First off, the economic tailspin isn't worrying the hipster computing giant. One analyst noted during the call...
Apple currently has "enough money in the bank to hire all of the engineers in Silicon Valley for a lifetime."
Secondly, with $25 billion in the bank, no debt, and a growing army of loyal clientele, Apple is positioned, like no other company in the industry, to develop a netbook computer that will provide the full computing experience for under $500.
And Markoff has some interesting news about this possibility as well; "A" search engine company [contacted Markoff, stating they] "spotted Web visits from an unannounced Apple product with a display somewhere between an iPhone and a MacBook."
Furthering this storm of speculation is Snow Leopard, Apple's latest incarnation of their lauded OSX, said to be optimized for a touchscreen interface; just the kind of interface a 'Macbook Nano' or Apple Netbook machine would be sporting.
I think that battery capacity and lifespan will be a deciding factor in how quickly, if at all, this will come to market. That screen looks like a battery killer to me.
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Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Apple Rumor: Macbook Nano/Apple Netbook
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Apple's New iPods are Rumors No More
Below are the new iPod ads that are already making the rounds. If you haven't heard, the freshly announced 4th gen Nanos use the accelerometer technology found in the Touch and iPhone, and Apple has ditched the 'stocky like Rocky' look, to ventured back into coveted tall, thin and skinny territory (much like Steve himself). Additionally, new colors match the artsy players to primary and secondary colors, while silver and graphite round out the newly available Nano array.
The iPod Touch got a much needed...
volume control rocker switch, but no GPS. Price cuts did happen, much to my chagrin, and range from minimal to substantial. The updated 2.1 firmware adds a playlist genius, so if you're a mix master skills aren't up to snuff, the device intervenes and helps you fill in the blanks. The Touch has always been more than a media player and Apple's marketing plan reflects their new aspirations for the device, a portable gaming system. This new ad leans toward adding gamers to the loyal music lover demographic.
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Monday, August 25, 2008
Apple Rumors: New iPods, iTunes 8, and a Price Drop?
Digg.com’s founder Kevin Rose: is either - quite well connected, lucky enough to get random emails by Apple insiders, or is just looking for blog traffic. Really, it’s probably all three. A self-made gentleman of the blog-o-sphere, Rose is taken quite seriously by most bloggers and podcasters, as his information is the stuff of dream posts. Hard hitting, late breaking, unconfirmed tech rumors… revealed.
We bloggers crave this type of inside track so badly that we’ll believe most anything. Rose revealed on Sunday’s “This Week in Tech” that he has received unsolicited anonymous emails, which included...
PDF files of reference photos and technical specs for the new nano. The photos released, show a rounder, thinner, and longer body design, in addition to a wider screen. Who knows if the emails are from people working for or with Apple on the latest iPod nano design, but the information is thought to be creditable.
Rose also wrangled up some insider info on the iTunes 8 release, however remained tight lipped about the purported new features, in hopes of avoiding ridicule if his information is found to be false. Of course, that’s silly because people are going to ridicule and discredit him, either way. He also won’t release the full photos of the nano with the technical specifications attached to protect the sources anonymity. OK, then. So we should just take his word for it? Seems as if.
Rose also added what seemed to be his speculation of an impeding price drop. Making the assertion that the current iPhone price, of $199 w/ two-year contract, has been taking sales away from regular iPods.
I personally never really considered buying an iPhone, the service contract always seemed like a rip off, so I bought the iPod Touch, no contest, no debate, no wavering. It seems counter-intuitive that Apple would readjust their entire iPod line's price point to match a discount that is given when a two-year contract is signed. I don’t see it happening… good thing we’ll only have to wait a few weeks for all to be announced (Sept. 9). I hate not knowing whether I'm right.
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Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Brooklyn's miShare Teaches iPods to Share
Brooklyn is the Borough. Here we like to call it ‘the planet’, for self evident reasons. Highly inventive, and ferociously independent; Brooklynites scoff at convention, and pursue endeavors most outside the borough would find odd, to say the least.
MiShare, LLC, a Brooklyn based start up, exemplifies Brooklyn’s ‘think differently’ lifestyle. They have made their mark by teaching iPods to be more social. Making sweet music together, or swapping music and videos with each other, is not a trick that iPods intuitively know how to do. Apple has been painstakingly removing file exchange from these tune filled totes since their inception, but miShare is here to prove iPods can be persuaded to share with their siblings, given the proper motivation, quickly and without a computer.
