Category: Apple

Craig Hockenberry, the developer behind Twitterrific and Frenzic in an open letter to Steve Jobs:

We have a lot of great ideas for iPhone applications. Unfortunately, we’re not working on the cooler (and more complex) ideas. Instead, we’re working on 99¢ titles that have a limited lifespan and broad appeal.

Raising your price to help cover these costs makes it hard to get to the top of the charts. (You’re competing against a lot of other titles in the lower price tier.) You also have to come to terms with the fact that you’re only going to be featured for a short time, so you have to make the bulk of your revenue during this period.

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PC World:

According to the latest smartphone sales numbers from Gartner and Display Search’s netbook sales numbers, 4.7 million iPhones were shipped in Q3 2008 while a whopping 5.6 million netbooks were sold in the same period.

The obvious question: Why this comparison was even made? Every netbook model out there made by dozens of companies outsold two models of the same smartphone- by one company.

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Apple has released a slew of firmware updates for the new unibody MacBook, MacBook Pro and MacBook Air laptops.

The EMI updater “fixes several issues to improve stability,” while the SMC updater “improves the sensing and accuracy of the MagSafe Power Adapter indicator light, and the battery charge indicator lights.”

As with any firmware updates, be sure to read the directions on how to run the update correctly.

[ Via Macworld.]

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Rob Enderle is a name in technology circles that most people have a strong reaction to. He’s an IT consultant for companies like Microsoft, Dell, Intel, GM, and Ford.

Enderle has recently been on a writing binge of anti-Apple stories.

Here’s one from TechNewsWorld:

Apple remains financially sound with massive reserves, but many of their products are out of line with these hard financial times, and while they likely do have a netbook coming, it will probably arrive too late to help 2008. On the other hand, Dell suddenly appears better positioned for the hard year ahead, with well-timed netbooks and the most aggressive customization program in the market.

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BuisnessWeek:

-Four out of five businesses have Macs present in their environment.

-More than two thirds of respondents – 68% - said they will allow their employees to use Macs as their corporate enterprise desktops in the next 12 months, a rate double that of an earlier survey.

-Half of all survey respondents said they plan to increase their integration with the iPhone as an alternative to Research In Motion’s Blackberry as mobile email device.

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Computerworld:

To recap, here are the reasons, I believe that Apple will choose the ARM platform for their upcoming Netbook/Tablets.

1. Apple has an internal PA Semi team working on future ARM chips for the iPhone/iPod Touch
2. ARM chips cost an order of magnitude less (to license) than Intel equivalents
3. ARM chips take up less space on a motherboard
4. ARM chips use many times less power, enabling much longer battery life and much sleeker design.
5. You won’t need to virtualize Windows on these types of devices.  Most other Apple applications can be easily ported between chips.
6. Apple wants more control over the processors, which it can’t have with Intel.
7. While a variant of the iPhone version of OS X is the most likely of candidates, Snow Leopard’s optimization release might also be for ARM as well.

I agree. Apple has used ARM in the past (the Newton) and presently inside the iPhone and iPod Touch. The mobile version of OS X  already runs on these (and quote well, frankly). If Apple makes a netbook/tablet based on the mobile OS X, then an ARM chipset will be the engine running it.

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AppleInsider:

Gottheil dismisses the notion of an artificial premium on Apple products, noting that they often compete well for the features, but is certain that the Cupertino, Calif.-based company has reached a breaking point where perceived quality can’t override genuine financial woes from customers.

“It is too much to ask consumers to pay more than twice as much for a PC in these times,” the analyst says.

Instead, he and TBR are confident that Apple will release a computer in the netbook class within the first half of next year, but one that doesn’t obey many of the rules dictated by the industry. Like the MacBook Air ultraportable, this future system would be at least as thin and light as others in its category but would potentially have a larger surface area to allow a larger display or more comfortable input. Netbook owners carry their systems “in stacks with papers and books” and care more about thickness than footprint, according to Gottheil.

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Back in September, Steve Jobs promised new earbuds at the event that unveiled the new iPod Nano and other goodies. They were supposed to be out in October, but things… well… didn’t work out, and the new buds just hit shelves this week. Here’s a nugget of CNET’s review of the $79 earbuds:

I’ve only been listening for a few minutes, but so far, it looks like Apple has delivered a worthwhile pair of headphones. They don’t quite have the crisp, high frequency detail of the Etymotic HF2 headphones I had at my desk, but they blow away Apple’s stock earbuds (not too difficult a feat) with a buttery low end and pleasant mids and highs.

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Gizmodo:

If you have the iPhone 2.2 operating system, you can turn off the auto-correction entirely. But that will make things ducking inconvenient, though. The auto-correction in the iPhone is what makes the touchscreen usable and fast when it’s time to write an email or SMS.

Fortunately, TJ Luoma has had a great idea to fix it: You only need to load your favorite swear words as contacts. Remember to put them all in lowercase, and every time you write duck or ducking or motherduckers, the iPhone will not try to correct them.

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CNBC:

Apple now says that iPhone users have “downloaded over 300 million” applications from the App Store, from games to business programs. Why is that stunning? Consider that on the company’s conference call on October 21, Apple disclosed that the following day, Apple expected users to download their 200 millionth app. Which means, as of today, users have downloaded a staggering 100 million apps in just the past 6 weeks.

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The tap tap tap blog on the App Store:

iPhone apps are typically much smaller and more focused than desktop apps and as such, should be priced accordingly. In addition, you need to take into account the much larger market that you’re dealing with here… Apple is selling well over 10,000 iPhones per day and these are all potential new customers, plus all the existing iPhone owners and iPod touch sales.

This dollar store mentality even goes beyond the iPhone as most of the Mac developers we know have been experiencing significant downward trends in their software sales since the App Store opened. It appears that the “instant-gratification-on-the-cheap” factor has implications on the desktop, too. It’s going to be tough to compete with impulse purchases when you can get around 20 iPhone apps for what a typical desktop app costs.

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Wired shows off some old prototypes that never evolved into anything real. Here’s a sample:

Legendary Silicon Valley design firm Frog Design lent Gizmodo a couple of Apple prototypes to display, including this MacBook Tablet mock-up…

…Although this portable tablet computer never saw the light of day, echoes of its design can be seen in the Apple IIc.

It looks like an Apple IIc, just flat. I don’t think it would have done well then.

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