Hello folks and welcome to another edition of AppleTalk Thursday. Let’s see what is happening in the world of Apple this week!
iOS 4.3.1 Update
Last Friday Apple released the update to the iOS 4.3. Among the fixes is indeed the battery issue on the iPhone. Since updating the 666MB update for my iPhone (yes, I know it is a creepy number), I have noticed a great improvement in the battery life on my iPhone 4.
WordPress optimization for iPad
Automattic Inc., the company behind WordPress has partnered with Onswipe to make blog viewing on the iPad a more pleasurable experience. With the help of Onswipe’s plug-in, viewing a WordPress blog looks very similar to FlipBook. In-fact this blog is now viewed this way on the iPad after I downloaded the plug-in and installed it. Let me know what you think!
Skype Mac Design Contest
Skype has announced a contest for a design for its upcoming Mac release client. I really like this because Skype really designs an ugly interface for the Mac side. The grand prize is an 11” MacBook Air, iPad 2, and a one year subscription to Skype’s Unlimited World Extra calling service. There are also runner up prizes such as an iPad 2 and AppleTV and CSS3 for Web Designers.
Apple working on a TV?
Here is an interesting tidbit about Apple possibly looking at making their own TV. Given last week’s news that they may license AirPlay to TV makers, I am not really putting too much stock into this story, but who would have thought Apple would make a phone one day.
Digital Locker Roundup: MobileMe, Amazon Cloud Player
Another bit of speculation about the upcoming MobileMe revamp and possible digital locker service costing $20 a year. If you saw the news this week of Amazon’s new Cloud-based storage, this would be the new MobileMe service right in the ballpark. Course maybe Apple is working out deals with record labels first before launching the service and not releasing the service before a deal is in place.
5-1 Connection Kit for iPad
Check out this little dongle device! Tired of unplugging one device and plugging in another? This may solve that issue and the $45 price is not too bad considering it is like a Swiss Army knife for the iPad.
Course if you just need an HDMI and USB dongle, your in luck too although the price is a bit steeper at around $73 US, oh did I mention it is only available in Japan?
WWDC What to Expect...and What not to Expect
Apple’s World Wide Developers Conference sold out within hours after tickets went on sale earlier this week. If you were one of the lucky ones to buy a ticket...you may not see the iPhone 5, but it sounds like you will see some really cool stuff in both OS X 10.7 Lion and the iOS 5 with deep voice command integration. When I first heard that, I pictured my iPhone talking like the late Barry White, but there is more to it than that and a Fall release of an iPhone 5 would make sense if it were to be an LTE capable device.
Personal Hotspot put to the Test
Finally today, Steven Sande of The Unofficial Apple Weblog decided while attending a trip with his wife who was attending a conference at a hotel, decided to utilize the new Personal Hotspot feature in his iPhone instead of paying for the hotel fee of $11 a day for WiFi. You can read his review of it here.
iOS App Reviews
Pocket Casts ($1.99) - I had grown frustrated with a bug in the iPhone that was displaying incorrect artwork for podcasts. They would display music genius like artwork for example. Even after the 4.3.1 update the issue remained. Than after posting about the issue in the GSPN Community page under Help, I Got a Mac, I came across Podcast Answer Man #200 where Cliff Ravencraft discussed how much he loves this app called Pocket Casts. So I took a chance and spent the $2 and you know what? He is right! First, you can have it scan your iPod app on the iPhone for all your subscribed podcasts and adds the feeds to the app and will show the latest 2 episodes per show in the download window, if you need more episodes, just select on the Show All Available Episodes to list and download each one.
Another cool feature is it will send push notifications and list a badge number for new episodes available for download...something the iPhone or iPad can’t do. You can even stream the episodes without downloading and save space on your iOS device. After using it for a day, I went ahead and downloaded all the episodes I have in iTunes and than un-synced podcasts to my iPhone to save space and I now use Pocket Casts to listen to my podcasts. Note although you can use it on the iPad, it is not a universal app meaning you will have to expand it 2x to get full screen on the iPad but hopefully they will update that part in a future release. Oh, and it will work over not just WiFi, but 3G and EDGE too.
Here is a video of how it all works.
<iframe src=“http://player.vimeo.com/video/20643630?title=0&byline=0&portrait=0” width=“400” height=“225” frameborder=“0”></iframe><p><a href=“http://vimeo.com/20643630”>Pocket Casts App Demo.</a> from <a href=“http://vimeo.com/nathanswan”>Nathan Swan</a> on <a href=“http://vimeo.com”>Vimeo</a>.</p>
Vimeo (FREE) - I have come to really love Vimeo, unlike YouTube, Vimeo is HTML5 which means videos will play on iOS devices. Well, now they have an iPhone app which allows you to both view and record videos and edit your recorded videos. Pretty cool stuff, maybe not as feature rich as iMove for iPhone but considering it is free, that is nothing to sneeze at. My only issue is it did crash on me a few times but that is expected on a product first release. Sure an update will patch that issue.
QR Reader (FREE) - One thing that was promoted a lot at PodCamp Nashville was QR Codes. This feature was born on the Android, but it has grown to other devices and I have found a lot of reader apps for the iPhone, but this is a nice basic free one that can scan QR Codes and display their meaning within the app. Now I want to design one for my website to place on a business card.
Well, that is going to do it for this week’s AppleTalk Thursday. See you next week for more exciting Apple news.
Showing posts with label MobileMe. Show all posts
Showing posts with label MobileMe. Show all posts
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Thursday, March 24, 2011
AppleTalk Thursday #14
Hey everybody and welcome to another edition of AppleTalk Thursday, a blog about all things Apple, from Macs to iPhones to AppleTV, it is all here! So let’s get started!
Verizon iPhone Update
It has been six weeks since Verizon began selling the iPhone and already they have snared nearly 13% of the iPhone market...not to shabby. Additionally, more Verizon iPhone users are satisfied than AT&T iPhone users which does prove one thing to AT&T..it’s the network stupid! Which is why AT&T is buying up T-Mobile to better compete with the Verizon network going forward which is a very impressive network.
Apple reaches out to Japan Employees
Apple CEO Steve Jobs has reached out to Apple’s employees in Japan after the devastating earthquake to offer the employees time off and any supplies it needs. On a related note, Kevin Rose from Digg received an email from an employee of an Apple Store in Japan who tells of how the store became a gathering point for people to communicate with families and to see just what was going on. The email is very much a good read and I highly recommend to take the time and read it on Kevin’s blog.
NFC coming to iPhone 5 after all?
