Apple’s Q1 2012: Making a Killing

The market analysts estimated :

Revenues: $39 billion
Earnings: $10.08 per share
iPhone sales: 33 million
iPad sales: 13 million
Mac sales: 5.3 million

And Apple replied with:

Revenues: $46.3 Billion
Earnings: $13.87 per share
iPhones sold: 37.04 million
iPads sold: 15.43 million
Mac sold: 5.2 million
iPods sold: 15.4 million
Profits: $13.1 billion

Compare that to last quarter, when Apple did not beat the market estimates [but still presented a steller quarter]:

Revenues: $28.3 Billion
Earnings: $13.87 per share
iPhones sold: 17.07 million
iPads sold: 11.1 million
Mac sold: 4.89 million
iPods sold:6.62 million
Profits:  $6.62 billion

Putting it in perspective:

• At over $400 billion, Apple is now worth more than Greece [CNN]
• Equivalent to one Microsoft, two Googles and three Yahoos, together [GeekWire]

Apple’s NET last QUARTER was $3 billion more than all of Hollywood’s GROSS box office receipts last YEAR.

— ericspiegelman (@ericspiegelman) January 24, 2012

And just for kicks I shall link to this: “…You’re An Idiot…“

Rules Of Writing

Been reading Mr.Vinod Mehta’s “Lucknow Boy: A Memoir” for sometime now. Quite a lot of fun.

An interesting paragraph:

No manual or school can teach you how to write. There are no benchmarks or ten simple steps you can cram. George Orwell however, laid out some goalposts for the person in ‘doubt about the effect of a word or a phrase’, and the rules  ’that one can rely on when instinct fails’. He then proposed six rules:

• Never use a metaphor, simile or other figure of speech wich you are used to seeing in print.
• Never use a long word when a short one will do.
• If it is possible to cut out a word, always cut it.
• Never use passive when you can use the active.
• Never use a foreign phrase or scientific word or jargon word if you can think of an everyday english equivalent.
• Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.

I think this is something everybody should keep in mind.

Meme Apps

If you spend time on the internet, you will have seen memes [here is how you pronounce it, by the way]. While there are online meme generators like Memebase if you’ve wanted to make a meme on the fly [say on your smartphone], it can be tough. Accessing standard meme websites on small screens & flaky mobile data, takes the fun out of it. Thankfully there are some apps that make it simple & easy. Oh & did I mention, they are free.

For iOS:

Meme Design [App Store]

Just choose your image [popular memes provided, you can also use photos from your library], type the caption & share. It is a universal app, runs both on the iPhone & the iPad

For Android:

Meme Generator [Andoid Market]

or

Meme Maker [Android Market]

Again, choose image, add caption & you are done.

And if you want an application for your computer, well there are those too.

Mac OS X

Meme Generator [App Store]

iMeme [Download Link]: 

Windows

MemeGenerator [Download Link]

—–

Faceoff: Zite vs Flipboard vs Pulse vs Google Currents

With iPhone versions of Flipboard, Zite & introduction of Google Currents there now a lot of options for Social Readers/Media Aggregators. Here is a rundown of the top four

Google Currents [iTunes Link]

• Google Sign on
• Top half is dedicated to pictures
• Can add RSS feeds of interesting sites or feeds from your Google Reader
• The GUI is more android-ish than iOS [Too many buttons?]
• Sharing to Facebook, Twitter [you must enter your twitter credentials in the iOS settings], tumblr, Google plus [Google plus is given unnecessary prominence]
• Does not make use of any multitouch gestures[Multiple fingers, pinching]: Must tap to go back. Unintuitive, especially on the iPad
• Functions more like a RSS reader than a magazine: You can add only sites, not entire sections.
• Very slow to load articles
• So far it is US only

Pulse News [iTunes Link]

• Offers lots of customization, but can come off as complicated
• Add feeds from google reader, your Facebook, Twitter [feeds as well as links]etc.
• Intuitive
• Standard sharing options: Facebook, Twitter etc
• Fonts used are tiny, the pictures get cut off.
• The presentation is cluttered, reminds more of a news website. Not very aesthetically pleasing

Flipboard [iTunes Link]

