The Macalope: An Apple blog

The Macalope senses a great disturbance in the Force

Daniel Jalkut of Red Sweater Software was just informed that he was denied acceptance into the initial round of iPhone developers (more reaction on his Twitter feed).

It's worth pointing out that this could just mean Apple's restricting admission to the beta program for reasons of scale, but let's hope this isn't a sign of things to come. Because these "things" would not be "good things".

UPDATE: David Chartier has more. Short story: it does appear that this is a temporary situation to keep the size of the beta program manageable. Probably … Read more

The elusive angry iPhone developer.

Frasier Speirs does a nice take-down of some world-class jackassery as practiced by InformationWeek's Alexander Wolfe in his whimsically titled piece iPhone Developers Angry At Apple's Tight Control.

This one's so good (or bad) that it deserves a good piling on.

Let's go!

For example, on Sunday Phonemag reported that the SDK contains a tidbit noting that the iPhone won't run more than one app at a time, so when users switch applications, whatever is running in the background will get killed.

From Apple's standpoint, this is done to maintain decent performance. However, developers … Read more

The 70% Solution

Well, the iPhone SDK speculation is all over but the shouting (see Tom Krazit's live blog if you missed the news). The Macalope suspects there will be a lot of shouting about Apple taking a 30% cut of application revenue, although probably less from those who are actually likely to develop iPhone applications than the sage members of our silly pundit corps.

So, potential iPhone developer, let's look at what you get for almost a third of your hard work.

Apple hosts the application for you. You don't even have to have a web server. Actually, since … Read more

Apple angst? Why?

ZDNet's Larry Dignan provides a great counterpoint to the recent "angst" over Apple.

Despite the year to date stock chart (right) Apple's business isn't exactly limping along. Sure you can worry about the iPhone not selling 10 million units, or iPod profit margins and even whether the MacBook Air is that big of a deal. But what's the point? Until proven otherwise most of us would love to have Apple's business.

The Macalope has given Dignan a hard time in the past, but this piece is eminently reasonable, raising the issues and providing … Read more

About that $1 billion...

Hey, kids! Do you like math?! Sure you do!

Well, how'd you like to be an analyst at a Wall Street research firm?!

Seriously! It's apparently not as hard as it sounds! Let's have a look!

Just after the Macalope sent off some emails to the writers of the pieces Todd Sullivan linked to to ask who the heck these "analysts" were, he noticed this piece at MarketWatch.

This may not be the same estimate referred to in those pieces, but the number's around $1 billion, so let's take a look at what … Read more

Todd Sullivan: Round 2

On his own site now, Todd Sullivan fires back at the Macalope, asking Is That The Best You Got?

Well, the Macalope doesn't know about "the best". It was OK, he supposes. Good for a Wednesday night. But "best"? Hmm. That's kind of asking a lot, Todd. It's not like yours was very good. Why should the Macalope have to do all the work?

But if you want to go another round, the Macalope's got the time. His nightly frolic with the nymphs doesn't start for another hour.

Sullivan's site, … Read more

Rob Enderle FTL!

Poor Rob. In August of 2005 he writes Blu-Ray Wins or Nothing Does.

Wow! Rob Enderle FTW, right?! Unbelievable! A, uh, well, 50-50 shot but he nails it from outside the 3-point line!

Eh, not so much.

Sadly Rob can't leave a good thing alone. Because in December of 2006 he changed his mind: Optical HD Battle May Be Over: HD DVD Wins (tip o' the antlers to John Muir).

Rob's reasoning? HD DVD is cheaper and Microsoft backs it.

Bzzzzzt.

Rob Enderle: snatching defeat from the jaws of victory since...

Well, how old is he?

Seeking Alpha: Logicians need not apply.

Seeking Alpha's Todd Sullivan really doesn't like Apple's exclusive agreement with AT&T (tip o' the antlers to John Gruber). His dislike of it is so intense, as a matter of fact, that his "analysis" of the deal has burst free of the restraining coil of our so-called "Earth logic" and taken flight to a wondrous world of imagination. [Note for editor: is there a Doug Henning tag?]

The latest estimates have "unlocked" iPhones costing Apple over $1 billion in lost revenue the next 3 years.

Wow! $1 billion sounds … Read more

Where is that naughty little phish?

Several of the Macalope's astute and sexually dynamic readers asked him to hit this piece by Lance Ulanoff which essentially says Artie MacStrawman is teh stoopid and don't know nothin' 'bout no Intramanet suckurity.

Well, there's only so much jackassery even this mythical beast can take down, so he's going to punt this one to MacUser's Dan Moren, who able handles the task. While the horny one wouldn't recommend anyone buy a Norton product, he thinks Dan's emphasis on, oh, you know, not wildly clicking on every URL that the former aides to … Read more