July 2010
36 posts
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Apple Investigates Reports of Problems With iOS4... →
I’ve been using my iPhone 3G for the last 24 hours since I smashed the (remarkably brittle) back of my iPhone 4 yesterday morning. iOS 4.0.1 is draining the battery faster than ever, and causing the phone to be so slow that it’s utterly unusable at times.
Sidenotes to the whole ‘I dropped and smashed my iPhone 4’ saga:
Frustratingly, the back of the iPhone 4 isn’t...
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iPhone developers can now advertise their apps via... →
Apple are thin on details right now, but this is certainly a great way to fill iAd inventory given that folks can buy items directly from the iTunes / App Stores via an iAd.
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A couple of bizarre design choices in the BBC News...
The BBC News iPhone app has some odd choices:
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AppViz Sale →
If you’re an iPhone developer, AppViz should be in your toolkit. It downloads and visualise iPhone sales reports on your Mac. Until 3rd August, it’s 33% off - meaning licences cost just $19.95. I swear by this for my iTunes sales reports.
Fanboyism and Brand Loyalty « You Are Not So Smart →
A great piece that explores why folks beat the fanboy drum.
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Mashable reviews the Samsung Galaxy S →
The Galaxy S looks to be the Android competitor to the iPhone 4, and Christina Warren gives a run down of the handset. I’d love to get my hands on one for a week or two to compare with my iPhone 4. Pocket Lint and CNET UK are also worth checking.
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Reeder 2.1 Available with Retina Display Support... →
Reeder, my favourite iPhone RSS reader, just got a shiny new icon and Retina display graphics.
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HTML5 For Web Designers →
Over the weekend I sat down to read Jeremy’s new HTML5 book. It’s short, sweet and beautifully designed. If you’re looking for the a coffee table book for the basics of HTML5, this is a great read.
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A wiki for prepaid (iPhone compatible) SIM cards... →
Ridiculously useful, including all the tips on how to enable PAYG data on AT&T. If you’re globe-trotting with an iPhone this summer (as I will be) this is essential reading.
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“It is, overall, a misleading representation of FourSquare to the readership of...”
– Ben Ward has an excellent response - Concerning FourSquare - in response to Leo Hickman’s deeply flawed Guardian piece: How I became a FourSquare cyberstalker.
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Windows Phone 7: Don't bother with this disaster →
Infoworld takes a somewhat different view of Windows Phone 7.
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Windows Phone 7 Previews
Today seems to be the embargo date for outlets with Windows Phone 7 Preview handsets:
Engadget
Gizmodo
ZDNet UK
Wired Gadget Lab - with video
I’ll admit I’d be curious to spend a little time with a Windows Phone 7 handset (once they’re shipping - the previews are software-only on a not-for-sale Samsung device). In general the previews are pretty positive - however...
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As long as reviewing is a race, death grips will... →
A great piece on CrunchGear on how all the early iPhone 4 reviews completely missed the iPhone 4 death grip.
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Bad Connection: Inside the iPhone Network Meltdown →
Wired’s previously-mentioned feature on the relationship between AT&T and Apple is now online.
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Thoughts on Apple's Friday Press Conference
I’ve spent the entire weekend away from the whole ‘Antennagate’ saga - trying to avoid much of the collective whinging from Friday’s Apple press conference - however over lunch I decided to watch the 30 minute stream from Friday. Before I go any further, I should say that I’ve experienced issues with the antenna in the iPhone 4 when in areas of weak reception....
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Still pissed about the iPhone 4 antenna issue?... →
Great YouTube find, courtesy of Jeff Rock.
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“Turns out no matter how you hold the Nexus One, it gets discontinued after six...”
– Neven Mrgan, via Twitter. Unrelated: the Nexus One is currently the only device running Android 2.2 Froyo, and thus the only mobile device running Flash 10.1.
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“Early on when an AT&T representative suggested to one of Jobs’ deputies that...”
– Wired on the iPhone network meltdown - Wired’s August edition has a piece on Apple & AT&T, however it’s not yet online. ZDNet offers some tidbits.
