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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.
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— Jason Snell, via Twitter (via nikf)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.
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.
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∞
On Wednesday, January 27th at 10am Pacific (1pm Eastern) Apple is holding an event. Most rumors point to the tablet being announced then.
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The TextEdit icon contains the words to the “Think Different” television commercials that Apple ran in the late 1990s.
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I always did wonder what was written on that TextEdit icon. I think it’s beautiful :)
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— Dan Moren, Apple’s Mythical Tablet: The Text’s The ThingSteve Jobs’s antipathy for buttons is well-documented. Why does he wear turtlenecks and sneakers? No buttons.
Corner Case∞
Great writeup by dwineman on some clever UI design in Mac OS X.
Google Android Personal Thoughts∞
Boy Genius has a scathing critique of Android—Android as a platform, mind you, not just any one device.
His main complaint is that Android has no “emotion”, which is to say it’s difficult for the user to connect with their device on a level deeper than they would with, say, a hammer. Google thinks of Android as a tool, and as a result it feels clinical and systematic.
The problem with Google is that they are an engineering company through and through. Doug Bowman (of Stopdesign fame) gave a good account of some of the obstacles designers face there.
Yes, it’s true that a team at Google couldn’t decide between two blues, so they’re testing 41 shades between each blue to see which one performs better. I had a recent debate over whether a border should be 3, 4 or 5 pixels wide, and was asked to prove my case.
Google approaches everything as an engineering problem, even when they absolutely shouldn’t. Yes, you’re creating a sophisticated piece of technology, but designing what the user sees is an art, not a science. The engineering ends where form takes precedence over functionality: the interface.
And the interface is arguably the most important part of any system. Pack Android with as much awesome functionality as you want—the thing people will judge it on is its interface. Apple understands this, which is why Apple does not release anything—ANYTHING—unless they can design it well. That is why it took two years for Apple to release copy-and-paste on the iPhone, and that is why people develop a connection with their iPhone that they never will with their Android phone.
As so often happens, John Gruber put it best:
Apple is a design company with engineers; Google is an engineering company with designers.
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— John C Dvorak, San Francisco Examiner (via CNN Money)Apple makes the arrogant assumption of thinking that it knows what you want and need. It, unfortunately, leaves the “why” out of the equation — as in “why would I want this?” The Macintosh uses an experimental pointing device called a ‘mouse’. There is no evidence that people want to use these things. I don’t want one of these new fangled devices.
Google Chrome Beta Available For Mac∞
It’s nice that they now have a stable version for OS X. Er, a beta version. Stable version? Whatever. Either way, I’m using it now and it’s nice, except for the fact that the close button to the tabs is on the right.
Giving Credit Where Credit Is Due∞
iPhone developer Jake Behrens’s experience submitting an app to the App Store:
Apple called my client and said two things were holding it up, one was using an outdated version of Three20 that made private API calls and the other was some marketing speak that they wanted altered for clarification.
My first instinct is to be skeptical, because I have never heard of Apple calling a developer to tell them anything was wrong with their app—let alone WHAT was wrong—LET ALONE discuss the issues in any detail at all. But if it’s true, it would be good for Apple, good for developers, and good for consumers.
Let’s hope Apple has started to do things this way.
The Droid Battery Cover Problem∞
John Gruber:
Funny, I’ve never heard of any problems with the iPhone battery cover falling off.
Zing!
