Links for Thursday October 29^th, 2009

• One-handed computing with the iPhone: Kottke nails it:

  "Straphangers in NYC and elsewhere know what a great one-handed device the iPhone is. Riding the subway and reading has never been so easy, especially during rush hour..."

  I have found that I can't use my MacBook Air on the commute home the vast majority of the time, because I can't find a seat. Thus, it's up to the iPhone to save the day.

• How Apple sliced its pie in 2009 - Apple 2.0 - Fortune Brainstorm Tech: Look how much the iPhone grew in just a year. That slice of the pie is going to look really big next year.

• Apple's 10K reveals higher R&D, more key suppliers, warns of lower margins | 9 to 5 Mac: Lots of interesting stuff, including (emphasis mine):

  "The Company expects to experience decreases in its gross margin percentage in future periods, as compared to levels achieved during 2009 and 2008, due largely to the anticipated impact of product transitions, flat or reduced pricing on new and innovative products that have higher cost structures, both expected and potential future cost increases for key components, a stronger U.S. dollar and higher logistical costs."

  This bodes well for us continuing to see cheaper Macs in 2010.

• YCRFS 3: Things Built on Twitter: Paul Graham gets to the heart of Twitter:

  "Successful new protocols are rare. There are only a handful of commonly used ones: TCP/IP (the Internet), SMTP (email), HTTP (the web), and so on. So any new protocol is a big deal. Each one of those protocols has spawned many successful companies. Twitter will too."