February 2012
42 posts
America's New Drug Problem →
addisonkimberly:
Snorting bath salts.
All because they’re cracking down on meth in the South. At least if you just let the tweekers be tweekers they just spend all day sorting socks, shooting cans, and beating up family members for drug money if they really can’t manage to hold a job at UPS.
“We had a deputy injured a week ago. They were fighting with a guy who thought they...
State of IM on iOS
A part of my internet upbringing is tied very dearly to instant messaging. Basically all of the memorable parts of my life from ages 11 to 14 in some way involve instant messaging, as weirdly sad as that may be to say. Point: instant messaging has always been a big part of my life, and I like to take it with me.
Android’s got Google Talk baked right in, but iOS hasn’t an official IM...
Reactions to Me: No Fucks Given →
sheetwise:
But it seems to me that Jobs HATED Google for what he saw as a betrayal.
Hate is a strong word, even stronger than pissed. Jobs was pissed off that Google essentially cloned iOS, and not just cloned but cloned with deformities and general ugliness. How would you feel if someone cloned up an uglier retarded version of your daughter and sold her to other people telling them she was...
Reactions to Me: Target, Et Al →
sheetwise:
I think in your example, it’s not creepy when a single person does it because you can relate to that person.
And why can’t we relate to the person at Target who is analyzing our data? He’s a person just like any other. People who bother thinking about the way they feel will quickly realize that not seeing the person makes no difference to the actual activity occurring....
Will brings his own flavor:
For decades, Target has collected vast amounts of data on every person who regularly walks into one of its stores. Whenever possible, Target assigns each shopper a unique code — known internally as the Guest ID number — that keeps tabs on everything they buy.
Holy shit.
Ah, yes. I too was shocked when I learned that people pay attention to the things you do when...
On Per-App Permissions
Will’s blog brought this bit to my attention, Marco Arment:
If all permissions were listed in the App Store, Instapaper’s customers would be wondering why it “needs” location (optional automatic dark mode based on sunset times) or contacts access (optional email-in contact addition, optional find-friends feature). They might refuse to buy the app because they think it needs these features...
The Bravery of M.G. Siegler
Siegler taking the high road:
Yes, it sucks that I wrote the post burning down your industry after I left, but that was also the point. A (now) outsider’s perspective on the state of the industry.
The bravery of Siegler. When faced with what he saw as a major problem within the industry he decided to not do what every good man would do: attempt to change it, to make it better. He could have...
No Fucks Given
Gruber applying his typical polish:
When asked why there was no YouTube support at the moment in the developer preview, Apple told Pocket-lint: “We have Vimeo, and we don’t have YouTube.”
Allow me to translate: “Fuck Google.”
Ehh, or it could just be that Vimeo is a nicer service and is typically more functional and less annoying than YouTube (and is probably more popular among Mac users...
On Piracy and Lost Sales
Heavy Hangs The Bandwidth That Torrents The Crown:
Annnnd now you’re also calling me a d*** because I expected you to wait two weeks, and you’re claiming that you’re “forced” to torrent it because the video industry is bunch of turds. How charming.
The problem is it should be available right now. There’s no real reason it isn’t. You address a similar sort of problem, but a...
Like music? Do you have an iPad?
A bit of cross-promotion:
My other labor of love, my music blog, just got a big fresh redesign and re-imagining, doing away with all the “blah blah blah” and just getting straight to the music. I put a wee bit of effort into making the experience pretty snazzy looking on iOS, especially iPads.
So, if you’re a fan of music, of listening to new and different things, check out my...
Address Book Security
Someone at the Verge doesn’t know what they’re talking about:
Our findings should bring both comfort and concern to any iPhone user — and to be frank the work of doing a similar investigation on Android and other platforms remains to be done.
You cannot install an Android app that uses your address book without you knowing about it first. Period. It’s always been this way. I...
Anonymous asked: Gruber is specially fantastic these days. It must be because he's filled with love for Amy Jane. "There is much that is wrong with Walter Isaacson’s biography of Jobs, but its treatment of software is the most profound of the book’s flaws." How many hours has Gruber spent with Jobs? Because Isaacson was hand picked by Jobs and conducted 40 interviews with him, which I...
