Render Unto Apple What Is Apple’s

Thirty percent is a big cut.  Yet if you are a publisher, thirty percent is what you owe to Apple if you want to play in Steve Job’s walled garden.  Well, except if you have an app that allows you to jump over the walled garden fence and sell books, newspapers and the like outside of the Apple app store and avoid paying that thirty percent, which is what everyone does.  Or should I say, did.

According to the New York Times, Apple is starting to tighten their hold on publishers, recently telling some applications developers, including Sony, that they can no longer sell content, like e-books, within their apps, or let customers have access to purchases they have made outside the App Store.  What does this mean?  Apple has no argument that customers can buy a book on one device and view it on another as long as both devices are running iOS and under the auspices of the iTunes store.  Anything else?  Go buy someone else’s e-reader, because it’s not going to be allowed to play in the garden, unless, of course, the content company decides to pony up. Simple as that. 

Now, this is a business decision and Apple can do what they want, but I see Amazon, Sony and the like telling Cupertino “You’re kidding me with this, right?”  Amazon is doing quite well with Kindle.  Being on the iPad is certainly nice, but the point is this-as much as some people may want to think otherwise, there is only a small number of people in the US and abroad that actually own an iPad.  It is a growing market, but it’s not like a TV set, numbers wise.  At this point Amazon, Sony, newspapers and the like could tell Apple to stuff it and push Kindles like no tomorrow. 

But most likely it won’t come to that.  As I said; it’s a business decision.  One that will most likely be settled by a small army of lawyers and hostage negotiators. And in the end everyone will smile, nod and the rest of everyone will wind up paying for it.  Because everyone else has one.

The More You Know (And Shooting Star…)

Oh, the things you learn on a given day!

AT&T is phasing out all-you-can-eat plans in favored of metered access. Which should you get?  Answer: The plan from another company.

According to the Business Insider, of course Apple is going to do search.  The only difference is that Steve will tell you what you need to search for.

HP CEO Mark Hurd just told investors at the Bank of America Merrill Lynch tech conference that his company "didn’t buy Palm to be in the smartphone business.”  Of course they didn’t.  They bought it for the patents.  Phones come and go – patents are forevah.  I would have been upset if he had said that they bought Palm because the Pre is one bitchin’ phone, dude. 

Dell will be offering the Streak to US customers direct from its website — unlocked — starting next month for $500.  And they say delusion is dead.

It is unknown if Jay Yarrow had a stroke, drank too much the night before is is simply playing the world at the moment, but his write-up on Asus’ EeePad has to be either one of the shoddiest pieces of journalism I have ever seen, or else the best imitation of a 13 year old Apple fanboy review of a competitor’s product.  

“…your friends will laugh at you if you buy an asus eee pad.  And if you are a parent and you buy your son or daughter an Eee Pad, your kid will be sad.” 

Professional journalism right here folks.  Read it and weep.

And finally, come to find out, magazines want to charge more for an iPad susbscription.  “Readers won’t see it that way, but they’ll need to adjust their expectations”, said Andrew Degenholtz, president at ValueMags, a magazine-subscription marketer.  Well, if the level of quality is that of  Jay Yarrow, I’ll quote Samuel Goldwyn.

“Include me out”.

WordPress Tags: HP, AT&T, Dell, Asus, Applestan

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Antitrust? There’s An App For That.

Now, who saw this one coming?  According to Bloomberg, US antitrust enforcers are considering an investigation of Apple Inc. following a complaint from Adobe Systems Inc., according to people familiar with the matter.

And all this after Steve proudly nailed his 95 theses to the iChurch door.  Now if this is true, we are setting the doomsday clock to one minute before midnight.  The fireworks should be fun to watch. If I am not mistaken, this is the first real foray that Apple could have to Antitrust-land.  But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Now Apple and Adobe has been having a War of the Roses for some time now, and things have been at a fever pitch over the last few weeks with Apple’s iPad launch and the subsequent rebuffing of Adobe in no uncertain terms.  That’s one flag.  But Federal authorities are also apparently interested in how Apple’s restrictions on apps could benefit its iAd application advertising service.  Apple’s new language forbidding apps from transmitting analytical data could prevent ad networks from being able to effectively target ads, potentially giving Apple’s new iAd mobile-advertising service an edge.  For all the noise that Adobe is making, this might actually be the one the feds want to look at more. 

