Aug 10, 2008 Aug 12, 2008 Monday August 11, 2008
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...and now it's time to update Pzizz with its new meditation module......*BONG*...
If you haven't tried Pzizz, it's a bizarre little app that plays soft music with a voice reminiscent of Bob Ross bringing you to peace and relaxation whether you choose to take a short nap, fall asleep or drift off in meditation. The Meditation Module is new to version 2.7 and allows you to program meditation of up to 60 minutes in length divided by chimes every minute to every 10 minutes. Pzizz's algorithm can create more than 100 billion different soundtrack combinations that promote more restful sleep, more energizing naps and more...um... meditative meditations. Pzizz is offered with a variety of purchase options.
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Oncore Power wants to charge every MacBook battery all of the time
Filed under: Laptops, Peripherals If you find yourself burning through your MacBook or iBook batteries at an alarming rate, perhaps you require a charging solution that's, shall we say... more robust. That's where Oncore Power's psychotic 6-bay charging station comes into play. Never again will you have to suffer the indignation of a powerless laptop with the company's all-in-one solution to charge every brick in your arsenal at once. The device will juice up three batteries at once, letting you stagger the two bays of three slots so you're always one stylish wrist snap away from sweet, sweet power. Sure, it costs $395 (and presumably more for the version with included batteries), but you can't put a price on peace of mind, can you? Oh, wait. You can. It's $395.[Via Macworld]Read|Permalink|Email this|Comments
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Microsoft's Zune, Vista, and Windows Mobile 7 Strategy vs the iPhone
Daniel Eran Dilger What secret partner has Microsoft discovered to bail water from the deck of Zune and its Zune Marketplace music store in a last ditch attempt to take on Apple's iTunes, the iPod, and iPhone? Microsoft's own Windows Mobile, of course, with some help from Windows Vista! Who Else Will Help Zune? Certainly not Nokia, as one Zune fansite tried to suggest last week. Nokia has nothing to gain by promoting the Zune. A more credible sounding rumor, as long as we're inventing stuff, would be to instead suggest that it could be Sony Ericsson that is interested in putting the Zune software on its new phones. At least Sony has already demonstrated its complete failure at selling music on its own, and actually has a Windows Mobile phone in the works. The simpler reality is that Sony Ericsson may have no choice in the matter. Microsoft is clearly out to wed the Zune with Windows Mobile in a effort to get the two failures to prop each other up in its “I'm not dead yet!” fight against the iPhone. Microsoft is likely to make inclusion of its Zune Marketplace a mandatory feature that its Windows Mobile partners will have to swallow, just as it forced its PC licensees to bundle its Internet Explorer browser and later Windows Media Player, while prohibiting them from seeking their own bundling deals with other companies. Microsoft took quick steps to block Compaq's licensing of QuickTime, for example. Those deals were bad for HP, Compaq, Dell, and the other PC makers, bad for competition within the tech industry, and subsequently bad for consumers. However, they did enable Microsoft to use its powerful Windows monopoly position to push proprietary standards and or anti-interoperable technologies designed to expand its monopolized control, while making big money selling Windows in a market that lacked any alternatives. Will Nokia Rescue Microsoft’s Zune? Haha No. Apple in the Web Browser Wars: Netscape vs Internet Explorer Microsoft's Plot to Kill QuickTime A Lot Has Changed. This time around however, all Microsoft has to leverage is Windows Mobile, a struggling platform with little respect in the industry, now in a distant third place. Further, the technology Microsoft is trying to push is essentially its Windows Media DRM, which has already been swept up and trashed by Apple's iTunes, QuickTime, and the iPod. The dismal fate of Windows Media was sealed with the failure of PlaysForSure. The Zune's new, albeit incompatible, reincarnation of Windows Media DRM never stood any chance of making any headway. However, the most problematic part of Microsoft's strategy of pushing its Zune Marketplace store on its Windows Mobile partners is that music stores don't make money. Apple's iTunes Store is the biggest online music store on Earth, and does tremendous volumes of sales. Still, Apple reports minimal profits from the store. It recently warned its investors that it's now selling so much through iTunes that the low profit, high volume venture may have a negative impact on the company's overall profit margins. As problems go, that's certainly a nice one to have. Apple is not at all worried about turning a big profit with iTunes because it runs the store exclusively with the intent of ensuring new content for the iPod, iPhone, and Mac. That in turn sells its hardware. However, Microsoft doesn't have hardware sales to nurture. It has barely sold two million Zune units, many at fire sale prices (compared to 150 million iPods, 93 million of which have been sold since the Zune's release). It now faces impossible odds in tilting against the momentum of iTunes' rapidly spinning windmills, with no possible upside in terms of eventual music store profitability. There's simply no way that any amount of investment in the Zune Marketplace could deliver profits, because Microsoft is competing against Apple's non-profit motivation behind iTunes. Further, Windows Mobile is similarly a big loser with no potential because Microsoft has little ability to profitably license its mobile software. It's competition is the iPhone OS, which Apple develops for free to sell iPhone hardware (Microsoft does not sell its own phone hardware); RIM's mobile OS, which is also free for BlackBerry hardware; the Symbian OS, a partnership between hardware makers; and various mobile distributions of Linux, including Google's Android, all of which are also run as profitless ventures to support hardware sales (or in Google's case, service sales). The Great Google gPhone Myth Why Microsoft’s Zune is Still Failing 10 FAS: 7 - Apple’s Hardware and Dvorak’s Microsoft Branded PC Good Money After Bad. All that unpleasant reality hasn't phased Microsoft. Its executives haven't found a way to make money in consumer electronics yet, and the company's attempts just keep getting more and more expensive. Barron's recently featured the speculation of one Microsoft investor who hoped the company would spin off its hemorrhaging online services division as well as its profitless entertainment and devices unit, which includes the Zune, Xbox, and Windows Mobile. The investor calculated the value of Microsoft's other businesses (its high profit Office, Windows, and server divisions) and decided that the market wasn't assigning any value at all to Microsoft's consumer electronics and services products divisions. No wonder; they're nothing but a huge drain on Microsoft! Even so, the investor seemed to think there must be some value to obtain from selling off the black holes, citing the market value of the highly profitable Nintendo. The investor's real intent seemed to be finding a way to “discourage the company from overinvesting in the business.” Microsoft's stock has only appreciated by 6.3% over the last decade. Apple has appreciated 1,822.6% in the same period. Microsoft is trying to develop new markets as Apple has, it's just failing to do so. Microsoft’s Outrageous Office Profits Strength in Bundles. Microsoft has always been interested in promoting its products by using strong ones to prop up weak ones. From the start, it bound its strong Mac apps to the rather weak Windows offering to invent the PC platform, and has since tied Word and Excel to a suite of otherwise fair to marginal apps under the Office banner. Once Windows became established, the company tied in an unfinished, third-rate web browser and was