Author: Jake

There’s a lot going on lately in the tech news arena. What’s interesting to me is that several major consumer players are converging to become all things to their users. Good old soup to nuts makes a triumphant return. Apple pioneered this model. They control every aspect of the user experience from the hardware all… Read More

This is very cool (h/t technabob). Project Tacit: Sonar For The Blind from Grathio Labs on Vimeo. Bonus points, it’s Arduino-based and CC-BY-NC licensed. Steve Hoefer (@grathio) even provides the code, schematics and parts list. This is the type of innovation I’m expecting will rise out of the Android ADK, announced at Google IO this year. Ben… Read More

In case you thought Java was for stuffy enterprise development, check out this Java ME-powered Hello Kitty phone. Behold the power of Java. Of course, Java ME powers a ton of devices, including loads of mobile phones, but this one is special. In case you think there’s no market for Hello Kitty phones, there’s an Android-powered… Read More

There will be tons of great WebCenter (@oraclewebcenter) sessions at OpenWorld this year. Check out Kellsey’s rundown: Oracle OpenWorld: Don’t Miss WebCenter Sessions (Oracle WebCenter Blog) In addition, check out the demo grounds, customer and partner sessions. Lots of WebCenter content this year, so make your plans now. In case you were wondering, we won’t… Read More

Just about a year after we said goodbye to Paul (@ppedrazzi), Rich (@rmanalan) is moving on to an outstanding opportunity at Atlassian. And then there was one, founding member of AppsLab, that is. As it was when Paul left, the mood is mixed. On the one hand, Rich is heading to a great company to… Read More

This is just funny, h/t Geekosystem. @111001001101010 Apparently, there’s some disagreement on the current (vs. future) spelling of Sarah’s last name. Is that you Neil Kodner (@neilkod)?

So, this is kind of a big deal. Official Google Blog: Supercharging Android: Google to Acquire Motorola Mobility Obviously Google wants to control the end-to-end hardware and software experience of Android devices, a la Apple. From my brief couple weeks using a Nexus S, vanilla Android is pretty nice. You don’t really notice the major… Read More

If you login to any oracle.com properties today, you’ll notice there’s a new look to the SSO login page. This new page is designed to be mobile-friendly and uses CSS3 media queries to determine the viewport size of your device and render the page appropriately. If you’re not on a mobile device but want to… Read More

This is hilarious, and not just because several words relate to Portland. Hipster lorem ipsum The next time you need some dummy text for a mockup or prototype, why not spice up that lorem ipsum with some hipster ipsum? It’s been pummeled a bit by traffic, but here’s what it looks like: And here’s a sample: PBR… Read More

Randal Munroe’s comic about password strength this week is classic xkcd. It immediately reminded me of 1Password, which I use and love, and Agile Bits, the maker’s of 1Password, actually posted about the comic as well, breaking down some of the math and cryptography. About a month ago, all IMAP connections to my Yahoo Mail… Read More

The final act of my switch from the HTC EVO 4G to the Nexus S was returning the EVO to stock condition. The EVO is a great phone, despite being ancient in smartphone terms. When it debuted in June of last year, it boasted the largest screen (4.3 inches, which is still among the biggest available)… Read More

Interesting infographic from Cricket Wireless about the particulars of different types of touchscreens and how they work. h/t Peter-Paul Koch (a.k.a. @ppk), TNW

So, this happened today, at least for a few moments, as Apple’s and ExxonMobil’s share prices fluctuated during the day. Apple set to surpass ExxonMobil as large company in the world | TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog At market close, ExxonMobil was still larger, by about $600 million in market cap, the measure for largest… Read More

Thank you Noodlor for putting together this great infographic on typography. If you’ve ever been annoyed or attracted by fonts or typefaces, this is for you. h/t Paul (@ppedrazzi), Fast Company’s Co.Design

This one’s weird. Life beyond HTTP 1.1: Google’s SPDY – igvita.com A while back, Google Chrome dropped the http from its location bar. This seemed like a decision based on cosmetic and usability concerns. Maybe not, since now Ilya Grigorik (@igrigorik) who joined Google from the PostRank acquisition in June is saying that Google’s web… Read More

So, I’ve been carrying my new Nexus S for several days, and it has really impressed me. It’s a beautiful device, just the right size, and I love running stock Android, one reason why I flashed my EVO with CyanogenMod (@cyanogen). Why? Because it’s very difficult to compare iOS to Android if you’re running the… Read More

I recently discovered that in iOS, you can delete a table row by making a slash (i.e. /) gesture over the row. I didn’t figure this out on my own; I read about it while studying the iOS SDK. This gesture only works with Cocoa Touch tables of a certain type, so not every row in… Read More

My move from the HTC EVO 4G that has served me well since Google IO 2010 to a brand new Nexus S 4G is nearly complete. Frankly, the biggest issue so far has been dealing with the carrier, i.e. Sprint. I’ve spent more than three hours on the phone with Sprint and in Best Buy stores trying… Read More

Today only, the Nexus S is free from Best Buy with a two-year contract agreement on any of the carriers who support it, i.e. Sprint, T-Mobile and AT&T. I’ve been pondering the jump to a new phone for a while, since my EVO running CyanogenMod 7 (@cyanogen) starting having weird issues with calls and GPS.… Read More

Back in March, I wrote about Meridian (@meridianapps), an app that maps indoor spaces, helping you find your way around places like Powell’s. Unbeknownst to me at the time, a pal of mine, Jeff Hardison (@jshardison) had gone to work there with, among others, Nick Farina (@nfarina), he of this week’s iOS to Android porting fame. Anyway,… Read More