Jan 22, 2008 Jan 24, 2008 Wednesday January 23, 2008
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iPod earbuds not big enough for you? Try these!
From day one, many iPod users complained that the earbuds packaged with the media device were uncomfortably large. They ain't seen nothing yet! From worldwidefred.com come the 500XL Speakers that look like ginormous iPod earbuds. we took a puny pair of earbuds, put them in Fred's highly technical Way Big machine, and created 500XL - it's 500 times the size of the original! The 500XL includes a... [read more at MacMerc.com]
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Ou, not again!
Peter Gutmann of A Cost Analysis of Windows Vista Content Protection fame emailed the Macalope (during the heat of Macworld Expo, so apologies for the delay) to respond to a piece the brown and furry one wrote a while back confirming the only piece of Gutmann's story he was qualified to make a judgement on: That, on any given day, George Ou is not exactly traversing through a fully linked list. Gutmann wanted to point out that he had, in fact, responded to Ou some time ago here. Again, the Macalope will point out that he's not qualified to judge who's got the technical high ground here, but it does make for interesting reading. Don't miss the excerpts from Ou's emails at the bottom.
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Apple's Quarterly Results
The Macalope's gracious and enormously well-endowed readers know he frequently gives ZDNet's Adrian Kingsley-Hughes a hard time. They also know that it's genuinely deserved each and every time and is administered not out of anger, but out of love. Well, no, not love. Compassion? Concern? Eh. How about obligation? No. That's not it, either. Annoyance? Hmm. Wait, maybe it is anger. Well, whatever the case, because he gives him such a hard time when he gets something wrong, he feels compelled to give him some credit when he gets something right about Apple. Plus, it's easy because, as far as the horny one knows, this is the first time it's happened. But Kingsley-Hughes does have a pretty good recap of Apple's quarterly results. He rightly notes that it's the outlook for next quarter that seems to be the only real bad news and says: Looking at these numbers it's hard to see why analysts are disappointed. In the weird fairytale land that most analysts seem to inhabit the idea of rolling growth is one that now expected [sic] of a company such as Apple. But in the real world it's hard for Apple, or any other company for that matter, to come out with hit products such as the iPhone all the time. Indeed. Now, the Macalope has some close ties to the financial industry, but (or maybe "therefore") he's often critical of it. All too often the market seems to operate on the "frightened deer" school of analytical thought. The issue here, though, is not so much the current "panic" as it was the "irrational exuberance" of last year. It's quite likely that a lot of nitwits did buy Apple expecting it would produce iPhones and tablets and sub-$100 notebooks and free candy and magical ponies for ever and ever and ever. Apple was the closest thing they had to the supposed "no-brainer" dot-com days. "They pick up your groceries and deliver them to you! It can't lose!" Well, maybe these clowns are out now. So it might be a good time to buy. Or not. Personally, other than a number of Apple shares you can literally count on one hand, the Macalope doesn't play the ponies. Most of his money is in gold and jewels. And it's being guarded by a dragon. Which is a pretty good system until you try to cash out. [Disclosure: the Macalope holds an insignificant number of Apple shares. In case you missed that part.]
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This Day: January 23, 1982: Bill Gates Knows a Good Thing When He Sees It
Steve Jobs knew that for the Mac to be successful it would need third party developers, and the most crucial third party developer in the late pre-Macintosh days was Microsoft. Steve was particularly interested in getting a version of the programming language BASIC specifically made for the Mac. Of course…
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Derek Powazek: Hey Apple, Don’t Make Me Think
Derek Powazek observes that in Safari, the left-to-right order is Reload/Location Field/Search, but in the new MobileSafari, the order is Search/Location Field/Reload. I don’t think it’s a big deal, but I agree with Derek that MobileSafari’s order should be reversed — not just to match Safari’s, but to match the overall “go to the top right for Search” pattern that Apple has established system-wide in recent years. ★
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Apple posts 2008 Proxy Materials
Filed under: Apple Financial, AppleListen up, finance nerds, Apple has just posted their 2008 Proxy Materials. Are you excited? I'm not... but that might be because I have no idea what proxy materials are (I'm just a simple blogger). Apple notes that they are posting the proxy materials in an electronic format to help save a few trees , as these statements were previously printed out.If you didn't get enough Apple financials from our liveblog of Apple's quarterly results call, this proxy materials might be just what you're looking for.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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Despite $1 salary, Jobs stocks up with big Apple gains
Despite a big drop in the price of Apple (AAPL) stock this month, it's fair to say that CEO Steve Jobs earned his pay in 2007. ...
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Found Footage: Hit me on my iPhone
Filed under: Humor, Multimedia, Odds and ends, Apple, iPhoneThe fake lips in the copy and paste demo (and the stealth declaration of love at the end) had me laughing out loud, but this one has me rolling -- who knew the iPhone demo guy was such a hip hop mastermind? Pete Miser was the one who put the song together, and apparently Merritt Duff edited the video. I especially like the dance at the end, and the lyrics are perfect. I've never bought a Bluetooth headset because I think they just plain look dumb, but people have thought I was crazy on the bus as I talked directly into the little mic on the headphones.I love it. John from the MacBook Air demos should do a dis song, and we have a mobile computing rap feud![Via BB, and thanks Josh!]Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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MacBook Air: The sexy kind of skinny but with some flaws
Apple has earned a sterling reputation designing beautiful products that usually perform as splendidly as they look. The MacBook ...
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MacBook Air Developer Note
Filed under: Hardware, MacBook AirWe seemed to have overlooked the MacBook Air Developer Note in all the news at Macworld. This note details exactly what's lurking inside that thin marvel of modern Industrial Design. It also lends credence to reports that the external SuperDrive will only work with the MacBook Air. The Air's USB port is listed as 'high powered,' so it is only logical to assume that this is needed to power the external SuperDrive and at the moment the MacBook Air is the only Mac currently equipped with such a port (this is all educated speculation, but isn't that the best kind?).Also worth noting: the MacBook Air does have an IR port, but does not come with an Apple Remote. Something to keep in mind if you were hoping to control your MacBook Air from afar.Thanks to everyone who sent this in.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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Earnings alert: Qualcomm results show strong demand
Plus: eBay warns of weaker 2008 results...Motorola profit shrinks, phone forecast dims...Apple posts good Q1, despite slow iPod sales...Microsoft expected to post healthy profits.
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After Effects 8.02 now available
Filed under: Multimedia, Software Update, LeopardNote: This update does NOT fix the conflict between AE and QuickTime 7.4 that we reported here. Adobe's recommendation is still to avoid the 7.4 QuickTime update.Good news users of Adobe After Effects CS3 (8.0) who are running Leopard -- 8.02 is now available and it fixes many of the compatibility issues between the two programs. It also introduces native support for Panasonic P2 equipment.The Read Me has all the details, but in addition to fixing issues with preserving underlying transparency and properly supporting PSD files with layer groups, 8.02 adds OpenGL support for supported cards under OS X 10.4.10 and OS X 10.5.x.This is an inclusive update, so After Effects 8.0 users do not need to worry about downloading 8.01 first. You can download the update directly from Adobe or from within After Effects (choose "Updates" from the Help menu).[via DAV TechTable]Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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Apple uPod and the Stock Market
I saw this word today on one of the many financial sites documenting Apple's steep decline. UPOD="Under Promise and Over Deliver" This is the financial market way of saying "Surprise and Delight." Basically, Apple has often set guidance low, then they over deliver with great results. The market gets delighted and up goes the share price. Apple has been practicing UPOD in both the financial market and in their products. The flip side is if you stop over delivering, you pay the price. We saw that in action right after Steve's keynote with so many people expecting something revolutionary on the heels of the iPhone last year. And yesterday, in spite of Apple's best quarter ever their lowered projections spooked the market, already spooked by other fears. Today was bloody - at one point Apple lost nearly 25% of its value. In one day! That's just crazy. Apple is still defying logic, growing market share, slamming out great new products and raking in huge profits. But their iPod business isn't generating uPod any longer. But don't worry, Apple's business has always been cyclical; intentionally so. As the iPod business slows (this happens in any maturing market) you'll see Apple focus on the Mac and the business market. And with the iPhone still in it's infancy, (not to mention Apple TV) Apple has lots of engines available to deliver uPod.