These stories seem to go back and forth on the next iPhone in terms of both NFC and LTE capability. Now it seems that NFC will be coming to the iPhone 5. As I have covered here previously, NFC is short for Near Field Communication and is seen as a way to create a digital wallet to basically use your iPhone to purchase things by waving it as a capture device for payment. If you go to Exxon for example you might be familiar with their SpeedPass system where a little peg on your keychain is tied to a credit card or debit card of your choice to swipe and pay for your gas. That is what this does although it does have more possibilities beyond digital payments. One day I will post a thorough breakdown on NFC and for that matter LTE (4G). Other speculation about the next iPhone is an aluminum backing and a bigger screen.
New York Times goes InApp Subscription based
Apple’s controversial InApp subscription model has scored a big customer in the New York Times which will be going to a subscription based model for its digital content both in website and iOS app content. But if you are expecting something similar to what The Daily charges, then you are in for a sticker shock.
That is a high price for me considering I am not a power reader of the Times. But they are offering free articles up to a certain number for users, however once you exceed that number, you have to pay up.
MobileMe rebirth in April?
With the launch of Apple’s North Carolina data center just around the corner, there is new reports that Apple will precent its new MobileMe service soon and what it will offer. The constant seems to be a digital locker to store your movies, music, and photos to and use from the cloud on devices with limited storage. I would personally love this as I can then not load my music on my iOS devices and just listen to them from the cloud when needed. That I would gladly pay $99 per year for.
iOS 4.3 Battery Issue on iPhone
You may have recalled over the weekend I wrote about how my iPhone battery drained faster than normal while I was out of town in New Orleans and Hattiesburg, MS. It seems there is an issue specific to iOS 4.3. Without getting much into the matter here you can read what I wrote about over the weekend here.
Apple sues Amazon over “App Store” name
What is it with all these tech companies suing each other recently. Now Apple is suing Amazon over them using the term “App Store” for their new Android-based store. Apple, your quickly becoming what I despise in Microsoft...stop that or I’m going Android...Ok maybe not, but still chill!
iMac’s with Sandy Bridge, Thunderbolt in May?
A rumor from a CNet reporter speculates that a revised iMac with Sandy Bridge processors and Thunderbolt technology maybe coming in May. So if you are in the market for an iMac, you may want to wait for now.
Steve Jobs: iPod classic not Going Anywhere
Rumors of its death are greatly exaggerated according to Steve Jobs who says the iPod classic will indeed be around for a while (unlike the Zune).
Apple to License AirPlay?
This is an interesting bit of news that hints that Apple may license AirPlay to TV manufacturers. This makes a lot of sense and reminds me of how Microsoft licensed its Sync feature to Ford in their cars (see I did say one nice thing about Microsoft here.) It will be interesting to see how this will come about and who will adopt it.
Wife says no, Apple says yes to iPad 2
Finally, a lighthearted piece of news as Apple reportedly send a customer a FREE iPad 2 after his wife made him return the one he bought back to the Apple Store where he put on a sticky note “Wife said no”. The customer received the iPad from Apple with a sticky that read “Apple says Yes”. That is just awesome and is a reason that despite Apple’s ego, they are still a company dear to my heart.
iOS App Reviews
Boxcar (FREE) - First off I need to credit this find to Erik J. Fisher of GSPN’s Social Media Serenity. What this app does is unify all your notifications from Facebook, Twitter, Google Buzz, Foursquare, Google Voice, Gowalla and many others, in one place! It works like a charm and they also offer an iPad version as well.
Osfoora ($2.99) - I have heard Cliff Ravenscraft mention how much he loves Osfoora so I decided to finally give it a try and I must say I am impressed! The home screen offers a robust set of features for Twitter. You can see who is tweeting nearby, what the trends are like, your favorite tweets, and lists. The only thing it doesn’t have is push notifications when someone mentions you which lead me to Boxcar. Again there is an iPad version as well for $3.99. From the compose window you have the option of attaching your location, a song you are listening to, photo and video share, and of course hash tag support. What does that mean? Well if you are using a hash tag frequently, it will save the hash tag so when you compose a message, you press the hash tag button and select the tag and it will auto insert it at the end of your post. Pretty cool!
iTalk Recorder (FREE) - A nice little audio recording app is iTalk by Griffin Technology. It will record your audio into different variations of AIFF which you can then email or place in your Drop box account. It works pretty well if you can’t afford a digital audio recorder like an Edirol or Zoom H2. The only downside is it only encodes in AIFF so no support for WAV or MP3 and you will need an application like GarageBand or Audacity to convert to those formats and compress to a more reasonable size to use in a podcast. In addition they have a $2 version if you don’t like ads.
Well, that is going to do it for this edition of AppleTalk Thursday. See you all next week for another installment and thanks for reading.
Verizon iPhone Update
It has been six weeks since Verizon began selling the iPhone and already they have snared nearly 13% of the iPhone market...not to shabby. Additionally, more Verizon iPhone users are satisfied than AT&T iPhone users which does prove one thing to AT&T..it’s the network stupid! Which is why AT&T is buying up T-Mobile to better compete with the Verizon network going forward which is a very impressive network.
Apple reaches out to Japan Employees
Apple CEO Steve Jobs has reached out to Apple’s employees in Japan after the devastating earthquake to offer the employees time off and any supplies it needs. On a related note, Kevin Rose from Digg received an email from an employee of an Apple Store in Japan who tells of how the store became a gathering point for people to communicate with families and to see just what was going on. The email is very much a good read and I highly recommend to take the time and read it on Kevin’s blog.
NFC coming to iPhone 5 after all?
These stories seem to go back and forth on the next iPhone in terms of both NFC and LTE capability. Now it seems that NFC will be coming to the iPhone 5. As I have covered here previously, NFC is short for Near Field Communication and is seen as a way to create a digital wallet to basically use your iPhone to purchase things by waving it as a capture device for payment. If you go to Exxon for example you might be familiar with their SpeedPass system where a little peg on your keychain is tied to a credit card or debit card of your choice to swipe and pay for your gas. That is what this does although it does have more possibilities beyond digital payments. One day I will post a thorough breakdown on NFC and for that matter LTE (4G). Other speculation about the next iPhone is an aluminum backing and a bigger screen.
New York Times goes InApp Subscription based
Apple’s controversial InApp subscription model has scored a big customer in the New York Times which will be going to a subscription based model for its digital content both in website and iOS app content. But if you are expecting something similar to what The Daily charges, then you are in for a sticker shock.
That is a high price for me considering I am not a power reader of the Times. But they are offering free articles up to a certain number for users, however once you exceed that number, you have to pay up.
MobileMe rebirth in April?
With the launch of Apple’s North Carolina data center just around the corner, there is new reports that Apple will precent its new MobileMe service soon and what it will offer. The constant seems to be a digital locker to store your movies, music, and photos to and use from the cloud on devices with limited storage. I would personally love this as I can then not load my music on my iOS devices and just listen to them from the cloud when needed. That I would gladly pay $99 per year for.
iOS 4.3 Battery Issue on iPhone
You may have recalled over the weekend I wrote about how my iPhone battery drained faster than normal while I was out of town in New Orleans and Hattiesburg, MS. It seems there is an issue specific to iOS 4.3. Without getting much into the matter here you can read what I wrote about over the weekend here.
