Why Ping Matters

Great quote from Matt Drance on Ping:

It’s interesting how much more polished the Ping UI is on iPhone than on the desktop—a testimony to where Apple thinks the money is. Whether you’re standing in line, sitting in an airport, or on the bus, Ping will help you find music with more confidence, and in less time, than ever. The desktop UI, by contrast, looks horribly rushed, and not nearly up to Apple’s usual standards for a demo, let alone a shipped product.

(Read more on Apple Outsider)

Thoughts on Wired — an Open Letter

Hey Wired guys,

I wanted to write and give some of my feedback on the groundbreaking Wired iPad app.

First off, I have the utmost respect for Wired and the print industry, that being said, I think many people are starting to see that we are on the verge of a true digital revolution for print media, one that has been happening slowly for a long time. I think your ipad magazine app is evidence of this, and I think that it is a really good start. But, that’s exactly what it is: a start.

I want to start by looking a little bit at pricing. $4.99 was steep, and I think you’ve realized that and thus lowered it to $3.99, is that good enough only time will tell. Readers want to see the perceived savings of digital distribution passed on. Yet, I understand how you must keep the perceived value of your medium high. I get that, but what I will say is that, if you are going to keep the price high, then the content must be that much better to make up for the difference in price. It’s got to be more than the occasional embedded video or slideshow. It’s got to be even more interactive. The iPad is an amazing device, and it really literally allows your readers to touch your product, and through your product you need to touch them. That is your challenge.

One way you could possibly make higher pricing more appealing is by adapting a model of tiered pricing, reducing the cost of magazines as the age. Information and news are time sensitive. The less current they are, the less valuable they are. So it makes logical sense to charge less for lass months issue than this months. Say for instance that this months is $3.99 and last months is $2.99, then $1.99, and perhaps a couple issues thereout at $0.99. Interestingly though, as information goes back it starts to regain value, at least just in that teachers, scholars, or students may want access to it for research purposes. So you charge a fee for access to the back catalogue of your magazine, either a flat fee or a monthly/yearly fee.

It is vitally important that you take advantage of the platform that you’re on. For example, your magazine should have active links within it. If you include a table of contents, clicking on an article should bring you to that article. Clicking on an author’s name should bring you to a bio page. Clicking on an email address should pop up an email field. Clicking on a web address should boot up a web browser. The crucial part here is that you are allowing your reader all of this functionality without ever leaving  your app. Therefore, they continue to interact with your magazine for a longer period of time, which gives them more time to look at (or even better, play with — notice how play is interactive, while look is not) your advertisements, thus making your magazine more valuable to advertisers. 

Content will be King,
Billy Matthews

Written on my iPad

DF: FaceTime and the iPod Touch

That FaceTime is currently only available when connected to Wi-Fi is, obviously, a limitation. But that it uses Wi-Fi — data, rather than voice networking — is an indication of just how big a deal it is. It’s the beginning of Apple’s end-run around the phone carriers.

You can switch to FaceTime from a call that started as a voice call, but as Dan Frommer reported at Business Insider this week, once you switch to FaceTime, you’re no longer using voice minutes. The voice call ends once the FaceTime connection is made.

More importantly, you don’t need to initiate a FaceTime call using a voice call. You can start the call using FaceTime directly, in which case the entire process takes place over IP networking. The advantage to starting with a voice call is that you’ll get a voice connection even if the recipient isn’t on Wi-Fi at the moment.

But consider the implications of the fact that you don’t need to start with a voice call. That means you don’t, in theory, need to start with a phone. A hypothetical camera-equipped iPod Touch could make FaceTime calls. So could a hypothetical camera-equipped iPad. Or even an Apple TV. This notion occurred to me during the WWDC keynote, when Steve Jobs said that Apple expected to ship “tens of millions of FaceTime devices” (emphasis added) this year alone. (Skip to around the 1:33:30 mark in the keynote.)

