Month: February 2012

Pears ⇥

Dan Cederholm has created a public tool to exchange common patterns in markup, especially with regard to WordPress themes. As he explains:

I wanted to create my own database repository of commonly used patterns and figured the tool might be useful for others as well. Breaking interfaces down into patterns has been immensely helpful in learning and reevaluating the best possible code to implement them. I’ve just gotten started and will be adding more as I create them.

But Pears isn’t about how I code these patterns—it’s a tool for creating your own.

Very clever. I should probably rebuild this theme using markup that conforms to pesky patterns and what I hear are “best practices”.

Regarding Path’s Mass-Uploading of User Data ⇥

Peter Clark:

This is why developers need explicit guidelines, because as they just demonstrated if there are no guidelines companies default to the thing that exploits the end user!

In response to Path’s CEO:

This is currently the industry best practice and the App Store guidelines do not specifically discuss contact information. However, as mentioned, we believe users need further transparency on how this works, so we’ve been proactively addressing this.

Translation: “we got caught doing something we didn’t tell anyone about, but nobody told us not to so we assumed it was okay.”

Chrome For Android ⇥

A curious omission from Android is finally complete. M.G. Siegler points out:

One other bit of intrigue: Chrome for Android will be a part of the Google Apps package. This means that once Chrome fully replaces Browser on Android, there will no longer be a browser that’s a part of the open source Android.

Another interesting choice by Google. They point out that Chromium will still be open source, but Chrome for Android will not. My guess is that they did this to prevent Amazon, et. al. from benefiting too much with their otherwise-diverged tablets.

Finally, Google has confirmed that Chrome for Android will not support Flash. This is in direct contrast to the move they made last year on the desktop browser. Reviews mention that the Android browser supports “HTML 5 video”, but do not specify which codecs.

Path Uploads Your Entire iPhone Address Book to Its Servers ⇥

Arun Thampi:

Upon inspecting closer, I noticed that my entire address book (including full names, emails and phone numbers) was being sent as a plist to Path. Now I don’t remember having given permission to Path to access my address book and send its contents to its servers, so I created a completely new “Path” and repeated the experiment and I got the same result – my address book was in Path’s hands.

I assumed this would be covered in Path’s privacy policy, but this is the only reference I could find:

We actively collect certain information you voluntarily provide to us, such as when you create an account and profile, send us an email or post information or other content to our site.

[…]

For example, we may use personal information we collect:

[…]

• for any other purpose for which the information was collected.

Despicable.

Motorola Needs to Curb Their Declining Profits Somehow ⇥

Jordan Kahn, for 9 to 5 Mac:

Foss Patents reported earlier that court documents revealed Motorola was requesting an approximate 2.25 percent royalty from Apple, and today The Wall Street Journal confirmed the number, which would represent over $1 billion in iPhone sales during 2011.

There were a number of people who saw Apple’s litigation as an attempt to hinder their competitors. My, how the tables have turned.

Format Wars Are Stupid ⇥

John Paul Titlow:

Digital and analog don’t need to be at war with one another. What many labels and artists are doing now is sell records on vinyl and include a coupon for a free, high-quality digital download in the record’s sleeve. That allows people to enjoy the album as it was intended and also throw it onto their iPod or smartphone for listening on the go.

The Cause For All Your Mac OS X Mouse Annoyances ⇥

There is a noticeable lag of any cursor action in Mac OS X, and it drives me a little insane. It is truly something that you learn to live with and don’t notice until you do, whereupon it becomes impossible to ignore. Please duplicate this bug with your own report to bump its priority.

Honeywell Files Patent Lawsuit Against Nest ⇥

Leena Rao:

Honeywell claims the infringed patents relate to “simplified methods for operating and programming a thermostat including the use of natural language, user interfaces that facilitate programming and energy savings, a thermostat’s inner design, an electric circuit used to divert power from the user’s home electrical system to provide power to a thermostat, and controlling a thermostat with information stored in a remote location.”

It isn’t about the abstract of the patent, but the implementation that will decide who wins any intellectual property litigation. But these claims are almost ridiculous, especially the use of home power for a thermostat. Having said that, I’m willing to bet that Honeywell will license these patents.

