Tech journalism is not an oxymoron
Nice piece by my friend Jeff Gamet at The Mac Observer on the impact of Apple’s iPad as a tool for autistic children. What makes it really notable, though, is the first comment following the article, by Pat Mahon (also a friend of mine)—a real-life example of the device’s power.
I won’t spoil it by posting it here—you’ll have to read it yourself.
Interesting post by Dan Frommer for Business Insider (via CNN.) I don’t disagree with most of the points made here, although I’m not sure I see a strong Apple presence in Social Media as critical. I would love to see more from the AppleTV, but it’s the networks, not Apple, holding back progress there. And I don’t want to see an Apple-branded television.
As far as “The Cloud” goes, I agree that needing to physically connect to a computer to sync is silly at this point (and unnecessary for those with Jailbroken iOS devices). I’m also hopeful that Apple’s North Carolina data center addresses many of the Cloud issues (I hate that term) as well as others we haven’t even thought of.
The one-year anniversary of the iPad (I discussed it on a MacJury panel this week) and an episode of Shawn King’s Your Mac Life brought to mind a piece I wrote in 2004 to discuss the 20th anniversary of the Macintosh. Although the article is now seven years old, I think the analysis is still relevant, with one caveat: I think Steve Jobs’ well-publicized health issues have given him a greater fondness for past achievements. I’m not saying he’s now content to rest on his laurels — far from it — but I do think he’s got a greater fondness for acknowledging (albeit it not reflecting) the past. Maybe it’s all just a matter of perspective.
By Chuck La Tournous | First published January 24, 2004
Yes, this column is about Apple and the 20th anniversary of the Macintosh, but I promise it won’t be another of those walks down memory lane, where we talk about how Apple had it all only to bungle its way into irrelevance against the mighty onslaught of Microsoft. Sheesh. There are enough Monday-morning quarterbacks opining Apple’s “should-woulda-couldas” to fill a football stadium.
In fact, I think that’s one of the reasons Apple itself has kept so low-key about its milestone. How does the company talk about its history without touching on those issues? For those only following the Mac since Steve Jobs returned to Apple’s helm, it’s easy to forget that Apple had its Dark Ages — and some pretty pitch-black ones at that. And even if the company were to dance its way around issues of licensing and shrinking market share and a zillion and one different models of Performas and spin it into a lovely little fairy tale — that’s just not Steve Jobs.
Jobs has always struck me as someone who looks forward, not back. He plots his course by seeing what’s ahead, not lingering on what he’s done. Even the nod to the past in his keynote was more of a statement of where the company is now than where it was then. Jobs played the famous “1984” commercial, which aired as a paid spot just once — during the 1984 Superbowl. But in this rendition, the freespirited revolutionary heroine rushes past the legions of listless masses ready to shatter the status quo — wearing an iPod. The spot is no longer about the original Macintosh, but about Apple and what it represents today.
So what does Apple represent today? It’s a big question, and certainly a bigger one that can be fully answered here. Jobs has given the “sound bite” answer himself; he want the Macintosh to be the hub of your “digital lifestyle.” When he first said that, it seemed a pretty vague statement, but what Apple’s done since then has made it a lot clearer. The Mac, then, is more than a just a traditional computer. It’s not just the place to bang away on your word processor, plan your family budget and let your kids play a game or two. As heretical as this may sound, the Mac isn’t the best way to do any of those things. You can write letters and spreadsheets on a cheap PC just as well as on a Mac, and with the money you save, you can buy a console system that will do a much better job of playing games than a PC or a Mac.
But think beyond those traditional computing tasks, and imagine what someone on Star Trek would do with a sort of computerized assistant. “Computer — display the pictures of Alex and James’ baseball games; put them in an email addressed to grandma.” iPhoto. “Computer, take the movies of Nicole’s birthday party. Delete the part where the neighbor kid picks his nose. Add some nice music from my selection of songs from the 1950s. Assemble the movie and put it on a disc so I can send it to Aunt Patty in Florida to watch on her TV.” iMovie & iDVD. “Computer — play a random selection of my top-rated songs — but no slow ones. And don’t play anything by The Beatles — I’ve been listening to them a lot lately.” iTunes. “Computer — My friend David has a new email address. I’ve changed it in my Address Book, but make sure my work computer, cell phone, PDA and iPod are all updated with the new information.” iSync.
I could go on and on. My daughter asked me once, (OK, more than once) why I spend so much time on the computer. I told her that I was actually doing a lot of different things — it just so happened that now, most of them can be done better and faster on the computer. I might be reading the news on the Internet; downloading photos from my camera and printing or sharing them with family and friends; scanning and restoring photos of family members who lived a hundred or more years ago; helping her do research for her homework; making a movie of the apple-picking trip we just took; chatting with a friend who lives in California; or writing a song for her mom. A lot of these are things I couldn’t have done a few years ago; some are things that would’ve taken me much longer or been so hard I might not have tried them.
The image of the woman in the 1984 ad remains a potent and fitting symbol for Apple and the Mac. Because distilled down to one word, the Macintosh is about revolution. It’s what the old slogan “the computer for the rest of us” really means. None of what the Mac allows us to do is impossible without the Mac. But it is beyond the reach of most of us, reserved for the rich or very gifted. The revolution is that these abilities are now in the hands of us — the masses. The revolution that started with the power to create professional-looking documents and spreadsheets continues to this day in GarageBand, which lets the most tone-deaf among us make “real” music. And in between, we’ve been given other tools to do what was once, if not impossible, then highly impractical.
