links for 2009-09-30

"Guardian.co.uk is preparing to launch an iPhone app and it’s likely to charge for it, paidContent:UK has learned. Guardian News & Media confirmed an app is 'in the pipeline' and digital director Emily Bell told us: 'It’s still in development, but we are working on an app which I can’t give you too much more detail on at the moment, although we are likely to charge.'"

"Do people really think The Sun has as much influence over politics as it did in 97? Declining circulation and diluted web = Not really". I tend to agree that this is more of a case of the seagulls following the trawler than a move that is agenda setting for the nation. Got us all talking about The Sun though - smart cookies.

Whilst I am pleased for Whitney herself, I remain absolutely staggered at what passes for a patent in the US. Described as "A financial transaction instrument selector tool to help customers find a financial transaction instrument that is tailored to that customer’s preferences", unless I am wildly missing the point here, this appears to be a patent for the invention of a web form linked to a database.

Harry deconstructs a poor online ticket buying process for the Athens Acropolis Museum. To be honest, from my experience of dealing with Greek eCommerce transactions, I'm impressed that the last step isn't actually having to print everything off and then fax it to the relevant Government department...

"We’re pleased to announce today the general-availability release of YUI 3.0.0. YUI 3’s core infrastructure (YUI, Node and Event) and its utility suite (including Animation, IO, Drag & Drop and more) are all considered production-ready with today’s release."

Fantastic Swedish acoustic sister-duo First Aid Kit are taking cover version requests via Twitter, and then posting their recordings of the songs on their site - thisisfirstaidkit.com

"I'm also aware that, with Twitter, many people have moved away from using RSS alltogether. I still use it though, in addition to Twitter, to find stories: I still think RSS is the best way to find stories proactively online and to get a good overview of what's being written"

"I've given each of the mainstream media an irresponsibility rating below - the Mail and Express are the worst scaremongers, followed by the Mirror and Times."