Justin Williams (@justin) developer at Second Gear, has written a very insightful piece about switching to Android. Must read.

“After a week of using Android, I’m conflicted. If you had asked me last Wednesday what phone i’d be using a week from now I’d without a doubt say the iPhone. Now that we’re here, however, I am sticking with Android until the new iPhone ships. Widgets, home screen customization, background processes and the notification system are things that I’ve grown incredibly fond of and would miss if I went back to the iPhone today.”

[via Daring Fireball]

This weekend, an editor at TUAW almost died at the hands of Windows. Yes, sometimes the Windows experience does suck, but was this necessary?

While some would argue it’s a combination of all three (use 7-zip next time dude), I would argue he shouldn’t have started with Windows Vista. Secondly, why blame Microsoft for all these problems when the author happened to buy a shitty webcam that wasn’t really Mac compatible in the first place? Come on. Also, Windows has always had a taskbar - it’s nothing like the Mac’s object dock.

Flaws in the whole, “It’s all Microsoft’s fault,” aside, it does bring back memories of the all the times I spent finding drivers online. For a rather lengthy read on what could have been summed up in one sentence, “Installing hardware sucks!” TUAW has a rather compelling and way overdramatic article on what  makes the Mac a simple platform to use. You decide: is it that far from the truth?   … I think he might be stretching it.

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Andy Ihnatko over at Macworld:

“The iPad has been available for a few weeks now and I’m disappointed to find that one of my predictions seems to be coming true: the iPad won’t truly be “out” for another few months, when developers have finally had enough time with a real iPad in their hands to design true iPad-focused apps. Most of the freshman class seem to be either embiggened editions of iPhone hits or apps that bear the fingerprints of mouse-and-keyboard user interface design.

The brilliance of the iPad is the understanding that many notebook features aren’t relevant in a slate computer. I’m likely to use external hard drives and printers with a notebook. Not so with a slate. So why bother cutting three USB ports into it, and adding all kinds of troublesome third-party device drivers to the OS? And why bother adding all kinds of features to an app that will only be used 1% of the time, and which ruin the clean lines of the interface every time the app is launched?”

Very interesting design and usability analysis of the new MobileMe interface over at Graphicpeel, covering pretty much every aspect of it. I like the use of popovers and the new toolbar, for instance.

Steam for Mac is coming in a week, and we can’t wait to try it out. But, I think it’s a given that the app doesn’t look very Mac-like and that Valve simply went for a unified interface design across all the platforms Steam will be available on.

Can Steam for Mac look better on OS X? Sure, and Sebastian de With (@cocoia) gives us a peek of what he’d like it to be.

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As I held the iPad in my hands for the first time I knew that it was going to change something about the way I consume the internet and produce content for MacStories. I mean, I had no justified reason to believe the iPad was going to change anything, at least not after holding it for a few seconds and simply staring at its screen. But just like every revolution in our fast running technology world, it’s about the details, even those that you don’t see but perceive after a few seconds. My first encounter with the iPad was an impression, more than an approach.

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You might have read a little essay by a certain Steve Jobs (whom I presume was cozied in a black leather chair with his iPad) which pertained to the death of Flash on Apple’s mobile devices. It was strict, thoughtful, and carefully worded in such a way as to close all holes against Apple’s decision. In my eyes, the message wasn’t written to be a damning statement against Adobe, a company that develops incredible products such as Photoshop, Illustrator, and Lightroom. Rather, this was written as a final message to the public that thoroughly explains Apple’s position on Flash. It’s a statement that should have allowed everyone to move on.

Yet when approached, Adobe’s own Shantanu Narayen stepped forward once again to combat Apple’s tyrant ruler, naming Jobs’ statement as a “smokescreen” to multi-platform innovation. Like Jobs, Narayen is incredibly passionate about his product and the betterment of the world community. While Jobs and Narayen are polar opposites, whom is right in this matter?

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Craig Hockenberry over at his personal blog:

“My iPad has a lot of personal information on it: email, business documents, and financial data. When you pass it around, you’re giving everyone who touches it the opportunity to mess with your private life, whether intentionally or not. That makes me uneasy.

[…]

I can envision several ways to solve this problem: either with a traditional login screen or with something new like folders that require a passcode to open. I have no doubt that your designers can find something elegant that gives me peace of mind as I share my iPad with friends and family.”

It’s difficult, nearly impossible I’d say, to write a review of the iPad and say things that haven’t already been said over and over again.

Yes, I’ve got an iPad. I’ve bought a 16GB model from the United States (Apple Store of Charlotte, to be exact) and imported it to Italy using the UPS Express service. It took 2 days for it to arrive and be cleared at customs. But anyway, I’ve got an iPad.

Let me state this straight up: it is magical indeed. But in a way that it doesn’t do anything revolutionary or out of this world - it’s the realization. The “how” it does things and makes you feel home right after 10 minutes you’re using it.

I could focus this article on the technical specifications and features it has. At this point, I think it’s best for me to keep this personal, and talk about the story with the iPad so far.

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