I didn’t clock much time in with Quarrel on iOS, but I did prefer the controls on that platform. Cycling through letters with the analog stick is not as easy as using a touchscreen, but it isn’t a problem in the big picture. The added multiplayer and Challenge mode more than make up for any control shortcomings.
…occasionally you can also blame the game’s interface. While entering words on the iOS version of Quarrel was as simple as tapping the letters on your touchscreen, on the Xbox you have to navigate awkwardly with the analog stick and tap buttons to enter letters and submit your word.
As a lover of words and “sitting on the toilet” gaming, Quarrel on iOS scratches that proverbial itch for me. Upon hearing about an Xbox version I wasn’t too convinced that it would actually turn out to be a good product, but Sidequesting‘s Eric Smith and Ars Technica‘s Kyle Orland think it translates nicely to a larger display. Although, not without caveat.
A few days ago, I linked to a New York Times story that explained why the iPhone is manufactured in China as opposed to in the United States. While interesting, it surely adds to people’s concern that jobs are being outsourced. And with the economy the way it is now, who can blame them? According to a more recent NYT poll:
The Times poll found that most Americans considered it very important to buy American-made products.
Over all, 52 percent of the public said it was very important that the products they buy were made in the United States; only 42 percent of owners of Apple products agreed.
Outsourcing, they say, is clearly a cause of fewer jobs domestically. And two-thirds of the public wants American companies to shoulder a lot of responsibility to keep manufacturing jobs in the United States.
Even with the issues domestically and abroad, let’s remember why Apple chose to outsource the iPhone.
Apple had redesigned the iPhone’s screen at the last minute, forcing an assembly line overhaul. New screens began arriving at the plant near midnight.
A foreman immediately roused 8,000 workers inside the company’s dormitories, according to the executive. Each employee was given a biscuit and a cup of tea, guided to a workstation and within half an hour started a 12-hour shift fitting glass screens into beveled frames. Within 96 hours, the plant was producing over 10,000 iPhones a day.
“The speed and flexibility is breathtaking,” the executive said. “There’s no American plant that can match that.”
Similar stories could be told about almost any electronics company — and outsourcing has also become common in hundreds of industries, including accounting, legal services, banking, auto manufacturing and pharmaceuticals.
But while Apple is far from alone, it offers a window into why the success of some prominent companies has not translated into large numbers of domestic jobs. What’s more, the company’s decisions pose broader questions about what corporate America owes Americans as the global and national economies are increasingly intertwined.
“Companies once felt an obligation to support American workers, even when it wasn’t the best financial choice,” said Betsey Stevenson, the chief economist at the Labor Department until last September. “That’s disappeared. Profits and efficiency have trumped generosity.”
Over the next few years, UIs will evolve in astounding ways, such as allowing viewers to watch eight simultaneous games on ESPN, color coding where the best action is in a given moment or allowing Olympics fans the ability to control their own slow-motion replays. A decade from now, choosing a linear feed from a broadcast grid of 200 channels will seem like using a rotary dial telephone.
Just as broadcast networks have substantially transformed themselves into cable channels over the last twenty years, both broadcast and cable networks will effectively also become Internet networks like Netflix. As a pure-play we have many advantages, however, just as cable did over broadcast. We are 100% on-demand and highly-personalized. Our brand is broad, rather than niche, so we can combine the benefits of multiple channels into one service. Additionally, our Internet culture enables us to create and drive social TV, recommendations TV, and other Internet innovations faster than our cable and broadcast network competitors.
As cable networks developed, they were able to both compete with broadcast networks, and to bolster broadcast networks economics through syndication. Today it is accepted practice for networks to license parts of their content to other networks, if they get paid well enough. That is the world of content licensing in which we live. In that sense, we are just another network competing for viewing time with, and licensing content from, other networks.
“The Ultrabook” is less a thing than a marketing idea carefully baked by Intel: let’s spend hundreds of millions of dollars promoting a word (Ultrabook), and in turn, companies can use that word to sell thin, fast, light computers. Tablets (iPads) and the MacBook Air present enormous existential threats to Ye Olde Windows Laptop, and now that the HPs and Dells of the word finally have the means to fight them, might as well market the hell out of them.
