From the monthly archives:

July 2010

Hold on there: Copyright Office ruling doesn’t give blanket protection to video remixes

July 26, 2010

The US Copyright Office and Library of Congress have made some much-needed rulings which clarify when it’s legal to break copy protection on things like DVDs, as well as stuff like jailbreaking phones to allow you to install software on them. It’s all good stuff, sensibly extending fair-use protections to people who ought to have [...]

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Sunday round-up

July 25, 2010

Here’s some posts that have tickled me over the past seven days… Bad connection: Inside the iPhone network meltdown Proving that it’s still possible to do good, interesting long-format stories, this Wired story by Fred Vogelstein should be required reading for anyone interested in the rocky relationship between Apple and AT&T. I didn’t realise that, [...]

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The myth of “programming is the only creativity”

July 16, 2010

One of the often-used memes concerning Apple’s approach to iOS is that it’s for “passive consumers”, people who aren’t creative. In an interesting post on Google App Inventor, O’Reilly’s Mike Loukides dredges this one up again – and I think Mike is committing a classic geek error. Mike contrasts the approach of App Inventor, which [...]

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Five things I’m thinking about right now

July 12, 2010

Following on from Matt, Alice, Ben and Dan… 1. Computing is heading towards a new, simplified era. I’ve written about this before, but fundamentally: we’re on the cusp of a revolution in simplicity. Easy to use touch interfaces are the final piece of the jigsaw, and will devices easier to use than ever before. 2. [...]

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Turns out that making an “iPad killer” isn’t so easy after all

July 12, 2010

It’s three months since the launch of the iPad, and the much-heralded “Android iPad killers” are somewhat thin on the ground. HTC, probably the best Android hardware company around, isn’t making one. Neofonie’s WePad isn’t just missing in action – its site has vanished is still around, although the WePad has metamorphosed into the WeTab and [...]

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Google App Inventor: Not for everyone

July 12, 2010

As someone who grew up on BASIC and actually did some serious projects back in the 80′s and 90′s using HyperCard, I’m massively in favour of simple, easy to use programming tools. So Google App Inventor instantly caught my attention. And then I saw it. Oh dear. The only people who could possibly think that [...]

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The era of online anonymity as default may be coming to an end

July 11, 2010

If you’re in any way connected to World of Warcraft, you may have heard about a controversy that’s been kicking around over an attempt to tie accounts publicly to real names. Amongst all the “anonymity is a right!” stuff, this quote stood out for me: “A few years ago I’d have said this was impossible. [...]

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