Razor Hail

Verizon and iPhone sitting in a tree....

Tue, 11 Jan 2011 10:39:40 -0500

So today is supposed to be the day that VZ announces that they’re going to carry the iPhone. But if the announcement was about something entirely different, there’s a few reasons why I wouldn’t be totally surprised.

The biggest reason would be voice & data. Verizon’s network uses a technology called CDMA to carry your voice and data traffic. The problem is that CDMA can’t handle voice and data at the same time (so you can’t access the web while on a call). There is an alternative called Voice over Rev A (VoRA) that allows simultaneous voice & data. However, as of October of 2010, I had yet to see anything about it being deployed en masse. Is it possible that Verizon rolled it out and tested their entire network in 3 months? Have them had it all along? Possibly.

The other reason is the speed of Verizon’s network. Their “theoretical” data rates are approximately half of what you can get through AT&T. Of course, that’s not real world usage, but even if it’s “half-true”, you’ll still have people on Verizon getting slower throughput on their device that an AT&T user standing next to them. Would Apple release the same product that performs different depending on carrier?

Third is the iPhone 5. Assuming the iPhone 5 comes out in June, why release hardware that will be obsolete in 5 months? What happens to those people who bought iPhone 4’s on Verizon? Is the Verizon iPhone 4 going to be the only VZ phone until iPhone 6 in 2012? Again, not very “Apple-like”.

However it pans out, the tech world will be buzzing for quite some time.

Verizon launches LTE... everyone snoozes

Wed, 01 Dec 2010 14:43:00 -0500

Verizon just announced their LTE network will go live on December 5th in 38 US markets.

Initially, only USB modems will be able to access the LTE network (with handsets to follow in mid-2011). The biggest shock is the pricing. 5GB of data is $50/month. 10GB per month is $80/month!! And $10 for each additional GigaByte after that!

Are they on crack? With LTE’s increased speed, you’ll be able to easily chew through 5GB.

By making the monthly cost so high, they’re making sure that the public DOESN’T flock to this new technology.

Big announcement?

Mon, 15 Nov 2010 12:28:53 -0500

On Apple’s homepage and also their iTunes splash page is a teaser for an anouncement that “Tomorrow is just another day. That you’ll never forget”.

What could it be? Some have speculated they’re announcing the server data farm in North Carolina is going to be up & running. I doubt that will be it, however (most people don’t even know about the new farm). The server farm might be providing infrastructure to whatever they’re announcing, but it won’t be the “big reveal”.

Here’s some ideas:

- Subscriptions for TV shows. For $X per month, you get unlimited access to any and all TV shows (perhaps split by network?)

- Everything is streaming now. No more downloading songs/movies/TV shows if you don’t want to. You’ll be able to stream everything from “the cloud”. This would also put an end to the 5 machine limit in iTunes.

I’ve also read “iTunes email”. WTF? Seriously? File that under “less than useful”.

It has to be big for Apple to hype it on their homepage (and in iTunes). I’m betting on all iTunes content being streamed…

ADC Search

Sat, 13 Nov 2010 07:38:54 -0500

ADC Search is an extension I created for Safari & Firefox that lets you search directly on the Apple Developer website.

When searching in Google for Apple framework keywords, results from the ADC (Apple Developer Central) website are usually buried.This extension provides search results directly from the ADC website.

You can get it here

Back to the Mac roundup

Thu, 04 Nov 2010 18:04:33 -0400

On Oct 20, Apple revealed two new MacBook Airs (11” & 13” models).

I had thought that the 11” model ($999) would all but spell the end of the white, polycarbonite MacBook. That turned out wrong :-)

Apple made no subtractions to the product line that day, only additions. And what additions they were!

If you do any sort of traveling (even on a moderate basis) and don’t already have a MacBook, the MacBook Air is the *perfect* machine to have. Especially if you have a desktop already and just need something to travel with and do some light computing.

At $999 and 11”, it really is a great alternative to the existing ‘netbooks’ that are on the market now. It has a full-size keyboard, 11” screen and TONS of battery life.

It does cloud the waters a bit, though, when it comes to the iPad. Not as far as price, but as far as product function. I suppose if you already have a laptop, then you’d probably go for the iPad to use when traveling.

If you don’t already have a laptop, your choice is harder. Do you go for the iPad, or one of the MacBook Airs? It really is a tough decision. But either way, you can’t go wrong.

Open sesame

Wed, 20 Oct 2010 11:35:10 -0400

Steve Jobs got on the Apple earnings conference call this past Monday, and made some criticisms about their competitors.

