Apple Acknowledges Consumers Want Larger and Cheaper Phones
The latest internal documents coming out of the Samsung/Apple trial show some candid insight into Apple’s analysis of the future of the smartphone market.
The documents posted by Re/code include an Apple slide deck from April, 2013 for 2014 planning. The document includes graphs showing that Apple’s growth rates are slowing quarter after quarter. The main reason for the decline amongst consumers? Consumers want less expensive and larger screen smartphones:
In a further breakdown, Apple acknowledges that “consumers want what we don’t have” — which shows that the majority of smartphone growth is in both >4″ screen sizes and <$300 markets.
Apple has been heavily rumored to be introducing a larger iPhone 6 this fall. The size of the new iPhone has been thought to be 4.7″ or 5.5″ with the 4.7″ model coming first. While rumors have been consistent, Apple’s own insights from 2013 explain why such a move is likely to happen.
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Weekends with Engadget: Amazon’s Fire TV, Microsoft announces Windows Phone 8.1 and more!
Welcome to Weekends with Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines from the past seven days — all handpicked by the editors here at the site. For even more action, subscribe to our Flipboard magazine!
Amazon’s Fire TV promises a premium set-top experience
What you’re looking at is Amazon’s new Fire TV set-top box. Above all, this tiny, $99 media streamer is lightning fast thanks to its “ASAP” technology, which preloads content based upon your location in the UI. But this little black box isn’t just for TV, it plays games too.
Interview with Microsoft’s new Xbox Head Phil Spencer
This week, Microsoft announced that longtime employee Phil Spencer is replacing Marc Whitten as head of the Xbox division. What does this mean for the future of Xbox’s current brand reorganization? Well, we managed to speak with Phil about just that.
Windows Phone 8.1 and Cortana officially revealed at Build 2014
Windows Phone 8.1 has finally arrived! Earlier this week at Build 2014, Microsoft unveiled the latest version of its mobile OS, featuring a brand new notification center (“Action Center”) and the anticipated Cortana digital assistant.
This is not a prank: ThinkGeek and the business of April Fools’
April Fools’ Day beckons celebration from techies and corporations alike, but no one does it better than ThinkGeek. Our own Joseph Volpe was lucky enough to spend the day with ThinkGeek’s team of expert nerds as they prepared this year’s round of product spoofs. And don’t worry, we took lots of pictures.
2014 April Fools’ roundup
Every year, all sorts of companies try to take their April Fools’ gags to the next level — and 2014 is no exception. By now you’ve probably familiar with Google’s emoji translator and the selfie-taking drone, but click on through for our entire roundup!
Felix Baumgartner is the man who fell to Earth and lived to tell the tale
Felix Baumartner will forever be known as the first man to free fall from the edge of space. Not only did he survive the 24 mile dive from the stratosphere, but he broke several world records in the process. Our own Joseph Volpe caught up with Baumgartner as he recollected the experience and its implications for the future of space tourism.
Apple confirms WWDC 2014 will begin on June 2nd
Apple recently announced that its annual WWDC developers conference will begin on June 2nd and commence until June 6th. Ticket sales are available on Apple’s website now, but this year, it’s switching from a first-come-first-served system to random selection of attendees.
Watch a 5-year-old spam the spacebar to access his dad’s Xbox Live account
How difficult is it to break into a password-protected Xbox One profile? Well, 5-year-old Kristoffer Von Hassel managed to crack into his dad’s account account by simply pressing the spacebar. A lot.
Apple buys tech that could take Siri offline
TechCrunch is reporting that experts from the speech recognition firm Novauris are working with Apple to improve Siri’s vocal chops. Since most of Novauris’ work deals with locally processed recognition, it’s possible Apple’s voice tech may be in line for offline functionality sooner than later.
Will.i.am claims he developed a smartwatch that will launch in July
It looks like Will.i.am’s jumping on the smartwatch bandwagon. The producer and occasional tech entrepreneur gave a brief demo of the device during a recent TV interview, saying that the self-funded wearable doesn’t need to be connected to your phone at all.
