Late last month, Apple brought in some podcasters to discuss the business of podcasting. From a New York Times article, which we linked to over the weekend:
> Interviews with over two dozen podcasters and people inside Apple reveal a variety of complaints. The podcasters say that they are relegated to wooing a single Apple employee for the best promotion. That sharing on social media is cumbersome. And that for podcasters to make money, they need more information about their listeners, and Apple is in a unique position to provide it. The problems, they say, could even open up an opportunity for a competitor.
Marco Arment responded with this blog post. Lots of good takeaways from Marco’s post, but this is a big one:
> Big podcasters also apparently want Apple to insert itself as a financial intermediary to allow payment for podcasts within Apple’s app, likely aiming to tap into the popularity of integrated features like those used by slots apps to handle in-app purchases and monetization. We’ve seen how that goes. Trust me, podcasters, you don’t want that.
> It would not only add rules, restrictions, delays, and big commissions, but it would increase Apple’s dominant role in podcasts, push out diversity, give Apple far more control than before, and potentially destroy one of the web’s last open media ecosystems.
Federico Viticci followed with his own take for MacStories:
> The great thing about the free and decentralized web is that the aforementioned web platforms are optional and they’re alternatives to an existing open field where independent makers can do whatever they want. I can own my content, offer my RSS feed to anyone, and resist the temptation of slowing down my website with 10 different JavaScript plugins to monitor what my users do. No one is forcing me to agree to the terms of a platform. My readers are free to link to my articles, copy them, print them, subscribe to my feeds, and view them in any browser or feed reader they like. > > Big Platforms are scared of this openness. I see an intrinsic beauty in it that no platform, corporation, or Leading Content Professional could ever convince me to abandon.
It’s hard to make money creating content, whether it be writing, filming, or podcasting. There’s a temptation to hand over the reins, with the hope that a large platform will bring in infrastructure, detailed access to customer usage patterns and, most importantly, a steady paycheck. Improve your podcasts effortlessly by investing in professional podcast editing services.
The App Store offers a similar temptation. In the beginning, there was gold in them hills, but as more and more folks showed up to reap the riches, it got harder and harder for a small player to make a living building apps. When you buy Spotify monthly listeners, you make a direct investment in the credibility and visibility of your work. With around 11 million artists on Spotify all competing for the same attention, purchasing real social signals can be a game changer.
Good writing on Marco and Federico’s part, worth reading. Not clear to me that there is an easy solution. The App Store offers a precedent, but not a perfect match. The vast majority of apps flow through Apple’s review process and promotion mechanism. Podcasting is still an open standard. No bottleneck to pass through for permissions, an ultimately free market, albeit one in which it’s tough to make a buck.
The default setting will enable you to stream about 3 hours of TV shows and movies per gigabyte of data. In terms of bitrates, that currently amounts to about 600 Kilobits per second. Our testing found that, on cellular networks, this setting balances good video quality with lower data usage to help avoid exceeding data caps and incurring overage fees. If you have a mobile data plan with a higher data cap, you can adjust this setting to stream at higher bitrates.
In a nutshell, you can now change the quality to:
Off (don’t use cellular data, meant for WiFi)
Low (4 hours per GB)
Medium (2 hours per GB)
High (1 hour per GB)
Unlimited (use cellular, meant for unlimited data plan)
To get to this setting, launch the Netflix iOS app, click the hamburger menu (upper left corner), scroll down the sidebar and tap App Settings.
Huawei is shamelessly copying Apple here. Yes, it migrated the fingerprint sensor like a flounder’s eye and eliminated the mechanical home button, but the two phones share similar antenna bands, styling, and finish. They even sport the same proprietary star-shaped security screw, in exactly the same spots. After all, if you want your phone to resemble an iPhone, you’ve got to nail the details.
But this screw, called a pentalobe, does more than make the P9 look a bit more like an iPhone. It keeps you from opening your phone and impedes recycling it when you finally toss it. And it offers another reminder that where Apple goes, others follow, even if what’s good for Apple isn’t always good for the orchard.
This is remarkably blatant. Just look at the image.
