Mac

The secret to Apple’s designs

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Tony Fadell:

“When you’re in a culture that has a point of view, and drives to launch everything it does, you know you’re on the hook and you better bring your best game every time.”

PC shipments in US fall, but Apple is up

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PC shipments in the US dropped 2.1 percent in the fourth quarter of 2012, according to a new report from research firm Gartner. Despite the drop in overall shipments, Apple’s market share went up. […]

Delivering innovation vs delivering products

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A company’s ability to manufacture products and sell them worldwide is not the same as having the power to deliver innovation to a market. Apple has proven over the last few decades that it innovates, while many of its competitors are satisfied with building products based on that innovation. […]

Samsung exec: “I’ve always used Mac, an iPhone, and an iPad”

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Young Sohn, president and chief strategy officer in the US:

OK, so think about Apple compared to Samsung. I use a Mac, actually, at home. I’ve always used Mac, an iPhone, and an iPad. I also have the Galaxy. So I’m a great example.

If you look at the strengths of Apple, in a way it’s not the product per se. It’s that consumers like their ecosystem such as iCloud. I like that my family 6,000 miles away in Korea is able to see my schedule and see all of my contacts and photos. It is sticky, but it is a proprietary architecture.

Moving from an iMac to a MacBook Pro

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Gabe Weatherhead runs through all the changes involved in his big computer move. As a side note: It always surprises me how clean people’s desks are. Mine is a diaster.

Redesigning Notification Center

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Alex Saretzky took a shot at redesigning the Notification Center for Mac and iOS. I really like some of his ideas. Tip: Click on the iPhone to play the movie and click on the links to see animations of his ideas.

Ringer for iOS and Mac

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Many thanks to Pixel Research Labs for sponsoring this week’s RSS feed on The Loop with Ringer.

Ringer for iOS and Mac. Effortless iPhone ringtones, text tones, and alert tones. Easily select just the right part of your song to turn into your ringtone. See the waveform for your media so you can quickly find the spot you are looking for. Control fade in and fade out. Choose the gap between rings. Auto volume balance keeps ringtones from being too loud or too quiet. Ringer on the Mac lets you use just about any media including video and automatically imports tones into iTunes, ready to sync to your iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch.

Ringer for iOS and Mac [Sponsor]

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Ringer for iOS and Mac. Effortless iPhone ringtones, text tones, and alert tones. Easily select just the right part of your song to turn into your ringtone. See the waveform for your media so you can quickly find the spot you are looking for. Control fade in and fade out. Choose the gap between rings. Auto volume balance keeps ringtones from being too loud or too quiet. Ringer on the Mac lets you use just about any media including video and automatically imports tones into iTunes, ready to sync to your iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch.

Windows 8’s disappointing usability

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Here’s a summary of Jakob Nielsen’s study on Windows 8:

Hidden features, reduced discoverability, cognitive overhead from dual environments, and reduced power from a single-window UI and low information density. Too bad.

To say that the study is not favorable would be a huge understatement. It’s also worthwhile to read Gruber’s comments on the study, especially the last sentence.

iHoliday

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When it comes to devices, kids’ holiday wish lists are simple this year. The most-wanted gifts are predominantly from one company—Apple. According to a recent Nielsen study, Apple’s popularity leading up to the holiday season continues a trend seen over the last couple of years, with American kids aged 6-12 generally more interested in the latest iOS offerings than other consumer electronics and gaming devices.

It’s going to be a good quarter for Apple.

Frictionless experience

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Apple’s true advantage is when applications are available across all three platforms, offering a device-optimized and consistent experience no matter what I am using.They offer a frictionless experience.

Dear Ed Conway: Go already

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I figured the least I could do is to explain my decision in full – I like to think it might help protect you from nasty break-ups like this in the future.

This is the longest, most boring break-up letter in history. Please Ed, just go.

And this is why I don’t trust analysts

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“Apple’s innovation is sputtering,” [Trip] Chowdhry wrote in a research note to clients. “Why is that Apple, the company that brought touch to phones and tablets, stopped just there and did not bring touch to notebooks and iMacs? Why is it that Apple brought high-resolution screens to…some MacBooks and not to all devices? High-resolution screens are a commodity today.”

Well Trip, people tend to use computers in a different way than they use tablets and phones. It makes no sense to push out touch enabled displays on products that people expect to use a keyboard and mouse.

Apple does use high-resolution displays, but Retina displays are not a commodity. With a price conscious customer in mind, Apple has to balance its products to offer the best it can for a reasonable price.

I hope that answered your question Trip.