It’s actually Ultrabook, with a capital “U,” and a (TM). The name is a wholly-owned creation of Intel, and the hype you’ve seen for them at CES is only just the beginning. Intel is reportedly planning its biggest advertising push in eight years to promote Ultrabooks, and it’s clearly already done a decent job of bringing hardware manufacturers on board the bandwagon.
What exactly is an Ultrabook?
According to Intel it’s a laptop under 21mm thick with “ultra-fast start up,” extended battery life, etc. Basically, a MacBook Air. The shift to thinner, more efficient laptops isn’t just a smart thing. It’s a great thing. However, Intel is shooting themselves in the foot by placing these thinner laptops into their own categories, instead of driving the message home that this is the future of laptops. In Intel’s world, there are notebooks and there are Ultrabooks, even though the latter is technically a subdivision of the former — a subdivision that needn’t exist. Just make laptops better, and the rest will speak for itself.
Apple just announced their financial results for their last quarter, and it was a monster quarter. Or, as MG Siegler put it, holy fucking shit.
In total, the Cupertino sold:
37 million iPhones
15.4 million iPods
15.4 million iPads
1.5 million iMacs
3.7 million Macbooks
One more interesting bit of information regarding the iPhone: 4.7 million (61%) of the 7.7 million phones activated during that same time period on Verizon were iPhones. No small feat on any carrier, but even more impressive considering that Verizon is also Android’s biggest carrier.
Microsoft’s proprietary virtual currency system, Microsoft Points, will be phased out by the end of the year, according to a source with knowledge of the company’s decision. The change will affect developers for Windows Phone, the Zune marketplace and Xbox Live.
By the end of 2012, all transactions will be based on the region set on the purchasing account and real money will be used to purchase all Windows Phone content. The move puts the Windows Phone Marketplace in line with the purchasing practices used in the App Store and the Android Market.
Let’s hope so. I could do without MS points (also known as “space bucks”) being sold in 400 points / $5 increments.
T-Mobile USA and AT&T Inc. filed a request with the U.S. Federal Communications Commission for approval of the transfer of $1 billion in wireless airwaves AT&T promised as a result of the failure of its $39 billion bid to take over its smaller rival.
AT&T said it would turn over the airwaves, or spectrum, along with $3 billion in cash to T-Mobile parent Deutsche Telekom AG after pulling out of the deal as opposition mounted from the FCC, Justice Department, state attorneys general and rival carriers.
According to the Pew Research Group, in the month spanning mid-November to late December of 2011, tablet ownership among Americans aged 16 and older essentially doubled. Notable tablet releases during before the boom include the Kindle Fire and the Nook tablet.
It’s great that RIM is finally taking action and putting the kibosh on the circus show its two former co-CEOs (still a ridiculous thing to say, co-CEO) were putting. However, both men will be sticking around. I went back and read RIM’s press release and found this little gem:
Mike Lazaridis, former Co-Chair and Co-CEO, has become Vice Chair of RIM’s Board and Chair of the Board’s new Innovation Committee.
So basically, one of the guys responsible for RIM’s lack of innovation is staying on chairman of the “new” Innovation Committee.
Although, I have a bit of a problem with this quote by RIM’s new CEO:
BlackBerry 7 has been well received. We are very excited about PlayBook 2.0 and BlackBerry 10. The reception of our products at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show was encouraging.
In just about two and a half years in existence, Bing has overtaken Yahoo as the second-most popular browser, after the almighty Google of course. It’s important to note that Bing started with around 8.4-percent marketshare after absorbing other Microsoft search engines and services. While that may not be as impressive as starting out fresh, nearly doubling marketshare is still no small feat — although, I’m sure Microsoft’s Gossip Girl marketing campaign power didn’t hurt.
Another important factoid: Bing isn’t gaining marketshare at the expense of Google, they’re swallowing Yahoo’s userbase. If anything, Google has been gaining since August.
The numbers are as such:
comScore December 2011 browser marketshare
*Charts are my own
comScore browser marketshare Jan '10 - Dec '11 (click to enlarge)
In 2007, a little over a month before the iPhone was scheduled to appear in stores, Mr. Jobs beckoned a handful of lieutenants into an office. For weeks, he had been carrying a prototype of the device in his pocket.
Mr. Jobs angrily held up his iPhone, angling it so everyone could see the dozens of tiny scratches marring its plastic screen, according to someone who attended the meeting. He then pulled his keys from his jeans.People will carry this phone in their pocket, he said.