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Don’t Miss A Show With This DirecTV Scheduler
How many times have you been out on the road and suddenly remembered you forgot to set up your DirecTV DVR to record LOST? DirecTV has launched a new mobile site which allows you to set up TV recordings…
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Show floor video: Equinux shows the TubeStick
Filed under: Macworld, VideoEquinux, makers of iSale, CoverScout and an interesting collection of other apps, was at Macworld demoing TubeStick, their TV receiver. Like El Gato's EyeTV, the TubeStick is a hardware doohickey with the TV parts inside (logically) and some software that lets you watch TV on your Mac. Unlike El Gato, however, there is a social aspect to TubeStick. Example: you can chat with friends who are watching the same thing. The CEO took us on a quick tour, which you can view after the break.(Note: Equinux also gave us some show swag which we'll be giving away next week)Continue reading Show floor video: Equinux shows the TubeStickRead | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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Apple unveils more video on the UK iTunes Store
Filed under: iPod Family, iTS, Video, iTunes, Apple, iPhone, Apple TVRejoice UK readers -- there's more overpriced easily accessible video programming available on our delectable iTunes Store: Wallace and Gromit (which I'll confess to buying right now - a poor show of form, given my loathing of iTunes' DRM love-in) and a whole plethora of Warner Bros content consisting of: Friends Wonder Woman V: The Complete Series Babylon 5 West Wing The Jetsons The Flintstones Martin Costing you a mere £1.89 (that's US$3.60 -- yes, more than our American brethren pay) per episode, if you're dying for something else to watch on your iPod or iPhone then you can finally grab some more video content from iTunes. As ever, movies continue to be missing in action, but there's hope given that Steve Jobs would 'love' to get iTunes rental worldwide during 2008.Thanks to those who sent this in!Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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A fix for those "Pairing Record Missing" errors
Filed under: iPod Family, iPhone Here's an annoying problem with a surprisingly simple solution. After upgrading to 1.1.3, many users found they could no longer properly sync their iPhones. If your iPhone or iPod touch develops a missing pairing record problem, you can fix things by...rebooting your computer. If this saves anyone else an hour or two of head-scratching, tech support and google-fu, then my job is, as they say, done.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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Earnings alert:
Plus: Motorola profit shrinks, phone forecast dims...Apple posts good Q1, despite slow iPod sales...Microsoft expected to post healthy profits...Seagate turns in mixed report.
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Earnings alert: eBay warns of weaker 2008 results
Plus: Motorola profit shrinks, phone forecast dims...Apple posts good Q1, despite slow iPod sales...Microsoft expected to post healthy profits...Seagate turns in mixed report.
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TUAW Responds: NTP for the iPhone
Filed under: iPod Family, Cool tools, iPhone TUAW reader Gert S. writes "Are you aware of any NTP application that could set the system time on an iPhone or Touch ? I was browsing through the bin directories and no NTP client was found. I sure could use this util, even on the command line, to ensure my clock is running on time." iPhone developer extraordinaire "core" to the rescue! In response to Gert's letter, core dashed off this iPhone-based NTP tool--because that's the kind of insanely wonderful guy he is. If you like core's development work and feel like droping a thank you note, you can contact him here.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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Inventive Labs: Tabulate
Outstanding JavaScript bookmarklet for MobileSafari that adds “open in new tab” behavior to any web page, including the very convenient option of queueing up several links to open in new tabs at once. (Via Cameron Hunt.) ★
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Electronista: MacBook Air’s External Superdrive Requires Special USB Port
Electronista: While external optical drives have existed that rely on the USB port alone, the particular power demands of the Apple-made drive should prevent it being used elsewhere; the sole USB port has been boosted past its specifications to supply enough power to use the drive with just the data cable rather than a direct power connection, say contacts. ★
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Apple crippling OS X debugging tool to protect iTunes DRM?
Filed under: Desktops, LaptopsWow, it looks like the cat-and-mouse game of DRM exploits is starting to inflict some collateral damage -- the DTrace debugging tool built into Leopard is apparently locked out of iTunes and any other app that opts-out. Reasons aren't clear, but it sure looks like Apple is trying to keep interested parties from seeing the inner workings of FairPlay and other DRM-enabled apps -- which probably makes the RIAA happy, but makes it harder for devs to get work done. In the words of one DTrace developer, the lockout is "antithetical to the notion of systemic tracing, antithetical to the goals of DTrace, and antithetical to the spirit of open source." That's pretty harsh -- but given Apple's new love for selective feature enabling, we're not expecting a resolution anytime soon.[Via BoingBoing] Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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Will The iPhone Design Ever Change?
The best thing about a great design is the boundaries it breaks and the possibilities created. The worst thing about a great design is that it needs to be changed once competitors start copying it. It’s not the easiest thing to do but the problem has afflicted everyone including Apple…
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After Effects 7 users: QuickTime 7.4 update a nono
Filed under: Multimedia, Software, VideoAfter Effects 7 users, take note: there have been some interesting and unfortunate developments with the recent release of the QuickTime 7.4 update. Apparently, it disables After Effects 7 and will not permit users to complete rendering videos. There have been some arguments about what is causing this error, with some claiming it is related to DRM issues (let's hope not), while others claim it is nothing more than a preferences bug. Nevertheless, you can not revert back to a previous version of QuickTime once you have updated. In short: After Effects 7 users, beware! Avoid the QT7.4 update at all costs, unless you want to deal with a major headache. Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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iPhone 101: Two Home screen tricks
Filed under: iPod Family, How-tos, iPhone, iPhone 101Here are two simple but useful tips from TUAW readers David B Alford and Andrew Akker that help you navigate through your iPhone or iPod home screens. David points out that if you tap just to the left or to the right of the dots at the bottom of your screen, you can move a page at a time without having to drag. Tap left, you move left. Tap right, you move right. It's quick and it's easy. Andrew figured out how to pause his drag Home screen drags. If you start to move between screens by dragging and then tap the dots control during that drag, screen pauses. You'll see bits of both home screens at once, and can interact with them normally by tapping icons. You can see up to 24 icons at once (16 off to one side, 4 along the other side, and 4 in the bar at the bottom). I've tested both tips extensively and they work great -- two really nice additions to one's Home-screens skills.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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Apple Gazette Daily 194 - 1st Quarter Results, stock stumbles, and more
A look at the 1st Quarter results for Apple, the resulting stock tumble, and a little bit of news as well. You can subscribe via iTunes, or by RSS feed, or… you can listen to the episode right here: In addition to that, you can also download the Apple Gazette Daily Widget and listen to every episode of the show right on your Dashboard. Click Here to download.
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How Web Clips Work
Filed under: iPod Family, iPhoneIf you're using version 1.1.3 of the iPhone or iPod touch-with-January-Upgrade , you'll probably encountered Web Clips. Web Clips add home screen icons that lead to your favorite sites. It's easy enough to make Web Clips, just tap the "+" button at the bottom of any MobileSafari webpage and choose Add to Home Screen from the pop-up menu (and yes, we're working on one for TUAW).Continue reading How Web Clips WorkPermalink | Email this | Comments
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More Street Opinions on Apple
As promised, I’ve collected some more comments from the Street on Apple’s (AAPL) strong performance for the fiscal first quarter ended December, and its disappointing guidance for the March quarter. Opinions vary widely: some see a huge buying opportunity, but others see no catalysts for the stock until the company gets around to unveiling a 3G iPhone, perhaps sometime this summer. There was at least one downgrade, and at least one upgrade. Here are some excerpts from Wednesday morning’s batch of research reports:
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News: Mix: Lotus, Salary, Pocket Express, Squid Case
Despite reports that IBM planned to introduce a version of its Lotus Notes e-mail client for the iPhone this week at the Lotusphere conference, the company says it is not ready to release the software. “It's not something that (is) ready to go out and market or launch,” an IBM spokesperson said. The software is expected to allow iPhone users access to the full range of Notes tools, including e-mail, calendars and databases. Apple…
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View of Apple from an insider heading out
Longtime Apple programmer Jens Alfke just went freelance. His online debriefing offers an candid perspective on how Apple treats developers as well as the company's interest on social networking applications (or more to the point, the lack of the same).
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Video pros: Don't install that QuickTime 7.4 update yet!
If you're a Mac-using video professional who has already installed last week's QuickTime 7.4 update, you've probably already switched to another machine to get your work done. The update has done bad things to the users of Adobe AfterEffects.Read More...
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Show floor video: VMWare now upgrades your VirtualPC, virtualizes Leopard server
Filed under: Macworld, VideoEarlier this week we gave Parallels a turn, and today it's VMWare in the spotlight. Scott spoke to Pat Lee, senior product manager for VMWare, about Fusion, virtualizing Leopard server, upgrading from VirtualPC (there's now an importer for VirtualPC 7) and more.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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Apple's .Mac Mail Opened to NTT DoCoMo's FOMA Phones
Daniel Eran Dilger Akihabara News reported today that “NTT DoCoMo will launch in Japan next month the ConnectMail service which will allow you to receive and send @mac.com email as well as the usual @docomo.ne.jp.â€? (more…)
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Latest Quicktime Updates disable Adobe After Effects
Slashdot is reporting that there have been numerous posts on Apple's discussion forums (most of which have been deleted - gotta love that), and also several posts on video editing blogs about the fact that Apple's QT 7.4 update does more than just enable iTunes rental - it also disables Adobe After Effects. If you attempt to render video files after this update you'll get a DRM permissions error. If you haven't updated yet and need After Effects to work - DON'T - because there is NO WAY to roll back to the previous version of Quicktime without doing a full OSX reinstall.
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Wall Street still warm to Apple in spite of sell-off
While many investors may now think Apple is rotten to the core, Wall Street is trying to rally support for the once high-flying stock.
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Music Video - Hit Me on My iPhone
iPhone guy raps, be afraid, be very afraid.