Apple sues Amazon over “App Store” name
What is it with all these tech companies suing each other recently. Now Apple is suing Amazon over them using the term “App Store” for their new Android-based store. Apple, your quickly becoming what I despise in Microsoft...stop that or I’m going Android...Ok maybe not, but still chill!
iMac’s with Sandy Bridge, Thunderbolt in May?
A rumor from a CNet reporter speculates that a revised iMac with Sandy Bridge processors and Thunderbolt technology maybe coming in May. So if you are in the market for an iMac, you may want to wait for now.
Steve Jobs: iPod classic not Going Anywhere
Rumors of its death are greatly exaggerated according to Steve Jobs who says the iPod classic will indeed be around for a while (unlike the Zune).
Apple to License AirPlay?
This is an interesting bit of news that hints that Apple may license AirPlay to TV manufacturers. This makes a lot of sense and reminds me of how Microsoft licensed its Sync feature to Ford in their cars (see I did say one nice thing about Microsoft here.) It will be interesting to see how this will come about and who will adopt it.
Wife says no, Apple says yes to iPad 2
Finally, a lighthearted piece of news as Apple reportedly send a customer a FREE iPad 2 after his wife made him return the one he bought back to the Apple Store where he put on a sticky note “Wife said no”. The customer received the iPad from Apple with a sticky that read “Apple says Yes”. That is just awesome and is a reason that despite Apple’s ego, they are still a company dear to my heart.
iOS App Reviews
Boxcar (FREE) - First off I need to credit this find to Erik J. Fisher of GSPN’s Social Media Serenity. What this app does is unify all your notifications from Facebook, Twitter, Google Buzz, Foursquare, Google Voice, Gowalla and many others, in one place! It works like a charm and they also offer an iPad version as well.
Osfoora ($2.99) - I have heard Cliff Ravenscraft mention how much he loves Osfoora so I decided to finally give it a try and I must say I am impressed! The home screen offers a robust set of features for Twitter. You can see who is tweeting nearby, what the trends are like, your favorite tweets, and lists. The only thing it doesn’t have is push notifications when someone mentions you which lead me to Boxcar. Again there is an iPad version as well for $3.99. From the compose window you have the option of attaching your location, a song you are listening to, photo and video share, and of course hash tag support. What does that mean? Well if you are using a hash tag frequently, it will save the hash tag so when you compose a message, you press the hash tag button and select the tag and it will auto insert it at the end of your post. Pretty cool!
iTalk Recorder (FREE) - A nice little audio recording app is iTalk by Griffin Technology. It will record your audio into different variations of AIFF which you can then email or place in your Drop box account. It works pretty well if you can’t afford a digital audio recorder like an Edirol or Zoom H2. The only downside is it only encodes in AIFF so no support for WAV or MP3 and you will need an application like GarageBand or Audacity to convert to those formats and compress to a more reasonable size to use in a podcast. In addition they have a $2 version if you don’t like ads.
Well, that is going to do it for this edition of AppleTalk Thursday. See you all next week for another installment and thanks for reading.
Thursday, March 10, 2011
AppleTalk Thursday #12
Hey everybody and welcome to another edition of AppleTalk Thursday. We got quite a bit of news to cover here and some app reviews too. Let’s get started!
iOS 4.3
Yesterday iOS 4.3 was made available in advance of tomorrow’s iPad 2 launch. Among the new features in the OS update is the ability to AirPlay third party apps and videos within Safari to your AppleTV. I did this last night when I was watching the iPad 2 guided videos Apple put on its website, I found that I had the ability to stream them from my iPad to my AppleTV...super cool!!
Also of note is the ability to Home Sharing between your Mac or PC and your iOS devices. Once again I tried this on both my iPhone and iPad and found once I selected one of my Mac’s that it would display the entire library content on my iPhone and iPad. Now you can only select one computer at a type to display content, but this is super cool if you want to watch a movie stored on your computer on your iPad without having to install it on the iPad...both a huge time and space saver as it simply streams the content similar to the current AppleTV.
Another update is Safari, it is now a whole lot faster on my iPad and iPhone, pages load so much quicker now...big difference! The Safari update runs JavaScript twice as fast as it did before.
On the iPad they have restored the ability to make the slider switch on the side either a mute or screen rotation lock...THANK YOU APPLE!!! I hated it when they took the screen lock option away in 4.2 and made it a mute switch, now you have the choice on if it will be a mute or screen lock switch. I never mute my iPad so the choice is easy for me...screen lock!
Finally, the update brings Personal Hotspot to the iPhone 4. What this means is if you are out somewhere with your iPhone and MacBook for example and you need to use your MacBook to access the internet, you can turn on Hotspot on your iPhone to share the connection with your MacBook basically creating a mobile WiFi network using 3G for data. It is available for Verizon and AT&T but beware if you are an AT&T iPhone user that is grandfathered in on the unlimited data plan, you will have to switch your data plan to either the 250MB or 2GB data plan for that feature and you can NEVER get unlimited data back. So I will not be using it but with my iPhone and iPad, I am never really in a spot where I would need my MacBook. I have DropBox on my iPad and iPhone so my documents are within reach when needed. But if you are not in an unlimited data plan, AT&T is making it pretty easy to add on when necessary and turn off without a penalty.
AppleTV gets Sports
In addition to the 4.3 update, Apple also pushed out an update to the AppleTV version 4.2. With this update it brings 2 new channels to it, MLB.tv and NBA League Pass. What that means is if you subscribe to those services, you can now watch live baseball and basketball games right on your TV without having cable or satellite TV services. Those 2 services have been part of Roku for quite sometime as well. Now if the AppleTV could get Hulu Plus on it. Also of interest is Netflix has been updated to support 5.1 audio.
iPhone 5 Rumors
With the new iPad 2 supporting an A5 dual core processor, speculation is the iPhone 5 will sport the same chip when it arrives in the summer. Also another story making the rounds is the iPhone 5 will sport an aluminum backing similar to the iPad.
Tablet sales to Steamroll PC Sales
Another bit of news is that Gartner expects PC sales to be slower over the next 2 years than previously expected as tablets such as the iPad continue to sale like gangbusters.
Apple introduces JointVenture
Apple is making it easier to get small biz up and running with their new Mac equipment with a new service called JointVenture. Under the plan, Apple will setup Mac and iOS equipment as well as train employees how to use them, and offer dedicated support. The cost is $499 and supports up to 5 systems. If you do have a system that needs repair, Apple will even loan you a MacBook Pro or MacBook Air with Mail, iCal, iWork, iLife, and Microsoft Office pre-installed, while your system is being worked on.
