Linked List: December 13, 2011

Tuesday, 13 December 2011

Steve Jobs in 1980 ★

Same vision. Same goals. What he was talking about then applies almost completely to what Apple is doing today. (Via Michael B. Johnson.)

Things Ross Rader Doesn’t Like About Twitter 4 for iOS ★

Ross Rader:

I believe that much of the confusion swirls around their efforts to simplify features that were poorly conceived to begin with. Moving stuff around on these various screens and giving them different names isn’t going to solve any real problems for Twitter or its users.

Couldn’t agree more.

Microsoft Releases Kinectimals for iOS ★

Mike Fahey:

Released last month for the Windows Phone 7, Kinectimals for iOS devices retains all the functionality of that version, right down to the ability to transfer your pets back and forth between your Xbox 360 and your iPhone or iPad.

They also released a Skydrive client app for iOS. I think this is smart.

Trolls ★

Paul Graham, back in 2008:

The third cause of trolling is incompetence. If you disagree with something, it’s easier to say “you suck” than to figure out and explain exactly what you disagree with. You’re also safe that way from refutation. In this respect trolling is a lot like graffiti. Graffiti happens at the intersection of ambition and incompetence: people want to make their mark on the world, but have no other way to do it than literally making a mark on the world.

Nielsen: ‘U.S. Kids Looking Forward to “iHoliday” 2011’ ★

Nielsen:

Consistent with U.S. kids’ 2010 wish lists, the Apple iPad is the most desired consumer electronic among kids ages 6-12 for holiday 2011. In fact, the iPad increases its stronghold, with nearly half (44%) of kids expressing interest in the product, up from 31 percent in 2010. Two other popular Apple devices — iPod Touch (30%) and iPhone (27%) — round out kids’ top three, with computers and other tablet brands each appealing to a quarter of younger consumers.

Seems to me Apple is doing pretty well in the youth market.

How to Properly Use Apple’s Guidance to Accurately Forecast Earnings ★

Andy Zaky explains in painstaking detail how to do what almost no professional Wall Street analysts actually do: accurately predict Apple’s finances. This is what you call “showing your work”. Bottom line:

Over the past several years, and especially after undergoing a major accounting change in fiscal Q1 2010, Apple has consistently reported a quarterly revenue number that was precisely 12-18% above its revenue guidance. Regardless of how rosy or conservative the Wall Street consensus happens to be, regardless of what Business Insider has to say about the Android destroying iPhone sales, regardless of all of the channel checks, Gartner & IDC research data, Comscore, NPD data, and the supply chain.

Regardless of rumors of Apple cutting manufacturing orders by 90% as falsely reported every quarter by the Chinese equivalent of the National Enquirer, Digitimes. Regardless of all of these reports that Apple has cut iPhone production by 75%, regardless of reports, and rumors of reports of Apple’s untimely death. Regardless of everything you hear from analysts, fund managers CNBC or anyone else for that matter. The fact remains that Apple consistently beats its own revenue guidance by the same exact 12-18% every single quarter. The rest is all noise intended to do nothing else but to distract you.

Tremendously detailed article. Zaky continues to impress.

Third-Party iPhone Twitter Clients Benefitting From Twitter’s New App ★

Dan Frommer:

Thanks to a price cut to $0.99 and the new Twitter launch on Thursday, Tweetbot has been shooting up the iPhone App Store charts, according to App Annie. It’s currently the no. 34 paid iPhone app, down from no. 16 on Saturday.

Tweetbot has been my iPhone Twitter client of choice for a few months now, but there are others worth looking at if you’re looking for something better than the new official client from Twitter. Off the top of my head: Echofon, Tweetlogix, Osfoora, Twitterrific, and Twittelator Neue are all worthy of attention. Each of those apps strikes me as better-designed than the new Twitter app, and each one of them is better designed than any single Twitter client I’ve ever tried for Android or Windows Phone. The iPhone Twitter client market is an embarrassment of riches.

Nokia, iPhone, Android and Wishful Thinking ★

Om Malik:

I co-incidentally happen to be in Helsinki, a few miles away from Nokia’s global headquarters in Espoo, Finland. Walking around the downtown (where I am staying), I have seen many more iPhones than Nokia phones. And most of the startup people I met have some variation of the iPhone. One of them who is still in college told me that Nokia gave him one of their new phones, and he decided to use it as a way to support his nation’s largest employer. A month later, he switched back to the iPhone. Ouch! When you can’t give away your phones to your own “youth,” it is time to stop hating on other platforms and look for ways to get people to use your product.

Damn these facts and their pro-Apple bias.

