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Mossberg says movie doesn’t show the Steve Jobs he knew, as leaked emails take us behind the scenes

by Cristian De Nardo | Oct 21, 2015 | Apple

mossberg-jobs

Writing in his column in The Verge, Walt Mossberg – who says he spent “scores of hours” in conversation with Steve Jobs across 14 years – says that the man depicted in the Sorkin/Boyle movie is not the Steve Jobs he knew.

Steve Jobs wasn’t perfect. He was difficult. He was unnecessarily rude and brusque at times. He lied. But he also mellowed and grew as a person, and that mellowing coincided with the best part of his career. Mr. Sorkin opts to hide all of that from his audience. The best of the real Steve Jobs begins to unfold just as Steve Jobs ends.

A lengthy piece in Hollywood Reporter earlier this month – leaning heavily on emails leaked from the Sony hack – provides a lot of insight into what was going on behind the scenes in the run up to the making of the movie. This included the fact that Amy Pascal, co-chairman of Sony Pictures, knew from the start that the project was going to be challenging …

“Fasten two seat belts,” she warned in a prescient early email. “Its [sic] gonna be more than bumpy.”

She later passed on the movie when the filmmakers wanted more money than Sony was prepared to spend, a decision she later described as a huge mistake.

We use numbers as an excuse not to make a movie to the outside world not between us. This is the second time in my career I let past performance of the current state of things corrupt my thinking and feeling about a movie. I have made other kinds of mistakes but not like this.

Producer Scott Rudin was apparently not a fan of Pascal’s handling of things.

“You’ve behaved abominably,” the producer emailed Pascal toward the end of their dealings on Steve Jobs, “and it will be a very, very long time before I forget what you did to this movie and what you’ve put all of us through.”

While Pascal may have had cold feet, both director Danny Boyle and leading star Michael Fassbender said they never had any doubts.

Said Boyle: “I was moved beyond belief by the script, in a way that really surprised me […] I read it, and that was it. I said, ‘I’m in.’ And Rudin said, ‘Are you serious?’ I could hear in his voice, thinking, ‘It can’t be this easy, can it?’ And I was like, ‘Oh, I’m as serious as I can get.’ “

Fassbender had initially planned to take some time off, but changed his mind when he saw the script.

Then he learned Rudin and Boyle were interested in having him play Jobs. He knew little about the icon. “I’m not a very techie person,” he says. “I use all the Apple products, but I had no real insight into him.” Still, the script was strong and the character compelling, and he decided to say yes, ditching his intended hiatus.

Sorkin expressed doubts in an email about Fassbender’s suitability for the role, but quickly changed his mind.

“At the time I wrote the email, I was the one person in the world unfamiliar with Michael Fassbender’s work,” he says today. “I hadn’t seen 12 Years a Slave. Hadn’t seen Inglourious Basterds. Hadn’t seen Shame. Hadn’t seen X-Men. I just managed to miss every single Michael Fassbender movie. So I said to Francine Maisler, our casting director, ‘Send me all the Fassbender movies.’ And as soon as I watched them, I was leading the Michael Fassbender parade.”

It was previously reported that Laurene Powell Jobs tried to block the movie. Director Danny Boyle wouldn’t be drawn on this, nor on Cook’s description of such movies as “opportunistic,” limiting his comments to three sentences.

“They haven’t helped,” says Boyle of her and Cook. “There’s been some tough moments. I’m not going to go into them.”

An unnamed Sony executive did, however, go further.

“She reached out; she had a strong desire not to have the movie made. But we said, ‘We’re going to move forward.’ My understanding is, she did call one or two of the actors.” Another source says that Laurene lobbied each major studio in an attempt to kill the project.

While Sorkin has taken some flack over the movie, Steve Jobs was reportedly a fan of the writer.

“First time, he called me because there was an episode of The West Wing that he particularly liked and he called to say so out of the blue,” Sorkin recalls. “The second time, he wanted me to come and tour Pixar in the hope that I would write a Pixar film. And the third time, he asked for my help on a Stanford commencement speech.” (Sorkin obliged, free of charge.)

Sorkin has recently been modest about his role in the latter, claiming that he had merely “fixed some typos.”

The full piece is a very interesting read. The film was released earlier this month in select theaters with a wider release set for this Friday.

Filed under: AAPL Company Tagged: Aaron Sorkin, Apple Inc, Danny Boyle, Michael Fassbender, Sony, Steve Jobs, Steve Jobs biopic, Steve Jobs movie, Walt Mossberg

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NY Apple Store employee charged with using fraudulent card details to buy almost $1M worth of Apple gift cards

by Cristian De Nardo | Oct 21, 2015 | Apple

A former Apple Store employee has been charged with grand larceny and other crimes after allegedly using fraudulent credit and debit card details to purchase an incredible $997,000 worth of Apple gift cards in just three months.

24-year-old Ruben Profit is accused of carrying out the fraudulent purchases while working at the Apple Store in the Queens Center Mall in Elmhurst, the company’s first retail store in Queens. All of the purchases were made between August and October, reports NBC New York …

Profit reportedly overwrote the data on the magnetic strip of the cards to emulate other cards – it’s not yet known how he obtained the card details to do so.

An investigation launched in October when Apple started getting notifications of charge-backs, which indicate fraudulent transactions, on the Apple gift cards Profit allegedly purchased.

At the time of his arrest, Profit was allegedly in possession of 51 Visa and American Express gift cards with magnetic strips that had been fraudulently re-encoded with credit card information. He also allegedly had seven Apple gift cards worth $2,000 each.

Profit is reported to have told police that he sold the gift cards for 10% of their face value. He is currently being held on bail, and faces a maximum prison sentence of 15 years if convicted.

Another alleged fraudster was last year accused of obtaining over $300k’s worth of Apple kit by deception by working a ridiculously simple con on store employees.

Photo: michaeltruskowski.com

Filed under: AAPL Company Tagged: Apple Store, Apple Store fraud, Apple Store Queens, Credit card, Credit card fraud, Debit card

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No analyst consensus on Q4 Apple Watch sales, estimates range from 2.5M to 6M

by Cristian De Nardo | Oct 21, 2015 | Apple

With Tim Cook stating that Apple is “not announcing the numbers” for Apple Watch sales, it’s been left to the analysts to estimate – or perhaps, ‘take a wild guess’ would be the better description in this case. While Fortune reports the average estimate of 3.95M sales, the range is so wide as to be meaningless: from a low of 2.5M to a high of 6M.

Cook did, however, give one clue that those analysts coming in on the low side are likely to be wrong …

We shipped a lot [of Apple Watches] the first quarter, then last quarter we shipped even more. I can predict this quarter we will ship even more.”

Apple reports its fiscal Q4 (calendar Q3) earnings next week, but based on Cook’s comments to date, we’re unlikely to learn the actual numbers then. You can see the analyst estimates below – professionals in blue, amateurs in green.

Filed under: AAPL Company Tagged: AAPL, Apple Inc, Apple watch, Apple Watch Q4 sales estimates, Apple Watch sales

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12 Excel Formulas, Features & Keyboard Shortcuts Everyone Should Know

by Cristian De Nardo | Oct 21, 2015 | Marketing

Ever find yourself elbows deep in an Excel worksheet with seemingly no end in sight? You’re manually replicating columns and scribbling down long-form math on a scrap of paper, all while thinking to yourself, “There has to be a better way to do this.”

