Week in Review; Most Popular Daily Email Links

I look back at the most popular links found in the AAPL Orchard daily email this past week. To receive this daily email containing Apple-related links and analysis, please subscribe here.

Most Popular Links of the Week:

1) Apple SVP of Design Jony Ive's talk at Design Museum in London. The talk focused on the issues with the way designers are educated and the lack of focus on making physical products. I thought Jony's comment on “careless” products from other companies and designers was pretty interesting: "If you expect me to buy something where all I can sense is carelessness, actually I think that is personally offensive...It's offensive culturally, because it shows a disregard for our fellow human."  Jony spoke for an hour and covered a range of topics. Dezeen took splendid notes. If you are interested in Apple or design, I recommend finding 10 minutes today and taking a read. - Dezeen

2) Apple Has a New Product: $300 Wireless Beats Headphones. They actually look pretty nice. It makes it even more amazing how Apple was able to turn generic white EarPods that came free with iPods and iPhones (and cost a few bucks to make) into such a powerful marketing tool up until a few years ago. - MacRumors

In a follow-up post, it seems like initial reviews are positive. - MacRumors  

Related: My four main takeaways from Beats' new $300 headphones. - Above Avalon

3) Apple's $3 Billion Bet on Reinventing the Music Industry. I had been mulling Apple and music for a number of weeks and over the past few days the increasing number of music-related news items actually makes my piece quite timely. There’s a lot to think about in the post, and I add more perspective and color on the subject in the upcoming Above Avalon podcast which will be published in the coming days. I think all music will eventually be free, but the music industry first needs its own “App Store” moment where a software platform can reset how the music industry makes money and Beats can be that platform. Similar to software post-App Store launch, music creation, distribution, and monetization can be revolutionized by a new platform where there are minimal barriers between fans and content creators. - Above Avalon

Reminders:

Podcast. The first episode of the Above Avalon podcast was published earlier this week containing introductions and comments about Apple Pay. Each week I will focus on one Apple-related topic. Listen and subscribe (for iTunes and Overcast) here. A new episode will be published in the coming days. 

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Four Interesting Things About Apple's New $300 Beats Headphones