These are a few of my favourite things
by Bryan Peters
The news is everywhere, but here is the story from The Verge, with big beautiful—and some not so beautiful, anymore—shots of all the actors.
Some of the returning cast from the original trilogy are looking pretty rough. Time flies.
Courtesy of Daring Fireball. Very neat to watch. Sorry, no pun intended, I just can't think of another word.
After Apple's earnings call the other day, I had been planning to address the "disappointing" iPad numbers from Apple's most recent quarter. The good news is that MG Siegler has already done it, and I can just add a few of my own thoughts.
I absolutely agree with most of what Siegler says, except [emphasis mine]:
What we had was a perfect storm of events that led to the rise of the iPad:
The iPhone priming the public for iOS.
The desire for larger touchscreens.
And, of course, the implosion of the PC industry.
This is what led to 210 million units sold in four years.
I think it's a little bit too much to call the current—and pretty certain to continue—decline of the PC industry, an implosion. Implosion seems like too harsh of a term to me. The PC market is clearly retracting and being replaced by "post-PC" devices like the iPad and smartphones, but I think it still has a long future ahead of it, including actual growth in Mac sales. Maybe I'm arguing semantics.
Some other reasons why I think Apples Q2 Fiscal 2014 iPad sales were only 16.35 million, compared to 19.48 million in the same quarter a year ago:
I think it's entirely plausible that we may still see two more quarters where iPad sales don't beat the same quarter from the year before. There are already 210 million iPads out there, and unlike many of their Android counterparts, I'd be willing to bet most of them are still in use. Again, I have nothing but anecdotal evidence to back up this, but I now a lot of people who have gone through a few Android tablets that are now either garbage or sitting in a drawer somewhere, not being used. Does anyone remember the Motorola Xoom, or the first Nexus 7? How many of those do you think are still in use?
I don't think the iPad's growth is anywhere near over yet, but the world may be catching its breath after 4 years of tremendous iPad sales growth. That's my prediction, but I guess time will tell.
Last Saturday, I made the best homemade caesar salad that I've ever made. It was the first homemade caesar salad I've ever made that can really, accurately be called homemade—the rest were kits—but that shouldn't count against the salad. I made it using an app called The Best Caesar, which is basically an entire app dedicated to one awesome caesar salad recipe. The app is absolutely free. The recipe is about as "from scratch" as you can get, including anchovies, oil, parmesan, dijon mustard and more. You should give it a try if you're a fan of caesar salads, like I am.
I've been meaning to link to this for a few days now. A great piece by David Smith on how to improve the App Store. It's actually a summary of a series of podcasts he did on the topic. I've complained about the App Store before, and I'm not overly confident it's going to get fixed anytime soon, but David Smith has some great ideas. Coincidentally, it was actually one of David Smith's apps for which I was searching—Pedometer++—when I was last complaining about the App Store. Apple just hasn't shown an ability to make great web services. I'm not sure if they can't or if it's just not their priority.
David Smith:
#1: Apps should be required to pass approval on an ongoing basis.
…The important thing is that it would create a Store where any app a customer purchases would be assured of meeting and complying with the current set of guidelines. The stated goal of the Guidelines is to “ensure [apps] are reliable, perform as expected, and are free of offensive material.” I believe every app on the store should meet those criteria.
This is just one of many good, well-thought-out ideas that he presents. I particularly like this one. It would keep all the apps reasonably up-to-date with the latest guidelines and versions of iOS, and it would eliminate a lot of stagnant junk that bloats the App Store.
The whole article is worth a read. I haven't listened to the podcasts yet, but I'm going to.
If you're interested in all the net neutrality goings on in the U.S., then you should give Marco's take on a New York Times article from Wednesday. My favourite part:
Everyone in this discussion has been led, most likely by talking-points marketing by the FCC and ISPs, to describe the destruction of net neutrality as allowing ISPs to “create fast lanes”.
