Here’s a nice non-jailbreak solution for getting quick access to common iOS settings options such as Wi-Fi, Airplane Mode, Notifications, and Brightness. Note that it’s not extremely elegant, as it will require Mobile Safari to open momentarily but it’s better than nothing if you’re not a jailbreaker. I’m trying it out in an Android-like setup, [...]
Quick Look Plugin for Mobile Provision Files
This is a brilliant plugin to finally make previewing mobile provision files useful. For anyone who is doing iOS client work or who works on a number of apps, this plugin is especially helpful. (via RT by @neilinglis)
Automated iOS Stress Testing at Square
Awesome setup shared by Zach Brock, using KIF Also, check out the video.
Flux for iOS
One of my favorite tweaks for the Mac—Flux—is now available in Cydia. It takes your blinding iOS screen and applies a clever dimming effect to save you from nighttime glow. To try to capture the new “candle” effect, I snapped a few photos of my iPhone 4. The picture qualities aren’t phenomenal because I used [...]
Papercut for iPad
Interesting video on Computer Arts magazine covering the guys at ustwo and their new reader for the iPad called, “Papercut.” Whether or not you love the app, we need more in our industry to keep boldly experimenting with mobile interfaces like Chief WONKA and his crew.
Lion UI Kit (Preview)
I’m releasing this Mac OS Lion UI Kit for those who need to create mockups. This is free to use, but please link back here for download!. I believe I have all the ‘most used’ UI elements covered, but let me know if something important is missing. While any useful mockup tool piques my interest, [...]
Prototypes for Mac
Prototypes for Mac turns your flat mockup images into tappable and sharable prototypes that run on iPhone or iPod touch. A new Mac app, Prototypes joins the growing number of mockup-related tools to add to your iOS arsenal. We’ll be experimenting with it, along with InVision (thanks, Harold) in future internal and client projects. One [...]
Usability Battle: Android vs. iOS
What we can conclude though, is that Android and iOS are very similar in terms of usability, at least in the apps we have tested. Of course, there are apps on both platforms that are really very well designed, and apps which should never have been let into the store/market. Neither platform is immune to [...]
Ergotron WorkFit-S
Since standing desks are now the rage, especially in geek communities where people are particularly glued to their desks, I thought I’d point to what I’ve been using since the start of the year, the Ergotron “WorkFit-S Single HD Sit-Stand Workstation.” I previously was a customer of Ergotron products and almost rigged one of their [...]
The Oona – A Great Smartphone Stand
Another Kickstarter project that has done amazingly well. If Oona does what the creators suggest, it’s a great buy for any and all smartphone owners because it’s device agnostic.
Fling Joystick for iPad
Optimized for games with directional pads (d-pads), Fling provides a tactile joystick for the iPad. I have purchased other Ten One Design products and they’re well-made. Fling looks like a nifty little gadget for those looking to up their game on the iPad.
Robert Scoble on The Age of AirPlay
I still remember when Dave Winer showed me RSS and what it did. It changed my life and continues to, even after we switched much of our reading behavior to Twitter (a new iPad app is coming on Friday that uses RSS, more about that when the embargo ends). But since RSS has there been [...]
Magically Charge Your Magic Mouse
I’m a big fan of Apple’s rechargeable batteries but if you’re wanting for some serious geek gadgetry, the Mobee Magic Charger for the Magic Mouse looks great. Of course, this adds another piece of tech to your physical desk. Initially, that looks like the only drawback. Update: Check out these notes from Rob Bazinet and [...]
Tea for iPhone
Tea for iPhone is a neat new app for tea lovers by Samuel Iglesias and Mac Tyler. It sports a super fun icon and clean interface; check out the nice demo they put together. They’ve also partnered with Adagio Teas for a 10% discount to celebrate their launch. Tea nerds engage. (via @jerols)
Amazon’s Appstore for Android – From Eight Steps to None
Justin Williams previously pointed out the tediousness of getting Amazon’s new Appstore installed on Android devices. That process will hopefully fade in time, as Kevin Tofel reports: Amazon’s Appstore for Android apps will be pre-loaded on its first phone in April, according to Cellular South, a regional U.S. mobile operator. The HTC Merge handset, a [...]
