Page 12 of 25

RandomMaccess LookBack: ‘The revolution at 20; save the trip down memory lane, Apple—keep looking ahead’

April 7, 2011 /

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.

Maybe they’re just late bloomers

April 6, 2011 /

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.

Apple iPad 2 TV Ad: ‘We believe’

April 5, 2011 /

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.

Google looking to hire autocompleters

April 1, 2011 /

Speaking of Google, the company posted a job listing for an autocompleter today. The position is based in the company’s Mountain View, California headquarters and “obscure locations around the world.”

Among the qualifications:

  • Good typing skills (at least 32,000 WPM).
  • Willingness to travel (in order to provide local autocompletions) or relocate to obscure places like Nauru and Tuvalu to develop knowledge of local news and trends.
  • Certificate in psychic reading strongly preferred: palm, tarot, hypnosis, astrology, numerology, runes and/or auras.

Don’t miss the video profile of a current Google Autocompleter:

Google announces Gmail Motion

April 1, 2011 /

Google today announced it was launching the beta version of its GMail Motion service, a “new way to communicate.”

From the site’s webpage:

The mouse and keyboard were invented before the Internet even existed. Since then, countless technological advancements have allowed for much more efficient human computer interaction. Why then do we continue to use outdated technology? Introducing Gmail Motion — now you can control Gmail with your body.

The service uses your computer’s webcam to “detect your movements and translate them into meaningful characters and commands. Movements are designed to be simple and intuitive for people of all skill levels.”

The company has included helpful video tutorials and other learning aids to assist users in adapting to the new service.

(I’d enjoy this even more if the announcement about approvals for early access to Android releases was an April Fool’s joke too.)

‘We have always been at war with Eastasia’

April 1, 2011 /

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.

Amazon introduces ‘cloud drive’ online storage, streaming service

March 29, 2011 /

Amazon launched an online storage and streaming service called “cloud drive” that gives 5GB of free storage space to users who have an amazon.com account. The service can be used as online storage space, but it also provides the ability to stream music to any web-enabled computer or Android device, according to the announcement. Users can upgrade to 20GB of space for $20/year. The 20GB also comes for free to any Amazon customer who buys an album through its digital store. Online music purchases from Amazon would automatically be added to customers’ cloud drive and would not count against their storage quota.

According to users who have tried out the service, it is somewhat hampered by its desktop transfer software, which is built using Adobe’s Air platform. Although the service will work on Android devices, there is no iOS app at this time.

Apple has been rumored to be working on a cloud-based storage and/or streaming service of its own, possibly using the data center it has been building in North Carolina, but it has not released or announced anything yet.

Busted, Samsung

March 25, 2011 /

Harry McCracken on Technologizer with a great scoop on the “fans” featured in a promotional video touting Samsung’s new Galaxy Tab:

(Two of the people) came off as performers dressed for their parts and parroting Samsung talking points. I couldn’t tell whether we were supposed to take the clips as a documentary or a mockumentary. So I Googled around and couldn’t find any references to a travel-writing Joan Hess (one with, as she said, a following on Twitter) or a real-estate CEO Joseph Kolinski.

I did notice, however, that freelance travel writer Joan Hess bears a striking resemblance to New York actress Joan Hess.

And that real estate CEO Joseph Kolinski could be New York actor Joseph Kolinksi‘s twin brother:

Filmmaker Karl Shefelman, on the other hand, looks a lot like…filmmaker Karl Shefelman. Who works for a New York production company. One that’s done work for Samsung.

Harry’s one of the true journalists in the tech press. Nice job. (via Daring Fireball)

When they start designing phones for people and not the carrier, maybe they’ll have something

March 25, 2011 /

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)

Why the NY Times digital subscription plan is not about digital subscriptions

March 25, 2011 /

The pricing on the New York Times recently announced digital subscription packages has a lot people scratching their heads.

From The New York Times itself:

Beginning March 28, visitors to NYTimes.com will be able to read 20 articles a month without paying, a limit that company executives said was intended to draw in subscription revenue from the most loyal readers while not driving away the casual visitors who make up the vast majority of the site’s traffic.

Once readers click on their 21st article, they will have the option of buying one of three digital news packages — $15 every four weeks for access to the Web site and a mobile phone app (or $195 for a full year), $20 for Web access and an iPad app ($260 a year) or $35 for an all-access plan ($455 a year). All subscribers who take home delivery of the paper will have free and unlimited access across all Times digital platforms except, for now, e-readers like the Amazon Kindle and the Barnes & Noble Nook. Subscribers to The International Herald Tribune, which is The Times’s global edition, will also have free digital access.

Don’t miss that last key point: Subscribers who take home delivery (of any kind), get free and unlimited access to all digital content. That means you can take the cheapest subscription available for the paper edition ($161.20/year) and get digital content that the Times says is worth $455/year for free. Even if you throw the paper edition away or put it on permanent “vacation” mode, you can pay significantly less than half the price of a digital-only subscription.

I’m not defending the pricing. Far from it, I think it’s a disaster. I do understand it, though, and it has nothing to do with trying to promote digital subscriptions. Rather, it’s a result of a traditional publishing mindset. The Times sees no value in digital subscriptions. They are ephemeral, non-substantive. Only paper is real; only paper subscriptions “really count.” There may be a lot of reasons for this, not the least of which is the impact on advertising rates for the paper edition. But I think there’s an old-school bias at work here, too. The Times doesn’t really want to sell digital subscriptions — they want people to buy the paper.

I knew a barber who charged outlandish prices for a shave. I asked him why — did he give amazing shaves? No, the answer was that he hated giving shaves. By pricing them so high, he discouraged most of his customers for asking for them, and the few who did were paying high enough prices to make it worth his while.

The Times, I think, hates digital subscriptions. They’d rather give them away if you buy the paper than sell them on their own. And their pricing structure is designed to drive people to do just that.