Yesterday John Gruber linked to an article over at the New York Times, which stated that Facebook’s messaging system, Apple’s iMessage and similar services are slowly reducing usage of SMS around the world. He said:
It’s hard to think of a technology that more deserves to die than SMS.
I have to disagree with that. SMS might be a limited standard in terms of what can be transferred, and as the link in Gruber’s quote shows, the average cost for a SMS is incredibly high in the U.S.A. (even more so over here in Germany). Still, the service is useful, because 1. it is universally compatible with almost all types of cellular networks around the world and 2. because it’s fairly reliable due to the fact that it works when a data connection (needed to send any kind of email, iMessage, Facebook message, etc.) cannot be established. More info on SMS here.
The problem is—as it is so often—greed by the carriers. A simple network-inherent, ubiquitous functionality is marketed and sold at a premium, with nearly no price decline over the last ten years.
SMS doesn’t need to die, carriers should just stop charging customers for a fairly limited service that costs them close to nothing.
Hi there,
I recently set up my new website mangochutney.me and moved my blogs to the new site.
If you like what I post, please bookmark these new URLs and add the appropriate RSS feeds to your feed reader:
The new site is hosted with Squarespace’s version 6 beta, which means that there might be some hiccups and smaller changes in the weeks to come, but from here on out, I’m going to use it full-time. Every now and then something will still show up in the feeds of my Tumblr blogs, but this will only be done to backup longer pieces.
Once again XKCD amazes with a great illustration. Clicking through is not an option, it’s a must!
(via xkcd: Lakes and Oceans)
My take on splash screens in iOS games -
Another article I wrote for macgasm.net
Readdle recently updated its new note taking app Remarks.
I took a look at it for macgasm.net
On dealing with SPAM emails in iCloud -
It’s one of the areas Apple needs to improve.
[video]
The 3rd generation iPad — implications for gamers and game console producers -
I wrote a short post on the topic over at macgasm, check it out.
Visual Idiot · Every Mobile Social App Site, Ever -
Apt and accurate.
Via Curious Rat
What a great photograph.
Thanks to @CoreyTamas for the link.
(Source: marcmoukarzel)
[video]
- Not offer a way to download our data in some sort of a standard, transparent, and at least somewhat human-siftable format
- Hide or otherwise be opaque about precisely what personal data you smuggle out of our devices
- Not offer a one-to-two-click process for deleting our accounts
- Fail to actually remove our data from your servers after we delete our accounts (while complying with applicable regional laws governing data retention)
- Believe that taking VC and selling your customers’s private information is the only way to get a company off the ground, let alone run a successful business
- Not use SSL for passing even the slightest bit of private information
- Offer Facebook Connect as your only signup option [hat tip to Zwei in the comments]
Did I miss anything?
I wholeheartedly agree.
(Source: chartier)
The state of Apple's platform lock-in -
I’ve written a piece for macgasm, outlining the current state of Apple’s ecosystem regarding platform lock-in.
If you’re interested in how ‘Apple’s golden cage’ — as it is sometimes called by pundits — actually looks like, I encourage you to read the article.
How to make Twitter's favourites more useful -
Something I wrote for macgasm.net, that’s been bugging me for a while. The solution works nicely, I recommend checking it out.
Facebook Timeline Privacy Tips -
On February 7th Facebook’s timeline feature will go live for all users.
what used to be an opt-in feature will be mandatory for all users.
A consequence is that many things the user might think long forgotten, will be easily accessible and many posts that were private will now be visible to the public.
The linked site gives an overview of the things you can do to protect your privacy and tweak the way your new MySpace Facebook timeline works.