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You’ve Either Shipped or You Haven’t →
Tom Taylor hits the nail on the head.
You’ve either shipped, or you haven’t. You’ve either poured weeks, months or even years of your life into bringing a product or a service into the world, or you haven’t.
If you have, you’ll know what I’m talking about. You’ll have flicked a switched, cap deploy‘d, or flipped your closed sign to open, and just waited – holding your breath for whatever...
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“If Michael Arrington is calling you out for shoddy journalism and linkbait, you...”
– Daniel Shusta, via Twitter
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“The Sun Chronicle, a Massachusetts paper, will charge would-be commenters a...”
– US newspaper to charge website commenters
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Apple Tried To Buy Palm Before HP Won The Bidding... →
I’m really not surprised that Apple was interested in Palm: given the large number of patents that Palm holds, they’d be crazy not to try and acquire the Palm patent portfolio.
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iOS 4.0.1 released, SDK updated →
Just in time for tomorrow’s press conference, the update is out to solely address the “erroneous” signal display issue. There’s a 2.28GB SDK update available for developers too, making that the second SDK release in two days. My ISP is going to hate me.
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Yours Truly Interviewed by Macworld UK →
If you’re wanting to know some of the the back-story to Happening, the folks from Macworld UK have just published an interview about the app.
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“The creeping feeling that Android is the new Windows becomes an overwhelming...”
– Gizmodo reviews the Droid X
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Apple to hold iPhone 4 Press Conference on Friday →
The “will they recall or give out free bumpers” drama kicks off at 10am Pacific Time.
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ShareKit →
This looks super-handy: a drop-in web service sharing for iOS apps (think posting items to Twitter, Facebook, Delicious etc). It’s open source on GitHub, and entirely customisable. Whilst it’s intended to be used in its entirety, if you’re wanting to (say) implement Twitter sharing in your own iPhone app with xAuth login you can still use ShareKit to implement the service on its...
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Viewfinder for iPad →
It’s been a busy 24 hours: Fraser Speirs’ brilliant Viewfinder application for Flickr photo research is now available for iPad.
It’s $9.99 on the App Store. I love the desktop version, and this looks to be a fantastic extension of the OS X app.
Disclaimer: Viewfinder for iPad contains some copy written by yours truly.
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Calcbot for iPhone and iPad
Congratulations to Tapbots on the launch of their new app: Calcbot. It’s a universal app for both iPhone and iPad - bringing a stylish calculator to the calculator-less iPad.
It’s 99¢ on the App Store.
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Pixelmator 1.6 →
Super-slick update to the gunning-for-Photoshop OS X image editor. Now 64-bit, featuring Facebook Flickr and Picasa uploading - along with a tonne of other features and improvements - it’s a free update for existing users, and something of a steal at $59 for new customers.
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“Every iPhone 4 TV ad Apple EVER does from now on is going to show people...”
– Peter Cohen, via Twitter
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Steve Ballmer Announces That There Will be Tablet... →
ReadWriteWeb wins the headline of the day award.
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“I never make technology-buying decisions based on future promises, rumors, or...”
– Marco Arment
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Of Fords and Ferraris
Dave Chartier, on Louis Gray’s “I’m turning in my iPhone” piece:
Because if anything is crucial to the decision of picking a platform and two-year indenturing contract, it’s that a platform dependent on the sales “free” handsets to customers who are interested in the lowest common denominator of products will probably overtake its only competition which is obsessed with...
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iPhone 4: The Perception →
This short piece pretty much sums up my experience mentioning that I have an iPhone 4 to non-technical users. Even though there may not be that big an issue with the iPhone 4, the damage to Apple’s image is being done by the mainstream perception that the device is fundamentally flawed.
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dConstruct 2010 →
Tickets for the 2010 edition of Clearleft’s annual dConstruct conference, here in Brighton at the beginning of September, are now on sale. Speakers include John Gruber and Merlin Mann: the theme is “Design & Creativity”. See you there.