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Apple's App Store Now on Twitter

Apple today extended its social media presence by creating a Twitter account for the App Store. After 10 billion purchases, I guess Apple realizes the store is pretty popular and might just become even more so through a little additional exposure.

Apple already has Twitter accounts for iTunes Music, Movies, TV, Podcasts and Trailers, and Apple Executives Phil Schiller and Scott Forstall (who has yet to tweet) both have personal accounts. The iTunes Twitter accounts are "announce only" style accounts and generally only follow each other. Apple as a company has yet to get on Twitter, nor has it created accounts related to Macs.

The new App Store account lists its description as "Follow us for official App Store tweets including our featured apps, exclusive offers, and more." Considering the public nature of Twitter, I'm not sure how “exclusive” an offer could really be when announced via the platform. Previous exclusivity announcements on the iTunes accounts simply advertised offers available to anyone in iTunes, rather than something unique for Twitter followers.

Whether Apple likes it or not, followers are going to tweet customer service problems and concerns to @AppStore. That's the nature of Twitter and savvy brands use it for quality customer service. By contrast, Apple's silence is deafening when people direct tweets its way. Currently, iTunes store support is limited to email, with a 24-hour response turnaround. Even companies with unfriendly reputations like AT&T and Comcast have faster response times for customer support via Twitter.

Overall, Apple so far hasn't done much with social media such as iTunes and Facebook. Apple's own foray into social media, Ping, is a desert.

It's time Apple started listening to and engaging its followers on social media rather than simply rebroadcasting what's already out there. Let's hope the @AppStore account is used to communicate and engage with Apple customers and fans rather than as a one-dimensional marketing tool.

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iPod Nano Watchband Shootout: TikTok vs. iWatchz Q
We could debate the merits of wearing an iPod nano as a watch until the cows come home, but chances are the downsides won’t dissuade the dedicated Apple enthusiast anyway, so what say we just get right to the business of finding the perfect watchband accessory?

The Contenders

I’m narrowing my focus to only two contenders for the title of top iPod nano watchband, reason being that the others I’ve tried didn’t come close in terms of quality and performance. It also helps that both the iWatchz (don’t ask me how to pronounce that) Q Collection and the MINIMAL TikTok are roughly the same price ($24.95 and $34.95 respectively) and share similar design principles (as you can see in the gallery below).

The iWatchz Q Collection is one of two nano wristbands currently available through Apple retail, and it can also be found at Best Buy locations. The TikTok, on the other hand, is a Kickstarter-funded project that is currently only available for pre-order directly from LunaTik.com. Based on physical appearance alone, you’d be forgiven for thinking the two are virtually the same, but you’d also be very wrong.

Design and Build

Both of these nano straps share a fairly similar design. There’s a notched silicone band attached to a plastic holder for your nano. The Q’s nano clip is made of a thin piece of hard plastic, while the TikTok features a thicker and slightly more flexible hard plastic mount to keep your iPod in place.

But once you get a look at both close up, the differences are instantly apparent. The iWatchz Q has all the hallmarks of a mass-produced product, with poorly finished surfaces on the hard plastic parts that feel rough enough to potentially scratch skin. One reviewer at the Apple Store online even noted that he’d used a dremel tool to correct this oversight himself at home, and checking other units in-store at both Apple and Best Buy, I found the problem to be far from a one-off.

The TikTok, on the other hand, tells the story of its design chops in the attention paid to fit and finish. MINIMAL founder Scott Wilson isn’t new to the watch game, having worked with Nike on its time pieces, and he had a hand in the redesign of the Xbox 360 and its Kinect peripheral. While the TikTok is a little more understated than the new look for Microsoft’s console, the differences in craftsmanship are easy to spot even for the casual observer.

Both products strive to integrate the nano fully, making the accessory and iPod together look like a watch first and media player second (if at all). The TikTok is slightly bulkier, while the Q does a very good job at approaching maximum minimalism with its “just the basics approach.” The Q also offers many color options besides the black version I tested, while the TikTok is available only in black.

Comfort and Usability

Looking at early nano watchband designs, my main concern was that I wouldn’t find one that fit comfortably enough for all-day use. Both iWatchz and MINIMAL seem to have anticipated this worry, as the silicone band surfaces and lightweight plastic materials used in each make them quite easy on the wrist.

If either of the two gets the edge, it’s the Q, since it’s slightly lighter overall and really feels almost like you’re not wearing anything at all. Neither design provides cause for complaint in this regard, though. Women and those with slender risks might want to test out any iPod nano watchbands in-store prior to committing a purchase, however, since the nano itself takes up considerable space on the wrist. If you try the Q and find it works well, the TikTok will pose no problems either.

