hexnut

Chilean Earthquake Likely Shifted Earth's Axis

Tue, 02 Mar 2010 14:48:00 -0500

Chilean Earthquake Likely Shifted Earth's Axis:

NASA geophysicist Richard Gross has some alarming facts about the recent Chilean earthquake.

The quake moved the Earth’s axis about 2.7 milliarcseconds (or 8 centimeters, or 3 inches)
Due to the quake, each day from now on will be about 1.26 microseconds (millionths of a second) shorter
Santa Maria Island (an island in Chile) may have been raised as much as 2 meters (6 feet) because of the quake

As I like to say, “snap crackle pop!”

The Guardian Decodes Palm's Memo

Sat, 27 Feb 2010 13:52:56 -0500

The Guardian Decodes Palm's Memo:

Reeeaaaal professional journalism. This is the kind of thing I do on Facebook.

Palm Pre Plus Named The Most Important Tech Product of the Year - So Far

Thu, 11 Feb 2010 13:52:54 -0500

Palm Pre Plus Named The Most Important Tech Product of the Year - So Far:

jasonshore:

I am glad to see Palm finally get some positive press. Although, I have higher expectations for the “Pre 2” which hopefully is released in the first half of 2010.

Click the article title to read the full post from CNN.

Behold “The Amazon Effect”

Thu, 04 Feb 2010 11:06:12 -0500

Behold “The Amazon Effect”:

Last time on “Rupert Murdoch Is A Greedy Motherfucker,” our titular antagonist was trying to get Microsoft to pay him to remove his News Corp sites from Google’s search index. Now he’s trying to get his e-books for the Kindle listed at more than Amazon’s price of $10.

So he sees that Amazon caved to Macmillan when they tried to get Amazon to sell their books for more than $14.99, and he wants to get in on it. Why? He doesn’t have to worry about (or pay for) manufacturing or distributing the books, and he gets 70% of the revenue on each book sold—which is pretty much 100% profit, for anyone doing the math.

I’m going to put this on the record: Rupert Murdoch is the antithesis of the progressive digital movement. His sole aim seems to be to hinder advances in technology and culture in order to preserve the dying old models of business that no longer apply in the Internet age.

shaneblog: Thank you Mario! But our multitasking is in another...

Wed, 03 Feb 2010 19:38:00 -0500

shaneblog:

Thank you Mario! But our multitasking is in another device!

Not sure how much I agree with the whole the iPad is just a big iPod touch sentiment, but there have been some pretty clever ways of expressing it.

"When iPhone was announced, the big question was when or if it would support Flash. With the iPad the..."

Mon, 01 Feb 2010 22:48:24 -0500

“When iPhone was announced, the big question was when or if it would support Flash. With the iPad the debate is if Flash is irrelevant.”

- Jason Snell, via Twitter (via nikf)

"Lack of Flash in the iPad (and before that, in the iPhone) is a win for accessible, standards-based..."

Mon, 01 Feb 2010 18:25:36 -0500

“Lack of Flash in the iPad (and before that, in the iPhone) is a win for accessible, standards-based design.”

- Jeffrey Zeldman, Flash, iPad, Standards

jenirodger: iPad nano advert leaked (via @IntoMobile)

Sun, 31 Jan 2010 13:21:00 -0500

jenirodger:

iPad nano advert leaked (via @IntoMobile)

Apple, Adobe, and Flash

Mon, 25 Jan 2010 15:35:31 -0500

Apple, Adobe, and Flash:

John Gruber gives good account of why Apple won’t allow Flash on the iPhone or their rumored tablet. I also share Gruber’s distaste for Flash—I don’t see its exclusion from iPhone OS as a bad thing, and I’m not super excited to see it on webOS.

My webOS Wishlist

Sun, 24 Jan 2010 12:33:43 -0500

I love webOS. I think it is the best mobile operating system ever made, and I would not even think about switching from my Pre to any other phone currently on the market.

There are, however, many things I wish Palm would either do differently, or even just do in the first place.

Make webOS more attractive: Whenever I get the chance to play around with an iPhone or an iPod touch, I marvel at how sleek the operating system looks. webOS lacks that same level of spit and polish. Honestly, the webOS interface is pretty bland, and I wish Palm would go in and spruce it up.
Contextual gestures: Palm already started down this road with their implementation of cut, copy and paste: hold one finger on the gesture bar and press x, c or v. Why not go further, though? [Gesture bar] + z for undo, [Gesture bar] + n to open up a new card (in say, Browser). Remember, pseudo-modal interactions (like these) are better than modal interactions, like opening up the application’s menu to access these.
No bloatware!: The preinstalled NFL and NASCAR apps have to go, along with 2/3 of the Sprint apps. Palm, I don’t care if they pay you to put it on my phone—I don’t want them, and I bought the phone, so could you please not prevent me from uninstalling them? Apple would never do this, and this is another place you need to take a page out of their book.
Trials in the App Catalog: way way WAY too many apps in the App Catalog are just free “lite” versions of paid apps. There should be a way to try out paid apps for a certain amount of time and then buy the full version. Not only would this get rid of a lot of clutter in the App Catalog, but people would buy more apps because it wouldn’t cost anything to try out paid ones.
More control over Synergy: Some features of Synergy are great, like merging text messages and instant messages into the same stream. And some are horrible, like the fact that any Synergy-enabled app digs as deep into your phone as it possibly can. I haven’t added any instant messaging accounts to my Messaging app, or even installed the Facebook app in the first place. Why? All my friends instantly get imported to my contacts, whether I want them or not. Would it be so hard to have an option to only import data for people already in my contacts list?

