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The War For the Web

By Tim O'Reilly
November 16, 2009

On Friday, my latest tweet was automatically posted to my Facebook news feed, as always. But this time, Tom Scoville noticed a difference: the link in the posting was no longer active. It turns out that a lot of other people had noticed this too. Mashable wrote about the problem on Saturday morning: Facebook Unlinks Your Twitter Links. if you’re...

It's in the Bag! The Apple Tablet Computing Device

By Mark Sigal
November 13, 2009

In the past 25 years, the 'personal' computing revolution has evolved from tethered (desktop) to luggable (portable) to joined-at-the-hip (mobile). The author argues that the next wave of computing will extend this level of personal attachment to the bag-carrying consumer (think: purses, backpacks and briefcases) when Apple releases it’s much rumored Tablet Computing Device. Read more

iPhone Killers, Blackberries and Chicken Parts

By Mark Sigal
October 28, 2009

While a steady stream of so-called iPhone Killers are filtering into the market, Apple's momentum continues unabated. Inspired by his own experiences upgrading to the Blackberry Tour, the author ponders why so many solution provides confuse delivering a bunch of 'chicken parts' with producing an actual, living, breathing chicken.

The Right Stuff: Apple's Q4 Earnings Call

By Mark Sigal
October 20, 2009

The Fourth Quarter was Apple's most profitable quarter ever. Yesterday's earnings call was about two things. One, the iPhone Platform continues to deliver the goods. Two, the continued impressive growth of the Mac, especially MacBooks. As such, it was about the power of the platform as much as it was about the device itself. Read more...

Land and Expand: Why Apple Allowing In-App Purchases in Free Apps is a Big Deal

By Mark Sigal
October 16, 2009

Yesterday, Apple announced that they are now allowing In-App Purchasing within free apps. I think that this is a big deal, an entree into what I refer to as 'land and expand,' and yet another reason that Apple remains the gold standard of mobile computing.

Could Adobe potentially harm the iPhone AppStore

By Scott Barnes
October 15, 2009

Adobe have spent a lot of cycles / years nudging Apple that Flash should be on the iPhone. Apple have firmly just said no, and despite the answer, Adobe keep expecting them to cave due to public demand. The problem with this logic is that Apple wont' give in.

Should Apple Give a Rat's Ass that Developers Aren't Getting Rich off of the iPhone Platform?

By Mark Sigal
October 7, 2009

Apple's iPhone Platform is a runaway success relative to just about any metric that you can throw at it, save for one. Where are the breakout successful developers for whom the platform is a 'True Wealth' inducing moment? Read on...

Rebooting the Book (One Apple iPad Tablet at a Time)

By Mark Sigal
September 23, 2009

The book business is under assault. Book sales have been stagnating for some time, Amazon is the industry's boogeyman, and more terrifying, book publishers have no idea how to market books in a world (largely) devoid of bookstores. Moreover, in the age of the always on, it's fair to ask, do people even still read anymore? Just as it re-envisioned the Media Player, the Mobile Phone and Mobile Computing, Apple is well positioned to reboot the Book with its forthcoming iPad Tablet. Read on...

iPhone, the 'Personal' Computer - Future of the Mobile Web

By Mark Sigal
September 15, 2009

The iPhone is the first truly 'personal' computer; more personal to its owners than the PC ever was. Talk to iPhone owners (not to mention, the 20M iPod Touch owners), and this truth bubbles to the top again and again. Read on...

Analysis of Apple's "It's Only Rock and Roll" iPod event

By Mark Sigal
September 10, 2009

Apple's "It's Only Rock and Roll" iPod event yesterday had the feel of a paint-by-the numbers session. All tactics and little magic. Here's why...

Snow Leopard, 10 Days In - No Major Problems, But No Rush to Upgrade Either

By James Turner
September 8, 2009

A week ago last Friday, Apple unleashed Snow Leopard (aka OS X 10.6) on the world. So far, there haven't been many rumblings either way, although the trade press has been generally kind. We thought it might be a good idea to check in with Chris Seibold, author of the upcoming Pocket Guide for Snow Leopard, to get his take on how things have been going.

Who's Winning the Smartphone Wars?

By Raven Zachary
August 24, 2009

The short answer - Microsoft and Nokia are slipping, RIM and Apple are gaining. It's too early to tell with Google. This shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone.

