The press packet that launched Windows 1.0 – wow.
Year: 2010
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How Far We Have Come
[via The Atlantic] -
Briefly on Using the MiFi With an iPad
Yesterday brought news of Verizon offering the iPad for sale in its stores by the end of the month and that they would bundle the iPad with a MiFi (portable WiFi hotspot, using the 3G data network). After posting about the announcement I posted this link to the Atlantic that talked about the pricing of the data plans for the iPad (AT&T 3G equipped iPad versus WiFi iPad with MiFi from Verzion).
I wanted to take the time to elaborate on this comment I made (I got a few emails about it):
If money is no object and you get great service from both companies (like we do here in Seattle) then why would you want to have to carry around the MiFi and your iPad? I hate doing it, but I didn’t want to wait for the 3G model (probably will for the 2nd gen version though).
I purchased my Verizon MiFi on day one when the gadget was released so that I could get internet on my Mac that was universal to all devices (WiFi is pretty much in everything these days). I certainly can understand the allure of the MiFi and in fact I think it is a great device. Actually it is an awesome device.
The MiFi + iPad combination is a great pair that works really well together and for that short time that there was no iPad w/ 3G available that combo was king of the hill. Now though that the 3G iPad is out in the wild the MiFi + iPad combination leaves something to be desired, something that unfortunately the MiFi cannot fix.
Problem #1
The first problem that you will encounter when pairing a MiFi with an iPad is where to carry the MiFi. The device itself is tiny, but you will be hard pressed to find an iPad case made to accommodate it. Which all leads to my most common problem: “crap where did the MiFi go?”
The sleeve I use for my iPad has a pouch that I keep the MiFi in M-F, but that pouch is too big for it so most times the MiFi will flip out and be kicking around in my car, messenger bag, house, office or elsewhere. My biggest complaint with the MiFi is that it is not built into the iPad – this is something that the MiFi will simply not be able to solve, but that the iPad 3G does solve (except that you can’t use it as a mobile hotspot).
Problem #2
Battery life is a big issue when you want to rely on the MiFi for internet access. With only one-client accessing the MiFi you get 4-hours battery life out of the device (and that is with strong reception from the cell network, anything less drains your battery significantly faster) and the iPad (famously) gets 10 hours of battery life. Meaning that under ideal conditions your MiFi will leave your iPad without internet for 6 hours. Lame.
I can tell you first hand that on average I get about 2-3 hours max out of my MiFi. Luckily though you can buy extra batteries and swap them in and out of the MiFi – but all that means is that you have more crap to carry and charge (see problem #1). Now the iPad certainly gets less battery life when using 3G (Apple states it gets only 9 hours) but it has a lot more browsing life than you do with the MiFi – 5 hours more browsing time.
Problem #3
Ease of use is another huge reason to just get the iPad with 3G instead of futzing about with the MiFi. The MiFi is super easy to use, but it is not as easy as just using your iPad. By that I mean that if you have a 3G iPad and you want to look up something on the net you flip it on, wait a second and surf the web – it connects to 3G for you if you don’t have WiFi available. With the MiFi you would have to pull out the iPad, check to see if you can get WiFi (because you are too lazy to pull out the MiFi first, trust me I am speaking from experience). Then when you see you have no WiFi pull out the MiFi, turn it on, wait, wait, then connect the iPad to the MiFi (it will do this automatically if you have used the two together before).
That extra step is a real pain in the ass. The MiFi on a good day takes about 9 seconds to start up and be ready to use. That is not including the time it takes me to find that damn thing.
iPad 3G It Is
All of this is my long winded, round about way of saying: if you want anywhere internet buy the iPad 3G, not an iPad + MiFi. In fact there is only one non-financial reason that you would not want to buy in iPad 3G, and that is that it has an ugly black plastic strip for the 3G antenna on it.
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NYT for iPad Now Offers Full Content, Still Free
Still isn’t the best looking app – they kept the styling of the ‘Editor’s Choice App’ (which if you have will update to this new app) and you need to create a free account to get the full content. That said it is nice that you can get all the content for free. Many though speculate that in 2011 when the NYT goes paid subscription only you will also have to pay for this app (I tend to agree).
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More On Apple’s Retail Dominance Strategy for the iPad
Yesterday I wrote a post titled “How Apple Is Positioning the iPad to Slaughter the Competition” and in that post I stated:
Even if Apple convinces 10% of people to buy an iPad instead of that cheaper net book or soon Android tablet, then this model will be a huge success. Just look at how many iPads have been sold without all this retail presence – until now people have had to go out and actively seek to get an iPad. Come November the iPad will just be every where for you, just like Apple did with the iPod.
