What Thunderbolt means for the MacBook line

Today information surfaced about a new I/O-interface called “Thunderbolt” that Apple will supposedly add to it’s MacBook Pro line of notebooks during the rumoured upcoming refresh.

This interface is believed to be a rebranded version of Intel’s “Light Peak” standard, a bi-directional I/O-interface which allows 10 Gbit/s data transfers and multiple protocols at the same time (this video gives a good overview of Light Peak’s capabilities).

I believe this standard will have huge implications for the future design of Apple’s portable laptops (and iOS devices).

Boldly put, the need for separate display and data ports will vanish.

While this may sound unconvincing for desktop computers and laptops the size of Apple’s 15” & 17” MacBook Pro — Why should one have to daisy-chain devices or carry adapters, when there’s enough room for separate ports? — it’s great for laptops like the MacBook Air, where size matters and places to put ports are rare.

In terms of external storage and accessories, the MacBook Air would benefit greatly from this kind of interface, since it has traditionally been limited to a rather slow USB2.0 connection (the current 13” MacBook Air enjoys two rather slow USB2.0 ports and an SD card slot). The possibility to just daisy-chain a fast external hard drive, a display, and even a third party port replicator, could make life easier for people reliant on devices like the MacBook Air.

In my opinion the Thunderbolt interface could also be a successor for the aged dock connector found on iOS devices, as it can carry anything from a simple data stream, a video signal, an audio signal and lastly power.

Quick thought on HP and webOS

Having caught up on yesterday’s press event and hands-on reports concerning webOS and the new HP/Palm devices, the thing that came to my mind first, was that HP thinks bigger and farther than all other companies trying to compete with Apple today.

From my point of view the Pre3, the TouchPad and — in its own way — the Veer are not meant to compete with today’s iPad and iPhone 4, but with whatever Apple will release next. They didn’t say it out loud, but the device’s specifications and the effort put into the next incarnation of webOS seem to suggest it.

Readability’s new service

marco:

I’ve always been a huge fan of Arc90’s Readability bookmarklet, which performs an article-text parse of any web page and displays the results in a highly readable, adjustable format. (It’s like Instapaper’s text view, but nicer and applied in place, instantly, to the web page you’re viewing.)

Today, they launched an entirely new Readability service: you pay a small fee each month, and they give most of the proceeds to the authors of the pages you choose (by using the Readability bookmarklet on them, or adding them in other ways). It’s a great way for readers to support web publishers, big and small, directly and automatically.

I’m working with Readability in three main ways:

• Instapaper will soon provide an option to send logs of your reading activity to your Readability account if you have one, so pages you read in Instapaper will give “credit” to the publishers.
• I’ve created a special Readability edition of the Instapaper iPhone and iPad app to serve as Readability’s official mobile app, due out in the near future.
• I’m an advisor to the company.

Trust me, these guys really know their stuff, and their heads are in the right place: there are no sinister motives or shady practices. It works exactly the way you’d expect, and is one of the most positive, constructive efforts I’ve seen in the online publishing world in a long time.

I’m honored to be a part of it, and I can’t wait to see where it goes from here.

I like this idea for a few reasons:

1. You pay what you want. Of whatever you are willing to spend each month, writers get 70%.
2. You’re billed through Amazon Payments. If you already have an account with Amazon, you don’t have to give your credentials to yet another company.
3. You can cancel any time you want.

I’m practically married to my Instapaper account; I cherish the evenings when I can sit down and go through my Instapaper cue one by one.
The ability to easily reward the authors whose work I enjoy so much, is something I’ve been waiting for a long time.

I hope this catches-on quickly.

An email to the game publisher Interplay (update)

The following email I just sent to the game publisher Interplay. I wonder if I’ll get an actual response.

Good evening.

I recently went through some old boxes and found my copy of Starfleet Academy. With glee I remembered the hours of fun I had playing it.

Then I asked myself: Why is there not one good Star Trek game for iOS? Sure there was the promo game for the 2009 Star Trek movie, but that was it.

So I thought: Starfleet Academy would be the one of the best games to re-release and port to iOS. Both the iPad and the iPhone 4 have displays that can easily handle the games interface and the internals are more than capable to run smoothly.

What other devices have come closer to what we have seen in the countless Star Trek episodes than the iPad (P.A.D.D. anyone?) and the iPhone?

What better homage could you give the creators of Star Trek, than making them and yourselves more money, by letting people play one of the greatest Star Trek games on an interface that so closely resembles what the characters in the movies and TV series have used daily?

Just think about it.

Kind regards,

…

Well, I received a response from a nice soul at Interplay this morning. I’m going to assume he or she doesn’t mind me posting it:

Mr. Hoffmann,

Thank you for writing. Star Trek for iOS makes sense to us, unfortunately, we no longer have the Star Trek license and are not permitted to make Star Trek games for any platform, including iOS.

I’m not sure who is the current license holder for Star Trek. Last I heard, it was Bethesda, but that was a while ago. Perhaps you should contact Paramount directly.

Thanks again for the suggestion, sorry we can’t do anything about it.

It looks like I’m going to have to write another email. I’m not giving up though.

Marking tweets as favourites in @twitterrific for iOS

I feel kind of silly for it, but this made me go “whoa whoa whoa” for a second:

If you want to quickly mark a tweet as a favourite, without leaving the timeline view, triple-tap anywhere on the tweet (except links) and watch the magic happen.