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Bill Gates Still Richest American, Steve Jobs Ranks at No. 39→

Bill Gates Still Richest American, Steve Jobs Ranks at No. 39

From the press release about Forbes’ annual list of 400 Richest Americans: [via]

Bill Gates (No. 1) retains his top spot on Forbes’ 2011 ranking of the richest people in America (“The Richest People In America,” p. 39 and p. 210) with $59 billion, followed by Warren Buffett (No. 2) with $39 billion and Larry Ellison (No. 3) with $33 billion. George Soros (No. 7) joins the Top 10 for the first time, with $22 billion, and is one of several of the 27 hedge fund managers – 7% of the Forbes 400 – featured in “Hedged Fortunes,” p. 82.

Former Apple CEO and now Chairman of the Board Steve Jobs ranked at #39 with $7 billion. Jobs ranked at No. 42 last year with $0.9 billion less; globally, Forbes ranked Steve Jobs at #110 earlier this year. Also seen in this year’s list: Amazon’s Jeff Bezos (#13), Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg (#14). Zuckerberg is this year’s “biggest dollar gainer” by adding $10.6 billion in the past 12 months. Google’s Sergey Brin and Larry Page ranked both at No. 15 with $16.7 billion each.

Forbes has a complete analysis of their list here. Combined, the nation’s wealthiest are worth $1.53 trillion.

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The Mac App Store, Two Months After Lion’s Launch→

The Mac App Store, Two Months After Lion’s Launch

Dan Frommer at SplatF takes a look at the Mac App Store, two months after the public debut of OS X Lion:

What we haven’t seen are big moves by companies like Microsoft or Adobe into the Mac App Store. Adobe launched Photoshop Elements in July, and it seems to be doing pretty well, as the no. 7 highest-grossing app. But it’s still not clear if more of the Creative Suite or Microsoft’s Office suite will eventually make it into the Mac App Store.

In general, though, it seems as if app selection is growing nicely. And now that Lion is the default OS installed on new Macs, and as more Mac users upgrade, App Store sales should continue to grow.

You can look at the data on Dan’s blog, but to sum up: average prices are up and there’s less Apple software in the top charts. I’d argue that Apple has been relatively slow with software updates in the summer (before the big wave that hits with iCloud this Fall) and thus committed third-party developers have jumped the charts, but let’s focus on another aspect of the story – availability. Dan notes that big names like Microsoft and Adobe have shown little or no interest in releasing specific Mac App Store versions of their productivity suites. However, with almost 7,000 apps, there’s a high chance you’ll find your new favorite image or text editor in the Mac App Store, which is empowering less popular third-party Mac devs to make their apps available to a greater audience.

That was the point of the Mac App Store all along – to offer a centralized way for any kind of Mac developer to release and easily update apps. Recent releases like the successful launch of 1Password seem to confirm that there’s plenty of room for smaller companies and independent devs in the top charts. I also look forward to the upcoming launch of Pixelmator 2.0 – you may remember version 1.0 earned $1 million on the Mac App Store in the first 20 days (with the promise of a free 2.0 update).

That’s not to say Apple has achieved the perfect formula with the Mac App Store. Delta updates are nice, but there’s still no way for developers to implement easy upgrade options, or free trials (this is true on the iOS App Store as well – meanwhile, Windows Phone 7’s marketplace features free trials alongside “full versions” of apps). Similarly, there should be a better way to browse in-app purchases, or even manage a basic wish list.

I’m looking forward to some possible tweaks and changes in the next weeks, and I’ll check back in two months.

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Mac App Store Gets “Re-Buy Warning” For Apps Already Installed→

Mac App Store Gets “Re-Buy Warning” For Apps Already Installed

While many are still waiting for Apple to implement a basic wish list functionality in the Mac App Store (eight months after its public debut, there’s now a pretty good selection of high-quality software in Apple’s desktop storefront to choose from), Macworld has noticed the Mac App Store will now give you a heads-up before buying apps you already have installed on your computer. This can be particularly useful as a warning if you’re about to purchase an app you had previously downloaded from a developer’s website, out of the Mac App Store.

Though this doesn’t really reduce the pain of having to pay a second time for the same app, it does at least give less savvy users a heads-up before they accidentally buy a program all over again.

You can try this now with an app like OmniFocus, which is available with the same version (1.9.3) both on The Omni Group’s website and the Mac App Store. When the Mac App Store launched in January, the fact that it reported as “Installed” apps downloaded from a web browser caused some confusion among users.

