New Google Plus Mobile App Ships for iOS

post from Daring Fireball on 09 May 2012 08:01:51 PM. © Daring Fireball

Apparently Google hasn’t gotten the memo from Fred Wilson and Eric Schmidt that developers should write for Android first.

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Read The Full Article:
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2012/05/google-mobile-app-with-sense-and-soul.html

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You Write Until You Come to a Place Where You
Still Have Your Juice and Know What Will Happen Next

post from Daring Fireball on 09 May 2012 06:01:45 PM. © Daring Fireball

Ernest Hemingway, in a terrific 1958 interview with George Plimpton:

When I am working on a book or a story I write every morning assoon after first light as possible. There is no one to disturb youand it is cool or cold and you come to your work and warm as youwrite. You read what you have written and, as you always stop whenyou know what is going to happen next, you go on from there. Youwrite until you come to a place where you still have your juiceand know what will happen next and you stop and try to livethrough until the next day when you hit it again.

I have a collection of creators-on-creating quotes, but this one might be my favorite. Strikes me as good advice for any sort of creative work.

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Read The Full Article:
http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/4825/the-art-of-fiction-no-21-ernest-hem
ingway

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Two Universes

post from Daring Fireball on 09 May 2012 06:01:45 PM. © Daring Fireball

Michael Lopp:

[T]here are a lot of folks who think gamification means pulling the worst aspects out of games and shoving them into an application. It?s not. Don?t think of gamification as anything other than clever strategies to motivate someone to learn so they can have fun being productive.

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Read The Full Article:
http://www.randsinrepose.com/archives/2012/05/09/two_universes.html

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#9

post from Mac Apps on 09 May 2012 05:41:39 PM. © Mac Apps

CamTwist

CamTwist for Mac is a free video app that allows you to spice up your chats with all sorts of original and special effects.

http://camtwist.en.softonic.com/mac

Read The Full Article:
http://macapps.tumblr.com/post/22736504555

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HP Expands Ultrabook Line, Unveils Sleekbooks

post from Daring Fireball on 09 May 2012 05:02:40 PM. © Daring Fireball

Well, there we go. HP’s problems are all solved and the company’s PC business is back on track. All they needed was yet another gimmicky marketing name for a new batch of MacBook Air knockoffs.

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Read The Full Article:
http://allthingsd.com/20120509/hp-expands-ultrabook-line-unveils-sleekbooks/

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DVDs and Blu-Rays Will Soon Carry Two Unskippable
Government Warnings

post from Daring Fireball on 09 May 2012 05:02:40 PM. © Daring Fireball

Nate Anderson, writing for Ars Technica:

Will the two screens be shown back to back? Will each screen lastfor 10 seconds each? Will each screen be unskippable? Yes, yes,and yes.
An ICE spokesman tells me that the two screens will “come up afterthe previews, once you hit the main movie/play button on the DVD.At which point the movie rating comes up, followed by the IPRCenter screen shot for 10 secs and then the FBI/HSI anti-piracywarning for 10 secs as well. Neither can be skipped/fast forwardedthrough.”

So to encourage people not to engage in piracy, they’re going to force everyone to watch yet another annoying, time-wasting, gratification-delaying warning screen that can only be avoided by engaging in piracy.

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Read The Full Article:
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2012/05/dvds-and-blu-rays-will-now-carry-two-u
nskippable-government-warnings/

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Package discount: WebVisions + Free Workshop +
Free Web Fonts

post from Manage This on 09 May 2012 04:03:48 PM. © Manage This

[...]

Read The Full Article:
http://blog.extensis.com/events/package-discount-webvisions-free-workshop-free-we
b-fonts.php

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Google+ gets new iPhone app, Android next

post from Apple on 09 May 2012 04:03:44 PM. © Apple

Google released a new version of its Google+ iPhone app today that represents a big step for the social service on iOS. The existing app was more or less a wrapper around the Google+ mobile experience, but the update replaces this with a much more visual approach. Google SVP of Engineering Vic Gundotra announced the changes on Google?s blog:

?We?re not interested in a mobile or social experience that?s just smaller. We?re embracing the sensor-rich smartphone (with its touchable screen and high-density display), and transforming Google+ into something more intimate, and more expressive.?

Key parts of this new experience include photo and video sharing. Take a look at some of the changes below:

LoadingNextPreviousPicture 1 of 5

ios2

iOS has been a bit of an afterthought for Google+, with new features generally launching on Android first. However, with this update, Google decided to innovate on the iPhone and then take some of those new features to its own mobile platform. Gundotra said on Google+ that a similar update to the Google+ Android app will be rolled out ?in the next few weeks,? and he teased that the Android app would include ?a few additional surprises.?

Google+ still doesn?t have a native iPad app, and a Google spokesperson told me Wednesday that the company has ?nothing to announce at this time for the iPad.?

The update of the iPhone app isn?t just a big step for Google+ on iOS, it also hints at where Google is going with its social network. The company recently rolled out a revamped web app for Google+, which features a much simpler layout and also includes a better presentation of photos.

That could point to Google viewing photos and other kinds of media sharing as a key part of the Google+ experience, which the company has in the past described as two sides of a coin: One part is Google+ the social layer, which enables users to personalize search and add functionality to Google services like GMail and Google Drive. The second part is Google+, the social network, which is more directly competing with Facebook. It?s becoming increasingly clear that Google views media and especially photos as a key asset in this competition.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
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Read The Full Article:
http://gigaom.com/2012/05/09/google-plus-new-iphone-app/

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President Obama Endorses Same-Sex Marriage

The trend is clear:

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg of New York said, ?No Americanpresident has ever supported a major expansion of civil rightsthat has not ultimately been adopted by the American people, and Ihave no doubt that this will be no exception.?

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Read The Full Article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/10/us/politics/obama-says-same-sex-marriage-should
-be-legal.html

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Andy Ihnatko Reviews iPhoto for iPad

Andy Ihnatko:

During this time, you will obsessively peck at iPhoto?s ?Help?button. When you tap it, every button and interface elementacquires a yellow coaching tag. It looks as though iOS is beingpecked to death by a flock of canaries.
But here?s the point: Somewhere around Day One of Week Two, theclouds part. You?ll see a logic behind iPhoto that wasn?timmediately apparent and you?ll have forgiven those weird choices.From that day forward, until some company produces an even betterphoto editor or until the heat death of the universe, you?ll beworking with an desktop-grade app with few limitations. Isn?t thatbetter than an app that you completely figure out in five minutesand then completely outgrow in five weeks?

Detailed review of perhaps the most ambitious iOS app to date.

(I’ve heard that, in development, Apple was unsure whether to call it “iPhoto”, “Aperture”, or something entirely new. “iPhoto” won out, obviously, but Apple was aware from the start that this iOS app is in many ways more complex than iPhoto for Mac.)

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Read The Full Article:
http://www.suntimes.com/technology/12383842-478/results-make-up-for-awkwardness-o
f-iphoto-for-ipad.html

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