Last year, after Apple announced Siri, I wrote about it's long term, potentially game-changing business implications for Apple. Specifically, how Siri wasn't a voice control system, but a powerful, Pixar-coated way For Apple to both intermediate and starve their biggest rival, Google, and gain the most valuable data in modern business -- customer insight.

To recap, Google was once Apple's partner on the iPhone, providing the data for Maps, YouTube, and Search. Then Google decided to become Apple's competition. Yet their previous partnership enabled Google to collect data from and ultimately make money off iOS users. Perhaps more -- far more -- than they make off Android users.

Apple wants that to stop. Badly. They removed Google Maps data from iOS 6 and replaced it with TomTom licensed apps, Poly9 and C3 Technologies visualizations, and Apple rendered map tiles.

Replacing YouTube is non-trivial -- it enjoys majority marketshare. On the Apple TV, Apple added Vimeo videos but adding competing services to the iPhone and iPad would just clutter the Home screen with more non-deletable icons. Apple could remove YouTube and have Google submit their own version to the App Store (like they might now have to do with Google Maps), but then there'd lose in-app YouTube video playing, which is a compelling feature for many users. Making their own competing video service, the way Apple made their own maps service would require more than even Apple's billions could buy -- massive user buy in and content generation. So Apple is likely stuck with YouTube for as long as they can keep their agreement with Google in place.

That leaves search. It's even less realistic for Apple to try and build a search engine than it is a video service. They could replace Google either as default provider or entirely with something like Microsoft's Bing, but that's swapping one rival for another.

But unlike video, search doesn't need to be replaced. It only needs to be intercepted.

Right now when you search Google, Google gets that data. It knows what you're searching for, they may know where you're searching from, and they may even know who you are. Multiply that by hundreds of millions of iOS users, and that lets Google aggregate, analyze, and sell ads against a lot of data.

If, however, you search with Siri, then all Google (or any provider) sees is Apple's servers making queries on your behalf. Not you, not your location, and not your identity.

And because the interface is the app, Apple can replace Google's pipes whenever and wherever they want without users even noticing or caring. Instead of one ginormous provider, Apple can align many best of breed providers for everything from food and entertainment to sports and local business. Which appears to be exactly what they're doing.

That starves Google of data, which ultimately reduces Google's ability to make money. No more funding Android off the backs of iOS users.

And again, that's just step one. Hurting a rival is a small things. Increasing your own business is a potential huge thing.

I'll quote the salient part of my article from last year:

With Apple as intermediary, they don't just get the customer insight for one service, they get them for every service that goes through their system. That includes both complementary and competing services. If visibility into your own users is valuable, how valuable is visibility into your competitors' users, and their demographics and behavior?

To make it more tangible, Coke has no idea who buys a can of their tasty beverage at the local QuickyMart. But QuickyMart does, with ever-increasing granularity. And if they choose to, and they know how to derive proper customer insight from it, they can use it to better stock their shelves and increase their profits. And they can sell it to advertisers who want to reach their customers. And they can sell it to Coke, who wants to better understand the end consumer to improve their own profitability. And they can sell it to Doritos who wants to be bought alongside Coke, and they can sell it to Pepsi who wants those customers to buy their tasty beverage instead.

With iOS 6, Apple just added sports, movies, restaurants and more to Siri. More is likely to come.

That kind of customer insight is invaluable. It's a ticket to print money. Apple may never choose to cash that ticket in -- it's a very different business -- but either way they're shutting competitors out of doing it.

They're shutting Google out of doing it. And it looks like they're only getting started.

Apple is looking to secure their trademark in the world of top-level domains, along with many other mobile giants like Sony, Samsung and HTC. There were a grand total of 1,930 applicants for new URL suffixes to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. For the next 60 days, the public has the right to comment on any of the applications and the deciding panels will take it under consideration before granting top-level domains. Of geographic note, Africa and Latin America are making their first applications to the organization.