Both watchbands are also easy to use, though this time it’s the TikTok that gains the upper hand. The Q has a two-band system for securing excess strap once you’ve fastened it on your wrist at the desired size, but this can lead to some awkward fumbling and it tends to get stuck a bit on the strap itself since both surfaces are rubberized. The TikTok uses an innovative and highly customizable hard plastic peg adjustment system that makes right-sizing and securing excess band a piece of cake.

Both provide access to all ports/buttons, so you can actually use the iPod as an iPod while you’re wearing it, though I’ve found that doing so feels clunky at best no matter what strap you’re using. Getting the nano in and out is not difficult with either band, though here too the additional attention to detail paid in the TikTok’s design process is evident. Snapping the nano in and out of the TikTok makes the accessory feel like it was designed in-house at Apple itself.

Verdict

Is wearing the iPod nano a good idea? Some say not, but I have no problem pressing a button to see the time. It’s not like the nano is the only watch that requires this (see most of Tokyoflash’s line, for instance). And people say the battery is an issue, but I’ve gotten at least a week out of nano, when using it exclusively as a watch.

Whether or not it’s a good idea, if you’re going to wear a nano as a watch, do it with the TikTok. The TikTok is the only watch I’ve been complemented on by strangers (and I have a fairly large watch collection), it feels great, isn’t that expensive, and it’s an example of drool-worthy industrial design that you can carry with you anywhere. At first glance, the Q may look like a worthy competitor, but after prolonged wear and a close look, the TikTok’s emphasis on good design easily carries the day.
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5 Simple Steps for a More Manageable iPhoto
You know what I love about iPhoto? It’s a great central storage place for my media that just about any OS X app can pull photos from. You know what I hate about it? Everything else. To say I have a love/hate relationship with iPhoto is like saying Bill Buckner has a problem handle routine grounders in Game 6s of World Series. Here are a few tips I hope might alleviate some iPhoto frustrations you may have.

1. Use TidyUp To Purge Duplicates. TidyUp (download link), by Hyperbolic Software is a great way to search your iPhoto library for duplicate items. Every now and then, my iPhone will re-import photos, or forget it already imported them. TidyUp lets you search using some fairly granular criteria to eliminate duplicate files.

2. Keywords are your friends. I tend to go a bit keyword crazy. Every photo or image I import has keywords. A presentation image of a clock might have the keywords “presentation, time, clock, timepiece” assigned to it. A photo of my friend Mindy in Boston will have “Boston, Mindy, harbor” attached to it. Using keywords will make the next step, Smart Albums, a lot easier.

3. Use Smart Albums. I’m not a big fan of iPhoto’s Event-based organization. For starters, I hate how events are created by day. I don’t know about you, but the amount of true events (weddings, vacations, etc.) I shoot on an annual basis is minor. Instead I get a lot of onsey-twosie photo events that are a pain to organize. Also, a lot of images for me are multipurpose. Earlier, I mentioned I tag images I might use in presentations, so I’ve got a Smart Album built on the presentation keyword. I don’t like to rely on iPhoto’s Faces and Places intelligence, so I will also build Smart Albums based on areas I shoot a lot; I’ve got albums for Boston, Boothbay, and New York.

You can also use multiple keywords or criteria to create yet more specific albums. For example, you could create a Smart Album of wallpapers with the Apple logo you’ve created in the last year, that also have a ranking of five stars or higher.

4. Keep Events Window Clean. Like I said, most of the photos I take are random shots off my iPhone. My OCD really kicks in when I see events that aren’t events, so I keyword them and move them into a miscellaneous general purpose event. Periodically, I’ll go through that holding bin and, since most of the time my “I don’t know what else to do with this” event really is an “I don’t know why I took this photo” and I’ll purge 99 percent of the images there.

5. Empty the Trash and Purge. iPhoto has a separate trash can from the rest of OS X. Deleting an image won’t immediately delete the file from your hard drive. Instead you need to go in and manually empty the trash. Checking the trash periodically will let you permanently get rid of bad or duplicate photos, and might reveal some lost gems that look much better than you remember.

iPhoto is a great program, but it isn’t yet so perfect that it can’t stand improvement. These small changes take only a little time but add result in a markedly different user experience. Any other iPhoto tips you care to add?

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White iPhone 4 Shows Up on AT&T, Three and Orange Websites
The white iPhone 4, which has remained out of reach to the buying public for so long, might finally be on the verge of becoming a reality. It’s showing up in mobile provider systems all over the place, from AT&T in the U.S., to Orange and Three in the U.K., suggesting a release may be imminent.

