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“The Best 1.0 in Tech History”→

Marco Arment:

Not only was it truly mind-blowing at the time, but in retrospect, so much of modern computing was invented for that first iPhone phone and revealed to the world for the first time in that hour. Just watch the software demos: most modern UI mechanics and behaviors, large and small, began that day.

When it shipped six months later, it was possibly the best 1.0 in tech history, followed by a decade of relentless hardware and software improvements with the highest success rate and fastest advancement of any product line I’ve ever seen.

Regardless of modern UI design trends, we’re still living in the era defined by the first iPhone.

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Facebook and Google Dominate the List of 2016’s Top Apps→

Sarah Perez, writing for TechCrunch:

Mobile applications from Facebook and Google dominated the new list of the year’s top apps released today by Nielsen. Not surprisingly, Facebook again grabbed the number one spot on the list, with more than 146 million average unique users per month, and 14 percent growth over last year. In fact, Facebook scored several spots on the top 10 chart, thanks to Messenger (#2) and Instagram (#8) – the latter which also showed some of the highest year-over-year growth, up 36 percent from 2015.

Messenger came in second place this year, with over 129 million average unique monthly users, followed by YouTube with over 113 monthly uniques.

However, it was Google, not Facebook, that grabbed the most spots on the year-end chart.

I assume that Nielsen’s study accounts for both the App Store and Google Play Store (iOS and Android apps), but their findings match the general state of the iOS App Store’s top charts. Notably, the only Apple-made app to make it into the Top 10 is Apple Music, which launched in June 2015 and has 20 million paying subscribers, though Nielsen reports over 68 million “average unique users” for it (Free users? Non-subscriber usage? Family accounts? I’d love to know their methodology for this).

See also, from two years ago: No Ecosystem Is an Island.

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Phil Schiller on How the iPhone Changed Apple→

Steven Levy, writing for Backchannel, interviewed Apple’s Phil Schiller for the tenth anniversary of the iPhone’s introduction:

“If it weren’t for iPod, I don’t know that there would ever be iPhone.” he says. “It introduced Apple to customers that were not typical Apple customers, so iPod went from being an accessory to Mac to becoming its own cultural momentum. During that time, Apple changed. Our marketing changed. We had silhouette ads with dancers and an iconic product with white headphones. We asked, “Well, if Apple can do this one thing different than all of its previous products, what else can Apple do?’”

In the story, Schiller also makes an interesting point about Siri and conversational interfaces after being asked about Alexa and competing voice assistants:

“That’s really important,” Schiller says, “and I’m so glad the team years ago set out to create Siri — I think we do more with that conversational interface that anyone else. Personally, I still think the best intelligent assistant is the one that’s with you all the time. Having my iPhone with me as the thing I speak to is better than something stuck in my kitchen or on a wall somewhere.”
[…]
“People are forgetting the value and importance of the display,” he says “Some of the greatest innovations on iPhone over the last ten years have been in display. Displays are not going to go away. We still like to take pictures and we need to look at them, and a disembodied voice is not going to show me what the picture is.”

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Apple Highlights Wallpapers Created with Its Products to Celebrate the Chinese New Year→

In anticipation of the Chinese New Year, which begins January 28th, Apple commissioned wallpapers for the Mac, iPad, and iPhone from five artists. Apple describes the wallpapers, which are available on its websites in China, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Taiwan, as ‘new interpretations of traditional Chinese New Year Nianhua folk art.’

Each of the wallpapers was created using a variety of Apple products, including the MacBook Pro, iMac, iPad Pro, and Apple Pencil and third-party apps, like Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, and Procreate. The artists who designed the wallpapers will also be participating in ‘Meet the Artist’ programs at Apple Stores in China and Hong Kong.

The wallpapers are available to download here.

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Amazon’s Alexa Is Everywhere at CES 2017→

I try not to obsess over every single announcement from CES, but it seems like “Alexa everywhere” is a common theme of this year’s event. Jacob Kastrenakes has a useful roundup of Alexa devices and integrations at The Verge – but there are also smartphones and cars launching support for Amazon’s assistant.

It feels like Amazon is taking the “Netflix approach” with Alexa – to be on as many devices as possible and gain mindshare through convenience and simple user interactions (like Netflix, primarily in English-speaking countries in the first couple of years). I wonder if we’re going to see a proper Alexa app for iOS this year to issue commands from an iPhone. I wouldn’t be surprised to see something along the lines of Astra, only made by Amazon itself and integrated with most of the skills supported by the Echo speakers.

