Apple
- Jeff Bezos, inheritor to Steve Jobs’ crown? by Om Malik at Om.co
- Making Money While Keeping Prices Low: Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos Explains It All (Mostly) by Tricia Duryee at All Things D
128 GB iPad perfect for pros?
I still personally have no interest in a 128 GB iPad, but as John Gruber points out, some professionals prefer the tablet form factor generally, and the iPad specifically, but run out of space for the multimedia they use every day.
The 128 GB iPad is official...
…but I’m not interested.
Peter Cohen of The Loop shared this earlier today, but I wonder why he didn’t offer any of his own thoughts on it. Here’s why I’m not interested:
Part of the iPad’s appeal to me is that it isn’t another crufty “filing cabinet.” I rather like that it is exactly what it appears to be: a big, beautiful window into the cloud. Everything I need is in Dropbox or Rdio or Google or Evernote, and when I make something, whether or not I’m connected to the internet, there’s always a way to save it for later synchronization. I also find that limited space makes me more discerning when it comes to installing apps, or choosing what music will sync to the device.
I understand some people lust after the one-terabyte tablet. I will never be one of those people.
Nilay Patel on what we agree to when we use cloud services
Nilay Patel on what we agree to when we use cloud services
Nilay Patel at The Verge reads some Terms of Service and drops some knowledge bombs. It’s definitely a must-read if you’re a Google, Dropbox, iCloud, or Skydrive user. So, if you’re on the internet at all, basically.
Tim Cook tells Brian Williams TV is "an area of intense interest"
Tim Cook tells Brian Williams TV is “an area of intense interest”
Ronnie Polidoro, writing at NBC:
“When I go into my living room and turn on the TV, I feel like I have gone backwards in time by 20 to 30 years,” Cook told Williams. “It’s an area of intense interest. I can’t say more than that.”
This is the only interesting bit of the article. I’m not sure why he would tease it in an interview like this one, that will ostensibly reach a large viewership of non-geeks, unless they were close to their TV solution.
As an aside, “assembling” some iMacs in the US is not the same as “making” them here, and it’s a distinction I suspect will be lost on many.
Apple Maps lead fired
Richard Williamson is his name, and shipping a less-than-perfect mapping application on the iPhone 5 was his game, until, as Bloomberg's Adam Satariano reports, Senior Vice President Eddy Cue fired him.
As an aside, I really like that Bloomberg lists both the reporter’s and the editor’s name and email address at the bottom of stories. More publications should do that.
iPad mini - Every inch an iPad.
iPad mini - Every inch an iPad.
Everyone is shitting their pants over this thing, but I’m more excited by the new MacBook Pro.
Verizon Activated 3.1 Million iPhones In Q3 2012, But Only 651K Were iPhone 5s
Verizon Activated 3.1 Million iPhones In Q3 2012, But Only 651K Were iPhone 5s
MG Siegler, commenting on the TechCrunch post by Chris Velazco, linked above:
In other words, the iPhone 5 was on sale for just nine days before the quarter ended. And it was supply-constrained the whole time.
Mr. Siegler and Mr. Velazco pointed out the nine-day sales window the iPhone 5 had before these quarterly numbers were announced, but neither came right out and said what I find to be the most impressive expression of it:
Verizon activated over 72,000 iPhone 5s per day during the nine days ending the quarter.
Why We'll Never Stop Talking About Steve Jobs
Why We’ll Never Stop Talking About Steve Jobs
Mat Honan, writing at Wired:
Jobs, like the titans of industry before him, realized that when we think about how the world works, we are actually thinking about the way people have made it to work. And that means that if you don’t like the way the world works, you are free to change it. Which is exactly what he did.
Honan’s was my favorite “one year since Steve Jobs died” post. It is, in many ways, the most insightful. It’s also, most importantly, the most respectful.
Twitter continues to value advertiser utility above user experience
Twitter continues to value advertiser utility above user experience
Romain Dillet at TechCrunch explains it like this:
Now when you land on a company profile page, you will see a big brand name with a small @username below, a gigantic header photo, a small logo next to every tweet, photos of new products in the sidebar without having to scroll, a pinned tweet at the top of the timeline for a current promotion, and finally the traditional flow of tweets.
Twitter is not hiding the ball on this one: their advertising blog post makes it hard to see the new profiles as motivated by anything but improving advertiser utility.
Twitter’s downward spiral into user-neutral (at best) and user-hostile (at worst) changes suggests their ignorance of the operating principle I mentioned last week.
That’s a shame, because the company-first-via-users-first approach is serving Amazon and Apple, and their partners and users, very well.
Apathy and ecstasy for the iPhone 5
Mat Honan, writing at Wired’s Gadget Lab blog:
It is an amazing triumph of technology that gets better and better, year after year, and yet somehow is every bit as exciting as a 25 mph drive through a sensible neighborhood at a reasonable time of day.
I am still waiting for Verizon to push Jelly Bean to my Galaxy Nexus. Meanwhile, the damn thing throws a force-close dialogue every couple of hours, stutters whenever I try to switch between apps, and occasionally reboots itself just for fun.
My fiancée has had an iPhone 4 for a little over a year, so I’ve had a lot of time to sit on the couch late at night and compare the two phones (like the unashamed geek one has to be to do such things…). The verdict is clear, quick, and simple: go Android for customization and Gmail (a far bigger point in Android’s favor than non-Gmail users might imagine…) but go iPhone for stability and app availability.
That has been the state of things for some time, and it’s no different with the introduction of the iPhone 5, iOS 6, or Android Jelly Bean.
Maybe it’s because I’m 29 this year, but my desire to customize the hell out of my phone is fading fast, especially at the high cost of stability. I’ll always keep an Android phone or two around for playing with custom ROMs, but I need something more refined for my primary phone.
