Links for Sunday June 28th, 2009
Coding Horror: The iPhone Software Revolution: While in general, I agree with Jeff that with the iPhone, Apple is threatening to build a software empire for the next 15 - 20 years, similar to what Microsoft has had in the past, I disagree that the original iPhone wasn't worth owning. My original 8Gb iPhone still serves as my only phone, and more importantly, is potentially the single greatest technology device that I have ever owned. (via Daring Fireball)
Kamal Meattle on how to grow fresh air | Video on TED.com: Nifty research out of India -- as cities gain prominence due to their energy efficiency, it's going to increasingly important to maintain air quality within them.
Chrome and Firefox 3.5 Memory Usage: While I haven't tried out Firefox 3.5 yet, memory usage looks pretty good. I'm not sure if the comparison against Chrome is fair, however, as the author compared against a development version.
TidBITS iPod & iPhone: Why AT&T Has a Lock on the iPhone: I think Apple has a proven capability that they'll make major shifts in vendor alliances, technical details be damned, if they get pissed off enough. So the real question is, how pissed off at AT&T is Apple right now? Because while I agree that Apple wants to stick to GSM, I think that if they want to be on Verizon before 2012 or 2013, they'll have to make a GSM / CDMA hybrid phone. In order to have this phone in 2010, however, Apple would have to be extremely motivated. And unfortunately, while I don't think that Apple is 100% happy with AT&T, I don't think they are super unhappy with them, either.
Big in Japan: Apple Retail Experience -- Seeking Alpha: Apple has really shown good the buying experience for a computer can be. It boggles my mind that the rest of computer retail hasn't caught up -- I mean, being able to surf the Internet on a PC before you buy it is simply critical. This quote seems to sum things up:
"Such a store shows a great deal of confidence in the products, which gives me confidence as a buyer."