Posts from — September 2008

Daniel Eran Dilger
While Microsoft and the John McCain presidential campaign might not share many political views, there are striking similarities on how both advertise and promote their respective products. Here’s ten parallels between the two that demand attention.
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Prince McLean, Apple Insider
Changewave’s latest customer surveys report that general consumer electronic spending is low and trending lower, but that Apple’s Mac sales are up and rising by a significant margin.

The group surveyed 4,416 participants in August to find that only 15% report plans to spend more on electronics over the next 90 days, while 34% plan to spend less. Changewave’s surveys are held monthly and serve as an accurate overall barometer of future spending.

AppleInsider | Report: Mac Spending Up Despite Poor Outlook for Consumer Electronics

Daniel Eran Dilger
I certainly learn more when I’m under pressure. I can drift along comfortably for days without any epiphanies, but introduce some chaos, trauma, challenge, and threat, and I’ll discover all sorts of new things about the world around me. Having my jaw busted up and rewired together has been one of those events that get me thinking.
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Daniel Eran Dilger
Pundits are worried that Apple may excessively restrict developers in the iPhone Apps Store. Google is promising mobile developers more freedom in Android Market, and Windows Mobile and even the Palm OS are claiming less restrictions and more variety and options in mobile software than what is available on the iPhone. Absent from all this panic is any consideration of the iPhone’s other apps store: the wide open market for jailbreak apps.

Apple and the New Software Market
How Apple Is Changing the PC Software World… Back
iPhone Apps Store Growing Twice as Fast as iTunes Music
The Other iPhone Apps Store
SDK 3.3.3: The iPhone Podcaster Surprise Myth
Banned iPhone Apps and the John Gruber Podcaster Defense
The iPhone Monopoly Myth
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Daniel Eran Dilger

Everyone was impressed last month when Apple announced moving 30 60 million downloads through the new iPhone Apps Store, bringing in $30 million of revenue (or a million dollars per day). Well, growth downloads more than doubled this month, bringing a total of 100 million downloads (and somewhere around another $70 40 million of software revenue). This has some interesting implications.

[Edit: to clarify, Apple first announced selling 10 million apps in the first 3 days, then announced 60 million downloads July 11, and most recently announced on September 9 “more than” 100 million downloads. The graphic above was corrected to show this. iPhone app sales compared to iTunes Store music has actually been four times greater at the two month milestone.]

Apple and the New Software Market
How Apple Is Changing the PC Software World… Back
iPhone Apps Store Growing Twice as Fast as iTunes Music
The Other iPhone Apps Store
SDK 3.3.3: The iPhone Podcaster Surprise Myth
Banned iPhone Apps and the John Gruber Podcaster Defense
The iPhone Monopoly Myth
[Read more →]

Prince McLean, AppleInsider
In resuming its coverage of Apple, JMP Securities has issued a note warning of slower growth due to global economic factors and indicating that AT&T retail stores were quick to recommend RIM BlackBerry phones over the iPhone 3G, particularly for email.

AppleInsider | AT&T stores recommending RIM over the iPhone [Read more →]

Daniel Eran Dilger
Despite Apple’s current successes, it seems that nine out of ten pundits agree: Apple needs to change its hardware-centric business model to copy the software-oriented success that Microsoft saw in the 90s, or die trying. They’re wrong, here’s why.

Apple and the New Software Market
How Apple Is Changing the PC Software World… Back
iPhone Apps Store Growing Twice as Fast as iTunes Music
The Other iPhone Apps Store
SDK 3.3.3: The iPhone Podcaster Surprise Myth
Banned iPhone Apps and the John Gruber Podcaster Defense
The iPhone Monopoly Myth
[Read more →]

Daniel Eran Dilger

Insurance premiums: $400

Panoramic Xrays: $350

Preparatory Orthodontics: $6,000

Going out for two binge dinners the night before: $40

Maxillofacial Surgery: $70,000

Being told Kaiser Permanente may cancel your policy on a whim after you’ve been paying premiums to them for for ten years, realizing that no other insurance would ever pick up your case, and living in a country where the president thinks everyone has health care because they can visit an emergency room: Priceless.