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News: Case-mate intros Gold & Diamond, Carbon Fiber cases
Case-mate has announced several new cases, including a Gold & Diamond case for the iPhone and Carbon Fiber Leather cases for the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPod classic. The Gold & Diamond iPhone Case is handcrafted with 42 diamonds totaling 3.5 karats set in 18K gold, embedded in a gold carbon fiber leather case. The case is an open-face design, offering full access to the iPhone's touch screen and home button, as well as the headphone…
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Backstage: High Design, whyDesign: A Few Words on iDesign
If you saw our main page today, you're probably aware already that we've launched iDesign, a salute to innovative iPod and iPhone industrial designs, but you may be wondering “why?” And the very release of such a thing brings up some other issues I wanted to deal with in advance, as we have an entire series of these features planned for the near future. A Major Difference: iDesign's subject matter is picked by iLounge…
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James Surowiecki on the Psychology of Product Pricing
James Surowiecki, a few weeks ago in The New Yorker: In an experiment in the early nineteen-nineties, people were first asked whether they preferred a $110 microwave oven made by Emerson or a $180 oven made by Panasonic. Only forty-three per cent chose the Panasonic. But when a higher-priced Panasonic model, costing $200, was introduced into the mix, people’s choices changed in a curious way: suddenly, sixty per cent wanted the $180 oven. Just adding a more expensive model made the medium-priced version look more attractive and boosted Panasonic’s total sales. Change what surrounds a product, in other words, and you can change what people think of it. Exercise for the reader: Consider how Apple takes full advantage of this phenomenon with products like the iPod Nano (and, before, the iPod Mini) and, now, the MacBook Air. Next, consider a hypothetical $249 iPhone Nano. ★
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Stacking up the MacBook Air and a Sony Vaio
Any subnotebook is about tradeoffs, and the MacBook Air is no exception. To see where Apple's latest laptop makes its tradeoffs, Rob Griffiths compares the new machine to a comparable Sony Vaio model.
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iPhone 1.1.3 May Support Official 3rd Party Apps
As usual Firmware updates break already working hacks but the irony in this case is 1.1.3 may be ready for official 3rd party Apps. Nate True, creator of NES and Dock for the iPhone has released some details on the newly released 1.1.3 update. - SpringBoard…
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A better downgrade/revirginizing guide
Filed under: iPod Family, Hacks, How-tos, iPhoneHack That Phone has put up an especially well-done 1.1.3 downgrade guide that walks you through everything from the actual downgrade to restoring your baseband and revirginizing your iPhone. If you're suffering from 1.1.3-upgrade-regret, a surplus of pictures and easy-to-follow instructions will help you work through your downgrade.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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Deep Tech - The Future Begins Today
Get ready for the iPill.
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Stacks Sucks
Bring back the hierarchy.
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Apple shares slide on disappointing forecast
Apple Inc. posted a 58% increase in first-quarter profit, but the company's shares tumbled in premarket trading Wednesday as the consumer-electronics maker gave an earnings outlook that fell short of Wall Street analysts' forecasts.
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Cramer's 'Four Horsemen' Crumble
For tech investors, the secret to strong performance in 2007 was to own the stocks Jim Cramer dubbed the “four horsemen�: Google (GOOG), Research In Motion (RIMM), Apple (AAPL) and Amazon (AMZN).
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MacHeads the movie gives Mac faithful the Trekkies treatment
A trailer for MacHeads, the movie, has been floating around the 'Net this week that promises to give us a closer look at the crazed religious following of Apple. Apple fans, prepare yourselves to become one with Trekkies.Read More...
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Nisus Writer Pro
Worthy wordsmith
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Apple, Google led sharp selloff in tech stocks
Technology stocks slid Wednesday morning, led by a sell-off in Apple Inc. after a disappointing outlook.
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Wednesday's Options Report: Apple, XLF, Citi, MER, IYR, WLP, CCk
Rebecca Engmann Darst co-authored this article. (AAPL) – Yesterday’s earnings miss and an ominous ’08 forecast is battering Apple shares, down 17.7% at $128.05 this afternoon as the market continues to work out its frustrations by slicing some of the lard from its share price. With more than 457,000 options in play in the early hours of trading, Apple is one of the most liquid option families on our platform. Today’s most actively traded contract was the April 120 put, which was heavily bought on volume of some 19,500 lots. The $9.65 premium today is 155% more expensive than it was yesterday, and reflects a slightly better than 1-in-3 chance that Apple shares will continue their decline from current levels into April. A buyer of this position needs a test of $110 before generating a profit – another 13% off current levels. Interestingly, the densest positions in Apple options according to total open interest are these defensive April puts, notably these at strikes of 135 and 125, both profoundly out-of-the-money until quite recently. Front-month activity showed fresh action in February 140 calls, which traded to buyers and sellers at nearly 2 times the open interest.
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Show floor video: JAMF Recon makes asset inventory a snap
Filed under: Macworld, Enterprise, SoftwareFor big cross-platform enterprises or educational institutions, keeping track of all those hardware assets can be a pain in the Sarbanes. Fortunately there are plenty of products looking out for your needs, including some particularly Mac-friendly sorts: Keyserver, NetOctopus, LANrev, Apple Remote Desktop, and more. Among the most comprehensive Mac management suites is JAMF's Casper, with modules for deployment, imaging, package building and asset management. The asset management module -- Recon Suite -- was recently spun out as a separate offering and has added Windows PC audit tools. JAMF's Chip Pearson gives us a two-minute drill on Recon's information gathering power; video after the jump. (I have no idea why the wrong title cards are ending up on these videos -- perhaps it has something to do with post-Macworld jet lag!)Continue reading Show floor video: JAMF Recon makes asset inventory a snapRead | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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Apple's Guidance Games are Hurting Shareholders
The recent slide in Apple (AAPL) shares can be attributed to one thing: Steve Job's playing games with expectations. For too long Steve jobs has played games with the guidance he offers investors and analysts. Now it is coming back to haunt shareholders. Here is how it typically goes. Jobs give guidance that he knows is too low and then Apple blows it away and the stock surges. Analysts have relied on those expectations to make their estimates and have traditionally been too low. Not being idiots, they caught on to the game and have ratcheted their expectations higher than they expect Jobs to "guide them".
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Apple Stock Hit No Big Deal and Steve Still Gets a Buck a Year
MacHeads the movie is coming, 20 minutes of Woz and poking around inside 1.1.3.
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With New Software Update, the iPhone Finally Finds Itself
Can the iPhone truly prevent you from getting lost? The free software update Apple announced last week for the iPhone and iPod touch adds location-finding capabilities without the GPS chips common to car navigation systems and other cell phones. I put my own iPhone to the test, in and around New York City. Bottom line: While iPhone doesn't pinpoint your precise whereabouts, it places you close enough that in most cases, you can probably figure out where you need to go. For example, the phone said I was on East 54th Street in Manhattan between Fifth and Madison Avenues.
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Boot Camp now supports 64bit-Vista, more Vista/Mac news
According to the latest Boot Camp instructions bundled with the new Mac Pros “if you have a Mac Pro introduced in late 2007 or later, you can use a 64-bit version of Windows Vista”. This additional support is not something that Apple has announced, and I don't know anyone who's ever run the 64-bit version of Windows (mainly because the driver situation with the OS is still making it almost impossible to use). Still, if you have a new Mac Pro and you want to runt the 64bit version of Microsoft's OS, you apparently can. In other Vista and Mac related news, Microsoft has eased up on their ToS, and Vista Home Basic and Vista Home Premium are now eligible to legally be run in a virtual machine (like the ones created by Parallels and VM Ware's Fusion). While I seriously doubt that Microsoft's ToS have been keeping any of you from installing Vista on your virtual machine if you really wanted to, it's nice to see Gates and Co. officially allow it - so that companies can officially support it. Thanks to Daniel for sending this in.
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iPhone 1.1.3 firmware ready for third-party apps
Major OS changes in the iPhone's latest firmware are strong signals that official third-party app support has already arrived. Now all we need is the SDK.Read More...
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News: iLounge debuts iDesign, a look at iPod & iPhone product design
Great design often appears inevitable. It's not. Virtually every great product is the result of dozens of half-formed ideas, intentional choices, and plenty of prototypes. What better illustrations of this than the iPod and iPhone, products that had been done before by other companies, but were polished by Apple's designers into museum-class works of art? iPod fans have proved willing to pay a premium for great design, but over the last…
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Article: iDesign: The Art of V-Moda's Vibe Earphones
Great design often appears inevitable. It's not. Virtually every great product is the result of dozens of half-formed ideas, intentional choices, and plenty of prototypes. What better illustrations of this than the iPod and iPhone, products that had been done before by other companies, but were polished by Apple's designers into museum-class works of art? Today, we're launching iDesign, a series of feature articles that will begin…
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Plaxo improves Address Book sync and adds iPhone UI
Filed under: Software, Internet Tools, iPhoneOne-time contact manager, now full-blown social networking site Plaxo has its share of fans and detractors; despite the privacy concerns of its address management techniques, you can't deny that its Mac support has been good and getting better, with a new build of the Address Book plugin released on January 16. Now the Plaxo Pulse service has joined the touchable generation by releasing an iPhone-optimized UI for Pulse.If you haven't seen Pulse, it provides a social superfeed of the actions and updates your friends and contacts have posted to their various info outlets (kind of like Flock in the cloud). It may seem Big Brotherish, but if you're already using Plaxo, an iPhone version could be icing on the cake.The Plaxonians have posted a video demo of the new features (with a very handsome collie!), embedded after the break.Continue reading Plaxo improves Address Book sync and adds iPhone UIRead | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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RIM upgrades the BlackBerry, but not much--the case for opening up
Though Research in Motion continues to keep the BlackBerry a frustratingly closed platform (with precious few applications--my biggest complaint about an otherwise great device/service), it is upgrading its software to add some interesting new features, the Wall Street Journal reports: With the aim of making mobile e-mailing more like e-mailing from a desktop computer, RIM said BlackBerry users will soon be able to edit documents directly from the handheld device and to view messages in their original formatting...[RIM] also said the changes will enable users to retrieve e-mail messages that aren't stored on the device and to check the availability of a colleague before sending a meeting request. To wait so long...for so little. At this pace, Apple's iPhone will leapfrog the BlackBerry. Already, I've noticed scads of new iPhones being used in corporate settings. But for the lack of a keyboard, I'd be on an iPhone, too. RIM makes great hardware and decent software. It needs to recognize, however, that it's not the center of all original thinking. Once it came up with its idea and implemented it, it hasn't done much in the way of innovation. ...
