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 Cult of MacRead Leander Kahney's latest commentary about Apple and Mac News in Wired.com's Cult of Mac Blog, including Mac, Mac Pro, MacBook, iMac, iBook, Mac mini, iPod video, iPod nano, iPod shuffle, iTunes, iPhoto, iPhone, Apple TV, OSX, Steve Jobs, and Macworld. http://blog.wired.com/cultofmac/ другие подписчики этой ленты также читают >> |
- Boulevard of Broken iPods
Lots of iPods have bitten the big one over the last six years. But never before have I seen so many totally trashed "breakthrough digital devices" in one place as at the great Pile of Photos of Broken iPods. Head...Lots of iPods have bitten the big one over the last six years. But never before have I seen so many totally trashed "breakthrough digital devices" in one place as at the great Pile of Photos of Broken iPods. Head over. Grab some hankies. Mourn. Reboot.
Via Digg.
Pete Mortensen - Brilliant (and fake) iPhone Ad About New York
Kudos to Alec Sutherland, who has put together the best fake ad for a real product I have ever seen in the form of "iPhone New York," a brilliant, professional spot that shows people of every language and culture raving...Kudos to Alec Sutherland, who has put together the best fake ad for a real product I have ever seen in the form of "iPhone New York," a brilliant, professional spot that shows people of every language and culture raving about the iPhone. I almost teared up, and I'm all West Coast and stuff. Bonus points for use of "Young Folks" by Peter Bjorn and John, too.
I think Apple's very demo-oriented "Here's what it can actually do" campaign is perfect for the iPhone launch, but a treatment like this one could kill for a second phase. They should call Sutherland when the time comes.
Via Digg.
Technorati Tags: iphone, new york
Pete Mortensen - No, Economist. Apple is not a Network Innovation Company
With Apple sailing on an all-time high stock price and mere weeks from the launch of its absurdly anticipated iPhone, the serious business press is turning even more attention to the little-Cupertino-company-that-could than normal. Take, for example, The Economist, which...With Apple sailing on an all-time high stock price and mere weeks from the launch of its absurdly anticipated iPhone, the serious business press is turning even more attention to the little-Cupertino-company-that-could than normal.
Take, for example, The Economist, which has placed Apple on the cover of its most recent issue for a story titled "Apple and the art of innovation." It's a pretty good story, nothing careful watchers of Apple don't already know. It does, however, get one aspect quite wrong, based on a simple misunderstanding of how Apple likes to work:
In fact, its real skill lies in stitching together its own ideas with technologies from outside and then wrapping the results in elegant software and stylish design. The idea for the iPod, for example, was originally dreamt up by a consultant whom Apple hired to run the project. It was assembled by combining off-the-shelf parts with in-house ingredients such as its distinctive, easily used system of controls. And it was designed to work closely with Apple's iTunes jukebox software, which was also bought in and then overhauled and improved. Apple is, in short, an orchestrator and integrator of technologies, unafraid to bring in ideas from outside but always adding its own twists.
This approach, known as "network innovation", is not limited to electronics. It has also been embraced by companies such as Procter & Gamble, BT and several drugs giants, all of which have realised the power of admitting that not all good ideas start at home. Making network innovation work involves cultivating contacts with start-ups and academic researchers, constantly scouting for new ideas and ensuring that engineers do not fall prey to "not invented here" syndrome, which always values in-house ideas over those from outside.
Well, yes and no. Apple has largely gotten over its opposition to "not invented here" technologies, sure. Macs now use motherboards and chips found in virtually every PC on the planet. But it is a shocking mistake to claim the iPod is essentially a leveraged version of off-the-shelf hardware. At a component level, the iPod is quite obviously made up of chips and boards that Apple just buys. But throwing those components into a bag does not an iPod make.
