It doesn’t really matter whether it is Android’s growth or the FTC’s investigation, but Apple has officially rescinded some of the most onerous restrictions on developers for iOS by allowing third party tools. This is an important change from a developer perspective as it makes cross platform development easier. Not just across mobile devices, but also across the web and mobile (of course HTML5 pushes in that direction as well). Just as interesting though is the increased transparency that Ap...

It doesn’t really matter whether it is Android’s growth or the FTC’s investigation, but Apple has officially rescinded some of the most onerous restrictions on developers for iOS by allowing third party tools. This is an important change from a developer perspective as it makes cross platform development easier. Not just across mobile devices, but also across the web and mobile (of course HTML5 pushes in that direction as well). Just as interesting though is the increased transparency that Ap...

Yesterday evening I wanted to bone up on the racing rules in sailing after having had a close encounter while rounding the leward mark last Thursday (which elicited quite a blue streak from the skipper of the other boat). I really wanted to see some animations of different situations that one might encounter to test my understanding of the rules. After a quick search I wound up on the UK Halsey site, only to remember that I was on an iPad and none of the animations would work because they are...

Yesterday evening I wanted to bone up on the racing rules in sailing after having had a close encounter while rounding the leward mark last Thursday (which elicited quite a blue streak from the skipper of the other boat). I really wanted to see some animations of different situations that one might encounter to test my understanding of the rules. After a quick search I wound up on the UK Halsey site, only to remember that I was on an iPad and none of the animations would work because they are...

I have spent most of this morning reading reactions and thoughts about Facebook’s “Open Graph” via Techmeme, Tumblr, Twitter and comments to my post and Fred’s post. All of it has me convinced that the power of the web will be stronger than any one company. That is with one important caveat: what we can do on the web has to stay as open as it is today! This is why I believe the real fight is not with or between Google or Facebook or even Apple. The real fight is for net neutrality and against...

I have spent most of this morning reading reactions and thoughts about Facebook’s “Open Graph” via Techmeme, Tumblr, Twitter and comments to my post and Fred’s post. All of it has me convinced that the power of the web will be stronger than any one company. That is with one important caveat: what we can do on the web has to stay as open as it is today! This is why I believe the real fight is not with or between Google or Facebook or even Apple. The real fight is for net neutrality and against...

The big news of course isn’t multitasking, or unified inbox, but iAds and GameCenter. These are aimed squarely at making the iPhone (and iPad) a monetizable and viral platform to rival Facebook. Still this strategy seems flawed by being tied entirely to Apple Hardware. What percentage penetration of the handset market can Apple possibly achieve? Facebook on the other hand can reach any user on any device. Well … any device other than the iPhones (and iPads), where Apple can of course exercise...

The big news of course isn’t multitasking, or unified inbox, but iAds and GameCenter. These are aimed squarely at making the iPhone (and iPad) a monetizable and viral platform to rival Facebook. Still this strategy seems flawed by being tied entirely to Apple Hardware. What percentage penetration of the handset market can Apple possibly achieve? Facebook on the other hand can reach any user on any device. Well … any device other than the iPhones (and iPads), where Apple can of course exercise...

I have blogged in the past about threats to the open web and what to do about them. It is easy to be dismissive of concerns about Apple’s philosophy of control which necessitates a partially closed system. But there is a real danger in being so seduced by the sleekness of a device and its user experiece that one does not reflect on whether the trade-offs in terms of restrictions are actually worth it. That becomes all the more relevant as Apple is beginning to use control of the playing field...

I have blogged in the past about threats to the open web and what to do about them. It is easy to be dismissive of concerns about Apple’s philosophy of control which necessitates a partially closed system. But there is a real danger in being so seduced by the sleekness of a device and its user experiece that one does not reflect on whether the trade-offs in terms of restrictions are actually worth it. That becomes all the more relevant as Apple is beginning to use control of the playing field...

We were on family vacation through Sunday, so when our iPad arrived via UPS on Saturday nobody was home, which meant that we had to wait until Monday for it to be re-delivered. I wish I could share first impressions this morning, such as Bijan did this morning, but we frankly didn’t get that far. The iPad appears as a beautiful physical object, but when you turn it on it greets you in a very disappointing way: an icon asking you to connect it to iTunes via a cable! What a contrast with my exp...

We were on family vacation through Sunday, so when our iPad arrived via UPS on Saturday nobody was home, which meant that we had to wait until Monday for it to be re-delivered. I wish I could share first impressions this morning, such as Bijan did this morning, but we frankly didn’t get that far. The iPad appears as a beautiful physical object, but when you turn it on it greets you in a very disappointing way: an icon asking you to connect it to iTunes via a cable! What a contrast with my exp...

“ The iPhone vision of the mobile Internet’s future omits controversy, sex, and freedom, but includes strict limits on who can know what and who can say what. It’s a sterile Disney-fied walled garden surrounded by sharp-toothed lawyers. The people who create the apps serve at the landlord’s pleasure and fear his anger. I hate it. ” - Tim Bray in his post on joining Google

“ The iPhone vision of the mobile Internet’s future omits controversy, sex, and freedom, but includes strict limits on who can know what and who can say what. It’s a sterile Disney-fied walled garden surrounded by sharp-toothed lawyers. The people who create the apps serve at the landlord’s pleasure and fear his anger. I hate it. ” - Tim Bray in his post on joining Google

Looks like I managed to put the entire post into the title, so maybe I should have just tweeted it. But here is a little bit of background. I was talking to a friend of mine last week who has a newly released app in the app store. She told me that while a lot of people loved it, some hated it. She wasn’t so much offended by that but rather annoyed at her inability to respond to the negative reviews “in situ,” especially given that she felt that many of them completely missed the point of the ...

Looks like I managed to put the entire post into the title, so maybe I should have just tweeted it. But here is a little bit of background. I was talking to a friend of mine last week who has a newly released app in the app store. She told me that while a lot of people loved it, some hated it. She wasn’t so much offended by that but rather annoyed at her inability to respond to the negative reviews “in situ,” especially given that she felt that many of them completely missed the point of the ...

Over the last few days, Apple has removed a number of apps from the app store that have, as the New York Times’s Jenna Wortham put it “sexually suggestive” material. There is plenty of speculation on the motives, such as VentureBeat’s idea that this is about winning over educators to the iPad. I think the actual explanation is likely to be simpler. Browsing and discovery are broken in the app store. If these were working well, then there would be no need to remove apps like this (for any reas...

Over the last few days, Apple has removed a number of apps from the app store that have, as the New York Times’s Jenna Wortham put it “sexually suggestive” material. There is plenty of speculation on the motives, such as VentureBeat’s idea that this is about winning over educators to the iPad. I think the actual explanation is likely to be simpler. Browsing and discovery are broken in the app store. If these were working well, then there would be no need to remove apps like this (for any reas...

I was really surprised that Steve Jobs did not announce more cloud capabilities for Apple during his WWDC keynote. It had been rumored that MobileMe might become free and Apple has been investing heavily in data centers. I believe that this is critical for Apple if they want to maintain their currently super impressive position. The iPhone 4 is cool and has some neat innovations but none of them are either absolutely critical for new users or way ahead of other phones. For instance, a front f...

I was really surprised that Steve Jobs did not announce more cloud capabilities for Apple during his WWDC keynote. It had been rumored that MobileMe might become free and Apple has been investing heavily in data centers. I believe that this is critical for Apple if they want to maintain their currently super impressive position. The iPhone 4 is cool and has some neat innovations but none of them are either absolutely critical for new users or way ahead of other phones. For instance, a front f...