Buying a set-top box: everything you need to know →
Slick buying guide from The Verge. Especially nice work on the info graphics measuring set top box versatility.
Crazy to think how Bobcat Goldthwait, probably best known as Zed in the Police Academy series, has evolved into a independent (and very dark) film director. A wide ranging interview with Goldthwait appears on a recent Vice post, where he gives frank advice:
My point is this—if you want to be happy in showbiz (or any creative field), listen to that voice inside you. Even if it says “Fuck it” sometimes. Work with your friends. Avoid chasing fame or money. Just do what you want to do, when and how you want to do it. And if it’s not making you happy, quit. Quit hard, and quit often. Eventually you’ll end up somewhere that you never want to leave.
Slick buying guide from The Verge. Especially nice work on the info graphics measuring set top box versatility.
Developers have clamored for a paid upgrade system since the App Store’s inception, but I’m worried Apple won’t offer this feature anytime soon. I’m far from alone – Instapaper developer Marco Arment also predicted Apple’s non-action on his latest podcast. Yet Marco and many others don’t think this is a problem, that the current à la carte system is “the future” of software publishing. They’re completely wrong.
Apple drags its feet on paid upgrades because Apple wants simplicity for their customers. A choice between a full product and paid upgrade muddles this philosophy. For now, all users get all app upgrades automatically. If you introduce optional, paid upgrades, certain updates only apply to select customers. This adds complexity for consumers and developers having to juggle and maintain multiple app versions on the store.
In addition, the lack of paid upgrades keep app purchase prices lower. This is simple economics: on the App Store, developers have to force a repurchase between major versions in the form of a new app. App prices will be driven lower to offset the much larger sticker shock between versions and to account for boosts in upgrade revenue (100% of the product cost instead of some smaller fraction.)
I don’t think this is a good economic model, especially for more expensive, professional level software, such as Omnifocus and Photoshop. But remember, Apple is not, at its core, a software company; they make money from selling iPhone and iPads. The cheaper the software, the greater the incentive we have to keep on buying Apple’s hardware.
Also it’s professionals and power users – both niche Apple consumers – that demand paid upgrades, not the core audience. Given how rarely Apple updates its pro products (e.g. Mac Pros, Aperture, Final Cut) in the last few years, we’re in for a serious wait before Apple takes any action here.
Marco defended Apple’s inaction on this week’s Build and Analyze podcast; I disagree with him. A lack of paid upgrades causes two main problems:
The absence of an incremental purchase kills a huge source of revenue for developers and publishers. Without both new software and upgrade streams, many publishers, from high end publishers like Adobe to independent studios like Delicious Monster and Panic have a hard time staying afloat. In economic terms, a lack of price discrimination between more receptive, existing customers and newcomers is a major problem.
Customers get angry and frustrated when they can’t upgrade. Naturally for apps under a few dollars, this issue doesn’t apply, given the small investment. Yet if you’re considering $40, $80, or hundreds more for a purchase, an upgrade by way of repurchasing the software is costly. It’s especially aggravating if the next big upgrade is launched soon after you buy the old version. This keeps potential buyers on the sidelines between major releases, exactly the time when many developers need revenue to keep going.
Apple needs a change in course here. A lack of paid upgrades is killing both developer revenue and consumer interest in a lot of great apps. It’s also watering down app quality, especially in the iPhone and iPad markets where there’s no App Store alternative.
Tracey Lien for Polygon on the indie gaming studio Capybara:
Vella says that the main thing they got out of their film school education was the ability to critique their own work – a skill that has played a crucial role in shaping their award-winning games.
“We’re a ruthlessly self-critical studio,” he says. “Our studio culture is: If you have an opinion, say it. Don’t be afraid to critique yourself. One of my favorite things is sitting in a meeting with programmers and artists and sound designers and producers, and going from visuals to audio and having meaningful conversations from every discipline, rather than just saying ‘OK, you’re an artist so you just do art and that’s it.’
Tight collaboration and T-shaped employees make all the difference. I still haven’t gotten around to Sword & Sworcery, but Capybara’s Critter Crunch is a great game.
The Interate podcast gets some big names in the app design world to pop on their show. This week was exceptionally big with Tweetie creator Loren Bricher. The episode touches on a lot of interesting subjects: the conservatism of Apple’s iPhone UI, Bricher’s preferred design tools, Blackberry 10 and more.
Co-founder of Hunch and startup investor Chris Dixon:
The key question when trying to value Facebook’s stock is: can they find another business model that generates significantly more revenue per user without hurting the user experience? (And can they do that in an increasingly mobile world where display ads have been even less effective.) Perhaps that business model is sponsored feed entries, as Facebook seems to be hoping (along with Twitter and perhaps Tumblr). The jury is still out on that model. Personally, I have trouble seeing how insertions into the feeds aren’t just more prominent display ads. You still have to stoke demand and convert people from non-purchasing to purchasing intents.
Chris nails it here. In other advertising models, users have purchasing intent, while that’s generally not the case on Facebook. Less intent translates into ineffective ads.
Shawn Blanc:
The idea of a Retina display on a Macintosh sounds fantastic. The words I’m typing at this moment are onto my iPad with its high resolution screen, and the text looks stellar. Retina displays rock. Sure, there are downsides and ugly bits that a Retina display Mac would bring with it — such as non-retina applications and websites — and Marco Arment does a good job of articulating those.
I have the good fortune of using applications on my Mac that are developed by bleeding edge developers. In addition to the native OS X apps I use (Mail and Safari), the 3rd-party apps like OmniFocus, Yojimbo, Coda, Transmit, MarsEdit, Byword, iA Writer, and others which are all run by developers which I have no doubt will be quick to update their Mac applications to support Apple’s new high resolution displays.
I need to link to Shawn more often. He’s a great tech writer and pretty level headed, as exemplified in this article. Yet I am more worried about websites with Retina displays than Shawn is; it’s a big development on the web development side and it’s going to take a while for the community to adapt.
Mat Honan wrote a pretty incredible article yesterday on Yahoo’s floundering with Flickr over at Gizmodo:
“By the time we were looking at Flickr, Yahoo was getting the shit kicked out of it by Google. The race was on to find other areas of search where we could build a commanding lead,” says one high ranking Yahoo executive familiar with the deal.
Flickr offered a way to do that. Because Flickr photos were tagged and labeled and categorized so efficiently by users, they were highly searchable.
“That is the reason we bought Flickr—not the community. We didn’t give a shit about that. The theory behind buying Flickr was not to increase social connections, it was to monetize the image index. It was totally not about social communities or social networking. It was certainly nothing to do with the users.”
And that was the problem. At the time, the Web was rapidly becoming more social, and Flickr was at the forefront of that movement. It was all about groups and comments and identifying people as contacts, friends or family. To Yahoo, it was just a fucking database.
I rarely associate Nick Denton’s Gizmodo these days with in-depth sound, writing and reporting. But wow, they really rose the bar on this one. Perhaps I should give them another chance.
This iPhone UI proposal is well thought out but it’s fundamentally too complex for most user needs. I found the extra bottom row of apps especially unnecessary; I’d bet if you were to look at user stats users rarely invoke the double tap app switcher for apps older than the four previously used.
However, major props for Verge forum user brentcas identifying two major problems with iOS 5. First, turning on and off WiFi, Bluetooth and brightness requires way too many taps in Settings given how in demand they are. In addition Spotlight searching should be more accessible; as users add more apps, sometimes an open ended simple keyboard search is ideal to cut through the complexity. I hope both issues are addressed in iOS 6.
Another A List Apart, another strong article on CSS. Author Alan Stearns dives into “faux” font styles and why they should be avoided.