Gruber:
Apple today announced that the Fair Labor Association will conduct special voluntary audits of Apple’s final assembly suppliers, including Foxconn factories in Shenzhen and Chengdu, China, at Apple’s request. […]
This is the biggest challenge facing Apple today.
Gruber is shockingly on point: the biggest challenge facing Apple today is declining profit as Chinese working...
Star Wars Aside →
cadastrad:
I mean, what do you want us to do? It’s not like we can be reborn in the seventies, so that we can be emotionally connected to the original trilogy, right?
I think the problem is that the original Star Wars trilogy is also a piece of crap, and the prequels are like looking in a mirror for some fans: “Do I really like campy sci-fi fantasy meant for kids this much? Nah, the...
More Air
Thunderbolt responding to someone:
Seriously, though, you’re right that one component of netbook-ness is inexpensiveness. I didn’t think that’s what people meant when they said Apple needs to make a netbook. I think people meant Apple should make a legacy-free, portable laptop.
We’re also ignoring that “thousand dollar Apple laptop” is the definition of...
Raging Thunderbolt: Untrustworthy →
ragingthunderbolt:
I don’t think Apple broke my trust though. If Apple told me my Address Book data was safe and this happened, then yeah, they would have broken my trust.
I was going to point out the infinite number of other things that Apple never explicitly said, but I think the idiocy of Dalrymple’s reasoning is obvious enough on its own.
But I want to!
Apple never said that it...
Removal of Choice
Gruber on ARM Windows 8:
Count me in as one who suggested they go Metro-only on ARM. I believe this is a grave error on Microsoft’s part; that they’re ceding the future of personal computing to Apple and the iPad by doing this.
It’s that Apple way of thinking: the only way to make a product good is by consciously removing features that users may want. Microsoft will succeed only if they...
Patented Bully Pulpit
Gruber, using Siegler, to beat up on Google:
Apple can be a dick about patents. Microsoft can be a dick about patents. But of the three, only Google is a hypocrite about patents — against their use as a competitive weapon only until they have their own to use.
Google were big crybabies about patents. Now that Google has manned up (when you can’t beat ‘em…) and wants to fight...
Raging Thunderbolt: Respectable →
ragingthunderbolt:
Ben Brooks on Path, etc.:
If you live and play in the Apple world, you need only trust Apple. This is what Apple tells us — it’s a ‘feature’ of the Apple ecosystem.
The fact is, that in this instance, Apple broke that trust.
I’ve given Ben Brooks some shit in the past, but I really respect his position on this.
It is nice to see someone actually care about something...
Petition Siegler, Forever
Raging Thunderbolt is having a bit of fun with this Change.org petition to get M.G. Siegler to apologize for funding and promoting Path, who have grievously betrayed the trust of its users forever.
If you believe that we should always and forever be held accountable for the things we say and do, like I’m sure Shawn King does (unless that rule only applies to women), then you owe it to all...
Ticket to Ride Pocket for Free Today
Unarguably (to me) the best board game for iPad recently got an iPhone version that may be better than the iPad version in some ways because it adds asynchronous Game Center online play, meaning you can take your turn whenever you’re able. No time limits! (Just like my sentences…)
Well, it’s absolutely 100% free today. Download it, you won’t be disappointed!
If you need...
More "Tapering"
You might remember the joys of tapering.
The slope seems to be tapering off on those iPhone, iPad, and Mac lines, too.
(Hat tip to @webman_)
Siegler on "Stealing" →
parislemon:
This really isn’t a secret, ask around. There are a lot of apps you use on a daily basis doing the same thing. Some have for a long time. None (that I know of) are doing it to be evil, they’re doing it because it’s a connection/spreading mechanism that iOS allows for.
I love how he puts the word stealing in quotes, like it’s not really stealing. (It’s not in quotes in...
Boy, 15, in sticker controversy:
The 15-year-old boy whose winning city sticker design has been pulled over gang concerns says in a sobbing interview that officials were wrong about his artwork and their decision is unfair. “I don’t think that’s fair. I tried the best I could,” the boy told WGN-TV reporter Dan Ponce, crying throughout the interview as he sat on a couch in...
Poor Violet Blue
More On Blue, from Gruber:
Chuck Jordon:
Correcting and dismissing Blue’s posts was never about Men vs. Women. It’s about accuracy vs. inaccuracy, good writing vs. bad writing, journalism vs. whatever the hell it is she’s doing, and misogyny vs. respect.
