Katie Notopoulos on watchOS 3:
The second feature is the emergency alert system. To me, this seemed so clearly designed for women – a safety alert system for walks home at night or through a deserted parking lot. Safety was one of the features women liked about the Apple Watch to begin with – like being able to call an Uber without taking their phone out of their purse.
Really great app, now on the Mac. What I like best: you get a lot of control over it, and it syncs your settings from iOS. Whitelist a site on iOS, it is whitelisted on your Mac. Love that.
Aer has launched a new travel backpack/carryon today on Kickstarter. I have a review sample of the pack and will have something to share soon on it. In the mean time, it’s a really well made bag.
Here’s a few comparison photos you might find interesting:
Absolutely brutal take on the new Top Gear hosts. I have yet to see the new show, but I did watch the 90 second preview on iTunes. Here’s the thing, that 90 second preview used to be amazingly entertaining to watch and make me want to buy the show. I left the preview with the new cast scratching my head.
Luckily, the old cast is back on Amazon this fall.
The camera practically disappears and allows you to immerse yourself in capturing the perfect moment in time.
The above statement is the highest compliment you can pay to any camera.
One last reminder that the membership drive ends today at 5pm PST. There’s also one other thing: the quarterly membership plan ($7/quarter) is currently way cheaper than all other plans. After today that plan will be gone for good. If you are on that plan now, you get to keep it until you cancel it.
After today though, that will no longer be an option. Thanks to everyone who has been signing up, I can’t wait to do the giveaway.
Marco Arment on, I guess, a potential demise of Apple: ((Perhaps this is more of a warning, or a complaint about iCloud services?))
Today, Amazon, Facebook, and Google are placing large bets on advanced AI, ubiquitous assistants, and voice interfaces, hoping that these will become the next thing that our devices are for.
If they’re right — and that’s a big “if” — I’m worried for Apple.”
What if they’re wrong though?
If Google is wrong, and computing continues to be defined by a tightly controlled grid of siloed apps that you poke a thousand times a day on a smooth rectangle of manufacturing excellence, Apple is fine. They’re doing a great job of what computing is today, and what it will probably continue to be for a long time.”
Not quite.
Actually, this is not accurate. Not all of these companies can “win”, some have to fail. So essentially Google, Amazon, and Facebook are fighting for their futures. If they are wrong, some or all likely meet Blackberry’s fate. If they are right, they could still lose and meet Blackberry’s fate because their competitors do it better, or something like that. Blackberry wasn’t wrong — they saw the mobile phone becoming an essential tool for everyone — Blackberry just didn’t win.
Now, back to Apple. Let’s assume that Marco is right and Apple isn’t even fucking trying big data or AI. (I personally feel there is little chance this is a correct assumption, but whatever. It actually doesn’t matter.) Let’s say, for shits and giggles, that Facebook wins at AI and Google wins at big data and Amazon does something else we don’t care about for this post. Does Apple become irrelevant?
If you assume that they do, then essentially you think the iPhone paved the way. You think that the iPod was the first MP3 player, you think OS X was state of the art — and on and on. Apple rarely does it first. None of those things did it first. It’s not a zero-sum game.
Apple succeeds right now because they do it better. Will it be hard to catch up? Maybe, but so far it’s not been hard for Apple at all. Not under Steve Jobs, and not under Tim Cook.
Let’s also not forget Maps. When the iPhone came out, I don’t think Apple was prepared for just how crucial mapping would be. They just relied on Google to get it right. And then, Apple Maps. Is it better? That’s subjective. But it is most certainly good enough. The Apple Watch wasn’t even close to being the first. Is it amazing? Depends. But is it better than any other smart watch? Yes.
So, even if Facebook, Google, and Amazon beat Apple to something, they would all very much want their something on the iPhone. Because: iPhone.
As long as iPhone still trumps all — iPhone still trumps all. Even if Apple has to start 3 years in the hole — we’ve seen them do it successfully with Apple Maps and many other things — it doesn’t hurt them, it just doesn’t help them.
The iPhone trumps, and cash is King. Apple has both — massive amounts of both if we are talking about cash.
Apple can wait and take their time. They can be cautious, they are in a position where they don’t need to skate to where every puck will be, they just need to be ready to drop everything to get to the puck once they think they know where it is about to land. This is a strategy that works for only a hand full of companies because it takes a dominant market position, and cash. This is exactly how Internet Explorer won over Netscape Navigator, by the way.
Over at MartianCraft we launched new versions of TouchPad and NumPad. Among the new things is how we tackled upgrade pricing. I’m very proud of the model we used, so take a look at the article explaining it.
Nice overview from MacStories on the latest PDF Expert update. Personally, I am very happy they support the Apple Pencil now. Great app.
This is easily the most concerning thing I have seen about the future of Apple. I’m not yet sold on voice, but I have no doubt it is a large part of the future of computing.
Spencer Bentley:
People who say, ‘it’s not the camera, it’s the photographer,’ are missing the boat. Sure if you put a ten thousand dollar camera in the hands of a blind raccoon you’re probably not going to get any great photos. But in the same vein, if Ansel Adams, Robert Capa, or Vivian Maier had left their cameras at home how much poorer would we all be.
Fantastic post.
Chris Bowler on his switch to 2Do:
Indeed. 2Do strikes the right balance.
2Do is such a fantastic app — but OmniFocus has also been a on tear lately with new features. Glad to see some renewed competition here. For now, I am still very happy with 2Do.
Steven Sinofsky writing about his new iPad Pro:
It is a good idea for the debate not to center on “developer” scenarios since the vast majority of people don’t do these things, especially when one considers the degree to which many on earth will experience a smartphone as their first and only “computer”.
The first half of his post is a fantastic analysis of how iPad adoption is likely going to play out. He then dives into his likes and dislikes of the iPad Pro, culminating in this:
The shift to this new form factor and new platform will bring with it cultural changes that take advantage of what are perceived as disadvantages. As makers, being early is essential, otherwise you are late.”
Very astute.
Oh, and I went the sticker route too:
Craig Hockenberry in the iPad Pro 9.7 display:
After using this iPad for a couple of weeks, I’ve realized it’s like the advances of Retina in an important way: I never want to use a lesser display again. And as with higher density, I think it’s obvious that Apple will eventually update all its products to use this improved screen technology. I can’t wait!
It’s a fantastic display. Can’t wait to get it on all my devices.
I don’t believe Apple should move away from the app-based model of file management on iOS. However, both document providers and iCloud Drive ought to be faster to operate, more transparent, and as versatile as they would be a on desktop computer.
I still don’t think the file system matters that much — but damn if Viticci doesn’t have some compelling ideas. The video is fantastic too.
As iOS further matures, I’m just not so sure I’ll have much need for a laptop. Trust me. I’m as surprised by this realization as anybody else.
He is thinking he will only need a desktop, but I suspect that it won’t be but another year before people like Sparks are wondering what they need the desktop for…
If you live a life with the impossible notion of having zero risk, you may be happy but you won’t know how much happier you could have been if you explored new experiences with some risk attached.
Great post from Richard on how he uses and sees the Apple Watch. I particularly love his term for the app icons on the watch.
Gabe Weatherhead on a disturbing trend:
This new era where every app maker wants to hold my data is not a future I look forward to.
This is the one change to TextExpander that I dislike the most. It’s also becoming increasingly more common. Sync is not a business model.
Gabe Weatherhead has a good overview of some of the quirks with Keyboard Maestro.