Tale of Two App Discovery Apps: AppShopper Back But Big-Mouth AppGratis Can Forget About It

Source:  Pocketgamer.

AppGratis as we know by now gets developers to pay for installation.  It’s a manipulation of Apple’s ranking as Apple sees it but others like the AppGratis investors think it’s a form of advertising.  The way to set things right would be for AppGratis developers to try to talk to Apple and find a common ground.  In fact, AppShopper probably did just that – opening a dialogue between itself and Apple.  The result?  It’s now back in the App Store.

On the other hand, CEO Simon Dawlat lied about AppGratis’ business model which he said the app doesn’t take payment from developers for installation and promotion in an attempt to manipulate app ranking. And when documents leaked online that showed he lied, he still would not back down.  In Apple or anyone’s book, that’s a no-no.  This TechCrunch post explains it all.

What also isn’t likely to make Apple happy is an online petition to get AppGratis back into the App Store.  Dude, I could have told them this would not work.  If anything, AppGratis is screwed entirely.

Meanwhile, AppShopper is back in.  AppShopper probably was pulled because it attempted to be an app store within Apple’s App Store.  Now, that’s changed.  What’s new is a social component and gone are rankings for the time being.  Personally, I don’t care for the ranking because I realized I like apps that are not necessarily high up anywhere.  But I do like the wish list function, which drives me nuts because I think it’s something Apple should include in all of its stores across iTunes and iCloud.

It’s a lesson for developers in this app drama when it comes to dealing with Apple.  Private dialogue is preferred over public outrage that means absolute nothing to Apple and only serves to alienate Cupertino all the more.  On top of that, trying to game Apple’s rules just isn’t the way to engage Apple and to manipulate its users.

As for AppShipper Social, I think this is a good first step and I like to see better social engagement in future versions.

Apple Donates Money and Devices to The Chinese Affected By Major Quake

Source: Arstechnica.

Apple is donate about $8 million dollars to the Sichuan region of China that was hit by a major earthquake.  On top of that, it’ll also be donating devices to schools affected by the disaster.  It’s a PR move.  It’s also a good move.  And Apple is letting the Chinese know about it.

However, knowing the leech mentality of the Chinese government, they’ll find some way to discredit the help from Apple and other foreign entities by suggesting it was inadequate or something worse while playing up domestic help that may not even come close.  This kind of myopic focus on national pride has already shown signs that it is wearing thin on the masses.

Transcription Would Be A Bigger Deal If Apple's Voice Dictation Works Off-Line But Google Already Does That

I'm sure the voice dictation function built into iOS and OS X devices will eventually work off-line, like Google's does now.   Eventually, Siri I have phone functions that were off-line.  By off-line, I mean without having the need to connect to the Internet and send the voice thing Apple server farms.

I started thinking about this when I thought how great iOS will work if it also has a powerful transcription. It will serve a lot of professionals.  Doctors, lawyers, writers, journalists, and even students.

It has taken me a while to get used to voice dictation. I try to use it as often as I can. So the most part, I avoid doing it because either I am in public, at work, are at a place where there is no Internet connection. And of course, speaking into an iPhone and having that information sent through the Internet to Apple and getting the results does take a valuable battery power. No, iPhone battery life these a lot to be desired.

I have found a few apps that does transcribing for you.  You speak into the app and that gets sent to the company that offers the app and you get the results back.  And while the apps are free, some of these companies charge by the minute.

And, as far as I know Dragon Dictate also requires the user to have a live Internet connection.

That leaves only Google's: users of Android devices can dictate to their messaging app or email app or any other text app without requiring live Internet connection.

For my fellow mobile warriors, I really encourage you to give dictation thingies regardless of whether you're an iOS or Android user. In fact, I am dictating this post instead of typing. There are some corrections that I may hear there, but for the most part it has been keyboard free.

Apple, Please Release A 5" or 5.5" iPhone

My mom called me today and said the iPhone 5 sucked.  Well, she didn't exactly used those words but I know the lady, giving birth to me and all.  In fact, I gave up the iPhone 5 and took her iPhone 4S for my own.  I think she considers the 4S to be Steve Jobs' last iPhone.  But that's not the reason why she wants to give up the iPhone 5.

