Sep 15, 2007 Sep 17, 2007 Sunday September 16, 2007
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Meizu's M8 MiniOne shipping January 17th?
Filed under: Cellphones, Portable Audio, Portable Video Alright, so this isn't straight from the horse's mouth, but this potential ship date for the Meizu M8 definitely vibes with what we've heard up until now. This one has a new price too, at $788.50, which is a fair amount less than the $989 number floating around. Anyway, sounds like we'll have a few months yet until the 16GB iPhone influenced phone hits. Why so long, Meizu?[Thanks, Alexander] Read | Permalink | Email this | CommentsOffice Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!
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Microsoft’s Mac Business Unit: Love the sinner, hate the sin
There's good news from the Microsoft's Mac Business Unit about features in the forthcoming in Office for Mac 2008. So why is my blood boiling?
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Scott Woolley Attacks Apple TV in Forbes, Gets the Facts Wrong
Daniel Eran DilgerScott Woolley of Forbes tried his best to paint Apple TV as a colossal failure, but his article is based on supposition and false comparisons, and demonstrates he doesn't know much about the video distribution industry he writes about. Woolley described Apple TV as a flop, comparing his own unit sales estimate against the record breaking sales launch of the iPhone. Of course, lots of successful products might look like a flop compared to what appears to be the most successful consumer electronics product launch in history. Apple TV Sales.Woolley estimated sales of 250,000 Apple TVs, but he really doesn't know how many have sold, because Apple doesn't isolate sales numbers and it counts revenues of the Apple TV over a subscription basis like the iPhone. Apple rarely isolate product sales for any individual items, a competitive game played by most manufacturers. Instead, the company has typically reported revenue buckets for computers and iPods, and only occasionally breaks down sales for specific models or classes of models, such as laptops and desktops. It's therefore no surprise that Apple isn't publishing Apple TV figures. Woolley is doing his readers a disservice to speculate that "apparently the truth is too humiliating." Either he doesn't understand basic marketing, or he knows he's presenting a false angle to whip up a frenzy of ignorant sensationalism. As evidence of the Apple TV's "lack of sizzle," he only cites the fact that some Circuit City employee had "trouble locating the product's small kiosk," and that at a nearby Apple Store, the Apple TV had been "shoved aside" to make room for more iPods. Hobbies and Jobs.Jobs has described the Apple TV as a 'hobby' several times, once in talking to employees about his vision for Apple's future business. He described the Mac and iPod as two legs of a chair, and hoped the iPhone would act as a third leg. The Apple TV, he noted, might work out as a fourth leg in the future, but until then it was being run as a hobby and the focus was on establishing the iPhone.A hobby is something you do primarily for fun or experience, not as a profitable exercise, although hobbies can turn into big business. Thirty years ago, Steve Wozniak's hobby was wiring together electronics. Steve Jobs' hobby seems to be taking ideas and turning them into profitable businesses, as he did with Woz's computer design (Apple is now worth $120 billion), NeXT (sold to Apple in 1996 for over a half billion), and Pixar (sold to Disney for $7.4 billion in 2006). So when Jobs says he has a hobby, he's not talking about painstakingly putting ships into bottles. Lots of people dismissed the iPod in 2001; that product did take a few years to get established, but has since attained explosive growth. Many pundits also announced that Apple would become the iPod company and let go of its Mac sales, but Apple has also dramatically increased Mac sales over the last two years, in large measure due to the move to Intel processors[Inside Apple TV]Success Is Failure, Up is Down.Woolley says Apple execs ignored the product in its last quarterly earnings reports. Apple did spend its time talking about the iPhone, record Mac sales, and improved gross profit margins. Apart from the highlights of what it wants to talk about, what Apple executives say in earnings reports conference calls is largely based on what analysts on the call ask them.In the previous quarter, Tim Cook answered a question about Apple TV sales by saying, "we just started shipping on the third week in March. We're off to a very good start and we're going to continue investing in this area. We're very, very excited about the long-term potential of the product," but added, "we're not releasing the exact unit shipments."Apple never bragged that it would sell millions of Apple TV units per quarter, as it did with the iPhone. The company isn't making big money on the Apple TV. Its price--compared to the components inside it--indicates Apple knew the box wouldn't be a high demand seller, or it would logically set a higher price target. There's little money to be made in selling and supporting a $300 box full of nearly $250 in hardware. Instead, Apple offers the unit as an alternative way for consumers to make use of the developing video market in iTunes. [RSS: How Apple Will Change TV in 2007]Sustainable Platform Development.This slow growth strategy requires the playback pieces to be in place while the content lines up. Assembling both ends of a platform and distribution chain is the classic catch-22: which comes first, the eggs or the frying pan? Do you crack open eggs and let them sit out while you set out to obtain a frying pan, or put the pan on the flames and then go to the store to find eggs? Ideally, you have them both lined up before things get cooking.Apple had already added TV content to iTunes, and was