able to rapidly build it into a strong competitor through market inertia. On the server side, Microsoft similarly ties in tragic products into package deals that often (but not always) enable the weak bits to gain some traction. So Microsoft is again working to stitch together its various properties to support each other, but now most all of its recent products are in flames and desperately need reinforcement. There's only so much one failure can do to support another. Even worse, Microsoft's historic strengths are no longer working. The Windows monopoly was supposed to brace up Windows Media Players, Windows Media Center, Windows Mobile, Windows Live Search, Windows Live Soapbox, and a series of other cobranded products that haven't gone anywhere. Office Wars 3 - How Microsoft Got Its Office Monopoly Office Wars 4 - Microsoft’s Assault on Lotus and IBM Why Does Microsoft Really Want Yahoo? Certifiable Failure. Windows itself is now in the throes of crisis, as the failed launch of Vista nearly two years ago has signaled the undoing of Microsoft's ability to rely on its desktop monopoly to advance failures into strength. Is Vista going to put out the Zune's flames by beating with its own flame-engulfed wings? That's part of Microsoft's current strategy, which included rebranding PlaysForSure as 'Certified for Windows Vista.' The Zune is also Certified for Windows Vista, despite not being compatible with the Certified for Windows Vista PlaysForSure. Confused? You needn't be for long, as the remnants of Microsoft's one-time strategy for creating an 'ecosystem of hardware, service, and software partners' to provide choice and freedom in the music industry is pretty much dead now. All of Microsoft's significant PlaysForSure store partners, including AOL MusicNow, MTV URGE, Musicmatch Jukebox, Wal-Mart Music, Yahoo Music, and Microsoft's own MSN Music have now unplugged their PlaysForSure stores, ironically making the brand among the least accurate names for a service ever. The remaining stores making use of PlaysForSure music, principally Rhapsody and Napster, are now on death's door. PlaysForSure video stores such as CinemaNow, which once worked with Microsoft's PlaysForSure-certified Portable Media Players no longer do. Even Amazon's UnBox service, which is supposed to sync with some devices that are PlaysForSure-certified, has not bothered to get certified under Microsoft's program. Incidentally, the failure of Yahoo Music and Microsoft's MSN Music (and the company's outrageous plan to simply unplug its customers from DRM authentication) caused CNET to wonder if Apple might be next in line to make users' music purchases unplayable, echoing the poorly conceived idea that Microsoft's Vista failure, its mobile platform incompetence, and desktop viral malware security crisis all somehow also predict a similar certain doom for Apple at some point in the future. For some reason, CNET saw no connection between the failure of Yahoo and MSN (hint: PlaysForSure), and no reason to speculate about the future of other media stores facing actual failure and likely disbanding in the near future, including Rhapsody, Napster, UnBox and Microsoft's own Zune. Nearly all of the recent DRM deactivation controversies, including Major League Baseball's, have been related to Microsoft's software, although Google decided to similarly to dump users of its paid video when it pulled the plug on Google Video last fall. Rise of the iTunes Killers Myth Forrester Research: Epic Terror of iTunes and Apple TV But Wait, What About This Ecosystem Failure Sounds Familiar? The complete failure of Microsoft's PlaysForSure hardware and software licensing program paints a damning prophetic picture foreshadowing the fate of Windows Mobile. Pundits often dance around this fact by spewing Microsoft's talking points: Window Mobile has lined up scores of hardware partners! Windows Mobile has lots of software partners! Choice is good! Oh wait, that's the same stuff they said about PlaysForSure in explaining why the iPod couldn't stand a chance once Microsoft could deliver its Windows Media Player reference designs and the Windows Media DRM that would enable PlaysForSure stores to open their doors. The only real difference between PlaysForSure and Windows Mobile is that the former was expected to prove that the Windows licensing model would work well among mobile devices, while the latter has already proven for some time now that it can't. Windows Mobile has been a snowball of failure ever since it launched a half decade ago with clumsy-looking phones running buggy, poorly architected software with abysmal battery life that makes the iPhone 3G look exceptional in comparison. Windows Mobile simply shares too much in common with the PlaysForSure failure to escape the event horizon if its blackhole. Pairing software from one vendor to hardware from another is problematic in the PC market, but completely untenable among highly integrated mobile devices. Microsoft tried to blame PlaysForSure incompatibilities on its music store and hardware partners, but the real problem was the model. Microsoft's own software problems didn't help either of course. The issue on Windows Mobile is even more significant because having functional mobile phone service is far more critical than being passively entertained by an MP3 player. Unchecked diversity among the devices of a platform is a bug, not a feature. The mantra of choice and freedom, hailed among Windows enthusiasts and homebrew hackers alike, makes for a great mission statement but in reality delivers products that just don't work. It's great to be able to compile your own servers from free and open source software, but most consumers don't want the accountability that comes along with that freedom when trying to dial 911 from their phone. For that matter they don't even want to troubleshoot the installation of a firmware update, or deal with why software designed for a tall screen looks awful on a square screen. With an integrated product like the iPhone, they can complain to Apple for a fix. With Windows Mobile, you get passed around by Microsoft from the mobile operator to the hardware maker to the third party software developer. Everyone is responsible but nobody is accountable. The Spectacular Failure of WinCE and Windows Mobile Count the Flames of Windows Mobile. And so, in terms of failing platforms, Windows Mobile is closer to PlaysForSure on the flames meter than it is to the only smoldering Vista, which is a moderate success by comparison. If attaching the Zune, Microsoft's phoenix on fire, to Vista's train wreck didn't have any impact on the relative salvageability of either, what will Windows Mobile 7 do for Zune 3 a year and a few months from now in late 2009 at the earliest? That's Microsoft's current schedule, barring any customary delays. By then, Apple will have had the iPhone in international distribution for more than a year, the App Store will be a year and a half old, and the WiFi iTunes Store will be more than two years old. What in Windows Mobile 7 will make a difference for smartphone buyers? According to Microsoft: copycat touch controls hobbled by an interface trying to look like Vista (below, and yes they did spell Internet Explorer wrong, as well as putting a space in ActiveSync), and no doubt a major new push to force Zune Marketplace media sales down the throats of Windows Mobile users in imitation of Apple. Microsoft is no Apple. The problem of course, is that the market for Windows Mobile phones is almost exclusively among corporate IT users, who don't give a rats ass about downloading music from the Zune store. So there's really little potential for cross pollination between Windows Mobile and the Zune. In contrast, Apple originally marketed the iPod and iPhone to consumers, who do buy up music to the tune of billions of tracks every year. Apple now has success to build upon, and has targeted its year-old iPhone platform toward the enterprise, with development tools, a software deployment infrastructure, and management utilities that in most cases meet or exceed what Microsoft has delivered over past decade on WinCE and Windows Mobile. On top of that, the iPhone