Hello everybody and welcome to another edition of AppleTalk Thursday. Last Friday the iPad 2 went on sale and quickly sold out as expected. Let’s see what is going on this week in the world of Apple!
Adobe Finds Backdoor for Flash into iOS Devices
Adobe has released a Flash to HTML5 conversion tool called Wallaby. What it does is convert Flash-based artwork and animation files (.fla) into HTML5 when viewed via mobile Safari on iOS devices. Some might say that Adobe found a way to get Flash into iOS devices but I see it as an admission by Adobe that HTML5 is clearly the standard going forward.
iOS In-App Purchasing Requiring Password Now
Last week I discussed new features in iOS 4.3, one of the minor changes is when you make an in-app purchase now, it will require your account password. This is great news for parents who’s children had apps with in-app purchasing that were ringing up mom and dad’s charge card (Smurfs).
More Evidence of Possible Bigger iPhone 5 Screen
A new image has leaked out showing an iPhone 5 design diagram that hints at a larger display screen for the next generation iPhone. Seems to match up with other speculation as well. We shall find out in June or July I guess.
How to get the iMovie iPad app on First Gen iPad
Last week Apple released an updated iMove iOS app. Of course the biggest update to it is the ability to run on an iPad or more specifically, an iPad 2. But never fear fellow iPad generation 1 owners, there actually is a way to run iMove on your iPad. So if your feeling daring, give it a try.
iPad Continues to Crush the Tablet Competition
This report came out prior to Friday’s iPad 2 release, but as you can tell the iPad commands a huge lead in tablet market-share and based on the numbers on iPad 2 sales, those numbers will grow even bigger. Another interesting bit of information comes from Piper Jaffray which says that according to their survey, about 70% of iPad buyers are new customers to the tablet device. One Wall Street analyst has gone so far to state that the iPad now has an “insurmountable lead”.
GarageBand for the iPad
With the new iPad 2 came a release of GarageBand for both the first and new iPad models. I played around with it myself and put together an awful hard rock tune. The folks at TUAW have a nice review on it as well. It is definitely for musicians and lacks the podcast feature found in the desktop version. But playing the drums is quite fun I must admit.
White iPhone coming in the Spring
With the released of a White iPad 2, many are wondering if this is the year we will finally see the long promised white iPhone 4. Well according to Phil Schiller via Twitter, it is indeed coming in the Spring and Phil goes on to state that “it is a beauty.”
Jon Bon Jovi hates iTunes
How many times have we heard this one, burned out rocker complaining how (fill in new technology) is killing music. We heard it before when the cassette and later the CD came out, we heard it from Garth Brooks who is too stubborn to put his music in any digital store, and now Jon Bon Jovi is saying that Steve Jobs is the antiChrist..Ok he didn’t say that, but he did say that Steve is personally responsible for killing music. Jon, go blow it out your *bleep*!!! Ok first off iTunes came about 2003 about 4 years after Napster. Maybe do your homework next time about digital downloads and how they came about Jersey boy!
Archive your email in Apple Mail
If you use Gmail then no doubt you are familiar with the feature to just archive your email messages and not have to worry about which folder they are in. Well, thanks to a little plugin, you can now do the same with your Apple Mail. Now me personally, I use Gmail via the web but if you use Mail then this may be a handy thing for you to try. MacWorld has an article of its own on how to better integrate your Gmail into Mail
Time Warner brings TV watching to the iPad...sort of
Time Warner has rolled out a new app for the iPad that allows you to watch a limited number of channels IF you are at home and using their internet. It will also allow you to change the channels on the TV as a remote and set DVR recordings which is similar to other TV provider services.
The Zune is Dead...Long Live the iPod!
Microsoft this week pulled the plug on the underperforming Zune media player and wannabe iPod. Although it does sound like they will maintain the Zune Marketplace for the Windows Phone 7 devices so if you have a Zune then the 2 of you will still be able to get your music that you have to pay a monthly subscription for to listen to...ownership beats rent people!
MacBundle Deal
Finally, check out this great bundle deal! Parallels itself would be worth $49 alone but there is over $300 in software here!
Well, that is going to do it for this week’s AppleTalk Thursday. Be back next week for more exciting Apple news!
Showing posts with label app store. Show all posts
Showing posts with label app store. Show all posts
Thursday, March 17, 2011
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Tuesday Tech Talk #81
Hello everyone and welcome to another edition of Tuesday Tech Talk. Let’s see what is going on this week.
AT&T CEO: App Stores are Bad
So according to the AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson, app stores like the iTunes App Store and Android Marketplace are bad because they are platform specific. Uh Ok, well if that were the case then why have 10 billion apps been downloaded just on the iOS platform? What is his solution? Web-based apps, you know like the first gen. iPhone had. Remember how boring those were? I sure do. Mr. Stephenson is completely out of touch with the reality of what the customer wants.
