Apple passes Microsoft

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A symbolic moment, this: in Q4 2013 the number of computers* sold by Apple was larger than the number of Windows PC sold globally. If you add Windows Phone to the mix they’re more or less exactly equal.

Microsoft spent so much time laughing at Apple. Not any more.

The Loop Magazine Issue 21: Spider Stacy from The Pogues

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The Loop Magazine Issue 21:

In this issue Seamus Bellamy interviews The Pogues Spider Stacy; Philip Michaels looks at the advantages of watching movies and sports at home; Kirk McElhearn wonders about an iPod pro; Darren Murph looks at how the skies have changed since in the introduction of Wi-Fi; and Chris Domico talks about console gaming and the iPhone.

A free preview is available for every article in the app.

Less advice

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More people should listen to Jason Fried. It’s okay to recommend people talk to someone else when they ask for advice.

Using multiple guitar plug-ins for better sound

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Rich Tozzoli breaks down how best to use multiple guitar amp plug-ins to achieve unlimited sounds.

I love doing this. Using different sounds and a panning strategy can make your song sound so good.

Windows 8 sales below Windows 7 after one year

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Microsoft Corp’s Windows 8 system has racked up more than 200 million license sales since its launch 15 months ago, according to Tami Reller, its head of marketing, lagging Windows 7 which sold 240 million within its first year.

I’m not surprised.

Comcast and Time Warner is all about broadband

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Om Malik:

If it is allowed to gobble up its number two rival, Time Warner Cable, Philadelphia-based Comcast will become the largest broadband provider in the United States, and perhaps the largest outside China. The two companies together will control about half of what is called triple-play services — video, voice and internet — in the U.S. The two companies together would have about 33 million broadband connections that brought in about $18 billion in broadband revenue during 2013.

The numbers are almost too much to comprehend.

Not trusting IDC analysts

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IDC collectively referred to iOS and Android as accounting for 93.8 percent of all smartphone shipments in 2013, describing the two platforms as pursuing opposite strategies without referencing the fact that Apple earns the majority of the world’s handset profits. “Android relied on its long list of OEM partners, a broad and deep collection of devices, and price points that appealed to nearly every market segment,” wrote IDC’s Research Manager Ramon Llamas, without providing any context on how that strategy resulted in lost profits for the majority of manufacturers who use Android, including Google’s own Motorola subsidiary. “Apple’s iOS, on the other hand,” Llamas continued, “relied on nearly the opposite approach: a limited selection of Apple-only devices, whose prices trended higher than most. Despite these differences, both platforms found a warm reception to their respective user experiences and selection of mobile applications.”

This report and comments from IDC just stink. The iPhone took over 87% of the handset profits worldwide.

I’m guessing the NSA and U.S. Army doesn’t read about Samsung, Android

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Will Connors for the WSJ:

Samsung recently won an order for roughly 7,000 smartphones from the U.S. Army and is close to an order for several thousand devices from the U.S. National Security Agency, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Surely they’re aware of all the malware on Android, right?

Designing with advice from Bruce Lee

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Bruce Lee often told students that if they already thought they “knew” everything, they should leave his class.

“If your cup is full, you cannot fill it. So first, empty your cup.”

Things like this can apply in so many circumstances. People that “know” everything are a pain.

SixString: The Social Network app for Guitarists

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I’ve been hearing a lot about this app in recent months, so I downloaded it and will give it a try. Everything I’ve heard is that this is a really great community with pros like Zakk Wylde contributing, along with regular guys like me.

The next 30 years of Mac

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Peter Cohen has some interesting thoughts on what the Mac will look like in 30 years. I think technology is moving so fast, we won’t even recognize the computer industry in 30 years. Whether it’s a Mac, iPad, or some other combined post-pc device, we’ll be living in a different world with different needs.

iPhone, iPad dominate enterprise; iPhone earned 87.4% of global handset profits

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Enterprise mobile services vendor Good Technology reported that Apple’s iPad accounted for more than 91 percent of enterprise tablet deployments, while iPhone represented 54 percent of smartphones activated by the more than 2,000 companies using its services in the fourth quarter, giving iOS an overall 73 percent share of mobile devices in the enterprise.

iPhone earned 87.4% of global handset profits:

Despite efforts seeking to portray Apple as having experienced a disappointing winter quarter, the reality is that Apple brutally dominated the slowing global handset market, syphoning off 87.4 percent of the industry’s global profits.

That’s domination.

Android instability

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The Android ecosystem today is superficially similar to the PC ecosystem, but I’d suggest that the clarity and alignment of interests of the PC ecosystem isn’t present in anything like the same way. As an Android OEM you have very little idea what Android will be in 3 years – partly because Google itself may not have a fully-formed idea. There certainly aren’t public roadmaps stretching out years in advance.

Many great points in this article.

The iTunes Empire

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The iTunes “empire” of content and services would be ranked as number 130 in the Fortune 500 ranking of companies (slightly below Alcoa and above Eli Lilly).

That’s incredible.

TicketBlast

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TicketBlast is an iPhone app that helps you relive the best live events of your life, providing a place to save your shoebox full of ticket stubs and memories and share them with the world on Facebook and Twitter, all while viewing them on your iPhone.

I really wish I had this 20 or 30 years ago. I’d love to look back at all of the concerts and games I’ve been to.

CleanMyMac 2 [Sponsor]

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If you’re looking for some more disk space or just want a cleaner Mac, MacPaw has a fresh utility that you should check out; it’s called CleanMyMac 2.

CleanMyMac 2 helps you clean out unwanted apps, data, and gigabytes of junk on your Mac. It’s a powerful cleaning app that’s beautifully designed to make cleaning and organizing your Mac as simple as can be. With CleanMyMac 2, you can manage widgets and extensions, fix broken apps, drastically reduce your iPhoto Library, and clean out old, neglected files that waste disk space.

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So, why put off getting yourself a faster, cleaner Mac? Download CleanMyMac 2 right now to see how easy cleaning your Mac can be!

Failing at design

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Great video from Braden Kowitz. Nobody sets out to fail at design, but it happens.

Straptight strap locks

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Sometimes the best innovation is the simplest—that’s the case with Straptight. I’ve seen the inventor swing a guitar over his head with these on his strap and they didn’t pop off. Yet, you just twist it and it comes off when you want it to. They’re endorsed by Joe Satriani and are really inexpensive too.

Tim Cook’s WSJ interview

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I really enjoyed Tim’s interview. What I took from the interview is that Apple still cares about the things it always cared about: Design, building great products, and being the best. I’m glad to see that hasn’t changed. Here are a couple of points I picked out:

There will be new categories and we’re working on some great stuff. We’re not ready to talk about it. We’re really working on some really great stuff. I think no one reasonable would say they’re not a new category.

That seems like a warning that some analysts might consider the new products as being in an existing product category. If that’s the case, I have to think Apple would innovate that existing category similar to what it did with the iPod and iPhone.

We’re still spending an enormous amount on really great talent and people on the Macs of the future.

That’s great to hear. iPad is an amazing product, but not everyone is ready to make that jump yet.

But what we’re not going to do is we’re not going to make junk. We’re not going to put Apple’s brand on something someone else designed.

This is key for Apple. They aren’t worried about throwing out as many products as they can into the market, but rather making the best products and releasing them when they are ready.