platform has a far superior, standards-based web browser, development frameworks recognized to be easier to use than Microsoft's mobile .NET, and a core OS that is simply more stable, not to mention a user interface that's designed to look good and be simple to use rather than to match the flashy branding of a failed desktop OS. WWDC 2007: Kevin Hoffman Presents .Net vs. Cocoa The Other Problem: Windows Mobile is Going Down. Anyone banking on Microsoft's promises to deliver Windows Mobile 7 on time by the end of 2009 should also consider the company's track record in delivering Windows Mobile updates. The company initially intended to get Windows Mobile 5 out next to Longhorn [Vista] in mid to late 2004. Windows Mobile 5 was actually released in May 2005, and Vista finally popped out “officially” at the end of 2006, although one couldn't actually buy it until it was relaunched to consumers in early 2007. Even after Microsoft “released” its subsequent Windows Mobile 6 nearly a year later (based upon the same underlying WinCE 5), it took six months or more for many of Microsoft's partners to approve it and set up distribution so that users could actually get the software on their phones. In contrast, Apple releases regular iPhone updates every month or two that are always available to users immediately after their release, directly from Apple. Microsoft doesn't exactly have years of leisure at its disposal. Windows Mobile has already been hit hard by competition from the iPhone and from other rivals, including RIM in the enterprise market and Symbian internationally. That competition has resulted in Microsoft's mobile market share slipping year over year. This year, Microsoft failed to meet its frequently repeated goal of selling “more than 20 million units” through all of its various hardware partners, and instead only sold 18 million. Microsoft senior vice president Andy Lees blew off the missed goal as a “rounding error.” He cited numbers from IDC that indicated Windows Mobile had grown from 11% to just under 13% of the worldwide market for smartphones, growing faster than the overall market, and that unit sales of Windows Mobile phones have both outpaced sales of BlackBerry phones and outsold the iPhone by a factor of two. Windows Mobile misses target Oops, Microsoft Fibbed a Bit There. Canalys reports that Microsoft actually started out with a 23% share of the smartphone market in Q1 2004, which fell to 18% in Q1 2005, then down to 12% in Q1 2006, where it remained in its Q4 2007 figures. Apple ranked at 7% worldwide in Q4 2007, but that was based on sales in one market, of one model, and on one mobile provider, after only being on the market for six months. Smart mobile device shipments hit 118 million in 2007, up 53% on 2006 (Canalys press release: r2008021) If the best Microsoft can do is to claim victory for selling twice as many phones as Apple, worldwide across all of its partners despite having a many years long head start and that great ecosystem of manufacturers behind it, then it should probably just not say anything. Incidentally, with the release of the iPhone 3G, AT&T is reporting having doubled its sales volumes, not to mention all of the other new markets the iPhone 3G is now being sold in worldwide, at half the price of the original model. Within just the US smartphone market, which was Apple's only market last year and is also Microsoft's strongest market for Windows Mobile, the iPhone grabbed a 27% share in its debut third quarter of 2007, and maintained a 28% share in the fourth quarter 2007, behind RIM with 41%, but ahead of Palm at 9%. Adding up all of the Windows Mobile manufacturers selling in the US, Microsoft could only claim to have its software on 21% of the phones sold, a significant step behind Apple. Canalys, Symbian: Apple iPhone Already Leads Windows Mobile in US Market Share, Q3 2007 iPhone Grabs 27% of US Smartphone Market Also, all of these figures bundle in all of the “convergence” Pocket PC mobile devices sold by Microsoft's partners, but none of the iPod touch units Apple sells, which are likely to be in well in excess of its iPhone sales. So Apple's mobile WiFi platform is actually far larger and growing much faster than market statistics companies report under their smartphone category. Anyone hoping that Windows Mobile 7 to going to reverse that trend when it arrives over a year from now is seriously delusional. Did you like this article? Let me know. Comment here, in the Forum, or email me with your ideas. Like reading RoughlyDrafted? Share articles with your friends, link from your blog, and subscribe to my podcast (oh wait, I have to fix that first). It's also cool to submit my articles to Digg, Reddit, or Slashdot where more people will see them. Consider making a small donation supporting this site. Thanks!
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AlleyInsider: QuickTime on a chip?
Filed under: Hardware, Multimedia, RumorsSilicon Alley Insider is offering "pure speculation" based on a tip that Apple's Fall future product transition is a video upgrade to Apple products that includes a QuickTime encoder/decoder on a chip. As cool as this would be, I don't personally think it's a significant-enough development to warn investors about. Unless, of course, it's part and parcel of more substantial changes to Apple's product lines. Having video playback functions handled by a separate microprocessor capable of dealing with the variety of media formats that QuickTime handles could yield performance increases for lower-end Macs (with less-powerful video cards) and battery life savings for handheld devices. Also, depending on what codecs are included on-board, it could mean an end to countless hours converting video specifically for your iPhone, iPod touch, or Apple TV. Additionally, MacRumors' Arnold Kim notes that it could be of some use for encoding Blu-Ray video. All I want is DivX AVI playback on my iPod touch. Pretty please?Read|Permalink|Email this|Comments
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Bring the Noise.io!
Noise.io is an interesting-looking synthesizer app for iPhone, due to appear in the App Store in the coming weeks. What's interesting about it is the emphasis on live performance. This is an app designed for use on stage, and comes complete with the advice: "Simply connect the sound output of your iPhone/iPod touch to the mic/lineinput of your mixer, recorder or sound card - and there you are, now you can enrich your tracks or mixes with superb sound effects." Right now, we shall just have to take the developers' word for that, because the app isn't officially released and all we have to go on are the screenshots and a single preview video that hints at what's to come. For seven bucks, it looks like it might be hard to resist.Read|Permalink|Email this|Comments
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Aug. 11 'Macsimum Podcast' now available
Posted by Dennis SellersThe Macsimum Podcast for Aug. 11 is now available here and the RSS feed is here.
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Google Translate ported to iPhone
Filed under: Cool tools, Odds and ends, Freeware, Internet ToolsYou know if the App Store has been out for a month and we're posting about a web app, it has to be a good one. Google announced late last week that they've brought the terrific Google Translate service over to the iPhone. Of course, whenever you travel internationally, roaming charges (sometimes huge ones) can come into play, but if you find yourself tooling around Spain and need more phrases than Dnde est el bao? or T eres mi chica, Google's web app will do the trick fast and easy.And there's some nice coding in there, too -- the phrases translated get stored on the client side of the phone, so if you've already translated something, you don't have to reload the page to see it again. To use the service, just point your MobileSafari to translate.google.com. Folks in other countries probably still won't care too much what you have to say, but at least they'll know what you're saying.Read|Permalink|Email this|Comments
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iPhone 3G: What's the frequency?
