Matt Buchanan
How To Turn Multitouch Trackpads Into Actually Good Videogame Controllers
An essay by Tim Rogers from a few months ago that I was re-reading which sets out to define how a multitouch trackpad could be an excellent game controller, if somebody just tried.
Matt Buchanan
The First Facebook Generation Election Is Going To Be Amazing
If the world saw your Facebook page, could you get elected to public office?
Matt Buchanan
The Lost Steve Jobs Interviews
Brent Schlender rediscovers a trove of interview tapes from his time with Steve Jobs: "We've done so many hardware products where Jony and I have looked at each other and said, 'We don't know how to make it any better than this, we just don't know how to make it,' " Jobs told me. "But we always do; we realize another way. And then it's not long after the new thing comes out that we look at the older thing and go, 'How can we ever have done that?' "
Matt Buchanan
Don't Buy A Laptop Right Now
This is basically true: If you want to buy a laptop right now, DON'T DO IT. Faster new Intel chips are on the horizon, and they'll be inside newer, better computers within a couple of months. This applies whether you are looking at buying a Macintosh or Windows IBM-compatible Personal Computer (though I'd probably wait a little longer even, for a Windows 8 machine).
Matt Buchanan
Hey, You're Not Using Siri Enough
Or Apple and its carrier partners probably wouldn't resort to overt celebrity ads to remind you how great it is.
Matt Buchanan
In Case You Were Worried Twitter Was Going To Destroy Pull-To-Refresh In Your Favorite Apps
I don't think you can say the word patent lately without a bitter taste creeping into your mouth. And the internet sorta freaked over Twitter's potential patent for the now-ubiquitous pull-to-refresh gesture. Behold, Twitter's new Innovator's Patent Agreement, which promises, "We will not use the patents from employees’ inventions in offensive litigation without their permission." So your precious pull-to-refresh is safe.
Matt Buchanan
Do Robot Tears Taste Like The Future?
The latest promo clip from Ridley Scott's Prometheus is moving, in a very weird way. Who knew crying robots could be so emotional?
Matt Buchanan
The Story Of The Saddest (Only) BlackBerry Store In America
"On a gray stretch of highway 25 miles northwest of Detroit, in a strip mall next to an OfficeMax and a dry cleaners, sits the only stand-alone BlackBerry retail store in North America." This is how Will Connors' story starts. It doesn't really get any happier.
Matt Buchanan
So This Is Windows 8
Say hello to your next operating system: Windows 8, Windows 8 Pro, or Windows RT.
Matt Buchanan
Foursquare And The Last 10 Million
Foursquare just passed 20 million users. It was at 15 million in December, and 10 million last June — 10 months for 10 million users. Instagram just added 10 million in 10 days, making it twice as big as Foursquare in roughly half the time (3 years to 18 months).
Matt Buchanan
Thinking About An iPhone With A Bigger Screen
I kind of hate iPhone rumors. But I think it's interesting (and worth noting) the tonal shift among some of the best Apple-focused writers of late on the topic of an iPhone with a larger screen: from derision to something that's at least more contemplative of the idea.
Matt Buchanan
Please Love Us
Hi, do you like what we are doing here at FWD? Perhaps you would like some more FWD in your life?
Matt Buchanan
When Will The Internet Get A Private Mode?
The internet needs a private mode. So I asked Rdio, Netflix and Pinterest why they don't have one.
Matt Buchanan
My Eyes Feel Better Already
There may be reasons magazines have done funny things with their iPads apps, like render text as images. The results with the new iPad were gross, though, like the fuzzy text of The New Yorker. An updated app fixes it, but I suspect we're still in for a slog waiting for apps to get updated to retina quality.
Matt Buchanan
Google's Intrusive Street View Data Collection Is Worse Than You Thought
The revelation that Google's Street View vans were collecting all kinds of private data was disconcerting. This is more so: The FCC's investigation into the program "was left unresolved because a critical participant, the Google engineer in charge of the project, cited his Fifth Amendment right and declined to talk."
Matt Buchanan
Another Plea To Put Your Goddamn Cellphones Down At Concerts
This is well worn territory, but it bears repeating, over and over again until everybody listens: put your phones away at concerts.
Matt Buchanan
How Netflix Feels About The Qwikster Debacle To This Day
The interesting thing here isn't CEO Reed Hastings on Netflix's (admirable) work culture, but his comment at the end, "When we moved too quickly for our customers and the backlash hit, there was a lot of strength and resilience on the management team." We just weren't quick enough for Netflix. And maybe that's true! But Qwikster is still a stupid name.
Matt Buchanan
What's The Most Liked Photo On Instagram?
And why do people like it so much?
Matt Buchanan
How Apple Feels About That Ebook Price Fixing Thing
Apple doesn't think it colluded with the major books publishers to raise ebook prices. Nope! It “fostered innovation and competition, breaking Amazon’s monopolistic grip on the publishing industry.†Also! "Customers have benefited from ebooks that are more interactive and engaging." If you pay more for something, you love it more, after all.
Matt Buchanan
A Curator's Obituary
“One might compare the art of blogging to the act of pointing,†Mr. Blogkowski wrote. “It must be true that some of us point to more interesting facts, events, circumstances, and configurations than others.†(via)
Matt Buchanan