Nicely said.
Actually, based on my pathetic excursion into Shawn King’s website and comments system, the gist that I got was this:...
Laissez-faire About Your Data
I was waiting for this to get started:
It’s not really a secret, per se, but there’s a quiet understanding among many iOS app developers that it is acceptable to send a user’s entire address book, without their permission, to remote servers and then store it for future reference. It’s common practice, and many companies likely have your address book stored in their...
For fun, the Path CEO:
We believe you should have control when it comes to sharing your personal information. We also believe that actions speak louder than words. So, as a clear signal of our commitment to your privacy, we’ve deleted the entire collection of user uploaded contact information from our servers. Your trust matters to us and we want you to feel completely in control of your...
On iTunes Match
As an aside, Gruber quotes something about iTunes Match, which I’ll re-quote here:
She now clicks on the same song and plays it through her iMatch service. Copyright holders get paid.
Same action, same song, one makes money for the copyright holder, and one does not. This is found money that the copyright holders would never have gotten otherwise.
Why are the music labels getting paid...
Anonymous asked: On "iPhone 4S Two Months Later" : thanks for the note on the "back" button. Yes, Gruber says it all the time, but it's very hard to believe he's honest. Now I now that at least one guy who didn't drink the koolaid genuinely dislikes the "back" button. (FWIW, I love it - I can quickly go back when I accidentally clicked an ad, or go back to the RSS...
iPhone 4S Two Months Later
As a quick followup to my initial thoughts of owning an iPhone after not being an iPhone owner for so many years, here’s a quick run down after a bit over two months. (My phone lineage: Sidekick 2, Sidekick LX, G1, Nexus One, iPhone 4S.)
Siri
Siri’s only real use seems to be as a kitchen timer (“Set timer for X minutes” said aloud is single-handedly the fastest way to set...
Path uploads your entire iPhone address book to its servers:
Upon inspecting closer, I noticed that my entire address book (including full names, emails and phone numbers) was being sent as a plist to Path. Now I don’t remember having given permission to Path to access my address book and send its contents to its servers, so I created a completely new “Path” and repeated the experiment and I got...
"I'm a PC." - iPad
More on “Is the iPad a PC?”
What cracks me up about this, if you’ve been following my blog here since the beginning, is all the bullshit about me calling the MacBook Air an “expensive netbook”. Everyone cried that it’s not a netbook, that it’s an ultrabook, or something, and that marketing terms matter.
Now the iPad is a PC. It’s not a tablet...
Gruber, on patents:
So depressing.
Unless it’s Google on the losing end, then it’s all “beat up those whiny people who are whiny about patents and are dumb and stuff”. You can’t just be supportive of something when your guy is winning, and then turn around and deride it when your guy (in this case ‘good design’) is losing. Are patents good, because...
The Apple fanboy problem:
It’s strange. Men like John Gruber, Shawn King and all the rest in their circle seem to be the guys that have everything to be happy about. Apple is at the top; it’s never been better, more profitable or more mainstream.
They have everything to be happy about - but are still acting like the little guy that keeps getting pushed around.
Thanks to these men, the Mac...
Alcohol Vs Confidence
Siegler, always choosing sides:
Fantastic post on the joys of not drinking by Darius Monsef.
He links to this bit about some guy who stopped drinking but decided to have as much fun not drunk as he did drunk and hooray not drinking titled “I haven’t been drunk in 3 years… and I’ve been partying way more than you.”
My problem is this: Why can’t it ever just be “I...
Reddit Vs Woody
The Internet is at it again. This time it’s Woody Harrelson on the wrong end of a big batch of hivemind what the fuck. Possibly mistaken at the way reddit’s /r/IAmA works, Harrelson posted “I’m Woody Harrelson, AMA” under the impression that “ask me anything” meant “anything about the movie RAMPART I am promoting”.
The first...
This LA Times bit about the San Onofre nuclear plant suffering from some issues is kind of fun:
Dozens of relatively new tubes that carry radioactive water in a steam generator showed “many, many years” worth of wear, even though the tubing is 22 months old
Either something crazy is going on, like radioactivity making the pipes age at an accelerated rate all S.T.A.L.K.E.R. style,...
Remember That iMessage Bug?
Yup, still happening.