It's unlikely that we'll see Apple.apple as a website address anytime soon, but it does prevent con artists from appearing to be official when they're anything but. I'm trying to figure out any legitimate way in which Apple could use the suffix... "tim.cook@iphone.apple" just looks weird. Apparently the approval process can take at least a year or two, so at least it's not something we'll have to think about for awhile still. Regardless, this is no trifling affair; each proposal required a $185,000 submission fee.

You can see the full list of suffix applicants here, or if you're looking for a laugh, check out the full list of suffixes currently recognized by Mozilla over here. Do you guys have any bright ideas on how Apple could put such a unique branding opportunity to work?

Source: AP

For today only, the iMore iPhone Accessory Store has the Rugged QX Medium Horizontal Pouch for iPhone 4Son sale for only $14.95! That's a huge 50% off! Get yours before they're gone!

The Rugged QX Medium Horizontal Pouch is the next generation in Rugged equipment trade-grade universal mobile protection.

The Rugged QX is built to withstand the day-to-day rigors of work and play, and is unmatched in secure professional protection. The triple armored front and back panels of the QX pouch have reinforced rubber side grips that allow a firm grip on the case.

Inside the case is a microfiber and suede lining that protects your device from scratches. The belt clip on the back of the Rugged QX pouch is made of an ultra-strong polycarbonate.

Features:

• Triple armored front and back panels
• Tactile, reinforced rubber side grips
• Carbon fiber style
• Ballistic nylon outer shell
• Microfiber and suede inner lining
• Ultra-strong polycarbonate belt clip
• Magnetic closure

In a recent interview at WWDC, Apple's VP of Marketing Phil Schiller commented on criticism that it's hard to get noticed in the App Store.

The opportunity is the best it has ever been for software developers... Every other day you hear about another app going off the charts. You can still get discovered and get a hit overnight.

Additionally, Schiller commented that the App Store is much more democratic than traditional retail, where there's a limit on shelf space. Of the rumored data-gathering tool that was in fact released in the iOS 6 beta, Schiller said that "more can be done to help users have control over what apps and advertisers want to do with data".

The introduction of iOS 6 included a Facebook Like button for the App Store, which will likely improve discoverability boatloads, but busting through the top 100 list is still a major feat, even for respected and popular apps. It sounds like Schiller was mostly brushing off the challenge of getting noticed, and that the good ones float to the top naturally.

Devs, how hard do you find it is to get noticed? The rest of y'all, how often do you look anywhere other than the top 25 to find new apps? For that matter, how big of a role do blogs like ours play in picking your iOS apps?

Source: WSJ

A clever dev has managed to shoehorn full-blown iOS apps onto the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet. Such App Store titles as Tiny Tower, Super Monkey Ball, TomTom Navigation, Sushi Cat, iFart, Frogger, Galcon, SketchBook, and a few others. Oh, and the iMore app, of course. This has been made possible through a kind of iOS player that a developer has managed to get to work on Windows too. The dev has gone into a few technical details as to how they've pulled off this feat.

The CPU isn't emulated on Playbook (though it is on Windows). It works very similarly to how WINE works to run Windows applications on Linux. The app binary is mapped into memory and imports are resolved to point to my own implementation of the various APIs needed. iOS actually uses a few open APIs already, which Playbook supports just as well (GL ES, and OpenAL). The bulk of the work has been in implementing all of the objective C classes that are required. The ARM code of the applications run as-is - the armv6/v7 support on PB/iDevices are pretty much identical, and the code is designed to run in USR mode. No SWIs, GPIO accesses or any of that kind of shenanigans.

Obviously, this is all well outside Apple's interests, but it may be within RIM's; after all, they made lots of accommodations to bring in Android apps into the BlackBerry ecosystem, and though there's no direct porting of iOS apps, RIM has generally been good about getting cozy with middleware providers that also happen to support iPhone and iPad apps. There's still a lot of work to be done in the emulation environment, so don't expect anything soon. Even if it's polished enough for the public, the dev says "I would like to release to the public, but not sure if I will be able to."

