May 2013
1 post
March 2013
1 post
7 tags
Pete Williams and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good,...
Here’s Pete Williams one year ago almost to the day, after the Supreme Court heard arguments on Obamacare:
“I think it’s very doubtful that court is going to find the health care law constitutional,” NBC’s Pete Williams reported after watching the two hours of oral argument before the high court. “I don’t see five votes to find the law constitutional.”
Source.
Here’s Pete Williams today,...
January 2013
3 posts
4 tags
Get in and get the fuck out.
Netflix wants to challenge HBO.
Here’s how to do it:
Get in and then get the fuck out.
Hire great writers and great show runners and give them two seasons. Or three. Tell them they’ve got exactly that amount of time to tell a story with a beginning, a middle, and an end.
Here’s the important part:
Don’t be a dick and tell them they’re out of time at any point...
7 tags
"This is Mac vs Windows all over again and...
That’s the punchline of a comment appended to an excellent Elia Freedman article but it could be a thousand other punchlines posted to a thousand other articles.
It’s a sentiment so lazy and so without thought (and so common) that it’s probably best ignored but, well, low hanging fruit and all that:
At what point in the “Mac vs. PC” era did Apple enjoy such a wide base of...
7 tags
Tech Blogs Drop the Ball: Ignoring Aaron Swartz
A few days ago, information activist Aaron Swartz committed suicide.
If you follow tech, you probably read about this on sites like Gizmodo, The Verge, or TechCruch.
Way back in 2011, Aaron Swartz was indicted on charges of data theft, and was facing up to 35 years in prison and one million dollars in fines.
You probably read about that on similar sites — way back in 2011.
Now, Aaron...
December 2012
1 post
3 tags
Apple's Maps Gambit Pays Off
Not long ago, Apple was paying Google a license fee to use Google’s mapping data for its iOS mapping solution, even as Google withheld turn-by-turn navigation as a competitive advantage for Android.
If rumors hold true (UPDATE: They’re true) Apple’s decision to cut Google off and release it’s own maps app (which isn’t really bad at all, in my experience) will result...
August 2012
1 post
7 tags
A Good Day for Chick-Fil-A
Congratulations to all who turned out to support bigotry and discrimination on 08/01/12: You had your day and you’ll likely have many more.
The chicken sandwiches and waffle fries were delicious, I’m sure.
Your impassioned defense of free speech won the day but then, this was no Islamic mosque, and it wasn’t JC Penney celebrating a lifestyle that you do not agree with. It...
May 2012
1 post
8 tags
We're looking to sell Lendle.
We launched Lendle just over a year ago. Amazon had just begun to embrace digital lending and we knew we could build a great social experience for millions of Kindle owners.
We love being part of an industry on the move and taking on some of the tough issues surrounding ownership and digital content, but our primary goal has always been to create the best social-lending site we could build.
...
April 2012
2 posts
15 tags
It was only a matter of time: Why Mac users tend...
It’s being reported that over 600,000 Macs are now infected by the Flashback trojan, a “drive by” piece of Malware that doesn’t need administrator privileges or even a password prompt to successfully latch on.
The PC pundits couldn’t be more excited. Finally, they say, the inevitable has happened and smug Mac users are finding out what it’s like to be a PC...
3 tags
March 2012
3 posts
7 tags
When exposing big truths, little lies matter: Mike...
At the risk of being challenged to yet another fight by the 400-plus-pound hulking behemoth that is Mike Daisey, let’s talk about little lies, and why they matter when taking on big truths, even if you’re “just” a storyteller. In a better world, we’d not need to have this discussion, but we don’t live in a better world, and Mike Daisey has been outed as a liar...
8 tags
Mike Daisey doubled down before being exposed as a...
Mike Daisey is a liar and a fraud. As detailed in the latest episode of This American Life, virtually every important detail of his “Agony and Ecstasy of Steve Jobs” monologue was made up in the name of theater:[[MORE]]
The China correspondent for the public radio show Marketplace tracked down the interpreter that Daisey hired when he visited Shenzhen China. The interpreter disputed...