Today, a FaceTime-capable iPod Touch would not be a proper replacement for a phone. You could neither send nor receive calls when not connected to a Wi-Fi network, nor send or receive calls with anyone using a device that doesn’t support FaceTime. (The Wi-Fi limitation similarly anchors Skype-equipped iPod Touches today.)

But surely, someday, there will be a non-phone-carrier wireless networking technology with far greater range than Wi-Fi. FaceTime, I think, is a first step in the direction of a mobile “phone” with no mobile carrier. If and when FaceTime is supported over 3G in addition to Wi-Fi, it’ll be data, not voice — megabytes, not minutes. And immediately, starting today, it’s a step away from tying your iPhone’s “calls” to your carrier’s network.

(Via Daring Fireball)

Source: daringfireball.net

Apple opens iBookstore to self-publishers

Apple has opened the floodgates for aspiring authors by revealing a system that allows for self-publishing on the iBookstore without having to sign up with a publishing service like Smashwords or Lulu. The new service, which was brought to our attention by the folks at MacLife, allows anyone to sign up through a Web portal as long as you are able to meet several fairly straightforward requirements. This is definitely good news for new, independent, or undiscovered authors.

To take advantage of the service, you must first have an International Standard Book Number (ISBN) for each work you wish to make available for sale. Obtaining an ISBN isn’t as difficult a process you might think; it can take as little as two weeks. Second, you must have a copy of the work in ePUB format. There are a variety of different ways to convert text into ePUB format, many of which are free (a list can be found on the LexCycle website). You must also have a valid iTunes Store account as well as a US tax ID.

The last requirement is that you, as the author, must have access to a modern Mac. In order to participate, you must encode your eBook with Apple’s software, which needs an Intel Mac running at least OS X 10.5. The encoding process most likely adds Apple’s very own brew of DRM to the book, ensuring that your writings won’t be distributed outside of the iPhone or iPad.

It’s not clear whether Apple takes a cut of each sale, but the company does allow you to set your own price and choose which countries to publish in.

If you are an aspiring writer and give the service a spin, drop us a line. We’d love to hear about your experience.

(Via Infinite Loop)

Source: Ars Technica

How Apple could slay Google at WWDC 2010 — RoughlyDrafted Magazine

Apple is a company with thick skin. It takes an awful lot of prodding to rile the company or even provoke a response from its executives. Those jerking the company’s chain better hope this resilience to their attacks continues, because a single response from Apple at WWDC could wipe out Google and the bloggers that support it. Here’s how. .When Steve Jobs talks, people listen

On the rare occasions that Apple does respond to an issue, it does so in a brutally open and devastating way, such as when Jobs lambasted the idiot chatter about music and DRM with clear cut reality, or his more recent donkey punch delivered to Adobe’s Flash.

Jobs is also famous for succinctly explaining what he thinks about technologies or specific approaches to design, such as his castigation of the mini keyboards covering a third of the face of smartphones or mouse or stylus-based interfaces in the modern era of mobile multitouch devices.

Pundits and competitors, from John Dvorak to the CEOs of Palm and RIM, spent years explaining why Jobs was wrong about all this until meekly changing their collective tunes once they realized that it was them, and not Jobs, who had all the trouble seeing plain reality.

(Continue reading on Roughly Drafted)

Source: roughlydrafted.com

Reality Check: NPD’s Android vs. iPhone sales headlines

Headlines tell such a sensationalized side of the story. Here’s the missing bits of recent tech media events that have been reported with a slant starting with:

NPD says Android has surpassed iPhone in US unit sales . The suggestion: the reign of iPhone is over because Google’s Android platform is taking over the market in terms of sales and installed base.

The reality: Android sales are certainly not eating up iPhone sales, which are higher than ever–especially in the first quarter, when Apple’s hardware sales have historically plateaued. Rather than taking on the iPhone, Android is really just replacing the plummeting sales of Windows Mobile and the old Palm OS (and even webOS) and the embedded software that formerly ran a lot of HTC and Motorola phones. Consumers are upgrading away from pseudo-smartphones from LG and Samsung, and buying more advanced smartphones, which looks good for Android.

