I've Officially Been Cited
11/18/08 09:48 PM Filed in: Technology
Just over two years I
wrote what essentially amounted to be a research
paper on Apple. You can read the entire
article here.
This week, I was officially cited in a paper written by Gabe Pyle as a reliable source on the subject! In fact, he portrays me as quite a scholarly fellow in his paper, if I do say so myself.
Also, I’m planning on writing a second article dealing with the recent rise in internet stupidity, especially relating to failed attempts to converse in a civilized conversation and the continuing debate of Mac vs. PC. I have an exam tomorrow, but once that is over I should start on it.
This week, I was officially cited in a paper written by Gabe Pyle as a reliable source on the subject! In fact, he portrays me as quite a scholarly fellow in his paper, if I do say so myself.
Also, I’m planning on writing a second article dealing with the recent rise in internet stupidity, especially relating to failed attempts to converse in a civilized conversation and the continuing debate of Mac vs. PC. I have an exam tomorrow, but once that is over I should start on it.
|
I Know You Were Texting in Chapel
11/14/08 02:28 PM Filed in: Stories
| Technology
That’s right, I know
everything. But don’t worry, I won’t turn you in for
it. I do it all the time.
Who was in chapel this morning, can I see a show of hands? Well, someone was texting in chapel this morning; someone who uses AT&T, and I can almost prove it.
AT&T has got a few things going for them these days, namely the iPhone and their amazing 3G network. While 3G is awesome, here’s the biggest problem with it. It has such high bandwidth data transfer that the signal frequently interferes with surrounding signals. I’ve also heard, though this is not confirmed, that AT&T text messaging uses some sort of an interface that interferes specifically with Bluetooth devices, which your laptop and most computers probably have.
My roommate has a phone that is powered by AT&T. I can predict, almost with perfect accuracy, when he’s going to get a text message before his phone even buzzes. We’ll be sitting in our room, he watching TV, me at my desk doing who-knows-what, and the speakers to our dorm computer will start to sputter, making a staccato style “daaaa-ta-ka-daaa-ta-ka-daaa-ta-ka-daaaaa” sound over and over. “Dave, you’re getting a text.” Seconds later, his phone buzzes.
So, remember that loud and obnoxious “daaaa-ta-ka-daaa-ta-ka-daaa-ta-ka-daaaaa” that we heard blasting over the sound system this morning, interrupting Dr. Brown as he was recognizing our Grandparents? There’s an extremely high chance (I’d say ... 90%) that the cause of that was someone in chapel receiving a text message on the AT&T network.
Who was in chapel this morning, can I see a show of hands? Well, someone was texting in chapel this morning; someone who uses AT&T, and I can almost prove it.
AT&T has got a few things going for them these days, namely the iPhone and their amazing 3G network. While 3G is awesome, here’s the biggest problem with it. It has such high bandwidth data transfer that the signal frequently interferes with surrounding signals. I’ve also heard, though this is not confirmed, that AT&T text messaging uses some sort of an interface that interferes specifically with Bluetooth devices, which your laptop and most computers probably have.
My roommate has a phone that is powered by AT&T. I can predict, almost with perfect accuracy, when he’s going to get a text message before his phone even buzzes. We’ll be sitting in our room, he watching TV, me at my desk doing who-knows-what, and the speakers to our dorm computer will start to sputter, making a staccato style “daaaa-ta-ka-daaa-ta-ka-daaa-ta-ka-daaaaa” sound over and over. “Dave, you’re getting a text.” Seconds later, his phone buzzes.
So, remember that loud and obnoxious “daaaa-ta-ka-daaa-ta-ka-daaa-ta-ka-daaaaa” that we heard blasting over the sound system this morning, interrupting Dr. Brown as he was recognizing our Grandparents? There’s an extremely high chance (I’d say ... 90%) that the cause of that was someone in chapel receiving a text message on the AT&T network.
Hey, Apple, Where's the Blu-Ray?
10/18/08 05:45 PM Filed in: Technology
There’s a lot of
commotion over Apple’s newest line of MacBooks,
MacBook Pros, iMacs, Cinnema Displays, etc. But
there’s something that seems severely lacking. Where
are the Blu-Ray drives, Apple?
Sure, you gave us a Wireless n card. You gave us 39% more on our touchpad for the MacBook and the MacBook Pros, made of wear-resistant glass and added more advanced finger gestures. You gave us a Solid-State Hard Drive for over $1,000 less than it was in the initial MacBook Air (told you ...). You gave us a sleeker, even more aesthetically pleasing (and I thought that wasn’t possible ...) design for the casing. You gave us faster processors (we like that)! You gave us two graphics cards--one integrated for better battery life, one discrete for ultimate performance. You even somehow managed, among all these things, to squeeze in a bigger battery, boasting up to five hours of life!
But ... First let’s talk about ports. I’m pretty excited that you moved to a single standard for display ports. On the MacBook AND the MacBook Pro, you are given a Mini DisplayPort; no DV and Mini-DV depending on your laptop. Though, annoyingly, Mini DisplayPort, as you may notice, is Mini DP, not Mini DV, so it’s a standard we have to switch to before it’s universal. Why they ever thought that was a good idea, I’ll never know, since there’s no difference in performance. We now have a gigabit ethernet port ... Awesome! Quick question: Where did my FireWire port go on the regular MacBook? It’s ... gone.
Jobs has only responded with the statement, “Actually, all of the new HD camcorders of the past few years use USB 2.” I love Steve Jobs, but that doesn’t actually answer the question. And a significant number of camcorders still use FireWire, though he’s right when he says most new ones use USB, or at least allow for both. However, here’s the strangest part. Do you know who invented FireWire? FireWire is Apple’s IEEE 1394 connection, created in 1995 and implemented on the first Macs somewhere around 1997. Even more ironically, FireWire officially became part of the IEEE Std. in June, 2008. If you’ll notice, that wasn’t too long ago ... And all of a sudden, it’s parent has abandoned it and accepted the more universal standard of USB (which appropriately stands for Universal Serial Bus)? That doesn’t seem right.
Also, my external hard drive uses FireWire.
But, most significantly, what about Blu-Ray? That is, after all, why you’re reading this, right? Well, here’s what Jobs had to say about that. “Blu-Ray is just a bag of hurt. It’s great to watch the movies, but licensing of the tech is so complex, we’re waiting till things settle down and Blu-Ray takes off in the marketplace.” Read “licensing of the tech is so complex” as “it costs way too much money.” That’s really what he means.
For some reason I can’t understand, Apple went out on a limb and incorporated $1,700 SSD drives in the MacBook Air ... A drive that costs over five times as much for less than half the space of a normal Hard Drive. A price that would be ridiculous to pay, but Apple understood that if they didn’t incorporate it into the marketplace at an expensive price, it would never be able to come down in price. Strange that they aren’t willing to do the same for Blu-Ray. Also, Apple and Sony are chums. Incidentally, Sony owned HD-DVD ... Which was the competitor for Blu-Ray and lost because it was far inferior, though much priced much friendlier.
That’s really all the answer we have from the guys at Apple as to why Blu-Ray is lacking in this line. And, from the several people I’ve talked to on the subject, that was the only reason they were going to buy a new MacBook this year. Now they aren’t. Way to go, Apple.
As just a bit of encouragement, here’s a fun fact about Blu-Ray: It’s highly encrypted. Those of you who like to rip-’n-return, as we say, are going to be in for a surprise. Blu-Ray discs are encrypted, in fact, all the way to the monitor. (Can you say “paranoid”?) So, get this, in order for Apple to actually include Blu-Ray drives on their laptops, it’s not as simple as you ordering a Blu-Ray drive and doing surgery on your MacBook Pro; you would need a new display to decrypt the discs. Apple included the decrypting technology in the displays for their newest MacBooks, MacBook Pros, Cinnema Displays, and iMacs. Maybe in the next generation, then ...
Sure, you gave us a Wireless n card. You gave us 39% more on our touchpad for the MacBook and the MacBook Pros, made of wear-resistant glass and added more advanced finger gestures. You gave us a Solid-State Hard Drive for over $1,000 less than it was in the initial MacBook Air (told you ...). You gave us a sleeker, even more aesthetically pleasing (and I thought that wasn’t possible ...) design for the casing. You gave us faster processors (we like that)! You gave us two graphics cards--one integrated for better battery life, one discrete for ultimate performance. You even somehow managed, among all these things, to squeeze in a bigger battery, boasting up to five hours of life!
