John Gruber:
There’s no question in my mind that the most appealing thing about Android as a platform is its overall market share. The more Android devices that are out there, in use, the more appealing the platform is for developers. But to think that market share alone is a primary motivation for all or even most of the developers who’ve turned the iOS App Store into a phenomenon is to miss the forest for the trees.
Bingo!
The BBEdit 10.1.1 update includes improvements to the recently introduced Open File By Name feature, enhancements to projects, and contains fixes for reported issues in this award-winning HTML and text editor.
I’ve been using BBEdit since about 1996. Love it.
MG Siegler on what he hates about Android:
But I cannot respect their decision to continue to work on this platform that perpetuates our imprisonment. I have to believe most simply chose not to think about these things. But they should. They really should.
MG goes through some of the history of Android and why he really dislikes some of the things that Google does.
I was reading an article on Macworld UK this morning about the flood of Ultrabooks being released at CES this year and how Apple would respond. The answer is very simple — they won’t.
According to the article, Ultrabooks are “lightweight notebooks that rely on solid-state storage (SSD) in lieu of a traditional platter-based hard disk drive and forgo an optical drive.”
In other words, it’s a MacBook Air.
Why would Apple need to respond to its competitors releasing a lightweight notebook to compete with one of its existing computers? Apple is the company that started the category, much the same as it started the modern version of MP3 players with the iPod, the modern smartphone with the iPhone, and the modern tablet with the iPad.
Would anyone expect Apple to respond to a new tablet copying the iPad? No.
The difference between Apple and its competition is simple. Apple takes a concept, improves it and releases a product that consumers understand and want to purchase.
Apple’s competition sees its success with said product and copies it.
There will be more than 75 Ultrabook models released at CES this year and they are all in response to the MacBook Air. Yet another product category that Apple is leading.
Daniel Ionescu:
Apple is not taking part in the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas but is present at the trade show through rip-offs of its products. From MacBook Air-inspired ultrabooks, to iPad-like tablets, smart TVs, and cloud computing technology, you will find clones of Apple’s product lineup at CES 2012—and this is just a taste of what’s coming up at the show this week.
If there is any doubt about how much influence Apple has in the industry, this should put it to rest.
That pain execs at HTC, Samsung, Google and RIM get when Apple announces a new product or initiative.
These are things they don’t want to blatantly copy, but because they want to keep up with Apple, they blatantly copy them anyway.
Dave Caolo over at 52Tiger.net opened up memberships on his site today. I really like Dave’s writing and already signed up for my membership.
Every time you mention the fact that another loser competitor copied Apple, you always get the argument that “Apple didn’t invent that.” That may be true, but let’s look at some of the things that Apple didn’t invent, but made better.
Apple didn’t invent the smartphone, but it made it better.
Apple didn’t invent the mobile OS, but it made it better.
Apple didn’t invent the computer, but it made it better.
Apple didn’t invent the laptop, but it made it better.
Apple didn’t invent the ultra thin laptop, but it… oh wait, yes it did.
Apple didn’t invent the tablet, but it made it better.
Apple didn’t invent the cloud, but it made it better.
Apple didn’t invent consumer software, but it made it better.
Apple didn’t invent the computer operating system, but it made it better.
Apple didn’t invent the MP3 player, but it made it better.
Apple didn’t invent online purchasing, but it made it better.
New to the series is the Vintage Modified ’70s Stratocaster, a sweet-looking model that delivers the distinctive look of the 1970s workhorse Fender guitars. Available in all-Black maple-fingerboard and Vintage White rosewood-fingerboard, both models feature a large headstock, vintage-tint gloss neck and black plastic parts typical of that era.
The Squier line of guitars are typically less expensive than the Fender guitars, but I’ve had a Squier Strat since 1985 and love it. Being less expensive doesn’t mean it’s cheap.
Apple makes products that people want. Unlike their competition, they also make products that work and last. Evidence of this is in the latest ChangeWave customer satisfaction survey results.