• Clean grid presentation, easy navigation
• Option to add entire sections or single feeds
• Large collection of articles, esp. liked reddit section
• Add feeds from google reader, your Facebook, Twitter, tumblr, Flickr & almost any other social platform.
• Can save to Readitlater or Instapaper
• Multitouch enabled
• You can setup an account [only an email & password required] so that you can access Your Flipboard on multiple devices [iPad & iPhone]
• Time to setup your choice of articles takes patience.
• Adding single feeds to Your Flipboard is a pain. You must navigate to each section, wait for it to load & then add.
• Load times for articles is high. Even on broadband an article takes half a minute to load, more for graphic heavy sites
• If the article is divided into sections & requires you to click to naviagte to the next page [for example, The Verge] more waiting
• No option to get only text view [via Instapaper Mobilizer, for example] further irritates.
• All this waiting detracts from the fluid reading experience you expect from a Social reader

Zite [iTunes Link]

• Magazine like presentation
• Has good ratio of picture & article preview without squeezing down the font size [Flipboard gives pictures more real estate than the text]
• Multitouch enabled
• You can setup an account [only an email & password required] so that you can access Zite collection on multiple devices
• Adding sections is very easy: You are given categories to choose from & it does so with a single click
• Option to pull articles from your Twitter feed, Google Reader, Delicious & Readitlater
• Multitouch enabled
• Standard sharing options
• You can save articles to Readitlater/Instapaper
• The app has a learning feature, you tell it what kind of articles you like, over a period of time it will learn & provide you a better selection. It is very nice & catches on quickly.
• Articles load quickly & you have the option to get the entire webpage or a simple text view, like Safari’s Reader. If the article is split into multiple pages, it loads them too
• Choice isn’t as large as Flipboard. For example, I could not find 500px or reddit feeds.
• Not much in the way of eye candy

I personally find Zite to be the best of them all just because of the speed. It has almost all the features of Flipboard & gets me to my articles quickly. In first time use you can just open up the app & it loads articles to read, unlike Flipboard where you have to add before you can do any reading. Google Currents is at the bottom of the pile just because of its un-intuitive navigation.

My opinion: Zite> Flipboard> Pulse> Google Currents

Censoring the Internet.

A lot has been said on Internet censorship esp. with the recent statements made by Mr. Kapil Sibal. CIS has brought out some interesting points in their article. For example:

While Mr. Sibal uses the examples of communally sensitive material as a reason to force censorship of the Internet, out of the 358 items requested to be removed from January 2011 to June 2011 from Google service by the Indian government (including state governments), only 8 were for hate speech and only 1 was for national security.  Instead, 255 items (71% of all requests) were asked to be removed for ‘government criticism’.  Google, despite the government in India not having the powers to ban government criticism due to the Constitution, complied in 51% of all requests.

Is he really working for the betterment of the public or being self serving?

Read the full article “Invisible Censorship: How the Government Censors without being seen“

 

Twitter for iPhone v4.0 Is A Design & Functionality Clusterfuck

Twitter for iPhone  is  was the most used app on my phone. In the last update they removed the search bar & now with today’s redesign ,they ruined it completely.

The choices make no sense:

• THEY KILLED “SWIPE TO REVEAL” !!! This was the only feature that was stopping me from buying Tweetbot when they kicked out the search bar. Why remove a feature as simple and as elegant as this? It now takes me more taps to perform essential actions.
• The font size is small & unadjustable.
• Squeezing the main pane. iPhones have a 3.5 inch screen, adding graphics at the cost of functionality is never a good idea.
• The obscenely big bar at the top with the twitter icon. It’s like the app is shouting at me “HEY, THIS IS TWITTER APP YOU’VE LAUNCHED. SEE THE BIRD? THATS THE TWITTER ICON. YEP”  I opened the damn app, I know what it does. I would rather have a slightly larger font than all this bling.
• Thenavigation bar at the bottom is confusing. Stuff has been moved around , hidden & now must be hunted. Again, why?
• Saving links to Instapaper/Readitlater has become  a chore. You must tap open the tweet, tap open the link, tap the icon at the bottom, select save. Four levels. When previously they did it with two, via ‘Swipe to reveal’. Unacceptable.

