parislemon

Happiness Takes (A Little) Magic

Sat, 28 Jan 2012 17:16:50 -0800

Fantastic post by Brian Lam thinking deeply about technology addiction (and technology news addiction).

No, Now We Have

Sat, 28 Jan 2012 17:11:00 -0800

In his (rather ridiculous) new PandoDaily column, Farhad Manjoo pegs Android’s high-water mark as last April, and points to this post by Fred Wilson as an example of when the sky seemed to be the limit for Android. In that post, Wilson writes:

Roughly six months ago, I put up a blog post suggesting Android was going to be the dominant mobile phone operating system and that developers interested in the largest user bases ought to start developing for it in preference to iOS.

As you might expect, I got a lot of heat from Apple fanboys for that post and one of the strongest points they made was that we had not yet seen the effect of the Verizon iPhone on market share numbers.

Well now we have.

No, what we actually saw back then was a muted introduction. When Apple introduced the iPhone on the network, that model, the iPhone 4, was already several months old. More importantly, most people still believed at the time that a new iPhone was likely just two months away. This, of course, ended up being incorrect, but it still impacted would-be buyers.

How can I say that with such confidence? Look at the numbers. The April launch of the iPhone on Verizon was strong, but this past quarter — which saw a new iPhone launch on the network for the first time — was far stronger.

Back in June of last year, I wrote that the Verizon iPhone halted Android’s surge and predicted that the iPhone 5 could reverse it. All but the “iPhone 5” part proved correct. The iPhone 4S launching on Verizon alongside AT&T (and Sprint) proved to be the spark the iPhone needed to close the gap with Android.

For Verizon, the iPhone accounted for more than half of all smartphones the carrier sold.

So no, back in April, we had not seen the true effects of Verizon on iPhone sales — now we have.

Or have we?

What’s really crazy is that AT&T’s iPhone sales are still far ahead of Verizon’s — almost double, in fact. Maybe that’s because Verizon has a better selection of alternative devices. Or maybe it’s because of contract timing issues for consumers.

Remember, Verizon is the larger overall network. And again, over half of the smartphones they sold last quarter were iPhones. Who wants to bet that the Verizon iPhone numbers in 2012 will be insane?

The Android Oil Rig

Sat, 28 Jan 2012 16:31:00 -0800

The Android Oil Rig:

An interesting pipedream by Farhad Manjoo: in order to make more money, Google should close down Android and start charging a licensing fee.

Of course, it will never happen. Never. Such a move would be the single biggest example of hypocrisy in the history of technology.

There’s another problem with this argument. Manjoo sets it up as solely a money-making ploy in the face of Apple — but as Amit Runchal details, it actually wouldn’t make Google that much money relative to Apple. Certainly not enough to justify destroying relationships with OEMs and consumers.

The biggest mistake here is the idea that there’s something, anything Google could do in order to turn Android into a business like the ones Apple has created. There isn’t. Writes Manjoo about Apple’s most recent earnings:

The numbers ought to ring alarm bells in Mountain View. They prove the folly of Google’s Android business model: Free and “open” (or clopen) may make money someday, but it’s hard to see how it’s ever going to make Apple-like profits.

It’s not hard to see, it’s impossible to see. There are three companies that have ever made more profit in a quarter than Apple did last quarter, and all three are oil companies. The only other companies even to come close to such numbers? All oil companies as well.

Google’s best shot to turn Android into a business with iPhone-like profits would be to create an Android-powered oil rig and get drilling.

A 28-Day Window Before You Can Even Think About Renting A Movie

Sat, 28 Jan 2012 11:40:00 -0800

A 28-Day Window Before You Can Even *Think* About Renting A Movie:

Ben Fritz for the LA Times Company Town blog:

Under a new deal between the two companies, Netflix users won’t just have to wait 56 days to rent Warner Bros. movies on DVD. They’ll have to wait 28 days to add the movies to their queues.

Creating a 28-day window between DVD release and rental period was ridiculous. When that didn’t work, doubling the window to 56 days was bullshit. But now creating a 28-day window before you can even add a movie to your Netflix queue is the dumbest fucking thing I’ve ever heard.

I’ve vastly underestimated just how fucktarded Hollywood is.

Writes Marco Arment:

If I’m adding a movie to my Netflix queue, I’ve already decided not to buy the DVD. I’m adding it because it looks mildly interesting and I’d like to watch it sometime. If I can’t add it to Netflix, I’ll just forget about it and probably never see it.

I hope we all realize where this eventually leads: the banning of movie rentals entirely.

"Here’s something that might blow your mind: In 1990, the Royals’ team payroll was $23.2..."

Sat, 28 Jan 2012 11:25:54 -0800

“Here’s something that might blow your mind: In 1990, the Royals’ team payroll was $23.2 million … and was the highest payroll in Major League Baseball.”