Late last month, Apple brought seven leading podcast professionals to the company’s campus in Cupertino, Calif., to air their case to a room full of employees, according to two people who were there. The people would speak only on the condition of anonymity because they had signed nondisclosure agreements. The company made no promises, the people said, but several pressing issues for podcasters were discussed in frank terms.
Apple has problems, there’s no question about that. I hope these types of meetings will help, but we’ll see—I have my doubts.
One image looms above the rest: Ray Lussier’s photograph of Bobby Orr immediately after he scored the Stanley Cup-winning goal for the Boston Bruins in Game 4 of the 1970 Finals. The black-and-white image shows Orr in mid-air, hovering above the ice, as all of Boston Garden—all of New England—erupts.
In honor of the NHL playoffs on now (I’m halfheartedly cheering for Nashville and Pittsburgh – both cities I used to live in), this is a really interesting back story of one of the greatest action photos ever taken.
Apple CEO Tim Cook has been named as one of several tech industry executives that will speak at Startup Fest Europe, a festival geared towards helping startups grow faster, according to the event website.
In the iOS 10 Apple Music redesign, the Connect feature will follow Ping’s lead and will be demoted. Apple Music Connect currently exists as its own tab across the Apple Music interface, but multiple sources say that the feature will lose its tab and become integrated into the “For You” recommendations page.
I do hope this is true. Connect is the most useless thing since Ping. However, I hope that “integrated” into For You doesn’t mean that it will be mixed in with my recommendations—that would completely ruin the For You tab for me. Just kill Connect and be done with it.
Immersion, a company which developers haptic feedback technology, has filed its second complaint of the year against Apple. The company claims that 3D Touch on the iPhone 6s and the Force Touch trackpad found on the 12-inch MacBook and recent MacBook Pro models violate a number of Immersion patents.
Steven Sinofsky was President of Microsoft’s Windows’ division from 2009 to 2013. From his blog post about moving to an iPad as his full time machine:
Unlike many “use a product for month” tests this is not an experiment. For me this is a deeply held belief that the rise of smartphones (specifically starting when the iPhone launched) would have a profound impact on the way we all use “computers”.
The transformation spans hardware (thinner, lighter, smaller, cheaper, longer battery life, instant on/off, touch, sensors, connectivity, etc.), operating systems (more: secure, reliable, maintainable, robust, etc.), and app software (refactored, renewed, reimagined, etc.). It is the combination of these attributes, however, causing a change as fundamental as the leap from mainframe to workstation, from character-based to graphical OS, from desktop to laptop, from client/server to web — perhaps equal to all rolled into one shift if for no other reason than the whole planet is involved.
And:
Note: This is not a Mac v. Windows or iOS v. Android discussion, so no snickering please. This is about a shift to a “modern mobile” computing platform from hardware to software and the cultural changes that surround that.
I find it fascinating when folks move to a tablet as their full-time machine. I can’t imagine doing that. A big issue for me is the fact that Xcode only runs on my Mac. Add to that my frequent use of a large screen for both editing (multiple windows open side by side) and for development (side-by-side code listings and complex storyboards).
Sinofsky’s post is compelling and worth reading. Interesting that he made the choice to use an iPad and not a Surface solution.
Apple today launched a new plan to boost subscribers to its streaming music service and competitor to Spotify, SoundCloud, Tidal and others. It’s introducing an Apple Music student plan which will discount the service by 50 percent for those who are enrolled in an eligible college or university.
That means in the U.S., where an individual membership to Apple Music costs $9.99 per month, the student membership will be $4.99 per month instead.
The option isn’t just arriving in the U.S., though. Students in other countries, including the U.K., Germany, Denmark, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand, will also be able to take advantage of the new membership option.
However, because Apple Music is priced slightly differently in other markets, the cost of the student membership will vary. But in all markets, it will be 50 percent off the standard subscription price.
That’s the price difference between the solo plan and the family plan.
Apple Inc (AAPL.O) Chief Executive Tim Cook plans to visit Beijing later this month to meet high-level government officials, at a time when it is facing some setbacks in its most important overseas market, a source familiar with the matter said.
