July 2010
1 post
Moving On
I now have a new website with its own (handcoded) blog. I also write for iPhone Appstorm and Mac Appstorm.
NewTextFileHere and NewRTFHere (if I ever get the latter working properly) are available on the new website as well.
May 2010
2 posts
Goodbye, and hello again
Maintaining Malum Elegans as a separate blog has become untenable. For that and several other reasons—including the need to grow up a little bit and pay some more attention to the face I’m showing the world—I’ll be moving a lot of the kind of content you’ve seen here over to my personal Tumblr for the time being.
I’m in the process of rethinking and rebuilding my online...
Apple to undergo antitrust inquiry →
“Regulators, this person said, are days away from making a decision about which agency will launch the inquiry,” author Josh Kosman wrote. “It will focus on whether the policy, which took effect last month, kills competition by forcing programmers to choose between developing apps that can run only on Apple gizmos or come up with apps that are platform neutral, and can be used on...
April 2010
14 posts
“Flash was created during the PC era – for PCs and mice. Flash is a successful...”
– Steve Jobs » Thoughts on Flash
I’m looking forward to the outflow of vitriol from Adobe employees later today.
I'm not the only one →
Timo Vuorensola, Why I left Facebook:
Quitting FaceBook over the Like-button was not the main reason – if it was, I wouldn’t be using Google’s services, or basically any other social network out there. The thing is, I just don’t like their style. FaceBook is like the hunkiest douchebag in the bar. You know the type, the guy with enormous muscles and fake tan and bleached teeth. He gets to act just...
Delete your Facebook account →
If you deactivate your account from the “Deactivate Account” section on the Account page, your profile and all information associated with it are immediately made inaccessible to other Facebook users. What this means is that you effectively disappear from the Facebook service. However, if you want to reactivate at some point, we do save your profile information (friends, photos,...
The True Story of Audion →
In honour of the release Transmit 4, give this post on the history of an app that almost became iTunes a read. It’s a fascinating look at the early history of Panic and the software music player explosion, and includes some uncommon insight into Steve Jobs and Apple to boot. It’s also a good reminder for developers who find themselves competing with game-changing products (emphasis...
Transmit 4 Available →
Vastly improved speed, a whole new appearance, and the ability to mount connections as disks in the Finder. I’ve been beta testing it for some time now, and it’s well worth a download. At $19 for individuals with a Transmit 3 license, I’m convinced it’s more than worth the upgrade. For everyone else, it’s a slightly more heft (but very reasonable) $34.
Tempus fugit
Acrylic remains cagey about their upcoming releases, but previous tweets suggest that Times 2.0 is nigh. It will include some sort of syncing support, whether through Google Reader or homebrewed. They’ve also been less than silent about an iPad version.
So, while the tweet I mentioned earlier may have actually been referring to an iPad version of Wallet, Times users hopefully won’t be...
Times a-changin'
Acrylic Software: Are we working on an iPad version of _____? Magic 8-Ball says signs point to yes.
Malum Elegans: @acrylicapps Are you also still working on a new Mac version?
Acrylic Software: @MalumElegans Yes.
Facebook wants more of your data →
If you ever wanted Facebook to have access to every piece of information about you, Mark Zuckerberg has you covered:
We think that the future of the web will be filled with personalized experiences. We’ve worked with three pre-selected partners—Microsoft Docs, Yelp and Pandora—to give you a glimpse of this future, which you can access without having to login again or click to connect. For...
“It is polite to apologize for how little you update at least every three blog...”
– Fake e-Etiquette
But seriously. I’ll be posting more in the days to come.
RIAA/MPAA Want Government-Mandated Spyware That... →
taylorcarrigan:
Putting the absurdity of border control and mandatory spyware aside, it is absolutely disgusting that the RIAA/MPAA have the nerve to suggest that national security resources be devoted to protecting their obsolete and rapidly failing business model. This is simply infuriating.
Quite so.
Gizmodo » Q and Data Examine the Next Generation... →
John de Lancie and Brent Spiner playing with an iPad. That hits at least two of the cardinal points of geekdom.
“The iBooks application is laughably bad as I suspected. The Amazon Kindle app,...”
– Paul Thurrott on the iPad
I invite you to peruse Amazon’s Kindle for iPad page. In particular, this image:
Either Thurrott never actually used Kindle for iPad, or Amazon posted a very misleading ‘screenshot’. I don’t have an iPad yet, so I can’t check; anyone?
iPad Mania
I’ve been pretty silent for the last few days for a couple of reasons. First, I’ve just moved and don’t have internet in my new place (and won’t until Monday afternoon). Second, most of the big news right now is about the iPad, and others have that pretty well covered. I’d recommend checking out these blogs for hardcore iPad coverage:
Daring Fireball (as usual)
...
