Feb 22, 2008 Feb 24, 2008 Saturday February 23, 2008
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Palm emulated on the iPhone: finally we can leave that IIIc at home
Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds StyleTap, the folks behind the CrossPlatform Palm emulator for Windows Mobile have built a proof of concept version of the software for the iPhone / iPod touch. They're not committing to releasing any such product, and aren't releasing the software as a beta or anything like that at the moment, but the video demo of the software in action is certainly promising. All the apps are rather responsive, the device benchmarks a good bit faster than the Tungsten | T, and Apple's keyboard is even integrated into the proceedings quite nicely. Video is after the break. [Via TUAW]Continue reading Palm emulated on the iPhone: finally we can leave that IIIc at home Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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The Snowball Effect
Rainer Brockerhoff on the bizarre complaints from Japanese engineers that the MacBook Air uses too many screws to hold the keyboard in place: So, this article betrays a fundamental misunderstanding of Apple’s design strengths and intentions. Their definition of “workmanship and… cost reduction” is very different. From what I can tell, the Air was designed from the outset to be extremely thin and rugged, while maintaining adequate battery life and performance. These considerations snowball to the extent that the battery uses up 2/3 of the space, and seems to be (along with the keyboard) itself a structural element. ★
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Can Apple patent the “pinch� gesture?
Could Apple’s innovative pinching and swiping gestures eventually become their intellectual property? Several leading technology experts are saying “yes.� There are a few hurdles that Apple would have to jump through in order to actually make this gesture theirs. First, registering a patent can take up to four years, at…
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Can Apple patent the “pinch� gesture?
Could Apple’s innovative pinching and swiping gestures eventually become their intellectual property? Several leading technology experts are saying “yes.� There are a few hurdles that Apple would have to jump through in order to actually make this gesture theirs. First, registering a patent can take up to four years, at…
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Sunday night talkcast: Mac OS X gripefest + Ask TUAW
Filed under: TUAW Business, Podcasts, LeopardLast week's talkcast featured the dulcet tones of guest host Christina Warren and a passel of MacBook Air owners sharing their experiences with the newest laptop in the Apple lineup. Download direct, listen in your browser or subscribe to the TalkShoe feed in iTunes. Join us again on Sunday night for our next live show, 10 pm ET, where Mat Lu and yours truly will be taking a break from the Oscars telecast (if you're DVRing it, be sure to say so -- we don't want to spoil anything!) to take your questions, gripes and wishlist items for Mac OS X. Got display problems or wireless issues? We want to hear about it. Everything running smooth as silk? We want to hear about that too, but be warned that the people with problems may be very annoyed with you.Continue reading Sunday night talkcast: Mac OS X gripefest + Ask TUAWRead | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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Palm emulation for iPhone/iPod touch demonstrated
Filed under: iPod Family, Found Footage, iPhone StyleTap produces software for Windows Mobile devices that allows them to run Palm OS applications. Now they've apparently built an experimental build of the CrossPlatform Palm emulator for the iPhone / iPod touch, as you can see above. StyleTap makes clear that this is "NOT a product, nor is its presence here a commitment of any kind, express or implied, that StyleTap Inc. will ever release an official version of StyleTap CrossPlatform for Apple iPhone or iPod touch." In other words -- don't ask for a copy, no it's not in beta, and you can't have it. Nonetheless, this proof of concept is quite intriguing. So the question is: would you like to be able to run Palm apps on your iPhone or iPod touch?[via Digg]Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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About that $1 billion...
