nikf.org

"How did so many get this so wrong? I fear it betrays something ugly about the way tech reporting..."

Wed, 29 Aug 2012 23:03:20 +0100

“How did so many get this so wrong? I fear it betrays something ugly about the way tech reporting works–and doesn’t work–these days. Depth, expertise, and reflection are all lacking. So is serious research. If you are going to write about a patent case, it’s a good idea to read the patents in dispute. Reading patents is not a particularly pleasant business. The language is tedious, legalistic, and often deliberately obfuscatory; you want to give the Patent Office the required information while giving away as little as possible to your competitors. But reading the claims, the critical section of the patent, isn’t all that difficult”

- Pinch-to-Zoom and Rounded Rectangles: What the Jury Didn’t Say

Talking of NASA Computer Science…

Thu, 16 Aug 2012 21:07:16 +0100

Talking of NASA Computer Science…:

…the Mars Rover team just patched their craft at 350 million miles.

They Write the Right Stuff

Thu, 16 Aug 2012 18:14:54 +0100

They Write the Right Stuff:

A fascinating article about the process behind developing software for NASA spacecraft.

Facebook Plans to Speed Up its iPhone App

Wed, 27 Jun 2012 19:50:49 +0100

Facebook Plans to Speed Up its iPhone App:

If ever a story deserved a single Finally, it’s this. The Facebook app is so slow and buggy as it stands.

I’ve been a little quiet here recently. Alongside multiple...

Wed, 13 Jun 2012 16:15:00 +0100

I’ve been a little quiet here recently. Alongside multiple big projects on the boil at work, there’s another big project that Steph and I have been busy wrapping up: our wedding this Friday.

We’ve had a tonne of kind messages sent, so thanks to everyone who’s done so in the run up to the big day.

Photo courtesy of Anna Clarke Photography

Nike+ Relaunches

Fri, 08 Jun 2012 09:25:10 +0100

Nike+ Relaunches:

The Nike+ site has been Flash-free for Fuelband users for some time, but this week saw the launch of the new Nike+ site for running.

I’ve been beta-testing it for the last month or so and love the Flash-free new site. Some features from the previous site are missing right now (the Friends feature is returning later in the year) but it’s a massive improvement over the 6-year-old Flash version it replaces.

"The plethora of online Photoshop tutorials demonstrate its power and its flexibility, but I believe..."

Wed, 09 May 2012 23:32:20 +0100

“The plethora of online Photoshop tutorials demonstrate its power and its flexibility, but I believe they also demonstrate its poor design. Think about it like this: what if each time you plunked down in front of World of Warcraft, you had to spend an hour trying to remember, wait, how do I play this?”

- Rands In Repose: Two Universes

New Nike+ Running site

Wed, 09 May 2012 21:14:17 +0100

New Nike+ Running site :

I’ve been testing the new Nike+ Running site over the last couple of weeks. The big news is that the previously Flash-powered site has been totally re-written. The new site goes live in June, but if you’re wanting to see what’s coming this FAQ from Nike has the details.

Tumblr to launch ads starting May 2

Thu, 19 Apr 2012 23:03:38 +0100

Tumblr to launch ads starting May 2:

Despite all the protestations about how Tumblr didn’t want to show ads, it seems the 120 million views per day on the Tumblr Dashboard might be just too lucrative.

It’s definitely a shame there’s an about-face with this, however Tumblr is of course a free service backed by VCs who will expect the service to start to produce revenue (and in the longer-term, hopefully profits). For those with Tumblogs (as this one is), these plans doen’t affect the display of Tumblogs themselves as the advertising is launching on the social-hub that each user typically uses to browse blogs they follow and post content via.

[via Mr Hackett]

"It’s a little like asking why Hasbro didn’t do Farmville, or why McDonald’s didn’t start Whole Foods..."

Mon, 16 Apr 2012 22:15:25 +0100

“It’s a little like asking why Hasbro didn’t do Farmville, or why McDonald’s didn’t start Whole Foods … Cultural patterns are pretty hard to escape once you get sucked into them. For instance, Apple and Google are diametrical opposites in so many ways, have all the skills, but neither of them did Instagram, either.”

- Disruptions: Innovations Like Instagram Are Tough for Large Companies

Retina.js — Retina graphics for your website

Fri, 13 Apr 2012 19:49:36 +0100

Retina.js — Retina graphics for your website:

If you’re looking for a solution to serve up retina images in HTML (as opposed to via CSS), this might come in handy. It follows the Apple.com method of always downloading the low-res first - making it bandwidth heavy - but after having spent a fair bit of time looking at options it seems to be perhaps the most easily implemented¹ on the majority of sites.