It’s still unclear whether this dialog box requires the same version of an app to be already installed on a Mac (example: 1Password 3.9 is available on the Mac App Store, whereas AgileBits’ website give you access to an older version), but I assume this new “warning” does indeed require the exact same version to be installed, otherwise the Mac App Store version of an app will install alongside apps purchased elsewhere (this already happens if you head over the Purchased tab, and re-download a newer version of an app you already have on your Mac).

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Smartphone Games “Front and Center” at Tokyo Game Show 2011→

Smartphone Games “Front and Center” at Tokyo Game Show 2011

Wired has an overview of what’s going at Tokyo Game Show – annual exposition of Japanese videogames – this year: smartphone and tablet games are “dominating” the show floor, whilst long-time publishers of regular console games decided not to have a booth.

In their place, dominating a massive section in the center aisle of the show floor, are smartphones and tablets: iPhones, Android phones, PlayStation phones and all manner of Japan-only devices with keys that easily let the country’s millions of texters type out entire novels’ worth of kanji messages. Cellphone games have been part of Tokyo Game Show for more than a decade, but until this year, the casual time-killers lurked on the periphery of the show, in the backs of the booths, attracting few onlookers.

The impressive growth of the mobile gaming industry is no secret to those who have been keeping an eye on the explosion of “app stores” through 2010 and 2011. But Wired makes a good point in its TGS coverage: there’s one niche of gamers mobile games have failed to attract, and that’s hardcore gamers. The “regular console games” that have dominated the Tokyo Games Show in the past years, and which are struggling to impress on iPhones, iPads, and Android handsets.

One challenge for Gree and other mobile gamemakers: Creating mobile games that appeal to hard-core gamers as well as casual players. Gree President and CEO Yoshikazu Tanaka noted the dilemma.

“I was just walking around the show floor,” he said at a press briefing Thursday, “and what I thought while I was looking around was, ‘Console games seem much more interesting than social games. They’re more cool.’”

Gree, for instance, is the company that bought OpenFeint and announced a CEO replacement this week. The issue is a complex one: Angry Birds is selling millions of copies (350 million to date), yet hardcore gamers still can’t find proper mobile counterparts for their favorite PS3, Xbox 360 and Wii games. Big companies like EA are reinventing themselves with strong mobile offerings, and revenue speaks clearly.

I believe the scarcity of “hardcore games” or lack thereof is more related to the youth of these mobile platforms, as well as ongoing technological advancements. Lets’s see what the A6 will bring.

[image via]

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Apple Has The Thinnest Smartphone→

Apple Has The Thinnest Smartphone

TechCrunch reports the UK’s Advertising Standards Authority has ruled Apple, and not Samsung, has the world’s thinnest smartphone with the iPhone 4:

The ASA ruled that since the iPhone’s thickest point is thinner than the Galaxy S II’s thickest, Apple has the right to continue claiming the title. Samsung likely isn’t too pleased — save for a single thick bit, their GSII is mostly thinner, and Apple gets to maintain their positioning (in the UK at least) as purveyors of slim, sleek design.

This is a minor detail in the sea of ongoing litigations and lawsuits between Apple and Samsung, but a curious piece of information design-wise. The Galaxy S II is thinner than the iPhone 4 on most of its surface (8.71mm at the thinnest points, versus the iPhone’s 9.3mm), but the thickest point at 9.91mm (see photo) makes sure that the iPhone 4 can still claim to be the thinnest smartphone. The ASA’s interesting choice is that they didn’t measure by average thickness, they simply looked at the thickest point of the device.

Apple has touted the iPhone 4 as the world’s thinnest smartphone in its commercials and magazine ads.

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Automatically Saving PDFs (And Clipboard) to Evernote Using Keyboard Maestro→

Automatically Saving PDFs (And Clipboard) to Evernote Using Keyboard Maestro

Over the weekend, I posted my initial impressions on Keyboard Maestro, a fantastic assistant for your Mac that will help making your OS X workflow faster, and personalized. Today Brett Kelly at Nerd Gap shares a tip to automate the process of virtually printing a PDF from Mail.app to Evernote:

Clicking this menu option will render whatever the current thing is as a PDF and shove it into Evernote. This Keyboard Maestro recipe automates the following steps that make up this process:

- Click “File” then “Print” in the current application menu

- Click the “PDF” button at the bottom left of the Print dialog

- Type “Save PDF to Evernote” to select the appropriate option (this is the only way I could do this with some certainty that it would work, though there were other options)

- Type Return

The Keyboard Maestro macro above works with any Mac app that supports the Print… menu, although, for some reason, Google Chrome Canary returns an error at the “Click PDF button” action. Safari, Mail, Sparrow – they can all print to Evernote using Keyboard Maestro.

