April 25, 2012
Written by Shawn King
CNET:
Sprint Nextel is banking that its unlimited data plan will continue to set its iPhone apart from the others — even when the next version arrives.If the next iteration of the iPhone arrives with LTE, Sprint will continue to offer a no-strings unlimited plan, CEO Dan Hesse told CNET.Hesse believes the decision to stick with unlimited has been a boon for the company, drawing in new customers who wouldn’t have otherwise considered the carrier.
He may very well be right. My next iPhone might be one from Sprint.
Rogue Amoeba on Wednesday released Airfoil Speakers Touch version 3, a new version of their iOS audio app. It’s available as a free download from the iOS App Store, and works in conjunction with Rogue Amoeba’s Airfoil for Mac OS X or Windows apps.
Airfoil Speakers Touch now lets you stream audio to any iPhone, iPod touch or iPad by making it an AirPlay-compatible receiver. AirPlay is Apple’s term for its streaming music technology supported by speaker docs, AV receivers and other devices.
The software works independently of Airfoil for desktop computers, allowing you to send audio to iOS devices from iTunes. But if Airfoil is installed, you can synchronize audio from other apps, such as Spotify and Rdio, or stream music from Web services like Pandora and Last.fm.
The software has also been updated with native iPad interface support.
If you’re an Apple developer and you haven’t already snagged a ticket for this year’s WWDC, better luck next year: Apple has updated its WWDC Web site with an indication that tickets for this year’s event are no longer available – they’re sold out (in record time).
Written by Peter Cohen
Laura Hazard Owen for paidContent:
Macmillan science fiction/fantasy imprint Tor/Forge — the publisher of titles like Orson Scott Card’s “Ender’s Game” — will sell its e-books DRM-free as of “early July 2012,” the company announced today.
This is great news for fantasy and science fiction enthusiasts who want to buy content unencumbered with restrictions on how it can interact with devices or apps – a very real problem when buying ebooks from Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble or even through Apple’s iBooks.
Tor publishes books from Orson Scott Card, Whitley Strieber, Robert Jordan, John Scalzi and many others.
Written by Peter Cohen
Don Reisinger for Cnet:
As one might expect, Apple’s iPhone proved quite popular on Sprint’s service, with 1.5 million of those devices activated during the first quarter. According to Sprint, 44 percent of those activations went to new customers.
With 4.3 million phones activated on AT&T and about 3 million activated by Verizon, Sprint is by far the smallest iPhone reseller of the major US carriers. Forty-four percent of those iPhone activations on Sprint’s network went to new customers, though, which must make the company’s executives pretty happy.
Apple has announced the date for this year’s WWDC: June 11 through June 15. It once again returns to the Moscone West facility in San Francisco. Tickets cost $1,599. You need to be a registered iOS or Mac OS developer in order to attend.
Apple has planned more than 100 technical sessions, and will offer attendees 100 hands-on labs staffed by Apple engineers. Other events include the Apple Design Awards, which recognize iOS and Mac apps, lunchtime sessions and more.
In a statement, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing explained that this year’s WWDC would focus on both iOS and OS X Mountain Lion, the newest version of the Mac operating system that will be released later this year. “The iOS platform has created an entirely new industry with fantastic opportunities for developers across the country and around the world,” said Schiller.
One change from last year that may stop some developers at larger companies from attending the show: Apple is restricting the sale of tickets to one per person and five per organization.
Written by Peter Cohen
Sophos’ Naked Security blog:
One in every five Mac computers is harbouring some kind of malware, a new study from the experts at Sophos has revealed.
The key phrase here is “some kind of malware.” Sophos is including Windows malware, sent to you by e-mail, for example, by unwitting Windows users. That stuff will never give OS X a problem.
How many times have you received a spam e-mail or message from a Windows using friend (or total stranger) with a strange file attachment?
Get rid of it, obviously, but you’re using a Mac for a reason – and one of them may be so you don’t have to deal with Windows and its problems.
What’s more, Sophos’ thesis is predicated on assumptions made using data retrieved from “Mac computers which have recently downloaded Sophos’s free Mac anti-virus software.” Mac users who have downloaded anti-virus software are a self-selecting group if ever I heard one. One in five of those Macs may have some kind of malware on them, but I’d be very surprised if that was the same as the public at large.
Mac users don’t routinely use anti-virus software. I expect that many of them are downloading Sophos’ product with the expectation that they’re going to find problems.
Sophos is simply trying to drum up interest in its own products – the blog post links back to its anti-virus software for Mac, which is indeed free, but is also quite capable of building a captive audience for other products in the future.
