Posts in stories

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

You Are Not Your App

Last week I told you it was the right time to take a step back and reconsider the way we use our mobile devices. The right time to re-think our setups, and free us from the need of installing new apps every day while missing the real point of iOS: the “built-in factor”. See, Apple always provided a great set of tools to get things done on a new OS without the need of going out there searching for software. With Mac OS X, most users can do stuff without ever opening Safari and browse to some developer website. With iOS it’s just the same, but the App Store and its flowing stream of new applications made us forget about the built-in factor. We often don’t remember that we can enjoy an iPhone as it comes out of the box. Read more

Taking A Step Back

A friend of mine once asked me why he would ever need to install applications other than games on his iPhone, while he could do most of the things he needed by simply opening Mobile Safari. He’s not new to the iPhone platform: he bought an iPhone 3G in 2008 and finally switched to the iPhone 4 a few weeks ago. He reads blogs to stay updated about what’s new in iOS 4, the latest Apple news and games updates. Yet, he doesn’t install apps to “do stuff” on his iPhone, because he says Safari is such a good browser he doesn’t need to “spend money on additional apps”.

Maybe he’s missing out the best part of iOS, or maybe we, as geeks, need to take a step back and reconsider what we’ve done so far. Read more

Do We Really Need Tweetie 2 for Mac?

Last week I wrote that Tweetie 2 for Mac is alive, and should be released soon. Finally, I would say: after a quite embarrassing “MacHeist beta” delay and a series of announcements from Brichter himself and other personalities over at Twitter, we should definitely we able to get our hands on Tweetie 2 in a matter of a few months. And I repeat, we should. We don’t have any more information about this besides the fact that the app is alive and will be free under Atebits’ name.

My question is, though: do we really need Tweetie 2? Read more

Antennagate Is Alive, And It’s Helping Apple Sell More iPhones

Today I went to an Apple Store with my friends and girlfriend. I live in Viterbo, so we had to drive to Rome’s “Roma EST” Apple Store, which is a 90 minutes drive. I wanted to buy an Airport Express to use with AirPlay (and eventually came home with a KeepItClean MacBook cleaner spray, too), a friend wanted to get a 17-inch MacBook Pro. We had a great time, just like every time we go to that Apple Store. Customer experience quality is top-notch.

This is not the point, though. The last time I went to that Apple Store was in May, and the iPhone 4 wasn’t out yet. Today was the first visit after the iPhone 4 release and all the “Antennagate” media mess. Today’s visit made me realize Antennagate is still alive and kicking, but it’s actually helping Apple sell more iPhone 4s. Read more

Apple, The Next Step Is AirFiles

I installed iOS 4.2 beta on my iPad, but haven’t been able to check out the new AirPlay or AirPrint features yet: I don’t have an Apple Airport Express station to configure with my stereo, nor I have a compatible HP printer in the office. Still, I know these two new features pretty well: AirPlay is Apple’s take on how you should be able to consume digital content in the living room, AirPrint allows you to print documents from your iPad and iPhone with a few taps. Both of them are great features. I want to focus on AirPlay, though: as Seth Weintraub puts it, AirPlay is Apple’s “go to market” strategy - in a way that this single feature will let users easily hook their iPhones and iPads to the Apple TV to effortlessly share SD content, and eventually pay for HD versions using Apple’s TV own rental system. Any kind of video content can be streamed using AirPlay, as long as it uses a standard media controller and it’s encoded using the popular H.264 video format.

I haven’t tried it personally, but I already know AirPlay is going to be huge amongst iPad and iPhone owners once the new Apple TV will be available. This kind of one-tap streaming and sharing of content between devices has got me thinking, though: what if Apple shipped “AirFiles”, a built-in system to share any kind of documents across mobile devices and computers? Read more

An Interview with Shawn Blanc

Shawn Blanc runs one of my favorite weblogs, one of those you open for a quick 5 minutes read and you end up spending the whole afternoon on. With a good cup of coffee and some Mac nerdery state of mind.

Since we started working on MacStories 3.0 in April (true story), I knew that I wanted an interview with Shawn ready to publish by launch day. What happened is an interesting internet experiment: MacStories 3.0 took 6 months to complete, and our email interview turned into a conversation. A pretty long one. We started when the iPad wasn’t available, we wondered what Loren Brichter might be working on and we ended up talking about Flipboard. I think this conversation between me and Shawn is a great example of how fast things change on the internet in a matter of a few months. And, most of all, it’s a great example of how Apple rolls.

Long, unedited, real. Check it out below. And go grab some coffee. Read more