Mobile App “Color” to Become Colorless
Color has launched to much fanfare but the wrong kind. While there are claims that Sequoia Capital has bet on its team and not the idea, that team is not looking so bright right now. First, they launch an app with a poor user experience and a questionable offering. And now, how do they intend [...]
Comb Over Charlie – An Adobe AIR 2.6 Multi-screen Game
Over the past few weeks I’ve had the privilege to work with the AIR 2.6 pre-release; I have to say I was completely shocked. The first time I used the AIR to iOS compiler that shipped with CS5, the frame-rates were poor enough that I disregarded it and never planned on using it again. About [...]
Kickstarter Strikes Again with iPad Stand Hanfree
Kickstarter has proven to be quite the friend to iOS accessory projects. I previously linked up OneLessDrop and it, along with The Glif both destroyed their fundraising goals. The latest campaign to be kicked up is for Hanfree (via MacStories), an interesting stand for the iPad. While a bit bulky right now, it looks to [...]
“Slides” from SXSW ’11 – Think First, Code Later
The “slides” for our SXSW ’11 workshop, App Savvy – Think First, Code Later are now available. Since our workshop was very interactive and discussion-based, we actually didn’t do presentations but instead had conversations with supporting materials featuring resources, showing screenshots, etc. In any case, they were asked to be posted, so obviously people found [...]
Mike Rundle’s Design Then Code
I feel that all designers should learn how to code, all hackers should learn the basics of UI design, so Design Then Code is my way of trying to make that happen. Great new resource from designer AND developer Mike Rundle (who is also interviewed in App Savvy), helping designers learn how to code and [...]
SXSWi ’11 – Mobile Sessions, Top App Predictions, and More
I’ve curated some interesting mobile sessions on SCHED*, including ones from fellow O’Reilly author Josh Clark, Jennifer Brook from the New York Times, and of course, a workshop by yours truly. As a bonus, take a look at the twenty tips to know before heading to SXSW, what people believe will be the top apps [...]
Mobile Operating Systems Still Open to Disruption
What I find noteworthy is that there is an implied peculiar fatalism about the market when only two platforms are considered viable, neither of which are more than 3 years old. While visiting the Mobile World Congress, I sensed this jumping to conclusions about platforms was eerily similar to that of a few years ago [...]
Mark Murphy on the Complexity of Android
Each passing Android release layers complexity on top of complexity…[a]nd I’m not even talking about creating sizzling apps that will wow the VCs, but just garden-variety stuff. … Ordinarily, this is where I’d pipe up and say that the community needs to lead. However, in this case, the complexity issue is fundamental to Android. While [...]
HTML5 – Where’s the Beef?
Everyone seems to pay HTML5 plenty of lip-service. But look at their actions. Apple, Google, Facebook, and developers are all focusing on native apps, not HTML5 apps. – MG Siegler The promise of HTML5 for mobile app development is tempting—cross-platform support, continuous deployment, A/B testing, etc.—but there are not nearly as many prominent examples of [...]
Scoble on HP’s TouchPad and Tablet Wars
What did HP just do? 1. Showed it can bring some innovations (especially in power charging and multitasking) that Apple hasn’t yet shipped. 2. Totally made the other, non-Apple, players on the board look lame. 3. Further weakened Microsoft’s stance in the marketplace. If you told me 10 years ago that HP would introduce a [...]
Collaborate on Your App Designs with Upstage
A great new resource from Jonathan George and the team at Boxcar, Upstage allows teams to better share and collaborate on iOS designs. We’ve already integrated it into our workflow and are recommending it to our clients, to use both internally and with us.
OneLessDrop – Smart Power Cord Management for Your Mac and iOS Device
In the time it takes to read this page, millions of power cords for mobile phones, iPads, and notebooks will slide off nightstands, side tables, and desks and fall to the ground. The global frustration created by this phenomena cannot be overestimated. This problem deserves an elegant solution. Dean Heckler is the brilliant designer of [...]