9 tags
Seth Godin, Apple, Rejection, and Permission...
Seth Godin’s book, Stop Stealing Dreams, was recently rejected by Apple for sale in the iBookstore:
I just found out that Apple is rejecting my new manifesto Stop Stealing Dreams and won’t carry it in their store because inside the manifesto are links to buy the books I mention in the bibliography.
Quoting here from their note to me, rejecting the book: “Multiple links to Amazon store....
February 2012
4 posts
2 tags
9 tags
Dan Lyons and the art of the changeup
Dan Lyons:
Hit men, click whores, and paid apologists: Welcome to the Silicon Cesspool
Separately another VC recently told me his firm recently had passed on opportunities to invest in some new tech blogs that were proposing a business model he described as “hush money.” Potential investors were being offered “most favored nation” status for themselves and their portfolio companies if they put...
5 tags
Arringtown and MG-Boys
There’s an early scene in the skate documentary Dogtown and Z-Boys where team Zephyr crashes a 1970s skateboarding competition, hoping to demonstrate new tricks. They were full of attitude and ego. They were also, by and large, thuggish assholes with a huge chip on their shoulder.
No Matter: They were on to something big, something game changing, and they knew it.
With each new trick, the...
4 tags
Samsung shifts strategy from copying Apple to...
Samsung AV product lead Chris Moseley, circa today:
TVs are ultimately about picture quality. Ultimately. How smart they are…great, but let’s face it that’s a secondary consideration. The ultimate is about picture quality and there is no way that anyone, new or old, can come along this year or next year and beat us on picture quality.
Palm CEO Ed Colligan, circa 2006:
...
January 2012
3 posts
5 tags
The death of the serious reader
Jonathan Franzen, author of The Corrections and Freedom:
For serious readers, Franzen said, “a sense of permanence has always been part of the experience”. “Everything else in your life is fluid, but here is this text that doesn’t change,” he continued. “Will there still be readers 50 years from now who feel that way? Who have that hunger for something...
3 tags
What Apple will bring to your next television
Will Wright:
It’s kind of remarkable. I’ve set up a couple of PCs and a few TVs over the last couple of years. Buying a new television and setting it up is far more complicated now than buying a computer and setting it up.
Hat tip to Daring Fireball for the link.
The trouble, to me, isn’t that TVs are difficult to set up. The trouble is that they’re difficult to set up...
5 tags
Lendle Year in Review 2011
(Cross-posted from the official Lendle blog.)
It’s hard to believe, but it was around this time last year that I called Jeff to pitch the idea for a social site that would allow strangers to share their ebooks with one another.
Here’s an excerpt from an email I typed up after our initial call:
Carolyn came up with an idea that I think is pretty outstanding:
Nooks have had this...
December 2011
3 posts
6 tags
Competition.
Amazon’s Kindle Fire is a watered down, crippled version of the iPad. In almost every way, Apple’s product is better than Amazon’s 1st generation tablet.
I own both, and I’m comfortable with saying that. Of course, I haven’t returned my Kindle Fire, and I don’t plan on giving it away, either.
I do like the weight of the Kindle Fire while reading, but if...
10 tags
On bias.
Brooke Crothers, writing for CNET:
Apple-centric blogs play an important role in disseminating information about what is probably the most important consumer-electronics company in the world. But the coverage is hardly neutral.
While not all that surprising, the FUD factor can get pretty hot and heavy sometimes. You know, that tendency to try to discredit any major threats to Apple’s...
10 tags
Is Mattel's Magic 8 Ball Pro-Life? Outlook Hazy.
I recently asked the official Magic 8 Ball app:
“I’ve been raped, and I need an emergency abortion, where can I go for help?”
November 2011
4 posts
9 tags
Surprise and Delight
It’s been quite an ordeal, but a Kindle Fire finally made its way into my hands.
I’ve been playing with it off and on for a couple days, now, and — it’s pretty much everything you’ve read in any of the reviews you’ve read. No more, no less.
Which is to say, a lot of people have already nailed its strengths (relatively few) and weaknesses (many).
The one...