Hey, kids! Do you like math?! Sure you do! Well, how'd you like to be an analyst at a Wall Street research firm?! Seriously! It's apparently not as hard as it sounds! Let's have a look! Just after the Macalope sent off some emails to the writers of the pieces Todd Sullivan linked to below to ask who the heck these "analysts" were, he noticed this piece at MarketWatch. This may not be the same estimate referred to in those pieces, but the number's around $1 billion, so let's take a look at what horrid alchemy went into creating it. Much of the iPhone's profitability comes from revenue-sharing agreements that Apple has in place with AT&T Inc., as well as its three European wireless partners. Right you are. Apple doesn't disclose how much revenue it gets from AT&T or its European partners, O2 in the U.K., T-Mobile in Germany and Orange in France. Those carriers each give Apple a payment every month for each customer that activates an iPhone on their its network. Well, sure. Of course they do! It's only fair! But the issue of users buying an iPhone only to "unlock" it from those carriers rose following Apple's last quarterly earnings report. Analysts noted a discrepancy between sales figures provided by Apple and those from AT&T, and some concluded that as many as 1 million devices had been unlocked. Indeed. It was kind of surprisingly large to everyone, including the Macalope. [Bernstein Research analyst Toni] Sacconaghi estimated that between 25% and 30% of the more than 4 million iPhone units already sold have been unlocked to work on other wireless networks... Could be. No one knows for sure, but that's possible. ... and that each unlocked iPhone results in Apple's missing out on $370 in earnings over the phone's two-year contract period. Splort - chortle - hack - cough. The hell?! $370? Each?! Oh, no, you dih-unt, girlfriend. $370 over two years implies a $15.42/month revenue share per phone. There's a lot of debate as to what the actual amount is Apple gets from AT&T -- Scott Bourne of the Apple Phone Show thinks it's around $9/month and Gene Munster of Piper Jaffray has estimated it as high as $18/month. So, $15.42 isn't outrageous, but it's a little on the high side. But the key thing to remember is that number is what it is because the contract is exclusive. Which is why -- and, jeez, how many times does the Macalope have to say this? -- it makes absolutely no sense to say that Apple is losing this money. Thanks to this report we can see Sacconaghi's math and, hey, the Macalope's 9th grade chemistry teacher (and the Macalope) was right! In a nutshell, Sacconaghi estimated that if Apple hit its target of selling 10 million iPhones by the end of 2008, that would mean that something like 3 million of them would be unlocked. 3 million times $370 is 1.11 billion! With jelly on it! Banana pony lollipop! Arrrrgh. Let's try this one more time. That. Makes. No. Sense. If these phones are in countries where Apple has no contract, the only thing you can say is that Apple should get an exclusive contract there faster (easier said than done). If they're being used by people who just don't like the exclusive provider Apple's signed with, then these are people they'll never get anyway. If you want to play the "but they could have contracts with multiple companies!" game, then you can't use the $15.42 multiplier. And not only for the incremental phones they'd gain, you can't use it for phones they've already sold under contract. Why? Because you just threw exclusivity out the window. See? It's an inverse relationship. For every X number of phones you can put on a revenue sharing contract by adding another cellular provider, you must reduce the monthly rate for all phones, and by a lot. Again, please see the definition of opportunity cost and how it actually has to have a realistic opportunity, not a fantasy bozo lala gum drops opportunity. So, hey, let's do some more math! Since it's just multiplication of a bunch of numbers we read on the Intramets somewhere like Sacconaghi did! Remember, being an analyst is something you can try at home, kids! If there are 400,000 unlocked iPhones in China -- where Apple has no contract and may or may not be able to even get one -- that's 10% of all iPhones sold to date. So if Apple hits its target of 10 million phones, 1 million of them will be in China, unlocked. Poof. There goes 1/3 of that $1 billion. This. Is. Not. Lost. Revenue. Good god. if you'll excuse the Macalope, he's going to go lie down and apply a cold compress right between the antlers.
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Caterpillar introduces customization on the iPhone
Filed under: iPhoneMany of you have no doubt noticed that there hasn't been much happening over at unsanity since the release of Leopard broke their haxie "Application Enhancers." Well, apparently some of the developers behind unsanity are now banking on the iPhone instead with a new "Mobile Enhancer" technology called Caterpillar. Basically, Caterpillar adds customization options to a jailbroken iPhone. At present the tools include a Smart Dialer, customized wallpaper with calendar, customized SpringBoard backgrounds (the home page) and more. Interestingly, they're planning to offer the package on a subscription model and it will be "constantly growing as [they] add new tools and functionality." The Caterpillar package is available now by adding their repository to Installer.app on a jailbroken iPhone. The service will run $20 for six months, $35 for 12 months, or $45 a non-expiring license. Of course, you jailbreak your iPhone at your own risk; I have not tested this myself.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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BusinessWeek’s Arik Hesseldahl: ‘iPhone SDK Will Be Late’
Arik Hesseldahl: I’m hearing from one source that its going to be late. I’m not yet hearing any reasons why, and it’s sounding like the official release date could slide by anywhere from one to three weeks. ★
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Rumors swirl for a late iPhone SDK
We haven't heard any rumblings about the iPhone SDK, which we thought indicated it might be late. Now, a source to Business Week claims the iPhone SDK could be pushed by one to three weeks. Will developers stand for further delays?Read More...
