Collection Box for the Back of My Mind
Huh. Lou Reed has an iPhone app. And bad vision. (iTunes Link)
Drewbot
Posts tagged “apple”
Condé Nast Joins the NYTimes in Preparing for the Apple Tablet
You know it’s bad times for print media when the marquee players are making huge bets on a rumored device. (Via Gawker)
“ Like a fine pair of jeans, iPod nano colors may vary and change over time. ”
The fine print on the pack of the iPod nano packaging.
“Mac and iPod accessories are packaged using a remarkably simple system. On every box or bag, the labeling is clear, the product is shown actual size and the packaging is recyclable.”
Apple switches from their Windows CE mobile terminals to a souped up iPod Touch, complete with a bar code scanner, card reader, and battery pack.
I’m still surprised more retail establishments haven’t adopted the mobile terminal idea. It’s dangerously easy to buy something from anywhere in the store at Apple. (Via Gizmodo)
“ Apple makes the arrogant assumption of thinking that it knows what you want and need. It, unfortunately, leaves the “why” out of the equation — as in “why would I want this?” The Macintosh uses an experimental pointing device called a ‘mouse’. There is no evidence that people want to use these things. I dont want one of these new fangled devices. ”
John Dvorak’s review of the first Macintosh, in 1984.
One of the biggest mistakes one can make in media is relying on the “focus group of one.” That is, basing mass market media decisions on opinions held by yourself.
Working at a media company in San Francisco, I have to constantly give myself a reality check. San Francisco is such an odd, island community that it’s easy to assume that everyone watches 30 Rock on their iPhones while eating their overpriced organic lunch. It’s laughable, but so many people actually do that here that it’s hard to remember that most people don’t.
Which leads me to this quote.
The tech community in San Francisco is an island within an island. People tend to forget that only 1% of 1% of the US have heard the name Michael Arrington. The problem is that same 1% of 1% (the 250, as they used to be called) is so hyper-connected that no one outside their network seems to exist. And they all share the same interests. So, for this community, the “focus group of one” becomes the “focus group of 10,000” and becomes all the more deceiving.
Blame the “focus group of 10,000” on the quote above, even though it was probably more like 100 at the time.
During the boom times, before September 2008, this focus group helped fund anyone and their mother who walked in with a Web 2.0 idea. The Valley became the Galapagos, flourishing with a diverse set of life based on a very specific set of constraints.
But now the money’s gone, and the shotgun of innovation over the last few years has to prove itself in markets that matter. We need to remember that most people don’t have an iPhone to pull out and enter their location into, simply for fun. Hell, most people with iPhones don’t want to. We need people like Steve Jobs, a guy who saw geeks furiously typing in front of green screens, realized that this behavior couldn’t spread as-is, and attached a mouse on the side. Something no geek needed.
(Via Fortune Brainstorm Tech)
iTunes LP is a Format in Search of a Medium and a Message
Playing with an iTunes LP inspires, but doesn’t deliver. You’re left thinking about what else you’d use the format for, rather than actually enjoying the content.
Oh, and there’s no way they developed this for music. Not a chance. LP is for comics, magazines, cookbooks, travel guides, and news. Engaging, active, multimedia content. But it’s not for music.
If you play with an LP long enough, you’ll start to imagine it on whatever impending tablet is in the works, paging through magazines and other material. So why launch this format with music? Probably because it’s only a test. The LPs on iTunes are so lack luster (all 17 of them) that their only reason for existing is to learn. Make sure the format works flawlessly before putting what remains of Conde Nast on a tablet.
“ I’m hoping we can get the newsroom more actively involved in the challenge of delivering our best journalism in the form of Times Reader, iPhone apps, WAP, or the impending Apple slate… ”
Did Bill Keller just out the Apple Slate? The fact that he said “slate” and not “tablet” gives this a bit of credence. (Via Gawker)
