Submitted by acohill on Fri, 08/20/2010 - 12:40
For older iPhone users like me (I have an iPhone 3G), the recent software upgrade (iOS 4) has been a disaster. The upgraded operating system brought only a few useful features to the older 3G and 3GS phones, and along with the minor upgrades, severe performance degradation. Frankly, it's just awful. The biggest thing is a major slowdown across the board for all apps, to the point that I use the iPhone less than I used to because it is painful.
But perhaps there is hope. An iPhone user reports getting a short reply back from Steve Jobs that promises an fix "soon." I can't wait.
Submitted by acohill on Tue, 08/17/2010 - 13:49
I just tried to get the local Best Buy store on the phone to see if they have a particular model of printer in stock. After pressing '3' for a 'sales associate,' I let the phone ring twenty times--twice! No answer.
Best Buy: No answer, no customer. No customer, no sale.
Submitted by acohill on Fri, 07/23/2010 - 12:28
India has announced a $35 computer for students. The Linux-based machine is intended to give Indian students at all levels, starting in grade school, access to an affordable computer. I proposed a $100 computer twelve years ago--at that time, no one took it seriously, but I'm glad India thinks it's a good idea.
Submitted by acohill on Tue, 07/06/2010 - 13:26
Microsoft has killed the Kin. Don't know what the "Kin" is? Neither does anyone else. It is (was) a "social media-centered phone for teenagers." But among other problems, the monthly contract for a Kin phone cost as much as the most expensive smartphone (e.g. Blackberries, iPhones, Droid phones). And darned few parents are going to spring for a pricy phone, and a pricey voice plan, and a pricey data plan just so their kid can call for a ride after soccer practice.
What is even more perplexing than the wrongheaded pricing is how Microsoft thought a phone that is "social media-centered" would be interesting. Apparently that ban on Microsoft employees having iPhones is working, or someone with Microsoft would have noticed that all the smartphones are already "social media-centered," with free apps for all the popular social media platforms. Who would pay extra for a one trick phone that only thirteen year olds would think is interesting? So Microsoft has apparently burned through a billion dollars or so and has nothing to show for it.
Submitted by acohill on Wed, 06/23/2010 - 07:49
With all the hype over the new iPhone in the last couple of weeks, the iPad has fallen off the radar of the press. But the tablet computer is flying off the shelves. Apple has sold three million iPads in 80 days. Or in other words, the company is selling a million iPads every three weeks. And the product is not even available in many other parts of the world yet, so the sales curve is likely to accelerate through the end of the year. Expect to see a lot of iPads under Christmas trees this year.
Submitted by acohill on Mon, 06/21/2010 - 17:33
Although hardly anyone knows it, Barnes and Noble has a tablet-based book reader. Amazon's Kindle was dominating the market for tablet book readers until the iPad was announced, and Barnes and Noble and Sony were running far behind Amazon. Even so, the market for book readers was relatively small because they cost several hundred dollars--less than the iPad, but not that much less. Once Apple unleashed the iPad, most potential buyers began comparing the one trick book readers (and the Kindle is only black and white) with the high resolution, color iPad with tens of thousands of applications, not just one.
Barnes and Noble is fighting back, not only against Apple but more directly with Amazon and Sony. They just lowered the price of the B&N Nook WiFi version to $149, and the 3G Nook model is only $199. The lower prices probably move the Nook out of direct competition with the iPad and make it more attractive as a second table device. Time will tell, but this looks like smart move.
Update: Apparently Amazon has dropped the price of the Kindle to $189. Some pundits are predicting the book readers will drop to around $50. Sounds about right to me. B&N and Amazon can make up the difference easily by selling books; it's the old "give away the razor and make it up on over-priced razor blades" model.
Submitted by acohill on Wed, 06/16/2010 - 08:20
AT&T sold out of its entire stock of the new iPhone in one day with the largest online sales in the history of AT&T. It now appears that more phones will not be available for a couple of weeks. Phones can still be ordered from Apple. If this summer is anything like that last three summers of iPhone releases, there will be shortages until early fall. The new phone is a major upgrade from the previous three models, with many new features, including a much faster processor, multi-tasking, a high resolution backside camera, a front-facing video camera, and a very high resolution screen.
Submitted by acohill on Mon, 05/24/2010 - 13:48
The Australian, a major paper in Australia, has sold out the ad space on its iPad version of the newspaper. At least one paper intends to stay ahead of the news game and make the new medium work for its business. Good for them.
Submitted by acohill on Fri, 05/07/2010 - 12:46
The market for netbooks, those small, lightweight, and inexpensive laptops, was enjoying double digit growth until Apple announced the iPad back in January. Since then, sales have slowed dramatically. And the iPad may also begin to have an effect on desktop and laptop sales. This report only represents one household, but it sounds plausible to me: if you have a couple of iPads in the house, you don't need as many computers.
