Spotify and Apple at odds

Spotify declined to comment; Apple hasn’t responded to request for comment.

For the past year, Spotify has argued publicly, and to various regulators in the U.S. and Europe, that Apple’s subscription policies effectively punish third-party music services that use Apple’s platform, while boosting Apple Music, the home-grown service it launched in June 2015.

Source: Spotify says Apple won’t approve a new version of its app because it doesn’t want competition for Apple Music – Recode

Well, this is not going to end well.

Thoughts on Evernote’s price hike

Evernote

Evernote has been one of the leading note-taking services for some time, with clients for the Web and every major OS. The company recently announced sweeping changes to its “freemium” pricing strategy, which puts a big limit on the “free” tier and raises prices across the board for new and existing users.

Source: Evernote limits free tier to two devices, raises prices 40%

I’ve been an Evernote user since March 28, 2008 (got in before it launched in beta in June 2008) and immediately signed up for their Premium option when it opened up.

I was eager to support the app / service early on, because I saw the utility of being able to access my notes and create new ones from whatever device I happened to be on. That was already possible with the early iterations of services like Google Docs that had previously been Writely, but Evernote felt “new” in the sense that it was post-iPhone and looked ahead to a world where apps became the driving force of interaction, especially on mobile (after Steve Jobs relented on allowing apps to be installed and an app store for the iPhone).

Over the years, Evernote became more things to more people than just a note taking app. There were checklists, and document syncing, and PDF OCR, and business card storage. As a result, there were more and more calls for Evernote to get back to its roots and avoid bloat. I know I suffered through some of the “bloat” in 2011 and 2012 when Evernote seemed to really take off and started acquiring smaller and focused apps such as Penultimate, Skitch (still one of my favorites), Readable etc to round out their offerings. Then, there were the partnerships with the “offline” world such as Moleskine and Post-It Notes. We even saw an Evernote branded line of coffee mugs, backpacks, and lifestyle gear.

It was all too much.

I welcome this new period in Evernote’s story. I’m hoping they do “slim down” to some extent and even focus more on things like the current web version’s Google Drive integration (rather than being a document storage platform themselves). I’ve always thought of Evernote as more of an “Operations HQ” that ties into other apps I use like Trello or 1Writer on the iPad than a place to store all of my documents, pictures, and files.

I use Evernote everyday, and more so now that I’m trying to use iPad Pro as my main computer. It serves as my note repository, the place where I put PDF’s that I need for OCR, and a quasi-database of ideas for clients and research. It’s indespinsible to me, and I’m not sure how something “free” like OneNote or Google Keep could replicate that. I’m hopeful they continue to push forward on the excellent web version as well (and that doesn’t affect free members, which is a nice incentive for people to give it a try).

It’s painful when anything “goes up” in price. But the economic reality is that costs go up as we demand more from services and companies compete for skilled developers. Evernote did see the loss of a number of devs over the last few years, but I’m hopeful they’ll get their mojo back.

So, sign me up for another year of Premium.

Episode 64: Thinking Religion: The Privilege of Knowing How to Read – Thinking.FM

Dr. Thomas J. Whitley and The Rev. Sam Harrelson discuss Sam’s use of iPad Pro as his main computer, Evernote, and the privilege of knowing how to read.

Show Notes

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Episode 63: Cast of Geeks 58: Small Wonders – Thinking.FM

Lisa Picarille, Jim Kukral, Shawn Collins, and Sam Harrelson reunite for an episode of Cast of Geeks. This month, they discuss the future(s) of affiliate marketing, influencer marketing, engagement and Facebook Pages, the rise of messaging, Amazon’s Kindle Store policies, and whether or not augmented reality will catch on with the general public.

The post Cast of Geeks 58: Small Wonders appeared first on Thinking.FM.

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Episode 62: Thinking Religion: Consolation of Communication – Thinking.FM

Dr. Thomas J. Whitley and Rev. Sam Harrelson discuss Big Macs, livestreaming, bastardized religion, and tiny apocalypses.

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iPad Pro is the new Mac

“I can’t speak for you, but I’m writing this editorial on my everyday productivity tool — the iPad Pro. It’s what I like to think of as the “computer for the rest of us”. It’s already incredibly functional and I can’t wait to see iOS 10 up and running on it.”

Source: iPad Pro is the new Mac

I have to agree with Michael Gartenberg here… the iPad Pro is quickly becoming my “everyday computer.”

Yes, there are certainly times when I need to “drive the truck” that is my maxed-out-RAM large desktop computer, but those times are coming fewer and farther between.

Now if only it becomes easy to do podcasting on an iPad, I’d be a total convert.

Facebook isn’t a neutral platform

There seems to be a real disconnect between what Facebook actually is and what it purports to be. Mark Zuckerberg has said publicly that Facebook is a neutral platform which “stands for giving everyone a voice.” But it’s clear that Facebook is willing to vote with its wallet to make some of those voices louder than others.

The open Web is the only answer. But in an era of easy-to-use apps and algorithmic story discovery, it’s an answer fewer people seem to be choosing.

Source: Facebook’s Payola Shows It’s No Neutral Platform | Sascha Segan | PCMag.com

Episode 61: Thinking Out Loud 115: Fighting the Imposter Monster – Thinking.FM

Elisabeth and Merianna talk about fighting the imposter monster, reader’s theaters about germs, and exciting upcoming conference. They debate how to know if you are truly doing what you should be doing. If you’re scared of it, it’s probably what you should do.

What are Elisabeth and Merianna reading this week?


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Episode 60: Thinking Religion: You Only Want a New Cultural War When You’re Losing the Last One – Thinking.FM

Dr. Thomas J. Whitley, Rev. Sam Harrelson, and Chad Gardner discuss cultural gnosticism.

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Episode 59: Thinking Religion: An Eclectic Text – Thinking.FM

Dr. Thomas J. Whitley and Rev. Sam Harrelson discuss the gender politics of Sam’s new personal assistant, language as a power mechanism, a listener question about Paul’s Gospel, and what in the world The Donald is thinking.

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