Apple Working on Video-Sharing Social Network App for Launch in 2017

[Michael Goff]

Yeah, because cheap plastic builds are mandatory for windows laptops

You can buy a Windows laptop for $300, and you can buy a windows laptop for $2000 that has a superior build to any mac, better parts, and a more stable OS.

If you want have a tiny little closed mind, it's your loss. You miss out on all the good stuff in the world. But when you spout it like that, you only look like a fool.

I have to chuckle about the idea of a more stable OS. Sure, no BSOD have been happening ... but Anniversary Update has screwed so many people over ranging from freezing their system if they use a hybrid drive to freezing their webcams to breaking powershell with a recent update.

 

[Black Magic]

Yeah, because cheap plastic builds are mandatory for windows laptops

You can buy a Windows laptop for $300, and you can buy a windows laptop for $2000 that has a superior build to any mac, better parts, and a more stable OS.

If you want have a tiny little closed mind, it's your loss. You miss out on all the good stuff in the world. But when you spout it like that, you only look like a fool.

Sorry, I couldn't hear you over the laughter. MacBooks are the target that all manufacturers try to beat and emulate in the laptop world. There is no such thing as a better built windows laptop. Even you don't believe that in your heart. If that was the case, everyone would be flocking to said laptop versus MacBooks. Don't be foolish.

 

[MacSince1985]

Apple has failed at all social media attempts.. Just stick to hardware... software just isn't your thing.

And yet, it is software that really differentiates it from the competition (macOS, iOS, etc.). I would have agreed with you if you said "stick to hardware and OS software" though.

 

[DevNull0]

Sorry, I couldn't hear you over the laughter. MacBooks are the target that all manufacturers try to beat and emulate in the laptop world. There is no such thing as a better built windows laptop. Even you don't believe that in your heart. If that was the case, everyone would be flocking to said laptop versus MacBooks. Don't be foolish.

Your world view is so tiny you need a microscope to find it. I know, I know, you haven't looked outside the Apple ecosystem in many years. But there really is an amazing world of tech out there.

 

[skellener]

Oh, and do tell me how much money you're planning to make, Apple, without doing any advertising? Most social startups are funded so that they'll get bought out by a big player that has a huge ad network and knows how to monetize things. Even Twitter can't figure out how to monetize, so what makes Apple think they know how to do so, especially considering their entire corporate philosophy revolves around privacy with few to no ads. Their past attempts at social networks were big flops. I wish instead they would focus on making their existing services faster and more reliable. For example, it takes forever to buffer 4K iPhone 6s videos back down from iCloud to my iPhone, even on a decent 110Mbps connection. And yet why is it sending a full 4K file? Why doesn't it optimize the stream for the device I'm using? I can't even play back most of my videos about half the time since I have cloud storage turned on.

I think there's a fear in Apple that a company like Facebook will eventually grow to a size that they release their own phones and mobile OS that is far more privacy invading than anything Google could dream up, and they don't want to lose the "kids" to this new system. What they need to focus on is making their platform so good that nobody would ever dream of leaving it. Instead of trying to mimic what everyone else is doing, Apple needs to be even better at what they've been doing for years: Making a great top to bottom ecosystem for users and developers. Apple isn't losing marketshare to Android because they don't have a cute social app. They're losing marketshare to Android because many Android phones are really freaking cheap. So do they want to be premium or not? A lesser reason is that Google gives users more features and choice with their settings on their OS. The problem lies in the fact that great UX design usually involves making choices for your users, which is part of why iOS is so easy to use. How does Apple balance that out? Does iOS need an advanced mode switch or something? Apple is also very stingy with upgrading battery life.

This is how you beat Android and increase profits:

