Linked List: April 29, 2011

Friday, 29 April 2011

MacLegion Spring 2011 Bundle ★

My thanks to MacLegion for sponsoring this week’s DF RSS feed to promote their 2011 spring bundle of Mac software. The bundle includes Data Rescue, ScreenFlow, Contactizer Pro, VirusBarrier, Forklift, LaunchBar, Printopia, Amadeus Pro, Radio Gaga, and MacPilot. All apps are the latest versions, and come with the same technical support and future upgrade paths that you’d get if you bought each app from the developers directly.

The bundle of ten apps costs just $49.99 — a savings of over $500 off their combined retail price. Offer ends May 12.

How Do Users React When a Developer Adds Airpush Ads to an App? ★

Not kindly.

iPhone to Dominate U.S. Physician Smartphone Market ★

Healthcare IT News:

According to a recent survey of U.S. physicians, 61 percent intend to own an iPhone by the end of 2011. This is up from 39 percent at the beginning of the year and compares with the iPhone’s 24.7 percent adoption among general U.S. smartphone users.

They offer no explanation for why this is. My guess: healthcare-specific iOS-exclusive apps. Assuming this survey is accurate, the U.S. physician smartphone market isn’t just a little different than the smartphone market as a whole, it’s a lot different.

Airpush — Push Notification Ads for Android ★

Sounds like hell on earth.

Update: Dan Wineman:

Airpush sounds like a really good way to turn “inactive users” into active uninstallers.

Tough Questions for RIM ★

Eric Jackson:

After Research in Motion’s cut earnings guidance last night, many investors are scratching their heads. Here is what I’d ask co-CEO Jim Balsillie if I met him for coffee this morning.

Jackson’s questions are clear and pointed. I think RIM is a company whose business is on the cusp of imploding.

White iPhone Really Is 0.2mm Thicker ★

Rene Ritchie:

I tried out a bunch of different cases and those that were just a tiny bit loose on the black iPhone 4 fit perfectly on the white iPhone 4 (like the CaseMate Chrome) while those that just fit the black iPhone 4 were just a tiny bit too tight (like the aforementioned Barely There).

More on ‘iCloud’ ★

John Paczkowski gets confirmation from “sources in the know” that Apple indeed bought the icloud.com domain name, and AppleInsider claims it’s going to be used by iOS 5 and Lion for syncing all sorts of stuff.

The Talk Show, Episode 40 ★

Another week, another episode of America’s favorite podcast: the location data controversy, the white iPhone 4, Apple’s growing mountain of cash, and Moonraker. Brought to you by Campaign Monitor’s World View and Intuit’s Small Business Blog.

Where Apple Would Stand Without the iPhone and iPad? ★

Ole Begemann looks at Apple’s revenue by product line, from 2007 through now:

If the iPhone and iPad had not come, Apple’s revenue from fiscal Q2 2007 to Q2 2011 would have grown by a “mere” 119% instead of 466%.

It’s kind of an impossible “What if?” scenario, because much of Apple’s “iPod” revenue today comes from the iPod Touch, which is an iPhone-sans-phone, not an iPod-as-we-knew-it-circa-2006. But the fact remains: the iOS product line has fueled an astounding amount of growth for Apple.

(This is also worth keeping in mind regarding the whole “more revenue and profit than Microsoft” angle (which angle, yes, I just wrote about two entries ago claiming I didn’t “want to make too big a deal out of”): Microsoft’s revenue and profit haven’t faltered. Their just-reported results were record-breaking for the quarter, with revenue up 13 percent and profit up 31 percent, year-over-year. Apple passed Microsoft even though Microsoft’s numbers showed strong growth.)

Cringely on Sony’s Response to the PSN Fiasco ★

Cringely:

A funny thing about Japanese business culture is the tendency to apologize profusely for absolutely anything that is beyond the control of the company or its executives. They’ll apologize for traffic, for bad weather, for someone else’s mistake, but if the company or its leaders have actually screwed-up they generally won’t say a thing, which is not at all good for Sony’s global image.

Awkward Use of the First Person Singular ★

I don’t want to make too big a deal out of Apple passing Microsoft as the most profitable company in the industry, because the trend has been clear for a long time. But maybe not so clear to everyone. Steve Ballmer, a year ago, after Apple’s market cap passed Microsoft’s:

Mr. Ballmer said he remains unfazed despite Apple assuming the position of the technology king. “I will make more profits and certainly there is no technology company in the planet which is as profitable as we are,” he said. “Stock markets will take care of the rest,” he added.