It's All About the Software

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From Apple PR this morning:

Apple® CEO Steve Jobs and a team of Apple executives will kick off the company’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) with a keynote address on Monday, June 6 at 10:00 a.m. At the keynote, Apple will unveil its next generation software - Lion, the eighth major release of Mac OS® X; iOS 5, the next version of Apple’s advanced mobile operating system which powers the iPad®, iPhone® and iPod touch®; and iCloud®, Apple’s upcoming cloud services offering.

It don't see how Apple could spell it out any more, but this year WWDC is all about software. Any next-gen iPhone hopefuls will have to wait until September, likely.

I'm glad to see Mr. Jobs will be on stage again. This medical leave has been very different than his previous ones. He is still very much involved during his absence.

Lastly, the iCloud rumor seems true. I can't remember the last time (if ever?) Apple pre-announced a product via press release. Needless to say, I have a feeling it will be big.

And who knows, maybe there will be "One More Thing".

Microsoft® Windows® Skype™ Messenger® 7 Home & Student Edition

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If it wasn't bad enough that Skype nearly made their product unuasbale with the horrible UI in Skype 5, things should get even more interesting. Microsoft has agreed to purchase Skype for $8.5 billion dollars.

I'm not saying just because Microsoft is now involved it will turn to crap. Honestly, Microsoft does ship some neat stuff (XBox for one, and as much I love to dog on Windows, 7 isn't entirely unbearable).

But if Steve Ballmer decides he needs to have a ton of input on Skype…well, let's just say I'd hate to be a podcaster who depends on Skype for their business.

Visa Invests in Square, VeriFone Cries in the Corner

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Square is one of my favorite new companies in the past couple years. I've posted ad nauseum about them and truly love their product.

A while back, major card reader vendor VeriFone cried foul and launched a smear campaign against Square. Now VeriFone is just crying.

Turns out Visa has invested in Square. Nothing legitimizes the underdog like that.

Apple Responds to the Location Kerfuffle

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Apple responded to the controversy over the location logging file that was making its round through the media last week.

In short:

  • The file is an appropriate, relevant subset of data (cache) from a crowd-sourced database to aid in speeding up location locks when a user requests their position. (I was right)
  • When a user authorizes a position request, Apple does receive data about the geo-coordinates of nearby cell towers and Wi-Fi hotspots to add to the crowd-sourced database. This data is encrypted and anonymous.
  • The cache shouldn't be storing nearly a year's worth of data. It should be closer to a week. This will be fixed in the coming weeks via a software update.
  • The same update will fix a bug in which the iPhone still collects this data even if Location Services are turned off.
  • The update will also remove the cache from iPhone backups.

The entire Q&A is worth a read. It satisfies all of my questions.

Apple's Gigantic Pile of Cash

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Apple recently reported its 2Q financial earnings, stating that they had $65.8 billion of cash in the bank.

asymco published an analysis of Apple's report yesterday, breaking down all sorts of nifty things. Chief among them is this tidbit:

If Apple had no revenues, the current cash would sustain operations (SG&A and R&D) for over 7 years or until the middle of 2018.

There is no doubt about it, Apple is one the most financially healthy companies in the world. It is amazing how much they have grown in a down economy, and they are not showing any signs of slowing down.

[h/t Daring Fireball]

Marco Arment's Take on iOS Location Tracking

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Marco Arment:

The reason everyone’s up in arms about the iPhone’s location database, I think, isn’t that the data is particularly incriminating or embarrassing for most people. Rather, we’ve simply been reminded quite how much of our lives these convenient pocket computers are privy to.

He goes on to compare this kerfuffle of iOS location tracking to the amount of privacy we shed on various social networks. Be sure to read the whole thing.

Changing Routines

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Ben Brooks on changing up routines and habits:

People often ask me how I think of topics to write about, or how I find the motivation to do “so much”. The truth is: much of the ideas I come up with are arrived at while I am driving somewhere — and I can’t help but think that, in some small way, this is because I turned left where I should have turned right.

I can echo that my largest creative ruts happen when all I do is lather, rinse, & repeat.

Tweetbot

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Tweetbot is a new Twitter client that debuted yesterday in the App Store. Rather than write ad nauseum about it, I suggest you read Shawn Blanc's excellent review.

My brief thoughts are:

  • This app is really polished.
  • I love the gesture support, especially the slide right and left actions.
  • Being able to use a list as a main timeline is a thoughtful feature that hasn't been done this well until now. It makes me want to do a better job at curating my lists. I hope other clients take note.
  • I also love Tapbot's solution for the bottom tab bar. Having the last two items be configurable is a great UI and UX solution. I hope Apple takes note on this one, because the "More" tab they use sucks.

Tweetbot is two bucks right now for a limited time. I have no idea when it will go up, or by how much. But for two bucks, this is worth having in your arsenal.

I do have to mention one thing though. As much I like Tweetbot, and I think it is as good, or perhaps better than the official Twitter app, I am still sticking with Twitterrific as my main client. I like Twitterrific's unified timeline, the themes, and the interaction. Maybe it's just what I am used to. Though I do love that Twitterrific has a unified experience across the iPhone (and iPod), iPad, and Mac.

Regardless, when I do feel the need to occassionally reach for a backup client, that will now be Tweetbot, instead of Twitter for iPhone.