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>Shawn and Ben talk about cellphone fanboy rankings in Kansas City, iPad 3 rumors, and Ben’s ideas about the model that Kickstarter is using (Shawn brings some rationality into that discussion). Thanks to our excellent sponsors: [Doxie Go](http://www.getdoxie.com/a/bbpodcast_feb12.php) and [Jumpchart](https://www.jumpchart.com/).
>Shawn and Ben talk about cellphone fanboy rankings in Kansas City, iPad 3 rumors, and Ben’s ideas about the model that Kickstarter is using (Shawn brings some rationality into that discussion).
Thanks to our excellent sponsors: [Doxie Go](http://www.getdoxie.com/a/bbpodcast_feb12.php) and [Jumpchart](https://www.jumpchart.com/).
[Craig Grannell responding to the idea/ragae that Apple should have prevented Path from uploading a users address book](http://reverttosaved.com/2012/02/10/blame-apple-part-3463-it-shouldnt-allow-devs-to-be-naughty/): >But more to the point, why should Apple become a watchdog for the less-than-moral behaviour of some developers? Just because you can do something, that doesn’t mean you should. What I think we all have to keep…
[Craig Grannell responding to the idea/ragae that Apple should have prevented Path from uploading a users address book](http://reverttosaved.com/2012/02/10/blame-apple-part-3463-it-shouldnt-allow-devs-to-be-naughty/):
>But more to the point, why should Apple become a watchdog for the less-than-moral behaviour of some developers? Just because you can do something, that doesn’t mean you should.
What I think we all have to keep in mind here is the concept of trust and more specifically who is asking for our trust. Apple isn’t saying that we should trust developers, quite the contrary, because of the review process Apple is saying that we actually *shouldn’t* trust developers.
What Apple is telling iOS (and now with the Mac App Store, OS X) users is that they can and *should* trust Apple. And therefore they can trust everything in the App Stores because those apps have been vetted by Apple.
And we are supposed to trust Apple.
There is no doubt in my mind that developers should go out of their way to gain user trust and there are some developers that are absolutely trustworthy. While there are certainly developers that can be trusted, and developers that can not be trusted, it doesn’t matter at the end of the day.
If you live and play in the Apple world, you need only trust Apple. This is what Apple tells us — it’s a ‘feature’ of the Apple ecosystem.
The fact is, that in this instance, Apple broke that trust.
Priceonomics: >Not all cell phones are created equal. You can buy an iPhone 4S today and sell it a few months later on the secondary market for almost what you paid for it. However, if you buy the latest big fancy Android phone, a few months later it has lost hundreds of dollars in value.…
Priceonomics:
>Not all cell phones are created equal. You can buy an iPhone 4S today and sell it a few months later on the secondary market for almost what you paid for it. However, if you buy the latest big fancy Android phone, a few months later it has lost hundreds of dollars in value.
I wonder if this has much of anything to do with popularity/design, because you have to think the slow rate at which Apple releases iPhones, compared to the rate at which new Android phones comes out, plays a huge role in this.
Priceonomics also noted this underlying assumption that they make:
>At Priceonomics, we firmly believe that resale value is the best objective indicator of product quality.
I couldn’t disagree with that statement more. There are far more factors controlling the resale value of cellphones. Things like:
– Gazelle, or any other company wanting to buy back the phone. Why would you sell your iPhone for less than what Gazelle is offering — this pumps up the price.
– Apple refurbished units set the price for mint condition used phones.
– Carrier subsidies: because maybe I am willing to pay $25 more than what I could buy the phone new for, just so I didn’t have to be locked into a contract.
All this plays a large role in determining price — much larger, I think, than product quality.
Harry Esteve on the proposed law: ((Meanwhile Washington is [inches](http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/02/09/us-gay-marriage-washington-idUSTRE81727F20120209) away from legalized gay marriage.)) >It was dubbed the “flash mob” bill when it got a hearing Monday at the Oregon Legislature — a proposal to make it a felony to summon people by Twitter or email to commit a crime at a designated place.…
Harry Esteve on the proposed law: ((Meanwhile Washington is [inches](http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/02/09/us-gay-marriage-washington-idUSTRE81727F20120209) away from legalized gay marriage.))
