May 2013
7 posts
3 tags
The separation of Digg Reader and Instapaper →
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...
3 tags
Black, white, and flat all over →
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...
3 tags
Android is winning. Apple is winning. →
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...
3 tags
Everything Apple needs to introduce at WWDC to... →
Justin Williams:
With WWDC just a few weeks away, I thought it’d be beneficial to the Internet at large to compile a working list of everything that is expected of Apple during their Keynote and subsequent “State of the Union” addresses in order to appease the Internet. Failure to introduce each and every one of these features and updates will result in another stock price plummet, calls for...
1 tag
Google Glass is the next level, even for nerds →
Nick Bilton:
I should preface here by saying that that I’m a nerd. I’ve been a nerd all my life, always buying the first era of a new gadget — essentially anything with a button and a battery. But this week, the moment I swung open the doors to the Moscone Center in San Francisco, home of the developer conference, I felt like a mere mortal among an entirely different class of super-connected...
1 tag
The next generation of Instapaper →
Marco Arment:
I’m happy to announce that I’ve sold a majority stake in Instapaper to Betaworks. We’ve structured the deal with Instapaper’s health and longevity as the top priority, with incentives to keep it going well into the future. I will continue advising the project indefinitely, while Betaworks will take over its operations, expand its staff, and develop it further.
I guess that...
2 tags
More app love for Glass than Windows 8 →
Chris Welch for The Verge:
Until now only two third-party apps have been available for Google Glass: The New York Times and Path. Thankfully that’s about to change. Today at Google I/O we learned that several new apps are coming to Google’s headset including Facebook, Twitter, Evernote, Tumblr, CNN, and Elle.
It’s surprising to me that there is this much app support for...
April 2013
1 post
1 tag
Past release data points to Instapaper 5 update
Instapaper is one of my favorite apps on the iPhone and iPad. I recently noticed that it hasn’t been updated in quite some time. According to the App Store, the current version, 4.2.7, was released on December 7, 2012 - 4 months ago. But how does this compare to previous updates? The App Store provides a version history back to version 2.2.4, which was released on June 24, 2010. The...
March 2013
15 posts
3 tags
Twitterrific 5.2 with push notifications
Twitterrific 5 has been my favorite Twitter client on the iPhone and iPad since it was released last December. Version 5.2 was just released in the App Store and it’s no minor update. The team at Iconfactory has added push notifications, arguably the only major feature missing from the app. The custom notification sound is charming, and you can choose to see colors associated with each type...
6 tags
Stop the bullshit →
Chris Welch for The Verge:
John Legere kicked off T-Mobile’s event in New York City today with an unrelenting tirade against the carrier’s competitors. “Stop the bullshit,” the CEO said, referring to the traditional subsidy model being pushed by Verizon, AT&T, and Sprint. “Carriers are really nice to you… once every 23 months,” teased Legere, in a...
4 tags
Comparing RSS sponsorship costs →
Arne Kaufmann with a nice follow-up to my comparison of sponsorship costs:
Virtual Pants has done the math and analyzed the RSS sponsorship price of Daring Fireball in detail, as well as a day later the connection between pageviews and price on Daring Fireball, The Loop and Marco.org. I thought this was interesting - just not enough. So here is what I did: I took some more sites and calculated...
6 tags
Ridiculous Fishing: Don't catch, catch, and shoot
Developer Vlambeer recently launched Ridiculous Fishing exclusively on iOS. It’s a universal app for iPhone and iPad, and the best $2.99 you’ll ever spend on an iOS game. Ridiculous Fishing is a remake of Vlambeer’s first game, Radical Fishing, and is meant to depict “realistic simulations of traditional redneck fishing.”
Gameplay Summary
Someone tweeted their...
6 tags
Comparing sponsorship costs
Now that we have some insight into the cost of advertising on Daring Fireball, let’s compare it with some other popular technology blogs with the same business model. Two of my other favorite sites are The Loop by Jim Dalrymple and Marco.org by Marco Arment. Both of these sites have the same weekly sponsorship model as Daring Fireball.
A weekly sponsorship on Daring Fireball runs $8,500...
2 tags
Rising Star: The price of Daring Fireball
Daring Fireball recently celebrated its tenth birthday. During this time, the column has grown from a part-time hobby into a full-time job for John Gruber. As someone who would love to write a technology column full-time, the economics of the business are intriguing to me.
As far as I can tell, Daring Fireball generates revenue in four ways: a weekly sponsorship, a single ad for The Deck,...