• Quadruple down on services.
  • Apple really needs to develop a search engine. It sounds absurd, and it's pretty difficult, but I think it's really important that they figure it out.
  • Apple maps should provide a wealth of every type of information, including street views, detailed reviews of every type of business with hours and everything, and better contextual search.
  • Mail needs more advanced functionality like reminders, inbox zero type workflow options, to-do list type workflows, etc
  • Notes needs more advanced organization and pages
  • Photos needs a lot more advanced machine learning capability for advanced search. This is coming but they should keep improving it going forward.
  • The reminders app needs to be reworked. It's not great.
  • iCloud Drive needs more seamless integration throughout every OS flavor they make. It needs to become the true Finder for iOS, in a streamlined way.
  • Their iWork apps need to get more serious. I'm not sure how else to phrase it. They don't feel like professional WORK apps. I don't know of anyone who uses them to collaborate.
• Sell an older device ONLY in emerging markets like China and India
  • Repackage something like the iPhone 5s
  • Give it a 4.7" display, maybe an extra core or two in the graphics package to compensate
  • Sell it for $299 16GB
  • Give it a lightweight version of iOS, so it feels faster, but is somewhat more restricted on capabilities
• Introduce a Pro line for the iPhone
  • A little thicker than whatever the current regular iPhone is, more battery life
  • Advanced dual-camera system that is flush with the casing
  • More RAM, slightly faster CPU, more graphics cores
  • True-tone display
  • Apple Pencil support for making little sketches on the go
  • Charge $150 more than the base model iPhone "Air"
  • If the new iPhone is 32GB/128GB, make this one 64GB/256GB. Two sizes for both models.
• Simplify the iPad Mini down to one model to simplify production and supply chain.
• Make the iPad Pro a truly Pro machine.
  • It needs a way to organize files, or at least projects so that more complex things can be worked on.
  • It needs more shortcuts—both gestural, keyboard, and with 3D Touch capability added in. The best way to get things done is quickly.
  • Split-screen multitasking needs more capability to drag content across the divide and allow apps to talk to each other through secure APIs.
• Move to a tick-tock iOS upgrade cycle every six months.
  • Every September we get iOS X.0 with new features.
  • Every March we get iOS X.5 with big performance optimizations and massive bug fixes across the board.
• Give users an advanced mode
  • Bury it in the settings
  • Allow us to customize almost everything. Some examples:
    • Customize numerical values for just about everything. Example: Options to keep messages include 1 Year, 30 days, or forever. They could easily add more options to this page. I don't need to keep a years worth of messages (which adds up to many gigabytes of storage, but I often check back at messages that are a month or two old). Why can't this just be a number tumbler? Same for things like how many times the phone buzzes for a message, etc.
    • Allow more fine-tuned customization for things like Night Shift or Do Not Disturb. Why can't I set different settings for different days of the week? I often stay up later on the weekends and it annoys me when I stop getting texts or my screen turns to piss yellow.
    • Customize the UI, things like changing out settings in Control Center, or putting shortcuts to other apps at the bottom
    • Loading whatever animated wallpaper we want, instead of the same circles we've had for years. I mean really, what ever happened with that? I thought we were eventually going to get an API for developers to make animated wallpapers.
    • A full Finder to store and browse files
    • Customize 3D Touch menus
    • Turn on and off individual capabilities
    • Move things around like the URL bar in Safari so it's on the bottom. I tap it the most, and use gestures to navigate back and forth. I want it at the bottom.
    • Change how many apps are shown per page of a folder, or how tall the folder is on the display (the old style showed more apps at a time)
    • Customize every single little thing with Homekit, including actions and triggers and all kinds of stuff so it works together better. Maybe this is possible in iOS 10, I'm not sure.
    • Create custom gestures for things like bringing up iOS search, even when inside apps
    • Lots of other random crap that I can't keep writing about right now
• Give iOS a freaking dark mode
• Random rant question: Why can't we save videos from photo streams? So simple, and yet no.
• Speaking of photo streams, why not focus on giving that more love? This is like THE social network I use with my family. It's private and we can share photos of our young kids without worrying about internet creepers. It would be fun to get stickers, advanced media replies, customizable notification settings, etc within that system.

Advanced mode and better services gets the real nerds to use it and recommend it to their family and friends. It might be a small number at first but over time it can grow sales. I don't feel like I personally need it, but some more customization of the OS is needed. Especially for things like Control Center, or scheduling different modes. Things like that should be smarter, too.

MacDuke for Apple CEO!!

 

[campyguy]

Oh boy; stick to your core business, Apple.

Ping! Ping! Ping! Ping! Ping! We have a winner!



^ Click me ^ - I think we all know what happens next...

 

[Gorms]

Apple already has a social network, it's called the Messages app and it's got a pretty big user base.

Although the unified inbox for all my communication points was my idea and I'm annoyed they stole it.

 

[Mactendo]

Just make iMessage crossplatform... This will be your own social networking app.

 

[LordVic]

Apple already has a social network, it's called the Messages app and it's got a pretty big user base.

Although the unified inbox for all my communication points was my idea and I'm annoyed they stole it.

I dont know. Blackberry had the unified message box for all phone contacts for a long long long long time. They called it "Hub". the idea of a centralized, one place for all notifications and interactions has been in their OS's since at least OS5

 

[a.gomez]

Here we go again

 

[colbertnation]

instead of releasing innovative products and updating the Mac line. Great idea Tim.

Sad, but Tim & Co have been great for wall street and shareholders: increasing revenue to increase buyback and divvies.

But terrible for the company and consumers. (Perhaps Wall Street is seeing ahead of the curve with the stock pricing?)

Tim Cook is the Steve Ballmer of Apple. We might be forced to see a decade of stagnation as Tim & Co desperately try to satisfy wall street, while shooting the company in the foot.

 

[Michael Goff]

instead of releasing innovative products and updating the Mac line. Great idea Tim.

They can do both, you know? Or do you think they'd be pulling people from the Mac team to work on a piece of software?