Apple in Discussions with Record Labels to Offer Unlimited Music Downloads
Apple is said to be negotiating with record labels to allow users to download multiple times a song they bought once. This is similar to the App Store which you pay once and download an unlimited number of times at no additional cost. This would line up with their much anticipated mobile revamp as part of their North Carolina data center that will go live this spring.
Apple most Admired Company
Forbes announced that Apple is for the 4th straight year, the world’s most admired company thanks to its constant innovations of products. Take that haters!!
More iPad 2 News
So as I said earlier the iPad 2 will go on sale tomorrow both online and at Apple Stores everywhere in the U.S. Online sales will begin at 1am Pacific Time and in store purchases will begin at 5pm local time. When I first heard this I thought, “boy I hope the 2 Austin, TX Apple Stores have a good selection as South by Southwest (SXSW) starts tomorrow. But Apple is going to open a pop up store on Congress and West 6th St. It will be inside a 5,000 square foot building so should be plenty of space for iPad 2 purchasing and within walking distance of SXSW.
Also if you are a current iPad owner but are worried about losing your unlimited data plan from AT&T when upgrading to the iPad 2, worry not as AT&T will allow grandfathering in like they do with iPhone upgrades. If you are not signed up with either AT&T or Verizon and are getting an iPad 2, then you may want to check out their data plans to see which one fits you best than buy either the GSM (AT&T) or CDMA (Verizon) based model.
Finally some of the first iPad reviews are starting to come out. Great reviews for the most part with the only criticism being about the quality of the cameras.
iOS App Reviews
DirecTV iPad Remote (FREE) - Last week I mentioned how DirecTV had released an app for the iPad that allows you to control your receiver from the iPad. Well since then, I have my modem and router relocated to the living room and now have it wired to my DirecTV receiver and it works as advertised. You can setup favorite channels, and view your DVR playlist and select which show to play. My only criticism is that you can’t play the recordings on your iPad but I guess they can always add that feature later.
TweetDeck (FREE) - Another app I tried out this week was TweetDeck, they have a version for both the iPhone and iPod touch as well as the iPad. With the iPhone version you can set it to post to both Twitter and Facebook and view your columns for lists and mentions. The Facebook feature though tends to have a lot of errors which may explain why they don’t have it in the iPad version.
Well, that is going to do it for this edition of AppleTalk Thursday. See you next week for another all things Apple report.
iOS 4.3
Yesterday iOS 4.3 was made available in advance of tomorrow’s iPad 2 launch. Among the new features in the OS update is the ability to AirPlay third party apps and videos within Safari to your AppleTV. I did this last night when I was watching the iPad 2 guided videos Apple put on its website, I found that I had the ability to stream them from my iPad to my AppleTV...super cool!!
Also of note is the ability to Home Sharing between your Mac or PC and your iOS devices. Once again I tried this on both my iPhone and iPad and found once I selected one of my Mac’s that it would display the entire library content on my iPhone and iPad. Now you can only select one computer at a type to display content, but this is super cool if you want to watch a movie stored on your computer on your iPad without having to install it on the iPad...both a huge time and space saver as it simply streams the content similar to the current AppleTV.
Another update is Safari, it is now a whole lot faster on my iPad and iPhone, pages load so much quicker now...big difference! The Safari update runs JavaScript twice as fast as it did before.
On the iPad they have restored the ability to make the slider switch on the side either a mute or screen rotation lock...THANK YOU APPLE!!! I hated it when they took the screen lock option away in 4.2 and made it a mute switch, now you have the choice on if it will be a mute or screen lock switch. I never mute my iPad so the choice is easy for me...screen lock!
Finally, the update brings Personal Hotspot to the iPhone 4. What this means is if you are out somewhere with your iPhone and MacBook for example and you need to use your MacBook to access the internet, you can turn on Hotspot on your iPhone to share the connection with your MacBook basically creating a mobile WiFi network using 3G for data. It is available for Verizon and AT&T but beware if you are an AT&T iPhone user that is grandfathered in on the unlimited data plan, you will have to switch your data plan to either the 250MB or 2GB data plan for that feature and you can NEVER get unlimited data back. So I will not be using it but with my iPhone and iPad, I am never really in a spot where I would need my MacBook. I have DropBox on my iPad and iPhone so my documents are within reach when needed. But if you are not in an unlimited data plan, AT&T is making it pretty easy to add on when necessary and turn off without a penalty.
AppleTV gets Sports
In addition to the 4.3 update, Apple also pushed out an update to the AppleTV version 4.2. With this update it brings 2 new channels to it, MLB.tv and NBA League Pass. What that means is if you subscribe to those services, you can now watch live baseball and basketball games right on your TV without having cable or satellite TV services. Those 2 services have been part of Roku for quite sometime as well. Now if the AppleTV could get Hulu Plus on it. Also of interest is Netflix has been updated to support 5.1 audio.
iPhone 5 Rumors
With the new iPad 2 supporting an A5 dual core processor, speculation is the iPhone 5 will sport the same chip when it arrives in the summer. Also another story making the rounds is the iPhone 5 will sport an aluminum backing similar to the iPad.
Tablet sales to Steamroll PC Sales
Another bit of news is that Gartner expects PC sales to be slower over the next 2 years than previously expected as tablets such as the iPad continue to sale like gangbusters.
Apple introduces JointVenture
Apple is making it easier to get small biz up and running with their new Mac equipment with a new service called JointVenture. Under the plan, Apple will setup Mac and iOS equipment as well as train employees how to use them, and offer dedicated support. The cost is $499 and supports up to 5 systems. If you do have a system that needs repair, Apple will even loan you a MacBook Pro or MacBook Air with Mail, iCal, iWork, iLife, and Microsoft Office pre-installed, while your system is being worked on.
Apple in Discussions with Record Labels to Offer Unlimited Music Downloads
Apple is said to be negotiating with record labels to allow users to download multiple times a song they bought once. This is similar to the App Store which you pay once and download an unlimited number of times at no additional cost. This would line up with their much anticipated mobile revamp as part of their North Carolina data center that will go live this spring.
Apple most Admired Company
Forbes announced that Apple is for the 4th straight year, the world’s most admired company thanks to its constant innovations of products. Take that haters!!
More iPad 2 News
So as I said earlier the iPad 2 will go on sale tomorrow both online and at Apple Stores everywhere in the U.S. Online sales will begin at 1am Pacific Time and in store purchases will begin at 5pm local time. When I first heard this I thought, “boy I hope the 2 Austin, TX Apple Stores have a good selection as South by Southwest (SXSW) starts tomorrow. But Apple is going to open a pop up store on Congress and West 6th St. It will be inside a 5,000 square foot building so should be plenty of space for iPad 2 purchasing and within walking distance of SXSW.
