The iCar?

Have you heard the news that Apple and Volkwagen may be developing an iCar. It would have many Apple created features which Volkwagen hopes will appeal to the younger generation. I think this is so cool. It would give Apple opportunity to make the driving experience even more enjoyable and intuitive just like it has done in so many other areas. These joint ventures are a great idea. Apple knows integration, electronics and software, while Volkwagen know cars. By the way I don't think the car will look like this picture.

Link

NBC universal not renewing with iTunes

Well, a major defection has occurred. NBC will not have programming on iTunes for the coming season. Ouch! Apparently NBC wanted to double prices - shows would have gone up to $4.99 from their current $1.99. However, I understand they can still hammer out a deal - but right now Apple and iTunes arew at an impasse. Will they work it out? It sure seems like a tough situation. What do you think?

Apple winning PC wars?

This article lends support to Steve Job's idea that market share is not the only indication of success. Furthermore, Apple has valued profits over growth. (Which is hard for me to necessarily agree with because Apple has grown tremendously!) I don't think Apple is "winning the PC wars", but I do think Apple is as fierce a competitor as there ever was in the PC industry.

PC Wars

Anti Consumer "Paylola" by HD-DVD

According to a recent article, HD-DVD supporters are paying Paramont 150 million to immediately drop support for Blue Ray DVD standard. Paramount was originally going to support both standards. Sound anti-competitive? Not good! What do you think?

Payola

Gphone?

The latest rumor is that Google will be releasing the Google cell phone in the next couple of weeks. I think Google may be venturing a bit too far from what they know. They do not have experience making hardware products. And really so far there only big success has been the Google search engine. The other products don't really seem to make them any money. Google Earth is cool, but how does that make them money? And there online office suite is basically second rate at best. Gmail is good but still, is it a money maker. There desktop assistant really seems unfinished and hodgepodged together. It will be interesting to see if they can make a good cell phone. My guess is that it will have loads of features but only some of them useful, and yet unpolished compared to the iPhone. What is your take?

Flavor Flav roast

I was flipping through the channels and I came across the Comedy Central TV roast show of Flavor Flav. He is a rapper who is known for wearing a big clock around his neck. Anyway one of the comedians told a joke saying "Flavor you disgust me, you sold out quicker than the iPhone" Yes now the iPhone is working its way into the culture of TV.

Two Studios opt for HD-DVD - Ouch!!

Two studios opted to drop support for Blue Ray and go exclusively with Hd-DVD. Things just got a lot messier! Check it out:

HD

Appleworks R.I.P.

Stitch, it was announced that Apple would no longer sell the venerable Appleworks suite!

R.I.P.

But Apple hasn't updated the suite in forever, so I guess it was just a matter of time. And naturally the iWork suite is quite capable. The only thing it doesn't have is a database application, and I wonder how many people actually made use of it. Are you mourning the loss, Stitch?

Numbers completes the package

I believe the biggest announcement by Apple is not the updates to the iMacs. Although they were pretty cool. The big one in my mind is the completion of an Office package which is suppposably compatible with MS Office. Numbers completes the package. It looks very much like Appleworks where you can have sections of spreadsheets intermixed with graphics instead of having one massive grid locking you in. You can have that if you want but being able to peal off a grid and use it somewhere else on the page adds versatility. I always liked that feature of Appleworks. Except Appleworks was never updated much from its original design. Now who needs any MS product running on your Mac?

Apple Store San Luis Obispo

I must say I was impressed with the new Apple Store in San Luis Obispo! It was very long and it had a modest but very classy front. It seemed like a new design. It made me want to buy something, anything!

New iMac

Gentlemen, I'm back! Just in time to see Apple release the latest incarnation of a very important product line, the iMac. What do you think? The darn thing just keeps getting slimmer, doesn't it?