Also, I’ve found on other Android devices that the four-inch display is my preference. The older iPhone displays were too small, and the Galaxy Nexus, at 4.6 inches, is a bit too large. Some people are complaining that iPhone 5 looks the same, just as the 4S looked the same. But it doesn’t: it has a bigger display and a thinner depth, without sacrificing anything in the spec department. That’s change enough for me.
Honan nailed it: iPhone 5 is great and it’s whatever. But it’s stable, app-rich, uniformly-updated whatever. And unless my first experience with it in a store or from a friend’s unit is surprisingly negative, it’s what I’m getting the next time I need a new phone.
Apple's Comfortable Middle
Hamish McKenzie, writing at PandoDaily :
With two product launches in a row that show Apple is merely keeping pace with innovation rather than leading it, the world’s most valuable company will start to seem mortal.
I disagree.
For the record, I’m usually on board with Mr. McKenzie’s analyses, and I think he’s right that the iPhone 5 doesn’t restore the staggering lead Apple once had in smartphone innovation. I just don’t agree that there is any probable circumstance in which the iPhone 5 marks the beginning of the end of Apple’s dominance. I want him to be right, but I believe it will take action on the part of Apple’s competitors, rather than mere inaction from Cupertino, to catalyze that descent from the pinnacle.
I want to see something truly threaten Apple’s dominance: it would be good for consumers and even good for Apple, potentially motivating just the sort of next-generation innovation everyone wishes we saw with the iPhone 5. But Android is peddled in an ever-changing array of hardware of wildly varying quality, its interface often marred by manufacturer “improvements” and carrier-mandated bloatware, with no cohesive or remotely predictable software upgrade schedule.
Yes, it’s customizable, “open” (depending on how you define the term), and a provider of competitive pressure. In fact, Android, the OS, in its pristine Jelly Bean state on glorious hardware, is functional and gorgeous. But Android, the experience and, for lack of a better word, the brand, is truly a mess.
Then, there is the iPhone.
Apple tried for years to make things people loved. They succeeded. Now they are in the business of making improvements on the things they make that people love. And they’re succeeding there, too.
Whether or not they revolutionize TV next, and whether or not they drastically refresh iOS in the next couple of years, I think they’re still comfortably in the middle of their dominance, and at the top of their game.
Gruber on "Amazon's Play"
John Gruber writes one of the most respected and prolific tech blogs on the web, Daring Fireball. Some people deride him as a blindly-worshipful Apple fanboy who delights in pointing out the failed attempts of other companies to copy Apple’s products and strategy.
I don’t agree with those people.
This article by Mr. Gruber is a great example of his willingness to praise true innovation. Amazon has taken inspiration not from Apple’s hardware or software design, but from their approach to product development.
Place the delight of your customers first and the device and multimedia sales will follow. Put another way, Amazon, like Apple, operates on the premise that putting customer experience first is the best way to put corporate success first.
Further Reading
A Vision for the Future of Newspapers—20 Years Ago
A Vision for the Future of Newspapers—20 Years Ago
Mark Potts, writing about his major part in what might be properly called the genesis of the first digital publishing strategy:
As someone said when they saw PostCard a few years later, “It looks like the Web.” Except that, in those early days of experimentation, the Web didn’t really exist yet.
Boom Makes Your Mac Speakers Go Up To 11
Boom Makes Your Mac Speakers Go Up To 11
If you’ve ever wanted your Mac to be louder (as I often did before buying this app), Boom is worth the money. Here’s a direct link to the App Store.
Apple sold 5.7 million tablets in the U.S. last quarter, court documents show. Samsung sold 37,000
Apple sold 5.7 million tablets in the U.S. last quarter, court documents show. Samsung sold 37,000
Philip Elmer-DeWitt’s article at Fortune is one of many today about the revelations coming out of the Apple v. Samsung trial. But his headline is the main reason I had to share this link. It must feel like a punch in the gut for Samsung executives to see those numbers juxtaposed.
Apple's Secrets Revealed at Trial
Apple’s Secrets Revealed at Trial
Ian Sherr, writing for the Wall Street Journal:
In cross-examination, Mr. Forstall said Eddy Cue, now head of Apple’s Internet services efforts, had used a 7-inch Samsung tablet for a time, and sent an email to Chief Executive Tim Cook that he believed “there will be a 7-inch market and we should do one.”
While the rumor mill is still citing anonymous sources, this quote, for me, seals the deal. If Apple thinks there is a market (and at least one of its high-ranking executives does), and Apple thinks it can dominate that market (and they already dominate the ~10 inch tablet market), Apple will enter that market.
Don't believe the 'Apple invests in Twitter' hype
Don’t believe the ‘Apple invests in Twitter’ hype
In fact, an Apple investment in Twitter is painted as something Twitter can take or leave, but a partnership Apple desperately needs.
Tim Carmody makes a great point in this piece.
Geek preferences matter
We installed Firefox on every non-geek’s computer we could find. And while we were there, we set everyone’s search engine to Google instead of Yahoo or MSN, and we made fun of their AOL email addresses until they switched to Gmail. Our preferences matter.
I took this quote somewhat out of context and Marco Arment’s post about how Apple’s new OS X Mountain Lion handles third party app is worth reading.
I just particularly like the reminder that geeks, who sometimes feel marginalized, are often setting trends.
Apple TV: The Soon-To-Be #1 Gaming Console?
Apple TV: The Soon-To-Be #1 Gaming Console?
MG Siegler points out that, despite Apple CEO Tim Cook’s quiet mention of Apple TV, the little box Steve Jobs once called Apple’s hobby has sold more units than the best-selling Xbox 360 gaming console.
Not bad for a hobby.