Yearly Archives: 2012

Rounded corners and rectangles

Written by

Steve Wildstrom:

Samsung contributed greatly to this with a post-trial statement that said: ““It is unfortunate that patent law can be manipulated to give one company a monopoly over rectangles with rounded corners, or technology that is being improved every day by Samsung and other companies.” It’s more unfortunate that the claim was largely a fabrication that was swallowed whole by many writers.

What a great article by Steve. Go read it.

The innovation scare tactics

Written by

Michael Wolff:

But let us not argue the case that all this quite obviously impedes innovation and is part of a new unreal property land grab – not about technology at all, but about intellectual property: an effort to privatize much of what was once understood to be shared and public (indeed, not ownable, like the shape of the iPhone).

There is just so much wrong with Wolff’s story, it’s hard to know where to begin. Let’s just take this little gem of a paragraph.

How is it that stopping a company from blatantly ripping off your design “obviously impedes innovation”? It doesn’t. As I wrote earlier this week, all it does it stop copying. It encourages innovation because companies will have to think for themselves instead of stealing like Samsung did.

This is not about the shape of the iPhone. Nokia has a rectangle phone too, but Apple didn’t sue them. This is about Samsung stealing everything that Apple did, from hardware design to software and sold it as their own.

Samsung and writers like Wolff are using this innovation argument as a scare tactic. It won’t work.

Consumers dumping Samsung phones

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Customers of Samsung have been dumping their Android products on at least one major resale site. Gazelle.com reports a 50% increase in Samsung smartphones over the past three days, which has led to a 10% drop in prices for those devices. “Consumers seem to be jumping ship,” says Anthony Scarsella, chief gadget officer at Gazelle.com. “We expect this trend to continue, especially with this latest verdict.”

Sponsorships for October and November

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I opened up the new sponsorships for October and November today. If you want to get your iOS or Mac product in front of The Loop’s savvy, good looking and talented readers, then this is the only way to do it.

You can see what we offer on the Sponsorship page.

Pixelmator [Sponsor]

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Sponsoring The Loop this week is Pixelmator, an app that has not only become one of my all-time favorites, but also an app that makes me more productive. There’s a lot to like about Pixelmator, but for me it’s just the fact that it’s the best at what it does without a lot of confusing menus and clutter.

Just go buy it, you won’t regret it.

Twitter doesn’t want you

Written by

Harry Marks:

You used to be. You helped build Twitter into the global platform it is today. You were the ones who saw something meaningful in what others considered stupid and superfluous. You gave Twitter “at” replies and short links and hashtags and everything else that made the 140 character limit just a little easier to deal with. You were the true innovators – not them. But your services are no longer required. Please pack your things and go.

Worth a read.

Touchy-feely douchebag

Written by

Michael Lopp:

Let’s start with the most basic rule of listening: If they don’t trust you, they aren’t going to say shit.

Some great advice on how to listen and interact with people.

Eric Clapton and BB King

Written by

BB King can say more with one note on his guitar than most players can with an entire solo. […]

Apple service leads customers to buy new devices

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That service left almost all of the 40 percent of Apple owners who took their Apple devices to the Genius Bar very happy. Nearly 90 percent of consumers who used Apple’s tech service said they were extremely or very satisfied. In contrast, top 2 box satisfaction among all consumer service interactions was 78 percent. A major part of their satisfaction came from the fact that only a small percentage actually paid for their service. According to the report, 88 percent of Genius Bar consumers said their service was free compared to 78 percent of all consumers.

I would say this goes for most companies. The problem is not everyone gets the importance of customer service and how it affects future purchases.

No NFC on the new iPhone

Written by

Brian Klug, Anand Lal Shimpi for AnandTech:

Given the primarily metal backside of the new iPhone, it’s highly unlikely that NFC is in the cards for this generation. In fact, given the very little space at top and bottom dedicated to those glass RF windows, you can almost entirely rule it out.

Yep.

One More Thing Conference videos

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For everyone who told us they wished they could come to the conference but couldn’t make it – this is for you. We’re making the full videos from both days of the One More Thing 2012 Conference available for download! It’s only $49, and you can come back to watch or download the videos again at any time up until the next conference. They’re all 720p, H.264 and encoded for most iOS devices.

I wasn’t at the conference, but I heard a lot of good things about it from people that were there.

Apple’s executive line-up

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Apple today announced that Craig Federighi, Apple’s vice president of Mac Software Engineering, and Dan Riccio, Apple’s vice president of Hardware Engineering, have been promoted to senior vice presidents. Federighi and Riccio will report to Apple CEO Tim Cook and serve on Apple’s executive management team.Apple also announced that Bob Mansfield, who announced his retirement in June, will remain at Apple. Mansfield will work on future products, reporting to Tim Cook.

The most interesting part is about Mansfield.

Apple asks for ban on Samsung products

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Apple on Monday asked a federal judge to block the sale of more than a half dozen Samsung smartphones, after a jury found on Friday that Samsung had infringed a series of Apple’s mobile patents.

Panorama lets you stand on the moon with Neil Armstrong

Written by

Wired:

Though 12 men have walked on the moon, only one could be the first. When Neil Armstrong, who died Aug. 25, touched down in 1969 on the lunar surface, he and fellow astronaut Buzz Aldrin made history and photographed their landing site in detail.This fitting panoramic tribute transports you to the Apollo 11 landing site and lets you see what Armstrong saw. Stitching together photographs taken by Armstrong himself, the full 360-degree view shows the flat volcanic regolith where the Apollo Lunar Module landed.

This is another in a long line of amazing panoramas created by the brilliant Hans Nyberg.

Twitter assholes

Written by

Matthew Panzarino:

Tweetbot developer Tapbots has announced that it has pulled its very popular alpha Mac app from release due to the new caps on maximum users that Twitter recently said it would begin enforcing. The developers have tried to work with Twitter to come up with a way to have the alpha not eat up the limited amount of slots available to them, but says that Twitter has been uncooperative.

Support options for iBookstore publishers

Written by

In very welcome news to iBookstore publishers, Apple has recently added some support options to make it easier to get answers about pesky issues that might be delaying the sale of the next Great American Novel.

iOS icon designs

Written by

I am always amazed at what artists and designers can do. So much respect.

Chinese gamer returns dozens of spacebars stolen from internet cafe

Written by

The Verge:

According to a bizarre story reported by Chinese state newspaper The People’s Daily, a man recently turned up at an internet cafe in the country with dozens of stolen spacebars. Irritated by the noise made by players of the rhythmic game Audition Online, which involves repeated tapping of the keyboard, the disgruntled gamer had surreptitiously removed the offending keys from the establishment more than seven years previously.

But he decided to make amends in order to enjoy a fresh start following his upcoming wedding, returning the spacebars in bulk earlier this month.

Gamers are so odd.