Shawn Blanc

Brings landscape reading mode and more. You have to download the update from Amazon’s website and then transfer the software onto your Kindle via USB. I haven’t done something like that since the last time I installed a Kindle Touch software update. Seriously though, I’m actually quite thankful that Amazon has been improving the Kindle Touch software. It’s a great device and now with greater software.

(Via Matt Alexander.)

Editor’s note: my thanks to Byword for sponsoring the RSS feed this week. This is a great app which I’ve been using since it launched a year ago. I even wrote a review about it a bit ago.

Byword is a Mac and iOS app for modern writers.

Modern writers don’t just sit at a desk and write. Sometimes it’s great to be able to write, edit or proofread when and where inspiration strikes and not be restrained by a single device or location. Byword makes this kind of workflow easy by integrating iCloud and Dropbox synchronization.

The flexibility of Byword: An article idea came to your mind last night on the couch and you began working on it on your iPad. This morning, at the office, you picked up where you left off by opening Byword on you MacBook Air — and finding the article was there just as you left it on the iPad. After lunch, on your way to the coffee shop, you pull out your iPhone to proofread and finish the draft.

Byword is available on the Mac App Store for $9.99, and for iOS on the App Store at the introductory price of $2.99. Check it out.

This article by Macworld Senior Editor, Dan Moren, is absolutely spot on with some of the awkwardness and friction that the Mac Messages app has brought with it. It is great to be able to have iMessage conversations regardless of what device I’m on. But Messages on the Mac has crossed a line between a text message on my phone (something personal) and an instant message conversation (something casual) — the two types of “messages” are not the same. I couldn’t have said what Dan says any better.

This will certainly give you a better quality recording than the method I’ve been using: point the iPhone speaker in the general direction of my Yeti microphone.

Andy Baio writing for Wired:

Instagram’s billion-dollar sale to Facebook raised eyebrows Monday, renewing fears of a new tech bubble. But compared to other major acquisitions since the dot-com bust, turns out it’s a pretty sane deal.

During The Vergecast last week, Timothy Collins called in to share an interesting theory on what a 4-inch iPhone screen could look like. In short, what if Apple made the screen taller? From 640×960 to 640×1152. Verge forum member “modilwar” fleshed the idea out some more and shared some example mockups of what the new screen could look like.

It would mean the iPhone can maintain its 326 PPI ratio, as well as the fact that any apps which use a scrolling interface (Mail, Instapaper, Reeder, Tweetbot, Simplenote, Agenda, et al.) may need to do (nearly) nothing to accommodate the new screen. Because: when in portrait mode there would simply be a larger scroll view area; when in landscape mode, there would be the same vertical height as before, and horizontal elements would simply be spaced farther apart.

At the end of the day, I don’t know if we’ll ever see a 4-inch iPhone. Because, in addition to the how would it work for apps and what about the Retina display argument, there is still the how comfortable and easy to use with one hand would it be argument. And I think that a 3.5-inch screen is the sweet spot for the latter.

Nevertheless, this is certainly one of the most interesting and compelling arguments I’ve seen on the matter.

Maciej Cegłowski, the owner/operator of Pinboard, shares about the various business models of bookmarking sites, and why he chose the model he did for Pinboard. The PDF is based on a talk he gave in February.

The heart of this PDF can be summed up on Pinboard’s about page:

It boils down to this: running a bookmarking site costs money. If you’re not paying for it, then someone else is, and their interests may not be aligned with yours.

Another great reason to use OpenDNS.

Federico Viticci:

I hope Zuckerberg understands they could elegantly transition Instagram to becoming a Facebook product without ruining it. They should use Instagram as a way to gain new users and explore a new space, a new area of mobile. It’s uncharted territory for big companies like Facebook.

Facebook has the resources, scale, and talent to keep Instagram as it is, possibly better, perhaps more connected to the social network.

I have no doubt they can, but the question is if they will.

Or, perhaps better yet, do they want to? Does Facebook want to keep Instagram thriving in its own, active development or would they prefer to fold the whole thing into Facebook’s universe?

If Instagram starts requiring a Facebook login to use it, then we’ll know the answer. And not just about Facebook’s original intentions with Instagram, but also about their intentions for any future acquisitions.

Fascinating chart showing the adoption rate of new technologies over the past century.

Horace Dediu re-graphed the data to show how long it took each technology to reach 50- and 80-percent adoption rates (see how Smartphone is the fastest tech to reach 50-percent penetration while telephone is the slowest?).

And for fun, check out this list of the fastest adopted gadgets in the last 50 years. I guess it should be no surprise, but it still is fascinating to me that 13 (arguably, 16) of the 20 items on this list are directly related to entertainment. (Bonus points if you can guess what’s first on the list before clicking through.)

(Via Justin Blanton.)

Thomas Brand on the original Apple Extended Keyboard and why it’s superior to the Apple Extended Keyboard II.

I’m new to the mechanical keyboard club, with my first noise machine being the Das Keyboard. But after less than a week with the Das I can already see why mechanical keyboard users are the way they are about their keyboards. These fantastically-clickety gadgets are like the Jeep Wranglers of keyboards — there’s an unspoken fraternity between owners that others don’t quite “get”.