She thinks the screen is too small.  I think she saw more and more of her friends with Galaxy devices from Samsung.  Maybe even the Note 2.  I don't blame her.  I've thought for months about getting a Note and I'm think I'll wait for the Note 3.


My only issue for not getting her the Note 2 is because she's overseas a lot and if she has a problem now, I would not know how to deal with it because I don't have a reference unit here to help walk her through it.

So, Apple, you may have to think twice about the perfect size for the iPhone.  I do think the 3.5-4" screen is perfect for a major of the mobile market.  But I think there is a segment of the market who would like to have a 5" or greater screen that still fit into one's pocket.

Okay, no stylus.  I don't need a stylus.  It's too limited unless Apple can really work some magic on that front.

A 5" screen or greater iPhone with LTE would be something that would sell like hotcakes and may even revitalize the market's confidence in Apple, especially Wall Street despite their stupidity.

For my mom, her interest in Note had to do with gaming.  She plays tons of game on her iPad mini.  However, when she's out and about, she doesn't want to be carry the iPad mini around with her all the time.  It's not convenient.

So, the has her iPhone 5 with her.  However, playing games from the 7.85" iPad mini screen down to the 4" iPhone 5 screen did not offer the same experience.  I'm not sure a 5" screen would either but it still is better than a 4" screen.

More and more of my friends are switching over the Android because of the screen size.  Sure, they complain about the experience from time to time but I think Google will one day close that experience gap.  After that, there would be nothing to keep some users from sticking with the iPhone.

Game Center Should Become Social Center

I have been thinking long and hard about this for a while.  Even before Facebook released Home for Android.  But I think Apple should do something about Game Center and I'm not talking about the look of GC but about what it can offer.  From day one, I thought it would make sense for Apple to allow messaging.  Then of course, we got iMessage instead.

What Apple should do is turn GC into Social Center.  Notifications, messages, widgets, game updates, and social components that give Apple users, Mac and iOS, a place where their social networks like Twitter, Facebook, and even Apple's own updates, can be located in one place.

It is possible?

I don't know if that's the direction Apple would ever consider taking but it does make sense to do this.  Social Center would gather up iTunes, Messages, social networks, gaming and media into one place.

And what's more, the value of Social Center will only serve to augment other features and products that Apple wants to push out.  As it stands now, I don't know how many people actually use Game Center but with Social Center, maybe more people will discover the value Game Center offers which could lead to more engagement and game sales.

Adding a component for music and other media sharing from friends and family could also lead to iTunes sales.

Apple should also add its own social layer that provides updates.  Think of Path, a social network app, and you'll know what I'm talking about.

With Path, you can upload pictures, update status, sharing locations, and tell your friends what you're watching or listen to.  Apple should adopt a similar approach (or buy Path outright).  And Apple should be able to allow users to update that information to Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+ or other social networks.

The bottom line is that Apple would then also have its own social network that could make sure it doesn't have to be at the mercy of competitors like Facebook or Google.

Social Center would instantly give Apple an added cool appeal that some said has been sorely missing in the last couple of years.

The question in people's mind is whether this could happen.  Sadly, no.  This is not in Apple's DNA.  In all likelihood, Apple got stung by the failure of Ping and has sworn off social media services and apps.  Game Center is as close as it'll ever come to that.  To a lesser extent, iMessages is as social as Apple will get.  Furthermore, Apple seems content to leave creating social apps and services to third party developers.

It's a shame.  A native social layer would greatly enhance the values of not only Apple's hardware but its services like iTunes, iCloud, and future media pushes.  Social Center would be the kind of next step achievements that Apple should be going after.

Should Apple's Share Price Be A Concern For Mobile Users, Not Just iOS Users?

Apple's price has been down and out of Wall Street favor for a long time now.  Maybe a better part of a year since reaching high into the 700s.  Personally, while I like to see stocks rise, not just Apple but for Google, Microsoft, or any other company, I take a particular interest in Apple because I've been a long time Apple product user and have lived through the "dark days".  Yeah, you know what I mean and that brought back bad memories for those of you who knows what I'm talking about.

