One of the changes Apple announced for developers at WWDC this year was the ability to challenge App Store Review guidelines. Now, we’re seeing an early instance in which a developer was successfully able to challenge an App Store rule after having their app threatened with rejection.
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I’m a fan of the British newspaper The Guardian, whose news coverage and features are often excellent (disclaimer: I’ve written a few articles for it myself), but a piece it ran last night is just plain bizarre. It attempted to explain the company’s slowing sales – temporary or not – by suggesting that software engineers no longer want to work there.
Tellingly, Apple is no longer seen as the best place for engineers to work, according to several Silicon Valley talent recruiters. It’s a trend that has been happening slowly for years – and now, in this latest tech boom, has become more acute.
The evidence presented for this? One freelance developer, one unnamed “startup executive,” one software designer and two recruiters. Among the reasons given are the culture of secrecy (doh!) and the fact that “Apple notoriously doesn’t serve free food, which was unusual in 2012 and, in 2016 Silicon Valley, shocking for highly prized and pampered engineers accustomed to perk.”
The one sensible reason given was that some engineers want to work on new stuff, rather than the latest iteration of an already successful product. This is true, but it’s hardly news that one employer isn’t for everyone …
Photo: Cameron Spencer/Getty Images via the Guardian
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHsXH6CO8Tg]
After showing more journalists around its solar-powered North Carolina data center (where it is building a third solar farm), Apple says that its new focus for renewable energy is its supply chain. The Guardian reports that the sapphire factory in Arizona forms part of this initiative.
The company is also moving to install solar and geothermal power at a plant in Mesa, Arizona that has been manufacturing sapphire glass. Apple would not directly comment on the Arizona factory but the state’s governor, Jan Brewer, has publicly praised the company’s decision to relocate there and to use solar and geothermal in manufacturing.
Apple’s VP of environmental initiatives Lisa Jackson said that the company is conscious that its supply chain cannot claim the same green credentials as Apple itself …
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The Guardian reports that Paul McCartney has released five of his classic albums as iPad apps, offering remastered audio tracks, videos, interviews, photos, and artwork from both albums and singles.
Five of his classic albums – Band on the Run, McCartney, McCartney II, RAM and Wings over America – have been turned into iPad apps by label Concord Music Group, and released through Apple’s App Store.
Surprisingly, despite the additional content, the cost of the apps is lower than buying just the albums alone…
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As the Guardian‘s Charles Arthur points out, market share is a very different thing to installed user-base. The highly-detailed piece is worth reading in full, but the take-out is the bottom graph. That’s what the real world of U.S. smartphone users looks like. Or, to put it in two sentences …
Here’s the reality: at the time this was written, more than 40% of the smartphones in use in the US […] were iPhones. Only about 51% of the smartphones in peoples’ hands in the US are Android phones.
Smartphone adoption as a whole has grown at a rapid rate, and within that iOS and Android have, in the U.S. (and many other developed markets, I’m sure) grown at pretty much the same rate, with a rather modest gap between them.
Yesterday, we told you the U.K. Court of Appeal in London ordered Apple to remove “inaccurate comments” from the Samsung apology posted on its U.K. website within 24 hours. As part of the initial ruling, Apple was also supposed to post newspaper advertisements in the country explaining the court ruled Samsung did not copy the iPad’s design. Today, Apple removed the apology from its U.K. website, but it has yet to publish an altered version removing the four paragraphs the court took issue with. Apple originally requested 14 days to make changes, but the judge rejected that request.
At least Apple’s newspaper ad did not include the “not as cool” statements the courts had a problem with. TheNextWeb posted the image above; showing one of Apple’s ads ran in this morning’s Guardian.
Apple’s new iPad mini is expected to be announced Oct. 17; and with that launch date swiftly approaching, we have seen our fair share of rumors and leaks. A report from The Guardian today refuted a prior claim, claiming the 7.85-inch iPad mini will not include 3G or 4G and will stick with Wi-Fi instead.
Industry sources indicated to the Guardian that they do not expect to see 3G-capable versions of the iPad mini. That would allow Apple to produce it comparatively cheaply and to limit the top price of the product, while retaining mobile broadband connectivity for its pricier iPad line.
Being Wi-Fi only, it would put the iPad mini in-line to be a direct competitor with the Google’s Nexus 7 that also lacks 3G or 4G. The Amazon Kindle Fire was also without wireless capabilities until it received a refresh last month. Being without cellular connection would keep the iPad mini down on price. However, it seems like something Apple would at least make an option in fear of losing potential customers look to access data on-the-go.
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A recent interview with Google’s cofounder Sergey Brin received a lot of attention due to his view that Apple and Facebook are the biggest threats to the open Internet. Today, Brin took some time to clarify his thoughts about the coverage of his interview, which he feels has been “particularly distorted.” In a Google+ post, Brin noted he has “always admired Apple’s products,” and he currently uses an iMac (Imac?):
Moreover, I have much admiration for two of the companies we discussed — Apple and Facebook. I have always admired Apple’s products. In fact, I am writing this post on an Imac and using an Apple keyboard I have cherished for the past seven years.
9to5Google has the full story.
In an interview with the Guardian over the weekend, Google cofounder Sergey Brin said:
[…]he was most concerned by the efforts of countries such as China, Saudi Arabia and Iran to censor and restrict use of the internet, but warned that the rise of Facebook and Apple, which have their own proprietary platforms and control access to their users, risked stifling innovation and balkanizing the web.” There’s a lot to be lost,” he said. “For example, all the information in apps – that data is not crawlable by web crawlers. You can’t search it.”
It is interesting that “lost” is defined above as “not crawlable by Google’s search engine.” Framing the argument—as “what is in the best interests of users” versus what Google wants—would probably have helped his case. We are supposed to think that it is just a coincidence the two biggest corporate threats to Google are also the two biggest threats to humanity/the Internet. (via Slashdot)
Cover of Ultimate Collection
The Guardian reported that Sony Music, upon hearing of the death of its recording artist Whitney Houston, lifted the price of her album to reap extra money.
The music giant is understood to have lifted the wholesale price of Houston’s greatest hits album, The Ultimate Collection, at about 4am California time on Sunday. This meant that the iTunes retail price of the album automatically increased from £4.99 to £7.99.
Houston’s The Ultimate Collection, originally released in 1997, was the second top-selling album on iTunes on Monday morning. Apple returned the album to its original price late on Sunday.
What can you say to that?