Hockey 1.0 Released, Provides “In App Updates”
The idea was pretty simple: if beta testers do really test, why not present everything from within the application when they test. We call it In-App-Updates. Suddenly we got rid of all the redundant mails and all the unnecessary tapping. The experience is absolutely seamless and integrated. Beta testers don’t have to care about anything [...]
Standardizing iOS Interapp Communication: x-callback-url
The goal of the x-callback-url specification is to provide a standardized means for iOS developers to expose and document the methods they make available to other apps. Using x-callback-url’s source apps can launch other apps passing data and context information, and also provide parameters instructing the target app to return data and control back to [...]
Windows Phone 7 – Ready for Developers But Needs Customers
Netflix, for one, offers an app for Windows Phone and for the iPhone, but not for Android. Why? Windows and the iPhone offer a common security platform across their devices, meaning that Netflix can develop a single app for all models. Because Android is implemented in so many different ways, however, Netflix has been forced [...]
Always-on – We’re Still Learning
“We’ve been in a crazy, experimental overload period with online social media for the last two or three years — but I think people are now beginning to figure out a more balanced role these tools play in their lives,” he said. “A lot of people I know are reaching that inflection point with social [...]
Fred Wilson’s review of the Nexus S
Last week I got a Nexus S to replace the Nexus One that I have been using for the past year. I love my Nexus One and was hesitant to replace it but the Nexus S looks like the exact same phone, just better, so I went for it. In general, he likes the upgrade. [...]
Kevin Tofel on Why Verizon Needs the iPhone…Now
With no iPhone to offer customers, Verizon has turned largely to Google Android smartphones. On the surface, that strategy has paid off as Verizon continues to hold the top spot for mobile subscribers in the U.S., although AT&T is nipping on its heels. But detailed data showing Verizon’s smartphone sales surfaced this weekend, and if [...]
Sarah Perez on Jailbreaking to Secure Your iPhone
Could it be that the new jailbreaking process then, instead of making phones less secure, would actually improve their security protections? That’s certainly what it sounds like: “With ASLR, an exploit mitigation is added that is not available in factory iPhones and makes exploitation more difficult,” reads the session and speaker bio on the conference [...]
Netflix on How it Uses HTML5
Our PS3 UI was written entirely using HTML5, on a custom build of Webkit ported to the PS3 by our crack team of engineers. If you don’t have a PS3, you can check out what the user experience looks and feels like here. Doesn’t look like web technology, does it? That’s what HTML5 brings to [...]
Samsung Galaxy Tab Sells 1M Units
It’s unclear if this is 1 million in sales to end users or into retail channels. Besides 100,000 units sold in South Korea, there’s no indication of where the rest of the sales are happening. But the Tab, which is being sold by all four carriers in the U.S., is finding an audience. It’s a [...]
RIM Acquires the Amazing TAT
While TAT has done a great deal of work across several markets including automotive and consumer electronics, mobile platforms user experiences is where they shine and as any BlackBerry user will tell you, RIM needs a lot of help in that department. Well, BlackBerry fans… help has most definitely arrived because TAT is as good [...]
HTML5 Mobile App Frameworks – 37signals and Sencha Touch
There is nothing like Rails for mobile web app development, so 37signals are creating a web app MVC framework specifically designed for mobile phone web apps. The code will be comprised of local JavaScript, with the network just being used for data. The apps will work offline, when live data transfer isn’t required. I don’t [...]
Early Woes for Windows Phone 7 Developers
James repeated similar concerns, noting that “there will be no payouts from [the WP7] App Hub [to developers] until February 2011, and there is no built-in reporting on downloads as of now.” He outlined a variety of problems in working with Microsoft’s share App Hub developer site for WP7 and Xbox 360, and concluded, “unless [...]
MG Siegler’s Tony Montana Startup Success Cycle
There seems to be a common cycle for many startups. First, you capture users. Then, you capture brands/celebrities. Then you capture revenues. Most startups never make it past step one, let alone steps two and three. Or, “In this country, you gotta get the users first. And then when you get the users, you get [...]
