Flash for the iPhone
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
According to Engadget, Adobe has announced that they will develop a version of Flash for the iPhone using Apple's recently released iPhone SDK. According to rumors, iPhone apps will be available only through iTunes. So the question is, will Flash for the iPhone be free or will Apple be getting a little extra bite from each iPhone owner?
Labels: adobe, apple, iphone, itunes
posted by Russell @ 5:52 AM,
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iPhone: the Invention of the Year?
Friday, November 02, 2007
Really? The best invention this year is the iPhone? Its a good improvement on existing concepts of cell phones and handheld computers, but invention... seems a little loose to me. But then again, Time has in the past named such earth-shattering inventions as iTunes (2003), and YouTube (2006) as the best in those years.Personally I would have chosen something like Sandia's Electro Needle above any cell phone this year; being able to detect viruses, toxins, and take other blood readings with a sensor rather than by taking a blood sample kind of trumps downloading music at Starbucks in my mind. But that's just me.
Time does have some very good reasons for choosing the iPhone over all other inventions this year:
1. "It's Pretty" - oh, well... there you go. that should be #1 on the list. I mean, c'mon. let's face it. Gutenberg's doohickey was one butt-ugly contraption. beauty should always be the first thing on the check-list.
2. "It's touchy-feely" - hmmm. well, it wasn't the first touch screen nor was it the first multi-touch screen. did the guy that invented the touch screen in the first place make Time's list that year? oh well, Apple used a touch screen...that's innovative.
3. "It will make other phones better" - its probably more accurate to say that it will make other phones more like the iPhone. if that's better, I'm unconvinced but I'll give this one a pass as a statement on its own but not as a reason for it being the best invention of the year.
4. "It's not a phone, it's a platform" - they are certainly right about he phone part. and yes, it is a platform. but having a mobile platform isn't new. and there is no way to judge if this is the best platform ever until Apple lets people start developing on it. so Apple invented yet another mobile platform which we can't really judge right now, but its the best.
and lastly
5. "It is but the ghost of iPhones yet to come" - ahh. so okay. it might really suck right now. and no, you can't always make calls from this phone. and the network is really really slow. and if you try to develop anything for it right now we're going to ruin your device. but the next one... now that's really going to kick ass.
Labels: apple, invention, iphone, time magazine
posted by Russell @ 11:56 AM,
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Get Your $100 from Apple
Friday, September 14, 2007
It's very easy:
- Go to their site
- Fill in your phone number and the iPhone's serial number
- Wait for the SMS message from Apple
- Fill in the code that you just received
- Print out your $100 coupon
posted by Russell @ 8:44 PM,
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Steve Jobs' First Apology Letter
Labels: apple, Funny, Joy of Tech, steve jobs
posted by Russell @ 10:35 AM,
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Don't Get Me Wrong
Friday, September 07, 2007
As the founder of a company that is in the media delivery business I am all for a cheaper iPhone. Just as Microsoft did when they started shipping Windows on CD only, Apple's move of making the iPhone more affordable will hopefully drive providers to support the technology, in this case WiFi. At the same time it should make other device manufacturers seriously consider incorporating WiFi (and the support thereof) into their product lines. Putting more WiFi enabled iPhones and iPod Touch's out there will only help my industry as a whole... eventually.My only gripe here is that it seems Apple took advantage of the loyalty of their avid fan base by making it so expensive in the beginning and then rapidly dropping the price 33% as soon as the initial sales were made. Yes, they've since come back and offered those fans $100 gift cards (which seems to have quieted the complaints) but as Andre pointed out in his comment Apple has received some value for that $100, only some of which will actually be claimed and spent in Apple stores anyway.
Had they launched the iPhone at $399 in the beginning - now that would have been huge. The standard follow-up for Apple would have been to release a 16gig model for $399 in time for Christmas. Either way they will drive great sales this Q4, and hopefully really drive connectivity.
posted by Russell @ 11:24 AM,
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New iPhone Owners: Get Your $200 Back
Wednesday, September 05, 2007
If you bought an iPhone in the two weeks leading up to today's announcement you may feel pretty dumb right about now. But don't fret, GigaOM points to Apple's terms that indicate a 14-day price protection on their products. I would assume that this extends to the iPhone, at least if they were purchased at an Apple store.
posted by Russell @ 4:05 PM,
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Apple's new Ipods
There's is a complete rundown of the Apple presentation over at Ars Technica. I'm not terribly impressed so far - nothing really innovative going on it seems.The biggest "news" is that the iPod "Touch" will hit the stores soon sporting WiFi enabling it to surf the web and preview/purchase songs though iTunes. Except for the iTunes part, this is not new.
It may seem like a big deal that all iPod Touches will have free access to the music store at Starbucks... but thats just to the music store, not he internet at large... now that would be cool. (Although I do live in the one spot in the US where there is no Starbucks.) Also, you'll be able to buy whatever song is playing in Starbucks at the moment with a single, login-free touch. (btw, none of this is in place yet, so don't get too crazy.)