>It was dubbed the “flash mob” bill when it got a hearing Monday at the Oregon Legislature — a proposal to make it a felony to summon people by Twitter or email to commit a crime at a designated place.
and:
>Sen. Doug Whitsett, R-Klamath Falls, said he asked for the bill because he heard from retailers about being victims of flash mobs that steal stuff.
and then:
>”If someone wants to bring a whole bunch of people to the Capitol to demonstrate, no problem,” he said. “But if they’re solicited to come to the Capitol at 9 p.m. to firebomb the place, that’s a problem.”
The man does have a point, I mean, firebombs are **not** cool. ((As if we needed another reason not to live in Oregon, Sen. Whitsett wants to make sure we point and laugh.))
Or WOA, as Steven Sinofsky highlights in his post about porting Windows 8 to the ARM architecture. Sinofsky also answers one of the bigger questions about WOA, will it run “full” Windows: >WOA supports the Windows desktop experience including File Explorer, Internet Explorer 10 for the desktop, and most other intrinsic Windows desktop features—which have…
Or WOA, as Steven Sinofsky highlights in his post about porting Windows 8 to the ARM architecture. Sinofsky also answers one of the bigger questions about WOA, will it run “full” Windows:
>WOA supports the Windows desktop experience including File Explorer, Internet Explorer 10 for the desktop, and most other intrinsic Windows desktop features—which have been significantly architected for both touch and minimized power/resource consumption.
To be honest I am not sure what the hell that statement means. What I think it means is that, yes, you will get full Windows — but that full Windows will have been optimized for tablets running ARM chips.
I think.
Since the iPhone came out lawyers and government officials have always said (to me): “I can’t use the iPhone because person/agency/department X doesn’t (or doesn’t allow it).” I never understood this. Corporate offices have clung to their BlackBerry devices so it is nice to see these organizations make the move.
Since the iPhone came out lawyers and government officials have always said (to me): “I can’t use the iPhone because person/agency/department X doesn’t (or doesn’t allow it).”
I never understood this. Corporate offices have clung to their BlackBerry devices so it is nice to see these organizations make the move.
Marco Arment: >But Apple can, and should, assure users that no app can read their contact data without their knowledge and explicit permission. Yep.
Marco Arment:
>But Apple can, and should, assure users that no app can read their contact data without their knowledge and explicit permission.
Yep.
Dan Moren, wrapping up his three day test of the iPad as his *only* machine for work: >That’s perhaps the biggest change in switching from a Mac to the iPad: The technology becomes almost transparent. You are simply writing, or reading, or browsing. It’s all about the task itself, while the technology you’re using fades…
Dan Moren, wrapping up his three day test of the iPad as his *only* machine for work:
>That’s perhaps the biggest change in switching from a Mac to the iPad: The technology becomes almost transparent. You are simply writing, or reading, or browsing. It’s all about the task itself, while the technology you’re using fades into the background.
That’s largely been my experience too, so it comes down to whether you like that or not — because it can be quite confusing. Moren wrote a three part series and you should definitely read up on them.
Path CEO Dave Morin: >We also believe that actions speak louder than words. So, as a clear signal of our commitment to your privacy, we’ve deleted the entire collection of user uploaded contact information from our servers. Your trust matters to us and we want you to feel completely in control of your information on…
Path CEO Dave Morin:
>We also believe that actions speak louder than words. So, as a clear signal of our commitment to your privacy, we’ve deleted the entire collection of user uploaded contact information from our servers. Your trust matters to us and we want you to feel completely in control of your information on Path.
Well done.
Hey HP. Let me wrap my head around something. You killed off the TouchPad — perhaps the most interesting iPad competitor — because it wasn’t selling well and everyone was confused as to what HP was doing. Now though (in light of all that confusion passing?), you launch a brand new HP Slate — the…
Hey HP.
Let me wrap my head around something.
You killed off the TouchPad — perhaps the most interesting iPad competitor — because it wasn’t selling well and everyone was confused as to what HP was doing.
Now though (in light of all that confusion passing?), you launch a brand new HP Slate — the same type of device that Ballmer famously tried to upstage the iPad with (before the iPad launched)?
That just seems silly.
Surely this is all a joke, right?
A great take on the Path screw up by Brent Simmons, as he shares how these types of mistakes are made on the developer side of things.
A great take on the Path screw up by Brent Simmons, as he shares how these types of mistakes are made on the developer side of things.