Apple is a pure design-driven company. By that I mean that they rarely produce an idea that is truly new, but when they launch a product or service, it tends to be so much better than existing products in the category that it comes off as legitimately innovative and create new markets. Personal computers existed before the Apple II, but they sucked. The Macintosh was not even Apple's first attempt at a computer with a graphical user interface (that was the Lisa), let alone the first ever (the Xerox Alto). The iPod was far from the first Mp3 player, the AppleTV is not the first living room media set-top box, and the iPhone is about as far from the first cell phone as you could get.
Yet each product has been or could prove to be truly ground-breaking. Is it because Apple continually looked out to the world and saw a great solution in the world they could buy, brand and ship, as P&G famously did with the Crest SpinBrush? Of course not! The Microsoft Zune is a much better example of Network Innovation than the Apple iPod -- the Zune is simply a Toshiba media player with a slightly different interface, new software and Zune branding. The iPod was invented whole cloth, even if it used individual pieces of tech that existed in the world.
This is where Apple excels. They take ideas that people have invented -- adequate functionality, a modest market of hobbyists -- and turn them into innovations by fitting them into what people need. No matter the nascent market, once Apple gets there, their solution will be simpler, prettier and just more lovable than existing ideas in the market. And that's about building a better mousetrap, something Apple does better than anyone in the whole wide world.
It's awesome. But it's not a primary strategy of Network Innovation.
Pete Mortensen - Delicious Library 2 Wins Apple Design Award
Delicious Library 2, which has a snazzy new UI based on Core Animation, wins an Apple's 2007 Design Award for Best Leopard Application. Still no screenshots of it though. For discussion of Core Animation and how it might change interfaces,...Delicious Library 2, which has a snazzy new UI based on Core Animation, wins an Apple's 2007 Design Award for Best Leopard Application. Still no screenshots of it though.
For discussion of Core Animation and how it might change interfaces, see here: Kiss Boring Interfaces Goodbye With Apple's New Animated OS.
The other winners are:
Best Mac OS X User Experience: Coda. Panic.
Best Mac OS X Developer Tool: CSSEdit 2.5. MacRabbit.
Best Mac OS X Game: World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade 2.0. Blizzard Entertainment .
Best Mac OS X Scientific Computing Solution: Papers 1.0. Alexander Griekspoor and Tom Groothuis.
Best Mac OS X Dashboard Widget: BART Widget 1.0. Bret Victor.
Best Mac OS X Student Product: Picturesque 1.0. Zac Cohen.
lkahney - First iPhone Web Apps Available
For all of the complaining that has tripped down the wire about Apple's total lack of an SDK for the iPhone, a couple of entrepreneurial developers have already created iPhone apps to try out in Safari. Shown above is David...For all of the complaining that has tripped down the wire about Apple's total lack of an SDK for the iPhone, a couple of entrepreneurial developers have already created iPhone apps to try out in Safari.
Shown above is David Cann's alternate interface for Digg. It's quite fun, and I actually find it a better way to navigate Digg than the real site. (Sorry, Kevin!) I especially enjoy the way it implements the "grab and fling" interface for the rest of us.
The other contender is OneTrip, a quick (though very elegant) grocery list program put together over-night by Neven Mrgan. Both apps are really nice and fairly clear evidence that sophisticated programs suited to use on the iPhone are possible. I think the new Apple strategy of "the web is the new SDK" is actually a wonderful one. They're pretty unlikely to crash, and really powerful development is a possibility.
Anyone want to lay money on how long it will be until Google issues a version of Reader optimized for the iPhone?
Technorati Tags: iphone, software, thirdparty
Pete Mortensen - Video: John "PC" Hodgman Posing As Steve Jobs
Miss the WWDC keynote? Other than a couple of the specific features of Leopard, don't bother. But you should watch the video above -- it's John "PC and also noted pseudo-intellectual" Hodgman posing as Steve Jobs and announcing the demise...
Miss the WWDC keynote? Other than a couple of the specific features of Leopard, don't bother. But you should watch the video above -- it's John "PC and also noted pseudo-intellectual" Hodgman posing as Steve Jobs and announcing the demise of the Mac platform. It was the opening act for real Steve. Hilarious.Technorati Tags: get a mac, john hodgman
Pete Mortensen
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