Say What?

iOS 5 Lets You Change the Colour of Your Calendars

“Finally.”

Steve Jobs — 1955-2011

Like Mr Gruber, the wording of Steve’s resignation letter sounded very much like the end was near.

It doesn’t make it any less of a shock though.

[UPDATE 1]
Tim Cook’s email to Apple employees.

[UPDATE 2]
Some awesome photos of Steve testing Photobooth filters in 2005 (via Mike Matas)

It Ain’t About Math, Microsoft

Note to Microsoft: people don’t buy Macs because they’re more expensive. You’re missing the point.

Whilst I applaud Microsoft for getting most of the comparisons there or thereabouts — let’s not talk about comparing the 11″ MacBook Air to a Toshiba netbook though — I can’t help feeling that the only drum Microsoft has to beat is ‘PCs are cheaper than Macs’. Whilst this site proves that notion is factually correct, for me it misses the point of why people choose PCs or Macs.

People don’t buy Macs because they’re more expensive. Microsoft should focus more on why people buy Macs over PCs other than cost.

• What about saying PCs are more secure than Macs?
• How about saying PCs are faster than equivalent Macs?
• What if you were to push the point about PCs being more serviceable/upgradeable than Macs?
• What about the range of software available?
• Games?

When you start to think of all the ways computers & software can be compared, it’s rather depressing if all you have to beat is the cost drum.

If we’re talking about cost…

As an aside, all of this is ironic if you think about it. Microsoft don’t make PCs. They make software. So if we’re going to boil it down to cost:

• The cheapest Windows 7 you can buy: $199
• Mac OS X Leopard: $129

• Cheapest version of Office for Mac: $149
• Pages, Keynote & Numbers for Mac: $71.97 ($23.99 each)

Even if you add in the cost of a Snow Leopard upgrade ($29), OS X is still around $41 cheaper. And, don’t forget, we’re comparing the most basic version of Windows 7 here, so it’s unlikely to be apples for apples (if you’ll pardon the pun). Apple’s productivity suite is less than half the price of Microsoft’s.

PCs might be cheaper, but that doesn’t mean they’re better. Microsoft should be focussing on features, benefits, speed, security, technological advances — in addition to cost — if they’re to make a compelling argument.

What Do You Expect From a ‘Head of Marketing’?

Andy Lark, Dell’s global head of marketing, gives his interesting — if predictable — take on the iPad & the tablet landscape. There’s lots to enjoy here.

“I couldn’t be happier that Apple has created a market and built up enthusiasm but longer term, open, capable and affordable will win, not closed, high price and proprietary.”

Open, capable & affordable will win, you say?

Open: as in Honeycomb? The OS that Google have admitted they rushed to market, making design tradeoffs along the way? The one that’s definitely not ‘open’?

Capable, as in ‘includes Flash’? Yeah. That sounds like an awesome experience.

Affordable — as in the Motorola Xoom? The cheapest Xoom costs $599. The cheapest iPad costs $499.

“An iPad with a keyboard, a mouse and a case [means] you’ll be at $1500 or $1600; that’s double of what you’re paying [...] That’s not feasible.”

Someone get Mr Lark a new calculator. And, whilst you’re at it, tell him that you can’t use a mouse with an iPad. Aside from it adding to the cost, it, uh, won’t work.

“…Our strategy is multi-OS [...] We will do Windows 7 coupled with Android Honeycomb, and we’re really excited. We think that giving people that choice is very important.”

“We don’t really know which will sell more — Windows or Android. So we’re offering both. The more OS variations you offer consumers, the better. Look at Windows 7!”

Time to shut Apple down and give the money back to the shareholders. Definitely.

History Vault in Windows 8

Winrumors.com:

Microsoft is currently working on a new feature for Windows 8 named History Vault, WinRumors has learned. The feature will allow Windows 8 users to backup files and data automatically using the Shadow Copies function of Windows. According to one person familiar with the company’s plans, the backup feature will include the ability to restore to a specific time or date on the system. Users will also be able to select files and restore them to different timestamps.

What I find interesting is Microsoft’s choice of name for this feature. A ‘vault’ is something that’s purposely hard to get into. Not a feature I’d immediately associate with an automated backup feature.

Skype 5 for Mac

Lukas Mathis on Skype 5 for Mac:

Unfortunately, instead of making the Windows version of Skype better, they’ve decided to fix the discrepancy by making the Mac version of Skype more like the Windows version.

Totally agree. The new Skype for Mac has completely thrown out the old UI for something that’s much larger and arguably more complex. The Skype blog post that announced the new version is full of rationale of why things changed but, for the life of me, I can’t understand why the Skype team changed the things they did.

Skype 2.8 wasn’t broken. Isn’t broken. One of the reasons I’m sticking with it.

The other reason? Skype 5 for Mac.

IDC Predicts Windows Phone Will Top Apple’s iOS in Market Share by 2015

AppleInsider:

A new forecast of the global smartphone platform market from research firm IDC has predicted that Microsoft’s Windows Phone platform will see a resurgence in the next four years, overtaking Apple’s iOS platform which powers the iPhone.

I have a hard time believing that iOS penetration is going to decline between now & 2015. There’s more iOS powers than just the iPhone.

Do these figures include iPod Touches & iPads?

Attention to Detail

The iPad guided tour videos on Apple’s website are great. Notice that the clock on the iPad shows 9.41am in every single video.

“the Commercial Deal Took Us a Day”

An interesting look into the negotiations between Apple & Verizon, following yesterday’s announcement:

“We probably worked six or nine months on the technical side of this and saw we could make this work [...] Then we did the commercial side. The commercial deal took us a day.”

I’ll bet Verizon said ‘yes please’ a lot during those negotiations.