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Google Preparing ‘Android TV’ Set-Top Box with Native Apps, Simple Interface, Voice Search
Google is gearing up to release a new Android TV set-top media box that utilizes a simple card interface with native apps and games, voice search, and a proactive recommendation system, according to new documents obtained by The Verge.
The documents note that while Android powers the box’s experience, the interface will be represented by a simple “cards” interface that represent a variety of mediums, including movies, shows, apps, and games. Users will be able to scroll through the interface with a four-way directional pad that contains Enter, Home, and Back buttons, with the set-top box reportedly featuring “optional” game controllers.
“Access to content should be simple and magical,” reads one Google document, which adds that it should never take more than three clicks or gestures to go from the homescreen to enjoying a new piece of content. Even search appears to be secondary to intuitively understanding what you want and delivering it as soon as possible, though search will be still be one of Android TV’s primary tools. In addition to universal search, pressing the Search button on the controller will let you search from within individual apps as well.
Moreover, Android TV is said to contain support for voice input, notifications, and search, with the set-top box also being able to recommend content based on a user’s interests and resume content viewed elsewhere the moment Android TV is turned on. Google is reportedly asking select developers to create games and apps for its new set-top box with optimized interfaces for the TV, as apps for Vevo, Netflix, Hulu, Pandora are expected to ship with the device. The company will also work in its own apps including Play Movies, YouTube, and Hangouts.
“Android TV is Android, optimized for the living room consumption experience on a TV screen,” writes the company, but the focus is on simplicity for now. Google is stripping away unneeded features like telephony, cameras, touchscreen support and near-field communication to keep developers focused, and handing them ready-made interfaces where they can hopefully just plug in shows, games, photos, music, and films.
Google is also expected to keep its popular Chromecast HDMI streaming accessory with the release of Google TV, with The Verge noting that developers will be required to build two different interfaces for the two different devices.
It is not known specifically when the device will launch, but it is clear that Google’s Android TV will enter a growing market of set-top boxes – just this past week, Amazon launched its own Fire TV media streaming box with voice search, game support and more that competes with others devices such as Apple TV and Roku.
The move comes as Apple is said to be preparing a new version of the Apple TV that will integrate with Comcast’s network to enable a streaming TV service for users. Apple is expected to unveil its new Apple TV sometime in the near feature, although some rumors have suggested a launch as early as April.
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Apple TV 2, Magic Wand Outlined in New Steve Jobs Email
Steve Jobs outlined a potential future for the Apple TV in an email correspondence with top Apple executives in 2010, a year before his death, noting potential plans for the “Apple TV 2″ that included TV subscriptions, apps, browser and a “magic wand” control device. The email was published today as a part of Apple’s lawsuit trial with Samsung (via The Verge).
8. Apple TV 2 – David Moody, Jeff Robbin– Strategy: stay in the living room game and make a great “must have” accessory for iOS devices– sales so far, projections for this holiday season– add content:– NBC, CBS, Viacom, HBO, …– TV subscription?– where do we go from here?– apps, browser, magic wand?
Jobs’ email also goes over other subjects for Apple’s 2010 Top 100, a secret meeting in which top Apple employees discuss strategy for the upcoming year, including plans for the “plus” iPhone 4 that was eventually named the iPhone 4s and a low cost iPhone model based on the iPod touch that would replace the iPhone 3GS.
Plans for the future of iOS are also mentioned, with Jobs noting that strategy should be to “catch up to Android where we are behind (notifications, tethering, speech…) and leapfrog them (Siri, …)”.
The subject of Apple’s now defunct MobileMe service makes up another large part of the email, with Jobs acknowledging that Google was “way ahead of Apple in cloud services” and that both the search giant and Microsoft had better technology than Apple but had not “figured it out yet”. The email also notes that Apple’s plan was to improve MobileMe to the point where it tied all Apple’s products together and made its ecosystem even more “sticky”, so that it would be more difficult for customers to leave for a competitor.
Finally, the email makes mention of Apple’s desire to further its lead over Google in music and great apps in the App Store as a part of Apple’s “holy war” with Google, with mentions for both The Beatles and iTunes in the Cloud.