This is the problem with a passive system like iMessage. You set it up, and your phone is registered in their system. Every time someone sends a message to iMessage, it looks up that phone, and sends it to that phone. Even after you reset this phone, Apple ‘refurbishes’ it, and it’s given to another person, it doesn’t matter who is logged into that...
Post-PC Forgotten
And again, Siegler:
Cue dozens of people screaming bloody murder: “THE IPAD IS NOT A PC!!!!!!!”’
Count Steve Jobs in those dozens of people. Jobs himself said the iPad was the beginning of the “post-PC era”. Pretty sure Steve Jobs wouldn’t want people calling the iPad a PC.
Steve Jobs:
I’ve said this before, but thought it was worth repeating: It’s in...
Always Be Paying
Apple updates Final Cut Pro X:
There is also good news from Final Cut Pro developers. Intelligent Assistance is releasing a new app today called 7toX that will allow users to import Final Cut Pro 7 projects into Final Cut Pro X. The app uses Final Cut’s XML to achieve the import. The app will be on the Mac App Store and costs $9.99.
Good news everybody! That backwards compatibility that years...
Always Be Closing
Sielger, on Amazon:
To be fair […] Amazon did make more money in the entire quarter than Apple did in one day last quarter, but just barely: $177 million versus around $145 million.
Ah yes, only on the internet can some jackass try to make $32,000,000.00 sound like a small number. The sarcastic comparison to disparage Amazon isn’t relevant in the first place, but to act like $32...
January 2012
69 posts
iPad Neck?
Harvard recently revealed looking down at an iPad causes neck strain, which is pretty obvious if you’ve used one. For some reason, this is turning into a meme to beat up.
This entire reddit thread is full of people acting like Harvard wasted their time, or that they are vindictively trying to smear Apple. One of the top comments is this:
Ugh, Harvard researchers are wasting time...
All About Evi
For fun, this is a review of Evi, the $0.99 “Siri clone”:
Things like this make me feel a bit more understanding when developers rally against customer reviews. This person clearly doesn’t understand what they are talking about. Even if developers can’t respond, other users should be able to correct inaccurate reviews like this.
I feel kind of bad for the developers,...
Sielger quotes Tim Cook:
“We will continue to dig deeper, and we will undoubtedly find more issues. What we will not do — and never have done — is stand still or turn a blind eye to problems in our supply chain. On this you have my word.”
What strikes me through all of this is that every response to “China’s working conditions for making your products seems pretty...
Customer Dissatisfaction
Two years ago I purchased PdaNet for Android for $30, which, looking back, was an absurd amount of money to pay for a tethering app. (They only charge $16 for it now.) I didn’t even end up using it much at all on my G1, and didn’t even need it on my Nexus One, but now I could use it on my iPhone. Their current purchase page says this:
One license covers one phone (you can reuse the...
For fun, Gruber, on Wintel sales lagging:
Ding-dong, the Wintel witch is starting to slowly wither away.
What I like the most about this cheerleading, that Apple’s PC sales went up 20% and overall PC sales went down ~9%, is reading this chart:
Apple sold 356k more PCs than last year, and that’s a 20.7% growth. If HP’s growth declined only 20.7% then that would be 1158k PCs...
Graphics Cards
John Gruber isn’t a gamer. He’s talked about it on The Talk Show. Dan Benjamin even said, “I can’t imagine you playing a video game,” to Gruber, which I thought was somewhat offensive: John Gruber doesn’t seem like the type of guy who plays video games, and Benjamin thinks Gruber is pretty swell, thus Benjamin may have a negative opinion of gamers.
But anyway....
Scraps: "Enrich Your Experience" →
nickheer:
In what way will allowing Google to interpolate data they’ve mined from my documents, email, web searches, YouTube views and my ever-stagnant Google+ account “enrich” my experience? […]
You can come up with cases that this could be marginally beneficial. Say, for instance, you’re watching a music video on YouTube, and then switch over to Google Music. The song you just listened...
Longer and wider? →
stuparker:
I think he’s hinting at an iPhone with no home button. Maybe the screen is just a bit longer on the bottom to use that newly freed up space. That way, the screen is bigger but the phone isn’t.
This is an interesting suggestion. Mainly that the iPhone 5 will step closer to 16:9 than ever before. I still don’t think it’s likely, and the iPhone even with a marginally bigger...