The much anticipated Apple Worldwide Developers Conference kicked off Monday of this week in San Francisco and continues through tomorrow. To gets things rolling, Apple CEO Steve Jobs delivered the opening keynote and, as expected, focused much of his presentation on the company’s initiatives regarding cloud computing and related services.
Some analysts are commenting that Jobs was not only introducing cloud initiatives during the keynote, but attempting to redefine the very notion of the technology. “It just works,” was Jobs’ repeated mantra while he appeared on stage, suggesting that with iCloud, “Apple is transforming the cloud from an almost tangible place that you visit to find your stuff, to a place that only exists in the background. It’s never seen. You never interact with it, your apps do — and you never realize it. It’s magic,” reports TechCrunch.
In the same article, TechCrunch suggests that Apple is viewing the cloud differently than its competitors (and presenting it in a simpler manner). Also, Apple is placing a greater emphasis on the web component with its MobileMe service and providing iCloud free with iOS 5. Whereas Google and Amazon are concerned with the ideas of servers, disks, data — Apple sees the focus differently. According to TechCrunch: “Files are something Microsoft worries about. Files in the cloud are something Google and Amazon worry about. Apple’s iCloud is about opening an application and the thing you want to access being there.” (For a list of the iCloud offerings, visit the MacDailyNews report.)
iOS 5
Apple previewed iOS 5, the latest version of its mobile operating system (the company also released a beta version to iOS Developer Program members). The beta release includes over 200 new features available for the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch by the fall. Features include: Notification Center for managing notifications in one place without interruption; iMessage service for easily sending text messages, photos and videos between iOS devices; and Newsstand for organizing newspaper and magazine subscriptions.
iCloud and Music
The response to iTunes in the cloud seems mostly positive so far (and has been helped by Apple signing agreements with all four major music labels). Rolling Stone reports that allowing consumers to “reproduce their entire digital collections on locker-style servers accessible via 10 devices – including iPhones, iPads and computers – may not save the ravaged record industry, but it could provide a crucial new revenue stream while allowing consumers to easily consolidate their music libraries in the cloud.”
“Keeping these devices in sync is driving us crazy,” Jobs said in San Francisco. “We have a great solution for this problem. We are going to demote the PC to just be a device. We are going to move the digital hub, the center of your digital life, into the cloud.”
“It is one way to make someone pay for music they’ve already bought. It’s pretty ingenious,” commented Syd Schwartz, a former EMI Music executive in an interview with Rolling Stone. “I’m sure someone in an executive office at a major label somewhere is going, ‘At least that’s one way we can monetize the stuff people stole from Napster over the years.'”
Additional Announcements
Apple’s iCloud announcement was augmented by news of several other products and services. The Nieman Journalism Lab offers an interesting perspective: “In addition to introducing the long-awaited OS X Lion and announcing noteworthy Twitter integration, Apple has also, from the looks of things, gone on a veritable app-eating binge. The company, it announced, has created: ‘Reading List,’ a read-later functionality that allows users to time-shift their consumption of content (sound familiar?); a cloud-storage service, iCloud (which looks remarkably like this one); and a new camera and image-editing feature (kind of like this one).”
From a journalism perspective, Nieman Lab adds: “The biggest news is Apple introduction of Newsstand for iOS, which looks to be essentially an iBooks for publishers’ content — a central location for users’ magazine and newspaper subscriptions. With the new feature (well, new as of this fall), readers can browse a virtual bookshelf — literally, ‘wooden’ and all — and subscribe to a periodical in one tap. New issues will be downloaded in the background, solving one of the biggest problems for magazine publishers who push out issues that are hundreds of megabytes in size.”
Mac OS X Lion
As announced by Apple prior to the WWDC, the company will be releasing its new Mac OS X Lion next month. MacDailyNews reports that Lion will include more than 250 new features, 3,000 new developer APIs and, “will be available to customers in July as a download from the Mac App Store for US$29.99. Some of the amazing features in Lion include: new Multi-Touch gestures; system-wide support for full screen apps; Mission Control, an innovative view of everything running on your Mac; the Mac App Store, the best place to find and explore great software, built right into the OS; Launchpad, a new home for all your apps; and a completely redesigned Mail app.”
Apple vs. the World
It’s worth noting that some see Apple’s developments as a significant move forward in challenging its competitors. Robert X. Cringely, for example, has gone as far as suggesting that iCloud’s “real” purpose is to kill Microsoft. In response to Jobs’ contention that iCloud will “demote the PC and the Mac to just be a device – just like an iPad, an iPhone or an iPod Touch,” Cringely explains on his blog that “Jobs is going to sacrifice the Macintosh in order to kill Windows. He isn’t beating Windows, he’s making Windows inconsequential.”
Intentional or not, only time will tell. Let us know your thoughts…
Related TechCrunch article: “It Just Works” (6/8/11)
Related TechCrunch article: “On iCloud, Baby” (5/31/11)
Related Rolling Stone article: “How Apple’s iCloud Could Help Save the Music Industry” (6/6/11)
Related Nieman Journalism Lab article: “Newsstand, Reader, iCloud: 3 takeaways for the news business from today’s Apple announcement” (6/7/11)
Related MacDailyNews article: “Apple introduces breakthrough iCloud; free service ‘just works’” (6/6/11)
Related MacDailyNews article: “New iOS 5 includes over 200 new features, including Notification Center, iMessage, Newsstand, Twitter integration” (6/6/11)
Related MacDailyNews article: “Mac OS X Lion with 250 new features available in July via Mac App Store for $29.99” (6/6/11)
Related Patently Apple article: “Apple working on a Sophisticated Infrared System for iOS Cameras” (6/2/11)
Related Wired article (with video): “Jobs Pitches New ‘Mothership’ to Approving Cupertino City Council” (6/8/11)
Related I, Cringely post: “iCloud’s real purpose: kill Microsoft” (6/7/11)
Nick Nero provides some interesting perspective in this month’s Connected World Magazine regarding which smartphone OS will become the dominant global platform by the end of the year. The short answer according to Nick: Google’s Android.