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Flip through your iPhone apps with AppFlow
Erica Sadun's latest iPhone hack makes one wonder, "Why didn't Apple think of that?" Cover Flow for iPhone apps, here we come.Read More...
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Mac Automation: Save websites to iPod for later
Filed under: iPod Family, Features, ProductivityiPods are great. They allow you to take your complete music library on-the-go, along with some iPod games, and movies. But what if you are in the middle of reading, say, your favorite blog (you know, us), and you want to go somewhere? Well, you certainly don't have to stop reading! I am going to show you how to use Automator to create a workflow that gets the current text from Safari and syncs it to your iPod as a new note.Continue reading to learn how.Continue reading Mac Automation: Save websites to iPod for laterPermalink | Email this | Comments
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How to create your own Toast DVD menu style
Filed under: Multimedia, Software, Video, Tips and tricks, Odds and ends, LeopardA while back reader Michael Coyle was nice enough to send us this write-up on how to customize Leopard's Guest account, and just recently he sent along another guide that you might not need right away, but will come in handy when you really need it. He's got an in-depth look at how to create a custom menu style when authoring a DVD in Toast Titanium 8.As he says, the default styles that come with the application are a little less than formal, so if you want to create a professional menu for the DVD that fits your needs, this will show you how. As far as I can tell, the style is just a Photoshop file with various layers for the DVD to use as a menu (selected, frames for videos and the border around them, and so on); so the trick is finding the right layers to edit and leaving everything else alone (so nothing breaks).If you've got some DVD authoring in your future, and plan to use Toast to get it all done, there you go.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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iPods in a War Zone
As they prepare for their daily patrols around Baghdad, soldiers from the 10th Mountain Division sync up their iPods, not with songs and movies, but with a laundry list of missions and audio files containing pre-recorded phrases in Iraqi Arabic or Kurdish. Loaded with special software, the music players help them communicate with the populace and learn the local culture, and they occasionally serve as handy tools in their tactical missions, such as searching for persons of interest. The gadgets have been so useful that troops are now finding new ways to employ the technology.
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BMW's ConnectedDrive brings the whole internet to your car... on EDGE
Filed under: GPS, Transportation, Wireless And you thought puttering around the intarwebz on your EDGE-capable iPhone was bad -- just think of trying to find anything on the 'net while accidentally moseying through a dodgy part of town. Nevertheless, BMW is gearing up to offer "unrestricted access" to the web as an option in any new 2008 vehicle, but alas, it's only for European clients at the moment. Of course, BMW's no stranger to letting bits and pieces of the web into its motorcars, but this creation will let you catch up on the latest gadget news and pre-order the latest Elmo doll from the comfort of your heated seat. Sadly, the service is only available to front seat passengers when the car is in park (it's for the best, we know), but your kiddos can surf into all sorts of bizarre chatrooms while seated in the rear. Nothing like a predator tailing you on the autobahn! Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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Todd Sullivan: Round 2
On his own site now, Todd Sullivan fires back at the Macalope, asking Is That The Best You Got? Well, the Macalope doesn't know about "the best". It was OK, he supposes. Good for a Wednesday night. But "best"? Hmm. That's kind of asking a lot, Todd. It's not like yours was very good. Why should the Macalope have to do all the work? But if you want to go another round, the Macalope's got the time. His nightly frolic with the nymphs doesn't start for another hour. Sullivan's site, incidentally, has those awesome keyword ads that everyone loves so much that pop up all over the place like whack-a-moles that just hit a vein of underground crack. As Merlin Mann has noted, they are really useful for first-time visitors to the site because they're a quick way of knowing you won't ever be back. So, now it is CNET taking swipes at yours truly for having the audacity to doubt all things Apple (AAPL). Actually, CNet takes no responsibility for the Macalope's writings. They were really clear about that! So, the Macalope's words are his own. As for doubting all things Apple, please note that the Macalope has been