Third-Parties

Back in May, I wrote some thoughts about what looked like the beginning of Twitter pushing third-party clients like Twitterrific and Tweetbot out of the service.

Recently, Business Insider interviewed Paul Haddad, the coding-half of Tweetbot maker Tapbots. I thought the following was worth mentioning:

BI: How has dealing with Twitter been, by the way? They still being awkward to developers about making clients, etc?

PH: It’s been much better over the last few months. I’m not sure they were ever harassing folks, I think it was just really bad communication. But regardless they’ve been really helpful over the last few months. The dev relations group in particular is great, I’m always pestering them with questions and bug reports.

There’s still a view out there that they are actively against third parties and I just don’t think that’s the case.

I find that to be incredibly reassuring that Twitter won’t pigeon-hole us into their single (crappy) experience.

Santa Uses the iPhone 4S

I love the new iPhone 4S ad for Christmas.

The Death Knell of IE6

Microsoft:

Everyone benefits from an up-to-date browser.

Today we are sharing our plan to automatically upgrade Windows customers to the latest version of Internet Explorer available for their PC. This is an important step in helping to move the Web forward.

[…]

The Web overall is better – and safer – when more people run the most up-to-date browser. Our goal is to make sure that Windows customers have the most up-to-date and safest browsing experience possible, with the best protections against malicious software such as malware.

I cannot tell you how great of a move this is on Microsoft’s part. IE6 is the bane of the Internet, and I know so many people who use it because they don’t know there have been three new versions since. IE9 isn’t fully standards-compliant, but it is a great step in the right direction. And IE10 looks promising.

Chrome auto-updates, Firefox is going there. Apple already pushes new versions of Safari via Software Update, though the user must still choose to install it. For the fast pace of the Internet, auto-updating is the right thing to do for home users (my only gripe is the user is often not told what is new).

It seems Microsoft finally took notice they were shipping a terrible browser, and ever since they have been on the frontline to kill the zombie that is IE6.

[via Zeldman]

Three Quick iMessage Tips

Lex Friedman at Macworld shares three iMessage tips that everyone with iOS 5 should go do right now.

Explore Apple's Grand Central Retail Store

Apple's page for its brand new store in Grand Central Station has a neat trick for owners of the iPhone 4/4S, 4th Generation iPod touch, and iPad 2. Tap View More Photos then tap the one labeled 360. You can then move your device around in front of you and look around the store. I found it works best on the iPad 2.

Stephen M. Hackett's Kindle Fire Review

SMH:

Look, here’s the thing: the Kindle Fire sucks unless you are earlobe-deep in Amazon’s ecosystem. Even then, the hardware and software aren’t stellar. It’s cheaply made with a small screen and a heavy chassis. The software is laggy and crashes at times. The weird UI means apps are never where you left them.

[…]

This thing isn’t an iPad killer. Hell, it isn’t even a Generic Android Tablet killer.

Slow Down

In tune with the previous post, my local, friendly arch-nemesis of mobile operating systems, Ryan Minert, is also fed up with the overwhelming deluge of Android handsets:

Manufuacturers need to slow down and space out their launches to no more than 3 per year to give their current devices a chance to grab market hold.

[…]

People tend to buy what their friends/family already have, so if devices stayed as “new” for longer, carriers and manufacturers would make more money, rather than discounting the device mere weeks after launch.

This is why Apple limits choice, folks. Some may argue that Apple is too severe in their limits (Ryan makes that assertion), but it’s obvious that fewer choices are better in the long haul.

Let's Go Buy an Android Phone

Sebastiaan de With helps you pick an Android phone in the US with his helpful guide.

Happy hunting.

Branding

This morning Ben Brooks pushed a new design of his site, The Brooks Review. One of the most significant changes he did was to drop any form of logo or branding from the site.

He, of course, addresses this:

I just like the site without a logo weighing down the top, right or wrong, it’s really that simple.

I think it is a bold move, and definitely not something many of us would do. But think about it — the old logo is what the design was built around, and what better branding could you have than to have the design stand on its own?

On Its Way Out

Marco Arment on the demise of Flash for mobile:

If web developers must make non-Flash implementations of everything, why bother making the Flash versions at all? This isn’t just the death of mobile Flash: it’s a confirmation from Adobe that all Flash is on its way out.

[…]

Rather than fight a losing battle for a particular runtime, Adobe can focus on what it does best: making tools for creative professionals.