APPLE is EVIL, You’re All Fanboys and other half-truths

By Mark Sigal
August 19, 2009

There is a meme afoot. Apple is evil. Its arrogant ways and dependence on the cult of personality are to be its demise. Developers are said to be unhappy. And, Apple Secrecy Doesn’t Scale. Google-ification is the way, the RIGHT way. The Apple Way can’t possibly persist ad infinitum. You Apple fanboys; you just don’t get it. Ol’ Steve (Jobs)...

The iTunes App Store Rolls with the Travel Season

By Ben Lorica
August 10, 2009

Sometime last week, the iTunes app store passed 70,000 unique apps (70K apps have appeared in the app store since it launched). One of the fastest-growing categories in the U.S. iTunes app store has been Travel, displacing Education to move into the top 5 largest categories. Welcome to summer vacation! Next to the Book category, Travel is the most competitive...

Old Media, New Media and Where the Rubber Meets the Road

By Mark Sigal
July 29, 2009

My once-beloved San Francisco Chronicle has been “hollowed out,” reduced to a thin pamphlet, thereby accelerating their subscriber attrition. Do you even know anyone who actually uses the Yellow Pages? Remember record stores? Whither Blockbuster? When analog media collides with digital media, “creative destruction” occurs with brutal efficiency…unless you can truly differentiate your offering, a tall task, but not an insurmountable one. Read on

Would an Apple Tablet be an Ereader? Yes and No.

By Andrew Savikas
July 28, 2009

Last Friday the latest round of rumors of an Apple Tablet swelled considerably after a piece from Apple Insider asserted the device is now on the 2010 product roadmap:...

Four short links: 24 July 2009

By Nat Torkington
July 24, 2009

Are Tweets Copyright-Protected (WIPO) -- According to an Internet posting on blogherald.com by Jonathan Bailey, every time a new communication technology emerges, it shifts the copyright landscape, and new copyright issues that do not fit existing intellectual property (IP) standards arise. With Twitter, for example, while its terms of service clearly state that tweeters own anything they post on...

Long Tail Evidence from The App Store

By Andrew Savikas
July 20, 2009

Last week we released 16 of our books as iPhone Apps (and on Saturday added The Twitter Book), and there's some interesting Long Tail data coming in. We've seen Long...

Apple has secretly released a Tablet Computer: It's called iPod touch

By Mark Sigal
July 14, 2009

Because the iPod touch is often overshadowed by its noisier sibling, the iPhone, we sometimes forget that Apple's first REAL foray into tablet computing, has already sold 15M+ units.

Apple, the Boomer Tablet and the Matrix

By Mark Sigal
June 25, 2009

I have written here, here and here about Apple’s inevitable assault on the Tablet market. What I hadn’t factored until recently is how symbiotic such a device would be for Baby Boomers. Why Baby Boomers? Well, for the same two reasons that this demographic is unlikely to embrace the palm-sized iPhone en masse. One, such a bookish-sized tablet device –...

Four short links: 10 June 2009

By Nat Torkington
June 9, 2009

Apple's Cool Matrix-Style App Wall (TechCrunch) -- a huge collection of icons for many of the apps available in the App Store, arranged by color. Apparently, when someone purchased one, that app’s icon would pulsate. An App Store version of Google's search globe. Information visualization makes activities meaningful, beautiful, and useful, but not necessarily all at the same time....

The iPhone 3Gs Debacle Switches into High Gear

By James Turner
June 9, 2009

Dear Apple and AT&T, By this point, we of the early adopter/loyal customer community have come to expect, nay to cherish, the abuse that you rain down upon our heads. What other alliance of companies would take the bold step...

Analysis: Apple WWDC Keynote - Punishing the Wizard, Part Two

By Mark Sigal
June 9, 2009

Fair or unfair, Apple has done such a good job of delivering technical wizardry over the years that when they merely execute, we hammer them because...well, we expect magic. With that in mind, this analysis of Apple's WWDC Keynote yesterday tries to make sense of the key storylines likely to play out for Apple in the coming months.

CrunchPad Tablet Prototype Coming Together

By Mac Slocum
June 4, 2009

The low-cost tablet project ("CrunchPad") from TechCrunch is nearing the working-prototype stage: This launch prototype is another significant step forward from the last prototype. The screen is now flush with...