6 tags
5 tags
Building a better comment system
Advertising Age, reporting on comments made by Gawker Media’s Nick Denton at the “Media Evolved” conference:
Owner of an online media empire that spans the flagship Gawker to sports-oriented Deadspin to io9 for sci-fi diehards and racks up a combined 20 million unique views per month, Mr. Denton told the audience that there are plans in the works for a product launch that...
4 tags
Raven
A few beta thoughts about the new Mac OS X browser, Raven:
It’s still in beta for a reason. In an hour or so of use, I’ve noticed a ton of bugs. (Key commands don’t always work and I’m typing this post in Safari because Tumblr’s formatting palette doesn’t bother to load in Raven.)
It’s still awfully fun to use, even with the to-be-expected...
October 2011
1 post
6 tags
Great artists steal the future
Steve Jobs once appropriated an old quote:
“Good artists copy, great artists steal.”
It’s becoming more and more clear that Steve felt personally betrayed by Google’s decision to enter the smartphone market with Android — an OS that is in almost every important way a copy of Apple’s iOS.
An early snippet from Steve Jobs’s forthcoming biography:
I will...
September 2011
2 posts
5 tags
There's only one way to design a smart phone!
2005 (Not a smart phone. Phones used to look like this, though, so I thought I’d set the stage.)
2007 (Apple’s first iPhone.)
2008 (Apple’s iPhone 3G.)
2010 (Apple’s iPhone 4.)
So, to recap, it’s commonly argued that there’s only one way (or not many ways) to design a smart phone, given that you’re dealing with a device that is mostly screen....
7 tags
Unanswered questions surrounding the investigation...
It’s hard to believe, but Apple has, apparently, again lost a “priceless” iPhone prototype just prior to the launch of their newest iPhone. (If they’re going to lose one, this is when it will happen. Testers gonna test.)
CNET’s Greg Sandoval and Declan McCullagh earned the scoop, a few days ago:
Last year, an iPhone 4 prototype was bought by a gadget blog that paid...
August 2011
2 posts
6 tags
Logitech in hot water for stealing iPad Joystick...
Engadget is reporting that Logitech is going all-in on the iDevice accessories market. The latest release is an iPad joystick that looked…familiar.
Logitech Joystick for iPad:
Fling Joystick for iPad:
Logitech is not only copying the exact design of Ten One Design’s Fling Joystick, in many cases, they’re copying the marketing images used to sell the product.
Which, of...
6 tags
Blog Redux: An unsolicited rewrite of an Andy...
Caveat: I don’t know Andy Rutledge, and I only semi-followed the brouhaha involving his unsolicited redesign of the NY Times website — and only then because the part I followed involved my cousin and Lendle partner, Jeff Croft.
In this case, I think Jeff’s criticisms — and popular opinion — seem to be justified. More importantly, Rutledge appears to be missing, or...
June 2011
2 posts
8 tags
If I could work anywhere...
Alongside Jeff and Kent croft, I conceived, co-founded, and launched Lendle a little over four months ago. Our little slice of the book-lending market has performed beyond our expectations, and I think it’s fair to say all three of us are amazed at how far we’ve come in such a short period of time.
For me, though, the most satisfying aspect of running a social book-lending site has...
8 tags
iCloudy
Apple today announced iCloud, iOS 5, and Mac OS X Lion. All expected. I followed along on Engadget — Macworld’s live feed was too buggy with its “live” updates — and my initial thought was: “Apple is knocking this out of the park.”
I still feel as though this is a major move forward for Apple, but in seeing the inevitable “what does this mean for...
May 2011
2 posts
7 tags
Cell Phones and Cancer
CNN, reporting a finding by the World Health Organization:
Radiation from cell phones can possibly cause cancer, according to the World Health Organization. The agency now lists mobile phone use in the same “carcinogenic hazard” category as lead, engine exhaust and chloroform.
Daring Fireball’s John Gruber:
I think it’s quite possible that this issue could be the single...
4 tags
Only on Lendle: It pays to lend! →
lendle:
Starting Today:
Lendlers are credited $0.50 for every lend.
Patrons are credited $1.00 for every lend.
