The Le Séance !

Oh great spirits, we are attempting to contact one our missing followers of MacNight. His spiritual name is "Le". Please release him to the Macworld so that others may benefit from his great knowledge. Why he has been banished for so long has concerned the Mac faithful. Please give us a sign that he is well, and that he will be enriching us with his great wisdom sometime soon. <... beep, please deposit 25 cents ...> Sorry, I have to go now. I'm out of change. <... I'm sorry you call has been disconnected. ...> <... Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep ...>

Motorola is splitting in two....

Well, it looks like Motorola has decided to push it's recently unprofitable cell phone branch of the company out of the main company into a separate company. It seems Motorola hasn't been able to create a hit in the cell phone market since the Razor phones. Even that phone only looked cool, but had problems, in my opinion. Some of the reasons for their problems was increased competition, including Apple's new iPhone. Motorola probably looked at all of the innovation in the iPhone and figured that this phone was so far ahead of the competition that it may be too late to even try to catch the technologies in this phone.

iPod music bundling

Gentlemen, this is one of the most unique ideas I've ever heard. Check out the Ars Technica piece:

Unlimited Downloads!

If I understand correctly, an option for purchasing an iPod would include an additional charge which would allow the purchaser to download an unlimited number of songs as long as they owned the iPod.

Is this right? It almost sounds too good to be true. I also understand another music player has that feature - for an additional $80. You know, it almost seems like a good deal! And, you own the music!

Now the article says Apple wants to charge an additional $20, not $80. I know I may sound crazy, but $20 in addition to the iPod would be a steal. I would think $40 to $80 would make more sense for UNLIMITED downloads!

Am I reading this right? And if so, what do you guys think?

Ars Technica Opinion Piece

Check out this article from Ars Technica:

iPhone Development

It is fascinating and talks about how crazy developers are to make applications for the iPhone, but how some are questioning the role of Apple as the so called "gate keeper" and taking 30% of revenues generated from software sales. On the other hand, Apple also takes care of all the "overhead costs" such as taking care of credit card charges, distribution, maintenance of the App store for the iPhone.

Stitch, what do you think?

Speaking of Steve Ballmer...

Check out this article from eWeek by Mac evangelist turned reporter Guy Kawasaki's interview of Steve Ballmer. Interesting read:

Ballmer Interview

Time for the iPhone blastoff?

With the latest news from Apple with their "Enterprise" solutions and "SDK", is now time for the iPhone blastoff countdown? After seeing the video of Apple's announcement, I was in awe. The iPhone will now be a fully secure network which links directly to Microsoft Exchange server for push email, push calenders, and push whatever. VPN support (virtual private network) which would allow an encrypted connection for sensitive data transfers. And with the SDK (software development kit) any business can customize their services and software on the iPhone. The SDK looked like is an amazing tool for creating applications quickly.
Businesses could get data from their own servers quickly and securely to their workers in a very portable device. Taking a laptop everywhere is not always convienient. Sales people are perfect targets for these devices. Any job which could need information sent to a remote location.
In addition, Apple looks like they want the iPhone to become a mobile gaming platform. With the full 3 axis accelerometer in the device. Instead of using a mouse or joystick for control, you just tip the iphone in different orientations. So the interface goes from mouse and joystick driven, to finger pointing and tipping.
The repurcutions of this may not be felt until later this year but like the initial iPod introduction, has been ignored by investors as being anything significant.
The iPhone incompasses all of what makes Apple great. It has a rock solid OS based on OSX. A great software development tool in SDK. They even have an iPhone simulator which run on your computer to speed development. Simple access to the cool features of the iPhone, touch interface, video, accelerometer, etc should stimulate quick development of awesome apps. Plus the attention to cool design and simple interfaces. Apple is firing on all cylinders now. Like the Venture Capitalist said, "the iPhone should be bigger than the personal computer". I think he is right.