I, for one, am glad Apple’s not devoting a whole lot of its time and energy looking at the past. I’d much rather they keep working on bringing me the future.
Analysts at Deutsche Bank estimate Motorola has sold about 100,000 of its Android-based Xoom tablets in the month since its launch. In the same period, Apple is estimated to have sold 2.5 million iPads. To put it in perspective, Apple sold 300,000 iPads in its first day of availability — and it sold out almost everywhere.
This tweet from @pdparticle may paint the picture best:
You know what’s funny?
iPad Smart Covers generate more revenue than the Xoom.
Nice spot by Apple that’s getting a lot of attention. In an industry that loves throwing out specs and features (We’re looking at you, Motorola Xoom), this spot makes its point by doing the same thing that Apple does with its products: focuses what you it allows you to do, not the technology that lets you do it. I’ve had fun with Apple’s frequent use of the word “magical” to describe the iPad, but I’ve come to understand that its a much more fitting way of describing the way people interact with it than touting GHz and RAM.
Two observations: the spot cleverly says that “faster, thinner, lighter” are nice but not enough, which makes it clear that, while there’s more to it, the iPad 2 absolutely is “faster, thinner, lighter.” Also, the image of the guitar is stunningly realistic — even when the strings are plucked, the suspension of disbelief is sustained.
Daring Fireball, on Google’s new requirements for early access to new releases of Android:
Vic Gundotra in his keynote at I/O last year:
If Google didn’t act, it faced a draconian future where one man, one phone, one carrier were our choice. That’s a future we don’t want. […]
So if you believe in openness, if you believe in choice, if you believe in innovation from everyone, then welcome to Android.
Businessweek today:
From now on, companies hoping to receive early access to Google’s most up-to-date software will need approval of their plans. And they will seek that approval from Andy Rubin, the head of Google’s Android group.
So it was just which “one man” was our choice that they had a problem with.
RIM Co-CEO Jim Balsillie on carriers’ reaction to the company’s upcoming lineup of phones, during yesterday’s earnings call:
“Their jaws dropped — the carriers’. They love it. And the biggest risk that we have is getting it certified and getting it to market in a certain time.”
And therein lies the problem: RIM and other phone makers are designing phones to impress the carriers; Apple designs them to impress the people who use them. (via Business Insider)
I don’t usually report on press releases (take note, PR people), but I like IK Multimedia’s products a lot, especially with the release of GarageBand for iPad. I recommended the company’s iRig Guitar as one of my Holiday picks for the MacJury, and used the iKlip instead of a music stand when I played in the Macworld All-Star Band at this year’s Cirque du Mac party at Macworld 2011.
At least at first glance, the iRig Mic looks to be another hit. It looks like a professional stage mic, and has a built-in headphone jack so you can hear yourself (presumably with no latency.) Just plug it into your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch and you’re a rock star. The company says it will work with GarageBand or the suite of iRig apps including a free audio recording app.
Priced at $60, it seems like a pretty good deal for an integrated unit and a killer accessory for the already amazing GarageBand. I’m particularly impressed that the housing is metal and not plastic. Details can be found on the company’s website.
Good news for customers happy with T-Mobile who want iPhones. Bad news for just about everybody else. Less competition is not what the mobile carrier market needs right now.
I am curious to see if they’ll address this in those T-Mobile/iPhone commercials where they bash AT&T and Verizon. (Maybe the anthropomorphized carrier and phone finally get together.) (via New York Times)
Almost two years ago, I wrote a piece for the Mac Observer entitled “The Every Other Year iPhone Club.” In it, I explained not only why I was upgrading my original iPhone to the then-new 3GS, but why I hadn’t upgraded to the 3G a year before.
This year, I find myself in a similar situation: I love my iPad, and though I’d love it even more if it were faster and had two cameras, those new features are not enough to warrant buying a whole new device. Projecting a while further into the future, I’d be surprised if the iPad 3 had enough new bells and whistles to make me move from an iPad 2. But going from an iPad 1 to an iPad 3? I suspect that’s going to be a no-brainer.
And it seems like I’m not alone. Early reports say that up to 70% of iPad 2 purchasers were first-time buyers. That’s also great news for Apple, because it means they’re expanding their installed base — making it even harder for competitors to catch up, if and when they start actually shipping.
The phrase “evolutionary not revolutionary” has become cliche in describing the iPad 2, but it’s accurate. It’s also a smart strategy. By focusing on moderate but incremental improvements, Apple will continue to grow its customer base, while minimizing the backlash from its installed base (“Whaddaya mean I can have all these great new features — I just bought this thing?!”)
Apple’s resurgence and continued success has been built on the idea of introducing a revolutionary concept (iMac, iPod, iPhone, iPad — even the MacBook Air) in a basic — almost vanilla configuration — and then gradually to add significant features to it.
That steady, sustainable growth strategy is a concept that seems so simple and so obvious, yet it’s one that amazingly few others in the tech world seem to grasp.
Now: back to saving up for that iPad 3.