Longform for iPad
Great new app by the Longform guys. They auto-stock and auto-curate longer form articles from various publications for you to read on your iPad (optionally using Readability to remove the clutter).
I’m a big fan of services like Instapaper and Read It Later, but I recognize that plenty of people don’t want to take the time to go out and find their own content to read later (though those services have their own way of surfacing curated content as well). This is a nice alternative that fulfills Longform’s mission of surfacing comprehensive journalism. And, of course, it works with Instapaper and Read It Later too.
The app is $4.99 in the App Store.
Apple Becomes World's Biggest Maker of Computers, Thanks to iPad
Cue dozens of people screaming bloody murder: “THE IPAD IS NOT A PC!!!!!!!”
Cue millions of the rest of us laughing at those people.
Just as with the move from desktops to laptops, the transition to tablets (or “pads” as Canalys humorously refers to them) is underway.
“But, but, but… it doesn’t have a keyboard!” Yes it does.
“But, but, but… it doesn’t have a physical keyboard!” How’s that argument working out for RIM?
“But, but, but… it doesn’t run PC software!” Who gives a shit? Clearly not the people buying millions of the devices each quarter.
All you need to know about the “is the iPad a PC?” argument: are people buying them instead of traditional PCs? Sure looks like it.
Update: Including two tweets (at Anthony Ha’s request):
Lot of response there (as expected). Main point: arguing over definition of “PC” is stupid and totally missing the actual point.
— MG Siegler (@parislemon) January 31, 2012
“PC” is about how people use and interact with computers, not what it looks like. Who cares what it looks like?
— MG Siegler (@parislemon) January 31, 2012
In Dreams
I first encountered 955 Dreams about a year ago when I came across a magical iPad app called The History of Jazz. When I sat down with co-founder Kiran Bellubbi to talk about the app for a TechCrunch story, it was immediately apparent that his vision extended far beyond just one beautiful app.
I kicked off my story with something he said to me: “The shallow experience for a user has to be very interesting. The deep experiences have to be profound.” In the app-crazy world we live in, it’s not uncommon to hear developers attempt to get philosophical. But with Bellubbi, I totally bought it.
And my instinct about Bellubbi and co-founder T.J. Zark proved correct. They followed up The History of Jazz with the equally brilliant On The Way To Woodstock. Both apps got Apple’s seal of approval in the form of App of the Week accolades.
Q:We all know what the hardware story is going to be for the iPad 3 (or at least, a very good approximation). But what's the software story? Too early for iOS6, and Apple always need a good software story to explain why there's quad core processors or why there's 4x the pixels.
I imagine it will be iOS 5.1 that ships with the next iPad. Or perhaps iOS 5.2, as it looks like iOS 5.1 is just about done. I agree that there will need to be some sort of software “story”, but it definitely won’t be iOS 6 (too soon).
If the next iPad does in fact feature a quad-core processor, the software story will probably be something like “all your software, but faster — devs should start optimizing for the four cores, but make sure the app works everywhere”.
As for the 4x pixels, I have to believe (though don’t know for sure) that Apple is already (or soon will be) working with select third-parties to release “Retina” iPad apps out of the gate. The software story there is: “your apps, 4x more beautiful”.
A Rainbow At Its Peak
Horace Dediu presents yet another amazing way to look at the rapidly evolving computer industry (here are Dediu’s other fascinating looks of the past few days).
The PC looks like a rainbow at its peak.
The Macintosh looks like a roller coaster with a misleading small first hill that tricks riders.
Android, iPhone, and iPad look like fireworks just taking off…
The "Highest Quality" Google Tablet
I have no doubt that Google is working on some kind of “Nexus” tablet — they have to be. To say Android’s entrance into the tablet space has been a flop is a vast understatement. Google needs to get on top of this situation. And fast — Amazon, not Google, is leading now leading the “Android” tablet race.
With that in mind, it shouldn’t be too surprising to hear that Google may be targeting the Kindle Fire (and not the iPad) with any flagship tablet they make. While the source of this news is DigiTimes, which has a pretty awful track record when it comes to reporting this kind of stuff, on the surface this makes some sense:
The sources believe that Google will launch the own-brand tablet PC in March-April, featuring a 7-inch panel and Android 4.0 with a price less than US$199 to compete against Amazon.
The problem here is that Amazon is selling the Kindle Fire at or near break-even (they may even be losing money on each unit sold when you consider marketing, etc). And customers are getting what they pay for — a tablet of significantly less quality than the iPad.
If Google is going to undercut the $199 price, the hardware is either going to be shit — or Google is going to have to take a significant loss on each one sold. Maybe they do that and say they’ll make it back in search advertising. But there is real money they’re going to have to pay to an OEM to get them to agree to that.
