Taking Your Talent to the Web Now a Free Download

post from Daring Fireball on 16 April 2009 02:11:00 PM. © Daring Fireball

Jeffrey Zeldman’s excellent 2001 book Taking Your Talent to the Web is now available as a free PDF download.

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http://www.zeldman.com/2009/04/16/taking-your-talent-to-the-web-is-now-a-free-dow
nloadable-book-from-zeldmancom/

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The Dream Apps announces Currencee 1.0 for iPhone
and iPod Touch

post from prMac on 16 April 2009 02:02:00 PM. © prMac

The Dream Apps today released Currencee 1.0, a sleek, stylish, affordable and easy to use currency converter for the iPhone and iPod touch. Currencee makes currency converting a breeze. On launch it automatically downloads the latest set of exchange rates in seconds and then allows you to use them. Select the currency you want to convert from, and the one you want to convert to at the bottom the app, and then type in the amount, and Currencee calculates it automatically.

Read The Full Article:
http://prmac.com/release-id-5232.htm

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Andy Baio on Category Inflation at The Webby
Awards

post from Daring Fireball on 16 April 2009 01:44:00 PM. © Daring Fireball

This year I’m starting my own Internet award contest. It’s called The Douchey Awards, and I’m very proud to announce the winners: everyone who paid to enter the Webbys.

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http://waxy.org/2009/04/category_inflation_at_the_webbys/

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Clay Shirky on the Failure of #amazonfail

post from Daring Fireball on 16 April 2009 01:36:00 PM. © Daring Fireball

Clay Shirky:

Though the #amazonfail event is important for several reasons, I can?t write about it dispassionately, because I was an enthusiastic participant in its use on Sunday. I was wrong, because I believed things that weren?t true.

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Read The Full Article:
http://www.shirky.com/weblog/2009/04/the-failure-of-amazonfail/

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gDEBugger 5.0 ships

post from MacNN | The Macintosh News Network on 16 April 2009 01:20:00 PM. © MacNN | The Macintosh News Network

Graphic Remedy has launched gDEBugger 5.0 in a simultaneous release for multiple platforms, includin...

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http://feeds.macnn.com/click.phdo?i=605b431e9c6e362f29b4665a81ea5f60

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XChange UK Assumes the Operation of
ThePowerXChange

post from prMac on 16 April 2009 01:16:00 PM. © prMac

XChange UK are pleased to announce they have now assumed the operation of ThePowerXChange website. ThePowerXChange has been based near Denver, Colorado, since 1995 and distributes thousands of extensions-based products used with applications such as QuarkXPress, Photoshop, Illustrator, Acrobat, After Effects, Premiere, and QuarkXPress Server, as well as many stand-alone applications for the designer, publisher, printer, and web-content creator.

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http://prmac.com/release-id-5230.htm

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Leaked Pentax DSLR image

post from MacNN | The Macintosh News Network on 16 April 2009 01:15:00 PM. © MacNN | The Macintosh News Network

An image of what appears to be an upcoming Pentax digital SLR camera has been spotted on a Chinese b...

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http://feeds.macnn.com/click.phdo?i=557f58c8fd6cf4f173c24ee59c4107c9

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IDC Numbers: Apple’s Doing Just Fine, Thank
You

post from TheAppleBlog on 16 April 2009 01:00:00 PM. © TheAppleBlog

idc_1q_09

Here’s a piece on IDC’s PC Tracker numbers for the first quarter of the year. They’re quite revealing when you look at them soberly.

The first thing you have to do, as I’ve argued before, is pull Apple out of the “PC” mix, so Apple (Mac) can be compared against all the others (PC). Comparing Apple’s figures to an overall figure that includes Apple’s totals makes no sense.

In the U.S., we can pull Apple’s figures from the PC total and come up with 13,835 for 1Q ‘09, and 14,297 for 1Q ‘08, for PCs. Some quick math shows that to be an overall Y/Y drop of 3.23 percent.

Apple’s figures, as the number 4 vendor, show a drop of 1.22 percent.

Right off the bat you can see PC sales dropped 2 percent more than Macs. It would be hard (impossible, really), based on these numbers, to say that Apple was doing anything but better than the PC industry. And the real story goes even deeper than that.

Consider this:

Lots of noise is made over HP’s and Acer’s gains, but clearly these have come at the expense of Dell and “Others”. You can’t change the fact that overall the PC industry is down over three points.
Millions and millions of netbooks have been sold, without which the PC figure would be worse. Why does this matter? Ultimately unit sales mean nothing, what matters is profits, and netbooks are even more razor-thin than cheap laptops.
Speaking of cheap laptops, those are practically being given away. The deals at HP and others are so “good” right now that there’s even less money in it for the vendor.
Apple, meanwhile, dropped by a much smaller amount than the PC industry.
A good portion of the quarter Apple didn’t even have their latest models available, being launched in March.
Apple did not have to rely on a “netbook” to drive its sales; profit margins are still good.
Apple also did not have to rely on giveaways or free upgrades.

I realize the above figures are U.S. only, but it’s where IDC has provided detailed Apple figures. Besides, it’s silly to think that globally this overall trend for Apple will be different. Especially since — as PC supporters frequently point out — Apple is a smaller player on the global front.

And, no, I’m not saying a Y/Y drop is a good thing. Of course it isn’t. I’m saying it’s all relative, and one must consider the conditions under which the drop occurred.

The bottom line is this: For all the ranting and raving by analysts about lowering prices in this economy, which PC vendors have done, Apple has continued to produce quality Macs at good profit margins and still dropped less than the PC industry.

Read The Full Article:
http://theappleblog.com/2009/04/16/idc-numbers-apples-doing-just-fine-thank-you/

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Waiting for the Billionth Download

post from Feedburner: O'Reilly Digital Media: Mac on 16 April 2009 12:08:13 PM. © Feedburner: O'Reilly Digital Media: Mac

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http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/oreilly/digitalmedia/mac/~3/xkOk2OcDYIc/itunes-app
-store-billionth-download.html

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Verizon Hub app store

The Internet-connected Verizon Hub home phone may soon get its own applications store, according to ...

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http://feeds.macnn.com/click.phdo?i=5b5dff77f2722b935bd8fe43414fb1ef