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Apple’s Subscriptions and Consumers→

Apple’s Subscriptions and Consumers

This piece by David Carr at The New York Times gets to the main point of subscriptions as seen by Apple, not publishers:

Publishers say their objections are less about the steep revenue split than the lack of data. But publishers who sit out Apple subscriptions will be bypassing a huge embedded base of not only iPad users, but also the very people who have already shown a willingness to pay for content. It’s worth pointing out that publishers are already in the business of selling products to consumers they have no data on: it’s called the newsstand. Cosmopolitan and People know nothing about the millions who buy their magazines at retail stores, and that doesn’t stop their respective publishers from making a ton of money there.

Apple knows many publishers already have digital subscriptions in place on their websites, but they also know many readers would like to jump to digital versions altogether if only the subscription system was simple, integrated in a single place or device. So looking at Apple’s subscriptions from a consumer perspective, here’s what we get:

Keep in mind that consumers could not care less about revenue splits. In pushing through a plan that publishers are unhappy with, Apple is able to position itself as an advocate for consumers, enabling one-touch transactions while keeping their data private from a host of media providers.

Publishers have every right in the world to guard their business model, but it won’t please their potential audiences.

Publishers may pass on this new Apple plan, but consumers will be disappointed to know they can’t have Condè Nast’s publications available through this fancy iTunes payment thing. By playing the “advocate” role, Apple has cleverly implemented a way to rewrite the rules and keep their cut at the same time. Consumers, in the very end, want content and they don’t care about publishers’ issues. They’re just going to say “why can’t I subscribe to Wired here?”.

And if this strategy doesn’t work, you can stay assured Apple will change.

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WiFi2HiFi Makes Streaming Music From Your Computer to a HiFi Easy

Just released today is WiFi2HiFi, a new iPhone and iPod Touch app that effectively allows you to use your device to stream audio from your computer to an iPod dock, stereo system or anything else that can connect to the 3.5mm jack or the 30-pin port. It virtually emulates the AirPort Express feature of streaming audio from a computer to connected sound system, but how well does it work? I was given a pre-release build to review and a review follows the break.

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‘I Am Number Four’ Director On Hollywood & iPads→

‘I Am Number Four’ Director On Hollywood & iPads

(Above: Michael Bay using his iPad on the set of ‘Transformers’)

Film director DJ Caruso describes his experience of using the iPad as a productivity tool while shooting ‘I Am Number Four’:

I got it, I don’t want to say as a toy, but then I realized about a week into prep that my storyboards were coming on it, my previs was on it, my script was on it, I don’t carry my script anymore. I started getting emails from two of my storyboard artists who work in Los Angeles and I have this application where I can mark up the boards – I’m a terrible drawer – and I can mark up the boards and send them back. It just became this amazing production tool.

There’s more than a director discovering this new tablet computer as a useful gadget, though. In fact, DJ Caruso says almost everyone at Hollywood from assistants to actors to directors now has an iPad, and not just to play Angry Birds during breaks. He even tells the story of when he got into an email conversation with Spielberg about the apps they had installed and used for work purposes.

The coolest part, however, is about the supernatural powers of the main character of his movie being controlled by a custom-made iPad app:

Pettyfer’s character John Smith, an alien, discovers during the film he has several supernatural powers. One of those powers is that he can control light through his hands. During filming, Alex wore a flashlight-like contraption wired up through his jacket and it was activated… by an iPad off screen.

It turns out, some people do create content on their iPads. Looks like Hollywood is indeed hooked on iPads. [via TUAW]

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Are Existing iPhone Owners Buying The Verizon iPhone?→

Are Existing iPhone Owners Buying The Verizon iPhone?

Marco Arment makes the case for non-record initial Verizon iPhone sales due to the fact that the device is mostly selling to existing iPhone owners coming from AT&T. Why the analysis? Because Instapaper’s numbers in the App Store haven’t gone under the usual increase of a new product release / major update / holiday season:

And my sales haven’t noticed. Ranks have held nearly constant, but so have volumes.

