760,000 Android Wear Smartwatches sold→

Somehow I'm surprised that there are even 760,000 people out there wearing smartwatches.

“Over 720,000 Android Wear devices shipped in 2014 out of a total of 4.6 million smart wearable bands. Though the Moto 360 remained supply constrained through Q4, Motorola was the clear leader among Android Wear vendors. LG’s round G Watch R performed significantly better than its original G Watch, while Asus and Sony entered the market with their own Android Wear devices. Pebble meanwhile shipped a total of 1 million units from its 2013 launch through to the end of 2014. Continual software updates, more apps in its app store and price cuts in the fall helped maintain strong sales in the second half of the year. ‘Samsung has launched six devices in just 14 months, on different platforms and still leads the smart band market. But it has struggled to keep consumers engaged and must work hard to attract developers while it focuses on Tizen for its wearables.’ said Canalys VP and Principal Analyst Chris Jones. - See more at: http://www.canalys.com/newsroom/over-720000-android-wear-devices-shipped-2014#sthash.MKQjVMsv.dpuf”

Jon Stewart to leave The Daily Show→

Well, Crap.   Don't you think he should have done this BEFORE John Oliver and Stephen Colbert left?  From The AV Club:

“Ending one of the most venerable and trusted careers in making a complete mockery of the news, Jon Stewart has announced that he is stepping down as host of The Daily Show. According to sources who were there (some of whom are already passing word along on social media), Stewart let the news slip at the taping of today’s episode, telling those in the audience that he’s retiring.”

— The AV Club

Check out what goes into restoring the USS Enterprise for the Smithsonian

The fact that the Smithsonian is taking this much care to restore a MODEL spacecraft shows just how much influence Star Trek has had in cultivating our current technology and spaceflight programs.

BREAKING: Spider-Man has joined the MCU!

From The Verge:

“Spider-Man will appear in upcoming Marvel movies. Sony Pictures has announced a deal with Marvel that will see the web slinger appear in an as-yet-unspecified movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe — the same universe that contains Iron Man, Thor, and the rest of the Avengers.

The timing of the deal means Spider-Man’s likely to make his first Marvel movie appearance in Captain America: Civil War, but the agreement doesn’t mean that Sony is giving up the movie rights to the character. The next Sony Pictures Spider-Man movie is due on July 28th, 2017, and the deal works both ways — Sony Pictures said it was also “exploring opportunities to integrate characters from the Marvel Cinematic Universe into future Spider-Man films.”

— The Verge

Can you say Avengers 2 Post Credit Scene?  I can.

Seriously though, this is a HUGE deal for Marvel as they have finally made the first step in wrestling the rights back to one of their most popular characters from Sony.   I wonder if Andrew Garfield is attached to this or if Marvel has insisted on recasting him?   Here is the link to Marvel's Press Release.

Former TUAW writers start new Apple Site

Former TUAW staffers Steve Sande, Dave Caolo, and Kelly Hodgkins have started up a new Apple site.  AppleWorld.today .  Cool domain name.  Can't wait to see what they do with it.

Like I said.   Getting out from under AOL is the best thing these people could do.   Glad to see new independent voices out there.   Also, they're using Squarespace too!  Cool.

iOS 9 to be a "no new features" release, ala Snow Leopard

Mark Gurman, writing for 9to5mac, seems to have some information that iOS 9 is going to be more of a "no new features" release akin to OS X Snow Leopard.   From the article:

“Following the success of OS X Snow Leopard for Macs in 2009, one of iOS 9’s standout ‘features’ will be a directed focus on stabilizing and optimizing the operating system. While stability is normally an expected component in Apple software rather than a marquee feature, the rapid pace of iOS releases and feature introductions has taken a toll on the operating system’s overall performance, recently leading to numerous complaints from long-time Apple users and regular customers alike…

...For 2015, iOS 9, which is codenamed Monarch, is going to include a collection of under-the-hood improvements. Sources tell us that iOS 9 engineers are putting a “huge” focus on fixing bugs, maintaining stability, and boosting performance for the new operating system, rather than solely focusing on delivering major new feature additions. Apple will also continue to make efforts to keep the size of the OS and updates manageable, especially for the many millions of iOS device owners with 16GB devices.”

