Linked List: October 24, 2013

Thursday, 24 October 2013

Copiously detailed and illustrated review. Here Viticci sings the praises of one of my own favorite new features:

Now, whenever you follow a link, a web view will be opened and confined to the tab it’s been launched from. If you open a link from your timeline, you can switch to the Mentions tab and do something else; if you open a link from a DM, you can go back to the timeline and read tweets while the page is loading.

This change to the app’s navigation makes for an incredibly more convenient workflow for people who, like me, deal with links every day and found it cumbersome to be forced to wait for a page to load, act on it, then close it. The “multitasking” experience inside Tweetbot is much improved because of this change and, in comparison, the old app’s way of handling web views looks silly now. For me, this has been particularly handy when receiving DMs: I get a lot of direct messages every day, and with Tweetbot 3 I’m no longer forced to close a webpage I’m reading if I have to reply to a DM immediately.

‘They Are the Featurephones of Tablets’ ★

Great piece by Benedict Evans:

But there’s also another proposition, a $75-$150 black generic Chinese Android tablet, half the price of a Nexus 7. That proposition is also selling in huge numbers, but it appears to come with a very different type of use.

Why are people buying these? What are they being used for? They’re mostly in China (that’s the pink bar above) and emerging markets and in lower income groups in the west. And it seems that they’re being used for a little bit of web, and a bit of free gaming. Perhaps some book reading. And a LOT of video consumption. In fact, one might argue that for many buyers, these compete with TVs, not iPads, Nexuses and Tabs. But regardless of what they’re being used for, they’re not being used the way iPads are used. In effect, they are the featurephones of tablets.

If this theory is correct, it suggests that Apple’s $300 Mini really isn’t a competitive problem, because the iPad doesn’t yet face a strong competitive threat (quite unlike the iPhone). Rather, there are actually two quite different markets: the post-PC vision, where Apple is dominant, and a ultra-low margin product that’s also called a tablet but which is really a totally different product.

In short, Apple’s share of the overall “tablet” market is shrinking, fast. But the part of the market where the iPad is not dominating is nothing at all like the part where it is.

Matthew Panzarino on Tweetbot 3 ★

Matthew Panzarino:

That sense of joy permeates the app, with subtle animations and wonderfully redone audio cues. Everything is lighter, brighter and more readable overall. Within a couple of days of using the new app it was nearly impossible for me to look at the old version of Tweetbot for any extended period. It felt dark, static and very, very old. Part of this is the natural effect that iOS 7′s ‘shock to the system’ has had on all apps, but a lot more of it is a careful re-evaluation of what makes Tweetbot work.

Former Spy Chief Overheard Giving Off-the-Record Interview From Train ★

Tom McCarthy, reporting for The Guardian:

The former CIA and NSA director Michael Hayden ended up on the wrong end of a surveillance stakeout on Thursday afternoon when, while riding a commuter train, he was overheard “disparaging” the Obama administration. The over-hearer was a private citizen — Tom Matzzie, an entrepreneur who previously worked for MoveOn.org and John Kerry’s 2004 presidential campaign.

Hayden was aboard an Acela train outside Philadelphia and talking by phone with a reporter when Matzzie, who was sitting nearby, recognized him. Matzzie heard Hayden insist to the reporter that he be quoted anonymously, as a “former senior administration official”.

Then Matzzie began live-tweeting as the nation’s former top spy badmouthed the Obama administration, apparently in connection with the revelation hours earlier that NSA had monitored the phone calls of at least 35 world leaders’ telephone lines.

It’s like a scene from a modern day sequel to Dr. Strangelove.

Tweetbot 3 for iPhone ★

Lots to like in this iOS 7 update to Tapbots’ acclaimed Twitter client. I’ve been beta-testing it for a few weeks, and can’t imagine going back to the old version. Tapbots painted themselves into a corner with their previous look and feel — they were the ziggyest thing going, but with iOS 7, Apple zagged. They’ve figured out a way to drop the zig but still maintain a very distinctive character in the app. $3 launch price, but soon to be $5 (and yes, existing users need to pay again for the new version). Recommended.

iWork 13 is the New iMovie 08 ★

David Pogue, six years ago:

Most people are used to a product cycle that goes like this: Release a new version every year or two, each more capable than the last. Ensure that it’s backward-compatible with your existing documents.

iMovie ’08, on the other hand, has been totally misnamed. It’s not iMovie at all. In fact, it’s nothing like its predecessor and contains none of the same code or design. It’s designed for an utterly different task, and a lot of people are screaming bloody murder.

