There are certainly pros and cons to a completely controlled App Store. This is an excellent demonstration of what happens if you remove all the controls and let the market play out on its own.
Late last year, Apple made a change to its EU-based App Store/iTunes terms and conditions. Here are two excerpts from the UK terms agreement:
Right of cancellation: If you choose to cancel your order, you may do so within 14 days from when you received your receipt without giving any reason, except iTunes Gifts which cannot be refunded once you have redeemed the code.
And:
Exception to the right of cancellation: You cannot cancel your order for the supply of digital content if the delivery has started upon your request and acknowledgement that you thereby lose your cancellation right.
This last bit turns out to be critical. It gives Apple the right to defend against people who might abuse the no-questions-asked refund policy. Here’s one report, showing this clause at work:
One reader explains that when Apple introduced the new 14-day return policy, he started treating this policy as a trial period of some sort. After spending about $40 in various apps to trial, he was able to get $25 refunded, but Apple took notice of his behavior and a message popping up in the App Store now warns him that he will no longer be eligible for refunds on new purchases.
Here’s the language in the new alert:
I acknowledge that if I download this app within fourteen days of tapping ‘Buy’, I will no longer be eligible to cancel this purchase.
Seems fair.
There are a lot of Uber-likes in the startup world. There are startups competing to be the Uber for food, Uber for alcohol, Uber for parking, Uber for valet-ing your car, and many, many more. Most of those will never see the light of day.
One of the central features that makes Uber successful is the elimination of payment handling. You use an app to call a car, then just sit back and enjoy the ride. The linked article is about some Uber-likes for the restaurant industry. One in particular, Reserve, has a secret advantage.
Reserve is the first launch from Expa, an incubator (billed as a “startup studio”) helmed by Uber cofounder Garrett Camp and Foursquare cofounder Naveen Selvadurai. Expa’s portfolio currently includes three companies: Uber, Reserve, and a shadowy product called Operator. The incubator has some prominent investors as well: Sir Richard Branson, Meg Whitman, author Tim Ferriss, Google board member Ram Shriram, and TPG’s David Bonderman are all on board.
The idea is to make a reservation on your app, then show up in the restaurant, where you continue the transaction on an iPad-based system built into the restaurant. Order what you like, then leave. The payment is automatically billed to your account.
Offering pay-through-app capabilities to restaurants and bars is a natural idea for startups. Handling payment is one of the biggest choke points for the hospitality industry, and slow waitstaff account for a significant amount of angry Yelp reviews. But the restaurant industry is an incredibly hard one to build a sustainable startup in—restaurant owners are legendarily mercurial and diners are slow to adopt new services unless there’s an obvious selling point.
Another central feature of Uber-likes is the ability to establish an account (or multiple accounts) that do not require any validation beyond the initial setup. In the restaurant universe, this means you could use your business card to set up accounts for your employees to use for entertainment, and another card for your family.
Of all the Uber-likes I’ve seen, Reserve seems like it has the functionality and the pedigree to succeed. The limiting factor is the willingness of the restaurant industry to sign up.
The New York Times:
Popular messaging services like Snapchat and WhatsApp are in the cross hairs in Britain.That was the message delivered on Monday by Prime Minister David Cameron, who said he would pursue banning encrypted messaging services if Britain’s intelligence services were not given access to the communications.
I’m sorry to our British friends but you have an idiot for a Prime Minister.
New York Times:
Untrammeled oases beckon, once-avoided destinations become must-sees and familiar cities offer new reasons to visit.
Some obvious choices like Rome and some I really agree with like Milan, Cuba and Quebec City but some suspect suggestions, too. Squamish, BC? Orlando, FL? Cleveland, OH? Seriously?
The Robservatory:
Last week, I used the just-released Hubble Space Telescope images of the Andromeda galaxy to create a couple of desktop images for my Retina iMac. I liked the results so much that I spent some time collecting other suitable images from the Hubble site, and then cropping and/or scaling them to create interesting high-res desktop images.The end result is a collection of 50+ Retina iMac-sized (5120×2880) desktop wallpapers, courtesy of the Hubble Space Telescope. Here’s the full collection.
That nice young man, Rob Griffiths, put together this gorgeous collection of images.
If you talk about Apple to people these days, they automatically think of one of the companies mobile devices: iPhone, iPod, or iPad. Seldom do you hear the Mac at the start of those conversations.
Part of that is Apple’s decision, and to be honest, it was a good decision. Apple took advantage of and revolutionized mobile devices—they changed the way we look at mobile, and the things we can do with our devices. The decision to follow mobile made Apple the company it is today.
The big question is, where does that leave the Mac?
I’ve been asked that question more and more over the past few months, and while I can see why, I think the Mac is in a solid place at Apple, and in the market.
Years ago, when Apple started focusing more of its resources on iOS development, I did wonder where the Mac would land in the shakeout. As it turns out, the Mac is selling, and outselling the PC industry trends, quite nicely.