Also if you are a current iPad owner but are worried about losing your unlimited data plan from AT&T when upgrading to the iPad 2, worry not as AT&T will allow grandfathering in like they do with iPhone upgrades. If you are not signed up with either AT&T or Verizon and are getting an iPad 2, then you may want to check out their data plans to see which one fits you best than buy either the GSM (AT&T) or CDMA (Verizon) based model.
Finally some of the first iPad reviews are starting to come out. Great reviews for the most part with the only criticism being about the quality of the cameras.
iOS App Reviews
DirecTV iPad Remote (FREE) - Last week I mentioned how DirecTV had released an app for the iPad that allows you to control your receiver from the iPad. Well since then, I have my modem and router relocated to the living room and now have it wired to my DirecTV receiver and it works as advertised. You can setup favorite channels, and view your DVR playlist and select which show to play. My only criticism is that you can’t play the recordings on your iPad but I guess they can always add that feature later.
TweetDeck (FREE) - Another app I tried out this week was TweetDeck, they have a version for both the iPhone and iPod touch as well as the iPad. With the iPhone version you can set it to post to both Twitter and Facebook and view your columns for lists and mentions. The Facebook feature though tends to have a lot of errors which may explain why they don’t have it in the iPad version.
Well, that is going to do it for this edition of AppleTalk Thursday. See you next week for another all things Apple report.
Thursday, February 24, 2011
AppleTalk Thursday #10
Hello folks and welcome to another edition of AppleTalk Thursday. Got quite a bit of Apple news so let’s dive right into things.
iPad 2 coming next Wednesday
Apple has scheduled a press event for next Wednesday in San Francisco where it will announce the iPad 2. This has been a rumored date for the past week but it is now official. So based on what has been said about it the expectations are we will see a second generation iPad with a front and rear facing camera and a more anti-reflective screen to make it easier to read for long periods of time. One thing that will not be in the second gen. is a retina display but that is rumored for the iPad 3 which Apple may announce in the Fall. I also expect the new iPad to be sold at both AT&T and Verizon locations as well as the usual Best Buy and Apple Store locations.
iPad 2 coming next Wednesday
Apple has scheduled a press event for next Wednesday in San Francisco where it will announce the iPad 2. This has been a rumored date for the past week but it is now official. So based on what has been said about it the expectations are we will see a second generation iPad with a front and rear facing camera and a more anti-reflective screen to make it easier to read for long periods of time. One thing that will not be in the second gen. is a retina display but that is rumored for the iPad 3 which Apple may announce in the Fall. I also expect the new iPad to be sold at both AT&T and Verizon locations as well as the usual Best Buy and Apple Store locations.
A MobileMe Makeover
According to a report in Cult of Mac, Apple is about to totally rebuild MobileMe into a combination of Facebook, uStream, and FourSquare. Basically allowing you to have a dynamic website that is live. If they make good on only half of what is in the article it is totally worth the $99 I just paid again for it this year. Apple stated yesterday that their new massive Data Center in North Carolina will support iTunes and MobileMe when it goes live in the Spring.
Sony backtracks on iTunes Crazy Talk
A Sony executive stated that it has no intention of pulling their music content from iTunes. Glad you bozo’s got your story straight! Any label pulling its music content from iTunes would be like a TV network pulling its shows from say DirecTV...it would only hurt their sales in the long run. Like it or not iTunes is the standard for digital music distribution, if someone can do it better then people will flock to that service in large numbers, but it hasn’t happened yet. Certainly Amazon does a good job with their music content but it is still not as simple as iTunes IMHO.
Apple Looking at Offering a Cheaper iPhone
Apple is said to be looking at developing a cheaper iPhone, one that can better compete with Android offerings. Presumably this lower cost iPhone could be free if signed with a 2 year contract with a carrier. Of course you can get the iPhone 3GS right now for $49 but only through AT&T. Another story floating around is that this cheaper iPhone would be more of a streaming device with content coming from a digital locker in the new MobileMe revamp as mentioned above.
AT&T Allowing Mobile Hotspot for 4.3 Users
Here is an interesting piece about how developers using iOS 4.3 are being allowed access to AT&T’s new Mobile Hotspot service. I hope this will be the case when iOS 4.3 goes live to the general public and that AT&T will allow an iPad for example to be a part of the hotspot. Why pay AT&T $25 for 3G access on the iPad when I can just use it as a device with a hotspot service?
According to a report in Cult of Mac, Apple is about to totally rebuild MobileMe into a combination of Facebook, uStream, and FourSquare. Basically allowing you to have a dynamic website that is live. If they make good on only half of what is in the article it is totally worth the $99 I just paid again for it this year. Apple stated yesterday that their new massive Data Center in North Carolina will support iTunes and MobileMe when it goes live in the Spring.
Sony backtracks on iTunes Crazy Talk
A Sony executive stated that it has no intention of pulling their music content from iTunes. Glad you bozo’s got your story straight! Any label pulling its music content from iTunes would be like a TV network pulling its shows from say DirecTV...it would only hurt their sales in the long run. Like it or not iTunes is the standard for digital music distribution, if someone can do it better then people will flock to that service in large numbers, but it hasn’t happened yet. Certainly Amazon does a good job with their music content but it is still not as simple as iTunes IMHO.
Apple Looking at Offering a Cheaper iPhone
Apple is said to be looking at developing a cheaper iPhone, one that can better compete with Android offerings. Presumably this lower cost iPhone could be free if signed with a 2 year contract with a carrier. Of course you can get the iPhone 3GS right now for $49 but only through AT&T. Another story floating around is that this cheaper iPhone would be more of a streaming device with content coming from a digital locker in the new MobileMe revamp as mentioned above.
AT&T Allowing Mobile Hotspot for 4.3 Users
Here is an interesting piece about how developers using iOS 4.3 are being allowed access to AT&T’s new Mobile Hotspot service. I hope this will be the case when iOS 4.3 goes live to the general public and that AT&T will allow an iPad for example to be a part of the hotspot. Why pay AT&T $25 for 3G access on the iPad when I can just use it as a device with a hotspot service?
Apple adopting Thunderbolt (Light Peak)?
Perhaps this will explain Apple’s reluctance to adopt USB 3.0. They appear to be adopting Intel’s Light Peak or High-Speed Connection Technology which offers a connection speed of 10Gbps (USB 2.0 is 480Mbps and USB 3.0 is 5Gbps). Apple would rebrand it as Thunderbolt, think for example how they renamed iLink (IEEE 1394) as FireWire.
