Mostrando entradas con la etiqueta Apple. Mostrar todas las entradas
Mostrando entradas con la etiqueta Apple. Mostrar todas las entradas

domingo, 27 de diciembre de 2015

Hardware: ¿iPad Pro suplanta a la notebook?

Un mes usando solo el iPad Pro: ¿puede sustituir al ordenador?
Apple asegura que el futuro de la computación pasaba por su iPad Pro: lo hemos probado a fondo durante un mes para ver si, en efecto, podemos olvidarnos ya de los portátiles
Todo sobre el iPad Pro

El País


La tableta iPad Pro con Pencil durante su presentación el 9 de septiembre. / JOSH EDELSON (AFP)

¿Un reto? ¿Un desafío? Ni de lejos. Si Apple aseguraba que el futuro de la computación pasaba por el iPad Pro, había que probarlo a fondo, había que darle una oportunidad. La precaución dictaba que era siempre mejor tener el portátil a mano por si las moscas, pero esta prueba de uso real debía ceñirse al guion de manera escrupulosa: el portátil acabó guardado en un cajón. Ahí estaba, solo, el iPad Pro: grande, esplendoroso y reluciente. Sin embargo, la primera sensación que se tiene cuando lo iPad Pro en sus manos es que se trata de un iPad sobrealimentado.

Este pensamiento alimentó otro que rondó por nuestras cabezas cuando el iPad original vio la luz: "¿No es esto un iPhone gigante?". Se sucedieron las bromas y, sin embargo, el iPad creó su propia categoría y se convirtió en un fenómeno de masas. Así que es mejor borrar pronto de la cabeza la idea de que al sostener un Pro se sostiene un iPad gigante. No fue fácil: estéticamente son idénticos.

¿Es una tableta? ¿Es un portátil?

La primera prueba de fuego del equipo no resultó fácil: usarlo en el café de todos los días. Apareció un incómodo enemigo con el que no se contaba: los prejuicios. Sí, fue sacar ese descomunal equipo y ponerlo sobre la mesa y sentir que todos los presentes estaban mirando a caballo entre el pitorreo y la curiosidad. Sin embargo, al conectarlo al teclado específico de la casa, el rubor inicial disminuye; aquello se acerca ya mucho más a la idea de computación del futuro con la que arengó a los presentes de la Keynote, la gran presentación de Apple en septiembre, el director ejecutivo de la compañía, Tim Cook. Al final, aunque parezca un iPad gigante, es también una pantalla de 12,9 pulgadas conectada a un teclado, o lo que es lo mismo, una configuración semejante a la de un portátil.

En realidad, este nuevo equipo de Apple se acerca con gran habilidad al único segmento que está creciendo en la actualidad: el de los híbridos, según apunta la consultora IDC en su último informe. Sí, si alguien está deshojando la margarita dudando entre tableta o portátil, la tendencia es sin duda el híbrido, o lo que es lo mismo, una tableta a la que se puede acoplar un teclado de forma natural. Pues bien, el iPad Pro sí cuenta con esa capacidad de transformarse en un ordenador portátil cuando se le conecta un teclado. En el caso que nos ocupa, el Smart Keyboard de la casa de la manzana: un teclado de tamaño completo, dadas las dimensiones del dispositivo. Cuando el usuario se habitúa con las funciones rápidas del propio iOS, la velocidad de escritura es bastante superior a la de un portátil.

Una multitarea interpretada de forma impecable
El dispositivo cuenta, además, con la gran agilidad que proporciona un sistema operativo móvil, algo que, por ejemplo, el usuario de un Surface no encontrará con Windows 10, por muy optimizada que esté la plataforma. En el iPad Pro se arranca una aplicación esperando nuestras órdenes. No hay retrasos, casi nunca se cuelga y todo funciona según lo esperado. Apple ha sabido, por otro lado, ofrecer la obligada multitarea en un dispositivo de este tipo, y lo ha hecho muy a su estilo: por un lado, con lo que la casa ha bautizado como Split View (vista lateral) y por otro, con un sistema de cambio de aplicaciones prácticamente instantáneo. Sin embargo, se nota que se trata de la primera versión de la pantalla dividida y los californianos todavía tienen mucho margen de mejora.

¿Es el iPad Pro un buen portátil? Puede serlo, según las necesidades del usuario, pero ¿es un portátil una buena tableta?
En cuanto al Split View, el usuario podrá en cualquier aplicación deslizar con el dedo la pantalla de derecha a izquierda y ahí aparecerán todas las aplicaciones que soporten esta nueva función. Gracias a ella, se puede trabajar simultáneamente y de forma paralela en dos aplicaciones, algo especialmente útil si se está trabajando en una hoja de cálculo o Word y se desea ir obteniendo información bien del correo electrónico o de una página web. Con todo, este sistema tiene sus limitaciones: por un lado, todavía faltan bastantes aplicaciones por actualizarse y soportarlo, y por otro, Apple todavía no permite el "arrastrar y soltar" de una aplicación a otra, que ahorraría mucho tiempo al usuario. Hablábamos también de la multitarea, y es que gracias al teclado, el cambio entre aplicaciones se hace de forma instantánea pulsando las teclas Command y Tab. No hay retrasos ni tiempos de refresco de pantalla: todo sucede al instante.