6 tags
The free dichotomy
Much has been said over the demise of Google Reader and what it should mean to users. A popular position advocated by many tech bloggers is that you should pay for services rather than trust your data to companies offering services for free. They argue that paying for services will give you more control over your data in the event that a free service closes its doors. This position is partially...
4 tags
Quick on the draw over the Samsung smart watch →
Jim Dalrymple on Samsung’s confirmation that it is working on a smart watch:
In other words, ever since they heard Apple may be working on one.
He was a little quick on the draw. As noted by TechCrunch:
In fact, Samsung has even produced some of its creations, including the S9110, a smartphone in the shape of a watch it actually shipped in 2009. In fact, Samsung created the...
2 tags
Should Apple get into the TV business? →
Ryan Block on the long-rumored Apple TV:
It’s been probably five or six years since the first (highly unsubstantiated) rumors of Apple’s entry into the TV business began to sprout up, and even back then I was highly incredulous. I remain so, and here’s why.
His list is on point. The TV business is due for disruption. But disruption of the TV business does’t require a...
3 tags
Verizon actually makes some sense →
Shalini Ramachandran, reporting for the WSJ:
Verizon would like to offer broad distribution of a “significant number of channels,” including independent networks and smaller outlets. But each channel would be paid solely according to how many subscribers tuned in each month for a “unique view,” or a minimum of five minutes, Mr. Denson said. Viewership would be measured...
3 tags
Bad news for plasma TV lovers →
Reuters:
Panasonic planned to end plasma TV panel production at its main plant in Amagaskai in western Japan around fiscal year 2014, the Nikkei said, adding that the company had already written off the value of production equipment there.
This is terrible news for plasma TV lovers. Panasonic consistently produces the best plasma TVs. In fact, I have never owned an LCD/LED TV - only...
2 tags
The same thing, cheaper →
David Pierce, reporting for The Verge:
“Previously,” Ohev-Zion told me, “for a startup company to be able to manufacture — if you weren’t one of these billion-dollar companies you didn’t have the access or the technologies to make your own mobile devices.” But that all changed, and Ohev-Zion found that he could build a good phone for the same price as the...
2 tags
It's not the user, it's the tool
A common theme over at Daring Fireball is that iPhone users are different than Android users. There is some truth to this. Over and over, the iPhone shows up with a huge lead in in-flight Wi-Fi, app downloads, and overall mobile internet usage despite Android leading in market share.
But the difference isn’t the person using the device, but instead the behavior of that person due to the...
3 tags
The Magazine's innovation →
I can’t sum it up better than Matthew Guay at Techinch:
But here’s the thing: magazines aren’t a new idea, just like newspapers aren’t a new idea. Neither are blogs; they’ve been online for well over a decade now. Clean, single column designs with light backgrounds and sans serif fonts aren’t unique either; they’ve been used in print in the past, are...
3 tags
Great content isn't solely responsible for The...
In a post today, Marco Arment addresses TypeEngine, a Newsstand publishing platform launching soon. You can think of TypeEngine as WordPress for Newsstand apps. It gives writers the opportunity to start an iOS magazine without the need to develop an app. In the post, Marco argues that the app itself doesn’t matter much:
The Magazine isn’t successful because I have red links, centered...
February 2013
4 posts
4 tags
The newest killer iOS feature: Google Maps
The feature list of Sunrise, a new calendar app for iOS includes the following: Use Google Maps for Directions.
It’s telling that using Google Maps, instead of Apple’s map app, is listed as a feature here. Clearly, Apple’s maps problem hasn’t gone away. The buzz surrounding it has fizzled, largely due to Google releasing Google Maps. But Apple’s maps are still...
3 tags
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.
Many people...
2 tags
How many Surface Pros were sold in stores...
Here’s an interesting exchange between a commenter and Paul Thurrott regarding his article yesterday on the Surface Pro “selling out” on launch day:
brians: Considering that there are 1,900 Staples stores and 1,105 Best Buy stores, at two per store, that would be (1,900+1,105)*2=6,010 tablets. Gee, I’m excited Paul, I clearly must be wrong about Microsoft’s abject...
2 tags
Surface Pro "sells out"
When new products sell out on launch day it usually means one of two things: it’s a hot product or they didn’t make enough. Unfortunately for Microsoft, it appears that the Surface Pro falls into the latter category. My local (Northern Virginia) Microsoft store sold out in 15 minutes, which means there wasn’t much to sell. The local Best Buy sold out too, but only received one...