— Mark Gurman - 9to5Mac.com

One wonders if this step is a reaction to some of the backlash they have been receiving from many iOS users including some Apple community heavyweights like Marco Arment and John Gruber on their respective blogs and podcasts.   For a little while now it seems like Apple's software has just been less stable, and less consistent in quality than it had been previously.  Nothing showstopping of course, but more like a set of death by 1,000 papercuts-type issues.

Apple used to pride itself on best-in-class software design in the same way that they pride themselves today on best-in-class hardware design.  While I'm sure they still feel that they do pride themselves on that best-in-class software, it's obvious to almost anyone these days that while they have maintained and improved that hardware design, the software hasn't gotten quite as much attention.

iOS 7 was a great visual refresh of an OS that was starting to feel visually stale, and iOS 8 was a great refinement of that look.   That being said, there have been some things that just don't quite work as expected.   There have been things like iCloud syncing issues,  AirDrop and AirPlay consistency, iMessage consistency, small crashing bugs, and small notification center bugs.   For example,  I should never want to AirDrop a link to my MacBook Air and worry whether or not it will show up in my AirDrop list on my phone (it usually doesn't).  It's Nothing serious, but it is just enough to make the iPhone feel less "effortless" than it used to.  

So when I heard that iOS 9 was going to take the time to make the OS feel more consistent, and to squash some of those longstanding bugs,  I couldn't have been happier.   This is something that is sorely needed.  In fact I wouldn't mind seeing a more "tick/tock" approach to iOS development.   One year gets a huge feature release, the next year is less features, more reliability.  

Actually, the way OS X is going, I wouldn't mind seeing it there as well!   Perhaps for OS X 10.11 we could get something called "Yosemite Valley" which could be a release designed just to fix a lot of the longstanding issues with OS X as well.   Considering that a lot of the bugs in both OS X and iOS have to do with services that both OS's share at this point (iMessage, AirDrop, AirPlay, Notification Center, etc) it may not be a bad idea to really spend a good year on both OS projects trying to really get them stable and consistent all the way through. 

SlingTV opens to the public today without invites!

From GigaOM today:

“Sling TV, the online TV streaming service from Dish Networks, is now available to everyone: The service ended its invitation-only soft launch late Sunday night and began to accept sign-ups from everyone on its website.

Sling offers consumers live access to a total of 15 channels, including ESPN, ESPN2, TNT, TBS, CNN, HGTV, Cartoon Network and others for $20 a month. New to this basic package are Galavision, El Rey Network and a channel for Maker Studios content, which had been previously announced but initially wasn’t part of the invite-only beta test. AMC is going to be added to the base package soon, according to a Sling TV press release. There’s no word yet on whether Sling will also add other channels that are part of the AMC Networks family, including IFC, Sundance TV and WE TV.

Sling subscribers can elect to add more channels through three different add-on packages that cost $5 each. These include a news and information package, a kids and family package and a sports add-on package that offers access to additional ESPN channels and a few other sports networks. As of Monday, subscribers will also be able to use ESPN’s WatchESPN apps, but the content available to them will depend on their individual subscription: Sling TV’s base package unlocks ESPN1, ESPN2 and ESPN3 streams, whereas the added sports package will provide access to more content.”

— https://gigaom.com/2015/02/08/sling-tv-opens-the-floodgates-accepts-sign-ups-without-invites/

As someone who has considered cutting the cord more than once.   This seems like just about the perfect service.   Most of my viewing these days is Youtube, Netflix, and Amazon Prime Video via my Roku box.  

Coupled with an HDTV antenna for local channels, the only things that I would be interested in that aren't offered here is an extended selection of news channels (MSNBC, Al Jazeera, Fox, C-Span), and the Discovery group of channels (Discovery, History, Science channels) and possibly The Weather Channel.    If this service takes off, I don't see much reason why those won't show up eventually too.   Since they are offering a free 7-day trial,  I expect I will give it a shot.