Or, if you prefer, consider the brouhaha over Final Cut Pro X two years ago. The bottom line: Apple tends to value simplicity over functionality.

Carl Icahn Demands $150 Billion Buyback in Letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook ★

The artwork attached to this post from John Paczkowski says it all. Perfect.

Whither iWork? ★

Nigel Warren:

The fact that iWork on the Mac has lost functionality isn’t because Apple is blind to power users. It’s because they’re willing to make a short-term sacrifice in functionality so that they can create a foundation that is equal across the Mac, iOS, and web versions. It will take time to bring these new versions of iWork up to parity with what the Mac used to have. In the meantime all platforms have to live with the lowest common denominator.

This is what I think, too. Doesn’t make it any easier to stomach if you relied on features that have gone away though. And let’s see how long “short-term” is.

Glide and the Rebooted Loop Magazine ★

Rene Ritchie:

As you tap into the issue and the article, as you scroll through the words, as the images zoom in and out, as you swipe to the next article, and as you pinch back to the issue or the rack of issues, it’s all fluid, it’s immersive. It’s an amazing confluence of technology and media, and one that very much sparks that same childlike sense of wonder Apple strives for in their products.

I got a sneak peek at the updated Loop Magazine app from Dalrymple the other day. Very impressive — far more interactive and, for lack of a better word, app-y.

The Value of Zero-Priced Software ★

Horace Dediu:

I believe the logic for Apple is that usage of the products determines their value and therefore placing powerful software in the hands of more users means they will value the entire system more. This leads to the notion of greater “stickiness” or “lock-in” but also to higher satisfaction and loyalty, rate of upgrades and even more third party purchases and yet more usage.

The Globe and Mail: John Sculley Considering BlackBerry Bid ★

Steven Chase and Iain Marlow, reporting for The Globe and Mail:

John Sculley, the former Apple Inc. CEO who famously clashed with Steve Jobs, is exploring a bid for beleaguered BlackBerry Ltd. with Canadian partners, sources have told The Globe and Mail.

Mr. Sculley said he could not comment on the matter, but noted “I’ve been a long-time BlackBerry fan and user.”

Taiwan FTC Fines Samsung $340,000 for Fake Online Comments ★

A $340,000 fine will really teach Samsung a lesson. They’ll only have $4 billion left in their ad budget.

Google Testing Huge Banner Ads in Search Results ★

Barry Schwartz, writing for Search Engine Land:

In 2005, Google promised that banner ads would never come to web search, saying:

There will be no banner ads on the Google homepage or web search results pages. There will not be crazy, flashy, graphical doodads flying and popping up all over the Google site. Ever.

Eight years later, it seems Google may be ready to break that promise.

That 2005 blog entry promising no banner ads in search results was written by Marissa Mayer.

Mixed AppleScript Signals ★

Dr. Drang:

As for spreadsheets and presentation software, the only competition I’m aware of is Excel and PowerPoint from the MS Office suite. I’ve never used PowerPoint and haven’t used Excel in almost 20 years, but David Sparks says their AppleScript support was better than iWork’s even before the purge. Now Apple is essentially pushing its power users toward Microsoft. It’s a funny world.

Pierre Igot on Pages 5 ★

Pierre Igot:

Dear oh dear. They really have done it, haven’t they? They have taken what had evolved into a rather decent word processor / page layout application and have eliminated so many useful features that it effectively is now a piece of useless junk, and I honestly have no idea for whom this latest version of Pages is intended.

Tell us what you really think, Pierre.

Siracusa’s Review of OS X 10.9 Mavericks ★

John Siracusa:

According to Apple, Mavericks has a dual focus. Its first and most important goal is to extend battery life and improve responsiveness. Secondarily, Mavericks aims to add functionality that will appeal to “power users” (Apple’s words), a group that may be feeling neglected after enduring two releases of OS X playing iOS dress-up.

24,000 words, not bad.

Why Android First Is a Myth ★

Steve Cheney:

While in theory Android provides a very modern platform for mobile development, the realities around Android-first are quite different. Startups simply cannot afford to bypass iOS and go Android out of the gate. One could even argue the gap is widening.