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Apple acquires Pixelmator

pixelmator.com

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Re: Apple acquires Pixelmator

#441

Post by fhdsgbbcaA »

ChuckMcM wrote: post #413
no_wizard wrote: post #337

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suspect this move is due to behind the scenes Adobe / Apple relations souring over the years. Adobe used to be one of their biggest supporters and helped winning over users to the Mac platform. This has diverged significantly over the years, and I think Apple is looking at Adobe and their business model and realizing that it both lucrative for them to have software that fills into this market to round out their cre…

Not to mention Apple's challenge with 30% AppStore tax for subscription revenue. My guess was that Apple is okay with Apps from third parties that tithe 1/3 of their subscription revenue but aren't willing to make a place for them if they don't "sing for their supper" as my Grandfather used to say.

On the flip side, Vision Pro has no apps and it may not be the biggest reason for its failure, but it’s a contributor that I don’t see changing.

Apple’s main source of innovation is applying mafia tactics to software distribution.

Re: Apple acquires Pixelmator

#442

Post by bentocorp »

judge2020 wrote: post #289
ahmeneeroe-v2 wrote: post #287

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Coming from the perspective of a non-DarkSky user, the DarkSky acquisition added tons of value for me. Apple's iOS Weather app is better than it's ever been in terms of accuracy and feature-breadth. It seems that Apple made things worse for the (small number of) DarkSky users while improving things for (a huge number of) default-app users. I hope they do the same thing with Pixelmator.

I've heard that Apple Weather is much less reliable nowadays outside of the U.S., but I agree that it's super accurate for me on the East coast of the states.

Apple Weather reliability is an absolute mess since the Dark Sky integration.

It's constantly saying it's not going to rain for hours, then I look out my window and it's raining at this very moment.

They would be better to dump any prediction model they use and just show the raw data sources as it would be more accurate.

Re: Apple acquires Pixelmator

#444

Post by JKCalhoun »

nsbk wrote: post #269
thenberlin wrote: post #187

Putting concerns about future states aside, congrats to the Pixelmator team. I've been using the app for years and it's a really great piece of software, well designed and well built. It's always been incredible value for the price, especially given that it basically replaces Photoshop for a wide swath of the market without compromising on UX (which is a problem for other competitors) at a price point that's like 1-2…

I can’t even remember how long have I been a Pixelmator and then Pixelmator pro user. I tried it once and I knew I would never go back to Photoshop again. An incredible bang for the price as well! Congrats to the Pixelmator team, and hoping for a bright future for their product. Fingers crossed though!

Yep. Me as well. I have the whole Affinity suite as well — including Affinity Photo — but Pixelmator Pro is my go-to.

Re: Apple acquires Pixelmator

#446

Post by dorian-graph »

Ikatza wrote: post #420
stego-tech wrote: post #160

I don’t think this will be good for users, but I do think this is the right call at the right time for the company. They get (presumably) top dollar for their outfit prior to the next big market crash, and just as investor funding is drying up outside the AI realms. Hopefully everyone involved gets enough dosh to live comfortably, and can focus on their next big passion or project once the NDAs and Non-Competes run t…

Check Affinity, they have a top product for developing and editing.

It's owned by Canva now though, so I don't have any more faith in it.

Re: Apple acquires Pixelmator

#447

Post by dools »

madeofpalk wrote: post #191
lynndotpy wrote: post #68

Is there any way this can go bad? When Apple acquired DarkSky, they absolutely destroyed a service that I loved and relied on. Four years on, Apple Weather is less reliable than DarkSky, and not even close to feature complete. But DarkSky was a cross-platform service, whereas Pixelmator is software that's already Apple-only. I'm wondering how much I should be worried, and if I should already be abandoning ship.

On the other hand, Testflight has a pretty good acquisition story. It got "merged into main" and is now a first class citizen of the iOS development ecosystem. Workflow being acquired and turning into Shortcuts is a pretty successful outcome IMHO. Beats still continues to make slightly cheaper headphones. FoundationDB is still there. Apart from Dark Sky, what other products with users has Apple acquired and shut down…

Same with Workflow/shortcuts

Re: Apple acquires Pixelmator

#448

Post by DidYaWipe »

codazoda wrote: post #414
DidYaWipe wrote: post #362

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I gave up on Affinity Photo after discovering that it degrades images as you edit them. Specifically, it blurs entire layers when you merge them. And it does so over and over, making the base layer worse each time. Therefore you can't trust it with your images. Affinity has refused to fix this, making excuses instead. Example here: https://youtu.be/QA8eVWOLL5I Affinity is also unwilling to fix glaring UI blunders or…

Can you share references for their refusal to fix and their excuses?

Here are a few threads from the forums; there are probably more. The first seems the most extensive. To be fair, I'm not sure if there are employee responses in there or just eager apologists ignoring evidence and blaming other users for the defective behavior:

https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/53609-merg...

https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/185759-sto...

https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/166381-see...

Re: Apple acquires Pixelmator

#449

Post by musicale »

fhdsgbbcaA wrote: post #441
ChuckMcM wrote: post #413

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not to mention Apple's challenge with 30% AppStore tax for subscription revenue. My guess was that Apple is okay with Apps from third parties that tithe 1/3 of their subscription revenue but aren't willing to make a place for them if they don't "sing for their supper" as my Grandfather used to say.

On the flip side, Vision Pro has no apps and it may not be the biggest reason for its failure, but it’s a contributor that I don’t see changing. Apple’s main source of innovation is applying mafia tactics to software distribution.

> Apple’s main source of innovation is applying mafia tactics to software distribution.

Main source of innovation? What about the Mac, iMac, iPod, iPhone, iPad, Apple watch, AirPods and M1 MacBook Air, all of which transformed their product categories? Not just because of the hardware, but also because of the hardware-software integration.

Even Apple's failed innovations (Apple Vision, etc.) are interesting products that push the envelope.

Re: Apple acquires Pixelmator

#450

Post by wtallis »

soneil wrote: post #436
no_wizard wrote: post #337

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suspect this move is due to behind the scenes Adobe / Apple relations souring over the years. Adobe used to be one of their biggest supporters and helped winning over users to the Mac platform. This has diverged significantly over the years, and I think Apple is looking at Adobe and their business model and realizing that it both lucrative for them to have software that fills into this market to round out their cre…

Are there any signs of this souring? During the PPC-Intel transition, Adobe compatibility was almost a running joke. Along the lines of the infamous "You can always count on [..] to do the right thing, after they have exhausted all the other possibilities] quote. I was surprised at how quickly Adobe adopted aarch - it didn't feel sour.

My recollection is that Adobe was slow to migrate from 32-bit to 64-bit x86 because they were still dependent on many of the Carbon APIs (Mac OS 9 compatibility) and those APIs weren't carried over to 64-bit. They dragged their heels about transitioning to Cocoa (NeXT derived) APIs for their UI, and it showed.
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