MacBreak Weekly 260

MacBreak Weekly
Episode 260


"Jury Duty – Part 2"Hosts: Alex Lindsay, Andy Ihnatko Guest: Leander Kahney Recorded: August 16th, 2011 Published: August 16th, 2011 Transcript Previous episode – Next episode

MacBreak Weekly 260: Jury Duty – Part 2

Google buys Motorola Mobile, Android versus iPhone, porn on the iPad, Apple's Cupertino spaceship and more.

Hosts

Guests

Leander Kahney (@lkahney/Google+)
- cultofmac.com

Topics

Google is buying Motorola Mobility
- Andy Ihnatko is the author of the article.
  - Everyone thinks that Google goes after the patents owned by Motorola.
  - Motorola is a better buy than HTC because it is a packaged deal.
  - Google needs more control over the Android platform.
  - Foss Patents Blog has great comments.
  - Google has to pay a huge penalty if the deal doesn't go through: $2.5 billion.
  - Google must have been really desperate to get a hardware manufacturer on board.
- Leander Kahney
  - Strange purchase because it is not aligned with their initial strategy to give away software and get into the hardware business.
  - The questions is how the other hardware manufacturers are going to react to this purchase.
  - HTC Nexus One is good hardware. Google has a close partnership with HTC. What is going to happen now to this relationship?
- How is this going to affect the iPhone?
  - LK: It seems that Google wants to do what Apple is doing.
  - AL: Is Google fit to do this though? They are not experts in that regard.
  - AI: Android is not really making money for Google. They need money coming in eventually, especially in order to justify the purchase.

Leaked AT&T filing shows full LTE coverage costs $3.8 billion
- AT&T covers 80% of the US population, approx. 20% of US landmass.
- To bring it up to 97% would cost $3.8 billion but take years to build.
- T-Mobile has most of the infrastructure in place and it would take much less time.
- AI: Both Verizon and AT&T want to buy major competitors in order to keep it out of the hands of the other.

Rumor: Low-cost 'iCloud iPhone to accompany iPhone 5
- AI: iCloud iPhone very unlikely.
  - iCloud is based on sync not storage.
  - Is it going to be feasible to sync every time you access information?
- LK: Would a streaming iPhone be able to run apps?
  - Local storage requirements could be very low.
  - It might safe 50% of the hardware cost.
  - iPhone is a fashion item. Not many want an old 3G iPhone.
  - The market for a cheaper iPhone is definitely there.
- AL: Do we see an iPhone 5 in October?
- AI: I can see it going either way.
  - There might be a need for communicating to the consumer that the iPhone is moving forward.
  - There is also a discussion around what to call it; 4S, 4GS, 4LS, 5, etc.
  - Possibly no iPhone 5, maybe a lesser upgrade.

Androids Are For Cheap Pessimists, iPhones Are For Worldly Optimists
- Android users are more likely to safe money. iPhone users are more likely to spend money.
- LK: Seems to be true
  - Android doesn't have a big market place
  - More opportunities on the Android platform
  - Lot of Android users seem to "hate" Apple or Steve Jobs.
  - Choice of Android sometimes is not because one likes the Android but because they can do more with it.
- AI: Android would teach you patience
  - iPhone users specifically are looking for an iPhone.
  - The majority of Android users are not looking for a Android phone but end up with a smart phone that runs Android.
- AL: Happy to get an Android phone
  - Not getting rid of the iPhone.
  - Android universe is scary.
  - From a developer's perspective this universe is huge and may be overwhelming.

Kagi sparks controversy with $5 VisualHub Lion update
- Kagi sold visual hub to many people. They got a lot of calls from their users because it didn't work on Lion.
- VisualHub is a GUI wrapper around open source software.
- Kagi wrote a wrapper around VisualHub in order to make the update easier. They charge only for that part, not for VisualHub.
- Has Kagi stepped over the line?
- AI:Didn't have time to dig into the details.
  - Kagi's story is that they created a tool separate from VisualbHub's code in order to make the update easier.
  - There are more dimensions to this.
  - The developer had the right to stop this product.
    - It's easy to understand why Kagi wanted to take care of their customers.
    - However, they didn't need to get involved with the update since the developer has quit. They could have referred their customers to the developer.
  - It doesn't seem evil that they charge for the update.
  - The instinct was OK, but they should have thought it through.
- LK: Did they seek the developers approval?
  - Seems that they didn't want to harm anyone.
  - The developer is calling foul now, but is that justified?
- AI: Interesting questions: If I buy a software am I not the owner of this software and then have to right to get it "fixed" myself even if I don't get back to the developer.
- AL: The problem is that they change a couple of resources in the script file.
  - They didn't change the software but they automated the update process.
- AI: They didn't get an old binary out and recompile it.

Apple's 'spaceship'-like campus reboot (images)
- AL: Wants an invite to the opening.
  - When by 2020 the earth becomes uninhabitable and they launch the spaceship, I want to be on it.
- Ground breaking is happening next year.
  - Probably going to be a lot of spy cameras. Watching the rocket engines to be put into the ground.

Does Cinemax’s iPad app violate Apple’s no-porn policy?
- Is Apple going to remove Cinema's iPad app?
- Is this the beginning of the end of the porn avoidance?
- AI: No. It's not likely that you'll see explicit porn apps on the iPhone
- LK: Apple doesn't seem to show signs to change their mind.

Apple reportedly kills plans for new iPad this fall due to Retina Display issues
- AI: Not likely that there's going to be another iPad this year.
  - Steve Job's stated "This is the year of the iPad 2".
  - Not likely that they would say that if they planned to introduce another model.
  - We'll eventually see a retina display on the iPad but not likely for Xmas 2011.
- AL: Are they going to slowly move to 16:9 format?
- AI: Doesn't think so. 16:9 is the wrong format for reading and many other applications.
- AL: How is the change in resolution affect the developers
- LK: It'll going to be the same as it was with the iPhone. Writing two apps for both resolutions.

Next to go...
- What no longer makes sense will eventually go.
- We might see a 15" MacBook Air. Maybe they still call it a MacBook Pro but it would be more like an Air: no hard drive, no CD, etc.
- AL: After you use an Air you just don't want to go back to a mechanical hard drive. It would make sense to see a natural progression.
- AI: 2012 will be interesting to see what is going to come out.
  - It used to be that there was a clear distinction between the MacBook Air and Pro. Now it seems that this gap is shrinking.
  - It could also be that even the USB port will be dropped with only Thunderbolt reamining.
- LK: It doesn't seem that the CD drive will survive. It's just not needed that much anymore.

These Orangutans Just Love Playing With Their iPads
- AL: After seeing Planet of the Apes, I don't think it's a good idea to do this.
- LK: Apps for Cats and Dogs are also available. Question is are they really entertained.

Tips for Mac OS X Lion

AI: Making Desktop Webapps in Lion
AL: iPhone Remote App

Picks of the Week

AL: almost DSLR, $1.99
AL: Autodesk Project Photofly for PC, free
AI: FlashFrozen, $0.99

Notable Quotes

Alex messed up the ending. Funny, because he was the one suggesting the new "Break time is over. Get back to work!". :-)

Production Information

Edited by:
Shotes notes: Jean-Marie Schweizer (Bushgeek)

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MacBreak Weekly 260

Contents

MacBreak Weekly 260: Jury Duty – Part 2

Hosts

Guests

Topics

Tips for Mac OS X Lion

Picks of the Week

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Production Information

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