parislemon

I definitely prefer the other mockups to this one done by 9to5...

Wed, 16 May 2012 10:10:00 -0700

I definitely prefer the other mockups to this one done by 9to5 Mac. Here, the buttons look way too small. Still trying to wrap my head around the idea of a longer iPhone and what it means for thumb reach, but it certainly looks like it’s happening, according to that site I refuse to link to and Reuters today (echoing previous reports by iMore and iLounge).

(via WSJ: Next iPhone to feature at least a 4-inch screen, production to begin in June)

Holy response to the new layout! Not to fear, I just enjoy...

Wed, 16 May 2012 10:03:00 -0700

Holy response to the new layout! Not to fear, I just enjoy trying new things out. May switch back. May not. May switch to something completely different again.

I do appreciate the feedback though. More to come.

Who knows if there even will be a 4-inch screen — but gotta love...

Wed, 16 May 2012 01:21:48 -0700

Who knows if there even will be a 4-inch screen — but gotta love these mockups commissioned by MacRumors.

(via What a Tall ‘iPhone 5’ with 4-Inch Display Looks Like)

As much as I hate email, this is a fun way to explain what...

Wed, 16 May 2012 01:16:00 -0700

As much as I hate email, this is a fun way to explain what happens when you hit send on that Gmail message.

Aaron Sorkin Will Adapt Walter Isaacson Steve Jobs Bio For Film

Tue, 15 May 2012 18:43:00 -0700

Aaron Sorkin Will Adapt Walter Isaacson Steve Jobs Bio For Film:

Insanely great news — but expectations will be through the roof post-The Social Network.

All the talk about Apple taking over mapping on iOS sounds great. Can't wait. However, I haven't heard much on the turn by turn front. This is the one area, the only area, where I'm jealous of Android users. Without turn by turn, I'll continue to have to use a 3rd party app for 90 percent of my mapping usage. So, my obvious question: Have you heard if Apples new map app will include a (vocal) turn by turn feature?

Tue, 15 May 2012 18:32:00 -0700

I haven’t heard anything specifically about this, but my guess is that Apple has been hard at work on it for some time. The fact that the maps update is coming seems like a good sign. Or it may take longer. Not sure.

They know this is one of the remaining “low-hanging fruits”, as John Gruber calls them, that they can add to iOS. It’s also an area where Android is, without question, winning — as in, actually winning, not “winning”.

ESPN On The Apple TV

Tue, 15 May 2012 12:37:52 -0700

ESPN On The Apple TV:

Sounds great, ESPN on the Apple TV (and possibly the forthcoming iTV)! Until you see this quote:

“We’re a platform-agnostic content company,” Bratches, the network’s executive vice president of affiliate and advertising sales, said today in an interview. “To the extent that in the future there’s an opportunity with Apple to authenticate through the pay-TV food chain as we’re doing with Microsoft, that’s something that we will participate in.”

In other words: you’ll get access as long as you’re a cable TV subscriber…

As I’m not a cable TV subscriber, this is worthless to me.

For as much as I bitch about HBO being blind to future disruption, I continue to think that it’s ESPN that has to be the true pioneer here. They’re the one content provider that has the cable companies by the balls. No cable provider can afford not to offer ESPN. So ESPN has the most leeway to do what they want without fear of retribution.

No Map, Indeed

Mon, 14 May 2012 23:27:54 -0700

No Map, Indeed:

Remember last November when, out of the kindness of their hearts, Google started allowing people to opt-out of wireless access point collection? All you had to do was append “_nomap” to the end of your SSID.

It was such a seamless and elegant solution. Surely, everyone started doing it, right?

I’m with Jason Irwin — I haven’t seen a single “_nomap” SSID in all the places I’ve been in the past six months. Not one. I doubt anyone has.

I initially joked that usage would be .01 percent of the 10 percent that actually understand what to do. I’m pretty sure it’s actually far less than that.

The point, six months later, remains the same: this was a total dickbag move on Google’s behalf. It’s not the collection of the SSIDs (which others, including Apple, do as well) that’s so bad. It’s the notion that Google was giving everyone a choice with their opt-out. It was a false choice. No one was ever going to opt-out — certainly not the way Google implemented it.

Big, Small, Optimal

Mon, 14 May 2012 16:59:11 -0700

Big, Small, Optimal:

A subtle, but potentially important detail from Mark Gurman’s report on the Retina MacBook Pro:

Unlike Mac display settings of today, these Retina Display settings will not be marked with numbers/resolution sizes, but with descriptions such as big, small, or optimal, according to these software-based findings. The long-awaited “resolution independence” is upon us.

