Linked List: October 27, 2011

Thursday, 27 October 2011

Apple Lossless Audio Codec Now Open Source 

Apple:

The Apple Lossless Audio Codec project contains the sources for the ALAC encoder and decoder. Also included is an example command line utility, called alacconvert, to read and write audio data to/from Core Audio Format (CAF) and WAVE files. A description of a ‘magic cookie’ for use with files based on the ISO base media file format (e.g. MP4 and M4A) is included as well.

Apache-licensed.

Sprint CEO Says iPhone Will Help Them Keep Unlimited Data Plans 

Elizabeth Woyke, interviewing Sprint CEO Dan Hesse for Forbes:

Industry observers often speculate when Sprint will have to adopt tiered pricing like AT&T and Verizon Wireless. Sprint is still not saying when it may make that switch, but credits the iPhone for helping it push the date out further. “One of the beauties of carrying the iPhone is it extends the period of time and increases the likelihood of us maintaining unlimited data longer because it uses our network so efficiently,” said Hesse. […]

The iPhone’s other strength stems from Apple’s tight control over iPhone applications. Since Apple makes iPhone apps meet network efficiency thresholds, iPhone apps tend to “ping” networks less often than other mobile operating systems do. Cutting down on app “noise” lets carriers operate their networks in a more productive and ultimately more profitable manner. “It’s almost like a Prius,” said Hesse, comparing the iPhone to Toyota’s fuel-efficient car.

Interesting. Most speculation I’ve seen is that the iPhone would hurry Sprint’s switch to tiered pricing, not delay it. Reading between the lines, he’s saying Android phones use a lot of data for apps running in the background.

(Via AppleInsider.)

Jack Donaghy Demos the Siri-Based Apple TV 

“Crap.” (Via Joey Tyson.)

Forrester Urges IT to Support the Mac 

As Philip Elmer-DeWitt quips, this really is a “hell has frozen over” moment.

Dan Frommer: ‘Here’s Why Apple’s TV Needs to Be an Actual Television, and Not Just a Cheap Add-on Box’ 

Dan Frommer:

Right now, the Apple TV box is aiming for “input 2” on your TV — most people still reserve “input 1” for their cable or satellite box. (Believe it or not, the average American still watches more than 5 hours of TV per day.) If you have a game console, maybe Apple TV is even input 3 or 4 — if your TV even has that many hi-def inputs. This was smart on Apple’s part, because for most TV watchers, today’s Apple TV box is still only a part-time solution.

But long-term, Apple probably wants its TV platform to be “input zero.”

To play devil’s advocate, what about all the people who’ve bought a nice new TV in the past, say, four years? Would Apple be willing to simply write all those people off? Maybe, insofar as they’d be getting into the TV set business for the long haul — willing to wait for whenever you are in the market for a new set. Tricky marketing problem, really.

Nick Bilton on an Apple Television Set: ‘It’s Not a Matter of if, It’s a Matter of When.’ 

And he says the interface will be Siri:

Alternative remote ideas floated by Apple included a wireless keyboard and mouse, or using an iPod, iPhone or iPad as a remote. None of these concepts worked. But there was one “I finally cracked it” moment, when Apple realized you could just talk to your television.

Enter Siri.

It’s the stuff of science fiction. You sit on your couch and rather than fumble with several remotes or use hand gestures, you simply talk: “Put on the last episode of Gossip Girl.” “Play the local news headlines.” “Play some Coldplay music videos.” Siri does the rest.

How would you tell Siri-on-TV to listen to your command, though, without an at least single-button remote? Without a prompt, how does Siri know when you’re talking to it?

Getting Siri to Pour a Beer 

Not exactly efficient in any sense of the word, but great choice of beer. (Via Dave Shea.)

They Had to Burn the Sheets 

Fresh off the presses, this week’s episode of the world’s most popular podcast devoted to the Free Software Foundation. Topics this week include the future of Apple TV, cable companies, iCloud, and Dropbox.

Brought to you by Squarespace and TinyLetter.

Motorola Mobility Third Quarter Results 

Another quarter, another financial loss for Motorola Mobility. Android is winning!

Porsche Design P9981 BlackBerry to Sell for $2000 

Easily the best-designed new phone of 2005.

HP to Keep PC Division 

You know what HP should do? They should acquire Netflix. Then a week later back away and say “Never mind.” Then a month later go ahead and buy Netflix. Those two are made for each other.

The Stallman Dialogues 

Conversations with Richard Stallman.

Microsoft’s Productivity Future Vision 

This video encapsulates everything wrong with Microsoft. Their coolest products are imaginary futuristic bullshit. Guess what, we’ve all seen Minority Report already. Imagine if they instead spent the effort that went into this movie on making something, you know, real, that you could actually go out and buy and use today.

Pixelmator 2.0 

Major update to a great indie rival to Photoshop. $30 introductory price in the App Store — $60 (and a bargain at that) eventually.

Richard Kerris Moves From HP to Nokia 

He left HP’s WebOS division earlier this week, and was just announced as Nokia’s “global head of developer relations”. What’s interesting is that it’s a job with Nokia, not Microsoft. What does it mean to be a “Nokia developer” when all Nokia phones are running Windows Phone 7? We’ll find out.

Visualizing Android Fragmentation 

Michael DeGusta:

I went back and found every Android phone shipped in the United States up through the middle of last year. I then tracked down every update that was released for each device - be it a major OS upgrade or a minor support patch — as well as prices and release and discontinuation dates. I compared these dates and versions to the currently shipping version of Android at the time. The resulting picture isn’t pretty — well, not for Android users.

This took a lot of effort, and his resulting infographic is striking. Many Android phones ship on day one with an old version of the OS and never catch up at any point. Fantastic work. Pretty good analysis too:

In other words, Apple’s way of getting you to buy a new phone is to make you really happy with your current one, whereas apparently Android phone makers think they can get you to buy a new phone by making you really unhappy with your current one. Then again, all of this may be ascribing motives and intent where none exist — it’s entirely possible that the root cause of the problem is just flat-out bad management (and/or the aforementioned spectacular dumbness).

Bloomberg TV+ for iPad 

This is the future of TV. The full Bloomberg news channel, free of charge, on your iPad. Apps are the new channels.

Condé Nast Subscriptions Up 268 Percent Since Newsstand Launch 

Darrell Etherington, GigaOm:

The publisher, which puts out many top-tier magazines including Wired, GQ and The New Yorker, has seen digital subscriptions rise 268 percent since Newsstand arrived with the iOS 5 update almost two weeks ago.

Not only did subscriptions increase, but single issue sales also skyrocketed with a 142 percent increase when compared with the eight weeks prior to Newsstand’s launch. Both represent increases as measured across all nine of Condé Nast’s digital titles available on the iOS platform.

Location, location, location.

Richard Stallman’s Hypocritical Stance on Cell Phones 

Richard Stallman:

  • I refuse to have a cell phone because they are tracking and surveillance devices. They all enable the phone system to record where the user goes, and many (perhaps all) can be remotely converted into listening devices.
  • In addition, most of them are computers with nonfree software installed. Even if they don’t allow the user to replace the software, someone else can replace it remotely. Since the software can be changed, we cannot regard it as equivalent to a circuit. A machine that allows installation of software is a computer, and computers should run free software.
  • When I need to call someone, I ask someone nearby to let me make a call.

“Hey that thing is terrible. The government is using it to track and spy on you, and the software is evil. Can I borrow it for a second to make a call?”