January 2013
10 posts
3 tags
CNN just got played
This Manti Te’o story is crazy. It’ll be very interesting to see what really happened. In the meantime, the media, who has already been completely embarrassed, just got played. CNN’s version of the story included the following:
Then later Wednesday night came a tweet from @LennayKay — a Twitter handle that once was associated with Kekua.
“It isn’t fair...
1 tag
U.S. employee 'outsourced job to China' →
The software developer, in his 40s, is thought to have spent his workdays surfing the web, watching cat videos on YouTube and browsing Reddit and eBay.
He reportedly paid just a fifth of his six-figure salary to a company based in Shenyang to do his job.
5 tags
Corporate silence →
John Gruber:
Whether it’s a matter of choice or their interpretation of legal requirements, Apple says nothing in the month leading up to quarterly results — and everyone knows that. So I don’t think the timing of yesterday’s WSJ report of “weaker-than-expected demand” was a coincidence.
John is right. Even though there isn’t a rule prohibiting a response, the WSJ knew they...
2 tags
Reduced iPhone component orders due to yields? Not... →
Don Reisinger at CNET:
All of that talk that Apple has reduced iPhone 5 component orders due to slumping demand for the smartphone might be wrong.
Sterne Agee analyst Shaw Wu today wrote in a research note to investors that Apple’s reported cuts to component orders have nothing to do with weak demand. Instead, Wu said that while component orders are lower, they’re due to...
3 tags
To the defense of Apple
A couple nights ago, the Wall Street Journal published a report claiming that Apple has significantly decreased component orders due to weaker-than-expected demand for the iPhone 5. Apple bloggers John Gruber and Jim Dalrymple quickly came to Apple’s defense and claimed that the WSJ report was merely stock manipulation. Gruber had six posts on the story yesterday alone, including a link to...
3 tags
iPhone no longer cool among teens →
Larissa Faw for Forbes:
They don’t want to same device as their mom, dentist, and coffee barista. They want the latest, greatest phone that speaks to their generation. Samsung’s Galaxy and Microsoft’s Surface have recently introduced new and never-before-seen devices, whereas the first iPhone came out in 2007 (though new models are released each year).
While it’s true that younger...
3 tags
Son of Hobbit scribe J.R.R. Tolkien finally speaks... →
It’s a rare, if not exceptional, case. In an era where most people would sell their souls to be talked about, Christopher Tolkien has not expressed himself in the media for 40 years. No interviews, no announcements, no meetings — nothing.
A fascinating interview with one of Tolkien’s two surviving children, and the executor of the Tolkien estate. It’s refreshing to...
4 tags
How to use bookmarklets in Chrome for iOS →
I’ve switched to Chrome as my browser in OS X and iOS. I’m constantly frustrated, however, because my Instapaper “Read Later” bookmarklet never works. It turns out that selecting the bookmarklet from the bookmarks menu doesn’t work, but selecting from the Omnibox does. If you’re having the same problem, check out Jeff Benjamin’s simple how-to over at...
3 tags
Apple’s next battleground →
John Paczkowski:
So, as the 2013 Apple rumor mill ramps up, and the prognosticators wonder whether the company’s product pipeline includes a television, a watch, or both, consider this: While Apple could likely use another disruptive innovation on which to build its continued success, what it really needs — crucially — is to do Web services well.
Because to do them poorly is to weaken the...
6 tags
Case in point →
Ralf Rottmann at Gizmodo is a perfect example of a loyal Apple user driven away by Apple’s limitations in iOS:
In fact, I think iOS has reached a point where usability starts to significantly decrease due to the many workarounds that Apple has introduced. All of these just to prevent exposing a paradigm like a file system or allowing apps to securely talk to each others. There is a...
December 2012
3 posts
3 tags
Don't Poke with Facebook
The word on the street is that Facebook tried to buy popular self-destructing messaging app Snapchat. Only after Snapchat refused to be acquired, Facebook decided to clone the app and launch a competitor. They did it in just 12 days. Only one day after launch, Facebook’s Poke app is the #2 free app in the App Store. SnapChat is #8. The message from Facebook is clear: either you’re with...
3 tags
Third-party takeover of iOS
Third-party apps have started to become the best-in-class in iOS. This is good for third-party developers, users, and in the short-term, Apple. It gives third-parties, like Google, additional exposure and revenue. It provides better apps for users on iOS devices. And it helps sell more iOS devices for Apple. In the long-term, however, it may not work out so well for Apple.