Truth be told, there probably is … you just don’t know it yet. Excel can be tricky that way. On one hand, it’s an exceptionally powerful tool for reporting and analyzing marketing data. On the other hand, without the proper training, it’s easy to feel like it’s working against you.

To help you use Excel more effectively (and save a ton of time), we’ve compiled a list of essential functions, keyboard shortcuts, and other small tricks you should know.

Download nine of our most popular Excel templates here.

12 Excel Formulas, Keyboard Shortcuts & Tricks That’ll Save You Lots of Time

1) Quickly select rows, columns, or the whole spreadsheet.

Crunched for time? (Who isn’t?)

No problem. You can select your entire spreadsheet in just one click. All you have to do is simply click the tab in the top-left corner of your sheet to highlight everything all at once.

Just want to select everything in a particular column of row? That’s equally as easy. Just use these shortcuts:

Mac

Select Column = Command + Shift + Down/Up
Select Row = Command + Shift + Right/Left

Select Column = Control + Shift + Down/Up
Select Row = Control + Shift + Right/Left

This shortcut is super helpful when you’re working with larger data sets, but only need to select a specific piece of it.

2) Automatically fill columns or rows with data.

Tired of manually entering data that follows a pattern across a bunch of cells? Excel’s Auto Fill feature is designed to minimize the work required on your end by making it easy to repeat values you’ve already input.

To do so, click and hold the lower right corner of a cell, and then drag it down or across into adjacent cells. When you release, Excel will fill in the adjacent cells with the data from the cell you first selected.

3) Quickly open, close, or create a workbook.

Need to open, close, or create a workbook on the fly?

The following keyboard shortcuts will enable you to complete any of the above actions in less than a minute’s time.

For Mac:

Open = Command + O
Close = Command + W
Create New = Command + N

For PC:

Open = Control + O
Close = Control + F4
Create New = Control + N

4) Customize the color of your tabs.

Have a ton of different sheets going in one workbook? Make it easier to identify where you need to go by color-coding the tabs. For example, you might label last month’s marketing reports with red, and this month’s with orange.

To do so, simply right click a tab and select “Tab Color.” A popup will appear that allows you to choose a color from an existing theme, or customize one to meet your needs.

5) Format numbers into currency.

Have raw data that you want to turn into currency? Whether it be salary numbers, marketing budget, or ticket sales for an event, the solution is simple.

Just highlight the cells you wish to reformat and select Control + Shift + $.

The numbers will automatically translate into dollar amounts — complete with dollar signs, commas, and decimal points.

6) Add a comment to a cell.

Want to make a note or add a comment to a specific cell within a worksheet? Simply right-click the cell you want to comment on and then click Insert Comment. Type your comment in the text box and click outside the comment box to save it.

Cells that contain comments display a small, red triangle in the corner. To view the comment, hover over it.

7) Insert current date and time into a cell.

Whether you’re logging social media posts or keeping tabs on tasks you’re checking off your to-do list, you may want to add a date and time stamp to your worksheet. To do so, you’ll want to start by selecting the cell into which you want to insert the time, date, or time and date.

Then, depending on what you want to insert, do one of the following:

Insert current date = Control + ; (semi-colon)
Insert current time = Control + Shift + ; (semi-colon)
Insert current date and time = Control + ; (semi-colon), SPACE, and then Control + Shift + ; (semi-colon).

8) Copy and duplicate formatting.

If you’ve ever spent some time formatting a sheet to your liking, you know that it’s not necessarily the most enjoyable activity. In fact, it’s pretty tedious.

For that reason, it’s likely that you wouldn’t want to have to repeat the process next time … and you don’t have to. Thanks to Excel’s Format Painter, you can easily copy the formatting from one area of a worksheet to another.

To do so, simply select the thing you’d like to replicate, then select the Format Painter option (paintbrush icon) from the dashboard, as show below:

The pointer will then display a paintbrush, prompting users to select the cell, text, or entire worksheet they’d like to apply that formatting to.

9) Extract specific characters from a cell.

Let’s say you have code that you want to break down into a few different segments. Rather than manually retyping each piece of the code into its respective column, users can leverage a series of string functions to deconstruct the sequence as needed.

LEFT:

Purpose: Used to extract the first X numbers or characters in a cell.
Syntax: =LEFT(text, number_of_characters)
Parameters:
- Text. The string that you wish to extract from.
- Number_of_characters. The number of characters that you wish to extract starting from the left-most character.

For the sake of this example, we entered =LEFT(A2,4) into cell B2, and copied it into B3:B6. This allowed us to extract the first 4 characters of the code.

MID:

Purpose: Used to extract characters or numbers in the middle based on position.
Syntax: =MID(text, start_position, number_of_characters)
Parameters:
- Text. The string that you wish to extract from.
- Start_position. The position in the string that you want to begin extracting from. For example, the first position in the string is 1.
- Number_of_characters. The number of characters that you wish to extract.

For the sake of this example, we entered =MID(A2,5,2) into cell B2, and copied it into B3:B6. This allowed us to extract the two numbers starting in the fifth position of the code.

RIGHT:

Purpose: Used to extract the last X numbers or characters in a cell.
Syntax: =RIGHT(text, number_of_characters)
Parameters:
- Text. The string that you wish to extract from.
- Number_of_characters. The number of characters that you want to extract starting from the right-most character.

For the sake of this example, we entered =RIGHT(A2,2) into cell B2, and copied it into B3:B6. This allowed us to extract the last two numbers of the code.

10) Identify duplicate values.

In many instances, duplicate values — like duplicate content when dealing with SEO — can be troublesome if gone uncorrected. However, in other cases, you simply need to be aware of them.

Whatever the situation may be, it’s easy to surface any existing duplicate values within your worksheet in just a few quick steps. To do so, click into the Conditional Formatting option, and select Highlight Cell Rules > Duplicate Values…

Using the popup, create the desired formatting rule to specify which type of duplicate content you wish to bring forward.

For the sake of this example, we were looking to identify any duplicate salaries within the selected range by formatting the duplicate cells in yellow.

11) Add up the sum of cells that meet a certain criteria.

Let’s say you want to determine the profit you generated from a list of leads who are associated with specific area codes or calculate the sum of group of employees’ salaries that fall above the a particular amount. Sounds a little time-consuming, doesn’t it?

With the SUMIF function, it doesn’t have to be.

SUMIFS:

Purpose: Used to add up cells that meet a certain criteria.
Syntax: =SUMIFS(sum_range, criteria_range1, criteria1, [criteria_range2, criteria2], …)
Parameters:
- Sum_range. The range of cells you’re going to add up.
- Criteria_range1. The range that is being tested using Criteria1.
- Criteria1. The criteria that determine which cells in Criteria_range1 will be added together.

To see the function in action, check out this example:

In an effort to calculate the sum of the salaries that were greater than $70,000, we used the SUMIF function to add up the dollar amounts that exceeded that number in the cells C3 through C12. To achieve this, we entered =SUMIF(C3:C12,”>70,000″) into the Formula Bar.

12) Clean up irregular spacing.

Ever have one of your colleagues send you a worksheet with some funky spacing going on? Not only do these rogue spaces can make if difficult to search for data, but it also affects the results when you try to add up columns of numbers.

Rather than painstakingly removing and adding spaces as needed, you can clean up any unnecessary spacing using the TRIM function.

TRIM:

Purpose: Used to remove extra spaces from data (except for single spaces between words).
Syntax: =TRIM(“Text”)
Parameters:
- Text. The text from which you want to remove spaces.

