by thienzieyung
Parking Douche, App for Reporting Badly Parked Cars.
[Via Dave Winer's linkblog feed]
Parking Douche, App for Reporting Badly Parked Cars.
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It’s only for Android and for Moscow right now. It would be interesting to see if something similar made it in the US?
Kindle Fire shipments drop sharply as Apple’s iPad takes 68% tablet share
[Via AppleInsider]
Shipments of Android-based tablets including Amazon’s Kindle Fire saw a “steep drop” in the first quarter of 2012, allowing Apple’s iPad to grow to 68 percent of tablets shipped worldwide.
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It seems likely that all those who want a Kindle Fire already bought them and thus the sales plummeted.
Of course they will have to offer a cheaper price. But it will also be a noticeably cheaper device.
And, I think, Apple can reduce the price of its entry level iPad if it ever needs to.
WWDC 2012: June 11-15
[Via Daring Fireball]
Three years ago it sold out in a month. Two years ago it took a week. Last year it took 12 hours. So, if you want to go, I wouldn’t fuck around.
Update: Sold out in two hours, before the U.S. west coast even woke up.
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If you slept late on the West Coast, you missed it. It’s like a rock concert.
Padcaster / Lenscaster lets you mount SLR lenses on iPad, we go hands-on at NAB (video)
[Via Engadget]
Think people look ridiculous shooting stills or video with an iPad? Try throwing an SLR lens into the equation as well. Manhattan Edit Workshop founder Josh Apter developed the Padcaster as an inexpensive solution for mounting an Apple iPad on a tripod. And why would you want to do such a thing? With 1080p video capture, built-in LTE and a on-board editing suite, such a device makes for an excellent on-the-go all-in-one, letting you shoot, cut and transmit video with a single package. One major aspect of visual storytelling that the tablet doesn’t excel at, however, is emphasizing details with blurred backgrounds, along with magnifying your subject with optical zoom. Enter the Lenscaster. This universal lens mount lets you use a standard 35mm adapter to attach any SLR optic to the iPad camera, enabling a small variety of hardware-driven optical effects, including shallow depth of field, manual focus and a zoom option that doesn’t result in detail loss.
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Now add the boom mike and all the budding Spielberg’s can do really amazing things with their studio in an iPad.
I wonder when the first films will appear done with this setup.
IPhone Boom Mic Adds Sound-Sensitive Proboscis To Your iDevice.
[Via Dave Winer's linkblog feed]
IPhone Boom Mic Adds Sound-Sensitive Proboscis To Your iDevice.
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Very nice. For $40, you now have a great video camera in your palm and also a mike that allows you to actually hear what is being said.
Technology is so amazing today.
by Genevieve719
FoxTrot for iPad
[Via Daring Fireball]
Speaking of e-books, FoxTrot author Bill Amend is trying the self-publishing route:
I’m calling them FoxTrot Pad Packs, because I like the metaphor of collectable cards and how you build up your collection via booster packs. I made them myself using Apple’s free iBooks Author software. Each $1.99 book contains 100 strips, some old, some new, some story lines, some stand-alone jokes, some black and white dailies, some color Sundays. The idea is to create mini books that take maybe 20-30 minutes to read and which aren’t bogged down with a ton of outdated references, as happens with my older, chronologically arranged print books.
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I love Foxtrot. And this is also an interesting exercise in self-publishing by its author, using Apple’s e-book authoring program.
I expect we will see more of this.
Facebook is stupid and for old people
[Via MacDailyNews]
“‘Facebook is stupid and for old people,’ my 12 year old daughter texted me yesterday after FaceBook offered to purchase Instagram. If you have teenage or pre-teen girls or boys, this demonstrative behavior isn’t anything new. What I didn’t fully understand at the time is what a firestorm the acquisition set off in the community,” Patrick Moorhead writes for Tech.pinions. “Of deeper and longer-term significance, however, was the spotlight my daughter’s text to me shined upon the newest and most natural trend in social media; verticalization or specialization, which will reshape social media as we know it today.”
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The 12 year old loves Instagram and recognizes that it is a separate world than Facebook. She uses it because it is not Facebook. She wants them separate so that Facebook stays out of her instagram.
Now it is not a separate world and she is not happy. Things change so much.
Facebook could really be in trouble if more and more young people feel that they want to carve out some part of their online life that is separate from Facebook.
Because Facebook’s entire business model is making sure that all of one’s online life belongs to Facebook.
Facebook acquires Instagram for $1 billion
[Via AppleInsider]
Facebook announced on Monday that it has agreed to purchase Instagram, the maker of the popular photo sharing service for iPhone, for $1 billion.
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Wow, in less than 2 years, Instagram went from no where to worth $1 billion.
This is a perfect example of what the app economy creates.
Keynotopia UI Design Libraries
[Via Daring Fireball]
Speaking of using Keynote as a UI design tool.
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There are some really nice videos here to show how Keynote can be used – not for a presentation program – but as a tool to rapidly prototype apps without getting bogged down in miscellania.
The videos are pretty cool and show the adaptability of a tool. It presents the possibility of rapidly prototyping and linking windows to allow customers to get a much better idea of how well things will – or will not – work and look.
Google Would Be Better Off Abandoning Android Than Losing Its iOS Deals
[Via Cult of Mac]
Google can’t really afford not to be on iOS.
