How meta. [via Shawn Blanc]

Interesting move from Google if Lucidchart’s screenshot is to be believed, and I’ll admit it looks very real and credible. So: Google will announce a cloud-storage solution called “Drive” that will have third-party support from day one.

I’m no fan of what Google has been doing recently, with the exception of Project Glass, which I am genuinely curious about. I don’t know why, exactly, but to me Drive sounds like a product from the other Google though, the one people don’t seem to like anymore.

We’ll see how the company will get around marketing this one. As a long-rumored Dropbox competitor, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see Google bringing this to phones and tablets right away. There is no native file sharing and cloud storage solution from Apple and Google yet – one that brings meaningful, convenient, unified and integrated file management to mobile devices. With Drive, I assume...

Shaun Inman’s The Last Rocket is one of my favorite games ever published on the App Store. Its mix of 8-bit graphics, chiptunes, and old-school gameplay mixed with modern interactions makes for a fantastic retro experience rebuilt for touch.

Shaun has assembled a development diary for The Last Rocket, and made it available as a 140-page, iOS-optimized, DRM-free ePub eBook which you can read in iBooks, or convert to PDF using Calibre.

The Last Rocket was an experiment with two goals: make an awesome iOS game and document the process to better understand what goes into making an awesome game. Lift Off is the resulting document. Less “how to”, more “what have I done!”, this Development Diary is just that, a diary, consisting of equal parts enthusiasm, and introspection.

I got my copy yesterday and I look forward to reading it this weekend. Get the eBook here.

The Verge’s Nilay Patel has the details about Nest firing back at Honeywell. In case you missed it, Honeywell claimed Nest, the innovative startup founded by former head of Apple’s iPod Tony Fadell, was infringing on patents with its innovative, critically acclaimed learning thermostat.

Not only is Nest firing back by bringing in former Apple chief patent counsel Richard Lutton Jr as VP and general counsel, they are also extremely honest in their official response to Honeywell.

A couple of tidbits from Patel’s story:

“Honeywell is worse than a patent troll,” says Nest CEO Tony Fadell. “They’re trying to strangle us, and we’re not going to allow that to happen.”

“Honeywell has a track record of responding to innovation with lawsuits and overextended claims of intellectual property violations”

But on one point Fadell draws the line: “We have multiple defenses against those seven...

Andrew Cornett on Twitter:

By simply having a way to search for people by location and keyword, Twitter connected me with someone that would change the course of my life. It’s hard to tell how connecting strangers with common interests on your platform adds value, but I think embracing that type of behavior can really make a long term impact.

When I reached 40,000 tweets sent in January, I wrote:

Unlike most web services I try every day, I have an emotional connection with Twitter. Like an Apple product, the essence of Twitter transcends its commercial nature of social network to become a lifestyle, a people network, which for me is inherently different from simply social.

Without Twitter and the people it helped me discover, I wouldn’t be nearly as satisfied both personally and professionally as I am today.

Kyle Baxter writes about the development of his cooking app, Basil:

In other words, I see an opportunity to use the iPad to make something a lot of people do better and more enjoyable for them. It’s not going to change the world, but we can make it better for a lot of people. That’s awesome.

There is one thing I hear all the time when my friends ask me about the iPad:

I’m not sure I need one.

To which, partly because “it’s my job”, and because I genuinely enjoy reasoning with people about certain facets of a subject they may be unaware of, I always reply:

It’s like a computer, only easier to use and better. You’ll do the same things, but in a few weeks you’ll be hooked and unable to go back.

And in two years, the people I did manage to “convince” to give this whole new setup idea a fair chance did benefit from the liberating feeling of not having to think in old schemes and habits...

“What is your favorite part of working with computers?”

Watch the video, then think about this. Caine’s Arcade proves some of my theories right:

• There are still good people on this planet.
• Some kids are really smart.
• Random encounters have a surprising way of occurring in the most bizzarre scenarios (there’s got to be a joke about a filmmaker walking into an auto parts store somewhere).

But most importantly:

• That a simple link or text update, presented with honesty and in the right place, can make someone else’s day thanks to the power of today’s technologies and the Internet.

You can donate to Caine’s scholarship fund here. I can’t wait to see this kid building awesome stuff in 15 years.

Every once in a while, I write about iTunes and its feature creep. Today is one of those days – we’re not at the tipping point in terms of content overload and usability issues. iTunes needs to change.

Make sure to check out Thomas Verschoren’s take on how some iTunes features could work as standalone apps.

Nathaniel Mott puts into words what I was discussing with my girlfriend today following this: kids today are getting started with technology through some amazing gadgets that can only get better and more powerful.

Watching children use technology is baffling. At nineteen, I’m hardly some old man, walking around in his bathrobe, complaining about UNIX and how kids these days don’t even know their way around the command line. But somehow this three-year-old makes me feel like I’m outdated. I will never truly use the iPhone or iPad in the way that he does, with the understanding of someone that has grown up with this kind of technology.

With the right open-mindedness to the fact that kids will have a better understanding of new technologies than we do, the best legacy we can leave to the next generation is a solid platform to build upon.