selling respectable numbers of shows to users with 3" iPod screens or hunched over their PC. When it added movies, it couldn't really market the idea of rapid growth in iTunes without a TV-centric playback system. Apple is still working to add movie content to iTunes, but now it has a marketable way to sell them. [Brent Schlender's Apple TV: Fortune Dud or Fortune FUD?]Measuring Success By Accomplishment. Apple doesn't have to make fantastic money on the Apple TV for it to be a success, just as Sony and Microsoft can afford to actually lose money--billions in the case of Microsoft--if only sales of their game consoles take off at some point and establish a critical mass of a platform. That being the case, why would Forbes tear into Apple TV for not outselling the iPhone? The simple answer is that finding problems with Apple's ongoing strategy is so difficult that only a cheap shot that skirts reality can even hope to make the company look bad.Apple TV exists as a product to legitimize the company's movie strategy. Expanding sales of movies and TV content will help sell the iPod and retain a commercial availability of legal content for Mac users. Really, the main point of the iTunes Store is to save Apple from being ostracized by Microsoft in a dystopian world where all media is tied to Windows. Apple didn't have to destroy the market for Windows Media to establish iTunes as a success; that was just a nice bonus. After just short of a year of existence, iTunes certainly isn't the best movie selection on the web. However, while its easier to find more movies elsewhere, those sources don't offer the benefits of Apple's tightly integrated and well conceived ecosystem. [Universal vs Apple in the iTunes Store Contracts]Apple TV vs Netflix.One of the best options today is Netflix; it has nearly everything, but it involves waiting for days to get the DVD you request. If you get an unplayable DVD, you have no recourse but to wait out a few more days to get a replacement. Netflix has recently moved to offering subscribers instant playback over the web for a good variety of titles, but the service is Windows only and offers very low quality. It's a great way to watch a documentary or slapstick comedy, but it's not a cinematic experience, it's a YouTube experience. That leaves Netflix a very good option for people who like to watch lots of movies. For less than $20 per month, you can cycle through several movies a week and always have at least a couple DVDs available to watch. You pay a monthly fee whether you use the plan a lot or not, so if you go without updating your queue or are busy with other things, you pay for content you're not watching, just as with a cable subscription.The downsides to Netflix--and DVD rental in general--is that DVDs can't easily be accessed on demand, or kept in a digital library that's available to any TVs in the house or any iPods for portable playback. [Apple TV: Using DVDs and other Video Sources]Pulling the Woolley.Forbes' Woolley didn't mention Netflix. Instead, he boasted up TiVo, the Xbox 360, Slingbox, a yet to be delivered product from Poloroid, and Vudo, a small startup that sells downloadable movies for $20 each. All are apparently in far better shape than the Apple TV hobby, which is a great flop of a failure, according to Woolley. Except that he withheld the truth:the staggering, multibillion dollar losses of Microsoft’s Xbox every year over the last half decade.the regular, multimillion dollar losses at Tivo over the last several years--it lost $52 million last year, and another $19 million in the most recent quarter ending in July.Polaroid Corporation went bankrupt half a decade ago. Its name is being licensed by a holding group.
Vudo is an interesting box offered by a group of WebTV and TiVo refugees. It's a $400 box with very similar features to the Apple TV. It also features rentals and has hardware support for 1080p and Dolby Digital surround. It demands a 3 Mbit Internet connection. 
Slingbox is a streaming device that transmits a video signal over a network. It has nothing to do with Apple TV.So Wolley paraded out some real failures, some vaporware, a promising potential rival, and something completely unrelated. That's proof of the Apple TV's great failure? In contrast, it looks like Apple is among the few companies with a viable plan for video distribution, and stands among the minority who can actually earn any profit at all.[Ten Myths of the Apple TV: 5.1 Audio][Ten Myths of the Apple TV: Xbox and Hardware][Apple TV: Turn DVI into HDTV; HP Drops Microsoft]Wholly Weaselly Woolley.Not content with simply blowing out some ignorant misinformation, Woolley then went on to castigate Jobs for choosing to "shut out millions of Web downloads on YouTube" with the release of Apple TV in a "parochial and proprietary approach" that forced users to get all their content from the iTunes Store. Except that isn't the truth at all. Is every feature Apple adds to is products now going be described as a "freedom previously withheld by Jobs' arrogant tyranny" in retrospect? What a weaselly, desperate spin! Woolley also stated that "NBC Universal scrapped its deal to sell movies and shows via iTunes, making Apple TV even less appealing." While admitting that Apple backed out of negotiations with NBC Universal after the studio made absurd demands, Woolley called Apple "sulky and pious" for doing so. Sounds like Woolley couldn't find a story and had to make one up with the help of a thesaurus. One should expect more from Forbes. For his sloppy efforts in crafting a sensationalist headline, Scott Woolley gets a Zoon.What do you think? I really like to hear from readers. Comment in the Forum or email me with your ideas. Like reading RoughlyDrafted? Share articles with your friends, link from your blog, and subscribe to my podcast! Submit to Reddit or Slashdot, or consider making a small donation supporting this site. Thanks!