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Connected, Episode 123: 2017 Apple Predictions→

Myke, Federico and Stephen draft their predictions for Apple’s 2017 before talking a little bit about some resolutions for the new year, tech-related and otherwise.

If you want to know what we think is going to happen in the Apple world this year, you don’t want to miss this week’s Connected. You can listen here.

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Record App Store Results Reported by Apple→

Apple announced today that the App Store smashed records in 2016 and on New Year’s Day. App developers earned $20 billion in 2016, up 40% from 2015. In addition, on New Year’s Day Apple set a single-day App Store record when customers spent $240 million on apps.

Phil Schiller, senior Vice President of Worldwide Marketing had this to say:

2016 was a record-shattering year for the App Store, generating $20 billion for developers, and 2017 is off to a great start with January 1 as the single biggest day ever on the App Store. We want to thank our entire developer community for the many innovative apps they have created — which together with our products — help to truly enrich people’s lives.

Apple revealed that Super Mario Run, the much anticipated game from from Nintendo, was the number one most downloaded app on both Christmas Day and New Year’s Day. Apple’s Apps for Earth and Games for (RED) campaigns also raised over $17 million for charity in 2016 and app subscription billings increased 75% in 2016.

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Twelve South Introduces ActionSleeve for Apple Watch→

Having an Apple Watch on your wrist is not ideal for some activities. Twelve South introduced an interesting solution at CES today. The ActionSleeve is an armband for the Apple Watch. Slide your Apple Watch out of its band, pop it into the ActionSleeve, and you’re ready to go.

The ActionSleeve is already available to order on TwelveSouth’s website for $29.99. For anyone who participates in an activity where having something on your wrist is an issue, the ActionSleeve could enable fitness tracking that wasn’t possible before. For others, the fact that the ActionSleeve makes it hard (if not impossible) to glance at real-time statistics while you are exercising may be a nonstarter.

Personally, I’m intrigued. I like collecting fitness data while out on a run or walk, but I sometimes find the availability of glanceable information a distraction. Putting my Apple Watch in an armband has the appeal of enabling me to collect data that I can review later without the distraction of real-time statistics.

We’ll have more on the ActionSleeve soon. In the meantime, here is TwelveSouth’s promo video for the product:

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Alexa: Amazon’s Operating System→

Astute take by Ben Thompson on how Amazon is building an operating system for the home with Alexa:

Amazon seized the opportunity: first, Alexa was remarkably proficient from day one, particularly in terms of speed and accuracy (two factors that are far more important in encouraging regular use than the ability to answer trivia questions). Then, the company moved quickly to build out its ecosystem in two directions:

  • First, the company created a simple “Skills” framework that allowed smart devices to connect to Alexa and be controlled through a relatively strict verbal framework; in a vacuum it was less elegant than, say, Siri’s attempt to interpret natural language, but it was far simpler to implement. The payoff was already obvious at last year’s CES: Alexa support was everywhere.
  • Secondly, “Alexa” and “Echo” are different names because they are different products: Alexa is the voice assistant, and much like AWS and Amazon.com, Echo is Alexa’s first customer, but hardly its only one. This year CES announcements are dominated by products that run Alexa, including direct Echo competitors, lamps, set-top boxes, TVs, and more.

“Works with Alexa” sure feels like this year’s CES motto (I try not to pay too much attention to CES announcements, but the underlying trends are interesting).

I use both HomeKit/Siri and Alexa. There are advantages and problems to both ecosystems: Apple’s approach is slower, perhaps more careful, and Siri works internationally; Alexa and the Echo are only available in a few countries, but the experience is leaner, generally faster, and there are dozens of compatible devices and skills launching every week. It’s a complicated comparison: Alexa works with web services while Siri integrates with native apps and hardware (like Touch ID); Alexa is expanding to a variety of accessories and third-party services, but Siri and HomeKit are more directly tied into your iOS devices.

I expect Apple to continue opening up SiriKit to developers to match Amazon’s rich ecosystem of skills, but even with more domains and apps, I think the idea of a dedicated assistant for the home is a winning one. On the other hand, I wonder how quickly Amazon can launch Alexa/Echo in other countries and build richer conversational experiences that go beyond simple commands. This will be fun to watch.

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