Given the past few days, I think we can lay off Google for the time being, given that Buzz just got another round of fixes and they mostly make sense (even though one is reminded of the expression “defective by design”), and stop bashing the endless Facebook redesigns that take away basic things like filtering (which, incidentally, Google Reader still doesn’t do, but alas), and turn to that oft-ignored portion of our existence called “real life”¹.

Becoming a parent sort of puts things into perspective. Becoming a parent for the second time is like having perspective smashed in your head by way of a slice of lemon wrapped around a gold brick, and the resulting migraine isn’t pretty.

And no, it doesn’t quite happen like this:

I’m very happy to have my second kid at home now, even considering that having to wake up two to three times in the middle of the night to deal with bottles, changing diapers, putting the older one back to bed after being woken up by all the ruckus and whatnot is turning my brain to mush.

Amazingly, I feel a whole lot better than I did in the preceding few weeks, even though I’m basically exhausted and could sleep on pointy rocks if I had to. You know why? Because I’m doing stuff that matters to me.

I think that will be the biggest challenge I have to face this year – finding ways to be with my kids more often and give me a better work-life balance.

Going completely offline for a while would certainly have happened by now If I didn’t need a creative outlet and enjoyed writing so much, but once I go back to a full work schedule something’s gotta give…

—

¹ Facebook has slightly improved its geek cred by doing XMPP chat (an insanely useful feature that Twitter killed off, never to be seen again), but that doesn’t mean they’re safe at this point. ↩

Palm’s surprise entry for the newfangled “web-based smartphone” category.

This page is another link dump regarding the 3GS iPhone refresh. Some of the material from the 3G page has been moved over as appropriate.

Date	Link	Notes
2010
Feb 09	Does the iPhone OS Need Multitasking?	Some people’s fixation with multitasking never ceases to amaze me.
Jan 25	Vodafone [UK] sells 100K iPhones in 7 days	Not too shabby.
2009
Dec 21	iPhone and Vodafone UK set the date: January 14	no comment.
Dec 18	iPhone controls 46% of Japanese smartphone market	Pretty impressive. Let me guess, the fact that they don’t have a physical keyboard and tweaked every single known Asian input method has something to do with it.
Nov 25	iPhone to be sold by Tesco in the UK, hemorrhages cachet	I suppose this is product placement of sorts.
Nov 23	The end of exclusivity leading to big iPhone sales in Europe	Didn’t take a genius to figure that out.
Nov 12	Apple grabs 17% of smartphone market in latest quarter	The graph is good enough to keep around here:
Nov 03	Vodafone promises “iPhone surprises” – ElectricPig.tv	I’m not telling.
	iPhone: Big in China	The scale of the country makes the figures meaningless…
	China Unicom: Just 5,000 iPhones Sold Since Debut	Last time I looked at cost of living and average income in China, things were definitely not stacked on Apple’s favor, but still…
Nov 02	WSJ: Official iPhone Launch in China Off to Sputtering Start	Interesting read.
Oct 31	Chinese iPhone Lacks Wi-Fi	I still don’t fully get why the Chinese keep backing their own standard (which, by the way, makes it easier to track individual users). Then again, not having to go through the mess that has been the transition to WPA might have saved them a lot of hassles…
Oct 30	iPhone Launch in China: Little Buzz, No WiFi	Not much news, really.
Oct 28	Apple Will ‘Vigorously’ Defend Against Nokia iPhone Lawsuit	Yep. This is going to take years.
Oct 27	“Verizon: we’re “interested in iPhone, ball in Apple’s court	I’m sure the secretary took notice they called.
Oct 24	AT&T Mobility CEO suggests iPhone exclusivity will end… sometime	…sometime is pretty precise. Ah well.
Oct 23	Nokia sues Apple, says iPhone infringes patents	A bit more detail on the suit and per-device royalties.
Oct 22	iPhone headed to Telus and Bell’s fancy new HSPA networks next month?	Canada is a strange (but welcoming) place.
Oct 15	In App Purchase Enables Free iPhone App Demos	I’m cautiously optimistic, since there are two sides to this coin.
Oct 7	iPhone To Be Offered From Multiple Carriers, eh	Of course.
Oct 5	iPhone headed to Telus and Bell’s fancy new HSPA networks next month?	Yep, exclusivity deals seem to be over…
Sep 5	An Update on iPhone MMS for our Mobility Customers	MMS will only be available in the US on Sep 25th (probably no tethering). Another big difference between US and “European“European carriers…
Aug 28	China Unicom officially says ‘ni hao’ to iPhone 3GS	a bit more detail, but not much.
	iPhone coming to China Unicom in Q4—it’s official	A non-exclusive deal, apparently without Wi-Fi and little known details.
Jun 24	iPhone 3GS: $179 to build says iSuppli	I’m starting to think these cost estimates are bunk, but they’re useful as a reference point anyway.
Jun 22	Review: iPhone 3GS lives up to its speedy claims	Pretty extensive review
	Apple: 1 million iPhone 3G Ses sold, 6 million downloads of 3.0	Impressive.
Jun 20	Review: iPhone 3G S — Rob Old Ladies to Get It	I wouldn’t be that extreme, but the gallery is interesting.
Jun 19	iPhone, therefore I Am	Stephen Fry reviews the 3GS in his own inimitable style
Jun 18	iPhone 3G S Repair Guide	The teardown frenzy makes its first casualties.
	iFixit 3GS teardown
Jun 10	The iPhone 3GS Hardware Exposed & Analyzed	A knowledgeable breakdown of the hardware.