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Apple Shares Nosedive on Limp Outlook
Apple posted a strong holiday quarter Tuesday, with record profit powered by Mac sales growth and more expensive iPods, but disappointed with a weaker-than-expected outlook that investors used as a reason to punish the company's once high-flying shares. Apple stock quickly plunged more than 11 percent in after-hours trading Tuesday, in the wake of the earnings release. In morning trading Wednesday, it was down about $25, or 16 percent, to $130.25, just weeks after the stock topped out above $200 for the first time in its history.
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Bird Electron's EZ17-B speaker puts your old iPod nano / Shuffle case to work
Filed under: Peripherals, Portable Audio Don't pretend that you've "thrown away" or "misplaced" your old iPod nano / Shuffle case -- we know you Apple folk respect Cupertino's packaging just as much as what's inside (we kid, we kid). If you just so happen to have the case that your first- or second-generation nano / second- or third-generation Shuffle came in, Bird Electron's EZ17-B speaker will give it a new reason for hanging around. Apparently, the speaker simply slips into the old case and gets its power from whatever DAP you attach to it. 'Course, this leads us to believe that you won't be rockin' any after-prom parties with just one of these bad boys, but it should do the trick in the backseat of a car. Still, we've got better things to do with $39.99 than spend it on this, but to each his / her own, right?[Via AudioJunkies] Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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How to tame the power (and bugs) of the iPod Touch
Random iPod Touch tips: syncing audio/video, making your Touch remember forgotten podcast playback positions, and putting a home screen icon for iPod Touch and iPhone webclip bookmars on your website.Read More...
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Enough With the MacBook Air - ASUS Eee Comparisons!
For freak’s sake!! Why on earth are people continuing to compare the MacBook Air to the ASUS Eee? It seems as soon as Steve pulled it out of it’s manila envelope, people have been fallaciously comparing it to the ASUS Eee. The latest on the Air vs ASUS…
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Best Quarter Ever: a closer look at Apple's record Q108 earnings
Daniel Eran Dilger In a conference call reporting earnings for Apple's fiscal Q1, the quarter ending in December, Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer announced he was “very pleased to report the best quarter ever� for the company, with revenue of $9.6 billion and net quarterly profit of $1.58 billion, resulting in $1.76 per diluted share. That's an increase of over $2 billion from the same quarter last year, when Apple reported revenue of $7.1 billion and net quarterly profit of $1 billion, or $1.14 per diluted share. The company reported a gross margin of 34.7 percent, up from 31.2 percent in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 45 percent of the quarter’s revenue. Continues: AppleInsider | Best quarter ever: a closer look at Apple's record Q108 earnings Technorati Tags: Apple, Apple TV, iPhone, iPod, Mac, Software, the Media
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Sector continues retreat, led by Motorola and Apple
Motorola Inc. tumbled as much as 15% in Wednesday trades after forecasting a first-quarter loss, contributing to a broad retreat in telecommunications stocks.
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Show floor video: Raybook study guides on your iPod
Filed under: Macworld, iPod Family, Video, EducationRaybook licenses Cliff's Notes, Netter's Anatomy and other flash card and quick-learning properties, squeezes them down to miniature size, and crams them into iPods. Perhaps that is an oversimplification, but so is the Cliff's Notes version of 'War and Peace.' While a lot of "study guides" on the iPod use the Notes features, basically a stack of linked text files, Raybook uses the photos feature in your iPod to create some rather stunning flash cards. Check out Scott's interview after the jump to see them in action.Continue reading Show floor video: Raybook study guides on your iPodRead | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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Travelocity Now iPhone Friendly
One of the more popular travel sites out there, Travelocity, has optimized their website for the iPhone making travel that much better. Hit up Travelocity Mobile for the iPhone goodness. Via: Macworld
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Work around a NTFS-3G/Boot Camp/Startup Disk issue
I've recently discovered the NTFS-3G/MacFuse plugin that allows you to both read and write to NTFS disks. This was a great joy, as I was able to use it along with this hint to resize and restore a big windows partition.However, as others have found, it is not possible to select your NTFS Windows partition as a startup disk. One workaround is to simply make the partition non-writable, as described in this hint, but that defeats the purpose.Below is an AppleScript cobbled together from bits and pieces on the internet that works around the problem. Note that you have to change the first two lines to match your system. The first item, Untitiled has to be the name of the NTFS disk as it appears on your desktop. The second item is the firmware address of the disk. To find this, open a terminal window and type ...
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10.4: Possible security issue with wake from sleep
I like my PowerBook to be secure, so in the Security System Preferences panel, I require a password when coming back from sleep. I noticed a little problem though: assume I wake the machine, and after entering my password (but before the desktop is loaded), I close the lid, and the PowerBook goes to sleep. When I wake up the PowerBook the next time, it doesn't ask for a password, but shows my secrets to the world.So don't close the lid and believe you're safe, unless you are very sure you are fully logged in. Especially when you move around a lot, and are used to just closing the notebook and stuffing it in you bag.[robg adds: This hint was marked 10.4 only; I couldn't replicate it on 10.5, at least on my desktop machine.]
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Security Update 007-009 finally fixes SMB problem
This is not really a hint, but a happy announcement. Since March 2005, I've been unable to connect to my university's server using SMB via the Finder on Tiger. I'd get a "Mount tree phase error -36," which happened only when connecting thru the Finder -- using the smbclient Terminal command did the trick. I finished my Masters degree, and yet this was still broken in the first release of Leopard. This bug appears to be solved, finally, with the release of Security Update 007-009 for 10.5.1. Maybe the 10.4.11 version fixes Tiger's problem, too, but I can't test that...
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10.5: Display movie time remaining in Quick Look mode
Simply click the time display in the bottom right corner of the controls overlay when viewing a media file in Quick Look to switch from time elapsed to time remaining.
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News: Maximo rolls out two iPhone headsets
Maximo Products has introduced two new headsets for the iPhone: the iP-HS1 iMetal Stereo Headset, and the iP-HS2 iMetal Isolation Headset. The iP-HS1 is an earbud-style iPhone-compatible headset that features a lightweight alloy metal body, an in-line condenser mic, an in-line soft-touch button for phone and music control, and high-fidelity stereo earphones. The iP-HS2 is an in-ear-style iPhone compatible headset that also features a lightweight alloy…
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I'm a Buyer of Apple On This Selloff
Is the relentless selling ever going to end? Apple (AAPL) reported first quarter of their fiscal year earnings after the close today and while the just completed quarter was sparkling their forecast for next quarter was underwhelming. In the just completed quarter, Apple earned $1.58 billion on $9.6 billion in revenues - increases of 58% and 35%, respectively. They sold 2.3 million, 2.3 million iPhones and 22.1 million iPods. I’ve heard people say that Ipod sales were somewhat weak but overall the quarter looks really good to me (AAPL 1Q FY 2008 Earnings Release, conference call transcript). The problem was their forecast for the current quarter. They forecast revenues of $6.8 billion and earnings of 94 cents a share - while analysts were expecting $6.9 billion and $1.09. I think this sort of confirms everybodies fears of a slowdown in consumer spending. Apple’s shares are being CRUSHED in the after hours - down 11-12% in the $137-$138 range. Frankly, I’m a buyer here. With $18.5 billion of net cash and short term investment on their balance sheet and 900 million diluted shares that works out to $20.50 in cash and short term investments per share. So you’re really paying $117-$118 for Apple’s business. That business generated $4.1 billion in net income and $6.2 billion in free cash over the last 4 quarters for trailing multiples of 30 and 20. If they can grow each 25% over the next 4 quarters we’re looking at forward multiples of 24 and 16 - for a 20 average. Even if growth is only 15% the forward multiples are 26 and 17 - for a 21.5 average. That seems like a reasonable price to pay for such a phenomenal business. From a technical standpoint, Apple seems poised to break below its 200 day moving average around $145 on the open tomorrow and would be down about 30% this year - from its close at $198 on 12/31/07: Disclosure: Top Gun has no position in Apple (AAPL) shares.
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Randy Newman’s Macworld 2008 Performance - Brilliant or Crazy?
Stevenotes are often noted by a musical guest or performer. Typically they sing a song and that's it. Macworld 2008 was a little different. Singer/Songwriter Randy Newman performed - and spoke - at the Keynote in a way that I don't think any other performer ever has. The point of his first “song” seems to be that while the US Government is currently being run horribly, that history has provided proof that they are not the worst leaders in the history of the world. I hesitate to call it a song, because it wasn't really sung, it was more rambled or spoken while the piano was being played. Then he rambles some more about knowing how to operate his answering machine. Then he suggests that Buzz and Woody from “Toy Story” had a love scene that was cut from the original film, followed by a performance of “You've Got a Friend in Me.” Regardless of your political beliefs, I'm not really sure that an Apple Keynote is the best place to be bringing them into the spotlight - mainly just because that seems “off topic”. That would be like me discussing the Democratic Primaries here on the site. It's a topic I certainly have the right as a US Citizen to discuss - but it's kind of off topic for an Apple blog. You can watch the video above to see Randy's entire performance at Macworld 2008 and decide for yourself how you feel about the appropriateness of his performance - and heck, you might get an idea of the man's general sanity. One thing you have to give him, like it or hate it, his performance will definitely be remembered for years to come.