Please help us determine whether there are any patterns connected to the reception issues experienced by some iPhone 3G owners on AT&T's network.
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Apple's MobileMe suffers more downtime
Apple's MobileMe service suffers another outage. This time it's Web mail yet again, which seems to be giving Apple some of its biggest hiccups.
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First Look: Stitcher's iPhone app beta
Stitcher has released a beta version of their iPhone app, which allows users to customize a radio station with various informative streams.
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D90 outed by inventory screen at $1,300 asking price
Filed under: Digital Cameras As Photokina looms large, D90 rumors have been in abundance -- with a varying range of legitimacy. This here Circuit City inventory screenshot, however, has a ring of truth to it, and even unveils a pricetag in the process: $1299.99. Not bad for rumored specs that include a 12 megapixel Live View sensor, video recording, HDMI out and GPS. The price also includes that new 18-105mm VR lens, but there's no more info to be had at the moment. A little help, Nikon? We won't tell a soul, we swear.Read|Permalink|Email this|Comments
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Wall Street Journal Interview With Steve Jobs Regarding App Store
Nick Wingfield: In the month since Apple opened an online software clearinghouse called the App Store, users have downloaded more than 60 million programs for the iPhone, Chief Executive Steve Jobs said in an interview at Apple’s headquarters. While most of those applications were free, Apple sold an average of $1 million a day in applications for a total of about $30 million in sales over the month, Mr. Jobs said. Regarding the kill-switch feature for third-party apps: Mr. Jobs confirmed such a capability exists, but argued that Apple needs it in case it inadvertently allows a malicious program — one that stole users’ personal data, for example — to be distributed to iPhones through the App Store. “Hopefully we never have to pull that lever, but we would be irresponsible not to have a lever like that to pull,” he says. We still don’t know how that supposed kill-switch works, though. I’m pretty sure it is not related to the Core Location blacklist that was publicized last week. ★
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Jobs Trumpets App Store's Bursting Till, Confirms Kill Switch
iPhone and iPod touch users have downloaded over 60 million applications from the company's App Store in the 30 days since it opened, according to CEO Steve Jobs. Although a great deal of the applications in the App Store are free, users have purchased $30 million in software since the store's opening, Jobs said. "I don't think those numbers are shocking," Joshua Martin, a Yankee Group analyst, told MacNewsWorld. "It's a good sign for Apple, especially with [somewhere between] 6 and 8 million iPhones out there at this point, it's about 10 apps per phone."
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Do you plan to cancel your 3G service tomorrow?
Filed under: iPhoneAh how time passes quickly. Just one short month ago, the iPhone 3G went on sale. Many of you camped out on line just so you could buy one of those sweet units. And tomorrow, if memory serves, will be the first day that you can cancel service, pay your early termination fee, prorate your monthly bill, and still keep your iPhone. Why would you want to do that? Canceling after a full month of service allows you to keep a free and clear iPhone. Cancel before that time, and AT&T theoretically wants your iPhone back. Think about what a contract-free 3G gives you. It can be pwned and used with pretty much any AT&T SIM, including those ultra-cheap Pay As You Go cards that offer $20-for-thirty-day 3G data plans. Are any of you going to do this? Are you ready to detach your unit from those expensive iPhone-only plans? Or are you pretty happy with the service, price and features that you already have? Let us know in the comments what you've decided, especially if you've been waiting for tomorrow's 3G iDay to cancel.Permalink|Email this|Comments
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Two weeks after Apple calls MobileMe stable, mail goes down
Trouble reared its head for Apple's struggling MobileMe service today as mail went down once again. At least for a couple hours and counting.Read More...
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iPhone experiencing GPS problems after 2.0.1 update?
Filed under: Cellphones, GPS While some complaints after any firmware update are to be expected, there seems to be a decided uptick in the number of reports of problems with the iPhone's GPS (ranging from general wonkiness to all out failure) after the most recent 2.0.1 update. As the responses on the MacRumors forums indicate, however, the problems are far from across the board (or confined to the iPhone 3G), and GPS problems haven't exactly been that rare of an occurrence before this latest update either. So, we'll open it up to you, dear readers -- have you had any newfound iPhone GPS problems?[Thanks, Mike] Read|Permalink|Email this|Comments
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Net Nanny for the Mac released
Filed under: SoftwareAre you concerned about the youngsters in your household being exposed to inappropriate content on the Web? ContentWatch today announced the release of Net Nanny for the Mac, the first Mac version of their popular Internet filtering and parental control software. With Net Nanny, you can block access to gambling and pornography sites, and specify what games or sites (enabled with parental ratings) your kids can visit. NetNanny does this by integrating with Safe Search options on most major search engines, including Google, MSN, AllTheWeb, Yahoo, Dogpile, Lycos, and AltaVista.NetNanny provides usage reports so parents can see what each user has been viewing on the Internet, browser alerts when access to an inappropriate or blocked page is attempted, time restrictions for users, and a Content Assistant feature to define the right level of protection for each user.Although ContentWatch's Web site hasn't yet been updated with news about the Mac release, their press release announcing the new software states that the Mac product info will be listed at http://netnanny.com/mac/. NetNanny is available for US$39.99 for the first license, with each additional computer in the house costing just $19.99. The application is available in English, German, French, Japanese, Spanish, and Italian.Read|Permalink|Email this|Comments
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August MacBUS meeting to focus on Automator in Leopard
Posted by Dennis SellersThe next meeting of the Macintosh Business Users Society of Greater Philadelphia (MacBus) will be held on Tuesday, Aug. 26 at 6:45 pm. It will focus on Automator in Mac OS X 10.5 (“Leopard”).
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Apple software updates for Aug. 11
Posted by Dennis SellersSt. Clair Software has released Default Folder X 4.0.8, a new version of its utility for enhancing Open and Save dialogs. The upgrade corrects problems that users have reported when using Bias Peak and QuickBooks Pro. It also adds to Default Folder X's “recent folder” tracking, keeping tabs on files...
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'Macsimum Recommended Reading' for Aug. 11
Posted by Dennis Sellers“Apple's Great Customer Service: the $249 Difference—John Taylor Communications
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Intel to debut quad-core notebook processors next week
Posted by Dennis SellersSeveral new processors will be announced next week at the Intel Developer Forum. Among them will be two special processors for “enthusiast notebooks,” notes TG Daily. The article says that Intel's first two quad-core processors for notebooks will be the Core 2 Quad Q9100 and Core 2 Extreme QX9300.