The mobile platform sponsored by Google as part of the Open Mobile Alliance, evolved from their 2005 acquisition of the company with the same name.

The following is a link dump regarding both the platform and those devices more closely associated with it:

Resources:

Date	Link	Notes
2010
Feb 09	Google makes biggest gain in smartphone market share	More pretty charts (US-centric, therefore meaningless). The difference here is that there are umpteen versions of Android devces and far fewer of other platforms…
Feb 08	Google reduces its Nexus One termination fee	Interesting.
Feb 03	Nexus One gets a software update, enables multitouch	Will it change anything?
Jan 26	Google: Nexus One 3G issues result of poor coverage, bugs; patch possibly within a week	Wouldn’t be surprised if it was a baseband upgrade.
Jan 21	Google’s Nexus One is no iPhone – and that’s OK	A more balanced review.
Jan 14	Nexus One Phone	Hilarious video review.
Jan 13	In the First Week, Google May Have Sold 20,000 Nexus One Phones	Comparing 20K against 1.6 million iPhones on the first week is a bit unfair considering the way it’s sold.
	Google Charges ETF For Nexus One On Top of Carrier’s	Interesting. More here and here.
Jan 12	Google at the crossroads: a review of the Nexus One	Pretty detailed and comprehensive review, as always.
	T-Mobile gives reps troubleshooting tips for Nexus One’s 3G issues	Looks like a baseband issue alright.
	Google learning that users want real support for Nexus One	Learning can be painful.
	On-duty with the Nexus One: form factor, battery, Android	An odd review.
	Android 2.1 SDK	About time.
	T-Mobile makes mention of 3G issues with Nexus One, hopes to have ‘more information’ soon	Here’s to some heroic debugging.
	Nexus One: $174 Cost to Build	About the same estimated production cost than a 3GS, except that Apple has likely done a better bulk deal on parts… Also, nice comparative tables.
Jan 06	Vodafone promises Nexus One ‘in a few short weeks’	And this is probably where I stop keeping track of this particular device…
	Google’s biggest announcement was not a phone, but a URL	I find it amazing that they’d write this much about ordering a phone online on a third-party store, but that’s the US mobile market for you.
	Google Isn’t Targeting iPhone Users; It’s Targeting Everyone Else	Much ado about nothing in particular, basically.
	Nexus One teardown reveals 802.11n WiFi and FM transmitter	This teardown mania is somewhat fun, but one wonders how long it will take until people realise that only a very small minority of what is “unearthed” is news…
	State of the Art – Google Shakes but Doesn’t Upend the Cellphone Market – NYTimes.com	Pogue doesn’t seem terribly impressed.
Jan 05	Google Phone Unveiled Today	A coherent list of specs, although there are plenty of meaningless stats bolted on to beef up the article.
Jan 05	Google’s Nexus One is official	$529 unlocked, shipping to the US, UK, Singapore and Hong Kong, or with a two year T-Mobile US contract for $179. There go a lot of pipedreams about it being sold direct to the public at “astonishingly low” prices.
Jan 04	Nexus One review	not much in terms of review, actually.
Jan 03	Exclusive: Google Nexus One hands-on, video, and first impressions	Not an iPhone killer. Hardly capable of killing a fly, apparently.
2009
Nov 30	Droid Doesn’t: It’s Not Ready For Prime Time · Alsop Louie Partners	A month later, reality calls.
