Virtual Pants

Month

June 2013

14 posts

Game controller support in iOS 7 → imore.com

Peter Cohen:

iOS, and the devices that operate it, aren’t suddenly going to go toe-to-toe with Microsoft, Sony or Nintendo for dominance of the gaming market, and controller support in iOS 7 isn’t going to change that.

Diving into the living room is a huge bet, and could be a costly mistake. Instead, Apple is slowly, but surely, sneaking into our living rooms. Game controller support in iOS 7 is another small step towards living room domination.

Jun 19, 2013
#apple tv #game controller #ios 7 #gaming
HBO GO & WatchESPN come to Apple TV → apple.com

Apple today announced that HBO GO and WatchESPN are now available directly on Apple TV joining the great lineup of programming offered to customers. iTunes users have downloaded more than one billion TV episodes and 380 million movies from iTunes to date, and they are purchasing over 800,000 TV episodes and over 350,000 movies per day.

Apple TV is only a few independent subscription deals away from becoming a very big deal.

Jun 19, 2013
#apple #apple tv #hbo #espn
The new MacBook Air is the future of the iPad

So the new MacBook Air has ridiculously long battery life. It truly represents a breakthrough in laptop computing. But when compared to the battery life of an iPad, it’s only catching up to 2010. The iPad achieved amazing battery life right out of the gate due in part to low power chips and a limited operating system. While the MacBook Air’s epic battery life represents a breakthrough for laptops, it’s the combination of battery life, processor, and operating system that represents the future of the iPad.

I’m certain that the future of computing will look very similar to Microsoft’s Surface Pro. A laptop/tablet hybrid. Some say that Apple is religiously opposed to such a device, however, that’s not true. Apple is opposed to the current hybrid devices because they don’t excel at either being a laptop or a tablet. But the new MacBook Air is one step closer to a true “best of both worlds” scenario.

Imagine a touchscreen MacBook Air roughly the size of an iPad. Instead of a smart cover, you have an aluminum cover with a MacBook Air keyboard and trackpad. When it’s being used with the keyboard, it runs OS X. When the keyboard is gone, it’s an iPad. No compromises. Really. This wasn’t possible before because putting OS X on a tablet probably resulted in abysmal battery life, something Apple has never taken lightly. Now, however, you can get 10-14 hours of battery life from a real computer running OS X. It’s much less difficult to imagine running iOS on a MacBook Air than running OS X on an iPad.

Are we there yet? No. The MacBook Air needs to get thinner and the power to support a retina display without comprising battery life or performance. Further, OS X needs redesigned for a touchscreen. It doesn’t look like that is happening with Mavericks. Are we close? I’d say give it two years, tops.

Jun 18, 20136 notes
#apple #ipad #macbook air #ios #os x
Buying the new MacBook Air

A very helpful Apple salesperson saved me $750 and here’s how he did it. I’ve had a 15” MBP for a couple of years now, but it is just too big to use when traveling. I’ve been patiently waiting for new Haswell MacBooks, whether Air or Pro, for quite a while now, looking forward to a smaller machine with better battery life. When Apple announced the new MacBook Air at WWDC, I knew it was time for an upgrade. After a couple trips to the Apple Store, I decided that the 11” MacBook Air was for me.

I never buy the base model of anything, probably because I think that I’m some super geek that needs massive amounts of processing power and memory. Plus, Apple’s scheme makes it so easy to upgrade. Only $100 for double the RAM, $150 for the faster processor, and if you’re doing that, you might as well max out the SSD as well. It didn’t take me long to decide on the $1,749 11” MacBook Air Ultimate, primarily because I wanted the 512GB SSD for my rather large iPhoto library.

I walked over to my neighborhood Apple Store and found a salesperson to help. “I’m looking for a new MacBook Air. I’ll take the 11” model with all the options, please,” I said. Most salespeople would have thought, “Bingo!,” and proceeded to upsell me on AppleCare. Instead, this guy asked me why I needed the i7 processor and 512GB SSD. I explained that 512GB would be necessary because I have a large iPhoto library and I figured the other upgrades wouldn’t hurt either. He asked what applications I use most and I replied, “Chrome, Twitterrific, Word, Messages, and Mail.” He explained that I’d most likely never notice an upgrade to the i7 processor, likewise with the 8GB of RAM, and that he had a much cheaper option for my photos. He grabbed a $80 500GB external drive and showed me how to transfer my existing iPhoto library to it and set it up on the new MacBook Air.