Globally however, Android sales are still well below the iPhone. According to IDC, Apple took 16.1% share of smartphones in the quarter, while HTC and Motorola (the only Android makers, who also sell other non-Android smartphones) amassed a combined global share of 9%. Android’s total share is less than half that of second place RIM’s BlackBerry sales and less than a quarter of the smartphones sold by Nokia, but Android is getting a lot of press to suggest that it is taking over the market, at least in the US.

Why is Android doing so well in the US? It’s the same reason RIM’s BlackBerry sales have kept pace ahead of the iPhone, despite failing to best or even match Apple’s platform in terms of technology: most of those phones are being given away for free. That’s an easy way to claim market share, but not really a way to actually create sustainable growth. And if you look at RIM’s global sales in the last quarter, they’re only up 45% year over year compared to Apple’s 131% growth, despite all of RIM’s promotional free giveaways contrasted with Apple’s actual sales to customers.

(Continue reading on Roughly Drafted)

Source: roughlydrafted.com

How iAd and the iPad Will Change Mobile Marketing

Apple’s iPad will be a revolutionary gadget, certain pundits have predicted, transforming everything from print media to environmentally friendly transportation to computing at large. But I’m beginning to think that Apple’s much-hyped new tablet may have more impact on mobile marketing than any other segment.

(Continue Reading on GigaOm)

Source: gigaom.com

TUAW: 99 year-old loves her first computer -- an iPad

Virginia Campbell, a 99-year-old woman from Lake Oswego, has finally bought her first computer — an Apple iPad. “It’s changed her life,” one of her daughters told OregonLive.com. Virginia has been an avid reader most of her life, but she suffers from glaucoma, making reading increasingly difficult.

Because of the iPad’s ability to adjust the brightness of the page and to increase the font by simply tapping, Virginia has been able to take up her beloved past-time again. Not only is she reading again, she’s writing again too. So far she has composed twelve limericks on her iPad, including this little ditty:

To this technical-ninny it’s clear In my compromised 100th year, That to read and to write Are again within sight Of this Apple iPad pioneer.

Here’s to you and your technological wonder, Virginia! We hope to read many more of your limericks well into the future.

(Via TUAW)

Source: tuaw.com

Books in the Age of the iPad

Print is dying. Digital is surging. Everyone is confused.

GOOD RIDDANCE.

As the publishing industry wobbles and Kindle sales jump, book romanticists cry themselves to sleep. But really, what are we shedding tears over?

We’re losing the throwaway paperback. The airport paperback. The beachside paperback.

We’re losing the dredge of the publishing world: disposable books. The book printed without consideration of form or sustainability or longevity. The book produced to be consumed once and then tossed. The book you bin when you’re moving and you need to clean out the closet.

These are the first books to go. And I say it again, good riddance.

(Continue reading on Craig Mod)

Source: craigmod.com

Apple reinventing file access, wireless sharing for iPad

Apple is dramatically rethinking how applications organize their documents on iPad, leaving behind the jumbled file system and making file access between the iPad and desktop computers seamless.

In a move foreshadowed by the Newton Message Pad fifteen years ago, Apple’s new iPad jettisons the conventional shared file system and introduces a new, streamlined convention for working with document files that ordinary users should find much more understandable.

Outside of savvy computer users, the idea of opening a file by searching through hierarchical paths in the file system is a bit of a mystery. Add in the concept of local and cloud file servers and things really get confusing.

Apple has already taken some steps to hide complexity in the file system in Mac OS X; Spotlight search was supposed to make a file’s location almost irrelevant, while apps such as iTunes, iPhoto, and Photo Booth now present their databases of content in media folders within the open file panel rather that forcing users to slog through the underlying file system.

(Continue reading on RoughlyDrafted)

Source: roughlydrafted.com

Top