Quiere ser un portátil, pero no lo es

Una pantalla sensacional, una generosa batería, velocidad de vértigo en la ejecución de aplicaciones y la navegación entre las mismas, un catálogo de aplicaciones desmedido... ¿Quién querrá después usar un portátil? Se trata de una cuestión interesante y de difícil respuesta. Hay que entender que, pese a todos los esfuerzos llevados a cabo por parte de Apple, el Pro no deja de ser un iPad, y dependiendo del perfil del usuario, no será posible desprenderse del ordenador. Evidentemente, todos aquellos que necesiten ejecutar aplicaciones que no tengan un equivalente en iOS, pueden ir olvidándose del iPad Pro como dispositivo único. También aquellos que imperativamente trabajen con el puerto USB, porque este equipo carece de él, y por último, un problema inesperado: las páginas web reconocen a este equipo como un dispositivo móvil, y por ello, en muchas páginas resulta imposible trabajar pues se muestra la limitada versión móvil.

Este nuevo equipo de Apple se acerca con gran habilidad al único segmento que está creciendo en la actualidad: el de los híbridos
Por fortuna, esto último puede ser solucionado en gran medida utilizando Chrome, que en su versión iOS camufla la identidad móvil del dispositivo ofreciendo una experiencia desktop, y de esta manera se pueden resolver el grueso de las situaciones en las que uno podría echar de menos un portátil por requerimientos del software.


Un killer en productividad

Si hay una palabra que define a la perfección este equipo de Apple es versatilidad. En un mismo viaje de tren, fue posible utilizar el equipo como portátil (redactando correos y trabajando sobre documentos), para luego plegar el teclado sobre el lomo y leer el periódico, o incluso trabajar con el controvertido Pencil para escribir algunas anotaciones en OneNote. Realmente el mérito del uso de los lápices en las tabletas le corresponde a Microsoft, que con el Surface demostró que este periférico disparaba las posibilidades del dispositivo.

Apple llega tarde y lo hace muy a su estilo: un dispositivo de muy elevada calidad, pero que cuenta con unas carencias que al final pueden condenarlo al abandono. El primero de ellos y más importante, que para priorizar el diseño sobre todas las cosas, el Pencil carece de ningún tipo de enganche con el iPad o su funda y siendo tan caro (109 euros), el temor a perderlo hará que al final se deje en casa. En cualquier caso, girar el iPad para comenzar a anotar con una gran fiabilidad, dispara las opciones de un dispositivo que hace unos minutos estábamos usando como portátil y antes para ver una película.


¿Me debería comprar un iPad Pro?

En esta experiencia se ha utilizado única y exclusivamente un iPad Pro como dispositivo para todo y sin recurrir en ningún momento a un ordenador. Y el equipo ha superado esta prueba con nota, apoyándose en varios elementos: un rendimiento general superior (ejecución de aplicaciones y gestión de la plataforma), una batería "de todo el día", un tamaño extremadamente compacto y ligero teniendo en cuenta las dimensiones y, de nuevo, la versatilidad que lo convierte en un equipo para todo, gracias especialmente a la funda-teclado diseñada por la casa.

Se trata, en definitiva, de un dispositivo de difícil categorización que en el cara a cara saldría perdiendo en todas las comparaciones: si busca un mejor portátil seguro que lo encuentra, y si lo que quiere es una tableta, seguro que podrá localizar una opción más compacta y económica. Sin embargo, Apple sacrifica con este equipo las batallas para al final, ganar la guerra con contundencia. El iPad Pro abre una nueva categoría en la que un equipo que nace de una plataforma móvil, se adentra en territorios propiedad de los ordenadores de siempre, y lo hace de forma sobresaliente. ¿Es el iPad Pro un buen portátil? Puede serlo, según las necesidades del usuario, pero ¿es un portátil una buena tableta? En realidad, Apple ha llevado a cabo una aproximación en dirección inversa: a partir de un dispositivo móvil, crear uno que hace las veces de sobremesa. Y lo logra.

sábado, 8 de marzo de 2014

Apple se hace automotriz

Apple desembarca en los autos con CarPlay
La empresa ya promociona la "experiencia iPhone" en cuatro ruedas. Permitirá recibir llamadas, notificaciones o utilizar mapas desde una pantalla en el coche.



PlayCARPLAY. La plataforma iPhone sobre ruedas.CARPLAY. La plataforma iPhone sobre ruedas.
Los fanáticos de la Apple van a tener que invertir para tener el último lanzamiento de la marca. CarPlay es un sistema integrado al auto para utilizar las principales funciones del iPhone, directamente en una pantalla en el coche. Algunas de las marcas que lo implementarán este año son Ferrari, Honda, Hyundai, Jaguar, Mercedes Benz y Volvo. A futuro se sumarán otras automotrices.

CarPlay se puede controlar con la voz, gracias a Siri, pero también con controles instalados en el auto o directamente en la pantalla táctil integrada al tablero. Los íconos de Apple además fueron modificados para hacer que el control en el auto sea más sencillo.

Los mapas de Apple brindarán información de cada giro necesario para llegar al destino, además de información del tránsito y tiempo estimado de arribo. Además, al mejor estilo Google Now, CarPlay puede predecir la dirección a la que podríamos ir, tomando información de los correos, mensajes de texto, contactos y entradas en el calendario.

Será compatible con iPhone 5, 5S y 5C.

