December 1, 2011
Adoption of smartphones and tablets accelerates trend
Surges in tablet, smartphone and ereader adoption have stoked demand for content consumed on these devices, including video, audio, social media, games, news, books and periodicals.
eMarketer estimates that the number of US tablet users will reach 89.5 million in 2014, up from 33.7 million in 2011. Tablet users will make up 35.6% of internet users in 2014, up from 14.5% this year.
The number of US adult ereader users will reach 53.9 million by 2014, up from 33.3 million in 2011. eMarketer also expects robust growth in smartphone users, even though that product category is more mature than tablets and ereaders. By 2015, there will be 148.6 million smartphone users in the US, up from 90.1 million in 2011. These users will represent 58% of mobile phone users in 2015, up from 38% this year.
These devices create demand for apps, streaming video and audio, games, ebooks and periodicals, social networking and other marketer...
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October 6, 2011
My thoughts and prayers are with Steve Job's Family and Friends.
I have been using an Apple computer and their products for over 30 years.
I have followed the company and Steve Jobs over the years through good and bad times. I have read numerous books, articles, blog posts, etc... Yes, I am an Apple Fan Boy just as otherss are a fan of Michael Jordan, Jerry Rice, U2, etc...
Steve Jobs was so far ahead of the pack not only in building great products but also his philosophy for building products in general.
Do you know who the CEO of Coke, Sony, Pepsi, Disney, Ford, etc... is? You know who the CEO of Apple was. Steve Jobs was the CEO of CEO's.
To put things in perspective I rounded up a few facts about Steve Jobs and his return to Apple.
Steve Jobs retuned to Apple at the end of 1996 and retired August 2011.
- Patents:
- Over 300 Patents or about 1 new patent every 2 weeks!
- Bill Gates (Microsoft) = 9 patents
- Larry Page and Sergey Brin (Google) = A little over a dozen
...
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October 4, 2011
With AirPlay, you can wirelessly stream what’s on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch to your HDTV and speakers via Apple TV. Or mirror your iPad 2 or iPhone 4S screen. That’s gonna go over big.
Give your photos and video the big-screen treatment.
You have great photos on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch and some friends on your couch. Or you’re in the middle of an epic action scene that could use a little more screen. Tap the AirPlay icon on your iOS 5 device from a specific app — Photos, Videos, or Safari, for example — and everything streams to your HDTV via your Apple TV.* Connect your device and Apple TV to the same Wi-Fi network, and the AirPlay icon automatically appears.
With mirroring, what you see is what you show.
AirPlay Mirroring lets you share exactly what’s on your iPad 2 or iPhone 4S with everyone in the room. Stream web pages, spreadsheets, lessons, games, photos, videos, and more to your HDTV via Apple TV. Just double-click the Home button...
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September 22, 2011
A whopping 89 percent of iPhone owners have indicated they will stick with Apple for their next handset, dwarfing all other hardware makers, according to a new survey.
The next nearest competitor to Apple in terms of hardware manufacturers is HTC, which earned a 39 percent retention rate among users surveyed by UBS Investment Research. The biggest loser in the survey was Research in Motion, whose retention rate has dropped from 62 percent to 33 percent in the last 18 months.
Rounding out the top five companies in terms of retention rates were two more Android vendors: Samsung and Motorola, earning 28 percent and 25 percent, respectively.
Android fared better when users were asked solely about software, as 55 percent said they would stick with Google's mobile platform. But an additional 31 percent of Android users also indicated they are likely to switch to an iPhone for their next handset, leaving Apple a sizable chunk of Android users.
UBS analysts remarked that Apple's...
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July 13, 2011
1. People judge books by their covers. Design a beautiful app icon.
"The icon and the screenshots are the only elements of design users get to see of your app.
Often times, there are so many apps in the App Store that the way people are even figuring out which app to click on and learn more about is just by the icon. In the "What's Hot" area, you see the name, which is generally cut off, and the app's category.
So you're really going on the icon. Also, there's a certain minimum level Apple expects if you're going to have a chance getting featured."
Example: Wunderlist has an eye-catching and attractive icon that implies the app itself is also good quality
2. Don't annoy the user with "rate us" messages early on.
"There's a whole art to deciding when is the optimal moment to hit up the user with a "rate us on the App Store" message because you want to get them in the optimal frame of mind where they...
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April 7, 2011
On my summer vacations in upstate New York, my cousin and I used to while away the hours on an Atari 7800, racing in Pole Position, fighting with tanks in Combat, or trying to figure out how the heck to play E.T. Now Atari’s packed 100 of its greatest hits into a new app for the iPhone and iPad.
Atari’s Greatest Hits is free and comes with your own complimentary copy of Pong. In addition, you can download 92 titles for the Atari 2600 and 18 classic Atari arcade games (some of the games, like Missile Command, are available in both arcade and console flavors). There’s an attractive catalog of titles that you can browse by swiping through cabinets and classic box art; for each game you can see screenshots and read a description. However, you can’t purchase individual titles: You either have to plop down $1 for a pack of four or $15 for all 99 additional titles.
The games have all been updated to use touchscreen controls and several of them even feature Bluetooth multiplayer...
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