Apple announced $11.6 billion in profits on $39.2 billion in revenue on Tuesday, compared to profit and revenue of $6.0 billion and $24.7 billion, respectively, for the same quarter a year ago. That figures to diluted earnings per share of $12.30.
Apple reports 35.1 million iPhones sold in the quarter, 88 percent growth compared to last year. 11.8 million iPads were sold, a 151 percent increase over the same quarter a year ago. Four million Macs were sold, a more mild 7 percent increase, and 7.7 million iPods were sold, continuing the regular decline we’ve seen of iPod unit sales, down 15 percent year-over-year.
Peter Oppenheimer, Apple’s CFO, said that Apple anticipates revenue of $34 billion and diluted earnings per share (EPS) of about $8.68.
Apple once again handily beat Wall Street analysts’ estimates, which pegged last quarter’s revenue and profits lower. Analysts seemed to have underestimated demand for iPhones, Macs and iPads, as well.
Written by Peter Cohen
Susan Decker for Bloomberg:
Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc. (MMI) won a partial U.S. International Trade Commission judge’s ruling in its bid to block imports of Apple Inc. (AAPL)’s devices including the iPhone and iPad tablet computer. ITC Judge Thomas Pender said Apple violated one of four Motorola Mobility patent rights. The patent relates to Wi-Fi technology. The judge’s findings are subject to review by the six-member commission, which has the power to block imports that infringe U.S. patents.
Two of the patents concern Wi-Fi; one involves how the phone senses if it’s close to the user’s head, and the last one describes the way the server tracks application availability.
Written by Peter Cohen
Sean Gallagher for Ars Technica:
The low headcount and the urgency of just about every project—where the millions spent on a grant for a particular project may be lost if data can’t be collected or transmitted—demands that the few IT pros on hand in Antarctica have not just depth of knowledge, but skills across other fields as well. “Typically, they’re at an engineer level as opposed to a technician,” Gitt says. “They could fix almost anything.” One technician had to diagnose a problem with the Windows software package needed for a project on a researcher’s laptop—and the program was written and documented in French.
I never really thought of IT as an “extreme” profession, but for these folks, it definitely is.
Written by Jim Dalrymple
An alternate view on clicky keyboards.
Written by Jim Dalrymple
Shawn Blanc has a very detailed review of his favorite clicky keyboards, including sound recordings of the sound they make when you type. I found the words-per-minute and accuracy were particularly interesting.
April 23, 2012
Written by Jim Dalrymple
Dan Farber:
In 2006 email thread, Rubin said that Sun owned the intellectual property and brand for Java and that the Java.lang APIs were copyrighted. Over the next several years his thinking changed.
Your thinking may change, but the truth remains constant.
Written by Peter Cohen
Chris Martucci’s Whatblag.com:
In other words, Apple’s agency model required all seven publishers to take away retail price control from other e-book retailers, effectively “stripping them of any ability to discount or otherwise price promote e-books out of the retailer’s own margins” (66).If that’s not price-fixing, I’m not sure what is.
Martucci is quick to discount Crovitz’s Wall Street Journal piece (posted on the Loop earlier today) as “disingenuous.”
Written by Jim Dalrymple
Dustin Curtis:
I think Facebook is terrified of the usage transition from desktop PCs to mobile. A billion dollars for Instagram, as an insurance policy to guarantee that the company will have an anchor in content creation on mobile, is worth every penny.
That’s exactly what I think about the deal.
Written by Peter Cohen
Billy Steele for Engadget:
In Boston this fall, you won’t need to keep up with your train ticket anymore — as long as you don’t leave your smartphone at home. The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) and Masabi have joined forces to bring a rail ticketing to handheld devices via iPhone, Android and BlackBerry apps.
This is a boon for the many Boston-area commuters who travel into the Hub via Commuter Rail stations that don’t have fare vending machines – less than half of the 140 stations in the MBTA’s Commuter Rail network have them, requiring those passengers to buy tickets from conductors on board.
Instead, you can buy tickets via credit or debit card. You can even link one of the MBTA’s “CharlieCards” to your phone.
Masabi, the company behind the e-ticketing system, says this will be its first deployment in the US. Masabi and the T are hoping to reduce the amount of cash-handling MBTA personnel have to do and other costs associated with ticketing and fare validation.