This language was carefully constructed to sound like a positive, additive move: It’s building, not destroying or restricting. They want to offer faster service, not reduce the speed or priority of all existing traffic. Who could possibly be against that? They’re building fast lanes, like a highway! Everyone loves fast lanes! U-S-A! U-S-A!
This is pretty cool. Google has added historical photos to Google Maps Streetview. You can now check out past images of a location by moving a slider back and forth.
[via Re/Code]
The Verge has the story. This phone looks like a beast and it's priced right: $299 unlocked for the 16GB model (in white) and $349 for a 64GB model (in black).
It's a powerful effort, with a 2.5GHz Snapdragon 801 processor, a 5.5-inch 1080p display, 3GB of RAM, a 13-megapixel f/2 camera unit, and bottom-facing stereo speakers designed with assistance from JBL. It runs a minimalist custom UI atop CyanogenMod, the modified version of Android breaking out as an operating system in its own right.
Yesterday, Twitter rolled out new profiles on it's web interface. Wired has a how-to posted to help us all out.
Steven Levy goes inside Apple's Nevada data center for Wired.
Apple is either really taking this seriously, or they really want us to believe that they are. I believe they are serious.
Here’s that story: Apple is close to its goal of powering all its facilities 100 percent by renewable energy. Its corporate campuses and data centers are now at 94 percent renewable and rising. (In 2010 it was 35 percent.) The next step is to extend the efforts to its retail stores.
In this accounting, Apple does not include the manufacturing, transport, and use of its actual products, which accounts for 98 percent of its carbon footprint. Still, its accomplishment on facilities, particularly data centers, is significant.
Wow. 35 percent to 94 percent in less than 4 years. That's pretty impressive. But, the second paragraph provides the real context. They've only just scratched the surface. Apple has only started to tackle the first 2 percent of its carbon footprint. And make no mistake, its carbon footprint is huge. When you sell over 225 million iOS devices per year and still growing, that's a lot of carbon.
Very cool. Jim Dalrymple over at The Loop links to a story in the Sydney Morning Herald about booksellers claiming to have found Shakespeare's dictionary.
If it’s real, it’s the literary find of the century. New York antiquarian booksellers Daniel Wechsler and George Koppelman believe they have found William Shakespeare’s annotated dictionary.
According to VentureBeat, Google is working to make Gmail play nicer with encryption tools like PGP. This comes in the wake of all the recent NSA surveillance news.
[via The Verge]
Uncrate has featured this Bellroy wallet today. Unlike me, I'm sure they're getting paid to feature it. I just really like mine, so I thought I'd share. I can't remember where I first heard about Bellroy wallets, but this is the exact one I carry everyday. Excellent wallet.
Take a look at the video below, narrated by Tim Cook. In the video, Apple's CEO talks about some of the company's environmentally friendly initiatives. They've also updated the "Environmental Responsibility" page on Apple's site.
Impressive progress, but as Tim Cook says in the video, they "have a long way to go and a lot to learn". But, you have to start somewhere. I think this is great.
If you're a fan of boxing, head over to Deadspin and give this a read.
That night Leon [Spinks] and Curry quickly bogged down into a slow grind, their mutual lack of conditioning forcing them to drape themselves over each other in a sodden ring where the temperature was over a hundred. Leon hung in on heart; Eddie, with the dawning realization that he was going to get a win over a former heavyweight champion.
Interesting read over at PlayboySFW, explaining the major differences in men's and women's attitudes toward casual sex and those who partake in it. My favourite passage:
Ironically, it's this negative attitude toward women who have casual sex that makes many women less likely to seek it out, which means less casual sex for the men who want it most. Based on what psychologists know, I'd argue that if we can work toward a culture where the stigma surrounding women's casual sex is diminished, the result could be more guilt-free hookups for all those who want them.
A little off-topic from most of my links, but a good read.
I may be jumping to conclusions here, but I have a feeling it's not a coincidence that on the day Pioneer Electronics announces that they're going to be selling a product associated with the iPhone, their site goes down. I can't get onto either of their Canadian or American sites.
I can't imagine another product they've announced that would garner as much web traffic as their NEX series supporting CarPlay.