known to agree with criticism of the fine folks in Cupertino from time to time. He just asks that it make sense. This one is priceless..... Well, thanks, Todd. That's really nice. He then cherry picks sentences from the post to make the math seem impossible. The Macalope's not sure how that would be possible as you didn't actually do the math in your post. More to the point, though, what he said was that the particulars of the math didn't even really matter, because the underlying premise stinks. Where did the number come from? Apparently he has never heard of these little publications called the New York Times, or CNN or MSN Money? Too bad because had he even attempted to read them, he would have found the sources of the numbers and save a whole lot of typing and embarrassment. Uh, yeah, see the thing is, Todd, if you click through to those links you provide, they don't show the math either. Or even name a name. The New York Times: For Apple, the booming overseas market for iPhones is both a sign of its marketing prowess and a blow to a business model that could be coming undone, costing the company as much as $1 billion over the next three years, according to some analysts. "Some analysts". Hmm. Well, that's not terribly elucidating. How about CNN? The growing usage of unlocked phones could cost Apple $1 billion in lost revenue over three years, analysts said. "Analysts". Huh. OK. MSN Money? This could cost the company about $1 billion in lost revenue over the next three years, analysts estimate. Yeah, OK, starting to see a trend here. Well, "analysts", whoever you are, as the Macalope's 9th grade chemistry teacher Mr. Robinson was fond of saying, "Please show your work. Because it's bound to be pretty funny." It is unfortunate but he based the whole article (rant) on the flawed assumption I made the number up. Todd, Todd, Todd, Todd, Todd, Todd, Todd! The Macalope did not. He based the whole article (rant) on the assumption that the number is based on crappy assumptions. You didn't make it up, you just took it at face value because it fit this preconceived idea you've been humping for the last year. Let's move on: Yes, let's. Responding to the Macalope's example of unlocked phones in China, Sullivan says: Well, or maybe China mobile has figured they can put 400,000 iPhones on their network without paying Apple a dime, why negotiate a deal and start paying them now? Todd, this actually proves the Macalope's point, not yours. If there's no way they can get the favorable revenue sharing they get from AT&T then how is Apple supposedly forgoing it? Is this thing on? Test. One, two. Check. Check. Check. Then he moves on to question (mock) my thought that Apple's cutting back on component orders can only mean sales are going to slow. Can we be clear on what the Macalope was questioning (mocking)? He was questioning (mocking) the implication that this is somehow surprising. The first quarter is always slower than the fourth quarter and, yes, Apple has cut that already lowered estimate even further. Of course, you can't tell how much of that is because of iPods and how much is because of iPhones, but the Macalope fully admits that iPhone orders might be lower than hoped for in the first quarter. It's not exactly like the economy and/or the tech sector is going gangbusters. Timing is everything in life and had he waited 2 more days to post, he would have again saved himself the inevitable embarrassment of this being affirmed on Thursday. See, you're still acting like this is "news". It's not. Again, this recent report confirms the previous report which confirms what Apple said in its conference call with investors in January. To quote: "Apple has slashed its 2008 NAND order forecast significantly and has informed suppliers that its demand growth will slow in 2008." OUCH... Yeah, and that's all got to be the iPhone, right? It's not like Apple makes anything else that uses flash memory. He then goes into some wandering diatribe about Research in Motion (RIMM) or Google (GOOG) coming out with new products somehow does not matter or should be dismissed? I can't figure out what the point was. The point is, Apple will also come out with new products. Everyone will come out with new products. The fact that one phone maker will come out with a new product means nothing unless you know something about those future products that makes them inherently better than the other company's future products. And, as you admit, you know nothing. As for the gPhone which you spookily allude to, the Macalope will just quote Panic Software's Steven Frank: Hm, a 34-company committee overseeing an open-source suite of mobile software. What could possibly go wrong. Now, some of the Macalope's antler scratching over Todd's "analysis" probably stems from the fact that he says he was only considering the U.S. market. Frankly, the Macalope didn't catch that assumption, probably because it's not spelled out anywhere. It does explain why he said RIM was #1 and it conveniently allows him to dodge the embarrassment of having to explain why he thought all 10 million iPhones had to be sold to existing AT&T customers. (And even then, he got the number of AT&T cellular customers wrong, saying it was 47 million in May of last year. At the end of April of 2007, AT&T had 62 million wireless customers. But that's really beside the point.) Comparing Apple sales that until recently were only in the US would have been unfair. And you certainly wouldn't want to be that! The irony here is that had I done a post that claimed Apple was a distant third in market share, I am sure his response would have been to attack me for an unfair comparison. See, the Macalope used to take a somewhat U.S.