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Some new iPod nanos afflicted with tilted screens
Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable VideoThe new iPod nanos are exhibiting screen problems for a small subset of owners, whereby the screen doesn't appear to be completely level within the casing. More than a dozen people have reported the issue on Apple's Support forums, with most reports saying video appears tilted slightly to the left. Apple is replacing units that exhibit the problem, although judging by some anecdotal reports, entire batches at certain stores have the problem, making replacement a far from adequate solution. Fortunately, it appears as if it's possible to notice the issue with the nano inside the box. At least now we'll know what the problem is if we run into any gadget fans with crooked necks. Read | Permalink | Email this | CommentsOffice Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!
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Reminder: Talkcast tonight -- iPhone unlock and more
Filed under: TUAW BusinessDon't forget, you can join us online and live tonight, 9 pm Eastern Time, for a half-hour chat with the TUAW team. Mat Lu and I will be doing an extended iPhone/iPod touch development Q&A with Erica Sadun, who has been in a whirlwind of hackery as the iPod touch meets the agile minds of the iPhone Dev Team. Bring those toolchain questions and application requests.For those of you who haven't registered with Talkshoe yet, good news; the conferencing system has been opened up to allow anonymous call-in for anyone with a phone, no PIN needed (if you want to participate in the simultaneous text chat, a PIN and the new Talkshoe client are still required). To call in without a PIN, just dial the general number (724-444-7444), enter the Talkcast ID (45077), and then enter 1#. You can also listen to the live stream directly from the Talkshoe site, or subscribe to the podcast to catch up after the fact.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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The iPhone and new iPod: what's Apple's idea?
The long-awaited launch of Apple's iPhone in the UK will raise the pulses of gadget geeks and fashionistas across Europe who have eagerly awaited the appearance of the handset since it was released in the US over the summer.
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Review: Apple iPod touch (8GB/16GB)
Apple has proved capable of near-miraculous things. The original iPod changed the world's perception of digital music by demonstrating the value of a cutting-edge 1.8” hard drive and a simple, intuitive user interface. iPod minis became must-haves thanks to even smaller drives, colored enclosures, and lower prices. Then, iPod nanos went “impossibly thin” by discarding hard drives altogether, eventually becoming the ideal “take…
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Nokia: A Better Bet Than Apple - Barron's
Despite shares that are up 65% over the past two years, Barron's says Finnish handset maker Nokia, which dominates the global wireless handset market with 37% market share, is still cheap.
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Market Share
2003 piece from the DF archives, just as apt today, on the Mac’s market share: Overall PC market share covers large market segments where Apple isn’t competing — including markets where Apple doesn’t want to compete. Fifteen or 20 years ago, personal computers were generally only purchased and used by people who were “intoâ€? computers. Today, however, many computers are purchased for use as generic business machines, modern-day typewriters and adding machines. ★
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Randall Stross in The New York Times on the Mac’s Overal PC Market Share
So The New York Times ran a piece today by Randall Stross, which can more or less be summarized as follows: Microsoft’s Windows Vista is a turd, and Apple has blown it by not increasing the Mac’s market share even more than they have in the past year. Stross makes all the usual mistakes in Mac market share analysis, first and foremost by confusing who Apple is competing against. Apple does not sell an operating system that competes against Windows. Apple sells computers. Apple does not sell as many computers as Dell or HP, but Apple makes way more money per computer sold than Dell or HP (or any other major PC maker). ★
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Precise Screen Sizes for iPod Touch and iPhone
Just in case you wanted one more piece of evidence that the iPhone and iPod Touch use different screens, Apple’s documentation for iPod and iPhone case designers has precise dimensions. The iPhone screen measures 76.38 × 51.42 mm; the iPod Touch screen measures 74.9 × 49.9 mm. (Thanks to François Menu.) ★
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iPhone Features You’ll Miss Out on by Buying an iPod Touch
Bill Palmer runs down everything the iPhone has that the iPod Touch doesn’t. ★
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iPod Classic Audio Measurements
Detailed audio quality analyis of the iPod Classic by Marc Heijligers: Trying to reveal what I hear with the new iPod, I’ve measured the device and I’ve compared it to the iPod Video 5G. The measurements show is that the iPod Classic (also called 6G) indeed has an uplift in treble, and its timing response is incorrect. I assume Apple is able to patch the flaws by means of a firmware update. ★
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Apple Engineers Refer to Chinese Factory as ‘Mordor’
Entry for “send to Mordor” at the Double-Tongued Dictionary: Hardware techies at Apple are regularly sent from California for intense two-week shifts to the city-sized FoxConn factory in Shenzhen, China where iPods are made and tested. Internally at Apple this is known as “being sent to Mordor.â€? I’m sure it’s a lovely place. (Via Kottke.) ★
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1996 Charlie Rose Interview With Steve Jobs and John Lasseter
Terrific interview, after the release of Toy Story, but before Jobs’s return to Apple. (Via Kottke.) ★
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What is wrong with this Picture?
