Archive for category Apple
No, the iPad won’t cook your breakfast!
There are people in this world who tend to get hostile whenever I talk about an Apple product in a negative way. They call it “Apple Bashing.” Apparently they haven’t yet realized that I’m entitled to my own opinion and to make that opinion public. In fact, they are entitled to the exact same thing. Wow, who’d have thought?? So let me say this before you close the tab and turn me off: if you’re willing to read an article about how great the iPad is will be or how it has changed will change the world, you should be willing to take 5 minutes of your ever-so-busy life to read the following. You never know what you might be missing…
Anyway, I keep reading tweets, comments, news articles, blogs, and the like talking about how Apple’s iPad will be a revolutionary device. How it will open dead people’s minds to the idea of computing and make your grandparents computer programming prodigies. Okay, so that’s an exaggeration, but you can’t argue the fact that every time you turn around, someone is explaining why the iPad will revolutionize, reincarnate, revitalize, or generally reinvent certain industries. And, unfortunately, I have to ask: are you kidding me?? I mean, seriously! Let’s think this through…
Statement #1: The iPad will revolutionize photography.
Okay, right. Now, how is this going to happen again? The iPad lacks a camera. The iPad lacks photo editing or manipulation software. The iPad lacks a file system. The iPad lacks a high-resolution screen. In fact, the only thing the iPad does that has any connection to pictures, is that it can display the ones you sync from iTunes. So, what that means my friends, is that in order to put pictures on your iPad, you have too import them into iTunes and then sync them to your device. (Oh, I suppose you could email them to yourself as well, but that’s just slow and convoluted.) So, you’re telling me that this “yet to be approved by the FCC” Apple device is going to revolutionize photography. Well, you let me know when that happens. I have a feeling we’ll all be waiting awhile…
Statement #2: The iPad will revolutionize ebooks.
Okay, seriously–hold it right there! All you people who keep saying this just need to stop! Take a deep breath and look at the ebook market. Who do you see? Yup, that’s right. Amazon. The so-called revolution of ebooks has already happened, and trust me–it wasn’t started by Amazon either. In fact, I’d say we can trace this at least to the era of PalmOS-based PDAs. Suddenly, 3rd party developers were able to build apps that could read brand-new ebook formats. I read many ebooks back in the day via that method. In fact, half the time, I’d just send .txt files to my Palm and then open them in a reader that supported plain-text formats. Worked fine.
The Palm era of ebooks really wasn’t something that the masses could appreciate. Most average consumers didn’t have PDAs and the few who did probably weren’t interested in reading books on them. So, that’s why I ultimately look to Amazon and it’s incredibly popular Kindle device as the true ebook revolutionaries. Do you not remember the day the Kindle was first released? I mean, at first, most people were asking “what in the world is that!?” which was then followed by everyone and their mother buying one. In fact, Amazon sold out of Kindles nearly immediately, they were so popular. To me, that says “wow.” It says “I’m a revolutionary.” And ultimately means that Apple, in this case, is just a copycat. Face it, people. The only thing the iPad brings to ebooks is multi-touch. And I honestly can’t remember the last time I had the slightest urge to multi-touch my ebook…
Statement #3: The iPad will revolutionize digital media.
Sigh! Please not this again. If all reports were to be believed, the digital media industry has been revolutionized about 3 billion times by now. Don’t believe me? Well consider these: VHS, DVD, flat-screen monitors, flat-panel TVs, Bluray, iPods, HD radio, and now…the iPad? Yeah, I really don’t think the iPad fits in that list. Yes, the iPod does because it really did kickstart digital music, even if iTunes has been nothing but a pain in the neck. The iPad is not going to be nearly as “revolutionary.” Not even a small chance. None. ZERO. That’s partially because it lacks an open ecosystem coupled with it’s lack of support for industry standard file formats already in use by every other media device on the planet.
I’m not saying the iPad is going to be terrible, although I certainly do have a strong opinion regarding its success. All I’m saying, is that Apple’s marketing slogan, reading “our most advanced technology in a magical and revolutionary device…” is just that. Marketing jargon. There isn’t a shred of truth to it, guaranteed.