 

[nt5672]

Tim Cook needs to go. No Mac Pro updates in over 3 years. No iMac updates in over a year. No MacBook Pro updates in over a year. What the f* are they doing over there besides cashing in stock options? This is the saddest time ever for Apple in terms of product innovation and even update cycles. It's like nobody at Apple cares anymore. It must be a very relaxing job working in the Mac hardware division. They don't do anything.

Yep, the new company name will be Apple Social or Apple Motor Co, cause we all know thats where its at. Just think an Apple social app that only works on Apple hardware, that'll drive new hardware sales - NOT. An Apple car that will only visit certain politically correct cities, that'll drive sales - NOT.

An industry revolution, like what happened with the iPhone, only happens once every couple of decades, Facebook and twitter have already been done, its time Apple to get back to basics or Apple is going to be in deep trouble.

 

[Gorms]

I dont know. Blackberry had the unified message box for all phone contacts for a long long long long time. They called it "Hub". the idea of a centralized, one place for all notifications and interactions has been in their OS's since at least OS5

Hmmm, sounds like Mr Blackberry will be getting a strongly worded letter from me as well Then!

 

[DevNull0]

They can do both, you know? Or do you think they'd be pulling people from the Mac team to work on a piece of software?

You say that can do both and yet for the past 5 years, it seems like they can only manage one thing at a time.

It does make sense to expect that they could do both, but that doesn't appear to be the case.

 

[jigzaw]

They can do both, you know? Or do you think they'd be pulling people from the Mac team to work on a piece of software?

They can, but they aren't. Odd. The Mac Pro is a non-upgradeable piece of hardware and it hasn't been updated in 3 years. As someone who works in TV postproduction and watching editors and other professionals try to squeeze the last remnants of usability/compatibility out of their old Mac Pro towers or reluctantly turning to Windows machines because Apple has abandoned the cutting edge in professional hardware, it saddens me. L.A. is a Mac town especially among film/TV people, but Apple seems to have shifted its attention to fashion accessories. Now they want to imitate Snapchat? Sigh. They seriously need to find someone with some vision to helm this ship, and pronto.

 

[mazz0]

Well, if there's one thing Apple does well it's Social!

lol

 

[colbertnation]

They can do both, you know? Or do you think they'd be pulling people from the Mac team to work on a piece of software?

It's not a matter of doing both because there are separate teams for it. It's a matter of where the focus of the leaders of the company is.

If you study businesses and corporations, one of the most common causes of their downtrends is mismanagement or a lack of focus. A lot of great companies with a big war chest of money and resources have seen tough times because of this exact problem.

It is simply not enough to assign a task to a team of experts, and let them handle it. History and case studies have shown that a good executive leader constantly stays on top of the many different teams to keep pushing them to get the end result. It's a fine line between micromanagement and being on top of it, but the hands-off approach of assigning a task, and waiting until the due date to see how it turns out has rarely yielded good results.

 

[rumorsdan]

Apples new doctrine: Innovate by copying everybody else!!1

They use to be the company that was copied. How full circle they have gone.

Steve must be rolling in his grave.
[doublepost=1472161377][/doublepost]

Because that's Tim Cook's Apple: copy instead of innovate and inspire others to copy you.

"Good artists copy. Great artists steal"
- Picasso

 

[Deuce on the Clock]

Old guys thinking they know what the younguns want lol

 

[Michael Goff]

You say that can do both and yet for the past 5 years, it seems like they can only manage one thing at a time.

It does make sense to expect that they could do both, but that doesn't appear to be the case.

I think we have a huge case of not seeing something and assuming nothing is being done.

 

[tampageek]

I hope this isn't true.

Of course it is. Apple is a phone/fashion company now. Their target customers are Chinese teenage girls.
[doublepost=1472166006][/doublepost]

It's probably due to Apple's desperate attempt to grow services revenues. If you can get past the big turn off of paying extra for addons like icloud (after paying hardware premiums) that is. Heck, i would if the services were top of the line but they're usually half baked. I do pay the icloud tax because 5gb is squat but kinda draw the line after that. I think the problem is that I'm not happy having to pay this icloud tax just to have enough storage for basic backups or even think about using photo library.

If they sold up to date hardware they wouldn't have to worry about coming up with more gimmicks to make money. People will always be willing to pay for top quality machines. Sadly, Apple is burying itself under piles of glue and solder. Top quality machines need to last longer than cheaper ones or you lose the value. Tim is letting all that iphone $$ melt his brain.

 

[MagnusVonMagnum]

Gee Apple, WELCOME TO 2005!!!!

Innovation at Apple? Sadly, it died with Steve Jobs.

 

[oliversl]

More apps? How about no crashes on iOS?

 

[Carlanga]

Kind of late with this if this was ever a thought at Apple. Why now? Another half baked service from Apple. Later, we'll hear from them how they just didn't understand what they were getting into and decided to drop it.

Why now? Because they already invested in making doodles ios10 main feature. Look at the new messages. It's easy to import those ideas to other apps like this one.