Here’s an example of how we used the TRIM function to remove extra spaces after a name on our list:

To do so, we entered =TRIM(“Steve Peterson”) into the Formula Bar.

What are your favorite Excel tips and tricks for saving time? Let us know in the comments section below.

A Project Manager’s Plea: Please Respond

by Cristian De Nardo | Oct 21, 2015 | Project Management

A Project Manager’s Plea: Please Respond
By Kerry Wills
I have to say that my biggest frustration in the workplace has to be people who don’t respond to messages (or need to be asked five times before they respond). Unfortunately due to workloads most corporate cultures today communicate almost exclusively through e-mail. This causes project deliverables to […]

from Project Management Articles – PM Hut http://ift.tt/1OHToS8
via pmhut.com

Apple Music refuseniks seemingly head to Spotify, as app hits #1 spot in U.S. App Store

by Cristian De Nardo | Oct 21, 2015 | Apple

Apple Music appears to be off to a strong start in terms of paying subscribers, but as the old adage has it, you can’t please all of the people all of the time. A decent chunk of those who have opted not to pay for Apple Music appear to have headed instead to Spotify. TechCrunch notes that Spotify’s iOS app has taken the top grossing spot in Apple’s U.S. App Store for the first time ever.

Spotify was quietly hitting a milestone of its own. The company’s music streaming app just moved into the No. 1 position on the iPhone App Store’s “Top Grossing” charts for the first time in the US. Previously, according to data from App Annie, the highest rank Spotify saw on the “Top Grossing” charts stateside was No. 3, which it hit earlier this year and maintained in September.

When we polled 9to5Mac readers, 19.5% of you said that you would be switching to Spotify instead of paying for Apple Music.

With Apple hot on defending customer privacy, Spotify did hit a bit of a sticky moment back in August, when it was forced to clarify its new privacy policy, which appeared to allow the service to share personal information. CEO Daniel Ek apologized for the lack of clarity previously, and sought to reassure customers that data is used only to improve the Spotify service and use of customer data is opt-in.

Photo: curved.de

Filed under: Apps Tagged: Apple Music, iOS apps, Music, Spotify, Streaming media, Streaming Music

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8 Easy Resources Schools Can Turn to for Content Creation

by Cristian De Nardo | Oct 21, 2015 | Marketing

For most schools, the idea of creating content from scratch is overwhelming. Luckily, schools are never really starting from scratch.

You have countless resources at your disposal to build blog posts, ebooks, webinars, and social media content without exerting too much time, money, or energy. In the content creation process, marketers should be editors, not writers. Your writers are all around you on campus.

The first thing you have to do when choosing what types of content to create—and who should create it—is to answer this question: Who are you trying to reach, and what action do you want them to take? Everything you do should direct back to these questions.

Both of these answers should be reflected in your school’s student personas—semi-fictional representations that stand in for your real-life audience, who encompass the desires, goals, and behaviors of potential applicants.

Who Are Your School’s Personas?

Schools are generally pretty clear on who their personas should represent: potential students and adults who are aiding in the decision-making process. But who exactly are those prospective students? Where are they in their decision-making process? What factors influence their application decision? Consider the following questions to help really bring your personas to life.

What are your target applicant’s common behavior patterns in-and-outside of school?
What are their academic research pain points?
What are their academic and extracurricular goals and wishes?
What is their basic demographic and biographic information?

Your content should be tailored toward people at the other end of these questions. (Don’t forget, while they aren’t the first priority, content should also appeal to your current students and alumni.)

Who Can Help Create Content For Your School?

Using these personas, you can hone in on the information that will help your prospective students and their parents move down the admissions funnel. You can leverage resources across your organization to create substantive content that meets these queries. To help get started, here are eight resources to consider.

1. Current Students

It may seem like a no-brainer, but your current students are by far the most helpful resource for creating all kinds of unique content. They know how to attend to prospective students’ pain points and wishes because they once stood in their shoes.

Students can use their experiences to write helpful posts on topics like, “What I Wish I Knew Before Coming to College,” “How to Adjust to Campus Life as a Freshman,” “How to Form New Relationships In a New School” and other content that touches on the concerns prospective students may be searching for answers around.

Current students can also offer insight for students searching online for program information that digs deeper than a sample course list of program overview could. Consider the value of posts like, “The 10 Best Hidden Study Spots on Campus,” “The Coolest Classes You Must Take,” or “My Study Abroad Journal” to a prospective student.

2. Alumni

Just like current students, alumni have also stood in the shoes of prospective students. They went through the same decision-making process and ended up not only applying to your school, but attending, and graduating. Alumni have the benefit of hindsight, so they can contribute insider content on topics like “How I Learned to Survive Finals Week,” “The [Your College] Bucket List to Do Before You Graduate,” and “5 College Traditions I Miss in the Real World.”

Alumni are often looking for ways to give back, and creating content can be a great alternative to a monetary donation. Keep in mind that Alumni can also be resources without being writers. Think: a “Where Are They Now?” round-up of successful alumni.

3. Professors and Department Heads

Professors and department heads are experts on the academic programs your audience is evaluating—and they already have all types of content around those programs on hand. Department overviews, class presentations, projects, lectures, and research can all be repurposed as offers to help prospective students get a better understanding of your school’s curriculum.

4. Your Admissions Department

Your admissions department is well equipped to answer your audience’s most pressing questions. It’s what they do on a daily basis! Repurpose fliers and pamphlets for content such as “10 Best Tips for Acing a College Interview,” “Writing a College Essay that Will Get You Admitted,” “Questions You Should Ask on a School Tour,” “Do You Have to Choose a Major?” or even “What to Expect at Orientation.” Consider posting a video of a campus tour, or virtual maps and photos of campus. This type of content will be particularly helpful for families who haven’t gone through the application process before, or don’t have the ability to visit your campus first hand.

5. ResLife Staff

For many students, going to a boarding school or a college is the first time they will live away from their childhood bedroom. Offering information about residential life and an inside peek into the dorms and student programs on campus can ease a lot of worries. Post video tours of your dorms, or have a ResLife staff member write a post on “The Top 10 Best Decorated Dorm Rooms on Campus.” ResLife can also recap on-campus events and repurpose other student wellness content they already share with current residents.

6. Your Athletics Department

If your school already has a vibrant, separate Athletics website, there’s no need to start from scratch. Repurpose content about game days, game recaps, and pictures from fans in the stands. Add a personal touch by featuring stories about your student athletes, marching band members, and more. Even if a prospective student isn’t an athlete, this content can still answer questions about the school’s culture and extracurricular life.

7. Your Campus Career Office

Parents and students both want to ensure their school offers not only a great education, but a chance to succeed in the real world post-grad—particularly for graduate schools and specialized schools like law schools, technical schools, and medical schools. Your campus career office can repurpose content to create posts to showcase their knowledge around career-prep, for example, “10 Tips on Interning When Still In School,” “How to Make a Winning Resume,” and Q&As with alumni who have found career success. While prospective students aren’t job-hunting yet, seeing the support the career office has for students will alleviate some fears on investing so much money into a school.

8. Partnerships with Regional Associations and Institutions

Build a win-win relationship—you get free content and they get exposure to thousands of young adults—by asking local museums, festivals, tourism boards, and other institutions to pass along content for your school blog. It can offer prospective students a look into life in a new city, off campus.

