My Journey Towards My First iPhone

It was exactly 10 years ago today, on June 29th, 2007, that the original iPhone went on sale. Although it was first introduced and demoed on stage by Steve Jobs back in January 2009, it didn’t actually go on sale till June that year. Today, irrespective of which mobile platform you primarily use, there’s no denying that the iPhone has completely revolutionized the mobile phone industry.

On its 10th anniversary, I decided to take a look back at some of my original tweets about the iPhone from 2007-2008.

I joined Twitter on 15th August, 2007, a couple of months after the iPhone went on sale in the US. Back then, I had just purchased a new Mac — the old white Mac mini, and was getting used to the joy and delight of using Max OS X Tiger. Coming from Windows, this was a fascinating new world for me, and I was hooked.

On the other hand, the iPhone didn’t catch my attention till the end of 2007. Sure, I had read about its launch and its featured, but back then, India as a country was nowhere on Apple’s radar and there was no chance that Apple would start selling the iPhone here (They didn’t).

My first tweet about the iPhone was congratulating someone on her purchase of an iPhone:

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June 29, 2017 ✚ Permalink

Matt Gemmell’s first look at iPad Pro 10.5-inch

Matt Gemmell has posted this lovely first look at his new iPad 10.5-inch gifted by his wife. There are some great photos of the device next to the old 9.7-inch iPad Pro, so you get a good sense of the changes in the dimensions on the new one.

June 14, 2017 ✚ Permalink

Some Thoughts on Apple’s WWDC 2017 Announcements

Apple WWDC 2017

At its annual Worldwide Developers Conference 2017 this week, Apple delivered a jam-packed keynote address on Monday. As has been tradition over the last few years, a bunch of us Apple enthusiasts gathered at the iXyr Media HQ to watch the keynote together. Unlike the last few keynotes, the WWDC 2017 keynote address lasted almost 2.5 hours, and the company had so much to talk about. They even completely skipped talking about their sales and growth, and their tvOS platform barely got 2 minutes on stage, only so that Tim Cook could mention that the Amazon Prime Video app is finally coming to Apple TV later this year.

Over the next 140 minutes or so, Tim Cook and other Apple executives took the audience through an incredible journey, in what is touted at one of the best Keynotes that Apple has ever delivered, largely for the sheet number of announcements that the company had to make.

Here is a list of everything major Apple announced at WWDC 2017 and some thoughts on the announcements:

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June 8, 2017 ✚ Permalink

On Vivek Wadhwa’s Factor Daily piece titled “Why Apple is destined to fail in India”

apple-vivek-wadhwa-factor-daily-piece-lol

Earlier today, Factor Daily published this piece titled ‘Why Apple is destined to fail in India‘ written by Vivek Wadhwa. A similarly-worded article from the author also appeared on The Washington Post and VentureBeat a day earlier. I subscribed to Factor Daily via RSS a while ago, primarily for the people behind the site who have delivered some great content in the past. I, however, was definitely not ready for this hilariously bullshit stream of content heading my way.

Now, usually when I come across a title as bold as this one about Apple, and they’re dime a dozen these days, I usually either skip it completely or read it and then skip reacting to it. But this piece by Vivek Wadhwa has such ingenious crap filled inside, I couldn’t help fire up Ulysses. Vivek’s piece essentially says that Apple is destined to fail in India because the company fails to understand the Indian market and that “it is repeating the mistakes it made in China”. However, a lot of points that Vivek raises are just not true, plain wrong, or simply laughable.

[With inputs and corrections from Rohan “RN” Naravane, who was just as baffled upon reading the piece.]

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March 17, 2017 ✚ Permalink

Apple’s Next iPhone Will Have a Curved Screen & USB-C: Report

The Wall Street Journal’s Takashi Mochizuki is reporting that Apple’s next iPhone, the 10th anniversary edition, will have a curved display manufactured by Samsung.

Apple had been studying flexible organic light-emitting diode or OLED screens similar to those used by rival Samsung Electronics Co. and had asked suppliers for prototypes, The Wall Street Journal reported in November.

People with direct knowledge of Apple’s production plans said the Cupertino, Calif., company has decided to go ahead with the technology, and it will release a phone model using the OLED screens this year.

The most striking paragraph from the article is this one:

They said Apple would introduce other updates including a USB-C port for the power cord and other peripheral devices instead of the company’s original Lightning connector. The models would also do away with a physical home button, they said. Those updates would give the iPhone features already available on other smartphones.

This is absolutely bonkers.

February 28, 2017 ✚ Permalink

Tim Cook on India during Apple’s Q1 2017 Earnings Call

Apple had their quarterly earnings call yesterday where they announced record first quarter results. The company posted all-time record quarterly revenue of $78.4 billion (compared to $75.9 billion in Q1 2016) and all-time record quarterly earnings per diluted share of $3.36 (compared to $3.28 in Q1 2016).

iPhone and Mac sales and revenue are up, whereas iPad sales and revenue is down compared to the year-ago quarter. Revenue from Apple’s Services business and from Other Products (includes Apple Watch and Apple TV) are also up.

During the earnings call, Brian White from Drexel asked,

I didn’t hear much mentioned about India. How did India perform with the iPhone, and how should we think about it for 2017, especially with the 4G network going up?

Tim answered,

That’s a really good question. Despite the de-monetization move in India that created lots of economic pressure there last quarter, despite that, we had all-time record revenue results. And so we were very happy about that. The de-monetization impact has not worked its way through yet; it’s still definitely having some overhang, but I think in the longer term, it’s a great move. I feel really good about how we’re doing there. We are in discussions on a number of things, including retail stores and fully intend to invest significantly in the country and believe it’s a great place to be.

[Via iMore]

February 1, 2017 ✚ Permalink

Apple Increases Pricing of Apps on the App Store in India

iOS App Store

Apple has today sent out an email to iOS developers notifying them of upcoming changes to the pricing on the App Store. According to the email, the pricing of apps and in-app purchases (IAPs) will increase in India, Turkey, and the United Kingdom.

Apple mentions that this price change is due to change in tax laws in the India, Romania and Russia, but it doesn’t mention why the pricing is changing in the UK. It’s likely that Apple is merely adjusting the pricing to be in line with the falling value of the Pound Sterling against the US Dollar.

If you’re in India, here’s what the pricing change means and how it’ll affect you.

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January 17, 2017 ✚ Permalink

Apple Plans to Make iPhones in Bengaluru in India

Shilpa Phadnis, reporting for the TNN:

Apple plans to make iPhones for the Indian market in Bengaluru. Wistron, a Taiwanese OEM maker for Apple, is setting up a facility in Peenya, the city’s industrial hub, to manufacture the iPhones. The facility will start production from next April, according to industry sources.

I really hope this see-saw of news ends soon.

December 30, 2016 ✚ Permalink