Although the solution to do this isn't publicly available, it poses a fairly grey area for users. During the hayday of PlayBook rooting, there were lots of leaked versions of Android apps floating around, some paid, some not, and if this solution ever goes public, we would likely see a similar boom in app piracy. Those that picked up a PlayBook while it was cheap would be happy to get a bit of added functionality out of it, but I doubt anyone will go after a PlayBook or a BlackBerry 10 device for its iOS app support - just get an iPad, or if you're really married to the 7-inch form factor, hold out for the iPad Mini.

As someone who has put a fair bit of time into the PlayBook, I find it's impressive that the development environment is proving to be this flexible. I was always a fan of the bezel gestures on the PlayBook, and despite all the bad press, the app ecosystem is starting to pick up. Heck, BB10 might even get Jetpack Joyride before Android. What do you guys think the prospects are for BlackBerry 10 and the PlayBook in light of iOS 6? Will RIM actually be able to rope in developers?

The speech recognition app Speak For Yourself for iPad has given 4 year old Maya Nieder a voice of her own for the first time. Due to a lawsuit concerning several patents, the app has been pulled from the App Store. Her parents worry if the app is removed remotely they may lose their new found communication channel with their daughter.

Speak For Yourself uses augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) communication technology. It has allowed Maya's parents to really get to know her for the first time. This type of hardware and software typically would cost around $5,000. With the iPad and about $300 additional dollars they've been able to actually get to know their daughter's likes, dislikes, and how she's feeling.

"Maya can speak to us, clearly, for the first time in her life. We are hanging on her every word. We've learned that she loves talking about the days of the week, is weirdly interested in the weather, and likes to pretend that her toy princesses are driving the bus to school (sometimes) and to work (other times). This app has not only allowed her to communicate her needs, but her thoughts as well. It's given us the gift of getting to know our child on a totally different level."

The pending lawsuit is between Heidi LoStracco and Renee Collender, speech pathologists and the creators of Speak for Yourself, and AAC device makers, Prentke Romich Company (PRC) and Semantic Compaction Systems (SCS), who both make AAC hardware. They are claiming that the app infringes on over 100 patents they currently hold. They have requested that Apple remove the app while litigation is pending. LoStracco and Collender have already counter filed claiming that the suit has no basis.

At the moment, we still have the app, securely loaded into her iPad and present in my iTunes account, and Maya remains blissfully unaware that anything has changed. Dave and I, however, know better. We are now shadowed by a huge, impending threat.

While the Nieder family currently has access to the app they worry that if the courts require the app to be pulled indefinitely that Apple may remote pull it and they will lose the only way they currently have to communicate with their daughter.

Source: Nieder family via Techland via Cult of Mac

The Retina display-packing MacBook Pro that was announced at WWDC has been meticulously disassembled, as you might expect, everything is glued or soldered in place, including RAM, battery packs, and the display. While that might not make for a laptop that's particularly well-suited for repair or upgrades, it does make for a svelte package. The iFixit guys have a few thoughts on their experience taking the new MacBook Pro apart:

• Just like in the iPhone 4/4S (and the MacBook Air), proprietary Pentalobe screws prevent folks from accessing the machine's internals. That means you need a special screwdriver just to remove the bottom cover.
• As in the MacBook Air, the RAM is soldered to the logic board. Max out at 16GB now, or forever hold your peace—you can't upgrade.
• The proprietary SSD isn't upgradeable either (yet), as it is similar but not identical to the one in the Air. It is a separate daughtercard, and we're hopeful we can offer an upgrade in the near future.
• The lithium-polymer battery is glued rather than screwed into the case, which increases the chances that it'll break during disassembly. The battery also covers the trackpad cable, which tremendously increases the chance that a user will shear the cable in the battery removal process.
• The display assembly is completely fused, and there's no glass protecting it. If anything ever fails inside the display, you will need to replace the entire (extremely expensive) assembly.

