Tag: iPad

Apple by Joe WilcoxFeb 6, 20157:06 pm

Anyone Calling This Article Clickbait Doesn’t Get It

In December 2014, I cajoled: “Writers, Own Your Content!” All my work-written blogs—thousands of posts—between mid-2003 and April 2009 are gone. The companies shut down the sites (because of acquisition and restructuring). Now, to prevent future deletion calamity, everything I want to preserve cross-posts here, as is the case with yesterday’s “Whatever Apple Was, It Isn’t Anymore“, which appears on BetaNews as “Apple’s core is rotting“.

Unsurprisingly, the BN version generated more reader reaction—119 comments as I write. You can consider the post as example of what I referred to two days ago when answering question: “Where are the Comments?” Most of the reaction to my stories takes place elsewhere. As such, I sometimes feel need to transplant some of the interaction here, as I did four months ago with post “Who’s the Troll Here — This Dude or Me?” I do so again, today.

Apple by Joe WilcoxJan 2, 20159:46 am

Storage is One of iPhone’s Biggest Benefits

Oh the irony! I got up yesterday morning planning to write a version of the post you read now, choosing instead to look back at readers’ life-changing tech. The trigger: Motorola starting the New Year with a 64GB Moto X model and my previous day’s personal tech devices wrap-up, which got me to thinking abut smartphone differentiation. Processing power, graphics chips, and the like are passé. Who really cares but a minority of gadget geeks? But storage matters to everyone, and Apple gets it—as iPhone 6 and 6 Plus capacities demonstrate.

My feeds are full of reports this morning about a lawsuit filed against Apple alleging that iOS 8 consumes too much storage and, as such, the company misrepresents the amount available. I would have looked so smart writing yesterday about how much Apple gives that competitors don’t (well, to anyone who like me missed the first reports two days ago). That’s okay, now my analysis has a news hook. The point, for people reading no more than two paragraphs of any story: iPhone 6 capacities outclass competitors, and the problem of operating systems consuming much of available storage isn’t new or exclusive to the fruit-logo company. Just look to Google and Microsoft, for example.

Apple by Joe WilcoxOct 30, 201410:04 am

iPad Sales That Go Down Are Mac Sales Going Up

On May 15, 2001, while previewing the first Apple Store to analysts and journalists, then CEO Steve Jobs boasted: “Apple has about 5 percent market share today”, but the remainder “don’t even consider us”. Jobs exaggerated, and not for the first time, seeing as how Mac global share was more like 2 percent.

But the ambition, to use the retail shops to “double our market share”, was achievable. Three years following his death, with 10-percent long ago reached in the United States, something more startling occurred: During calendar Q3 2014, Apple moved into fifth place for global PC shipments, according to IDC. The question is why.

Apple by Joe WilcoxOct 25, 20144:46 pm

Apple’s Too Many iPads Problem

Sarah Perez makes the point before I could (oh lazy me): “Apple announces too many iPads“. That’s the most sensible take on tablets launched last week, and over the weekend copycat stories started posting. Strange thing, there’s nothing new about iPad configuration complexity. The number of base SKUs, while way too many, increases by just two.

I first harped on Apple’s “too many problem”, following iPad mini’s introduction two years ago, observing: “It’s a crowded lineup, with overlapping features and prices not seen from Apple since the early- to mid-1990s”. Crowded is understatement. The mini jacked up the number of basic configurations from eight to 14. However, when looking at all available SKUs, including two colors and carrier-specific models, the number jumped to 54.

Apple by Joe WilcoxSep 3, 20143:56 pm

Ten Months, 26 Stories About Apple

As a personal exercise exploring the tone of my BetaNews stories about Apple, I reviewed all of them written over the past 10 months—just 26, which isn’t many. I did this because, despite the last two posts (here and here) about Apple apologists, reader response does matter. Some critics harp about balance, and I admit there’s no glowing love for the company expressed in most of my stories.

There shouldn’t be. What some people call negativity, I see as constructive criticism. Then there is straight news reporting, which needn’t praise or raze. I prepared the list for myself and post it here mostly for my reference. But it’s a good look at my most recent news stories and analyses about Apple.

News Media by Joe WilcoxFeb 12, 20142:30 pm

Put another Brick in the Paywall

As I update my long-neglected website and here review content relevant to forthcoming book Be a Better Blogger, some long-ago posts are surprisingly still relevant. I refer to “Can You Charge for News? Ask Google” (August 2009) and “The Price You Pay Google for Paywalls” (April 2010). The first looks at three different content sites and their visibility to Google search. Each uses a different paywall strategy. The second story assesses a website with all content behind a paywall.

Four years later, blog, news, and other content websites still grapple with the paywall question. Whether to charge? What to charge? When? Competition from sites delivering free content is major consideration. But another is often overlooked in the public discussion: Visibility in Google search.

News Media by Joe WilcoxDec 3, 201210:36 am

The Great Tablet Newspaper Experiment Ends

How does a news organization squander $30 million? Launch an iPad-only newspaper with great fanfare, only to shut down 18 months later. News Corps’ tablet newspaper fails for many reasons, some related to necessary restructuring of larger operations.

But ultimately, The Daily fails for lack of good editorial content and oversight. The app/publication is is too much like a digitized USA Today for people with sixth-grade reading comprehension.

Apple by Joe WilcoxJan 25, 20117:57 pm

Why iPad is Successful

Two reasons stand out: iPod and iPhone, and the ecosystem supporting them. Apple launched its tablet with huge manufacturing, distribution, and third-party support, something it didn’t have with iPod and less of with iPhone. Purely from that perspective, and discounting design or technical merits, Research in Motion and Samsung are strategically in best competitive ecosystem positions to release viable iPad competitors. But will they?

Some Apple fans will disagree, arguing that iPad’s size, design, and user experience make it far superior to other tablets. I won’t debate those points here but only observe they would be meaningless without the supporting ecosystem created by iPod and iPhone. Apple didn’t launch iPad into a vacuum but with lush sales and distribution environment.

Apple by Joe WilcoxJun 18, 20102:59 pm

Trashed iPad/iPhone

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPJSjnizxu4] Storytelling is an art form, but it isn’t solely the purview of artists. Video “Trashed iPhone and iPad!” is good example. The video isn’t the most sophisticated filmmaking, but the story is compelling: […]

Digital Lifestyle by Joe WilcoxJun 18, 20103:41 am

From the Depths of 'The Shallows'

It is our intellectual technologies that have the greatest and most lasting power over what and how we think. They are our most intimate tools, the ones we use for self-expression, for shaping personal and […]

Apple by Joe WilcoxApr 14, 201011:22 am

The Dark Side of Steve Jobs

For the old-line moguls atop companies like Dow Jones, New York Times Company, Condé Nast and Time Inc., the excitement around the iPad must have seemed like a godsend: Suddenly, they could stick to their […]

Apple by Joe WilcoxApr 6, 20109:11 am

A Bill Too Far

Do you ever get the impression your wallet is being relentlessly sucked dry? Or that consumers are being expected to pay for an ever growing list of subscription-based services that, in a less profit-mad world, […]