Competition is good! Thanks Andriod

It is a good day. Cause of euphoria is : Statement by Apple on App Store Review Guidelines. Specifically the part

"In particular, we are relaxing all restrictions on the development tools used to create iOS apps, as long as the resulting apps do not download any code. This should give developers the flexibility they want, while preserving the security we need."

Hurray! I have no doubt in my mind that Andriod is putting intense pressure on Apple to keep developers to stay with Apple's ecosystem.

Andriod surpasses iPhone in new activations

Since the beginning of this year, Andriod has been selling like hotcake. It recently have surpassed iPhone in terms of activations per month. THANKS for voting with your wallet.

Some recent articles
http://blogs.computerworld.com/16883/android_apple_market_share
http://www.macobserver.com/tmo/article/quantcast_android_eats_into_ios_lead_of_mobile_browsing/
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-08-02/google-s-android-passes-apple-among-new-u-s-users.html
http://www.tulsaworld.com/business/article.aspx?subjectid=52&articleid=20100803_52_E3_ASonyE564851
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-08-02/google-s-android-passes-apple-s-iphone-among-new-u-s-smartphone-shoppers.html

The Anti-Social Ping

There are millions who believe Apple could do no wrong. However, I really don't care about those who are blind followers. I am as crtical of Apple as any other company. So I am glad that media is taking a critical look at Ping and commenting on what it is. While it is true that Apple can fix some of the issues in future updates/releases, Apple's image as a company that delivers great experience from the get go is crumbling. My rants aside, this fortune article summarized the issues with Ping very nicely

Excerpts
•TechCrunch's Erick Schonfeld. The Problem with Ping: "The biggest problem I have with Ping is that it lives in iTunes. Not only does it live in iTunes, it is isolated there. iTunes is not social. It is not even on the Web."


•All Thing D's Peter Kafka: Ping Averts Its Gaze. Apple's New Social Network Doesn't Really Want to Know Much About You: "This isn't about Apple's walled garden that keeps Ping walled off from Facebook and other services. It's about Apple's decision to wall off Ping from your own music collection."

•Scripting News' Dave Winer. Ping: It's even worse than it appeared: "Ping is not a social network, by any realistic definition of the term... My guess as to why we can't post to the timeline is that Apple is afraid we might say something harsh about them or Ping."

•Xconomy's Wade Roush. The Leaning Tower of Ping: How iTunes Could Be Apple's Undoing: "Adding a social networking interface, on top of all of iTunes' other functions, is like grafting another limb to the forehead of an octopus. It's just too much."

•Cthulhu and other crazies' Swizec. Apple's Ping is a big pile of steaming dung: "Meh I give up, there is nothing worth following on Ping. The artists I do find are labeled as users and everybody knows it's not really them there, it's some automated bot thing to keep us notified of their stuff."