The article provides an interesting overview regarding the progression of RIM’s BlackBerry, Apple’s iPhone, Windows Mobile devices — and the growing worldwide adoption of Android devices. It further points out that Android will continue its dominance throughout 2011 based on several key factors: Open Software Architecture (“arguably Android’s biggest competitive advantage”), Open Marketplace (consumers recognize “the benefit of a free-market approach to smartphone apps and this will continue to push Android to the head of the pack”), and More Partners (Android “is available on devices from practically every carrier in the country”).
Nick offers these final thoughts: “By the end of this year I expect Android to have a very comfortable lead in the smartphone OS market unless Apple begins to open up its model a bit. I wouldn’t bet on that happening given that a very pretty walled garden is essentially Apple’s business model. I don’t feel too sorry for Apple though — it does extremely well in the high-quality experience niche it occupies in the Macintosh space.”
Related CNET article: “Gartner: Android leads, Windows Phone lags in Q1” (5/19/11)
Related ReadWriteWeb article (including videos): “The Future of the Smartphone: Holograms & Folding Screens” (5/18/11)
Related Gadgetbox article: “PlayStation phone coming to Verizon Wireless” (5/17/11)
Related Mashable article: “Smartphone Sales Up 85% Year-Over-Year” (5/19/11)
Related ReadWriteWeb article: “iOS Ad Impressions Up Nearly 50% this Year, says Millennial Media” (5/19/11)
Most of our readers have probably been following the recent news regarding consumer fears that iPhones and other smartphones are tracking users’ location information. It was recently discovered that phones operating on iOS and Google’s Android platform transmit the devices’ locations back to the respective companies.
Apple has defended the need for location data to provide optimum service and provided clarification by explaining an individual cannot be located using the data. The Wall Street Journal reports that Apple defends its process, but nonetheless announced a planned software update that will reduce the size of the database cached on the phone and hopefully alleviate user concern.
According to WSJ: “Apple said it maintains a database of Wi-Fi hot spots and cell towers around users’ locations, a process that helps the phone calculate its location. The information is used to quickly find global-positioning-system satellites, a process that otherwise could take several minutes, the company said.”
Related CNNMoney article: “LocationGate was a ‘bug,’ says Apple” (4/27/11)
Related Wall Street Journal article: “Q&A: Jobs and Apple Execs on Tracking Down the Facts About iPhones and Location” (4/27/11)
Related Macworld article: “How the iPhone knows where you are” (4/28/11)
HBO announced that its streaming service HBO GO will soon offer more than 1,400 titles for streaming via iPads, laptops and smartphones. According to the press release: “HBO subscribers can instantly watch every episode of classics like The Sopranos, Sex and the City and Deadwood and current award-winning series like Boardwalk Empire, Entourage and True Blood as well as blockbuster theatricals – where they want, when they want.”
HBO made its announcement with a YouTube video posted last week. The service will be available for iOS and Android devices.
The HBO promotional video suggests May 2nd as a launch date. The press release specifies that HBO GO will be available to HBO subscribers through Comcast XFINITY TV, Verizon FiOS, Cox Advanced TV and AT&T U-Verse customers. Surprisingly, Time Warner Cable is not currently included in the list of providers (HBO is owned by Time Warner).
HBO was in the news earlier in the year after senior vice president of corporate affairs, Jeff Cusson told The Hollywood Reporter that HBO “has no intention of making its content available for streaming on Netflix,” adding that the company “believes in content exclusivity, especially for high-value content.” It looks like the new capabilities of HBO GO support that strategy.
Related CNET story: “HBO Go teased for iPad, iPhone, Android” (4/19/11)
Related Gizmodo post: “HBO Go Will Bring Every Episode of All Their Shows to iOS and Android” (4/19/11)
More than a year has passed since Final Cut Pro’s last release, but the word is out that Apple has plans for a Spring announcement. Apple recently invited a small group of professional video editors to the Cupertino campus for a test run.
According to TechCrunch, early reports from those who demonstrated the new version suggest that the changes are “dramatic and ambitious” and may address concerns that Apple has turned its focus regarding video editing from the professional to the consumer space.
The new version of Final Cut Pro is said to be a “major overhaul” reports 9to5Mac, including a new user interface, 64-bit compatibility, and architectural enhancements.
TechCrunch reports Apple has plans to release the new version of FCP in Spring 2011, in a launch possibly coinciding with April’s NAB conference.
IntoNow is a new iOS app that identifies and tags live TV shows in realtime, creating something similar to Shazam, but for television rather than radio. Users press a button on the app interface while viewing a television program and, with the aid of a platform called SoundPrint, the app uses the program’s audio for identification within 4-12 seconds. The results appear on the iPhone or iPad screen and can be shared via social networking entities such as Facebook or Twitter, or can be added to a Netflix queue.
Engadget has a video demo where the user is watching CNN on a laptop (place-shifted via SlingBox), and uses the IntoNow app on an iPad to identify the TV stream. Based on the sharing features, users can also see what their friends are watching, check out program info for selected shows, and even leave comments. Social interaction is taken to the next level with push notifications in which the app lets users know when their friends are viewing the same content.
This is yet another step toward media content sharing that may significantly impact consumer viewing habits. Engadget reports that the initial launch is iOS only, but the company has plans to tackle other platforms such as Android.
Related Forbes article/review: “IntoNow Just Foursquared TV. Can It Groupon Its Commercials?” (3/25/11)
