January 2012
12 posts
5 tags
An Awesome Idea, Accidentally →
Title of this Ars Technica article: HP makes printing to an iPad easier with Wireless Direct printing.
I’m pretty sure that “printing to an iPad” was a typo and they meant from, but think of how awesome that would be: what better way to go paperless than to have an iPad masquerade as a wireless printer, accept documents “printed” your PC and turn them into...
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The Automation Revolution →
The New York Times on the current state of the U.S. economy:
On the other hand, corporate success has not necessarily benefited American workers and consumers so far in this recovery. Today, the economy produces more than it did when the recession began in 2007, but it manages to do so with six million fewer jobs.
I don’t see this ever getting any better. What are we going to do in...
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Launch Center →
Worth the 99 cents for the speed dial alone, Launch Center is a very nice-looking app. More importantly for an app intended to speed up various tasks, that nice-looking UI is very fast and smooth. You can also use it to launch any URL - which is handy for apps that have registered their own URL scheme. It even has support for scheduling these actions to show up in your notifications at certain...
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Apple's Stunning Quarter →
MG Siegler:
Apple now has $97.6 billion in cash.
Think about how big that number is. Apple could cease all business operations now, take 10,000 of its employees, pay them each $100,000 a year for doing nothing, and not run out of cash until the year 2110.
6 tags
Where It Hurts
Marco Arment and MG Siegler have a point when they say that SOPA is inevitable. Public outrage in America is like a videogame superweapon: it destroys anything in its path, but it can only be used sparingly. Unfortunately, unlike the average citizen, lobbyists are paid to be relentless.
Marco’s suggestion to not watch MPAA videos is the right idea, but not the best approach. A more...
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Why I Hate Android →
MG Siegler explains how Android turned a do-no-evil company into sellouts.
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Comments Commentary →
If you’re debating whether to include or exclude comments on your blog, the best thing you can do is to read Matt Gemmell’s latest article about the topic, as well as the first two he wrote that started the conversation. Matt both proves that you don’t need comments to communicate effectively with your readers, and also addresses just about every concern that you can think of...
3 tags
Microsoft To Offer Incentives to Sell Phones →
John Gruber:
If this strategy was on the table, why didn’t Microsoft start this a year ago?
If it was Apple, which makes hundreds of dollars per phone sold, then a $15/phone incentive would not be a desperate gamble. Microsoft only sells the OS, though, and if a quick Google search is right, that’s about the price Microsoft is charging manufacturers to license their OS. Though the app...
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My Speculation on Platforms That Probably Got Way...
Let’s say you’re an electronics manufacturer hoping to build the next great gadget. What do you have to do to go about it?
Basically, you need demand for your product. However, getting that demand isn’t as simple as building the better product in a vacuum. You need to build a product that gives your target customers the maximum value - and thanks to the developer interest issue...
3 tags
No Comment
It’s time for the semi-annual tech blog “Comments are horrible!” series of posts. And here’s mine!
Do you have something to say in response to someone? Own your words. Post it on your blog, or on Google+, or even Twitter (or email if you must share privately) and notify the writer via Twitter or email. Tumblr asks & messages are a great way too (particularly with...
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Misconceptions About iOS Multitasking →
Fraser Speirs wrote a well-written, in depth post about multitasking on iOS. However, while correcting the misconception, it doesn’t quite address why it exists.
If you were going to explain background applications on iOS to a normal person, you would have to say something like this: “Apps don’t actually run in the background. Unless you’re playing music from them. Or if...