One particular criticism was aimed at Google. Jobs called them out on their stance that Google’s Android is an ‘Open’ system and Apple is ‘Closed’. You might be thinking “What? What does “open” mean anyway, and why do I care?”

And that’s exactly the point. Most people don’t know and/or care. What they care about is how easy something is to use and what can a given thing (phone/app/gadget) can do for them.

What’s even more laughable is that Jobs must have really struck a nerve (especially with Andy Rubin (Google’s VP of engineering). Rubin tweeted in response to Jobs’ barb:

the definition of open: “mkdir android ; cd android ; repo init -u git://android.git.kernel.org/platform/manifest.git ; repo sync ; make”

Way to go, Rubin. I’m sure the droves of Linux users just did a collective fist-pump in the air. Meanwhile, the other 99% of the population said “wha?”

Framed another way: Apple can’t hear you, Rubin. They’re too busy counting the FIFTY BILLION IN CASH THEY HAVE IN THE BANK.

Bye bye MacBook?

Mon, 18 Oct 2010 13:28:34 -0400

On Wednesday, Apple is holding a ‘Back to the Mac’ event. The current rumor du jour is new MacBook Airs along with a sneak preview of OS X 10.7 (Lion?)

I do think that the MacBook Air will see a refresh (espeically since it’s been almost twice the number of days (on average) since the last refresh (http://buyersguide.macrumors.com/#MacBook_Air))

The idea that there will be MacBook Airs (plural) is interesting. But where will a new one fit? The current lineup looks like:

iPad - $499/$629, $599/$729, $699/$829 (WiFi/WiFi+3G)

MacBook (13 in) - $999

MacBook Pro (13 in)- $1199

MacBook Air (13 in)- $1499

Let’s assume the rumors of a smaller one are true and that the 13.3 inch model stays at $1499. What does that do to the MacBook & MacBook Pro (13”)?

I’m thinking this spells the end of the line for the MacBook ($999) and the 11 inch Air will replace the MacBook at $999.

Let’s face it, the $999 MacBook priced so close to the $1199 MacBook Pro just doesn’t fit with Apple’s usual strict separation between models. Those two machines are just too similar (the essential difference is one has an aluminum case, the other polycarbonite plastic).

If the new, smaller Air is $999, consumers can opt for the following:

iPad - $500-$829

MacBook Air (11 in) - $999

MacBook Pro (13 in) - $1199

MacBook Air (13 in) or MacBook Pro (13 in) -$1499

MacBook Pro (15 in) - $1799/$1999

A lineup like that fits more into Apple’s usual pricing/model structure.

Apologies

Wed, 29 Sep 2010 14:05:00 -0400

A while back, Posterous had a bad couple of days. First they were hit with a Denial of Service attack on a Wednesday & Friday. They quickly fixed that and then moved to new data centers on that Friday night. They worked over the weekend to get things running right.

A few days later, their CEO (Sachin Agarwal) sent out an email to all Posterous users. In it, he outlined what happened, but more importantly, he apologized for user’s websites being down. Note, that he didn’t say “We regret any inconvenience this may caused”, he geniunely said “I’m sorry”.

So many companies these days put out “apologies” that are very carefully worded as to not accept blame or responsibility. 37Signals ‘Rework’ book calls this the ‘non-apology’ apology. And they’re absolutely right.

Companies and people alike are so afraid to say “I’m sorry”. Because that means “this was my fault”. I don’t understand when it became such a faux pas to make a mistake? Isn’t that how we learn? Would we have gone to the moon if we were afraid to make a mistake? I think not.

Think I’m wrong? Next time you’re standing in line, step on the foot of the person behind you. When they say something, turn and say “I regret any inconvenience your foot may or may not be experiencing”.

Congrats to The Chive

Wed, 11 Aug 2010 13:21:35 -0400

In case you missed it yesterday, The Chive posted a story about a girl that had quit her job via dry-erase board and sent pictures to the entire office.

It was revealed today that it was a hoax. But it doesn’t matter. It wasn’t intended to “increase brand awareness”, “increase engagement”, or “share brand experience”. It was supposed to make people laugh.

Antennagate: Post-mortem

Sat, 31 Jul 2010 13:01:00 -0400

Now that Apple’s “antennagate” has died down, let’s take a look back, shall we?

If anything, this whole fiasco has illustrated the difference between a blogger and a journalist.

The thing lost in all the “OMG! The sky is falling!” reports is actual data. There wasn’t ONE report from any of the blogs and/or news outlets of how many people this affected.