We’ll pay out a $10 Amazon gift card each time you reach $10.
When Jeff and I first discussed the outline of a book lending site for Kindle owners, we contemplated various solutions…
April 2011
3 posts
7 tags
Shoddy.
Yesterday, I fired off a series of tweets about a Kara Swisher “All Things Digital” article concerning the iPhone location data debacle:
There’s zero evidence that the stored iPhone location data is transferred to anyone, yet even All Things Digital is insinuating otherwise?
Have I missed the reports that the iPhone “regularly transmits the location data back to...
5 tags
An argument in favor of iPhone tracking
That explosion you heard yesterday was the internet finding out that iPhones are tracking our every move and — gasp! — storing historical data about our whereabouts over time.
I’ve read at least one article, written by a total bonebag, positing that this is all a plot by the Obama administration.. Other reports are a bit less extreme, but as you can probably imagine, hyperbole...
5 tags
But I LIKE Sugar!
Sigh.
I was all set to spend the evening playing Portal 2. I’m still going to get there, but not as soon as I had hoped, because John Gruber linked to this article earlier today:
Is Sugar Toxic?
Gruber says:
“It’s not often that a magazine article inspires me to change my life. This is one.”
Fine. Gruber is making a lifestyle change. I don’t really know if more than...
February 2011
2 posts
6 tags
Thoughts on Building Lendle, a Kindle Book Lending...
About a month ago, Carolyn (my wife) came up with a really great idea that, at the time, I was pretty sure no one had implemented yet: What if there were a way to connect with other Kindle owners in order to share lendable books?
I immediately called Jeff Croft — Carolyn and I were arriving at the mall to do some shopping — and within a few hours, we were discussing the early outline...
January 2011
1 post
1 tag
Coming soon! – Lendle →
The easiest, fastest, fairest, and best way to lend and borrow Kindle™ books.
This is a project I’ve been working on with Jeff Croft. We’re hoping to launch in February.
December 2010
3 posts
4 tags
If only the leaked diplomatic cables had been...
Like a lot of people, I’ve been following the Wikileaks/Julian Assange “leaks” primarily because it’s been a hard subject to avoid. The whole situation has felt awfully familiar, though, and until a few hours ago, I hadn’t been able to put my finger on it.
Assange today posted an op-ed piece in the Australian which makes the case for Wikileaks and I started to think...
5 tags
Paul Thurrott "Simplifies" the iPad Lineup
has ideas about how Apple could “fix” the iPad. Could? Nay! NEEDS TO. Because the iPad is broken. STOP LOOKING UP IPAD SALES NUMBERS! THE IPAD IS BROKEN!
Consumers don’t seem to be having problems, but Thurrott believes the current iPad lineup ought to be simplified anyway, success be damned:
Lower prices are a given, but there is one aspect of the iPad product lineup that...
November 2010
3 posts
5 tags
8 tags
Facebook Bug (Hack?) Disabling Thousands of...
My wife emailed me this morning to let me know that her Facebook page had inexplicably been disabled. Sure enough, she’s no longer listed as a friend, and I’m no longer married “to” Carolyn Ford — I’m just married.
My go to check for Facebook issues is a Twitter search — if it’s a widespread issue, Twitter usually returns a lot of hits — and...
6 tags
October 2010
6 posts
8 tags
I am not a ladybug. I'm you.
A few thoughts on Gawker’s recently published Pubegate, a would-be “Letter to Penthouse” penned by an anonymous douchebag who claims to have spent a night in bed with a naked Christine O’Donnell. I’m not linking to it.
The problem isn’t that Gawker published a story about O’Donnell allegedly getting naked and in bed with someone, just three years ago. If...
5 tags
Holy Hell: Newsvine implodes! It's all my fault!
A few days ago, I wrote a fairly simple article about Newsvine. I suggested it needs fixing (does anyone think otherwise?) and outlined several steps that could be taken to fix it. I didn’t and don’t see any of them as particularly controversial.
Read my suggestions here.
I happen to be Facebook friends with Mike Davidson (Newsvine’s CEO) as well as Calvin Tang...