I am very pleased with the purchase and how the MacBook Pro has handled desktop duty. It works better than I expected with no shortfalls.
Kendrick got the 13-inch model, and if you haven’t seen it up close, it’s a really delightful and very powerful machine. It’s also lightweight compared to its non-Retina counterpart.
I just got a 15-inch MacBook Pro with Retina Display this week, and it’s a truly awesome machine.
But perhaps most importantly is the fact that some number of Android owners aren’t downloading mobile applications at all. Google tacitly acknowledged this fact earlier this month, when it made a change to the way it measures Android version adoption on its Developers site. The company explained that, going forward, it would only show data reflecting those devices that had visited the Google Play Store.
And that’s the problem in a nutshell. A lot more people are buying Android phones, but they’re using them very differently than iPhone users. They’re less engaged than iPhone users are with the supporting ecosystem – and, in fact, many of them don’t care about downloading apps and thus supporting the very developers Google is trying to attract to the Android platform.
As for its Windows division, it’s a similar story — revenues of $5.7 billion are up 23 percent year-over year, but adjusted revenues to the upgrade offer take into account lower revenues to $4.6 billion (flat year-over-year).
Many PC OEMs are dissatisfied with what Microsoft has done with Windows 8 and the way the company has handled the negative response to the operating system. Privately, one OEM source told me that Microsoft is “destroying” the PC industry, while another claimed that Windows 8 has “handed over millions of customers to Apple.”
Microsoft may recant its Windows 8 design theology, bloggers reported Tuesday, by offering Windows 8 users an option to bypass the “Modern” UI and by restoring the Start button and menu to the beleaguered operating system.
Here’s an idea: When you make significant changes to your operating system, make sure they make sense first.
I’ve had some hands-on time with the most recent addition, the Galaxy Mega 6.3 – the 6.3-inch 720p screen is no match for the Galaxy S4 in terms of resolution or display, but is perfectly adequate for the mid-to-high end of the market that the Galaxy Mega will likely be priced to attract.
Photos and more details after the jump.
If I see you walking down the street talking on one of these things with your ear to your head, I reserve the right to cockpunch you. At least use a Bluetooth earpiece.
During an investor call this morning, Verizon elaborated on its device activations for the quarter. In Q1, the company says that it activated a total of four million iPhones, half of which were the iPhone 5. That translates into just over 55 percent of all smartphone activations for the quarter. A year ago, Verizon reported 3.2 million iPhone activations.
That’s a 25 percent year over year increase in Verizon sales, for those of you keeping track at home.
Whether the stock bounces from the 16-month low it hit Wednesday or sinks even lower may depend less on iPhone or iPad sales than on its guidance for the June quarter (more on that later) and what it reports about a relatively obscure ratio closely watched by analysts: the company’s gross margin, or GM%.
As always, Dewitt is keeping an eye on analyst’s estimates for the quarter to see how close to (or far off) the mark they are.
That’s right: Japan is getting Iron Man 3 in smell-o-vision. It’s not actually called “smell-o-vision” – that’s so last century – but according to The Hollywood Reporter the film will be shown in a theater in Nagoya in 4DX. This “fourth dimension” experience will offer wind, fog, tilting seats, and odor effects. It’s unclear exactly what the smells themselves will be, but if Tony smells like his Diesel-made eau de wiseass, it wouldn’t be the worst thing ever.
Why? Why, for the love of all that is holy? Whyyyyy?
Today’s Pocket update introduces a completely redesigned Share Menu—and we’re excited to introduce Send to Friend, a simple way to share with anyone without leaving Pocket.
Even if that’s true, there’s more than one possible explanation for Cirrus Logic’s excess supply of chips. Apple could have switched providers of those chips, for instance. Apple CEO Tim Cook warned when similar negative supplier reports caused a massive freakout among investors a week before earnings last quarter: “I’d stress that even if a particular data point were factual, it would be impossible to interpret [the meaning] for our overall business. Yields can vary, supplier performance can vary … there’s an inordinately long list of things that would make any single data point not a great proxy for what’s going on.”
Easier just to blame Apple, which is why the stock plummeted today.
While Google Play reached close to 90% of the iOS App Store downloads in Q1 2013, the iOS App Store maintained its strong lead in monetization, earning about 2.6x the app revenue of Google Play.
App Annie notes that the revenue difference was more like 4x in 2012, so it’s closing in, but still way, way off given the near-parity in download traffic.
Bottom line: if you want to actually make money, iOS still seems like the safer bet.
Apple Inc. is once again in the pages of the People’s Daily, this time in an article listing a number of websites and app stores that have been investigated for providing pornographic content in China.
Apple regularly runs into complaints here in the States from people that don’t want to see them censor content in the App Store. But that’s nothing compared to what the Chinese government expects of Apple, apparently.
If this estimate is considered then the operating profits from PC operations imply that Apple generates more profit than all the top 5 PC vendors combined.
Some assumptions here, but Dediu is right that PC manufacturing has been a low-margin market for many years, except for Apple, so it’s not surprising that there would be this much of a disparity.