And no matter what anyone else tells you, it will most certainly not cook your breakfast…
Apple’s Servers Overloaded after Event
Folks trying to download iTunes 9 or any of Apple’s other newly released software today will find downloads either slow or unavailable as servers are hammered. This is a result of the 09.09.09 Apple event during which iTunes 9 was announced.
An end to the Apple App Store
The company Apple, lauded and applauded for it’s innovative devices and software has hit some bumps in the road as of late. Continued controversy surrounding it’s methods for approving and (seemingly more often than not) denying apps from showing up in its iTunes Store has brought new decisions to light over the past several weeks. It seems that Apple can (and will) readily deny any app from showing up in the store for any reason. This could be something from not liking the look and feel of the application to rejecting it simply because it competes with an existing Apple-created app. This is the very definition of a company that has become involved in anti-competitive practices.
Yet, while I can’t necessarily comment on the legality of Apple’s operation, I will say this: every time I read an article about yet another app-rejection from the iTunes Store, it reminds me of a communist/fascist 2nd world government. Certainly it doesn’t align with the capitalistic system of business we strive for within the United States.
The Apple App store needs some drastic changes. I’m fine with them taking a cut of each app’s sales. They built a good infrastructure for app distribution and they deserve to profit from their efforts. I also believe that it’s okay for Apple to charge developers a fee for access to the SDK; however, I believe this should be a one-time fee. Not yearly as is the current policy. From there, they need to abolish the entire app-review process entirely (other than perhaps scanning for viruses or truly malicious code) and allow any developer to publish any app to the store, for any price, at any completion level they choose. They say they’re worried about half-baked and bad applications cluttering the store, but honestly this is probably not too much of a concern. Customers will indubitably continue to rate and review apps they purchase and download, so good apps will rise to the top and bad ones will sink to the bottom. This is the way a capitalistic system works! It is the customer satisfaction that makes or breaks the company or product. Not a 3rd party who has no idea how useful or useless a product may be to any given customer.
Take two apps rejected just this week: Google Voice and Riverturn VoiceCentral–the former rejected because it supposedly competes with AT&T’s mobile service and the latter not approved because it allegedly “duplicates existing iPhone functionality.” The funny thing is, four months ago, Apple approved Riverturn’s app along with several updates in the interim only to pull the app from it’s app store this week after rejecting the Google Voice app. Additionally, customers are requesting refunds for purchased copies of VoiceCentral since it’s no longer available. That sort of thing could break the company’s bank especially since RiverTurn would have to foot the entire bill whilst Apple keeps their 30% profit margin. I can see the contentedly smug expressions on their faces already.
Ultimately, developers will leave Apple’s fold in droves if the current conditions and policies continue in effect. They’ll abandon Apple for other more friendly developers. Can anyone say the Palm Pre? Or what about the Android Marketplace?
The consumers and developers will decide the fate of Apple’s App Store. But the way things are going now–it’s just a matter of time…
Apple updates frustrate me
Just a minute ago, Apple Software Update popped up and asked me to update my Safari for Windows software from 4.0.1 to 4.0.2 to resolve some Javascript engine issues and fix a few security issues. A reasonable request since the browser version is pretty new. But what really got me was the fact that the update was a whopping 52MB!! I don’t understand this for several reasons.
First, comparable (read: better) browsers such as Firefox 3.5 and Internet Explorer 8 do not even come close to requiring a 52MB installer. The most recent version of Firefox is 10MB while IE 8 weighs in at a measly 25MB–less than half of Safari’s requirements. I’ve been equally miffed at iTunes and Quicktime which often require similarly sized updates–although I suppose I would expect those apps to carry a little more weight.
So, would someone care to explain the why behind these extravagantly large download sizes?
Apple iPhone OS 3.0 now available
Posted by Matt in Apple, Operating Systems, Smartphones on June 17th, 2009
Users of iPhone, iPhone 3G, iPod Touch 1G, and iPod Touch 2G may now log in to the Apple iTunes store and download the iPhone OS 3.0 upgrade for their device. It is available now for customers in the United States.
Enjoy 