Readability app Rejected and Resubmitted
Readability which is an application that strips away a lot of advertising junk from stuff you want to read as rejected earlier this week by Apple over the lack of in-app subscription, but the issue seems to have been resolved as it has been resubmitted. Readability is more of a Software as a Service app than say a subscription content something Steve Jobs stated in an email to a developer. Apple’s new in-app subscription policy has caught the eye of the FTC which is investigating the policy. From Apple’s standpoint I can see where they want to make it easier for the consumer to purchase content from within the app, but from a developer perspective it is more of a twisting of the arm to get to play in Apple’s App Store club and giving Apple a 30% cut of the in-app purchase on top of that. I think Apple should be more flexible on that percentage offer as Google’s new service simply takes 10%. I don’t have a lot of big beefs with Apple but this would be one of them.
24-bit Music coming to iTunes?
Apple is in discussions with music labels on offering 24-bit music in its iTunes music store. Currently it is only available in 16-bit format where 24-bit is a HiFi format.
Will OS X 10.7 Lion bring new UI?
Another bit of information here is will the upcoming Mac OS update of 10.7 Lion bring an updated user interface? Maybe something more iOS like? Will be interesting to see what Apple has up their sleeves for it.
Well, that is going to do it for this edition of AppleTalk Thursday. See you all next week where we will have a good breakdown of the iPad 2 announcement. See you then!
Perhaps this will explain Apple’s reluctance to adopt USB 3.0. They appear to be adopting Intel’s Light Peak or High-Speed Connection Technology which offers a connection speed of 10Gbps (USB 2.0 is 480Mbps and USB 3.0 is 5Gbps). Apple would rebrand it as Thunderbolt, think for example how they renamed iLink (IEEE 1394) as FireWire.
Readability app Rejected and Resubmitted
Readability which is an application that strips away a lot of advertising junk from stuff you want to read as rejected earlier this week by Apple over the lack of in-app subscription, but the issue seems to have been resolved as it has been resubmitted. Readability is more of a Software as a Service app than say a subscription content something Steve Jobs stated in an email to a developer. Apple’s new in-app subscription policy has caught the eye of the FTC which is investigating the policy. From Apple’s standpoint I can see where they want to make it easier for the consumer to purchase content from within the app, but from a developer perspective it is more of a twisting of the arm to get to play in Apple’s App Store club and giving Apple a 30% cut of the in-app purchase on top of that. I think Apple should be more flexible on that percentage offer as Google’s new service simply takes 10%. I don’t have a lot of big beefs with Apple but this would be one of them.
24-bit Music coming to iTunes?
Apple is in discussions with music labels on offering 24-bit music in its iTunes music store. Currently it is only available in 16-bit format where 24-bit is a HiFi format.
Will OS X 10.7 Lion bring new UI?
Another bit of information here is will the upcoming Mac OS update of 10.7 Lion bring an updated user interface? Maybe something more iOS like? Will be interesting to see what Apple has up their sleeves for it.
Well, that is going to do it for this edition of AppleTalk Thursday. See you all next week where we will have a good breakdown of the iPad 2 announcement. See you then!
Thursday, February 17, 2011
AppleTalk Thursday #9
Hello folks and welcome to another edition of AppleTalk Thursday where we discuss all things Apple. Let’s see what is going on in the world of Cupertino today.
iPad in the Enterprise Marketplace
The iPad which btw is still not even a year old yet, is making great strides not just with the general public but also in the enterprise market. In-fact 80% of Fortune 100 companies are already deploying or piloting the iPad according to Apple in its recent earnings call. Imagine what the 2nd generation iPad will do.
Apple could benefit from Nokia-Microsoft partnership
An analyst with RBC Capital Markets has speculated that with Nokia abandoning Symbian for Windows Phone 7, the move opens up possible significant gains for the Apple iOS, Google Android, and possibly BlackBerry (remember them?). Course he also stated that Microsoft could see gains as well (insert laugh track here).
MobileMe for FREE and the mini-iPhone Rumor
So lots of talk this past week of a possible smaller and less expensive iPhone and also an updated MobileMe that will not only may be free but will offer cloud based access to music and photos. This would seem to make sense as it would help Apple fight off the Android market and give that data center in North Carolina a purpose.
iPhone 5 with a Slide out Keyboard and a Bigger Screen?
Another rumor is that Apple is working on iPhone 5 prototypes one of which has a slide out keyboard while another model would have an 8MP camera but otherwise be the same as the iPhone 4. Yet another rumor speculates that the next updated iPhone could have a 4” screen up from the current 3.5” screen. I am not putting much stock into either rumor as this point, but it is a lot of fun to talk about.
Apple and Samsung, partner and competitor
Apple will soon be Samsung’s biggest customer with a $7.8 Billion deal for Samsung to manufacture the screens for the iPhone and the iPad’s. On the flip side of the coin, Samsung has announced a new 10” Galaxy tablet with 16 or 32GB configurations. No word on pricing yet.
Apple debuts App Store Subscriptions
On Tuesday, Apple made it official with App Store subscriptions from within the app or in-app subscriptions. The move opens up an area for content to digital newspapers, magazines, and music based services. Apple has also advised developers they have until 6/30 to comply with the new method in their apps. This of course is not making a lot of developers happy. On a side note, The Daily which has been plagued with crashing issues, has extended its free subscription to the end of February. I was really happy with it at first, but lately not so much. Will be interesting to see who follows The Daily with a similar app.
Kindle iOS Update
Speaking of developers that will soon be effected by Apple’s new rules, Amazon has updated their Kindle app with a couple of handy features. One shows the progress bar on the home screen of your book shelf showing where you are on your books, another now actually shows what physical page number you are on which makes it easier to site passages to people reading a physical book. This is also a feature Amazon just updated on their own Kindle devices as well.
Verizon handling iPhone Traffic Smoothly
There was a lot of talk on how the Verizon network would handle the iPhone’s once they got into the wild, well it appears it has met the challenge without a hitch. Very good news for Verizon there!
iOS App Reviews
So for this week’s app reviews I wanted to focus on online radio apps. There are quite a few of them out there and I use a few of them.
Pandora (FREE) - Course the most popular radio apps out there is Pandora. By choosing an artist or a song, it will play tracks similar to that artist or song for hours! They also have an iPad specific version as well. It is a free service however if you pay the $36 per year subscription, it allows you to skip more tracks up to 6 per hour I believe.
iHeartRadio (FREE) - This application allows you to listen to 750 radio stations across the US. I use it to listen to KFI out in Los Angeles, a station I listened to all the time when I lived out there.
TuneIn Radio (99 cents) - TuneIn Radio is similar to iheartradio but it tends to offer more radio stations so it might be worth the 99 cents to buy and use and it has an iPad version too.