TN

lunes, 3 de febrero de 2014

El iWatch controlará tu salud

El siguiente movimiento de Apple: El iWatch controlará su salud y estado físico también



Apple está planeando dar un impulso a los dispositivos de seguimiento de la salud y médicos de acuerdo con dos informes en el New York Times y 9to5Mac. Es probable que estos esfuerzos, finalmente se abren camino en los llamados iWatch de Apple, una muñeca - ordenador portátil que se espera que Apple lanzará a finales de este año.
Vamos a empezar con el informe del New York Times, que dice que los ejecutivos de Apple de alto nivel se han reunido con la FDA para hablar de traer los dispositivos médicos y aplicaciones al mercado. Nick Bilton, quien co-escribió el informe del New York Times, fue la primera persona en dar la noticia de que Apple estaba trabajando en el iWatch.

Luego está el informe de 9to5Mac de Mark Gurman , el mejor reportero de Apple en el mundo. Gurman dice próxima versión de Apple de iOS, el sistema operativo para iPhones y iPads, tendrá una nueva aplicación llamada "Healthbook" que se utiliza para supervisar cosas como calorías quemadas, pasos dados, y el peso perdido.

Business Insider

miércoles, 22 de enero de 2014

Las oficinas más increíbles del futuro


World's Coolest Offices of the Future 
BY CHRISTINE LAGORIO-CHAFKIN AND CAROLYN CUTRONE

You've never seen company headquarters like these. That's because they don't exist (yet). Here's a glimpse at the most amazing offices that will go up next year--and after.

Inc.com


In 2012, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg began meeting with internationally-renowned architect Frank Gerhy. Welcome to the future, in which a 28-year-old start-up founder can call on a starchitect.

Indeed, two years later, Gerhy has designed a sprawling new Facebook campus in Menlo Park, California, across the street from its previous 1 Hacker Way. The new building will be the largest open-floor-plan office in the world, and is rumored to be connected to the old office by an underground tunnel.

Facebook's forthcoming headquarters campus is one of the five coolest offices of the future Inc. has chosen to feature this year. And it embodies some of the characteristics common to all of the remarkable offices we've chosen, including open spaces to encourage collaboration, extreme environmental friendliness, and truly innovative design. Without further ado, here's a glimpse into the future.

Apple Campus 2

Cuptertino, California
Project by: Anton Menlo
Designer: Foster + Partners
Year to be completed: 2016

Apple’s forthcoming spaceship-shaped building might look extraterrestrial, but the goal for the company's massive new campus is to be as integrated with nature as possible. The disc-like structure is nestled into a prairie landscape. Through the fields, a winding road leads to an underground parking lot--placed there to help make the site look naturally beautiful, with no concrete in view.



Apple Campus 2

(Continued)
It's Green Inside, Too
While 80 percent of this redeveloped site will be greenery, sustainability is incorporated into the 20 percent that's the headquarters, as well. Its roof is covered in black solar panels, and the 2.8 million square-foot building will not need heating or cooling for 75 percent of the year, due to the use of natural ventilation. How's that for green?



Apple Campus 2

(Continued)
Coming Together, Finally
This main building, illustrated in an architectural blueprint, will accommodate up to 13,000 Apple employees, and includes a 100,000 square foot fitness center, and 3,000-seat cafe. Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer said the concepts behind the design are collaboration and fluidity. Completing the Campus 2 will be a giant feat in bringing together employees, who are currently spread around 57 buildings in the Cupertino area.



Facebook

Menlo Park, California
Project by: Frank Gehry
Year to be completed: 2015
Welcome to the future of Facebook, envisioned by architect Frank Gehry (pictured here)--with a lot of input from Mark Zuckerberg. The Facebook founder requested the new campus centerpiece be one big, sprawling, open-plan building. Gehry infused warmth into that idea, creating a structure with angled walls and interior curved lines of desks and work-stations, as well as clusters of meeting rooms. But the floor-plan isn't interrupted: Employees will be able to walk straight from one end of the building to the other without passing through a single door.


Facebook

(Continued)
A Live/Work Mecca
This one-million-square-foot campus will be a place where Facebook engineers can eat, sleep, and work. In addition to the main building, which is the largest open-floor plan in the world, engineers can use the rooftop park, which is scattered with trails and courts for sports. There's a veritable mini-forest on this extreme-green roof, and also a full vegetable garden.



Facebook

(Continued)
New-Wave Talent Attraction
The building is designed to accommodate about 3,400 engineers and will take on the company's existing address of 1 Hacker Way. There are plenty of perks to attract new--and entertain old--in-demand technical talent: The company is providing transportation for all employees, and providing some on-campus housing as well, shown in the artist's rendering here. For playtime, the quad is the place to be, sporting bocce ball, a pool, cabanas, and BBQ pits. There's even an area designated for playing with dogs.



New Lab

Brooklyn, New York
Project by: Macro Sea
Year to be completed: 2014
The historic industrial park known as the Brooklyn Navy Yard is experiencing a manufacturing renaissance, and an anchor of that growth is the Green Manufacturing Center--of which New Lab, a manufacturer of 3-D printers, is building out about 160,000 square feet.



New Lab

(Continued)
New Vision; Old Bones
New Lab is on board with the Navy Yard's goal of becoming a national model for sustainable industrial parks. But it's doing so by keeping the bones of the original ship-building facility it's housed in. Just check out the ceiling of this architectural illustration of the forthcoming auditorium. And it's transforming the massive empty facility into a modern-day manufacturing facility, along with additional offices for small businesses and freelance collaborators.



New Lab

(Continued)
Creatives, Rejoice
Entrepreneurs, educators, craftspeople, and freelancers across many disciplines ranging from robotics to carpentry to biotech, will work side-by-side. Artists and designers are already in place in studios in portions of the New Lab, while the rest of the space is being built out for likely mid-2014 opening.