As one of my friends put it, he must have been a great salesman, because convincing me to downgrade is probably harder than convincing most people to upgrade. But it worked. I walked out with a $999 base model 11” MacBook Air, and I love it. I’ve been working on it for a couple days and it’s super fast. With my photos all on the external drive, I have almost 100GB of free space. Most salespeople would have sold the more expensive computer, but this guy took the time to explain why I didn’t really need it, and convinced me to spend much less. Apple recognizes what few other retailers do: customer satisfaction starts even before a product is purchased, and it is customer satisfaction that makes companies great.

Jun 17, 201338 notes
#apple #retail #apple store #customer satisfaction #macbook air
What iOS 7 should look like → tristanedwards.me

Tristan Edwards:

Some would argue that it’s just a new style and takes some getting used to. I’ve tried for several days now to “get used to it”, I’ve used my phone more intensely than ever, but it just doesn’t work. The design is bad. Some things, like good symmetry and combining the right colors, never go out of style, it’s just good taste.

For that reason, I started creating a mock-up of my own version of iOS 7. This is how I believe Apple should have done it.

I generally like the direction that Apple is heading with iOS 7, however, as noted above, the design of iOS 7 needs some work. In fact, it needs to look just like Tristan’s redesign. I can’t think of a better resume for a design job at Apple.

Jun 15, 20131 note
#apple #design #ios7
Analyzing Yahoo's PRISM non-denial → paranoia.dubfire.net

Christopher Soghoian:

Today, Yahoo’s General Counsel posted a carefully worded denial regarding the company’s alleged participation in the NSA PRISM program. To the casual observer, it might seem like a categorical denial. I do not believe that Yahoo’s denial is as straightforward as it seems.

Below, I have carefully parsed Yahoo’s statement, line by line, in order to highlight the fact that Yahoo has not in fact denied receiving court orders under 50 USC 1881a (AKA FISA Section 702) for massive amounts of communications data.

This Yahoo statement, while probably accurate, really says nothing, as Christopher Soghoian points out. It’s the kind of statement that we don’t need in a situation like this. At best, it misleads your customers. By way of contrast, the statements coming out of Google are refreshingly blunt and include unequivocal denials:

I’m not sure what the details of this PRISM program are, but I can tell you that the only way in which Google reveals information about users are when we receive lawful, specific orders about individuals — things like search warrants. And we continue to stand firm against any attempts to do so broadly or without genuine, individualized suspicion, and publicize the results as much as possible in our Transparency Report. Having seen much of the internals of how we do this, I can tell you that it is a point of pride, both for the company and for many of us, personally, that we stand up to governments that demand people’s information.

I can also tell you that the suggestion that PRISM involved anything happening directly inside our datacenters surprised me a great deal; owing to the nature of my work at Google over the past decade, it would have been challenging — not impossible, but definitely a major surprise — if something like this could have been done without my ever hearing of it. And I can categorically state that nothing resembling the mass surveillance of individuals by governments within our systems has ever crossed my plate.

If it had, even if I couldn’t talk about it, in all likelihood I would no longer be working at Google: the fact that we do stand up for individual users’ privacy and protection, for their right to have a personal life which is not ever shared with other people without their consent, even when governments come knocking at our door with guns, is one of the two most important reasons that I am at this company: the other being a chance to build systems which fundamentally change and improve the lives of billions of people by turning the abstract power of computing into something which amplifies and expands their individual, mental life.

Jun 9, 2013
#prism #yahoo #google #privacy #spying #nsa
PRISM partner doublespeak confirmed → nytimes.com

The New York Times:

Each of the nine companies said it had no knowledge of a government program providing officials with access to its servers, and drew a bright line between giving the government wholesale access to its servers to collect user data and giving them specific data in response to individual court orders. Each said it did not provide the government with full, indiscriminate access to its servers.