Mixergy Interview – Helping Non-Developers Make Apps
I was fortunate enough to be interviewed on Andrew Warner’s Mixergy, a program I’ve watched the last couple of years. We had a great time discussing the strategy and planning aspects of building mobile apps, answering the typical questions non-designers and non-developers usually have about how to get started in this process. By the way, [...]
360iDev – Come Hang Out with the Best in the Biz
If you haven’t already, register now for the awesome 360iDev conference coming to Austin from November 7th-10th. There’s a great lineup of speakers and if you are a developer in particular, you’ll be hearing from the very best in the biz. In addition, I’ll be moderating my “Think First, Code Later” panel. I’m glad to [...]
Coming Soon…A Novel About Squirrels Written on the iPad
Debbie Ohi’s writing her novel, “Killer Zombie Squirrels From Outer Space” on the iPad. Because of that, she’s also created got a comprehensive review of iPad writing apps for writers. We’ll continue to see interesting uses of the iPad but they are still the exception to the rule: the iPad primarily remains a consumption device. [...]
The Anthropology of Mobile Apps
Fellow O’Reilly author Josh Clark shares his slides and some background for his talk at IDEA2010. Entitled “Going Native: The Anthropology of Mobile Apps,” one of his key takeaways is that whether developing a mobile web or mobile native application, everyone is a “cloud developer.” By that he means that many applications—regardless of the presentation [...]
Apple’s App Store Growth Infographic (Sept. ’10)
Some really interesting data points from MeetTheBoss.tv including active (~ 260k) and inactive (~ 50k) apps, the number of apps submitted per month, and the distribution price across the App Store.
Mobile a Moving Target in 2010
As a speaker for Digital East, I was interviewed by Tech Journal South about mobile and native mobile apps specifically.: “They’re looking at this year and asking how will it lead me into next year,” he says. Some firms are willing to throw some money at mobile this year, but don’t really expect much to [...]
Terminology for iPhone
In my opinion, there’s no longer a missing dictionary app for the iPhone. Agile Tortoise’s Terminology—first launched on the iPad—is now available for the iPhone at an extremely affordable launch price of $0.99. It’s homescreen worthy.
About Android Being Open
Jason Hiner on Android’s “dirty little secret.” Nuff said…it’s also why I bought a Nexus One directly from Google: Just as Google is overwhelming the iPhone with over 20 Android handsets to Apple’s one device, so the army of Android phones that can be carrier-modified is overwhelming the one Apple phone on a single carrier [...]
Over the Air Updates for iOS Beta Apps
Andreas Linde (@therealkerni) demos an open source framework he’s working on that will allow new versions of beta iOS apps to be updated when they are opened. Looks great.
Think First, Code Later
I’ve submitted a magical and revolutionary panel to SXSW ’11 in the Interactive track and need your vote. The focus will be on the strategy aspects of iOS application development. Here’s the description: Before a single pixel is created, a line of code is written, or a marketing plan is conceived, a prospective app should [...]
Creation on the iPad is the Exception, Not the Norm
Yes, so the iPad can be used to create…but is that it’s primary use by most consumers? How many media apps are there for the iPad compared to apps focused on creativity? Do content creation apps have 300,000+ downloads? That’s what the top iPad apps—focused on content consumption—are doing. Just because a talented artist can [...]
Lo-fi Versus Hi-fi Wireframes
There is no right way to wireframe. You must understand the context and the requirements for the project and move ahead accordingly. Know that regardless of the fidelity of the wireframe, it is still simply a tool in the design process that you can utilize to quickly get feedback, prove out your design decisions and [...]
Android “Gingerbread” Release to Focus on User Experience
Part of the reason Android apps are not comparable to their iOS counterparts is that the interface and user experience is lacking. Functionally, I see many of them as the same — but visually Android apps are considerably behind and their usability leaves much to be desired. Google is focusing the bulk of its efforts [...]
