Linked List: June 8, 2012

Friday, 8 June 2012

Businessweek Profiles Phil Schiller 

Peter Burrows and Adam Satariano:

Since Jobs’s death in October, perhaps no Apple executive other than CEO Tim Cook is under more pressure to fill the void. Apple declined to make Schiller available for this story, which is based on interviews with more than a dozen former Apple managers, business partners, and industry analysts, most of whom asked to remain anonymous to avoid harming their relationships with the company. Besides helping software chief Scott Forstall and hardware designer Jonathan Ive define new products, Schiller is the steward of Apple’s relationship with app developers. He has taken over all of Apple’s marketing, including a global advertising budget that hit $933 million last year. And he will increasingly be Apple’s public face, a role that should be evident at the company’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference starting on June 11.

Good piece. It would be very hard to overstate Schiller’s role at Apple. “Marketing” at Apple doesn’t mean what “marketing” means at most companies. If you took the “Marketing” out of Schiller’s title and changed it to “Senior Vice President of Product”, people would have a better sense of his role.

Pris 

Speaking of cool brand-new iPhone apps with very short names, Pris is a clever take on a camera app by developer Rob Rhyne. Most interesting to me is the way it handles aspect ratios, both for stills and video clips:

Turn Pris on its side and indulge in panoramas shot in cinematic widescreen. It’s perfect for that short film you’re always thinking about. When held upright, Pris shoots photos ready for Instagram and its square video mode evokes memories of the golden age of film.

$1.99. Follow my advice today and you’ll be out a grand total of three bucks and you’ll have two great new apps.

(Readers with good memories may recall Rhyne’s name from Briefs, his ingenious but ultimately ill-fated interactive prototype tool for the iPhone.)

Ita 

Ita is a brand-new list-making app for iPhone and iPad from Nice Mohawk, and co-sponsor of this week’s The Talk Show. The app is super-simple, looks great (hello, Futura), and syncs through iCloud. And right now it’s just 99 cents. A buck! Just buy it, seriously.

‘A Decent Thing That Someone Would Like’ 

This week on America’s favorite two-star podcast, I’m joined by special guest star MG Siegler. Topics include the way that Android, as an ecosystem, is spiraling out of Google’s control; Facebook’s purportedly “disastrous” IPO that actually worked out pretty well for Facebook itself; and a rundown of the various rumors heading into next week’s WWDC.

And speaking of next week, a fun announcement: the first-ever live audience episode of The Talk Show will be recorded in sunny and warm San Francisco on the second day of WWDC, Tuesday June 12. Tickets are free and open to anyone 21 or older, but seating is limited. Listen to this week’s show for event details and how to get tickets — first-come, first-served.

This week’s The Talk Show was brought to you by two great sponsors:

  • Xcellent Creations has been building mobile apps since 2007 and can turn your idea into reality on whatever platform it requires.

  • Ita. A fine list-making app for iPhone and iPad from Nice Mohawk.

xip.io: Wildcard DNS for Everyone 

One of those “can’t believe no one did this before” ideas. Great service for web developers from 37signals. More info here.

Video Purportedly Shows Next-Generation iPhone Back Cover 

Jibes with 9to5 Mac’s photos last month, and looks too intricate to be a hoax. But what do I know — I fell for that Shell thing yesterday.