There are a couple of things that allowed strong Mac growth: the Mac hardware itself, and ironically, the changes to iOS (and OS X).
Like the other products in its portfolio, the Mac has been leading the way in the computer market over the years. From the MacBook Air to advances in battery technology, the Mac has continued to change with better technologies.
For me, the battery has probably been the single biggest advancement. I can work most of the day on my 11-inch MacBook Air, and it’s a couple of years old now. The new ones are even better—I just bought my son a new 13-inch MacBook Air and he says the battery last him all day at college.
Of course, the power of the Mac is important, and something we take for granted now. The original MacBook Air wasn’t that powerful at all—the idea of the computer was good, but the execution wasn’t. The new ones are very powerful—I regularly run Pro Tools on mine and it does just fine.
While the changes to the hardware were, and continue to be, important, the changes to the software are what really ease my mind about the Mac’s place at Apple.
When Apple started talking about iOS and OS X in the same breath, you just knew that some type of integration between the OSes was going to happen, and it did. If you look at the new features of OS X Yosemite, many have to do with iOS and what you’re doing on your mobile devices. These aren’t one-sided features either, they’re equally useful on an iOS device and Mac.
Take as examples, Handoff, Instant Hotspot, and the ability to answer calls on your Mac. These are features that make the entire experience of being a Mac or iOS user even better. It’s not about one or the other, this is about being an Apple user.
Are there things that Apple could be doing better? Yes, of course, and there always will be.
Apple is heading down an unknown road in 2015 with the Apple Watch. It’s going to be interesting to see where the next big product goes this year, but they’ve done a good job of solidifying the Mac’s place alongside its iOS devices in the last couple of years.
The Mac is still incredibly important in my daily life and will continue to be for the foreseeable future.
Chinese smartphone manufacturer Xiaomi has been on a tear lately, although when you look at some of its devices, you quickly notice that they bear a striking resemblance to devices released by Apple. This is why we find it amusing that Xiaomi’s CEO is now warning its fans to watch out for knockoff Xiaomi products being sold at phone retail outlets in Chinese cities.
These guys are just incredible.
The Daily Dot:
We’re glad that 15-year-old Tyler Barlow decided to stick an old barbecue in a grassy field and ignite 5 pounds of thermite on top of it, because the resulting video is super cool.
A fifteen year old kid and 5lbs of thermite – what could possibly go wrong? Turns out, nothing bad because, except for a disturbing lack of safety gear, the kid seems to know what he’s talking about. And the thermite reaction is pretty cool.
The Consumerist:
Even though the newest and freshest iPhones, the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, are now legally available in mainland China, hauling them over the border from Hong Kong is still a profitable enterprise. Apparently. According to a report in Chinese media, an enterprising young man created a plastic suit that held 94 iPhones, strapping them around his arms, legs, hips, and torso.
The pictures are hilarious.
Now that’s a birthday party!
Jason Snell offers an interesting analysis on the daily battery expectancy for iOS devices.
Over the years I’ve said numerous times that when it comes to battery life on iOS devices, Apple appears to have a target battery life in mind and builds its hardware—a balance of power-saving software, hardware efficiency, and battery capacity—to hit that number.
In other words, Apple thinks we need, say, a minimum of 10 hours of daily battery life and as they design each device, they make sure the battery is big enough to support that goal, but no bigger than that.
The one outlier to this model is the iPhone 6 Plus. Why? Because they weren’t driven by the need to make the phone as small as humanly possible. They had the luxury of design space, of battery headroom.
This Regent Street, London Apple Store window shows off a series of iPads with covers that automatically open and close, turning on and off the iPad with each cycle. Charming. Fascinating.
Makes me wonder how this works. There are no obvious wires or holes. There must be a motor underneath each iPad, but what’s the linkage that makes the cover bend over like that? Really well done.
UPDATE: Apparently, there are moving magnets in the table. Thanks to Twitter follower @MrLizard13, who asked a sales associate for the skinny on this.
[Via iHeartApple2]
A panel at CES was discussing disruptive technologies, predicting what each panelist thought would be the most disruptive tech over the next five years.
The panelists tossed around ideas they thought would be disruptive over this period — robotics, self driving cars, sensors, wearables, home automation and a few others. Creative Strategies Partner and Tech.pinions co-founder Ben Bajarin was on the panel and was asked at the end what he thought would be the most disruptive technology he saw on the horizon. He stated it would be the fact that more people will come online for the first time over the next five years than have in the past 30 years. The global implications of adding another two billion Internet users could be quite disruptive.
Hard to disagree with this opinion. Think about the walls governments build to keep news of the outside world from reaching the masses and what happens when technology emerges to tear down those walls. Think Gutenberg press, Arab Spring, Twitter and the Iranian Green Movement, fax machines and the breakup of the Soviet Union.
Definitely an interesting read.
