"Copying Doesn't Stop Innovation"

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James Allworth:

Apple didn't stop innovating at all. Instead: they came out with the iMac. Then OS X ("Redmond, start your photocopiers"). Then the iPod. Then the iPhone. And now, most recently, the iPad. Given the underlying reason that Apple has been bringing these cases to court was to enable them to continue to innovate, it's hard not to ask: if copying stops innovation, why didn't Apple stop innovating last time they were copied?

Is this guy for real!?

Apple didn't stop innovating; Microsoft did! Microsoft rode a poorly worded gravy train to over-priced glory then tossed the tech landscape into a monopolistic dark age. Samsung was on track to accomplish the same thing. This doesn't stop the innovators from doing their thing. That's in their DNA. It stops their competitors from innovating, and that destroys the work of the people who are "pushing the human race forward".

iPad Mini

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James Kendrick:

I am on record for using both the iPad and Android tablets to get real work done, and I also use them for the typical leisure activities tablets are famous for. The better user experience applies equally to the iPad for all uses.

Almost everything I've read about the reportedly excellent Nexus 7 ends with something to the effect of "Man, I can't wait for the 7-inch iPad." Is it October yet?

On Hardware Home Buttons

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Joe Levi wrote the following excerpts for a piece titled "Why the Hardware Home Button Needs to Go Away":

Try this as an experiment: Get a stylus...

That's where I stopped reading. I'm kidding, of course, but seriously I don't know what lead Joe down this not-quite-thought-out rabbit trail. But he suggests a soft home button that's "there when you need [it], hidden when you don't" while totally ignoring exactly how it is that my electronic device is supposed to anticipate when I'll want to return to my home screen. He simply declares that software buttons are "king" and while Joe is, of course, entitled to that opinion it does not make it a fact. Joe also totally ignores the all-important reset function accomplished by the home button on iPhone. I know that no matter what state my phone ends up in (occasionally it will become unresponsive for one reason or another) I can quickly execute a hard reset and make all well with the world.

All of these things need to be thought through a little better before we can make the hardware home button "go away". And if, by the way, it means an unresponsive capacitive home button that is always on the screen but not physical I will pass every time. I hate feedback-less capacitive buttons. Annoying.

Business Insider and the Hopeful Math

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Steve Kovach:

Windows RT tablets will likely cost $200 to $300 less than Windows 8 tablets. Since Windows 8 tablets are expected to cost $600 to $700, it's possible you'll be able to buy a Windows RT tablet for as little as $300.

I'm not saying it isn't true, but seriously... that's the new math. It's more likely that those tablets will cost $400-$500, isn't it?

Quality Domination

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MG Siegler:

Over time, I believe we'll see a move towards a few Android devices dominating the market — things will start to look more like the iOS ecosystem which favors quality and experience over a large number of choices.

I don't disagree with Siegler often. But this is one of those times. There's a huge market for crappy computers in the Windows space. Almost 20 years since Windows 95 took the world by storm. As much as people want a good computer, they want a cheap computer more. Only when there is a clear and compelling reason to pay more will anyone do so. And software updates aren't it. Most folks I know (who have iPhones or Androids) don't update their OS, or even know that there is a new version. I believe cheap, crappy Android hardware will continue to exist right alongside great Android hardware.

"Ready For Mountain Lion"

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Killian Bell:

Microsoft Office 2011 looks awful on the new MacBook Pro?s Retina display. But unfortunately for its customers, it seems Microsoft has no plans to add high-resolution graphics.

Karen Haslam:

Microsoft’s Office 2011 is now described as “ready for Mountain Lion” but it does not integrate Mountain Lion features, in fact the software doesn’t yet integrate features like Versions and Auto Save that became available a year ago when Lion launched

If you want auto-save or versioning (which are awesome - I use them in Pages all the time) you're out of luck. But there's a simple 14-Step Process to semi-enable retina-ish graphics in the rest of the suite. Seems to have mixed results based on the comments at Cult of Mac.