According to the survey, 75 percent of respondents said they were very satisfied with their iPhone. That compares to only 47 percent for Samsung and HTC.
Only 45 percent of Motorola customers are satisified with their smartphone, while LG (31 percent), Nokia (23 percent) and RIM (22 percent) round out the list.
Customer satisfaction for Apple’s iOS tops the list of the 4,000 North Americans that took part in the survey too. iOS took a 75 percent satisfaction rating with Android coming in a distant second at 47 percent. Windows OS (32 percent) and RIM (22 percent) were last on the list.
A new survey of 4000 North American consumers has led ChangeWave Research to conclude that Apple and Samsung are seeing “explosive momentum.”
Of those planning to purchase a new smartphone in the next 90 days, 54 percent said they would choose an iPhone. A total of 13 percent said they would choose a Samsung. That’s down 11 points for Apple and up 8 points for Samsung.
ChangeWave said Apple has not dominated the intent to buy this long after releasing a new product.
RIM came in at 2 percent, HTC 3 percent and Motorola 7 percent.
Acer came up with a good idea. Let’s put pics, documents and media in the cloud and make them available to all of your devices… oh wait, that’s called iCloud. No matter, we’ll just steal the idea and call it AcerCloud. Oh, and to save time, we might as well steal Apple’s presentation slide too.
Acer’s AcerCloud image:
Apple’s iCloud presentation from The Verge:
Thanks to Bare Bones Software and BBEdit 10 for sponsoring this week’s RSS feed on The Loop.
BBEdit 10 from Bare Bones Software — The leading professional HTML and text editor for the Mac just keeps getting better, with more than one hundred new features. Download the demo and see for yourself!
Paidcontent.org:
A UK newspaper caused a stir yesterday when it reported that Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) had threatened legal action against a Chinese company that plans to sell an eerie replica of its late founder starting next month. The Daily Telegraph said Apple claims to own rights to Jobs’ likeness…But there is a huge problem here—Apple’s legal claim is largely bogus. While people can indeed own rights to their likeness, those rights usually apply only to living people. Unlike other forms of intellectual property like patents or copyrights, image rights do not survive beyond the grave in most places.
If your dream is to have a posable “action figure” of Steve Jobs of your very own, you may be in luck. I still think you’re creepy as hell, though.
Gameindustry.biz:
Infinity Blade developer Chair, owned by Epic, has made over $30 million from the franchise in just one year since the original game’s launch on iOS.Infinity Blade II, which runs only on the new iPhone 4s and the iPad 2 thanks to their A5 graphics chips, has made over $5 million in just one month since its 1 December launch.
A stunning success story which reinforces the idea that there’s a lot of money for AAA game makers to net on the App Store.
Apple Asia’s one-day Lunar New Year sales event has begun in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Korea, Singapore and Thailand. According to YJ, who sent me the info from Singapore, this sale is like the annual Thanksgiving sale in the U.S.
Joshua Schnell:
In an article about Apple’s attempts to thwart piracy on the internet, Grant apparently made the mistake of starting his post off with, “Avast! Apptrackr, a repository for cracked iOS apps, is under attack from Apple’s legal team.” For those not schooled in grammar-fu, the word literally means stop, cease. Apparently our usage of the word avast has incensed the Avast AntiVirus team so much that they’ve taken to tracking down our writer and tossing obscenities at him on his personal blog, as well as badgering him in his email inbox.
Wow, that’s pathetic.
Yeah, that was ambitious. I got nothing, sorry.
The Telegraph:
The 12-inch figurine, which comes complete with Jobs’s trademark blue jeans, sneakers and black turtleneck sweater, was created by Chinese company In Icons and was set for release in February. But ‘their efforts have reportedly met with’ a legal challenge with Apple allegedly threatening to sue the toy maker unless they cease trading.
That didn’t take long.