Now while no one can predict what the government will do in any case, the fact that the government is even slightly interested in what is going on is not a good thing. Just ask Gates and Ballmer.

But before we jump too far ahead, remember, Adobe’s complaint began a negotiation between the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission, not about if there should be an inquiry, but who should lead it. If the inquiry reveals enough evidence to merit it, an official investigation will begin and Apple will be subpoenaed.  So as titillating as the the headlines are today, there is still a lot of work to be done before anyone even thinks about hiring the room full of lawyers.

So what does it take to do a full Sherman?  Quite a bit, actually.  Remember that Microsoft was under the gun for years, and the government still couldn’t prove anything.  All they really did was divert time, energy and focus.  To win a Sherman Antitrust case against Apple, the government would have to prove both that Apple’s market share constitutes a monopoly and that it has abused that monopoly power in ways that damage its competition.  While that may seem obvious to some, the Devil, as they say, is in the details.  And in a case like this, there are plenty of details. 

WordPress Tags: Applestan, Antitrust, Adobe, Lawyers

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The Week That Was-Bummed Out Edition

Many things happened this week and not all of them were good.  For starters, Microsoft first confirmed, then canned Courier.  The only pad-based form that I really wanted is gone.  Granted, there were a lot of things that could go wrong as it moved from concept to actual product. But there was quite a bit of buzz behind it, so maybe there will be some lessons learned.  Perhaps something like it in the next five years or so.  It is still an avenue worth looking at.

The only semi-bright spot was HP’s buying of Palm, which the Business Insider’s Blodget and Frommer concluded was a failure before the ink had dried.  The deal is interesting, as it puts HP right into the middle of the Smartphone/tablet wars.  They then cancelled a slate project that they had with Microsoft.  One can only think that they are going to place the Palm WebOS int he slate and go from there.  No Windows payments and all money goes to HP. Smart move.  There is only one thing: the slate format has been out there for a number of years.  It isn’t as if Apple suddenly came up with something brand new.   So why the uber-hype?  Oh yeah, Steve worked an i-Tunes deal with the paper press, and suddenly this is the second coming.  But it won’t have Flash.

Speaking of which, Steve and Flash are at it again.  Upon the release of the 3G iPad, Steve published a paper which I call “Ten Things I Hate About You”. To which Flash replied “Oh Yeah, well suck on it.”  I swear, the two remind me of a couple of high schoolers in desperate need of a time out.  Apparently this is a big deal to those who don’t realize that there are millions of devices out there that render Flash just fine, thank you.  But Flash is becoming more irrelevant every day.  The fact that Microsoft itself backed HTML 5 is not something the Flash backers want to hear.  Prediction: Flash will become like Geocities within three years.

The only truly entertaining side from the week came from Yahoo CEO and swear-word generator, Carol Bartz. In an interview with TechCrunch EU editor Mike Butcher, Bartz bounced around the idea that Google was a one trick pony and that Facebook really isn’t anything special.  She completely lost the point that both companies have grown faster than Yahoo!, which is exactly the point I would expect a CEO to sort of latch onto. 

The only thing really left was knowing that the FTC is keeping an eye on bloggers.  While nothing really happened between the FTC and Ann Taylor, it did give some insights as to what the FTC is looking for.  For the uninformed, the retailer had invited bloggers to preview the Loft division’s summer 2010 collection, offering a "special gift," and promising that those posting coverage from the event would be entered into a "mystery gift-card drawing," where they could win between $50 and $500.  The invite explained that bloggers must submit posts to the company within 24 hours in order to find out the value of their gift card. 

"This tells me that the FTC is looking, and that’s important to know," said Douglas Wood, an attorney and head of Reed Smith’s Media and Entertainment Industry Group. "They’re probably throwing a little fire-starter into it, sending some messages out. The message this time is somewhere between $50 and $500 requires a disclosure."

So for full disclosure, I am not affiliated with anyone or any group.  The only thing anyone gives me lately is grief.  Now, if you want to, let me know and I’ll be happy to disclose you on this blog.  Small gifts greater than $25 would be appreciated and so noted.  After all, if I’m going to be a media whore, I might as well disclose the price list. 