- Rob Neyer talking about baseball contracts and payrolls in the wake of Prince Fielder’s $214 million deal with the Tigers.

I’m not sure what’s crazier: that Fielder’s $23.77 million a year average salary is roughly the same as the top team payroll in 1990. Or that the Kansas City Royals had the top payroll in 1990.

In Dreams

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 14:47:12 -0800

I first encountered 955 Dreams about a year ago when I came across a magical iPad app called The History of Jazz. When I sat down with co-founder Kiran Bellubbi to talk about the app for a TechCrunch story, it was immediately apparent that his vision extended far beyond just one beautiful app.

I kicked off my story with something he said to me: “The shallow experience for a user has to be very interesting. The deep experiences have to be profound.” In the app-crazy world we live in, it’s not uncommon to hear developers attempt to get philosophical. But with Bellubbi, I totally bought it.

And my instinct about Bellubbi and co-founder T.J. Zark proved correct. They followed up The History of Jazz with the equally brilliant On The Way To Woodstock. Both apps got Apple’s seal of approval in the form of App of the Week accolades.

The used this momentum to build their first iPhone app — their most ambitious app yet —Band of the Day, last year. Once again, Apple responded with an App of the Week award. And they went a step further. Band of the Day was actually the runner-up to Instagram for the App Store’s App of the Year award last year.

Meanwhile, both The History of Jazz and On The Way To Woodstock were added to Apple’s App Hall of Fame.

Everything these guys touch turns to pure gold. And that continues today, as their latest creation, Band of the Day for iPad, was just bestowed with the App of the Week award. Yes, again.

If you’re a fan of Band of the Day for the iPhone, you’ll love the iPad version. If you haven’t played with Band of the Day yet, here is your excuse: it’s now a Universal app that will work on both iPhone and iPad. Find it here in the App Store.

The iPad version is a culmination of what 955 Dreams has been working so hard to build with Band of the Day. It’s not just an app, it’s the front-end of an entire publishing platform perfectly suited to take advantage of the devices leading the “Post-PC” age: the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad (and yes, probably even Android one day too).

In announcing the iPad version of Band of the Day yesterday, 955 Dreams also disclosed their seed round of funding. I couldn’t be happier that CrunchFund is involved as the journey towards deep, profound experiences and App Store glory continues.

"We will continue to dig deeper, and we will undoubtedly find more issues. What we will not do — and..."

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 11:06:01 -0800

“We will continue to dig deeper, and we will undoubtedly find more issues. What we will not do — and never have done — is stand still or turn a blind eye to problems in our supply chain. On this you have my word.”

- Tim Cook responding to the NYT piece about awful working conditions in Chinese factories where many Apple products are assembled.

It’s not a response to the press, it’s a response to the Apple team, which Mark Gurman of 9to5Mac was able to get ahold of.

It’s a good response, and the right one. I’m still just ultimately not sure how much it matters in the grand scheme of things. The real problems go far beyond Apple.

"I Had Four CEOs!"

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 10:33:00 -0800

"I Had Four CEOs!":

Speaking of prison terms, Josh Topolsky scored an interview with Jon Rubinstein on his way out of the door from HP.

Rubinstein tries — and fails — to hold back his contempt for the past few HP regimes. It reads like he and fellow HP VP Todd Bradley had a grand plan (this one, perhaps?) for HP/webOS that disintegrated when then-CEO Mark Hurd was ousted. That, of course, kickstarted months of turmoil and turnover, highlighted by the disastrous Leo Apotheker reign (which didn’t even last a year).

The notion that Rubinstein’s exit was planned all along sure smells like total bullshit.

Best part of the interview:

There were things that didn’t work out the way everyone expected — can you talk about what caused the issues?

I don’t think it really matters at this point. It’s old history at this point.

You don’t want to talk about Leo?

Nah. We built an amazing OS in webOS. It’s very advanced, it’s where things are going. But we ran out of runway, and we ended up at HP and HP wasn’t in good enough shape on its own to be able to support the effort. I had four CEOs! Mark acquired us, Les Jackson took over as the interim CEO, then Leo, and now Meg.

“Nah.”

While Rubinstein says he’s going to take some time off, he’s not retiring. Given the bad blood in recent years, I wouldn’t expect him back at Apple anytime soon. But remember, he is still an Amazon board member — and Amazon is pushing deeper into hardware…

Ruby Released

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 10:18:00 -0800

Ruby Released:

Jon Rubinstein, the former CEO of Palm (and former Apple executive), has left HP.

With Palm hardware now dead and webOS now open-sourced, the writing has been on the wall for this to happen for a while. To hear HP tell it, this was the plan all along. As Arik Hesseldahl writes:

Rubinstein is said to have no immediate plans, and had completed a 12-24 month commitment to stay with HP after the acquisition. “Jon has fulfilled his commitment and we wish him well,” HP spokeswoman Mylene Mangalindan said.

