Gary Ng:
After you’ve added the Emoji keyboard, or any other keyboard, you’ll notice Siri’s dictate key beside the spacebar changes from dark to light grey. What’s up with this change in colour?
I would never have found this.
Jon Fingas:
Motorola Mobility pained a dark picture for its tablet strategy with its results on Thursday. The company shipped just 100,000 Xoom tablets in the summer, or less than a quarter of the 440,000 from the spring and less still than the 250,000 from the winter launch. Motorola gave no explanation for the drop.
A possible explanation is that they suck balls.
HP today announced that it has completed its evaluation of strategic alternatives for its Personal Systems Group (PSG) and has decided the unit will remain part of the company.
As John Gruber said, HP might want to buy Netflix or not. You might even want to throw RIM in there.
Michael DeGusta:
I went back and found every Android phone shipped in the United States up through the middle of last year. I then tracked down every update that was released for each device – be it a major OS upgrade or a minor support patch – as well as prices and release & discontinuation dates. I compared these dates & versions to the currently shipping version of Android at the time. The resulting picture isn’t pretty – well, not for Android users:
Wow. That’s all I got for that one.
An excerpt from John Buck’s book “Timeline”:
Jobs approached Adobe Systems, and asked them to create a consumer version of Premiere that Apple could bundle with the unreleased Mac code-named Kihei. With Apple’s future still uncertain, and Premiere sales growing on the Wintel platform, Adobe said no.
Like so many other things, Jobs was driven by a belief that he was right. When Adobe said no, Jobs created the applications division at Apple that gave us so many great apps over the years.
While maximizing native iPad capabilities like multi-touch and page swiping, SoundCloud’s app takes full advantage of the iPad interface to allow users to touch the newly designed waveform of the sound captured, allowing for a more social experience, which also includes more space for scrolling comments. In addition, users can now record private messages and send them directly to other people on SoundCloud.
I really like what SoundCloud has been doing lately. First the integration with Pro Tools, and now a new iPad app. It’s putting SoundCloud everywhere I am and giving me the ability to use the service without having to think about it. Never underestimate convenience.
Philip Elmer-Dewitt:
“It’s time to repeal prohibition and take decisive action,” writes David Johnson in a new report made available to Fortune (and available for sale here). “Mac users are your HEROes and you should enable them not hinder them.”“HERO,” it turns out, is a Forrester acronym for Highly Empowered and Resourceful Operatives — “the 17% of information workers who use new technologies and find innovative ways to be more productive and serve customers more effectively.”
It makes sense. Users around the world have embraced the iPhone, iPad and Macs, so it’s about time IT departments do the same.
It’s on the Mac App Store now and it’s a great update.
Matthew Panzarino for TNW:
Apple today filed its Form 10-K with the SEC that discloses information to stockholders and the commission. In an amongst the normal legal statements there were a few interesting facts. Among those were that Apple currently has $81,570,000,000 in cash, marketable securities and cash equivalents.
The filing also noted Apple now has 60 thousand employees.
Josh Lowensohn for CNET:
The metric follows an extended outage of Research In Motion’s e-mail and BlackBerry messaging services, which left users unable to communicate with one another or send and receive e-mails globally. To placate angry users, RIM offered users $100 in free “premium” applications. The spike also coincided with the release of Apple’s new iPhone 4S.
And the bad news just keeps coming for RIM.
Winners were announced in Taipei.
“Take Control of iCloud” covers every platform that iCloud supports, which includes Mac OS X 10.7.2 Lion, iOS 5, Windows Vista and Windows 7, and even the second-generation Apple TV. If your computers and devices aren’t running — or can’t run — those operating systems, they won’t be able to participate in iCloud, but the ebook offers some workarounds.
A book written by Joe Kissell and offered by TidBITS founders Adam and Tonya Engst. In other words, it’s really good.
BGR.com:
It specifically focuses on “RIM’s failure to take action to either directly compensate BlackBerry users or to indirectly compensate BlackBerry users by arranging for wireless service providers to refunds their customers and to take full responsibility for these damages.”
You knew it was coming, right?
ITWire:
Amongst other tales around his time at Apple, we couldn’t resist asking if Callas knew anything about the number plate saga. Of course he did – and here it is.
The stories about Steve’s license plate-free Mercedes are legendary, and people have wondered how he got away with it – did he pay off the cops? Did he have a special permit? Or did he just not care?
I won’t ruin it for you, but the answer is actually really simple. Worth clicking the link to find out more.
