The job the iPhone is hired to do, part II

The job the iPhone is hired to do, part II | asymco

It’s something of a cliché to say that audiences vary in terms of quality, but that does not make it less true. Indeed, network operators depend on it being true. And so does Apple.

The job the iPhone is hired to do | asymco

The clue comes from the fact that the consumer is not the only buyer. It’s operators who buy and re-price the product. They are hiring the product to sell broadband and the newest variant is still the best hire to do that job. This observation is crucial to understanding the growth dynamics of the iPhone and consequently, of Apple itself.

Apps, People, & Jobs to Be Done | stratēchery

キャリアがアンドロイドより iPhone を売りたいワケ | maclalala2

Who’s Winning, iOS or Android? All the Numbers, All in One Place

Who’s Winning, iOS or Android? All the Numbers, All in One Place | TIME.com

Android if you’re talking about market share; iOS if you mean financial success. So far, this is a strikingly different market than the PC business back in the 1990s, when market share translated directly into financial success.

Who’s Winning, iOS or Android? All the Numbers, All in One Place | Daring Fireball

Apple’s design problems aren’t skeuomorphic

Apple’s design problems aren’t skeuomorphic | counternotions

In the end, what’s wrong with iOS isn’t the dark linen behind the app icons at the bottom of the screen, but the fact that iOS ought to have much better inter-application management and navigation than users fiddling with tiny icons. I’m fairly sure most Apple users would gladly continue to use what are supposed to be skeuomorphically challenged Calendar or Notebook apps for another thousand years if Apple could only solve the far more vexing software problems of AppleID unification when using iTunes and App Store, or the performance and reliability of the same. And yet these are the twin sides of the same systems design problem: the display layer surfacing or hiding the power within or, increasingly, lack thereof.

Yes, unlike any other company, we hold Apple to a different standard. We have for three decades. And we have been amply rewarded. If Apple’s winning streak is to continue, I hope Jony Ive never misplaces his Superman cape behind his Corinthian leather sofa…for he will need it.

Apple’s Design Problems Aren’t Skeuomorphic | Daring Fireball

Best list of where iOS needs serious work that I’ve seen.

Google’s most advanced voice search has arrived on iOS

Google’s most advanced voice search has arrived on iOS | Google Official Blog

You can get answers to an increasingly wide variety of questions thanks to Knowledge Graph, which gives our search technology an understanding of people, places and things in the real world.

Enhanced voice search on the Google Search App | YouTube

New Google Search App With Siri-Like Voice Responses Finally Approved For iOS | Search Engine Land

Announced in August, Google’s new Google Search app for iOS has been apparently stuck in Apple’s app approval process for over two months. No longer. Google’s just announced that the new app is out.

Curious Timing | Daring Fireball

One possible explanation: there were technical problems or guideline violations that Google needed to fix. The other: Apple froze it in the queue out of spite, because Google Voice Search compares so favorably to Siri.

Intriguingly, the update finally appeared in the App Store on October 30 — the day after Scott Forstall was ousted.

微妙なタイミング | maclalala2

Siri の強敵現わる | maclalala2

iOS 7 や OS X は遅れることになる？

Anonymous asked: Does Forstall leaving … | parislemon

Anonymous asked: Does Forstall leaving and Ive taking over HI mean a later than usual release of iOS 7? If not, then what about OS X next year since Federighi is now in charge of both?

MG: It’s an interesting question. I think it’s safe to assume that iOS 7 was already well into development when the Forstall news was announced. Maybe Federighi tweaks some things as a result of taking over, or maybe that waits until iOS 8. I’m still betting we hear something around WWDC 2013.

OS X is unclear. Last year, Apple legitimately surprised with Mountain Lion. Do they do it again this year with 10.9? Are they working on OS XI?

HP TouchPad が注目の的

HP: TouchPad’s WebOS Threatens Android, Apple iOS [Austin Carr] | Fast Company

Ironically, in order to compete with Apple, HP is taking a page from Apple’s playbook. Steve Jobs’s strategy has always been to control both the hardware and the software it runs on. While other PC makers, including HP, have relied on Windows, Apple’s Macs have always come with Mac OS, an operating system designed specifically for its hardware. Apple has followed the same approach when expanding to the iPhone and iPad with iOS. “Everyone is figuring out that if you want to survive, you really want to control the experience end to end,” McKinney says. “The ability to control both the hardware platform and OS is absolutely critical.”

HP Gets It | Daring Fireball

Music to my ears. Here’s what I wrote about HP back in October 2009:

“Operating systems aren’t mere components like RAM or CPUs; they’re the single most important part of the computing experience. Other than Apple, there’s not a single PC maker that controls the most important aspect of its computers. Imagine how much better the industry would be if there were more than one computer maker trying to move the state of the art forward.”

Hands on with the HP TouchPad [Jason Snell] | Macworld

Jason Snell Reviews the HP TouchPad | Daring Fireball

Best review of it I’ve seen. If you’re only going to read one, make it Snell’s. He covers it all: the great UI design, WebOS’s excellent card-based switching interface, the solid hardware, the shortcomings, what seems unfinished, WebOS’s seemingly endemic lagginess, and the miserable performance of Flash Player.