Gruber's Ficitional App Store Censor

By Timothy M. O'Brien
May 29, 2009

John Gruber's "Excerpts From the Diary of an App Store Reviewer" is cutting satire of the arbitrary decision making and capricious censorship that is generated by Apple's opaque App Store approval process. Read more about this brilliant commentary on the absurdity of the relationships between the Censor, the Censored, and "objectionable" material.

Built-to-Thrive - The Standard Bearers: Apple, Google, Amazon

By Mark Sigal
May 18, 2009

When you think of companies that are not only built to last, but rather, built to thrive - in good times and bad - what companies logically sit at the top of the pyramid? Equally important, what should be the criteria for assessing them? Let me propose a straw man for assessing the "Built-to-Thrive" bunch...

Ivan Krstić joins Apple Core Security

By Piers Hollott
May 14, 2009

On his personal 'blog, former OLPC security director Ivan Krstić reveals his new position within Apple Core Security

Mac OS X 10.5.7 Update Incorrectly Signed? Had to use Combo Update File

By Todd Ogasawara
May 12, 2009

My 1st generation MacBook didn't like the 10.5.6 update. And, now it doesn't like the 10.5.7 update. Fortunately, the Combo Update file for each release saved the day in each case.

NiN's Rob Sheridan on iPhone Application Rejection

By Timothy M. O'Brien
May 5, 2009

In this interview with Rob Sheridan (@rob_sheridan), Nine Inch Nails' Artistic Director, Rob discusses the experience of getting the rejection letter from Apple, and what effect it has on the band's plans to build community applications on the iPhone platform. You'll hear Sheridan express an uneasiness that Apple can act as judge and jury without providing any transparency into the approval process.

When No News is GREAT News: Analyis Apple Earnings Call

By Mark Sigal
April 23, 2009

Apple crushed it (earnings in the most recent quarter). So much for the recession prompting consumers to stampede away from Apple's "high-end" products, as the prognosticators predicted (and the stock market priced into Apple's stock). So what's the moral of the story? Read on...

PC 1.0, iPhone 3.0 and the Woz: Everything Old is New Again

By Mark Sigal
March 30, 2009

This is a post on how iPhone 3.0 OS is destined to "accessorize" our mobile future by opening up the door to all sorts of interesting hardware-software accessory innovations, in the process creating a $2B+ industry.

ANALYSIS - iPhone 3.0 Developer Preview: Block the Kick Strategy

By Mark Sigal
March 17, 2009

Today's iPhone 3.0 Developer Preview was what I call a "block the kick" announcement. What's a block the kick? It is an effort to do such a good job of persuading your core constituency that any perceived momentum of the competition pales in comparison to your own that you block the competition's nascent momentum in its infancy. With 30M units sold across the iPhone + iPod touch line of multi-touch handhelds, and 800M downloads across 25K developer apps, today's event is more about running up the score BEFORE the competition finds its footing with developers.

iPhones, App Stores and Ecosystems

By Mark Sigal
March 16, 2009

On Tuesday, Apple is previewing its iPhone OS 3.0 to developers. While I have no idea what they will present, I will say this. The fact that Apple is stepping on the gas pedal and pushing 3.0, while the new kids on the block (read: Android and Palm Pre) are barely 1.0 suggests that they have learned the lessons taught them oh so painfully by Microsoft in the PC wars; namely, that he who wins the hearts and minds of developers, wins the war.

Four short links: 16 Mar 2009

By Nat Torkington
March 16, 2009

Non-interop earphones with DRM, HVAC swarms, paperprints, and product constipation at GOOG: Apple iPod Shuffle (3rd gen) -- "Surprise: the only third-party headphones that will work are ones that haven’t even entered manufacturing yet, because they’ll need to contain yet another new Apple authentication chip, which will add to their price." It's interesting to see Apple prioritising the different interactions...

Contest: Share Your iWork '09 Tips

By Sara Peyton
February 26, 2009

Josh Clark is a writer, designer, and developer who aims to help creative people share their ideas with the world. And to that end, Josh is currently working oniWork '09: The Missing Manual. Currently available as a Rough Cut, the new book will teach you everything you need to know about Apple's incredible productivity programs, including the Pages word-processor, the Numbers spreadsheet, and the Keynote presentation program that Al Gore and Steve Jobs made famous. Read an excerpt from Josh Clark's work in progress, (adapted for the web). Then, take a minute to share an iWork '09 tip and you could win free access to iWork '09: The Missing Manual: Rough Cuts Version.