Filed under: iPod FamilyImage Capture automatically launches when I attach my new iPod Touch to my Mac. The problem is, of course, that unlike the iPhone, the iPod Touch is not a camera. So why is it reporting itself as a camera to my computer? I haven't personally tried hooking it up to my Windows PC, but TUAW reader Gonzalo reports that Windows recognizes it as an imaging device.To switch this behavior off in Windows, open Control Panel > Printers and Other Hardware > Scanners and Camera > (your iPod). Right-click the iPod and pick Properties from the contextual menu. Tap on the Events tab and choose "Camera connected" from the "Select an event" pop-up and select Take No Action.Permalink | Email this | Comments
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TUAW Best of the Week
Filed under: Features, TUAW Business, Weekend ReviewWelcome to this week's installment of TUAW best of the week, where we gather up our favorite posts of the week for your easy clicking enjoyment. TV out locked in new iPod classic and nanoSerious, why is Apple making this so hard? 1 millionth iPhone has been soldLessee. How long did it take to sell a million Zunes, again? Vienna 2.2 is availableNice update for a favorite utility. iPhone versus iPod Touch: What to buyThe iPhone is looking more and more like the better deal, even if you don't want phone service. iPhone Coding: Using the AccelerometerPractical access to your iPhone's sensors. Six Apart launches iPhone/iPod Touch specific Movable Type 4/TypepadBlog on-the-go. Making the impossible possible: iPod Touch VOIPStill working on getting SIP and Asterix and all. Rogue Amoeba releases free Ringtone MakerSimple. Easy-to-use. Free. Fox: We'll keep our content in iTunesFox avoids an NBC-style hissyfit. Cyberduck hits 2.8 with file transfer queueingAnother great upgrade to a another favorite utility. Gearlog interview clears up iPhone and Touch detailsDon't believe the buzz. Apple is NOT pro-hacking. Guitar Hero III coming to the Mac this yearAnd my kids start begging in 3...2... iPhone hackers create open source unlockThe iPhone has been unlocked in dozens of countries now. iTunes: Free WednesdayStill Free. Ask TUAW: Anti-Virus in Parallels, inventory management, sharing iCal without .Mac and moreThis week's installment of Mat's always-wonderful series. The real story behind the iPhone unlock GUI dramaIt's like a daytime soap opera, I tell you. Rig of the Week: Mac mini at seaGlub blub blub click blub. iPod Touch unboxingOur new toy. What's an iPhone again? More rumors about iTunes movie rentalsIt will be nice when you're stuck at an airport to whip out your iPhone or iTouch and just rent a movie while you wait. iPhone Early adopters: Claim your store credit!$100. Remember, if you took your iPhone in for service at any time to use your new serial number not your original one.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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iPod touch has an identity crisis
Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video Okay, we can understand how a few units slipped out of the factory without the OS installed, but come on Team Cupertino, what's up with forgetting to change the re-hashed iPhone code on the touch's password lockout screen? Don't people trying to break into our iPods deserve the same great Apple experience that paying customers get?[Via digg] Read | Permalink | Email this | CommentsOffice Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!
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European iPhones, Starbucks and Pavarotti: A Perfect Apple Combination?
[My apologies to the memory of Pavarotti, but I just couldn't resist] Reuters says that Apple (AAPL) has called a UK press conference for Tuesday, September 18.
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Dare to Hack an iPhone?
In the classic scene from Marathon Man, an ex-Nazi dentist menacingly asks Dustin Hoffman: "Is it safe?" It's the same question being asked these days by a growing number of iPhone users. Unlike Hoffman's tormentor, these users have no evil motive behind the question. Instead, they simply want to know: Is it safe to hack my iPhone? Do I need to worry about losing my data or damaging the phone so that it no longer works? Must I first take a course in programming or Unix before I can perform the necessary surgery?