But ... First let’s talk about ports. I’m pretty excited that you moved to a single standard for display ports. On the MacBook AND the MacBook Pro, you are given a Mini DisplayPort; no DV and Mini-DV depending on your laptop. Though, annoyingly, Mini DisplayPort, as you may notice, is Mini DP, not Mini DV, so it’s a standard we have to switch to before it’s universal. Why they ever thought that was a good idea, I’ll never know, since there’s no difference in performance. We now have a gigabit ethernet port ... Awesome! Quick question: Where did my FireWire port go on the regular MacBook? It’s ... gone.
Jobs has only responded with the statement, “Actually, all of the new HD camcorders of the past few years use USB 2.” I love Steve Jobs, but that doesn’t actually answer the question. And a significant number of camcorders still use FireWire, though he’s right when he says most new ones use USB, or at least allow for both. However, here’s the strangest part. Do you know who invented FireWire? FireWire is Apple’s IEEE 1394 connection, created in 1995 and implemented on the first Macs somewhere around 1997. Even more ironically, FireWire officially became part of the IEEE Std. in June, 2008. If you’ll notice, that wasn’t too long ago ... And all of a sudden, it’s parent has abandoned it and accepted the more universal standard of USB (which appropriately stands for Universal Serial Bus)? That doesn’t seem right.
Also, my external hard drive uses FireWire.
But, most significantly, what about Blu-Ray? That is, after all, why you’re reading this, right? Well, here’s what Jobs had to say about that. “Blu-Ray is just a bag of hurt. It’s great to watch the movies, but licensing of the tech is so complex, we’re waiting till things settle down and Blu-Ray takes off in the marketplace.” Read “licensing of the tech is so complex” as “it costs way too much money.” That’s really what he means.
For some reason I can’t understand, Apple went out on a limb and incorporated $1,700 SSD drives in the MacBook Air ... A drive that costs over five times as much for less than half the space of a normal Hard Drive. A price that would be ridiculous to pay, but Apple understood that if they didn’t incorporate it into the marketplace at an expensive price, it would never be able to come down in price. Strange that they aren’t willing to do the same for Blu-Ray. Also, Apple and Sony are chums. Incidentally, Sony owned HD-DVD ... Which was the competitor for Blu-Ray and lost because it was far inferior, though much priced much friendlier.
That’s really all the answer we have from the guys at Apple as to why Blu-Ray is lacking in this line. And, from the several people I’ve talked to on the subject, that was the only reason they were going to buy a new MacBook this year. Now they aren’t. Way to go, Apple.
As just a bit of encouragement, here’s a fun fact about Blu-Ray: It’s highly encrypted. Those of you who like to rip-’n-return, as we say, are going to be in for a surprise. Blu-Ray discs are encrypted, in fact, all the way to the monitor. (Can you say “paranoid”?) So, get this, in order for Apple to actually include Blu-Ray drives on their laptops, it’s not as simple as you ordering a Blu-Ray drive and doing surgery on your MacBook Pro; you would need a new display to decrypt the discs. Apple included the decrypting technology in the displays for their newest MacBooks, MacBook Pros, Cinnema Displays, and iMacs. Maybe in the next generation, then ...
Using Apple Mail (Specifically) At Cedarville
10/17/08 12:17 AM Filed in: Academia
| Technology
Sorry, I know, this is
the second blog post about mostly the same thing. But
I’ve found a better way to do it, and it didn’t seem
beneficial to simply erase my old blog post. But this
one won’t include pictures, it’s just a general
overview of what I think is a far more simplistic way
to combine your Cedarville email address with your
personal email address. I’ll use Apple Mail as the
third-party client of choice this time. (I know, it’s
not cross-platform like Thunderbird ... Deal.) You’ll
also need a Gmail account.
If you already have a Gmail account, skip this step.
You’ll need to register for a Gmail account here. Under the Accounts tab of Settings in your Gmail account, you’ll need to import your other email account via POP3. (Instructions for your POP3 settings should be provided by your email service.)
Now, after you’ve got a Gmail account (or if you already had a Gmail account), you’ll need to import your Cedarville email account as an additional POP3 account to your Gmail Inbox. You can do this the same way listed above, using the following POP3 information for Cedarville’s mail server:
Username: myusername@cedarville.edu
Password: mypassword
Server: pop.cedarville.edu
Port: 110
I shouldn’t have to say this, but obviously you should put your own username and password in ... Not the above. For convenience sake, you can check “Leave a copy of retrieved message on the server” and “Label incoming messages: myusername@cedarville.edu”.
You now have all your email accounts in one place. However, it’s in a browser-based environment; you can only get to it when an internet connection is present. If you would like to retrieve it all through Apple Mail, all you need do is open Apple Mail and add an account. The newest version of Apple Mail knows instinctively how to setup a Gmail account, so all you’ll need to do is provide your Gmail username and password. The rest is done automatically.
Back in Gmail, if you want to be able to send mail from you Cedarville account through Gmail (only in browser mode ... Not from Apple Mail ... Sorry), you’ll need to add yet another server through Settings-->Accounts in Gmail. All you need do in this case is add your Cedarville email address as a “Send Mail As” account, check your Cedarville account, follow the link provided in that email, and voila, you can send email from your Cedarville account through your Gmail account.
And all this is free :).
There’s one more treat. In Apple Mail, your email will always be sent from Gmail, not Cedarville. There is a way to send mail from your Cedarville account the Apple Mail, but it’s kind of pointless. But guess what, you can get the GroupWise address book via LDAP into your Apple Addressbook. Here’s how:
In Apple Mail, go to Preferences. Click on the Composing tab. Click “Configure LDAP ...” Add a new LDAP server with the following information:
Name: Cedarville
Server: imap.cedarville.edu
Port: 389
Search Base: o=cedarnet1
Scope: Subtree
Now, when composing a message, you can start typing any name (you’ll need to wait a bit) and it will search the GroupWise address book and return any matches. It works pretty well :).
Enjoy.
If you already have a Gmail account, skip this step.
You’ll need to register for a Gmail account here. Under the Accounts tab of Settings in your Gmail account, you’ll need to import your other email account via POP3. (Instructions for your POP3 settings should be provided by your email service.)
Now, after you’ve got a Gmail account (or if you already had a Gmail account), you’ll need to import your Cedarville email account as an additional POP3 account to your Gmail Inbox. You can do this the same way listed above, using the following POP3 information for Cedarville’s mail server:
Username: myusername@cedarville.edu
Password: mypassword
Server: pop.cedarville.edu
Port: 110
I shouldn’t have to say this, but obviously you should put your own username and password in ... Not the above. For convenience sake, you can check “Leave a copy of retrieved message on the server” and “Label incoming messages: myusername@cedarville.edu”.
You now have all your email accounts in one place. However, it’s in a browser-based environment; you can only get to it when an internet connection is present. If you would like to retrieve it all through Apple Mail, all you need do is open Apple Mail and add an account. The newest version of Apple Mail knows instinctively how to setup a Gmail account, so all you’ll need to do is provide your Gmail username and password. The rest is done automatically.
Back in Gmail, if you want to be able to send mail from you Cedarville account through Gmail (only in browser mode ... Not from Apple Mail ... Sorry), you’ll need to add yet another server through Settings-->Accounts in Gmail. All you need do in this case is add your Cedarville email address as a “Send Mail As” account, check your Cedarville account, follow the link provided in that email, and voila, you can send email from your Cedarville account through your Gmail account.
And all this is free :).
There’s one more treat. In Apple Mail, your email will always be sent from Gmail, not Cedarville. There is a way to send mail from your Cedarville account the Apple Mail, but it’s kind of pointless. But guess what, you can get the GroupWise address book via LDAP into your Apple Addressbook. Here’s how:
In Apple Mail, go to Preferences. Click on the Composing tab. Click “Configure LDAP ...” Add a new LDAP server with the following information:
Name: Cedarville
Server: imap.cedarville.edu
Port: 389
Search Base: o=cedarnet1
Scope: Subtree
Now, when composing a message, you can start typing any name (you’ll need to wait a bit) and it will search the GroupWise address book and return any matches. It works pretty well :).
Enjoy.