Proud new owner of an iPod Classic

Yes the time has come where I have gone ahead and made the iPod purchase. Yes I have owned a shuffle in the past. And Christina has an iPod nano before they widened it. But I feel that the number of features and price have reached a point which begs the question. "Why don't you buy one!" I got a black iPod classic with an 80GB hard drive. I like the fact that you can do video on it if you like. It has a wheel based Coverflow feature. And the large 80GB storage have sold me on this model. The iTouch is cool but still in it's infancy. I would expect that the flash memory prices will drop quickly and then make this the iPod of choice in a couple of years. But the original draw for the iPod and what drew me to the Classic is the huge storage where you have "everything in your pocket". I have already loaded a classic Stanley Cup Finals game from the 1970's on it, to call up one of the greatest players to ever play the game, Gilbert Perrault. He played like a Mazda MX6, "just like butter". Soon it will be filled with "Science Friday" podcasts, and loads of songs. And it will nice to be able to pull up anything in an instant. Apple magic at it's best.

Nike and Apple Again

Have you heard that Apple and Nike are teaming up again. This time to use the iPod nano to collect workout data from exercise equipment in Gym's. They are in negotiations with major exercise equipment manufacturers to add access ports for Nanos. It appears that the Nike website for tracking running data has grown into a very popular community. And Apple/Nike want to expand this to more workout types. People can find exercise partners to compete against on the Nike site. Who would have thought this would be so popular. I thought that this pedometer/ipod gadget would come and go. But it appears to have staying power.

MacBook Air in short supply

Gentlemen, the new Macbook Air is reportedly in short supply:

The Air

And indeed, it is the top selling Mac on the Apple Store website. Are we to conclude that the Air is a hit, or is this simply supply shortage with Apple failing to accurately predict demand? It would be surprising to me if the Air retained this position even ahead of the Macbook, given the Macbook's excellent value (in my humble opinion).

Apple to buy Yahoo?

There have been rumors, albiet weak rumors, that Apple may be considering buying Yahoo. One of these rumors teams up Newscorp with Apple in the purchase. Some of the reasons given for the reason for Apple to want Yahoo include the following. Apple could use Yahoo to expand the .Mac vision which Apple has yet to see take off. Apple would have an automatic inroad into China for marketing all of its products. And the idea that Apple feels it could fix the search engine business.

Personally, I don't give this idea any credence based on how Apple operates in the past. They are the new product dreamers. Yahoo seems to be a hodgepodge of almost good online products. It would take a super organizer to sort through the Yahoo mess and find what is of value and what is a wasted effort. Apple doesn't fix other peoples messes. They start from scratch and fix things from the ground up.

Now for the contrarian view. How would Apple benefit from having Yahoo? They have a large customer base, which may not be as big as Google but is still quite large. So if Apple did buy Yahoo, would they just rewrite how the company operates into the Apple way of doing business? Simplifying their core business to a handful of functions. This may be plausible, but can Apple even be in the running to buy Yahoo if the deep pockets of MS are there to easily outbid Apple. But buyouts are not just the highest bidder. Yahoo stockholders may feel that in the long run, Apple would generate more money for Yahoo than the initial jump if MS buys them. And what would this do to the relationship with Google?

It is an interesting proposition, which if Apple jumps into would change the type of company they are once again.

Blue Ray Triumphs!

Well, Stitch, my wish has come true - Blue Ray is the next generation DVD standard! It is exciting, but obviously one needs the high definition TV to go with it! Do you guys have one? I'm hoping that with Blue Ray victorious, it might spur more High Def Tv purchases and drive the price down more. What do you guys think?

Leopard Update and Apple

I had to share this with you guys. Apple just issued a huge update of Leopard, and I can't help but say how happy I am to be a Mac Fanatic. With the first release of Leopard, Apple introduced the "stacks" idea for the dock - click on a folder, and the contents would either "fan" out or produce a square grid, and you could pick any item within. Apple was roundly criticized because they took away the nice ability to navigate through embedded folders like you could in Tiger.

Here's what I love - Apple put the functionality back in, and they made it even BETTER! Now, you have your choice of doing list view, fan view, grid view, navigating folders, etc., and it's even FASTER than before! People do criticize Apple, and sometimes those criticisms are well founded, but Apple does respond to their users. I find that time and again!

By the way, on my way to ASU, I saw a student carrying a Macbook Air to class just like a regular textbook. We actually played with one at the Apple Store. They are indeed as light and thin as advertised. It will be interesting to see how it is adopted. Seeing a student with a Macbook Air already gives me that warm and fuzzy feeling, though!

