- Zork and Tic-Tac-Toe on a LiveScribe Pen (YouTube) — this guy totally ported the Z-Machine so he can play Zork on his pen. My favourite bit is the comment from Infocom founder Scott Cutler: As the implementer who wrote the first Z-machine for the TRS-80 some 30 years ago and one of the founders of Infocom, I was thrilled and impressed to see what you did. I can guarantee you that we never imagined it would be played with a pen! (via Joe Johnston and Jason Scott)
- Ben the Bodyguard — brilliant web site design. (via Aza Raskin)
- three20 — open source iPhone library based on the Facebook app, providing things like photo viewer, message composer, etc. (via The Mission Lab)
- Scale and Rhythm — beautiful web site that lets you experiment with the variables in text layout.
"iPhone" entries
The iPhone tracking story, one week later
Apple issues a statement on location and says iOS fixes are coming soon.
Apple announces fixes and sheds more light on location data. Plus, a look at some of the reporting and potential applications that have popped up.
Additional iPhone tracking research
Researchers and reporters are exploring many of the issues related to mobile location data.
The iPhone tracking story led to a host of related investigations. Here's a look at some of the latest developments.
iPhone tracking: The day after
Analysis and criticism came in the wake of our iPhone tracking story.
The iPhone tracking story published here a few days ago struck an unexpected nerve. Here's a selection of the most interesting immediate reactions.
Got an iPhone or 3G iPad? Apple is recording your moves
A hidden file in iOS 4 is regularly recording the position of devices.
Pete Warden and Alasdair Allan have discovered that iPhones and 3G iPads running iOS 4 are regularly recording the location of devices into a hidden file.
Hints of iPhone envy in China
An informal poll finds 43% of Chinese phone owners who don't have an iPhone wish they had one.
A survey of Chinese phone owners conducted through the Sina micro-blog service finds that iPhones are a prized possession, while Android interest is tepid and things aren't looking good for Nokia.
Why the Droid line caught on
Author Preston Gralla on the things smartphone consumers really care about.
Preston Gralla, author of "Droid 2: The Missing Manual" and "Droid X: The Missing Manual," discusses the disconnect between consumer concerns (does it work?) and tech world worries (is Android too fragmented?).
In Google's "glass house," a battle with Bing looms
Commentary: Copy or theft? How Google set themselves up to get Bing’d.
Is Google's recent war of words with Microsoft a case of calling a thief out by name, or a matter of pot calling kettle black?
Four short links: 12 January 2011
Zork Pen, Clever Web Design, iPhone Library, and Text Layout
Four short links: 2 November 2010
Participation, iPhone Games Programming, Mobile Keypad Magic, and Web App Security
- Lessons from the Johnny Cash Project — When a participatory activity is designed without a goal in mind, you end up with a bunch of undervalued stuff and nowhere to put it. (via Courtney Johnston)
- Doom iPhone Review — fascinating explanation of how the iPhone works for programmers, and how the Doom source code works around some of the less-game-friendly features. (via Tom Carden on Delicious)
- The 8 Pen — new alphanumeric entry system for Android.
- Salesforce Security — lots of information for web developers, most generally applicable. (via Pete Warden)
Four short links: 18 October 2010
Expiring Copyrights, Network Fail, The Book of Jobs, and Android FTW
- Which Works Enter the Public Domain in 2011 (OKFN) — slowly we’re getting recognizable artists in some jurisdictions (e.g., F. Scott Fitzgerald and Paul Klee) but it’s slow going. This is a great reminder about how slow the law works: most people appropriate small bits of modern works when they need something, rather than seeking out or caring about out-of-copyright status. Either most people are lawbreakers and law enforcement will catch up with them, or most people have a new conception of fair use and the law will catch up with them.
- Android IM App Brought T-Mobile’s Network To Its Knees — rumour is that this kind of thing isn’t isolated, that carrier networks are fragile rather than robust. Not even apps, sometimes just devices can make smoke come out of the cell tower (metaphorically): In April of this year, T-Mobile disclosed in an FCC filing that “when subscribers began connecting unlocked iPhones to T-Mobile’s network, the devices repeatedly issued PDP Context Activation requests to establish a session and obtain an IP address. These repeated requests began to cause signal overload akin to a denial of service attack, requiring immediate action and network management to mitigate the massive signaling load on T-Mobile’s Packet Core network.”
- John Sculley on Steve Jobs — the full interview text is fascinating reading. Sculley gives Jobs full respect, and his insights make for very interesting reading. It’s okay to be driven a little crazy by someone who is so consistently right. What I’ve learned in high tech is that there’s a very, very thin line between success and failure. It’s an industry where you are constantly taking risks, particularly if you’re a company like Apple, which is constantly living out on the edge. Your chance of being on one side of that line or the other side of the line is about equal.
- Android (Fred Wilson) — absolutely nails why Android will be a big market, whether or not it’s “better” than Apple. My father in law told me he wants a tablet but $500 for an iPad seems high to him. I asked him if he’d pay $199 for an Android tablet. He said “where can I get one”?