Neil Hughes:
Cards is a free application available on the App Store, and it works as promised. I tried building a card with the software while on the go, over a 3G connection on an iPhone 4. The process is simple and easy — and at a cost of just $2.99 with shipping in the U.S. ($4.99 to anywhere in the world), the price is right, too.
Best review I’ve seen on Apple’s new Cards app.
Image editing tool Pixelmator 2.0 will be released on Thursday with many new features. I’m going to post a few screenshots of the new app along with a short description of what you can expect from some of the new features.
Tool Options: A new bar at the top of each window shows the settings of the currently selected tool.
Info Bar: Provides information about the photo on the top of each window.
Drawing and Shape tools: Used to create and edit vector shapes. It also includes a Rectangle, Rounded Rectangle, Ellipse, Polygon, Star, Line shape tool.
Smudge, Sponge, Burn and Dodge Tools: I’m sure you know what all of these tools do.
Auto Save and Versions: Taking advantage of OS X Lion, Pixelmator now auto saves documents for you, so you’ll never lose anything. You can also browse through changes you made using Lion’s Versions capabilities.
That’s just a quick look at a few of the new features. There are so many cool new things like a Content Aware Healing Tool.
Not a big surprise to see Apple, Mercedes and Nike in there.
Katie Marsal for AppleInsider:
When checking out from Apple’s online store, a new “Pick up” option is available, from which users can select a store in San Francisco, Calif. It also states that the in-store pickup option is “coming soon to a U.S. Apple Store near you.”
Just another example of Apple’s commitment to serving its customers in the best way possible.
In an apparent effort to make sure I had something to write about today, RIM announced that it has delayed the release of its PlayBook OS 2.0 software until February 2012.
CrackBerry.com reported the news last night. The full text of the announcement from David J. Smith, senior vice president of the BlackBerry PlayBook is available from the CrackBerry Web site.
However, there are a few choice comments that I would like to point out.
As much as we’d love to have it in your hands today, we’ve made the difficult decision to wait to launch BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0 until we are confident we have fully met the expectations of our developers, enterprise customers and end-users.
It would have been great if RIM considered these things before releasing the PlayBook in the first place.
First off, we have decided to defer the inclusion of the BBM application to a subsequent BlackBerry PlayBook OS release.
One of the reasons people want a RIM product in the first place, so let’s not include it in the PlayBook.
In the meantime, BlackBerry smartphone users will be able to continue to use BlackBerry Bridge…
The same greats solution that allows Internet access for the PlayBook.
These betas will be rolled out over the course of this year and are an important next step to bringing our unmatched enterprise app deployment, device manageability, security and email integration capabilities to the tablet category.
Unmatched email integration? You don’t have email on the PlayBook.
We believe BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0 will deliver a great experience for our customers, building on the powerful performance introduced with BlackBerry PlayBook tablet earlier this year.
Now you’re just messing with me.
The software update will add advanced integrated email, calendar and contact apps
By advanced, you mean “for the first time,” right?
For the enterprise, we’re addressing many barriers to tablet adoption, including device manageability and enterprise application deployment.
Wait a minute, you just said you had “unmatched enterprise app deployment.” Which is it?
Remember the original iSub, Harman Kardon’s subwoofer designed specifically for the iMac? That’s the inspiration behind Twelve South’s BassJump subwoofer, which works with Macs and is designed to complement their built-in speakers. Now Twelve South has improved the software included with the BassJump to improve compatibility and sound quality. A free upgrade for existing BassJump owners, BassJump has been rebranded as BassJump 2. It costs $69.99.
While it’s billed as BassJump 2, the hardware hasn’t changed from the original – what’s new is the software (which can be downloaded from the Web site, if you already have the BassJump). The new software expands compatibility with new models and provides an additional 8 dB.
The BassJump 2 setup is now compatible with the MacBook Pro, original MacBook, MacBook Air, iMac, Apple Cinema Display with built-in speakers or Apple Thunderbolt Display.
Macworld:
When it kicks off January 26, 2012, the long-running Mac conference and exposition will do so under a new name: Macworld|iWorld. The name change reflects the event’s focus expanding beyond the Mac to include iOS devices and software. Registration for the three-day event began on Tuesday.“The brand is evolving from Macworld [Expo] to Macworld|iWorld to illustrate that the show is about the whole ecosystem of Apple products,” said Paul Kent, the event’s vice president and general manager.
Exciting news for the long-running event – they want to transform Macworld Expo into a “dynamic culture experience” featuring more live music, film and other changes.