Browser Reviews
09/25/08 06:28 PM Filed in: Technology
After Al Gore invented
the internet for us, we realized we needed a way to
walk around the thousands upon thousands (and now
billions upon billions) of sites that were out there.
Meet the browser. To the best of my knowledge, Al
Gore has never claimed part in inventing the browser,
but I wouldn’t put it past him.
Just for fun, and before we start to really rip apart the benchmarks of Google Chrome, let's look at some old, failed browsers so we can scoff at them (by order of appearance).
WorldWideWeb (1991-1994) - I actually can't call this pioneer a failure. After all, it was the world's first web browser. By the way, it was only released for NeXTSTEP OS. The operating system created by NeXT Computer, a company that was founded by none other than Steve Jobs. The NeXTSTEP OS was quite literally the parent of Mac OS X, and it was also the very first object-oriented and multi-task-ready operating system. (Boy, it's amazing what that Steve Jobs can do ...) However, in 1993 the developers released the source code, thus making the program freeware and allowing for the development of it's children, VoilaWWW, MidasWWW, MacWWW, and their big brother Mosaic.
Netscape Navigator (1994-2007) - Mosaic/Netscape rose to power and popularity much faster than Internet Explorer did, and since it was owned by Netscape Communications, a succesfull company that was pivotal in getting internet readily accessible in every home, the browser had plenty of funding. However, Microsoft was simply a bigger, more powerful company, and the beneficial wars between Netscape Navigator and Internet Explorer were eventually won by Internet Explorer. While Netscape failed miserably by allowing their poorly coded browser to get disgustingly bloated with features, their ultimate failure was in 1999 when they allowed America Online to buy then. Who cares if they offered you ten billion dollars! Immedietly following Netscape's acquisition by AOL, they lost over 30% of their market share in less than one year.
HotJava (1994-1999) - A very customizable, extensible browser that was built around Java in order to easily execute Applets. The ingenuity of HotJava is that it's a browser coded entirely in Java, thus making it extremely portable. The downside to HotJava is that it's coded entirely in Java, thus limiting it to the JRE and leaving it a fairly slow memory hog, and with the presence of Java so readily incorporated into more recent browsers and the growing popularity of Macromedia's Flash, the project was terminated.
Internet Explorer (1995-Present) - It doesn't need much introduction or explanation. But Internet Explorer has always been interested in integrating (not outsourcing to extensions) functionality at the expense of ease-of-use, security, and speed. And, let's be honest, it's Microsoft ... Therefore, a failure.
OmniWeb (1995-Present) - Wouldn't you know it, it's another NeXTSTEP OS browser! That being the case, it graduated, along with it's OS, to Mac OS X, and that is where it resides today. Unfortunately, this is a limit for it. While it was a good browser in the area of speed, and very minimalistic, it lacked key functionality and compatibility with some of the most recent web innovations, so it falls short.
Internet Explorer for Mac (1996-2005) - Wow. It was simply horrible. Probably the worst maintained browser of all time. It went through three updates in one year, went silent for three years, released it's fourth update in 2000, then was untouched until it's termination in 2005. It was incompatible, buggy, crashed more than anything, and incredibly slow!
Opera (1996-Present) - I've always felt that Opera failed when it came to honesty in advertising. They used to claim to be the “fastest browser” ever made. Well, they’ve since revoked that claim ... It claims it’s “faster” on their website now. Faster than what? I’m not sure, because until the most recent release (9.5) I’ve never been pleased with the speed of the browser. Though, even with 9.5, I still think Firefox is faster, and you can’t argue with the speed I get from Safari. Around version 7, Opera bloated the browser beyond belief, thus slowing it to a crawl. They’ve since revamped the interface and it the newest release it’s actually quite efficient. However, compatibility has always been an issue with it.
Gzilla (1997-1999) - The developer was last heard from on August 16, 1999, pleading for help on his very own site. Apparently he could get his browser to compile on anything other than Linux/x86, so he was begging for outside help. It's rumored the browser emerged a few months later as as Dillo, but that's just probably not true. I'm guessing Mozilla felt threatened by the last five letters of his browser's name, so they took him out.
MyIE/Maxthon (2000-Present) - Maxthon’s clincher is that it’s extremely customizable. It advertises itself as an adaptable alternative to Internet Explorer. The negative clincher is it’s only for Windows. On top of that, it crashes too frequently. It’s not slow, but reliability is a big factor when writing a browser, and if your browser crashes on me too often, I’m not going to use it.
Firefox (2002-Present) - The most successful browser to incorporate extensions. Since Netscape completely fell of the face of the planet somewhere around 2003, Firefox has been the most used cross-platform web browser. It boasts speed, elegance, and integrated functionality. Even better, you can add basically any functionality you desire through extensions; this is what has made Firefox so well known. Unfortunately, Firefox loses a lot of security when they allow third-party extensions. More than that, extensions are impossible for the creators of Firefox to maintain, so when the browser is updated, there’s always the risk (and it very frequently happens) of losing compatibility with extensions. Not very convenient for the extension programmers or their users.
AOL Explorer (2005-Present?) - It’s AOL ... We already know why it fails: Overpriced, slow, inefficient, and unstable. Apparently the browser is still around, but it’s now a part of the AIM package.
Flock (2005-Present) - Flock’s biggest asset is that it’s multi-platform. On top of that, much like Maxthon, it boasts customizability! It integrates beautifully with many popular websites, including Facebook, iGoogle, Flickr, Digg, Twitter, etc. On top of that, it does allow extensions. It has a main page that keeps all of your favorites and information organized and easily accessible. Unfortunately, it still is rather buggy, and speed is also a bit of an issue with it. It enjoys freezing on it’s users.
Now, read my review of Google Chrome!
Just for fun, and before we start to really rip apart the benchmarks of Google Chrome, let's look at some old, failed browsers so we can scoff at them (by order of appearance).
WorldWideWeb (1991-1994) - I actually can't call this pioneer a failure. After all, it was the world's first web browser. By the way, it was only released for NeXTSTEP OS. The operating system created by NeXT Computer, a company that was founded by none other than Steve Jobs. The NeXTSTEP OS was quite literally the parent of Mac OS X, and it was also the very first object-oriented and multi-task-ready operating system. (Boy, it's amazing what that Steve Jobs can do ...) However, in 1993 the developers released the source code, thus making the program freeware and allowing for the development of it's children, VoilaWWW, MidasWWW, MacWWW, and their big brother Mosaic.
Netscape Navigator (1994-2007) - Mosaic/Netscape rose to power and popularity much faster than Internet Explorer did, and since it was owned by Netscape Communications, a succesfull company that was pivotal in getting internet readily accessible in every home, the browser had plenty of funding. However, Microsoft was simply a bigger, more powerful company, and the beneficial wars between Netscape Navigator and Internet Explorer were eventually won by Internet Explorer. While Netscape failed miserably by allowing their poorly coded browser to get disgustingly bloated with features, their ultimate failure was in 1999 when they allowed America Online to buy then. Who cares if they offered you ten billion dollars! Immedietly following Netscape's acquisition by AOL, they lost over 30% of their market share in less than one year.
HotJava (1994-1999) - A very customizable, extensible browser that was built around Java in order to easily execute Applets. The ingenuity of HotJava is that it's a browser coded entirely in Java, thus making it extremely portable. The downside to HotJava is that it's coded entirely in Java, thus limiting it to the JRE and leaving it a fairly slow memory hog, and with the presence of Java so readily incorporated into more recent browsers and the growing popularity of Macromedia's Flash, the project was terminated.
Internet Explorer (1995-Present) - It doesn't need much introduction or explanation. But Internet Explorer has always been interested in integrating (not outsourcing to extensions) functionality at the expense of ease-of-use, security, and speed. And, let's be honest, it's Microsoft ... Therefore, a failure.
OmniWeb (1995-Present) - Wouldn't you know it, it's another NeXTSTEP OS browser! That being the case, it graduated, along with it's OS, to Mac OS X, and that is where it resides today. Unfortunately, this is a limit for it. While it was a good browser in the area of speed, and very minimalistic, it lacked key functionality and compatibility with some of the most recent web innovations, so it falls short.
Internet Explorer for Mac (1996-2005) - Wow. It was simply horrible. Probably the worst maintained browser of all time. It went through three updates in one year, went silent for three years, released it's fourth update in 2000, then was untouched until it's termination in 2005. It was incompatible, buggy, crashed more than anything, and incredibly slow!