Dan Frakes has a nice look at a Mac app called WeatherMin — it reminds me a lot of how I display the weather on my desktop using [Nerdtool](http://mutablecode.com/apps/nerdtool). Should be a good option if Nerdtool is, well, too nerdy for you.
Dan Frakes has a nice look at a Mac app called WeatherMin — it reminds me a lot of how I display the weather on my desktop using [Nerdtool](http://mutablecode.com/apps/nerdtool). Should be a good option if Nerdtool is, well, too nerdy for you.
Mark Chang: >Inspired by [this post](http://mclov.in/2012/02/08/path-uploads-your-entire-address-book-to-their-servers.html) (which you should all read), I looked at the apps on my own iPhone for information leakage by other apps. I figured this would be common practice, and lo and behold, when booting up Hipster, it seems like parts of my iPhone address book were being uploaded to Hipster.…
Mark Chang:
>Inspired by [this post](http://mclov.in/2012/02/08/path-uploads-your-entire-address-book-to-their-servers.html) (which you should all read), I looked at the apps on my own iPhone for information leakage by other apps. I figured this would be common practice, and lo and behold, when booting up Hipster, it seems like parts of my iPhone address book were being uploaded to Hipster. Here’s the breakdown, done in the style of Arun Thampi (the author of the first post).
One interesting thing that I saw floating around the web, about all this address book uploading that is happening on iOS, is this idea that an App must ask for permission to use your location, but doesn’t need to do so before it grabs everything in your address book and uploads it to their servers.
Apple needs to change this. Now.
Michael Arrington: >Path should just state that they’re nuking all collected address book data for all users right now. Remove it from their servers entirely. Agreed. ((Quick, anyone know if I have ever agreed with Arrington before?))
Michael Arrington:
>Path should just state that they’re nuking all collected address book data for all users right now. Remove it from their servers entirely.
Agreed. ((Quick, anyone know if I have ever agreed with Arrington before?))
“The iPhone is the most useful computer in the world.” — Chuck Skoda
kooaba Shortcut is a shortcut between real life and the Internet. Take a picture of what you are reading in a newspaper or magazine and instantly get connected to the digital version. Using image-recognition technology, Shortcut recognizes what you’re reading. Once recognized, you can share the digital version of the pages via Facebook, Twitter, SMS,…
kooaba Shortcut is a shortcut between real life and the Internet. Take a picture of what you are reading in a newspaper or magazine and instantly get connected to the digital version.
Using image-recognition technology, Shortcut recognizes what you’re reading. Once recognized, you can share the digital version of the pages via Facebook, Twitter, SMS, and email, or store them in Evernote. This works with over 1,000 newspapers and magazines worldwide. (See [http://www.kooaba.com/products/shortcut](http://click.syndicateads.net/2012/02/shortcut/brooksreview.html) for a list of publications.)
Shortcut also works with advertisements in newspapers and magazines, and billboards with the Shortcut icon. After taking a picture of such an ad, you gain access to extras such as coupons, sweepstakes, or store locators.
With Shortcut you no longer need to type links into your phone, google for information, or cut out articles – Just take a picture instead!
Shortcut is available for [iPhone](http://www.kooaba.com/products/shortcut_app?p=iphone), [Android](http://www.kooaba.com/products/shortcut_app?p=android), and [Windows Phone 7](http://www.kooaba.com/products/shortcut_app?p=wp7).
When the MacBook Air “relaunched” in 2010, I immediately thought that it was the absolute best computer that any general computer user could buy. It was priced right, fast enough, light enough, had great battery life — and so on — it blew everything else out of the water. More importantly it came with an…
When the MacBook Air “relaunched” in 2010, I immediately thought that it was the absolute best computer that any general computer user could buy. It was priced right, fast enough, light enough, had great battery life — and so on — it blew everything else out of the water.
More importantly it came with an SSD standard. For most users that SSD will be the single greatest speed boost they have ever seen when upgrading from one computer to another.
It seemed to me that the 2010 MacBook Air (and it’s subsequent upgrades) was the computer that 95% of all computer users should buy — not just Mac users.
I haven’t thought much about this until the never-ending debate over whether an iPad is a PC overtook my RSS reader (again) this past week. I have nothing further to comment on that debate other than to say that iPads can, and are, certainly being used in place of PCs. ((Personally I think it is foolish to think of the iPad as anything but a PC. The more interesting debate to me is whether iPhones and Android phones are PCs.))