WordPress Tags: The Week That Was, Microsoft, Applestan, Flash, Palm, HP, Carol Bartz, FTC, media whores

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This is What Happens When You Find A Stranger In The Alps!

OK, I had to clean up the Lebowski quote, but it still applies.  For those of you who may not know or really care, there was a major breach in Apple security not so long ago.  This was bigger getting fired for showing Steve Wozniak, that other half of Apple the 3GS iPad before the rest of the world had a chance to play with it.  Think about that for a moment.  But I digress.

This is the story.  Gray Powell, Apple engineer, took a prototype of the next gen iPhone out into the wild.  No problem there, it happens all the time with gadgets.  Real world testing.  Just don’t draw attention to it and everything is hunky–dory.  And it was, until Gray went and had a couple of drinks.  Granted, it was his birthday, for crying out loud.  And then Gray did something horrible.  He left the phone at the bar. 

Now, here is where things get a little, well, cloudy.  The phone was disguised as an Apple GS3 phone, sort of.  The guy who finds the phone has also been drinking.  Asks around, but Gray is gone.  Finds a Facebook app on the phone which shows Gray with pertinent information.  Guy decides to contact Gray the next day.  The next day, the phone’s been bricked remotely.  Guy tries to contact someone at Apple, but no such luck.  No returns on calls, nothing.  So what’s a guy to do? 

He sells it to Gawker Media, owners of the website Gizmodo for $5000. 

Gizmodo, being a major gadget website proceeds to open the up, document everything and throw it on the web, along with the story of how the phone came into the possession of Gizmodo and how Apple screwed the pooch.   When Apple asked for the phone back, it was returned.

And then the fun really started. 

Last Friday night, California’s Rapid Enforcement Allied Computer Team entered Gizmodo editor Jason Chen’s home without him present, seizing four computers and two servers. They did so using a warrant by Judge of Superior Court of San Mateo. Oh, one small point: Apple sits on the steering committee of California’s Rapid Enforcement Allied Computer Team. Color me surprised.

Among the items seized from Chen’s house were four computers and two servers, an iPhone, digital cameras, records from a Bank of America checking account and the printout of an e-mail sent to Chen from Gawker Media Managing Editor Gaby Darbyshire earlier that day. The e-mail referred to California’s shield law and specifically stated that police cannot use a search warrant against a journalist to identify a confidential source, or obtain notes and other unpublished information from a news story.

But they did.  And the story took on a new twist. 

You see, the federal Privacy Protection Act prohibits the government from seizing materials from journalists and others who possess material for the purpose of communicating to the public. The government cannot seize material from the journalist even if it’s investigating whether the person who possesses the material committed a crime.

Instead, investigators need to obtain a subpoena, which would allow the reporter or media outlet to challenge the request and segregate information that is not relevant to the investigation.

California state law also provides protections to prevent journalists from being forced to disclose sources or unpublished information related to their work.  And the law also is pretty clear that Bloggers are considered journalists.  Where the law is unclear is a situation where someone might claim that the journalist was committing a crime in order to seize materials from them. 

As a result, Deputy DA Stephen Wagstaffe, said that the DA is now re-evaluating the shield law defense and that the iPhone investigation is now on hold. This suggests that the DA’s office may well have violated the shield law (or at least thinks it did in hindsight).  This would be excellent news for Gawker Media, and embarrassing to the San Mateo D.A.

But, as we all know.  This isn’t ‘Nam.  There are rules.  Apparently, someone needs time to sort out exactly what those rules are. 

WordPress Tags: Applestan, Stasi, Internet, journalism

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Not The Lawyers!

There was a joke a few years ago – If Paris Hilton and Britney Spears were in a steel cage fight to the death, who would win?  Answer: The American public. 

For some reason, that was the first thought I had when I heard that Adobe was calling in the lawyers on Apple.  The only thing I can think of really working in Adobe’s favor here is if they have verifiable paper trails showing that Apple led them down the garden path with promises that Apple would accept Flash and then switched at the last minute.  Other than that, guys, what are you thinking?  Like I said last night, you are starting to sound like the ex-wife who has decided to destroy her former husband rather than getting on with the business of living.

