As more and more people got to know that I’m an iPhone developer, I got to hear the following phrase more often: “Hey, you know, I got a great idea for an app”. It started with tech-savvy people saying this, but now it seems like everybody and their mother has an idea.

Great insight into what it’s like once you tell someone you develop apps. Read the full article.

Similarly, here’s how Android devices have changed after the iPhone: via Andrew Warner and via Daring Fireball.

I spoke with John Hering CEO of Lookout, the most downloaded mobile security app. He has over 10 years mobile security experience and works to protect people from hackers and thieves everyday. He noted “There are a handful of applications that can produce sophisticated attacks — that don’t require overly sophisticated software.”

Good piece from my friend Katie Linendoll the energetic Tech Wiz on CNN and CBS. Definitely worth a read (unless you don’t have a cell phone, which is weird).

When I was younger I used to caller-id spoof people claiming that I was Bill Gates – it was pretty easy to do at the age of 12.

[Google found that] the page with 10 results took 0.4 seconds to generate. The page with 30 results took 0.9 seconds. Half a second delay caused a 20% drop in traffic. Half a second delay killed user satisfaction.

In A/B tests, [Amazon] tried delaying the page in increments of 100 milliseconds and found that even very small delays would result in substantial and costly drops in revenue.

Jeff Atwood’s piece is right on the money. Speed is incredibly important. None of the other features matter if the site is slow.

Over the past few years we made a few changes to Summer Sweat and the only one that increased our traffic, retention rate, and page views was the speed improvements that we made.

Performance is a feature.

“In the quarter, we have lost about $10 million on The Daily,” News Corp (NSDQ: NWS) president Chase Carey told analysts on the group’s Q3 earnings call. A colleague also said The Daily has seen 800,000 downloads since launch.

I’m not the only one who has cancelled and/or removed the Daily from my iPad after the free trial ran out.

Eric Schmidt:

One day Larry and Sergey bought Android, and I didn’t even notice. Think about the strategic opportunities that has created. Sergey found Google Earth one day while he was surfing on the Web. And then he walked into my office and told me he bought them. “And I said, “for how much,” Sergey?” And it turned out to be a few million.

My Grandfather grew up as one of twelve – It’s hard to get much attention that way. His family struggled to provide food for each one of them. His father was a working class man.

He was the youngest GM in all of baseball. He began his career as a bat boy with big dreams and one day he ran the New York Yankees.

He has been the Executive of the Year, won several World Series, and has even been in a TV series on ESPN: The Bronx is Burning.

My Mom tells the full story of his life, accomplishments, and what he did for the great game of Baseball.

Want to know more? Check out the official website: theyankeeprincess.com

Read More →

Move your iTunes folder to your Dropbox folder. This will probably take a really long time. For me it took about 8 hours.

Launch iTunes while holding the option key (shift on Windows).

Click choose library and choose your iTunes library folder in your Dropbox.

Another goodie from samsoff.es →

“You can criticize it for being immature . . . but it was pretty safe,” said Matthew Bradley, 28, an amateur photographer who showed up to shoot pictures. “It seemed like everything was what you’d expect.”

Then a maroon Hummer pulled up and was hit by snowballs. A man in plainclothes got out with a gun in his left hand.

According to witnesses, the man did not identify himself, and at least one reveler threw a snowball at him. Most witnesses said the man kept the gun at his side. But some witnesses said the detective holstered the gun and then charged into the crowd, pushing at least one snowball fighter with his finger and threatening to haul others to jail. [Matt Zapotosky of The Washington Post]

A video can be found here and on the Post’s website.