App Store Economics

post from Daring Fireball on 17 January 2012 10:03:07 PM. © Daring Fireball

David Barnard:

Ultimately, the users become the product, not the app. Selling users to advertisers and pushing in-app upgrades/consumables is a completely different game than carefully crafting apps to maximize user value/entertainment. It?d be a shame if the mobile software industry devolved into some horrific hybrid of Zynga and Facebook.

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Read The Full Article:
http://appcubby.com/blog/free-and-low-cost-apps/

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The MacBook Air Turns Four Years Old Today

post from Daring Fireball on 17 January 2012 08:03:08 PM. © Daring Fireball

Kelly Hodgkins, writing for TUAW:

Four years ago today, Apple introduced the MacBook Air, then the world’s thinnest notebook. It was Steve Jobs’s last Macworld appearance and the next to last Macworld keynote for Apple.

From an intriguing but unpractical high-end niche to the industry standard in just four years.

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Read The Full Article:
http://tuaw.com/2012/01/15/the-macbook-air-four-years-later/

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Why Are Android Smartphones Bigger Than the
iPhone

post from Daring Fireball on 17 January 2012 06:04:32 PM. © Daring Fireball

Interesting theory from Jin Kim:

Android OEMs and Google responded to the 3.5-inch 960×640 Retinadisplay by improving the pixel format to 1280×720. But becauseAndroid renders text and graphics like desktop OSes (e.g. Windows,OS X) increasing resolution above 320 ppi means smaller UIelements. The display had to grow in size to compensate forshrinking UI elements. iOS renders the Retina display not byshrinking UI elements by one fourth but by doubling clarity andsharpness. Unless Google adds an additional ?DPI level? beyondXHDPI, Android smartphones that match or beat the iPhone 4/4S inresolution will always be bigger, much bigger.

Kim makes a good case that an Android phone with a 3.5-inch display and 300+ pixels per inch resolution would reduce on-screen tap targets (like buttons) and text to an uncomfortably small size.

A different theory occurred to me over the weekend. To wit: that Android smartphones have grown enormously in order to accommodate LTE. Currently-available LTE chipsets are physically bigger (AnandTech made the case months ago that none of them would fit in the iPhone 4/4S case design), and because they’re so power-hungry, they require bigger batteries. Thicker phones aren’t going to fly. Thus: wider and taller phones with displays expanding to fill the surface.

What made me think of this was the Lumia 900 Nokia unveiled at CES. The weeks-old Lumia 800 is roughly iPhone-sized, with a 3.7-inch display — and feels glorious in hand. The 900 has a 4.3-inch display, but only the same number of pixels as the 800 (and, I believe, all WP7 devices to date): 800 × 480. Why make the 900 so much bigger than the 800? The biggest technical difference is that the 900 supports LTE and the 800 does not.

I know there are people who really do prefer these bigger 4.5-inch displays — that even if the phones don’t pack more pixels and thus show more information, some people really do think bigger is better. And a phone like the Galaxy Nexus, with a 1280 × 720 pixel count, is not just physically bigger but packs more pixels, too.

But the iPhone’s continuing chart-topping success is proof that there is, to say the least, significant demand for smaller phones too. Variety is a much touted advantage of the Android model: different keyboards, different materials, different display technologies, and different form factors. So I’m sure that we would have some 4- and 5-inch display Android handsets on the market today no matter what the technical limitations of LTE. (Indeed, we started seeing these bigger-than-4-inch Android displays before any of them supported LTE.)

What I’m saying is, if LTE’s current chipset sizes and power requirements are not forcing handset makers to go with these bigger-than-4-inch display form factors, then where are the 3.5-inch display iPhone-sized Android (or Windows) phones that support LTE?

Shopping for smart phones on Verizon’s website seems to support my theory. All their smartphones which support LTE have displays bigger than 4 inches; all (or at least most — I can’t say I looked at every single one) of their smart phones which don’t support LTE have displays smaller than 4 inches.

If I’m right, we will start seeing smaller LTE Android handset sets a year or so from now, and the tech press will collectively forget the “bigger is inherently better” mindset that pervades phone reviews today.

Read The Full Article:
http://daringfireball.net/2012/01/why_are_android_phones_bigger

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Headline of the Day, Like Something From The
Onion Edition

post from Daring Fireball on 17 January 2012 06:04:32 PM. © Daring Fireball

“Samsung Commits to Increasing Smartphone Battery Life in 2012, Hopes for All-Day Use.”

You can’t make this stuff up.

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Read The Full Article:
http://www.tmonews.com/2012/01/samsung-commits-to-increasing-smartphone-battery-l
ife-in-2012-hopes-for-all-day-use/

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Headline of the Day, Heartless Edition

post from Daring Fireball on 17 January 2012 06:04:31 PM. © Daring Fireball

MarketWatch: “Yang Resigns From Yahoo Board, Shares Up”.

I remember an Internet without Jerry Yang at Yahoo, but I don’t remember a World Wide Web without Jerry Yang at Yahoo.

