Mac News: The MacBook Air wedge aesthetic: Now an Apple patent
A new Apple patent may signal legal wrangling ahead for the Windows laptop wedge design crowd — which means pretty much every major PC maker on the planet. Apple’s patent No. D661,296 S is described as “the ornamental design for an electronic device” and shows about a dozen images (PDF) of wedge-shaped Apple MacBook Air-like designs.
Read full story => c|net
Technology News: U.N. could tax U.S.-based Web sites, leaked docs show
The United Nations is considering a new Internet tax targeting the largest Web content providers, including Google, Facebook, Apple, and Netflix, that could cripple their ability to reach users in developing nations. The European proposal, offered for debate at a December meeting of a U.N. agency called the International Telecommunication Union, would amend an existing telecommunications treaty by imposing heavy costs on popular Web sites and their network providers for the privilege of serving non-U.S. users, according to newly leaked documents.
Read full story => c|net
Programming News: C++, Ruby, CoffeeScript: a visual comparison of language complexity
Most people will agree that C++ is a fairly complex language. But just how complex is it? I got curious about quantifying that by comparing the number of concepts a programmer has to understand to learn a programming language in its entirety. Concepts in my definition include large categories like classes and operators, as well as more fine grained things like if-else statements and while loops. There is a lot of variation in the complexity of different concepts, so their number can only serve as a rough measure of language complexity. Nevertheless, I think it’s interesting.
Read full story => C++ Rocks
Other News: Microsoft still unsure about when, or if, they’ll release Office for iPad
“If Microsoft couldn’t find compelling enough reasons to release its Office applications for the iPad, Google just gave it one,” Nick Wingfiled reports for The New York Times. “On Tuesday, Google acquired Quickoffice, a start-up that makes a set of applications for iPads and Android tablets that let people open and edit Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint files. Productivity apps are among the best sellers in the category of paid apps for the iPad. Quickoffice currently ranks seventh on that list in Apple’s iPad App Store.”
Read full story => MacDailyNews