Teardown of HP TouchPad: Made like a PC and straightforward to repair | TechRepublic

The HP TouchPad has a case that’s easy to open and replaceable components. This tablet is built more like a PC than an iPad.

H-P TouchPad Tablet Review [Walt Mossberg] | AllThingsD

H-P stresses that webOS is a platform and that the TouchPad is just one iteration of it. The company plans to add the operating system to numerous devices, including laptops, and hopes that this scale will attract many more apps. And it pledges continuous updates to fix the current shortcomings.

But, at least for now, I can’t recommend the TouchPad over the iPad 2.

H.P.’s New Tablet Enters Market Late, but Looks Marvelous [David Pogue] | NYTimes.com

First of all, the TouchPad is beautiful. It’s iPad beautiful. The case is glossy black plastic — a magnet for fingerprints, unfortunately, but it looks wicked great in the first five minutes.

The WebOS is beautiful, too. It’s graphically coherent, elegant, fluid and satisfying. That, apparently, is the payoff when a single company designs both the hardware and the software. (Android gadgets, by contrast, are a mishmash of different versions and looks.)

It supposedly has a blazing-fast chip inside, but you wouldn’t know it. When you rotate the screen, it takes the screen two seconds to match — an eternity in tablet time. Apps can take a long time to open; the built-in chat app, for example, takes seven seconds to appear. Animations are sometimes jerky, reactions to your finger swipes sometimes uncertain.

Pogue on the TouchPad | Daring Fireball

Very strong consensus among all the reviews I’ve read.

After Spurning Android, HP May Offer Windows 8 Tablets | Fast Company

“I’m limited to what I can talk about with Windows 8,” McKinney says. “We’re working very closely with [Microsoft], and I’m going to leave it at that or I’m going to start getting myself into trouble.”

Any chance of a Windows 8 tablet, though? “We currently have a product shipping today called the Slate 500, and to be quite honest that product has been doing quite well,” he says. “So that’s a Windows 7 version, and then we’ll have the TouchPad coming out [with WebOS].”

So is it safe to assume there will also be a Windows 8 tablet? A long pause.

HP’s Uncomfortable Relationship With Microsoft | Daring Fireball

HP is the number-one seller of Windows PCs in the world, but they’re charting their own course in mobile with WebOS. They might even license WebOS to other hardware makers — whatever you think of the merits of that idea, there can be no argument that doing so would put HP in direct competition with Microsoft.

Interview: HP says Apple is not TouchPad’s target | The Loop

HP acknowledged Apple’s dominance in the tablet market, but said Apple wasn’t its target with the TouchPad.

“We think there’s a better opportunity for us to go after the enterprise space and those consumers that use PCs,” said Kerris. “This market is in its infancy and there is plenty of room for both of us to grow.”

HP Says Apple Is Not TouchPad’s Target | Daring Fireball

Smart. Reminds me of that Steve Jobs mantra from the late ’90s: “We have to let go of this notion that for Apple to win, Microsoft has to lose. We have to embrace the notion that for Apple to win, Apple has to do a really good job.”

Restated for today, mobile OS competitors need to let go of the notion for them to succeed, Apple has to lose. Compare and contrast HP’s attitude with RIM’s.

HP in Discussions to License WebOS Software, CEO Apotheker Says | Bloomberg

今日のつぶやき：furunos

Satoshi FURUNO: 禅譲する人材が育っているというのは凄いこと Now … | Twitter

ひそかにジェイルブレイク検知 API をやめたアップル

Apple quietly drops iOS jailbreak detection API | Network World

Apple has disabled, without explanation, a jailbreak detection API in iOS less than six months after introducing it. Device management vendors say the reasons for the decision are a mystery, but insist they can use alternatives to discover if an iPhone, iPod touch or iPad has been modified so they can load and modify applications outside of Apple’s iTunes-based App Store.

Apple Quietly Disables Jailbreak Detection API in iOS 4.2.1 | Redmond Pie

今日のつぶやき：akamatsu

Masayuki Akamatsu: なるほど The computer for the … | Twitter

サードパーティ開発ツールを認めたアップル

Statement by Apple on App Store Review Guidelines | Apple

We are continually trying to make the App Store even better. We have listened to our developers and taken much of their feedback to heart. Based on their input, today we are making some important changes to our iOS Developer Program license in sections 3.3.1, 3.3.2 and 3.3.9 to relax some restrictions we put in place earlier this year.

In particular, we are relaxing all restrictions on the development tools used to create iOS apps, as long as the resulting apps do not download any code. This should give developers the flexibility they want, while preserving the security we need.

In addition, for the first time we are publishing the App Store Review Guidelines to help developers understand how we review submitted apps. We hope it will make us more transparent and help our developers create even more successful apps for the App Store.

Apple backpedaling on some iOS development restrictions, will allow third party tools | Engadget

Woah, who saw this coming? Apple has changed its sup-controversial stance on third party developer tools for iOS apps, now allowing any and all comers (which would obviously include Adobe Flash CS5), “as long as the resulting apps do not download any code.”