(Source: brooklynmutt)
The culture inside Apple is one of a giant metronome, which ticks once or twice per year. The whole company is oriented around secrecy, followed by a big bang release. That works tremendously well for hardware, and for big software launches like an operating system. But it’s just terrible for web services; especially heavily data-driven ones.
Former Apple employee, and current Android user, Tom Dale
Tumblr will be launching a brand new iOS app next week, says David Karp
Karp said that there wont be ads on the app immediately, but they are planned and will be implemented soon after launch.
I’m hoping there’s an iPad version (even though we have Tumbleroo in the app store), and I’m glad Tumblr doesn’t seem to be overlooking revenue and simply waiting for an acquisition.
How Apple and Congress Limit iPhone Users' Freedom
Tim Lee in response to my post on the EFF’s attack on Apple:
[Consumers are] being deprived of the freedom to purchase legal jailbreaking tools. In 1998, Congress passed the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which makes it a felony to distribute products “primarily designed” for circumventing copy-protection schemes like the one on the iPhone. Breaking the law “willfully and for purposes of commercial advantage” can get you a half-million dollar fine and five years in prison. …
When Apple decided to lock down the iPhone, it was effectively invoking the force of criminal law against jailbreaking. That seems like a restriction on users’ freedom to me even if, like me and Jerry, you view freedom in terms of negative rights.
I agree with Tim that the DMCA’s anti-circumvention provision is a misguided encroachment on personal liberty. But it’s Congress, not Apple, that is to blame. As far as I know, Apple didn’t lobby for the law, and iIt’s not their fault that locking down a phone can create criminal liabilities. But even if Apple willfully avails itself of the law, the solution is not to force Apple to be open through regulation, but instead to repeal the anti-circumvention law. Two wrongs don’t make a right. Apple isn’t depriving anyone of liberty; the government is.
iOS 6 to Bring Systemwide Facebook Integration
Here’s one place I think Apple could stand to be more open. Why do they insist on baking all these sharing features into the OS? Why not use contracts like Windows 8?
It would be better for consumers because they would get to pick what social networks to add to their phones. It would be better for social networks, which wouldn’t have to hope and pray that they got built into the OS or by developers into apps (i.e. how I pine for send-to-Buffer and send-to-Tumblr buttons in Reeder). And it would be better for Apple, which wouldn’t be caught without the latest network (Pinterest, anyone?), or worse: stuck with a sharing platform that’s going south baked into its OS.
