Posts Tagged: apple

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4
Jan 11

AirPlay

Adam Lisagor on Why AirPlay Is Important:

“AirPlay is important in the evolution of media because the tech infrastructure Apple has been building for more than a decade is finally maturing enough to reach that holy grail of weightlessness.”

The idea that you can easily present a slide show, play a video or movie, play a song, play a video game or whatever … from the device you are holding to the TV on the wall is very intriguing. No need to switch remotes, configure the “source” for the video, or anything else. Just choose “play” and choose “that screen over there”. Weightless indeed.

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24
Dec 10

iOS Quality Apps not in Android Store

Gruber on app stores and the philosophy that shapes them:

“The differences between the iOS App Store and Android Market are a microcosm of the differences between Apple and Google. Apple is a retailer, a purveyor of well-crafted goods that people will line up to purchase. Google is an advertising company that builds popular services that command large audiences.”

He makes a good point on the quality (and type) of apps you find in each store:

“iOS’s best apps could exist for Android but don’t. Android’s best apps couldn’t exist for iPhone. In theory, then, Android could be beating iOS in both regards. Android could be the platform with exclusive apps like Reeder, Twitterrific, Things,Simplenote, Instagram, Calvetica, PCalc, and Pastebot — in addition to the exclusives it already has like Swype and home screen replacements that the iPhone can’t have. What I find interesting is that Android just doesn’t have apps like this.”

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20
Dec 10

The Balmer Tablet

Smart talk about a Microsoft tablet:

“What’s remarkable—and what should be, for any Microsoft shareholders, a deeply troubling sign—is that Ballmer, apparently, wants to do none of this. For him, the PC model is the only option. It doesn’t matter that it has never worked for this market in the past. It doesn’t matter that the tablet needs a new approach to user interface design, one that is fundamentally different from that of traditional PCs. Ballmer wants the PC business model—a Microsoft operating system on commodity hardware—running PC software, and the unsuitability of that software is seen as an irrelevance.”

Apparently though, they have a new tablet to show at CES this year. Given how well their announced-at-last-year’s-CES tablets did this year, it’ll be awesome … oh wait, they never shipped. Never mind.

Anyone else noticing a pattern with Microsoft announcements?

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1
Nov 10

Apps as Entertainment

Marco makes an astute observation about the role of “apps” and how they are purchased differently from traditional desktop applications:

“In high school, my friends and I went to the movie theater almost every weekend, usually not even knowing what was playing, and decided how to spend our $5-10 when we got there. We knew it would buy us a few hours of entertainment, and we knew that most of the movies would be mediocre, a few would be horrible, and a few would be great. The predictability and low cost of these outings gave us a reliable way to be entertained on a regular basis.

One of the reasons the iOS App Store is so successful is that app-buying has become a form of casual, routine entertainment for iPhone and iPad owners. We gladly go and browse the App Store even when we don’t “need” anything at the moment, with the intention of going and spending a few bucks on whatever’s new that looks good.”

I’ve certainly noticed this with my own purchasing. I download a free or paid app (on average) every other day.

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22
Oct 10

Apple’s Next OS, Lion

This week Apple gave a demo of their next operating system, Lion. You can see their sneak peak for details, but here’s what I think it means:

The desktop metaphor is on the way out.

Sure you still have files, and may sort things into folders. But this is becoming a per-app thing, not an operating system wide thing. If you look at all of their major apps: iPhoto, iTunes, iMovie … they all use files, but you never see them. This is all the more clear to me with the focus on full-screen applications. There is no longer the ability to drag something from another app (say the desktop) into an application.

The Launchpad and Apple Mac App Store further this. Applications simply exist now, and there is no need to ferry them into being with physical CD’s, installers, uninstallers, and the like. Today there is an Application folder where you keep most of your apps. Tomorrow, they will all exist in the folder-less entity, the Launchpad.

So then, what is the “desktop” good for, if you don’t use it to install apps, and files are stored within the applications themselves?

As for the Mission Control feature, all I can say is that it looks like a bridge technology. It isn’t the destination, but it will help us get there. It’s far to dependent on gestures, which didn’t demo terribly well in the keynote presentation. People understand (some) 2-finger swipes. 3 or 4 is too over the top. Sorta like keyboard shortcuts. Good for power users, and that’s about it.

The future is Touch.

Between the design of the new full-screen apps, the Launchpad, and focus on switching between applications in Mission Control, what I’m noticing is an entire lack of on-screen controls that wouldn’t work well with a touch interface. That is to say, Apple is not taking advantage of the high precision and capability of a mouse and cursor.

Apple has mentioned multiple times that you can’t slap a touch screen onto a laptop and call it a day. And in the sense that your arm would get tired, I’d say they are right on the money. But when they say the future of laptops and desktops is to be used with a disconnected Magic Trackpad of some kind … that’s a whole lot of misdirection.

Apple has to have something they are working on that will let you touch the screen of a desktop or laptop in an ergonomic sort of way. What it is, and how it works is anyone’s guess. But it won’t be your traditional laptop form, desktop form, or even tablet form. It will be something new, something unexpected, and I can’t wait to see it.

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