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

Apple’s Anonymity ‘Glitch ‘

April 20, 2010  |  Today's Headlines  |  0 Comments

Just in case you missed it, Apple reversed course today and approved Mark Fiore’s political satire app, Newstoons, for sale in the iPhone store.

This was not unexpected, especially after Lauren McGann of the Nieman Journalism Lab let it slip that Apple had rejected the Pulitzer Prize winning online journalist’s app on the grounds that it ‘ridiculed public officials’.  This was, of course, prior to learning that he was famous.   Apple CEO Steve Jobs was quick to spin the rejection as a ‘glitch.‘

Good for Fiore. I enjoy his cartoons and I’ll download Newstoons within the next couple days.   However, I take a bit of offense to Job’s characterization.   I, for one, never thought not being famous was a ‘glitch’.

-Mike

Welcome back Kodak! Meet the Zi8

December 6, 2009  |  Advice for local companies, Tech Worth Talking About  |  0 Comments

A friend of mine was a die hard Flip person and then the other day I realized she had a new piece of pocket camcorder bling. I was more stunned to notice that it was by Kodak.

Check out the new KODAK Zi8:

Like the Flip Camera, the Zi8 is all you need for camcorder fun and sharing. The details are stellar, and from what I can tell, the quality kicks my HD Nikon’s butt.

• Capture HD quality 1080p video with 16:9 aspect ratio
• Records up to 10 hours of HD video with the expandable SD/SDHC card slot that can hold up to 32 GB
• External microphone jack lets you record in stereo
• Takes amazing 5 MP 16:9 widescreen HD still pictures

This will definitely be making my Capital Region Tech Gift Guide this year.

If I’m a tech geek, who do I follow on Twitter?

December 3, 2009  |  Advice for local companies  |  0 Comments

As you unravel Twitterville Capital Region and contemplate how to engage with this mass eco-system, consider starting with your passion for tech. Tech enthusiasts are all over Twitter and following them will in the very least educate you on the happenings of our industry.

Here’s my list:

Smart entrepreneurs and execs who tweet valuable things:

Jack Dorsey (@Jack) started Twitter, now CEO of Square

Padmasree Warrior (@padmasree) CTO of Cisco

Kevin Rose (@kevinrose) Founder of Digg

Jason Calacanis (@jasoncalacanis) Founder of Mahalo

Matt Cutts (@mattcutts) Google engineer

Thought leaders

Jeremiah Owyang (@jowyang) analyst

Michael Arrington (@techcrunch) TechCrunch

Om Malik (@om) GigaOm

Humor and intelligence

Sarah Lacy (@sarahcuda) Author, social media writer

Natalie Del Conte (@natalidelconte) Loaded on CNET and CBS Early Show

Taylor Buley (@taylorbuley) Forbes and comedy relief

Tom Merritt (@acedtect) Top Ten Lists on CNET

Veronica Belmont (@veronica) Revision 3

OH WAIT — insert shameless plug here @nmessier or @101to87