Daryl Baxter.

Apple and Twitter.

• Apple can’t update its online store without taking it offline first.
• A popular Game Center game was able to bring down the entire network.
• Apple requires you to re-friend everyone on Game Center, Find my Friends, and Shared Photostreams.
• Notes requires an email account to sync.
• The iTunes and App Stores are still powered by WebObjects, a mostly dead framework written almost 20 years ago.
• iMessage for Mac lives in an alternate dimension in which time has no ordered sequence.
• Ping.

Apple should buy Twitter not for its social network, but for its talent and technology. That talent and technology could undoubtably help bring Apple and iCloud into the 21st century. The social network is basically an added bonus.

Agree with everything here. Google can update their web services without having to take it down with a ‘Back Soon!’ post it note, so why can’t Apple.

Source.

Loren Brichter on iOS Design and Tweetie.

Loren Brichter, the founder of Tweetie and then sold it to Twitter, which is now their official app, talks about how he see’s design, and what iOS design could mean now that Jonny Ive is in charge.

One quote that stood out for me:

One of my complaints about design of iOS is it’s doing things that aren’t true to the hardware.

Something that seems to be coming to the forefront of what iOS 7 will be, is how the design is going to be so simple, but elegant, and just makes sense. Exactly how the design of the hardware has been since 1998. Now with Ive in charge, the design of iOS 7 will complement the hardware completely.

Source.

Twitter Bird Takes Flight.

Twitter had announced its change of logo, to this.

Starting today you’ll begin to notice a simplified Twitter bird. From now on, this bird will be the universally recognizable symbol of Twitter. (Twitter is the bird, the bird is Twitter.) There’s no longer a need for text, bubbled typefaces, or a lowercase “t” to represent Twitter.

The bird is a worldwide known logo, so it does make sense.

Source.

Twitter’s Innovator Patent Agreement

Like many companies, we apply for patents on a bunch of these inventions. However, we also think a lot about how those patents may be used in the future; we sometimes worry that they may be used to impede the innovation of others. For that reason, we are publishing a draft of the Innovator’s Patent Agreement, which we informally call the “IPA”.

The IPA is a new way to do patent assignment that keeps control in the hands of engineers and designers. It is a commitment from Twitter to our employees that patents can only be used for defensive purposes. We will not use the patents from employees’ inventions in offensive litigation without their permission. What’s more, this control flows with the patents, so if we sold them to others, they could only use them as the inventor intended.

We will implement the IPA later this year, and it will apply to all patents issued to our engineers, both past and present. 

Brilliant move to protect innovative ideas for the inventors.

Source.