The companies said they do, however, comply with individual court orders, including under FISA. The negotiations, and the technical systems for sharing data with the government, fit in that category because they involve access to data under individual FISA requests. And in some cases, the data is transmitted to the government electronically, using a company’s servers.

All of the responses from the tech companies linked to PRISM reeked of doublespeak. Terms like ‘direct access’ were red flags, especially when used by multiple companies. It’s one thing to comply with government demands, but it’s a damn shame that these companies, most of which impact our daily lives, lied to us today. Either tell us the truth or don’t say anything at all. Or better yet, stand up for your users like Twitter did:

Twitter declined to make it easier for the government.

Jun 7, 20132 notes
#prism #privacy #spying #nsa
The internet is a surveillance state → schneier.com

Great essay on internet privacy, or the lack thereof, by Bruce Schneier:

Maintaining privacy on the Internet is nearly impossible. If you forget even once to enable your protections, or click on the wrong link, or type the wrong thing, you’ve permanently attached your name to whatever anonymous service you’re using. Monsegur slipped up once, and the FBI got him. If the director of the CIA can’t maintain his privacy on the Internet, we’ve got no hope.

In today’s world, governments and corporations are working together to keep things that way. Governments are happy to use the data corporations collect — occasionally demanding that they collect more and save it longer — to spy on us. And corporations are happy to buy data from governments. Together the powerful spy on the powerless, and they’re not going to give up their positions of power, despite what the people want.

Jun 7, 20131 note
#nsa #prism #privacy
Tech giants deny knowledge of PRISM spy operation → gawker.com

Many companies identified in the leaked NSA PRISM slides have already come forward with denials:

“We have never heard of PRISM,” says Apple’s spokesman. “If the government has a broader voluntary national security program to gather customer data we don’t participate in it,” says Microsoft’s. “We do not provide the government with direct access to our servers, systems, or network,” says Yahoo!’s. “Google does not have a ‘back door’ for the government to access private user data,” says Google’s.

But in each of these denials, they leave open the possibility for PRISM to exist as originally reported. For example, Apple has apparently never heard of PRISM, but maybe they know it by another name. Yahoo doesn’t provide direct access, but what about indirect access. Likewise, Google apparently does not have a ‘back door’ for the government, but what if they simply let them in the front door.

Jun 7, 2013
#nsa #prism #spying
NSA taps into internet giants' systems to mine user data → guardian.co.uk

The National Security Agency has obtained direct access to the systems of Google, Facebook, Apple and other US internet giants, according to a top secret document obtained by the Guardian.

The NSA access is part of a previously undisclosed program called PRISM, which allows officials to collect material including search history, the content of emails, file transfers and live chats, the document says.

This is bad.

Jun 6, 20132 notes
#prism #nsa #spying
Why Vesper will succeed → trevormckendrick.com

Like Trevor McKendrick, I almost threw up in my mouth when I read Marco Arment’s characterization of Vesper’s launch price and lack of features as balls. Before I could write my reaction, Trevor already explained the real reason Vesper will succeed:

Distribution and our attention. That’s what they have that most iOS devs don’t. It’s a huge competitive advantage, but nobody talks about it.

Instead we gush on about how it’s a great app and well designed ad nauseum. We admire it as a piece of artwork and think because it’s good art it makes good business, too.

But that’s the wrong thing to admire about Vesper. While a great app, yes, there are many great apps that don’t go anywhere.

There were no balls involved with the launch of Vesper. This was not a risky move. The Q Branch team knew that their combined internet celebrity would guarantee a baseline level of success, no matter the app or the price. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a very nice app, but as Trevor wrote above, there are many nice apps out there.

Trevor was wrong about one thing, though. Someone has pointed this out before. I made the exact same point with regard to Marco Arment’s The Magazine:

The Magazine is the rich kid of the Newsstand magazine world. It was privileged from the start. Launched by an internet celebrity and touted by his internet celebrity friends, the first issue had articles by great writers like Jason Snell and Michael Lopp. It had an audience before it launched and was guaranteed a baseline level of success out of the gate. And that initial success is what enabled Marco to hire a great editor, pay print-competitive rates to attract print-quality writers, and to integrate illustrations and photos. I doubt any TypeEngine magazine will have these advantages, despite the quality of content.

