Just installed Opera 10.6. First impressions: I like it. Subsequent usage hasn’t dulled the edge there either. I don’t know if it’s their default appearance, but what comes up is a nice, simple, clean UI. The menu bar can be hidden, at which point it’s replaced with a menu button from which everything is accessible. It makes the viewable area a little larger and, somewhat counter-intuitively, makes menu items easier to find, since the start point is always the same. Did I mention its fast? Noticeably faster on both my EEE and my desktop. Nicely done.
The iPhone4 antenna debacle seems to have wound down. I don’t think Apple came out of it unbruised. I found it interesting as a case in being a victim of their own success. Ever since the Android based phones appeared, their marketing emphasis has been on the superior design and attention to detail. Enter the antenna bug. Objectively speaking, the antenna is a big improvement over previous models- allowing for reception where there was previously none. Unfortunately, it bit them in the ass because holding it the wrong way resulted in calls being dropped. They just didn’t seem to get that people weren’t going to care about the improved reception so much as whether the phone just dropped a call because the user changed grips. It’s a major glitch, regardless of overall improvements. Made all the more noticeable because Apple doesn’t typically make those mistakes.
Did you know that Microsoft had a smartphone OS? Yeah- they did. It was called ‘kin.’ I’m referring to it in the past tense because they’ve yanked it. No more ‘kin’ phones to be had. According to a source for John Gruber they sold a whopping 503 units. Wow. One has to wonder if Microsoft will ever get any credibility in the mobile OS market.
Finally got a chance to see the “Evo 4G vs iPhone 4” video. Hilarious.