SiriusXM (FREE) - If you are a subscriber to SiriusXM, then this is a nice app you have your stations with you all the time. This has been handy for me when I am driving a car that doesn’t have satellite radio. My truck was in an accident this week which does have an sat radio unit and since I am in a loaner, I can play the stations through my AirTrip device through the car stereo.
Well, that is going to do it for this week’s AppleTalk Thursday. See you all next week for another edition of all things Apple!
iPad in the Enterprise Marketplace
The iPad which btw is still not even a year old yet, is making great strides not just with the general public but also in the enterprise market. In-fact 80% of Fortune 100 companies are already deploying or piloting the iPad according to Apple in its recent earnings call. Imagine what the 2nd generation iPad will do.
Apple could benefit from Nokia-Microsoft partnership
An analyst with RBC Capital Markets has speculated that with Nokia abandoning Symbian for Windows Phone 7, the move opens up possible significant gains for the Apple iOS, Google Android, and possibly BlackBerry (remember them?). Course he also stated that Microsoft could see gains as well (insert laugh track here).
MobileMe for FREE and the mini-iPhone Rumor
So lots of talk this past week of a possible smaller and less expensive iPhone and also an updated MobileMe that will not only may be free but will offer cloud based access to music and photos. This would seem to make sense as it would help Apple fight off the Android market and give that data center in North Carolina a purpose.
iPhone 5 with a Slide out Keyboard and a Bigger Screen?
Another rumor is that Apple is working on iPhone 5 prototypes one of which has a slide out keyboard while another model would have an 8MP camera but otherwise be the same as the iPhone 4. Yet another rumor speculates that the next updated iPhone could have a 4” screen up from the current 3.5” screen. I am not putting much stock into either rumor as this point, but it is a lot of fun to talk about.
Apple and Samsung, partner and competitor
Apple will soon be Samsung’s biggest customer with a $7.8 Billion deal for Samsung to manufacture the screens for the iPhone and the iPad’s. On the flip side of the coin, Samsung has announced a new 10” Galaxy tablet with 16 or 32GB configurations. No word on pricing yet.
Apple debuts App Store Subscriptions
On Tuesday, Apple made it official with App Store subscriptions from within the app or in-app subscriptions. The move opens up an area for content to digital newspapers, magazines, and music based services. Apple has also advised developers they have until 6/30 to comply with the new method in their apps. This of course is not making a lot of developers happy. On a side note, The Daily which has been plagued with crashing issues, has extended its free subscription to the end of February. I was really happy with it at first, but lately not so much. Will be interesting to see who follows The Daily with a similar app.
Kindle iOS Update
Speaking of developers that will soon be effected by Apple’s new rules, Amazon has updated their Kindle app with a couple of handy features. One shows the progress bar on the home screen of your book shelf showing where you are on your books, another now actually shows what physical page number you are on which makes it easier to site passages to people reading a physical book. This is also a feature Amazon just updated on their own Kindle devices as well.
Verizon handling iPhone Traffic Smoothly
There was a lot of talk on how the Verizon network would handle the iPhone’s once they got into the wild, well it appears it has met the challenge without a hitch. Very good news for Verizon there!
iOS App Reviews
So for this week’s app reviews I wanted to focus on online radio apps. There are quite a few of them out there and I use a few of them.
Pandora (FREE) - Course the most popular radio apps out there is Pandora. By choosing an artist or a song, it will play tracks similar to that artist or song for hours! They also have an iPad specific version as well. It is a free service however if you pay the $36 per year subscription, it allows you to skip more tracks up to 6 per hour I believe.
iHeartRadio (FREE) - This application allows you to listen to 750 radio stations across the US. I use it to listen to KFI out in Los Angeles, a station I listened to all the time when I lived out there.
TuneIn Radio (99 cents) - TuneIn Radio is similar to iheartradio but it tends to offer more radio stations so it might be worth the 99 cents to buy and use and it has an iPad version too.
SiriusXM (FREE) - If you are a subscriber to SiriusXM, then this is a nice app you have your stations with you all the time. This has been handy for me when I am driving a car that doesn’t have satellite radio. My truck was in an accident this week which does have an sat radio unit and since I am in a loaner, I can play the stations through my AirTrip device through the car stereo.
Well, that is going to do it for this week’s AppleTalk Thursday. See you all next week for another edition of all things Apple!
Thursday, December 16, 2010
AppleTalk Thursday #1
Hey everybody and welcome to the first edition of AppleTalk Thursday. Over the past year or so, I have written a blog called Tuesday Tech Talk. When it first started out, it was all things technology. But as Apple and Google continue to grow with exciting products, it began to dominate Triple T. Earlier this year, I launched Googling Friday to talk about all things Google related and now this will be the blog to talk about the Macintosh and iOS devices like the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad as well as the AppleTV. This I hope will allow Tuesday Tech Talk to focus back on general technology and even offer more time to things not Apple and Google. So, that is my intro, lets get down to business!
Verizon and iPhone Update
Yes, another week of Verizon and the iPhone uniting rumors. One source saying Verizon may get the iPhone as soon as after Christmas as part of Verizon’s LTE “4G” network. Although it is just a rumor, it also offered plenty of details and an analyst at Asymco states that Verizon really needs the iPhone to help catch up with AT&T in smartphone sales. I think it is only a matter of time before Verizon gets the iPhone, just a matter of if it will be in January or late June-early July when the iPhone 5 arrives with a dual chip capability to run on GSM and CDMA networks as well as LTE.
iPad Biggest Tech Winner of 2010 and other iPad News
Business Insider has named the iPad the Biggest Tech Winner of 2010. This is not a surprise at all, since it launched in April, Apple has sold over 10 million units. It will be interesting to see what the iPad 2 brings in the Spring or maybe even earlier. Also of note, the iPad is now available from Best Buy’s online store. In addition, it is quickly catching up to the Kindle as an ebook reader. I’m sure Amazon doesn't mind that though as it offers a Kindle ebook reader app for the iPad which is what I use to read books with.
MobileMe to get a lot Better Next Year says Jobs
In response to an email regarding MobileMe,Steve Jobs stated that the service will be even more better in 2011. This has me curious enough to go ahead and continue for another year on the service.
Verizon FiOS coming to Mac and iOS in 2011
Verizon announced they are working on a Mac and iOS application for their FiOS TV service. It will require a Verizon internet connection, but they hope to have it launched in the early half of 2011. Are you listening DirecTV?
Google Voice updated to support iPad and iPod touch
On Tuesday Google updated its Google Voice application to support iPad and iPod touch devices. It has an option called Click2Call which you can choose which phone to ring to call out to.
Well, that is going to do it for this first edition of AppleTalk Thursday. Next week I will add some app reviews. See you next week!