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Optus joining Australian iPhone talks
SingTel and its subsidiary Optus are in talks with Apple to bring the iPhone to Singapore and Australia.Read More...
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Under The Radar News - Wednesday
Bernanke's private horror stories. Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke has said 'off record' in recent weeks that the U.S. economic situation is much worse than he has admitted to publicly, and predicts the first six months of 2008 will be "bad."
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Wall Street to AAPL: Get bent
Filed under: Apple FinancialOK, I get it. Equity investments are bets on the future, not rewards for the past, and a stock like Apple's with such stratospheric growth over the past 12 months is vulnerable to gloomy outlooks in a way that more plodding investments might not be. Still and all: another record quarter. Best sales, best revenue in Apple's history. More than 2.3 million Macs sold, and nearly as many iPhones (!). Over twenty-two million freakin' iPods. Year over year, the December quarter gained almost 2.5 billion dollars in revenue -- my goodness, it was a 9.6B quarter, which would have been a spectacular entire year for the Apple of recent memory. Apple beat the internal guidance by $0.34 a share... there's no way to describe this financial performance except "stunningly good" -- unless you're Doug Krizner of Marketplace Morning Report, who characterized the results today as "less than stellar." Man, I am so happy they made that guy stop signing off with "Make it a good day," because the way he said it made me want to get back in bed and hide my money under a mattress.But I digress. With these results in mind, why would after-hours traders respond with the fiscal equivalent of "Go crawl in a hole and die, you hippie freaks?" Granted, Apple's CFO is anticipating earnings per share for next quarter around a dollar, which is less than analysts were hoping for and may point to some drag on the business from deteriorating economic conditions. It still seems to me that with iPhone revenue growing (remember, it takes two years to extract all the profit from those iPhone sales, so there's an upslope out there as the sales and new markets accumulate) and new streams coming in from iTunes rentals and the so-hot-it's-untouchable retail operation, we've gone from irrational exuberance to a gang initiation beatdown.Oh well. If I wanted peace and quiet I probably should have bought Dell stock.Disclaimer: I hold shares in AAPL.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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U.S. stocks knocked lower at the start
U.S. stocks opened sharply lower after the European Central Bank spoke of inflationary worries, dashing hopes it would follow the Federal Reserve’s interest-rate cut, and Apple Inc.’s outlook weighed on technology.
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Street Maintains Apple's Ratings, Worries About iPod
The Street has begun sorting through Tuesday’s data from Apple’s (AAPL) earnings report for the fiscal first quarter ended December, and its outlook for fiscal second quarter ending in March. As noted in previous posts, the December quarter results beat both Apple’s previous guidance and the Street consensus for both revenues and profits. But the stock dropped more than 10% in after hours trading, as investors focused instead on two troubling factors: weaker-than-expected guidance for the March quarter, and iPod sales that came in several million shy of Street expectations. Some analysts are rallying to the stock’s defense, but even the bulls find the light iPod sales troubling. I’ll follow up with another round of comments tomorrow morning. Meanwhile, here are some excerpts from the first round of reports:
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Apple stock plummets after ‘highest ever’ sales quarter report
SO - Apple shares dropped 11% after Apple reported it's MOST SUCCESSFUL QUARTER IN THE COMPANIES HISTORY yesterday afternoon. Yeah - you read that right…the stock plummeted. Why? Because Apple forecast lesser earning than analysts predicted that they would. Now, unfortunately, I am not an expert at this stuff - the stock market has always seemed like nothing more than legal gambling operation that somehow keeps the country running - and obviously yesterday was not a great day for the stock market in general - but things did not go well for Apple after the call ended. You can find the full press release here. I'm going to leave it to smarter men than me to explain the hows and the whys. You can find the Unaudited condensed consolidated statements of operations after the jump… (more…)
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Blame it on iPod's Near Zero Growth
The story behind the story at Apple (AAPL) is not over-conservative guidance -- and so I'm not sure why people keep repeating that gotcha mantra about Steve Jobs guiding down every year at this time -- it is the declining growth in Apple's key product, the iPod.
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Do Apple and the Hollywood studios think rentals could replace DVDs?
After re-watching the Macworld Keynote, and watching the Macbook Air guided tour - I am getting the impression that Jobs and Co. may think that rentals from iTunes are a viable replacement for actually owning a DVD collection. Let me explain. At the Keynote Jobs explained that customers don't want to rent their music - they want to own their music - because they listen to a song thousands of times over their life…but they only watch a movie once or twice. So, rentals make more sense for movies. Now, immediately, a hardcore movie fan is going to tell you that's crazy, they want to own their movies so they can watch them over and over again, and build their collections. That's fine. Your opinion is noted - but we're not talking about what people may actually want to do here - right now we're talking about what Steve Jobs SAID they want to do…which are not always the same things. SO, Jobs says people want to RENT there movies - not own them - in the Keynote. Then, if you watch the Guided Tour of the Macbook Air, the host even states that “now you can rent movies from the iTunes store instead of carrying around DVDS”. Movies studios, also, were very unsupportive of the idea of downloadable movies in the iTunes store…with only a handful actually signing on. When you switch the model to rentals, however, they all immediately signed on board. So that leads me to ask - Do Apple and these studios think that the future of movies in the home is renting? We know that's a model that Hollywood studios would absolutely love, because the entire DVD business model is built around selling us a movie that we love half a dozen times - if they could sell it to us every time we wanted to watch it - well…that'd be really great for them. Or would it? The more I sat and thought about this while preparing to write this post, the more I looked at my DVD collection and thought about how often I've watched these movies. I have a minimum of $2,000 worth of movies sitting on my shelves - and at least half of them I've watched less than 5 times. Most of them I've probably only watched once or twice. Why did I buy them? Well, I wanted to KNOW that I had them if I ever did want to watch them. I wanted to collect them. To own them. However, if I had known they were always going to be there on a server out in the cloud, 30 seconds away from me being able to watch them whenever I wanted, maybe I wouldn't have wanted to own them so bad. I don't know yet - but I'm going to find out. If I hadn't purchased any of these movies, and had rented them everytime I wanted to watch them - I think I would have saved a substantial chunk of change…but even knowing that that's probably true, I still don't think the idea of rentals will ever replace owning a disk (of course, if you'd told me ten years ag that one day I would stop buying music on a format I could collect I would have told you you were an idiot). It's obvious Jobs is ready to get rid of the optical drive. He's been dismissive of DVDs in the past when discussing the “few customers” who might still want to use iDVD, and the Macbook Air is the first Mac to come without one built in. I fully expect to see more Macs in the very near future that are also sans Optical Drive. We're not there yet, of course, but we're getting close. I don't know if I like the idea of not owning my movies. I do think that the Hollywood Studios LOVE the idea - and it certainly seems like Apple is ready to embrace the concept - but I'm not sure it will ever take off. But like I said - I can't believe CDs are history either…and lets face it - for a growing number of people…they are.
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iPoll results: iPod owners' raves, rants, and pans
(Credit: Steve Guttenberg) Not that I ever doubted your commitment, but you guys really love your iPods. Thanks to all who responded to last week's poll, here's what I learned. First, Apple must be doing something right, more than three quarters of the folks who responded own more ...
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"To Do Widget" brings iCal, Mail To Dos to the Dashboard
Integrated Mac OS X task management without having to open big apps like iCal or Mail? Sign us up.Read More...
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A Tough Market Shouldn't Detract From Apple's Value
I've been at another site all day in my new job at Yankee Group, so I only caught up with Apple's record earnings announcement a few hours ago. The short version: the company set a new record for both revenue at $9.6 billion and profit of nearly $1.6 billion for its first fiscal quarter. The company also provided guidance for the second quarter of $6.8 billion in revenue. Earnings reports don't get much better than that. Yet as I write these words at 11 pm EST, the stock is down more than 17 points or about 11%. I suspect a lot of Apple investors are screaming why, why, why?