Amazon’s Jungle Logic ★

Richard Russo:

Like just about everybody I’ve talked to about it, I first attributed Amazon’s price-comparison app to arrogance and malevolence, but there’s also something bizarrely clumsy and wrong-footed about it. Critics may appear weak today, but they may not be tomorrow, and if the wind shifts, Amazon’s ham-fisted strategy has the potential to morph into a genuine Occupy Amazon movement.

App Developers Betting on iOS Over Android ★

Data from Flurry Analytics:

Anecdotally, developers consistently tell us that they make more money on iOS, about three to four times as much. To be sure, we pulled a sample of in-app purchase data from a set of top apps with versions on both iOS and Android, comprising several million daily active users (DAUs). Running the numbers, we find that, on average, for every $1.00 generated on iOS, the same app will generate $0.24 on Android.

The facts have a pro-Apple bias.

Elevation Dock ★

Kickstarter campaign by Casey Hopkins for an exquisitely well-crafted, beautiful, useful iPhone dock. I’m in.

Jonathan Chait on Paul Krugman ★

Jonathan Chait:

The most remarkable attribute Krugman has brought to the Times is rudeness. The social niceties that accompany his exalted position are utterly lost on him. He does not seek out the company of famous politicians and cannot be courted with flattery or access. He understands that you can’t arrive at truth without explaining why mistaken beliefs are wrong.

Nokia Exec: ‘Youth Are Pretty Much Fed Up With iPhones’ ★

Stuart Miles:

In an exclusive interview with Pocket-lint, Niels Munksgaard, director of Portfolio, Product Marketing & Sales at Nokia Entertainment Global explained all:

“What we see is that youth are pretty much fed up with iPhones. Everyone has the iPhone,” he said. “Also, many are not happy with the complexity of Android and the lack of security. So we do increasing see that the youth that wants to be on the cutting edge and try something new are turning to the Windows phone platform.”

I’m reminded of HTC Americas president Martin Fichter, who claimed in September that his daughter’s friends at Reed College carry HTC and Samsung devices, and “none of them has an iPhone” because they’re not cool anymore.

I’m also reminded of this quip from Yankee legend Yogi Berra: “Nobody goes there anymore. It’s too crowded.”

Don’t Be a Free User ★

Maciej Ceglowski on the pattern of free-of-charge web services getting popular and then cashing out and shutting down:

What if a little site you love doesn’t have a business model? Yell at the developers! Explain that you are tired of good projects folding and are willing to pay cash American dollar to prevent that from happening. It doesn’t take prohibitive per-user revenue to put a project in the black. It just requires a number greater than zero.

Smallworks Brickcase ★

Speaking of indie hardware products designed and made in the U.S.A., here’s another one I’ve linked to before but which is worthy of a re-link as we reach the homestretch of the holiday shopping season. The Brickcase is a Lego-compatible case for the iPhone 4/4S, and, now, for the iPod Touch too. A very fun idea, and really well-made.

Studio Neat ★

I’ve linked to the Glif a few times before — it’s my favorite iPhone 4 propper-upper/tripod thingamajig. The guys behind it have a few new products now: a deluxe “Glif+” package and the Cosmonaut, a wide-grip stylus for the iPad and other touchscreens. Great stocking stuffers, designed and manufactured right here in the U.S.A.

360° Gyroscope-Enabled Panoramic Photo of Grand Central Apple Store ★

Visit Apple’s web page for the new Grand Central Terminal store using an iOS device, tap “View More Photos”, and the last photo in the gallery is a stunning panoramic photo that you navigate using the gyroscope of the device. Amazing. (Via The Next Web.)

Mac App Store Download Numbers ★

Apple yesterday announced that the Mac App Store has crossed the 100 million download mark. Jim Dalrymple reports:

Apple confirmed for me today that those 100 million downloads do not include downloads for its newest operating system OS X Lion. The figure also doesn’t include updates to apps delivered to users from the Mac App Store.

Finally, the figure doesn’t include apps that users downloaded to other authorized Macs. Can you imagine what that figure would be if all of those numbers were included?

iOS 5.1 Beta 2 Enables Photo Stream Photo Deletion ★

Real artists ship, yada yada yada, but I think the way that Photo Stream shipped without the ability to delete photos from it is one of the oddest omissions in recent Apple history. Accidentally post something to Photo Stream that you don’t want there, and the only solution in iOS 5.0 is to delete your entire Photo Stream.

On the Tab Labels in the New Twitter ★

Brent Simmons:

Connect and Discover are the ones I like least, since they sound as if they weren’t decided upon by designers but by a murder of marketing executives perched around a big table. Both are too-abstract Latin words with the blood sucked out of them.