Juli Clover, writing for MacRumors:
Apple has quietly changed its App Store policies and is no longer permitting iOS devices running pre-release software to be used to write App Store reviews. When attempting to write a review from a device that has iOS 9 installed, a popup is displayed that tells users reviews can’t be submitted while using beta software.
Good. And here’s why.
During Apple’s earnings call yesterday, Tim Cook carved out a section of his presentation to address Apple Watch sales numbers.
A little parsing:
Sales of the watch did exceed our expectations, and they did so despite supply still trailing demand at the end of the quarter.
That’s referring to Apple constraining sales to online-only, long shipping dates, not being able to make enough Apple Watches to meet demand.
To give you a little additional insight, through the end of the quarter, in fact the Apple Watch sell-through was higher than the comparable of the launch periods of the original iPhone or the original iPad.
This post elaborates on this point. Apple Watch numbers, at this point in the product lifecycle, are better than iPhone sales, better than the original iPad sales, at the same point in those lifecycles.
We were able to do that with having only 680 points of sale, and as you probably know, as I had reviewed earlier, the online sales were so great at the beginning, we were not able to feed inventory to our stores until mid June, and so those points of sale pretty much the overwhelming of the low numbers of sales were not there until the last two weeks of the quarter.
Sales didn’t rollout to stores until there were only two weeks left in the quarter. This doesn’t mean that the next quarter sales will be off the charts. It’s still early in the adoption cycle and watchOS 2 is still in beta. Only time will tell us how successful Apple Watch will be in the long run.
But Tim followed with this point:
Most importantly of all of this, is the customer sat is off the charts. Because we’ve constantly seen that if you can get the customer sat off the charts you can wind up doing fairly well over time.
The “customer sat” refers to existing customer satisfaction with the product. With a sat of 97%, it’s clear that people who own an Apple Watch love their Apple Watch. And that is a huge point. If anything is a predictor of future success, tremendous user satisfaction is that predictor.
[Transcript via Six Colors]
Jason Snell has a great transcript of what Tim Cook said to analysts during the earnings call today. In case you missed it, Apple reported a profit $10.7 billion on revenue of $49.6 billion.
Microsoft reported a $3.2 billion quarterly net loss, hurt by charges related to its Nokia phone business and job cuts, and weak demand for its Windows operating system.
The company took a charge of $7.5 billion in the fourth quarter related to the restructuring of its Nokia handset business, which it acquired last year.
Ouch.
Basically, the companies argue that a refusal to limit damages to infringing features could have huge impact in an era when consumer products incorporate many highly sophisticated components within a single device. That Samsung can be successfully sued over singular design features and forced to pay damages based on overall device sales rather than a portion of profits sets a dangerous precedent, the group argues.
I could see their point if Samsung had of taken one feature and incorporated it into a smartphone it designed. However, Samsung stole the entire phone—hardware, software, and everything else it could lay its grubby little hands on. They were caught and should pay.
Apple on Tuesday reported a third quarter profit of $10.7 billion on revenue of $49.6 billion. This compares to revenue of $37.4 billion and net profit of $7.7 billion in the year ago quarter.
Apple said the growth was fueled by record third quarter sales of iPhone and Mac, all-time record revenue from services and the successful launch of Apple Watch.
In the quarter, Apple sold 47.5 million iPhones, 10.9 million iPads, and 4.7 million Macs. Apple did not break out sales of the recently released Apple Watch.
Updated every Monday morning, Discover Weekly brings you two hours of custom-made music recommendations, tailored specifically to you and delivered as a unique Spotify playlist.
Good idea.
Betts, who has spent more than 25 years in the auto industry with companies including Toyota and Nissan, vacated his role of head of quality at Chrysler Group last year to “pursue other interests.”
Oh Apple, what are you up to.
Ed is just on fire. Much respect.
USAToday:
The airplane is one that turns heads.Aviation enthusiasts instinctively know it is the “Beluga,” a nickname stemming from the aircraft’s uncanny resemblance to the whale of the same name.
But nearly all who see it tend to agree that regardless of its name, it’s one of the world’s strangest-looking aircraft.
I have a fascination and appreciation for the magic of flight and those crafts that are able to achieve it but this thing? Sorry. It’s one butt ugly airplane.
Apple:
All Store Services – Some users are affected. Users are experiencing a problem with the services listed above. We are investigating and will update the status as more information becomes available.
For those of you/us who are having issues accessing Apple Music and other services today, rest assured, it’s not on your end. Apple has been having frequent problems with Apple Music since last week. This is a good page to bookmark and check when your Apple cloud-based services aren’t working as expected.
This is one of those lists that likely has a number of things you already know. But it’s worth reading, just for that one little nugget that’s new to you.
My favorite is one that works on your Apple Watch but also on any iOS device. This is especially useful for folks who are new to Siri. When you have a spare minute, ask Siri:
What kind of things can I ask you?
You’ll get a list of queries, organized by apps installed on your device. Tap an app and you’ll get a second page with more suggestions for that app.
Pass this one along.
Mike Wehner, writing for the Daily Dot, put together a nice little writeup showing iPod, iPad, and iPhone sales numbers at the same point in their life-cycle as the Apple Watch is now.