Assuming the correlation is approximately sound, this can be explained by three possibilities:

- Very few Verizon iPhones have been sold. I don’t think this is likely.
- Verizon iPhone owners are buying very few apps relative to other iPhone owners. This also seems unlikely.
- Most Verizon iPhones have been sold to existing iPhone or iPod Touch1 owners, who therefore already own most or all of the apps they want. This seems like the most likely explanation by far.

Assuming the analysis is correct, I guess we’ll see a lot of Verizon iPhone sales when contracts are up in June. Also in June: iPhone 5, quite possibly available on Verizon as well. This summer is going to be interesting for U.S. carriers.

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Last.fm Updates iPhone App with Retina Graphics, Recommendations

In spite of the lack of appreciation for Apple’s new subscription system from Last.fm’s co-founder Richard Jones, the popular music service released an update to their official iPhone client today – and it’s a rather big update. Version 3.0 of the app, available here, adds the much requested Retina Display graphics with an improved interface design (about time, considering the iPhone 4 was released 8 months ago), Last.fm music recommendations for artists and new albums you might like, possibility to (finally) check your profile on the go, including top charts, friends and recently played tracks.

Last.fm 3.0 for iPhone, however, comes with other features, too. First, a menu to check on concerts available in your area (sadly, no one wants to play here in Viterbo) and the events your friends are attending. This is pretty cool and adds another layer of social interactivity to Last.fm, and it’s also something Apple has been rumored to be willing to implement in iTunes for a long time. You can now listen to two new radio stations or, alternatively, edit existing ones directly from your device to restrict them to a specific tag. Two weeks ago, Last.fm announced the Radio functionality would soon become a subscriber-only feature (thus the issues with Apple’s new policies).

Last.fm 3.0 for iPhone is available for free here.

PDF Hero Combines Images, PDF Documents

Available as a limited time offer at $0.99 in the Mac App Store, PDF Hero is a Mac app to combine images and PDF files into a single document you can consequently export as PDF from within the app.

The concept is simple: PDF Hero acts as a “bucket” where you can drop multiple images and PDF files at once. With these files, the app will create a single document where each page contains the files you attached. It should come in handy for those who daily manage dozens of PDFs and find themselves constantly forwarding them to their colleagues or clients, or users who do a lot of image -> PDF converting. In this way, with just a drag & drop, you can create a single document containing everything you need. Please note that the current version of PDF Hero only supports PDFs and images – sadly, .txt or .rtf files won’t be attached. But there is a nice trick I noticed (fluid animations when flicking through attached files aside), and it’s the possibility to keep attaching files to an existing set without having to start over (see screenshot above).

That said, PDF Hero won’t get you to the top of PDF editing and management, but it’s a cool utility to merge images and other documents in seconds. Give it a try.

Store News Is The Easiest Way To Find Mac App Store Deals

If you’re not a regular #MacStoriesDeals reader (you should be), here’s a nice Mac app that will help you find the best offers available in the Mac App Store. Store News, a free app available here, allows you to check for deals of free and paid apps in a simple to use interface that brings offers and price drops to the desktop.

The app doesn’t seem to rely on the usual AppShopper infrastructure (the one we love and rely on to curate our daily deals section), instead it aggregates what are considered the best offers from the developers. The app is streamlined and comes with three tabs in the top toolbar to switch between all apps, the ones available for free and paid apps. A blue button similar to the Mac App Store “Buy” one will open a new tab in your web browser, allowing you to launch the Mac App Store and download what you want. Store News also displays previous price before the price drop and a percentage of how much you’re going to save with each deal.

Store News is a pretty good way to stay up to date with offers in the Mac App Store. Combined with AppShopper and our Deals posts, it’ll help you achieve the ultimate deals hunter setup on your Mac. Go download it here.

Apple Awarded Patent for a ‘Safe Deposit Box’ Feature

Apple was recently awarded an interesting new patent regarding a possible feature in OS X in which users could secure vital files in a ‘safe deposit box’ which would encrypt and hide the files from access as well as potentially uploading them to the cloud.

The patent describes a simple process in which users would be able to drag a particular file to a safe deposit icon that would then secure the file and also upload the secured file to the cloud. Users could then access any secured files that are in the safe deposit box by verifying their identity. Patently Apple suggests that it could either be included in Lion’s Time Machine as an added feature or perhaps as a small ‘pro’ utility for those who want some extra security for their vital files and data.

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