d3ft.com

August 17, 2011

Google to Acquire Motorola Mobility

Wow. Wowzers.

Since its launch in November 2007, Android has not only dramatically increased consumer choice but also improved the entire mobile experience for users. Today, more than 150 million Android devices have been activated worldwide—with over 550,000 devices now lit up every day—through a network of about 39 manufacturers and 231 carriers in 123 countries. Given Android’s phenomenal success, we are always looking for new ways to supercharge the Android ecosystem. That is why I am so excited today to announce that we have agreed to acquire Motorola.

#

July 27, 2011

xkcd: Speculation

xkcd cartoon on Google+ = instant post. #

June 29, 2011

xkcd on Google+

You knew this was coming. #

April 13, 2011

“Product is King. Content is Not.”

Aaron Brazell finally says what I’ve been thinking for months:

Remember the bad old days of blog networks. Like when I was at b5media championing the idea of content as the great savior of the Internet, the bellwether of future journalism, the dawn of an era of online advertising as the dominant (and only) truly valuable means of creating revenue online?

Yeah… so about that.

I was wrong.

Brilliant. #

Download Squad Is Gone

AOL/HuffPo Shuts Down Download Squad:

In a surprise move Monday night, popular software blog Download Squad became the latest tech casualty in Huffington/AOL’s so-called ‘consolidation’ of its content sites. In an end-of-the-day email, Download Squad’s staff was told that the blog was closed and they were jobless, effective immediately.

At this point can, we just finally put AOL out of our misery? Please? #

April 5, 2011

Daring Fireball-style Linked List Plugin Update

The secret sauce of many a copy–cat bloggers gets even better with this update. It adds the ability to leave the contents of the post the same way as you would if you used the “Press This” bookmarklet. This is a boon for people who want to link to things Daring–Fireball–ly while using their smartphones. #

March 22, 2011

iPad 2 + ADB Keyboard

“Use an iPad 2 with an ADB keyboard”

I don’t even know how to describe how awesome this is:

This week I’ve been thinking about using my beloved Apple Extended Keyboard with my iPad. I bought an iPad Camera Connection Kit, hoping it would work with my Griffin iMate. I’m pleased to report that, despite a complaint from the iPad about an “unsupported USB device,” it worked perfectly.

For the record, I still have my keyboard from my PowerMac 9600 sitting near my desk. It’s still the best keyboard I’ve ever used. #

Do You Have Anything to Declare?

“The nourishing wake”

Craig Mod comes back from Japan:

Suddenly, as if by cue, she straightens up, puts on her serious face and asks, “Do you wish to change your declaration, Sir? Is there anything in your bags you wish me to know about now before I open them?”

#

All I Have on the Quickbar

“The Real Problem With Dick’s Bar”

Justin Williams writes what I’m guessing most of the upset people are thinking, that people don’t hate the thing, they hate how the thing works:

I have little doubt that Twitter could find the engineering resources to figure out how to implement a similar system where trends are specific to each user. If the company still wants to append a promoted trend or two that goes global to pay the bills, I wouldn’t mind. Any solution would be better than the current one where I am inundated with hashtag memes or the latest Jonas vs Bieber trend war.

His place is also sporting a fresh coat of paint so give it a tumble, if you will. #

AT&T’s Everything Gambit

“In AT&T & T-Mobile Merger, Everybody Loses”

Om Malik summarizes just how bad AT&T’s acquisition of T—Mobile can be for everybody that isn’t AT&T:

It doesn’t matter how you look at it; this is just bad for wireless innovation, which means bad news for consumers. T-Mobile has been pretty experimental and innovative: It has experimented with newer technologies such as UMA, built its own handsets and has generally been a more consumer-centric company. AT&T, on the other hand, has the innovation of a lead pencil and has the mentality more suited to a monopoly: a position it wants to regain.

They are working to make this happen. #

Google Chrome Icon Back to Beta

“A fresh take on an icon”

Google Chrome has a new logo that looks like the initial design, not the next–generation. Here’s might be why:

Redesigning the icon was very much a group effort. Collectively, we explored many variations, tried the icon in several different contexts, and refined the details as we moved along. It was important to maintain consistency across all media, so we kept print, web, and other possible formats in mind. Once we arrived at a good place, we finished up the icon by resizing, pixel-pushing, and getting everything out the door.

