Month: April 2012

iTunes’ Ball and Chain: Windows ⇥

Yours truly:

Buying music in one app, using another to play it, and a third to put it on your devices is convoluted at best. Using iTunes in the cloud, you could eliminate the third step, but you would need to download hundred-megabyte-plus content multiple times, which is even slower. This is without even considering the Windows version.

Note that I only mentioned how much of a headache this would be on the Mac. Could you imagine porting all of these to Windows? Allen Pike can:

Except that they can’t split iTunes into multiple apps because many, if not most iOS users are on Windows. iTunes is Apple’s one and only foothold on Windows, so it needs to support everything an iOS device owner could need to do with their device. Can you imagine the support hurricane it would cause if Windows users suddenly needed to download, install, and use 3-4 different apps to sync and manage their media on their iPhone? It’s completely out of the question.

John Gruber linked to the above article, and added his own commentary:

Just tossing an idea out there, but what if Apple broke iTunes apart into several smaller apps on Mountain Lion (iOS-style), and kept the monolithic iTunes for legacy users on older versions of Mac OS X (Lion, Snow Leopard, Leopard) and Windows?

I still believe it would be a mess for Mac users. Managing reminders in one app and email in another makes sense. They’re totally different ideas, and the only reason they were lumped together pre-Mountain Lion is because Notes used IMAP to sync. iTunes is a different beast—everything it does is related, from buying media, to syncing it, and finally to playing it. The only slight anomaly is the App Store, but that’s related on a syncing level.

I Lost Access to My Google Account Today ⇥

Ehsan Akhgari doesn’t know why he lost his account, but he did:

We’ve all (yours truly included) heard about the importance of owning your digital data, the downsides of vendor lock-in, and how if you’re being provided a free service, you’re the product, not the customer.

Google may have a way to export your data, but it only works if you have access to your account.

Code Not Physical Property, Court Rules ⇥

Kim Zetter, for Wired:

“Because Aleynikov did not ‘assume physical control’ over anything when he took the source code, and because he did not thereby ‘deprive [Goldman] of its use,’ Aleynikov did not violate the [National Stolen Property Act],” the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals wrote in its opinion (.pdf).

Since digital media files are computer code which one cannot assume physical control over, nor deprave others of their use, doesn’t this set a precedent for cases involving the RIAA or MPAA?

Field Notes “National Crop” Edition ⇥

We’re revisiting that heritage with a special box set of six memo books celebrating American farmers and the six leading crops they grow. “The National Crop Edition” is available right now.

Using seven different paper stocks from the French Paper Company of Niles, Michigan (one color for each crop and another for the included souvenir reference map and custom “clamshell” box), the memo books are chock full of information about American corn, soybeans, hay, wheat, cotton and sorghum.

These look incredible. Mine are already on the way.

Sony’s Recovery Strategy ⇥

Jeff Blagdon, reporting for The Verge:

Digital imaging is a core strength of the company, believes [CEO Kaz] Hirai, and even though the point and shoot segment isn’t expected to grow in the future given the growth of smartphones, he believes the company’s strengths in interchangeable lens cameras can allow it to grow faster than the market and create a stable profit centre.

I think this is a good move. Sony’s NEX line of cameras are widely-acknowledged to be some of the best on the market.

Returning the TV business to profitability is a major objective for the company, and in order to achieve it Hirai plans to reduce fixed costs by 60 percent and flexible costs by 30 percent

Sony’s problem isn’t that people aren’t buying their TVs, but rather that fewer people are buying TVs at all.

Thank You Google for Breaking All My Apps and Extensions ⇥

Google+ developer Mohamed Mansour on today’s major update:

Why didn’t you reach out to the developers and tell them major change is coming? Didn’t we support this platform enough to know things will break? Now hundreds of thousands of machines who are visiting Google+ have a broken experience, many errors will be shown, many popups will be alerted, our thousands of hours of hard work down the drain.

Facebook never did stuff like this, never forced us to change layouts like this. They have given the users a transition period to use the new layout.

I can’t say it any better than Wade Kwon in the comments:

It’s bad when you have to cite Facebook as friendlier to developers, users and businesses.

Useless Mug Available Again ⇥

Marco Arment’s “Useless Mug” is back:

In response to people yelling at them on Twitter, Zazzle reexamined this case tonight, determined that the mug was fine, and cleared it for sale. And if you use coupon-code USELESSMUG50, you’ll get it for 50% off with free shipping, a huge overall price reduction. So if you’d still like it, it’s now available again.

I bought one.

How’s John Dvorak Doing? ⇥

Excerpts from John Dvorak’s March 28, 2007 piece entitled “Apple should pull the plug on the iPhone”:

Now compare that effort and overlay the mobile handset business. This is not an emerging business. In fact it’s gone so far that it’s in the process of consolidation with probably two players dominating everything, Nokia Corp. and Motorola Inc.

During this phase of a market margins are incredibly thin so that the small fry cannot compete without losing a lot of money. […]

The problem here is that while Apple can play the fashion game as well as any company, there is no evidence that it can play it fast enough. These phones go in and out of style so fast that unless Apple has half a dozen variants in the pipeline, its phone, even if immediately successful, will be passé within 3 months.

There is no likelihood that Apple can be successful in a business this competitive.

I’ll be over here.

A Better Email Failure ⇥

I never know what they mean by “contact the postmaster” when my email has been rejected. I usually just assume that the address doesn’t exist, and I give up. This is a fantastic solution by Sebastiaan de With.