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Read The Full Article:
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/yang-resigns-from-yahoo-board-shares-up-2012-01-
17

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Facebook code reappears in iOS beta: here’s
hoping it sticks around

post from Apple on 17 January 2012 05:04:01 PM. © Apple

Apple has apparently re-introduced code references to Facebook integration to the most recent iOS 5.1 beta that were once present in pre-release software but later removed. It doesn’t mean we’ll necessarily see Apple include Facebook sign-in at the system level, as it’s done with Twitter, but it definitely makes it more likely than before.

The Facebook features, which also include new Facebook fields for Contacts app entries, were originally spotted by iOS developer @jackoplane in the latest beta. Here’s hoping they actually ship in the software eventually, for the sake of both Apple’s users and Facebook itself . Both stand to gain from the social network’s integration in Apple’s mobile OS.

Users would definitely welcome a means to more easily share content, including photos and links, with their Facebook network, which has a much broader user base than Twitter. As for Facebook, there’s a chance to grow even larger thanks to direct, persistent access on the most popular mobile devices in the world.

Twitter integration has been a boon not only for the social network, where CEO Dick Costolo says it has helped propel growth to new heights, but also to services that depend on Twitter to enable content sharing. Music discovery service Discovr, for instance, saw sharing via Twitter increase substantially following iOS 5′s launch, while its Facebook shares remained relatively constant. Basically, taking away the need to login reduced friction and enabled more shares via Twitter’s service. Single sign-on for Facebook would likely have a similar effect.

I’d also love to see Apple offer a unified inbox, complete with access to Facebook messages, as an option in an upcoming iOS update. Since that’s not something we’ve seen yet with Twitter DMs (RIM actually wins on this one with its upcoming Playbook OS 2.0 update), I’m not expecting it anytime soon. But Facebook integration similar to what we’ve seen with Twitter could at least open the door to that possibility down the road.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
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Read The Full Article:
http://gigaom.com/apple/facebook-code-reappears-in-ios-beta-heres-hoping-it-stick
s-around/

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iTunes Match Expands in 19 New Countries: Latin
America, Baltics, Netherlands

post from Daring Fireball on 17 January 2012 05:03:58 PM. © Daring Fireball

Looks like the rollout isn’t exactly smooth, though. (Among iTunes’s numerous deficiencies, what’s the deal with the continued use of cryptic numeric “error codes”? Error messages like this seem like a remnant from the ?90s.)

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Read The Full Article:
http://www.macrumors.com/2012/01/16/itunes-match-launches-in-19-new-countries-lat
in-america-baltics-netherlands/

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How Stanley Kubrick Invented the Modern
Box-Office Report

post from Daring Fireball on 17 January 2012 04:03:39 PM. © Daring Fireball

Mike Kaplan:

Word quickly spread that Stanley had a computerized system totrack theaters and grosses based on technical information he hadacquired while developing HAL 9000, the all-knowing computer in2001. For months these stories persisted in the trades as theroster of Clockwork cinemas was refined. They were neitherconfirmed nor denied.

Sweating the details.

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Read The Full Article:
http://news.moviefone.com/mike-kaplan/stanley-kubrick-box-office_b_1195323.html?r
ef=moviefone

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iOS and Mac developer conferences to check out in
2012

CES and Macworld are hogging the event spotlight right now, but what about events for developers? Last year’s Worldwide Developers Conference sold out quick, and this year’s probably will too, so you may want to plan on alternate conference and training opportunities in 2012.

Waking Up Early for WWDC Keynote

Even this year’s CodeMash 2.0.1.2, a developer’s conference in Sandusky, OH sold out in an amazing twenty minutes to over 1,200 attendees. So rather than holding out to see if Apple expands its own event, you should check out these upcoming alternatives:

MacIT in San Francisco, CA at the Moscone Center January 26-28, 2012.
360|MacDev in Denver, CO at the Embassy Suites February 3-4, 2012.
CocoaConf in Chicago, IL at the Elk Grove Village March 16-17, 2012.
360|iDev in Denver, CO at the Crowne Plaza September, 2012.
MacTech in Los Angeles, CA October 17-19, 2012

You may even be able to score an event closer to home by checking Eventbrite, or by contacting a local CocoaHead. However, if you have your heart set on attending WWDC, there may be something you can do about it.

Waiting for WWDC to Begin

Cult of Mac points out that there is a service that will send you an SMS message the moment WWDC tickets go on sale. WWDC Alerts, the site that is extending this offer, also has a Twitter account that you can follow if you prefer. So sign up for the alerts, monitor your Apple information channels, and you just might get in.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
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Read The Full Article:
http://gigaom.com/apple/ios-and-mac-developer-conferences-to-check-out-in-2012/

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Google IP Addresses Used to Vandalize
OpenStreetMap

OpenStreetMap:

Preliminary results show users from Google IP address ranges in India deleting, moving and abusing OSM data including subtle edits like reversing one-way streets.Two OpenStreetMap accounts have been vandalizing OSM in London, New York and elsewhere from Google?s IP address, the same address in India reported by Mocality.

(Via Kontra, who observes that 2012 has been a rather scandal-heavy year for Google, and we’re only three weeks in.)

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Read The Full Article:
http://opengeodata.org/google-ip-vandalizing-openstreetmap

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