Green Office

The Netherlands

Project by: RAU Architects
Year to be completed: 2015
Is this the future? What's dubbed "The Green Office," is a hypothetical plan for a sprawling, massive, multi-use building (it would actually house several companies; not just one) integrated with transportation and its surrounding outdoor environment. And it sure is green: The structure is an "energy-generating biotope," harnessing kinetic energy of people moving inside, recycling everything from paper to sewage water for reuse, and using small wind turbines, solar cells and algae to harness natural energy.



Green Office

(Continued)
Flexible Plan
The plan is a loose one: It's meant as an adaptable solution for efficiently greening dense urban spaces. And three variations of it are planned in different locations, according to RAU Architects. The building not only has a verdant roof and lush central courtyard, but also is designed to generate more sustainable energy than it consumes--and still be a comfortable, spacious, place to be: Flexible offices will be placed throughout the buildings, intermixed with restaurants, cafes, day care, and workout facilities.



Nvidia HQ

Santa Clara, California
Project by: Gensler
Year to be completed: 2015
Over the past 20 years, computer-graphics and processing company Nvidia has grown from three people to 8,000 employees across 40 locations. Now, it's determined to bring everyone together in a collaborative environment. Gensler’s Lisa Bottom, a consultant on the project, says the new office plans take that to heart: The entire office is sprawling, but it's height is being limited to just one or two floors. That's because separating people by floor is known to dramatically reduce their chances of having spontaneous interactions.



Nvidia HQ

(Continued)
Super-Sized Building-Blocks
The company, which specializes in computer graphics, created the above rendering of its future home, using its own technology. Open floor plans are aimed at encouraging collaboration, and even the shape of the exterior of the two buildings is meant to inspire employees: The triangle is the fundamental building block of many computer graphics.

martes, 5 de noviembre de 2013

Gratis o por USD 1.99 un puede hacer su Ipad giratorio

We Tried This App In The Office And Everyone Stopped Working To Watch It



Every so often we come across an app that really surprises or amuses us. Cycloramic straight-up blew our minds. 
This app from Egos Ventures lets you take 360-degree panoramic photos or videos using your iPhone 5 or 5S—without having to rotate the phone yourself.
All you need is a flat surface. Open the app, press the record button, and try not to gasp in amazement.
Check it out:

Cycloramic accesses the little motors that make your phone vibrate, and uses them to physically rotate the device. Because the iPhone has flat edges and an even weight distribution, it can spin around without taking a spill.
The best part? This $1.99 app is currently available in the App Store for free. Go crazy. 
Here's how our video turned out:
(Hat-tip to BGR, where we first learned about the app.)


Business Insider

domingo, 20 de octubre de 2013

¿Xiaomi vencerá a Apple?

Xiaomi has beat Apple in China, but can it win over the rest of the world?
By Iris Mansou




Quartz begins a series today profiling companies around the world experiencing explosive growth.

Lei Jun walks on to the stage like a young Steve Jobs. It’s September in Beijing and the founder of one of China’s scrappiest smartphone brands, Xiaomi, is about to unveil its flagship Mi-3 phone. This model uses one of the fastest processors on the market, retails at just over $300 and already has legions of fans.

On the surface, Xiaomi seems to have a lot in common with Apple. Phones are slickly designed, sell out within minutes and have a cult-like following. Lei even wears jeans.

But Xiaomi’s strategy is actually the antithesis of Apple—partly the secret of its success. Apple makes fat margins off hardware and services, while Xiaomi is barely selling its phones above cost. Apple’s budget model, the 5C sells for almost $500 more than Xiaomi’s latest model in China. To reduce costs even more, Xiaomi sells its phones almost exclusively online and the company has increased its sales projection from 15 million to 20 million before the year is through.

Xiaomi’s MIUI operating system is also more open bar than walled garden, which means that any Android device can run its OS and get access to Xiaomi’s store of apps, services and games. Xiaomi recently announced that more than 20 million users had downloaded its operating system and the store has had more than 1 billion downloads.

Indeed, Xiaomi has made its mark on in China’s much-coveted mobile market in a relatively short amount of time. The company is only three years old, yet in the last quarter it shipped more smartphones in China than Apple. The gap was close, with Xiaomi racking up 4.4 million phones versus Apple’s 4.3 million, but the figures still put Xiaomi in sixth place when ranked by the number of phones sold.


Xiaomi’s cheap and cheerful phones. CREDIT? Courtesy of Xiaomi.Courtesy of Xiaomi

And it is clear the company has its eye on the market beyond China.

Its recent decision to hire away Google’s former vice president of Android product management, Hugo Barra, suggests Xiaomi’s future may be elsewhere—even as it keeps breaking from the Apple formula.

Blogging about his first week in the job, even ex-Googler Barra was struck by the pace:

…it’s been a pretty intense journey so far.

The Chinese tech ecosystem moves at breakneck speed. I’ve never seen such fierce competition and such impassioned desire to build things fast. There’s a pervasive entrepreneurial spirit in companies both small and big.

Hiring Barra could give Xiaomi an edge when it comes to raising the company’s profile internationally, as well as when it comes to dealing with local carriers and regulators. “That could be an important part of the growth strategy, but they’ll also need to deliver on the other part of the strategy for this to work,” says Morning Star analyst Dan Su.

That other part is made up of content and phones. Cheap hardware and an open OS helped Xiaomi build a critical mass of users who it hopes to hook in with Xiaomi’s content and make it king. Once it has built a sticky online store, the company will be able to deliver the same content through any device.