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Lenova, Intel release Summer Games widget for iPhone
Posted by Dennis SellersLenovo and Intel have released a free mobile widget focused on the summer games for iPhone, Windows Mobile, and BlackBerry users. It's available via mobile browsers here.
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App Store downloads skyrocket, but daily usage remains low
There have been 60 million downloads through Apple's App Store, and generally speaking, users love the new third-party software for iPhone and iPod touch. Still, only about 20 percent of an app's unique audience use it on a daily basis, and most people only use them once per day. Read More...
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A September surprise from Apple?
Analyst Gene Munster expects Apple to hold a special event next month that will focus attention on new iPod and MacBook models. And recent history suggests he may be on to something.
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A September surprise from Apple?
Analyst Gene Munster expects Apple to hold a special event next month that will focus attention on new iPod and MacBook models. And recent history suggests he may be on to something.
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A September surprise from Apple?
Analyst Gene Munster expects Apple to hold a special event next month that will focus attention on new iPod and MacBook models. And recent history suggests he may be on to something.
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Apple Gazette Daily 323 - iPhone 3G and App Store sales are mind blowing!!!
podcast sponsor link:Click Here to check out Blogflux Groups! Today's Show: iPhone 3G and App Store sales are mind blowing!!! 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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Reminder: Free iPod education promo ends Sept. 15
Filed under: iPod Family, EducationCollege Just a reminder: We told you in June about Apple's education promotion where you can get a free 8GB iPod touch (worth $299) to college students who buy a MacBook, MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, iMac, or Mac Pro. The promotion ends in just over a month, on September 15. If you haven't placed your order yet, it's probably a good time to get your act in gear. Note also that from the reports we've seen, iPod touch is not shipping with the 2.0 software update pre-loaded yet. So you'll have to shell out ten bucks for the software update. Qualified students can also opt for an 8GB iPod nano. On Sunday's talkcast, we figured it was all-but-certain that new iPod touch models and possibly laptops will drop right after this promotion ends. Keep that in mind, too.Read|Permalink|Email this|Comments
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The iTunes Store: Profit Machine
Steve Jobs often says that the iTunes store is not much of a money maker in itself. But in fact it appears to have better profit margins than eBay or Amazon. And it's quickly getting bigger too.
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MixMeister Scratch
Apply DJ-style scratching over music and annoy girlfriends, free of charge. read more
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Analyst: iPhone 3G sold 3 million so far
Analyst expectations of iPhone 3G sales are rising daily. The question is no longer about expectations being met, but actual demand.Read More...
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News: Mix: iPhone in Japan, Flickr use, Hackers target iPhone
SoftBank Mobile, currently the only carrier offering the iPhone in Japan, added more subscribers in July than any other Japanese telecom, in part due to the launch of the iPhone. Tech-On reports that competing carrier KDDI had more cancellations with mobile number portability (MNP) than subscriptions with MNP for the first time in July, with cancellations temporarily increasing following the iPhone's launch. “SoftBank's other handsets…
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Paying off a $5 iPhone bet
After being sure I could withstand the temptation to jump on the iPhone bandwagon, I gave in and bought one. And then I paid up.
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Turn your change into apps
Filed under: iTunes, Deals, iPhone, App StoreRyan P sent us a nice tip about using Coinstar units to turn your spare change into iTunes apps. You've seen Coinstar at the grocery store before -- you throw your spare change in there, and then it spits out a receipt you can take to the service counter for cash (minus a little off the top for the counting). But Ryan told us Coinstar now offers gift certificates instead of cash, if you want, minus the coin counting charge.And one of those certificates can be used at the iTunes store, which means you can throw your coins in, and instead of paying Coinstar to count them, get the full value of your change in an iTunes card. And since apps on the App Store are so cheap, you can use your former quarters and dimes to pick up some terrific apps (may we recommend Sketches, or maybe Pennies -- since you're so coin-conscious anyway). And considering that the amount Coinstar takes out is almost 9%, putting the money in an iTunes card (if you're going to buy the apps anyway) can be a nice chunk of change.Read|Permalink|Email this|Comments
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Launchpad Chicken: MobileMe and Sync Trouble
Jean-Louis Gassée looks into Apple's MobileMe launch misfire and whether Apple is capable of running a worldwide wireless data synchronization service for tens of millions of users.
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Best Buy Kiosks Aim to Snag Customers on the Fly
Consumer electronics retailing giant Best Buy is coming to an airport near you. With 965 stores in the U.S. alone, Best Buy is already one of the most ubiquitous retail chains in America. Now, the Richfield, Minn.-based company will soon have kiosks peddling electronics gear at major airports in Atlanta, Boston, Dallas, Houston, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Minneapolis and San Francisco. "We have very loyal customers, and we're always trying to find a new way to engage them," said Jeff Dudash, a Best Buy spokesperson.
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An Apology to the iPod touch
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Report: Microsoft seeks exclusive video for Zune
Microsoft is apparently seeking exclusive video content for the Zune, but it probably won't help the MP3 player in its battle against the iPod.
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Daily Debrief: Apple's iPhone apps sell, 3G network flails
CNET News' Kara Tsuboi and Tom Krazit discuss the mixed bag of company news since the debut of Apple's iPhone 3G release on July 11.
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iZotope announces iDrum app for iPhone, iPod touch
Posted by Dennis SellersiZotope, developer of tools for musicians and audio professionals, has announced that iDrum, its beat creation application for the iPhone and iPod touch is now available on the Apple App Store. The new application makes beat-making available to everyone with its simple interface and professionally produced content, says Jeremy Todd,...
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Analyst Predicts: Apple sells 3 Million iPhone 3Gs in the first month of release
Not too long ago, Apple was telling us that they had sold 1 Million iPhones over the opening weekend. Now, Fortune is reporting that they managed to triple that number to 3 million units sold in the first month of the iPhone 3Gs release. This info comes from Micahel Cote, an analyst who is a former T-Mobile executive. From what I understand he has a decent track record with these kinds of predictions. For comparison, the original iPhone took 10 weeks to sell 1 Million units. Things are continuing to go spectacularly well for Apple sales wise, even if there have been a few hiccups in the iPhon3G, App Store, and MobileMe launches.
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Article: iPhone Gems: Big-Named Games & Inspirational Apps
The latest edition of iPhone Gems focuses mostly on five noteworthy games from the past week, but we also look at a couple of unusual new applications that aren't easy to categorize. What's worth your attention? Check out Aki Mahjong and Break Classic, then skip over to Koi Pond unless the other titles really grab your attention. Aki Mahjong, Revisited Though we're not going to do this often, or even more than once in a great while,…
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Khronos releases OpenGL 3.0 specs
Posted by Dennis SellersThe Khronos Group, an industry consortium creating open standards to enable the authoring and acceleration of graphics and dynamic media on a variety of platforms and devices, has released the OpenGL 3.0 specification that's designed to bring new functionality to the open, cross-platform standard for 3D graphics acceleration.