Twitter for iPhone was one of the best apps on iOS. Simple, clean, uncluttered & elegant. Now it’s a clunky mishmash.

What was the point of buying out Tweetie then? Twitter has removed everything that Tweetie had introduced [they pioneered swipe to reveal]

I guess it is time to move on…

—–

Update: Bought Tweetbot at a discount. Love it.

Note: You cannot log out of the Twitter app as such. You have two options:

• Delete the app. [Tap & hold icon, tap on the 'x' when the icons jiggle]
• Go to iPhone settings> Twitter > select account > scroll down & ‘Delete Account’. This will affect the integrated sharing via Mobile Safari, Photos & any other twitter apps that use the login.Of course, you can always add your account again.

Switching accounts quickly: Swipe your finger right to left across the navigation bar at the bottom.

Accessing Direct Messages [DM] inbox quickly: Swipe your finger over the “Me” tab, upwards.

Bureaucrat vs Politicians

In today’s TOI edit page, there is a opinion column written by a Mr. K J Alphons (Steel frame turns flexible) where he says “The fundamental problem with this country is not the evil politician, but precisely the ‘obedient government servant’ “

He goes on, stating, “Government servants were expected to be the conscience keepers of the nation. They were expected to speak, write, advise & execute without fear or favor”

How is the bureaucrat supposed to to do his duty ‘without fear’ when the politicians have the capability to induce fear? Discharging your duty when you are constantly facing ‘requests’ from the minister heading your department is tough. After all, how many wish to be in the bad books of their boss? Not many want to make their life a living hell & end up bowing to the pressure.

The minister is there for 5 years, the bureaucrat for his entire life. After the ruling govt. is out of power, the minister is gone, while the officer is left holding the bag. “Why did he sign off on it if he had doubts” they ask. Well what option did he have? Who had his back? You?

An uncle (a district magistrate) was asked to rig a local election in favor of the party ruling the state. He refused. He was threatened. He still refused. His reward? Suspended for over a year & investigated for taking bribes. The irony! The people who asked him to do the rigging? Nothing. They were big fish after all.

This is not to justify the wrong doings that happen, but please don’t preach about doing duties without fear when the conditions are clearly not so.

The ground realities are not as simple as you make it out to be.

How Expensive are Apple products?

Constantly being asked about the prices of Apple products & whether it would be cheaper to buy them from the US resulted in this table. I have not considered the entire lineup [eg: Mac Pro], only the most sought after.

US ($) column are the prices as mentioned on the US Apple Online Store. Rupee equivalent is taken with the desi factor of 50, that is: US Dollar x 50 = Rupee equivalent (approx). India (Rs) column gives the prices as mentioned in the Indian Apple Store Online Catalogue. Percent column is the extra amount of the rupee equivalent[ e.g.:55% implies we must pay 55% more of the american price ]

Device	Cost			Difference(Rs)	% extra of US price
	US($)	Rupee  equivalent (USDx50)	India (Rs)
iPod touch
8Gb	200	10,000	15,500	5500	55%
32Gb	300	15,000	20,000	5000	33%
iPod Nano
8Gb	129	6500	11,000	4500	70%
16Gb	149	7500	13,000	5500	73%
iPod shuffle 2Gb	50	2500	3000	500	20%
iPod Classic 160Gb	249	12500	15000	2500	20%
iPad(wifi)
16Gb	500	25,000	30,000	5000	20%
32 Gb	600	30,000	35,000	5000	16.67%
iPad (3G)
16Gb	630	32,000	37,000	5000	15.5%
32Gb	730	37,000	42,000	5000	13.5%
iPhone
3GS (8Gb, unlocked)	375	19,000	20,000	1000	5.2%
4 (8Gb, unlocked)	550	27,500	N/A	–
4(16, unlocked)	N/A	N/A	32,500	–
MacBook Air
11″(64 Gb)	1000	50,000	57,000	7000	14%
11″ (128 Gb)	1200	60,000	68,000	8000	13.33%
13″ (128 Gb)	1300	65,000	74,000	9000	14%
13″ (256 Gb)	1600	80,000	90,000	10,000	12.5%
MacBook Pro
13″ (2.3ghz)	1200	60,000	70,000	10,000	16.67%
13″ (2.7ghz)	1500	75,000	85,000	10,000	13.33%
15″ (2.0ghz)	1800	90,000	1,05,000	15,000	16.67%
15″ (2.2ghz)	2200	1,10,000	1,25,000	15,000	12%
17″ (2.2ghz)	2500	1,25,000	1,43,000	18,000	14.4%
iMac
21.5″ (2.5ghz)	1200	60,000	65,000	5000	8.33%
21.5″ (2.7ghz)	1500	75,000	80,000	5000	6.67%
27″ (2.7ghz)	1700	85,000	92,000	7000	8.2%
27″ (3.1ghz)	2000	1,00,000	1,08,000	8000	8%
Mac Mini
2.3 ghz	600	30,000	34,000	4000	13.33%
2.5 ghz	800	40,000	45,000	5000	12.5%