Many people fail to...
1 tag
The Apple TV and the iPod →
Jean-Louis Gassée echoes my thoughts on an Apple TV:
Second, I simply don’t believe Apple will make, or even wants to make, a TV set. To realize the dream, as discussed previously, you need to put a computer — something like an Apple TV module — inside the set. Eighteen months later, as Moore’s Law dictates, the computer is obsolete but the screen is just fine. No problem, you’ll say, just...
November 2012
2 posts
2 tags
Apples-to-Apples
I have a couple problems with Marco’s latest post. First, he implies that Microsoft is “tricking” people by pricing the 32GB Surface at $499:
It’s far easier for the Surface to appear to be cheaper than the iPad by starting at 32 GB than by starting at $399.
The Surface doesn’t “appear” cheaper, it is cheaper. Marco is right, Apple arbitrarily prices its storage in $100 increments....
2 tags
Surface misconceptions
Having just listened to the latest episodes of Build & Analyze and The Talk Show, it seems that Gruber & Friends have some misconceptions about the Surface. They haven’t had as much time to use one as I have, so let’s clear some of them up.
Gestures are confusing and difficult to use
Like any new device, the Surface has a learning curve. There are some gestures to learn....
October 2012
5 posts
3 tags
Only Jobs could be Jobs
Apple’s ouster of Scott Forstall is the big news this week. Forstall has been referred to as “Steve’s guy” and as Jobs’ mouthpiece within the company. Forstall was someone who consistently executed Jobs’ vision.
I’ve often thought that someone like Steve Jobs would have failed miserably had he not become a millionaire founder of a successful technology...
2 tags
An actual Microsoft Surface buying experience
Some quick background: I haven’t voluntarily used a PC in 10 years. I have purchased every iPhone and iPad on launch day. However, I think Microsoft has done a great job with the Windows 8 UI. It just seems refreshing to me. In my experience, the iPad is clumsy for actually doing work (mostly email, Word and reviewing PDF documents). A versatile tablet like the Surface intrigued me. So, I...
3 tags
Batteries not included
Last night, Microsoft launched its Surface ad campaign with a one-minute advertisement during playoff baseball. The ad focuses on one thing: the Touch Cover. Based upon the ad, I assumed that the Touch Cover was an included component of the Surface. You know what they say about assumptions.
Microsoft announced pricing for the Surface this morning: $499 for the base 32GB model without Touch...
2 tags
The Kindle is a great product
Jim Dalrymple writing for the The Loop on reports of Amazon selling the Kindle e-reader at cost:
That’s one way to do it I suppose. Or you could just design great products and make money on all of it.
While there’s no problem with championing Apple’s business model, as Jim often does, this implies that Kindle e-readers aren’t great products. And that’s incorrect....
2 tags
The Magazine: Introducing the app blog
Marco Arment, creator of Instapaper, has been hinting at a new app project on his podcast over the past several weeks. Today it launched in the App Store. It’s called The Magazine.
What is it? Seems pretty obvious, right? Not so fast. The Magazine is a subscription-based app that provides four blog posts every two weeks. The blog posts may be old posts previously published on the web or...
September 2012
12 posts
4 tags
Google Maps for iOS 6 is already here
The launch of iOS 6 came with rave reviews for most of the features, but one update in iOS 6 has many people upset. The maps app in iOS 6 now uses Apple’s own maps instead of Google’s. A quick look at “The Amazing iOS 6 Maps” is all you need to understand why people are upset. Apple’s maps aren’t as good as Google’s.
The YouTube app has also been removed...
2 tags
iOS 6 doesn't bring iCloud.com email addresses to...
As reported by Ars Technica back in July, some developers with me.com email addresses were switched automatically to iCloud.com email addresses when using iOS 6 Beta 3. At the time, the assumption was that iOS 6 would automatically switch all me.com users to iCloud.com email addresses, while retaining the ability to use their me.com email address:
Forget @mac.com or even @me.com—Apple is...
3 tags
Office for Mac 2011 gets Retina display support at... →
Matthew Panzarino:
The Microsoft Office team has announced that Office for Mac Retina support is now here in version 14.2.4. This means that Office 2011 will now look sharp and lovely on your Retina Macbook Pro.
iOS 6 is exciting and all, but we knew that was coming. This is a nice surprise. It was interesting that the Retina MacBook Pro launched without support from many of the most popular...