Bottom line, speculation is foolish. Those who speculate so early in the game are destined for John Gruber’s claim chowder file.
The report on the hardware and software that makes up your Mac has been around forever. But that report, accessible via the Apple menu’s About This Mac menu item, is constantly evolving.
One particularly useful element of this report is the what and when of all the software you’ve got installed on your Mac. If you’ve not encountered this, here’s how you get there:
When the report appears, scroll down on the left-hand sidebar and, under Software, select Installations. The scrolling list that appears on the right shows every piece of software you’ve installed on your Mac. You can click on a column header to sort your list by name, version number, source, or install date.
Of particular interest is the source column. Anything showing a source of Apple is likely safe, but are there items on the list that you don’t recognize marked as 3rd Party? Might be worth looking into those.
[Via MakeTechEasier.com]
Before you get too excited, this fine print is from the new NFL Game Pass web site:
NFL Game Pass includes live access to most preseason games. Such live preseason games do not include all nationally-broadcast preseason games and any preseason games televised in a user’s local market. Preseason games that are not available live in NFL Game Pass will be made available on-demand in the NFL Game Pass archives shortly after the conclusion of the original telecast. NFL Game Pass does not include live regular season, playoff, and Super Bowl game broadcasts. Access to these games is available within NFL Game Pass on an on-demand basis in the NFL Game Pass archives after such games have aired on broadcast television. Sunday morning and afternoon games (9:30am ET, 1pm ET & 4pm ET) are available at the conclusion of all Sunday 4pm ET games, and Sunday night, Monday night, Thursday and Saturday NFL games are available following the conclusion of the applicable game telecast. NFL Game Pass is unavailable during the telecast of the Super Bowl. Some 2009 regular season games are not available. NFL Game Pass is only available to users within the United States, Bermuda, Antigua, the Bahamas, any U.S. territories, possessions and commonwealths (including American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands), and Mexico.**Some live Preseason games may not be available live on phones, but will always be available in the archives.
The key here is the phrase: “Sunday morning and afternoon games (9:30am ET, 1pm ET & 4pm ET) are available at the conclusion of all Sunday 4pm ET games, and Sunday night, Monday night, Thursday and Saturday NFL games are available following the conclusion of the applicable game telecast.”
No live games.
Kiss your afternoon goodbye. Enjoy.
Pixelmator for iOS just keeps getting better. In the latest release, the guys added Dynamic Touch, which lets users adjust the brush size of all Retouch tools by painting with their tip or a larger area of their finger; the Pixelmator for Mac repairing algorithm has been added to iOS; and they published the Pixelmator for iOS User Guide and video tutorials.
This is one of my favorite apps and companies. Just go buy their software.
Merlin and Jim talk about the future, whether we’re happy with the direction Apple is going, non-technical things that give us joy, David Gilmore, and underrated guitarists.
Apple:
Listen to streaming audio from the conference call.Live streaming audio requires iPhone®, iPad®, or iPod touch® running iOS 4.2 or above, a Mac® running OS X 10.6.8 or above or a PC running Windows 7 and QuickTime 7 or later. Safari or Internet Explorer also required.
This is the quarterly call where Apple talks about just how many metric buttloads of money they have made in the past three months, the ridiculous number of iPhones and Macs they’ve sold but not a word on how many Apple Watches they have put on wrists around the world.
While the conference call is restricted to analysts (some of whom will ask really stupid questions), you can be a fly on the wall and listen in to the audio, starting at 5 p.m. ET (2 p.m. PT).
It has tremendous potential and lots of room for growth if only someone were to give it some love. Is that someone you?
I like this app. I think someone could do a lot with it.
Igloo allows you to share files, coordinate calendars, provide updates and manage projects easily.
Why use the latest, sleekest devices if you are going to use them to stare at an intranet website that looks like it was built in the 90’s?
Igloos are CSS and HTML5 friendly, which means they can be customized to look amazing.
They are also responsive right off the bat, which means that everything you can do at your desk, you can now do on the go, on your phone.
And just like your favorite Apple devices, Igloo helps you do your best work.
Share files, coordinate calendars, provide status updates and manage projects. Igloo’s not just for your traditional intranet stuff like HR policies and expense forms. It also lets you work better together with your teams.
For example, with Igloo’s latest release, Wolf, you can preview Photoshop, InDesign, HTML or CSS files straight from the platform, making it easier for co-workers to give feedback on creative assets.
Head over to igloosoftware.com to sign up for a free trial today and invite up to 10 of your favorite coworkers to try it too.
One of the best ways to measure how a product is being received by its owners is customer satisfaction. This statistic alone is highlighted by Apple continually as the barometer in which they measure a product’s success. Many pundits will look to Apple Watch sales as the metric for its success. But the real question is, do people love it? The answer is yes.
I agree that pundits will look for sales numbers and I also agree that satisfaction is an important question in determining success.
Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum:
For the Smithsonian’s first-ever Kickstarter campaign, we are proud to announce plans to conserve, digitize, and display Neil Armstrong’s Apollo 11 spacesuit in time for this milestone anniversary. We want to preserve Armstrong’s spacesuit – and the story it tells of its incredible journey – down to the particles of lunar dust that cling to its surface. Just like the Apollo program, we will accomplish this in collaboration of thousands of people across the country and around the world. And that’s where you come in.
I’m a vocal critic of Kickstarter in general but this is for a great cause and a relative pittance. Some smart company or billionaire should just step up and cover the costs of the suit’s restoration and dispaly.
This might seem like a simple experiment, but I agree with the Neurology poster: This is a glimpse into the future.
Some pretty good reasons there.
Gary Stockton dug up an old WWDC clip (embedded below) that shows Steve Jobs replying to a snarky question from the audience (remember when Steve used to take questions from the audience?) about OpenDoc and Java. Steve’s reply is worth watching.
Brian X. Chen and Vindu Goel, writing for the New York Times:
In the months surrounding the much-ballyhooed release of the Apple Watch, Apple managers courted Facebook in the hopes that the social networking giant would make a software application for the new gadget.
Facebook was not persuaded. Three months after the watch’s release, there is no Facebook app tailored for it. Adam Mosseri, who oversees Facebook’s news feed, said the social network had been studying the Apple Watch but had not figured out how to deliver a good Facebook experience — including the news feed’s stream of posts, photos and videos — on such a small screen.
Apple managers courted Facebook? How about a link, or even the most anecdotal proof behind that statement? It reads like a bit of an expose, but without the proof.
OK, moving on.
The lack of support from Facebook — and from other popular app makers like Snapchat and Google, which also do not have apps for Apple Watch — underscores the skepticism that remains in the technology community about the wearable device.
Skepticism? I don’t see it as skepticism at all. I see it as the tech community trying to get their head around what can and can’t be done on the Apple Watch. If anything, I see it as waiting for higher adoption rates and for watchOS 2 to hit the mainstream.
I believe the potential for Apple Watch is huge. Apple is very slowly tweaking the model to make sure the user experience is controllable and positive. As an example, consider the customization of watch faces.
watchOS 2 opened the customization gates a tiny bit, allowing third party developers to build custom complications (a complication is a little add-on to the watch face, like those that show day, date, next calendar event, or even phases of the moon) that will, potentially, appear on each of Apple’s existing watch faces.
The addition of complications is just a single step in the evolution of the Apple Watch experience. But Apple has to step carefully here. The Apple Watch screen is small, and the communication between the watch and the iPhone is slow enough to make controlling the back and forth critical. As Apple learns from these early experiences, R&D spending will find ways to improve the tech, and the Apple Watch will continue to evolve.
And at every step along the evolutionary path, more and more developers will find the right moment for their app to make the leap.
Michael Simon, writing for MacWorld:
Apple Watch is a conduit, not just to my iPhone, but to the world around me. While I haven’t used Digital Touch much (mostly due to the fact that I haven’t been able to convince my wife to buy one yet), the concept is central to what Apple is trying to achieve with Apple Watch. It’s not about replacing your phone or even leaving it in your pocket—it’s about using technology to stay more connected, not just through simple or multimedia messages, but through real digital contact. And that concept seems to be lost on many.
To me, intimate connectivity is a core concept of the Apple Watch that is under appreciated and, perhaps, under implemented by developers.
While there are plenty of things it doesn’t do well and likely never will—such as reading lengthy emails or swiping through voluminous photo albums—its unique form factor allows for a deeper visceral reaction to tasks I had grown accustomed to on my iPhone. The best example of this is when I receive a picture: getting tapped on my wrist to notify me that I have an incoming message and lifting my wrist to see a photo of my son appear is such a joyous interaction, it makes me linger a few seconds longer than I do when a text comes through on my phone. And I’m much more inclined to share it with the person I’m with, something I never did when my face was buried in my iPhone.
As is, the central theme of my Apple Watch is that of a notification funnel. Apps that play well in the notification space, that find a way to present a notification in a slim package that yields a more detail view if I tap it to get to the app itself, are much appreciated and most likely to stick around.
But there’s huge potential in the world beyond notifications. There’s an intimacy opportunity, a chance for Apple to bond people with their Apple Watch, that is currently implemented in the shared heartbeat, animated icons, and simple drawing app.
I’d argue that those things are signposts, simplistic showcases to give developers a taste of what is possible. Apps that offer real intimacy that allows people to feel truly connected will be the real killer apps for the Apple Watch.
Kirk McElhearn offers up an insightful look at why his (and many other folks’) iCloud Music Library metadata is getting scrambled.
So why were so many of my tracks showing in iCloud Music Library as Apple Music tracks with DRM? The metadata matching that occurred on the iPhone meant that iCloud Music Library could not verify whether the tracks that device contained were my original rips or tracks that I may have downloaded from Apple Music for offline listening. As such, it assumes the latter, adding them to my library as Apple Music files.
If it didn’t do this, you could download a couple thousand songs from Apple Music, turn off iCloud Music Library, and then turn it back on, and those songs would sync to your library as Matched tracks, without DRM. In other words, it would be trivial to get DRM-free copies of anything in the Apple Music library.
It’s a bit of a long read, but interesting and informative.