Adobe's Lightroom 4

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Jon Russell:

The product is available for $149, which is half of its predecessor’s $399 price tag. The upgrade price has been cut too, and existing users can pay $79 to upgrade to Lightroom 4, rather than the $99 fee that was required to upgrade to Lightroom 3.

I try to avoid Adobe products wherever possible (can't drop Photoshop yet, but Pixelmator's getting closer) because they tend to be bloated and overpriced. At least Adobe's working to fix half that problem. But with Aperture providing the same functionality (with better system integration, but less Creative Suite integration) at Adobe's upgrade price of $79 it's hard to imagine why anyone without the full Adobe suite would bother.

iPad HD Redux

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Arnold Kim:

CNet claims that the next iPad that is due to be announced on Wednesday will be named "iPad HD".

There are a lot of sites jumping on this naming convention as being all but certain. As I said before, I really hope this isn't true. "HD" as a phrase has become so pervasive that it's virtually lost all meaning. I've seen HD sunglasses, HD vehicles, HD radio… I sincerely hope Apple doesn't do this. Things with 'HD' attached as a suffix always make me cringe.

Safari 5.2 Beta’s Tabs

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John Gruber:

MG Siegler agrees with me that Safari 5.2 beta’s full-window-width tabs are ungainly. (Here’s what they look like with one tab, and with two.)

The full-width tabs are clearly made to complement the design choice made for Safari on the iPad. I agree with both Seigler and Gruber that they look terrible. I'm not so sure that Gruber's suggested  compromise would be good, unless his 'sane maximum' clause was also implemented.

On the whole, though, I think Safari 5.2 is awesome. I can't wait until it's stable enough (library issues on my 10.7 Mac) to use full-time.

'A Faster Horse'

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Matthew Panzarino on a PriceGrabber iPad survey:

The survey [...] asked customers which feature of the new iPad 3 was most important to them:

  • 54% indicated cost reduction
  • 53% indicated better battery
  • 49% indicated SD card to store data
  • 44% indicated better camera with flash
  • 44% indicated new A6 processor
  • 41% indicated built-in HDMI port
  • 36% indicated wireless synchronization facility
  • iPad is as cheaper or cheaper than 'comparable' tablets
  • iPad has the best battery life on the market right now
  • No.
  • Almost certain
  • Updated processor is almost certain
  • No.
  • We already have that

This is why Apple doesn't do focus groups.

How Much People Care About Gimmicks

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Matt Brian:

Perhaps the three big features that make the new smart TVs ‘smart’ rank in the final three spots. 3D ready support, Internet web browsing and Internet video hold these spots, which “shocked” Hiroshi Sakamoto, deputy senior general manager of Sony’s home entertainment group, according to Inside CI.

The full list:

Sony internal research: Consumer needs for TV

  1. Picture quality
  2. Screen size
  3. Sound quality
  4. Price
  5. Full HD 1080p resolution
  6. Slim TV screen
  7. Energy saving
  8. Ease to use remote
  9. Design
  10. LCD TV
  11. Brand
  12. Multiple connections
  13. LED TV
  14. USB port
  15. PC input
  16. Frame refresh rate
  17. Thin bezel
  18. 3D ready
  19. Internet web browsing
  20. Internet video

That doesn’t appear to stop Sony from trying to force 3D upon us, with the company said to be planning to release 100 3D Blu-ray titles before the summer, which will “help revitalise 3D,” said Sakamoto.

Revitalize? Doesn't something need to be vitalized before it can be revitalized?

The iPad Mini Is Coming This Summer!

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John Brownlee:

[A] Samsung Securities document, […] explicitly states that Apple will release a new 7-inch device called the iPad mini to compete with the likes of the Galaxy Tab 7...

The emphasis is mine, and it's how you know the statement is false. No one needs to compete with the Galaxy Tab 7. I didn't even know there was a Galaxy Tab 7.

1984 Ad More Successful Than The Macintosh?

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Killian Bell:

Apple’s infamous 1984 advertising campaign for the original Macintosh needs little introduction from myself. The one-minute clip, which was inspired by George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four novel and depicts IBM users as mindless followers, was a huge success. So much so that the marketing guru behind it, Regis McKenna, believes it was more successful than the Macintosh itself.

Define 'successful'. The Macintosh ushered in the modern era of the GUI desktop, phone, and tablet. It changed computing forever and it's effect is still felt today. The '1984' ad falls into the same category because it set the tone for Apple to the world and is still considered one of (if not the) best ad ever made.

I might be more inclined to put them on par but still rampantly successful none-the-less. The whole package that was the original Macintosh set off a revolution. One that I'm grateful for today.

New & Improved DRM!

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Alfonso Maruccia:

Have no particular issues with storing and moving HD multimedia contents across your computers and mobile devices? Soon you will have some, and Hollywood has just decided to “help” you with a new DRM scheme that will enable an easy way to “buy, store and playback HD versions of movies and TV shows at home or on-the-go, easily and seamlessly”.

One day the studios will realize that DRM is what's killing them, not what's saving them. People who are going to steal are always going to steal. They'll go down to the store and stuff something in their jacket if they can't get it any other way. This is a system designed to punish honest people (A.K.A: Guilty until proven innocent, but there's no way to prove yourself innocent).

It's like when I download a TV app for my iPhone/iPad and try to stream that content to my Apple TV via AirPlay. Nope. I can stream the audio only. BUT if I stole that content off the web and tried to stream it to my Apple TV it would work perfectly AND I'd have the added benefit of no ads. Both approaches are free for me, but one has downsides - i'll give you a hint - it's not the illegal one.

I want to pay for content, but I want to pay a reasonable price for it, and I don't want to have to jump through a bunch of hoops to use it the way I want.

At the risk of belabouring this point I'd like to point you at iTunes Match. People are paying for this service and some of the money is going to artists whose songs are being streamed. Even if those track were stolen they are no getting paid for their work. This is a great example of being creative and having a little faith in humanity.

The e/Paper Book Solution

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John Gruber:

I like Nick Carr’s idea to bundle e-books as downloads that accompany good old-fashioned printed books.

This is the answer. The last two books I read were Steve Jobs and Inside Apple. The former in Hardcover the latter in eBook. Both were good, but I sure like that book on my shelf. I wish I'd bought the paper version and torrented the eBook (like I did with Steve Jobs).

Regarding iBooks links to Kindle Store

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John Gruber:

My recommendation would have been for Apple to suggest to Godin that he change the links to point to iBookstore versions of the books, but if Godin didn’t want to, to let it slide.

I have never understood why online retailers are expected to be as open as the web ideally is. If these are the rules for selling content through Apple, then these are the rules for selling content through Apple. Simple.

Glenn Fleishman chimes in:

@gruber I don’t buy the iBookstore/B&N equivalency. Apple is asking for books to be changed b/c content doesn’t accord w/commercial policy.

Seriously? No. Apple has no problems with the content. This is with a commercial link to an alternate store. This is like Montana's buying steaks from a guy who includes directions to and a menu for The Keg. There's no problem with the beef, it's the push to a rival company that is the problem.

It Takes Time

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Jason Fried:

Dismissing an idea is so easy because it doesn’t involve any work. You can scoff at it. You can ignore it. You can puff some smoke at it. That’s easy. The hard thing to do is protect it, think about it, let it marinate, explore it, riff on it, and try it. The right idea could start out life as the wrong idea.

Great advice. Hard to do.

(Via Daring Fireball)