Swype – Android’s Killer App
I’ve been testing Swype as my primary keyboard input for my Nexus One for the past week or so and it’s now open to all Android users. While I’ve pre-ordered the iPhone 4 and plan to move to it for my primary device (but will still use both), the app I’ll miss the most is [...]
The Magic Lottery (for Apps)
Here’s another way to think about it: delight the audience you already have, amaze the customers you can already reach, dazzle the small investors who already trust you enough to listen to you. Take the permission you have and work your way up. Leaps look good in the movies, but in fact, success is mostly [...]
What Does Government 2.0 Look Like?
I’m hanging out at the Gov 2.0 Expo 2010 today. Over on the O’Reilly Radar blog, Mark Drapeau provided a visual walkthrough detailing what Government 2.0 looks like. Click through to see each area described in detail:
What iPads Did To My Family
Tap, tap, tap. All the PCs and laptops are basically not being used. All the Macs are not being used. All have been powered off. Everyone in the family is waiting for their turn at the iPad. … I don’t think I’ll be buying any more desktops going forward. I don’t think I’ll even be [...]
Move Your App! (Android) Developer Challenge
Create an Android app that inspires and tracks physical movement. What kind of app can you build to encourage people to get in motion? How can movement be just as easy and fun as checking-in or updating a status? The winner will receive an all expense paid trip to TED Global 2010 with many other [...]
LUXA2 H4 Mobile Holder for iPad
Case closed. Be notified here.
Foursquare Gets Historical
While I’m a techie, technology is not an end in itself. That’s why I’ve been happy to see Foursquare form partnerships like the one it has with the History Channel. When users check in around various U.S. cities, they can find historical tidbits about their location and unlock the limited edition History Channel badge. “For [...]
Consumer and Developer Impacts from the iPad App Store
As a consumer my first observation about the iPad App Store was that it was frustrating to browse. On the iPhone, the App Store is mostly controlled with “flick” gestures. For example, when searching for an app, it’s easy to browse twenty-five of them at a time by quickly scrolling up or down and then [...]
On Why Not to Buy an iPad
If I weren’t writing about the iPad and developing apps for it, I probably wouldn’t purchase it on day one for some of these reasons: Relying on incumbents to produce your revolutions is not a good strategy. They’re apt to take all the stuff that makes their products great and try to use technology to [...]
iPad Reviews from Mossberg and Pogue
Mossberg is pretty hot on the iPad believing that it can replace laptops and netbooks for many, My verdict is that, while it has compromises and drawbacks, the iPad can indeed replace a laptop for most data communication, content consumption and even limited content creation, a lot of the time. But it all depends on [...]
In the App Economy Does the Mobile Browser Matter?
Ironically, the people who would benefit most from building in the browser (i.e., the developers) prefer to create something shinier by going native. Maybe they won’t choose that path if there are four or more major platforms they have to support but until that happens, it’s telling that when the browser route is possible, developers [...]
The Best Products Sell Themselves
Andy Budd succinctly identifies the “secret sauce” of products that sell themselves…creating something remarkable by being customer-centered: The secret sauce is simple. We need to take a more customer centered approach to creating products that solve real problems for real people. We need to listen to our customer’s wants, needs and frustrations and create products [...]
Get Your Hot Windows Phone 7 Apps…In Mid-2011
But what Microsoft can’t do is will Window Phone 7 handsets into the public’s hands. They’re going to have to earn that, and they’re going to need developers’ help. And as excited as they—and we—might be about this thing, the earliest we could hope for Windows Phone 7 to have the kind of app power [...]
Why Tim Bray Went to Google
The reason I’m here is mostly Android. Which seems to me about as unambiguously a good thing as the tangled wrinkly human texture of the Net can sustain just now. Here’s why: It’s not good to be on the Net at all times, but it’s very good to have the Net available at all times. [...]
Lean Geek SMACKdown – Dave McClure vs. Eric Ries
Kevin and I hosted the latest installment of the DC Lean Startup Circle this past Friday night. We were happy to have Dave McClure and Eric Ries drop some knowledge on the audience through an interview format. Jimmy Gardner from TECH cocktail was kind enough to come out and record a portion of the event [...]
