HP Says To Bye Bye TouchPad, Pre

Almost hidden in this press release about HP’s plans to buy Autonomy Corporation:

In addition, HP reported that it plans to announce that it will discontinue operations for webOS devices, specifically the TouchPad and webOS phones. HP will continue to explore options to optimize the value of webOS software going forward.

A real shame. webOS and the devices built around it were the only real competition to iOS and the iPad/iPhone line.

Adam Lisagor: iPad TV

The Sandwich has some thoughts on the iPad, TV, and the rumored new Apple TV. I like what he’s thinking:

Could it be that Apple has chosen to separate our video content and store it temporarily in this ghetto because there is something new and awesome on the horizon? Here’s what I think: Soon enough, that placeholder app called Videos will go away, to replaced by a new app called Apple TV.

The current iPad videos app is a real turd in the iPad’s otherwise beautiful punchbowl. This makes a lot of sense.

The App Store: Revenge Reviews

Garret Murray, developer of the Ego app for iPhone, on what he calls “revenge reviews”: Reviews posted to the App Store by users who accidentally purchased an app, misread it’s description, or otherwise made a mistake. I hadn’t thought of this:

People brought up a great point the last time I complained about App Store customers—they’re all children. Not metaphorically, but literally. Most of these customers are kids with iPod Touches. So of course they act like children.

But it rings true. I’d go further and say that the ones that are not literally children, are probably emotionally stunted in some way.

Apple’s Use Of Private APIs In The App Store, iTunes Music Store

John Gruber notes, vis-a-vis this talk given by Bertrand Serlet on Apple’s API Lifecycle, that:

Apple doesn’t disallow the use of private APIs out of spite; they disallow it because their private APIs are not fully baked.

It should be obvious, but: Apple’s intentions are utterly unimportant in this matter. Using private APIs for system-level applications is one thing, but iBooks is in the App Store. iBooks uses private, Apple-only APIs that are not available to other developers. iBooks directly competes with any number of other applications that sells things to read. iBooks is using an unfair advantage given to it by Apple’s engineers. There’s nothing ok about any of that.

Adding to this, there is the potentially coming storm of a United States .vs. Microsoft situation regarding the iTunes Music Store. There are other music stores out there, after all, and Apple has not put them all on equal footing. If using special features that no other developers have access to isn’t an anti-competitive practice, I’m not sure what else qualifies.

The more iPads, iPhones and Macs that Apple sells, the closer they’re coming to an antitrust showdown.

iPad (Supposedly) Jailbroken

Less than 24 hours after the product launch. The jailbreak isn’t in the wild, yet, but here’s something I’ve been wondering: How much do you think Apple spends patching Jailbreakable security holes?

Obviously, most problems that they fix are general security fixes. The Jailbreaks go in through the same vectors as malicious code might, and that makes sense. But there’s got to be things they do in the name of simply stopping the jailbreak. In other words, there’s got to be a dollar amount on this. I wonder how many man-hours the jailbreakers retroactively piss away on Apple’s behalf?

Jeffrey Zeldman on Flash, the iPad, and Standards

You can always count on Zeldman to say things like

As the percentage of web users on non-Flash-capable platforms grows, developers who currently create Flash experiences with no fallbacks will have to rethink their strategy and start with the basics before adding a Flash layer. They will need to ensure that content and experience are delivered with or without Flash.

But it’s still good to have him say them.

“Why are you so terribly disappointing?”

Mark Morford for SFGate:

Big f–ing deal. We just do not care. It’s all a big disappointment. Hey, I was expecting to be blown away. I was expecting miracles and transformations and multiple twitching orgasms on sight. Do not come at me with tantalizing promises only to reveal that you can fulfill most of them to a fairly good degree, and not far exceed all of them in every imaginable way. We’re Americans, goddammit. Ye shall know us by the tang of our bitter and untenable jadedness.

It is an old sentiment, expressed well.