Conclusion, there is a consistent markup of 12-15%

Apple products are a tad on the expensive side as it is, paying 12-15% EXTRA is just too much & that too in a price conscious country such as India. Is it any wonder that the market penetration of Apple here is pathetic?

The highlights are the the iPod Nano [70% extra!!! ] & the MacBook Pros [Rs 10,000-18,000 more!!]

Clearly it is better to buy them from the US & get it brought over.

—

Update:

As my elder brother, Ranjan pointed out, there is a tax that is not added in the price shown on Apple US. I checked & it is around 7%. That closes the gap a bit, but on the higher end products it still ends up hurting!

Thanks for the input bhai

Siri

Doing it first does not matter, doing it right does. That is what Apple has been doing for sometime now with the iPod, iPhone & iPad. It takes the present accepted way of doing it & strips away the complications to make it instinctive, natural.

And it has done it again with Siri. Voice control has gone from being syntax operated conundrum to a conversation with another human. MG Siegler says it best:

In the bigger picture, this is something that Apple seems to understand time and time again that their rivals do not. Technology is an ever-important part of everyones’ lives, but the only way to make it truly accessible to the vast majority of users is to humanize it. That’s Siri. Google, Microsoft, etc — they all fail miserably at doing this.

It is a first that Apple has released something in Beta.Unlike Google, Apple isn’t fond of shipping beta tagged products & it is not going to keep it for long [remember Gmail, was in 'beta' for 5 years]. But Siri needs user interaction to make it better. And it will only get better.

It is interesting to see that Apple predicted exactly this, 25 years ago in this video

And today we have it.

That perfect Twitter app…

                  

Having become addicted to twitter, the next obvious step was to look for the best twitter app. After trying over 10-15 of them [Echofon/twitterrific/Icebird/Osfoora/Tweetings/tweetdeck/hootsuite etc etc....Yes that many], I am back to twitter for iPhone, official app.

It is almost perfect, but they have this habit of randomly removing some features & that makes you want to smack them. For example, you could not see the location in any geotagged tweets. Now that they have brought this back, they removed the ability to search the timeline. Yep, it’s dick moves like this [oh and that reminds me, the Dick bar!] which makes me want to buy Tapbot/Tweetlogix. But Tapbot doesn’t to swipe to reveal, costs $3/Tweetlogix doesn’t do push notifications.

And so, the search for the perfect twitter app continues. Here is what my dream twitter app would have:

• Clean compose screen with twitter handle autocomplete & hashtags. Option to insert #nowplaying with the data from the music app
• Push Notifications
• Ability to search your timeline
• “Swipe to reveal” [run your finger across a tweet to bring up options like reply/retweet/fav etc]. Most apps use tap & hold to show. Swiping is quicker, and it feels cooler. The worst thing you can do is “One tap does W, two taps does X, three taps does Y, tap and hold does Z” etc. How am I supposed to remember all this?
• Conversation view. And load entire conversation, not just upto the tweet from where I entered the conversation view [Good job here, twitter for iPhone]
• Ability to mute users or hashtags. For when someone you follow is being a nuisance/ ridiculous hashtag games take over your timeline.
• Pull to refresh. Also automatic timed refreshes [time user customizable]
• Read a link later [via Read It Later or Instapaper]
• Access to lists should be quick & easy
• A dark theme & a light theme. Dark theme is easy on the eyes when you are on twitter after turning out the lights.
• If I have entered only one twitter account, don’t open the “select account to send tweet from” pane from the compose screen.
• Inline picture preview when you open tweet. And location. Tapping on the picture/geotag opens it full screen.
• Ability to adjust font size.
• Auto rotate options:Always, In compose screen only, Never.
• A fast in app browser. Dont want to be kicked out of the app every-time I click on a link.
• Option to toggle badge count of new tweets since last refresh or just a discreet way of knowing that new tweets have arrived  vs[those red badges drive me insane sometimes]

If any developers read this & develop an app, you have a buyer here!

iCloud is Live.

iCloud is up & running.