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News: iPhone software version 1.1.3 ready for SDK
Blogger and noted iPhone hacker Nate True has gotten to examine the latest iPhone software, version 1.1.3, on a deeper level, and found it to be “ready for official installable applications.” According to True, the iPhone's home screen application, SpringBoard, no longer needs modification to show extra applications in the /Applications folder. In addition, all applications now run as the user “mobile” instead of…
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thodio iBox
Filed under: Accessories, iPod FamilyIt looks like today is going to be all about unique iPod speaker systems. First I showed you how to make the packaging your iPod came with into a speaker, and now I shall turn your attention to the thodio iBox. The iBox is handmade out of a variety of woods (you can choose from teak, beech, oak, or zebrano) and is battery powered so you can tote these unique speakers with you no matter where you go. The iBox starts at 359€, so they aren't for everyone but they certainly are conversation starters.[via Retro Thing]Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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iPhone's 1.1.3 update gets ready for native applications
Filed under: Cellphones The well known and respected iPhone hacker Nate True has discovered some very, very interesting information concerning Apple's latest update, 1.1.3. According to Mr. True, the boys and girls in Cupertino have all but prepped the device's OS for native applications, altering the functionality of SpringBoard to display additional apps, changing the ownership of applications to a unified "mobile" user, and moving the location of preferences to the accompanying non-root directory. Additionally, SpringBoard now boasts widget support via a class called SBWidgetApplication. All of these technical and seemingly minor details will apparently make it easier for developers to create new applications for the phone, though Nate says they'll also break existing native apps in the process. All we ask is that developers get those NES and SNES emulators ported quickly and safely to the new system. Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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Review: Gameloft S.A. Block Breaker Deluxe
So Gameloft added that something in the form of a light role playing game: transition screens tell you that you're a cool young dude out to win a yacht from a gambling playboy, and the way to get it is to play this Block Breaker game. Just like Vortex and earlier, non-iPod clones of Breakout such as Arkanoid, the standard “break blocks” game is enhanced considerably through multiballs, stronger balls, paddle power-ups such as lasers…
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News: Bird Electron EZ17-B turns iPod nano, shuffle box into speaker
Bird Electron has introduced its EZ17-B Recycling Speaker for iPod. The EZ17-B is a speaker panel featuring two speakers that is designed to sit flush inside the open end of iPod nano or iPod shuffle packaging. The speaker does not require an external power source, and connects to the iPod via a 3.5mm headphone jack. The Bird-Electron EZ17-B Recycling Speaker for iPod is available now and sells for $40. [via TUAW] ...
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Apple, Motorola, Pfizer, United Technologies in the spotlight
Another hefty pullback loomed for U.S. shares after Apple's outlook weighed on Nasdaq and the tech sector.
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Apple: BUYBUYBUY!
Apple (AAPL) dropped 10% after hours, and we are going to BUYBUYBUY on tomorrow's dip. I'll very likely be selling puts, as I'd be quite pleased to own Apple at $135 (selling $140 puts for $5+), since they are on track to earn $5 for the year. I don't mind paying a P/E of 27 for a company that is growing sales at 30% and profits at 25% a year.
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Apple Is Still Executing
Apple (AAPL) dropped 10% after hours, and we are going to buy on today's dip. I'll very likely be selling puts, as I'd be quite pleased to own Apple at $135 (selling $140 puts for $5+), since they are on track to earn $5 for the year. I don't mind paying a P/E of 27 for a company that is growing sales at 30% and profits at 25% a year.
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Apple Might Have Fallen Unfairly, but Look Before You Take a Bite
The hype machine that is Apple (AAPL) has run into a series of Investor stumbling blocks of late.
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Wall Street Panics, Apple Pays
With markets in panic mode, the “R� word being used at the water coolers, and the Fed pulling the ripcord on an emergency parachute, it was a bad day for any company to release earnings.
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Earnings alert: Motorola profit shrinks
Plus: Apple posts good Q1, despite slow iPod sales...Microsoft expected to post healthy profits...Seagate turns in mixed report...IBM targets well above expectations.
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Earnings alert: Motorola profit shrinks, phone forecast dims
Plus: Apple posts good Q1, despite slow iPod sales...Microsoft expected to post healthy profits...Seagate turns in mixed report...IBM targets well above expectations.
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Show floor video: Intelliscan Mini does handheld media inventory
Filed under: Macworld, Accessories, Hardware, SoftwareWe are blessed on the Mac platform with many good ways to keep track of our stuff -- but Intelliscanner takes it to the next level, with a range of integrated scanner and software solutions that will have you tracking your movies, books, wine and comics with barcoded accuracy and ease. We visited the Inteliiscanner booth at Macworld for a demo of the Mini, a handheld scanner that can hold 150 item scans before downloading via USB to the host. The bundle retails for $299 but there's a show special through the end of January. Video after the jump (and pay no attention to the title card... editing mixup on my part).Continue reading Show floor video: Intelliscan Mini does handheld media inventoryRead | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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MailTags 2.2 Public Beta 4: Polished flexibility
As MailTags forges it way towards an official Version 2.2, Scott Morrison has released the fourth public beta of the plugin. In addition to a bunch of the usual improvements and bug-fixes (improving the reliability of the Spotlight Importer, tweaking some Preference options and settings, a nice resizable keyword token field which now displays all your tags), this latest release addresses a quirk with the way Gmail implements IMAP. In order to prevent problems, it now saves tags only to the local cache of Gmail accounts in Mail.app. MailTags looks more polished, as Scott makes it into the most “native” plugin going around. It almost seems built-in to the app, rather than an added extra. The pop-up dialogs for to-dos and events created on a Leopard Mail Note are now a fetching dark brown colour, which blends in nicely with the yellow lined-paper of the Note itself: I missed the third public beta, being at the beach, so haven't yet had a chance to note a change in the way MailTags is constructed. Some elements are now split off as optional “extras” — plug-ins for the plug-in, so to speak — which promises a more efficient, more flexible, more user-customisable future. It also provides a easy invitation for third-party developers to create specific MailTags plug-ins for their apps (OmniFocus, Yojimbo, Things, iGTD?). Its iCal integration features are now a separate “extra” and a new feature, the Quick Message Colour Picker is another. It lets you colour-code the selected email with a single mouse click. A new Extras Preference Tab in the MailTags Pane controls their behaviour. For example, in the Message Colour extra preferences, you can chose your preferred swatch colours and decide whether or not to delete the message colour when all MailTags info is deleted from an email. If you don't want an option to colour emails on the fly, you can just disable the extra in the Preferences: Another small but useful feature in the new beta is the welcome return of the red icon to mark a tag that hasn't been uploaded to the IMAP server yet. Mail users on dial-up connections at the beach (and probably elsewhere) will be pleased to see this back. You can read more about MailTags for Leopard and download the newest, fourth public beta from Scott's web site , where you will also find a forum for any questions, bug reports or comments. apple mail, applescript, events, ical, imap, mailtags, productivity, public beta, tagging, mail.app Related: MailTags 2.0 Public Beta 5: Attachment bug fixed MailTags 2.0 Public Beta 3 released MailTags 2.0 Public Beta 4: Events, copy URL, faster MailTags 2.0 Public Beta 7: Speed, stability MailTags 2.0 Public Beta 2
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Apple's a Buy on This Dip
Almost all firms are out in defense of Apple (AAPL) following yesterday's better than expected results but weaker than usual guidance:
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Gadget Stock Watch: Apple Disappoints, Handset Stocks Struggle, More
1. Apple's spoiled outlook. Apple (AAPL) tumbled 11-plus percent to $137.93 in extending trading Tues., following its FQ1 earnings release, and adding to its loss of 3.5% to $155.64 during the normal session. Despite record FQ1 earnings ahead of analyst estimates, Apple's current quarter EPS and revenue outlook ($0.94/share on $6.8B) missed expectations ($1.09/share on $6.99B) and fueled concerns over whether Apple can sustain growth in a deteriorating U.S. economy. See AAPL's earnings call transcript
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Why Does Apple Always Give Low Guidance? Is this a Rhetorical Question?
Apple (AAPL) is notorious for one thing: giving lowered guidance to their profits and revenues.
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Bird-Electron EZ17-B iPod Recycling Speaker
Filed under: Accessories, iPod FamilyI like the planet as much as the next guy (unless I'm standing next to the commander of an alien force bent on destroying the Earth, in which case I like the planet much more than the next guy), and since Apple is trying to be more environmentally friendly I figured I might as well give it a go myself. The Bird-Electron EZ17-B iPod Recycling Speaker looks like it might help me achieve two goals: help the planet, and own more gadgets.The Bird-Electron EZ17-B allows you to both reduce and reuse all at the same time, even while you try to figure out what its name means. That's right, this little $40 wonder magically transforms the package your Shuffle (2nd or 3rd gen) or Nano (1st or 2nd Gen) was contained in into a small speaker. Chances are that this little speaker isn't going to blow your mind in terms of volume or fidelity, but it will make you feel just a tad bit better than your fellow man and when it comes right down to it isn't that why we all use Apple products to begin with?[via One Digital Life]Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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iPhone Backs Into Enterprise With Business Plan Roll-Out
AT&T has quietly begun offering the iPhone -- currently popular primarily in the consumer market -- to its business and enterprise customers. Some customers have been clamoring for business account service plans that would work with the iPhone ever since it was released last summer, but for reasons not particularly clear, AT&T hasn't done so until now. The timing, however, may be the key. The iPhone has been widely criticized as not being ready for enterprise-class deployments, and some analysts have declined to consider it a true smartphone.
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Handset Sector Drifting Into Trouble
Many telecom analysts have spent the last six months claiming that telecom in general, and Nokia (NOK) in particular, are “safe havens� in case of a U.S recession.
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Wednesday's biggest gaining and declining stocks
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Among the companies whose shares are expected to see active trade in Wednesday's session are Apple, ConocoPhillips, eBay, Motorola and Pfizer.
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Apple's Addiction to UPOD: Under Promise, Over Deliver
Apple (AAPL) reported earnings of $1.76 a share, 57% better than last year's quarter but forecast only 94 cents a share for next quarter's earnings (see conference call transcript).