N.B. It’s not perfect - few retina solutions are. Nor is it suitable for everyone’s scenario (hosted blogs on Tumblr such as this being one example). But it’s definitely worth considering. ↩

dcovery

Wed, 11 Apr 2012 21:08:58 +0100

dcovery:

It’s not yet launched, but it looks like a pretty smart - and well-designed - app and service for planning trips.

Inception — Filming the Corridor and Zero Gravity Scene -...

Sun, 08 Apr 2012 22:31:59 +0100

Inception — Filming the Corridor and Zero Gravity Scene - Absolutely fascinating video as to how the Inception production team pulled off the corridor fight, via Charles Arthur on Twitter.

"Amazon’s UK operations are also poised to benefit from Luxembourg ownership in the battle for the..."

Wed, 04 Apr 2012 21:43:50 +0100

“Amazon’s UK operations are also poised to benefit from Luxembourg ownership in the battle for the lucrative and fast-growing ebook market. Being based in Luxembourg means it can charge VAT on ebook sales at the local rate of 3% rather than the 20% VAT imposed on British-based ebook retailers.”

- Amazon: £7bn sales, no UK corporation tax —The Guardian

"Imagine everything that is wrong about Android phones and UIs & Google privacy and then strap it..."

Wed, 04 Apr 2012 20:43:00 +0100

“Imagine everything that is wrong about Android phones and UIs & Google privacy and then strap it to the front of your face.”

- Chris Heathcote on Twitter, about Google’s new Project Glass. Cynical? Yes. But I’d by lying if I said this wasn’t one of my concerns about Project Glass.

Instagram now available for Android

Tue, 03 Apr 2012 19:36:32 +0100

Instagram now available for Android:

Huge congrats to my buddy Tim Van Damme and the rest of the Instagram team.

Anchorman 2 is in production

Thu, 29 Mar 2012 21:15:06 +0100

Anchorman 2 is in production:

Awesome.

"I think if everyone tweeted less the overall quality would improve, so maybe I’m trying to..."

Fri, 23 Mar 2012 19:23:06 +0000

“I think if everyone tweeted less the overall quality would improve, so maybe I’m trying to compensate for the rest of the universe. Then again my last three tweets were poop related.”

- 5 Minutes on The Verge: Loren Brichter

A Tip for Purging Photo Stream Across Multiple Devices

Wed, 07 Mar 2012 22:32:21 +0000

Every app that I try / use tends to get screenshotted on iOS or my Mac [running the stats on my LittleSnapper library, I’ve kept - note not “taken”, that’d be way higher - roughly 6 screenshots a day, since LittleSnapper launched in 2008].

Photo Stream is great for getting those to my Mac without using Image Capture, but until a moment ago there were 200 screenshots, all imported away from iPhoto, that reside in my Photo Stream. To say it makes for bizarre Apple TV slideshows would be an understatement.

Here’s the strategy I used to purge them from my iPhone, iPad and Mac - remember, iOS 5.1 doesn’t allow you to remove images from Photo Stream, and have them removed from all your devices in one fell swoop, that were taken prior to iOS 5.1. Only images taken with iOS 5.1 can be deleted once, and removed from all your devices.

I make no claims about this being pretty - it ain’t - but my plan was basically to remove all the screenshots from Photo Stream without having to do so on every single device.

Delete all the unwanted images from iPhoto’s Photo Stream section.
Fire up Settings -> iCloud on your iOS devices.
Turn off Photo Stream on said devices.
Load Photos.app and ensure the Photo Stream section disappears.
Power-down, and power-up each device.
Re-enable Photo Stream on your devices, and launch Photos.app to verify that Photo Stream is re-downloading from the server and not using local copies.

It’s crude, annoying to have to do, and not particularly Apple’s finest hour. But if you’re wanting to clear out Photo Stream this should get it back in shape - and ready for the long-overdue ability to remove from Photo Stream once, and have the deletion occur across all devices.

You could also just reset Photo Stream at iCloud.com: but that kinda irked me about removing stuff that was already in my Photo Stream - I didn’t want to remove everything.

Thieves Are Your Best Customers in Waiting

Tue, 06 Mar 2012 19:24:05 +0000

Thieves Are Your Best Customers in Waiting:

I believe the term is “This”.