Verizon and iPhone Update
Yes, another week of Verizon and the iPhone uniting rumors. One source saying Verizon may get the iPhone as soon as after Christmas as part of Verizon’s LTE “4G” network. Although it is just a rumor, it also offered plenty of details and an analyst at Asymco states that Verizon really needs the iPhone to help catch up with AT&T in smartphone sales. I think it is only a matter of time before Verizon gets the iPhone, just a matter of if it will be in January or late June-early July when the iPhone 5 arrives with a dual chip capability to run on GSM and CDMA networks as well as LTE.
iPad Biggest Tech Winner of 2010 and other iPad News
Business Insider has named the iPad the Biggest Tech Winner of 2010. This is not a surprise at all, since it launched in April, Apple has sold over 10 million units. It will be interesting to see what the iPad 2 brings in the Spring or maybe even earlier. Also of note, the iPad is now available from Best Buy’s online store. In addition, it is quickly catching up to the Kindle as an ebook reader. I’m sure Amazon doesn't mind that though as it offers a Kindle ebook reader app for the iPad which is what I use to read books with.
MobileMe to get a lot Better Next Year says Jobs
In response to an email regarding MobileMe,Steve Jobs stated that the service will be even more better in 2011. This has me curious enough to go ahead and continue for another year on the service.
Verizon FiOS coming to Mac and iOS in 2011
Verizon announced they are working on a Mac and iOS application for their FiOS TV service. It will require a Verizon internet connection, but they hope to have it launched in the early half of 2011. Are you listening DirecTV?
Google Voice updated to support iPad and iPod touch
On Tuesday Google updated its Google Voice application to support iPad and iPod touch devices. It has an option called Click2Call which you can choose which phone to ring to call out to.
Well, that is going to do it for this first edition of AppleTalk Thursday. Next week I will add some app reviews. See you next week!
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Tuesday Tech Talk - Apple Event Special
Greetings everybody, yes I’m back with an extra installment of Triple T. as I wanted to talk about the Apple Special Event today. So lets dive right into things. My comments are in italic. Please excuse the notes form of the post but I decided for the sake of a timely release it was best to just keep it the way I wrote my notes.
iOS 4.1
Proximity, Bluetooth, iPhone 3G bug fixes- Glad to see the proximity censor issue finally addressed here.
High Dynamic Range photos-uses algorithm to enhance photos So basically a built in software function to enhance photos
HD video upload over WiFi
TV show rentals
Game Center-Multi-player games Challenge friends, auto matching, Compare scores
Will be out next week for the iPhone and iPod touch
iOS 4.2 sneak peek iPad
Everything in 4.1 plus
Wireless Printing - Finally! This is going to be awesome and make working with Pages a whole lot easier
AirPlay- stream audio, photos, and video formerly called AirTunes
Out in November free update to iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch - Although I was hoping the iPad would have multitasking earlier, for wireless printing, I can wait.
iPods
Buttons and voiceover
Multiple Playlists
Genius mixes
15 hours of music
2GB available in 5 colors
$49
Smaller no wheel multitouch has a clip on the back to wear
24 hours of music battery life
Square looking
voice over
radio
Nike+
Pedometer
screen rotates
Photos
7 colors
$149 8 GB, $179 16 GB
Slightly thinner than the previous iPod touch
Retina display like in iPhone 4
Apple A4 chip also like in the iPhone 4
3-axis gyro
iOS 4.1
FaceTime with front and rear facing camera - This means if you have an iPod touch and a friend or family member has an iPhone 4 you can talk to each other using FaceTime. I’m guessing this will be tied via an email address since the iPod touch is not a phone.
HD video recording
40 hours battery life
8GB $229
32GB $299
64GB $399
Available next week
This is great if you wanted the iPhone features of HD video capture, FaceTime and the retina display but don’t want to sign up for an AT&T contract. They will sell a ton of these!
iTunes
iTunes 10 - dig the new logo...the CD is gone!
Ping- Social music discovery, see what your friends are listening to. Connect with your friends and favorite artists. I think MySpace has a problem!
available today Free
AppleTV
The new AppleTV is a fourth the size of the original AppleTV and it fits in your hand!
On the back:
HDMI
Optical audio
Ethernet
802.11n WiFI
Comes with a remote
streaming- no syncing so don’t have to worry about HD space
HD movie rental $4.99 for first run titles
HD TV shows 99 cents commercial free
ABC & FOX signed on to deliver content Please CBS sign on so I can get my NCIS episodes in HD since my local channels are not offered in HD by DirecTV yet.
Netflix - I finally got to see how Netflix streaming on a TV looks after going down to Hattiesburg and seeing it stream via the Nintendo Wii to my in-laws TV. I can’t wait to get this device.
YouTube - Love that my wife and I can browse our TV for YouTube content.
Flickr & MobileMe - Cool to show off pictures on the TV without hooking up a computer to it to do so
$99 Available in 4 weeks - Keep in mind it was $299 so they are dropping $200 on this and it does so much more now. I will be getting one!
Well, that is what Apple came out with today. Lot of cool stuff that made my eyes as big as saucers. What really stands out to me is the new AppleTV. I think the price point and its features is really going to turn it around in sales. Also the new iPod touch is going to be big for those that want the FaceTime and HD video shooting but not the expense of a 2 year AT&T contract.
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Tuesday Tech Talk #46
Hello folks and welcome to another edition of Triple T. Got a few topics to discuss this week so lets jump right into things.
WordPress 3.0 sneak peak
Coming out later this month will be WordPress 3.0. Some of the new features in it will be Custom Post Types, Menu management, and...wait for it...multi site! You can read about the features here.
Apple MobileMe Mail revamp
Apple is letting some users opt into a beta version of their updated web-based MobileMe email site. Yes, I clicked on the link to opt in and am awaiting my invite from Apple.
AT&T HSPA+ to reach 250 million Americans
Wow speeds of up to 14.4 Mbps is not to shabby! They hope to have the network in place by the end of 2010 and should go a long way in refuting the Verizon ads about their network. AT&T has a reputation problem and this could go a long way in turning that around.
Padres pitcher uses iPhone to self diagnose Appendicitis
So what do you do when you are feeling ill at 3am in the morning and know something isn’t right? Look up WebMD on your iPhone of course and make a successful diagnosis of appendicitis and then a few hours later be in recovery from surgery. Apple needs to call this guy and give him a commercial.
Have balcony, will travel
Ok, don’t quite get the benefit of an airplane having a balcony. What a great view of the tarmac for that business meeting! I mean seriously this is about as pointless as me owning a set of golf clubs.
Star Tours coming to an end
Finally today some sad news for Star Wars fans everywhere, Disneyland and Disney World will be shutting Star Tours. If you live closer to Disneyland, the last day will be July 27th, if you are closer to Orlando then the magic day is September 8th.
Well that is going to do it for this week’s Tuesday Tech Talk. See you all next week!
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