Daily Links
Visualizing a Sad History of Support
Michael Degusta has done some research into Android handset support, specifically how often major OS upgrades and minor support patches actually happen on them post-launch.ALAC Now Open Source
Apple has made it's Apple Lossless Audio Codec (ALAC) an open source project. Think of it as FLAC, but supported by all your iPods and iOS devices.Tolkien's Hobbit Artwork
For the 75th anniversary of "The Hobbit", HarperCollins publisher David Brawn is releasing 110 line drawings in ink to watercolours and sketch by Tolkien himself, a dozen of which have never seen print.Daily Links
Codify
Lua-based programming app for the iPad. It appears to be focused mainly on games.Daily Links
Handlettered
A curated gallery of beautifully hand lettered logos of defunct american department stores.Super Mario Ringtones
Here is an iTone sound pack for your iDevice that's filled with sounds and music from the NES classic Super Mario Bros. (Warning: People will think you're awesome and want to talk to you when they hear your phone).iOS 5 Battery Life Tips
No real surprises here, the culprits are all the constantly-accessing-the-internet services, like iCloud and notifications and locations.K10K.net Ends Their Run
Has it been 15 years already? It seems like just yesterday I was viewing the source code there and deconstructing how they made it such an awesome place to go and be inspired. My hat is off to Per, Toke and Mike. Thanks for all the screens over the years!Daily Links
John McCarthy Has Died
The father of "artificial intelligence" has passed away. If you haven't read any of his papers, here is official page at Stanford. Worth reading if you are at all interested in the future.Grand Theft Auto V
Just announced on the official Rockstar Games website, with only a logo and a promise of a trailer next week. I guess I should get around to finishing the fourth one someday.How Valve Experiments With The Economics Of Video Games
"One thing that we have learned is that piracy is not a pricing issue. It's a service issue. The easiest way to stop piracy is not by putting antipiracy technology to work. It's by giving those people a service that's better than what they're receiving from the pirates." - Gabe NewellFree Icon Sets
Twenty sets collected by the Wed Design Ledger. I particularly like the vintage stickers and the social media stamps! :DWindows XP is Ten Years Old Today
Released on October 25, 2001, and still in use by a number of people today.First Week With an Android Tablet
On October 16th I finally caved and bought myself a tablet. At the time, I had no idea what I might use it for, so I opted for the Asus EeePad Transformer. I picked up the keyboard dock as well, figuring that worst-case scenario I'd have bought an Android netbook.
The last time I owned an actual netbook I didn't care for it. The keyboard was too cramped and the battery life was too low. Plus it had a full-sized power brick, which made it awkward to bring it along for short trips. This tablet doesn't have any of those problems (well, by default it uses a lot of power while sleeping ... but I found a simple solution). The overall battery life is about 8 hours for the tablet, and there's an equivalent battery in the keyboard dock, which should suffice for all-day use. Even if I do let it power down, the power adapter is small, so it's not a problem to take it with me. Charging is a bit slow, and the charging cable is both short and proprietary. Not ideal, but I can live with it.
I've found that I prefer using this device in tablet mode for reading and casual web browsing. It's like owning a book with the internet in it. Mostly I've been using it to read comics. I've read comics on my computer before, but it's hardly ideal. For daily webcomics, a browser is fine but longer stories are a nuisance. The tablet, however, is perfect for long-form reading. Ebooks are next on the list to try ... but I'll need to finish off some of the dead-tree novels on my coffee table first.
There are a few quirks I'm still getting used to. The first thing I noticed was that while in-use battery life was fine, the battery level dropped significantly when the device was left in sleep mode for an extended time. Looking at the battery use history it was apparent that the device was waking up and connecting to WiFi periodically. Most likely to check for email, application updates, and probably the time and weather. This was despite having set the device to disconnect from WiFi when the screen shut off. Installing Auto Airplane Mode helped a lot. Now when I wake up the battery is only 1% or 2% lower than when I went to bed. Much better than the 30% drop when the device is allowed to connect to the network from sleep. There are at least two applications named Auto Airplane Mode, so this is clearly an issue that other Android users are having. The one I installed triggers when the screen shuts off, the other one I saw worked by specifying times to turn off wireless access.
The second issue I ran into was when I bought a bag this weekend so I could carry the thing around here and there. Due to the enormous disparity in popularity between the iPad and Android tablets, most cases and accessories for tablet owners will be iPad-specific. And since my particular tablet is decidedly longer than an iPad, it turned out to be a tight fit. But it will keep my tablet out of harms way when I start shuffling it back and forth to coffee shops during NaNoWriMo. I'm sure I'll fail yet again, but I should at least figure out if I like the keyboard.