I’ll be copying and pasting the old one back on, thank you very much. #

March 19, 2011

Blogging Advice from Justin Williams

Great video detailing just how important it is to prioritize. #

Famous Objects from Classic Movies

A game of use silhouetted objects to guess what famous movie the object came from. Some of the objects are easily identifiable, others rather esoteric. I guess they just don’t make iconic images like they used to anymore. #

E-mail Becomes Email

Only took them a few dozen years. #

March 17, 2011

WANKEN

The blog of Shelby White contains minimalist and spartan architecture that I can’t get enough of. Instant subscription. #

Comparing the iPad to the Microwave Oven

I can see this, and I can’t see this. Probably still a workable enough analogy that it will become a computer–jargonish trope. #

8BIT Acquires Beacon Ad Network

In 2007 I put together a team to do what John is doing right now. While I’m very thankful I didn’t go through with it, I’m glad me scheme worked as well as theirs has. Good luck to that team. #

“Dear Open Letter Writers”

Justin Williams is tired of the people writing open letters to people who will clearly not be reading them. Me too. #

March 16, 2011

A Dropbox–Powered Social Network

It sounds crazy at first, but this makes sense. Frenzy uses your shared folder in Dropbox to share your stuff. Brilliant. I think I may have found my Twitter replacement. And in case you haven’t got a Dropbox account yet, you can use this link to make us both 250 megabytes richer. #

Lists Are the New Trackbacks

John Koetsier explains how to know if the Twitter person who just followed you sucks horribly. I apparently suck horribly. #

Netflix Gets Original

My favorite internet–based streaming video site adds an original series to its queue. I’m hoping they will replace cable/satellite soon. #

March 12, 2011

Twitter Ecosystem Shakeup on Techmeme

Way more than I could get to. That this is this big a story while Japan still reels from the earthquake and Apple is trumpeting the iPad 2 amazes me. Could be the downturn of Twitter. #

Dave Winer on Twitter’s New Developer Roadmap

Dave Winer, who I swear I don’t like and yet can’t stop linking to, summarizes what the new developer guideline mean for developers developing Twitter apps:

1. If you make a Twitter client, you have a bit of time to get out of that business. If you were thinking about writing one, don’t.
2. Twitter wants to control how tweets are presented everywhere. That means if you have an app that somehow displays them, you’d better read the new terms of service. You probably aren’t allowed to do that anymore.
3. Analytics are OK, for now. Helping big companies manage their brands on Twitter, OK for now. Not clear what else.
4. No mention of Twitpic, Yfrog. Instagram and Foursquare are “value-added content and vertical experiences.”

#

March 8, 2011

500 Lawyers at the Bottom of the Ocean

Wallaby is an experimental tool from Adobe that purports to convert Flash .fla files to HTML. I’m hoping for good things from this. Like, say, an HTML5 safe mode for Flash developers. #

March 7, 2011

How Facebook is Killing Your Authenticity

The gist: Facebook comments on blogs make you lie when you know everybody can see them. #

Now Cricket Wireless Has the iPhone 4

I’m pretty sure this won’t last long, but here’s the process:

1. Jailbreak your Verizon CDMA iPhone
2. Trust some guy from Cricket to install stuff on your iPhone
3. Hope that Apple doesn’t figure out a way to sue Cricket out of existence before Friday

#

Full Text RSS Feed

Web service that scrapes sites to give you a full-text feed. It works well enough for me on the ones I’ve tried. #

Open Source Ampersands

A brilliant idea from Mark Pilgrim. He whittled down some open source fonts and posted just the ampersand:

This is a selection of single-character fonts. A single-character font is, literally, a font file that only contains glyphs for a single character. The single character in these font files is the ampersand.

Each ampersand on this page is real text, not an image. Just like any text, you can select it, copy it, paste it, and apply CSS to it. The ampersands scale as you zoom the page, and they work in virtually every browser — even ancient versions of Internet Explorer.

#

March 5, 2011

I [still] have no opinion on the iPad

Me, from last year about this time:

It is made by Apple, big deal. They also make mini DVI to VGA adaptors, should I pontificate on that? No. No, I should not, because I care nothing about the laptop–to–display adapter segment of Apple. Nor, do I care about the iPad sector of Apple.

The iPad is a huge deal for Apple, and a lot of people all over the world. Just not me. Lots of people have one, I don’t. That’s simply a function of how I operate, and what the iPad does. It’s not for me. #

Apple is the World’s Most Admired Company

Just like last year. And the year before that. And the year before that.

For the fourth straight year, Apple tops Fortune’s Most Admired list. The company’s blistering pace of new product releases has continued to set the bar high for tech companies across the board.

Besides making new products, the ones they release don’t suck. Some companies have yet to figure this out (*cough* *cough* Dell *cough* *cough*). #