Want an iPad app? There’s a price for that.
With all the hype and excitement over the iPad, many forget that iPad apps equate to new dollars. Consumers are only starting to understand that point but trust me, it’s going to be a big criticism of those developers who build iPad-specific versions of their apps.
Changing the Buzz About Google Buzz
I think Greg Gershman put it best when Google Buzz first launched: There is a serious issue with taking an app that is not concerned about identity (GMail) and trying to make it one that does (Buzz). Give credit to Google in that they have been quickly incorporating feedback. But they would have done much [...]
Facebook is Slowly Becoming AOL
No, no… Facebook is slowly becoming AOL. Trust me on this one. Funny yet thought-provoking comment on TechCrunch’s post about Facebook rolling out its webmail product codename “Project Titan.” In some ways, Facebook will introduce e-mail to an entire generation just like AOL did. The question is whether it will be a reinvention of e-mail [...]
Delicious Firefox Add-on – Always “Mark as Private”
duebbert Jan 14th 2010 I would also love this option. The link provided by “exploded” shows how to do it with the delicious add-on in firefox: 1. Open firefox. 2. Type “about:config” in location bar. 3. Click “I’ll be careful, I promise”. 4. Right click anywhere on the page. 5. Select New->Integer. 6. Enter “extensions.ybookmarks@yahoo.sharemode”. [...]
AppsFire’s Beyond the App Store
A visual take on how users discover apps. Ties in with my recommendations for how Apple can improve the App Store this year.
Log FreshBooks Expenses on the Go with ExpenseBooks
An idea I had last summer (2009) but began working on in the late fall / early winter. Launched both for the iPhone and Android platform. Some more details on the Mobomo blog.
Simplenote Restyled and DashNote
Simplenote Restyled http://lab.mightydream.com/simplenote-restyled/ DashNote – Simplenote Widget http://dashnote.resenmedia.com/
The Habit of Technology
If your reasons are tied to insecurities or out of habit, can you leave your phone in your car’s glove box when you go into an event so that you can have access to it if you need it, but that access is just annoying enough that you won’t do it unless there is a [...]
Pastebot + Pastebot Sync = iPhone Dev Friend
Anyone doing iPhone development knows it can be a pain to get screenshots from an iPhone to a computer. There are several alternatives to choose from, including leveraging Organizer from the iPhone SDK, a couple of different iPhone apps, or just screenshots + e-mail from the iPhone itself. But Tapbots’ new Pastebot app plus the [...]
The Most Important Feature of a Multi-Device Web: Syncing – Bokardo
If you sync seamlessly across devices, people will love you for it. It’s why I love the Apple ecosystem. I add a calendar event to my desktop, iPhone, or web app, and it automagically appears on the others. All of my mail is synced in all of these places so I never have to worry [...]
Another Kind of Offline Gmail – Suggest a Labs feature
Hi Gmail users…one feature absent unless using a desktop client is to prevent new mail from coming into an inbox. We all have tons of important notes, files, etc. in an inbox, so it is hard to completely close it even when work must absolutely be done and we need no distractions. I’d like to [...]
Killing the iPod Touch
iPod Touch is Apple’s unstoppable secret weapon. It’s iSmartbomb, flying under the radar. iPod Touch is THE new handheld game device. Don’t want to deal with AT&T but want all the fun of the app store? Don’t want to give up your Blackberry’s keyboard? Are you one of the last remaining 13 year olds whose [...]
On Android, Nobody is Making Significant Revenue
App developers have it hard enough on the iPhone; on Android, they’ve got to keep prices just as low, and sell to a much smaller audience. So how are some of them coping? By packing up and leaving, like Gameloft. See my treatise on the smartphone market. Android has an a serious uphill battle to [...]
Why Google Chrome OS has already won
But what if there were a new device that costs less than $100 that JUST does cookbooks and other things I need in the kitchen? I would buy one. A Chrome OS is all that’s needed for such a specialized device. Where else would I use a low-cost computer? How about the bathroom? Just leave [...]
