March 1, 2014
One of the most important things that keeps me glued to Apple’s hardware and software ecosystem is the fact that, the vast majority of the time, things just work.
How many times did Steve Jobs get on stage at some event and say, “It just works”? So much so, that it became a clarion call for Apple, it became associated with the brand. And there’s good reason for that.
When I get a new printer, it just works with all my Macs. If there’s a struggle to print, it’s undoubtedly with my Windows machine. You get the idea.
This morning, Jim reminded me that we are once again temporarily mortal enemies as his Bruins take on my Caps in an important (to us, anyway) NHL matchup. I walked over to my Mac, typed a keystroke to bring up Reminders, clicked once to start a new reminder, then typed:
Mortal enemies Caps game 1pm
I then hit return. Two cool things happened. First, the Reminders application created a reminder set to remind me at 1pm, even though I had typed 1pm in the Reminder text itself. Reminders was smart enough to know that a time specified in a reminder was meant to schedule the reminder and not be part of the text. It just worked.
But the second cool thing was that the reminder also appeared on my iPhone and iPad reminder lists without any extra effort on my part. That single carriage return set Apple in motion on my behalf, working behind the scenes to make sure I got that “mortal enemies” reminder no matter what device I happened to be on.
To be fair, I don’t mean to imply that all Apple stuff will work all the time. There are plenty of people out there who have a pet peeve, some setup that doesn’t work for them. My point is that Apple’s products are designed to anticipate need, to make things as easy to use as possible. They are designed to just work. The little touches, like the Reminders example above, are what make these products work for me, what make the occasional hiccup worth working through.
Written by Dave Mark
Fabrizio Fracassi left Final Cut Pro when Apple made a left turn back in 2011 with the release of Version 10. Happily, Apple addressed the criticism it received from that release and Fabrizio is back in the fold.
Apple was quick at responding to the early criticism and making up leeway, and when I got involved in a project that required me to learn Media Composer, I kind of realized what Apple had achieved with their rework of Final Cut Pro. There is a segment in Disney’s Fantasia named the Firebird Suite (composed by Igor Stravinsky). It is the story of the spring sprite who accidentally awakes the firebird, a malevolent spirit in a nearby volcano. The firebird proceeds in destroying the forest, and seemingly the sprite. But the sprite survives and sets about restoring the forest to an even lusher state; an occurrence that can also be observed in nature. Volcanic eruptions cause much damage, but when magma cools, it breaks down to form some of the most fertile soils on earth. On a broader view, one can say that death is the greatest invention of life, because it leaves room for the next generation and enables animate beings to evolve. And that’s exactly what Apple has done with Final Cut Pro. It has dropped its legacy software and launched an entirely new set of tools that will carry the product line well into the next decade. It has recognized that, among other things, innovation stems from a willingness to fail, and for those reasons Final Cut Pro X is a great step forward.
Great analogy.
Written by Dave Mark
This is a truly fantastic idea for a community. Artists looking to develop their chops draw other Reddit users. Here’s a link to some examples. Note that they are shown in pairs, first a picture, then the Reddit drawn drawing, each accompanied by the artist’s Reddit handle.
If you want to join in, you might want to wait a bit. RedditGetsDrawn made it to the front page today, so they are likely to get overwhelmed with traffic for a while.
Written by Dave Mark
I don’t think there’s anything malicious going on here, but there does seem to be a trend, a trend in the wrong direction. First, some facts from the linked article:
- Google celebrated 445 individuals in Doodles on its various homepages throughout the world.
- An overwhelming 357 of those people were men–and 275 of those men were white.
- 77 Doodles celebrated women–but only 19 celebrated women of color.
- There were zero women of color honored in a global Doodle (Doodles seen everywhere around the world) until 2013, when Ella Fitzgerald was featured.
- Although women make up more than 50% of the world’s population, they’ve made up only 17% of Google Doodles honoring people from 2010 to 2013.
- White people made up 91% of global Doodles and 74% of total Doodles honoring people from 2010 to 2013.
- Of the 26% of Doodles honoring people of color, only 18% honored women of color–that’s only 4.3% of every Doodle honoring a person from 2010 to 2013.
Follow the headline link for a chart that brings this all into focus.