Opera (1996-Present) - I've always felt that Opera failed when it came to honesty in advertising. They used to claim to be the “fastest browser” ever made. Well, they’ve since revoked that claim ... It claims it’s “faster” on their website now. Faster than what? I’m not sure, because until the most recent release (9.5) I’ve never been pleased with the speed of the browser. Though, even with 9.5, I still think Firefox is faster, and you can’t argue with the speed I get from Safari. Around version 7, Opera bloated the browser beyond belief, thus slowing it to a crawl. They’ve since revamped the interface and it the newest release it’s actually quite efficient. However, compatibility has always been an issue with it.
Gzilla (1997-1999) - The developer was last heard from on August 16, 1999, pleading for help on his very own site. Apparently he could get his browser to compile on anything other than Linux/x86, so he was begging for outside help. It's rumored the browser emerged a few months later as as Dillo, but that's just probably not true. I'm guessing Mozilla felt threatened by the last five letters of his browser's name, so they took him out.
MyIE/Maxthon (2000-Present) - Maxthon’s clincher is that it’s extremely customizable. It advertises itself as an adaptable alternative to Internet Explorer. The negative clincher is it’s only for Windows. On top of that, it crashes too frequently. It’s not slow, but reliability is a big factor when writing a browser, and if your browser crashes on me too often, I’m not going to use it.
Firefox (2002-Present) - The most successful browser to incorporate extensions. Since Netscape completely fell of the face of the planet somewhere around 2003, Firefox has been the most used cross-platform web browser. It boasts speed, elegance, and integrated functionality. Even better, you can add basically any functionality you desire through extensions; this is what has made Firefox so well known. Unfortunately, Firefox loses a lot of security when they allow third-party extensions. More than that, extensions are impossible for the creators of Firefox to maintain, so when the browser is updated, there’s always the risk (and it very frequently happens) of losing compatibility with extensions. Not very convenient for the extension programmers or their users.
AOL Explorer (2005-Present?) - It’s AOL ... We already know why it fails: Overpriced, slow, inefficient, and unstable. Apparently the browser is still around, but it’s now a part of the AIM package.
Flock (2005-Present) - Flock’s biggest asset is that it’s multi-platform. On top of that, much like Maxthon, it boasts customizability! It integrates beautifully with many popular websites, including Facebook, iGoogle, Flickr, Digg, Twitter, etc. On top of that, it does allow extensions. It has a main page that keeps all of your favorites and information organized and easily accessible. Unfortunately, it still is rather buggy, and speed is also a bit of an issue with it. It enjoys freezing on it’s users.
Now, read my review of Google Chrome!
To: Mr. FedEx Man
06/29/08 09:41 AM Filed in: Stories
I ordered a new iPod.
Which, normally, would be the most significant aspect
of this blog post. Alas, it is not. The more exciting
story is how it got here.
I ordered the iPod, with a case, on Tuesday. They informed me the items would be shipped separately depending on availability, which was fine by me. I got a shipment confirmation email later that night saying the case had been shipped from Memphis, TN. I checked my email the next morning to find a second shipment confirmation saying my iPod had been shipped from Shanghai CN. In my naivity, I assumed this was Connecticut, which I now realize is CT. At this same time, my case was leaving Memphis, TN.
I checked later that night and found my iPod case had successfully made it to Chicago. My case, on the other hand, was in Anchorage, AK. If AK was Arkansas, this would be closer than Connecticut, but AK is Alaska ... this was when I realized my iPod was coming from China, not Connecticut. In which case Alaska was progress.
I checked my email yet again on Thursday morning to find, to my great surprise, that my iPod was “at the local FedEx facility” in Cedar Rapids already! Apparently overnight it had gone from Alaska, to Indianapolis, to Cedar Rapids. One thing I found ironic was that it didn’t get an International Shipment Release until it went from Alaska to Indianapolis ... does that mean Alaska isn’t a part of the US according to FedEx? Anyway, back to my case ... it was still in Chicago for some reason. It hung out there for a while until it was finally shipped to Ottumwa, IA and loaded on a truck for delivery.
I was pretty excited; two days later and both my packages were going to arrive on the same day. Now if I could only get my paws on them before anyone else did and made me sing for them ... :P. (In case you don’t know, if you receive a package or three letters int he same day at the camp I work at, you have to sing or tell a joke in chapel for it.)
Ben, Jesse, and I were in the shop working on ... *cough* ... something. And we saw Mr. FedEx man pull in. Though, strangely, he didn’t come all the way to camp. He stopped at the house at the front of the lane. That’s Ben’s house. Definitely not 1433 F52 Trail, which is the shipping address I specified. Ben’s house is 1426, I think. The camp is 1433. This is clearly marked with numbers on Ben’s house. Even still, Mr. FedEx man insisted on delivering to the wrong location. I jumped into the truck and drove down the lane to snatch my package from the delusioned delivery men.
I got to Ben’s house just as they were about to pull out of the driveway and leave. “I have a package here for Alex,” said Mr. FedEx man after I waved him down. “I think you’re supposed to be delivering this to 1433, which is just down the lane from here.” He looked at me for a little while, unsure of what to say, and finally said, “Are you Alex?” I took his electronic thingy and put my John Hancock on it. I traded him his electronic thingy for my package and double-checked to make sure the delivery address was, in fact, 1433. It was. Shame on you FedEx.
Sadly, this package was just the case. The iPod itself was coming on some bigger and better truck, all the way from China! I figured it would come later in the afternoon, and I knew Joy was in the office to sign for it, so I felt safe taking a nap at 2:30.
I awoke from my nap at 4:30 and wandered dizzily over to the chapel to see if my package had come. “Not yet,” Joy informed me. I sat down at the computer to look at my tracking number. To my frustration, it said, “Delivery exception: Customer not available or business closed - signature required.” 4:24. Sarah came back from her house at this time, holding up one of those door hanger things they leave if you’re not home. They had just been there and delivered to the wrong place again!!
Needless to say, I was frustrated ... two seperate FedEx men tried to deliver my packages to the wrong address. What if that house hadn’t been Ben’s house? Someone else might be holding my iPod right now! Joy called FedEx Customer Service immedietly and tried to get the truck to turn around, but the lady on the phone was rather rude and mostly just wanted to get Joy off the phone, so the call was to no avail.
To redeem the second FedEx man, he came back on Friday while Joy, Jesse and I were sitting in the office, this time he came all the way to the camp and delivered my package. At least I have both of my packages now. Still, something about these deliveries seems very unprofessional ... if you pulled up to a house that was in the driveway to a camp and the owner wasn’t home, wouldn’t your first thought be, “I’ll bet he’s at the camp ...” No. Your first thought probably should have been to look at the house number :p.
I ordered the iPod, with a case, on Tuesday. They informed me the items would be shipped separately depending on availability, which was fine by me. I got a shipment confirmation email later that night saying the case had been shipped from Memphis, TN. I checked my email the next morning to find a second shipment confirmation saying my iPod had been shipped from Shanghai CN. In my naivity, I assumed this was Connecticut, which I now realize is CT. At this same time, my case was leaving Memphis, TN.
I checked later that night and found my iPod case had successfully made it to Chicago. My case, on the other hand, was in Anchorage, AK. If AK was Arkansas, this would be closer than Connecticut, but AK is Alaska ... this was when I realized my iPod was coming from China, not Connecticut. In which case Alaska was progress.
I checked my email yet again on Thursday morning to find, to my great surprise, that my iPod was “at the local FedEx facility” in Cedar Rapids already! Apparently overnight it had gone from Alaska, to Indianapolis, to Cedar Rapids. One thing I found ironic was that it didn’t get an International Shipment Release until it went from Alaska to Indianapolis ... does that mean Alaska isn’t a part of the US according to FedEx? Anyway, back to my case ... it was still in Chicago for some reason. It hung out there for a while until it was finally shipped to Ottumwa, IA and loaded on a truck for delivery.
I was pretty excited; two days later and both my packages were going to arrive on the same day. Now if I could only get my paws on them before anyone else did and made me sing for them ... :P. (In case you don’t know, if you receive a package or three letters int he same day at the camp I work at, you have to sing or tell a joke in chapel for it.)