In its first week of monitoring worldwide usage of Google’s Chrome OS, NetMarketShare reported that the percentage of web traffic from Chromebooks was roughly 2/100 of 1 percent, a figure too small to earn a place on its reports.
“With Apple, I sense a lack of urgency,” said Myerson. “When iOS 5 came out and there was a fifth row of icons and not much else, you say, okay, are they running out of steam, is iOS getting boring?”
iOS 5? Fifth row of icons? Way to stay on top of things, Myerson. You’re keeping a sharp eye on the competition, that’s for damn sure.
Maybe the guy whose products are staring at BlackBerry’s butthole should just keep his head down until he’s got something to be cocky about.
All of these EVs are an uninspiring mishmash of an existing model with a hastily engineered electric drivetrain stuffed inside. You could say the same about the 500e. But you’re wrong. By slapping an electric motor up front and a battery pack from stem to stern, Fiat has managed to make the 500 better than its gas-powered siblings. And here’s the kicker: After spending a day with one, I can say it’s arguably a better value.
I’m still not ready to put up with the compromises of an EV vehicle, but Fiat is making the experience much less painful than before.
Time Warner Cable Inc., the second- largest U.S. cable operator, is adding live out-of-home programming for the first time to its TWC TV application, letting customers watch shows on Apple Inc. mobile devices.
Good news for iPad and iPhone users who also happen to be Time Warner Cable customers.
Bungie.org has a scan of the Macworld review of Pathways from 1994 which lists the price as — are you sitting down? — $69.99. So, I’ll just leave this link to Lex Friedman’s piece in Macworld making the suggestion that $5 apps aren’t expensive riiight heeere.
If you’re tired of old farts like me telling you young kids today you don’t know how good you have it with your cheap software, this is why.
If you missed the news on Pathways Into Darkness being re-released, here it is.
You can’t get Facebook Home on your iPhone. But very soon you’ll be able to get one of the most buzzed-about features from Facebook’s new mobile software: “Chat Heads” are coming to iOS devices, via a Facebook app update.
Apple has informed its official retail stores, AppleCare employees, and authorized resellers that a small number of third-generation Apple TV units have WiFi issues. These issues surround not being able to locate a WiFi network, unable to join a network, and dropped or intermittent connections.
If you’ve been having trouble keeping your Apple TV on its wireless network connection, check the link for details to see if yours is one of the afflicted models.
Late Monday, messages from the “Syrian Electronic Army” began appearing on NPR sites, Mark Memmott reports.
The hackers, “an organization that’s said to support Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime,” Memmott writes, defaced headlines and text in some stories, and some Twitter accounts were compromised.
Apple sells tens of millions of iPhones every quarter, but its biggest challenge is expanding the reach of the iPhone in markets where smartphones are incredibly expensive and new to a lot of potential customers. At the Dive into Mobile conference on Monday in New York City, two companies represented onstage offered stark examples of how Apple’s model, which it has nearly perfected in established markets, may require some adaptation: China’s high-end handset maker Xiaomi and Brazil-based wireless carrier Movile.
An interesting look at some of the issues Apple faces as it continues to manage product growth in two very different countries with two very different economies.
When Coachella streamed its concerts on YouTube this weekend, iOS users may have been disappointed to discover that the YouTube app didn’t support live broadcasts. Now, Google is adding live event streaming to iOS, albeit a little late. Version 1.3, which just went live on the App Store, includes both that update and a few other changes, though streaming is probably most exciting.
A little late for Coachella fans, but a good improvement regardless.
We’ve been working hard on the next version of Lightroom, and now we’re giving our customers a chance to try out some of the new technology available with the release of Lightroom 5 beta. Since the initial Lightroom public beta release in 2006, we’ve learned a tremendous amount through a collaborative dialogue with our customers, and I’m excited to continue that collaboration to receive feedback on the Lightroom 5 beta.
Adventurous photographers interested in giving Lightroom 5 a try can click the link for details on how to download the beta.
Every year, we hear from Forbes and others about the people who are the “x richest people in the world”. Have you ever wondered where you might fall on that scale?
The Global Rich List asks users how much their yearly salary adds up to, and then let’s them know what percentage of the world’s richest people they’re in.
You’ll be surprised at how high on the list you are, compared to the vast majority of the world’s population.
In case you’ve missed the news, explosions went off near the finish line of the Boston Marathon today – people are hurt, some fatalities are being reported. It’s a developing story, so we’re not going to point to any specific coverage, but our thoughts are with Marathon runners, their families, spectators and everyone in Boston affected by this tragedy.
Three of Playfish’s Facebook games — SimCity Social, The Sims Social and Pet Society — are being closed June 14, publisher Electronic Arts announced today, citing a drop-off in the player base and activity for each game.
“After millions of people initially logged in to play these games, the number of players and amount of activity has fallen off,” said EA. “For people who have seen other recent shutdowns of social games, perhaps this is not surprising.”