RIM files "multitouch" patent

Well, gents, I believe this harkens the era of first real competition for the iPhone. RIM just filed a multitouch patent, with the intent that the technology would show up in their phones. RIM already makes excellent smart phones, and I think they are the ones who can give Apple some real competition. I do believe, however, that Apple has incredible leverage with its software prowess and head start. This really is a good thing, because I think great technologies will come out of this. What's your take?

Garmin amazes with iPhone like cell phone

Have you seen the cell phone that Garmin has developed? It actually looks pretty cool and seems to be well designed. It has a touch screen and leverages Garmin's experience with GPS. They also support 3G technology. Who would have guessed that Garmin would produce such a cool phone. Jumping from GPS navigations systems to cell phones. Of course the devil is in the details. Right now it seems pictures are all that is available to review. No mention of price. Could this be real competition to the iPhone. Probably more so than the standard cell phone makers. But of course by the time this phone hits the market, the next generation iPhone will be released with more features. Probably including 3G.


Link

Microsoft takeover of Yahoo

Have you guys heard the news? Microsoft wants to buy Yahoo in a hostile takeover bid. There were talks before that broke down, but now Microsoft wants to take Yahoo. Supposedly Jerry Yang, founder and current CEO, wants to maintain Yahoo's independence. Microsoft wants to take them over because it would help them compete with Google. Is this a good idea? I can't help but dislike Microsoft swallowing up more of the competition. What's your take?

The mystery of fhe missing iPhones.

Have you seen all the news hype about the missing iPhones? Apple claims they sold something like 4 million iPhones to date, but AT&T say only a little over 2 million have been activated. The question is what happened to the rest. Some website claimed the rest have been unlocked and running on other networks. Even some stock analysts are saying this and noting that it will be bad for Apple because they will lose the monthly revenue from the AT&T customers. The sudden drop in the Apple stock is also attributed to this.

I just have to laugh. To unlock the iPhone you would have to break it open, mess with the electronics, void your warrenty, and hope it works. I doubt millions of people have done this. My guess is that the Apple numbers and AT&T numbers were released at different times and that is why they don't jive.

One other guess was that the some Apple fanatics just bought them to keep as collectors items. McFan are you one of these people? It is amazing what conclusions people will jump to, no matter how far out there is is.

Total Music to kill off iTunes?

I just read an article in Wired magazine which said that the CEO of Universal Music is trying to take away the strangle hold that iTunes has on digital downloads. I know this is old news but there is something called "Total Music" which Universal is trying to push which would replace owning music with a subscription service. It has been gaining traction. Universal has been courting the other large record companies to do the same along with Microsoft and other MP3 player companies.

The basic idea is that the new "Total Music" players would allow a user to play any songs they want in the library but they don't get to own it. The most interesting part is that Universal wants the music players to either give away the subscription for 6 months or even forever. Footing the bill themselves. I guess based on them recuping this cost with the profits from the player. It looks like iTunes has become the Microsoft empire of music which many want to remove.

It was interesting that in the article, the Universal CEO said that iTunes does bring in a substantial amount of money right now and they would not want to lose that. So they are going to have to be delicate about how they go about doing this.

Link

HD-DVD Player Sales tank?

Gentlemen, are the consumers responding? The article:

HD-DVD Sales

suggests HD-DVD player sales fell precipitously after Warner announced its decision. Do you think it makes sense? If Blue Ray takes off, are either of you guys poised to pounce?

Will Apple beat estimates

Today is the day that Apple releases quarterly earnings. The buzz on the street is that they are expected to exceed estimates for the last quarter. But with the whole stock market tanking overall will Apple be one of the few stocks to stay positive? We will know at the end of the day when Apple gives its official release.

IBM Lotus Notes on iPhone

I just read that IBM has teamed up with Apple to release a client application for the iPhone which will allow the iPhone to interface with Lotus Notes. Notes is IBM's email client which a lot of large companies use. It is the main competitor to Microsoft. We use it at my work too. This could make the iPhone even more enticing to business users. Let the collaborations continue! ( hopefully to break the Microsoft noose )