The former design director for the New York Times has written a blog post giving his thoughts on magazine apps for the iPad (something he clearly gets asked about a lot). The bottom line? He hates them. With a passion. Why? Because, Khoi Vinh says, they are “bloated [and] user-unfriendly” and because they are largely a result of a “tired pattern of mass-media brands trying vainly to establish beachheads on new platforms, without really understanding the platforms at all.”
The new app from New Yorker magazine comes in for particular derision from the designer, who says it took too long to download, cost him money even though he already subscribes to the print edition, and was a walled garden without any connection to the web — a point I made in a recent post about the new Esquire magazine app. As Vinh describes it: “I couldn’t email, blog, tweet or quote from the app, to say nothing of linking away to other sources — for magazine apps like these, the world outside is just a rumor to be denied.”
It’s unfortunate that Vinh doesn’t say much about news apps like the one his former employer has for the iPad. The designer says that news-based apps “are really a beast of a different sort, and with their own unique challenges. There is a real use case for news apps (regardless of whether or not any players are executing well in this space).” Magazines, however, are in danger of losing the battle for readers in a digital age by making their apps so closed and monolithic, Vinh argues.
Any doubts that mobile advertising is big business should be crushed by the most recent research from 
Apple is believed to be working with SIM-card manufacturer 
Apple updated the buying options for all models of the iPad to include free laser engraving earlier today. The option automatically comes up as you go through the process of ordering your iPad, and uses the same live preview feature that’s been standard for iPod engraving.
How much would you pay for the ability to watch videos, listen to music and browse the web on the go? $500? That’s the price of entry for the iPad. For $229, you can have an iPod touch with a 3.5-inch display. For $249, though, you can get a 7-inch display and the ability to do all those things. How?
Mobile application recommendation websites and services have sprung out of a growing need to filter, rank and recommend the best apps from the hundreds of thousands now available for download onto mobile phones. These sites operate outside of the official app marketplaces like the iTunes App Store and the Android Market, for example. 
Don't worry - Apple isn't trying to launch the next 
Today Amazon has launched 
However, it wasn’t really a terrible loss for RIM, as the entire smartphone market grew 78 percent overall. Though Apple did surpass RIM in sales volume (and seems poised to ship even more in the future, since supply constraints provided a choke point in 2010), it still has a long way to go before it approaches Nokia, the reigning king of the smartphone hill.
It’s inevitable. Each Apple event now changes the industry: sometimes for the better; other times… well, depends on who you ask. The latest Apple event may not be as obvious a game changer as others this past year, but its effects will be felt nonetheless.
The iPad is a 
Android developers waiting for Google to implement an official method for in-app purchases finally have some alternatives. This week, there was good news from 
It's no surprise that Netflix is preparing to make a move to a 
According to the 
Google won't be resuming its use of 
In the 
Beginning his presentation by waxing philosophical on the impact of iOS devices on Apple industrial design, Jobs rhetorically asked what would happen if an iPad and a MacBook Air “hooked up?” The result is the new MacBook Air. Proving the rumormongers right, the new MacBook Air will come in two distinct models, with screen sizes of 13.3 inches and 11.6 inches respectively.
Mobile video optimization firm 
Before today's 
HP today has officially introduced webOS 2.0, the biggest update to what was formerly Palm's mobile operating system, one of the assets gained by HP back in April when it 
In September, 
When I was a kid, Christmas Eve was the most excruciating night of the year. I couldn't sleep and I couldn't think about anything else besides what would be waiting for me under a tree the next morning (it was usually something in the Star Wars, G.I. Joe or Transformers universe). Now, at the youthful age of 35, my Peter Pan complex is rarely as strong as when Apple sets a date to announce a new product. Bang 'a Rang!
There's something about paying bills - the checkbook, the stamps, the envelopes, the taste of the adhesive - that just rubs me the wrong way. It isn't even the money making a one-way march out of my account, that's just inevitable. If I never had to deal with a paper bill again, my life would be happier.
Google's algorithms take your current location into account when choosing which results to display for searches where your location is relevant. Until now, though, it was rather hard to know where exactly Google thought you were and sometimes Google just doesn't get it right. Starting today, Google will 
Apple announced its earnings and revenue for the fourth quarter of its fiscal year today, and in news that won't surprise those who either monitor the stock market or who own an iPod, iPhone, iPad, and Macbook (um, that would be me) revealed that the company's financial standing is strong - record-breaking strong, that is.
We've all seen it and we've all done it - you're at a friends house with your laptop, and they don't have wireless, so you take a look and sign on to the nearest unsecured wireless network. No biggie, but certainly you wouldn't rely on this open network for all your Internet needs, right?
According to a recent survey of 78,835 mobile phone customers in the U.K., less than 5% of women would select an Android device as their next smartphone. The problem, explains Belinda Parmar, Founder of marketing agency