Gadgets
And Speaking of E-books
Barnes & Noble is partnering with Plastic Logic to do one.
This strikes me as not a foolish idea. There’s room for more players in that market, and B&N’s general failure to challenge Amazon convincingly online has been a huge fail. This gives them another shot at becoming meaningful in that market. Plus, Plastic Logic’s e-reader is …
The coolest (imaginary) e-book so far
The French are totally kicking butt when it comes to imagining what e-books will look like and act like. These really make the whole Kindle thing look lame.
X-Rated iPhone Apps?
One interesting thing Apple showed off at the Developers’ Conference today was parental controls. With the 3.0 version of iPhone’s OS, which will be disseminated next week, you’ll be able to set your iPhone so that your kid can’t download age-inappropriate content to it.
While I have always found the concept of parental controls …
Crowdsource My Desk Chair
A short, purely self-interested post. I do my typing at home at a wobbly table my girlfriend rescued off the street. Whenever I get particularly interested in a point I’m making it waggles back and forth as if to say, no, no, you’re wrong, you’re an idiot, stop typing. The chair I sit in while I’m typing at the wobbly table is a folding …
The iPhone: Bringing Back the Art of the Pickpocket
April 30th, 6:35 pm. Crowded C train into Brooklyn. I finish my umpteenth round of Wurdle, failing once again to make a high score, and conclude that my former self is more intelligent than my present self. An inevitable consequence of the aging process. I drop my iPhone into my (external) jacket pocket. Two stops later I’m off …
I Land in the Stream
Cool iPhone app of the day: Simplify Music 2.0. Download it to your iPhone ($2.99—worth it!) and then go to Simplify Media‘s website, register and download the software for Mac, PC or Linux. Now you can stream all your tunes to your iPhone, wherever you are. Doesn’t matter if you’re on Wifi, 3G or pokey old Edge: it works.
I just …
Simon Rohrich is More Nerd Than You or I Will Ever Be
Three things that have been on mind, as I sit here trying to decide if I am sick enough to not go into work.
One: this magisterial history of Matter-Eater Lad, who has to be on anybody’s list of the worst-named superheroes of all time, but who manages to salvage a strange alien dignity despite his lame power. I like the part where he …
The end of an era
An amazing thing happened today: The battery on my Kindle 2 finally ran out of juice.
Amazing because, with the wireless connection off, it lasted nearly two months. I used it about a half hour a day. Glad I hedged in my story and said the battery would last “more than two weeks.”
iPhone Terms of Service Agreement
1) I agree that whenever I have my iPhone on my person, I will never be fully mentally present. If I am at work, I will be thinking about my iPhone. If I am with my wife, I will be thinking about my iPhone. If I am awake and near my iPhone, I will be thinking about my iPhone.
2) I agree that I will not check my email ten times a
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Confessions of an iShoot Addict
I’m at a loss to explain why I’m still playing iShoot. I play it at home. I play it on the subway. I played it in between the last sentence and this one. I have played it while in the same room as a perfectly available PS3. How does that make sense?
iShoot is a turn-based tank combat game for the iPhone. It’s incredibly crude: you …
Will the iPhone Remain The Fairest of Them All?
Palm’s Pre is still months away from launch, but already it’s making the world a better place. Proof? Apple today announced that a raft of improvements is coming to the iPhone–including, at long last cut and paste.
That critical feature, along with a bunch of others, will help the world’s hottest smartphone (17 million sold to date) …