Which was more or less my thesis of the entire post, you just had to read until the end (sorry about that). The post got picked up a few places and was well read. I thought I might take a moment though to clarify and expand on a couple of things.
The (lack of) Competitors
It was mentioned in a couple of places that right now the iPad really does not have any competitors. I could not agree with that sentiment more, however there are always competitors. Really the iPad is competing with any consumer good in the $300-1000 price range – the iPad like all goods is competing for your (our) disposable income. I set the price range as low as $300 deliberately, the thinking here is that if you are saving up to buy an iPad, once you have saved $300 you may be tempted to buy another good in that price range that you have been desiring. The psychological satisfaction of getting something now for your $300 instead of having to wait another period to reach $500 for the iPad is quite a driving force in the consumer mind.
Thus it is safe to assume that someone wanting to buy an iPad that has already saved $300 of the needed $500 will be quite tempted by any like good for the instant gratification that may bring (e.g. Wii, Playstation, BlueRay Player [can you still buy those?], Net Book, Smart Phone, etc.). So you can begin to see here that the iPad really is not just competing against other tablets or computers, but really the iPad is competing against anything else that you might want to buy – which is a lot of things.
That is why I believe it is so critical and so very smart of Apple to get the iPad in as many places as possible. The iPad sitting on the shelf near something else you want will serve as a constant reminder that if you can just wait a bit longer you will be able to get the iPad instead of that gas powered blender.
So in this case the iPad will serve as am reminder that it is the good you want to buy over all the other goods on the shelf. Now as I originally stated this is not going to get everyone to wait and buy an iPad, or even choose the iPad over other products. What this does do though is makes a strong case for waiting or purchasing the iPad instead of something else.
Risk
It was mentioned in a few comments that I saw around the web that this is not a risk at all for Apple given the massive amount of cash that they are sitting on. Frankly I don’t know where people got this from, not once did I talk about the risk of doing this from Apple’s perspective. In fact in thinking about it now it is far more risky for Apple not to pursue this route. If Apple just told people to come to the Apple Store (online or retail) they would be limiting their market size right away.
The Mac-user interface was a 10-year monopoly, Who ended up running the company? Sales guys. At the critical juncture in the late ’80s, when they should have gone for market share, they went for profits. They made obscene profits for several years. And their products became mediocre. And then their monopoly ended with Windows 95. They behaved like a monopoly, and it came back to bite them, which always happens.
The risk that Apple is facing is not getting the market share now before direct tablet competitors come to market. This risk has nothing to do with the potential of the device being sold at ‘other’ stores and everything to do with the device not being in front of enough consumers faces. Apple wants everyone to have seen and touched an iPad so that when Android/Windows tablets come to the market people have something to directly compare them to, and that something is the iPad.
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Parents Turn to iPad for Speech Therapy
Jennifer Valentino-Devries for the WSJ on using the iPad to help special needs people:
“We’re not having to fight to prove to people that she is a smart little girl anymore, because it’s there once they see her using the iPad,” said Caleigh’s mother, Holly Gray, who said her daughter can use the tablet to identify colors or ask to go outside.
Forget about what it is doing for the mother – imagine how empowering that is for the child.
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Right Click Off
I was neck deep in a bunch of WordPress theme files when my maintenance man called to ask me a Mac related question. Specifically he wanted to know how spell checking on the Mac worked ((He is brand new to Macs – 2nd week of ownership)) – I walked him through making sure the option to ‘check spelling as you type’ was on, but he was still confused. He couldn’t figure out what to do once the word was underlined in red, so I very plainly told him to just right click on the word and select the correct spelling.
…Silence
The next question that came from him: “How do you right click with this mouse?”
Now he is using a Magic mouse, I was pretty sure of this, but I confirmed. He said when he clicked on the right side of the mouse it just acts like a normal click. I instantly knew what was going on, he had not gone into System Preferences to turn on right click in the mouse preference pane. Twenty seconds later it was turned on and things made a lot more sense to him – he had just assumed you couldn’t right click on a Mac.
So too I assume do many other ‘new’ Mac users. Why in God’s name does Apple leave right click off by default on new Macs? It would seem to me that if Apple was really serious about making a Windows to Mac migration seamless that they would have that little option turned on by default.