To build a better content strategy for your school, repurposing content is not only allowed, it’s encouraged. Don’t be afraid to loosen your grip on the reigns and act as an editor, rather than author. You might just find that amazing content and content creators are already swarming all over campus.

Design Disruptors: The Story Behind One Startup’s Decision to Produce a Feature-Length Documentary

by Cristian De Nardo | Oct 21, 2015 | Marketing

Many a marketing team, big and small, has gathered around a conference table to brainstorm a list of crazy ideas. You know what I’m talking about — those “big, hairy, audacious goals” discussed so often that they’ve earned a place in the business lexicon.

Much more rarely, though, do teams actually execute on these crazy ideas.

David Malpass and the folks at InVision are the exception. Not only did the small marketing team from the growing startup take on the challenge of creating a feature-length documentary, but they managed to release a trailer in less than a year’s time. A trailer that has garnered international attention, might we add.

Why take on something so ambitious? Quite simply, they have a story to tell that they want to get out to as many people as humanly possible.

Their documentary, Design Disruptors, will be released for free in early 2016. And as for the story they’re so keen on telling? Well, spoiler alert: It’s about design.

With no forced connection to the InVision brand, the documentary will explore how design has risen to become one of the most important roles in modern business. So much so that companies like Facebook, Twitter, Netflix, AirBNB, Spotify have all prevailed in a world rife with pop-up competitors — all because they’ve placed an emphasis on a top-notch user experience and great aesthetics from the very beginning.

To uncover more about idea’s inception, the company’s intentions, and how this project has taken shape over the past year, we took some time to chat about the upcoming documentary with Mallpass, InVision’s VP of Marketing.

Planting the Seed

When Malpass joined InVision as their VP of Marketing in July 2014, it became instantly apparent that, across the company, InVision innovates by doing the unexpected.

For the InVision team, the film was a powerful, long-term project that could happen in the background. In other words, they’d outsource the filming, editing, and so on, while focusing their efforts on constructing the narrative and planning promotion for the release.

“Our content is the backbone of our marketing,” Malpass told me.

“We’re always ambitious and innovative with the content we’re putting out there — whether it’s blog content, ebooks, webinars, and so on. We never sacrifice quality for quantity, so this [documentary] is the ultimate example of the team going big, doing something very ambitious, and setting the tone for the content we put out in the future,” he went on to explain.

InVision has always encouraged these big ideas. Companies may not do big things like this because there’s risk involved — but if you’re comfortable with introducing a bit of risk into the equation, you can often achieve exponentially greater results.

Image Credit: Design Disruptors

Is This a Marketing Play?

Going into the conversation with Malpass, I was fascinated with the concept of creating a documentary to market your company and your product. How was the film was connected with the InVision brand? How are they using it to sell their product? Where are all the calls-to-action going to be?

I quickly found out that the film isn’t actually connected with InVision in any overt way. Nothing in the film or the trailer or the website directly promotes the InVision brand. It lives on its own URL, where the only clues that it’s linked to InVision are a subtle mention on the page and the shortened URL in the click-to-tweet buttons. The Design Disruptors URL isn’t linked to anywhere on the InVision website, either. In fact, the company isn’t even mentioned in the film itself.

Why did the folks at InVision choose to spend so much time and so many resources on a documentary if they weren’t going to use it to market their company? Why wouldn’t they just write an ebook or something?

“We’re not trying to sell our product. We’re trying to bring attention to the increased importance of design in a company’s success,” Malpass explained.

“A lot of our work is based on doing things that’ll create a positive effect on the design community and that will elevate the role of the designer within their organization.”

They are, after all, giving this documentary away for free. When it’s released in early 2016, it’ll be shown for free online at the Design Disruptors website, at movie theatres, and on Netflix.

That’s not to say the documentary won’t benefit InVision in any way. Given that their community is comprised of smart, passionate designers, this documentary serves as a great opportunity for them to educate their audience by showcasing some of the industry’s most talented minds.

He added it’s also positive for InVision because they’re the platform that most of the companies in the film go to for their design process, of course.

As for why they didn’t write an ebook instead, Malpass says the goal is to get this story in front of an audience that expands beyond designers and businesspeople. While an ebook or a webinar would reach InVision’s target audience, they wanted to break out of those limits to reach people who wouldn’t otherwise be exposed to that content.

“A designer came to me and said, ‘My mom saw the trailer and she called me and asked me if that’s what I do,'” Malpass told me.

In other words, Design Disruptor’s target audience includes designers and their moms.

Measuring Success

The great thing about ebooks and webinars is that people sign up to see the content, so marketers can collect email addresses and capture leads. When you’re giving away a film for free, how do you measure its success?

Since releasing the trailer in early October, InVision’s growing marketing team — which has gone from three to twenty-five since Malpass joined — has already seen an overwhelmingly positive response.

“Design Disruptors” was trending on Twitter for three days, and at one point, it was the fourth most tweeted thing in the world. However, other than social shares, site visits, and articles written about the film, most of the film’s success is intangible.

“We want designers to feel empowered to share this film with their organization, and for non-designers to recognize their success and elevate them,” explained Malpass.

“Oh, and it’s got to have a good score on IMDB,” he joked. “No one wants to look back in ten years and have made a bad film.”

For a sneak peek at the documentary, you can watch the trailer here.

7 consejos para conseguir que tus suscriptores abran más tus emails

by Cristian De Nardo | Oct 21, 2015 | Social Media

¿Te gustaría que tus suscriptores abrieran todos tus emails? ¿Sabes que hay técnicas que te ayudarán a aumentar la tasa de apertura?

Una de las mayores dificultades que tenemos los marketers cuando queremos promocionar productos o incluso cuando nos interesa que nuestros suscriptores lean un email que va a ser de interés para ellos es que abran ese mensaje.

Si haces las cosas bien y captas leads a través de un formulario de contacto (es decir, que se suscriben voluntariamente y no tomas listas prestadas o compradas de ningún lugar), la apertura del email dependerá de varios factores, y todos ellos afectan, en mayor o menor medida, ante la posibilidad de que los suscriptores abran más o menos tus emails.

Aunque probablemente el más evidente sea el asunto del mensaje que envíes, lo verdaderamente importante y que no se suele tomar en consideración es el “contexto”, es decir, todo lo que hagas para que un suscriptor esté esperando abrir tus emails incluso antes de que le lleguen.

En otras palabras: cómo fidelizar a tus suscriptores para que quieran abrir tus emails.

A continuación te dejo 7 consejos que te ayudarán a que tu tasa de apertura sea mayor y cómo superar algunas de las dificultades con las que te puedes encontrar.

# 1. Tiempo que transcurre desde que alguien se suscribe

Es difícil mantener el interés de todos tus suscriptores por un tiempo prolongado.

Por lo general, quien se ha suscrito hace poco a tu blog es más probable que abra más emails tuyos que quien se suscribió hace años.

A menos que consigas mantener un interés constante en tu lista con técnicas como las que te iré indicando, lo normal es que surjan otros blogs parecidos al tuyo y no seas el único que les ofrezca el valor que inicialmente encontraron en ti.

Pero lo mismo sucede, por supuesto, con otros blogs con respecto al tuyo: tú puedes ser la novedad para muchos de los suscriptores que vienen de otros blogs, y ese tirón inicial lo tienes que aprovechar.

# 2. Utiliza una página de agradecimiento no estándar

La página de agradecimiento a la que rediriges a los suscriptores una vez han rellenado el formulario de contacto es muy importante para darles instrucciones precisas de que consulten tu email y recibir así los materiales o la información que esperaban.