Apps from internet celebrities aren’t much different than clothing lines from fashion models or shoes from basketball players. It’s all about the brand. The Q Branch team has built an excellent brand over the years, and Vesper will succeed because of that brand. No balls necessary.

Jun 6, 20139 notes
#vesper #ios
Vesper → itunes.apple.com

Vesper is a delightful and beautifully-designed notes app from Brent Simmons, Dave Wiskus, and John Gruber. Vesper provides easy tagging, search, and the ability to append photos to notes. An archive stores your old notes, and a swipe is all you need to send a note to the archive.

While I agree that $5 for an app isn’t expensive, it might be too expensive for Vesper. You see, the app currently doesn’t support the iPad and there is no cloud syncing of notes, two features I’ve come to expect from notes apps. At least the credits include a recipe for the app’s namesake drink (one of my favorites).

Jun 6, 2013
#vesper #ios #q branch
Apple to offer iPhone upgrades → bloomberg.com

Bloomberg:

By offering money for older smartphones, Apple and the wireless companies are seeking to entice consumers to upgrade to the latest models, while profiting through resales abroad.

I recently wrote about Apple’s upgrade dilemma:

Apple has been taking a beating on Wall Street, in part due to skepticism over future growth of iPhone and iPad sales. With the market becoming saturated with iPhone and, to some extent, iPad users, Apple will soon need to rely upon upgrades rather than new customers to fuel sales. Apple’s problem is that their products are so good, people aren’t upgrading fast enough.

The beginning of an upgrade program provides some evidence that I was correct. There are simply too many people with older model iPhones and they aren’t upgrading fast enough. Just look around in the wild and you’ll likely notice many more iPhone 4/4S than iPhone 5. In fact, I see many more Samsung devices than iPhone 5, which makes me think that many people are upgrading to Samsung devices from their iPhone 4/4S.

Jun 6, 20131 note
#apple #iphone #ipad
One year after debut, Windows RT is a Computex no-show → theverge.com

Sam Byford for The Verge:

Three days into Computex Taipei, Asia’s biggest computer show, not a single manufacturer has announced a Windows RT device. Windows RT, the version of Windows 8 designed for more power-efficient ARM processors, made its official debut at last year’s show on a convertible tablet by Asus.

Windows RT has always seemed like a temporary fix. When RT was announced last year, Microsoft needed a tablet OS that could compete with Apple and Android tablets. While Windows 8 was a fine competitor, most tablet hardware at the time simply couldn’t support it. Thus, Microsoft announced RT, which was meant to fill in the gap between Windows 8 and available tablet hardware.

A year later, Intel is shipping low power chips that can easily power tablets with Windows 8. If tablet hardware can support Windows 8, there’s simply no reason for Windows RT. I give it another year before Microsoft kills it.

Jun 5, 2013
#windows 8 #windows rt #microsoft

May 2013

10 posts

Windows 8 and the iPad

Much has been said about the failures of Windows 8 as a desktop, laptop, and tablet OS. According to many, Windows 8 is confusing, frustrating, and even stressful to use. I disagree.1 In my opinion, Windows 8 makes a better tablet than the iPad.

Rene Ritchie wrote a post yesterday, which claims that Microsoft has failed to understand what people want in a tablet. At least for me, it looks like Ritchie fails to understand what I want in a tablet because I love the Surface Pro.2 Ritchie’s post sums up the opinions I have seen in the Apple community, so I’ll use it to express my contrary opinion.

Ritchie describes Microsoft’s latest ads:

The ad shows Live Tiles, and contrasts them with the iPad’s static Home screen. It shows multi-window computing, and contrasts it with the iPad’s one-at-a-time app experience. It shows Power Point, and contrasts it with Apple’s Keynote. They show the price of the cheapest Windows 8 tablet and contrast it with Apple’s mid-capacity, full-sized iPad.

…

To mainstream customers, tiles that change pictures seemingly at random are disorienting, multiple apps at once is stressful, Power Point is something best left locked in beige cubicles (even though Microsoft could make it, and all of Office, available for iPad any time they so choose), and the price paid up-front isn’t always as important as the value obtained throughout the life of a product.