Quick, what makes more money for Google: iOS or its own Android operating system? If you didn’t know anything about what a farce Android has become, you’d assume that Google was making more advertising revenue out of its own platform and ecosystem, but you’d be wrong: the search giant makes up to four times more off of iOS. Ouch.
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If the numbers hold up – and they are kind of indirect – Google makes about $500 million from Android and about $2 billion from Apple iOS.
Not the best position to be in. Apple is working on using something other than Google maps and search can always be changed.
HBO GO Interactive Features Will Hit iPad In Time For Game Of Thrones
[Via American Times]
HBO has done just about everything right when it comes to its adaptation of A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin. The first season of A Game of Thrones was a beautiful retelling of the fantasy epic. Judging by the trailers, season 2 is going to be even better.
Speaking of season 2, it launches this Sunday on April Fool’s Day. With HBO GO having just launched on Xbox 360, Gabe Gagliano thinks that we should expect a roll-out of the interactive features currently available at the website on the iPad within in the next few days.
“The app was last updated on March 22nd. Given the web page HBO has put up (screen shots below) and tweeted about, I expect we’ll see the interactive features in time for the Game of Thrones premiere,” he writes.
The interactive features are pretty helpful, too, and seem perfectly designed for touch screens.
“For Game of Thrones, HBO built a number of interactive features that would pop up during episodes,” Gabe writes. “Given the complexity of the story, the interactive features provided additional information on family trees, the houses and a map of the Seven Kingdoms. A web version of the interactive features can be found here. HBO has stated that the interactive features resulted in viewers watching episodes multiple times.”
I’m very pleased with the HBO GO experience on the Xbox 360, though I’ve only just begun dabbling with it. And I’m bloody excited about Sunday evening. Expect lots of Game of Thrones blogging in the near future. I’ll try to post at least once a week following the show. Hopefully all you Game of Thrones dorks will stop by for the conversation.
This just in:
It’s official, HBO just announced interactive HBO GO features on the iPad! The functionality will be enabled with the season two premiere of Game of Thrones on April 1st at 9 PM. According to the release, there will be interactive elements that are unique to the iPad. If you have the latest version of the HBO GO app, it doesn’t appear you need an update; sounds like HBO will just “flip the switch” on Sunday.
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One of the nice ways an iPad can enhance a TV experience is to add depth of info at a finger tip. Adding interactivity that becomes useful during a show’s performance is a lot of fun.
Adding it to something as complex and interesting as Game of Thrones can make a big difference.
My DVR will be getting a workout this weekend,
Speaking of Obama
[Via Daring Fireball]
From zero to the U.S. president’s daily briefing in two years.
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All on the iPad. Pretty fast penetration into government.
by JD Hancock
Apple’s iOS passes Android, accounts for 35% of mobile ad impressions
[Via AppleInsider]
The launch of the iPhone 4S helped Apple’s iOS surge 12 percentage points and surpass Google Android in mobile ad impressions in North America.
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Google’s business model is all about ads. Yet their share of the North American market dropped over 3% while Apple’s increased 12%.
And the top 3 devices for ad impressions are all from Apple – the iPhone 4s, the iPad and the iTouch.
Or course, this is just one survey and the market is such that it can be cut so many ways to prove almost anything.
But it is harder to argue domination in ad impressions when there is data showing you do not.
by e.r.w.i.n.
Could Foxconn’s Wage Rises be a Competitive Advantage For Apple?
[Via Forbes]
Now here’s something I hadn’t thought about: could the pressure on Apple, thus Foxconn, to raise manufacturing wages in China be utilised as a competitive advantage by Apple against competitors such as HP and Dell?
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Apple can do the right thing here and also be making good business decisions. It makes a very good profit on its devices, so it has a little money to put into the pot for the employees.
But its competitors make significantly less on their products. They have hardly any profit at all. So increased prices going to employees reduces those profits even more.
Apple’s innovative approach to supply has gotten itself here. It can build this devices at prices that the other companies can not compete against, making it almost impossible to create devices that make a profit.
So, Apple allows wages to rise, adding a few dollars to its costs, perhaps hurting its profits slightly, although this could increase sales from the goodwill it creates, as well as producing a lot of workers who may now be able to buy Apple’s products themselves. A possible win-win for everyone.
But other companies cannot do the same without devastating their bottom line. They are in a no win situation. If they keep wages low to keep their profits, they become persona non grata in the marketplace, as their potential customers turn away from them.
Or they raise wages and see their profits fall.
And who was responsible for getting Apple in this position making its assembly process so versatile and innovative that by raising wages they hurt their competitors? The current head – Tim Cook.
When this period of our history is written, Jobs will be a big part but the genius of Tim Cook will be seen as the truly amazing part he has been.
Microsoft Office for iPad pictured, will soon be submitted to Apple’s App Store
[Via AppleInsider]
A new version of Microsoft Office designed for the iPad is expected to arrive on the App Store soon, as hands-on impressions with the suite have been shared online.
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I was excited to see this original report – I had mentioned to friends that not having Office on iOS was a blunder for MS. Now it looked like they might be fixing that blunder, although a little late.
MS hurried assured everyone that the rumor was wrong and based on speculation. How disappointing.
So, I will have even more time to get used to Pages, Goodreader and Quickoffice.
SpreadingScience
Sustainable Path Foundation Idea Club