Nov 23	Stats show Motorola Droid is the new elephant in the Android room	I’m still wary of stats (local copy of PDF), but I hear it’s selling pretty well indeed.
Nov 11	Motorola Droid torn down despite desperate cries of ‘no disassemble’	Worth looking at.
	Droid Does… only have 256MB of storage for apps	Now that’s gotta be… Useful.
	Analyst estimates 100,000 DROID smartphones sold in first weekend	It isn’t the RAZR, but it’s a decent figure.
Nov 05	“Andy Ihnatko on Verizon Droid “iDon’t ads: baloney	Yep.
	Personal Droid Data Plan Will Cost $30 Per Month, Even With Exchange	I honestly don’t get why they are trying to charge it this way.
Nov 03	Exchange Access for Droid: $15 Extra Per Month	Wow.
Oct 30	Android Phones Get Free Turn-By-Turn Directions	Best overview yet
	Google adds free turn-by-turn navigation, car dock UI to Android 2.0	The quip about an Apple version is not to be missed.
	Google Navigation video hands-on: you want this	Looks nice indeed, but let’s wait to see how well map caching works.
Oct 29	The Droid Has Landed…Unboxed! Plus a Few Facts	Nothing to worry about except that it’s the start of a trend.
Oct 28	Droid Launches Nov. 6 Priced To Match iPhone	The price matching approach is interesting, but then again in the US handset prices don’t work quite the same way as in Europe…
	Motorola DROID first hands-on!	I can’t figure out why these people keep wasting space in hardware keyboards.
	Verizon Droid Phone: Nov 6th, $199	A pretty decent feature set overview.
	Google Releases Android 2.0 SDK	But the UI guidelines are still a bit on the loose side.
Oct 27	Android 2.0 Highlights	The e-mail client looks nice, but I’m curious as to usability.
	Android 2.0 is Official — Quick Contacts Look Nice	This is just what I think is needed in oh, so many other places.
	Droid to be Verizon’s Android Product Line — Not a Single Phone	Now this is a clever move.
Oct 24	Verizon’s Droid is a series, not just a phone; Droid Eris coming from HTC	Let’s see how this pans out. I’m quite curious, actually, to see if Verizon can pull this off in the sense of generating genuine buzz around an operator-specific set of Android devices.
Oct 20	Android thoughts two years later	Well worth reading through, and mirrors my own views. One to re-visit a few years from now indeed.
Oct 7	Android, not iPhone, is Bigger Symbian Challenger Says Gartner	Not rocket science, but a bit exaggerated, since nobody can really look that far into the future in this industry. Still, here’s the chart:
Sep 23	Cyanogen	Modified firmware for some devices. Just had to happen.
Sep 15	Android 1.6 SDK is here	Well, at least compatibility is assured.
Sep 10	A nice summary table of devices
Sep 3	Some News from Android Market	It took them this long to add screenshots to apps.
Aug 17	The Android Opportunity (addenda)	Mostly agree, although this is too US-centric for it to be considered the whole truth.
Jun 24	HTC Hero running Android and Sense UI leaks from HTC‘s own website	Flash turns out to not be that exciting. Or useful. Plus the phone is plain ugly, and a lot thicker than what the first shot makes it look.
	HTC Hero hands-on: Flash, keyboard and ruminations
	Adobe demos Flash on the HTC Hero
Apr 29	Vodafone suggests future Android phones could have less Google	People keep confusing the platform with the services.
Apr 27
