Apple confirms Aperture will be discontinued after Photos release→

The fact that Aperture is still on sale despite the fact that they have publicly announced that they are getting rid of it is a surprisingly scummy move from Apple.   I mean will they refund you if you are dumb enough to buy it the day before they get rid of it?   Not only should it be gone now,  they should be offering Lightroom in its place.   From MacRumors:

“Shortly after last week’s deployment of OS X 10.10.3 to developers, Apple updated its official Aperture page on its website, adding a notice stating that Aperture will be removed from the Mac App Store when the Photos for OS X app launches.

The same notice can also be found in the app’s Mac App Store description, as noted by MacGeneration [Google Translate]. Once removed from the Mac App Store, it will no longer be possible for new users to obtain the Aperture software, but those who have previously purchased Aperture will continue to be able to download it from the “Purchases” tab. ”

— MacRumors

760,000 Android Wear Smartwatches sold→

Somehow I'm surprised that there are even 760,000 people out there wearing smartwatches.

“Over 720,000 Android Wear devices shipped in 2014 out of a total of 4.6 million smart wearable bands. Though the Moto 360 remained supply constrained through Q4, Motorola was the clear leader among Android Wear vendors. LG’s round G Watch R performed significantly better than its original G Watch, while Asus and Sony entered the market with their own Android Wear devices. Pebble meanwhile shipped a total of 1 million units from its 2013 launch through to the end of 2014. Continual software updates, more apps in its app store and price cuts in the fall helped maintain strong sales in the second half of the year. ‘Samsung has launched six devices in just 14 months, on different platforms and still leads the smart band market. But it has struggled to keep consumers engaged and must work hard to attract developers while it focuses on Tizen for its wearables.’ said Canalys VP and Principal Analyst Chris Jones. - See more at: http://www.canalys.com/newsroom/over-720000-android-wear-devices-shipped-2014#sthash.MKQjVMsv.dpuf”

Former TUAW writers start new Apple Site

Former TUAW staffers Steve Sande, Dave Caolo, and Kelly Hodgkins have started up a new Apple site.  AppleWorld.today .  Cool domain name.  Can't wait to see what they do with it.

Like I said.   Getting out from under AOL is the best thing these people could do.   Glad to see new independent voices out there.   Also, they're using Squarespace too!  Cool.

iOS 9 to be a "no new features" release, ala Snow Leopard

Mark Gurman, writing for 9to5mac, seems to have some information that iOS 9 is going to be more of a "no new features" release akin to OS X Snow Leopard.   From the article:

“Following the success of OS X Snow Leopard for Macs in 2009, one of iOS 9’s standout ‘features’ will be a directed focus on stabilizing and optimizing the operating system. While stability is normally an expected component in Apple software rather than a marquee feature, the rapid pace of iOS releases and feature introductions has taken a toll on the operating system’s overall performance, recently leading to numerous complaints from long-time Apple users and regular customers alike…

...For 2015, iOS 9, which is codenamed Monarch, is going to include a collection of under-the-hood improvements. Sources tell us that iOS 9 engineers are putting a “huge” focus on fixing bugs, maintaining stability, and boosting performance for the new operating system, rather than solely focusing on delivering major new feature additions. Apple will also continue to make efforts to keep the size of the OS and updates manageable, especially for the many millions of iOS device owners with 16GB devices.”

— Mark Gurman - 9to5Mac.com

One wonders if this step is a reaction to some of the backlash they have been receiving from many iOS users including some Apple community heavyweights like Marco Arment and John Gruber on their respective blogs and podcasts.   For a little while now it seems like Apple's software has just been less stable, and less consistent in quality than it had been previously.  Nothing showstopping of course, but more like a set of death by 1,000 papercuts-type issues.

Apple used to pride itself on best-in-class software design in the same way that they pride themselves today on best-in-class hardware design.  While I'm sure they still feel that they do pride themselves on that best-in-class software, it's obvious to almost anyone these days that while they have maintained and improved that hardware design, the software hasn't gotten quite as much attention.

iOS 7 was a great visual refresh of an OS that was starting to feel visually stale, and iOS 8 was a great refinement of that look.   That being said, there have been some things that just don't quite work as expected.   There have been things like iCloud syncing issues,  AirDrop and AirPlay consistency, iMessage consistency, small crashing bugs, and small notification center bugs.   For example,  I should never want to AirDrop a link to my MacBook Air and worry whether or not it will show up in my AirDrop list on my phone (it usually doesn't).  It's Nothing serious, but it is just enough to make the iPhone feel less "effortless" than it used to.  

So when I heard that iOS 9 was going to take the time to make the OS feel more consistent, and to squash some of those longstanding bugs,  I couldn't have been happier.   This is something that is sorely needed.  In fact I wouldn't mind seeing a more "tick/tock" approach to iOS development.   One year gets a huge feature release, the next year is less features, more reliability.  

Actually, the way OS X is going, I wouldn't mind seeing it there as well!   Perhaps for OS X 10.11 we could get something called "Yosemite Valley" which could be a release designed just to fix a lot of the longstanding issues with OS X as well.   Considering that a lot of the bugs in both OS X and iOS have to do with services that both OS's share at this point (iMessage, AirDrop, AirPlay, Notification Center, etc) it may not be a bad idea to really spend a good year on both OS projects trying to really get them stable and consistent all the way through. 

