If you're a long time Mac & Twitter user, then you're probably familiar with The Iconfactory, makers of the original native Mac Twitter client, Twitterrific.
Gedeon Maheux, Principal/Designer, at The Iconfactory just released Volume 7 of their long running freeware Futurama icon cet. This latest set is called 'Extras' and is comprised with many of the supporting characters of the show. This icon set has been long in the making, with Volume 1 having been released back in August of 2005. Each icon set is available for Mac or Windows. Also, if you own a license to The Iconfactory's Candybar App, you can download the icon set in a Candybar compatible container file.
If you want to download all 7 volumes of this set, you can do so on their Web site.
My contention is that “Free” as described and used in many contemporary web-based businesses is a non-business model that is not only broken, but actively harmful to entrepreneurship. Free rarely works, and all the times that it doesn’t, it undermines entrepreneurial creativity, destroys market value, delivers an inferior user experience and pumps hot air into financial bubbles.
I think this piece hits it out of the park. Why should you price your product as a pay-for-service or good? This article lays out all of the reasons and why free should never be your decision.
Apple cannot continue to lock down its iOS platform and restrict the types of software developed for it, says security firm Kaspersky’s CTO Nikolay Grebennikov.
Speaking to Computing, he said: “Apple simply can’t continue with its current closed approach, and in my opinion, to remain competitive it should be looking to open up its platform within a year.”
“The Android platform, which is growing its market share, is much more open than the Apple iOS and it’s easier to create new applications for Android, including security software,” said Grebennikov.
MacDailyNews’s translation:
“We wish Apple would make its platform insecure like Google, so that we can sell ‘security’ to hundreds of millions of iOS users.”
The consumer software "security" industry have largely been leeches on the backs of consumers for the past 10 years. In the early 90's when they started out, they were mostly doing good - writing good software that solved a problem. When they stagnated in the mid-90s they began to peddle bloatware and drum up fear around every major virus/trojan that came out in order to scare customers into buying their software. They're new way of competing was to further bloat their products with crap that people didn't near or to 'out-scare' their competitors. Now that Apple is taking hold in the desktop and mobile markets, they're scared shitless because Apple customers simply do not need their crapware any longer. The emperor has no clothes.
There are no words to describe how much I cannot wait to see them all go away. Although they'll probably go kicking and screaming on the way down with their cries growing increasingly frantic about how you're all going to die unless you are buy their Norton MacAfee Virus Checker 3000 Deluxe Edition Pro™. Fuck those guys.
… Lion is coming. To prepare us for the changes ahead, Apple has posted a big summary on its website listing all of the more than 250 new features present in this version of OS X—but let’s be reasonable: As excited as you might be, you don’t have time to read up on every single one. Instead, let us do the work for you, and highlight some of the coolest new tricks your Mac will be able to turn in Lion.
Go read over the 5 obscure features Serenity has written about. I think she did a good job at picking 5 crucial features not covered in the presentation from WWDC. I've seen and used all 5 of these in the developer preview I'm running and can attest to how well they work.
J.C. Penney has a new CEO today, and they’ve poached him from Apple Inc.. Ron Johnson, the man responsible for Apple’s retail experience, will now be occupying the CEO position at J.C. Penney.
Think about that for a second, J.C. Penney could become cool again. Okay, probably not. But, It seems like Ron Johnson is putting his money where his mouth is today, according to the J.C. Penney press release he has committed to making a personal investment of $50 million in the Company “through the purchase, at fair market value, of 7 1/3-year warrants on 7.257 million shares of J.C. Penney Company stock.”
Putting his money where his mouth is. If he can do for JC Penny what he did for Apple, this is a huge gain for J.C. Penny.
While WWDC is still going on, Steve Jobs made an appearance at the Cupertino City Council meeting to present to the council Apple's plans for their new headquarters office they plan to build in Cupertino, not far from their old headquarters. Jobs wants to build one building that will hold 12,000 Apple employees on the former Hewlett-Packard property.