“If it works beautifully, it should also work robustly. It’s made for...”
– Jonathan Ive on the iPad, as recorded by Stephen Fry.
March 2010
65 posts
AppleInsider » Apple's iPad iBookstore offers... →
Interesting, if true; I’m curious to hear Neven Mrgan’s take.
iPad Design Showcase on Ember →
Be sure to look at Mondo Solitaire, designed by Adam Betts. If that’s any indication of the aesthetic quality of the software I’ll be running on my iPad, I’m drooling already.
3 tags
MobileMe iPad Site →
Looks like we can expect Universal Binary updates to iDisk.app and Gallery.app in the near future.
Jailbreak for all current iPhones and iPod Touches →
And possibly the iPad. It seems my anticipation of Cydia on my first homescreen was not entirely out of line. All credit to Geohot.
AppAdvice claims iBooks store to offer the entire... →
30,000 free books would be a hell of a start, if it’s true. The supposed screenshot looks a little bit suspect, though; one of the entries appears to be The Entire Project Gutenberg Catalog by Mark Twain.
EDIT: Project Gutenberg offers an ebook entitled The Entire Project Gutenberg Works of Mark Twain. Perhaps that screenshot is legit after all.
Spreads RSS reader for iPad →
While there are a few exceptions, most of the feed readers around us display the actual content in long blocks of text, laid out in wide & unreadable columns. They’re mostly focused on displaying as much content as possible.
We think such readers are taking the soul out of the posts they are displaying. It’s a bit like reading everything on a BlackBerry – a never-ending stream of...
"Sarah Palin's Alaska" to come to Discovery... →
The high-definition program will be shot in a style similar to “Life” and “Planet Earth” and will feature Palin acting as a guide to the Alaskan outdoors. When it was commissioned by the BBC at a cost of $25 million, the 11-part “Planet Earth” was considered the most expensive documentary the network had ever made.
There are no words. More—including the original source of that quotation—here.
...
“At times, it feels like a tiny Windows 98 computer”
– Life With Droid: The Good, the Bad, and the Bizarre
All the reason I need to stick with my iPhone. Be sure to click through for page 2, where this quote resides.
Neil Gaiman to write Dr Who episode →
Neil Gaiman has been picking up literary prizes left, right and centre over the last year, but the fantasy author announced this weekend what could be the biggest honour yet for a long-time fan of Doctor Who: writing an episode of the television series detailing the adventures of the Time Lord.
I seem to be a little bit late to this party, but… 2011. Mark your calendars.
Amazon announces Kindle for Tablet Computers... →
Apparently Kindle for TC will be “tailored to the size, look, and feel of your tablet computer”, but it’s not worth differentiating the iPad—which has a fundamentally different software ecosystem—from the dozens of Me Too Windows-based slate computers that will soon see release. No word, also, on how and whether they intend to limit the Windows tablet computer version to just...
Ubuntu Lucid Lynx Beta 1 released →
Lots of new stuff in Lucid, including new default themes and a music store (although it’s not live yet). Go check it out.
Apple accepting iPad apps for review
Registered iPhone developers are receiving emails stating:
iPad will begin shipping soon and your opportunity to be part of the grand opening of the iPad App Store starts today. Submit your iPad app now for an initial review by the App Review Team and receive feedback on its readiness for the grand opening.
Only iPad apps built with iPhone SDK 3.2 Beta 5 will be accepted, but those who submit...
Macmillan CEO on the agency model →
John Sargent:
All the new adult trade books for which we have the rights to publish in e-book format will be available at the first release of the printed book. We will no longer delay the publication of e-books (read: no windowing). Readers were clearly frustrated at the lack of availability of new titles, and the change to the agency model will solve this problem. We are also working hard to...
4 tags
Exporting Chrome bookmarks
It’s not possible (yet) to directly export your bookmarks from Chrome for Mac. But if you’ve got a little patience, you can get them into Safari (and from Safari into any other browser) without too much trouble.
Step 1: Open Chrome’s Bookmark Manager.
Step 2: Open a “Show all bookmarks” tab in Safari.
Step 3: Drag individual bookmarks or folders of bookmarks from...
CloudApp coming on 1st April →
Max Schoening:
Some time next week we are opening up the developer section so you can check out the API’s and start integrating CloudApp into your own applications (if you are a developer - duh). We are releasing CloudApp to everyone on April 1st (this has absolutely nothing to do with April Fools’ Day) and are really looking forward to your feedback.
