MG Siegler:

iPad sales did disappoint one group of folks immensely: Wall Street.

As a standalone business, just based on the last 12 months of revenue, the iPad would be in the top 100 companies in the Fortune 500. Think about that for a second. The iPad alone is bigger than almost all Fortune 500 companies.

If the iPad is a fad, it’s the greatest fad in the history of American business.

It’s easy to point to “fewer iPads sold” and Chicken Little the story to death – as respected columnist Gassee and Mossberg have done. But it would still be wrong.

Yesterday, we posted about Realmac Software’s experience with negative reviews on the App Store and their inability to reach out to the user directly to address the problem.

Reaching out to the customer directly would allow a developer to quickly aid a confused user, gain valuable insight into a problem and, perhaps, avoid more poor reviews. Ideally, a newly satisfied user would change their 1 star review to a 5 star review. But even without that last bit, the shortened feedback cycle would certainly lead to improved software.

That said, Microsoft is now rolling out the ability to respond to feedback directly from Dev Center.

This new capability enables developers to respond to reviews of Windows Phone apps directly from Dev Center. Once you create a response, users will receive the comment via email from Microsoft and can even contact you directly if you included your support email address in the app submission ‘Support email address’ metadata.

If you are an iOS developer, I’d encourage you to look at the linked article and leave a comment on this post. Is this the right approach? Would you be for this same approach on the App Store? Something different? [Via iOS Dev Weekly]

Think you know how to generate a secure password? Do you follow your own advice?

This is a thoughtful look at the process of guessing people’s passwords. Well written, an enjoyable read, and I learned a few things along the way.

This is heinous.

Men cruise around homeless shelters, the 16th Street Mall, and plasma donation clinics in an effort to find people desperate for money.

The men will drive victims to Apple stores and convince them to sign numerous contracts for numerous iPhones. Victims will then be paid $100 or more in exchange for several iPhones.

The iPhones can be unlocked and sold on the international market for more than $700 dollars each.

The victims sign up for these contracts, get some quick cash, end up on the hook for thousands of dollars or ruined credit.

9Wants to Know observed an Apple store employee collect Sauer’s information for several contracts.

The same Apple employee was seen giving Sauer’s new iPhones directly to the schemers.

If this is true, I assume that employee is about to spend some time in jail. Heinous. [Via 9to5Mac]

Follow the link to read Gundotra’s blog post about leaving.

Here’s what Larry Page posted in the comments:

Vic — thank you for a tremendous almost eight years at Google. You cut your teeth on our mobile apps and developer relations, turning our disparate efforts into something great. When I first used turn-by-turn navigation, it blew me away. And, walking onto the stage at I/O last year, it was amazing to see developers so excited about Google. These were vintage Vic projects. Then you built Google+ from nothing. There are few people with the courage and ability to start something like that and I am very grateful for all your hard work and passion. I really enjoy using Google+ on a daily basis, especially the auto awesome movies which I really love sharing with my family and friends. Good luck with your next project after Google. In the meantime we’ll continue working hard to build great new experiences for the ever increasing number of Google+ fans.

This is 2014. This doesn’t seem like a a problem that still needs solving, yet we still don’t have a de-facto platform for private and semi-private photography sharing and backup.

I use Apple’s built-in apps and tools.

Kevin Wild on the Secret app:

It fits into a new paradigm in today’s tech journalism, the act of reporting on one anonymous source. With the ease of sharing secrets, will Secret be the one anonymous source that new outlets use to break future stories?

I hope not.

Dan Counsell, the Founder of Realmac Software, brings up some good points in this article. I’ve never talked to a developer that didn’t want to help customers correct a problem. We all make mistakes and when customers are upset, it’s useful to be able to contact them directly.

There’s much to consume here. At its core are 100 short biographies of influential people. There’s much to discuss. How did they come up with this list? Where’s Tim Cook? And if he is on the list, I couldn’t find him, which speaks to the clunky interface. Carl Icahn is on the list, but not Tim Cook? Hmm.

Culling the mass of humanity into a single list of the 100 most influential people in the world is no easy task. I did agree with most of the choices. What I really loved about this project is the people who actually wrote the prose that went along with each person.

Among the 100 bio writers were Sheryl Sandberg, Bill Gates, Chris Christie, Judd Apatow, Karl Rove, Michael Bloomberg, Stella McCartney, and Alice Park, just to name a few. The writers were as fascinating as the people they were profiling.

Not sure this is the untold story as much as it is a collection of anecdotes from a variety of sources, but I did find it interesting, if a bit scattered.

There’s coverage of Page, Brin, and Schmidt of course. But there are stories about Andy Rubin and Android, Steve Jobs, Nikola Tesla (a big influence on Larry Page), Paul Buchheit and gmail, Marissa Meyer, and a lot more.

Definitely an enjoyable read.

Kirk McElhearn talks through the process of deleting iCloud documents from iOS and the Mac.

On the iOS side, he’s right on the money. But on the Mac side, Kirk says:

It’s surprising that you can’t do this from a Mac. But there are ways to access, and delete, files from OS X, such as by navigating to ~/Library/Mobile Documents, where you can see all your documents in a Finder window. If you delete documents there, they get deleted from iCloud in the same way, but the interface isn’t designed for you to do this.

This option is a bit tucked away, but if you go to System Preferences… and select iCloud, you’ll see a Manage… button. It’s pretty much the same interface.

I do like the mention of ~/Library/Mobile Documents, though I’d strongly suggest using the interface. Using the Finder to delete files when there is an interface designed specifically to delete them is asking for trouble.

