innovation posts

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Apple Corporate, Hardware, Odds and ends

Businessweek puts Apple at top of Most Innovative list

by Mike Schramm (RSS feed) on May 28th, 2009

Businessweek has posted a list of what they call the top 50 most innovative companies in 2009, and guess who is sitting right at the top of the list. Sure enough, it's our favorite computer maker -- according to the survey, taken by "senior executives around the world," Apple is number one, and the reason listed by 47% of respondents is the products. Not that surprising, no? From the iPhone to the unibody MacBooks right up to the new Shuffles, Apple's products ooze new concepts and features and ideas.

Then again, Microsoft comes in at number four, and Wal-Mart is not far behind at number 10, and I don't know too many non-executives who would call those companies out for being "innovative," necessarily. But then again, both of them are being recognized for their "process," not their actual products. In terms of product, Apple is followed by Nintendo (no arguments there), Blackberry's RIM, and then Nokia.

So maybe Businessweek is just asking the wrong people. At any rate, congrats to Apple for topping the list (for the second year in a row), and we can't wait to see what's new in the next year.

Tags: apple, businessweek, executives, innovation, macbooks, microsoft, nintendo, shuffle, survey, walmart

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Gaming, Software

Braid comes to the Mac

by Mike Schramm (RSS feed) on May 21st, 2009

You have to admit: for all of the gaming woes that the Mac faithful has suffered, there's fortunately never been a shortage of great indie games for us to play. Aquaria made it to our platform, World of Goo appeared pretty early on, and now Braid, Jonathan Blow's terrific deconstruction of Super Mario Bros., has appeared on OS X thanks to the kind folks over at Hothead Games. The game has won more awards than you can count, but I can personally tell you it's great, as I played the XBLA release when it first arrived. It's a classic 2D platformer in the vein of Mario with a very important twist: you can reverse, slow, and replay time throughout the various levels. That twist results in an extremely artistic game that takes apart the original Mario story and ends up with something very much more beautiful and sad.

"Artistic"? "Beautiful"? "Sad"? Can I say these things about a videogame? Of course I can -- Braid stands in a class of its own as an experience that uses art and gameplay together to tell quite a story. If you're a fan of innovative games or just great interactive experiences, and haven't played through it yet (it's fairly short, maybe six hours at the most), it's definitely worth a look. The Greenhouse is selling the Mac or PC versions for $14.95.

Tags: art, beautiful, braid, game, greenhouse, hothead, indie, innovation, jonathan-blow, mac, release, story, super-mario-brothers, versions, videogames

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Multimedia, Odds and ends, Developer

The Bacterial Orchestra uses the iPhone to create "viral music"

by Mike Schramm (RSS feed) on May 19th, 2009

This is really wild: what you see above is an example of "viral music" -- it's part of an upcoming music festival that's taking place in Sweden, and it features a circle of iPhones that are both listening to and playing a very abstract kind of "music." Each one is picking up audio from its environment, then running it through a series of software filters to make it sound more musical, and finally playing it back in a rhythm. As each iPhone is picking up the tune from the other iPhones it's playing it back through the same filters, and so on and so forth. All while the software is "judging" each "cell" of sound, to see if it's interesting or loud enough or so forth, and cells will live or die based on that criteria -- in essence, a musical organism.

Like I said, wild. That program is called the "Bacterial Orchestra -- Public Epidemic No. 1," and it sounds like the app will be available on the iPhone soon as well. Of course, you'll have to have a bunch of iPhones with the app in one place for it to work the way it's designed, but at least there's good video of it.

Continue reading “The Bacterial Orchestra uses the iPhone to create "viral music"”

Tags: bacterial-orchestra, designers, innovation, instrument, iphone, multitouch, music, playback, tunes, viral-music

Filed under: Odds and ends

Fast Company Magazine ranks Apple #4 of 50 innovative companies

by Mel Martin (RSS feed) on Feb 20th, 2009

With most business trends heading south, Apple continues to get recognition from customers and the press. Today, Fast Company Magazine put Apple in 4th place among the top 50 most innovative companies. The article cites the iPhone, the App Store, the unibody construction of the new laptop line, increasingly green packaging and products, and finally iTunes which is growing while the rest of the music industry falters. All in all, it has been a pretty good year for Apple (it must be noted, however, that Apple was #2 on the list last year).