Why do people announce releases for April...
Ubuntu Lucid Lynx beta release postponed to Friday →
Steve Langasek:
Owing to some late image rebuilds for a couple of critical issues that we didn’t want to leave our beta users subjected to, validation of 10.04 Beta 1 is still in progress. This means that Beta 1 will not be released on Thursday, March 18 as planned; it will be released tomorrow, March 19.
I wondered why I didn’t get a new toy to play with yesterday. For more on what...
How Steam’s entry to the Mac changes everything →
A solid piece by Corey Tamas for Loop Insight on the importance of Steam coming to the Mac. If you’ve never been much of a gamer and don’t understand all the hoopla, this is definitely worth a read.
Sunk Costs →
Jason Cohen:
The term comes from economics: “Sunk Cost” is money you’ve already spent and cannot get back no matter what. A “rational actor,” as economists say, will completely ignore sunk costs when making decisions because the money is gone no matter what action is taken next.
If you’re not familiar with the concept of a sunk cost—or if you are—this article...
"No Dashes Or Spaces" Hall of Shame →
sourjayne-ux:
Kind of amusing “Hall of Shame” for ecommerce sites that have unforgiving form input practices. Let users enter stuff in ways that makes sense to them. Especially amusing is the following line: “It turns out that sometimes one can clean up the spaces and dashes in the same amount of code as the instruction not to.”
As someone who took CSCI 150, I’ve never understood why...
Upcoming Kindle for Mac features →
Amazon:
Below are some features to be added in the near future:
Create notes and highlights: Along with viewing the notes and highlights you created on other Kindle devices, you will be able to create and edit notes and highlights.
Search: You will be able to search to find a word or a sentence in the book you are currently reading.
Zoom and rotate images: Click on an image to see an...
Windows Phone 7 Series won't have copy and paste →
What really wonders me about this whole Windows Phone 7 Series fiasco is why Microsoft didn’t simply buy Palm and extend WebOS. It’s an established and underappreciated modern mobile operating system. With Microsoft’s name behind it, it would become a serious force in the marketplace.
Safari in HTML and CSS3 →
Impressive.
Kindle for Mac finally available →
Next up: guessing how long it will take Amazon to create Kindle for iPad.
ferrethandjobs.com →
Spoiler: it’s a law firm. Mind you, their tagline is “Is your business in the right hands?”, which might lead some to be suspicious.
iWork.com updated to support iPad →
Apple:
The new interface is optimized for scrolling with your fingertips, and makes it easy to find your documents faster. You can see a high resolution view of your document right on your iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch and even download it to edit with Keynote, Pages, or Numbers on your iPad.
Thus moving iWork.com from the Land of Misfit Toys back into the Land of Useful Websites, even if only on a...
Kaspersky: 'Apple is blocking iPhone security... →
PC Pro:
Speaking exclusively to PC Pro, the CEO of Kaspersky Lab claimed Apple has repeatedly refused to deliver the software development kit (SDK) necessary to design security software for the phone.
Since the standard iPhone SDK is available to download for free with a registered iTunes account (although you do need to pay $99 to become a registered iPhone developer), it sounds as though...
Internet Explorer to support H264 →
Not a great surprise if the alternative is the free and open OGG Theora, but pleasant to hear nevertheless.
5 tags
'A broadband catapult for America' →
Eric Schmidt:
Let’s install broadband fiber as part of every federally-funded infrastructure project, from highways to mass transit. And let’s deploy broadband fiber to every library, school, community health center, and public housing facility in the U.S.
I support a national broadband strategy because ubiquitous broadband connectivity can catapult America into the next level of economic...
Articles for iPhone →
The latest work of software art from Sophiestication Software, Articles is a beautiful Wikipedia reader. It takes some visual cues from Safari for iPad, which might lead the suspicious to wonder whether there’s an iPad version ready to be unleashed on the 3rd of April.
Incidentally, if Articles sells over 10,000 copies, Sophiestication will release On This Day, a “stylish calendar...
Apple and others have ‘abandoned’ Fox News →
Primarily because of Glenn Beck, apparently:
While Beck touts the support of Fox executives, some Fox journalists told Kurtz that they think Beck “uses distorted or inflammatory rhetoric that undermines their credibility.” Fox Senior Vice President Bill Shine said “that last fall a vice president was assigned ‘to help keep an eye on that program’ and review its content in advance — a full-time...
Nolobe Fire Sale →
Interarchy 9, normally $59.99, for $19.99, plus a free upgrade to Interarchy 10. You can also use a special coupon code (click through to find it) to get 20% off some truly excellent software.