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What It’s Like to Work at Apple→

What It’s Like to Work at Apple

At Apple, it’s never, “How long did you work for the company?” but rather, “How many times did you work at Apple?” The Apple attitude seems to infect everyone who works closely with the technology – and, even after leaving the company, we all say that we still “bleed six colors,” in reference to the original six-color Apple logo.

Interesting post, perfect for some late night Instapaper.

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iOS: Single Biggest Gaming Format On The Planet→

iOS: Single Biggest Gaming Format On The Planet

The remarkable truth of that figure, then, is that it’s entirely possible that measured by software revenues the iPhone/iPod is already the single biggest gaming format on the planet. And if it’s not already, it very shortly will be – the App Store is still growing while the others are moving downwards, and more and more publishers are devoting serious resources to making some very serious games for the iOS machines.
For a platform that’s only been around a couple of years, that’s already a pretty astonishing feat. Include the fact that it’s being done by selling the vast majority of games for less than $2 and it’s mind-blowing.

And the App Store is coming to the Mac now.

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“There’s Always Ubuntu”→

“There’s Always Ubuntu”

Love them or hate them, this is something that Apple—more than any other company—fundamentally gets. They want a computing experience more like the appliance experience. If this vision “wins” that doesn’t mean there’s no place for geeks; there’s still a need for programmers and web developers and sysadmins and UI designers. But the computers that most of the public increasingly interfaces with will be computers that are not designed to be directly programmable.

And I’m pretty sure this vision will win. For the vast majority of users the model of the app console—think game console, but not just for games—is simply better. The iPad is an app console, and the Macs of next year will be, too. And the PCs of the year after that.

And just like with game consoles, geeks will always be able to tinker.

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Xserve Is Dead…Now What?→

Xserve Is Dead…Now What?

The Mac Pro is a great box, but it is not designed to be a server. That matters. The Mac Pro, in trying to equal the Xserve takes up 12 times the space, uses more power, and ends up costing you twice as much if you don’t want a single component able to turn your server setup into a brick. If you’re collocating your servers, the cost to colo a Mac Pro or two is going to be a lot higher than for an Xserve, because you’re going to pay more for power and a lot more for the rack space.

IT folks clearly aren’t happy about Apple’s decision. As far as the iOS environment is concerned, Apple needs to do a lot more there, too.

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HTLM5 Audio Safari Extension→

HTLM5 Audio Safari Extension

Connor McKay’s YouTube5 Safari extension addresses most videos I encounter and Open in Google Chrome works for the rest but while video demands attention audio is ambient. It doesn’t makes sense to keep a second browser open just for background noise but I couldn’t find a similar extension for audio. So I made one.

Works great.

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Which iPad Should I Get?→

Which iPad Should I Get?

As an iPad owner, general Apple-advocate and tech geek, I’ve been getting asked this question every few weeks since the iPad came out. The frequency is accelerating with the holidays drawing near, so I’m going to reproduce some of the analysis here that I’ve been sharing via email with friends and family.

Really good points in there. If you’re looking to buy an iPad this holiday season and you’re still on the edge for that 3G unit that cost a little more, but you happen you have a jailbroken iPhone – I can’t recommend MyWi enough. I basically have a 3G iPad thanks to that Cydia app.

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Is Realistic UI Design Realistic?→

Is Realistic UI Design Realistic?

When Apple introduced the iPad, along with it came a set of Human Interface Guidelines.

This idea is essentially doubling down on skeuomorphic realism — a derivative device containing features from an analog ancestor for purely aesthetic or emotional reasons.

But how good is that advice, generally? This is clearly a call for more than just the polished aesthetic details and refinements a designer takes pride in. This is about advancing literalist design styles and skeuomorphics on the grounds that it improves usability through a natural understanding of how an app works. Apple rightly resisted this temptation in many cases, but the Notes and Calendar apps are a different story. Apple combined analog design with modern UI patterns at the expense of affordance. My real life, analog paper doesn’t scroll. Are we now to expect its digital replication should?

A very few developers seem to understand that you don’t have to necessarily imitate real life objects to create a successful and enjoyable application. [via Beautiful Pixels]

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Why Developers Create Apps for iOS→

Why Developers Create Apps for iOS

Marco Arment:

The problem is that hardware manufacturers and tech journalists assume that the hardware just needs to exist, and developers will flock to it because it’s possible to write software for it. But that’s not why we’re making iPhone and iPad software, yet those are the basis for the theory.

We’re making iPhone software primarily for three reasons:

Dogfooding: We use iPhones ourselves.
Installed base: A ton of other people already have iPhones.
Profitability: There’s potentially a lot of money in iPhone apps.

With this in mind, think about the installed based of Macs.

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