512 Pixels

The Macalope celebrates April Fools Day in a way that I solidly approve of.

This is just crazy, but it’s what happens when you have companies that are so secretive, they lie to cover things up that leak. I believe CNN over Google any day of the week.

Not backing up your data is like not wearing a seat belt when you drive.

Twitter’s Doug Bowman:

Rather than continue to make changes to the QuickBar as it exists, we removed the bar from the update appearing in the App Store today. We believe there are still significant benefits to increasing awareness of what’s happening outside the home timeline. Evidence of the incredibly high usage metrics for the QuickBar support this. For now, we’re going back to the drawing board to explore the best possible experience for in-app notification and discovery.

If it was really used as much as Twitter is implying, why get rid of it?

Marco:

It wouldn’t surprise me if updates to the iPod product line became as un-event-worthy as Mac CPU updates.

But couldn’t this happen to the iPhone and iPad as well?

Not every time, of course. Just like the Macs, what if the iPhone didn’t get massive updates on a regular annual schedule, but only got a significant redesign every few years, with minor mid-cycle updates as needed? Some wouldn’t even be announced at events at all, and others would be quick footnotes during otherwise software-focused events.

Bingo.

My buddy Dave, on a new podcast he’s on with Myke and Terry:

Imagine you’ve spent time with friends, having a drink and a laugh, letting the conversation go where it may. Later, you might be asked, “What did you guys talk about last night?” Inevitably, you’d recount the one story that stood out as the most interesting, funny or engaging. That’s what I want to get at: the best part of a casual, friendly and spontaneous conversation.

From that exchange, the 11 Minutes Podcast was born. Myke, Terry and I open beers, sit and talk. Often for up to two hours. There’s no agenda, and no pre-defined topics. The conversation goes where it will. Then, we identify the best 11 minutes, delete the rest and share it with you.

I’m downloading the first episode right now, and can’t wait to listen.

Microsoft’s global chief research and strategy officer Craig Mundie:

I think there’s an important distinction - and frankly one we didn’t jump on at Microsoft fast enough - between mobile and portable. Mobile is something that you want to use while you’re moving, and portable is something that you move and then use.

These are going to bump into one another a little bit and so today you can see tablets and pads and other things that are starting to live in the space in between. Personally I don’t know whether that space will be a persistent one or not.

This explains so much about Microsoft’s strategy. Holy cow.

[via The Loop]

The tablet space is a weird little corner of the technology market right now. Apple’s crushing everyone with its iPad 2, clearly. There are several tablets on the horizon, but most of them feel like knock-off iPads.

There is more to a good tablet OS than the cloud, though. People are using tablets for content consumption, and with Android, that’s tricky. Android’s strength is its tie-in with the Google cloud, not with easy ways to purchase music and movies.Honeycomb apps can be counted on both hands.

In short, Android (or WebOS, for that matter) lacks an ecosystem of media and rich apps.

Enter Amazon.

Amazon clearly has the media bit covered. The company currently sales e-books, music and movies online. Starting last week, Amazon also sales Android apps¹

So, the question is this: What is Amazon’s plan when it comes to tablets? Clearly, they could become the media ecosystem for Android and WebOS products. It is the only company other than Apple than can compete is a content provider for mobile devices. If Amazon landed its stores on every Android and WebOS device, it could be a huge boon for the company, both in market share and revenue.

But I think Amazon dreams bigger than being on another company’s devices. Yes, that will continue, but I really think the world may see an Amazon tablet in the future.

Clearly, the company can build and sell hardware. The Kindle is an amazing device, and at $139, it is almost an impulse buy for many. I can see an Android-powered tablet, with a decent interface, all hooked into an Amazon account, just like the iPad is tied to iTunes. Media would be just a click away.

The secondary question is how could Amazon differentiate its tablet if its stores are on other devices already? I think it would be killer to have some deep integration with the company’s S3 service. Imagine if you could to your tablet — apps, data and all — in some sort of online environment that synced via S3.

A world needs a serious iPad competitor. Content is a major part of the picture. And Amazon could do it right.

Jim Dalrymple:

The Internet is buzzing this morning with separate rumors that Apple’s iPad 2 and iPhone 5 will be delayed. The fact is, neither rumor is true.

From what I’ve heard this morning both products are on schedule and will ship when they are supposed to. Only Apple knows exactly when that will be, but the products are not delayed.

[…]

It seems amazing that rumors of Apple missing product deadlines are running rampant when Apple hasn’t even announced the product yet. The only deadlines that have been set are by the media, not Apple.