Four short links: 25 Feb 2009

By Nat Torkington
February 25, 2009

Amazon, Apple, Science, and Databases: Amazon's Wheel of Growth -- a fascinating diagram in the middle, the flywheel of customer experience driving sales driving sellers driving selection which drives experience again, and all the while lower costs allows Amazon to deliver lower prices and thus lower selection. iPhone Sketch -- stencils to use when sketching your iPhone app's screens. The...

Four short links: 23 Feb 2009

By Nat Torkington
February 23, 2009

Work in Small Batches -- I'm obsessed by the pursuit of quality, but at human scale and not in the stultifying ISO9001 process. The ever-wonderful Startup Lessons Learned blog ties together Toyota Quality, Continuous Integration, and Continuous Deployment, with good explanations of why it works. (I'm reminded of "yes it works in practice, but can it work in theory?")...

Four short links: 2 Feb 2009

By Nat Torkington
February 2, 2009

Songs off the Charts -- Johannes Kreidler's audio visualizations using Microsoft Songsmith. Reminds me of Douglas Adams in Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency where the amazing spreadsheet program could produce happy jingles or funereal dirges based on a company's revenues. (via Ben Fry) PWN! YouTube -- elegant URL hack: replace "www." with "pwn" in a YouTube movie URL and...

Four short links: 19 Jan 2009

By Nat Torkington
January 22, 2009

Hello from Whakapapa, a ski resort in New Zealand. These four links come to you via the wifi at the "highest hotel in New Zealand", which serves as a useful reminder that no matter how unremarkable one might seem, anyone can have a claim to fame if only they work at it. Apple Show Us DRM's True Colors - the...

Who says Lite apps don't work?!

By Raven Zachary
January 13, 2009

For the first time in the history of the App Store, the same iPhone application holds the #1 spot in both the Top 25 Paid and Free apps lists. The app is iShoot by Ethan Nicholas. It's a fairly straightforward...

A Closer Look at iPhoto '09

By Derrick Story
January 7, 2009

The Macworld keynote today focused on three basic new products: iLife '09, iWork '09, and an updated MacBook Pro 17". Within the iLife suite resides the new iPhoto. It has some refreshing technologies, such as Faces and Places, and has added a new twist or two to the Adjust panel. Here's a closer look at those features. Adjust Panel Improvements...

iPhone Activities @ Macworld

By Raven Zachary
January 5, 2009

Headed to Macworld? There are number of iPhone-related talks and events taking place at and surrounding Macworld this year. This is liklely not complete list, but I provide some of the items that stand out. This information is collected from...

Apple's New Position on App Acceptance

By Raven Zachary
December 27, 2008

As best as we can piece together, Apple changed its criteria for iPhone application acceptance sometime in early December. The first we heard of this change was from Sam Magdalein, creator of Pull My Finger. Earlier this month, he received...

iPhone Updates: Missing Manual Already #2; More Book Apps Hit iTunes

By Andrew Savikas
December 23, 2008

We released David Pogue's iPhone: The Missing Manual as an iPhone App on Friday, and by Saturday it was already the #2 for-pay App in the Books category on iTunes...

Some Apps They Like at Apple

By Jochen Wolters
December 23, 2008

Whenever there is a major Apple presentation, the demo machines are meticulously prepared, showing a well-managed list of documents and a sparkling-clean Applications folder. Some of the video tutorials on the Apple website, however, provide a more candid view at which applications Apple employees like.

Apple Loves Free Apps

By Raven Zachary
December 8, 2008

Apple has been focusing its recent iPhone marketing efforts on applications. This is an approach I am quite pleased with as it has tremendous strengths in regards to expressing the 'more than a phone' capabilities of the device. Application distribution...

Apple Loves Free Apps

By Raven Zachary
December 6, 2008

10,000 iPhone Apps

By Raven Zachary
December 1, 2008

Two services that track the iPhone App Store - AppShopper and 148Apps, announced on Saturday that there have been over 10,000 iPhone applications released on the US App Store. The number of currently available applications is just shy of 10,000 due to discontinued apps and a few that have been pulled by Apple (e.g. trademark disputes, terms of service violations,...

iPhone Apps Over $100

By Raven Zachary
November 30, 2008

Put aside the debate about $0.99 vs $1.99 on the App Store for a minute. How about $109.99 vs. $199.99?! There are currently 14 iPhone applications for sale on the US App Store for more than $100. While some of...