A miShare device enlightens the normally self-centered iPod to the existence of other iPods by physically linking them. This gives them the freedom to exchange information, with USB 2.0 speed, via the 30pin iPod interface. You can transfer either the most recently played song or transfer your entire on-the-go playlist, and DRM info is transferred in tact, so it doesn’t unlocked protected content. Although, if it did that would be more Mafioso than Brooklyn.
No word yet on an iPhone or Touch compatible version. Otherwise, as long as you have the iPod connector on the bottom of your pod, you should be good to go. You can start sharing your musical taste ‘on the fly’ with other iPod owners for only $99.
Seems as if it took a pair from Brooklyn to teach a bunch stuck-up Cupertino kids how to share with each other. What else should you expect? As our fair and friendly borough president, Marty, puts it “Brooklyn is the greatest city in America, hands down.”
AudioSource DB5 Portable Powered Speaker System
Apple 8 GB iPod Nano Black 3rd Gen USA + Extended Warranty
Denon S-52 Wireless Network Music System w/iPod Dock
Sony ICF-C1IPBLACK iPod Dock w/ Clock (Black)
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Tuesday, January 29, 2008
iPods as Military Hardware Leads to New Civilian Uses
Now don’t get me wrong. I’m all for our soldiers that are deployed in war zones having the appropriate equipment to get the job done. But, I have to ask myself, are iPods really helping to get their jobs done?
According to Vcom3D, an Orlando purveyor of an avatar based authoring suite called Vcommunicator, the iPod is the perfect platform by which software written with their suite can operate. Mobile LC, as it’s been dubbed, is a program they've written to demonstrate the authoring suite's capabilities. It translates English to Iraqi Arabic or Kurdish language. More importantly, their avatars can indicate the appropriate gestures to go along with the phases. This translation technology has effectively been given an military field test, now they're morphing it into a translation application that’s more suitable for travelers than armed forces.
It’s true that the iPod is a good platform for this technology. iPods are cheap and readily available, but the translation application itself is a bit limited. Soldiers can only select from a list of predesignated sentences that are mission specific, like “open your trunk” or “U.S. Army please open the door”. It doesn’t seem very adaptable to the quickly evolving or escalating situations that regularly present themselves to soldiers at war.
Where're the Star Trek translator joints at anyway?
Two-way translation would be nice when you want to communicate with an Iraqi rather than just ordering one around. The blog entry from Vcom3D states “[knowing] local culture can mean the difference between life and death”. I guess the trick for the soldier is to make the gestures learned look natural, instead of it looking like an avatar taught them to you.
This is throwing a technology at a cultural divide that’s really too wide to be bridged by it. There would have to be a radical change in the Army’s culture to bridge that divide for real. This device will help, and may even save lives, but to really get at the problem soldiers would have to immerse themselves in the culture of the people whose land they occupy/liberate.
This kind of cultural immersion is not supported by U.S. military conventions. The military personnel communication technology, that has been so well funded and very well received by troops, connects up the soldiers to each other and their command in such a pervasive way that soldiers never have to develop cultural sensibilities towards the citizens of the land they're in.
Say, you got separated from you squad, in earlier days you had to depend on the locals residents to help you; nowadays your location is mapped on the command’s console and the Calvary arrives before you even get hungry.
This is great, if you’re that soldier, but think of the relationships that are lost because of this. Not to say we shouldn’t use these technologies, just deploy them with less of a ‘us and them’ attitude. The example doesn't even need to be that extreme, soldiers deployed in Germany for decades just stay on the base, all the time; it's that kind of culture.
To ‘win the hearts and minds’ it would help to seem a bit more connected to the people of the land through human relationships, rather than just being connected to a computer network.
Franklin BES-1890 Speaking Spanish-English
Franklin SCD-1890 Speaking Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, 11th Edition
Franklin LIB-1870 Speaking Larousse Spanish/English Dictionary-Berlitz Workbook
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Saturday, September 22, 2007
Early buyers receive iPod Touch
posted by Andrew Harris
Last night, this reporter attended a house party in the Bedford Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, Where I witnessed a startling sight an iPod touch user happily plugging away at the browsing capabilities of the sleek thin device. I watched and wonder 'way too thin to be an iPhone plus there's no speaker or ear piece. This has to be an iPod touch, but how, I thought that it didn't ship tell later next week' so I ask the guy, Dave he later old me, how he got it?,"IT came today, I ordered as soon as it was announced."
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