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Discarded online, free MMO beat-em-up game, launches
Posted by Dennis SellersDiscarded Online, a mix of beat-em-up, RPG, and card game, is now in open beta. Both during beta and after launch the game will be free to play. However, after the beta period, players will be able to purchase in game equipment, clothing, and items to aid them, but such...
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ResizeMe: Scale, rotate and flip batches of images
Filed under: SoftwareDare to be Creative announced version 1.2 of ResizeMe, a tool that allows you to stretch, scale, rotate and flip many images at once. The update allows users to store and organize their most frequently used image edits as bookmarks. ResizeMe works with JPEG, PNG, TIFF, PDF, JP2, SGI and TGA formats, and preserves EXIF data after manipulating images. ResizeMe is $19.95, universal binary, and works with Mac OS X 10.4 or higher. The update is free for registered users. Also -- a bundle is available that includes Renamer4Mac and Dragoman for $49 at MacSnack. [Via PRMac.] Read|Permalink|Email this|Comments
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6-Bay Charger available for MacBooks, iBooks
Posted by Dennis SellersOncore Power Systems has developed a 6-Bay Charger specifically for MacBooks and iBooks. It recharges up to six batteries. Oncore is also introducing a power upgrade kit that includes the 6-Bay Charger and six replacement batteries, specifically intended to give new life to older classroom computers.
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Daylite: Here Comes the Sun
I thought Daylite 3.8 by Marketcircle was just another PIM, kind of like Microsoft's Outlook or Entourage. Daylite is not just another PIM; it is a business tool that organizes your data better than any other application I have ever used. Currently, I am part of FiniteComedy.com, a small video production company that makes video for the web. Creating and producing video content creates tons of projects that require plenty of attention. My OldSystem I had been using a kludge of applications to keep myself organized. I regularly used a combination of Google Calendar + iCal integration and GMail and its Contacts feature. I've experimented with 37signals and its Highrise web application — Highrise is an online address book, contact manager, task list web application; I don't believe it has a calendar. It is a fine web application, but for some reason it never stuck with me. I have also had a lot of past experience using Microsoft Outlook, but hardly used Entourage. (more…)
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Jobs confirms App Store kill switch; 60M apps downloaded
In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Apple CEO Steve Jobs confirms that a “kill switch” exists for malicious iPhone applications justifying it as a necessary safeguard against a malicious program (i.e. one that stole private data) that might slip through the approval process at the App Store. Hopefully we never have to pull that [...]
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App Store - 60 Million Downloads
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Three million iPhone 3Gs sold in first month
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Apple Financial, iPhoneA month ago, Apple was crowing about selling one million iPhone 3G handsets over its opening weekend. In a month, they've tripled that figure. According to Fortune and analyst Michael Cote of the (eponymous and nascent, from what I can Google) Cote Collaborative, Apple has already hit the three million mark, with many investors expecting only three to four million handsets sold by the end of the quarter. Cote is a former T-Mobile executive, who Scott Moritz says has been accurate with his predictions in the past. It took over 10 weeks for the original iPhone to sell just one million handsets. The iPhone 3G accounts for almost a third of all iPhones sold, ever. Cote says that meeting demand will be Apple's challenge going forward, as it enters 20 new countries on August 22 -- almost doubling its market presence worldwide. "The demand is so strong it may impact or delay the new countries coming on," he said.Read|Permalink|Email this|Comments
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Inside MobileMe: Apple's Push vs Exchange, BlackBerry, Google
Apple's MobileMe provides mobile device push and an innovative Wide-Area Bonjour push sync mechanism for securely updating desktop clients over the Internet. There's currently nothing identical to the service on other platforms, but there is some feature overlap with Microsoft's Exchange Server in corporate settings, RIM's BlackBerry mobile push messaging, and web-based service offerings from Google and others. Here's a look at how MobileMe compares in price and features. Continues: Inside MobileMe: Apple's Push vs Exchange, BlackBerry, Google
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Review: Apple iPhone Bluetooth Headset
The iPhone 3G makes the Apple iPhone Bluetooth Headset usable, and with a little modification, the Dual Dock for the original iPhone can be too.Read More...
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iPhone Apps: One Month, 60 Million Downloads
Steve Jobs shared some stats on how the iPhone App store is doing one month after launch with the WSJ's Nick Wingfield. There have already been 60 million downloads, the majority of them free. But paid downloads are doing just fine, pulling in $30 million in revenues in the first 30 days. The article does not reveal the total number of paid downloads, but given that apps range in price (mostly gravitating either to 99 cents or $9.99, but one briefly going as high as $999, before it was pulled down), it is safe to say that fewer than 30 million paid apps have been sold. One game alone, Sega's $9.99 Super Monkey Ball, sold 300,000 copies (or $3 million worth). That one game alone accounted for 10 percent of all iPhone app sales. Here are some stats culled from the WSJ article:
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Three million iPhone 3Gs sold so far?
Posted by Dennis SellersOne month after its debut, approximately three million iPhone 3G units have been sold, analyst Michael Cote of the Cote Collaborative told CNN Money. “They are seeing unprecedented demand,” says Cote, adding that there appears to be no signs of a let up yet.
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[Sponsor] iPodRip
Your music. Your way. Recover your songs and playlists from your iPod to your Mac.
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'Wall Street Journal': Apple App Store sales hit $30 million
Posted by Dennis Sellers Apple opened its Apple App Store, which sells products for the iPhone and iPod touch, about a month ago and has been averaging sales of US$1 million per day for a total of $30 million or so this far, reports the Wall Street Journal
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Dragon Forged introduces Trivial 1.0 for iPhone, iPod touch
Posted by Dennis SellersDragon Forged Software has released Trivial 1.0, an US$4.99 trivia game for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Trivial is the core application for a suite of trivia games, including General Knowledge, Sports, and Pop Culture.
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Forum Activity: August 11, 2008
Favorite iPhone Apps? Apple Loyalty Advice re: Upcoming mbPro Purchase Deleting … files? how to do it!! “The Application Superdrive……”
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Spirit DSP enables iPhone 3G with wideband VoIP
Posted by Dennis Sellers
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iPhone App Developers Find Weaknesses in AT&T's Fake Walls
Whenever you open up a previously-closed system and let the technology hordes have at it, the hordes do a pretty good job of finding artificial and inefficient business barriers -- and exploiting them. This is what file-sharing enthusiasts did to the music business. It's what Craigslist users are doing to newspapers.And now, Apple (AAPL) didn't just openthe iPhone to developers -- by opening the iPhone, Apple essentially exposed AT&T's (T) wireless network to the world's coders. Like all major U.S. wireless networks, AT&T's has long been as closed as an old-time communist dictatorship, with accompanying weird inefficiencies that really don't make much sense.