The death of the spec continues.

The Thin, Retina MacBook Pro

Mon, 14 May 2012 16:53:37 -0700

The Thin, Retina MacBook Pro:

Mark Gurman of 9to5 Mac first reported this morning that a forthcoming 15-inch MacBook Pro refresh would feature a new, thinner design (though not quite MacBook Air-thin), USB 3.0, and, most importantly, a “Retina” display. Bloomberg has since corroborated the news.

I’ve got nothing specifically on this, but it sounds about right to me. As I wrote back in November of last year:

Maybe it’s time to separate the Pro line by doing something like a super high resolution screen and maybe insane battery life (10+ hours).

Or maybe the 15-inch thin MacBook is meant to be a hybrid of a Pro and an Air. Maybe it has more ports, better battery life, and a higher price — but loses the optical drive. It’s dead anyway.

No word on the battery life, but that would be icing on the cake at this point. It’s all about that screen.

The 13-inch MacBook Air is the best computer I’ve ever owned. But a, say, 2880x1800 resolution MacBook Pro would probably be impossible to pass up. Especially if they got it under 5 pounds (the current 15-inch MacBook Pro is 5.6 pounds).

"I’m not sure I know what AirPlay is."

Mon, 14 May 2012 13:08:35 -0700

“I’m not sure I know what AirPlay is.”

- Time Warner Cable CEO Glenn A. Britt

I have a feeling that this quote will be a fun one to look back on in a few years. Disruption often blindsides.

Front-lit Kindle Due In July

Mon, 14 May 2012 12:35:00 -0700

Front-lit Kindle Due In July:

While Amazon clearly controls the e-reader space, Barnes & Noble continues to beat them to the punch on key technologies. First, it was an Android-based color tablet. Then it was the front-lit e-ink reader.

Amazon has to react, probably faster than they’d like — they’re pushing out a new Kindle not even a year after the last one was released.

Update: As Soroush Khanlou points out, B&N did the touch e-ink reader first as well.

THE iTV MAY BE COMING; EVERYONE WRITE BULLSHIT AS QUICKLY AS POSSIBLE!!!!

Mon, 14 May 2012 12:27:46 -0700

THE iTV MAY BE COMING; EVERYONE WRITE BULLSHIT AS QUICKLY AS POSSIBLE!!!!:

Whoops.

Nice takedown of nonsense by Philip Elmer-DeWitt.

iOS 6 “Sundance” And The Sunsetting Of Google Maps

Sat, 12 May 2012 13:16:02 -0700

iOS 6 “Sundance” And The Sunsetting Of Google Maps

Small App Developer, Welcome To Your Hell

Sat, 12 May 2012 13:12:23 -0700

Small App Developer, Welcome To Your Hell:

Kim-Mai Cutler caught up with Hong Kong mobile app developer Animoca and notes that they test against 400 different Android devices. And they’d do even more — but many are no longer for sale.

Just look at the picture.

Cutler:

But imagine the long-tail of developers! Imagine the people who make the roughly 500,000 apps in the Google Play store. Total nightmare.

Right, for a big app house, this is very annoying, but doable. For a small team of app developers, this is impossible. Many pick the top 3 to 5 Android phones and stick to those when it comes to testing. Unfortunately, there are so many quirks across devices that it leads to a shit ton of bugs or full-on incompatibility.

“Total nightmare” is too kind. It’s total hell.

The iPhone Bleeds Lumia Cyan, According To Siri. Or Wolfram Alpha. Or Best Buy. Sometimes. Maybe. Actually, No.

Fri, 11 May 2012 13:52:00 -0700

Well, Jim Dalrymple beat me to making fun of this, but what the hell, it’s Friday.

Earlier today, a thread starting passing around the Internet pointing out something worth a chuckle: when you ask Siri what the best smartphone is, it responds with the Nokia Lumia 900. The cyan version from AT&T, to be exact.

That’s it — end of debate! Shut Apple down and pay the money back to the shareholders. The Lumia 900 is clearly killing off the iPhone. Well, except if you consider sales. And user happiness. But whatever, Siri says so!

But wait. Does Siri even say so? After a series of never-ending clicks, I believe I was able to trace this “story” back to its roots. Dalrymple linked to AppleInsider, which links to TheNextWeb (hi Robin!), which links to ZUnited, which links to WMPoweruser. (CNet tried to insert itself into the conversation too, but well, it was this guy.)