Ben, Jesse, and I were in the shop working on ... *cough* ... something. And we saw Mr. FedEx man pull in. Though, strangely, he didn’t come all the way to camp. He stopped at the house at the front of the lane. That’s Ben’s house. Definitely not 1433 F52 Trail, which is the shipping address I specified. Ben’s house is 1426, I think. The camp is 1433. This is clearly marked with numbers on Ben’s house. Even still, Mr. FedEx man insisted on delivering to the wrong location. I jumped into the truck and drove down the lane to snatch my package from the delusioned delivery men.
I got to Ben’s house just as they were about to pull out of the driveway and leave. “I have a package here for Alex,” said Mr. FedEx man after I waved him down. “I think you’re supposed to be delivering this to 1433, which is just down the lane from here.” He looked at me for a little while, unsure of what to say, and finally said, “Are you Alex?” I took his electronic thingy and put my John Hancock on it. I traded him his electronic thingy for my package and double-checked to make sure the delivery address was, in fact, 1433. It was. Shame on you FedEx.
Sadly, this package was just the case. The iPod itself was coming on some bigger and better truck, all the way from China! I figured it would come later in the afternoon, and I knew Joy was in the office to sign for it, so I felt safe taking a nap at 2:30.
I awoke from my nap at 4:30 and wandered dizzily over to the chapel to see if my package had come. “Not yet,” Joy informed me. I sat down at the computer to look at my tracking number. To my frustration, it said, “Delivery exception: Customer not available or business closed - signature required.” 4:24. Sarah came back from her house at this time, holding up one of those door hanger things they leave if you’re not home. They had just been there and delivered to the wrong place again!!
Needless to say, I was frustrated ... two seperate FedEx men tried to deliver my packages to the wrong address. What if that house hadn’t been Ben’s house? Someone else might be holding my iPod right now! Joy called FedEx Customer Service immedietly and tried to get the truck to turn around, but the lady on the phone was rather rude and mostly just wanted to get Joy off the phone, so the call was to no avail.
To redeem the second FedEx man, he came back on Friday while Joy, Jesse and I were sitting in the office, this time he came all the way to the camp and delivered my package. At least I have both of my packages now. Still, something about these deliveries seems very unprofessional ... if you pulled up to a house that was in the driveway to a camp and the owner wasn’t home, wouldn’t your first thought be, “I’ll bet he’s at the camp ...” No. Your first thought probably should have been to look at the house number :p.
NBC Decides to Play Nice
04/21/08 10:11 PM Filed in: Technology
| Media
Remember back
when NBC got a
little too full of itself a while back and decided to yank
its shows from iTunes? They pressured Apple to
increase the prices of songs and shows that were
more popular in order to make more profit;
thankfully, Apple refused to cave. NBC threatened
to not resign their contract renewal
with Apple for their Digital Media. Apple
one-upped them; they pulled all NBC shows and
music immediately, proving they didn't need NBC to
survive (though NBC does hold a
large portion of the television side of the
iTunes Store.
I've been waiting for NBC to come crawling back like a baby. Of course, NBC had to think of a way to do this without looking like a complete idiot. Coincidently, NBC didn't even try to bring up the pricing problem again. This time they said they would be OK with Apple's pricing policy, but before they would return their programming to iTunes they wanted Apple to incorporate some form of anti-piracy measures.
This could be both good and bad, as I see it. NBC wants to take advantage of the DRM Apple already incorporates, except they wish to expand it. They would like everything in your iTunes library to have the DRM written to it, which could get really frustrating and, to me, is a huge invasion of your own music rights. However, I don't deny that I think Apple will probably agree to this.
After all, I think it's only a matter of time before the FCC and RIAA crack down like mad on the internet. It will be the day when all internet freedom disintegrates and Big Brother constantly watches over your shoulder; a day I shudder to see come. Since the internet is most frequently viewed in the comforts, and privacy, of your own home, I believe their shouldn't be any type of ISP or government restrictions on it. Sure, if a corporation or parent wants to add filters for various things, that's completely legitimate. But we want the internet, our music, movies, and all types of media (yes, I'm talking to you, Adobe) DRM FREE!
I've been waiting for NBC to come crawling back like a baby. Of course, NBC had to think of a way to do this without looking like a complete idiot. Coincidently, NBC didn't even try to bring up the pricing problem again. This time they said they would be OK with Apple's pricing policy, but before they would return their programming to iTunes they wanted Apple to incorporate some form of anti-piracy measures.
This could be both good and bad, as I see it. NBC wants to take advantage of the DRM Apple already incorporates, except they wish to expand it. They would like everything in your iTunes library to have the DRM written to it, which could get really frustrating and, to me, is a huge invasion of your own music rights. However, I don't deny that I think Apple will probably agree to this.
After all, I think it's only a matter of time before the FCC and RIAA crack down like mad on the internet. It will be the day when all internet freedom disintegrates and Big Brother constantly watches over your shoulder; a day I shudder to see come. Since the internet is most frequently viewed in the comforts, and privacy, of your own home, I believe their shouldn't be any type of ISP or government restrictions on it. Sure, if a corporation or parent wants to add filters for various things, that's completely legitimate. But we want the internet, our music, movies, and all types of media (yes, I'm talking to you, Adobe) DRM FREE!
Thinking Practically About the Air
01/18/08 07:00 AM Filed in: Technology
We all can easily agree on the fact that the MacBook
Air, released at Macworld this Tuesday, is an
incredible feat of engineering. Let's just look at
the specifications for it quickly:
Dimensions:
0.16-0.76 inches thin
12.8 inches wide
8.94 inches deep
3.0 pounds
Hardware:
1.6 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor (upgrade to
1.8GHz)
80GB 4200 RPM ATA Hard-Disk drive (upgrade to 64GB
Solid-State Drive
2GB of 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM
Multi-touch trackpad
Micro-DVI port
One USB 2.0 port
Audio out
Up to five hours of battery life
To fit these things into 0.16 inches at the smallest
point, Apple has really outdone itself. Here's my
complaint, and the disappointment of many at the
Macworld conference at all. While this Notebook is,
indeed, extremely small, how practical is it really?
I'm pleased that Apple didn't sacrifice the overall
processing speed when shrinking all the peripherals
(it still has a faster processor than the original
PowerBook), but the biggest flaw with this MacBook is
that it has no Optical Drive! Where do you put your
CDs and DVDs?
Apple has a solution for you. For an extra $100, you
can add a USB Optical Drive to your MacBook Air
package. That's all well and good, but you only have
one USB port. Ethernet port? You can add USB Ethernet
port as well, if you want one. You can also add a USB
modem port (um, who uses those anymore?). I also have
a USB mouse, iPod (which plugs in through USB), USB
GamePad, and an External Hard Drive, which plugs in
through FireWire. The ironic thing is, even though
Apple only gave us one USB port on this, when going
through the ordering process, they don't offer the
option of a USB splitter!
That's all well and good that it has built-in
wireless and Bluetooth technology, but I've thus far
found wireless and Bluetooth mice, keyboards, and
GamePads to be unreliable. And who's to say FireWire
isn't a necessity?
Another cool feature is Remote Disc. You can put a CD
or DVD into another computer on your wireless
network, select Remote Disc from your MacBook Air,
and view the CD over your network. This is how Apple
says the software of the future will be installed.
It's a great idea, I really do think it is. I just
don't think it's really going to catch on. Apple is
assuming you have a desktop or another Notebook
somewhere in the house which has an Optical Drive,
and why would you, instead of offering it
pre-installed, assume the customer already has one?
That just doesn't seem very practical or
professional.
In my final two paragraph, my overall opinion on the
MacBook Air? Overrated and overpriced. There's a
point where you must draw the line and say, "Wait,
how small do we need this to be? 0.16-0.76 inches? I
feel like it would snap in half! Sure, you can carry
it around in a manila envelope ... but who's going to
do that? I'll still put it in my full-sized briefcase
or laptop carrying case.
Congratulations, Apple. You've created the
worlds thinnest
Notebook! It really is
astounding. And I'm loving the 64GB Solid-State
drive. But there's no way I would ever buy a MacBook
Air. However, I am extremely excited about it. Why?
Because of the technology it's paving the way for!
(It is worth mentioning the 64GB Solid-State Drive is
an additional $1200 to the price of the laptop.) The
large Solid-State Drive is starting to make my dreams
of a 30GB (or larger) iTouch to become available!
