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John's Tumblr: Computers = Trucks
I picked up a phrase some time ago that I think applies: “The next big thing is always beneath contempt.” Implication being that it is, of course, until it isn’t. Until it’s too big to ignore. This has happened over and over again in our society. In the middle ages, people assumed that no serious discussion could happen in anything but Latin — the so-called “vulgar” languages had no merit. And writers assumed that nothing interesting or lasting would come from this new medium of television. And, I think, people assume right now that nothing important will be created from a 10” touch screen without a keyboard (let alone a tiny 3.5” screen)….
Yep. Yep. Yep. Yep. Yep.
The 4-Inch Display
John Gruber, elaborating on the previously linked 9to5Mac report:
First, at 1136 × 640, you get a diagonal of 1,303.877 pixels after applying the Pythagorean theorem. There are no such thing as fractional pixels, but what I’m talking about here are pixels as a unit of length, equal to 1/326 inch. Divide 1,303.877 by 326 and you get 3.9996 inches. Boom, a “4-inch” display.
If Apple does indeed change the screen — which is looking increasingly likely — this thing is going to make the last few iPhone launches look very meek. There will be none in the “but it looks the same as the last one” camp. Everyone will want to upgrade.
And if they add LTE as well…
Tags tech apple iphone new iphone
Stolen iPhone Adventures
A guy named Nelson stole Katy McCaffrey’s iPhone. Little did he realize his photos would end up in her Photo Stream. Or that she would post them all to Facebook…
Gotta love technology.
At least it looks like Nelson had a wild night on the USS Dumbass.
(via Ryan Vance)
“Why was upside down from the user’s perspective an issue? Because the design group noticed that users constantly tried to open the laptop from the wrong end. Steve Jobs always focuses on providing the best possible user experience and believed that it was more important to satisfy the user than the onlooker.”
Joe Moreno, formerly of Apple, talking about why the company made the call to go with a logo that was upside down (from an onlooker’s perspective) on older Apple laptops.
Of course, Apple eventually corrected this problem. As Moreno notes:
Opening a laptop from the wrong end is a self-correcting problem that only lasts for a few seconds. However, viewing the upside logo is a problem that lasts indefinitely.
New details about Apple’s upcoming ‘Spaceship’ campus revealed
Best mail-order catalog ever.
Tags tech apple apple campus 2
Google Speech Tech Head Mike Cohen Gone From Google?
If true, it’s really interesting. When I started hearing that Apple was working with Nuance last year on the Siri stuff, digging in, I learned that one of the reasons why Google was one of the few companies with their own voice technology was thanks to Cohen. Nuance is known to be very aggressive with pursuing lawsuits over their IP, which leads to a lot of partnerships — like Apple. Google was able to maneuver these waters without a Nuance partnership because Cohen was a co-founder of — wait for it — Nuance. And, more importantly, holds several of his own patents in the space.
Google is clearly working on their own direct Siri competitor for Android. And it was presumed that Cohen — and his patents — would be the key to this. But if he’s now gone from Google, it raises a lot of questions.
(via Dan Primack)
Google Chrome Leapfrogs Internet Explorer as the Web's Top Browser
The writing has been on the wall for this for some time. Chrome is great and IE hasn’t done anything interesting in years — the recipe for disruption. I suspect Google themselves will announce this milestone soon.
Next up: the battle for mobile browsing dominance. Safari clearly has the lead here right now, but Google is pushing hard with Chrome for Android. Next up: Chrome for iOS?
“You know, Apple has 10 products. The living room they’re dealing with at some point in the near future.”
Normally you’d think, “oh boy, someone else going off about Apple’s plans for a television”. But Drexler is in fact in a position to speak — he’s also on Apple Board.
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)
Tags tech iphone 5 apple mobile
Source 9to5mac.com
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?
Asked by Anonymous
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
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.
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.
Tags tech apple macbook pro
Notes