Linked List: February 23, 2011

Wednesday, 23 February 2011

Store Wars 

Kontra:

Put simply, publishers don’t want readers to opt in, because they know readers will prefer to opt out. Transparency is not a friend of publishers who for decades made a mint by selling out readers to advertisers and list brokers. Most readers may not be aware of this, but those who are don’t like it. Publishers know that and hate Apple for calling their bluff. If personal info harvesting isn’t essential for publishers’ business model and it is in the interest of readers, then why would they be against an instant referendum in the form of the opt in button?

Just How Is Apple’s App Store Subscription Policy Good for Users? 

Shane Richmond:

The case for the defence, as usual with Apple, comes from John Gruber. Greeting the arrival of the subscription plan on his Daring Fireball blog, Gruber wrote: “You’ll seldom go wrong betting on Apple doing something that’s good for Apple and good for its users — no matter what the ramifications for everyone else.”

I agree that is usually the case but in this instance I can’t see how the subscription plan is good for users. And if it’s not good for users then, in the long term, it won’t be good for Apple either.

Here’s how I see it as good for users:

  1. In-app subscriptions are easy to sign up for.

  2. In-app subscriptions are easy to unsubscribe from. This is where things start getting way better than the old days. It’s always been in magazines’ and newspapers’ interests to make it easy to sign up for a new subscription. They couldn’t replicate iTunes-style one-click-and-a-password ease, but they could get close. But they never made it easy to unsubscribe later on, because it wasn’t in their interests.

  3. Privacy protection. Publishers only get your personal information if you opt-in. They want that information so they can sell it to junk-mail companies. This is a big deal to publishers, and most subscribers don’t even know it’s happening. It’s a dirtbag deal, and Apple isn’t allowing it.

  4. The price protection rule — which prohibits publishers from charging iOS App Store users more for in-app subscriptions than they would pay from outside the store — might be a bad deal for publishers, but it’s good for users, because they know they’re getting the best price.

Again, if this subscription policy knocks a bunch of good apps out of the store, sure, that’ll be bad for iOS users. But that hasn’t happened, and clearly, Apple thinks it isn’t going to happen.

(One more note: Richmond, in his headline, calls it “Apple’s iOS Subscription Policy”. I think it’s important to note that it’s Apple’s App Store subscription policy. The App Store is what is closed and controlled by Apple. iOS has MobileSafari, through which anyone can do whatever they want.)

The Overlook Hotel Restaurant Children’s Menu 

Speaking of Kubrick-related links culled from Coudal: the children’s menu placemat from The Overlook Hotel.

What Happens After Yahoo Acquires You 

Matt Linderman examines the fates of Flickr, Delicious, Upcoming, and MyBlogLog:

Below is a full list of Yahoo’s acquisitions since 2005. How many can be described as success stories?

2001: A Space Odyssey Poster 

James White:

This poster was an odyssey within itself. I immersed myself in 2001: A Space Odyssey for a week, watching the film twice along with all the ‘making of’ footage and documentaries, researching concept art and posters online, and doing a bunch of sketching.

I like it.

(Via Joe Dawson at Coudal.)

Pencil Revolution Interview With Aaron Draplin 

Aaron Draplin:

The more I think about it, the more pencils — on some weird level — represent “complete freedom.” Freedom from digital ubiquity and predictability. There something cool about how you feel human when using a pencil. That feeling goes away the back to guys shaping rocks into cutting tools and stuff, I’d reckon.

Part 2 here.

A Good Demonstration of Light Peak/Thunderbolt 

High-performance, multiple protocols — you can see why Apple would like this.

The Big Picture on the Christchurch Earthquake 

Devastation.

For Berra and Guidry, It Happens Every Spring 

Yogi Berra’s valet during spring training: Ron Guidry. Baseball.

The End of the IT Department 

David Heinemeier Hansson:

The transition won’t happen over night, but it’s long since begun. The companies who feel they can do without an official IT department are growing in number and size. It’s entirely possible to run a 20-man office without ever even considering the need for a computer called “server” somewhere.

Update: Certain of the comments on Hansson’s post remind me of this quote from Upton Sinclair: “It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.”

Hunter S. Thompson Calls the AV Dealer That Fucked Up His Cables 

“Go to any bookstore, any magazine rack, and you can see what the fuck I can do to you!” (Via Chris Parrish.)

Mobile App Store Revenues for 2010, According to Research Firm IHS 

Android Market grew 861 percent year-over-year, which sounds impressive until you see that it’s still in fourth place, behind BlackBerry App World and Nokia Ovi Store. Erick Schonfeld:

Android Market revenues in 2010 came in at an estimated $102 million, up from $11 million the year before. And how did that compare to revenues from Apple’s App Store? Apple App Store revenues came in at an estimated $1.7 billion in 2010, almost 20 times bigger than Android. And Apple App Store revenue grew at a not-too-shabby 131.9 percent rate. More importantly, Apple accounts for 83 percent of the total estimated app store revenues.

This is why Apple believes they can charge 30 percent for subscription fees. They’re still the only game in town — the only store where people actually spend money.

Thunderbolt and Lightning, Very, Very Frightening Me 

Fscklog gets the scoop on tomorrow’s new 13-inch MacBook Pro, along with the name of Apple’s implementation of Light Peak: Thunderbolt.