That said, if it takes Adobe to knock some sense to the increasingly childish actions of Apple, I’m not complaining. I really dislike any company holding such a widely spread platform in crippling stranglehold, limiting user freedom and developer innovation.  Oh, I know, “I really don’t understand the problem here. Apple wants developers to make apps in Objective C. It’s their platform, and they can lay down whatever rules they want. Protest with your wallet (if you’re a consumer) and your skills (if you’re a developer)”.  Tell it to Oprah.  But folks, won’t someone take a step back a realize that Steve has been acting like a little tin god? It isn’t a color that looks good on him and he’s starting to wear it out.

The point is, code is code.  And you can write hack programs in Objective C just as easily as you can in Flash, Silverlight, C#, C++, VB, you name it.  To paint all products “bad” based solely on the language puts you in a category of being either lazy, stupid or trying a massive power grab with a rather obvious agenda.  And I’ll never accuse Steve Jobs of being either lazy or stupid. 

It makes no difference. Either Adobe gets their butts kicked and have to drop the prices of Creative Studio to get people to buy it or else they take Apple to the mat and people stop seeing Steve-o as Tech Jesus and more like the overbearing leader of a really great tech company. 

Now that would be a win-win for everyone.

WordPress Tags: Applestan, Adobe, lawyers, Sue sue Sue-dio

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Get Over It, All Ready

It is an understatement to say that Apple and Adobe do not get along lately.  Whatever the reason was for the initial rift between the two companies, things have reached a point.  After the past few months of listening to the great god Jobs take Adobe to task for just about every ill in the world, it would be expected for Adobe to finally have a say about the matter.

Except no one really expected this, as delivered from Lee Brimelow , the Platform Evangelist at Adobe on the Adobe Flashblog:

Speaking purely for myself, I would look to make it clear what is going through my mind at the moment. Go screw yourself Apple.

Comments disabled as I’m not interested in hearing from the Cupertino Comment SPAM bots.

Oh. Snap.  As they say out here in the West, that there is fightin’ words.  But the point is, there is really nothing much that Adobe can do about the entire affaire, as Apple does not have to allow Adobe into the walled garden.  Brimelow’s screed, while highly entertaining, sounded more like the ex-wife who vows to slash your tires.  So what can Adobe do?

Follow the less than pleasant words of their evangelist-screw Apple.  I’m not talking retaliation or pulling Photoshop from the Apple platform.  What I am talking about is realizing that while many people in the media may want to think that Apple owns the world currently, the fact is, it does not.  Repeat after me.  Apple does not own the mobile marketplace.  While it may be fashionable to own an i-whatever, the point is there are still millions of devices out there that have not been blessed by the man in the black turtleneck.  The Android platform being the main one.  Embrace it.  Use it.  To quote RuPaul “Work it, Beyotch.”  Build very powerful Flash apps on Android.  As much as Apple wants to control iPhone, I am willing to bet they want to beat Android more.  The better, the faster, the more successful the Flash app, the more Apple will think about things.  Then you have a real choice.  Go back to the lover who spurned you or basically tell Steve and company “Your things are to the left.”

As someone once said “Living well is the best revenge”.  Maybe Adobe should start learning that.

WordPress Tags: Applestan, Adobe, divorce

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Cry Havoc and Let Slip the Dogs of War

This has been a long time coming.  After months of bobbing, weaving, Apple finally said enough and went to court with guns blazing. Sort of.  In its passive aggressive way, Apple is suing Google by not suing Google. They are rather, suing HTC, the company that makes exquisite phones with Google brains. 

Yeah, I know it is gutless, but there is a strategy behind it.  First, size.  HTC is not large.  The threat of a patent lawsuit that could take years to complete is not something a company the size of HTC really wants to fight.  Its the reason Apple did not go up against Motorola, a company that has a room full of lawyers who are quite knowledgeable about these things and lots more patents to draw from.  Who would you rather fight in the Octagon – Randy Couture or Randy Couture’s mom? While Randy’s mom could probably kick your ass as well, you stand a better chance of surviving. 

Second, the discovery phase.  If there is anything they can stick onto Google, they’ll find it here.  That is really what this fishing expedition is for.  They are looking for smoking anythings at this point.  If it sticks in the first lawsuit, it will be front and center for the main event.

