Apple Media Event Follow-up

September 2, 2010  |  Thursday at Three  |  1 Comments

Courtesy of GDGT

I am going to be completely honest. Yesterday, my idea for live blogging the highly anticipated Apple announcement came from my curiosity surrounding the next generation iPad.

I am in the market for an iPad, but one of my pet peeves is making a purchase only for it to go on sale or worse, having a better version released within the month of my purchasing it.

But, alas, if you followed my live blog (found at my twitter account: @kymalino), or watched the keynote speech via the live feed provided by apple, you would know that we all have to anxiously wait until November for news on the latest iPad developments.

However, all was not lost in watching Steve Jobs’ keynote speech. Amongst a bevy of Apple announcements, news, and an appearance by Chris Martin from Coldplay – there are some pretty cool and exciting developments coming soon from Apple.

Courtesy of GDGT

The first was the complete overhaul of their range of iPods. The Shuffle, Nano, and Touch will all be changing shortly both in design and software.

The Shuffle is seeing a design overhaul most notably by the re-introduction of control buttons. In his demo of the new Shuffle, Jobs commented that the feature missed the most by Shuffle users was the clickable control pad on the face of the device. Another addition will be “Voice Over,” or a feature that allows the device to announce the title and artist of which ever song you’re listening to. This development also enables the iPod to tell the user how much battery power is remaining and has 25 language capabilities.

The iPod Nano will see a smaller, lighter design overhaul with the addition of a touch screen and a clip (similar to the Shuffle).

Apple’s iPod Touch is basically being turned into an iPhone… just without the requisite cell phone carrier plan. The new Touch will come with not one, but two cameras. This will enable the device to record HD video and chat via the coveted FaceTime (presumably added because of the lack of iPhone4 users to find other iPhone4 users to chat with). The new design will also feature a higher-quality, Retina display.

Jobs’ keynote speech stayed right on cue with the music theme-pun intended-in his announcement of iTunes10 and Ping, Apple’s music social media community. Ping will enable iTunes users to follow each other and trade tips and recommendations about the media found in the iTunes store. Jobs described Ping as ‘Twitter and Facebook, meets iTunes.’

The majority of the developments announced yesterday are welcomed changes to the Apple line-up of devices. However, there was some news announced yesterday that just left me scratching my head.

• The Nano was cut down and thinned out essentially to the size of the Shuffle. In his speech, Jobs mentioned Shuffle users having missed the control buttons. My confusion is this: Why even bother having both the Shuffle and the Nano when the only thing separating them is price point and touch screen? Make a 2GB Nano or add a touch screen to the Shuffle and eliminate product and pricing disparity.
• The iPod Classic was mentioned briefly by Jobs and this model did not see any changes. Nevertheless, did you even know Apple still sells the iPod Classic? I didn’t. Now, I know there are some Apple purists out there but why would I spend $20 more on the 160GB iPod Classic than the smallest iPod Touch? Personally, the ability to carry 40,000 songs, 200 hours of video, or 25,000 pictures is unnecessary and trumped by the features and capabilities of the Touch.
• The new icon to accompany iTunes10 is ugly and cartoonish… a far cry from the sleek and minimalistic feel of Apple products.
• AppleTV. Jobs was not shy in announcing that this is his pet project. But frankly, I don’t know a single person with AppleTV, do you? Honestly, I don’t see why I even need an AppleTV if I have OnDemand features from my cable provider. Call me crazy, but I don’t anticipate spending $99 to be able to watch Netflix or Youtube on my TV… when a VGA cable is $7. In fact, when this product debuted in late 2007, Popular Mechanics announced it was in their “Top Ten Worst Gadgets” list. The effort spent on AppleTV developments could have and should have been spent else where… like on the next generation iPad.

-Kym

Today’s Apple Announcement and Live Blogging

September 1, 2010  |  Thursday at Three  |  0 Comments

Well, it is neither Thursday nor three o’clock, to accompany this week’s live blogging from GlobalFoundries Technology Conference, Thursday at Three will attempt the same for today’s highly anticipated Apple Announcement; slated for this afternoon, September 1^st, at 1:00 PM EST.