What Actually Changed in Google’s Privacy Policy ⇥

Rainey Reitman:

Previously, Google search data was kept separate from other products. Even when users were logged in, Google promised not to share the information they gathered about you from your Google search history when customizing their other products. Considering how uniquely sensitive user search history can be (indicating vital facts about your location, interests, age, sexual orientation, religion, health concerns, and much more), this was an important privacy protection. 

The new privacy policy removes the separation between YouTube, Google search, and other Google products. By describing the change as “treat[ing] you as a single user,” Google intends to remove the privacy-protective separations from YouTube and Google search

Seems shady. If any other company did this, customers would abandon them. Unfortunately, Google is so big that you can’t wholly step away.

Undercover Operator ⇥

About a year ago I was with a friend in our local branch of PC World (part of the Dixons group) looking at plasma TVs. We were assisted by a really charming and knowledgable assistant, who I must admit appeared slightly better-dressed and older than most in the store. He must have spent at least 30 minutes with us, explaining the pros and cons of LCD vs plasma, and the best deals available. An excellent impression.

Turns out it was John Browett making one of his regular store visits

Good news for Apple if this guy is essentially the antithesis of the company he used to head.

Asymmetrical Battlefield ⇥

Brad Landers:

What’s interesting is that the sophistication of the attack is immaterial to the fact that they achieved a significant security disclosure. You don’t have to be a sophisticated hacker to perpetrate meaningful hacks, you just have to be more sophisticated than the target of your attack.

This is what makes the Anonymous movement so fascinating to me. In Anonymous culture, being “dox’d” is a big deal. That’s kind of end-game stuff for hackers. Once you’re outed, you’re out. Coincidentally, the same rules apply for espionage.

What makes this doubly interesting is that Anonymous is made up of young, tech-savvy individuals. The establishment (government, large corporations, etc) increasingly rely on tools that are created, or at least well understood, by their attackers.

Unintended Consequences ⇥

Irby Pace:

The photographs in “Unintended Consequences” come from camera equipped devices in Apple Computer [sic] stores. On a daily basis people are leaving their portraits behind on iPhones, iPads and iPods. Customers are disregarding their own discretion and abandoning these photographs. Since these images are anonymous the participants can represent themselves however they chose to without scrutiny.

Great interpretation of these found images. Pace’s exhibition runs February 6-10 at the Cora Stafford Gallery in Denton, Texas.

Apple Modifies EULA for iBooks ⇥

Élyse Betters:

The new agreement explained that Apple never planned to confine the distribution of non-.iBooks content, and the EULA clarified users are allowed to distribute .iBooks formatted documents elsewhere—they just cannot charge elsewhere.

This is in line with what was expected all along. Still, it’s good that they clarified the license agreement. As for the update, however…

The updated license agreement is a free 140 MB download through the App Store.

They really need to sort that out. Ridiculous.

Seems Reasonable ⇥

John Paczkowski:

In a statement given to AllThingsD, Apple confirmed that the iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4 and 3G/UMTS-based iPads should be returning to the shelves of its German online store in a matter of hours.

“All iPad and iPhone models will be back on sale through Apple’s online store in Germany shortly,” an Apple spokeswoman told AllThingsD. “Apple appealed this ruling because Motorola repeatedly refuses to license this patent to Apple on reasonable terms, despite having declared it an industry standard patent seven years ago.”

Just a Guess, Nothing More ⇥

Following the fall launch of its wildly popular iPhone 4S last year, Apple reportedly plans to return to its summer launch schedule and unveil the next-generation iPhone 5 during its annual Worldwide Developer Conference in June. DigiTimes relayed the claim, which cited a Daiwa Securities analyst when it first appeared in Chinese-language newspaper Commercial Times on Thursday.

To paraphrase Dana Gould, it’s like a photo of a drawing of a hologram—three layers of nothing.

Peek Killing Off US Email and Twitter Devices ⇥

Sharif Sakr:

There’s an old saying that eternal love lasts for two years. Apparently, that also applies to Peek’s bare bones email and Twitter devices, which launched in 2008 and 2009 respectively. We’ve received emails from users anxious that their handsets — all running on T-Mo’s network — stopped working on January 30th, despite them having paid up to $299 for “lifelong service.”

The devices were clearly not going to be a success, and there’s simply no way that they could have provided lifelong service. Despite this, the few customers that Peek did have are now left with a totally useless device, instead of a mostly useless one.