There you go: my list of things Palm should do with webOS. It’s a great platform now, for sure, but there’s definitely tons of room to improve.

George Hotz looking to 'hack' PS3

Sat, 23 Jan 2010 18:51:35 -0500

George Hotz looking to 'hack' PS3:

b0r3dm0nk3y:

Always fun to see commercial hardware being unlocked by consumers.

Especially when it’s George Hotz. BCA, represent!

Conversations About the Internet #5: Anonymous Facebook Employee

Thu, 21 Jan 2010 17:13:48 -0500

Conversations About the Internet #5: Anonymous Facebook Employee:

Pretty scary article from The Rumpus about how they do things at Facebook. Apparently they log every page you visit, every message you have—whether deleted or not—and that data never gets deleted, ever. Definitely worth a read.

So Is PC World Run By Morons, Or What?

Tue, 19 Jan 2010 21:11:18 -0500

So Is PC World Run By Morons, Or What?:

I guess PC World knows something I don’t about the Apple tablet. Somehow they’ve found out not only the price (“too expensive”), but also what it does (“things you don’t need it to do”).

The entire article is just a bunch of bullshit claims about why the not-yet-announced tablet is bad for you (It uses an on-screen keyboard! It runs “iPhone 4.0 [sic]”! It’s insecure! It’s twice as much as a netbook!)

What I really love here is that PC World isn’t just making these outlandish claims about a product that they’re never used, or even a product that they’ve never seen. No, they’re saying all this about a product they don’t even know EXISTS.

Thanks to John Gruber for pointing out this beautiful piece of journalistic garbage.

Apple Confirms Mystery Jan. 27 "Creative" Event

Mon, 18 Jan 2010 12:58:00 -0500

Apple Confirms Mystery Jan. 27 "Creative" Event:

On Wednesday, January 27th at 10am Pacific (1pm Eastern) Apple is holding an event. Most rumors point to the tablet being announced then.

littlemissdorkette: The TextEdit icon contains the words to the...

Fri, 15 Jan 2010 17:47:22 -0500

littlemissdorkette:

The TextEdit icon contains the words to the “Think Different” television commercials that Apple ran in the late 1990s.

————

I always did wonder what was written on that TextEdit icon. I think it’s beautiful :)

"Steve Jobs’s antipathy for buttons is well-documented. Why does he wear turtlenecks and sneakers? ..."

Fri, 15 Jan 2010 12:46:00 -0500

“Steve Jobs’s antipathy for buttons is well-documented. Why does he wear turtlenecks and sneakers? No buttons.”

- Dan Moren, Apple’s Mythical Tablet: The Text’s The Thing

Corner Case

Wed, 13 Jan 2010 13:59:24 -0500

Corner Case:

Great writeup by dwineman on some clever UI design in Mac OS X.

Ralph de la Vega: AT&T Launching Two webOS Devices!

Mon, 11 Jan 2010 16:08:45 -0500

Ralph de la Vega: AT&T Launching Two webOS Devices!:

This didn’t make Palm’s CES presentation, but it’s still good news. More carriers supporting webOS devices is better for Palm. I wonder if they’ll be the normal versions or the Plus versions?

Alex: An Android-Powered, Dual-Screen Reader

Mon, 11 Jan 2010 12:51:00 -0500

Alex: An Android-Powered, Dual-Screen Reader:

If it weren’t for the word “Alex” in the title, you’d think the article was referring to the Nook. Actually, it’s an ebook reader by a company called SpringDesign.

The article also mentions a lawsuit against Barnes & Noble by SpringDesign for taking the idea for the Nook from them.

Either way, if you’ve ever played around with a Nook, you know it’s an unintuitive, slow, horrible awful creature. Let’s hope the Alex works a bit better.

Sprint 2010 line-up leaked, new Palm device coming?

Mon, 11 Jan 2010 12:11:11 -0500

Sprint 2010 line-up leaked, new Palm device coming?:

jasonshore:

Looks like Phone Arena has received an anonymous tip on the upcoming Sprint phone line-up. The line up, pictured above, includes a new WiMax Android phone from HTC.

The tipster also said that there was a possibility of Sprint launching a new Palm device. The device, known as the C40, isn’t pictured in the line-up but it has been rumored before.

I am pulling for Sprint to make something big happen. They are facing some stiff competition with Verizon launching the Nexus One and Palm Pre Plus soon.

Nonetheless, 2010 should be a huge year for smartphone users.

Read about the full leaked line-up here.

For those of you keeping track, the Palm 100 and Palm 120 listed in the screenshot are the Pre and Pixi, respectively. My money goes on the third device replacing the Treo, which can still be found on Palm’s website (if you know where to look) but mysteriously vanished from their homepage to be replaced by “Accessories”.