Apple Marketing Chief Phil Schiller: 'Never Pluralize Apple Product Names' →

Apple executive Phil Schiller gave Apple users a grammar lesson on Twitter yesterday afternoon, explaining that it isn't necessary to pluralize Apple product names. 

Schiller's instructions came after a discussion on pluralizing "iPad Pro" between Andreessen Horowitz partner Benedict Evans and iMore analyst Michael Gartenberg. Evans referred to more than one iPad Pro as "iPads Pro," while Gartenberg said "iPad Pros." 

Schiller clarified that neither approach was correct. The proper way to refer to more than one iPad Pro is to call them "iPad Pro devices." 

Phil is usually such a smart guy, I have to wonder where this is coming from. It sounds so awkward that Phil himself didn't follow this rule in a tweet he posted less than a month ago. 

iPads. iPad Pros. iPad Airs. iPhones. Macbooks. Macbook Pros. Easy peasy.

Top Four #13: Bagel Flavors →

I didn't realize that bagels were so contentious. In my opinion, if you can buy a bagel in a certain flavor, it's a flavor. If you'd like to pass value judgements on whether or not that flavor is canonical, then that's up to you.

My list:

  1. Asiago Cheese
  2. Everything
  3. Jalapeno Cheddar
  4. Blueberry

The Average Webpage Is Now the Size of the Original Doom →

Wired:

Today the average webpage is about the same size, data-wise, as the classic computer game Doom, according to software engineer Ronan Cremin.

A compressed copy of the installer for the shareware version of Doom takes up about 2.39MB of space. Today’s average webpage, meanwhile, requires users to download about 2.3MB worth of data, according to HTTP Archive, a site that tracks website performance and the technologies they use.

Over the years, networks have increased in speed, computers have increased in performance, and web pages have ballooned in size to use these available resources. Like when meetings expand to fill the time allotted to them. Parkinson's Law and whatnot.

In a nutshell, this is why I'm happy that Apple isn't just "fixing" the "16 GB iPhone problem" by offering 32 GB iPhones in their base models. It would be an easy "solution" to the perceived "problem," but only temporarily. 20 years from now, we'd still feel these constraints, just with 10x the storage space.

The better solution is to step back and evaluate why 16 GB feels so constrained on a smartphone, and try to more efficiently use the available storage space. Even if it results in a whole lot of complaining from some your customers. The result is that we now have smaller OS update sizes, app thinning, and on demand resources. I wouldn't be surprised to see additional space-saving advancements announced at WWDC this year.

Fall in Love with a Problem, Not a Product →

Excellent advice for software developers, even if you're not looking to lure investors:

...it all comes down to motivation. What investors want is someone whose animating purpose is to solve a particular problem (especially one that people don’t realize yet that they even have!) or fix something they think is broken. The product is just a means to that end, not an end in itself. To put it another way, you want someone who is more in love with fixing a problem than with the product itself.

Telegraph Cars Reviews the Tesla Model S P90D →

No real new information here, but Telegraph is one of my favorite car review channels, and the Model S is one of my favorite cars. The two go together like chocolate and peanut butter.

Music Memos →

Fun new app from Apple:

Music Memos automatically analyzes the basic arrangement and suggests chords you played for each track. Then you can hear how your music sounds with a realistic virtual drummer and bass player jamming along. If your performance speeds up or slows down, so does the band. You can even tweak the energy and performance of the drums or bass with a few simple controls.

I played around with my guitar and Music Memos a bit today at lunch and it's a blast. I only wish that there was some kind of a visual onscreen metronome to help keep me from rushing or dragging.

Are the Top Apps Using Swift? →

Interesting, if not unsurprising analysis of the top 100 free apps in the iOS App Store. Apparently only 11% of them include any Swift code:

I once again downloaded the top 100 free apps and wrote some scripts to analyze the .ipa files. It surprised me to find that the vast majority of the apps in the top 100 are still building without any Swift.

Most of the top apps in the App Store have been the top apps in the App Store for a long time now, and there's very little incentive for them to start developing with a new language. Not to mention the large amount of games in the top 100 that are likely written in a game development framework like Cocos2d instead of in straight Objective-C.

I'm of the opinion that it's kinda silly to start a new project in anything other than Swift, and I'd be willing to bet that most iOS developers would agree with me.

2016 Chevy Malibu →

This is the first car commercial I've seen that advertises Car Play. I've long said that the first car manufacturer to really embrace Car Play (and Android Auto) is going to have a huge advantage over their competitors. I'm looking forward to seeing how these things sell.

Also, that "radio won't turn play when the seatbelts are buckled" feature seems pretty fantastic. Now we just need a way of keeping kids (and adults!) from texting and driving. Hopefully by the time my son is old enough to drive a car, they all just drive themselves and we don't have to worry about his driving habits.