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Wikileaks Releases 140,000 Emails From Steve Jobs→

Wikileaks Releases 140,000 Emails From Steve Jobs

Scoopertino:

Overall, the emails reinforce the image of Steve as a man of few words. A cursory review of this massive email dump reveals that 88% of his messages contain three or fewer words, with 84% of those offering only one: “No.”

He did get a bit wordier in an exchange with North Korean bad boy Kim Jong Il. Kim, aching to get a pre-release iPod touch for his son back in August, wrote to Steve requesting “a favor from one dictator to another.” In this case, Steve doubled the syllable count with a quick “Hell no.”

I have to admit this made me laugh.

Update: in case you have any doubts – yes, of course this is fake. Scoopertino is a website that reports “unreal Apple news”. Still funny.

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iPad As A Communal Device→

iPad As A Communal Device

First, we must think of the computer (PC). It may not be very personal, but it is made for the individual. Same goes for the laptop. Same for a netbook. Same for a smartphone. The iPad, however, is *communal*. Actually, more than that. The iPad is at once both personal and communal. This has never before existed in computing and it is the combination of price and form factor that makes it so. The iPad is another Apple trebuchet that will destroy barriers, gates, walls and re-make the current state of computing.

Brian makes several good points in his piece. The iPad is meant for a new era of computing based on collaboration, open workspaces and apps. The “other tablets”, the seven inchers, are meant for personal use.

I don’t know about the Playbook (a very few people have actually tested it so far), but I do know the iPad is great for “local collaboration”. Great for games, meetings, sketches, and so forth.

As for built-in online collaboration, we’re all waiting.

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MobileMe Wants (And Needs) To Be Free→

MobileMe Wants (And Needs) To Be Free

Interesting piece by Charles Jade at GigaOM:

By making MobileMe free, those using it with iOS devices won’t be using services from Google or Microsoft, which makes switching to Windows Phone 7 or Android more difficult. While PC users would also have MobileMe free, they’d need to have iOS devices to make it really worth using. The Halo Effect, which argues that iOS device sales later lead to Mac sales mitigates the loss associated with giving away MobileMe to PC users in the present. If they do switch, free MobileMe helps encourage them to remain all-Apple in the future. Free MobileMe would be an investment in hardware customer retention, and it doesn’t even have to be completely free.

MobileMe is not a fundamental source of revenue for Apple. Apple makes money by selling mobile devices and computers. In fact, sales of software in the last quarter (which include OS X, iLife and iWork, among other things) generated $662 million. A free MobileMe – or at least the basic parts of it – would be an investment to keep people on the Apple ecosystem.

Jade also writes:

The point is lock-in. Get people using Apple’s free services with Apple’s highly profitable hardware, and they’ll be less likely to buy hardware from competitors.

Or, get people used to the integrated system.

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Free iPad GUI PSD For iOS Designers→

Free iPad GUI PSD For iOS Designers

We’ve always just created this file for ourselves and shared it freely. It takes a good deal of time to create and maintain but it saves us a lot of effort on projects and pitches – we hope it does the same for you. So, this time around we’re asking anyone who actually gets some use out of it to pay whatcha’ like. Hate it? Don’t pay anything.

Free to download, pay if you like. Go get it here.

By the way, it’s from the creators of TweetMag.

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Helping Developers, For Free→

Helping Developers, For Free

Robert Scoble on how he helped the Flipboard developers in the early stages of the app:

Why do I do it for free? Because I love this stuff and want the best possible apps to use myself. Flipboard without Twitter list support would have been totally worthless for me. It isn’t obvious that Twitter list support is important. After all, how many people use Twitter lists. But for Flipboard it was a must have.

I’m passionate about seeing things early and work hard at adding value back to entrepreneurs for that honor.

See, it’s not about the “cool factor” of having access to stuff other people don’t know about. Maybe it’s that, too. I don’t want to call this a “mission” but, really – for some it’s just about helping people build better, innovative products.

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10 Surefire Ways To Screw Up Your iPhone App→

10 Surefire Ways To Screw Up Your iPhone App

So you want to build the next smash hit iPhone app? Extraordinary design is key to getting the attention of users and of Apple, so if an app exudes a stench of mediocrity, Apple won’t feature it and app shoppers probably won’t download it (even if they do, they won’t share it with others).

See the screenshot above? Guess which developer screwed up.

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Analysts Low-Balling A Device That Doesn’t Exist→

Analysts Low-Balling A Device That Doesn’t Exist

We expect a base case of at least 10 million units at Verizon for [calendar] 2011,” writes Craig, “although we only added 6 and 8 million units to 2011 and 2012, respectively.”

Reid is even more conservative. He’s only raising his 2011 iPhone sales estimates to 63.3 million from 62.5 million, or 800,000 units.

That’s it? 800,000 measly iPhones?

For reasons known only to themselves, analysts who have been breathlessly anticipating a Verizon iPhone are now busy lowering expectations.

I would like to remind these gentlemen that the Verizon iPhone is still, well, a rumor.

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AirPlay: Here To There→

Airplay: Here To There

But what made Netflix an instant success was that element of touch in the browsing experience. People need to keep their fingertips on those VHS boxes in the countless white wireframe shelves at the Video Depot. The tactile experience of picking out a cassette by its cover, transporting it back home, sticking it in the VCR box and hearing the clunk when you hit Play, and then finally stepping back, separating yourself from the object that has earned your trust, and transforming yourself into a spectator,that’s actually a great representation of the appeal of AirPlay.

Because what AirPlay promises is that I can touch media here, and then weightlessly move it there.

Adam Lisagor nails it.

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Mac App Store Actually Coming in January 2011→

Mac App Store Actually Coming in 2011

At the Back to the Mac event in October, Steve Jobs said the Mac App Store would open in 90 days – thus giving it a January 2011 release date. According to rumors surfaced a few days ago, though, it seemed like there was the possibility of an early launch next week.

Well, Jim Darlymple over at The Loop reports:

Reports earlier this week claimed Apple would launch the Mac App Store on December 13, ahead of the holiday shopping season. However, according to my sources, Apple will launch the store in the new year.

While a specific date was not given for the official opening of the store by my sources, Apple will meet the 90-day deadline given during its October “Back to the Mac” media event.

Please note that Darlymple’s sources are usually spot-on and correct. Those rumors never really made sense to me either, considering Apple didn’t notify developers about an early launch.

So there you have it: the Mac App Store is indeed coming in January.

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