-centric view and a number of readers outside the States wrote in and said "Hey! Goober! What are we, chopped liver?!" And the Macalope said, "No, indeed, dear international readers. You are not chopped liver. You are fois gras." And they said "That's better!" Then a couple of days later they wrote back and said "Hey, that's just a fancy way of saying 'chopped liver'!" And then we all had a good laugh. Ha-ha! But, anyway, Todd, the fact of the matter is, the Macalope can't ignore the rest of the world, scary numbers or not. And your contention that while the Macalope pointed out that Apple was third he would have said it was unfair if you had done so really doesn't hold any water. Because, you know, it was the Macalope who pointed it out. See? Is there something wrong with selling phones in only a handful of countries and still being third in the world? That sounds pretty darn good. Why is the horny one supposed to have some kind of problem with that? All cell providers have revenue share agreements. They have them with software developers, providers, wireless companies etc.. it is the way the industry functions. It is the degree of the revenue share that dictates the exclusivity in Apple's case. The Macalope knows that other firms get revenue sharing, but that's not even the point. The point is, as you note, that Apple gets more revenue sharing because of exclusivity. What the Macalope is saying is that the $1 billion figure is simply a bogus multiplication of the revenue Apple gets from AT&T times the number of unlocked phones times the number of years. You can't do that. If you open the phone up to multiple carriers in a single market, the revenue sharing number is going to drop like a rock. If there's another way to come up with such a ridiculously large number, the Macalope is all ears and antlers. If only we could track down "some analysts"... There are two ways to play this game. One is to open up your phone to every provider, sell a mess of them but get very little extra per phone sold. The other is to lock it to one provider, sell fewer phones but get a whole lot extra per phone. Apple's predilection when entering a market is lower volume and higher margin. And when you're a company that puts emphasis on selling products that "just work" (or, at least, "just work" better than your competitors' products), starting with one provider makes more sense. None of this discussion takes into account the changes AT&T needed to make to enable visual voicemail and, more importantly, the control over the user experience it ceded to Apple (activation alone was a huge sea change -- moving it from the store to the customer's home). Other carriers were reportedly not willing to make such concessions, but it was critical for Apple because ease of use is one of its primary differentiators. One last thing... he has not mentioned in any of his "posts" that my call before the first phone was sold on the need to drop the price of it was DEAD ON.... Well, the Macalope wasn't aware it was his job to run around patting you on the back for your brilliance. Why is he supposed to keep track of all of your posts when you clearly don't keep track of his? See, you wrote: A $599 phone will not gain mass acceptance no matter what it does... To which the Macalope responded: Like a monkey typing on a keyboard, you've finally typed something that's true. Looks like the Macalope actually agreed with you on that particular point! Yay! We both win! High fives all the way around! Long-time readers may remember that as the post you're referencing as the one where you also said that no one wanted an all-in-one device and that you wanted to be able to drive your family down the highway, listen to music and talk on the phone all at the same time. Yeesh. Are you sure you really want to call attention to that particular oeuvre?
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PhotoDial software lets you tap pictures to dial contacts
PhotoDial, a new iPhone application released by Makayama Software, lets you click on your contacts’ portrait to place a call. When you start up the program, you’ll see a grid of photos- the ones you have already assigned to your contacts. PhotoDial can supposedly set up everything automatically for you,…