Or at least that’s the plan.

“If they’re putting Xiaomi content services on non-Xiaomi devices, it’s very smart,” says Rajeev Chand, managing director and head of research for Rutberg, an investment bank. Why this strategy works: It maximizes Xiaomi’s customer base and so maximizes its money-making potential. It also puts Xiaomi in a strong position when negotiating content and attracting developers. All in all, Chand says it’s a “drastically different,” approach to that of its competitors Samsung and Lenovo, which are trying to make money from devices while bundling and under-selling content.

Xiamoi has been valued at $10 billion. Other evidence of explosive growth: if you compare the first half of 2013 with the whole of last year, it’s sold almost double the number of handsets and made double the money.

Although its fledgling roots are in smartphones, Xiaomi has spent 2013 trying to multi-screen, move into people’s homes and disrupt another coveted market—television. In April, Xiamoi started selling a set-top box. It added a 3D Smart TV for under $500 to its product line in September. There have even been rumors of a tablet.

In the post-mobile era, Chand says, “you want to be with the consumer throughout the journey.”

But it’s Xiaomi’s recent high-profile hire that helped catapult it into mainstream tech buzz. In an interview with All Things D, Barra said Xiaomi represented “a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, truly a dream job, this idea of building a global company which could be as significant as Google, from the ground up.”

He added:

There is no question the phone business is very low margin today, but they want to get to a place where they can sell the device at cost and then sell high-margin services to make that phone experience even better.

The company’s already started to sell its wares in Hong Kong and Taiwan, but Lei and his co-founder, another ex-Googler Lin Bin, are hoping that Barra’s international contacts and expertise will really kick off the expansion.

In developing markets, Xiaomi’s quality-to-price ratio makes most sense. That’s why analysts predict it will start with its Asian neighbors first, namely places like Malaysia, Vietnam and Thailand, where the opening price point is attractive compared to the competition.

That said, its international aspirations will prove to be a challenge.

First off, the content that Xiamoi has staked its reputation on is local to China, where Google’s online store, Google Play, has a weak presence. Creating a sticky online store in parts of the world where Google Play is strong, will be difficult, especially in countries which put a premium on brand-recognition, like European countries or the US. Second, there aren’t many precedents of domestic Chinese firms expanding beyond China, nor does the company have anywhere near the marketing resources of Apple. In countries where Lei’s magic doesn’t translate, that will count for a lot. With domestic success certain, what’s really at stake now is whether China can become a global contender.

Quartz

domingo, 28 de julio de 2013

11 cosas que los usuarios de Android pueden refrendar a los usuarios de iPhones

11 Things Android Owners Like To Say To Make iPhone Users Jealous


Business Insider



My screen is bigger.



I can add more storage with a SD card.

I can swap out my battery whenever I want to.

I can fully customize my home screen with any widget, app, or moving wallpaper.

My phone can double as a tablet.


My voice assistant (Google Now) is much better than Siri.

My maps app just works out of the box. But you have to download one separately.

My phone seamlessly syncs with Gmail, Chrome, and all other Google services.

I can easily share photos and other content just by tapping my phone with another one.

I can use my phone as a virtual wallet to pay for stuff.

I can charge my phone with a standard USB charger. No need to dig around for that special iPhone 5 charger.

viernes, 14 de junio de 2013

Office para iPhone

Microsoft anunció una versión del Office para el iPhone

La compañía lazó la aplicación oficial para editar documentos de Word, Excel y Powerpoint; está disponible su descarga gratuita para los usuarios de EE.UU. pero requiere de un abono a Office 365. La Nación


 
Una vista de las diferentes pantallas de la aplicación de Office para iPhone, con soporte para documentos de Word, Excel y Powerpoint. 
Luego de varios rumores , Microsoft presentó de forma oficial la aplicación de Microsoft Office para el iPhone, un segmento que estuvo ocupado por diversos servicios alternativos que suplían la ausencia del paquete ofimático en el mundo móvil. No obstante, su alcance aún es limitado: sólo estará disponible para el teléfono de Apple (no existe una versión para el iPad) y su descarga gratuita se encuentra a disposición de los usuarios de Estados Unidos al momento. Su despliegue a nivel mundial se espera para las próximas semanas.
Asimismo, si bien la aplicación no tiene costo alguno, el uso del servicio requiere de una cuenta Office 365 Home Premium y ProPlus. Por su parte, Office Mobile for Office 365 subscribers (como se conoce a la aplicación oficial de Microsoft) está basado en la plataforma de almacenamiento on line SkyDrive, una forma de uso que dista de las prestaciones fuera de línea que tiene el paquete Office en las computadoras de escritorio y portátiles.
Cómo funciona el Office Mobile for iPhone (video oficial en inglés)

"No esperamos que sea una aplicación independiente", dijo Chris Schneider, un gerente de Marketing de la división Office, en referencia a la complementación de la aplicación con los servicios de edición de documentos en la nube que dispone Microsoft con Office 365, un servicio de suscripción a 100 dólares anuales que permite instalar las aplicaciones ofimáticas en cinco dispositivos diferentes, sea PC, Mac, tableta o teléfonos inteligentes.
En el mundo móvil, Microsoft Office ya se encuentra preinstalado en los teléfonos con Windows Phone. En la aplicación para el iPhone los usuarios podrán acceder a documentos de Word, Excel y Powerpoint.
La aplicación de Microsoft apunta más a una edición rápida y sencilla de estos archivos, y no tanto a su creación: se pueden crear documentos de Word y Excel, pero ocurre lo mismo con las presentaciones de PowerPoint. Su almacenamiento predeterminado será en el servicio SkyDrive, y no es posible usar iCloud de Apple..