Inside the DOJ’s Price-Fixing Case ⇥

Great analysis from Nilay Patel, the lawyer with the spiky wristband, who breaks down the Department of Justice’s ebook price collusion lawsuit:

Although Apple is listed as the first defendant, the bulk of the case is really about the publishers involved: Hachette, HarperCollins, Macmillan, Penguin, and Simon & Schuster. According to the government, these publishers greatly feared Amazon’s $9.99 Kindle book prices, which they called “wretched,” and worked for years on a scheme to raise prices and limit competition. They also feared that consumers would get used to paying $9.99 for bestsellers and ultimately decrease publishing profits.

Interestingly, Hachette, HarperCollins, and Simon & Schuster have already settled, but the remaining defendants are set to duke it out in court.

75 Ultrabook Designs on the Way ⇥

Michael Kan, for IDG:

Intel said on Wednesday 75 ultrabook models are already in development and will include new form factors such as hybrids, which can switch from laptops to touchscreen tablets.

75 exceedingly mediocre ultra books are currently in development. Seventy-five wastes of plastic and metal. Seventy-five incredibly bad keyboards and horrible trackpads.

Why not concentrate that effort into making a single amazing product?

That Damn Linen ⇥

The news isn’t that the Apple Store is down (system maintenance, people!)—the news is that there’s no yellow sticky note any more. It’s been replaced with That Damn Linen texture.

Having said that, Apple resellers are reporting that they are out of stock of many of the 15″ MacBook Pro models.

Come Again? ⇥

The newest update to Google’s Chrome OS is bringing the browser-based operating system a lot closer to a traditional windowing environment.

Sorry, what was updated? Didn’t quite catch that. Must’ve been the three years of nothing that I heard.

Sony Revises Expected Loss to $6.4 Billion ⇥

In the past ten years, Sony has struggled to stay relevant, and their latest finances reflect that downturn. A simply staggering ten thousand jobs might be cut.

Aside from Sony itself, the article contains a peculiarity:

Following the announcement by Sony, the Japanese credit ratings agency R&I put Sony on watch for a downgrade, saying that the manufacturer would require time to bolster profitability. The agency currently rates Sony at A+, […]

An A+ should be good, right?

[…] five notches down from its top rating.

What?

Time to Right the Syncing Ship ⇥

Jason Snell:

If Apple’s going to embrace the cloud wherever possible, it needs to change iTunes too. The program should be simpler. It might be better off being split into separate apps, one devoted to device syncing, one devoted to media playback. (And perhaps the iTunes Store could be broken out separately too? When Apple introduced the Mac App Store, it didn’t roll it into iTunes, but gave it its own app.)

Snell is right to complain about today’s bloated iteration of iTunes, but I disagree here. Every time I’ve thought about this, I’ve been struck by how much more complicated this would be for users. Buying music in one app, using another to play it, and a third to put it on your devices is convoluted at best. Using iTunes in the cloud, you could eliminate the third step, but you would need to download hundred-megabyte-plus content multiple times, which is even slower. This is without even considering the Windows version.

I do agree, however, that iTunes needs to be fixed. I think a potential solution might include a Mac App Store-esque tab view in the title bar, splitting the app into its various functions. When browsing through movies, for example, one rarely needs playlists. Certainly playlists are not necessary when viewing applications. Why are they visible? Can’t the sidebar serve a higher purpose of navigating within a specific function?

The 4-Inch iPhone ⇥

Colin’s idea was to keep the shorter side of the iPhones screen the same, i.e. 640 pixels at 1.94 inches. With that in mind how much would the longer side need to increase so the that diagonal measurement was 4 inches. The answer, derived using simple algebraic rearrangement of Pythagorus’s theorem, 1152 pixels and 3.49 inches. That leaves the the diagonal length measuring a little over 3.99 inches, I’m sure Apple PR could round this 4.

For those of you who are good with numbers I’m sure you’ve noted that 1152 x 640 has an aspect ratio of 9:5 and the 1152 pixels is and increase of 192 from 960 and that’s 20% more than on the iPhone 4 and 4S.

Interesting theory. This is something that’s been thrown around before, and I think it’s the most likely solution for a larger iPhone display. John Gruber doesn’t just think it’s the most likely solution; he’s convinced that Colin knows something:

Methinks “Colin” wasn’t merely guessing or idly speculating.

Sebastiaan de With thinks it’s not going to happen:

Apple won’t do this with the iPhone. It’s completely impossible to use with one hand.

Marco Arment isn’t weighing in on the likelihood, but dislikes the idea:

I’m not sure I would like this. An almost-16:9 aspect ratio looks weird in portrait orientation, like the many 16:9 Android tablets. And the iPhone is primarily used in portrait.

Memoirs of an Apple Genius ⇥

Stephen Hackett, the guy behind 512pixels.net, wrote a short collection of stories from his experiences as an Apple Genius. In amongst the heartwarming stories of over-and-above customer service, and the gut-wrenching stories of data loss, my favourite is entitled July 11, 2008:

July 11, 2008 was the day I knew I was going to quit my job at the Apple store. That was the day that Apple released the iPhone 3G, iOS 2.0, the iOS App Store, and MobileMe, all at once.

This is an exceptional story of how Apple has transitioned from “the Macintosh and iPod company” to “the iPhone company”, and how the Geniuses reacted.

The book is just $4.99 (though I was charged $8.99, for some reason). You should buy a copy.

Useless Mug ⇥

Marco Arment created a cute mug with a fictional, yet typical one-star Instapaper review. He put it on Zazzle, and 116 people also decided it was hilarious. Then:

After receiving 116 orders for these mugs today, Zazzle canceled all of them, telling every customer (but not me, yet) that it’s an acceptable-use violation: “Design contains an image or text that may be subject to copyright.” This was just something fun, and I don’t have time to battle them on this. Now I just know that Zazzle sucks, and I’ll never do business with them again.

“May” be subject to copyright? What does that even mean? Marco owns the copyright on the text.