Articles for August 2010

Dan Wineman over at Venomousporridge has an interesting take on what the forthcoming iTV remote may look and act like. The basic concept is a merge between iPod touch and Apple's magic track pad.

It's a cool concept that primarily focuses on gaming, yet it falls short in how controls may actually work at a granular level. To name but a few, how does one pause, fast-forward or rewind video content? Apple is high on gestures, but for a living room-based device, two-finger turn for rewind, four-finger spin for fast-foreard, and triple-tap for pause hardly sounds intuitive.

Prepare for another round of in-you-face marketing from Microsoft. In an interview with TechCrunch, Jonathan Goldberg, a telecommunications analyst at Deutsche Bank, explained he believes Microsoft will dole out $400 million to promote Windows Phone 7. This massive spend comes on top of the tens of millions Microsoft has already spent to entice developers to make Windows Phone 7 apps, and getting hardware manufacturers onboard.

“This is make-or-break for them. They need to do whatever it takes to stay in the game. It’s still wide open. They don’t have to take share from Android or Apple, so long as they can attract enough consumers switching from feature phones.” says Goldberg.

Can anyone tell me where Mac OS X 10.7 is? It was MIA at the WWDC 2010 — the regular stomping grounds for such news and announcements. Apple continues to be hush-hush about what 10.7 will feature. Moreover, any search on the term "Mac OS X 10.7" turns up little as far as actual content — where debate about the project cat name seems to be the only main relevant information out there. 

Where art thou oh Mac OS X 10.7? Where art thou!?!?

Analysts, a host of journalists and the tech blogosphere are all buzzing about Apple's special event on September 1st. Their common thread? A new version of Apple TV, dubbed iTV will show up at the event. Some are even predicting a new MacBook Air along with an iTV unveiling.

There's just one big problem with all these predictions, they don't hold true to Apple's latest August/September events. Apple is very good at focusing the media's attention on what it wants them to focus on. Based on Apple's event history alone, it seems the focus will be entirely on new iPods and perhaps an iTunes via the cloud reveal, nothing more.

 Earlier in the year, Apple's highly discussed $30 all-you-can-eat media idea evidently met a quick death. Thus, Apple moved to plan B. Unfortunately Apple appears to be forced into plan C, delivering a less than desired solution for our living rooms.

Apple's plan B attempt was to allow the user to buy networks a-la-carte for $x.xx a month via an iTV (AKA Apple TV).

Rumors have been swirling that Apple TV will soon become iTV. Ironic isn't it, since iTV was the code name for Apple TV before it launched.

Whatever new name Apple TV receives, it seems Apple is about to deliver a new TV paradigm. Some people (like myself) have wanted this transformation for years, while most of the population will just fall in love with the business model once it is introduced. Apple could sell over 10 million of these new iTV devices in it's first 12 months in the US market, causing all kinds of cable and dish provider turmoil.  So what is this new iTV mechanism that will set the market ablaze? A la carte subscription services delivering only the networks of your choice. Pay per network, not "forced" provider bundles.

 Kevin Rose (founder of Digg) makes some interesting predictions for the upcoming rev to AppleTV, soon to be called iTV. My initial reaction is, if he's right:

• Price Point is consumer friendly at $99 (they'll sell a lot!)
• Sharing Pics and Videos has been something Apple tried to do in the past, but it required the recipient to have a Mac. 
• Allowing (but not requiring) the iPad to be a über remote
• Ala cart shows allowing TV producers to get revenue through Apple's new iAds.
• No metion of gaming (boo)

I think I might make the leap to iTV if even half of this is true (including the new price of course).

Dell recently began poking at Apple, giving us an "Apple's to Apple's" spec and price comparison site. I get that, it makes sense. Dell shows basic, surface feature specs., and show they are cheaper. It's what they do.

Not only is Dell attacking Apple's Macs, but they are specifically targeting back-to-school shoppers. But should Dell be mentioning the competition on it's site? Recent survey's have shown Apple is the number one back-to-school selling computer, thus Dell is correctly following the marketing 101 playbook; always mention and assail the #1 player in the market.

So how many Mobile Operating Systems can the market support. It used to be that each phone manufacturer built their own or modified someone else's. They were built for calling people and storing contacts. Pretty simple stuff.

Then came the ”Smart Phone”

The smart phone was "smarter" right? It allowed you to sync your phone to your computer. The smart phone could allow you to do e-mail, surf the web and most of all text messaging was born. When Apple's iPhone hit the scene add music and movie playback to that list, as well as storing photo. The phone was morphing into a mini computer, one that had to work with your desktop or laptop. That's where the iOS has excelled and Android is trying to do the same. 

And Dang! I'm lovin it.Very nice. Sure I'm "late to the game by 6 weeks" but hey, I live on the bleeding edge in other ways...

Now I need to get my free bumper or sidebar or carrying case or whatever they call those blasted things. Reception is very good and I'm in rural community with no real AT&T support PLUS I'm left-handed. Go figure. Dumb journalists with nothing better to do... grumble, grumble, grumble.....

So the big item Friday (or this weekend) is that Mr. Papermaster is out of Apple. There was a big hullaballoo about a year ago when Apple "stole" this "gem" from IBM. He was some chip guru. He was put on task with the iPhone team or part of the iPhone team. Despite the "success" of the iPhone 4 there have certainly been production issues (unable to keep up with demand) AND where is the white iPhone?? Not sure if Papermaster was the reason for all of this, but now that he's on his way out, seems like an easy person to blame for some problems inside our favorite fruit company.

Yup. Time to start blogging. So here it goes. Wish us luck, cause Guy 1 and Guy 2 are really going to need it.