For WhatsApp to be “de facto” (no hyphen), it would have to be the most used app... to the point where a majority of people automatically associate IMing with it. I think the problem with the messaging app market now is that there is no de facto IM app.

The story lost credibility when the author referred to Squarespace Note’s icon as “slightly skeuomorphic.”

Maybe when Apple and the DOJ stop slapping each other around on books, they can devote some attention to this.

I’ve dodge a lof this problem by regularly auditing my friends list. I try to keep it to under 200–250, and when it goes over... purge time. This definitely isn’t for everybody (some people have large networks of friends to manage), but the Facebook algorithm seems more effective with fewer people to parse…

I think the title should have read, “The next thing iOS needs to steal from Android.” I agree with you about how awful the Settings.app is… that said, we have to remember that a lot of iOS 5’s features were themselves lifted from third-party apps and other OSs (like Android’s notifications).

Looking at the source, that photo is of two gay men getting married in California is 2008 (less than a week before Proposition 8 passed).

I agree; Leslie, you left out a really significant one. Talk about classic American beer!

I don’t care what anyone says! It totally doesn’t look like a—oh wait, yeah it does.

Technically, you were able to send GChat messages from your iPhone already (through a third-party app). All Google Hangouts has done is add an official iPhone app. Still, I love it so far!

I was thinking the same thing.

Well-spotted! In the designer’s (Bicco’s) defense, Leslie should have included the illustration credit. Bicco lists Leyendecker next to this image on his portfolio site’s list of book designs, so it wasn’t *his* omission.

Your welcome! Truly, great work.

They also should have gone with the light weight instead of regular (semi-bold?).

It’s cool... except for the ligatures. I don’t like the inconsistency between not using the standard “ti,” while still using “fy.”

Your username is an apt choice.

Beautiful... although the search bar at the top was not the only thing inspired by Facebook. Much of the layout, photo and caption treatments, and left nav bar styles are very Facebook-like.

That’s an interesting approach; they definitely need to include more focus. Their five-column approach to user profiles shows a lot of images with no real curation or focus—this is something they should definitely borrow from Facebook Timelines.

On the surface, it looks like it could result in a Sparrow/Postbox-style integration of Dropbox attachments and links...

As a fellow designer and developer, I agree with you... and disagree.

The first part of your reply seems valid. The second part… I don’t know. Technically, iPhones can be tracked (unless the thief has any sense and wipes the device).