Holy smokes. Slide the bar from left to right to see the difference in size.

If you go to the front page of Amazon.com right now, you’ll see a feature chart comparing the iPad mini to the Kindle Fire HD (via DF). It reminds me of last year when Amazon search results for “iPad” gave you to promotional page comparing the Kindle Fire to the iPad 2.

Daniel Jalkut wrote a smart piece on why Amazon has to take the role of attacking the iPad:

I see this as a rare example of concession on Amazon’s part. Traditionally when the company discovers they are not the best in a market they wish to dominate, they acquire the stunning leader and integrate the advantages. Here they are going up against Apple, which happens to be both the largest company in the world and also the most inimitable hardware designer. Amazon can’t buy it, and Amazon can’t copy it.

As for Amazon’s comparison chart itself, what strikes me is that it’s conveying some information which is misrepresented and could be interpreted as false:

• To say that the iPad mini has “No HD movies or TV” makes it sound as if the iPad mini does not have access to that content. The truth is that 1080p and 720p video is scaled down. And though the Kindle Fire HD can play 720p video at native resolution, it has to scale down 1080p video.

• Leaving a blank space where Wi-Fi is makes it seem as if the iPad mini doesn’t have Wi-Fi at all. That’s not true.

Be sure to check out Rene Ritchie’s updated version of Amazon’s chart.

The New York Times lifted their news paywall for Hurricane Sandy and has this web page to which they’re posting live updates about evacuation zones, floodings, and other news. Jason Kottke is also keeping an updated web page with mostly NYC-centric info.

Mike Heller designed a 3D-printed Elevation Dock Lighting Adapter. I ordered one from Shapeways about 2 weeks ago, it came today and it works. (Thanks, Duncan!)

But it’s totally a DIY hack. Here are the cons:

• You’ll have to bend the end of your Lightning cable in a way most nerds would be highly uncomfortable with.
• Using the stock Lighting connector means you won’t have the pizzazz of what made the Elevation Dock so attractive. Your iPhone 5 won’t lift right out of the Dock without a care in the world because the Apple’s Lightning connector clicks in to the iPhone.
• If you haven’t already, you’ll probably want to buy another Lightning cable from Apple since the one you’re going to use with your Elevation Dock won’t be easily removable for when you go on trips, etc.
• If you ordered an Elevation Dock with the audio line out, you won’t be able to use that feature any more because installing this printed adapter requires removing the internal circuitry of the the Elevation Dock (which is easily done, by the way).
• Elevation Labs is right now in production of their own Lightning adapter mount that will surely be much more elegant. I don’t know how much they’ll charge for their cable mount, but they say it will be available in about a week, and you might want their version instead of this one.

But so what, right? It works, it looks good, it’s very inexpensive, and the phone sits securely. Assuming you don’t have your own 3D printer, you can sign up for a Shapeways account and place an order for Mike’s design which is already on file. I’m glad I ordered one.

This week Ben and I were joined by David Smith to talk about indie iOS development and his new weather app, Check the Weather.

Paul Graham:

One advantage of Y Combinator’s early, broad focus is that we see trends before most other people. And one of the most conspicuous trends in the last batch was the large number of hardware startups.

Also: just look at Kickstarter lately.

Speaking of Pinboard, this new-to-me Safari Extension will grab all your currently open tabs and save them as a group in Pinboard. Nice alternative to the Save Safari Tabs in OmniFocus script I’ve been using.

(Via Dr. Drang, who solved his “how to save a set of tabs” by writing a his own script. Naturally.)

Brilliant:

Bundles are named collections of tags. They are most useful for people with large numbers of tags that they wish to group by category.

A bundle lets you see all the bookmarks tagged with one or more tags in the bundle.

For example, if you had tags apple, orange and banana, you might put them in a bundle called fruit.

(Thanks, Gabe.)

Dan Frommer:

Apple is going to sell out of its Christmas 2012 supply of iPad minis no matter how much it costs — $329, $200, whatever. Why leave money on the table? If it can sell 100% of its iPad mini supply for more than $329, why bother selling any to people who would only buy it for less than $329?

Furthermore, Dave Caolo:

Consumers have chosen the $499 iPad over the $199 Kindle Fire in droves. What do you think is going to happen now that the iPad is $329? Apple will sell tons of them.

And now I know a little more than I wanted to about how the sound effects for Letterpress were created.

Tried and true wisdom from Patrick Rhone:

I have come to believe that the best and most cost effective technology upgrade that one can make is to themselves. I’m not talking cyborg implants here. I’m speaking about knowledge. That is, increasing your skill, aptitude, and understanding when it comes to any device, application, or tool.

So many of the applications which I wrote ultra-in-depth reviews of over the years are the apps I’m still using today. I chose to write those reviews not because the apps were popular but because I had been using the apps for a while and they had become an integral part in how I use my computer.

That’s why I think add-on utility apps like Keyboard Maestro and Text Expander are so great. Because they build on what Patrick is saying in his article — they allow you to set up customizations that allow you to become even more efficient and versed with the apps you use regularly.

Great piece for The Wirecutter by Allison Gibson, talking about what defines quality. She interviewed and pulled quotes from several designers. What Allison gleaned from Maria Popova was great:

“Quality is, of course, enormously subjective,” [Popova] tells me. “It’s what something gives and means to us, not an absolute. Brian Eno has said that we confer value on things, and it’s the act of conferring that makes things valuable—I believe this is true of quality, too.”

For her, the kinds of things to look for when assigning value this way include timelessness, beauty, honesty, simplicity, ethicality and joy. “There must be joy,” she says. “Otherwise, we conflate quality with convenience.”