Alexia Tsotsis, writing for Techcrunch:
Jobs began the presentation referring to the fact that Apple is growing “like a weed,” and that its current campus at D’Anza and the 280 isn’t enough — fitting only about 2,800 people. Apple currently rents buildings to house its other 6,700 employees in the area. The new building will augment the current campus.
Paving the way for these plans, Apple purchased about 100 acres from Hewlett Packard in 2010 and added them to the 50 it owns adjacent. Jobs says he has corralled “some great architects … some of the best in the world” to come up with a design that will house 12,000 people in one four story high building on the property. The area is now mainly apricot orchards.
With the futuristic design Apple apparently is relying heavily on its experience building retail stores, and it will be creating one massive piece of curved glass if the proposal goes through. “There’s not a single straight piece of glass in this building,” Jobs says. The parking will be underground.
Jobs also wants the building to function as its own power source, with an “energy center” as its primary source of power (“with natural gas and other ways that are cleaner and cheaper”), using the grid as a backup.
The campus will include amenities like its own auditorium similar to Apple’s current Town Hall (“We’ve got an auditorium, cause we put on presentations, much like we did yesterday but we have to go to San Francisco to do them.”) and a cafeteria that will feed 3,000 people at one sitting.
“We do have a shot at building the best office building in the world,” Jobs told the Council members, “Architecture students will come here to see this.” Ideally Apple wants to move into the campus in 2015.
The individual members of the Cupertino City Council seemed like they were in awe the entire time the infamously charismatic Apple CEO spoke (which isn’t surprising), asking Jobs for free Wifi and iPads for constituents as well as for an Apple store that’s actually in Cupertino and not in the Valley or Los Gatos. Jobs shyly responded to the requests, “I think we bring a lot more than free Wifi.”
This is a fundamentally different vision for the coming decade than Google’s. In both cases, your data is in the cloud, and you can access it from anywhere with a network connection. But Google’s vision is about software you run in a web browser. Apple’s is about native apps you run on devices. Apple is as committed to native apps — on the desktop, tablet, and handheld — as it has ever been.
Google’s frame is the browser window. Apple’s frame is the screen. That’s what we’ll remember about today’s keynote ten years from now.
I think John has the best "big picture" take on yesterday's announcements.
What's happening to MobileMe?
Effective June 6, 2011, if you had an active MobileMe account, your service has been automatically extended through June 30, 2012, at no additional charge. After this, the MobileMe service will no longer be available.
Products Affected
MobileMeWhat will happen to the content I have on MobileMe?
Apple has announced a new service called iCloud which will be available this fall and free for iOS 5 and OS X Lion users. When you sign up for iCloud, you'll be able to keep your me.com or mac.com email address and move your MobileMe mail, contacts, calendars, and bookmarks to the new service.
When iCloud becomes available this fall, more details and instructions will be provided on how to make the move.
Can I create a new MobileMe account?
You can no longer create a new 60-day trial account or start a new subscription using a code contained in a MobileMe box. However, if you have a Family Pack subscription, you can still create new family member accounts.
Can I upgrade to a Family Pack or purchase additional storage?
Effective June 6, 2011, you can no longer upgrade your Individual account to a Family Pack or purchase additional storage for your MobileMe account.
I purchased a MobileMe box and have not used the activation code inside. Can I get refund for it?
Yes. If you have an unused activation code from a MobileMe box, you can submit a refund request.
If you're a long time Mac & Twitter user, then you're probably familiar with The Iconfactory, makers of the original native Mac Twitter client, Twitterrific.
Gedeon Maheux, Principal/Designer, at The Iconfactory just released Volume 7 of their long running freeware Futurama icon cet. This latest set is called 'Extras' and is comprised with many of the supporting characters of the show. This icon set has been long in the making, with Volume 1 having been released back in August of 2005. Each icon set is available for Mac or Windows. Also, if you own a license to The Iconfactory's Candybar App, you can download the icon set in a Candybar compatible container file.
If you want to download all 7 volumes of this set, you can do so on their Web site.