Photo: Kimberley White

Not one of the fortunate tech people or Apple fanboys/girls picked to attend this announcement presentation?

Don’t fret: Apple announced that they would be live streaming video of their September media event across the web. The news, however, was somewhat dulled by the fact that Apple announced that the stream will only be viewable on an OS X 10.6 Mac or an iOS device (iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad). The reason for the limitation isn’t entirely arbitrary, as Apple is using a new streaming technology called HTTP Live Streaming which was introduced alongside Snow Leopard’s QuickTime X and iOS 3.0.

Here are the major rumors heading into the event:

- Apple TV – A next generation Apple TV based on iOS, priced at only $99, as well as support for Apps.

- iPod Touch – Backside camera, mic, new shape, front facing camera, possible 3G and even a Retina display.

- iPod Nano – Smaller, square shaped design with a 3cm x 3cm touch screen. Case manufacturers have already been producing covers for the unannounced device (see above).

- Other updates to iTunes including TV show rentals and longer song previews.

Speculation

Meanwhile, here’s a collection of fun speculative content that we can’t verify, but in the run up to the event may inspire some interesting discussion:

- iPad 4.0? – We expect Apple will announce their plans for the deployment of iOS 4 for the iPad during the event. It’s unlikely Apple will be able to launch tomorrow as they still await developers to update their apps. So, hopefully we’ll get a roadmap and a developer beta of iOS 4 for iPad.

- 2.8″ iPod touch? iLounge suggests that perhaps we will see the long rumored 2.8″ iPod touch emerge to fill the gap left by the former iPod nano.

- iPhone as Apple TV Remote? iLounge’s Charles Starrett speculates that the rumored $99 Apple TV might actually require an iOS device to serve as a remote. Beyond his speculation, we’d actually heard unconfirmed whispers of the same, so it seems within the realm of possibility.

- iLife Mystery App is a Make Your Own App Tool? Rumors of iLife ‘11 suggested a brand new app would be introduced with the iLife ‘11 suite. We’ve heard an unconfirmed rumor that the new app could actually be a way for end users to create simple apps and deploy them directly (not through the App Store) to their iOS devices. Is Apple returning to their Hypercard roots? It’s hard to say how feasible this would be.

-Kym

April Fools!, And the Countdown Begins…, New Ways to Ditch your Date

April 1, 2010  |  Thursday at Three  |  0 Comments

It all began in 2000 with “MentalPlex,” Google’s first ever mind-reading technology, allowing websurfers to access the search engine by thought alone.  Since then, Google has been on the scene as one of April Fools days’ biggest pranksters and this year is no different.

Today, Google announced that they have changed their name from Google to “Topeka” in honor of Topeka, Kansas. Google employees are no longer to be referred to as “Googlers” but as “Topekers.”

Past shenanigans include: Luna/X, Google’s very own research facility located on the moon, Google Gulp, a new beverage which would increase the drinker’s intelligence and Virgle, a joint project between Google and the Virgin Group to establish a human settlement on Mars.

So you tell me, how does this year’s joke compare to past pranks?

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We are only days away from the April 4 release of the iPad and the reviews are pouring in. Of course there are going to be people on both sides of the aisle who either hate it or love it no matter what, but lets take a look at what is being said thus far.

Two noted tech reviewers wrote about the new iPad, describing it is a “giant iPod touch”.  The battery life is approximately 10 hours, which is pretty exceptional.  While reviews differ on the touch keyboard,people are definitely in positive agreement when it comes to screen size.  However, for some users, the lack of Flash support is a big let down. 

Personally, I’ll reserve judgment until I race down to an Apple Store this Saturday and TRY to get my hands on one.

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Have you ever been on a date and had a friend purposely call mid-date to alert you of an impending “emergency” that is so unique, only you can come to the rescue? In reality it is you that needs saving from the date from hell, but who enjoys possibly breaking someone’s heart?

Sure, everyone’s done it at some point, but fear not, now there are apps that make ditching someone that much easier. 

