The Camera You Have With You

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Marco Arment wrote an excellent post tonight:

As part of my 2012 computer-setup shuffle, I also replaced my laptop with a Retina MacBook Pro, and the first thing it screams for is a high-resolution desktop wallpaper. Great, I thought, I’ll just use one of my photos. (On my desktop, I use a solid gray background, but on my laptop, I like to have a bit of fun. And it would be a crime to put a solid gray background on that screen.) Almost nothing I’ve shot since 2010 is usable. Marco came to this realization because he has been using his iPhone 4 and now, 4S due to it being the first iPhone camera that was a "good enough" replacement for an actual point & shoot camera. And because you always have your iPhone with you, it is way easier to use what you have in your pocket than go hunt for your DSLR or carry it around with your when you're out of your house. I do the exact same thing, and have done so ever since I got my iPhone 4 in the summer of 2010 (which I've now replaced with a 4S as well). Marco makes an excellent point though, we're all going to regret this in 5-10 years when all of our screens are Retina-class and the photos we took from 2010-20?? look like shit. Marco's solution is to go back to using his 5D MK II. I only own a Canon 40D myself which is really showing it's age. Because of this, and because I do not have a spare $3000 I can afford to spend on a 5D Mk III, his point has me browsing Amazon.com and looking at Canon's recent small point & shoot options. The S100 looks like a solid candidate. Off to DPReview I go... Update: John Yuda makes an excellent point.

Sorkinisms

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Sure, Sorkin reuses a lot of phrases, but I would make the point that, you can usually tell when things are designed by the same designer too. This is a fantastic super cut, of what I could say, are some of my most favorite movies & TV shows of all time. Why all the contrarian Sorkin hate all of a sudden? Perhaps you should go back to your Kardasians (who up until recently I thought lived near Deep Space Nine and flew around in Galor-class Warships) and shitty reality programming. I'll delight in the wit that is Sorkin.

How To Build An iPad Competitor

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Jason Kottke, at Kottke.org:

Set aside for now that Surface does look genuinely interesting, that the price hasn't been set, and the thing isn't even out yet. For a piece of portable networking technology like a smartphone or tablet to be successful on the scale at which Apple operates, you need to have an ecosystem, a network of interacting devices, software, products, and services that work together...hardware + software is not enough. Apple, Google (and partners), Amazon, and possibly Microsoft are the only companies with the expertise and pockets deep enough to build their own ecosystems. Ok, maybe Facebook in a couple years or if Nokia can dig themselves out of their current hole, but that's really about it. Jason Kottke lays out all of the things Microsoft needs to do to make the surface successful, if their goal is to directly compete with the iPad.

Millions of pixels: Visualizing the Retina MacBook Pro

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David Smith, at his blog, writes:

The new MacBook Pro introduced at WWDC features a new ‘Retina’ grade display with a resolution of 2880x1800. This is the highest resolution display Apple has ever shipped, besting the now discontinued 30” Cinema (2560x1600) by a million pixels. I wanted to link to his post so that folks would go and check out the two graphics he's created which show you just how many pixels the new Retina MacBook Pro screens use.

Apple Bets It All On Siri And iCloud

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Kyle Baxter, at TightWind:

If you want to know whether Apple’s going to continue its remarkable growth in the next five or more years, there’s two things you need to look at: Siri and iCloud. Kyle makes a very good case for why iCloud and Siri are so crucial to the future of Apple, as a company, and will be key anchor points on all of their flagship products for the foreseeable future.

Readability Calls It Quits On Its Flawed Business Model

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CEO of Readability, Richard Ziade, at the Readability Blog:

And the great majority of those publishers never registered. Out of the millions—yes, millions—of domains that flowed through Readability, just over 2,000 registered to claim their money. As a result, most of the money we collected—over 90%—has gone unclaimed. As of today there’s nearly $150,000 in earmarked money sitting in a separate, untouched bank account. Good riddance. I never consented for Readability to collect fees on my behalf. Readability is finally admitting that 90% of the publishers their users read, never signed up for their opt-in service despite the fact that, for years, they used this justification to collect money from users on their behalf. Sleaze. Oh and what are they doing with that $150,000? They're giving it to two charities of their choice, without refunding it to users. Because, you know, Readability knows best…and by giving it to charities of their choice, they prevent you from criticizing that they're too lazy to refund it all individually back to the users who paid them the money in the first place. Sleaze.