The difference here is that Apple today is in a much stronger position than the Apple in the 90s that was weeks away from bankruptcy before Steve Jobs successfully turned things around.  And that took years to do.  Today's Apple was not an overnight success.  It took around seven years before people started to believe.

It's not Apple's successful story that I want to discuss here.  Rather, it's Apple's lost decade in the late 80s and 90s that I am afraid may be repeated.  The creative juice and innovative energy that Steve Jobs instilled in Apple endures and will probably do so under Tim Cook.  However, I do see Apple today more as a company than a creative shop that was under Steve Jobs.  

Jobs cared nothing about money.  About dividends and stock prices.  Maybe it was easier when things were better and the rise of Apple's value was the sky.  And through not Tim Cook's fault, Apple's stock prices today may force Tim Cook to waiver a bit from Steve Jobs' vision for Apple and innovation in general and stir Apple more towards being a corporation and less of a place where magical devices are created.

Investor pressure could for Cook to direct his teams to make products that sell for short term gains like the fabled "cheap iPhone" rather than telling them to make products that will continue Apple's legacy.

Make no mistake, however, that what I am expressing is only a fear that it can happen.  I'm not saying that it absolutely will happen or that there are signs it is already happening.  But should that happen, mobile warriors could be used to see innovation in the mobile market happening at neck breaking speed in the last five years come to a slower pace.  

Even now, Apple fans are increasingly more vocal about the stale state of look and function of iOS.  Make no mistake that we are talking about wholesale defections from Apple to other platforms.  It's just that while the UI for iOS works, it has gotten boring while others like Windows Phone and Android have tried doing different things to differentiate themselves from Apple and each other.

And while I'm not a fan of Facebook, I have to say that Home is definitely something I like to see in the mobile market.  It offers a different perspective on mobile use even as it takes a frightful attempt to obliterate privacy.  

In the next twelve to eighteen months, we will see where Apple goes.  As a matter of fact, the same can be said of Google.  Both of their mobile heads were replaced within months of each other which suggests change of pace or direction where Apple and Google wants their mobile efforts to move respectively.  One might assume that big changes are coming.  

Maybe.

We won't know what mobile users can expect from Apple until the second half of 2013.  Yeah, aside from increasing the iPad's top-end mobile with 128 GB, there has been a dry spell.  Apple's annual World Wide Developer Conference in June is the earliest when we should see any new product from Apple this year.  And they're probably going to be Macs and Macbooks, not iOS devices like the iPhone or iPad.

For those, we will have to wait until fall.  Hopefully, Apple will grace us with a glimpse of what iOS 7 going to be like and that will only be a partial unveiling.  We won't know if Apple will continue to care not about the stock price and exist as it currently does now or becoming a company that cares more about the bottom line until the next iPhones and iPads are released.  

Microsoft Tries To Be Helpful By Saying Google Will (Or Should) Block Facebook Home

Source:  The Guardian.

Here is a must read post regarding Google, Facebook, and Android.  The gist of the post stemmed from statements from Microsoft’s head of Windows Phone division.  Needless to say, Terry Myerson provided some analysis and statements that took digs at Google while promoting how Windows Phone was actually doing.  The Guardian went to Google chairman, Eric Schmidt, for his response.

I agree Schmidt who at one point asked who was anyone listening to Microsoft about Google.  Google isn’t doing a thing to stop Facebook from making Home more widely available on Android.  It runs counter to Google’s claim that Android is open.  So, it can’t and won’t stop Facebook doing Home or eventually forking it or adding its own app store if it wanted to.  Just like Google could not stop Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or the plethora of Chinese vendors making their own Android variants.  However, it remains to be seen if Facebook won’t eventually overtake Google in monetizing the mobile platform in ways that Samsung is doing by selling Android-based hardware.

As for Microsoft, well, let’s just say that Windows Phone is treading water right now and further analysis will have to wait for another post on another day.

One more thing.  You can forget about any talk that Facebook will bring Home to the iPhone or Windows Phone as it currently exists on Android.  Yes, further integration will likely happen between Facebook, Twitter, Weibo, or any other social networks on iPhone or Windows Phone but only in small increments as allowed by Cupertino or Redmond.