Does working from home make you more productive? Yes (with data)!
Here’s a chart: It doesn’t look like much, but 5 people logged an extra 75 hours in a month, with the vast majority of those extra hours being productive development or design hours (about 63 extra dev/design hours were logged in the working from home month). How we FELT Obviously, working from home isn’t just [...]
Mint’s Aaron Patzer: “We Will End-Of-Life Quicken Online” In Six to Nine Months
Patzer has other ideas for connecting Mint and TurboTax as well: “What I want to do is to take your stock transactions and everything you’ve tagged in Mint as a medical expense or business expense and push that over to see if you should itemize deductions. If we pull in your 1099s and deductions, we [...]
Memories of Friends Departed Endure on Facebook
Memorializing an account also prevents anyone from logging into it in the future, while still enabling friends and family to leave posts on the profile Wall in remembrance. Unfortunately, knowing a couple of people who this applied to, it’s always been a little strange for me. I guess it would be no different than someone [...]
Smartphone or App War?
The large number of applications does at first glance seem like a pretty good reason to claim iPhone’s eventual domination of what arguably is the next, major computing platform. However, the number of applications is no surefire measure of iPhone’s or any other platform’s success. Applications are but one — and not the most important [...]
Google Voice Can Now Take Control Of Your Mobile Voicemail
You should probably mention iPhone users will lose their visual voicemail capability by doing this. If I were Google, I would have waited for the Google Voice on iPhone app approval to get sorted out first. This definitely falls more in line with Apples attitude on Google Voice taking over standard iPhone features. Don’t mistake [...]
McCain introduces bill to block FCC’s net neutrality rules
“I remain concerned … that the FCC is poised to take intrusive action into a well-functioning Internet ecosystem without either the demonstrated need or clear legal authority to do so. I know of no empirical evidence suggesting that the openness of the Internet that we all value is under threat today, or is likely to [...]
Live Updates for TWTCRON DC ’09
I'll be doing my real-time note thing tomorrow at TWTCRON DC and posting photos, videos, and regular updates here. Stay tuned!
“Pushbutton” Technology by Anil Dash
I have no doubt that some skeptics will say “Pushbutton is just PubSubHubBub by another name”, just like they said “Ajax is XMLHttpRequest by another name”, and if that’s what the super-geeky guys want to believe, I’m fine with that. Pushbutton is a name for what I believe will be an upgrade for the web, [...]
More on the “Do Internet startups need VC investment?” Discussion
At a recent tech-industry gathering in San Francisco, investors from top-tier firms Accel Partners and First Round Capital reminded a room full of entrepreneurs that there’s a lot more to the founder-VC relationship than money. Investors help company founders refine their vision, generate buzz and bring their products to market, and they should be seen [...]
Maker’s Schedule vs Manager’s Schedule
Most powerful people are on the manager’s schedule. It’s the schedule of command. But there’s another way of using time that’s common among people who make things, like programmers and writers. They generally prefer to use time in units of half a day at least. You can’t write or program well in units of an [...]
The Day My Industry Died – Joel Spolsky
We were lucky. We started late, and we hadn’t had a chance to hire very many people yet, so we didn’t burn through cash as quickly as others. And we were fortunate enough to have a software product under development, so that when the Web consulting industry disappeared, we still had money coming in. Because [...]
Would Apple and AT&T Cripple a Google Voice iPhone App?
Google Voice, the innovative invite-only telephone communication control service, is readying a iPhone version of its mobile phone app, which just became available on Tuesday for Android OS-based phones and Blackberries. For instance, Google Voice offers free SMS services that appear to come from one’s Google number rather than one’s mobile phone number. That means [...]
Malcolm Gladwell on Chris Anderson’s “Free”
There are four strands of argument here: a technological claim (digital infrastructure is effectively Free), a psychological claim (consumers love Free), a procedural claim (Free means never having to make a judgment), and a commercial claim (the market created by the technological Free and the psychological Free can make you a lot of money).The only [...]