Jim hits on an interesting debate that’s happening between many tech writers right now — what does delay actually mean when it comes to an unannounced product? I think that unless Apple publicly declares a date, delay is the wrong word to use a situation in which a product date slips internally.

Which Jim says hasn’t happened to the iPhone 5.

Shawn Blanc:

I am as nitpicky about user interface as I am about user experience. There are some apps which, even though they offer a great service, I just never use because I don’t like to look at them. And on the other side you have those apps which look cute but are not very useful.

Instacast, however, is of my favorite breed of apps: one with pitch-perfect design and that does one thing and does it very well.

I’m a huge fan of this app, for the very reasons Shawn outlines in his post.

Editor’s Note: This is written by a friend of mine, Caitlin Woodward, who spent countless hours trying to find an iPad 2 here in Memphis.

I’m that person who picked out a specific model. Looking for a black 32GB AT&T. My dad wants the same model.

It seems like AT&T are the popular ones. On launch day, the first thing they ran out of was AT&T ones, about a dozen people in front of me. Right then, I ordered one from Apple.com, it said it was going to ship Apr 1, deliver by Apr 6. Talked to my dad a short bit after that, he stopped at the Apple Store in Oklahoma City to see if they happened to have anything, but they only had a few tickets left, all were Verizon.

The main reason I was playing this dumb chasing the iPad game, was because I wanted it before I visited my family in OKC at the end of the month. I really wanted to have it before then, so I could play with my dad about iPad apps and such. (He’s borrowing a 1st gen from his school; so he’s already started playing with apps and such.) Otherwise I would have given up after a few tries and just waited for my shipment.

I tried on Saturday, but line was capped by the time I got there (around 10ish). Went back on Monday morning, around 9ish? Was still under the impression we’d be lining up for the 11–1 shipment that day. I was told that they weren’t getting any shipments that day, but they were opening early at 9 to sell the next day’s shipment. This made me think that they were saving one days shipment, and selling it the next morning. Kinda confirmed this with blogs talking about this being new policy.

What annoyed me, though, is they still said they got morning shipments in. I really wanted to be able to call the previous night and see what models they were going to have, to know if I needed to go the next morning.

Over the week, I tried to get up early to make it out there. I soon realized I had to be out of the house around 5:15, to be there by 6, to be early in line. Had to be one of the first in case they only had like 10 in that day; wanted to make sure I didn’t lose out of the model I wanted. People would start lining up at 6, and then around 8:30, an employee would come out and tell us what they had to sell that day. Here’s what someone from the MacRumors forums posted about the Apple Store availability, he said he had been there every morning:

• Tuesday: All WiFi
• Wednesday: some WiFi some Verizon
• Thursday: All WiFi
• Friday: WiFi, Verizon and 4 AT&T
• Saturday: All WiFi

Reading stuff in forums, AT&T were of the last to ship, and many people were reporting not seeing any being sold in the morning lines.

I was there on Saturday morning, got there around 6, already 15th in line. Some people behind me were obviously scalpers, discussing which models were going to make them the most money. I think my dad tried that morning, too, in OKC. All they had was WiFi and Verizon there.

I haven’t been able to wake up around 5 since then to make it out there. I still kept tabs on what they got in that day (by calling the Apple Store to check trends).

I didn’t know what time to line up on Sunday, and I knew they weren’t going to have anything on Monday (no shipments on Sunday). Didn’t wake up in time yesterday, but was told they had some AT&T, but no black 32 GB.

Got a message from the MacRumors forum guy, he said that he got one from Best Buy in Jackson, that they had a ton of 32 GB and 64 GB AT&T. Called them, they told me that they have five 32 GB models left, in AT&T and black. Sweet. So I dashed out there. Called again, halfway there, and was told that they still had five left. Arrived, and then I was told that they never actually had any AT&T black, only Verizon black, and all the AT&T they had that day was in white. Sigh. Should’ve guessed the BB incompetence, but whatever.

I didn’t go this morning. Just kind of tired of searching by now. But! The iPad 2 I ordered online showed up yesterday — 2 days earlier than the date Apple had previously given me!

Seth Weintraub:

Though there is nothing particularly new in these docs, we’ve been handed the full Apple Store layout documentation (100 page PDF) as of last month. It is interesting to see the attention to detail Apple puts into its Store layout and design.

The 100 page document goes into significant detail on every aspect of how stores are set up. Perhaps that’s why there is such consistency between stores.

I mean, come on. A story about a leaked planogram¹ from an Apple Store? Really?