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Mac OS Ken: 01.23.2008
Apple Beaten on Wall Street After Best Quarter Ever / BusinessWeek: Apple Well Positioned (Recession or No) / Apple Confident on Apple TV / Apple COO: MacBook Air Shaping Up as Major Success
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Jim Cramer's Mad Money In-Depth, 1/22/08: Ladies' Night
Stocks discussed in the in-depth session of Jim Cramer’s Mad Money TV program, Tuesday January 22. Click on a stock ticker for more analysis:
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miniMail interface gets better and better
Late last year, I posted about a new plugin for mail.app, miniMail which offers a minimised “iTunes-like” interface for Apple Mail. Then it was at 1.0.2, now it is at 1.1. And its list of features gets longer and better with each update. When the plugin is installed, clicking the green bubble in the top left hand corner of Mail results in a mini-interface just like the iTunes option: It now boasts an impressive array of keyboard shortcuts, mostly the same as mail.app's own, although it has some of its own: Return will open up the individual message in mail Spacebar opens up a Preview pane, or “Quickview-esque” view of the message Right and Left Arrows move to the previous or next message The Command key plus an arrow moves to the first or last message Here's a screenshot with the plugin's Preview Pane on display and the list of supported Mail shortcuts: It adds its own tab to Mail's Preference where further options can be set, including displaying the subject and sender on separate lines for greater readability, whether to start Mail with the miniMail interface displayed by default, the font size of the main text and more. Of course, I am always going to use my Mail beautiful, bold and big (is there a more lovely sight for a Mac user than a fully-tricked Mail.app doing its thing?), but people who are conscious of screen real estate will love this. MiniMail is shareware (USD 9) but offers a 30 day free demo. You can get it from the developer's web site . apple mail, interface hack, itunes, keyboard shortcuts, plugin, mail.app Related: MiniMail 1.0.2: Leopard ready and smarter Gmail's new interface, shortcuts and Safari Every Google web app keyboard shortcut Keyboard Shortcuts for OS X and email apps xCut: Keyboard Shortcut Reference widget
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Why Mac Security Matters: OS X Rootkit Hunter
After blogging about the need to use and maintain an anti-virus solution for your OS X systems, an anonymous reply questioning the need to use security tools at all on OS X systems gave me pause. You do not need me to link to the numerous articles flying around the internets that report on how one reason switchers are flocking to OS X is because of the lack of prevalence of malware. Folks are tired of viruses, worms, trojans, etc. hammering their systems. They are even more harrowed by having to maintain vigilance over their anti-virus programs, hoping they are not too far out of sync with the current “DAT”. However, switching to run OS X to avoid running anti-virus programs may not be the wisest choice. To answer the “do we really need security tools for OS X?” question in a slightly different way than you've seen from many technology pundits, I'd like to turn your attention to utility called rkhunter or “rootkit hunter”. As most TAB readers should know by now, OS X has it's origins in Unix (the “darwin” base comes from FreeBSD), and most folks believe *nix variants (linux, FreeBSD, Solaris, etc) to be extremely secure, free of the problems that plague those sad, sad Windows users. If you fall into that camp, please take a moment and browse the Secunia FreeBSD 5.x artchives. Secunia reports show over 91 vulnerabilities, with critical ones impacting core services such as file sharing and remote access. This should not be surprising since Unix systems have been favorite targets for hackers as they provide such a powerful base to launch further exploits. One of the more gnarly hacks is the installation of a rootkit - a program that can take surreptitious control of your system. And, guess what: your Mac OS X workstation/server is susceptible to rootkits just like any other Unix system, even with Leopeard's enhanced security features. How can you fight something you can't even see? You need a tool to help. Modern anti-virus products can and usually do cover rootkits, but the rkhunter tool may cover additional rootkits and may update rootkit signatures more frequently than a traditional vendor. I wouldn't recommend trying to get rkhunter installed on your Mac since it will require some enhanced Terminal-fu. Thankfully, Christian Hornung understood the need for such a tool and built a wrapper for it called (surprisingly enough), OS X Rootkit Hunter [dmg], complete with installer. After installing the package, navigate to Applications->OSXrkhnter and run the “Rootkit Hunter” app. It's good practice to update the rootkit database (similar to a virus engine DAT update) before each scan since there may be new rootkit signatures from new or altered exploits. When you start the scan, you will see a password dialog - just as you would with any operation that requires additional privileges to run - since OS X Rootkit Hunter needs to look in places your normal account user account cannot. You will also see Terminal windows displaying a running report of what rkhunter has or has not found (since this front-end does not free you from all the gory details of what lies beneath Aqua). While you can download and run OS X Rootkit Hunter, I would strongly suggest that less technical users obtain one of the commercially available malware scanners since the output from OS X Rootkit Hunter can be a bit daunting. The presence and history of this tool should be enough justification for the need to run security software on your systems.
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Of Bears and Shares: Spansion, Apple's iPhone
Share indices continue to dive and it looks like nothing can halt the slide. Not even the strong results from IBM Corp. (IBM) and General Electric Co. (GE), two US gorillas which together cover almost every corner and sector worldwide, and whose better-than expected results, and guidance for 2008, are far removed a looming recession. The mood among investors is becoming increasingly somber, and every morning the financial media goes back in time to find the last occasion when there was a January as bad as this, in which the Dow Jones lost 8.8% as of last Friday. So far they've reached 1950.
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U.S. stock futures weaken on Apple's outlook
LONDON (MarketWatch) - U.S. stock futures pointed to another pullback on Wednesday, with expectations that Apple can't sustain its breakneck earnings growth weighing on technology issues in particular.
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Speed up pasting in Word with scripts
[Although I use it a lot at work, I don't usually post Word tips on Hawk Wings. This one, though, is too good to pass up.] If you do a lot of cutting and pasting from one document to another in Word (2004 and 2008) and want your pasting to adopt the style of the new document, you will know what a pain in the butt it is. Word expects you to go to the Edit menu, choose Paste Special and then select Unformatted Text in the next dialog box and click OK. I couldn't count the number of hours I've spent doing this. I came to accept it as an Office for Mac user's fate; something that just had to be endured. Joe Kissell, senior editor at TidBITS, has the shortcut I wish I had discovered years ago. In a TidBITS post he provides the scripts needed to reduce this convoluted process to a single keystroke. As he points out, I could have automated this with the macro-recorder in Word 2004. Never thought of that! But Word 2008 has lost its scripting support for Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) and ,along with that, the ability to record macros. Instead, in Word 2008 you will need to use AppleScript. Joe provides the steps for setting up the macro in Word 2004 and the applescript Word 2008 users will need to get the same result. He even unlocks the mysteries of the way a file called Paste Plain TextsmV.scpt is automatically bound to a keystroke shortcut. Check out his article and other newsy posts and tips at TidBITS. office for mac, pasting, productivity, scripts, tidbits, tips, vba, word 2008, word 2004 Related: Export Address Book 1.2: Word 2004, FileMaker support Killer list of Google Calendar tips Is Gmail better than sex? Sneak preview of the new Entourage 2008 Entourage to get Spotlight and iSync support
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Davos08: Innovation
The theme of this year's World Economic Forum meeting in Davos is innovation and a good thing that is. Can't have enough of it. The first session of the first day is a round-table (actually, a round-room with concentric circles of people facing in, confusing all the panelists at the center and making them dizzy as they talk — an innovation itself, I suppose). It's about innovation and people at the center begin listing what they think are the best innovations of the last year. A few: Kigge Hvid of Index in Denmark says that the basic first-aid kit has not been updated since World War I. She then tells us that the great danger for the injured is a blocked airway that robs us of oxygen. So she shows a tongue-sucker invented by students at the Royal College of Arts in the UK after the 7/7 terrorist attack. It's a simple plastic tube with an orange bulb on the end that grabs the tongue and frees the airway, saving lives while waiting for the pros. A person in the room cautioned that this may complicate the simple instructions given to people in CPR; Keeley adds that sometimes we need “di-innovation,” that is, simplification is innovation. Larry Keeley of Doblin says the Kindle is an innovation that could matter because if all the newspaper readers in America stopped reading on paper and started reading on epaper, the country would meet all the requirements of the Kyoto agreement. But then he says the design of the device is a failure and if more organizations had embraced the concept, it would have given us a more compelling device. William McGlashan of TPG Growth talks about a bio company that is now producing fuels. Kiyoshi Kurokawa, adviser to the prime minister of Japan, praises the iPhone and says there's nothing new in the gadget; it's all concept and design. Then he talks about programs that get people to make helping people part of life: Table for Two with contributions going to deal with hunger and One Laptop per Child. Tom Brown of IDEO praises Walmart's personal sustainability project and the Open Architecture Network, because both are enriched by the network effect of adding and connecting ideas. And moderator Bruce Nussbaum of Business Week praises the new video conferencing telepresence systems that let us avoid — my words — innovationless airlines, wasting both energy and time, and empower collaboration. Nussbam also tells us that a Business Week index of “innovation-driven” companies beats the S&P by 20 percent. In the audience is Maylasia's minister of innovation — isn't that also nicely new — and he asks what government's role should be. McGlashan says the belief in the U.S. is that government does not invest in innovation, though he says in health that's not true. (Note that this is an issue for Davos: It ends up becoming America-centric; I'd rather hear new ideas of how Maylasia is doing it.) A Japanese professor frets about how much a company should hold onto and not make open. Thank goodness Brown gives the obvious examples of the benefits of exploiting open networks, starting with Firefox. Keeley says what's important to open up is the knowledge archive and the challenge archive — that is, what we need — and this opens the network effect by connecting people with each other and information. He also praises X Prize for giving innovators motivation without hierarchy. The professor then asks what countries should hold onto. Keeley replies that governments, such as Maylasia, must provide the infrastructure for networks and then “get out of the way and trust the talent.” A member of the audience, Carl Bass, says that the thought years ago was that open source would be innovative but not robust, but as it turned out open source is robust but not very innovative. He acknowledges what he'll say next is controversial but points out that most of the government-backed innovation in the U.S. comes from defense-funded research. Another points out that the most important part of openness on the internet is “view source,” for that spreads the knowledge. Just as the discussion gets good, the format gets in the way and we're supposed to share our favorite gadgets with each other, one-on-one. Reminds me of hand-shaking time in church. My favorite, by the way, is bandwidth. We are told to mash-up and invent things together. After we hear a few, Brown says that what we should be sharing instead is the challenges for these attempts at invention are frankly banal. But hearing problems is what leads to real innovation. Innovation is a solution.
