Om Malik talking about Color and Airtime:
I added up all those random quotes from Gannes’ post so you can see what he is saying: absolutely nothing. Airtime really is a house of cards standing on a handful of matchsticks.
I love it when smart writers get angry and say what they are thinking.
I love reading stories about Steve.
Feral Interactive is bringing Batman: Arkham City Game of the Year Edition to the Mac this November. The game includes all previously released downloadable content including the Harley Quinn’s Revenge Pack. Pricing and system requirements were not announced.
You once again inhabit the role of the Dark Knight as Batman must fight Gotham’s worst collection of thugs and villains in a sprawling setting five times larger than the one found in Feral’s previous Batman release, “Batman: Arkham Asylum.”
The game features side missions, secrets and puzzles that you need to work through in order to succeed. You’ll go toe-to-toe with Batman’s famous foes, including The Joker, The Riddler, Two-Face, Harley Quinn, The Penguin and Mr. Freeze.
Microsoft’s Windows Phone operating system is gaining on Research In Motion, a new study says, but it still has a long way to go before catching Android and iOS.
It’s one thing to lose ground to iOS and Android, but when Windows Phone OS catches you, you’re done.
The Pew Research Center reports that tablet ownership among American adults has doubled in the past year, from 11 percent to 22 percent. An additional three percent regularly use a tablet owned by someone else, meaning a full quarter of American adults now have access to a tablet.
Among them, more than half – 52 percent – use an iPad, while 48 percent use some variation of an Android-based tablet, including 21 percent who use a Kindle Fire. That’s a marked downturn in overall marketshare for Apple, which owned 81 percent of the market in 2011. Apple’s still moving quite a large number of iPads, but the market has grown and lower-priced Android tablet makers have sought to fill the gap.
The study suggests that there is some brand loyalty among tablet owners, too – 57 percent of iPad users also use an iPhone, while 66 percent of Android tablet users also have an Android-based phone.
It’ll be interesting to see how this trend is affected if and when Apple introduces the oft-rumored iPad mini.
I love the fact that many of the things we used to rely on scripts to do can now be done with HTML5 and CSS3.
The second-generation Nest Learning Thermostat is 20 percent thinner and has a new all-stainless steel ring that mirrors your wall color or pattern to create a chameleon effect and blend into any décor even more effectively
It’s those small details that matter so much.
Bryan Bishop for The Verge:
Samsung has been pushing for the preliminary injunction on the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 to be lifted ever since Apple won its $1.049 billion victory, and today it got its wish: Judge Lucy Koh has dissolved the US sales ban on the tablet.
Koh ruled that Samsung had indeed violated Apple patents, but the hardware design patent Apple alleged Samsung infringed in making the Galaxy Tab 10.1 wasn’t included.
Bishop also notes that the Galaxy Tab 10.1 could still end up banned after another hearing in December, so it’s still a long slog for Samsung.
Or, get really creative and use a little morse code to spell out your wife’s name, for example, or “GOD NO” if it’s your in-laws.
LOL!
Good article from Dave.
It is a measure of just how much criticism AT&T got not long ago about service in and around San Francisco that the communications giant is now running a Bay Area-wide campaign touting a 35 percent decrease in dropped calls.
I still have problems in large cities, including those in the Bay area, but maybe it’s getting better.
Rian van der Merwe looks at ways developers can make confusing behavior in their apps easier for users to understand.
Google rose 1 percent to $761.78 at the close in New York, gaining a market capitalization of about $249.9 billion. Microsoft, the world’s biggest software maker, fell less than 1 percent to $29.49, for a valuation of $247.2 billion.
I bet Microsoft never thought this would happen.
A new book from David Sparks and Brett Terpstra that includes 1.5 hours of video showing you how to do everything.
First, we are introducing a $5/month Member plan. Some folks have been asking for a monthly plan since day one, and given all of the progress that has been made in the App.net ecosystem, we think now is a good time to introduce it.Second, we are dropping the Member price from $50/year to $36/year.
Haul out the Software Update system preference to check for a new update to iPhoto. The new version, 9.4.1, dropped on Monday afternoon.
Apple says changes to the new version include:
Apple Maps has been getting its share of negative attention since being released, but some new research shines a bright spot on the comparison between Apple’s and Google’s mapping apps.
According to Onavo, a company that specializes in helping customers get the most out of their smartphone data plans, there are some big differences between the apps. The company ran tests on the two apps to see which was the most efficient in its data usage. After running a number of scenarios, the tests showed that Apple Maps was up to five times more data efficient than Google Maps.
