May 6, 2013

Zakk Wylde: Lick Of The Week

Zakk is the man!

Seth Godin:

If you use a typeface that reminds me of the script on the menu of a French restaurant, then no, I’m not going to instinctively believe that you’re a good doctor. If you use a thin, elegant wedding invitation font in your Powerpoint presentation, you haven’t been clever, you’ve merely confused me.

So true. I see people do crazy things like this all the time and it just makes me angry.

Bloomberg:

“The narrative has been focused on the consumer demand, and the narrative needs to shift to the operator,” said Dediu, a former in-house analyst for Nokia Oyj. “Apple has run out of the kinds of operators that will say yes to them.”

The article mentions China Mobile as a prominent holdout. The latest grist in the rumor mill is that the next revision of the iPhone will work on China Mobile’s network.

Regardless, Apple has huge market opportunities if it can better cater to local markets, which may require engineering a less expensive device or working differently with carriers than it has been. The question is, will Apple take that opportunity?

Metallica plays the Star Spangled Banner

James is looking good.

May 5, 2013

Keith Speights, Motley Fool:

A study by Manhattan Research in 2011 found that 75% of physicians owned at least one Apple product. Vitera Healthcare’s 2012 survey of health-care professionals backed up this high number. The company’s study found that 60% of respondents used an iPhone and 45% owned an iPad.

The real revolution, though, has come from how physicians and other health-care professionals are using Apple’s devices. Mobile applications opened the door for clinicians to instantly access a world of medical information at the point of care.

It’s not just healthcare professionals, either – patients are able to get information faster thanks to iOS devices, too.

May 4, 2013

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May 3, 2013

Apple dominates U.S. smartphone subscriber market share

Market research firm comScore on Friday released a new study that shows Apple is leading the smartphone market in the U.S. The study focused on a three month average ending March 2013.

According to comScore, Apple has 39% of the smartphone market, up 2.7% from the 36.3% share it had when the last study was released. Apple’s closest competitor is Samsung, which only accounted for 21.7% of the market, up a mere 0.7% from the last report.

HTC (9%), Motorola (8.5%) and LG (6.8%) round out the top five.

While Google’s Android leads the mobile platform race with 52% of the share, Android’s share dropped 1.4% during this study period. Apple’s iOS rose 2.7% from 36.3% to 39% during the same period.

Harry Marks’ “My Valiant Return to Reading” is hilarious. Clearly making fun of some people that quit the Internet.

You would almost think people were excited.

You have to see this video.

Geri Reid brings up a good question. Skeuomorphic design took the world on quite a ride, but it seems to be out now. While I don’t agree with her that Microsoft “struck a winning blow with the flat interface of Windows 8,” there is no doubt a change is coming.

I would like to see Apple update their interfaces, but not eschew Skeuomorphic elements altogether.

Remember Apple’s previous keynotes. The crowd didn’t roar and applaud for the flat design elements, they cheered when the Passbook app shredded a card with a realistic shredder that popped up on the screen.

Apple needs to refine that design, not replace it.

YouTube vs. TV? YouTube says the battle — if there ever was one — is over.

In a flashy presentation to advertisers Wednesday night, Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt declined to forecast that Internet video will displace television watching. Instead he declared: “That’s already happened.”

I agree that habits are changing and there is a huge shift coming, but I don’t believe YouTube has won.

Shawn Blanc takes a look at Backblaze’s new iPhone app for managing the off-site backup of your desktop computer.

Triage is for people who struggle to stay on top of their inbox. It doesn’t try to replace your desktop mail client, but lets you use your downtime to quickly remove the noise and stress.

I tested Triage and loved it. It was released while I was traveling, so I didn’t get a chance to post about it. It’s a brilliant idea to help you keep on top of your email quickly and easily.

This article was posted last November, but there are some great lessons to be learned for anyone that is building a product or company.

May 2, 2013

Federico Viticci has a list of the top apps from the past few years. I found the “interesting facts about the new charts” section to be great.

Just over two years after contracting a rare skin tissue disease, Slayer guitarist and songwriter Jeff Hanneman died on Thursday from liver failure at a hospital near his home in Southern California’s Inland Empire area.

RIP

There’s a story on The Street today titled, “Lookout Apple, Here Comes Microsoft: Surface Tablets Break Into Top 5.” Sounds impressive, right?

Sounds even more impressive when the writer, Gary Krakow, follows up with:

According to IDC’s first quarter numbers, Microsoft’s tablet shipments increased 142% to 49.2 million units compared to the same period a year ago.

Wait, what?

I checked IDC’s press release and this is what it actually says:

Worldwide tablet shipments continue to surge, growing 142.4% year over year in the first quarter of 2013 […] Tablet shipments totaled 49.2 million units in 1Q13…

That’s for all tablet makers, not just Microsoft.

According to IDC, Microsoft shipped about 900,000 for 1.8% share of the market. Apple shipped 19.5 million iPads or 39.6% of the market.

Even if The Street read their own story, they would see it makes no sense.

That’s just an incredible amount of apps. You can enter to win a $10,000 App Store Gift Card.

Funny because a lot of people said that once they deleted the app, the battery returned to normal functionality.

Horace Dediu talking about analysts:

So paradoxically, the opinion of those who are highly paid should be treated with suspicion while the opinion of those subject to peer review should be treated with respect. It brings to mind the difference between highly paid fortune tellers and pundits whose methods are obscure vs. poorly paid graduate students whose methods are open to all. Whose opinion is worth more?”

I have a great deal of respect for Horace.

A great looking list of speakers.

Apple releases iOS 6.1.4

According to Apple, iOS 6.1.4 has an updated audio profile for speakerphone, as well as security content originally included in previous iOS Software Updates. Go to Settings > General > Software Update on your device to get the update.

Taxes.

Jeff Bewkes, CEO of HBO’s parent company Time Warner, said on Wednesday that the company has no plans to offer HBO GO without a cable subscription.

This will make a lot of people very unhappy.

I was hoping it was a drinking contest, but they are looking for ideas that appeal to drinkers over 60-years-old.

Jim and Dan discuss Jim being driven to strike someone at a Metallica concert, tarantulas and june bugs, a Volkswagen Beatle with an iPad dock, and more.

Sponsored by Gazelle, Shutterstock (use code DANSENTME4 for 30% off), and Shopify.

He wouldn’t promise when the app would ship or what exactly it would do, but he did demonstrate some features of the prototype software running on an iPad 2.

Pro photographers have clamored for better tools on iOS; it’s good to see Adobe taking them seriously. Hopefully a real product is in the works here, rather than just a proof of concept.

Jeff Hermes wrote a great article about the media’s tendency to wrongly report that someone is a suspect in a heinous act.

May 1, 2013

“Balrogs are assholes”

Willie Nelson auditions to be Gandalf.