Sounds almost like a prison term.

This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 19:49:59 -0800

A lot of people have asked for my take on The New York Times piece yesterday about the true cost of making Apple products in China. Let me first just say that it’s an important piece full of good reporting by Charles Duhigg and David Barboza. Parts of it are very sad — sickening, really.

But let’s be honest. The post focuses on Apple because Apple is now arguably the most successful company on the planet. If they were, say, the 8th largest computer manufacturer, they probably wouldn’t have even been mentioned. Again, that’s not to say it shouldn’t have been written — it absolutely should have — but it’s important to keep that in mind.

The real key here is that this story could have been written about any number of technology companies that have to deal with hardware manufacturing. This sad state of affairs is the way the world works in this space. Anyone who thinks otherwise is naive.

Does that excuse Apple’s behavior in some situations? Not at all. But there also isn’t enough background here to know if Apple is even the worst enabler of these poor working conditions. That’s sort of implied a few times in the piece, but never fully backed up.

My TechCrunch colleague Devin Coldewey wrote a great response to the piece. As he writes:

Something the article only fleetingly acknowledges is that Foxconn is used by most of the major electronics brands in the world. Samsung, Microsoft, Amazon, and the rest all contract with Foxconn to manufacture, assemble, or finish their products. The threatened mass suicide the other week was, in fact, at an Xbox production facility.

And later:

So it has never been a surprise to me when I hear that Apple, and others, only do so much to change the situation in factories and factory towns in China. The simple fact of it is they’re not the ones at the reins. Foxconn and China have our all-important tech companies by the scruff of the neck, and bear the big bad audits by Apple (more likely by people representing people representing Apple) like they’d bear a kitten swiping at their face. It’s a high stakes game, and Foxconn and its like hold all the cards.

That’s something important that the NYT never addresses. The situation is decidedly more complicated than Apple simply turning a blind eye.

While this report brings such an issue to the forefront, similar pieces and stories surface quite frequently, actually. Guess what changes? Nothing. It’s shitty to say, but it’s the truth. And we all know it.

The fact of the matter is that we live in a world that demands amazing technology delivered to us at low costs and at great speed. That world leads to Foxconn.

We say we care about the means by which the results are reached when we read stories such as this one. But then we forget. Or we chose not to remember. We buy things and we’re happy that they’re affordable. And then we buy more things. And more. With huge smiles on our faces. Without a care in the world.

Samsung's Q4: $4.7 Billion In Profit

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 19:04:12 -0800

Samsung's Q4: $4.7 Billion In Profit:

In other words, they’re the bizarro-Motorola.

Or, put another way, in order to acquire such a company at the market price Google sets, it would take something like $14 trillion.

Why Not Try An Infinity-Day Window?

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 18:54:33 -0800

Why Not Try An Infinity-Day Window?:

Matt Drance on Warner Bros. idiotic new 56-day DVD rental window:

Also under this new deal, pirated movies remain free of charge, free of non-skippable ads, free of five-minute load times, and are now nearly three months ahead of the competition.

And:

iTunes changed the music industry because it was more convenient than stealing. Most people made the value judgment that ten bucks for a clean, legal digital album was worth the alternative of fishing around for files that may or may not be damaged or infected.

It’s really — honestly — surprising that Hollywood doesn’t understand such a simple concept. Even stranger is that they can look to the music industry as an example and learn from the mistakes there, but they refuse.

Hollywood isn’t going to die anytime soon — but it won’t be from lack of trying. The pain is coming. In a big way.

What $12.5 Billion Buys You These Days

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 14:44:00 -0800

What $12.5 Billion Buys You These Days:

Motorola warned their Q4 numbers would be bad. And boy are they ever. A rundown:

They shipped — shipped, not sold — 5.3 million smartphones in the quarter. As a reminder, Apple sold 37 million.

For the full year, Motorola shipped — shipped, not sold — 18.7 million smartphones. As a reminder, Apple sold 37 million smartphones last quarter.

They shipped — shipped, not sold — 200,000 tablets last quarter. TWO HUNDRED THOUSAND. As a reminder, Apple sold 15 million tablets.

For the year, Motorola shipped — shipped, not sold — 1 million tablets. As a reminder, Apple sold 15 million tablets last quarter.

The company lost $80 million in the quarter — $70 million of that was by the mobile division. The unit lost $285 million for the year.

This is a company that Google is buying for $12.5 billion.

Sanjay Jha is a wizard.

New Techmeme

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 10:51:00 -0800

New Techmeme:

Fresh, new look. Same great taste.

Founder Gabe Rivera has more here.

