- Currently Listening to:
- Eddie Vedder — Society
Twitter has really taken off in the last few weeks. If you haven’t signed up yet, and are sick of hearing about it, I sympathise. I didn’t understand what the point was at all until I signed up, originally just so that I could follow a few interesting people better than I could using RSS. Eventually, you’ll see a conversation going on and want to join in.
From a web architecture point of view, Twitter is particularly interesting because it is, to my memory, the first web 2.0-ey application that doesn’t really need a website. They’ve done such a great job with their API and backend that there are dozens of excellent applications and plugins for just about every publishing platform. I read and post from a bunch of applications — Tweetie on my iPhone, and Lounge and Tweetdeck on my laptop — and very rarely actually visit the Twitter website.
I guess this is a matter of partly good timing (now that smartphones are common), and partly that tweets are perfect iPhone-sized data.
- Complete iOS 4.1 Walkthrough | 9 to 5 Mac Complete iOS 4.1 Walkthrough | Apple Intelligence
- All i-migo wants for Christmas is no Chinese pirate grinch - Telegraph
- Marco.org - A smartphone retrospective
- Daring Fireball: Apple's System Apps
- Apple Liquid Metal Already in Use
The part we are talking about here is pictured above. The iPhone 3GS SIM pin is apparently made from Liquidmetal alloy. The reason this part is made of liquid metal is that it's part of the iPhone, but not an essential part. The liquidmetal used makes the part extremely hard but at the same time very light weight.
- Why is AAPL under $250 when it’s business is booming? | The Mac Observer Forums
1) Apple has optimized its OS and its programs for two screen sizes. Android will have to scale. To get an idea of how that might look, take a glance at an iPhone app sized for the iPad. Not a pretty sight.
2) Android phones may have outsold iPhones last quarter, but they didn’t affect Apple’s growth. Both Apple and Android are devouring the non-competitive dumb and feature phone markets. They are NOT competing with one another. For an Android tablet to succeed, it will either have to target a market that the iPad has not targeted or it will have to go head-to-head with the iPad. The low cost of the iPad will make it difficult for an Android tablet to do the former. And the quality and utility of the iPad will make it difficult for an Android tablet to do the latter.
- AAPL: Math, Market Share & Margins | The Mac Observer Forums
It’s time for a quick discourse on Apple math. Those, like CNBC’s Jim Cramer, who believe this has turned into an event driven stock are completely wrong. It’s all about the fundamentals. The lackluster response to unprecedented iPhone demand represents the greatest buying opportunity on Wall Street. Apple math sacrifices a big payday today for an even larger payday tomorrow.
I have spent hours a day on this site, watching the dailies and discussions, so I’m not totally clueless about the machinations of the shorts and naked sellers. And I understand the manipulation going on for the churn profits. But I would have expected the longer term hands to use these swings for accumulation, with a slowly rising uptrend SOMEWHAT INDICATIVE of these facts as laid out in the article.
Have the shorts become so dominant that they now ARE the markets? Are INVESTORS now totally irrelevant to the movement of APPL and the only course is a timeframe of a few hours at best?
- Google Trends: iphone, android
iphone, android
- New iPhone and iPad Models Set to Begin Field Testing? - Mac Rumors
Software evidence of Apple's future devices tends to appear rather early in the development process, as evidenced by iPhone3,1 appearing in iPhone OS configuration files in March 2009. That device turned out to be the iPhone 4, released 15 months later. Evidence of field testing of the iPhone 4 appeared by late November 2009, more than six months before its public launch.
- Sony Takes on iPhone's Growing Mobile Gaming Popularity in New Ad - Mac Rumors
Ars Technica highlights a new television commercial for the Sony PSP in which a character mocks the mobile gaming experience on a smartphone that looks suspiciously like an iPhone. In addition to claiming a superior experience on the PSP, Sony also touts $9.99 pricing for some of its older games, closer to the App Store typical high-end gaming price point than that of traditional PSP games.
It's interesting: the PSP is basically setting itself up as an alternative to iPhone games, which is the opposite of how that argument usually plays out. Sony is also promoting inexpensive, older games as a reason to enjoy the PSP instead of looking ahead to big-name upcoming titles.
- Apple Hires Near Field Communications Expert - Mac Rumors
- asymco | The iPhone growth rate
The trend is clear to see. With seasonal variation due to the launch cycle, the share is likely to increase over 3% and keep going. How far can it go? That’s a strategic decision for Apple’s management. If we are to take Steve Jobs’ word that their plan is not to be a niche player in any market they target then I have to conclude that Apple is aiming above 10%.
The volume expansion in the US due to the end exclusivity is only the latest in a series of distribution deals that Apple has brought to bear: International expansion, dropping exclusivity in other countries and broadening the portfolio (including earlier models in current line-up) are all natural and obvious moves in a broader market push.
- id Unleashes Impressive Rage On The iPhone
During his keynote speech at QuakeCon 2010, id Software's John Carmack demonstrated Rage on the iPhone, running at 60 frames-per-second and able to "kill anything done on the Xbox or PlayStation 2."
- Papermaster's Departure Linked to 'Cultural Incompatibility' Rather Than Antenna Issues - Mac Rumors
Exactly how much the problems with the iPhone 4 played in Mr. Papermaster's exit is unclear. The iPhone 4, a key device for Apple, has been beset by issues such as antenna reception and delayed production of a white version of the gadget. Several people familiar with Mr. Papermaster's situation said his departure was driven by a broader cultural incompatibility.
Mr. Papermaster had lost the confidence of Mr. Jobs months ago and hasn't been part of the decision-making process for some time, these people said. They added that Mr. Papermaster didn't appear to have the type of creative thinking expected at Apple and wasn't used to Apple's corporate culture, where even senior executives are expected to keep on top of the smallest details of their areas of responsibility and often have to handle many tasks directly, as opposed to delegating them.
- Daring Fireball: Papermaster and That Damn Antenna
One last tidbit from an informed source: the bug on the “touching it wrong” signal loss issue was filed two years ago. This is not a problem they didn’t catch, or caught too late. So, on the one hand, clearly the fundamental antenna design predated Papermaster’s time at the company. But on the other hand, there was plenty of time to find a solution to the problem. I.e., it’s not that Apple should not have used an external antenna. It’s that it should have been even better.
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