This study at the University of Missouri is making its way around the blogosphere:
While completing the first puzzle, the researchers recorded participants’ heart rate and blood pressure responses. Participants then reported their levels of anxiety and how unpleasant or pleasant they felt during the word search puzzle. Next, and while in possession of their iPhones, participants were informed that their iPhones were causing “Bluetooth interference” with the wireless blood pressure cuff, and that they needed to be placed further away in the room for the remainder of the experiment. The researchers then provided the participants a second word search puzzle. While working on the puzzle, the researchers called the participants’ iPhones. After the phones finished ringing, researchers collected blood pressure and heart rate responses. Participants then reported their levels of anxiety and how unpleasant or pleasant they felt during the word search puzzle. The researchers found a significant increase in anxiety, heart rate and blood pressure levels, and a significant decrease in puzzle performance when the participants were separated from their iPhones as compared to when iPhone users completed similar word search puzzles while in possession of their iPhones.
Seems to me the anxiety was driven not by the absence of the iPhone, but by being able to hear a call coming in and not being able to do anything about it. Not sure what that proves.
Jason Snell:
If Gurman’s reports are accurate, this new model pulls the MacBook Air line away from the MacBook Pro. In fact, it returns the MacBook Air to its roots—as a product full of choices that we consider crazy at first, because they’re out of step with conventional computer design, but that will appeal to a target audience that doesn’t actually care about those de rigueur features.
Some good thoughts in here.
Twitter is mulling the possibility of making promoted videos automatically play 6-second previews when they pop up in people’s feeds, according to people briefed on the company’s plans. If the autoplay previews were to catch someone’s eye, that person could click to watch the full video.
I think I speak for the world when I say, NO!
Karissa Bell:
In the back of one of the smaller halls at CES, a Chinese company was showing off fake Apple Watches. So, naturally, I bought one.
If you need any proof of how much Country pop music sucks nowadays, look no further than this video which dissects and mashes-up six Country songs. All of them sound alike.
This is just awful.
I remember seeing the whale quite often years ago.
Here’s the thing: in order for fees to work, there needs be something worth paying to avoid. That necessitates, at some level, a strategy that can be described as “calculated misery.” Basic service, without fees, must be sufficiently degraded in order to make people want to pay to escape it. And that’s where the suffering begins.
That’s just awful.
The residents of Green Bank, West Virginia, can’t use cell phones, wi-fi, or other kinds of modern technology due to a high-tech government telescope. Recently, this ban has made the town a magnet for technophobes, and the locals aren’t thrilled to have them.
Fascinating story. I had never heard of “electrosensitives,” but it’s becoming a thing.
I agree with Ben Brooks here. I am forever trying to find the best in everything I do—there is always something better.
The Verge:
On January 9th, 2007, Steve Jobs took to the stage to announce the first iPhone, in a keynote that would revolutionize the industry and set the tone for every major tech announcement since.
I’d been to every Steve Jobs keynote after he came back to Apple but this one was special. Even sitting in the audience, you could feel the excitement and the anticipation. Best Keynote ever.
Carlos Ribas is an indie developer. His app is called HoursTracker. HoursTracker went live in July, 2009 and has been a work in progress ever since.
The linked story lays out Carlos’ experience with the App Store from a financial perspective. He shares his revenue figures and his experience with iAds versus in-app purchase.
Bottom line, with a broad enough customer base, he makes more money with the App Store than he could with a full time job. And for many people, that’s the dream.
[Via MacStories]
The Guardian:
When the Charlie Hebdo website, which was down for much of the day, came back online it carried the phrase Je Suis Charlie in bold letters, with Charlie written in the font of the publication’s masthead. Viewers who clicked on the link below saw the same poster, repeated again and again in languages including Arabic, German and Spanish.
Apple ran the same message in a stark black and white banner at the bottom of the front page of their French language web site.
Follow the link to an interactive page listing a number of historic figures along with their daily regimen. It might sound dull, but it is fascinating, especially if you have an interest in history or design. The history part is obvious, but if you spend a few minutes hovering over different areas of the chart and reading, you’ll see a terrific interactive design at work.
The data is culled from the highly regarded book Daily Rituals by Mason Currey.
Take a minute to check it out. I found it well worth the time.
[Hat tip to ParisLemon]
I really like Mayer, but I’m not sure she can turn things around quickly enough for the critics.
U.S. District Judge William Alsup in San Francisco said the plaintiffs, Uriel Marcus and Benedict Verceles, failed to show that Apple made “affirmative misrepresentations,” despite citing online complaints and Apple marketing statements calling the laptops “state of the art” or the “most advanced” on the market.
People have to stop these bullshit lawsuits.
CNET:
Smartphones are a top choice for today’s street criminals, especially teenagers. In the year ending in June 2013, nearly two-thirds of robberies by minors in San Francisco involved cell phones, according to the city’s public defender.Government officials have called the trend an epidemic. One in 10 smartphone owners in the United States have had their phone stolen. More than 3 million were pilfered in 2013, nearly double the number nabbed the year before.
A reminder to always be aware of your surroundings and how you use your iOS device, or any device for that matter, while out in public. I’m always intensely aware of how I use my iPhone, iPad and DSLR while out and about.