Loads of fun for various reasons.
Apr 20	Introducing home screen widgets and the AppWidget framework	An interesting technote on how Android handles home screen widgets.
Apr 2	Some Fun Facts About The Google Phone	Interesting stats about usage patterns.
Mar 5	HTC black Magic (Sapphire) hands-on: a Vodafone exclusive	Very few decent shots
Feb 25	Google blocks paid apps for unlocked G1 users	Interesting hint of fragmentation.
Feb 17	HTC Magic is official, bringing Android to Vodafone sans keyboard	And after adding these links, this page now merits a direct, obvious, reference to my Disclaimer
	HTC Magic in-depth hands-on, with video!
	HTC Magic first eyes-on!
	Photos: Hands-on with the HTC Magic Android phone
	HTC Magic – The new Google Android mobile phone from Vodafone
Feb 13	Android Market update: support for priced applications	Using Google Checkout, of course.
	Android Market: Open for Business	A very nice (if shallow) analysis that bunches together some interesting tidbits of info.
Feb 12	TeleNav Does Turn-By-Turn on Android	Apparently US-only, which is a pity.
Jan 1	Android netbooks on their way, likely by 2010	Dubious in both title and subject matter (we’ve known that Android could be made to run on PCs for a good while now.
2008
Dec 28	AD IV: Programming Newbie	Tim Bray lists a few interesting resources for new developers
Dec 17	Huawei powers up its Android plans	For Q3’09. Let’s see what they come up with.
Dec 9	Open Handset Alliance announces 14 new members	including Sony Ericsson and Vodafone. Most people missed this last bit, which is fun.
Dec 8	Unlocked Android: $399	Development samples, available for purchase.
Nov 7	Worst. Bug. Ever.	Although this was fixed fairly quickly, it is the perfect example of why mobile phones aren’t exactly trivial to “improve upon” using today’s technology.
Oct 31	iPhone vs T-Mobile G1	A short comparison.
Oct 24	Android Phone Teardown	How weird is it that this is in Japan?
Oct 22	HTC Dream T-Mobile G1 (black) Smartphone review
Oct 21	Android is now Open Source	Let’s see if someone will port this to Intel and get it running on a netbook…
Oct 16	Almost Human: a review of Google’s Android G1 phone	Good reading – a thorough appraisal.
	State of the Art – A Look at Google’s First Phone	Pogue weighs in.
	T-Mobile G1 review
	T-Mobile G1 Google Android Phone Review
Oct 15	Review: Over 260 images and 5 videos of the T-Mobile G1 Google Android device	A tad overkill, but interesting nonetheless.
	What Android Can Learn From the iPhone: It’s the Software, Stupid.	Brilliant title.
	The Google Phone Review: What I Love & Hate About T-Mobile G-1	Om weighs in.
	Google answers the iPhone	Walt Mossberg’s take.
	T-Mobile G1 review	Engadget’s lenghty two-part article, covering hardware and software (loads of imagery).
	T-Mobile G1, a hands-on introduction to the first Android phone	Some interesting videos
	Review of the T-Mobile G1 Google phone	Pretty comprehensive gallery.
Oct 9	First T-Mobile G1 user review	Not particularly gushing.
Sep 23	Video: Android walkthrough on T-Mobile G1	A few demos
Sep 16	Google shows off masked Android handset	About a year later, one of the first sightings of actual hardware (but running over Wi-Fi). I don’t get the “masked” bit, though – the hardware’s pretty obvious.
2007
Nov 11	Wikipedia	Background info
Nov 12	Android SDK	Includes plenty of links to videos and reference information