sábado, 25 de mayo de 2013

Steve Jobs: Duro de negociar




The Steve Jobs emails that show how to win a hard-nosed negotiation


The US government’s price-fixing lawsuit against Apple goes to trial next month in New York. Ahead of its court date, the US released emails that purport to show Apple was the “ringleader” in a scheme to set artificially high ebook prices with some of the largest American publishers, which have already settled the case.
The emails have mostly been viewed in the context of the lawsuit, but they also provide an extraordinary view of high-stakes negotiation between the leaders of two powerful firms, Apple and News Corp. They start far apart, but over the course of five days, Apple’s then-CEO Steve Jobs successfully pulls the son of News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch over to his side.
Jobs was a famously hard-nosed negotiator who won these kinds of battles all the time. Before book publishers, there was the movie industry. And before that, music record labels. But most of those negotiations were hidden from view. What follows are the emails released last week along with some context; spelling and grammar have been preserved from the originals. 
*  *  *

News Corp.’s opening move

It was a Friday morning, January 22, 2010. Apple was preparing to release its newest product, a long-rumored tablet computer, the following week. Part of the iPad’s appeal was supposed to be the vast array of media that could be consumed on it, but one of the largest American publishers, HarperCollins, was holding out from signing a deal to sell its ebooks in Apple’s iTunes store.
Those were the stakes as Eddy Cue, Apple’s head of iTunes and the App Store, visited executives of HarperCollins and its parent company, News Corp. The substance of that meeting was conveyed in an email sent to Cue later that day by Brian Murray, the CEO of HarperCollins. It detailed the publisher’s opening bid in the negotiation, with five days remaining until the iPad’s unveiling.
murray--cueEddy,
Thanks for coming in again this morning. We’ve talked over the proposal and I want to make sure that you have a summary of the deal that HarperCollins would be willing to do in your timeframe.
1. Pricing: We need flexibility to price on a title by title basis outside the prescribed tiers in the contract. We will use our best efforts to meet the tiers we discussed.
2. MFN ["most favored nation" status]: In the event that HarperCollins and Apple disagree on a consumer price for a title, HarperCollins needs the ability to make that title available through other agents who support the higher price.
3. Commissions: We need a lower commission on new releases for the economics to work for us and our authors. We believe a 30% commission will lead to more authors asking for ebooks to be delayed a result that will not work for Apple or HarperCollins.
4. The new release window: We need to have flexibility on the agency window. We believe this window should be 6 months rather than 12 months in the event that one or more large retailers do not move to an agency model.
Leslie will be sending Kevin a contract that reflects these points in the event you wish to move forward on these terms.
Thanks
Brian
Those terms were never going to fly with Apple, which had successfully signed deals with HarperCollins’s rivals, like Penguin (a division of Pearson) and Simon & Schuster (part of Viacom). Those deals would allow Apple to set prices for new ebooks at $12.99—three dollars higher than the typical rate at that time on Amazon—and take a 30% cut of each sale.
But HarperCollins wanted the freedom to set its own prices and worried that $12.99 per ebook would hurt its sales on the new iPad as well as the Kindle. It also didn’t want to give up 30%. To back up its position, James Murdoch, a high-ranking News Corp. executive, forwarded Murray’s email to Apple’s then-CEO Steve Jobs, and included the following note. It was still Friday.
murdoch--jobs_labeledSteve,
Thanks for your call earlier today, and for the time last week.
I spoke to Brian Murray and Jon Miller [then the head of digital media at News Corp.]—and Brian is sending a note to Eddy today. I thin I have a handle on this now. In short—we we would like to be able to get something done with Apple—but there are legitimate concerns.
The economics are simple enough. [Amazon] Kindle pays us a wholesale price of $13 and sells it for 9.99. An author gets $4.20 on the sale of a hardcover and $3.30 on the sale of the e-book on the Kindle.
[A portion of this email was redacted by the court.]
Basically—the entire hypothetical benefit of a book without raw materials and distribution cost accrues to Apple, not to the publisher or to the creator of the work.
The other big issue is one of holdbacks. If we can’t agree on the fair price for a book, your team’s proposal restricts us from making that book available elsewhere, even at a higher price. This is just a bridge too far for us.
Also, we are worried about setting prices to high—lots of ebooks are $9.99. A new release window with a lower commission (say 10[%]) for the first six months would enable us to proce much more kenly for Apple customers. We’d like to da that.
More on this below in Brian’s note to Eddy. We outline a deal we can do.
Feel free to call or write anytime over the weekend to discuss if you like.
I am in the UK (so eight hours ahead of CA). My home number is [redacted]. I check the email regularly.
Steve, make no mistake that across the board (TV, Studios, Books, and Newspapers) we would much rather be working with apple than not. But we, and our partners who produce, write, edit, and otherwise make all this with us, have views on fair pricing, and care a lot about our future flexibility. I hope we can figure out a way, if not now and in time for this launch of yours, then maybe in the future.
Best,
JRM