There was a time – perhaps not long ago – that Mac users really had no use for the right mouse button. Today though we all right click on that damned squiggly red line to find out if the computer can really guess what we meant to type. In today’s world right click is ubiquitous and necessary. I understand the want to simplify the computing experience on Mac OS, and yes I know that you can Control-Click – for most users though not having right click on by default adds an unnecessary layer of confusion. Right click is so ubiquitous that for most not having it is more complicating that having it is.
So to all you new Mac users:
- Go to the Apple menu in the top left corner.
- Open ‘System Preferences’
- On the second row down near the middle click ‘Mouse’
- Under the ‘One Finger’ heading check the box next to ‘Secondary Click Right’
- Close ‘System Preferences’
- Enjoy
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Should You Choose Verizon or AT&T for Your iPad’s Data?
Daniel Indiviglio takes a look at how you can get data for your iPad. In the end he doesn’t declare a winner. Here is the answer though:
If price is the biggest factor for you then you get more bang for your buck if you go with Verizon’s $20 1gb a month plan. If you have crap Verizon service in your area then go with AT&T and vice versa.
If money is no object and you get great service from both companies (like we do here in Seattle) then why would you want to have to carry around the MiFi and your iPad? I hate doing it, but I didn’t want to wait for the 3G model (probably will for the 2nd gen version though).
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How Apple is Positioning the iPad to Slaughter the Competition
The iPad is without a doubt a home run for Apple – they are selling millions and sales are growing at a faster rate than iPhone sales grew. You can debate forever whether Android tablets will kill the iPad, we truly won’t know that until there are some viable iPad competitors on the market. One thing that seems to be happening though is that Apple is showing that they understand that they too don’t know what the future of tablet sales holds.
By the end of this month you will be able to buy iPads at: Apple Retail Stores, Apple.com, Apple Authorized Retailers Online, Best Buy, Walmart, Amazon.com, Target, AT&T Stores and Verizon Stores. That is massive market saturation for a device that is as widely talked about as the iPad. All of this means one thing: Apple is putting the iPad in front of as many buyers as they possibly can.
This is a smart strategy. A very smart strategy. If you walk into a Verizon store today you will see assorted net books that feature built in 3G wireless for sale, which is pretty neat. These net books are also subsidized so right now a quick check of Verizon’s website shows that you can get a net book for free with a 2yr contract or spend up to $199 (with another 2 year contract) on the six net book models that they have listed.
So let’s say you are Joe Not-Tech-Savvy and you walk in to a Verizon store and you want to get internet for your computer while you are traveling. You see the MiFi and the USB 3G modems, then you see this tiny cute computer that you can get for free so long as you promise to pay Verizon $40 a month for the next 24 months. Done deal. An iPad won’t even be considered as an option in your mind, you didn’t see it on the shelf and that is all that matters.
Now then take the same scenario and you see an iPad next to everything, in a prominent display (as Apple usually demands) and you see that for a two year contract you can get the iPad with a free MiFi and 3G internet for the same price as normal. Additionally you are told that you can use that MiFi with any and all of your computers for internet. Oh and let’s not forget that this would make your kids respect you more, and it is way cooler to have than that ‘cute’ little Samsung net book that is free.
Most people probably still won’t choose to spend the $500+ to get the iPad, but the select few that do choose the iPad would not have made that decision if the iPad wasn’t there for them to buy. So putting the iPad in more places like Walmart, Verizon, AT&T and Target doesn’t mean that the iPad will persuade everyone, but it does mean that people will have to decide between that and the iPad competitors. That is a dangerous place for iPad competitors to be.
Even if Apple convinces 10% of people to buy an iPad instead of that cheaper net book or soon Android tablet, then this model will be a huge success. Just look at how many iPads have been sold without all this retail presence – until now people have had to go out and actively seek to get an iPad. Come November the iPad will just be every where for you, just like Apple did with the iPod.
[Updated: 10/14/10 at 1:21 PM] Horace Dediu of Asymco chimes in:
What seems to be happening is that Apple is pulling out all the stops and going for unrestricted iPad distribution. This may also foreshadow unrestricted iPhone distribution next year. It may also portend a CDMA iPad (or at least an LTE version) next year.
If it happens all estimates for next year need to be revised sharply. I had been expecting 100% growth for the iPad and 50% growth for the iPhone. These might need to be increased to 150% and 100%.
The consequence could be that total iOS devices sold could top 150 million for calendar 2011.