The iPad is Apple’s entry into an entirely new product category, launched January 27th, 2010. The picture below portrays a generic model (the 3G one has an antenna strip across the top):

This page will be mostly a link dump of reviews and opinion pieces regarding it, updated on an irregular basis.

Date	Link	Notes
Feb 10	iPad Component Costs Leave Room for Price Cuts	Utter balderdash, since there is no way iSupply can justify that $219.35 figure without the device being on the market.
Feb 09	Does the iPhone OS Need Multitasking?	Some people’s fixation with multitasking never ceases to amaze me.
Feb 08	Apple Management: iPad Prices Could Change	On other news, the weather could, too.
	Survey tries quantifying iPad hype, suggests interest waning	Ah, the utter meaninglessness of statistics. Still, the chart is interesting enough to keep around to compare with actual sales later on:
Feb 07	Apple Makes at Least $200 Per iPad Sold: Report	Guesstimates are the new news.
Feb 05	How to compete with iPad	The ironic bit is that if any of the competitors actually read this and get it, then the iPad will still have won.
Feb 01	Is the iPad a Kindle Killer?	A decent point-per-point comparison with the Kindle.
	iPad Camera rumor becoming a reality? We think so.	Weird, but interesting.
Jan 30	Hands-on with the Apple iPad – it does make sense	Andy’s view – apparently he isn’t aware of the new shared app data feature in the SDK, but he does have a point: if you can’t handle mail attachments in iWork apps, you can’t really interact with other people work-wise.
Jan 28	iPad About	Stephen Fry writes down his take on the launch event.
Jan 27	Editorial: Engadget on the Apple iPad	A grab-bag of mixed opinions.
Jan 27	iPad: The (attempted) Windows killer	Michael Mace has an intriguing view.

Update: Oh, so they’ve done and tried to smooth things over. How cute. Too little, too late, I say… In the meantime, here’s a choice quote from waffle: Some people play tennis. The Gmail team erodes the human comfort zone.

So, I’ve a week to go on the first stretch of my parental leave, and it’s all been a blur so far – too little sleep, too little breaks, the occasional itch to type a few paragraphs into Evernote before dozing off, the insane logistics of keeping two kids reasonably happy, well-fed and entertained and, in the meantime, the amount of people who seemingly can’t do without me at the office (sorry guys, but no, I won’t re-add you to Facebook or Twitter, I wll not take everyone’s calls and I most certainly won’t act on e-mail while I’m not actually working).

Plus, of course, sneaking a peek at the sheer madness across the Internet.

Speaking of that, João Craveiro has a very good rant on Google Buzz that you ought to read. And I have my 0.02 Eur on it as well.

I switched it off myself (using the link on the page footer) within minutes and then took an hour or so to figure out why I had so much junk cluttering my Reader, because, as it turns out, Buzz messes with your follow list on there as well. And, of course, since filtering in Reader still sucks (i.e., is basically non-existent), $DIVINITY forbid that one of your correspondents happens to have a thing for lolcats or a compulsion to share updates on their bowel movements.

Talk about a moronic approach to social networks and context – I use Facebook (barely) to keep in touch with folk I don’t e-mail and Twitter now mostly to keep track of trends, and I certainly do not want any of that (or similar) to clutter my inbox or my feeds.

If anyone at Google is reading this, repeat after me: Less is more. More junk is more noise. More noise is less time spent living.

Also, I want to choose my social circle, dammit. Until such time as Google Skynet takes over and every single electronic-mediated human interaction is mediated through you with AI-like levels of actual helpfulness, do not infer my social circle from the folk I correspond with. Even if it seems like a good idea to pre-populate it.

Because, you know, you got it so wrong.

As to the thing infiltrating (probably) every single Google web site, I would rather not have my (already waning) attention span turned into that of a gnat, thank you – there is a reason why I use different sites or tools for different things, just as there is a reason for every windowed desktop OS on the planet to have a foremost window – because that’s the context I want to look at.

I could go off in a tangent here and use this as an argument as to why the iPhone and iPad don’t really need multi-tasking because they’re context-focused devices and draw a parallel between the currently running application on those devices and the foremost window on a desktop OS, but I won’t. Someone else has probably slept enough to make that a cogent argument.

Polluting my context messes not just with my productivity (or progress, or enjoyment) but, first and foremost, with my patience. So yeah, Buzz stays off, and right now I’d rate it at 2.5 Farmvilles¹ of noxious social radiation.

—

¹ A Farmville being a unit I made up on the spot to measure social or web-based annoyances – 1 is the level at which you first sought out a way to block your Facebook friend’s updates regarding their finding a stray duckling or it getting run over by a lawnmower, etc., and 5 is being forced to read a complete thread in 4chan (with all the associated cognitive/cultural dissonance). Using Flash in your home page automatically gives you 1.5 Farmvilles. ↩