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Daily Roundup: 5-year-old hacks Xbox Live account, Amazon Fire TV teardown and more!
You might say the day is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workday, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Daily Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past 24 hours — all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.
Watch a 5-year-old spam the spacebar to access his dad’s Xbox Live account
How difficult is it to break into a password-protected Xbox One profile? Well, 5-year-old Kristoffer Von Hassel managed to crack into his dad’s account account by simply pressing the spacebar. A lot.
Apple buys tech that could take Siri offline
TechCrunch is reporting that experts from the speech recognition firm Novauris are working with Apple to improve Siri’s vocal chops. Since most of Novauris’ work deals with locally processed recognition, it’s possible Apple’s voice tech may be in line for offline functionality sooner than later.
Amazon Fire TV teardown reveals an easily accessible media hub
That was quick. The folks at iFixit have already taken the Fire TV through the wringer, and it turns out the set-top box is relatively easy to fix. So, aside from a tricky outer casing, maintaining the internals should be a breeze for the average DIYer.
Samsung promises truly flexible electronics sooner with graphene breakthrough
Graphene’s back — well, according to Samsung, anyway. In the past, producing useable sheets of the allotrope has been a tricky business. But thanks to input from the South Korean manufacturer, the process could be refined for commercial applications.
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Filed under: Misc
Apple Spent Years Designing iPhone for ‘Normal People’
Apple senior software engineer Greg Christie took the stand today in Apple’s second patent trial against Samsung, where he shared some details on the development of the “Slide to Unlock” function Samsung is accused of copying and gave additional details on the development of the original iPhone.
One of Apple’s major arguments against Samsung is the fact that developing the iPhone was a serious risk for the company as it was new territory, a point that Christie reiterated in his testimony as he described the three year journey of the iPhone’s development (via CNET).
The iPhone went through hundreds of different design tweaks as Apple worked to make the phone function in a way that anyone could understand. The company’s focus on simplicity remains to this day, with Apple designing for “normal people,” as described by Christie.
“One of the biggest challenges is that we need to sell products to people who don’t do what we do for a living,” Christie, one of the inventors of the slide-to-unlock iPhone feature, said. When designing products, Apple keeps in mind that it wants “normal people – people with better things to do with their lives than learn how a computer might work – to use the product as well as we can.”
Christie helped develop some of the original iPhone’s key features and he is known as the inventor of “Slide to Unlock,” a function that prevents the iPhone from being activated accidentally while within a pocket. During his testimony, Christie also detailed the creation of the function (via Re/code), noting that Apple had originally aimed to have the device’s screen on at all times.
A screen that was always on proved to be infeasible, with Christie citing an inability to meet power requirements. “We had to resort to a power button,” he said, stating that the company was also concerned with “pocket dialing.”
“We knew we had to have a locked mode, or a locked state, where it wouldn’t let you do most things, except you could unlock it,” Christie said.
That need resulted in the development of Apple’s famous Slide to Unlock function, which Christie testified was an important feature on the phone because it is the first thing a customer sees on the iPhone, both in store and at home.
During this second patent trial, which covers newer devices, Apple was limited to levying just five patents against Samsung, making each one vital to the case. Apple is aiming to prove that each patent is highly valuable to the company and is seeking $2 billion in damages from Samsung.
Greg Christie gave additional details on the development of the original iPhone ahead of the patent trial, which can be found in his March interview with The Wall Street Journal.
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Apple’s Sales Team Expressed Fears iPhone Growth Could Stall Due to Android Threat
Apple is worried about larger-screened, lower-priced Android phones, according to an internal document shared today in the ongoing Apple vs. Samsung patent lawsuit (via Re/code). The document, which is from the company’s sales department, notes that iPhone growth could drop due to competition from smartphones that have larger screens or lower prices than the iPhone.
“Competitors have drastically improved their hardware and in some cases their ecosystems,” a member of Apple’s sales team wrote in a document that was prepared as part of a fiscal 2014 offsite meeting. Portions of the document were shown Friday to the jury in the Apple-Samsung case.
