26 Percent of Wired’s Mobile Traffic Comes From the iPad
Predictable, given the audience of Wired.com. Doubly predictable given how great browsing is on iPad with your fingers.
Absolute dead-simple staple of my work. Transmit 3 is absolutely unparalleled. I pulled the trigger on Transmit 4 before I’d even launched it.
In which I wax on most everything but books on the device.
It’s been over two weeks that the iPad has been on the market in the US. I’m writing this post on the iPad, in fact, in a moving car on the way to Canyonville, Oregon for a lovely weekend at the casino with the wife and family. Cause, nothing says ‘vacation’ like the Seven Feathers for a family that doesn’t gamble or drink much.
As a strange aside, take a look at the Seven Feathers on Google maps; there is a crazy proximity to the cemetery right at the edge of the parking lot. I’m not much into the occult, but I saw Poltergeist.
I have read what I have to imagine now amounts to all of the iPad reviews. I’ve read the early ones calling the iPad a silly also-ran in a soon to be saturated market. I’ve read the reviews calling the thing an oversized iPod touch. I’ve read the ones calling it a game-changer, a magical tool that will change the way we live, raise our children, tame lions, and ride bikes. As much as I’ve been longing to get a few words out on the device, I didn’t feel like I would be able to add much to the discussion without actually — you know — using it for a while. So, here we are. Two weeks in and I think, now, I have something to say.
DIRTY, DANGEROUS & DESTITUTE | NEW YORK IN THE 70s
If you’ve ever spent time in NYC, particularly if you did your time in NYC post 1990, you need to look at this series of photos. It’s funny — the New York I know is in there somewhere, if I look closely, but it’s different, an erie alternate reality of the New York that exists in my head.
More than a few years back, I was walking up 40th past Bryant Park with my boss at the time, Jay, and he said– “You wouldn’t even recognize this place back in the 70s… you’d have been tripping over hypodermic needles, and fighting off the hookers back then. It was nasty, man.” A chort was about all I could muster-up as a response.
This is generally terrific news. Google Docs is already great, but the learning curve has been tough for those unaccustomed to working in the cloud. The new interface and collaboration tools will ease that sell, I think.
Besides using a new infrastructure, the document editor and the spreadsheet editor will add many new features. The document editor has real-time editing, sidebar chat, a new commenting system, better formatting and an improved importing feature. The spreadsheet editor brings back auto-complete, adds a formula bar for editing cells and you can now drag and drop columns.
Twitter / AP Stylebook: Responding to reader input ….
Tide came in slow on this one.
Captivating Examples of Sleeveface Photography
Some of these things are really terrific. Worth exactly :42 of your day.
FOXNews.com – 7,500 Online Shoppers Unknowingly Sold Their Souls
Not that this should be a surprise to anyone — terms and conditions of use are as complicated as US tax code these days — but this is one of those wonderfully playful tests of legalese. I didn’t make a purchase that would qualify, but if I got a letter from Gamestation nullifying their claim on my soul, I would frame it.
From the click-through terms agreement:
“By placing an order via this Web site on the first day of the fourth month of the year 2010 Anno Domini, you agree to grant Us a non transferable option to claim, for now and for ever more, your immortal soul. Should We wish to exercise this option, you agree to surrender your immortal soul, and any claim you may have on it, within 5 (five) working days of receiving written notification from gamesation.co.uk or one of its duly authorised minions.”
Thanks @curtsiffert.
YouTube – Slap Chop Rap Acoustic Cover
This is what I love about the internet. It’s the evolution of memes. Take a watch and tell me this isn’t the single best video take off of another video about the Slap Chop that you have seen all day. I dare you to find me something cooler. I triple dog dare you.
According to IBM, people are so swayed by color, they’re buy more stuff if their ads share a shade with your shirt.
Chatroulette Endmost Piano Ode
I’ve turned on Chatroulette once. I’ve never been punked by it, but I’ve also never discovered anything particularly interesting about it. It’s the video evolution of IRC 20 years ago. Whatever.
Ben Folds is far cleverer than I, and does a series of live Chatroulettes from on stage at his shows. This video is really funny if you can put yourself in the shoes of someone you just stumbles upon a feed of Ben Folds on stage with 800 screaming fans behind him.
The iPad: Where Creativity Goes to Die
There’s much ado about what the iPad won’t do. Frustrating to see with just three days on the market. For wild hand-wringing and sky-is-falling paranoia, check out Jarvis’s post.
Is iPad a game-changer? (Scripting News)
Dave Winer isn’t keen on the iPad, and points out a number of short-comings in the platform that I agree with, though his overall bent is negative compared to mine. This last point, however, pretty much nails the upside: the importance of the iPad, and the iPad platform, comes as a function of how savvy developers will implement their game-changing ideas on iPad and the iPhone.
It’s fun to play with new toys, I do lots of that and it’s important to me. No sarcasm. But reading a book that changes my perspective, or meeting someone who opens a door for me, that really does change the game — much more than using a new device. If you’re looking for game-changers look into yourself, that’s where change comes from.