No te quedes con la página estándar que te ofrecen las herramientas de email marketing; crea una propia.

Un ejemplo lo puedes ver en la siguiente página:

Pero puedes utilizar muchos otros. En esa misma página podrías añadir incluso un mensaje adicional como este: “Comprueba tu bandeja de spam si no recibes los materiales en los próximos minutos”. Esto los animará a dirigirse a su bandeja de entrada y a buscar tu email donde sea necesario.

# 3. Da la bienvenida a los nuevos suscriptores

Una vez han encontrado tu email y han recibido lo que esperaban, una buena forma de empezar a fidelizar cuando alguien se suscribe a tu blog es dándole la bienvenida, contarle quién eres y lo que haces.

De esa forma, aunque se hayan suscrito para recibir algún material gratuito, sabrán que detrás de ese producto hay una marca con personas reales que pueden estar cerca de ellos o atenderlos cuando lo necesiten.

# 4. Anímalos a clasificar tus correos

La mejor manera de asegurarte de que puedan abrir todos tus emails en el futuro es, en primer lugar, facilitar a tus suscriptores que los reciban y se salten todos los filtros posibles.

Para evitar que les lleguen a spam o que se les vayan a la pestaña de Promociones si utilizan Gmail, envíales instrucciones detalladas en las que vean cómo hacerlo con su proveedor de correo.

Por ejemplo, en el caso de Gmail les podrías decir que añadieran tu dirección a su lista de contactos pulsando sobre el desplegable que encontrarán en la parte superior derecha del email tuyo que hayan recibido, como en la imagen:

Otra posibilidad es pedirles que te añadan a favoritos en la configuración de la bandeja de entrada o que te incluyan en una carpeta (etiqueta) donde puedan encontrar todos tus emails.

Si quieres saber cómo hacerlo para más proveedores, aquí te dejo una Guía completa para conseguir que tus usuarios reciban todos tus emails.

# 5. Aporta valor en todas tus comunicaciones

Te decía que el contexto es fundamental para que los suscriptores sientan interés por lo que ofreces. Si únicamente vendes productos o servicios y todo lo que publicas tiene que ver con esto, entonces será complicado que no dejen de abrirte (a menos que seas una empresa de ofertas).

Debes compartir contenido de valor. Y no es un tópico. No significa que no compartas contenido promocional, pero hazlo de modo que no sea lo único que ofreces en todas tus comunicaciones.

Ponte en el lugar del usuario: ¿qué haces tú cuando un sitio al que te has suscrito te satura con información que no te interesa? Pues ahí tienes la respuesta de lo que no quieres que te hagan.

Si, por ejemplo, semanalmente compartes en tu newsletter lo que has publicado en tu blog, una buena forma de incentivar la apertura y que no vayan directamente a tu blog para leer la información es que sepan que en tu email encontrarán algo distinto, un contenido que no tiene que ver con el del post pero que les aportará igualmente valor.

Nosotros solemos utilizar contenidos de inspiración relacionados no necesariamente con la temática del post, pero sí con el nicho al que nos dedicamos.

Este podría ser un ejemplo:

# 6. Frecuencia de publicación

Que publiques de una forma frecuente y con constancia ayuda mucho a que los suscriptores adquieran la predisposición de recibir tus contenidos.

Aunque no siempre es posible mantener la constancia exacta por varios factores –especialmente si tus publicaciones son elaboradas o dependen de terceros-, lo ideal es marcar uno, dos o tres días a la semana para publicar. O cada dos o tres semanas. No importa cuándo. Lo que importa es que mantengas la frecuencia a la que te has comprometido con tus suscriptores.

Si únicamente publicas de forma ocasional será más difícil crear expectativa en tus lectores.

# 7. Haz limpiezas periódicas de tus listas

Algo que no solemos tener en cuenta pero que ayuda mucho a que la tasa de apertura sea mayor es “quedarse con los suscriptores que abren”.

Está claro que no todos van a abrir todos los mensajes, pero cuanto más pequeña es la lista más fácil es que la tasa de apertura sea mayor. Quédate con los que están interesados en lo que ofreces, en la medida de lo posible.

La periodicidad de limpieza tendrás que valorarla tú en función de las aperturas que hayas tenido en los últimos meses, pero lo que no tiene sentido es que mantengas a suscriptores que no tienen ninguna interacción contigo desde hace tiempo.

Esa limpieza la puedes plantear de 2 maneras:

1. Con cierta brusquedad

Hazlo sólo si quieres llamar la atención de los suscriptores que no abren. Asuntos como “Vamos a borrar tu suscripción” o similares suelen funcionar bien.

En este caso quieres que el suscriptor vea que no tiene sentido mantener una relación si una de las partes no muestra interés. Aun así, estos mensajes “explosivos” pueden causar cierta incomodidad en algunos suscriptores.

2. De forma más sutil

Probablemente esta sea la forma más inteligente de llamar la atención sobre los suscriptores que hace tiempo que no abren tus emails.

Con asuntos como “¿Todavía te interesa lo que publicamos…?” abres la expectativa para luego conducirlos hacia una relación más vinculante.

Una vez dentro del cuerpo del mensaje, puedes encuestarlos para saber por qué motivo no abren tus emails.

En este post tienes una serie de ideas y ejemplos de campañas que te ayudarán a reactivar suscriptores inactivos.

Y una cosa más. Recientemente Javier Cordero contaba una anécdota que nos sucede a muchos de los que trabajamos en marketing online (con poca frecuencia, por suerte): que un suscriptor te tache de spammer por enviar, de vez en cuando, contenidos promocionales.

Te he dicho que no todo lo que envíes por email debe ser promocional, pero lo que también te digo es que no todo lo que envíes tiene que apuntar hacia contenido gratuito. Muy pocas cosas relacionadas con marketing online son gratuitas, aunque hay gente -que se supone que se dedica a vender- que no lo entiende. Debes acostumbrar a tus lectores a que van a recibir tanto contenidos gratuitos como de pago. Y quienes no lo acepten, que se borren de tu lista. Evitarás problemas.

Por eso, en relación con las limpiezas, quiero dejarte este artículo de Javier que me parece muy ilustrativo: ¿Qué debes hacer con las personas que no abren tus emails para no acabar tachado de spam?

Conclusión

Aunque aquí te he hablado del contexto, que es el primer punto que deberías tener en cuenta antes de adentrarte en las campañas de email marketing, otra de las razones por las que alguien abre un email o no lo abre tiene que ver precisamente con el asunto del mensaje.

Existen técnicas que te pueden ayudar a crear asuntos que se abran más que otros, pero esto lo veremos en un próximo post.

¿Sueles aplicar alguna de estas técnicas en tus campañas? ¿Cuál es la que mejor te funciona?

Este artículo se publicó originalmente en inglés, en el Blog de GetResponse: 7 Tips to Make your Subscribers More Likely to Open Your Emails.

Imágenes: Email Marketing Design y No Spam Sign, de Shutterstock.

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Misfit unveils the Shine 2 w/ improved sleep & activity tracking, inactivity alerts, more

by Cristian De Nardo | Oct 20, 2015 | Apple

Misfit, the company co-founded by John Scully, this evening has officially taken the wraps off its Shine 2 wearable. The device offers a fully designed look with a handful of new functionalities, as well. The original Misfit Shine was revealed over two years ago, so today’s refresh is definitely welcomed as a lot has changed in the wearable industry since 2013.