Other concerns noted in the document included the idea that Android rivals were “spending ‘obscene’ amounts of money on advertising and/or carrier channel to gain traction” and that mobile carriers had an interest in limiting iPhone sales because of, among other things, the high subsidies they had to pay on the device.
Samsung presented the document during its cross-examination of Apple senior vice president Phil Schiller, who was on the stand earlier today. According to Schiller, the document was not representative of Apple policy and contained information that he largely disagreed with.
Ahead of the release of the iPhone 5c, many thought Apple would enter the low-cost smartphone market for the first time, positioning the phone as an alternative to cheaper Android phones. The iPhone 5c ended up being priced higher than expected and was later described by Tim Cook as a mid-tier device rather than a low-cost option.
Though it is unwilling to sacrifice quality for price even amid fierce competition, Apple is gearing up to compete with Android phones and boost its growth through another arena in 2014 — larger screens. Rumors have indicated the iPhone 6 may be released in two sizes, 4.7 and 5.5 inches, both of which are larger than the existing iPhone 5s. Analysts have already suggested the release of a larger-screened iPhone could lure back a significant number of Android switchers and cause a massive spike in upgrades.
Other tidbits from the Apple vs. Samsung lawsuit include details on its “Holy War” with Google and the fact that Apple considered dropping its advertising partner, Media Arts Lab, due to its dissatisfaction with its advertising in early 2013.
Following Phil Schiller, Apple senior software engineer and inventor of “Slide to Unlock” Greg Christie has taken the stand, largely reiterating details on the development of the original iPhone, which were first published in an interview with The Wall Street Journal in March.
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Apple’s (Product) RED Charity Contributions Reach $70 Million
Apple’s (Product) RED contributions towards the fight against AIDS have reached $70 million, according to a Friday tweet from the (RED) Twitter account. That’s up $5 million from $65 million in July of 2013, with 100 percent of that total going towards HIV/AIDS programs in Africa.
Great news to end the week! Apple's total for @RED reaches $70 MILLION. 100% goes to fight #AIDS. Thank you all for buying (APPLE)RED.
— (RED) (@RED) April 4, 2014
Apple has collaborated with (RED) since it was created in 2006, first releasing a special edition (RED) iPod nano. Since then, Apple has released a number of (RED) devices, including iPod nanos and shuffles, iPad Smart Covers, iPhone Bumpers, and iPhone 5s cases. With every (RED) product bought, Apple donates a portion of the purchase price to the charity.
Last year, lead Apple designer Jony Ive teamed up with designer Marc Newson to create a range of one-of-a-kind products that were auctioned off by Sotheby’s, with proceeds going to (RED). Items included a red Mac Pro and solid gold EarPods, earning nearly $13 million in total.
(Product) RED is affiliated with several other companies in addition to Apple, including Starbucks, Nike, and American Express, raising more than $200 million to date.
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Pixar President: ‘Steve Jobs Changed Pixar Even as Pixar Changed Him’
Steve Jobs is best known as the co-founder of Apple and the man who spurred the company to greatness, but he also co-founded Pixar Animation Studios, another company that’s both highly successful and widely admired for the quality animated movies that it produces.
In a new book that’s slated to be released next week, Pixar president and co-founder Ed Catmull gives an inside look at Pixar and what made the company so successful. An early excerpt describing Steve Jobs and his influence on the company has been published at Gizmodo, giving an inside look at Jobs’ later years.
Though Jobs is often described as obsessed with perfection and relentlessly tough on his employees, Catmull notes that he underwent a significant transformation as he matured, becoming sensitive to other people’s feelings and their “value as contributors to the creative process” during his last two decades of life.
Catmull attributes some of that personality shift to Jobs’ experiences at Pixar, a company that he was particularly proud of because of the lasting impact its films had on the world. Jobs believed that movies endure because they “dig for deeper truths” and later in life, he fully embraced the “nobility of entertaining people.”
His experience with Pixar was part of this change. Steve aspired to create utilitarian things that also brought joy; it was his way of making the world a better place. That was part of why Pixar made him so proud—because he felt the world was better for the films we made. He used to say regularly that as brilliant as Apple products were, eventually they all ended up in landfills.