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Verizon Stores Will Have The iPad On October 28
They are going to bundle the Wi-Fi only iPad with the MiFi (which I use and love) for the same price as the 3G iPads. This is great – but what is insane is that they are offering a new data plan for the iPad-MiFi which is $20/mo for 1gb of data. I don’t care if you have to buy a contract, that is a hell of a deal.
When I bought my MiFi you could get 250mb/mo for a monthly fee of $39.99 or 5gb/mo for a monthly fee of $59.99 (which is the one I chose). I am calling on the 28th to see if I can change my plan to the new 1gb plan. That would be sweet.
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John Sculley On Steve Jobs, The Full Interview Transcript
The Cult of Mac blog has a full interview with former Apple CEO John Sculley – this interview I believe is the first one he has given since his departure from Apple that specifically talks about Steve Jobs. It is long and given that it is not quite 7a right now I have yet to read it. Giving it a quick skim I did see this quote from John Sculley:
Steve believed that if you opened the system up people would start to make little changes and those changes would be compromises in the experience and he would not be able to deliver the kind of experience that he wanted.
I wonder how much of that quote is influenced by how Sculley perceives Steve Jobs to be today, and how much is actually historically accurate.
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Instapaper Buttons
Just a quick note, you should now see “Read Later” links at the top of every non linked-list post, clicking this will send that post to your Instapaper account. This is of course a free update for all my readers.
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Mac OS 10.7 Dreams
October 20th 2010 – up and until this date you are going to be hearing about a lot of Apple rumors, on the 20th Apple will be holding a press event. The event has been titled on invitations as ‘Back to the Mac’ which certainly means that the focus of the event is not iOS oriented. In the past I have predicted what I expect to see at these events, often leading to me looking a bit foolish (as anybody who regularly predicts Apple stuff is). This time around I decided to put together a Mac wish list of sorts.
The following is a list of things that I would love to see Apple announce, that are not too far out of the realm of something that we could reasonable expect Apple to release.
FaceTime
This may just be the only thing on this list that I am sure of. FaceTime really needs to be integrated into Macs – what will be interesting is wether Apple decides to use iChat (which really is aging) to implement it, or if they will create and entirely new FaceTime app on the Mac. Either way, we need it built into Mac OS.
Better SSD Support
SSDs are the way of the future, that is why Apple offers them as an upgrade right now. My guess is the Mac OS gets all the latest and greatest SSD support baked into the new OS. Specifically TRIM support.
Other than that I would hope that this new version of the OS will be something along the lines of optimized for the SSD first and a platter drive second.
iOS & Mac OS Love
By that of course I mean a better way for Mac apps to talk to iOS apps for syncing data and so forth. Right now the best way is Dropbox, which requires more setup than the average user will undertake. I would love to see a system where iOS devices can recognize a Mac app via Bonjour and just go from there.
[Hat tip to Mac Stories where I initially saw this thought ] A New iCal
Soooo…I have talked about this before but iCal on the Mac really sucks and all the replacements for it from third party developers suck. I want this:
A New Mail.app
Better filtering options, widescreen support built in, keyboard commands, exchange support is better, spam filtering is amazing, filing is improved. Most of all I hope that Apple gets with the times and realizes that most of the world does NOT use MobileMe and therefore needs Apple’s Mail client to work with things like Gmail and Exchange, and to work with those services very well.
Subtle Tweaks to the UI
I like the way Mac OS 10.6 looks, it is definitely the best looking OS out there right now (without heavy customization at least), but it too could use some refinements. For instance we could use a new Finder icon and a new Trash icon – man do they look dated. Ok and while we are at it, why can’t the inspector windows look a little more like the HUD themes that you can find online?
Updated Finder
Any Mac power user will tell you, Finder is showing its age. Tabs are the biggest wish for most people. I would settle for better network drive support, for both WebDAV servers and network shares. But my biggest complaint? Why can’t I hide some of the computers that Finder shows under the ‘shared’ tab in the sidebar? I mean only a few of those are ones that I need to access, so let me hide the rest away for crying out loud.
New Preview
I love the Preview app on Mac OS X, what a jack of all trades it is and far better and faster than using Adobe Acrobat. That said we need better support for reducing file sizes, the ability to OCR a PDF, and some basic tools to be able to digitally sign a document.
Yojimbo / DEVONthink type App
File folders are so 1999, today we just like to search or see things organized for us. This would be in addition to Finder, giving us a place to store and search all of our files, view and edit them – think iTunes for the rest of your crap.