Misfit says that the Shine 2 offers highly improved activity and sleep tracking thanks to a 3-axis accelerometer paired with a new 3-axis magnetometer. The rainbow-colored lights on the device show the time, as well as fitness progress. Another new feature comes in that the device will now vibrate your wrist slightly when it realizes you haven’t stood for a while, similar to how Apple Watch provides stand alerts.

Compatible with Misfit Link, Shine 2 is more than just an activity tracker—it’s now a remote to connect with the world around you. Communicate with friends, turn your lights on, change your music, take a selfie, advance slides, and more, all with a double tap.

Perhaps most notably, the Shine 2 offers vibrations for text and call notifications, as well, again similar to Apple Watch. Overall performance of the Shine has also been improved with the second generation device. Touch responsiveness, syncing, and Bluetooth performance have all been improved, while the display has also been enhanced to improve visibility in sunlight.

The device’s design has also been refreshed with a thinner aluminum body that Misfit says is “aircraft-grade aluminum.” The Shine 2 also features the same 6-month battery and is water-resistant up to 50 meters deep.

The Misfit Shine 2 will be available this November for $99.99. The device will be available in Rose Gold and Carbon Black and is compatible with iOS. The full press release is below:

Misfit Introduces Shine 2 Fitness and Sleep Monitor

BURLINGAME, CA October 20, 2015—Today Misfit announced Shine 2, the next generation of the award-winning Shine Fitness and Sleep Monitor. Fully redesigned and enhanced, Shine 2 leverages the best of Shine’s elegant aesthetic and introduces powerful new functionality.

Shine 2 tracks activity and sleep more accurately with a 3-axis accelerometer and newly added 3-axis magnetometer. Users can now easily see progress and tell time in a halo of rainbow-colored lights, or get motivated with Misfit Move, a feature that encourages you to be active with a vibrational nudge. Text and call notifications and a silent vibe alarm are also new with Shine 2.

Shine 2 incorporates more advanced hardware and firmware—which means dramatically improved touch responsiveness with capacitive sensing technology, faster syncing, and extended Bluetooth range. Its 12 lights display over 16 million colors and are bright enough to be seen in direct sunlight.

Compatible with Misfit Link, the groundbreaking software experience, Shine 2 is more than just an activity tracker—it’s now a remote to connect with the world around you. Communicate with friends, turn your lights on, change your music, take a selfie, advance slides, and more, all with a double tap.

Shine 2 references Shine’s iconic original design but features an even thinner aircraft- grade aluminum body, while retaining its signature 6-month battery life, 50 meters water resistance, and modular design. Wear it anywhere, all the time, without having to charge it.

“We’ve packed a lot into Shine 2, adding more functionality into an even smaller form factor with the same battery life, ”said Adam Mack, Misfit’s Director of Mechanical Design. “We didn’t compromise on craftsmanship or the user experience.”

About Misfit
Misfit invents and manufactures wearable and smart home products. The company was founded by Sonny Vu with John Sculley, the former CEO of Apple and Pepsi, and Sridhar Iyengar, co-founder of AgaMatrix and Elemental Machines.

Filed under: Tech Industry Tagged: accessory, iOS, misfit, Shine 2, Wearables

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Apple voices opposition to security bill that gives government more power to spy on users

by Cristian De Nardo | Oct 20, 2015 | Apple

Apple this evening has continued its outspoken attitude when it comes to protection of user rights and privacy. The Washington Post reports that the company has spoken out against a controversial cybersecurity bill that, if passed, would give the government a variety of new powers to access user data. Supporters of the bill say that it would protect users from hackers in the long run, but Apple’s not buying it.

Known as the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act, it’s expected to be voted on next Tuesday and carries support from both major political parties. Apple, however, says that it does not believe that user security should come at the expense of privacy. Therefore, it does not support the CISA bill.

“We don’t support the current CISA proposal,” Apple said in a statement. “The trust of our customers means everything to us and we don’t believe security should come at the expense of their privacy.”

A variety of other tech companies have spoken out against CISA, as well, including Yelp, Reddit, Twitter, Wikimedia, Google, Facebook, and Yahoo. Oregon senator Ron Wyden says that the number of tech companies speaking in opposition to the bill should show legislators that it’s not yet ready for primetime.

“Sharing information about cybersecurity threats is a worthy goal,” said Wyden. “Yet if you share more information without strong privacy protections, millions of Americans will say, ‘That is not a cybersecurity bill. It is a surveillance bill.’ “

Filed under: AAPL Company Tagged: Apple, CISA, Security

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Apple says it has no way to access data on devices with a passcode running iOS 8 or later

by Cristian De Nardo | Oct 20, 2015 | Apple

Reuters today reports that Apple has informed a federal judge that it has no way of accessing data that is stored on an iPhone that is locked with a passcode and running iOS 8 or later. Apple revealed this information in a court filing recently in response to the U.S. Justice Department asking if the company would help authorities access data on a seized iPhone.

Apple cites strengthened encryption methods in iOS 8 and later for its inability to access data on a locked iPhone. The company noted that more than 90 percent of iOS devices now run a version of the operating system that’s iOS 8 or newer.

Apple said that while it could technically access data stored on the 10 percent of iOS devices running older versions of the operating system, it’s not something it would do without clear legal authority. Apple cited its relationship with customers as its primary reasoning for not wanting to access data on locked devices:

“Forcing Apple to extract data in this case, absent clear legal authority to do so, could threaten the trust between Apple and its customers and substantially tarnish the Apple brand.”

A hearing is expected to take place on Friday regarding this case. The hearing will determine whether or not Apple can be forced to help the government in following through on a search warrant. Just yesterday, Tim Cook spoke out against software backdoors, again voicing Apple’s support for privacy for its customers.

Filed under: AAPL Company, iOS Tagged: Apple, iOS 8, Security

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Jony Ive explains motivation behind Apple’s decision to sponsor the 2016 Met Gala

by Cristian De Nardo | Oct 20, 2015 | Apple

It was revealed last week that Apple would be sponsoring the 2016 Met Gala, with Chief Design Officer Jony Ive serving as a co-chair for the event. Now, Ive, along with Vogue editor Anna Wintour, another Gala co-chair, and Costume Institute Curator Andrew Bolton, has sat down with The Wall Street Journal for an interview on Apple’s foray into the fashion industry.

Ive himself explained that Apple’s interest in the fashion industry has peaked recently thanks to the release of Apple Watch. Ive also teased that learning more about fashion, especially from other attendees of the Met Gala, will help Apple in defining potential future projects.

“As products become more personal, something that is worn on the wrist put us in the space of fashion,” Ive said. On the relationhip between fashion and tech, the theme of this year’s Met Gala, Ive said that it’s an issue that’s close to his heart. “These are issues close to our hearts,” the Apple executive remarked.. “Our understanding will temper and define future products we’re working on. We’re only starting.”

At Apple, Ive said there’s still very much a mix of antiquated and modern technology being used. Ive said that he still draws with a pencil and paper every day, but uses modern technology to enhance it.

The 2016 Met Gala, “Manus x Machina: Fashion in an Age of Technology,” all take place in New York on May 2nd.