Apple vs Google vs Amazon on Subscription Plan
AppleInsider has a rather in-depth article on the subscription plans offered by Apple, Google, and Amazon Kindle. It is worth the read if one has quite the time to read as it is about 3 pages of reading. Here is a quick breakdown chart found in the article though.
Motorola Atrix 4G Rooted already
The thing is not even out yet and someone has already managed to root it. I have to admit, this is a nice looking phone and might be the first Android device to make me want to cheat on my iPhone...why do I feel so dirty all of the sudden?
Well, that is all I have this week. Kind of a slow week for general technology. Come back later this week for AppleTalk Thursday where I will have some choice words for Apple and their new subscription policy. See you next week for another Tuesday Tech Talk.
AT&T CEO: App Stores are Bad
So according to the AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson, app stores like the iTunes App Store and Android Marketplace are bad because they are platform specific. Uh Ok, well if that were the case then why have 10 billion apps been downloaded just on the iOS platform? What is his solution? Web-based apps, you know like the first gen. iPhone had. Remember how boring those were? I sure do. Mr. Stephenson is completely out of touch with the reality of what the customer wants.
Apple vs Google vs Amazon on Subscription Plan
AppleInsider has a rather in-depth article on the subscription plans offered by Apple, Google, and Amazon Kindle. It is worth the read if one has quite the time to read as it is about 3 pages of reading. Here is a quick breakdown chart found in the article though.
Motorola Atrix 4G Rooted already
The thing is not even out yet and someone has already managed to root it. I have to admit, this is a nice looking phone and might be the first Android device to make me want to cheat on my iPhone...why do I feel so dirty all of the sudden?
Well, that is all I have this week. Kind of a slow week for general technology. Come back later this week for AppleTalk Thursday where I will have some choice words for Apple and their new subscription policy. See you next week for another Tuesday Tech Talk.
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!
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Tuesday Tech Talk #38
Hello folks and welcome to another edition of Triple T. Lets see what is happening this week in the tech world.
Kindle app for the iPad
On the heels of Amazon releasing a Kindle application for the Mac, they have now showed off its Kindle app for the iPad. This totally rocks now you don’t have to choose between the Kindle or the iPad based on content. Now you get access to both the Amazon Kindle store and the iBooks store and at some point access to the Barnes & Noble e-book store too all from the iPad.
Barnes & Noble focused on electronic delivery
The new CEO of B&N is someone with heavy expertise in e-commerce and selling books online. He seems to “get it” on which direction content delivery will be based on. Course I still like to sit around at their stores and browse books while web surfing on my iPhone with the free WiFi.
Apple getting into social media with iGroups?
Interesting article here on a draw-up of an app called iGroups. Seems similar to FourSquare or BrightKite but more based around events. Could be interesting.
Apple looking to add audio texting and walkie-talkie feature to iPhone?
Another interesting article points to Apple maybe thinking of adding the ability to have text to audio messages and a walkie talkie feature or push to talk like NEXTEL came up with.
iPhone on Spring 4G
Ok did that headline get your attention? Well sort of it can via the WiMAX device which the iPhone can connect to like it would a WiFi connection.
Gifting apps in the iTunes Store
Good news, you can now gift iPhone/iPod touch apps to family and friends that have one. This is long overdue and I’m glad to see its arrival.
Well that is going to do it this week for Triple T, see you all next week!
Kindle app for the iPad
On the heels of Amazon releasing a Kindle application for the Mac, they have now showed off its Kindle app for the iPad. This totally rocks now you don’t have to choose between the Kindle or the iPad based on content. Now you get access to both the Amazon Kindle store and the iBooks store and at some point access to the Barnes & Noble e-book store too all from the iPad.
Barnes & Noble focused on electronic delivery
The new CEO of B&N is someone with heavy expertise in e-commerce and selling books online. He seems to “get it” on which direction content delivery will be based on. Course I still like to sit around at their stores and browse books while web surfing on my iPhone with the free WiFi.
Apple getting into social media with iGroups?
Interesting article here on a draw-up of an app called iGroups. Seems similar to FourSquare or BrightKite but more based around events. Could be interesting.
Apple looking to add audio texting and walkie-talkie feature to iPhone?
Another interesting article points to Apple maybe thinking of adding the ability to have text to audio messages and a walkie talkie feature or push to talk like NEXTEL came up with.
iPhone on Spring 4G
Ok did that headline get your attention? Well sort of it can via the WiMAX device which the iPhone can connect to like it would a WiFi connection.
Gifting apps in the iTunes Store
Good news, you can now gift iPhone/iPod touch apps to family and friends that have one. This is long overdue and I’m glad to see its arrival.
Well that is going to do it this week for Triple T, see you all next week!
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