Kind: Reads

reading a book, magazine, newspaper, other physical document, or online post

iPad as the new Flash

iPad as the new Flash by Jeffrey Zeldman

In the minds of many, the iPad is like Flash that pays. You can cram traditional publishing content into an overwrought, novelty Flash interface as The New York Times once did with its T magazine. You may win a design award but nobody will pay you for that content. Ah, but do the same thing on the iPad instead, and subscribers will pay—maybe not enough to save publishing, but enough to keep the content coming and at least some journalists, editors, and art directors employed. It’s hard to argue with money and jobs, and I wouldn’t dream of doing so. Alas, the early success of a few publications—publications so good they would doubtless survive with or without iPad—is creating a stampede that will not help most magazines and interfaces that will not please most readers.

I fully agree with Mr Zeldman. It's time to go back to simple.

HTC Willfully Violates the GPL in T-Mobile's New G2 Android Phone

HTC Willfully Violates the GPL in T-Mobile's New G2 Android Phone by Steve Schultze

Perhaps HTC (and T-Mobile, distributor of the phone) should review the actual contents of the GNU Public License (v2), which stipulate the legal requirements for modifying and redistributing Linux. They state that you may only distribute derivative code if you “[a]ccompany it with the complete corresponding machine-readable source code.” Notably, there is no mention of a “grace period” or the like.

Steve Schultze, Associate Director at the Center for Information Technology Policy at Princeton University, accuses HTC of violating the GPL with the G2.

One of the commenters points out that Android licensing is a bit more complicated.

Google uses Apache license for most of Android, which gives freedom to developers (carriers), including freedom to make product closed for users.

GPL (used for the kernel) has opposite goals and gives full freedom to users by limiting freedom of developers (so carriers are not allowed to make source of distributed kernel secret).

You Can't Innovate Like Apple

You Can't Innovate Like Apple by Alain Breillatt

According to Gruber, the build-up of anticipation leading to the opening of the present that Apple offers is an important— if not the most important— aspect of the enjoyment people derive from Apple’s products. This is because the world divides into two camps:

  1. There are those who open their presents before Christmas morning.
  2. There are those who wait. They set their presents under the tree and, like a child, agonize over the enormous anticipation of what will be in the box when they open it on Christmas morning.

Apple designs for #2. No other mass-consumer products company puts as much attention to detail into the fit and finish of the box—let alone the out-of-box experience. If you’re an Apple enthusiast, you can capture the Christmas morning experience more than once a year with every stop you make at the local Apple store.

Alain Breillatt, Director of Product Management for The Nielsen Company, explains how he thinks Apple’s innovation engine works.