Submitted by acohill on Tue, 05/04/2010 - 08:39
Almost everything written about the iPad to date has been speculative and overwrought because most of the writers had little or no time actually using the iPad. Depending on what you read, you might come away believing the iPad was the worst device in the history of handhelds (...NO USB PORT MAKES IT USELESS!!) or the most important new device since the mainframe. Here is a thoughtful review that compares the iPad to the Kindle for reading books. My take: Kindle still has a bit of an edge, but as the software book readers for the iPad improve, the Kindle is toast.
Submitted by acohill on Tue, 04/13/2010 - 14:33
An article over at TechCrunch raises an interesting question. The backlit iPad (and all LCD backlit displays) can be hard on the eyes when trying to read continuously for long periods of time (e.g. when reading a book). The Amazon Kindle uses a different display technology (e-ink) that is reflective rather than transmissive. Reflective displays work better outdoors and are more like books in the way they work. Paul Carr, the author of the article, argues that eye fatigue and multitasking distraction could turn the iPad into a device that actually discourages reading. Hard to say, but time will tell whether the iPad displaces books, other e-book readers, or both.
Submitted by acohill on Mon, 04/12/2010 - 11:02
It was inevitable....an iPad-compatible vest. I'm not sure about the "sophisticated" adjective used in the ad. "Nerd central" comes to mind, though.
Submitted by acohill on Mon, 03/29/2010 - 15:45
MacRumors reports that National Public Radio (NPR) and The Wall Street Journal are already getting ready to roll out Web sites designed specifically for the Apple iPad. Expect many more newpapers and magazines to announce iPad versions of their content over the next several months, with the iPad set to ship to buyers in the next 30 days. One of the interesting side effects--Adobe may have lost the Flash war. The content providers are beginning to report that they are creating "Flash free" sites. Apple has long contended that Flash, used for many kinds of multimedia content on the Web, is buggy and slow compared to using Java and some other video protocols.
Submitted by acohill on Mon, 02/15/2010 - 10:25
FastMac is advertising something I think almost everyone wants. It is a duplex AC wall socket with two standard 110 volt sockets, but it also has two USB ports. That's right, no more wall chargers cluttering things up. You can plug your USB charging cables right into the wall. Best part--these things are on sale for a limited time (note that these are pre-orders, so you may have to wait to get them).
Submitted by acohill on Tue, 02/02/2010 - 09:36
The iPad continues to generate enormous discussion on the Intertubes; while I have seen a lot of commentary about how it might be used in higher ed, I have seen very little about how it might be used by kids. The most obvious higher ed connection is as a replacement for textbooks, which are murderously expensive. A college student with an iPad can carry around an entire library of textbooks and should be able to save a lot of money at the same time. Textbook costs ought to decline over time, not to the $15 dollar level, but perhaps by 50% from $60 to $30 (and many technical textbooks are pushing $100 or more).
But the iPad strikes me as the perfect computer for middle school and high school. Smaller, lighter, no moving parts, much less to go wrong, and with plenty of horsepower to handle routine school assignments, which are mostly typing essays and papers. And you could do a lot of interesting basic math with a program like Apple's Numbers spreadsheet application. Apple is selling its three productivity programs for $9.99 each (word processsing, spreadsheet, presentations), about a third of the price of the cost of them for a laptop. With the dock and keyboard and wireless printing to a shared printer, kids have everything they need for school at much less than you might spend for a bare bones Apple laptop. I know there are very inexpensive Windows laptops available, but they still come with all the drawbacks of a laptop--heavy, moving parts, more susceptible to viruses, expensive software, etc.
Like the iPod, the iPad is going to change the way we do a lot of things. And like the iPod, it will create a lot of new business opportunities.
Submitted by acohill on Mon, 01/25/2010 - 17:24
A short, good analysis of six industries that Apple's tablet computer could change. Apple is expected to roll out the device next week.
Submitted by acohill on Wed, 01/06/2010 - 09:11
This article from MacWorld does a nice job of highlighting the emerging class of the titans. Apple and Google are ramping up for an epic fight, and we all win when two big companies compete for marketshare.
Google has announced the Nexus One smartphone, just the latest of several Android-based smartphones. Android is the open source operating system developed by Google which powers not only the Google phone, but the Droid phone from Motorola (distributed by Verizon). And alongside Android, Google has also announced the Chrome operating system, which wont' see the light of day for another year. Meanwhile, Apple has purchased an online advertising firm. So Google is aiming at Apple, and Apple is aiming at Google. The next couple of years will be interesting, and both companies will be forced to work harder and be more customer-focused--especially Google, which has little experience actually selling anything except ads.
Submitted by acohill on Tue, 01/05/2010 - 10:15
Here is a roundup of rumors about the new Apple tablet. Apple has announced a media event late this month, but is not saying what the announcement is about. Until very recently, most pundits were guessing Apple's table computer would not be announced until June of this year, but I think the increasing interest in the Google Android phone may have caused Apple to move up their announcement to suck all the oxygen out of the room and take the media focus off Android.
