Everything is a Remix
The film series Everything is a Remix is an exploration of the remix techniques involved in producing films by Kirby Ferguson.
iOS SDK 4.3 beta 3 now available
I just received this in my inbox:
Much Ado About Nothing
This morning, the New York Times published an article entitled "Apple Moves to Tighten Control of App Store".
The company has told some applications developers, including Sony, that they can no longer sell content, like e-books, within their apps, or let customers have access to purchases they have made outside the App Store.
Apple rejected Sony’s iPhone application, which would have let people buy and read e-books bought from the Sony Reader Store.
Apple told Sony that from now on, all in-app purchases would have to go through Apple, said Steve Haber, president of Sony’s digital reading division.
Am I missing something? From reading the article, my understanding is that Sony tried to submit an app to the store that would allow in-app purchases. The Kindle or Nook apps, for instance, currently do not allow this either. When users click the various "store" links within these apps, it redirects the user to Safari. In other words, no ebook apps currently allow in-app purchases. It is my understanding that this has always been Apple's policy. Nothing has changed. Why is the New York Times feigning ignorance on this? Or are they really just that, ignorant.
The writers of the article, Claire Cain Miller and Miguel Helft go on to say:
The move could affect companies like Amazon.com and others that sell e-book readers that compete with Apple’s iPad tablet and offer free mobile apps so customers can read their e-book purchases on other devices. An iPad owner, for instance, has not needed to own a Kindle to read Kindle books bought from Amazon.
That may now change.
No, it will not.
Why have so many bloggers followed along with this incorrect narrative this morning? This is just Apple enforcing th same policy they always have had and Sony probably whining to the Times because they want special treatment.
Playing Tour Guide
Steffanie's mom is visiting us here in DC and I decided to take a good many pictures as we walked around DC today using an excellent new HDR iPhone program that Merlin Man recommended. I was surprised at how well the application and the iPhone 4 performed as a point and shoot digital camera.
Oh, and I had to throw this last one in there even though it is not HDR. This is the original costume used for C-3PO in Return of the Jedi. I met C-3PO, in person!
On Google's Announcement That Chrome Will Drop Native h.264 Playback Support
I haven't written about what I think is the 2nd biggest news story of the week yet, but I've tweeted about it quite a bit. On Tuesday, Google announced that in a future version of Chrome, to come out later this year, they would drop h.264 playback support. And then, on Twitter, I announced that I would cease using Chrome & move back to Safari.
In short, I think this is an incredibly idiotic move on Google's part. I think this is a purely evil and corporate political move in order to try to do harm to iOS devices. I think that Google is outright lying when they try to claim the reason for this decision is a commitment to open standards and I do not think its a coincidence that they made this announcement on the day of the Verizon iPhone announcement.
Why do I feel all of these things? Rather than do a poor job of articulating my thoughts, as I am a horrible writer, I will instead link you to John Gruber's piece he wrote today. He called it, "The Practical vs. Idealistic Scenarios for the Near-Term Future of Online Video (OR: HOW GOOGLE’S DECISION TO DROP NATIVE H.264 PLAYBACK FROM CHROME SERVES TO PROP UP FLASH PLAYER)".
I see this as coming back to bite Google in the ass. I also see this as the final move, in a steadily crescendoing series of moves that Google has made in recent years that has made me completely lose trust in them as a company. Also on Tuesday I began searching for a way to migrate off of gMail (which I probably will do soon to MobileMe) along with other Google services I use. I no longer want to have anything to do with them as a customer. Google is the new Microsoft. Microsoft is now the new IBM. And IBM is now an irrelevant behemoth of a bureaucratic consulting company that no longer makes anything of value. And I guess Apple is the new...Apple? See, horrible writer.
Too Much Hardware Choice
Yesterday, I wrote "Crazy Prediction: Verizon iPhone Will Dramatically Hurt Android." I largely commented on two articles written by Marco Arment and Watts Martin. Marco has written a follow-up article today called "Too Much Hardware Choice". If this topic interests you, then you need to read his follow-up.
Again, I think Marco is 100% correct.