Some predicted the show’s demise after Apple pulled up stakes in 2009, but it’s clear that IDG World Expo, the company that manages the show, still believe strongly in an event where Apple fans convene annually to learn and have a good time together.
The Nest Learning Thermostat is making the round of tech blogs today. This pricey $249 thermostat – currently available for pre-order – replaces the ones in your house and helps you conserve energy by learning your schedule. What’s more, it’s remotely programmable using mobile and Web apps.
But that’s just the start. The Nest features Wi-Fi support, so it’ll connect to your home network. Using secure Web based software or an iOS or Android app, you can also remote-control the settings on your Nest thermostats from anywhere. The Nest also downloads weather data so it knows what the outside world is like.
The Nest is user-installable and comes with everything you need to put it in; Nest Labs also has a dealer network for users uncomfortable with working with the low-voltage wiring needed to hook up the device.
There’s an Apple connection beside the iOS software, by the way: Nest Labs is headed up by Tony Fadell, former senior vice president of Apple’s iPod division. Fadell left Apple in 2008, serving as an adviser to Steve Jobs for a time. He founded Nest Labs in 2010. Fadell’s co-founder, Matt Rogers, headed up an iPod engineering group within Apple.
Horace Dediu:
But more importantly the iPad and the Mac both outgrew the PC market. Taken as OS X vs. Windows, the growth rates were 27.7% vs. 2.5%. If iOS is included along OS X, Apple grew its “computer” shipments at a rate of 99%.
Apple has done so much right with its product line over the last decade. Companies think they can just come along and loosely copy an Apple design and ride their coattails to success, but there’s a lot more to it than that.
Core77:
Linda O’Keeffe, the former Creative Director of Metropolitan Home magazine, has assembled a photo-heavy tome called BRILLIANT: White in Design that “explores the full spectrum of colors and characteristics inherent in white, exploring how it is used and viewed in art, design, architecture and nature.”
Some beautiful stuff.
Siri, the voice response system built into the iPhone 4S, has inevitably drawn comparisons to HAL, the artificial intelligence on board the spaceship in 2001: A Space Odyssey. ThinkGeek is blurring that line by introducing the Iris 9000, a remote voice control module that looks like HAL.
IRIS 9000 won’t ship until next spring, but when it does, the $59.99 gadget will let you control your iPhone 4S from across the room. A cradle holds your iPhone 4S, and a “micro remote” triggers Siri with a button press. A built-in mic picks up your voice and triggers Siri up to 50 feet away.
Yes, it’s every sci-fi fan’s dream come true. One step closer to opening the pod bay doors.
kottke.org:
In ’79, when Joan, my fiancee and I were on a holiday in the British Virgin Islands, we were trying to catch a flight to Puerto Rico; but the local Puerto Rican scheduled flight was cancelled. The airport terminal was full of stranded passengers. I made a few calls to charter companies and agreed to charter a plane for $2000 to Puerto Rico. Cheekily leaving out Joan’s and my name, I divided the price by the remaining number of passengers, borrowed a blackboard and wrote: VIRGIN AIRWAYS: $39 for a single flight to Puerto Rico.
Brilliant.
Jason Gross:
With virtually every website, good UX design can be sectioned into three parts or events: introduction, consumption and reaction. Content is at the core, the meat of what the user is looking for, and on both sides of the content are events that are driven by a well-executed design.
This is what I tried to do with The Loop’s new design. Making a simple design that highlights the content is much more difficult than what I thought it would be.
GigaOM:
Netflix’s subscriber attrition in the wake of a price hike and separation of its streaming and DVD businesses is even greater than first thought. The company ended the quarter with 23.8 million subscribers in the third quarter, which is down 810,000 from the previous quarter.
Too bad. Netflix offers a great service and I don’t disagree with splitting off the DVD business. They haven’t communicated very well in the past few months, but I still hope they can make it out of this mess.
Dave Caolo:
iCloud’s Photo Stream feature is handy, in that it pushes photos shot with a compatible iPhone, iPad or iPod touch to Apple’s servers and then back to other authorized devices. It’s a hindrance for the same reason, in that my iPhone, iPad and Mac are now cluttered with space-hogging one-offs I shot for the sake of a tweet or a Facebook update.
I haven’t noticed this myself, but perhaps I just don’t take enough pictures for it to be a problem.
AirPort Utility for iOS is the perfect tool for configuring and troubleshooting Apple’s gear without having to lug a laptop around, but it needs to improve its handling of password storage.
When it comes to networking, Glenn is the man.