BGR:
Research In Motion is reportedly working toward a major transition that will see the company begin licensing its BlackBerry software to third-party vendors including Samsung and HTC.
Great, now nobody but iPhone users will be able to send email.
Build-A-Beard:
… it would look like Jim Dalrymple’s. The editor-in-chief of The Loop has been writing about Apple for more than 17 years, but growing his 15″ beard since 2007. You must be somebody pretty special if Steve Jobs once recognized you (with or without facial hair). BaB had the esteemed privilege to speak with Jim about how his beard “kind of snuck up on him and took over his life,” the craziest moment he’s had playing with another serious bearded professional, what his beard likes to drink, and the best conference to attend for true facial hair scouting.
I had a lot of fun doing this interview.
This has RIM written all over it.
[Thanks Jeff]
IndustryGamers:
TransGaming has announced that it has acquired the Interactive TV & Connected TV division of Oberon Media for $7 million in stocks and cash. This will grant the company additional revenue via distribution agreements with a number of leading Smart TV manufacturers in North America and the Indo-Pacific region, giving TransGaming reach to over 50 million households in addition to over 100 new game titles.
TransGaming is best known to Mac users as a developer and publisher of Mac games. Its Cider translation layer technology has been used to bring dozens of titles to the Mac, including Dragon Age, The Sims 3, and FIFA Soccer 12.
But Mac game conversions are only one aspect of its business. TransGaming also makes GameTree TV, which competes with services like OnLive to provide on-demand gaming on the television similar to how Netflix streaming works. GameTree TV focuses on casual game delivery, and Oberon’s efforts have been squarely in that space as well.
Some great tools here.
The Globe and Mail:
The important thing, though, is that I found the MacBook Pro with both Mac OS X and Windows 7 installed felt like a more complete computing solution than anything I’d ever had before.And it made for great gaming.
Chad Sapieha discovered that the Mac is very versatile once configured with Boot Camp and capable of switching between Mac OS X and Windows, and it sounds like he’s really gotten the best of both worlds. Some gamers continue to turn their noses up at Macs, but I’m with Sapieha: I’d rather have a beautifully-designed machine that works well than suffer with compromises.
US:
Donda will “pick up where Steve Jobs left off,” West said of the late, visionary Apple founder. With 22 divisions of writers, DJs, publicists, designers, musicians, scientists and much more, the company will strive to “make products and experiences that people want and can afford,” West said, “to help simplify and aesthetically improve everything we see hear, touch, taste and feel,” and “dream of, create, advertise and produce products driven equally by emotional want and utilitarian need.. To marry our wants and needs.”
Kayne West is a moron. If he thinks that he is anything like Steve Jobs, then he is stupider than even I thought. His name shouldn’t even be used in the same sentence as Steve Jobs. Idiot.
[Via Macgasm]
Cracked.com
Canada has long enjoyed its reputation of being one of the friendliest and drunkest of nations on earth. However, somewhere in between the gestures of kindness and brewing the best known beer to mankind, we’ve managed to do some great things.
I laughed out loud.
Just before the holidays I decided to order new business cards, but instead of the traditional type of cards, I went for something a little different. I wanted letterpress business cards. I contacted Evan Calkins at Hoban Press and he did them for me. I’m really impressed with the quality of the work, the price and how fast Evan was able to get them to me.
If you need some letterpress work done, I highly recommend contacting Evan.
Cody Fink:
In consideration of the reader, how we want the site to look, and due to the amount of time we can spend keeping an eye of this stuff, we will be removing comments from the next iteration of MacStories. And yes, it’s the nuclear option for keeping the site clean. Removing comments also means that we’re doing an incredible disservice for the readers who’ve already left great comments, and we hate having to remove those from the discussion. Decisions like this are tough because we have to do what’s best for us while minding our reader’s thoughts.
Not a surprise really. This seems to be the way more sites are moving days. I’ve said before that I find more people communicate using Twitter than comments these days. Yes, I’m still undecided.