For the curious, the Obama election team was ranked #1 this year; Google came in at #2. Our friends at Microsoft ranked #34.

You can read the profiles of all 50 companies here, and the Apple profile is here.
Fast Company, published since 1995 "is dedicated to exploring innovation in business, digital technology, leadership, design, and social responsibility," or so they say.

Tags: App Store, Apple, environmental concerns, Fast Company, innovation, itunes

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Software, Internet, iTunes, Apple, iPhone, App Store

Five ways the App Store will change the world

by Mike Schramm (RSS feed) on Jul 11th, 2008

There are historic days, people. The App Store went live, and all of a sudden, we're drowning in new things for the iPhone. But it's not just a big deal for iPhone owners -- this is a huge day for society and technology in general. While there have been lots of PDAs, and lots of apps to run on them, there's never been anything like the App Store before -- here's five ways that Apple's platform for iPhone application distribution will change our world.

1. Ubiquitous computing.

Any science fiction writer will tell you that we're already living the future -- we can teleport things, robots are easy to make, and almost anything dreamed of can be done if you have enough money to do it. But a technology really doesn't move from fantasy to reality until it's everywhere, and thanks to the iPhone 3G, computing has become just that. You can't take a laptop around with you all the time (as in, to a fancy restaurant or to the movies) to edit photos or post to your blog, but you can bring the iPhone. It's the ultimate ultramobile platform, and it's now cheap enough to be everywhere, and powerful enough that almost any common computing task can be done.

Four more huge changes after the jump.

Continue reading “Five ways the App Store will change the world”

Tags: app-store, apple, change-the-world, development, innovation, iphone, iphone-3G, location-awareness, ubiquitous-computing, user-interface

Filed under: iPod Family, Cult of Mac

USA Today: iPod is lifechanging

by Erica Sadun (RSS feed) on May 23rd, 2007

USA Today recently chose 25 inventions they felt had changed people's lives in the last 25 years. Along with cell phones, laptops and DVDs, USA Today chose iPod as their #8 life changing gadget. It has, they suggest, reinvented the way people walk down sidewalks. Presumably before the iPod, no one had apparently ever heard of, let alone used, the Sony Walkman. But that's just a small quibble. We here at TUAW aren't argumentative. If USA Today says that the iPod is life changing, who are we to argue?

Tags: gadget, innovation, iPod, life changing, LifeChanging

Filed under: Humor, Video

Found Video: iPhone "spanks" Microsoft

by Erica Sadun (RSS feed) on Jan 11th, 2007

Claiming that the new iPhone is the most important innovation since curly fries, comedian Craig Ferguson gives a hilarious smack down of Microsoft. It's a short bit (only about a minute and a half long), but chock full of giggles for Apple fans. Is Microsoft really as lacking in innovation as Ferguson suggests? Of course not. But he certainly made me laugh while he laid out his case.

Thanks Chris Hileman

Tags: Craig Ferguson, CraigFerguson, Innovation, Microsoft

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, iPod Family

Daring Fireball on "The iPod Juggernaut"

by David Chartier (RSS feed) on Mar 25th, 2006

John Gruber has published a glaringly well-written piece that dissects the iPod's unstoppable success, why things are going so well and why analysts should simply remove the term "iPod-killer" from their vocabulary. While it might be a bit lengthier than your typical "iPods are great, Dell sucks" blog post, it is a wholly educational and darn solid argument worth every word.

So head on over to Daring Fireball (click the Read link below) to find out why Apple can't make the same mistakes they made in the 80's, how Apple is out-innovating everyone despite their monopoly, and to hear an actually compelling case for why the iPod's competitors should just close shop - especially since one already has.

Tags: accessories, Apple, Daring Fireball, DaringFireball, economy, innovation, iPod, John Gruber, JohnGruber, monopoly, success

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