Apple:

It’s time. Apple Watch will be in the hands of customers on April 24. Get your WatchKit apps ready and submit them for review now.

One of the most interesting parts from the release is this:

Once your WatchKit app is approved and released by Apple, your existing iPhone users will receive the app update and customers will see your WatchKit extension icon and description on the App Store. A small group of people who currently have an Apple Watch will be able to use your WatchKit app before April 24, so make sure your back end systems are ready.

Horace Dediu on Apple Watch pricing:

It used to be said that Apple’s profit engine was fueled by the ability to price memory at a significant mark-up on its cost. The iPod earned the vast bulk of music player profits by offering additional memory increments at significant price increments. Even today, a 64GB iPod Touch is priced $100 higher than a $16GB version. Sounds reasonable, but a quick check shows that 64GB of Flash memory probably costs about $5. This exploitation of pricing/cost differences at the margin allows for great profitability and is rooted in the ways the buyers contemplate value.

Therefore the difference between memory-based pricing and materials-based pricing is only in the choice of how to attach value in the mind of the buyer. In one case it’s having the option on storage, in the other it’s having the option, perhaps, of more durability, quality or glamour.

The comparison between storage sizes and materials makes a lot of sense.

When I first thought about buying the Apple Watch for function, I wanted the Sport Edition, but now that I’ve thought about the material as a benefit, I’ve been leaning towards the Apple Watch.

John Paczkowski writing for Buzzfeed:

For those who worried that Jobs set an unmatchable standard for Cook to meet, the past few months have been a pointed rebuttal. With Jobs’s passing, Apple may have lost a visionary leader. But in Cook, his handpicked successor, it may well have another. Different, but visionary just the same — a CEO who’s willing to weigh in on political and human rights issues and to bring Apple’s corporate might to bear on them at a time when the company commands the world’s attention.

Well said.

Tim Cook writing at The Washington Post:

America’s business community recognized a long time ago that discrimination, in all its forms, is bad for business. At Apple, we are in business to empower and enrich our customers’ lives. We strive to do business in a way that is just and fair. That’s why, on behalf of Apple, I’m standing up to oppose this new wave of legislation — wherever it emerges. I’m writing in the hopes that many more will join this movement.

It’s refreshing to see a CEO speak out like this on world issues.

I love reading these profiles of Tim Cook. This was one of my favourite parts:

To Cook, changing the world always has been higher on Apple’s agenda than making money. He plans to give away all his wealth, after providing for the college education of his 10-year-old nephew. There should be plenty left over to fund philanthropic projects. Cook’s net worth, based on his holdings of Apple stock, is currently about $120 million. He also holds restricted stock worth $665 million if it were to be fully vested. Cook says that he has already begun donating money quietly, but that he plans to take time to develop a systematic approach to philanthropy rather than simply writing checks.

Something tells me there isn’t going to be a shortage of apps available for the Apple Watch at launch.

On Monday morning, I watched the Today Show. Not on TV, though, and not standing and screaming alongside middle-aged Texans in the vicious cold outside the show’s Rockefeller Center digs. My view was from the middle of the set, between two hulking broadcast cameras, as the three anchors wrapped up a segment. I don’t remember what they were talking about, only that as soon as they threw to commercial, I was suddenly walking up to Al Roker, the show’s anchor and weatherman and all-around hilariously weird dude. Just as he bent over to grab something from underneath the set’s table, a voice I couldn’t see said, “hey Al, say hi to Periscope.”

Roker looked directly at me, and smiled. “Heyyy, Periscope. How ya doing, Periscope?”

I’ve played around with Periscope and I found it way more polished than Meerkat.

Today Flexibits released version 2 of their amazing calendar app, Fantastical. I’ll be posting my review in the next day or two, but for now, check it out.