That's what I'm really waiting for ...
UPDATE
1/22/2008:
Compared to other Ultra Thin Notebooks, the MacBook
Air is much more practical, efficient, and
competitively priced, instead of comparing it to
other starter MacBooks or MacBook Pros. For a fancy
comparison chart, check out
THIS website.
2007 Benchmark; Ah, The Irony
12/23/07 02:42 PM Filed in: Technology
Well, the 2007
benchmark tests are in. They have been for a while,
I've just been slow in posting this article.
Ironically, the fastest laptop tested as of 10/25/07
was a $2,419 (plus the cost of Windows Vista) Apple
MacBook Pro. The tests were run using WorldBench 6
Beta 2. Granted, the MacBook Pro came in only one
point (at 88 points) above Gateway's E-265M (at 87
points). It's even more laughable that Apple doesn't
even specifically design their computers to run
Windows, they just allow it, and Apple couldn't care
less if you run Windows or not.
Read the PC World article for yourself here.
Read the PC World article for yourself here.
My First Complaint with Apple
12/12/07 12:27 PM Filed in: Technology
Honestly, it may not
actually be my first complaint. But it's definitely
my first significant, "What were the designers
thinking when they implemented THIS?" complaint.
Last week, I lost all audio in my Lappy speakers. Maccy the Lappy was completely silent. I plugged in headphones, and the sound came through clearly. I unplugged them; silence. I plugged in my stereo speakers; sound! I unplugged them; silence. Needless to say, I was puzzled. I plugged in and unplugged my headphones over and over in a fury, but nothing would make the sound come out! I double and triple checked the volume, but for some reason it said the volume was set to full, but at the same time, nothing was coming out of the internal speakers.
I was very confused.
I consulted my loyal friend, Dr. Brian Jones. The Doctor informed me that Apple's come, surprisingly enough, with Optical (Digital) Out! Usually you have to buy a separate card for something like this, but it's fancy that it comes standard with Apple computers, I guess. Unfortunately, Dr. Jones didn't know how to enable or disable Optical Out, he just knew it was in the computer somewhere.
I leaned over and glanced at the side of my computer, looking at the Audio Out port. Sure enough, a red LED was glowing out of the hole; that was strange. Apparently when the headphones were NOT plugged in, my Lappy was confused, thinking the audio was being sent to a set of Optical speakers, so it was muting my laptop speakers. This was a problem ...
I looked online and found out that sometimes if you jiggle a headphones plug around in the port, it might switch it off. So I tried that. Nothing.
It was time to bring in the big guns. I IMed David and asked him to come over and help me out. I explained the situation to him. "Do you have a paper clip or something small?" I didn't. We were in the SSC right by the Admissions office, so I popped in there.
"Can I help you?"
"Um hey. Yah, I have a small request of you."
"Yes?"
"I need ... a paper clip. And just so you know, I probably won't bring it back."
"Oh, I can handle that!!"
(Thanks, Admissions!) The lady behind the desk was really nice. I thanked her and ran back to David, handing him the paper clip. He shoved it into the port and wiggled it back and forth for what seemed like eternity. Finally, as I was watching, the red glow stopped coming out of the port.
I pressed the volume button my Lappy.
*POP*
SOUND!!
You've got to be kidding me, Apple. You mean to tell me you put the switch for Optical Out INSIDE the port? That's potentially the worst design I've ever heard of. Granted, if I had a pair of Optical speakers, they would probably flip the switch on and off for me when I plugged them in. But if that's the case, why is it so easy for the switch to accidentally get switched on with a pair of regular headphones?
That's just lousy. Lousy, I tell you. Give the average human a simple switch to turn it off if it accidentally gets turned on. I asked around, and apparently I'm not the only person with a Mac that has had this problem.
Last week, I lost all audio in my Lappy speakers. Maccy the Lappy was completely silent. I plugged in headphones, and the sound came through clearly. I unplugged them; silence. I plugged in my stereo speakers; sound! I unplugged them; silence. Needless to say, I was puzzled. I plugged in and unplugged my headphones over and over in a fury, but nothing would make the sound come out! I double and triple checked the volume, but for some reason it said the volume was set to full, but at the same time, nothing was coming out of the internal speakers.
I was very confused.
I consulted my loyal friend, Dr. Brian Jones. The Doctor informed me that Apple's come, surprisingly enough, with Optical (Digital) Out! Usually you have to buy a separate card for something like this, but it's fancy that it comes standard with Apple computers, I guess. Unfortunately, Dr. Jones didn't know how to enable or disable Optical Out, he just knew it was in the computer somewhere.
I leaned over and glanced at the side of my computer, looking at the Audio Out port. Sure enough, a red LED was glowing out of the hole; that was strange. Apparently when the headphones were NOT plugged in, my Lappy was confused, thinking the audio was being sent to a set of Optical speakers, so it was muting my laptop speakers. This was a problem ...
I looked online and found out that sometimes if you jiggle a headphones plug around in the port, it might switch it off. So I tried that. Nothing.
It was time to bring in the big guns. I IMed David and asked him to come over and help me out. I explained the situation to him. "Do you have a paper clip or something small?" I didn't. We were in the SSC right by the Admissions office, so I popped in there.
"Can I help you?"
"Um hey. Yah, I have a small request of you."
"Yes?"
"I need ... a paper clip. And just so you know, I probably won't bring it back."
"Oh, I can handle that!!"
(Thanks, Admissions!) The lady behind the desk was really nice. I thanked her and ran back to David, handing him the paper clip. He shoved it into the port and wiggled it back and forth for what seemed like eternity. Finally, as I was watching, the red glow stopped coming out of the port.
I pressed the volume button my Lappy.
*POP*
SOUND!!
You've got to be kidding me, Apple. You mean to tell me you put the switch for Optical Out INSIDE the port? That's potentially the worst design I've ever heard of. Granted, if I had a pair of Optical speakers, they would probably flip the switch on and off for me when I plugged them in. But if that's the case, why is it so easy for the switch to accidentally get switched on with a pair of regular headphones?
That's just lousy. Lousy, I tell you. Give the average human a simple switch to turn it off if it accidentally gets turned on. I asked around, and apparently I'm not the only person with a Mac that has had this problem.
Leopard vs. Vista; Weekend Sales
10/30/07 09:46 AM Filed in: Technology
NBC, Quit Embarassing Yourself
10/29/07 05:26 PM Filed in: Technology
| Media
I was perusing my
favorite News Feeds this afternoon on the wonderful
iGoogle, when I came across a topic I hadn't heard
about for a while. How many of you know about about
NBCs little money tantrum? (Show of hands, please.)
Allow me to summarize ...
In late August of 2007, NBC declared it was going to break up with Apple (a.k.a., not renew their video contract with them for their TV Shows, etc.) because they couldn't manage to come to an agreement about pricing policies. The contract was due to end in December of 2007, if I remember correctly, but it may have been the first half of 2008. Instead of waiting out the rest of the contract and selling NBCs TV Shows until the contract ran out, Apple pulled the plug early, yanking all NBC shows from the iTunes store the same week NBC made their harsh statement. This was Apple's way of saying, "We don't need you anyway, NBC. We're going to define the next generation of audio/video, whether you side with us or not."
Apple is already paving the way for the next wave of audio/video communication, especially with the iTunes Music Store and the newly released Apple TV.
So, what was the problem exactly? NBC wanted to try out some "experimental pricing" strategies with Apple. Instead of charing $1.99 for each episode, NBC wanted their shows to cost $4.99. They also wanted users to pay more for "more popular programming." Apple's answer? Nope! Why make our customers pay more for something than they absolutely have to?
This brings us to today, when Zucker states that, "We know that Apple has destroyed the music business -- in terms of pricing -- and if we don’t take control, they’ll do the same thing on the video side." Right. Apple has destroyed the music business. He doesn't actually explain how Apple has done this, which seems pretty crucial to me. The way I see it is, unlike Napster, SpiralFrog, Connect, or Rhapsody, Apple offered a user-friendly alternative to these music stores, while taking down the hyper-aggressive DRM all of those other music stores force you to live with. Apple is currently in the process of transitioning into the same thing with video.
According to Zucker, “We wanted to take one show, it didn’t matter which one it was, and experiment and sell it for $2.99,” he said. “We made that offer for months and they said no.” He makes it sound like he's trying to us (the consumer) a favor! The show to which he was referring was "Heros," the very popular NBC equivalent to Lost ;).