If you consider Eric Schmidt’s quote from last month: ”In the next six months we plan to market a tablet of the highest quality.” — only the latter option makes sense here. There is no way Google releases a tablet of the “highest quality” and sells it for under $199 without taking a loss.
Or maybe Schmidt is just being overly generous in his definition of “highest quality”. Or maybe the DigiTimes story is total bullshit. Impossible to know right now.
What I do know: if Apple aggressively drops the price of the iPad 2 with the launch of the iPad 3, this is going to be fun to watch.
Q:I want to buy my mother(who isn't tech savy) a tablet. I thinking of getting her a KindleFire but was curious on if you can recommend a few more that I can look into before I make my choice?..
Anonymous
Honestly, get her an iPad. I could waste both of our time looking up what the best (pure) Android tablet out there is right now, but we both know it won’t hold a candle to the iPad — especially if your mother isn’t tech savvy.
If you don’t mind spending $499 (at a minimum), it’s a no-brainer. iPad 2. If you’re on a budget, I’d probably go with the Kindle Fire or the Nook Tablet. Or look into getting a used iPad.
Amazon’s December Kindle Sales: Somewhere Between 4 Million And Infinity
This is beyond ridiculous now. Amazon continues to feel the need to boast — and it seems understandably — about their Kindle sales. But they continue to refuse to give actual sales numbers to back up the boasting.
The latest press release says that “Throughout December, customers purchased well over 1 million Kindle devices per week.” For you non-math majors, that means Amazon has sold at least 4 million Kindles (well, perhaps just 3 million as December isn’t quite over yet, but we’ll give them the benefit of the doubt).
This is an improvement over “4x of great”, but it’s still oddly obtuse.
Who knows what “well over” means, I imagine it’s not 2 million, or they’d presumably say that. But who knows? It’s a number definitely south of infinity — I think.
It’s also worth noting that the 1 million+ per week number is spread across the entire line — Kindle Fire, Kindle Touch, and the regular Kindle. Amazon says that their sales figures are in that order, but the number everyone wants is the Kindle Fire sales so they can compare it to other Android tablets. And of course, the iPad.
The latter may be exactly why Amazon continues to skirt around actual numbers (while getting a bit more specific each time). Let’s assume the Kindle Fire doesn’t quite make up 50% of the 1 million+ per week Kindle sales (though again, who knows). Let’s say it has been selling at the rate of 500K units a week. That’s 2 million sold in December. The iPad likely killed that number. It may have beaten that number on one of the big single shopping days alone.
I view the Kindle Fire and the iPad as different devices and so do many people. But as tablets, they’re inevitably going to be compared. And I think it’s fair to think that many people bought one instead of the other this holiday season. With that in mind, Amazon probably wouldn’t want to release concrete numbers that get blown away by a competitor. Especially when the competitor is selling their device for $300 more.
So kudos on your vaguely awesome sales Amazon. I bought a Kindle Touch and I love it. I’m sure the other 100,000 to 2 million customers that bought one feel the same.
iPad Today 77
I was on TWiT’s iPad Today with Sarah this past week and got to wear a dumb Santa hat — all for your viewing pleasure on this fine Christmas.
Google, Where The Best Of Everything Is Perpetually 6 Months Away
“In the next six months we plan to market a tablet of the highest quality.”
That was Google Chairman Eric Schmidt speaking to reporters in Italy yesterday.
For those keeping score at home, that’s now three major things Schmidt has promised in the next 6 months.
At LeWeb a couple weeks ago, he promised that third-party developers would start writing the best apps for Android first instead of iOS in 6 months.
Later at the same conference, he said that “the majority” all televisions in stores in 6 months would run Google TV.
Now Google’s “iPad killer” is coming in 6 months.
It’s either going to be an extremely busy June for Google — or an extremely busy June for Google’s PR department when Google fulfills none of Schmidt’s promises.
Grand Theft Auto III Hits The App Store
I haven’t played it just yet, so I can’t vouch for it, but the early reviews look very good.
The fact that this game, which was so groundbreaking a decade ago, has been fully HD-updated and given touch controls and all for just $4.99 (and you get both the iPhone and iPad versions for that price) is beyond awesome.
Flipboard for iPhone
I think my favorite thing about Flipboard for iPhone is that it’s not a simple port of their iPad app. They definitely could have gotten away with that since their iPad app is brilliant. But the form factor and the use case of the iPhone is different. That’s obvious to say, but it’s surprising how many developers seem to ignore that.
Flipboard for iPhone is a revelation in beauty and user experience. This is how content consumption should work on the phone.
