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ExtraBITS for 12-Oct-09

Bruce Tognazzini Rethinks iPhone Home Screen — In his “Ask Tog” column, human interface designer Bruce Tognazzini offers suggestions for how the iPhone home screen could be redesigned to scale fluidly to the large number of apps that many people have. His ideas are good, but also interesting are proposals that the iPhone should have an optional home screen that displays scrolling information from apps. (Posted 2009-10-09)

iPhone Scores Highest in Smartphone Survey — The J.D. Power and Associates research firm found Apple had the highest ranking in a survey that weighted a number of usage factors among both business and personal owners: 811 on a scale of 1,000 for personal use, and 803 for business. The big surprise? LG beat out BlackBerry’s RIM for 2nd place for personal use (776 to 759). Over 3,200 smartphone users were surveyed. (Posted 2009-10-08)

Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs — CIO.com interviews Carmine Gallo, author of “The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs: How to Be Insanely Great in Front of Any Audience.” We haven’t seen the book, but the interview makes a number of excellent points that will help you give better presentations and understand why Apple presentations work well. (Posted 2009-10-08)

Cell Industry Backs USB for Charging, 3.5mm Jack for Audio — The U.S. cell industry trade group CTIA says it officially supports standardizing the charging/sync and audio ports on handsets. Handset makers are now urged to use the micro-A or micro-AB USB formats (AB accepts either micro-A or micro-B plugs) for data transfer and charging, and the 3.5mm audio jack for headsets, earbuds, and microphones. This supplements a July 2009 pledge for uniform USB jacks by the GSMA, a trade group representing the majority of carriers worldwide and a host of major handset makers. (Posted 2009-10-06)

Apple Leaves U.S. Chamber of Commerce over Climate Policy — The New York Times Green Inc. blog reports on Apple’s resignation from the United States Chamber of Commerce over the chamber’s opposition to efforts from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to limit greenhouse gases. Apple isn’t alone in disagreeing with the chamber – three large utilities have resigned in recent weeks, and Nike withdrew from the chamber board, all for the same reason. (Posted 2009-10-06)

Software Sold or Licensed? Court Says Sold — An intriguing court decision found that a man re-selling legitimate licenses to Autodesk’s expensive CAD software was acting legally under the first-sale doctrine that enables used book and music sales in the United States. The court said that while Autodesk says it licensed its software, the license walks and talks like a sale, and thus the software can be resold. Many software makers restrict or bar sales, and that may now not hold. Autodesk will appeal the ruling. (Posted 2009-10-05)

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