Gotta Go, Fake Conversation, and Fake-A-Call are new smartphone apps that let a user choose someone from your contacts to call or text at a previously specified time with a specific message.  In fact, some of the features even allow you to have a text message conversation in which an individual can have an actual converation with AI – although, be aware, the replies don’t always make sense.  Other unique features include automated voice responses alerting you that someone you know is hurt or in trouble, as well as the ability to record voice messages that will play back when you answer your “emergency” phone call.

If anything, it should make everyone think twice the next time their blind date rushes out of the restaurant because something “important” came up.

-Liz

Apple Tablet and Kindle – changing the face of Sports Illustrated

December 3, 2009  |  Tech Worth Talking About  |  1 Comments

It’s rumored that Apple is coming out with the Apple Tablet however nothing from the company officially confirms such an innovation.  This would most likely be a hybrid of the Amazon Kindle and Tablet PCs. The debate is strong about the future of magazines and newspapers. Devoted fans to hard copies of either say there’s no way that they can let go of their folded New York Times for subway rides and the like. But technology and the rise in printing costs suggests something has to give.

With the rise of mobile apps, I just assumed that the future would be mobile delivery. At some point, the advertising model would correlate to online strictly, supporting low subscription costs and every morning I could get a downloaded customized way of reading the news I want. Skeptics to my predictions are spot on though — do you really want to read an entire article on your iPhone? Even at full screen, it’s awkward.

If this is true, readers will turn to devices like Kindle or the Apple Tablet for reading. I see Kindle’s everywhere now.

Today, Time Inc. demonstrated a future look and feel for Sports Illustrated on the Apple Tablet. The functionality is cool, the graphics are amazing and the interactivity is like nothing you’d get over a browser. But by the time this happens, browsers might suggest otherwise. Either way, this is a novel concept to the future of magazines. Conde Nast announced a digital version of Wired coming soon too. Take a look, tell me what you think:

Am I a Mac or PC?

December 2, 2009  |  Advice for local companies, Tech Worth Talking About  |  3 Comments

Clearly, I’m a Mac.

But for the past 15 years, I was a PC.

I never even thought of switching to a Mac until I went out on my own and my husband convinced me to convert. Yes, I was dazzled by how beautiful of a machine it is and the iPhone was of course the smartphone of choice once I left my BlackBerry behind. It took awhile to learn the new OS, but once I got the hang of it, we added our own Apple network and backup system, and starting managing multiple accounts – I became a devoted fan.

Start up companies often contemplate which direction to go and what the major issues are with each. This post is not to convince you to change over to Mac – which by the way as an average price point of $2500/pp.

Quite the contrary. Steve Jobs may be a god and I hear he runs a tight ship over there in Cupertino. If you want to read something great, learn how Jobs starting shopping the iPhone and told many wireless service providers to go jump in a lake.

While we‚Äôre all dazzled by the Apple Store and convenience of iTunes, we have to remember that Apple doesn’t make many products — six Macs, variety of iPods, two iPhones, and a debatable-even-worth-it, Apple TV. Oh, plus accessories. A recent Forrester analyst made this point: ‚ÄúIf Apple tried to build a car, it would take it three years just to design the dashboard. Now it would be an extraordinary dashboard, but Job’s fabled micro-management would stall the delivery of a finished automobile.‚Äù

There are limitations for BtoB companies if they’re thinking of turning into a Mac shop. And this isn’t even about cost. The biggest problems with piecemeal approaches to your IT infrastructure is that at some point these systems won’t work flawlessly together. We even have problems working with a “Mac-friendly” Brother printer, consistently resetting itself because of difficulty working with our network and the Mac OS. That’s ok for us small shops, but for larger companies a printer or network breakdown can mean major loss in productivity.

As I mentioned, I was dazzled by the branding and simplicity of the machine. I look at Dell and HP laptops today and think ‚Äì ‚Äúthose bulky things.‚Äù And the PC product lines are trying harder and harder to be like Apple ‚Äì take the Dell Adamo line for example. At the heart of it, Apple designs for the consumer and the creative. There don‚Äôt have complex systems or IT problems. I also know developers love their Macs, but let’s face it — even internally at large enterprises the dev team works their own rules.

Jobs runs a highly specialized, super focused business on design and speed. It’s why he packages so many software elements into each Mac – he knows it will work and work the way he wants it to. That might always be the best fit for an enterprise.