Building The Perfect Beast

The usual delicious goodness from John Gruber.

When All You Have Is an ‘Apple Is Doomed Without Steve Jobs’ Hammer, Everything Looks Like a Nail

John Gruber and Dan Benjamin talk Mike Daisey.

The Daisey stuff starts about midway through. Well worth the listen. Then listen again.

5by5 | The Talk Show #84: Daisey, Daisey, Give Me Your Answer, Do

Gruber:

I think what Daisey really believes is that he deserves the attention his lies have brought him, and so he has no intention to stop telling them.

I think Gruber’s right.

Totally worth the read.

Daring Fireball: Separating the Baby From the Bath Water

John Gruber recently tested iPhone 4 and other iOS device upload and download speeds using the FCC’s FCC Test app. Impressed with his numbers I thought I’d give it a try myself and see what kind of speeds I’m getting here in NYC. My results? Significantly different.

First Test

Second Test

Third Test

Ouch!! Can’t wait to try this at home.

The iPad | via Daring Fireball

Really great, detailed, personalized look at the iPad. As of the writing of the piece Gruber had only been using his iPad for two days. Very difficult to pull out any single highlight because the piece is bloody full of them.

One interesting point, and a detail that differentiates what Gruber has to say from what Rick LePage has to say, kind of hinges on the same idea. At this point in the game the iPad appears as a blank slate, or as Gruber says, an empty Canvas. (Canvas being the name he was using before the iPad was actually called the iPad.)

One thing that’s making it hard for some people to grasp the purpose of the iPad is that no one has an answer to what precisely it is for. This was not so for the iPhone. The answer to the question of what the original 2007 iPhone was meant for was right there at the bottom of the iPhone home screen, in the “dock”: phone, email, web, music and video. The other apps were icing on the cake. The four apps in the dock were what Apple designed the iPhone to do.

That singular fact is what leads LePage to suggest that the device is a luxury and not a necessity. That same “what’s it for” question is what leads Gruber to see the iPad as a blank page, with open and endless possibilities, that can be written on by anyone developing an app for the iPad. In short, the opportunities for making the iPad more than a luxury gizmo are legion and it’s up to the innovators to take that canvas and turn it into something essential.

The truth is that the App Store is the killer app. The iPad is meant for anything that can be represented on a 10-inch color touchscreen.

Gruber’s bit, as always, is eloquent and essential.

From Daring Fireball:

Special issue of Hamish Hamilton’s excellent literary magazine, “A celebration of the life of David Foster Wallace with contributions by Don DeLillo, Jonathan Franzen, Zadie Smith, George Saunders and others.” Designed by our old friend Dean Allen. So good — do yourself a favor and print it out.

Five Dials # 10 | via Daring Fireball

In short, a great, loving, thoughtful tribute to David Foster Wallace.

Even shorter, I’d know nothing about DFW if not for John Gruber’s site. So, thanks John.

As always, a worthwhile read.

Tablet Musings | via Daring Fireball