 1 →
An update from Cultured Code (the folks behind Apple Design Award-winning Things for Mac, iPhone & iPad) about the state of their cloud-syncing solution, complete with beautiful illustrations.
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“Net Neutrality is the freedom of speech, freedom of choice issue of the 21st...”
– The Huffington Post: Obama FCC Caves on Net Neutrality
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Apple's Cleverest - And Most Annoying - Marketing... →
Following on from yesterday’s Apple Publications Style Guide, Business Insider calls the personification of iPhone, iPad and iPad Apple’s cleverest and most-annoying gimmick.
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“99% of the earth’s population cares not a whit about Android, iOS, OS X,...”
– Dear Tech Early Adopters: Manufacturers Don’t Care About You
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A Million Apple TVs →
A million units sold of the new Apple TV is a great achievement for this “hobby”, however the most curious point in this Apple PR to my mind was how Apple TV is now pitched - emphasis mine:
Now with AirPlay®, recently available in iOS 4.2, users can wirelessly stream their music, video and photos from iPad™, iPhone® and iPod touch® to their new Apple TV, making it the perfect iOS...
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“Attention to detail, like most facets of truly good design, can’t be (and never...”
– Marco Arment, on Engadget’s Nexus S review.
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Apple Publications Style Guide →
If you’re ever writing copy that contains Apple product names and the like, be sure to check what you’re writing against this Apple guide1. Here’s one gem from the guide that always sticks out when reading Apple’s own literature:
iPhone — In general references, don’t use an article. When referring to the user’s particular iPhone, it’s OK to use your.
iPhone...
Apple releases iAd Producer →
Slick-looking tool for anyone looking to create an iAd.
iAd Producer makes it easy for you to design and assemble high-impact, interactive content for iAd. iAd Producer automatically manages the HTML5, CSS3 and JavaScript behind your iAd to make creating beautiful, motion-rich iAd content as easy as point and click.
There’s also Javascript editing and debugging, as well as a...
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24 ways: 2010 →
The advent calendar for web geeks, 24 ways, is back again this year, and there’s a tonne of great articles. Here’s a few highlights so far:
Christian Heilman’s “Wrapping Things Nicely with HTML5 Local Storage”
Sarah Parmenter’s “Designing for iOS: Life Beyond Media Queries”
Paul Hammond’s “Speed Up Your Site with Delayed...
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Engadget: "Wireless carriers openly considering... →
Taken from a webinar from a company that offers “subscriber management solutions” and counts the likes of Vodafone, AT&T and Verizon as clients, it seems that wireless carries are looking to nickel-and-dime for each service you use. The slide Engadget posts points to an example where Vodafone’s data services incur no charge whilst other, popular, sites cost the user either a...
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What Does It Even Mean (Take 2) →
Following on from this gem, here’s another recent rambling quote from RIM co-CEO Jim Balsillie.
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Free iOS Developer Books in iBooks
MacStores notes that Apple released 5 free iOS development books via the iBook store. Whilst it’s not entirely new material, it’s handy to have them available to download to iBooks without having to visit ADC and find a PDF - especially as they’re listed on the iBooks store in ePub format. I’d link to them here, but as it’s not possible to link within iBooks...
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"Designed by Apple in California" →
37signals on the appeal of the ubiquitous Apple packaging phrase.
“In the last 5 years of writing and designing, some of my best work started out...”
– Hooray for crappy stationery
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The Indie Mac Gift Pack →
If you’re looking for a Mac-related gift this year, then you may want to look at the Indie Mac Gift Pack. Organised by the developers themselves, there’s six apps in the pack for a measly $60: Delicious Library 2, Acorn 2, MarsEdit 3, RadioShift, SousChef and Sound Studio 4 (which isn’t even generally available yet).
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Joshua Kors buys iMac, writes article, sets off... →
Excellent piece by Craig Grannell about Joshua Kors, a Huffington Post “Investigative Reporter” who decided to return his iMac. Pure linkbait on the Huffington Posts’ part.
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Talking of RIM... →
The folks at AllThingsD have posted their interview with the other Co-CEO of RIM - Mike Lazaridis - from the D: Dive Into Mobile conference last week. Tomorrow sees the interview with Andy Rubin.
Alas, the videos require Flash.
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What Does It Even Mean?
RIM Co-CEO Jim Balsillie, in BusinessWeek talking about the Playbook’s introduction:
There’s tremendous turbulence in the ecosystem, of course, in mobility. And that’s sort of an obvious thing, but also there is tremendous architectural contention at play. And I’m going to really frame our mobile architectural distinction. We’ve taken two fundamentally different...
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"Good Ideas Grow on Paper" →
A terrific article from the Standardistas:
Great designers have one thing in common: their design process is centred on ideas; ideas that are more often than not developed on paper. Though it’s often tempting to take the path of least resistance, turning to the computer in the headlong rush to complete a project (often in the face of formidable client pressure), resist the urge and – for a...
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“Android is a fine OS that’s almost always kneecapped by handset makers who...”
– Andy Ihnatko, via Dan W.
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37signals asks "Why non-profit pricing?" →
I may not necessarily agree with everything in this post from Jason Fried, but there’s lots of good points..
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RIM CEO Mike Lazaridis at D: Dive Into Mobile →
People call Steve Jobs defensive, secretive and flat-out evasive in interviews. But RIM’s CEO takes question evasion to a new level in this interview with Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher.
The Guardian summarises.
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Tron: Legacy Soundtrack →
We’ve been listening to Daft Punk’s Tron: Legacy soundtrack non-stop in the office since its launch - if you’re in the UK, Amazon are selling it (download-only) for £3.99 until Monday.
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Tumblr Backup app for Mac OS X →
If you’re on OS X, and run a blog hosted on Tumblr (like this one), it might be wise to run this tool every so often. Just in case.
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Say Hello to Five-Point-Oh
I’m thrilled to finally be able to share what I’ve spent almost all of the last year working on: RapidWeaver 5.
There’s a tonne of new features and improvements in this release so be sure to give it a go!