During Pixar’s early years, Jobs is described as the company’s benefactor, later becoming a “protector” who gave constructive criticism within the company but defended it to the outside world. As a side project, Pixar was a “place [Jobs] could relax and play a little,” which changed him for the better, according to Catmull.
While he never lost his intensity, we watched him develop the ability to listen. More and more, he could express empathy and caring and patience. He became truly wise. The change in him was real, and it was deep.
Jobs was able to diagnose problems at Pixar with “startling efficiency,” focusing on the problem itself and not the filmmakers. As he spent more time at the company, he became “more articulate and observant of people’s feelings.”
Some people have said that he got mellower with age, but I don’t think that’s an adequate description of what happened; it sounds too passive, as if he just was letting more go. Steve’s transformation was an active one. He continued to engage; he just changed the way he went about it.
Catmull’s Creativity, Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration is currently available for preorder on Amazon.com and will be released on April 8. The full excerpt on Steve Jobs’ role at Pixar is well worth reading and can be found over at Gizmodo.
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Amazon’s Fire TV Is Powerful, but Voice Search Limitations Hamper User Experience
Earlier this week, Amazon launched its Fire TV media streaming box, entering a crowded market with devices from Roku, the Chromecast from Google and the Apple TV. With the Fire TV delivering a number of features rumored for a future Apple TV, reactions to Amazon’s new box have certainly been of interest to Apple fans.
With an immediate launch for Fire TV, the device has already landed in the hands of reviewers and at popular repair shop iFixit, which promptly tore the device down. Early analysis of the Fire TV suggests the device has market-leading hardware that is hindered by less-than-perfect software.
On the hardware front, iFixit confirms the Fire TV is a powerhouse with a quad-core, 1.7 GHz Qualcomm Krait 300 processor, Qualcomm Adreno 320 dedicated GPU, 2 GB LPDDR2 RAM clocked at 533 MHz, 8 GB internal storage, 802.11a/b/g/n MIMO Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0. The Fire TV has the power to play back HD videos, with extra to spare for games.
Though the hardware is impressive, early reviews suggest the device’s blazing performance is overshadowed by a poor search experience that makes finding content on the Fire TV a chore, says Dave Smith in a review for ReadWrite. While Voice Search offers an improvement over typical manual input, its results are limited to Amazon services.
Due to the extreme limitations of Voice Search, browsing through Netflix — where you’ll probably spend most of your time, considering Amazon’s rather limited library of quality movies for free streaming — is, once again, manual labor.
In time, applications like Netflix and Hulu+ could support Voice Search—maybe even through a simple software update. But since searching is so important on this device, Amazon has really hung early-adopters out to dry. Even when Voice Search works, it can’t filter the results by movies or programs you can stream for free.
Because of its high-end hardware, Amazon couldn’t undercut its competition and had to release the Fire TV at a price point that is on the high-end of the market as noted by Leslie Horn of Gizmodo.
“More features and more horsepower are rarely a bad thing, but in this case it’s driven the price of Fire TV much higher than one might have expected from an Amazon product. In a world full of $35 Chromecasts and $50 Roku sticks — which definitely can’t do as much as Fire TV, but can arguably do more than enough — forking over $100 for the ability to play some biggie-sized tablet games is a tough sell.”
Scott Stein of CNET focused on the gaming feature of the Fire TV, saying it isn’t groundbreaking and doesn’t offer a compelling alternative to existing smartphone, tablet, or console games.
Don’t expect anything more than what Android/iOS already offers: the Fire TV’s initial offerings, while better than I’d expected, cover a lot of familiar bases. Terraria, Badland, Asphalt 8, Riptide GP 2, Dead Rising 2, The Walking Dead, even Minecraft Pocket Edition…you can already get all these in many other places.
To help set it apart from its competitors, Amazon included an app store, gaming and wireless controller support to Fire TV. Earlier rumors suggest Apple will bring similar features to its next generation Apple TV, adding support for games and Apple’s iOS 7 controllers to the media box. Other rumors point to a device with the router features of the AirPort Express as well as a possible cable TV tie-in with partners such as Comcast.
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