The Wax Drum

My thanks to Felt Tip Inc. for sponsoring this week’s DF RSS feed to promote their excellent iOS apps for fitness management. Couch to 5k helps you train to run a 5k, using a tested 9-week workout program based on intervals. Food Diary makes it easy to follow the simple equation: burn more calories than you consume, and you’ll lose weight. Both apps sport great UIs, and are available on the App Store.

November can’t get here soon enough.

Horace Dediu:

So the question is why is the iPad being cloned while the iPod has remained in the market by itself?

I’ve been asking for years. Still no such thing.

Christopher Breen:

An unexpected change is that iTunes Automator actions no longer load. This affects both existing workflows created for an earlier version of iTunes as well as any workflows you create with iTunes 10 installed. Those existing workflows simply won’t execute. And if you attempt to create new workflows that include iTunes actions, you’ll discover that the iTunes actions don’t appear in the actions library if you’ve installed iTunes 10.

Still tied to Verizon’s 3G network — your Wi-Fi connection doesn’t disconnect while using the app, but Skype doesn’t actually use it. Sounds great.

CRN:

And while Samsung also expects to leverage its own software, called bada, in future devices as well, it’s putting the majority of its eggs in the Android basket, as Android’s popularity continues to snowball with other device makers like Motorola and HTC hitching their device wagons to Google Android.

That wasn’t the tune Samsung was singing about Bada last year.

Kara Swisher:

And Facebook is nowhere on Ping, either. Currently, there is no linking, sharing or participation of any kind with Facebook–or Twitter or MySpace–on Ping, which will work only on the iTunes software on computers, iPhones and iPods.

When I asked Jobs about that, he said Apple had indeed held talks with Facebook about a variety of unspecified partnerships related to Ping, but the discussions went nowhere.

The reason, according to Jobs: Facebook wanted “onerous terms that we could not agree to.”

Give Samsung credit: their debut Android tablet is not a clone of the iPad. Smaller and lighter, if it has an advantage, it’s that you can hold it in one hand for reading. Bray has links to coverage elsewhere, too.

Android is open, but more open on Verizon.

Roger Ebert:

Our political immune system has only one antibody, and that is the truth.

If you’re mainly interested in Netflix streaming, I can’t see buying one of these over an Apple TV. Am I missing something?

Roku does have other content, like, for example, MLB.tv. And the Apple TV doesn’t have an API for an App Store. But: what if Apple opens up AirPlay to iPhone and iPad apps? Then the iPhone/iPad MLB At Bat app could stream video to the Apple TV.

Recorded this afternoon, soon after the end of today’s Apple event, Dan Benjamin and I discuss each of the big announcements. Lots to talk about.

This episode was sponsored by Instapaper. If you’re not using Instapaper, shame on you.

This is the game Epic demoed during today’s event. Impressive as hell.

From Apple’s tech specs for the cameras:

Video recording, HD (720p) up to 30 frames per second with audio; still photos (960 × 720) with back camera.

So it’s not the same camera as the iPhone 4. It does do still photos, but they’re under one megapixel in resolution. Not surprising, though — there’s way less room in the thin frame of the Touch.

Josh Topolsky, three weeks ago:

Oh, and there’s one more thing — Apple will be officially changing the name of the device to iTV, abandoning the current moniker in favor of something a little more in line with its current iOfferings.

Not so much.

Furthermore, the device will be getting apps and presumably an App Store entry, though it’s unclear if there will be cross-pollination between iPad and iPhone / iPod touch offerings and new Apple TV applications

Not so much there, either. The device is running iOS, though, trust me. So it’s possible that some sort of SDK is coming in the future. But I’m not going to hold my breath. Judging from the demo today, I think the fact that it’s running iOS under the hood is just an implementation detail.

Joshua Benton, on developing the Nieman Journalism Lab’s free iPhone app using TapLynx.

Clever $15 utility for Mac OS X from Cordless Dog:

If you’re fastidious about keeping your windows tidy, Stay is for you. Stay ensures that your windows are always where you want them to be, even as you connect and disconnect displays.

Arnold Kim:

For non-supported readers who are desperate to watch the stream close to live, it seems likely that you will be able to watch it — at least in stops and starts. The HTTP Live Stream protocol is based on very standard technologies. The stream is simply provided in an MPEG2 playlist (m3u file) that is added to as the stream continues. These standard playlists will load in VLC for both Mac and Windows.

Technically fascinating, emotionally moving interactive “video” by Chris Milk for Arcade Fire’s new single, “We Used to Wait”. All HTML5, not a lick of Flash; try it in Chrome or Safari 5. Nice write-up about it here at the Chome Experiments site.

There are some raised eyebrows today regarding Apple’s claim that their live streaming for today’s event is “based on open standards”, but only available for Mac OS X 10.6 and iOS users. It’s a damn shame that Windows users can’t watch it, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t an open standard. Maybe “proposed open standard” would be more apt, though.

Lots of speculation from readers via email, by the way, that the live streaming of the event is going to be part of the event itself — that Apple is going to announce high-fidelity live video streaming as a major new feature for Apple TV, Macs, and iOS devices.

Update: Email from a self-described “IETF weenie”:

http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-pantos-http-live-streaming-04 is not a proposed open standard. At the top of the document, it says “Intended status: Informational”. That means that the IETF will have no control over the content; only the authors do. This is actually a pretty important distinction.