First, let’s talk about Live Tiles. I’m not sure who Ritchie considers to be a “mainstream customer,” but he seems to think they are absolute morons. Live Tiles are a fantastic feature. Checking the weather is a perfect example. On a Windows 8 tablet, you simply glance at the Live Tile for your weather app. On an iPad, you have to actually open the application and wait for it to load to see the weather. Or take Twitter. Your latest mention is displayed right on the Live Tile. No need to open the application every time you get a notification. Live Tiles are absolutely convenient. The iPad’s lock and home screens look childish by comparison.

Second, let’s consider how stressful it is to support multi-window computing. Two applications. Open at the same time. On the same screen. I NEED A DRINK. To the contrary, one of the most frustrating experiences on the iPad is the lack of multitasking and multiple windows. Windows 8 allows you to snap two windows side-by-side, which works extremely well. For example, your Twitter feed can be open while you browse the web. Your email can be open off to the side while you are reading a document. It’s an optional feature that comes in quite handy, and the lack thereof is frequently cited as one of the iPad’s biggest flaws.

Third, let’s discuss Office. The fact of the matter is, like it or not, a significant number of people rely on Office daily. Whether for a job or school, it’s how many people do their work. Natively supporting full versions of Office is a huge selling point, sometimes the primary one, for Windows 8 devices. Not everyone can write a blog for a living, which is probably quite manageable on an iPad. Many people have jobs or school assignments that require preparing presentations, complex documents, and spreadsheets. While Apple has done an admirable job of supplying iPad versions of their productivity suite, you can’t get real work done on an iPad. Believe me, I’ve tried. The lack of a mouse, multitasking/multiple windows, and native Office apps means that it takes exponentially more time to get the job done on an iPad, if you can do it at all.

I almost tucked Ritchie’s post away for another day because I would like to compare it to his review of a future iPad. What will Ritchie think of an iPad that supports a rich, data-filled home or lock screen? Disorienting? How about an iPad that supports multiple windows? Stressful? I think not. When these feature exist on an iPad, and they will, Ritchie is going to love them. And I’ll love reminding you of his post.

  1. For some context to my opinion, I have exclusively used Macs for over a decade. I’ve owned every iPhone and every iPad except for the current iPad 4 (I have an iPad mini instead). I love Apple and its products. My newest tablet is a Microsoft Surface Pro with Windows 8. I love it too. ↩

  2. It’s important to point out that everyone has different needs. Sure, there are some people who need nothing more than an iPad. But for many others, the iPad really is just a big iPhone, and they need a real PC of some kind. If you prefer Macs, which I do, and like tablets, that means carrying around an iPad and a PC. The beauty of Windows 8 is that it supports tablets and PCs in the same device. ↩

May 31, 2013
#windows 8 #ipad #ios #apple #microsoft
Keep on dreaming → slate.com

Farhad Manjoo’s headline: Steve Jobs’ Dream Device Has Arrived. He is referring to the recently announced Xbox One from Microsoft. The problem is that the Xbox One isn’t Steve Jobs’ dream device. Not even close. As Manjoo later writes:

The company was also cagey about how the One will interact with your crappy cable box. Unlike in Jobs’ perfect system, the Xbox One won’t replace your box. It will let you switch channels by voice, and it will be able to layer its own content on top of what’s on TV. But as the Verge’s Nilay Patel points out, the One likely won’t act as a DVR that saves TV shows to its drive, and you will still likely have to interact with your set-top box’s clunky user interface.

Compare that to the frequently cited quote from Steve Jobs’ biography:

‘I’d like to create an integrated television set that is completely easy to use,’ he told me. ‘It would be seamlessly synced with all of your devices and with iCloud.’ No longer would users have to fiddle with complex remotes for DVD players and cable channels. ‘It will have the simplest user interface you could imagine. I finally cracked it.’

Jobs’ ideal television device would do away with traditional cable boxes and DVR altogether. Your television content will live in the cloud, freely accessible to any device with an internet connection. The user interface will be drop dead simple and consistent between devices. Compare such a device to the Xbox One, which still requires a cable box, does not store your television content in the cloud, and doesn’t eliminate the need to use the horrid user interface on your existing cable box.