Also priceless: my mom wrote to tell me, “Your pic actually looks better with your face filled out!!” Certainly, a face only a mother could love. My head is actually so big the pictures can’t even capture the full effect. Even more unflattering (warning, some are gnarly) pics if you continue.
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It seems like I just went on vacation, but here I am making plans to venture across the Bay to tomorrow to visit the beautiful island of Alameda, just off the shore of charming downtown Oakland.

I’ll be dodging bullets on the way in order to get drugged, knocked out, and have my face cut open Dark Knight style. I’m going to have by jaw sawed into, broken in half below my teeth, and then rewired back together with the same titanium bolts and plates that held my left arm together (and occasionally set off the security alarms at the Apple campus.)

That means I’ll be drinking nothing but fluids for around ten days, and ironically not allowed to use a straw to do so, as the vacuum could rip up the stitches.

That also means I’m likely to not have the same ability to churn out articles like I usually do. Although, who knows, I might have nothing else to do but type, given that I’m going to look like the Elephant Man for two weeks and probably won’t venture out of the house much while recuperating.

And it’s possible I might never wake up. If I don’t, I should probably say that I love everybody and will miss you all (were I able to, being dead and all), even the cranky old dudes who imply that the truth should be ignored if I say it, because living in SF means I could be a fag.

Thanks for reading, commenting, and especially for donating, I love those people the most obviously.

- Dan

Prince McLean, AppleInsider
After pulling its shows from iTunes over a dispute involving pricing and bundled content deals a year ago, NBC has signed back up to sell its TV shows to iPod users.

AppleInsider | NBC returns to iTunes for 65 million viewers and HD action
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Prince McLean, AppleInsider
After pulling its shows from iTunes over a dispute involving pricing and bundled content deals a year ago, NBC has signed back up to sell its TV shows to iPod users.

AppleInsider | NBC returns to iTunes for 65 million viewers and HD action [Read more →]

Prince McLean, AppleInsider
Along with the new iPods, Apple has released a new audio feature: recording. The newly released 4G Nano, 2G iPod touch, and revised iPod Classic 120GB all feature audio input. A new high quality, dual driver headphone set is being offered as well.

AppleInsider | New headphone, mic options for late 2008 iPods
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Price McLean, AppleInsider
iTunes 8 offers collective Genius for playlists, HD TV, visual browser
Apple unveils new iPod nano with built-in accelerometer
NBC returns to iTunes for 65 million viewers and HD action
New headphone, mic options for late 2008 iPods

Daniel Eran Dilger
Paul Thurrott celebrated Microsoft’s new $300 million ad campaign as a promising new attempt to stop “the bad guys” at Apple from further eroding Microsoft’s monopoly grip on the desktop PC market. The problem is that the new ads don’t accomplish what they set out to do. Here’s why.

[Artwork contributed by Alf of faq-mac.com]

Microsoft $300 Million Ads
Microsoft’s Mojave Attempts to Wet Vista’s Desert
Microsoft’s Mojave Experiment Exposes Serious Vista Problems
Paul Thurrott calls Apple “the Bad Guys” of Microsoft’s $300 Million Ads
Gates, Seinfeld and the $300 Million Ad to Nowhere
Microsoft’s $300 million ad campaign tumbles with new PC ads
Microsoft’s “Windows vs Walls” Ad Tries to Think Different, Fails
Microsoft’s “I’m a PC” Millions Actually Promoting the Mac
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Daniel Eran Dilger
An author who has devoted his career to deriding Steve Jobs’ Apple as being “irredeemably evil” and portraying its users as a “cult” has scribbled up a new missive for Wired that attempts to hijack the company’s upcoming iPod event and replace any discussion of new technology with a tasteless personal attack of the company’s CEO.
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