Before the talk of the Touch, Jobs introduced the new iPod Nano, previously dubbed the fatty. Its a video-capable Nano (with new dimensions). Again, certainly nothing new or innovative here accept that it works with iTunes.
Personally, I think the biggest news to come from all of this is the fact that Apple is dropping the 4gig iPhone, and reducing the price of the 8gig from $599 to $399. Its interesting to me because Jobs is once again giving the finger to all those schlubs that waited in line at his stores. These same people will no doubt sing his praises this afternoon and continue to name their children (if they were getting any) after Steve. In the end, only iTunes comes out ahead here.
That's about all I walked away with from the live coverage. Their official write up can be found here.
posted by Russell @ 12:59 PM,
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When Worlds Collide
Saturday, June 30, 2007
On the one hand you've got AT&T whose name conjures up images of blue suits, IBM, and my dad. "No one ever got fired for choosing IBM" was the old phrase, and it was just as true for AT&T. They are big, powerful, and I can tell you from personal experience do not rate the individual high on their list of priorities.
On the other hand you have Apple, almost the "anti-corp" in a lot of ways. Until recently not accepted in many business circles beyond graphic design, music, etc... very "artsy" and hip.
So now they are working together and the differences are glaring. Obviously a lot of time and effort went into the launch of the iPhone. It was determined (by Apple I am assuming) that things would go more smoothly if activation was handled through iTunes at home instead of in line at the store. It saved the need to train Apple Store people on activations, and it kept customers from having to wait inside AT&T stores for very long after buying their phone.But then the activations failed. No doubt this is because of the shear numbers of customers trying to activate the phones at once. Since there's probably been nothing like this before, its understandable too. But I'm sure that its hard for Apple to swallow. I can almost picture the conversation in the meeting: AT&T trying to tell Steve that this is the way the real world works... you can't please all of the people all of the time, while Steve sits there and insists that they do. After all, Apple has gained so much market share in recent years by paying attention to every aspect of the user experience (something that easy to do when your user base is small) while AT&T immediately calculates what percentage of failures they will have and moves on.
To the Apple users this can be very frustrating. Dubbed the iBrick by some attempting to create a controversy, the experience thus far hasn't been horrible, its just "not Apple".
Cali Lewis (an obvious fangirl if you watch her show) went so far as to take back her two new iPhones not because of the gadgets, but because of the AT&T double-speak regarding the pricing. I'm sure that she will change her mind soon and go get an iPhone; perhaps she's like me and just waiting for version 2 ('cause you know if Apple stays true to form that will be out sometime before Christmas).
So will Apple end up changing the business inside the behemoth that is AT&T, will it be the other way around, or will the whole thing just end like other similar partnerships Apple has forged in the past?
Labels: apple, att, cali lewis, iphone
posted by Russell @ 10:30 AM,
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A Pea in the Pod
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
I saw this maternaty clinic during my recent trip to San Antonio. As if malpractice wasn't a big enough problem, now they are going to have Apple to contend with ;)
posted by Russell @ 11:53 AM,
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A Happy Ending
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
The saga is over. I finally received the copy of DiskWarrior and tried it out tonight. It worked as advertised... no muss, no fuss - which is a good thing seeing as how earlier this evening I joked about going to back Windows if it didn't. Here is a PDF of the report if you're interested.
Labels: apple, diskwarrior, osx, problem
posted by Russell @ 11:10 PM,
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Still hating the Mac, not fond of Alsoft either
Friday, June 01, 2007
As I mentioned about 5 days ago, I've an issue with my Mac that (if it can be fixed) requires a third-party application to repair. After learning that the downloaded version would not work because my issue is on the boot drive, I ordered the software on CD - priority shipping.
Well, I received confirmation that it shipped "USPS Priority Mail" - today. I guess I should have specified that I wanted it to be a priority of both Alsoft and the Unites States Postal Service.
posted by Russell @ 3:36 PM,
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One Reason I Hate My Mac
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
A little over six months or so I converted to a Macbook Pro as my primary computer. Although easy to learn and use, OSX does a really bad job when unexpected things happen, such as disk issues.
I tried running the disk utility from the CD but was first told that the disk needed repair, but then I was told that it couldn't be repaired because it had an error.
Apple is very big on promoting their 'iLife' - the idea that everything you might need is already loaded on your computer. Not true. I was quickly informed that there is nothing on my Mac that can help me at this point, but a friend pointed me over to the Apple store and told me I needed DiskWarrior. For the low low price of $99 plus tax I learned that I could hopefully correct this not-so-uncommon issue that the operating system creates from time to time.
Okay, so I plunked down my money (virtually speaking of course) and found out that I'd have to wait for it to be shipped. Why? Should I not be able to download it? Then I took a little trip over to the manufacturers site where I learned that for the same price I could both download the cure and receive a CD in the mail... so I bought it... again...All's good, right? Wrong. Its a disk problem and I've just downloaded the cure to my disk. You guessed it: the cure cannot run from the broken disk. Okay, no problem. I'll just put it on a bootable CD and try running it that way.
