Mobile developers in demand... again
Good mobile dev’s have been hard to come by for a few years now, but mostly in the Java world. With the iPhone we are starting to see the demand for developers in the Cocoa space increase as well, but it has also accelerated development efforts in across the board.
If you are a developer, now is a good time to be looking into mobile. If you are a business looking for good mobile developers, good luck!
United Airlines: Sea Orchestra
If you have watched un-TiVo’d and/or live coverage of the Olympics then you have probably seen this amazing commercial by The Black Heart Gang
I have to stop the TiVo every time I see this amazing spot.
The Future of the Desktop
Some interesting thoughts on the future of the desktop, how we are moving from the desktop to the browser. Though the article is completely missing… dare I say the “m-factor” (there I said it), the impact mobile technology will have on todays paradigms.
While one could argue that the mobile browser fits into the argument, but I think that is trying too hard to squash our vision of the future into the metaphors we accept today. In other words mobile will transform how we interact with information in ways we cannot imagine.
While I believe many of the predictions of the article will come true, I think they will manifest themselves in a much different and in a much more ubiquitous way than suggested.
T-Mobile to be the first to offer Android
Good. Now I can talk about this, or at least I can say: I’ve seen the T-Mobile Android phone and it looks good.
No Push in iPhone 2.1b Firmware
It looks like the most recent iPhone firmware (2.1 beta 4) that has been seeded to developers is missing push notification.
I can’t say I’m surprised. The push notification session I attended at WWDC was pretty bare on details, even by Apple’s “we don’t talk about unreleased features” standards. There seemed to be quite a lot of quirks that hadn’t been figured out yet, or even thought out yet. Actually there were a few times I felt that the audience knew more about Push than some of the people on stage.
We have to remember that Push is hard. It is why RIM’s Blackberry has done so well, cornering the professional market. RIM did it carrier by carrier over many years, Apple is trying to build an infrastructure that can scale across many carriers around the world in under a year.
It will likely take Apple some time to get it right, that being the key… getting it right. There is such a large microscope on the iPhone and Apple should take their time to get Push not only right, but a notch above other Push services we’ve seen.
I’m glad they didn’t push (pardon the pun) for it in the iPhone 3G release. They can afford to ride the tide of the App Store for a while and shoot for a big promotion of push-capable enterprise apps in January at MacWorld.
Pandora's "Last Stand"
The company that makes one of the best applications for the iPhone is about to close its doors.
“We’re approaching a pull-the-plug kind of decision,” said Tim Westergren, who founded Pandora. “This is like a last stand for webcasting.”
Traditional radio pays nothing in performance royalties, though SoundExchange [the organization that represents performers and record companies] is pressing to change that. Satellite radio pays 6 or 7 percent of revenue. And then there are webcasters, which pay per song, per listener.
It amazes me that as traditional media is struggling to find audiences for its products it is simultaneously making it more difficult, or near impossible for others to try and help them be successful.
Westergren and other webcasters argue that Web radio, which generally plays a far wider range of music than is offered by traditional radio, provides invaluable promotion for many independent musicians.
Matt Nathanson, a singer-songwriter who has recorded for both major and independent record labels, said he is worried that the demands placed on Internet radio could “choke” the industry before it gets its footing.
Radiohead’s House of Cards video where no cameras of lights were used, only Geometric Informatics and Velodyne LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) technology.
Even more interesting is all the data is available to create your own visualizations on the Google Code page, which also includes a video on how they made the video.
Ever noticed the regional difference on how someone asks for a carbonated beverage? As in I’ll have a… Pop, Soda, Coke or the ever so rare Pepsi?
(via Strange Maps)
Medieval Peasants Had More Vacation Than You
Based on the historical research of family rights advocate John De Graff, medieval peasants took more time off—about two weeks more—than modern American families.
Americans get the shortest vacations in the industrial world. A Harris poll found that only 14 percent of Americans took the traditional two-week summer vacation in 2007. Another survey completed by Gallup, found that 40 percent of Americans didn’t take even a single week off as a block in 2006.