Written by Peter Cohen
L. Gordon Crovitz for the Wall Street Journal:
Whether it’s news, games, apps or books, Apple’s position is the same. The market determines the price, and Apple gets 30%. The Justice Department fails to acknowledge anywhere in its 36-page complaint against Apple and book publishers that this is the standard approach. (Indeed, the government complaint inaccurately refers to “30% margins” for Apple. Operating margins are very different from sales commissions.) The government says this “agency model” is inherently wrong (“per se” wrong, in legalese) and “would not have occurred without the conspiracy among the defendants.”The problem for the government is that there’s nothing wrong with the agency model, which has been upheld by federal courts and is common across many industries. This approach by Apple and the publishers (including HarperCollins, a unit of News Corp., which also owns The Wall Street Journal) replaced the “wholesale model” that market leader Amazon preferred, which had allowed it to sell e-books at whatever price it wanted, including as loss leaders to protect its Kindle against competition from other e-readers.
Bear in mind that Crovitz is the former publisher of the Journal, and that he himself complained to Apple about the 30 percent figure when they met in 2011. Eddy Cue, who runs the Apple’s Internet Software and Services, told him that Apple wouldn’t treat newspapers or magazines any differently than game publishers.
Crovitz raises an excellent point about letting the market decide the price of ebooks. “Consumers should decide, not Amazon or the Antitrust Division.”
Written by Jim Dalrymple
Adobe is holding its event to talk about CS6 and Creative Cloud at 10:00 am PT today.
Written by Jim Dalrymple
This is what the pros have been waiting for.
Written by Jim Dalrymple
DRT is a Pro Tools AudioSuite plugin which effortlessly replaces drum hits with fresh audio samples, MIDI notes or audio “clicks” all with near flawless accuracy.
I have a lot of respect for Steven Massey, a former Digidesign software engineer. He makes some really nice plug-ins.
Written by Jim Dalrymple
Established in 2005, ScreenCastsOnline is acknowledged as one of the primary online training resources for the Mac and iOS, publishing two brand new video tutorials each and every week.
ScreenCastsOnline members automatically receive a new Mac or iOS video tutorial (or both) each week, as well as access to a huge video library of over 340 Mac tutorials and 50 iOS tutorials, covering the latest Apple and third party software.
Special offer for all “The Loop” readers – 20% discount off the first payment for any monthly, quarterly or annual membership.
More recently, ScreenCastsOnline has launched a number of low cost tutorial apps in both the Mac and iTunes App Stores.
SCOtutor for Lion – For Mac users upgrading to Lion SCOtutor for Mac – For new Mac users wanting to learn about the Mac from scratch. SCOtutor for iPad – For new iPad users – all about the iPad and iOS from first principles. SCOtutor for iPhoto on iOS – Learn all about the new iPhoto app for the iPad and iPhone.
All SCOtutor apps include an optimised video player, full chapter navigation, English subtitles and many other unique features. All apps are available on both the Mac and iOS devices.
More information about the special ScreenCastsOnline membership discount or the SCOtutor tutorials apps is available on the Web site.
Written by Jim Dalrymple
This is an old article, but it’s really funny. And true. I have a pair of one-year-old Border Collies and everything in this article describes them perfectly. Luckily my last dog was a Border Collie too, so I know what I’m in for as they get older.
Border Collies have a trait called, “THE EYE.” The eye is a hypnotic stare that the BC turns on anything it wants to control. BC owners talk about “THE EYE” with reverence and love to expound on the way the dogs use it to control sheep. It would be fine if these dogs used “THE EYE” only with sheep, but the BC turns “THE EYE” on anything it might engage to produce fun or work.Recently I dog-sat a BC for the weekend. Two days. Forty-eight hours of being stared at. No blinking. Unwavering scrutiny. In human culture, staring is wrong. Parents invest incredible energy teaching children not to stare. Being stared at briefly is uncomfortable. Try an hour with a Border Collie if you want to experience serious discomfort.
April 21, 2012
Written by Peter Cohen
Dan Pearson for GamesIndustry International:
A new, game-specific alternative to Kickstarter is due to launch at this year’s E3, coming from Dutch company Gambitious.The scheme will allow investors to buy shares in game projects, which will translate to paid dividends if the game makes it to market and sees commercial success. The platform will launch in Europe, but the company hopes to spread internationally once some legal barriers are breached.
Double Fine Games saw eye-opening success with Kickstarter earlier this year when it bankrolled development of its game by booking $3.3 million in pledges for a title for which it hoped to raise $400K.
Gambitious aims to make a splash at the upcoming E3 trade show in Los Angeles – the annual games expo and conference.