The sad truth is that we’re still a long way from Jobs’ dream. And technology isn’t the biggest hurdle. Instead, the remaining challenge is the cable television business model. Until cable operators are willing to budge, the dream will not be realized. It’s a difficult nut to crack, and I’m skeptical that anyone will be able to do so. Microsoft surely has not. Apple, with Jobs at the helm, had a chance, but Tim Cook is no Steve Jobs when it comes to groundbreaking negotiations with old guard content providers.

May 28, 20131 note
#xbox one #apple tv
Size doesn't matter → theverge.com

Laura June for The Verge:

The truth is that while I spent months imagining — and talking about — a phone which was exactly the HTC First, I was all the while adjusting to a different and better reality: that of a slightly larger phone. The smaller “iPhone-sized” dream was just a red herring.

I really enjoyed this piece by Laura June. My conclusion is the same after switching from an iPhone 5 to a Galaxy Note II for a month or so. The screen size of the Note felt absurd at first, but I quickly became used to it. There was a lot of skepticism and criticism of larger-sized displays a year or two ago, but that has died down considerably, primarily because the proof is in the pudding. People are frequently choosing phones with larger displays.

May 27, 2013
#android #iphone #screen #size #display #design
The separation of Digg Reader and Instapaper → thenextweb.com

The Next Web:

McLaughlin also shared that Digg and the recently acquired Instapaper will not be combined, at least for the moment; he argued that the notion of reading something later serves a separate function.

The argument that reading something later is something that should be kept separate from an RSS reader is baffling to me. When I heard Instapaper was acquired by Betaworks, my first thought was that it would be a great addition to Digg’s RSS reader project. A single app that provides RSS feeds and saved articles for reading later would be perfect. I suspect the Instapaper acquisition happened too late in the development cycle to combine them. If that’s the case, there is still a chance they will be combined eventually.

May 24, 20132 notes
#digg #instapaper #betaworks
Black, white, and flat all over → 9to5mac.com

9to5Mac:

As we reported in April, Apple Senior Vice President of Industrial Design Jony Ive has been leading a thorough overhaul for iOS 7 that focuses on the look and feel of the iOS device software rather than on several new features.

Sources have described iOS 7 as “black, white, and flat all over.” This refers to the dropping of heavy textures and the addition of several new black and white user interface elements.

If true, this is a nice scoop on Apple’s iOS 7 redesign. The “flat” design has been heavily rumored, but the emphasis on black and white elements is interesting.

iOS has always invoked emotion. In additional to working well, it is a joy to use. There’s no doubt that iOS 7 is going to look great, but I hope it invokes the same emotion that has helped create many loyal iPhone users.

May 24, 2013
#apple #ios #iphone
Android is winning. Apple is winning. → techpinions.com

John Kirk for Techpinions:

Not only do the high priests of market share have it wrong, they have it exactly backwards. The company with the lower market share and the higher profits has all of the leverage. The goal is to INCREASE, not decrease, the ratio of profits to market share. Increasing market share at the cost of profits is a recipe for disaster, not a formula for success.

Apple may or may not do well in the future but right now, and contrary to popular belief, they are winning the smartphone wars and winning them handily.

John’s analysis is correct, in my opinion, with regard to Android device manufacturers. However, he is missing the point of Android. In fact, he doesn’t mention Google even once (other than in a quote from ReadWrite). You need to consider all of the players before you can declare a winner of the game.

Google created Android as a defensive measure. It needed to be sure that a single company, such as Apple, did not gain control of the entire mobile market. If that were to happen, the possibility of Google’s services being shut out of the market loomed. Clearly, Google’s doomsday scenario never happened and likely never will. In this way, Android has won, and has performed better than Google ever imagined.

Android is a huge win for Google. It’s true that most Android device makers have little to no profit. But it’s Android’s large market share that is the winner for Google. The more Android devices being used, the more Google services with Google ads are being used.

People often forget that Google and Apple are playing the same game with different goals in mind. Apple strives to maximize profitability in hardware sales. Google, on the other hand, is striving for maximum market share, providing the most users for its services. This is a rare, if not unique, war where both Apple and Google can win, and that seems to be very confusing to people.

May 23, 20132 notes
#android #apple #google
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