CNet: Why Google Android is winning.
“The global smartphone market is still RIM’s to lose, with Apple in the pole position to profit from its mistakes. But new ComScore data on the U.S. smartphone market suggest that both should be worried by what they see in their rear-view mirrors.” I think it’s a little early to say ‘winning.’ But there’s the beginning of a trend here.
ars technica: Safely whitelist your favorite sites and opt out of tracking.
“Many were more than happy to unblock Ars, but many others had difficulty doing so due to the complicated nature of many ad blocking solutions. Dozens of you asked for help, so here it is. In the first of many articles we plan to produce about these topics, we’ve attempted to collect information on how an informed Web user such as yourself can safely and responsibly whitelist websites that you support and trust.”
Matt Legend Gemmell: iPad Application Design.
“We already have iPhone apps on the iPad (they can run at their native size in the middle of the screen, or be scaled up to fit). That’s useful, but it’s not particularly interesting. Far more relevantly, we can bring desktop-class applications to iPad — but we need to rethink our user interface and design in general.” I wonder how iPad-specific apps scale down to iPhone?
Rob Galbraith DPI: Complete model releases on the iPhone with Easy Release.
“Washington, DC-based photographer Robert Giroux has co-developed an app for the iPhone and iPod touch that enables model releases, with signature, to be completed right on the device.” Now THAT will encourage me to get an iPhone or Touch. Model releases are a pain in the butt, more necessary than ever. This is BRILLIANT.
Queness: Most Effective Method to Reduce and Optimize PNG Images.
Cute little trick.
Measuring Usability: Why you only need to test with five users (explained).
Makes a crystal clear case. Timely, too. Needed to test something.
All Things Digital: Video Interview: Jeff Smith of Mobile App Maker Smule.
”Smith is part of a small but vocal chorus of app developers who say they don’t want to move to Android, even though it is growing quickly. His complaints: He doesn’t like the way the store merchandises its wares, and he doesn’t want to have to create different apps for each handset Android supports.” Yet we see, time and again, those who throw up walls, refuse to adapt, are the ones who generally lose. Marked to revisit this in a year or so.
insic designs: Create Social Media Icons in Pure CSS.
The Atlantic: Digital Rights Group Blasts iPhone’s Faustian Developer Deal.
”‘Steve Jobs has confirmed that Apple can remotely disable apps, even after they have been installed by users’ ... [snip] ... The contract also strictly bans tinkering with any Apple products, a limitation that Lohmann points out could prevent developers from making apps that work with open source software.” Perhaps a bit of FUD; perhaps not.
ars technica: Plans for .xxx top-level domain pop up again.
“The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) will reconsider the top-level domain during a meeting in Kenya this week, nearly three years after it was shot down and nine years after it was first introduced as a way to identify pornography sites and hopefully confine them to their own Internet red-light district.”
Panic Blog: The Panic Status Board.
Brilliant. Via Bump’s Twitter.
PHP Zone: Use jQuery With Other Libraries Like Prototype and MooTools.
Timely. I’m running across more and more sites with just about every library under the sun being called on the home page, top of the page, uncompressed, slowing everything to a crawl. A corner-rounder in MooTools, a collapsible box in Spry, navigation in JQuery, Dreamweaver rollovers ...
5by5: The Pipeline 6: Matt Haughey.
Nice podcast interview with Matt Haughey.
The Atlantic: The Fall of the Internet and the Rise of the ‘Splinternet’.
“Today to reach the universe of new mobile browsers, you can’t assume that your audience is using only a laptop to access the same version of your content. So it won’t be enough to have just a magazine website. Instead you’ll need a website and a Kindle App and an iPhone/iPad app and another app for another device that has a distinct audience and requires a specific template.” Some will celebrate this, but all I see is more sour businesspeople getting grouchy over more overhead costs.
The March issue of FFDMag …
Flash and Flex Developers Magazine ... is available. There’s an article on iPad, for those interested.
Gizmodo: HTC Legend Review: Frankly, It Feels Expensive.
Still watching smartphones, trying to make up my mind.
Mashable: Pandora Could Hit $100 Million in Revenue for 2010.
”The Times credits much of Pandora’s rise to its wildly successful iPhone app, which doubled signups for the service overnight.” I credit that sickly, horrible Pepto-Bismol ad that turns the entire interface Pepto Pink. That’s what got me to shell out the cash.
FakePad: iPhone development is for addicts.
”We know that Apple can barely keep up with the success of the AppStore. Due to its organic growth, the AppStore has become this hairy ball of half-assed technology & random processes.” Sounds like what Steve says about Flash ...
ars technica: Why Ad Blocking is devastating to the sites you love.
”I am not making an argument that blocking ads is a form of stealing, or is immoral, or unethical, or makes someone the son of the devil. It can result in people losing their jobs, it can result in less content on any given site, and it definitely can affect the quality of content.” Ads are getting more aggressive; I’ll try to not block on sites that avoid covering content.
After a week of playing with Woopra,
and comparing it to Statcounter and Google Analytics, I almost want to drop Google Analytics. Google’s consistently under-reporting the stats for the site, compared to Woopra and Statcounter. Woopra, they’re live stats - I can watch visitors’ paths through my site, and even label each visitor with a nickname. I know they’re real ... and I know that Google’s missing 10-15% completely. All three of these (Statcounter, Woopra and GA) tally by Javascript, so JS is not a factor here. Any JS based statcounter has to be missing hits (due to JS being turned off, page caching, etc.) anyway, which means GA is even more inaccurate. I’ll only use Google Analytics to gauge trends now - never again for definitive counts.
Telegraph.UK: ‘Sexting’: the new infidelity?
“Where once the symbols of infidelity were lipstick on the collar and dubious hotel bills, so today the principal indication is likely to be repetitive stress disorder of the thumb.”
Mashable: Hulu Users Tag Leno’s Return as “Vomit Inducing” (and Much Worse).
”Despite strong ratings this week, Leno is still facing a backlash from those of us with a penchant for Conan’s style and resentment for how the situation was handled.” My italics. Hmmm. Strong ratings, but facing a “backlash”? Perhaps the greatest disconnect involves internet/social media mavens mistaking theoretical influence for actual influence.
ConceptDraw MindWave.
A widget to make Google Wave perform collaborative mindmapping.
Javalobby: Search Engine Basics.
If you ever wanted a peek at search engine algorithms, here’s your chance.
One Bit Increment.
A Flash game as a company website.