For instance, when you search for a new location the mapping app has to download the street data you see on the screen — panning and zooming means even more data downloaded.
“On Google Maps, the average data loaded from the cellular network for each step was 1.3MB, the company wrote on its Web site. “Apple Maps came in at 271KB – that’s approximately 80% less data! On some actions, such as zooming in to see a particular intersection, Apple Maps’ efficiency advantage edged close to 7X.”
Results for the satellite view in Maps showed Apple’s app used about half of Google’s mapping application.
Gannon Burgett does a great job of taking a look at the design choices we see in apps these days. I think Apple users are much more picky over design elements, which is a good thing for the platform.
John Biggs for TechCrunch:
The Intel-branded Ultrabook might quickly sink away from mainstream, but it will have a lasting effect on notebook design.
I think John meant that the MacBook Air will have a lasting effect on notebook design.
I can’t help but feel schadenfreude when I watch the PC industry shamelessly copy Apple then fall on their faces.
TechHive:
The new Kindle Paperwhite is a dramatic update inside and out, one with fully redesigned software and an appealing integrated light that makes the Kindle more usable in any environment.
While I prefer the iPad, Amazon is doing a great job with the Kindle line. The reviews for the Kindle Paperwhite have all been quite complimentary. I’ve recommended various Kindles to any number of people who don’t need the full feature set or functionality of the iPad.
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Apple changed its developer guidelines to prohibit apps from showing apps for purchase, other than your own. I agree with Gruber — I don’t see the problem this solves.
Kevin C. Tofel for GigaOM:
Summary: before iOS 6 1 in 4 people were using Google maps at least once a day. After iOS 6: 1 in 25 using Apple maps and falling.
The data is attributed to a company called Snappli.
I have no doubt that some people are experiencing genuine problems with Maps. I have no doubt that it’s not an optimal solution for people who need, say, public transit maps. But for many of us, Jim and me included, Maps works great and is definitely better than what we had before.
To suggest that it’s useless enough that more than 90 percent of iOS 6 users have stopped using it all together? That goes beyond straining credulity. That’s straight into the realm of absolute bullshit.
Robin Wauters for The Next Web:
Video streaming giant Netflix today announced that it is bringing its “Just for Kids” viewing experience to the two latest versions of the iPad, with support for the original iPad and Android tablets coming ‘later this year’.
Netflix video streaming is very popular with the young people in my house. While they’re old enough that I’m not overly concerned with the content they view, if they were a few years younger, you can bet I’d be using this.
Benj Edwards takes a look at the history of the compact disc, which marks a milestone: It’s the 30th anniversary of the introduction of Sony’s first CD player, aimed squarely at deep-pocketed audiophiles looking for the best sound quality.
Verizon on Monday responded to concerns from customers about their iPhone 5 using data while connected to a Wi-Fi network.
“Under certain circumstances, iPhone 5 may use Verizon cellular data while the phone is connected to a Wi-Fi network,” Verizon said in a statement provided to The Loop. “Apple has a fix that is being delivered to Verizon customers right on their iPhone 5. Verizon Wireless customers will not be charged for any unwarranted cellular data usage.”
The fix is available by going to Settings > General > About on the iPhone 5 and waiting for a message to appear. Then you just tap “Okay” to update. Full instructions are available on Apple’s Web site.
This update should remedy any problems iPhone 5 customers have had with data usage on their Verizon devices.
Matthew Panzarino for The Next Web:
Recently, at an SFTA event held at Citrix HQ, former Apple CEO John Sculley talked about the origins of the Newton and the ARM processor, which was a joint venture between Apple, Acorn Computers and VLSI. The ARM6 was used as the processor for the first Newton MessagePad, as Apple needed a more power efficient CPU for its portable.
The link to the video is worth checking out. Some interesting historical perspective from John Sculley about Apple’s first foray into handheld computing.
My thanks to Pixelmator for sponsoring The Loop’s RSS feed this week. Congratulations on your fifth birthday of making the best image editing software on the Mac.
Wired:
While The Who’s “Pinball Wizard” still stands up after four decades of radio play, the designers of the pinball machines that made Tommy so good have become an endangered species.Only one company in the world, Illinois’ Stern Pinball, still designs and produces these electro-mechanical marvels, the lone holdout since industry behemoth Williams Electronics shuttered its pinball division in 1999. It may be a dying art, but the creative minds at Stern are nonetheless continuously creating new machines that can keep their industry moving forward and give them one more replay.
I still prefer pinball machines to video games. There’s something “retro-cool” about the mechanical action of the game play that you can’t get from computerized games.
Roger Waters and David Gilmour are two of the best.