Virtual Pants

Everything Apple needs to introduce at WWDC to catch up

Fri, 17 May 2013 16:26:00 -0400

Everything Apple needs to introduce at WWDC to catch up:

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 Tim Cook’s ouster and an infinite amount of comments on tech blogs decrying that Android is superior to Apple’s iOS.

Go ahead and read the list. It’s accurate. Except that most of the items on the list will merely bring iOS up to par with competing systems like Android or Windows Phone.¹ It’s not an irrational list of unbelievable improvements, rather, it’s a realistic list of customer expectations based upon the current competition.

By “most,” I’m referring to the following items: 1-6, 11, 12, 16-29, 32, and 34-40. There might be even more, but I’m admittedly not as familiar with the items related to developer tools. ↩

Google Glass is the next level, even for nerds

Fri, 17 May 2013 16:10:48 -0400

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 humans.

It’s true. Google Glass is very “next level” for even the nerdiest people. It’s going to take some getting used to before it catches on, if it ends up catching on at all.

The next generation of Instapaper

Thu, 16 May 2013 14:16:08 -0400

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 explains it.

More app love for Glass than Windows 8

Thu, 16 May 2013 14:07:24 -0400

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 Glass, a niche product that costs $1,500, and by some accounts, currently only has 500 users. By way of contrast, there is currently no Facebook, Tumblr, or Path apps for Windows 8, a platform with almost 60 million confirmed users.

Past release data points to Instapaper 5 update

Sat, 06 Apr 2013 10:07:55 -0400

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 following chart illustrates how many days elapsed between each Instapaper update over the past three years.

Over 100 days have elapsed between updates only three times: 106 days before version 3, 175 days before version 4, and currently 120 days since the last update. Based on this data, it appears that Instapaper 5 may be released soon, and might even be the next update to the app. It makes sense. A new version of an app takes considerable time to develop, leaving little time to release minor updates or features in the interim.¹

Of course, there could be other factors contributing to the delay since the last update. For example, Instapaper creator, Marco Arment, has been busy with a new project, The Magazine, which might be taking time away from Instapaper development. ↩

Twitterrific 5.2 with push notifications

Tue, 26 Mar 2013 13:22:00 -0400

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 of notification. A nice touch. Only a limited number of users will be able to turn on push notifications at first, with the feature rolling out to all users over the next several weeks.

Stop the bullshit

Tue, 26 Mar 2013 12:56:23 -0400

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 no-nonsense presentation even more aggressive than his speech at CES earlier this year. “This is the biggest crock of shit in my life. Do you have any idea how much you’re paying?” Legere blasted T-Mobile’s competitors for locking mobile customers into two-year agreements — a business practice T-Mobile has abandoned with its new “Uncarrier” rate plans.

Legere is onto something here. Carriers have been ripping us off for years and, until now, they all agreed (and probably colluded) on everything that was bad for the consumer. Let’s hope this isn’t just some stunt and he means business.

Comparing RSS sponsorship costs

Mon, 25 Mar 2013 15:55:00 -0400

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 the price an advertiser has to pay per RSS reader if he would like to book a RSS sponsorship.

Ridiculous Fishing: Don't catch, catch, and shoot

Sun, 24 Mar 2013 13:11:00 -0400

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 kid’s summary of the game, and it’s perfect: You don’t catch fish, you catch fish, and then you shoot fish. The game has three main stages. First, you drop your line into the water and try to avoid as many fish as possible to gain maximum depth. If you hook a fish (or reach the bottom, or run out of line), the line stops descending and starts ascending to the surface. On the way up, the goal is to catch as many fish as possible, collecting new species along the way. Some species of fish (jellyfish) you’ll want to avoid because they lose money. Once at the surface, all the fish you caught will fly into the air. Now the fun really begins. You get to finish them off with one of many available firearms. As each fish explodes, money flows into the bank, with some fish bringing in much more cash than others.

The Map
The game is split into four fishing areas: Home Waters, Stormy Seas, Arctic Floes, and The Maelstrom. Each fishing area has a different depth and unique species of fish. Home Waters is 300m deep, Stormy Seas is 500m deep, Arctic Floes is 700m deep, and The Maelstrom has infinite depth (I’ve been down to 995m). As mentioned above, to unlock each new fishing area, you need to collect more species of fish. That means going deeper in each area, or even returning to previous fishing areas at different times of the day.

The Store
The game includes a store, which refreshingly doesn’t include in-app purchasing. You simply use the money earned from catching fish. The items in the store are categorized into five categories: Reels, Guns, Lures, Tech, and Misc.