I would also recommend logging in to iCloud.com and clicking the circled ? in the upper right corner. That will bring up an excellent help window with coverage on storage management and a host of other useful topics.

Reuters:

Four major tech companies including Apple and Google have agreed to pay a total of $324 million to settle a lawsuit accusing them of conspiring to hold down salaries in Silicon Valley, sources familiar with the deal said, just weeks before a high profile trial had been scheduled to begin.

And:

The case has been closely watched due to the potentially high damages award and the opportunity to peek into the world of Silicon Valley’s elite. The case was based largely on emails in which Apple’s late co-founder Steve Jobs, former Google CEO Eric Schmidt and some of their Silicon Valley rivals hatched plans to avoid poaching each other’s prized engineers.

In one email exchange after a Google recruiter solicited an Apple employee, Schmidt told Jobs that the recruiter would be fired, court documents show. Jobs then forwarded Schmidt’s note to a top Apple human resources executive with a smiley face.

Glad that’s over. I can’t imagine this would be anything but a giant distraction.

Stratechery:

The future of the iPad is not to be a better Mac. That may happen by accident, just as the Mac eventually superseded the Apple II, but to pursue that explicitly would be to sacrifice what the iPad might become, and, more importantly, what it already is.

Anyone “giving up” on the iPad really has no clue as to what Apple’s long term strategy is and has always been.

The thing is, attribution can also mean responsibility. Putting your name on something (or allowing that to happen) isn’t just an endorsement, but also an admission that the buck stops with you. If there’s a problem with this, it’s my fault.

Mod and I talked about how Hi was developed, how to build tools to encourage a regular writing routine, and where online publishing is heading next. Here’s a lightly edited transcript of our conversation.

Craig is a really smart fellow.

That’s one problem with anonymous sources: They often get it wrong because why make sure you have it right when you will not be held accountable for what you say.

I really enjoyed this article.

Sounds like a great gift for someone to give me.

Visitors to Chicago’s Renaissance Society in the winter of 1980 encountered a concise exhibition with a provocative thesis. “Objects and Logotypes: Relationships Between Minimalist Art and Corporate Design” was a polemical juxtaposition of two strands of postwar American culture that, at first blush, could hardly seem more opposed.

Great read.

[Via Khol Vinh]

Certainly a good starting place.

This is very interesting. AppleInsider has some details from a number of sites—definitely worth a read.

Facebook said that mobile ads represented 59 percent of its ad revenue in the first quarter, up from 30 percent in the year-ago period. Facebook’s overall revenue grew 72 percent year-on-year to $2.5 billion in the first quarter, above the $2.36 billion expected by analysts polled by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

“They’ve got the right products for what advertisers are looking for and that’s manifesting itself in the results you’re seeing,” said JMP Securities analyst Ronald Josey.

Remember, you are the product being sold.

It would be great to win best in customer satisfaction at one or two carrier, but all four is beyond impressive.

I’m a big fan of clear explanations, especially when they involve a complex process. This is a clear explanation of ACH, or Automated Clearing House.

ACH is sort of like PayPal, an easy way for someone to move money into someone else’s bank account. Happens all the time. Employers use it to direct deposit paychecks into their employees’ accounts. You might use it to move money from your 401K or mutual fund into your own account. Even PayPal uses ACH to move money around.

As I said, this is a clear explanation. Worth reading, if only to familiarize yourself with the process.

A kickstarter based on a deck of custom cards and a group of friends with smartphones. Great idea.

This is a big deal for Amazon and a bit of bad news for Netflix.

Amazon.com, Inc. today announced a content licensing agreement with HBO, making Prime Instant Video the exclusive online-only subscription home for select HBO programming. The collection includes award-winning shows such as The Sopranos, Six Feet Under, The Wire, Big Love, Deadwood, Eastbound & Down, Family Tree, Enlightened, Treme, early seasons of Boardwalk Empire and True Blood, as well as mini-series like Band of Brothers, John Adams and more. Previous seasons of other HBO shows, such as Girls, The Newsroom and Veep will become available over the course of the multi-year agreement, approximately three years after airing on HBO. The first wave of content will arrive on Prime Instant Video May 21. This is the first time that HBO programming has been licensed to an online-only subscription streaming service. This programming will remain on all HBO platforms.

A smart move for Amazon and Fire TV.

One last bit from the results call:

Finally, before we start the Q&A, I would like to take a minute to talk about my dear friend and colleague Peter Oppenheimer. As you know, Peter will be transitioning from the CFO role in June. Peter has been Apple’s CFO for 10 years and the list of his accomplishments is immense. Apple is now more than 20 times the size it was when Peter became our CFO and his expertise, leadership and incredibly hard work had been instrumental to the company’s success. I’d like to thank him very publicly for his contributions to Apple, from the very bottom of my heart and wish him all the best in his approaching retirement at the end of September.

And I’d also like to recognize him that he has never missed guidance in the 10 years as CFO which must be an all-time record for CFOs. We’re really happy and fortunate to have someone with Luca’s talent on Board to replace Peter. He has over 25 years of experience, building and leading finance teams in global companies and has an exceptionally broad international background, which you might be able to detect from his accent. He’s been managing most of Apple’s financial functions since coming on Board last year and has done an outstanding job. I’m looking forward to working with Luca even closer as Apple’s next CFO.

This marks a true public transition from Peter Oppenheimer to Luca Maestri, handled with grace by Tim Cook.