No where in the instructions for this application do they tell you how to do this though. And OSX certainly doesn't make it obvious. The docs explain how to install onto my hard drive, but I already know how to do that and I already know (what they don't tell you) is that it won't do any good living there.
So now I am stuck... waiting for someone to deliver a CD containing what may or may not fix this issue which I'm told is fairly common in OSX but which is not addressed by Apple.
So now I'm working on my 4-year-old Acer tablet - the one that has never had an issue - that runs that Microsoft software that everyone loves to bash...
Labels: apple, ilife, osx, problem
posted by Russell @ 4:21 PM,
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Steve and Bill Talking Dirty
Monday, April 23, 2007
Geeks are Sexy points out a funny YouTube clip of Steve Jobs and Bill Gates making each other hot by talking about computers. The funny thing is, when its Bill's turn to talk (about Vista) its really not that exciting.
Labels: apple, Funny, microsoft
posted by Russell @ 2:01 PM,
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Steve Jobs Goes Boom... and Boom... and Boom
Friday, April 13, 2007
Labels: apple, Funny, steve jobs
posted by Russell @ 5:34 PM,
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A Phone Conversation with Apple
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
Last night I received a phone call at home from Apple. Actually, it was someone from Apple trying to sell me an extended warranty on the Mac Mini I purchased last December. OK... truth be told, he probably didn't actually work for Apple, but he said he did. In any case, at one point I managed to turn the conversation to my company's ongoing dispute with Apple over our trademark myPodder and the word pod.He couldn't believe it! He went on to tell me how ridiculous it was for Apple to claims any rights over the word pod and how he couldn't believe they would even try. He even pointed me over to yet another example of a pod trademark that's been out there for a while.
Labels: apple, pod, Podcast Ready
posted by Russell @ 8:44 AM,
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Why I am not getting an AppleTV, yet.
Saturday, March 24, 2007
One might think that I'd be a little put off from Apple these days, considering Podcast Ready's recent and ongoing dispute. The fact is, I love Apple products. I have a MacBook Pro, an iMac, a video iPod, and two mini's.One of my mini's is the entertainment center in my living room; I put it there last December to replace a Pinnacle streaming system that I'd had for years. So I am no stranger, and am in fact a huge fan of streaming video on-demand in my home. (hint: if you do this, consider using something like MediaCentral instead of Frontrow - it handles large video libraries better and is even recommended by Apple.)
Here's the rub: #1 its HD only and #2 its not a DVR. That's it. Those are the only two reasons why I am not getting one now.
#1 its HD only. I don't really get this one. Producing the AppleTV for standard NTSC is not a big deal - my mini is already set for it. So why not support the largest install base in the US? My ginormous tube television works great, and for as little time as I actually spend in front of it I am quite happy. (Apparently I am not alone on this either.) I know that HDTV is the future, and some day I'll will get one. But I don't see that day coming anytime real soon, and so neither do I see an AppleTV in my future real soon.
#2 its got to be a DVR. Well, it does. That's seems a no-brainer, from a consumer standpoint at least. I know that most cable companies are providing DVR's now, and of course there is Tivo and the like, and it would mean that they can make more profit by using tiny $10 40gig hard drives in the AppleTV's, and I know that it would keep me out of the iTunes video store more... but still. Its got to have value to me as a customer, and to know how easy it is and still not have it in there makes it a bad buy for me.
Right now my mini can grab videos from my Tivo and iTunes, integrate them into its own library keeping everything all in one spot, and dump it all over to my iPod or my Mylo - piece of cake. (and not a big giant intricate wedding cake or anything... we're talking Little Debbie almost-perfect-out-of-the-wrapper kind of cake)
I'm quite certain that these things will be addressed in later versions of the AppleTV, possibly sooner than I expect (yes I am going to that). But for now, I personally will not be adding and AppleTV to my ever growing list of home technology gadgetry.
posted by Russell @ 1:14 PM,
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Of all the Pods I'ved loved before...
Saturday, January 20, 2007
This one is definitely my second favorite.
posted by Russell @ 7:53 PM,
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iTunes exists to sell iPods
Thursday, January 18, 2007
or is it the other way around? Talking to so many device manufacturers about providing content places me in the middle of this debate almost daily. There are a myriad of reasons why I have formed my own opinion (see the title) but I have to admit I don't have any definitive proof.
I do like to point to things like todays report from Apple on their earnings though. $7.1 billion in revenue translating into $1 billion in profit. They had a 28% growth in Mac sales and a 50% growth in iPod sales. But throughout the report the word iTunes is only used once, in the last paragraph:
Today, Apple continues to lead the industry in innovation with its award-winning desktop and notebook computers, OS X operating system, and iLife and professional applications. Apple is also spearheading the digital music revolution with its iPod portable music players and iTunes online store.The fact that their earnings from the iTunes Music Store isn't even hinted at in their release indicates to me that its not a significant piece of their revenue.
posted by Russell @ 9:34 PM,
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