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Should Apple Allow Installation of iOS Apps From Other Sources?

The Mac App Store won’t be the only way to install apps on a Mac. As Steve Jobs confirmed at the “Back to the Mac” event, the Mac App Store will be the best way to discover and install apps, but not the only one. You’ll still be able to purchase apps directly from developers’ websites and run installers or .DMG files just fine. Can you imagine what could ever happen if Apple turned the Mac into an App Store-only “closed” system with no possibility to download software from other sources? After 20 years of regular installations?

So in a matter of a few months you’ll be able to install apps on your Mac in two different ways, and one of them will likely take over the other one in a very short period of time. If Apple understands the natural differences of the Mac from iOS and consequently adjusts the Review Guidelines in a way that developers won’t be forced to water down their apps, the Mac App Store will be huge. Both for users and devs.

Should Apple do the same on iOS? Read more

Mac App Store: What Do Developers Think?

The announcement of the Mac App Store caused mixed reactions between developers and users alike. We don’t know if the App Store will work on the Mac platform, where we’re all used to software licenses, developer websites and no restrictions, but it’s very likely that Apple will nail this one once again.

MacStories polled a few developers about the subject, and I collected some thoughts from around the blogs of other devs. Here’s what they think of Apple’s latest plan for the Mac. Read more

Is Apple’s Lion a Lion?

Yesterday Apple gave us a sneak peek at some features coming in the next major iteration of OS X, Lion. For those who missed it, Lion will be available starting next summer, and more previews will likely be shown in January (when the Mac App Store will open), at the WWDC ‘11 or, perhaps, at another Lion-focused event. We don’t know yet.

Yesterday’s preview, however, was built around a simple concept: Apple brought OS X to the iPhone and iPad and created a new mobile operating system called iOS from it; now the best features experimented on those devices are coming back to where it all started, the Mac. Read more

“Integration” As A New Way To Define iOS

In case you missed it, Steve Jobs made a surprise appearance at today’s Apple Q4 earnings call. What he had to say about 7-inch tablets, Android, Nokia, RIM and Apple’s philosophy is all over the internet. You can read a full transcript here.

Reading between the lines, what strikes me is the focus Steve put on the word “integrated”. The iOS platform is integrated, Android is fragmented. With the iPhone, you get an integrated device. You don’t have to mess with hundreds of different devices running multiple versions and variations of the Android OS. But that’s not really the point, we get Steve’s thoughts on Android. Tweetdeck’s developers get them even more.

What interests me is the use of the term “integrated” as a new way of defining iOS, and thus the devices is runs on, against competitors. By definition, to integrate means to “combine two or more elements so that they become a whole”. So it’s clear that, in Jobs’ mind, Apple deeply integrated the hardware with the software to create a new, reliable, user-friendly experience. Read more

Thin Air

Steve Jobs, at the iPad announcement in January:

Everybody uses a laptop and a smartphone.

And a question has arisen lately: is there room for a third category of device in the middle? Something that’s between a laptop and a smartphone. And of course we’ve pondered this question for years as well. The bar’s pretty high. In order to really create a new category of devices, those devices are going to have to be far better at doing some key tasks.

Better than a laptop. Better than a smartphone.

Now, some people have thought…that’s a netbook. The problem is, netbooks aren’t better at anything. They’re slow, they have low quality displays and they run clunky old PC software. So, they’re not better than a laptop at anything. They’re just cheaper. They’re just cheap laptops. We don’t think they’re a new category of device.

According to the latest rumors we’re hearing today, Apple is going to announce a new, smaller, thinner MacBook Air on Wednesday. A 11.6-inch MacBook Air. Some people are saying Steve Jobs will revise his position and carry a new shiny netbook on stage. In my opinion, that’s not gonna happen.

By definition, netbooks are small, lightweight and inexpensive laptop computers. By Jobs’ definition, netbooks are slow, low-quality and unusable laptop computers. In Steve Jobs’ mind, inexpensiveness equals cheapness. Lightweight OS equals clunky old software. He doesn’t see the current generation of netbooks as a viable alternative to bigger, more powerful notebooks.

If Apple’s really going to announce a smaller MacBook Air that many people could call “a netbook”, that device is going to be a “smaller, thinner, yet powerful laptop computer” in Jobs’ definition. An even faster, high-quality and lightweight MacBook Air, ultra-portable and super-usable. Something like that.

Apple is not going to release a netbook as we know it. Just like they didn’t release a regular smartphone in 2007. If the rumor’s true, I’m ready to bet on a new way - perhaps more expensive, but classy - to intend small laptop computers.

Twitter Curation: On The Web and iPad, My Weapon Is Curated.by

Last week I reviewed an application called “Tweet Library” which lets you archive and organize tweets in collections directly from your iPad. It’s a well-designed piece of software that’s surely the best (and only, I assume) way to “curate” content from Twitter on the tablet. Like I also wrote in my review, though, there’s this neat and invite-only online service that I’ve been using for quite some time now to aggregate great material from Twitter and give it proper context for future reference: Curated.by.

Curated.by is still in the closed beta stage, so I’m not going to spoil all the details here. If you happen to have an account, feel free to follow me as viticci. I just wanted to give you a brief insight into Curated.by, which - yes - is a great online platform that plugs into Twitter but also comes with a dedicated iPad web view. Of course the iPad webapp isn’t as polished and “native” as an App Store app would be, but I’m not afraid to say it’s one of the best looking, most powerful webapps I’ve seen on the iPad so far. Read more

On Rules and Android “Openness”

Short version: every ecosystem needs rules. Otherwise, it’s a mess.

Long version: I wanted to briefly inform you about my take on Android’s purported “openness” and the need of rules and control on a mobile platform. Openness is good: everyone wants to be able to have a choice, choices make us feel in control of almost every situation. With computers, choices mean we can decide how to operate a machine. With mobile devices, choices have (sadly) come down to choosing whether or not you want to browse with Flash or find any kind of application in a marketplace. Read more

Apple Allegedly Fighting Against A Music Service They Should Learn From

The latest rumor making the rounds of the internet is the same one we’ve been hearing about for years: an iTunes subscription-based music service. Both the New York Post and CNET are reporting that Apple is considering a subscription music service; the New York Post also reports (be careful, they have a history with rumors) that the latest plan hatched in Cupertino’s black labs wants music execs to agree on a monthly service that could have a tiered pricing model ranging from $10 to $15. The report doesn’t tell us how much music would be included in each tier, and whether this subscription is meant for local content or cloud access. Read more