People also carry their keys in their pocket. “I won’t sell a product that gets scratched,” he said tensely. The only solution was using unscratchable glass instead. “I want a glass screen, and I want it perfect in six weeks.”
A very interesting thing happened this year at CES: a few big companies have decided to round off their product lines according to the “three screens” mantra Microsoft made so famous. Vizio, for example, was previously only a television manufacturer. However, after CES they can add desktops and laptops to their resume.
Before:
After:
It’s not all that drastic, but it is interesting. Companies are making moves in territories previously unexplored in an attempt to round out their product strategy. However farcical as it sounds, I’d love to see the guy who owns a Lenovo tablet, television, and smartphone.
¹ – Sony previously had phones under the Sony Ericsson brand, but the “Ericsson” has since been dropped.
² – Lenovo announced a phone before CES (LePhone K2) that hasn’t made it to the United States.
³ – The Apple TV isn’t a TV, but it’s a TV component.
⁴ – Vizio announced phones last year at CES, but the company seems to have scrapped that project.
⁵ – Sony previously had phones under the Sony Ericsson brand, but the “Ericsson” has since been dropped.
⁶ – The Lenovo LePhone K800 has been announced for China.
Who doesn’t love a good set of sales figures? Every month they provide fanboys with ammunition to defend their brand as well as a number-crunching session for those with analytical minds. Whatever your reason for enjoying sales figures, you can’t doubt their ability to engross.
We all know the usual stuff that can be pulled from data: who sold the most of this product category? How much did Company A sell relative to Company B and C? How much more than Company A / B / C sell over last month or year? Etcetera, etcetera. But if you read between the lines, that’s where you’ll find some real gems.
Xbox 360
Xbox 360 sales in the first 12 months (November 2005 – October 2006): 2,892,000 units with an average of 241,000 units sold per month.
Xbox 360 sales in the second year (November 2006 – October 2007): 4,199,900 units with an average of 349,991 units sold per month.
Biggest sales month: December 2010 with 1,860,000 units.
7 months with over one million units sold.
Fewest units sold: May 2007 with 155,000 units.
Nintendo Wii
Nintendo Wii sales in the first 12 months (November 2006 – October 2007): 5,038,600 units with an average of 419,883 units sold per month.
Nintendo Wii sales in the second year (November 2007 – October 2008): 8,312,000 units with an average of 692,666 units sold per month
Biggest sales month: December 2009 with 3,810,000 units.
7 months with over one million units sold.
Fewest units sold: April 2011 with 172,000 units.
PlayStation 3
PlayStation 3 sales in the first 12 months (November 2006 – October 2007): 1,964,200 units with an average of 163,683 units sold per month.
PlayStation 3 sales in the second year (November 2007 – October 2008): 3,533,500 units with an average of 294,458 units sold per month.
Biggest sales month: December 2009 with 1,360,000 units.
2 months with over one million units sold.
Fewest units old: August 2007 with 13600 units.
It took the PS3 38 months (that’s over three years) to have a month in which sales surpassed 1 million units. It took the Xbox 360 and the Wii 14 months to reach that milestone.
You may have seen my work at The Daily Get Up, Uberoid, sometimes at my personal blog, and I bet you’re wondering what it is that I’m doing here. In short, this is my latest venture. The Spiral Source is where I’ll be putting down my thoughts and observations on the latest happenings in technology with links, in blurb format, as well as in longer analytical pieces. You won’t be seeing me “reporting” news, per se — press releases exist and you can read them. Rather, I’ll be adding my two cents on what’s happening. Think of me as your local neighborhood columnist.
There is a lack of advertisement on the site, and I plan on keeping it that way. In the future there may be one small ad on the site, but nothing further than that. I planned the design in a way that doesn’t divert attention away from the content and neither will the ad — you have my word. That being said, a membership is available, and $2/month for said membership does get you a few cool perks. Namely, The Spiral Source‘s full text RSS feed so that you can read the site in its entirety in a news reader, in addition to my undying gratitude. While the full text feed does come with a membership, a free, truncated feed does exist.
I do plan on getting cooler things on here — like t-shirts — so, look for those soon… but not really soon.
If you have any questions or concerns, contact me.
It is clear that we need to revisit the approach on how best to address the problem of foreign thieves that steal and sell American inventions and products
Good job, internet. Maybe Congress will figure out how the internet works next time?
Follow Me!