If that is Apple's strategy, it is likely to work. The iTablet or iSlate (nobody really knows what the final name will be) will relegate the Amazon Kindle and other bookreaders to strictly second tier status, much like the iPod put all other MP3 music players into a permanent also-ran status, and completely transformed the music industry.
There is still much debate about whether the new device will have an iPhone style interface or a Mac style interface, with the conventional wisdom betting on the iPhone. But what a lot of people forget is that it probably does not matter very much, because the iPhone is a Macintosh underneath. Every single iPhone has the full power of a desktop or laptop Macintosh. So the iSlate may look more like an iPhone, but as it evolves, Apple can easily and quickly add more functionality just by peeling away the cover on the hidden power.
Why is this device going to be revolutionary? It won't be just the technology--Microsoft has a tablet operating system for years. What Apple is likely to unveil along with the iTablet is a new section of the iTunes Store, stocked with magazines and newspapers. iSlate owners will be able to subscribe to a wide variety of publishing content and get the content wirelessly on their iSlate. This will save the rapidly collapsing magazine and newspaper businesses, which have been unable to find or build their way out of the two century old paper-based distribution model. With the cost of distribution of a newspaper or magazine slashed to nearly zero, papers and magazines will be able to focus on high quality writing and reporting, which is always in short supply.
As with other breakthrough Apple technologies, new kinds of opportunities will emerge quickly, creating new businesses and jobs where none existed before. One big sea change will be in higher ed, where colleges and universities that are smart will simply issue every student an iSlate on the first day of freshman year. Faculty will be able to provide their students with very high quality (book quality) class notes, multimedia presentations, and even administer tests via the iTablet. Can't they do all that now? Sure, but not with the kind of high quality interface and superb usability that the iSlate will bring. And textbook prices should come down, although some textbook publishers will resist.
The iTablet will allow new college textbook writers to enter the marketplace quickly and easily, just the way the iPhone App Store has created thousands of new software publishing businesses. Writing a textbook will no longer require years of negotiation with publishing houses still operating on a business model developed during the era of Charles Dickens. Instead, textbook writers will be able to market directly to faculty at colleges and universities, with the textbook distributed at very low cost via the iSlate Textbook Store.
The big, sheet of paper size screen of the iTablet will allow colleges and universities to create "virtual registrar" interfaces that will give students the ability to fill out and submit forms quickly and easily from anywhere, with much better interfaces and ease of use than Web forms (because of the direct input pen interface).
The iSlate will also boost TV show and movie sales, with the existing iTunes TV/movies section all ready to send video content directly to a large, comfortable, easy to watch screen.
Apple has been planning this for years. Note that Apple has had wireless keyboards and mice for some time, and continues to roll out improved wireless devices like the popular Magic Mouse. Prop the iTablet up on a desk, start typing away on your wireless keyboard, and you have most of the functionality of a laptop.
If the first decade of the 21st century was dominated by Apple and the iPod, the second decade will be dominated again by Apple with the iSlate. Stand by and watch the fun begin as the publishing world is turned upside down.
Submitted by acohill on Tue, 12/15/2009 - 10:55
Reports are beginning to dribble out that Google is very close to releasing an "official" Google phone based on Google's Android operating system. Other mobile phone makers have been playing catch up with Apple's iPhone for the past two years, with little success--anyone seen a Palm Pre lately?
But Google has so much money that the firm, like Microsoft in the old days, can just throw money at a project until they get it right. So Android and the Google phone might just finally give Apple a reason to work harder. It will be interesting to see what kind of deal Google comes up with--maybe the phones and mobile service will be free if you can tolerate watching a fifteen second ad every time you want to make a phone call? Or each text message will have a little pop-up ad attached to it the way that little ads pop up on YouTube now? In the future, will everything be free if you will subject yourself to watching piles of ads and giving away every shred of privacy to Google?
How about a Google car? It would be electric, of course, but you get it for free. But every time you start the car to go somewhere, you have to watch a 30 second commercial. And when you listen to the radio, Google inserts a voice ad every ten minutes. And the car comes with a Google GPS tracking device that logs everywhere you go and reports it back to the company. So when you drive to RiteAid to pick up some aspirin, your GoogleCar interrupts and says, "Really, you should go to CVS because aspirin there is on sale today."
Sound far-fetched? In 1994, when I told real estate agents that some day, houses would be bought and sold over the Internet, they said it would never happen.
Submitted by acohill on Wed, 12/02/2009 - 09:10
MacWorld reports that iPod zombies are scaring motorists and causing accidents in Great Britain. iPod zombies are bicyclists who pedal down the road with their iPod headphones plugged in. Yes, this means they can't hear road traffic, and worse, are probably mentally wrapped up in listening to the music instead of being aware of the traffic around them. How big a problem is it? The English Department for Transportation reports a 19% rise in serious injuries or death to bike riders this year compared to last year.
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