If you write an opinion piece, please be prepared to stand by it when it comes under fire. MG Siegler takes Engadget to task for this very thing. I couldn't do it better myself if I tried.
The original Engadget opinion piece is also thought provoking and fantastic on it's own.
Hat tip to Daring Fireball
With the holiday season nearly upon us, many people will be buying iPhones as gifts. The question is, which one to buy?
If the recipient is a tech geek or money is no object, go with the $199 and up iPhone 5. It's an amazing device and it will likely receive software updates from Apple during the length of a two year carrier contract.
If the recipient doesn't care too much about tech, or money is an issue, go with the $99 iPhone 4S. The phone is still great. All features of iOS 6 are available. If history is any guide, it will get most software feature updates during the life of the contract. Some cutting edge software features are likely to be unsupported, but for most things, the phone should be great.
DO NOT BUY THE FREE iPHONE 4
Unless the $99 it would take to upgrade to the iPhone 4S will take food off your table or prevent you from making a rent or mortgage payment, avoid the iPhone 4. It's an okay phone at the moment, but it already doesn't support many of the features of iOS 6. Panorama photo mode, Siri, and Turn by Turn directions are but a few. It will only get worse when iOS 7 hits next year. It's also noticeably slower than the 5 and 4S.
Given how much money you'll end up spending on a service contract with any smartphone, you'll make a mistake buying a phone that's already two years old at purchase. With the pace of technology, you'll have a 4 year old phone by the end of your contract.
That's an eternity.
I'm actually a big fan of iMessage on iOS. I've used it since the introduction. It allowed me to lower my texting plan to a $5 one becasue most of my family and friends use Apple products. Like everyone, I put up with the occasional outage and it's not the end of the world because I can always send via text in a pinch.
The experience is actually pretty good on my iPad since iOS 6 integrated phone numbers and Apple ID. Conversations flow pretty seamlessly from one device to another.
The experience of using Messages on OS X to read iMessages is terrible. TERRIBLE. I don't understand what the problem is, but it plain doesn't work well. Conversations sometimes don't even occur. If the computer is off for a while and I open Messages, the conversation bubbles are all out of order.
It's a hopeless experience that Apple needs to dedicate some time to fixing. This does not 'just work'.
Passwords are a pain in the ass. Everyone hates them. They're unfortunately still a necessary evil. Mat Honan had his life turned upside down by a hacker a few months back.
He's back with a post to tell us about what's so wrong with the password system of today. Reading the details could be enough to make you give up trying to have good passwords at all. Resist the temptation and do the opposite.
Strengthen the passwords most important to you. It also seems like a really good idea to set up an email address just for use as the contact email you provide to companies. Lastly, I'm answering all future security questions by making shit up. I'll record the answers for these particular sites.
Once again, 1Password could be your best friend.
Hat tip to Jason Kottke
The rise of Samsung in the handset space is truly remarkable. Horace Dediu chronicles their story with a series of charts and finishes by asking a few spot on questions.
Anyone who has used Siri has an opinion of the service. My own is that it's immensely helpful in most situations, while being incredibly frustrating in others. Like most, I wish it was faster. Google's recently updated search app for iOS sets the bar for speed very high. If you haven't tried it yet, I highly recommend you do.
Kontra has taken the introduction of this updated app to share his thoughts on the possible future of Siri. I hope Apple is devoting resources to develop Siri along these lines. It seems it would be one of the best possible uses of the substantial bank role they're sitting on.
Hat tip once again to Daring Fireball
For the second time in a couple weeks, a top executive has been shown the door at a large computer company. First, it was Scott Forstall relieved of his duties as iOS software chief. Now, its Steven Sinofsky as the Windows chief at Microsoft.
There will be a lot of rumors and speculation about Sinofsky's fate over the next few days, just as there has been about Forstall's departure.
It wouldn't surprise me a bit if MG Siegler's take on the situation proves to be about right. It just has that feel to it.
Horace Dediu takes a look at the history of Apple's stock volatility and the subsequent earnings growth that follows each bear market period since the introduction of the iPod.
When iOS 6 was introduced for iPad, there was finally a standard clock app included. In place of the generic clock on iOS for iPhone, there was a very stylish and beautiful design. It quickly came to light that the design was essentially stolen from Swiss Federal Railways and that it was done without any licensing agreement.
It was announced a number of weeks ago that the situation had been resolved. No details were released. MacRumors links to a story today that has more details.
I can only hope this new clock design will quickly migrate from the iPad to the iPhone. It's a truly beautiful design.
John Gruber takes on some of the most recent doom and gloom stories concerning Apple.