Reels: This sections has seven reels to choose from, each with lines of increasing length (50m, 100m, 200m, 300m, 500m, 700m, infinite). As you progress through the game, reels are usually the first item to upgrade, so you can catch more species of fish at greater depths.

Guns: There are eleven different guns available in the store, each increasing in cost and firepower (pistol, shotgun, uzi, double uzis, minigun, double miniguns, magnum, blunderbus, auto shotgun, orbital ray, bazooka). As you catch more fish, more firepower is required to shoot them all before they hit the ground. I found that the minigun was the only gun needed to complete the game. Although, once you go bazooka, you’ll never go back.

Lures: There are five lures available (basic, chainsaw, boost saw, hover saw, swiss-made). The lures require fuel to use, and this section of the store also includes three different sizes of fuel tanks. The lures make it easier to achieve greater depth. All lures except the basic one cut through fish, preventing the line from stopping its descent. The boost saw lets you descend faster, the hover saw lets you stop ascending to catch more fish or avoid jellyfish, and the swiss-made lure shoots blades killing more fish (and making more money) whenever you use it. The lures work as long as fuel is available. The best strategy is to use the lures sparingly to cut through congested areas of fish, or to kill rare fish you might see on the way down. I always like to save a little fuel for the ascent, which helps catching desirable fish and avoiding others.

Tech: The store has ten tech items (spring, antigravity, toaster, hairdryer, tesla coil, boot, bowling ball, oil drum, lamp, large lamp). The spring make fish fly higher into the air and the antigravity helps them to fall slower. This combination allows for maximum air time and more shooting. The toaster and hairdryer are mulligans. They let your line run into a fish on the descent without stopping. They can each be used once per descent, and shock whichever fish they run into. The tesla coil supercharges the toaster and hairdryer, which kills all visible fish when they are activated. The boot, bowling ball, and oil drum allow you to start at a deeper depth in different fishing areas (100m in Home Waters, 200m in Stormy Seas, and 300m in Arctic Floes, respectively). The two lamps let you see in the deepest, darkest, areas.

Misc: These items include the fish-o-pedia (a must-have), hats, and clothes, most of which aren’t necessary to complete the game, but can be helpful. For example, three items of clothing give you more money for each fish you catch (and shoot). The suit gives you 10% more, the wizard robe gives you 20% more, and emperor’s suit gives you 50% more. The hats are just for fun, except for the hedjet, which is needed to unlock some elusive fish.

The Fish
There are sixty-six species of fish in the game. You need to catch a certain number of species to progress to each new fishing area. They include traditional species like bass, sea turtles, sea horses, and jellyfish, and some non-traditional varieties as well. Each species is associated with a cash value (negative or positive). The fish-o-pedia is a necessity for figuring out which fish you need to catch, which are most valuable, which to stay away from, and how to find elusive species.

Some fish swim in schools, some move fast, some can be killed by a lure, some can’t, some are harder to shoot, and some only appear at certain times of the day. The devleopers did a fantastic job giving each species special characteristics. In addition, the design of each species is charming. This is a beautiful game.

The Last Five Fish (Spoiler Alert)
I wasted way too much time trying to catch five particular fish. Just couldn’t find them. To save you some time, here’s how to do it.

Eyefish: To catch the Eyefish, you need to buy and wear the Hedjet hat. Then go to Home Waters and you’ll find it between 120-150m.

Ankh: To catch the Ankh, you also need to be wearing the Hedjet in Home Waters. Use the toaster on the first fish you see, and then the hairdryer on the next. If you don’t do this, it won’t appear. Next, let your lure float through the Eyefish. Don’t worry, your line will go right through it and continue to descend. Finally, you should see the Ankh at between 170-190m.

Scepter: Follow the same directions as the the Ankh, except let your Ankh pass through the lure just as you did with the Eyefish. The Scepter will be located at around 220m.

C.O.G.F.: Follow the same directions as with the Scepter, allowing your lure to pass through the Eyefish, Ankh, and Scepter in the same descent. If you do, this fish will be at the bottom of Home Waters waiting for you.

Mimic Fish: This was the last fish I caught. It’s not nearly as tricky as the four above. Just fish in The Maelstrom after midnight. I guess I don’t stay up late enough. It’s called the Mimic Fish because it kind of looks like a jellyfish.

Conclusion
Should you buy this game? Absolutely. It’s beautiful, fun, and addictive. The old school design and music takes you back to the Game Boy. The intuitive game mechanics remind you that you’re using an iOS device. I only have one gripe with the game. Although it is a universal app, there is no iCloud syncing. That means if you start playing on your iPhone, you can’t pick up the same game on your iPad. So choose your device wisely. Ridiculous Fishing is highly recommended. Just be sure to clear your schedule for a few days.