Filed under: AAPL Company Tagged: Apple, Apple watch, Fashion, Jony Ive, met Gala

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Opinion: Apple’s fourth-gen Apple TV will be worth the $149 gamble

by Cristian De Nardo | Oct 20, 2015 | Apple

Compared with the runaway successes of the iPod, iPhone, and iPad, the Apple TV living room media player hasn’t had a stellar track record. Despite considerable hype leading up to its early 2007 release, Apple declared the first Apple TV “a hobby” shortly after it hit stores, then began a seemingly endless campaign to figure out what people actually wanted it to do. Three years later, a second-gen version refocused on video rentals and added one major feature — AirPlay — to stream and mirror content from iOS devices and Macs. A tweaked third-gen model added 1080p support after less than two years. The modest changes led Apple TV sales to resemble a bunny hill; even Apple’s atypically aggressive price points couldn’t help the devices match the popularity of Roku, Amazon, and Google rivals.

Next week, pre-orders will start for the fourth-generation Apple TV, and it would be easy to say “pass:” none of the prior versions has been fantastic, and once again, Apple deliberately left out an arguably major feature — 4K Ultra HD support — that competitors jumped on, and will probably topline the inevitable fifth-generation Apple TV. But I’d personally suggest that you consider ordering the new $149 Apple TV anyway. Even though its potential won’t really be tapped until (at least) next year, early adopters are about to have a fun ride as it develops into an amazing new living room entertainment platform…

Why Gamble

If you’ve already used the prior-generation Apple TV, you know the basics of what the new version will do: play videos, music, and photos on your TV, including content streamed from the Internet, as well as AirPlay-streamed content directly from a nearby iPad, iPhone, iPod touch, or Mac. These features alone justified earlier Apple TVs for millions of people, but they were tightly controlled by Apple, and only intermittently augmented with new streaming “channels.” That’s changing.

Based upon tvOS, a TV-optimized version of iOS, the new Apple TV adds several major new features. First, it can download third-party apps and games. Second, it can integrate app-like data content with multiple audio and video streams for a next-generation interactive TV experience. Third, it will be able to serve as a hub for HomeKit accessories, possibly also controlling your TV and home theater setup. In short, the Apple TV is no longer just an audio, photo, and video player… it’s more like an iOS-based game console and (mini-)computer for your TV.

appletvfamily34

What To Expect: The Hardware

Made entirely from glossy and matte black plastics, the new Apple TV looks just like its two predecessors, only around 50% taller and with two rear port changes. The optical audio output is gone, forcing all audio to go through HDMI, and the (service-only) micro-USB port has given way to a (still service-only) USB-C connector. As iFixit notes, a giant heat sink inside makes it noticeably heavier than before.

The U.S. version of the new Apple TV and some international versions will ship with the new Siri Remote, which is black on top, silver on the bottom. It’s larger in every dimension than the second-generation Apple Remote that shipped with the last two Apple TVs (and will continue to ship in countries without Siri Remote support). To make scrolling quicker, Apple has replaced the prior four-direction navigation circle with a small matte glass surface that can be used for navigational swipe gestures and gentler positioning. The glass can be pushed downwards for menu selections, and unlike Apple’s Magic Trackpad 2, it actually clicks. Gyroscope/accelerometer sensors are hidden inside the remote for future games, and not used within the main Apple TV interface.

applesiriremotefamily

Four new buttons have been added to enable the Siri Remote to turn your TV’s volume up or down, activate twin built-in microphones for Siri voice input, and quickly return to the Apple TV’s main menu. Using a feature called Home Theater Control, certain TVs (including AnyNet-compatible models) can also be turned on and off using the Siri Remote, which now has both Bluetooth and Infrared transmitters built in for wireless communications. Apple includes a multi-month rechargeable battery this time, and lets you refuel it with an included Lightning to USB cable. Extra Siri Remotes will sell for $79, and Remote Loop wrist straps for under $20.

Third-party Bluetooth game controllers are supported, as are Bluetooth speakers and headphones — all brand-new to this version of the Apple TV. But unlike prior Apple TVs, Bluetooth keyboards are a question mark, and don’t appear to work; for instance, Apple’s just-released Magic Keyboard doesn’t pair wirelessly or when connected via a USB-C adapter.

appletv4ui

What To Expect: The Software

As shown in my colleague Dom Esposito’s video below, Apple has substantially redesigned the Apple TV’s user interface with an ambitious, visually appealing set of improvements. Everything’s been whitewashed (or light-graywashed) with a brighter color palette, text has been flipped to Apple’s new San Francisco font, and drop shadows have been added. Translucent panes introduced in iOS 7 have made their way to tvOS, with even better results.

One big change that isn’t obvious from screenshots is speed: the new Apple TV lets you zip rather than plodding through menus, thanks in equal parts to a considerably beefier A8 processor and the more responsive Siri Remote. Additionally, app icons and cover art images now wiggle in 3D thanks to an Apple mandate that developers include 2-5 parallax layers to create depth.

appletvui1

Much of the new UI — notably including some Apple-developed widgets such as Weather and Stocks that aren’t represented with app icons — can be navigated using Siri voice commands. You have to hold down the Siri Remote’s microphone button while you speak to get Siri to “hear” and process whatever you say, releasing the button when you’re done; this takes a little adjustment, but is better than killing the Siri Remote’s battery by having it endlessly listen for (and, like the iPhone 6s, too often ignore) the words “hey, Siri.”

appletv4uipane

By holding down the mic button, Siri can be activated in the middle of pretty much anything, including videos. You can use Siri for voice-controlled for navigation, “what did they just say?” inquiries, and lookups of information related to whatever’s currently playing. The remote’s touch surface can be swiped to expand or hide panes of information, which serve as partial translucent overlays or fill the entire screen with additional content if you prefer.

An App Store, soon to be opened, will let you add free and paid apps to the new Apple TV. It is highly likely that the device will arrive with only a handful of Apple-developed apps pre-installed, leaving you to choose most of the way you’ll fill your scrolling Home screen with apps.

apple-tv-screensaver

Other frills in the UI are sparing but occasionally eye-catching. Aerial screensavers stream gorgeous 1080p flyover videos of San Francisco, New York City, Hawaii, London, and the Great Wall of China, displaying different videos based on the time of day and downloading a new bundle of 3-4 videos on your preferred (daily/weekly/monthly) schedule. Each bundle of videos is around 600MB, and there are at least 10 bundles currently on Apple’s servers. New accessibility features make the UI easier to see or hear for users with vision or hearing deficiencies. And integrated calibration screens let you optimize the output for your personal television set or overscan preferences.

Apple-TV-MAME-Emulator

What To Expect: Apps and Games

The A8 processor inside the new Apple TV is one year and three generations old, which is to say that it’s already been surpassed in power by the iPad Air 2’s A8X, iPhone 6s/6s Plus’s A9, and iPad Pro’s A9X. But with at least as much horsepower as the iPad Air, iPad mini 2 and 3, iPhone 6, and iPhone 6 Plus, the Apple TV will be well-equipped to play new games, as well as thousands (if not hundreds of thousands) of games previously released for iOS devices, assuming they’re updated to support the tvOS operating system. Expect the graphics in 3D games to be roughly on par with consoles such as the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and original Wii, and no shortage of ability to handle 2D games of any type.

One note of caution about tvOS games: for all of the Apple TV’s incredible potential as a gaming platform, Apple has continued to ignore (entirely reasonable) requests from serious gamers regarding basic controller issues, such as allowing developers to offer games without support for the restrictive Siri Remote. Multi-player gaming may also be restricted due to simultaneous connection limitations of the new Apple TV’s Bluetooth chip. It remains to be seen whether software and hardware decisions like this, which have upset many within the gaming community, kills the Apple TV’s ability to win over major game developers and their customers.

