Linked List: September 10, 2015

Thursday, 10 September 2015

‘In Three Years When Apple Copies This, You Cockwads Will Think It’s Genius’ 

Speaking of Apple’s new Smart Keyboard, this comic from three years ago proved remarkably prescient, timing-wise at least.

Hands-on With the iPad Pro’s Smart Keyboard 

Speaking of Jason Snell, here’s his take on the iPad Pro’s Smart Keyboard:

Would I want to write a novel on the Smart Keyboard or the iPad Pro’s touchscreen keyboard? No, I suppose I wouldn’t. But I’m pretty sure that I could absolutely do so with the Smart Keyboard–and I’d certainly benefit from having a physical keyboard with me all the time, not just when I had the time and inclination to tote along an external Bluetooth keyboard.

His first impressions match mine.

Jason Snell on Yesterday’s Announcements 

Great take from Jason Snell on yesterday. Here’s a bit from his notes on Apple TV:

Most exciting is unshackling developers who, even when granted access to the old Apple TV, were stuck fitting services into a very simple Apple TV interface template. Now that the Apple TV runs apps, that consistency is out the window. A few years ago I was blown away by the version of MLB At Bat for the PS3, but on Apple TV its interface was vanilla. On stage today, we saw the same kind of creativity in MLB at Bat for Apple TV that we saw on MLB at Bat for consoles ages ago. Other media companies — Netflix, Hulu, maybe even Amazon Instant Video — can create their own experiences in their own apps. I think it’s great news.

I agree with Apple that the future of TV is apps. But I think some people could misunderstand that. It’s not about the fact that there will be lots of apps (but there will be lots of apps). It’s about the fact that there are apps at all.

On the current Apple TV, some people call the current root-level offerings “apps”. But they’re not really apps. You could just as easily call them “channels”. They’re just different ways to get video streaming onto your screen.

Go back and look at the MLB At Bat demo from yesterday’s keynote. That’s an app.

A Well-Earned ‘Finally’ 

I know yesterday’s keynote was jam-packed, but this news would’ve made for a great slide.