AT&T Punishes Its Customers For T-Mobile Merger Failure

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 10:48:40 -0800

AT&T Punishes Its Customers For T-Mobile Merger Failure:

GigaOm’s Kevin Fitchard:

After blasting the Federal Communication Commission for “picking winners and losers” in the wireless industry by scrutinizing every deal, Stephenson claimed AT&T is now in a mobile capacity-constrained environment which has forced it to raise prices and manage connection speeds (aka throttle) for its highest volume subscribers.

As I wrote back in December:

I suspect their next move will be a lot of complaining that the government is now the reason why they’re so inept…

Total jackasses.

Android Keeps On "Winning"

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 08:46:00 -0800

Android Keeps On "Winning":

AT&T says that 7.6 million iPhones were activated last quarter, and 9.4 million smartphones overall were sold. Impressive numbers, but be careful.

As Eric Slivka of MacRumor notes, this doesn’t necessarily mean that 7.6 million of the 9.4 million smartphones sold were iPhones because “activated” can include older devices given away or sold through a third-party.

Still, AT&T says the “majority” of iPhone activations were of the iPhone 4S (which was new). And it’s probably safe to assume that overall, the vast majority of the activations were sales. If that is indeed the case, that means the iPhone outsold all Android phones combined on AT&T’s network.

Just like Verizon.

AT&T does say that they set a sales record for Android devices (as they did with iPhone). But they only give the vague, Amazon-like: “more than twice as many Android smartphones were sold versus the fourth quarter a year ago”.

AT&T’s statement reads a lot like, “we love you too Android, we just love iPhone more”.

The Day Apple Left The Tech World’s Collective Mouth Agape

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 00:51:28 -0800

The Day Apple Left The Tech World’s Collective Mouth Agape

Phase two of the reboot of J.C. Penney by former Apple SVP Ron...

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 16:49:00 -0800

Phase two of the reboot of J.C. Penney by former Apple SVP Ron Johnson is decidedly more optimistic than phase one.

(via Observatory)

Why We Gloat

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 13:36:00 -0800

5 years ago, I made a bet. Two bets, actually.

The first was with myself. I bet myself that if I devoted serious time to it, I could become a great technology blogger. It wasn’t an easy bet to make. I knew it would require upending my life at the time. And it did.

The second bet was related to the first. I knew that to become a key tech blogger, I would need a focus. As a relatively new Mac user myself, I decided that focus would be Apple. Yes, I was coming later to the party than some, but Apple was still a company at the time that was scoffed at by many. But drawing from my own experience, I truly felt that the company was on the cusp of changing the world. Again.

Apple’s spectacular earnings yesterday were a culmination of these bets in a way. The numbers were so good — I mean, the company made more money in one quarter than any company ever that isn’t an oil empire — that for the first time, it was impossible for anyone to deny that the company is at the top of the world.

Maybe that changes. Maybe it doesn’t. But for yesterday at least, the bets I made 5 years ago proved correct in a very tangible way.

I came to this realization when I started reading some of what I was writing and tweeting. I was gloating. That’s ridiculous. Why? This is why. Unsavory to some perhaps. But that’s why.

And I’m hardly alone. Looking over the blogosphere today, you’ll see posts like this one and this one and this one and this one, all of which also read like and/or address gloating about Apple.

There’s a common theme: all of us placed bets on Apple at a time when it wasn’t particularly sexy to do so. Some of these bets may have been with money in terms of stock purchases (for the record, I don’t own any Apple stock). Some of these bets may have been with money in terms of Apple purchases (guilty). But the biggest bet we all made was with our most precious commodity: time.

I’ve devoted so much time to learning about, thinking about, and writing about this one company, that I’ll be honest: it’s gratifying to see the company achieve the level of success that it has. I’m not (quite) arrogant enough to think that I’ve had a meaningful impact on that success, but it still matters to me. It’s a bit like the sports team you root for — long a prohibitive underdog — win it all.

But wait. Doesn’t that mean I’m biased?!!!

Newsflash: everyone is biased. The people who try to hide that bias are the ones you really have to worry about. I’ve never shied away my Apple bias.

The important part is that it’s justified. I’m biased towards the company for the right reasons. It’s because I’m biased towards great products. I’m biased against shitty ones. If Apple started making shitty products, I wouldn’t like the company. In fact, I didn’t like the company in the 1990s.

But now I’m off on a tangent. My point was simply to dissect some of the gloating from today and yesterday. Sure, it looks a bit like riding on coattails, but I think for all of us it goes much deeper. This is about an investment — a bet — that has finally paid off in a way that’s impossible to ignore.

So today we bask in the glory of the win. Tomorrow it’s back to the fight.

“Hundreds” Of Schools In 41 States Use Chromebooks

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 12:18:41 -0800

“Hundreds” Of Schools In 41 States Use Chromebooks:

Better than “dozens”, I suppose.