What’s going on here Google? This point has been made before. From an open letter to Google written by PhD student Ann Martin in 2011:
For years, I have watched Google Doodles contribute to the viewpoint that it is men who create the world we live in and innovate to improve it. I continued to hope that Google would recognize and address this obvious bias. Because you have not spoken up for the women in STEM, creativity, innovation, the arts, and the humanities, I am speaking up for us.
Again, this letter was published in 2011. Since then the numbers have gotten worse. You are better than this, Google.
February 28, 2014
Written by Jim Dalrymple
With Samsung making the two OSes so closely resemble each other, some day it might be possible to quietly swap OSes in Samsung’s mainstream smartphone, just like it did with the Gear line. For the interface at least, the change-over seems like it would be pretty seamless.
I give Samsung credit, this is the smart way to transition to a new OS—make it seamless for the user. As noted in the article, apps remain the big problem. This is a nightmare for Google.
Written by Shawn King
Forbes:
If you’re one of the 1.14 million followers of the @HistoryInPics Twitter account, which posts delightfully obscure pictures of historical subjects and events, you may have asked yourself, “Are they making any money off this?” The answer is yes. Quite a bit of money.
Is this one of those ideas you think, “Wow! I wish I had thought of this!” or do you bemoan the “watering down” of Twitter?
Salvador Rodriguez reporting the LA Times:
For the next week, customers who buy an Apple TV at one of the tech giant’s retail stores will reportedly receive a $25 iTunes gift card as part of a promotion that could signal a new Apple TV is on its way.
(Emphasis added)
Nope.
Written by Shawn King
Sports Illustrated:
The NFL locker room is the ultimate boys club. Yes, we talk about horrendously inappropriate things. Yes, we make fun of each other. And yes, we have a tendency to take pranks a bit too far. But at the end of the day, this is not a normal job.
Interesting point of view from a guy in the room. I only played high school football but there are still faint shadows of the locker room he describes.
Written by Shawn King
clutter:
Allow me to summarize what it means when a company wants to handle all disputes in arbitration: No matter what they do (delete your data, privacy breach, overcharging, whatever), you don’t get to sue. Instead, THEY get to choose the arbitrator according to whatever criteria they want, and thus any dispute is decided by someone they’re paying.
Also, you can’t join a class-action suit against them.
Like the writer, I love Dropbox but I’m also recommending you go do this right now.
Written by Shawn King
Ars Technica:
If you’ve been thinking about buying an Apple TV, Apple is trying to sweeten the deal for the next few days. Between now and March 5, anyone who buys an Apple TV in one of Apple’s stores or on its online store will get a $25 iTunes gift card with their purchase.
Anyone think this is a clearing out of stock ahead of a product refresh?
Written by Shawn King
“Stripped”: The comics documentary:
Stripped is a full-length documentary on the world’s best cartoonists, featuring the first-ever recorded interview with Bill Watterson. The film explores the art of the comics strip, the cartoonists behind your favorite strips, and where the art form goes as newspapers die.
The trailer for this film looks really interesting if only for the different viewpoints of the traditional newspaper cartoonists vs the online ones.
con·fi·dence
ˈkänfədəns,-fəˌdens
noun
1. The feeling or belief that one can rely on someone or something; firm trust.
Confidence is a powerful feeling. It makes countries strong, athletes perform amazing feats and it allows companies, like Apple, to release products that bring a smile to faces around the world. As strong as confidence can be, lack of confidence can be absolutely devastating.
We are seeing both of these situations in the tech market these days.
Listening to analysts and the mainstream media suggest what Apple needs to do in order to maintain its success falls somewhere between amusement and frustration in the emotional scale. Reading their actual comments is as insufferable as finger nails on a chalkboard.
On of the favorite comments is “Apple needs to release a game changing product,” or some such nonsense. My reaction is always the same: Really, show me a company that doesn’t need or want to release a game changing product.
This is where Apple shows a lot of restraint in its product releases. They could release many more models of the iPhone than they currently have available. Such a move would arguably make Wall Street happier, but it would be confusing for the consumer, and quite frankly, it wouldn’t be the right thing to do.
When you walk into an Apple store to buy an iPhone, you have two choices—the high-end iPhone 5s and the iPhone 5c. Your choices are clear, the features for both devices are clear, even the colors are clear. Everything you need to make a decision is very clear. That’s a benefit for Apple and the consumer.
What is it that allows a company to only have two models of one of the world’s most successful product? Confidence.