MacWorld said “Report: Users having iPhone 4 antenna reception issues”

Network World: “iPhone 4 owners report reception and signal issues”

The list goes on. Notice how none of those reports quantified the number of users? Then the mainstream media gets wind of this (also without doing due diligence), and suddenly your molehill is a nice mountain.

Contrast that to the press conference that Apple held in response to this mess. 0.55% (one HALF of ONE PERCENT) of users have called in with this issue. What? What was that? An actual FACT? That’s odd. And their return rate is 1/3 of the return rate of the 3GS.

Apple backed up their stance with hard data, but at that point, it didn’t matter; perception had become reality.

Lost in the noise was the fact that the iPhone 4 had an EXTERNAL antenna. Of course if you put your hand over it it will attenuate the signal. BUT, the new phone got much BETTER reception than previous models (by having the external antenna) so the trade-off was worth it in Apple’s eye(s). But based on the media reports, you’d be hard-pressed to find this little nugget of information.

The news is supposed to report facts. Instead it’s all about eye-balls. And page/ad impressions for blogs. By jumping on the bandwagon, this whole issue spun out of control. Even after Apple showed that other smartphones also “lost signal” when gripped over their antenna, you didn’t see ANY reports about those other phones, did you?

ZDNet might have been the worst of all:

Consumer Reports: Thumbs down to iPhone 4; antenna to blame

Really, ZDNet? In fact, that’s a bald-faced lie. Consumer Reports didn’t say “don’t buy”, they said “we cannot recommend”. Not exactly splitting hairs there. Thumbs down would be “don’t buy the phone”. But that doesn’t get people to click on the story on their website, now does it?

WWDC '10 Predictions!!

Mon, 07 Jun 2010 10:19:19 -0400

Today is Christmas Day for Apple lovers (courtesy of “St. Jobs”). At 10AM PDT, Steve Jobs will give the keynote at WWDC in San Francisco and we’ll almost surely see a new iPhone (iPhone HD?) along with a few other surprises.

Here’s my predictions on what we’ll see:

- new iPhone. I know, I’m going out on a limb here. However, it’s not guaranteed that the prototype we saw earlier was the final build. I think Jobs will announce the new iPhone and they will be available TODAY.

- new Mac Mini. Possibly a slim, vertical Mac Mini. If you take out the optical drive (a la MacBook Air), you’d have a very slim chassis.

- iTunes “in the cloud”. The result of Apple’s recent acquisition of music streaming service LaLa will surely be seen in iTunes.

- Safari 5. The latest version of the browser will debut.

- XCode 4. This year’s version of Apple’s developer tools.

I don’t think we’ll see a new MacBook Air (I’m guessing sometime in the fall/winter for this one). We *might* see something about a new Mac Pro. The most recent model is getting long in the tooth.

Whatever it is, I’m sure it will be VERY exciting.

Analysts & flying pigs

Fri, 28 May 2010 10:04:41 -0400

I think I’m going to advertise myself as an “analyst”. Trip Chowdhry said that Microsoft’s CEO, Steve Ballmer, would have seven minutes at the upcoming WWDC to introduce Microsoft’s Visual Studio 10. And that VS10 would allow Windows devs to make iPhone apps.

Where did I put my hip-waders? Where do I even begin? First of all, there is NO way in hell that Ballmer gets stage time at Apple’s biggest event. Especially after Ballmer’s past comments about the iPhone.

Second, let’s just say that we do live in crazy land. Is seven minutes enough to introduce something as huge as a cross-platform development tool? No.

I’m tired of these “ANALysts” that pull “news” straight out of their ass. Perhaps it’s because it’s in the name?

I’m really convinced they’ll say anything just to get page views (as Chowdhry is saying today that Ballmer will not be at WWDC and there won’t be any Microsoft announcement).

But, like a bad movie leaving the door open for a sequel, he concludes his contacts “insist that both Apple & Microsoft are working on development tools - probably our timing is off”.

You better duck lest the pig hits you in the head.

A hint of a Verizon iPhone?

Fri, 21 May 2010 22:15:00 -0400

AT&T is rumored to raise the ETF (early termination fee) for cell phone contracts from $175 to $325. If true, that’s nearly DOUBLE. Supposedly it’s to match Verizon (who raised their ETF to $375 last year). Hey, if Verizon can gouge people, why can’t we?

I’m guessing that a Verizon iPhone is coming by years end and this is AT&T’s way of keeping people from jumping ship.

Mind you, this ETF is only for new contracts, but with the iPhone HD/iPhone 4G/iPhone ‘10 coming out next month, there will be a lot of people re-upping their contract with AT&T (and getting a nasty surprise if they try to get out of their contract early).

