These geometric designs are pretty rad. And this is the last wallpaper link for today, I promise.
Linked
Link Posts
Apple Adds iCloud Safari Tab Syncing to OS X Mountain Lion Preview 2 →
Sweet.
Photos from NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer →
Some stunning images of deep space taken from WISE. On each gallery image’s individual page, look on the left-hand sidebar for links to download it in ultra-high-res.
$2.65 Per Share →
Here’s a link to Apple’s press release about this morning’s announcement of their plans to initiate a dividend and share repurchase program.
Peter Oppenheimer:
Combining dividends, share repurchases, and cash used to net-share-settle vesting RSUs, we anticipate utilizing approximately $45 billion of domestic cash in the first three years of our programs. We are extremely confident in our future and see tremendous opportunities ahead.
But the real money quote was from Tim Cook during the call’s Q&A when he was asked about what future products are in the pipeline:
We actually do love to announce new products, we just don’t do it during conference calls.
John Carey’s Retina iPad Wallpapers →
If you’ve got one, you’ll want to visit this page from your new iPad in order to properly outfit its background.
Put This On: Season Two, Episode 1 →
Pixels Under the Microscope →
Lukas Mathis:
Like any self-respecting UI designer, I have a cheap digital microscope sitting on my desk. Here are some pictures comparing a bunch of different screens.
Jason Snell’s Review of the New Apple TV →
Good to know:
Not all HD video is of the 1080p variety. In the various Apple TV menus, the trick is to look for the HD symbol on a TV episode or movie and then see if it says “1080p” next to it. If it does, it’s in 1080p—and if it doesn’t, it’s only 720p.
You’re Recording This, Right? →
This week’s episode of The B&B Podcast:
Shawn and Ben talk about iPad bags, new iOS apps, Sparrow and Byword, the potential storage constraints of the new iPads due to Retina-ready apps, using the iPad as a work computer when traveling, standing in line at Apple stores, and more.
Also worth noting: Ben and I now record live on Thursdays at 2:00 pm Eastern.
Sponsor: TextExpander →
My thanks to Smile Software for sponsoring the RSS feed this week. And, on a personal note, I use TextExpander like it’s my job. It’s on sale this week during their Syndicate promotion, so if you don’t have it I highly recommend it.
Do you type the same things again and again? TextExpander will save you time and keystrokes.
Just assign short abbreviations to your frequently-used snippets of text and TextExpander does the work for you. You can also use one of the included snippet libraries for HTML, CSS, autocorrection, accented words and URL shorteners.
Try it out — there’s a free demo at Smile Software. And you can get 20% off TextExpander through March 31. 2012. Use the coupon code SYN0312 in the Smile store
The New Rdio →
So much good in this update. The whole UI got a total makeover which looks great and works faster, the Mac app now supports full screen, and Rdio now works in Safari without needing Flash. Gosh, I love Rdio.
Tip: If you’re not seeing the new look automatically, you can enable it under your account settings.
And, since the weather here is so nice, here’s another tip: you know what goes great with Rdio? Airfoil.
The Personal Analytics of Stephen Wolfram’s Life →
Absolutely fascinating. (Via Dustin Curtis.)
Something Like Launchpad for iOS? →
This is an interesting thought from Joe Caiati and Joe Arico about Apple bringing Launchpad from OS X to iOS. Caiati and Arico aren’t talking about the look of Launchpad — the grid of big icons is obviously taken from the iOS Home screen — rather, he’s talking about the way Launchpad works as a place where all the apps you do or don’t use are hidden away out of sight but yet easily accessible.
In short, if Launchpad made if full circle back onto iOS, would it be akin to the App Drawer in Android? Serving as a way to help clean up the plethora of Home screens which are getting more and more full of folders and apps?
3.1 Million Pixels Are Heavy →
Josh Clark on the new iPad’s Retina display and the implications that all those pixels are going to have on iOS designers, content creators, responsive designers, and magazine publishers:
In bandwidth terms, pixels are heavy, and four times the pixels means four times the image size for bitmap images, give or take. If you want to take advantage of this gorgeous screen, every image you push down the wire is about to put on a ton of weight. That has implications in lots of places.