It’s the same confidence that allows Apple to update its iPhone models once a year, instead of every few months. Confidence allows them to dominate the upper end of the smartphone market. It’s also that feeling that won’t let Apple release a low-end, cheap device and slap the iPhone name on it just to gain market share.
Compare that confidence with what I see as a complete lack of confidence in the industry. You could choose almost any other phone maker in the world and see how having no confidence in their product strategy affects how they sell to consumers.
Those 2-for-1 sales are classic ways to drive sales of a product, but it also indicates that the company doesn’t care much about the product or brand. When was the last time you saw Apple offer a 2-for-1 sale on any product? They don’t, because they don’t have to—they care about the brand and the products they produce, so they take the time to get it right the first time. Apple doesn’t have to continuously offer new models because the one new model they have is exactly what they want to sell.
Samsung’s tactic of releasing a dozen Galaxy S4 models to keep things fresh for consumers reeks of a lack of confidence. Throw as many products out there as you can and see what sells—that’s not a successful long term strategy.
That’s effectively what Samsung did with the Galaxy Gear too. Release a smartwatch that was uncomfortable, has poor battery life and really doesn’t do anything beyond adding a step to seeing what’s on your phone.
It’s pretty clear that if you made a list of feature you would like to see on a smartwatch, the Gear doesn’t begin to measure up. So why would Samsung release a product like that? It seems the only reason is to be first on the market, which shouldn’t be a motivating factor for a company if they want to change the way we think about a product category.
Apple hasn’t released or even announced its so-called iWatch yet, but even with the competitors releasing their products, we expect more from Apple. We expect more because we know that Apple can do better.
You don’t need to invent a product category in order to change it. Apple has proven this many times with the iPod, iPhone, iPad and even the Apple TV. Existing markets have been revolutionized because Apple relied on its confidence to change an entire market by doing things better.
Apple finds a problem, devises a way to fix the problem, and releases an easy to use product that seemingly delights users. That is the way to solve a problem and grow a successful business.
Written by Dave Mark
Today is Apple’s annual shareholder meeting.
One of the orders of business at this meeting is voting to approve or reject both proposals from Apple’s management and from shareholders. Bloomberg‘s Jon Erlichman reports that shareholders have rejected every proposal created by other shareholders while all proposals from Apple management have been approved.
The rejected shareholder proposals cover a Board Committee for Human Rights, Carl Icahn’s infamous (and recently withdrawn) share repurchase proposal, Proxy Access for Shareholders, and a report related to Company Membership and Involvement with Certain Trade Associations and Business Organizations.
Tim Cook reported that Apple made $1 billion in revenue from Apple TV hardware and content sales.
This number led Cook to say “it’s a little more difficult to call it a hobby these days.”
Presumably, that’s a reference to Steve Jobs’ famous 2010 comment about Apple TV being a hobby because there is no viable market.
Cook also said that 40 billion iMessages are sent each day and that 15 to 20 million FaceTime video calls are conducted each day.
Cook said research and development spending up 32% year-over-year, Apple is putting its money “where its mouth is.” Cook added that Apple bought 23 companies over the last 16 months and that Apple is not opposed to buying a bigger company if it is the “right fit.” Cook also talked about opportunities in new emerging markets. Cook also said that Apple would have an announcement regarding its share buyback program within 60 days.
Written by Shawn King
NPR:
One 16-inch pizza has roughly the same area as 1.3 14-inch pizzas or 4 8-inch pizzas. To get the same amount of pizza you get in a 16-inch pizza, you’d have to spend an extra $2.35 on 14-inch pizzas, or an extra $16.41 on 8-inch pizzas.
I always get the Large pizza if only because I’m a pig. Nice to know I’m getting better value to boot.
Written by Shawn King
Digg:
You know that Meryl Streep is the queen of the Oscars, but do you know which fictional character has earned the most nominations? We’ll give you a hint, he was a king. We’ve put together this handy little guide because, let’s face it, even if you’re watching from home in sweatpants, spouting off weird trivia makes everyone feel like a winner.
I’m a huge Oscars fan (I’m tangentially related to an Oscar winner) and love these kinds of minutia stories that always pop up in the days ahead of the broadcast.
Written by Dave Mark
I found this interesting. In the last few years, web sites started trending toward a single scrolling page, broken up into “page panes”. One continuous page, with stops along the way, usually with each logical page featuring a unique background or floating background image.