Of course, AT&T said they’re dropping the ETF for non-smartphones. Their generosity knows no bounds, it seems….

Why you'll never see Flash on the iPhone

Mon, 17 May 2010 11:43:00 -0400

A lot of talk lately is about Apple not being “open” and them “shutting out” Adobe; that Apple is not giving people a choice because they’re not supporting Flash. Apple isn’t supporting Flash because it’s some master plan to “kill Adobe”, or that Jobs is still pissed at Adobe for the late 90s, or anything ridiculous like that.

You will never see Flash on the iPhone because Apple doesn’t want to put itself in the position where it’s dependent on someone else.

Picture this scenario: Let’s say the number one App is a game based on Flash. Some time goes by and Apple releases an iPhone update that the current version of Flash is incompatible with. Most people won’t know or care that it’s actually *Flash* that is the problem. They’ll just know that “My iPhone is broke. I updated it and now <#1 game> doesn’t work anymore.”

Should Apple check in with Adobe before each iPhone OS update and wait for Adobe to upgrade their software before releasing their own? Or do they release it anyway and incur the wrath of people who are pissed that “their phone is broke from the new iPhone software”?

Apple doesn’t want to put itself in this position. By ensuring that all native apps are written using tools that Apple provides, they avoid any “dependency” issues.

Plus, Flash has horrible performance on mobile devices. Android keeps promising that Flash is “coming soon”. An “early 2009″ delivery date has been pushed to “2nd half 2010″.
Ever wonder why?

I’m not saying this out of “Apple fanboyism”. However, I realize that Apple created the iPhone and they really have the right to do as they damn well please with it.

Many people bitch & moan that Apple “should do this” & “they should do that”. If you don’t like what Apple is doing, or if their phone doesn’t have the features you need, no one is forcing you to buy it. Don’t like it? Don’t buy it. It’s that simple.

iPad "guest" mode

Mon, 03 May 2010 16:37:00 -0400

Craig Hockenberry wrote a very well thought out piece on “communal computing” and the iPad.

He makes good points about keeping your data separate and private when you’re passing around the iPad and letting people play with the device.

I know that Apple designed the iPad to be a “single-user” device (similar to the iPhone). So I don’t think that Apple is going to implement user switching (like they do on the desktop).

However, I could see them implementing a “guest” type account that would keep your user data hidden (mail, web history, etc). This would be similar to the way guest accounts work on the desktop.

With guest access, the iPad would allow access to only the apps and/or data that you don’t mind people seeing when they’re checking out the device.

Without making it overly complex, you could simply have a list of all installed apps that had a simple “yes/no” toggle that would determine if that app was shown while “guest” mode was running.

This would avoid the complexities of multiple-user accounts and keep the focus simple.

Hello, moon.

Fri, 16 Apr 2010 22:14:00 -0400

Hello, moon.

Jorge Quinteros: How I Will Be Using the iPad

Mon, 12 Apr 2010 18:29:35 -0400

Jorge Quinteros: How I Will Be Using the iPad:

Up to this point, any doubts I ever expressed about owning an iPad specifically of me not being the targeted audience for the device is irrelevant because I’ve completely succumb to my initial thoughts of getting one.

I’ve heard and read more than enough favorable praises from satisfied owners…

iPad dead pixel test

Sat, 10 Apr 2010 10:22:16 -0400

iPad dead pixel test:

New blog post: Got an iPad? Here’s an easy way to test for dead pixels

iPad Data

Fri, 09 Apr 2010 22:42:42 -0400

iPad Data:

Interesting to see the breakdown by states…

Adobe says what?

Fri, 09 Apr 2010 15:23:00 -0400

Looks like Adobe’s “Platform Evangelist”, Lee Brimelow, is a WEE bit upset about Apple’s latest SDK agreement. Specifically this part:

Applications that link to Documented APIs through an intermediary translation or compatibility layer or tool are prohibited.

Translation? Things like the upcoming Adobe’s Flash CS5 (which essentially has a ‘Flash-to-iPhone’ compiler) will NOT be allowed in the iTunes App Store.

Given that Lee’s blog is supposed to be an ‘official’ company communication “vehicle”, his last paragraph must REALLY have the suits at the “C-level” at Adobe wringing their hands today:

Now let me put aside my role as an official representative of Adobe for a moment as I would look to make it clear what is going through my mind at the moment. Go screw yourself Apple.

If Apple was on the fence about possibly allowing apps made with Flash CS5 into the app store (while banning other frameworks (Phonegap, etc)), then Lee has REALLY helped seal that decision.

Hey, Lee, when you take your ball and go home, make sure you kick some rocks while you’re at it.