Lights That Blink

Hello, LTB reader(s)! I think it’s to put myself back on the top of this fine blog, and so I’ve decided to say my piece on the announcements of Steve Jobs’ keynote speech at WWDC. Since there’s already a myriad of opinions finding their way onto the web today, I think I’ll keep my remarks short. So, without further ado:

The redesign of Apple.com: Killer.

The presence of noted game dev god John Carmack showing off his next gen engine: 1337.

The presence of an EA exec to announce simultaneous release of new Mac games: Profiteering.

The transparent menu bar in Leopard’s new look: Eyestrain!

The lack of familiar rounded corners in the menu bar of said new look:

The integration of Cover Flow, Stacks, and Quick Look into the new Finder: Slick.

Boot Camp’s unheralded ability to switch hibernation states between Mac OS X and Windows: Awesome. Bogus.

Phil Schiller’s Clutch Cargo comedy involving Steve Ballmer’s face: Hilarious.

Core Animation: Tantalizing.

Safari on Windows: Peculiar.

The idea that all of those “top secret” features needed to stay under wraps until Vista shipped: Silly.

and, last but most certainly not least–

The “use Web 2.0 to develop hosted iPhone apps instead of native ones” copout: Bullcrap.

Isn’t it nice when the news is so easy to digest?

tags: apple, iphone, os-x, safari, windows

Posted by Jamie | 3 Comments »

Steve Jobs just announced that there will be a version of Safari for Windows. Cool.

The browser wars are heating up even more!

Update: Like so many others, I am deeply disappointed with Safari. It is slower than FEMA getting to New Orleans and even more of a memory hog than Firefox. As Jamie put it, peculiar.

tags: apple, safari, windows

Posted by Doug | No Comments »

The big announcement this past week, and month really, was Facebook’s Platform.

There is tons of interesting commentary on the subject around the web (although nothing from Jason Calacanis, oddly enough).

One guy that lots of folks are talking about is Josh Kopelman. Here’s his much-repeated money quote:

Think about it. If you ran a venture-backed company and had to decide whether you wanted to focus your effort on: (a) a property that welcomed you in and let you keep 100% of the revenue you generate or (b) a company with a vague policy that doesn’t let you generate any revenue, which would you choose? I don’t think it’s even a decision. It’s an IQ test.

Josh Catone at Read/Write Web says:

I agree that Facebook made a brilliant move last week by opening up their network and embracing third-party developers. They may well have just leap-frogged MySpace by providing an environment that encourages developers to make Facebook more useful for its users. While nothing too compelling has been created so far (though iLike’s Facebook application has an impressive 482,000 users in its first weekend), all it takes is one killer app on the Facebook platform to really start drawing in the users and catch up to MySpace.

And TechCrunch’s Mike Arrington weighs in:

MySpace is a minefield - startups want access to their users but suffer from the very real possibility of being banned, either temporarily or permanently. Facebook is viewing things from exactly the opposite position: they are giving startups access to Facebook’s core feature set, and allowing them to show advertising and conduct transactions with users without even asking for a cut. This is exactly why I called Facebook the Anti-MySpace last week.

This is obviously a tremendous coup for Facebook. Both in terms of buzz and technological advantage.

Nevertheless, I think that Catone hits the nail on the head though when he says:

Developers, however, will go where the users are, and users are increasingly demanding that they be able to consume content and services wherever that happens to be. It follows, then, that as long as MySpace is popular with users, it will be popular with widget creators.

Widgets wizards aren’t going to abandon MySpace’s 100 million users, but this move by Facebook will probably end up forcing MySpace’s hand on the “openness” front.

tags: facebook, myspace, widgets

Posted by Doug | No Comments »

British Prime Minister Tony Blair is utilizing YouTube to congratulate the new French president, Nicolas Sarkozy. Pretty cool.

And in French!

It will be interesting as politicians increasingly use YouTube and other web tools to communicate directly to their constituents, bypassing the traditional media completely.

tags: politics, video, youtube

Posted by Doug | No Comments »

Jaiku seems to be a much more polished and well thought out product.  It certainly is a lot quicker than Twitter was when I first tried it.

We’ll see if I update my “jaikus” as often as my Twitter page (not likely, but who knows?).

tags: jaiku, twitter

Posted by Doug | No Comments »

If this meme catches on, Google is in big trouble.

“It looks like the bad guys are gaming Google’s sponsored links to spread their junk to people who click on the ads with unpatched versions of Internet Explorer. Attackers apparently bought the rights to several high profile search terms, including searches that would return results for the Better Business Bureau, among others. The story notes this was bound to happen, given the way Google structures sponsored links…”

If it ever, and I mean ever, becomes the collective wisdom that clicking on Google ads could be dangerous.  Wow.  Adios revenue stream.

tags: google, security, virus

Posted by Doug | No Comments »

Here’s our fourth “casting of the pod.” It’s forty-five minutes this time instead of fifteen or thirty. I (Doug) need to stop rambling so much…

Again, kudos to the Levelator.

tags: podcast

Posted by Doug | 1 Comment »

Our hearts go out to the victims’ families and friends of this horrible incident.

I just went to ABC News NOW and they were talking about…Facebook.  It has, apparently, become a resource for friends and family to connect, make sure they’re OK, and find support.  An interesting use for the social network.

tags: facebook

Posted by Doug | No Comments »

Domain speculators know a news story when they see one!

Here’s the whois links for them all, along with registration dates:

NappyHeadedHos.com
Registered: April 7, 2007

NappyHeadedHos.net
Registered: April 9, 2007

NappyHeadedHos.org
Registered: April 7, 2007

NappyHeadedHos.info
Registered: April 10, 2007

NappyHeadedHos.biz
Registered: April 10, 2007

NappyHeadedHos.us
Registered: April 10, 2007

tags: domains

Posted by Doug | 1 Comment »

I don’t believe it! How could my favorite fruit company do this to me?! Don’t they know that I have been pining for the new release of OS X as the cherry on the silicon sundae of a new Mac? How I long for the sublime refreshment of its new features and the unspecified (but surely surprising) zippy tang of its secret ones?

Well, yes, of course they do. I’m also quite certain that they know of my hatred for buggy and unfinished operating systems, and I’m glad that they’ve chosen not to release one as soon as possible. However, I’m no different than any other Mac fan, and it’s not hard to notice that Apple’s primary focus of late is on the new baby in the crib. Heck, this year an entire Macworld keynote was devoted to its charms! I’m just a little peeved that the Mac platform seems to be getting short shrift these days. While it’s true that iPhone is the coolest electronic device in the entire galaxy, it won’t be something for me until the price goes down, features go up, and AT&T cellular service (or a blessed equivalent) comes to my part of the cosmos as part of version 2.0.

All is not lost, though. We should be seeing new consumer Macs rolling out with Intel’s new “Santa Rosa” notebook platform very soon, and since all of Apple’s hardware (save the Mac Pro) is currently built with mobile innards in mind, that means some nice upgrades will make their way across the lineup. Nevertheless, I call upon the Cupertino faithful to make a small sacrifice (perhaps that of an Apple II High-Speed SCSI card) to ensure that WWDC will spill all the yummy secrets of Leopard and Macworld 2008 will really be about the Macintosh.

tags: apple, iphone, os-x

Posted by Jamie | No Comments »