You Put The Disk In Upside-Down

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Jordan Mechner on his game Katateka:

The programmer doing copy protection for the game figured out that by messing with the bit table, the whole game could be played upside down, which is really hard to do... We thought it would be hilarious if we burned the flipped version of the game to the other side of the disk. We figured of all the people who buy the game, a couple would accidentally put the floppy in upside-down. That way, when that person called tech support, that tech support rep would once in a blue moon have the sublime joy of saying, "Well sir, you put the disk in upside-down," and that person would think for the rest of their life that's how software works.

Gold. Solid gold.

Samsung Smoke And Misdirection

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Bryan Bishop on Samsung's latest trial tactics:

[A lawyer for Samsung showed] a video that he said proved the Galaxy Tab 10.1 didn't use the ["bounce-back"] feature either. Unfortunately for Johnson, Balakrishnan had to point out that in the video the user wasn't actually scrolling to the end of the web page in question — a requirement to trigger the feature in the first place.

It's like Samsung is trying to look bad.

Verge's Galaxy Note 10.1 Review

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Nilay Patel on the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1:

You can also open a few special apps side-by-side in "multiscreen" mode — the built-in browser, Samsung’s mail client, the S Note notes app, the video player, the gallery, and the bundled Polaris Office document editor. Unfortunately, you can’t run just any app in multiscreen mode, which greatly lowers the utility of this feature. I was hoping multiscreen would effectively create a pair of seven-inch displays and turn Android’s lack of proper tablet apps into a strength; phone apps look fine on the Nexus 7’s similarly-sized screen, after all. Sadly that’s just not the case, and multiscreen will remain largely unused if you are a rational person who wants to use Chrome and Gmail instead of Samsung’s less-powerful alternatives.

Lipstick on a pig. Samsung can pseudo-add as many new features as they want, but if they don't work like customers expect it will just lead to disappointment and disillusionment. If Apple implemented a feature in this manner the tech punditry would have a heyday. I guess the Android bar is just lower.

IDC's Samsung Sales Claims

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Philip Elmer-DeWitt provides an update on his article which notes that 98.5% of Samsung's tablets (according to IDC) are sold overseas (read the article to see why that is unlikely):

UPDATE: An IDC spokesman points out that the court document submitted by Samsung only lists unit sales of "accused" tablets, i.e. the Galaxy Tab line. Samsung also sells tablets -- like the Windows-based Series 7 Slate -- that haven't been accused of infringing Apple's patents. IDC hasn't done a breakdown of the two categories.

Oh, well then. It all makes sense now. (Picture an eye-roll there).

Stupid Things Market Watch Says

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Quentin Fottrell saying things:

All that initial excitement over the first iPhone or iPad has quickly given way to what analysts are dubbing “upgrade fatigue”—with even Apple’s most loyal customers upset about the steady stream of newer models.

That was the first sentence. Samsung has released 32 Android phones since 2009... and there are dozens of other Android manufacturers. Apple has released 5 iPhones since 2007. So... yeah.

Genius Ads And Over Reaction

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Ben Brooks on the 'Mayday' Genius ad from Apple:

So Apple just subtly told all would-be Mac users that...

A good article, and worth a read, but I think Ben, like everyone else, is severely over-thinking this. I asked my wife what she (as a typical computer user) thought of "Labor Day", if it made her feel like Apple was telling users they were 'dumb' and in need of help. She looked surprised and said, "No, what I thought was 'this is funny'." Same thing I thought. I actually liked the ads. I wanted to see this genius character get a bit more development.

Samsung Product Evolution

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John Paczkowski:

In a trio of product timelines submitted into evidence and released to the public on Friday as part of the company’s case against Samsung, Apple tracks the evolution of Samsung’s smartphone and tablet designs against those of the iPhone and iPad...

It's fun to watch the "evolution" of Samsung's products. It took them almost 3 years to fully copy Apple's iPhone... and then Samsung's sales took off. Well done, Apple!