Comparing sponsorship costs

Sat, 23 Mar 2013 19:32:00 -0400

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 and the site gets 4 million monthly page views. A weekly sponsorship on The Loop runs $1,500 and the site gets 1.2 million monthly page views. A weekly sponsorship on Marco.org runs $2,000 and the site gets 600,000 monthly page views.¹

Using page views as a metric,² The Loop gives advertisers the most bang for their buck. Daring Fireball comes in second. Marco.org, the most expensive, is almost twice as expensive as Daring Fireball and almost three times as expensive as The Loop.

I multiplied the sponsorship prices by four since we only have monthly page view numbers to work with. ↩
To be clear, page views are only one metric to use when making advertising considerations. For example, the audiences of each site, while overlapping, are still unique and some advertisers may find more value with a particular site despite having a higher cost per page view. ↩

Rising Star: The price of Daring Fireball

Sat, 23 Mar 2013 11:02:00 -0400

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, periodic t-shirt sales, and a membership program. Information is not publicly available on The Deck, t-shirt sales, and the membership program. However, there is data available on weekly sponsorships. John hasn’t changed much about Daring Fireball over the years, and he has kept the same format for his Sponsorship page since at least July 2007. He lists three key statistics on the site: weekly sponsorship price, feed subscribers, and estimated monthly page views.

Using the handy Wayback Machine, I was able to compile data from July 2007 until January 2013 when John last updated the Sponsorship page. As you can see from the chart below, the weekly sponsorship price has steadily increased from $900 in July 2007 to the current price of $8,500.

At first blush, this seems like a crazy, almost unsustainable, increase in price. A Daring Fireball bubble, if you will. But upon further analysis of the data, the weekly sponsorship price has actually remained quite stable over time. First, consider the weekly sponsorship price per Daring Fireball subscriber. It steadily hovers around $0.02 per subscriber.

The same price stability holds true when we consider estimated monthly page views. As shown below, a monthly sponsorship (four weeks) per page view has fluctuated between $0.005 and $0.008.

Thus, when compared to the growing audience of the site, the weekly sponsorship price has remained quite stable over the years. So, how do the economics of Daring Fireball translate to Virtual Pants? I better not quit my day job. Using monthly page views as the metric, Virtual Pants would demand a $127.50 weekly sponsorship price. It looks like I’ve got some work to do.

The free dichotomy

Fri, 22 Mar 2013 14:16:14 -0400

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 correct, but following this advice entirely will needlessly cost you time and money.¹

There are two types of free services: open (those where your data can be exported to other services) and closed (those that aren’t open). Open services include most free email services, such as Gmail, blog services like Tumblr, and even Google Reader. Each of these services allow users to take their data and move it to other services whenever they like. I can download all of my Gmail and move it to my own hosted email, for example. I can move Virtual Pants from Tumblr to WordPress if I like. And, as many people are figuring out right now, you can take your RSS subscriptions from Google Reader and import them into another RSS reader.

Closed services include social networks, like Facebook, Google+, and Twitter. These services don’t allow you to take your data somewhere else. Even if they allow you to download your data, like Twitter, that data can’t be easily transferred to another similar service. I can’t download my tweets and import them into Google+, for example.

It makes sense to avoid closed free services as much as possible. Your data belongs to them, and they offer you little control. But there is little risk to using open free services, which can save you time and money. Open free services often offer better features and a superior overall experience to paid counterparts. For example, Gmail arguably offers the best search and spam filtering in the business. Google provides plenty of storage, a top notch web interface, two-factor authentication, and apps on all major platforms, for free. And you have the same control over your data as with paid services.

A paid email service is going to cost you money, take more time to set up and configure, and likely won’t offer as many features. You’ll be paying for less, all for the sake of controlling your data.

What happens when the sky comes crashing down and Google decides to shut down Gmail? You still own and control your data. Anyone can download their Gmail to local storage and easily import their email to another provider. At worst, you would need to change your email address.² And the entire time between now and Gmail’s demise, you will have been paying for an inferior email service.

The buzz over Google Reader isn’t about privacy, it’s about the shut down of the service and control over your data. Opting out of ad-based sytems that use your data to generate revenue is a perfectly valid reason to pay for services that respect your privacy. If this is your primary concern with free services, you can probably stop reading now. ↩
That’s assuming Google decides to shut down one of their most popular services. Gmail has been around since 2004 and has steadily grown and improved each year. Take Hotmail as an example. It’s been around for 16 years and nobody has been forced to change their @hotmail address. ↩

Quick on the draw over the Samsung smart watch

Tue, 19 Mar 2013 13:23:49 -0400

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 first-even watch phone back in 1999, when it created the SPH-WP10. That predated the smartphone, of course, but it did indeed ship.

