applications

The growth in the number of APIs is one of those exponential curves often associated with digital. The Programmable Web Directory now lists over 4,000, a milestone it recorded only 6 months after it logged its 3000th, which in turn was only 9 months after it passed its 2000th recorded API.

Design for many different types of users is hard enough, just imagine one also need to include the blind. Advocates for the blind always complain about consumer technologies not doing a good enough job of making products accessible. The web, while opening many opportunities for blind people, is still riddled with obstacles.

Those of you who can remember the heady days of the dot.com era will know the name of Mary Meeker. She was guru, par excellence, about all things digital. Well she is still at it and has recently directed a study about the Mobile Internet for Morgan Stanley (Dec 15, 2009). She studied the rate of change spurred by the iPhone and all of the technologies and services it has spawned. Here is just one of her observations.

Pornography is always a problem with today’s technology. I am not passing judgment but the easy access is causing some problems. For the adult video rental store, it is easy to manage. The storekeeper just kicks out any curious kids out of the shops. In the world of mobile, it is not so easy. They say porn and technology has always worked together so well because each meets the needs of the other. Nerd needs anorak.

The product development process is, if nothing else, a highly iterative process. In this fascinating two-minute clip from tap tap tap, it's possible to see each and every change that went into their final iPhone app Convert. Gizmodo calls it "an illuminating video if you're never thought about how much goes into good design."

The recent skirmish between Apple and Google -- filled with legal inuendos, regulatory scuffles and high-profile departures -- has, if anything, crystallized for me what I had been thinking for the past six months: what we have been witnessing is nothing less than a battle for the future of the surfable Web. On one hand, we have Google, which favors the widest, broadest Web possible, so that its cash cow Google Search functionality remains the key to the discovery of all content on the unruly, unmanageable Web, filled with ripcurls and big waves.

Showtime is offering a free Kindle download of the pilot script of the upcoming TV show Nurse Jackie.