Zucker stated that it wasn't a tough decision to remove their content from the Apple Music Store because they only had made about $15 million from the deal. I'm sorry you escaped with such little profits, greedy NBC.
Another thing I found very interesting was that NBC claimed it should get a portion of the hardware sales Apple was making off of the iPod and iPhone. Um, hello? Your content is strictly software. If someone watches your show on a Sony TV and DVD player, does Sony then owe you a portion of their earnings? Just ... please, stop talking, Zucker!
If you ask me, Zucker is being ridiculous ... I don't think Apple ruined the music business OR the video business, I think Apple actually gave the consumer what they wanted; cheaper, more reasonably priced products!
Well, I have only one thing to say in conclusion. NBC, as a member of the demographic to which you are selling, I would rather purchase your content off of the iTunes Music Store for a lesser price than from any other location from which you jack the prices like nobody's business. So Apple didn't ruin the music (and video) business. I would say they correct music (and video) pricing schemes.
In late August of 2007, NBC declared it was going to break up with Apple (a.k.a., not renew their video contract with them for their TV Shows, etc.) because they couldn't manage to come to an agreement about pricing policies. The contract was due to end in December of 2007, if I remember correctly, but it may have been the first half of 2008. Instead of waiting out the rest of the contract and selling NBCs TV Shows until the contract ran out, Apple pulled the plug early, yanking all NBC shows from the iTunes store the same week NBC made their harsh statement. This was Apple's way of saying, "We don't need you anyway, NBC. We're going to define the next generation of audio/video, whether you side with us or not."
Apple is already paving the way for the next wave of audio/video communication, especially with the iTunes Music Store and the newly released Apple TV.
So, what was the problem exactly? NBC wanted to try out some "experimental pricing" strategies with Apple. Instead of charing $1.99 for each episode, NBC wanted their shows to cost $4.99. They also wanted users to pay more for "more popular programming." Apple's answer? Nope! Why make our customers pay more for something than they absolutely have to?
This brings us to today, when Zucker states that, "We know that Apple has destroyed the music business -- in terms of pricing -- and if we don’t take control, they’ll do the same thing on the video side." Right. Apple has destroyed the music business. He doesn't actually explain how Apple has done this, which seems pretty crucial to me. The way I see it is, unlike Napster, SpiralFrog, Connect, or Rhapsody, Apple offered a user-friendly alternative to these music stores, while taking down the hyper-aggressive DRM all of those other music stores force you to live with. Apple is currently in the process of transitioning into the same thing with video.
According to Zucker, “We wanted to take one show, it didn’t matter which one it was, and experiment and sell it for $2.99,” he said. “We made that offer for months and they said no.” He makes it sound like he's trying to us (the consumer) a favor! The show to which he was referring was "Heros," the very popular NBC equivalent to Lost ;).
Zucker stated that it wasn't a tough decision to remove their content from the Apple Music Store because they only had made about $15 million from the deal. I'm sorry you escaped with such little profits, greedy NBC.
Another thing I found very interesting was that NBC claimed it should get a portion of the hardware sales Apple was making off of the iPod and iPhone. Um, hello? Your content is strictly software. If someone watches your show on a Sony TV and DVD player, does Sony then owe you a portion of their earnings? Just ... please, stop talking, Zucker!
If you ask me, Zucker is being ridiculous ... I don't think Apple ruined the music business OR the video business, I think Apple actually gave the consumer what they wanted; cheaper, more reasonably priced products!
Well, I have only one thing to say in conclusion. NBC, as a member of the demographic to which you are selling, I would rather purchase your content off of the iTunes Music Store for a lesser price than from any other location from which you jack the prices like nobody's business. So Apple didn't ruin the music (and video) business. I would say they correct music (and video) pricing schemes.
Apple Or Cisco? ... Again
07/23/07 01:30 PM Filed in: Technology
Remember before the
iPhone was released, how Cisco sued Apple for using
the name iPhone? Cisco said they already had a phone
called the iPhone, and the name was copyright. True
enough, they did. But Apple won the lawsuit and was
still allowed to use the name iPhone.
Apple and Cisco meet again, this time after the release of the iPhone. Cisco makes more than just phones. They make pretty much anything electronic and wireless.
The weekend after the iPhone was released, Duke University started having trouble with their network. Duke, being the prestigious college that it is, of course has the entire campus blanketed in wireless Internet access. Apparently, the weekend after the iPhone was released, the Duke network kept jamming. Many reports were published saying that the iPhone was to blame. A likely guess was that the iPhone was requesting to log onto the wireless network, and when the request was denied, the iPhone kept trying anyway. Over and over again, hundreds of times, thus jamming the network and making it stall for 10-15 minutes.
Duke said they were going to do a full investigation of the network to find out why exactly this was happening. And who should help them with this investigation? Cisco! It turns out Duke's network is maintained by Cisco, and all of the wireless routers are Cisco routers.
After an investigation into the situation, it was revealed that the iPhone was actually not to blame. Oops. The problem was finally traced to a deployment of a Cisco-based network.
It looks like the iPhone is off the hook.
Apple and Cisco meet again, this time after the release of the iPhone. Cisco makes more than just phones. They make pretty much anything electronic and wireless.
The weekend after the iPhone was released, Duke University started having trouble with their network. Duke, being the prestigious college that it is, of course has the entire campus blanketed in wireless Internet access. Apparently, the weekend after the iPhone was released, the Duke network kept jamming. Many reports were published saying that the iPhone was to blame. A likely guess was that the iPhone was requesting to log onto the wireless network, and when the request was denied, the iPhone kept trying anyway. Over and over again, hundreds of times, thus jamming the network and making it stall for 10-15 minutes.
Duke said they were going to do a full investigation of the network to find out why exactly this was happening. And who should help them with this investigation? Cisco! It turns out Duke's network is maintained by Cisco, and all of the wireless routers are Cisco routers.
After an investigation into the situation, it was revealed that the iPhone was actually not to blame. Oops. The problem was finally traced to a deployment of a Cisco-based network.
It looks like the iPhone is off the hook.
The "Wow" Starts Now. But for How Much?
03/22/07 03:25 PM Filed in: Technology
Just the other day I
went out to eat at the Olive Garden. It happened that
the wait to get in an eat was about 45 minutes, so we
decided to go over to Office Max to buy a few things.
I walked in the store and realized, "Hey, Windows
Vista just came out!" (This was several weeks ago.) I
made my way over to the software isle and found the
section of Microsoft goods. I was quite taken back.
Seriously. I think I fell backwards. I shoved my hand
in pocket and brought out my phone to call Joey.
"Joey, you're not going to believe this! Have you
seen the prices for the 2007 line from Microsoft?"
"No. What are they?" I relayed the following information to him.
Windows Vista Home Basic: $199.99
Windows Vista Home Premium: $239.99
Windows Vista Business: $299.99
Windows Vista Ultimate: $399.99
Microsoft Office 2007 Home and Student: $149.99
Microsoft Office 2007 Standard: $399.99
Microsoft Office 2007 Small Business: $449.99
Microsoft Office 2007 Professional: $499.99
Microsoft Office 2007 Ultimate: $679.99
Microsoft Visio Standard 2007: $259.99
Ironically, Ultimate, which is supposed to be the complete package, doesn't actually include Microsoft Visio. I don't know why.
Now that we have the prices laid out, I would like to point out that I actually used Windows Vista the other day, so I can finally speak from experience! Here's my first impressions of Microsoft's new Operating System.
I sat down at a Vista laptop and was impressed with the new visuals. Pretty icons, shiny new taskbar; everything had a water-like reflective appearance, making it look very appealing. I opened the Recycle Bin and the Help Center, just to see what the windows looked like. I like the new shape of the minimize, maximize, and exit buttons in the upper-right corner of the windows. I liked the animation that was shown when opening, closing, and minimizing programs. It did seem a bit jerky when maximizing a program, but I could live with that.
As you roll over icons, they start to glow, which looks very nice.
The PC I was using had 2GB of RAM, and with that amount everything seemed to open and close fairly quickly.