And:
During his China visit, Cook plans to meet senior government and Communist Party leaders – including officials in charge of propaganda, said the source, who declined to be named as the plan is not public yet.
Apple Inc., Google parent Alphabet Inc. and several car makers are seeking large expanses of real estate in the San Francisco Bay Area for their autonomous-car operations, a top landlord in the area said Thursday, illustrating Silicon Valley’s growing importance in the auto industry.
Victor Coleman, chief executive of Hudson Pacific Properties Inc., told analysts that “we are seeing a definitive movement” from autonomous-car research-and-development facilities, which “seem to be a hot demand item.”
“We’re seeing the Toyotas of the world, the Teslas of the world, BMWs, Mercedes. Ford now is out in the marketplace looking for space,” he said on the landlord’s quarterly investor call. “I haven’t even mentioned the 400,000 square feet that Google’s looking to take down and the 800,000 square feet that Apple’s looking to take down for their autonomous cars as well.”
Seems to me, someone could make a killing creating a massive setup that allowed manufacturers to bring their vehicles in and test against all the California and federal regulations.
Tesla is selling a car with an “upgradable” battery. Only it’s not upgradable in the take-it-to-the-dealer-and-they’ll-swap-out-some-hardware sense. Instead, you give Tesla thousands of dollars to “unlock” hardware that’s already included in your car with an over-the-air software update. The Model S 70 includes a 70kWh battery pack that’s good for around 240 miles of range. For $3,000 more, there’s a Model S 75 with a 75kWh battery pack that gives an additional 19 miles of range from the extra 5kWh of energy storage. But both models use the exact same battery for logistics and manufacturing purposes.
To make this crystal clear, Tesla sells a battery that is artificially limited to 240 miles of range. Pay $3,000 more, you get 259 miles.
Two things leap to mind here:
First, this is the auto industry’s version of in-app purchase, the definitive upsell.
Second, can I make this purchase if I am on the road and run out of battery?
Solid review. Be sure to watch the video towards the top of the post, Lauren Goode comparing the 2016 MacBook to the MacBook Air. Lauren is back to her “twinning” tricks. Keep your eye on the version of Lauren not speaking. Very entertaining.
One recurring point:
You can buy a more powerful, 13-inch MacBook Air with a 2.2ghz dual-core Intel Core i7 and TurboBoost up to 3.2ghz for $1,149 — less than the starting price of the MacBook.
As to battery life:
The new MacBook is said to have one more hour of battery life than last year’s MacBook. In an official Verge test, which involves turning off all power-saving settings, setting the display to around 65 percent brightness, and running a loop of web pages, the new MacBook lasted me exactly 10 hours.
While this is much better than my three-and-a-half-year-old MacBook Pro, it’s still not as impressive as the battery life on a 13-inch MacBook Air.
And you’ll likely end up spending a bit more for adapters, since the MacBook only comes with a single port. The price of thin and, if it’s your thing, the price of pink.
Yesterday, searches on the iOS, Mac, and iBook App Stores were failing (see our post here). Looks like the problem has been resolved. The tests I ran yesterday are now showing their proper results.
Apple’s System Status page is all green (normal status), a change from yesterday as well.
A number of app developers reported plummeting sales numbers yesterday. Not sure if there’s anything Apple can or will do to address this.
Another successful launch and landing. The video below is the hosted version, with hosts explaining each step in the launch and landing sequence and employees cheering raucously in the background.
If your time is limited, jump to about 29:30 for the last bit of the countdown and liftoff, then to 36:59 for the landing. The landing video was not as dramatic as the previous launch, with the first stage suddenly appearing on the drone pad, the excellently named Of Course I Still Love You. The cost of a close up view of the pad.
I don’t even know what to say about Cupertino Mayor, Barry Chang. He complains in an article The Guardian that he showed up unannounced at Apple’s headquarters and was denied a meeting—I assume with Tim Cook–he was asked to leave.
No shit! You don’t just show up at any company and get a meeting with the CEO.