Jobs digs in

Jobs wasn’t willing to compromise. He sent this reply to Murdoch the same day, arguing that Amazon’s pricing wasn’t sustainable and would train people to think that ebooks were cheap. Jobs also reminded Murdoch of Apple’s vast reach—”over 120 million customers with credit cards on file.” You need us more than we need you, he seemed to be saying.
jobs--murdochJames,
A few thoughts to consider (I’d appreciate it if we can keep this between you and me):
1. The current business model of companies like Amazon distributing ebooks below cost or without making a reasonable profit isn’t sustainable for long. As ebooks become a larger business, distributors will need to make at least a small profit, and you will want this too so that they invest in the future of the business with infrastructure, marketing, etc.
2. All the major publishers tell us that Amazon’s $9.99 price for new releases is eroding the value perception of their products in customer’s minds, and they do not want this practice to continue for new releases.
3. Apple is proposing to give the cost benefits of a book without raw materials, distribution, remaindering, cost of capital, bad debt, etc., to the customer, not Apple. This is why a new release would be priced at $12.99, say, instead of $16.99 or even higher. Apple doesn’t want to make more than the slim profit margin it makes distributing music, movies, etc.
4. $9 per new release should represent a gross margin neutral business model for the publishers. We are not asking them to make any less money. As for the artists, giving them the same amount of royalty as they make today, leaving the publisher with the same profits, is as easy as sending them all a letter telling them that you are paying them a higher percentage for ebooks. They won’t be sad.
5. Analysts estimate that Amazon has sold more than one million Kindles in 18+ months (Amazon has never said). We will sell more of our new devices than all of the Kindles ever sold during the first few weeks they are on sale. If you stick with just Amazon, Sony, etc., you will likely be sitting on the sidelines of the mainstream ebook revolution.
6. Customers will demand an end-to-end solution, meaning an online bookstore that carries the books, handles the transactions with their credit cards, and delivers the books seamlessly to their device. So far, there are only two companies who have demonstrated online stores with significant transaction volume—Apple and Amazon. Apple’s iTunes Store and App Store have over 120 million customers with credit cards on file and have downloaded over 12 billion products. This is the type of online assets that will be required to scale the ebook business into something that matters to the publishers.
So, yes, getting around $9 per new release is less than the $12.50 or so that Amazon is currently paying. But the current situation is not sustainable and not a strong foundation upon which to build an ebook business.
[A portion of this email was redacted by the court.]
Apple is the only other company currently capable of making a serious impact, and we have 4 of the 6 big publishers signed up already. Once we open things up for the second tier of publishers, we will have plenty of books to offer. We’d love to have HC among them.
Thanks for listening.
Steve

Murdoch starts to bend

Murdoch’s reply came the following afternoon, Saturday, January 23. Jobs had made clear that Apple wouldn’t budge. Murdoch was about to indicate that HarperCollins would. He proposed two possible compromises, then noted that News Corp. and Apple were negotiating on a number of fronts. “Is it worth considering in the round, over the next few months or weeks, whether or not some of these loose ends can be tidied up?” Murdoch wrote. The iPad announcement was four days away.
murdoch--jobsSteve,
I think the crux of this is our flexibility to offer product elsewhere at price-points you don’t like.
If we could offer to you that a certain percentage of releases (>50%) would be available within your pricing structure (< or = 14.99), does that give you enough comfort?
I think we are worried more about the absolute holdback of product elsewhere, and our ceding of pricing to Apple, than we are about the actual haggle over what the price will be.
I haven’t shared this with HC directly—so this is only hypothetical. But if you were willing to accept that a supplier can exploit other avenues (at prices not disadvantageous to you), with a guarantee of substantial volume through Apple—maybe I could work with HC to get to some common ground.
Please let me know.
A different question: we have four areas of discussion (related to our product) between our teams right now: Books, US Video, Int’l Video, and newspapers. All at different stages of maturity, these discussions are all centered, for us, around the desire to make our product widely available, and to make yours and our products more attractive for our customers. It seems though that we in each one we largely encounter a “take it or leave it” set of terms, and predictably we’ve so far failed to really strike the kind of partnerships that could move things forward.
Is it worth considering in the round, over the next few months or weeks, whether or not some of these loose ends can be tidied up? It’s clear that Apple is already becoming an attractive platform for so many of our customers—all over the world. As a creative company at our core, NWS [News Corp.] should be more engaged with Apple, and I think Apple could be more engaged with NWS, globally, than either of us are today.
Best,
JRM

Jobs goes in for the kill

With Murdoch indicating that HarperCollins was willing to compromise, Jobs pressed harder. “As I see it, HC has the following choices,” he wrote in a reply to Murdoch the following morning, Sunday, January 24. Jobs outlined three stark choices. Accept our terms, he was saying, or good luck with Amazon. “Maybe I’m missing something, but I don’t see any other alternatives,” Jobs wrote, almost daring Murdoch to spurn Apple. “Do you?”
jobs--murdochJames,
Our proposal does set the upper limit for ebook retail pricing based on the hardcover price of each book. The reason we are doing this is that, with our experience selling a lot of content online, we simply don’t think the ebook market can be successful with pricing higher than $12.99 or $14.99. Heck, Amazon is selling these books at $9.99, and who knows, maybe they are right and we will fail even at $12.99. But we’re willing to try at the prices we’ve proposed. We are not willing to try at higher prices because we are pretty sure we’ll all fail.
As I see it, HC has the following choices:
1. Throw in with Apple and see if we can all make a go of this to create a real mainstream ebooks market at $12.99 and $14.99.
2. Keep going with Amazon at $9.99. You will make a bit more money in the short term, but in the medium term Amazon will tell you they will be paying you 70% of $9.99. They have shareholders too.
3. Hold back your books from Amazon. Without a way for customers to buy your ebooks, they will steal them. This will be the start of piracy and once started there will be no stopping it. Trust me, I’ve seen this happen with my own eyes.
Maybe I’m missing something, but I don’t see any other alternatives. Do you?
Regards,
Steve
On Tuesday, a day before the iPad announcement, HarperCollins agreed to Apple’s terms. The publisher’s ebooks were included in the iBookstore unveiled on January 27 along with new tablet, more than 100 million of which have now been sold.
Apple CEO Steve Jobs talks about iBooks for the iPad during an event in San Francisco.
The big reveal.AP Photo / Paul Sakuma

miércoles, 10 de abril de 2013

¿Como vendo mi aplicación para iPhone?