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Maccast 2008.01.22 - Macworld 2008 Post Keynote Interviews
A podcast about all things Macintosh. For Mac geeks, by Mac geeks. A special episode with some interviews taken post Macworld 2008 keynote. I disucuss reactions to Apple's announcements with Spencer from the floor at the Apple booth. I also sit down with fellow podcaters Ken Ray (Mac OS Ken) and Tim Robertson (My Mac) and get their reactions to Macworld and the keynote announcements. New music, Careless Love by Lindy Dobbins Special Thanks to our Sponsors: Smile on My Mac, check out the new DiscLabel 5 Audible.com - Get your free audiobook Subscribe to the Podcast Feed or Get the MP3
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★ Apple Reports First Quarter 2008 Results
Apple’s just-announced Q1 2008 results made for the best quarter in company history: The Company posted revenue of $9.6 billion and net quarterly profit of $1.58 billion, or $1.76 per diluted share. These results compare to revenue of $7.1 billion and net quarterly profit of $1 billion, or $1.14 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. […] Apple shipped 2,319,000 Macintosh computers, representing 44 percent unit growth and 47 percent revenue growth over the year-ago quarter. The Company sold 22,121,000 iPods during the quarter, representing five percent unit growth and 17 percent revenue growth over the year-ago quarter. Quarterly iPhone sales were 2,315,000. A few remarks, based on Apple’s new Q1 2008 and year-ago Q1 2007 summary data PDFs: iPod: Unit Sales vs. Revenue Growth Five percent year-over-year unit growth for iPod holiday sales is a clear sign that iPod unit sales growth is no longer explosive; last year’s unit sales number for the holiday quarter (21 million) was 50 percent higher than the previous year’s. Expect to see this number get jumped on, like it was by Dan Frommer at Silicon Alley Insider, who writes, “The iPod, which helped Apple revive its fortunes just five years ago, is on its way out.” But here’s the thing: iPod revenue growth continues to grow at about the same pace. Last year, iPod revenue was up 18 percent over the previous year; this year, it was up 17 percent. (Compare and contrast to Apple’s Mac hardware sales, which are up 44 percent in units and an almost identical 47 percent in revenue.) Think about that: a year ago, iPod unit sales were up 50 percent but revenue was up just 18 percent; this year, unit sales are up just 5 percent but revenue is still up 17 percent. How do you grow revenue faster than unit sales? By selling more iPods at the high-end of the product line. Can you say “iPod Touch”? Look at the numbers and it breaks out like this: last year, Apple booked $163 in revenue (not profit) per iPod sold; this year, the number was $181. The conventional wisdom, for years, has held that the problem Apple faces in the iPod’s market is that even if they manage to hold on to a large market share, the entire market is destined for commodity status — music and video players are going to get cheaper and cheaper every year, Apple is going to face increased competition on price, and the players Apple does sell will have to be cheaper as well. Think about what happened with, say, Sony’s Walkman, which debuted at a high price in the late 70s but within 20 years was selling for $30. What this line of thinking misses is that it’s wrong to think of the iPod simply as a digital Walkman. Better to think of the iPod as, say, “the best pocket-sized anti-boredom device Apple can make”. In 2001, that device was a simple hard-drive based 5 GB MP3 player. Today, it’s the iPhone and iPod Touch. The OS Without a Name Speaking of the iPhone, Apple sold almost exactly the same number of iPhones as Macs: 2,315,000 vs. 2,319,000. That’s impressive in and of itself. For comparison, Apple sold 1,119,000 iPhone during the preceding (debut) quarter. The price drop and expanding into non-U.S. markets certainly helped drive that growth, but it’s worth noting that many iPhone doubters dismissed the initial demand as nothing more than proof that Apple could sell iPhones to fanatics willing to wait in line on the opening day. I don’t see how anyone could doubt that the iPhone is a smash hit at this point. But here’s the other thing: Apple’s completely separate accounting for the iPhone and iPod Touch is merely an accounting distinction. In practical terms, they constitute a single software platform, that of the touch-screen based “OS X” that doesn’t really have a name. Apple doesn’t break down iPod sales by model, so we don’t know how many iPod Touches Apple has sold. But, presumably, that number is quite a bit larger than 4,000, and so thus, even in a quarter with 44 percent higher year-over-year Mac unit sales, Apple sold more “iOS X” (if you will) devices than Macs. The market for third-party software for the iPhone and iPod Touch is already big, and I expect that by this time two years from now, there will be more iPhones/iPod Touches in use than Macs. (Imagine the unit sale numbers for a $199 iPhone two years from now.) And one big difference, from Apple’s financial perspective, between the Mac and upcoming iPhone/iPod Touch software markets is that Apple will get some sort of cut from every app sold — assuming it works the way I expect it to, where approved third-party apps will be sold through the iTunes Store. This is a potential gold rush for indie Mac developers. iTunes Store Growth The other number from Apple’s data summary which indicates that Apple’s music-and-video business is thriving is the revenue growth for “Other Music Related Products and Services”, which is up 27 percent year-over-year. Apple says this category consists of “iTunes Store sales, iPod services, and Apple-branded and third-party iPod accessories.” 27 percent growth sounds pretty damn solid for the four-year-old market-leading music store. I’m happy as hell to see the Mac numbers growing, but the plain truth is that the Mac clearly has a ton of room to grow — the iTunes Store’s 27 percent revenue growth strikes me as at least as impressive as the Mac’s 47 percent.
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IBM delays Lotus Notes for iPhone, users "too hip and cool"
Filed under: CellphonesRemember that formal announcement of Lotus Notes Mail on the iPhone? Right, Apple's first big corporate iPhone push which the AP said would happen at LotusSphere? Not going to happen, at least not yet. An IBM spokesperson told ZDNet Australia, "It's not something that (is) ready to go out and market or launch." In other words, Jobs heard about IBM's plan to steal his February SDK-launch thunder and shut down the announcement right quick. The most absurd part of all this has to be an enterprise adoption comment made by the so-called analyst, Kevin McIsaac, at IBRS (I be arse?). He said, "I can't really imagine someone who's really hip and cool -- like an iPhone user -- wanting to use Lotus Notes." Since when do the personal desires of users and corporate IT policy have anything in common Kev? Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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Analysts, Investors Take Apple to Task For its Best Quarter Ever
Daniel Eran Dilger According to Dan Frommer of Silicon Alley Insider, the Era of the iPod is over. That dramatic conclusion comes from the limited new iPod unit sales increase year over year in the December quarter; this year, Apple sold just five percent more iPods that it did last winter. However, reality isn't quite so simple, and there's no reason to buy into the professional panic being advanced by the usual suspects. (more…)
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Is Apple a barometer of the consumer economy?
During the investor conference call over Apple's December fiscal first quarter conference, analysts kept pressing executives about whether the Cupertino company is the bellwether for the consumer spending. But Apple's value proposition is different than the rest and so is its customer base, making it tough to be the economic test case.
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Podcast #40: Post-Expo News and American Gladiator Blues
Robbie and Roman discuss expo releases and hometowns.
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Sharp eyes spy Time Machine changes in MWSF keynote demo
Some sharp eyes watching Steve Jobs' keynote address from last week's Macworld Conference and Expo noticed a new button added to the bottom of Time Machine's window. The button is marked "Only Show Changes" and, I'm guessing, that once pressed it will change Time Machine's behavior to only show files that have changed from backup to backup--call me crazy. It seems reasonable to assume that... [read more at MacMerc.com]
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The Apple color picker just got ''kuler''
The soon to be renamed CocoaKuler enables Mac OS X apps to explore and find color themes via the Apple color picker using Adobe's kuler online community all in Cover Flow-like style. The color picker plug-in works with any app that supports OS X's built-in color picker system (including Photoshop--just choose the Apple color picker in the app's General Preferences). The reason for the... [read more at MacMerc.com]
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Even with iPhone added, iPod growth is slowing
Pundits have noted that Apple showed only 5% iPod unit growth over last year's Q1, but the real comparison has to include the iPhone, which replaces any potential iPod sale. Even then, growth is slowing.
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Even with iPhone added, iPod growth is slowing
As CNET blogger Tom Krazit reports, Apple shipped 22.1 million iPods in its December quarter, up a mere 5% from the previous year's quarter. But as I've argued before, you have to count iPhone unit sales for a fair year-to-year comparison--each iPhone takes the place of a ...