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Custom Bobble Head Steve Jobs Dock for iPhone
If you're an extreme Apple fan - you may be excited to see this item which is currently up for sale on eBay. That's right - its a Bobble Head of Steve Jobs that also serves as an iPhone/iPod Dock. This one of a kind items is already going for $162.50 as a write this - plus a fixed $69.95 shipping and handling charge! WOW! The creator of these things sculpts them and hand paints them, and can only produce 5 of them a month - so if you want one, you better get to bidding! via gizmodo
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Morph Labs launches new service for iPhone developers
Posted by Dennis SellersMorph Labs, a Platform as a Service (PaaS) provider for web applications, has announced a web application support program designed for iPhone developers. The Morph program brings together resources for iPhone web application developers and allows them to build applications and deploy them to the Morph AppSpace service, a fully...
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GIPS enables VoIP for the iPhone
Posted by Dennis SellersGIPS, a provider of IP multimedia processing solutions, says it's enabling voice over IP (VoIP) for the iPhone using the company's VoiceEngine Mobile. Now iPhone application developers can integrate quality, real-time VoIP applications, says GIPS CEO Emerick Woods.
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iPhone atop Flickr's cameraphone list once again
The built-in camera in the iPhone is the most commonly used cameraphone on Flickr. The recent spike is no doubt due to the recent launch of the iPhone 3G, but its ease of use will be what keeps people using it, despite the camera's pitfalls.Read More...
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Audible IndieFirst titles to be available at iTunes
Posted by Dennis SellersAudible has announced Audible IndieFirst, a new imprint developed by Audible and the Center for Independent Publishing (CIP) to surface original works from independent publishers and deliver them in digital audio before the print edition is available.
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iPhone kicking butt on flickr
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, iPhone Despite the complaints about the measly 2-megapixel camera built into the iPhone, it appears that ease-of-use trumps resolution. The iPhone remains the leader in camera phone usage on Flickr.Flickr monthly statistics indicate that not only has the iPhone retained its lead (which it gained after knocking the Nokia N95 from the top spot) over other phones, but the lead has begun to widen. Why? It might be due to faster photo uploading from the iPhone 3G, the capability to geotag your iPhone photos, or just the fact that the iPhone photo app is easy to launch and use.If you're not a flickr user, where do you keep your iPhone pictures? Leave a comment below!Read|Permalink|Email this|Comments
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News: H2O Audio unveils AMPHIBIX Waterproof Armbands
H2O Audio has introduced its new line of AMPHIBIX Waterproof Armbands for MP3 Players and Phones. Designed to handle a number of different portable media devices and phones, the armbands are available in Large (for full-sized iPods, the iPod touch, and iPhones) and Medium (for iPod nano, iPod shuffle, and iPod mini) sizes. Each features a LatchTight locking closure for 100% waterproofing down to 12 feet, a ClearTouch plastic window that allows full…
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First Looks: SwitchEasy Colors for iPhone 3G
With piles and piles of cases arriving here every week, many at ridiculous prices, there are days when we literally thank god for SwitchEasy. Today is one of them: the Hong Kong-based company has again demonstrated why a little extra attention to detail and a sense of good design can transform something as simple as a plastic case into a fun and novel product. Colors for iPhone 3G ($15) is a series of 10 colorful silicone rubber cases that are each…
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★ Memoranda
Apple and Microsoft, as ever, offer a study in contrasts. Take, for example, two recent company-wide memos from CEOs Steve Jobs and Steve Ballmer. Jobs’s, leaked last week, regarded the botched launch of MobileMe. Ballmer’s, from two weeks ago, outlined Microsoft’s strategic goals for the next year. The difference in their leadership styles is evident simply from studying the differences in their writing styles. Jobs’s memo is brief, humble, and focused. (That’s not to say Jobs is humble, only that the memo is.) Ballmer’s is long, full of bluster, and more or less describes Microsoft as being in competition with every other company in the entire software industry. Let’s be clear, Microsoft is making a boatload of money under Ballmer’s leadership: $15.8 billion in revenue, $4.3 billion in net profit for the just-ended quarter. Apple, in the same quarter, reported $7.4 billion in revenue and $1 billion in net profit, and Google reported $5.4 billion in revenue and $1.2 billion in net profit — which means Microsoft had more revenue and nearly twice the net profit of Apple and Google combined. And of course a strategic outline for the entire year is going to be a longer, less focused memo than one that’s focused just on MobileMe. So take my criticism of Ballmer and his style with a few billion dollars worth of salt. But, still. There are some similarities between Ballmer and Jobs. For one, they both sign their memos, simply, “Steve”. For another, they’re both non-engineers leading engineering companies. Engineers, in general, crave facts and detest bullshit. My sense is that by and large, engineers at Apple are often frustrated by Jobs’s (relative) lack of technical acumen, but in terms of overall leadership and company strategy, they believe what he says. Ballmer, however, has the demeanor of a successful car salesman. He’s so full of bluster that he comes across as being either delusional or full of shit. Example. Ballmer, in his memo, on Apple: Apple: In the competition between PCs and Macs, we outsell Apple 30-to-1. But there is no doubt that Apple is thriving. Why? Because they are good at providing an experience that is narrow but complete, while our commitment to choice often comes with some compromises to the end-to-end experience. Today, we’re changing the way we work with hardware vendors to ensure that we can provide complete experiences with absolutely no compromises. We’ll do the same with phones — providing choice as we work to create great end-to-end experiences. Engineering and design are all about trade-offs. With Windows — and before it, DOS — Microsoft has made trade-offs in the interests of ubiquity. Do what it takes to get it everywhere. Apple’s trade-offs for the Mac have been in the interests of the cohesiveness and quality of the overall experience. Apple’s recent gains in computer market share have been a huge deal for Apple — but they’re a drop in the bucket for Microsoft. Microsoft’s still-growing profits show that Windows doesn’t necessarily lose as the Mac wins. What Ballmer is arguing is that Microsoft plans to somehow have its cake and eat it too — “absolutely no compromises” is not possible. Everything involves compromises. Likewise with Ballmer on Google: Google: We continue to compete with Google on two fronts — in the enterprise, where we lead; and in search, where we trail. In search, our technology has come a long way in a very short time and it’s an area where we’ll continue to invest to be a market leader. Why? Because search is the key to unlocking the enormous market opportunities in advertising, and it is an area that is ripe for innovation. In the coming years, we’ll make progress against Google in search first by upping the ante in R&D through organic innovation and strategic acquisitions. Second, we will out-innovate Google