Aaron Sorkin's Steve Jobs Movie Gets a Release Date

So it's official.   The Aaron Sorkin penned, Danny Boyle directed Steve Jobs biopic that has gone through development hell finally has a release date.   October 9th, 2015.   Do I care?  Not so much.   There has been so much drama surrounding the casting and production of this movie that something smells off to me.   It seems like it's being made simply because it HAS to be at this point.   That being said, there is a lot of star power, and a lot of Academy Award winners involved, so who knows.   I just take it as a bad sign when Ashton Kutcher looks more like Jobs than Fassbender does.

Why Amazon buying RadioShack stores is a brilliant move.

Bloomberg today is reporting that Amazon is possibly in talks to purchase a number of RadioShack retail stores as part of their long-rumored expansion into retail.

“(Bloomberg) — Amazon.com Inc., aiming to bolster its brick-and-mortar operations, has discussed acquiring some RadioShack Corp. locations after the electronics chain files for bankruptcy, two people with knowledge of the matter said.
Amazon has considered using the RadioShack stores as showcases for the Seattle-based company’s hardware, as well as potential pickup and drop-off centers for online customers, said one of the people, who asked not to be named because the deliberations are private.”

— http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-02-03/amazon-said-to-mull-buying-radioshack-stores-in-retail-expansion

Amazon has been moving more and more into the electronics world first with its Kindle, then its range of Kindle Fire Tablets, and its Kindle Fire Phone which, while a failure, was an important step (one that will almost certainly be iterated upon).  Even now they are doing early shipping of their in-home digital assistant Amazon Echo, which is one of the more interesting pieces of tech we've seen this year.  

All of these products could very much benefit from a small local store where one could try them out, ask questions, and get support a la Apple's Genius Bar.   This makes a heck of a lot more sense to me than Sprint's purchase of some of these stores.   In fact, it seems like a brilliant business move, as long as they don't buy too many.

Not only that, but many people are overlooking Amazon's AmazonBasics brand.   They sell a ton of super inexpensive branded products like HDMI cables, lightning cables, bluetooth speakers, laptop bags, camera bags, batteries, car chargers.  Heck, they even have AmazonBasics branded clothes-hangers!  

Imagine being able to go into a physical store to go into to pick up an HDMI cable. or batteries, or an iPhone charger, and not being charged  an arm and a leg for it like Best Buy (or Radio Shack for that matter) does.   Just having a few of those things on hand in-store would be enough to deal a pretty significant blow to Best Buy, which at this point probably makes most of its sales on two things:  Items people don't usually have shipped (TVs, appliances), and impulse purchase items (phone cases, hdmi cables, flash drives, etc) that they mark up tremendously (think $50 HDMI cables).

Even the locations are very compatible.   Radioshack stores tend to be small and located in just about the perfect place for an Amazon store.    Small stores mean low-rent,  which hopefully means Amazon will be able to absorb that cost in the way they do so well.

Though, I'm sure they are going to want to raise some capital to keep these possible stores afloat.  It's a good thing they have a super easy way to do it.   How, you ask? Make the stores an Amazon Pickup location.   Of course, that's obvious.  Even better would be to make the store a SAME DAY pickup location.  Let's say I order a few books from Amazon in the morning, and at checkout it gives me the option to pick them up later that day from my local Amazon store for an additional $10.00.   If this is a book I really want, or need.  You know I'm going to pick that option.   They could even give their Prime members a discount, and make it $5 instead.

We already know that Amazon is using information about your shopping cart, your wishlists, as well as your browsing activity to start shipping items that they think you might purchase to warehouses close to you so that they can get them to you faster.   What if this method was used in their retail stores as well.   They could start pre-shipping items that they think you might want to a regional warehouse that feeds a number of local stores.   With a small fleet of trucks per warehouse, they could easily provide that same day pickup at the store.

A lot of people are writing this Amazon Retail business off as a bad idea.   Though I have a feeling a lot of those people said the same thing about Apple when they decided to get into retail.   Me?  I think this could be one of the most important retail plays of the decade.  I'm curious to see what they do.

Joystiq and TUAW shutting down is the best thing that could have happened to them.

Okay, that headline sounds harsh.  Hear me out.   I have loved Joystiq just about since it began.  It was singlehandedly the site that kept my waning interest in Video Games alive.  I was also a huge fan of TUAW until it started to fall off and iMore and 9to5mac became my go-to Apple sites.   For a long time, both of those sites were way better than they had any reason to be with AOL's crappy management.

That's why I'm glad they are gone.

There was far too much great talent working at both sites, being totally shortchanged by AOL.  I'm hoping to see some more projects in the vein of Stratechery by Ben Thompson.   People with a singular voice and a talent for writing who can bring their own particular flavor to the topic they want to cover.

We live in a time now where making a publishing platform for yourself that can withstand massive traffic spikes is easily within anyone's reach.  With growing ways to finance yourself via ads, or donations, or crowdfunding,  I think it's time to get away from the corporate model of blog publishing.  

Almost without fail, every major blog that has been eaten up by a big publisher ended up worse off in the end.  I personally can't wait to see what all those talented people go off and do.