Appropriately, it was a game of telephone that led to “Which is the best cellphone ever?” evolving into “what is the best smartphone ever?” Along the way, there were several reports of different answers — for example, I get nothing when I ask about the best smartphone ever and I get “I think you’ve already answered that question, MG.” when I ask for the best cellphone ever. Cute.

But people definitely are seeing the Lumia 900 pop up, the screenshots prove it! How could Apple let such a thing fly? Because it has nothing to do with Apple. The answer comes from Wolfram Alpha, Siri’s top data partner. And the fact of the matter is that in this case, the data sucks.

Wolfram Alpha passed the Lumia 900 to Siri simply because it’s the first on this list. But if you look closely at that list, you’ll note that several phones receive the highest “5” rating — 29 of them, by my count. And that list includes three models of the iPhone (two different versions of the iPhone 4S — the 64GB white model from Verizon and Sprint, sorry, AT&T). They’re simply not the first listed.

But again, this list is shit. It’s data from Best Buy based on user ratings. The Lumia 900 in question is “#1” with a whopping 5 user reviews. Number 2 on the list is this phone — I mean, just look at it! — which has a whole one five-star user review. Number 3 on the list is the HP refurbished Touchpad. Yes, the Touchpad. Number 3 best smartphone ever.

Need I go on?

iPhone was Japan's best-selling smartphone in 2011

Fri, 11 May 2012 13:07:14 -0700

iPhone was Japan's best-selling smartphone in 2011:

It’s just too bad “the Japanese hate the iPhone”. They just hate it so much.

(Did I beat Gruber to the joke?)

iOS 6 Non-Google Maps

Fri, 11 May 2012 11:52:41 -0700

iOS 6 Non-Google Maps:

Mark Gurman:

According to trusted sources, Apple has an incredible headline feature in development for iOS 6: a completely in-house maps application. Apple will drop the Google Maps program running on iOS since 2007 in favor for a new Maps app with an Apple backend. The application design is said to be fairly similar to the current Google Maps program on the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch, but it is described as a much cleaner, faster, and more reliable experience.

The biggest step yet in the de-Googlification of iOS.

Apple's Hold On Hollywood

Fri, 11 May 2012 01:02:00 -0700

Apple's Hold On Hollywood:

Yet another subtle, but important advantage Apple has over competitors: their products are all over popular television shows and films — and Apple doesn’t pay a dime for such placement. The creative talent uses them because, well, they use them.

I mean, did you see Mission: Impossible Ghost Protocol? It’s one big iAd — but again, not paid for by Apple. (Though Pixar alum Brad Bird may have played a role in that.) It’s a billion times better than any ad. It’s something money could literally not pay for.

This is also interesting, Peter Burrows and Andy Fixmer reporting:

In the 1990s, Apple’s PowerBook laptops included a company logo on the lid that faced the user sitting at the computer. When the lid was opened, the logo was upside down. Holtzman knew this was inconvenient to filmmakers and had stickers printed to cover the actual logo and have it appear correctly onscreen. A few years after Steve Jobs returned in 1997, he flipped the logo for good.

Hard to believe the logo was ever upside down, but I remember it. It looked incredibly stupid.

The "No Compromises" OS Is Anything But

Fri, 11 May 2012 00:40:00 -0700

The "No Compromises" OS Is Anything But:

So, Mozilla and Google are upset because Firefox and Chrome won’t be able to run on Windows RT. But isn’t that obvious? For all the talk of “no compromises” out of Redmond, that’s exactly what Windows RT is: a compromise.

It’s a less-powerful version of Windows 8 that needs to be more tightly controlled to be able to run on less powerful ARM chips. Again, that means compromises. One of them is apparently browser control.

And Microsoft can probably do this because they’re a total non-player in the tablet space right now. While Mozilla and Google obviously think this should fall under the “browser choice” antitrust stuff from the 90s, this is clearly different. Windows RT is not going to have a monopoly over the market in any way, shape, or form. At least not anytime soon.

John Gruber brings up a good question:

What if Windows 8 for ARM, instead of being called “Windows RT”, were instead called, say, “Metro OS”? Would that make a difference? Is Dotzler arguing that Microsoft should not be permitted to ship a version of Windows that locks out third-party browsers, or that Microsoft should not be permitted to ship any OS that locks out third-party browsers?

In light of what Apple has done with iOS, it’s not clear how you can actually make the second argument. As such, it would be humorous if Microsoft continuing to use the “Windows” brand (even when they probably shouldn’t) came back to bit them in the ass here (but I don’t think it actually will).