Should Apple get into the TV business?

Tue, 19 Mar 2013 13:11:00 -0400

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 change to TV sets. The biggest change will be the business model, followed by the user interface. Neither of which requires Apple to build and sell a TV. Some smart, innovative, content deals and a set top box will do the trick just fine.

Verizon actually makes some sense

Mon, 18 Mar 2013 11:42:02 -0400

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 by Verizon’s set-top box data, not Nielsen ratings.

It is shocking that Verizon is pushing an idea that makes this much sense.

Bad news for plasma TV lovers

Mon, 18 Mar 2013 11:30:03 -0400

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 Panasonic plasma. If you are due for a new TV in the next year or two, I would strongly consider getting a Panasonic plasma while you still can.

The same thing, cheaper

Mon, 18 Mar 2013 11:22:36 -0400

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 other guys, and sell it for a lot less. He used his connections to get Blu phones in stock at Amazon, Newegg, Best Buy, and others, and began rolling out newer, better phones at a blistering pace. He believes, and says without a moment of hesitation, that Blu is going to be a real player in the smartphone industry sooner rather than later.

This just might just work. Imagine all the same high-end components as Samsung and HTC phones, with stock Android, and unlocked. It’s what we’ve all been waiting for. And it’s cheaper.

It's not the user, it's the tool

Thu, 07 Mar 2013 16:33:00 -0500

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 tool they are using. For example, give an Android user an iPhone and they will likely behave in a manner similar to other iPhone users.

iPhone users feel comfortable doing more with the technology in their hand because it just works better. The iPhone and iPad make people feel confident when they download apps and connect to in-flight Wi-Fi. Android users, on the other hand, are similar to Windows users of yore - apprehensive about software because it might break their computer or weary of whether their PC will work properly with a service.

I’ve gone back and forth between the iPhone and Android devices many times. When I’m traveling, I never hesitate to download apps or connect to hotel or in-flight Wi-Fi on the iPhone. With Android devices, I always think twice because I’m not sure of the result. Will this app kill my battery? Is it worth the hassle of signing up for this Wi-Fi? Will it even work?

The Magazine's innovation

Sat, 02 Mar 2013 11:28:44 -0500

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 terribly popular on writing-focused blogs today, and are now being used in new iOS magazines, including The Magazine, upcoming magazines from TypeEngine, and undoubtedly many others. Even if we all blogged with the very same theme, it wouldn’t mean we were all copying each other; after all, almost every newspaper worldwide looks very, very similar at first glance.

What must - and will - be unique is the content. TypeEngine is setting out to do for iOS publishing what WordPress did for web publishing. WordPress democratized publishing, making blogging accessible to anyone, no matter what their coding skills. You can fuss over it all you want, but it’s a powerful piece of software that now powers sites from the smallest startup blog to Time Magazine’s blogs. But that didn’t take away anything from the early hand-coded blogs, and original bloggers such as Dave Winer have kept on blogging, even though the rest of us now can so easily star our own sites with WordPress or other blog engines without digging deep into code.

The Magazine’s innovation was the idea of publishing long-form blog content in iOS’s Newsstand. That’s it. It was a great idea, and seems to be paying off. Like any great idea, others are going to replicate it. TypeEngine is just making it easier.

Great content isn't solely responsible for The Magazine's success

Sat, 02 Mar 2013 10:05:00 -0500

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 sans-serif headlines, footnote popovers, link previews, and a white table-of-contents sidebar that slides over the article from the left with a big shadow even on iPhone. It isn’t successful because authors write in Markdown, the CMS gracefully supports multi-user editing, we preview issues right on our devices as we assemble them, and any edits we make after publication are quickly and quietly patched into the issue right as people are reading it. Very little of this matters.

It’s succeeding because Glenn, the authors, the illustrators, the photographers, and I pour a lot of time and money into the content, relentlessly publishing roughly two original illustrations, four photos, and 10,000 polished words every two weeks.

Marco is correct that content is what matters most (excellent humblebragging, by the way). But great content alone isn’t the secret to The Magazine’s success. As he notes later in the post, the audience is also important. And the Magazine had a huge advantage here.

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.

There is no doubt the continued success of The Magazine hinges on the tireless efforts of Marco and his team to create great content. But great content isn’t the only factor in The Magazine’s success, or the success of any other Newsstand magazine.