How Do I Sell My iPhone App via the App Store?

An overview of the process of getting an iPhone App into the App Store





IPhone Applications
Having seen the success of some developers in selling Apps for the iPhone, and with the iPad now out, there must be many developers thinking "Why not Me?". Notable early successes include Trism in 2008, where developer Steve Demeter created the puzzle game as a side project and made $250,000 (net of Apple's cut) within a couple of months.
Last year saw FireMint's Flight Control (Picture above) hold the #1 spot for several weeks and it sold over 700,000. The link above leads to a 16 page PDF where they published their sales figures. They're hoping to repeat the success now with an upgraded HD version for the iPad.

Billion $ Business

There are well over 100,000 registered iPhone App developers, with over 186,000 Apps in the App Store for the iPhone/iPod and over 3,500 for the iPad when this was written (according to 148 Apps). Apple by their own admission has sold over 85 million devices (50 million iPhones and 35 million iPod Touches) and games are the number one category which makes it a lot harder to achieve success. In April according to 148 Apps, an average of 105 games were released every day!
A year ago, one billion apps had been downloaded and it now stands at 3 billion. A large number of those are free (approx 22% of Apps ) but it's still an immense amount of money paid out by Apple to developers after the 30% cut that Apple takes.
It's not that easy to make a lot of money. Creating the App is one thing but selling it in sufficient numbers is a whole different ball game that demands that you promote it, and provide free copies to reviews. In some cases, people pay reviewers to get their Apps reviewed. If you're really lucky and Apple pick up on it you'll get a lot of free promotion.

Getting Started

If you're new to iPhone development, then you should definitely read this first:
In a nutshell if you want to develop for the iPhone:
  • You need a Mac Computer of some kind, Mac Mini, iMac, MacBook etc. You cannot develop for the App Store on a Windows or Linux PC.
  • Join the Free iPhone Developers Program. This gives access to the SDK and Xcode development system which you download and install. It includes an emulator so you can test most apps except those which need hardware such as the camera or GPS.
  • Pay $99 a year for access to the developer program. This lets you install apps on your own iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad. It also gives earlier access to betas and past versions of the SDK.

Development Process

So you've been developing away and have got a version that runs in the emulator. Next you've paid your $99 and been accepted in the developer's program. This means you can now try your app out on your iPhone. Here is an overview of how you do that. Apple's developer website provides a lot more detail.
You need an iPhone Development certificate. This is an example of Public Key Encryption
For that you have to run the Keychain Access app on your Mac (in developer tools) and generate a Certificate Signing Request then upload it to Apple's iPhone Developer Program Portal and get the certificate. You'll also need to download the intermediate certificate as well and install both in Keychain Access.
Next up is registering your iPhone etc as a Testing device. You can have up to 100 devices which is handy for larger teams, especially when there is iPhone 3G, 3GS, iPod touch and iPad to test on.
Then you register your application. Finally, armed with both application id and device id you can generate a Provisioning Profile on the Apple website. This gets downloaded, installed into Xcode and you get to run your App on your iPhone!

The App Store

Unless your are a large company with over 500 employees or a university teaching iPhone App development there are only two ways to distribute your apps.
  1. Submit it to the App Store
  2. Distribute it by Ad-Hoc Distribution.
Distributing through the App Store is what most people I'd guess want to do. Ad Hoc means you produce a copy for a specified iPhone etc, and can supply it for up to 100 different devices. Again you need to get a certificate so run Keychain Access and generate another Certificate Signing request, then go to the Apple developer portal website and get a distribution certificate. You'll download and install this in Xcode and use it to generate a Distribution Provisioning Profile.
To submit your App to the App Store you'll also need the following:
  • A list of descriptive words so it can be found in the App Store.
  • Three icons (29 x 29, 57 x 57 and 512 x 512).
  • A Launch image that appears while your App is loading.
  • A few (1-4) screenshots of your App's screens.
  • Contract information.
Then you do the actual submitting to the ItunesConnect website (part of Apple.com), set prices (or is it free) etc. Then, assuming that you've avoided the many ways of getting Apple to reject your App from the App Store, it should appear in a few days.
Here are some of the reasons for rejection but it's not complete, so please read Apple's best practices document:
  • It's considered objectionable e.g. pornography.
  • It crashes.
  • It has a backdoor or is malicious.
  • It uses private APIs.
Apple says that they receive 8,500 Apps per week and 95% of submissions get accepted within 14 days. So good luck with your submission and get coding!
BTW if you decide to include an Easter Egg (surprise screens, hidden content, jokes etc) in your App be sure to let the review team know how to activate it. They won't tell; their lips are sealed. If on the other hand you don't tell them and it comes out, then so might your App from the App Store!




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