Saving No More
I just feel greedy at this point, but one of my favorite features of Notational Velocity is that I don’t have to worry about hitting save. All that is done for me and backed up – saving needs to be a thing of the past. I can just imagine the commercials comparing saving on a Mac versus saving on a PC.
New iChat
Last but not least, if we are going to be forced to use iChat in order to use FaceTime on our Macs, the least Apple could do is make it good again.
Just sayin…
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The Talk Show on 5by5
If you aren’t already listening to The Talk Show with Dan Benjamin and John Gruber then you are missing out. Just finished listening to it live and what a great show it is – better live, second best while commuting.
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Outpost 2 for iPad
First native Basecamp app for the iPad that I know of. Expensive given that the website works just fine on the iPad – but it actually is very nicely done. With exception of how the file viewing works – if you use that a lot probably best not to buy this app.
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Windows Phone 7 Could be More Distracting
Thibaut Sailly on the new Windows Phone 7 Ad:
If I understood the product description well, the home screen of the Windows phone is going to be the dashboard of your digital life. Each part of it will reflect on the activity of your friends and other content your care most about. Wishfull thinking, but each part of it will be a reminder that you are missing something in your connected life. Each part of it will be an invitation to get sucked in. All the time.
It’s a big push notifications agregrator right in your face as soon as you get your phone out of your pocket. Not really what’s advertised.
This is precisely the reason I turn off all ‘badges’ for app icons in iOS (the ones that I can atleast) those badges are just way too distracting.
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AAPL of My Eye
Have you had a chance to see Apple’s stock lately, in case you haven’t here you go with a convienent comparison of RIM’s, Microsoft’s, Nokia’s and Adobe’s over the last six months time. Bottom line: Apple is up 24% at the time of this writing and the others are done on average 23.5% or everything Apple has increased the others have lost. Bummer for them.
As a side note do you see that nasty drop that Adobe had – ouch.
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Apple’s 10.7 Kitty Press Conference
Engadget got an invite stating “Back to the Mac.” with an Apple logo cutting away to reveal a lion. Leaving many to speculate that Apple will release Mac OS X 10.7 and that they will call it ‘lion’. Though to be honest at this point they could call it ‘Kitteh’ and get away with it – I mean have you checked their stock price lately?
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Financial Times’ iPad App Brings In £1 Million in Ad Revenue
Mark Sweney for PaidContent.org on the Financial Times iPad app:
Ben Hughes, who is also the paper’s global commercial director, said more than 400,000 subscribers have signed up for the app. He added that it now accounts for 10% of the paper’s new digital subscriptions.
He also notes that print advertising only makes up 40% of the overall revenue now. The Financial Times app is good, but incredibly expensive to be a subscriber to. That said it appears to be working for them, though it will be interesting to see what the trend on this will be over the next year.
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Seeing Blue
I pointed this out the other day, but way too many iOS apps use blue icons. I mean way too many, it is to the point where I could make entire home screens of nothing but blue icons. It is not just junky apps that use blue either, some of the best apps out there use blue for their app icon and it needs to stop. Our iOS devices are capable of displaying so much more color, please developers choose something other than blue.
Now I don’t want my devices to look like a damned rainbow or anything, but I do want my app icons to look somewhat different so that I can easily find the icon I am looking for.
For instance currently on my iPhone:
- 89 apps in total
- 35 of which are blue
- 6 of which are red
- 39.3% Blue
- 6.7% Red
On my iPad:
- 66 apps in total
- 21 of which are blue
- 3 of which are red
- 31.8% Blue
- 4.5% Red
On my Mac’s Dock:
- 11 apps (not counting finder & trash)
- 4 of which are blue
- 0 of which are red
- 36.3% Blue
- 0% Red
Am I the only one that finds this crazy? No, I know I am not, I have seen others talk about this before. Where are all the good red, yellow, orange app icons? Gowalla’s is orange and it is perhaps one of the easiest apps to find on my iPhone because of it.
Again I am not advocating that developers get all crazy and force my home screen into looking like a rainbow or a Jackson Pollock painting, I just want a little more diversity.
Let’s expand our use of colors when it comes to iOS icons, and hell Mac icons for that matter too.
I was being very conservative in the counts above, as there are some apps that could also qualify as blue, but that blue wasn’t the main color of the icon. -
Making Gmail Play Nice With Mac OS X Mail
Stephen Hackett has put together a great guide on how to get Gmail to work really well with Mac Mail. There are more than a couple of tips in here that I didn’t know about – what a great guide.