It's clear that Apple's laptop design is following closely in line with their tablet strategy: make it small at all costs, even if it means using proprietary parts and keeping tinkerers out. While that might not be great news for folks like Ally, it's hard to argue with the results. The new MacBook Pro looks like a beast of a machine, and odds are if you're a fan of Apple hardware, you don't mind being locked out of certain things. Of course, the pricetag is another story altogether...

Source: iFixit

Ping, Apple's ill-fated music social network, may be seeing its end of life in September with the next major release of iTunes.

Ping launched in September of 2010 and went ages without plugging into Facebook despite lengthy negotiations. At its Core, Ping enables users to share their tastes with other iTunes users, including what concerts they're going to as well as what music they've recently downloaded. It's also a place for artists to showcase what they're up to, and give fans the opportunity to follow. Ping absolutely failed to take off, and Apple CEO Tim Cook said as much in his interview at D10.

So, is anyone shedding a single tear for Ping? Was there anything it could have done to save it from getting the axe? Are dedicated streaming services owning the social music landscape solely because they can play nice with Facebook, or is there something more that they're doing that Ping never managed to?

Source: AllThingsD

At WWDC, Apple proclaimed iOS 6 would introduce over 200 new features when released this fall, and that what we saw yesterday was just a small sampling. We've got plenty of posts going over the big features, but there are also a handful of slides that were positively riddled with features that they just didn't have time to go over.

Additionally, there were lots of smaller features that either just got a passing mention, were folded into some of the talk about OS X, or weren't referenced at all. That said, let's tear apart the keynote address (which was recently made available in HD on iTunes, by the way) and pick out every teeny tiny iOS 6 feature we can.

We're going to keep a running tally here, and update it as more information becomes available, so check back often! (New additions will be in boss-like bold.)

iCloud sync with OS X Mountain Lion

• Messages (with iMessage, pulled from the latest beta), Reminders, Notes
• Documents in the Cloud (Pages, Numbers, Keynote, Preview, Text Edit, plus developer SDK)
• Mail preferences pushed to iCloud
• iCloud Documents API improvements

Siri

• Sports scores (baseball, basketball, football, hockey, soccer)
  • Italian Serie A
  • English Premier League
  • MLS
  • French Ligue 1
  • Spanish la Liga
  • Dutch Eredivisie
  • German Bundesliga
  • MLB
  • NCAA Football
  • NFL
  • NBA
  • NCAA Basketball
  • WNBA
  • NHL
• Sport player stats
• Sport team rosters
• Sports league standings
• Sports game schedule
• Updated restaurant searches (type, price, Yelp reviews, distance, map, hours, phone number)
• OpenTable reservations for restaurants
• Movie listings per theatre
• Rotten Tomato moview reviews
• Movie facts
• Movie trailers
• Search by actor/actress
• Launch apps
• Send Tweet
• Update Facebook status
• Listen to notifications
• Eyes Free car integration (in the next year)
• International languages (Canada, Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Korean, Taiwan, Hong Kong, China) and local search (all of the above plus countries with existing Siri functionality)
• Siri for iPad (new iPad only)

Facebook

• Single sign-on
• Share from Photos, Safari, Maps, App Store, iTunes, Game Center
• Public API for developers
• Contact and Calendar integration

Phone

• Reply to incoming calls with message (preset or custom) or save reminder (timed or geofenced)
• New dialer layout

Center

• Do not disturb toggle with fine-grain phone call exceptions, schedules, or allowing repeat calls
• Facebook and Twitter compose buttons

FaceTime

• Available over cellular
• Apple ID unified with phone number, enabling FaceTime or iMessage answering on iPad or Mac

Safari

• iCloud Tabs for Safari on other iOS devices and Macs
• Offline Reading List
• Photo uploads
• Smart app banners link to App Store or launches
• Fullscreen video in landscape