Like everything Apple, the interface is clean & uncluttered. You have the login page where you enter your Apple ID, or create one.

Once you are in, everything is just ready to go.

I enabled my iCloud through the iPhone [you can set it up from the iPhone or your computer] & a few moments later all my contacts & calendars were synced automatically to iCloud webpage, no exporting or importing was required. [Note: Only the calendars I had created on my Mac were synced, Google Calendars were not]

Contacts is similar to the Address Book app on OS X Lion & so is the Calendar. Find my iPhone works as before:Locate, Ping, Display Message, Play sound, Remote Lock & Remote Wipe. There is a slider switch for “email when found”. On the iPhone, find my iPhone is now in Settings->iCloud.

Note:It is possible to have different ID’s for App Store & iCloud. This is probably done because most users will have multiple Apple ID’s/MobileMe Logins etc. This is an extensive guide on how to manage multiple accounts you may have with Apple & how to set up iCloud with them.

     

For pictures you have Photostream. On OS X, iCloud will sync your iPhone pictures with iPhoto and Aperture [enabled after OS X 10.7.2 update & updating iPhoto/Aperture]. On Windows it will sync to your “Pictures” folder under “User” [you will need to download an iCloud update for windows]. You do not have a photo stream on the iCloud webpage.

Apple is providing 5GB of free data storage: Mail, Contacts, Documents & your iPhone backup to iCloud [if you enable it] will count towards this 5GB.

Music, Apps, Photos in photostream, iTunes purchases [books, music, TV Shows, apps, movies] will NOT add to this 5GB. So for most users 5GB should be more than enough. Of course, if you need more space you can buy it right from your iOS device [10GB will cost $20 per year; 20GB will cost $40 per year; and 50GB will cost $100 per year.]

Asus photocopies Apple

You’d be thinking this is the MacBook Air:

Actually, this is.

But don’t be too hard on yourself, it is easy to mix up the two: The same wedge shape, the same material, the same ports, located similarly.

I wonder how much it cost Asus to get the  logo removed from the lid…

iPhone 4S Preliminary Benchmarks

Amazing results on benchmarking the iPhone 4S. Just goes to show its not just the hardware that makes a killer device, you need a great software backing it up. The iOS 5 coupled with the A5 processor is killing the competition. iPhone 4S underclocked at 800 Mhz, but still manages to beat 1Ghz dual core processors installed in the Android tablets! iPhone 4 has seen significant improvements on iOS 5 too.

The under clocking makes helps in the power management as well as keeping the device cool. The heavy legwork is done by the software and it doesn’t disappoint. No wonder Apple was actually able to improve the battery life, albeit only by 1 hour, even though the performance is off the charts.

 

The iPad also uses the same A5 chip as the iPhone 4S, but not underclocked. Makes sense, given it larger battery & form factor.

 

For more details, visit AnandTech

Why Steve Jobs is a Big Deal for me.

A lot has been written on Steve Jobs passing, there has been adulation & criticism. And then there are people who do not understand why his death is being made into such a big deal.

You are absolutely right in saying he was a businessman running a company & making a profit out of it. Yes, we helped him become a billionaire by buying what he was selling. Yes, he sells products not a lifestyle. And he was only doing what a CEO must do for his company.

Nothing you say is factually wrong.

