Tweetmarks

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Tweetmarks:

Tweetmarks is a web service for setting and getting the "last read" tweet for a given Twitter user. It can be used to "sync" the reading position between multiple Twitter clients and platforms. It was created by Riverfold Software. Also see this blog post introducing the service. All Twitter client application developers: PLEASE integrate this into your clients. As for why Twitter hasn't already implemented this themselves, Marco Arment writes: Unfortunately, I doubt that Twitter’s official Mac and iOS apps will. Twitter has decided, for whatever reason, not to do this to date. I heard a while back that this was because they want people to just read what’s there now, like a river of news, not to try to “keep up” with a potentially insurmountable timeline. They didn’t want to encourage features like this that would allow someone to know how far “behind” they are, because that could cause guilt and feelings of information overload, which could discourage usage. I believe they are wrong in this line of thinking. Moving from Tweetbot on my iPhone to Twitteriffic on my iPad to the Twitter app on my Mac feels like a broken experience. Having to re-read supposed "new" updated over again to figure out my place depending on where I am just feels wrong. Twitter is arrogant in trying to dictate how users should use their service rather than trying to accommodate the reality of how their users currently use Twitter. To quote Marco again: And as long as Twitter doesn’t have an API for it, widespread Tweetmarks support in apps is badly needed for anyone who uses multiple Twitter clients. So if you make a Twitter client, please add Tweetmarks support. Yes, please.

Adobe CEO: The Flash Argument With Apple Is Over

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John Brownlee writing for Cult of Mac:

Ouch! Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen took stage today at the All Things Digital D9 conference to be interviewed by Walt Mossberg. Watch the smug get slapped right off of Narayen’s face after he laughably tries to claim that contrary to Steve Jobs’s argument that Flash is a dead technology, it’s currently running on 130 million Android devices. Here’s the transcript.

Mossberg: What’s the deal between you and Steve Jobs? He was here last year, and he had a chance to expand on what he had previously written about Flash], and summarized, he said “Well, I think our duty is to pick technologies in the ascendancy. We feel like Flash is not on the ascendency, we think HTML 5 is, so that’s who we decided to go with for iOS Devices. What’s your respons eto that? Narayen: There are a lot of misperceptions out there. When it first broke, people talked about the fact that they thought it was a technology issue, and I think it’s become fairly clear over the last year that it’s not about the technology: it’s about a business model issue. It’s about control of a platform. It’s the control of the app store that’s really at issue here. The value proposition Flash has is that we allow people to author programs once and get them to as many devices as possible. We’ve done that with Android. We will have 130 million phone devices that will have Flash on them by the end of the year… Mossberg: And I have yet to test a single one where Flash works really well. I’m sorry. They struggle on those Android devices. Freeze frame Narayen’s face. He looks like he’s been slapped, and he just completely struggles to counter. That’s a man who knows his product sucks on mobile, and is just trying to bide his time until mobile technology becomes advanced enough that Flash’s performance issues don’t matter. [Full video. Watch the whole thing.

Groupon Is Effectivley Insolvent; Like A Ponzi Scheme

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Another good writeup I found that expounds on what David Heinemeier Hansson said earlier this week. Conor Sen, writing for Minyanville:

So a company that owes $230 million more than it has, and appears to be burning through $100 million or more a quarter, is using money raised from later investors to pay back early investors? Sounds vaguely familiar. I'm not accusing Groupon of doing anything illegal or unethical. Ponzi, Enron, and Madoff all swindled their investors by misleading them about the financial health of their enterprises. As Minyanville's Todd Harrison likes to say, "The only difference between intervention and manipulation is communication." Groupon is telling you exactly what they are in their filing forms and by their actions. Invest at your own risk.

An Open Letter To The Gentleman Blow-Drying His Balls In The Gym Locker Room

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Thus far, the best thing I’ve read on McSweeney’s all year:

Does the courage to do this in public come with age? Perhaps it’s something a young man like me can’t understand. But you, you are on in years; gray and spotted like a ham in a paintball fight. Your scrotum reminds me of boardwalk taffy. Maybe you’ve been building up to this day your whole life and I’m witnessing the birth of a phoenix. You are no longer a man that blow-dries his balls in secret. You have transcended that station and now fall into an elite group of Spartans that blow-dry their balls wherever they God damn please. If caterpillars emerged from their cocoons as butterflies with heavy, sagging testicles I’d imagine they’d feel the same as you might right now. I haven't laughed this hard since reading this gem.

Rode Podcaster Mini-review

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While I am not a podcaster (I don't think anyone would find me interesting to listen to for periods greater than 5 minutes) I do use microphones a lot. I Facetime with friends & family, use Skype or WebEx to participate in conference calls when I'm working from home, I use Teamspeak or Ventrilo when gaming online..many varied uses. I've used many headsets over the years and grown increasingly frustrated in being able to find a 1. high quality sounding, 2. durable headset that is still 3. comfortable to wear. It has been my experience that you may only pick two of the three, as no headset that (admitted subjectively) I've used has met all requirements. Please, do not comment or email with suggestions. I'm past that now. Instead my new method is to not restrict myself to just headsets, but instead acquire a very nice microphone and which will allow me to expand my choices to any and all headphones out there. I've found that the ratio of headsets to headphones available is about 100 to 1. I'm confident I can find a headphone I will like. That being said, I recently took Dan Benjamin's recommendations to heart and purchased a Rode Podcaster Dynamic Mic, Rode PSM 1 Shockmount, and a Heil Sound PL-2T Overhead Broadcast Boom. I've been using this new setup, pictured below, for about 3 days now. I love it. This is much more comfortable than having to keep a headset on all day. For the first time I'm also appreciating the direct feedback you can get by plugging your headset directly into the mic. I may do a more in-depth review in the future, but for now, just know that I highly recommend this. If you find yourself using a mic a lot but also hating the existing choices that are available for headsets, consider a setup like this.

Groupon: Spending $1.43 to make $1.00

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David Heinemeier Hansson at Short Logic:

Groupon has filed its S-1 and hopes to raise $750M in its initial public offering. Given they’re currently losing a staggering $117M per quarter, despite revenues of $644M, they’ll be burning through that cash almost as soon as it hits their account. At the moment, it’s costing them $1.43 to make $1, and it doesn’t look like it’s getting any cheaper. They’re already projected to make close to three billion dollars in revenues this year. If you can’t figure out how to make money on three billion in revenue, when exactly will the profit magic be found? Ten billion? Fifty billion? My wife shops Groupon a lot. I do not. Partly because I feel I don't need to spend money on most of the things they offer and I know if I simply ignore Groupon, I will save money. I feel the bottom is going to drop out from under Groupon in a few years and everyone in the tech media will raise their hands and run around shouting about how no one saw this coming, how could this happen, etc. For the record, I saw it coming. ( 1:00 PM June 3, 2011 - for future reference)

Motorola Admits Open Android Store Means Low Quality Apps

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Nancy Gohring, IDG News:

Motorola’s CEO blamed the open Android app store for performance issues on some phones. Of all the Motorola Android devices that are returned, 70 percent come back because applications affect performance, Sanjay Jha, CEO of Motorola Mobility, said during a webcast presentation at the Bank of America Merrill Lynch Global Technology conference on Thursday. Unlike most other mobile app stores, the Android Market is totally open, meaning anyone can upload an application to the store. While Google removes applications that are found to be malicious, there is no mechanism for ensuring that applications perform efficiently. “For power consumption and CPU use, those apps are not tested. We’re beginning to understand the impact that has,” Jha said. You're just now beginning? Where the heck have you been for the past 2 years?