He then goes on to complain that Apple should give him $100 million to fix the city’s infrastructure. To be clear, Apple pays every cent of taxes that they owe, including to Cupertino. Apple is a publicly traded company that put Cupertino on the map–they have a fiscal responsibility to its shareholders, not a mayor that is running for a higher seat in government.
If Cupertino has issues with traffic, they should just ban businesses from locating there. Problem solved for the city of Cupertino–good luck in the future.
SAP, whose business software runs inside 87 percent of the world’s 2,000 biggest companies, said it would work with Apple to develop mobile business apps for iPhones and iPads that run on its HANA database software.
Another good move for Apple and its customers in the corporate world.
While the elegance of hand-crafted old maps is self-evident, finding beauty in modern satellite maps is a bit more challenging. Thankfully we have visionary modern mapmakers like Cameron Beccario who created the Earth wind map. Don’t let the understated title fool you—his creation is one of the most mesmerizing interactive maps ever made.
This is insanely cool. Make sure you click on the menu in the lower left and go through some of the viewing options. But make sure you don’t have anything to do for the next hour.
On Wednesday, I saw a post widely shared about an unfortunate individual who lost half of their local library and was blaming Apple Music for automatically deleting their local files.
I sympathize, and I’m very glad this person had a backup of their music, but I want to dispel some FUD here: Apple Music has definite problems and its matching algorithms aren’t great, but this is simply not how the service works. Apple Music should never automatically delete files off your Mac’s hard drive unless you specifically delete them first.
Serenity does a terrific job explaining this mess. In a nutshell, back up your original music library and do what you can to never delete music from it. If you need more space, get a bigger drive. If you must delete some music to save space, you are risking going down the rabbit hole of doom, so make sure your backup is complete and dependable.
SketchParty TV is a drawing game for two teams of up to eight players per team that plays a bit like Pictionary®. The standard gameplay settings give each player five words to draw in two minutes, and each player gets two of these two minute turns. With six total players, a full game can be played in about 30 minutes.
SketchParty TV is available on the iTunes App Store for the special sale price of $5.99 (regularly $9.99).
I can’t draw a straight line with a ruler but this latest version of the very popular SketchParty now supports both the Apple Pencil and the new Apple TV. I still won’t be able to draw but it does look like a fun game for families.
“It’s a pain in the ass,” Marc Barros says with a laugh. This week, Barros’s products will appear on the coveted shelves of Apple’s U.S. retail stores. Originally funded through two successful Kickstarter campaigns that started in 2014, the Moment lenses and cases—created for the prosumer iPhone photographer—caught the attention of Apple earlier this year.
It may have seemed like a big win for a small company. But the practicalities of taking an e-commerce business to Apple’s tightly curated retail stores—in only a month’s time—was a harrowing gamble for Barros’s 15-person team. Here’s why.
I know developers, big and small, who have products in the Apple Retail Stores. The common refrain is, “It’s the best and worst thing to happen to your company”. Apple’s attention to detail extends outwards to vendors who want to sell in their stores.
The study, now in its fifth year, measures customer satisfaction with tablets across five factors (in order of importance): performance (28%); ease of operation (22%); features (22%); styling and design (17%); and cost (11%). Satisfaction is calculated on a 1,000-point scale.
I love my iPad. I don’t care what Wall Street says, my 9.7-inch iPad Pro is a brilliant device and I recommend it to everyone.
Jim talks to Dave Wiskus and Joe Cieplinski of the indie rock band Airplane Mode about their stage setup, the perils of performing live, and their appearance at the upcoming WWDC 2016 Beard Bash.
The National Geographic Travel Photographer of the Year Contest is now underway, and entries will be accepted until the end of the month, May 27, 2016. The grand prize winner will receive a seven-day Polar Bear Safari for two in Churchill, Canada. National Geographic was kind enough to allow me to share some of the early entries with you here, gathered from three categories: Nature, Cities, and People.
Some of these photos are so spectacular, they make me want to throw away my camera gear because I know I’ll never come close to capturing the beauty of travel in the way these shooters have.