So about those patents – Nilay Patel at Engadget did some investigating to see what kind of patents we are talking here, and the review:

So here are the takeaways: as of right now, it’s impossible to predict what’s going to happen in this case — Apple and HTC could settle tomorrow, or it could turn into a ten year courtroom monster. But what we do know is that Apple’s specifically gone after HTC’s Android devices, and it’s organized its attack very carefully: it’s gone before the ITC with a collection of older patents on very deep OS-level functionality, which traditionally would be considered stronger patents, and it’s gone before the federal court with a different set of patents that include some very new claims on user interface features. Both courts have the ability to stop HTC from selling devices and issuing fines, but none of that is going to happen anytime soon. The real question now is how HTC is going to respond — and whether or not Google is going to get involved.

If this does turn into a years-long slog (and it could, quite easily), the world will not end.  The government will not shut down your Android phone.  Apple will not take over the world and really, neither will Google.  Fanbois aside, there are lots of people out there who could care less about the outcome and will continue to use their non-iPhone, non-Adroid phones as simply phones.  Not sexy, certainly not cutting edge, but there you have it.  Even Apple and HTC have to appear before a judge and have a hearing to determine exactly what these patents mean before the case can go to trial.  Meanwhile, Apple is already tied up in a patent lawsuit with Nokia, claiming Nokia is stealing Apple technology. Nokia says Apple is stealing its technology. Kodak is also suing Apple claiming technology theft.  So it looks like there are jobs in the tech sector-if you’re a lawyer. 

WordPress Tags: Applestan, HTC, Google, Lawsuits, Sue Sue Sue-dio

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No Sex Please, We’re Apple

Apparently there has been a coup d’etat at Apple and Steve Jobs has been replaced by Oliver Cromwell.  In the past couple of days, Apple has been pulling apps referring to sex like a Puritan on a witch hunt.  The count so far is more than five thousand apps. 

Now, the history of this has its basis in Facebook.  Apparently, parents didn’t like the fact that their kids could purchase an app like “Epic Boobs”.  I don’t blame them.  If I had a ten year old, I wouldn’t want that on his phone either.  Anyway, there are a number of fan sites in Facebook that parents can join to pressure Apple to do something about the number of sexually provocative apps in the store that kids have access to.  And people have been doing so in large numbers.  Enough people to cause Apple to start acting and acting fast.  And apparently, that isn’t fast enough for some.  But I digress. 

There is one slight problem to this narrative, however.  The iPhone offers a full set of parental controls.  Yep, all Apple had to do was utilize what was all ready available and block the applications from view of anyone who wasn’t old enough to see them.  Problem solved, without tossing out the livelihood of some legitimate developers with those that are a little more shady.  But sometimes it isn’t good enough to hide the Hustler behind the counter in a brown wrapper.  Sometimes, you just got to burn the thing in front of an angry crowd. 

So what are the new rules in Applestan?  Hard to say, as there is no official rulebook out there at the moment, but developer Jon Atherton, who is behind the popular application Wobble, (and I will eye roll on this app because it is a ridiculous app that “allows realistic 3D wobbly bits to your iPhone photos”), also spoke to an Apple employee, and posted this list of rules to his blog based on what he learned:

1. No images of women in bikinis (Ice skating tights are not OK either)
2. No images of men in bikinis! (I didn’t ask about Ice Skating tights for men)
3. No skin (he seriously said this) (I asked if a Burqa was OK, and the Apple guy got angry)
4. No silhouettes that indicate that Wobble can be used for wobbling boobs
5. No sexual connotations or innuendo: boobs, babes, booty, sex – all banned
6. Nothing that can be sexually arousing!!
7. No apps will be approved that in any way imply sexual content (not sure how Playboy is still in the store, but …)

As I stated, Apple is currently being tight lipped about all of this, so the new policy is fluid at this point.  Better to err on the side of sounding like a repressed Baptist preacher than give even more conflicting reports.  While I kid about it, I understand the logic.  But I have a problem with a company that one day tells developers, no you can’t do this, then the next day say, yes you can, then the next day closes down everything they said was OK the day before.  Pick a policy and stick with it.  Don’t be Sybil.  Most on the list of banned apps should never have been accepted as they were “crapps” anyway.  A slideshow of bikini-clad women?  I guess I’m too old to see the plus in that. 

Besides, if you want to see that sort of stuff that’s what the internet connection is for-or did Apple just ban the browser as well?

WordPress Tags: Applestan, Sex, iPhone

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