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Marco Arment (developer of the much beloved iOS app Instapaper and co-host of the 5by5 podcast Build and Analyze) discussed his business model on NPR’s Planet Money:

Apple already had everyone’s billing information from iTunes … you could buy things just by typing in your password … That, for the first time, brought very, very easy payment to the modern software world. That, more than anything, is why there is a business for paid apps… you charge a small amount of money … and that’s it, you’re done. You don’t need to go seek venture capital money, you don’t need to sell out your users’ privacy. They’re not even your users, they’re your customers — for the first time in a decade. It’s great.

Good interview, but it would have been nice if the Planet Money guys had thrown Marco a bone and used Phish covering Funky Bitch as the intro/outro music.

When quality returns to scale.

A definition of an Apple fanboy and commentary on those who prefer to use the term (from Jim Dalrymple, via Marco Arment).

History books are mostly filled with the doings of kings and presidents and generals, and we often think that’s what history is. But the everyday lives of people are more profoundly and permanently changed by technology than they are by laws and wars and palace intrigue. Technological changes usually get overlooked because they tend to move slowly and pass through many hands. There are, however, exceptions…. [T]he entire personal computing industry is aligned with his vision… [Y]ou’re using a Steve Jobs product whether it has an Apple logo or not.

— Dr. Drang

Greg Cox at Expletive Inserted explains that frustration over the iPhone 4S’s hold-over form factor makes sense because most consumers don’t see software as real.

Apple, perhaps more than any other technology company understands this misguided conception of computing. It’s why they insist on wrapping those gorgeous baubles around OS X and iOS. The only way to get mass market appreciation for these fundamental products is to convince people to focus on the sleek physical design and packaging of computing as objects.

If Jony Ive and Co. weren’t so masterful, fewer people would appreciate the magic in their pockets and on their desks. Perhaps App Store experiences will change this psychology, but with Google, Facebook, and so many other Internet services presented as free of charge, I doubt anything will change in the near future.