iPhone 5 Launch Plays it Safe. Can Apple Still Surprise Us?

Wednesday’s iPhone 5 launch had more than a touch of deja vu.

Apple CEO Tim Cook’s performance, though slightly more polished than in his last three product launch events, was largely a retread of his WWDC keynote. Cook still leads by getting out of the way, ceding the all-important announcement of the iPhone 5 to marketing chief Phil Schiller, just as he did at the new iPad launch earlier this year.

The order of events was pretty much by the numbers, too. We started with an update on Apple retail stores, moved on to new numbers for the Mac and the iPad, had the main event — the big reveal of the iPhone 5 and its new iPod brethren — and closed with a musical guest, in this case the Foo Fighters.

The big reveal, by the way, was a faintly ridiculous moment. The phone rose up from the stage on a podium while the house lights went down, so we could hardly see what we were supposed to be looking at. One longed for the days when Steve Jobs would simply whip a black sheet off a table.

A Leaky Ship

But Apple, it is becoming clear, is no longer the house that Jobs built. For one thing, it’s becoming so leaky that hardly a single detail of the iPhone 5 was not known in advance. If there was any doubt about the specifics, Apple PR accidentally erased them by posting press releases online just a little too early.

Compare that to the iPhone 4S launch at the very beginning of Cook’s tenure, where much of the media didn’t even get the device’s name in advance.

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On the technology front, Apple is playing it about as safe as possible. The iPhone 5 has a slightly elongated screen, and feels significantly lighter than its predecessor. There’s a different dock connector and the headphone jack is on the bottom. That’s about all the changes the casual observer will notice when picking it up.

True, a great deal of work went into the minutiae of its design. Apple is not shy when it comes to geeking out about this. One entire video explained how the edges were hewn with diamond cutters, and at one point we got a baffling aside on how more than 700 different cover sections were designed for the camera lens.

This is a thoroughly solid and dependable gadget, the Volvo of the mobile world. But Apple is currently running a deficit in bold strokes, big visions, and entirely new products.

Indeed, possibly the most exciting things to come out of the event were the new EarPods, curious little periscope-like headphones designed to conform to the space available in the average ear, featuring four carefully notched speaker slits directing different spectrums of sound in just the right way. They look and feel entirely new.

When the headphones elicit more gasps than the phone itself, you know something’s not quite right.

Apple R&D Needs Some TLC

This could have something to do with the fact that Apple is still spending a mere 2% of its revenue on research and development. No other company in the tech world puts as little of their cash into R&D, as a percentage, with the sole exception of Dell.

You could argue that all of Apple engineering and design could fall under the R&D heading, given how inventive the company is when it comes to, say, squeezing more power into the same size phone. Still, there’s a world of difference between innovation in the same product and innovation that leads to entirely new products.

The latter is what we used to see from Apple. The former is what we’re currently getting.

Of course, this could all become moot next month, when Apple is said to be planning another event to launch the all-new 7-inch iPad Mini, and possibly the iTV too. Let’s hope we have a day full of surprises to look forward to.

Read more: http://mashable.com/2012/09/12/apple-iphone-5-launch-review/

iPhone 5 Launch Plays it Safe. Can Apple Still Surprise Us?

apple, gadgets, iPhone, iphone 5, tech, Tim Cook

Dear Apple, Please Re-Release the Old Google Maps for iOS 6

To: Tim Cook

Dear Tim,

As a longtime Apple user, I’d like to say a heartfelt thanks for the apology Friday. Your company’s quest for tech excellence is so intensely scrutinized, it can be hard to publicly admit when a product falls far short of expectations.

So it’s really good to know you heard and accept the complaints, and that Apple is committed to making Maps as functional as it is beautiful. I for one cannot wait. But there remains the need for a proper stopgap solution.

Remember what solved the (relatively minor) “Antennagate” problem? It wasn’t just the CEO getting up on stage and apologizing. It was the fact that Apple proceeded to offer free bumper cases. The company looked proactive and generous, and the bumper did the trick. What you need now is the equivalent of the bumper.

You suggested in your letter a number of mapping app alternatives, such as turning maps.google.com into an “app” for your home screen (a method we tried and found wanting here). We all know they constitute an inferior experience.

There’s one far better alternative you didn’t mention. It’s one you already have in your back pocket (figuratively) and that the majority of iPhone and iPad owners still have in their back pockets (literally).

It’s the old Maps app, the one Apple built based on Google data in 2007 and that shipped in every OS until iOS 6.

Please, Tim, direct your iOS team to release it as a free standalone item in the App store, for iOS 6 only, with all due speed. I’ll gladly accept it not being the default mapping app. Let us use it side by side with Maps, and use it as our benchmark for how much Maps is improving.

If there’s any reason you can’t do this, it hasn’t been clearly explained. Google’s chairman has said, and Apple has never denied, that you still have a whole year left on your license to use Google Maps data on the phone. That’s why it hasn’t suddenly vanished for everyone using iOS 5. We still have the right to use it.

The standalone iOS 6 app would only work for the next year, then. That’s okay by us. We know that by this time next year, one of two things will have happened: Maps will have improved exponentially and Google will have come out with an iOS 6 Maps app of their own making. Preferably both.

Is there a problem detaching the Google Maps code from the system preferences, so that iOS 6 knows this isn’t the default map the way it was in iOS 5? I very much doubt that obstacle could detain the programming might of Apple for more than a few days.

Sure, it would be ideal to have the option to switch between default mapping apps. But that’s a bigger fix, a system-level fix, and it would delay the re-release of something for which there is an urgent need.

For your users’ sake, please do not delay. A good chunk of them are afraid of upgrading to iOS 6 specifically because of the Maps issue; this would remove that objection at a stroke.

Meanwhile, many of the upgraded, our confidence in our phones’ navigation skills shaken, are starting to steal longing glances at our Android-toting friends’ maps app. Unthinkable, just a few weeks ago, but true.

Re-releasing Google Maps would effectively restore the status quo ante, allowing us to take a chance on Maps — because we know there’s a fallback for when its information ain’t great.

And there’s something else. In this ongoing and suddenly more heated rivalry with Google, Apple would suddenly look like the bigger company. You’ll be the ones who filled the gap, even at the risk of ceding ground to a competitor, because you care about your users. It would be widely regarded as a heroic and selfless act, the kind of PR you can’t buy.

Google will come along with iOS 6 Maps sooner or later, albeit months down the line, and right now you’re running the risk of it being a huge deal: Google saves the day! Reliable mapping returns to the iPhone!

But if you re-release the old app, Google’s version, however good it is, will seem like more of an upgrade than the second coming.

Some on your team might tell you this is a step backwards. Don’t listen to them. It’s the right thing to do for users. Apple Maps will still be there, will still be the default, will have more time to improve. And in a deft bit of jiu-jitsu, Google will look like a slowpoke.

Sincerely yours,

Seeking Direction in San Francisco

Read more: http://mashable.com/2012/10/01/apple-old-google-maps-app-ios6/

Dear Apple, Please Re-Release the Old Google Maps for iOS 6

2012, apple, Apps and Software, business, gadgets, google maps, iOS 6, Mobile, Tim Cook, Trending Small Bottom