Photo Streams

• Shared Photo Streams with designated friends, includes comments
• Photo Stream pictures in Mac screensaver
• Photo Stream now a separate tab, not another album

Mail

• VIPs - designated contacts cause notifications, e-mails flagged with stars, separate inbox
• Flagged mailbox
• Attach photos in-line (finally)
• Open password-protected Office docs
• Per account signatures
• Fun new pull-to-refresh animation

Passbook

• Barcode collection for boarding passes, store cards, coupon, movie tickets
• Pops up on lock screen when you arrive
• Includes up-to-date-balance
• Boarding passes update with gate changes
• Synced to iCloud
• Cute deletion animation

Guided Access

• Disable certain app interactions with a circle
• Limit hardware buttons, touch, and motion control access
• Single-app mode

Maps

• Local search with 100 million business listings with Yelp reviews and pictures
• Crowd-sourced traffic data with incident reports
• Free turn-by-turn navigation with alternative route offers based on faster ETA
• Navigation viewable from lock screen
• Siri integration, finds spots along your route
• Flyover (3D buildings)
• Multitouch rotation, angle change, and zoom
• Powered by TomTom
• Pinch-out in maps goes to globe view

Game Center

• Game Center sync with OS X
• Cross-platform turn-based and realtime gaming between iOS and Mac
• Issue challenges to friends
• Find Facebook friends

Developer SDK

• Audio and video sampling during playback
• Pass Kit
• Rich text on labels, fields, and text views
• VoiceOver gestures
• Control camera focus and exposure
• Remote Web Inspector
• CSS filters
• Action Sheer
• Web Audio API
• Crossfade with CSS animation
• Game Center in-app experience
• Reminders
• Video stabilization
• Game groups
• Bluetooth MAP support
• Transit apps (Apple's Maps doesn't have its own, but opening doors to local devs)
• In-app Bluetooth pairing
• Face detection API
• Inter-app audio
• Frame drop data
• Map Kit
• Auto layout
• State preservation
• Pull to refresh on Table views
• In-app purchase hosted content
• Read and write image metadata
• Collection views
• In-app content purchases
• Multi-route audio

 Other

• Location-based reminders for iPad
• Autocorrection for every keyboard
• Global network proxy for HTTP
• Manual reorder of reminders
• Lost Mode - send a phone number to lost device which can be called with single tap
• Kernel ASLR
• Manual location entry for reminders
• Custom vibrations for alerts
• VoiceOver improvements
• App in Safari search results
• IPv6 support for Wi-Fi and LTE
• HDR improvements
• French, German, and Spanish dictionaries
• Word highlights for speajk selection
• Search all fields in Contacts
• New iPad Clock app
• Improved keyboard layouts
• Made for iPhone hearing aids
• Extended functions for China

• Baidu
• Sina Weibo
• Tudou
• Youku
• Improved text input
• Dictionary

Top title bar changes color with app

New iPod app layout

Granular privacy control

iCloud-stored user dictionary

Updated sharing menu with large icons

Music ringtones, alarms

Redesigned App Store and iTunes (can now view App Store screenshots in full screen)

iTunes Match now streams music (rather than just download)

Support for iPhone 3GS and later; iPad 2 and later, iPod touch 4th gen)

Tilt changes reflection on slider buttons

Spotlight now shows which folder apps are in

Government alerts (AMBER and Emergency) in Notifications

More and new Emojis

Music preview banner overlays current screen

Time since last full charge (usage, standby)

Darker camera UI

"New" banner on app icons after installation

Update history in App Store

15 second skip playback controls for podcasts

Hold navigation arrow in Safari for iPhone for history view

"Enhanced" photos now add "-fixed" to file name

Cleared notifications sync across devices

No more pop-up in Safari when there's no internet access available

Share calendar that you created (but not one shared with you) from app

Anyone see anything new in the iOS 6 beta that's really rocking your world? What are you favorite new features?

Thanks to jwr_ for his finds.