AT&T isn’t yet advertising the white iPhone for sale on its storefront website, but it is listing the models in its Online Account Management system (via BGR). Both 16 GB and 32 GB models appear to be in the pipeline, although no clue is given as to when they might become available. Orange U.K. and Three aren’t just prepping for the device’s arrival in account management backchannels; both carriers have posted the white iPhone 4 as a configurable option on their respective iPhone ordering pages, though the models aren’t yet available for online purchase.

That the UK operators feel comfortable advertising the white iPhone as an option to potential customers suggests that a release might be much closer than many suspected, possibly even on track for a February or March release. That release window is also backed up by the recent discovery of white iPhone models showing up in a Best Buy inventory database, along with expected in-stock dates of Feb. 27.

Apple originally planned to release the white iPhone 4 alongside the black one, but reportedly ran into problems with production of the units. The company announced later that it wouldn’t be available until spring of 2011, prompting me to wonder whether it might be positioned as an upgrade incentive. It’s looking now more like Apple is trying to use the white iPhone 4 to prevent sales of the smartphone from hitting a slump prior to the announcement of the next generation iPhone. Apple has observed a rigid one-year hardware upgrade cycle with the iPhone since its introduction, which has the disadvantage of discouraging consumers to commit to a purchase when the end of the cycle nears. The availability of a white iPhone, and of a Verizon-compatible model, may have been timed intentionally to counter that effect.

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Sony's Streaming iTunes Rival Now Plays to a Larger Audience
Sony’s Music Unlimited powered by Qriocity service, which launched in the UK and Ireland in December 2010, is expanding to France, Germany, Italy and Spain. Music Unlimited competes directly with other cloud-based music services like Spotify, Pandora and Last.fm, but it could pose a real threat to iTunes, too.

Music Unlimited offers a two-tiered pricing structure for subscribers: €3.99 ($5.46 USD) per month provides Last.fm-style personalized radio channel access, while €9.99 per month allows users to listen in full to any song on demand, and create their own custom personal playlists. Sony has a unique advantage over its cloud-based rivals in that it owns one of the four major record labels, which means it already holds the rights to at least a quarter of its track library. Music Unlimited also has the support of the three other major labels, including Universal, Warner and EMI, providing a total library of around six million songs. And the future looks brighter still.

The plan, ultimately, is to bring Music Unlimited stateside sometime in 2011. Along with U.S. release, Sony also intends to expand the service compatibility to more devices. Currently, Music Unlimited is only available on Internet-connected Sony devices, including network TVs and Blu-ray players, the PlayStation 3 and Sony’s VAIO line of computers. Sony Network Entertainment CEO (and Apple veteran) Tim Schaaff had this to say (via CNET) about future Android and iOS compatibility:

When you provide these services, you’ve got to provide customers the ability to access the content wherever they are. We don’t see that supporting devices from other manufacturers is a problem to the business model… It’s very natural for us to support Android and iOS over time.

Multi-platform support is something Sony has already acted upon, too, since it made good on an earlier promise to bring its Reader app to Android just recently.

Mike Wolf recently asked who might be best positioned to create an iTunes in the cloud. While Sony appears to be taking things slowly, it also seems to be making more headway compared to the other companies Mike says are exploring the space. It may not have the iPhone or Android behind it, but Sony’s device ecosystem is hardly weak, and rumors are swirling about the upcoming introduction of a PlayStation phone and the PSP 2, a next-generation portable gaming console that will compete with Nintendo’s 3DS. Both could substantially add to the company’s mobile presence.

Music Unlimited also has another big advantage over many of its startup rivals: it includes, rather than replaces, your existing music library (including your iTunes purchases). It manages that by scanning your drive for music, and then making those tracks available to stream. Unlike mSpot, which uploads your own music files to the cloud for remote access, Music Unlimited just uses the files already on Sony’s servers, saving you the hassle and time necessary when performing mass uploads.

Sony is playing the cloud music game very well, and after a decade and a half working at Apple in various capacities, including as VP of Interactive Media, Schaaff is well aware of the stakes. Playing nice with the existing content investment of consumers and a policy of platform agnosticism (so long as that actually materializes, and I think it will based on Shaaff’s comments) is the right way to lower adoption barriers and bring people onboard. As Mike put it, it’s still “Apple’s race to lose,” but if Sony can manage to keep the faith of record labels and show that the subscription-based revenue model can work, Apple may be caught sleeping on the starting blocks.

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