in key areas — we’re already seeing this in our maps and news search. Third, we are going to reinvent the search category through user experience and business model innovation. We’ll introduce new approaches that move beyond a white page with 10 blue links to provide customers with a customized view of their world. This is a long-term battle for our company — and it’s one we’ll continue to fight with persistence and tenacity. The inherent bravado in Ballmer’s statement-as-fact that Microsoft “will out-innovate Google in key areas” sets off alarm bells. That’s a goal, not a fact. And his mockery of Google’s search as “a white page with 10 blue links” indicates that he has no idea why Google has been so successful. I’d wager that if anyone is ever going to gain on Google in search, it will be by presenting even more focused results — less clutter, fewer distractions, more emphasis on making the results easily scanned. The old Microsoft could recognize good ideas and copy them; now Microsoft can’t even recognize genius. The strategic bottom line is that Microsoft, under Ballmer, feels compelled to compete everywhere — that they must directly confront any company achieving any significant success, no matter how far afield that success is from the areas where Microsoft is already winning or doing well. Jobs’s memo, on the other hand, was an acknowledgement that Apple had tried to do too much at once: It was a mistake to launch MobileMe at the same time as iPhone 3G, iPhone 2.0 software and the App Store. We all had more than enough to do, and MobileMe could have been delayed without consequence. And as for what the company is going to do: The MobileMe launch clearly demonstrates that we have more to learn about Internet services. And learn we will. The vision of MobileMe is both exciting and ambitious, and we will press on to make it a service we are all proud of by the end of this year. Not a guarantee that Apple will somehow magically do everything better. Simply a promise to learn and to press on. Credible and humble.1 And, more importantly, realistic. Apple employees may not always — or even often — agree with Jobs, but they do believe him. Apple tends to do and achieve exactly what Jobs says they will. (His declaration in January 2007 that Apple would be selling 10 million iPhone per year by 2008, for example.) Ballmer’s promises, in contrast, defy belief, at least regarding where Microsoft stands against Apple in terms of “end-to-end experience” and against Google in terms of search and online advertising. He’s either ignorant or lying — neither of which is inspiring to the rank-and-file engineers. I’m reminded of this great line from Tim O’Reilly back in 2002 regarding Bill Gates: Microsoft gets a lot of heat for not leaving enough on the table for others. My mother, who’s English, and quite a character, once said of Bill Gates, “He sounds like someone who would come to your house for dinner and say, ‘Thank you. I think I’ll have all the mashed potatoes.’” This isn’t quite fair, but it gets the point across, at least about some of Microsoft’s behavior. Gates may be gone, but the attitude is infused in the company’s culture. The difference between the ’90s and the ’00s, though, is that today there are far too many potatoes on the table for any single company, no matter how large, to eat. Microsoft ought to be more worried about doing well in their core competencies — OS licensing and developer platforms — than in expanding into unrelated new areas. Ballmer is keen on pointing out that Microsoft sells 30 Windows licenses for every Mac that Apple sells, but Windows Mobile, which has been on the market for eight years, doesn’t even outsell the year-old iPhone by 2-1. And Apple is gaining fast; it seems possible that by 2010 Apple could be selling more iPhones than all Windows Mobile handsets combined, and it arguably already has more third-party developer interest. Ballmer, I think, needs a little more Developers Developers Developers and a little less Advertisers Advertisers Advertisers. This, of course, is only what Jobs wrote in the memo, which was distributed throughout the company and destined to leak to the press. Those Apple employees who are fortunate enough to work on the MobileMe team were treated to something extra: a 40-minute lecture from Jobs in Apple’s Town Hall theater, which lecture was, shall we say, slightly more profane. E.g. where the memo says “we will press on to make it a service we are all proud of by the end of this year”, in Jobs’s Town Hall address to the MobileMe team, it came out more like “You better fucking fix it by the end of the year”. Paraphrasing, but you get the picture.↩
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Jobs confirms iPhone app blacklist feature
Some have called it a "kill switch" capability. Whatever the actual use might be, Apple's CEO says "we would be irresponsible not to have a lever like that to pull."
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First Looks: ProClip Padded Holder with Tilt Swivel for iPhone 3G
Virtually identical to the same-named product for the original iPhone, ProClip's Padded Holder with Tilt Swivel for iPhone 3G ($35) is a soft-coated, hard plastic adjustable car holder for the iPhone 3G. As with all of ProClip's products, you need to buy this piece along with a car-specific mounting bracket at a total cost of roughly $65, and get the ability to perfectly mount the device in whatever vehicle you may own. The "Tilt Swivel" part of the…
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Poll: What's your guess on new product announcements from Apple for holiday shopping?
Posted by Dennis SellersIn this week's Macsimum Poll we're asking “What's your guess on new product announcements from Apple for holiday shopping?” The poll is located on the home page (right hand side) below the “Macsimum Opinion” column.
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First Looks: Artwizz MirrorFilm and ScratchStopper for iPhone 3G
Sold in separate packages, Artwizz's MirrorFilm (€10) and ScratchStopper (€10) offer two different types of screen coverage for the iPhone 3G. MirrorFilm includes a single piece of completely mirrored, partially translucent film that transforms the iPhone 3G's face into a reflective surface, while ScratchStopper comes with four pieces of crystalline film that provide anti-scratch coverage. Each comes with a disposable cleaning wipe to prep your…
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First Looks: Artwizz Leather Pouch for iPhone 3G
Unimaginative by comparison with the company's earlier, widely influential SeeJacket Crystal, Artwizz's Leather Pouch for iPhone 3G is a simple black or red leather sleeve that's been lined with matching velvet on the inside. The case includes no frills, and doesn't include the drawstring-style iPhone pull-out feature found on some of the similar cases we've seen....
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Ask TUAW: Mail.app problems, copying Time Machine backups, replacing an iPhone, GUI mockups and more
Filed under: Features, Troubleshooting, Ask TUAWFor this edition of Ask TUAW we'll have a look at problems with Mail.app, mocking-up GUIs, replacing a broken iPhone, visualizing disk space, copying Time Machine backups and much more.As always, your suggestions are most welcome, and questions for next week should be left in the comments. When asking a question please include which machine you're running and which version of Mac OS X, as certain answers will vary between different Macs and Tiger vs. Leopard, etc. (we'll assume you're running Leopard if you don't specify). And now, on to the questions!Continue reading Ask TUAW: Mail.app problems, copying Time Machine backups, replacing an iPhone, GUI mockups and moreRead|Permalink|Email this|Comments
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Hitachi releases hybrid format Blu-ray camcorder
Posted by Dennis SellersHitachi has released a h