While apps are a lot easier to code than games, the Apple TV’s living room-focused interface (and potential lack of Bluetooth keyboard support) hint that Apple’s not looking to see it turn into a cut-rate Mac. Basic widgets to extend the functionality of traditional TV features — watching sports, learning about the weather — will appear quickly, as will tvOS versions of Netflix, HBO Now, Hulu Plus, Showtime, and other channels, but don’t expect Apple to endorse creation apps, web browsers, or other Mac mainstays for the platform. At least, yet. Similarly, it will be interesting to see whether compromised apps for walkie talkie-like audio and/or one-way video calling take off in the absence of integrated FaceTime-caliber hardware.

Buy In, Cautiously: Unless Your Broadband Package Is Data-Capped, Go 32GB For Now

The new Apple TV comes in 32GB ($149) and 64GB ($199) versions, each representing a huge jump in storage over the 8GB second- and third-generation Apple TVs. Apple has mandated that app developers implement extreme space-saving measures, limiting the initial footprint of any app to 200MB with the ability to grab up to 2GB of additional content on an as-needed basis. (It’s believed that the new Apple TV will treat in-app content like old models handled video streams, using caches to load and purge extra files as needed — great for reducing storage, bad for broadband packages with data caps.)

If you do the math, and assume the Apple TV will allocate around 8GB of space for Apple’s various apps, you’ll be able to hold around 120 basic apps on the 32GB model, or 280 on the 64GB model, each number shrinking considerably if you have apps (primarily games) with additional 2GB caches. You can choose the best size for your own anticipated needs, but if you only plan to keep this Apple TV around for a year or two, consider going with the smaller one and saving the extra $50 to put towards a future sequel. At that point, your “old” Apple TV might stay with your “old” 2K TV, while the new Apple TV could be paired with a new 4K Ultra HD TV.

What I’m Going To Do

Even though the prior versions of the Apple TV haven’t been mega-hits, the second- and third-generation models have been amongst my family’s most-used Apple devices — handy for everything from watching videos to occasionally putting FaceTime calls up on a large TV. I’m personally very excited about the fourth-generation Apple TV’s potential, and think the next year will be a wild ride for early adopters, though I do think the first two or three months may be somewhat chaotic as developers rush to get their hastily-completed apps and games into the Apple TV App Store. I’ll be buying a new Apple TV the moment they go on sale, and can’t wait to see what developers bring to the new platform.

More From This Author

Check out more of my editorials, How-To guides, and reviews for 9to5Mac here! I’ve covered a lot of different topics of interest to Mac, iPad, iPhone, iPod, Apple TV, and Apple Watch users. I’ve recently discussed how to safely prepare and wipe your iPhone for resale or trade-in, and how to get the best iPhone trade-in price to help buy an iPhone 6s, amongst many other topics.

Filed under: Apple TV, Opinion Tagged: Apple TV

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HTC announces One A9 iPhone clone but with some ‘interesting’ differences

by Cristian De Nardo | Oct 20, 2015 | Apple

Prior to today’s launch event, the HTC One A9 has leaked several times, and each time we’ve noted how similar the phone looks to the iPhone 6. Even now that it’s official, we still feel the same. As does almost anyone who has eyes, and has seen them both. HTC’s new phone has a flat metal back plus rounded edges and corners. The front is completely covered in glass, which is slightly curved at the edges. Seem familiar?

HTC argues that that Apple stole its metal-with-antenna-bands design first, and it’s just reclaiming it. That won’t matter too much among general consumers though, they’ll just see it as an iPhone clone…

Still, it’s not a direct replica, there are some notable differences. Apple as we know is more than a little fastidious with its design. Everything has to be perfect. For instance, ~~Steve Jobs would never let this happen~~ Apple would never arrange its ports like this:

The One A9 images published by Paul O’Brien over at MoDaCo, and shows what is almost certainly the worst nightmare of anyone with even the slightest OCD towards symmetry and design. The speaker grille is pushed in about a thumb’s width from the edge, sort of sitting in the middle of nowhere, leaving a big gap. That in turn has pushed the Micro USB port across so that it’s not centered. What you’re left with is a port arrangement without even the slightest hint of symmetry. The fact you can see the home button/fingerprint sensor is perfectly in the middle just makes it worse.

Compared to an iPhone 6/6s:

The left and right edges are completely different too, in terms of what you can expect to find on either side. HTC has the volume rocker and heavily textured power button on the right edge. Apple, of course, just has the power button on the right, with the volume buttons and mute switch on the left. The One A9’s left side has removable SIM and SD card trays.

Below are images of the two phones’ camera designs. HTC’s is different, in that it’s placed directly in the center. But — like the iPhone — the lens sits in a protruding ring, with a circle dual-tone flash alongside it. You could argue that the design is massively different, maybe, because the microphone is underneath the HTC camera, and not to the right. It’d be a weak argument, but you could make it.

Two key other differences: HTC’s home button is pill-shaped, not round, and it the phone comes in a dark red hue. So there is that. Otherwise, it’s gray, silver and gold, just like the iPhone. What’s quite interesting is that — with its 5-inch screen — the A9 sits somewhere in between the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus in terms of size. I would argue that’s the perfect size for a smartphone, if I was convinced such a thing could possibly exist. Personally though, I’d love an iPhone this size.

Filed under: iOS Devices Tagged: Android, clone, htc one a9, iPhone 6, iPhone 6s

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Apple TV 3 adds CBS, NBC + M2M channels ahead of new Apple TV release on Monday

by Cristian De Nardo | Oct 20, 2015 | Apple

Current Apple TV customers are getting at least one more new wave of channel additions before the focus completely means to the new App Store-based Apple TV on Monday. New channels from CBS, NBC, and the fashion-focused M2M arrived on current Apple TV home screens today, bringing CBS’s subscription service, full episodes of NBC shows, and exclusive fashion videos to the streaming box.

We reported a month ago that CBS was planning to bring its All Access service to Apple TV boxes, allowing subscribers to view CBS shows on-demand through a standalone $5.99/month subscription. New subscribers can start a 1-week free trial of CBS All Access to view CBS shows including The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. Viewers in some markets can even view Live TV for supported CBS stations.

The network has had an existing presence on Apple TV with CBS News and CBS Sports but the new CBS channel marks the first time its TV shows have been available on the platform.

NBC, the other major network joining the platform, similarly provides a catalog of on-demand episodes including The Late Show with Jimmy Fallon and dramas like The Blacklist. Most content requires signing in through a TV provider. Both ABC and Fox have long had channels on Apple TV. The network’s TV show package joins its other properties already on Apple TV: CNBC and NBC Sports.

Made to Measure, or M2M, is the last channel to join the new lineup. The free-with-ads fashion channel was reported last month to be the first truly Apple TV-exclusive channel and shipped just ahead of the new Apple TV boxes coming on Monday.

Last night during an interview at the WSJD conference, Apple CEO Tim Cook said that the new Apple TV will be available for purchase starting Monday with units shipping out by the end of the week. Customers will be able to download new channels as well as games from a special App Store for Apple TV. The new box will also support the current channels already offered.

Not interested in paying for the new network channels or just want to move the icons around? Follow our guide for How-To: Rearrange and hide Apple TV channels to personalize and declutter your home screen.

Thanks Sebastian!

Filed under: Apple TV Tagged: App Store, Apple TV, Apple TV 3, CBS, M2M, Made to Measure, NBC