Alternatively, if you don’t want to save PDFs to Evernote, you can set up this macro to quickly create a new note using Evernote’s helper (the menubar icon), paste without style, and close the window. It’ll take less than a second to perform through Keyboard Maestro, and it’s a nice way to quickly get your latest clipboard entry onto Evernote as plain text.

You’ll need to set title and tags later, as this only pastes the clipboard in the note’s body.

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iTunes U: 600 Million Downloads Since Launch, 300 Million Last Year Alone→

iTunes U: 600 Million Downloads Since Launch, 300 Million Last Year Alone

The Loop reports on official iTunes U data provided by Apple today:

According to Apple, iTunes U has had more than 600 million downloads since it first launched in 2007. What’s even more impressive is that they’ve had more than 300 million in the last year alone — a testament to the growing popularity of the service.

Currently, iTunes U boasts more than 1,000 universities with active accounts. Schools contributing to the program range from big to small and include some of the world’s most prestigious institutions like Harvard, MIT, Cambridge, Oxford, University of Melbourne and University of Tokyo.

Apple’s iTunes U service – a collection of learning material that includes research, lectures, and more – may not be as popular as other consumer-oriented iTunes products like TV shows and apps, but it’s undoubtedly one of the company’s finest resources for education. Apple also confirmed 30% of iTunes U traffic comes from iOS devices – I wouldn’t be surprised to know the iPad helped rising mobile traffic since last year. And, 60% of iTunes U users are outside the United States.

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Saks 5th Ave. Storefront Features 64 iPads→

Saks 5th Ave. Storefront Features 64 iPads

Jim Dalrymple at The Loop:

To celebrate Fashion’s Night Out, Saks and Stylelist.com have partnered to create an interactive storefront at Saks’ flagship 5th Avenue store.

Designed, developed and built by Gin Lane Media the three-window display features 64 iPad 2s in the center window and nine 27-inch Cinema Displays in each of the two side windows.

Looking at the photos, it’s another reminder of what’s possible to achieve with the right combination of apps and hardware. Back in April, we saw how 40 iPads could be connected on a network to form a single, giant whiteboard for collaborative efforts. Saks’ display will be used for Stylelist images, videos, and tweet aggregation through a specific hashtag. An iPad app was built specifically for this occasion, allowing for nice and smooth animations as well as simple setup and control on the network.

Perhaps not one of the iPad uses Apple imagined, but still an example of the versatility of the device, which “disappears” in the storefront once content – its glass screen – is the focus.

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Shake-To-Undo On A MacBook Pro→

Shake-To-Undo On A MacBook Pro

Paul Horowitz at OS X Daily writes:

The tiny app works by activating Command+Z when movement is detected by the SMS.

If you’re concerned about accidental undos from moving your Mac laptop around, you can prevent this by enabling the ‘Confirmation Overlay’ from Shake To Undo.app’s menubar.

This is basically useless unless you’re really into shaking your MacBook while writing, but the technology behind it is what intrigues me. I first learned about Sudden Motion Sensors (SMS) last year, when I opened my MacBook Pro to install a brand new SSD, and had done a bit of research online before replacing my hard drive. It turns out, this sensor was first implemented by Apple in a refreshed PowerBook line in 2005, and later in the July 2005 iBook. Since then, every portable Mac came with a Sudden Motion Sensor, albeit with differences between G4 laptops and Intel MacBooks.

The SMS acts as a security measure for the spinning hard drive. By calculating sudden acceleration in real time through an accelerometer, the SMS can “predict” when a computer is about to drop off a surface or your lap, and thus tells the hard drive to disengage the drive’s heads from the platters. In theory, this should prevent data loss or at least make for less damages to the drive.

As you can imagine, a number of hacks have arisen around SMS – tilt-based games and utilities like Shake To Undo. If you want to try it out for yourself, you can download the app over at GitHub. I don’t recommend it (it’s bad for your hard drive), but it sounds so ridiculous it might just be fun to test for an afternoon.

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