Airplay from iOS 4.2

I'm sure you heard the news - iOS 4.2 is out, and the feature I covet the most is Airplay. Having purchased 2 Airport Express units over the last couple of years, I'm thrilled with the notion of streaming audio directly from my iPod Touch to my stereo. I'm curious if the feature affects battery life any more than simply using the "Remote" app to stream music from the Mac to the Express units. I'll let you know once I find out.

I hope the feature if iOS 4.2 push sales of the Apple TV unit. We'd love to get one, except we don't have a flat screen TV!! One day...

I think Airprint needed to be more versatile for it to be a hit.

Google Android search cash cow drying up?

It looks like the Android experiment from Google may backfire. Google makes money from Android by having Google search as the default search engine. But the carriers are now finding that they don't really need Google. They can use whoever makes it worth their while. So Google may need to start paying for having Google as the default search, cutting into profits. They already pay Apple for Google search on the iPhone. So does this mean that Google's revenue may vaporize enough to the point of cutting development of the Android operating system? Could be, at least hinder it. But since Android is now open source it may not matter. It may go the way of Linux and have a hord of computer hacks developing it. This in my opinion would be the demise of the operating system. From my experience with Linux, there are moments of brilliance in a sea of mediocrity, or at least excess complexity. Without a governing driving goal the system will splinter and become a hodgepodge of programs and philosophy. But how will this effect the iOS of Apple? With Apple being the initial leader in this platform, they have an opportunity to steam ahead. With the desktop computer systems, Apple stumbled and never was able to get the message out of the wonderful integration of their OS, and Windows buried them financially. But with the iOS, the cat is out of the bag and people love the simplicity and integration. There is no going back. In the end Apple may thrive even more due to Google's open OS of Android.

No more cash cow?

Meat the Beatles

Are the rumors true? Did iTunes land the Beatles finally? Tuesday is suppose to be the day of the big announcement. It is also rumored that the Beatles may be getting a special pricing arrangement too. And I would be ecstatic. It would be nice if iTunes allowed for a larger range of pricing, and let the market decide who wins or loses. Smaller groups on small labels may be willing to try to undercut the big name labels. Or artists may decide they don't really need a studio anymore and market there music directly. Anyway, it sure is nice that the Beatles have made their way to iTunes. At least so it seems.