If I, and many others, believe that the iPad is actually a PC — then does my theory that the MacBook Air is the best PC that people can buy still hold true today?
That is: is the iPad a better PC for most people than a MacBook Air?
That was interesting enough to me that I started to write this post, but then something else occurred to me. If the iPad is better for most people than a MacBook Air, then is an iPhone better for most people than an iPad and thus a MacBook Air?
It’s a topic that [Shawn and I discussed on the last episode of our podcast](http://thebbpodcast.com/2012/02/episode-45-a-slightly-better-pedigree-of-americanos/), but one that I think warrants further thought.
It’s easy ((Because people are already doing it.)) to see why one would argue that the iPad could be better suited for most people than a MacBook Air, but a cellphone? That seems like a stretch, right?
### More with Less?
I am not arguing that everyone goes out a buys iPhones and ditches all other computers. That’s short sighted.
I do however think that the iPhone can do *more* than an iPad while being far more convenient. Thus if you think buying an iPad instead of a PC is a good idea, then perhaps buying an iPhone instead of either would be an even *better* idea.
I don’t have a strong argument that the iPhone is a better computer than a MacBook Air — because it’s not. But I do think that it is by far my (a many other peoples) most *used* computer.
So my question now becomes: if I use my iPhone more than my iPad, and more than my MacBook Air — is my iPhone the best computer I have?
I think the answer is a resounding: yes.
Not only that, but I think that any one of my iPhones (certainly the 4S) is *the* best computer I have ever owned. Yet, while that is most certainly a true statement, I wouldn’t dare ditch my iPad or MacBook Air.
### Niche Computer Era
The simple fact is that we now have two types of computing devices: general purpose and niche. All of these devices are “personal computers” it just so happens that not all of them a general purpose personal computers. ((I guess I did end up weighing in on the debate.))
My MacBook Air and everything with a “Mac” label are general purpose computers. However things like my iPhone, iPad, and the Nest are all niche computers.
There’s certainly nothing wrong with choosing a niche computer over a general purpose computer — just so long as you can do what you need and want to do with the computer. If all I need a computer for is to control the temperature in my house, then the Nest makes far more sense than a Mac Pro.
So to get back to my original question: If the iPad is better for most people than a MacBook Air, then is an iPhone better for most people than an iPad and thus a MacBook Air?
The iPhone is probably not better for most, but certainly better for some. ((Where the term “some” doesn’t necessarily amount to a small percentage of people. I believe this group is rapidly growing.)) I would even argue that as time progress the amount of people that the iPhone is a better computer for is actually increasing, not decreasing.
For me the iPhone has done far more to reduce my need of a MacBook Air type computer than the iPad has ever done. ((And I love my iPad.))
Arun Thampi: >Upon inspecting closer, I noticed that my **entire address book (including full names, emails and phone numbers) was being sent as a plist to Path**. Now I don’t remember having given permission to Path to access my address book and send its contents to its servers, so I created a completely new “Path”…
Arun Thampi:
>Upon inspecting closer, I noticed that my **entire address book (including full names, emails and phone numbers) was being sent as a plist to Path**. Now I don’t remember having given permission to Path to access my address book and send its contents to its servers, so I created a completely new “Path” and repeated the experiment and I got the same result – my address book was in Path’s hands.
Not cool.
MG Siegler on Google porting Chrome for Android devices: >Say I have 5 tabs open in Chrome on my iMac and I get up to leave my home. I can see all 5 in Chrome for Android. And if I have 3 other tabs open on my MacBook Air, I can see those as well,…
MG Siegler on Google porting Chrome for Android devices:
>Say I have 5 tabs open in Chrome on my iMac and I get up to leave my home. I can see all 5 in Chrome for Android. And if I have 3 other tabs open on my MacBook Air, I can see those as well, all labeled and separated.
Sounds like a huge step forward for Android users (and would be awesome to get in iOS), but:
>Back to the bad news: some of the more advanced features of Chrome for Android require APIs found only in Ice Cream Sandwich, so the team made the call to make it only available for Android 4.0 and beyond. Again, this means only 1% of current Android users out there can actually get and use the browser right now.