That concept has now evolved a bit further, with logical pages featuring scrolling animations that keep you on the page, walk your eyes through the page’s elements.
Here’s a link to a terrific example of both. Note that the scrolling will come to life only on a desktop, not on your phone. Not sure if this is intentional or a flaw, but worth taking a minute to view this in your desktop browser.
Written by Dave Mark
The rulings are a blow to Munich-based patent holding company IPCom which has sued mobile-device makers over technology it acquired from Robert Bosch GmbH in 2007. The “100” series patents, which also apply to methods helping to place emergency calls, are the central piece of its portfolio.
IPCom, which doesn’t make any products, is one of a group of firms that license its patents and file lawsuits to generate revenue, earning the moniker “patent trolls” from its targets. Apple was among 19 companies and associations that petitioned the European Union in a letter this week to weaken the ability of non-manufacturers to win injunctions in intellectual-property cases.
“IPCom’s story has come to an end” with the ruling, said Martin Chakraborty, HTC’s attorney.
I love the phrase “IPCom, which doesn’t make any products”. Goes to the heart of the definition of a patent troll.
Written by Dave Mark
Yesterday, Jim posted about some comments made by Google’s Android head Sundar Pichai. There has been a lot of discussion about those comments and what Pichai meant to say about the safeness of Android.
Whatever his intention, the linked article, to me, reflects a less biased point of view.
Kaspersky Lab’s report on the evolution of threats targeting smartphones, tablets, and other mobile devices in 2012 was published in February 2013. Our data shows that in 2012 Android became the number-one target among virus writers, and that the number of threats over the course of the year grew steadily. Has this upswing in the number of mobile threats continued in 2013 so far? Indeed it has.
Follow the link for the details, but this sentence sums things up quite well:
A total of 99.9% of new mobile threat detections target the Android platform.
Written by Dave Mark
I love the simplicity of this idea.
The team consulted emergency workers from the Haiti and Fukushima disasters and developed a “victim app” and a “seeker app”. “They wanted it simple, unencrypted and smart,” says Al-Akkad.That meant avoiding known problems like low-power, low-range Bluetooth radio links, which often fail to connect – or “pair” – with each other amid the clutter of metallic debris in broken buildings. So they stuck to the much more robust and receivable Wi-Fi radio.
With the victim app a trapped person can write a 27-character message such as “broken leg stuck in bank” or “need help fire on 4th floor” and a seeker app up to 100 metres away can pick it up. The app found two “trapped” people in a large-scale, simulated terrorist attack at a seaside chemical plant in Stavanger, Norway – an exercise organised by the Norway-based research organisation Sintef.
This is the kind of thing that should just ship on every phone.
February 27, 2014
Written by Shawn King
CNN:
A lot of consideration goes into designing a font, but somehow we’re all able generally to accept the typefaces around us, ignoring their subtle design quirks as though they’re as ordinary as air. We read their content but don’t think too much about their form. One of the people responsible for the popular use of Helvetica, Mike Parker, died Sunday at age 84.
Now would be a good time to watch the 2007 documentary “Helvetica.”
Written by Shawn King
Film School Rejects:
The “In Memoriam” segment (of the Oscar telecast) is always a must-watch portion of the show, even if its biggest draw isn’t always a desire to honor the deceased talents of Hollywood, it’s to see who leads off and ends the piece, who was left off, and who you totally forgot passed away this year. But how does one actually land on the list? Not surprisingly, it involves a paper trail, voting, and plenty of hurt feelings.
As expected, the first requirement is “Be dead”.
Written by Shawn King
code:deck:
code:deck is a standard playing card deck sporting a stylish modern design. Each individual card features a code excerpt describing it in one of many programming languages.
Ever heard someone described as a “card carrying geek”? Well now, you can be a card playing geek.
For my part, I have no clue how the code relates to the card it is on.
Written by Shawn King
The Atlantic:
The time that ends up on your smartphone—and that synchronizes GPS, military operations, financial transactions, and internet communications—originates in a set of atomic clocks on the grounds of the U.S. Naval Observatory. Dr. Demetrios Matsakis, Chief Scientist for USNO’s Time Services, gives a video tour.
A little dry (and oddly shot/edited) but still an interesting overview of “the nation’s time keeping”.