But I do not adore the man just because I have an iPhone [and an iPod and a MacBook]. I feel what I feel because of what he achieved in his short life [and these 'products' are his achievements too]. He is a role model. I hope for your sake you too have a role model. I was lucky to have one who I could see in action, not just hear about & wonder what he was like. It was a story of man who through his grit & determination built Apple, twice, along with another behemoth, Pixar.  And I, like so many others want to know, to understand & if possible try to follow in his principles. Granted I became interested in him with the purchase of my first Apple product, but did you know of Abdul Kalam [another role model by the way] before he was the President of India? Yes it could have been just another gadget, just like Mr.Kalam was just another president. But something inside me was hooked, I wanted to know more. So I began looking him up, read books about him, the history, opinion columns from the early years, watched his interviews, & I felt a little closer, understood a bit more. And this is true for both Steve Jobs & Abdul Kalam.

Steve’s products are a tool. But if a tool can help you do any work more efficiently & be a pleasure to use, you use it all the more. That is what his products did for me and that is why I am saddened by the loss. It may not have been the same for you, & you do not feel anything which is perfectly fine. But do not belittle him or his memory.

So while you go on wondering what the big deal is & keep using the machine he created [along with Steve Woz], I will go ahead and mourn the loss of a great man.

Ding in the Universe, Hole in our hearts 

Like everyday, I woke up & opened the Twitter app on my iPhone. The first tweet that loaded was like a punch to the gut: “R.I.P Steve Jobs”

Scrolling hastily down the timeline, I hoped for a hoax but it wasn’t to be. Suddenly I needed to throw up. Suddenly I needed air. Suddenly there were tears. It was to be just another day, and then it wasn’t.

Twitter was my support system: Little by little people began recounting their own Steve Jobs stories. Some wrote beautiful prose, some wrote of small experiences that carried on his legacy & some created art. Soon Apple Stores all over the world became centers for people to pay their tributes. I asked a friend who was heading over to the Apple HQ in Cupertino to put a flower for me…

You may wonder how I can have such emotion for a person I have never met, but that is the kind of man Steve Jobs was. His persona, his enthusiasm was imbibed through his words, through his keynotes. A storyteller, masterful presenter [the 2007 iPhone launch keynote is nothing short of a concert] and visionary. He gave life to the beige boxes of the 80′s….Steve made technology beautiful, hold the iPhone 4, or the MacBook Air in your hand & tell me you don’t find it so.  A fanatic for detail, everything had to be perfect, anything less just wouldn’t do. It was the little things that endeared him to me. And love at first sight.

I remember my first experience with the iPhone. My brother was coming home from the US so I asked him to get an iPhone for me. I promised myself to be objective in its evaluation and in my reaction to it. All that went straight to hell when my brother handed me the box. Simple, beautiful. I took out the phone and plugged it in. The screen lit up softly with an image of the earth and a gently luminous box at the bottom saying “Slide to unlock”. It was just so simple and beautiful. Nothing about it was ostentatious. It had the quiet assurance of a friend helping you out with a tough exam. Nothing on the box or the phone screamed a sense of over-achievement. Just a classy, polished, been there-done that-trust me look.

-daddysan

His last public appearance was in June 2011 WWDC Keynote. He looked frail, but the eyes still had the spark, the zeal. He was still the master of his craft, but it could be seen he was getting ready to transfer the reigns: Tim Cook, Phil Schiller & Scott Forstall did most of the heavy lifting. He was taking the training wheels off and sure enough, a few months later he resigned:

I have always said if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple’s CEO, I would be the first to let you know. Unfortunately, that day has come.

On 4th October 2011 Apple announced the new iPhone. After the event people commented how subdued Tim Cook was & compared him to Steve. Little did anybody know how hard it must have been for him to get through the presentation knowing that his friend & mentor was nearing the end…

That picture pretty much says it all. During the “Let’s Talk iPhone” event on Tuesday, I kept noticing that seat. “Reserved.” It was weird that the camera kept panning to that shot of the front row in Town Hall.

The room was packed tight with journalists, but there was that one seat left empty in the front row next to all of the other Apple executives. Steve’s seat.

-cultofmac

You may not think much of him, but know this: The Personal Computer you are reading this on, was his invention. The phone you wish to buy soon, even though it may not be an iPhone, has taken inspiration from his vision. The tablet industry exists because of him. No single man can take credit for influencing & changing the tech landscape for an entire decade except Steve. Is it any wonder that Barack Obama, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Sergey Brin, Larry Page have come to pay tributes?

Steven Paul Jobs. A Titan.

 Forever