Microsoft has really improved on the behind-the-scenes matters of their OS. Security is greatly improved, and integration with networks and other devices in your house, such as your cell phone, PDA, Xbox, and TV is nearly seamless. Microsoft still has the hold-your-hand notifications that it's known for to alert you of every little change you make, just in case you didn't mean to make it. I think it would make me feel better if my OS didn't assume I was an idiot. I want it to protect me from things like viruses, spam, worms, and such. But I don't want it to alert me every time I open a pop up, or change a simple setting.
All of your most imoprtant information is immedietly delivered to you with the new Sidebar that is implemented into Windows Vista. It's not annoying. It doesn't jump out at you too much and distract you from the important things you're working on. It's just there if you want to look at it for the weather, news, or whatever you have it configured to show you.
Visually, I was very impressed with my Vista experience. But the interface just still isn't intuitive! Not only that, but why is that someone who has been using a Microsoft Operating System for over, including DOS, for all 18 years of his life is confused and lost in the new Windows Vista? Continuity is your friend, Microsoft.
Why is it that there is no longer the "Start" button? It's now just a circle with the new Windows logo on it. You can figure that out pretty quickly by knowing that the "Start" button has always been in the lower-left corner of Microsoft's Operating Systems, but an OS shouldn't assume things about it's users.
I right-clicked on the desktop and a menu dropped down. I looked to the bottom of the menu, and yet another change had been made to the simple desktop options menu. Where Microsoft used to call the bottom button "Properties," they changed the name to "Preferences." Again, why do we need to change something if it already works and people are already used to it? We can assume it does the same thing as the "Properties" button did in Windows XP, ME, 98, and 95, but our eyes are trained to look for "Properties" not "Preferences."
When I clicked on the Start Menu, I was lost... where were all of my programs? The "All Programs" button did a terrible job of jumping out at me, and it did a fabulous job of blending in all too well with the Start Menu. And since this was a fresh install of Windows Vista, I didn't have any favorite programs yet. When I did click on "All Programs", I glanced right, waiting for the Start Menu to expand and show me a list of all my programs. It didn't. Microsoft condensed the Start Menu, and now when you click "All Programs" it displays all your programs over where your "Favorite Programs" used to be. That was a bit annoying, I thought, because it was just one more step then to get back to my favorite programs. It also was a hassle because instead of spreading everything out for me to see all at once, I had to scroll through everything.
Microsoft has been bragging about Instant Search since they announced that they were making a new OS, oh... six years ago. I wasn't impressed. Instant Search isn't actually "instant." I mean, once you press Enter, it searches. But to me, an "Instant search" should search AS I type for the letters I have typed thus far. When I did press enter, it didn't work! I typed in "Control Panel." I pressed Enter, a blank dialog popped up for less than a second, then disappeared. That was the end of it. I tried again. I typed "Adobe" and pressed enter. Again, blank dialog opened and closed, but no Adobe. I don't know if this was a glitch or if I was doing something wrong, but if I was doing something wrong then I must state my main pointa gain: An OS should be intuitive, user friendly, and painfully obvious.
Easily my FAVORITE part about Windows Vista: I apologize, but the only thing I know to refer to them as is "Smart Folders." I don't know their official name in Vista, but they're amazing! Finally, Microsoft has done away with "My Pictures", "My Videos", etc. We now simply have "Pictures", "Videos", "Music", etc. Here's where it becomes truly genius. You never have to add any files to these folders! That's why they're smart. The sole purpose of these folders is to keep a list of every type of file that would be associated with that folder. Of course, this is customizable. Pictures scans your hard drive and will present to you every file type found that could be a picture of some kind. Music looks for any audio format. You get the idea. If you think about this for a second, these amazing Smart Folders eliminate third party organization software like Picasa, iPhoto, and Adobe Photoshop Album. Granted, Picasa is still a wonderful tool for enhancing your photos. But now, even with Picasa, you can just point Picasa to your Pictures folder and Windows Vista already has everything organized! You can now enhance your photos all you want in Picasa without worrying about losing them or anything tragic like that.
On that note, this is great for people like my Grandpa. It's perfect for helping avoid the, "Junk, where did I put that file?" feeling. Yes, there is a "Documents" folder as well. It's like having a default search built in to the OS, except every time you want to see every single picture you have on your hard drive, you don't have to run the search again, because it's already run itself. All you have to do is click on the folder where it compiled the list of all these files. It's brilliant, I tell you!
But how much is brilliance worth? Granted, I love a lot of things about Windows Vista. And there are several things that frustrate me about Windows Vista. But, of course, if you know me, I'd have to get the Ultimate edition. I'm not willing to fork out $399.99 for the next OS. And I haven't even begun to talk about the hardware upgrades that are almost always required, and are going to cost you even more money.
I'll let you decide for yourself whether Vista is worth it or not. Microsoft was kind enough to compile a list of 100 reasons to switch to Vista. I'll be sticking with Windows XP, personally.
Click here.
(Grandpa, you CAN'T upgrade!)
"No. What are they?" I relayed the following information to him.
Windows Vista Home Basic: $199.99
Windows Vista Home Premium: $239.99
Windows Vista Business: $299.99
Windows Vista Ultimate: $399.99
Microsoft Office 2007 Home and Student: $149.99
Microsoft Office 2007 Standard: $399.99
Microsoft Office 2007 Small Business: $449.99
Microsoft Office 2007 Professional: $499.99
Microsoft Office 2007 Ultimate: $679.99
Microsoft Visio Standard 2007: $259.99
Ironically, Ultimate, which is supposed to be the complete package, doesn't actually include Microsoft Visio. I don't know why.
Now that we have the prices laid out, I would like to point out that I actually used Windows Vista the other day, so I can finally speak from experience! Here's my first impressions of Microsoft's new Operating System.
I sat down at a Vista laptop and was impressed with the new visuals. Pretty icons, shiny new taskbar; everything had a water-like reflective appearance, making it look very appealing. I opened the Recycle Bin and the Help Center, just to see what the windows looked like. I like the new shape of the minimize, maximize, and exit buttons in the upper-right corner of the windows. I liked the animation that was shown when opening, closing, and minimizing programs. It did seem a bit jerky when maximizing a program, but I could live with that.
As you roll over icons, they start to glow, which looks very nice.
The PC I was using had 2GB of RAM, and with that amount everything seemed to open and close fairly quickly.
Microsoft has really improved on the behind-the-scenes matters of their OS. Security is greatly improved, and integration with networks and other devices in your house, such as your cell phone, PDA, Xbox, and TV is nearly seamless. Microsoft still has the hold-your-hand notifications that it's known for to alert you of every little change you make, just in case you didn't mean to make it. I think it would make me feel better if my OS didn't assume I was an idiot. I want it to protect me from things like viruses, spam, worms, and such. But I don't want it to alert me every time I open a pop up, or change a simple setting.
All of your most imoprtant information is immedietly delivered to you with the new Sidebar that is implemented into Windows Vista. It's not annoying. It doesn't jump out at you too much and distract you from the important things you're working on. It's just there if you want to look at it for the weather, news, or whatever you have it configured to show you.
Visually, I was very impressed with my Vista experience. But the interface just still isn't intuitive! Not only that, but why is that someone who has been using a Microsoft Operating System for over, including DOS, for all 18 years of his life is confused and lost in the new Windows Vista? Continuity is your friend, Microsoft.
Why is it that there is no longer the "Start" button? It's now just a circle with the new Windows logo on it. You can figure that out pretty quickly by knowing that the "Start" button has always been in the lower-left corner of Microsoft's Operating Systems, but an OS shouldn't assume things about it's users.
I right-clicked on the desktop and a menu dropped down. I looked to the bottom of the menu, and yet another change had been made to the simple desktop options menu. Where Microsoft used to call the bottom button "Properties," they changed the name to "Preferences." Again, why do we need to change something if it already works and people are already used to it? We can assume it does the same thing as the "Properties" button did in Windows XP, ME, 98, and 95, but our eyes are trained to look for "Properties" not "Preferences."
When I clicked on the Start Menu, I was lost... where were all of my programs? The "All Programs" button did a terrible job of jumping out at me, and it did a fabulous job of blending in all too well with the Start Menu. And since this was a fresh install of Windows Vista, I didn't have any favorite programs yet. When I did click on "All Programs", I glanced right, waiting for the Start Menu to expand and show me a list of all my programs. It didn't. Microsoft condensed the Start Menu, and now when you click "All Programs" it displays all your programs over where your "Favorite Programs" used to be. That was a bit annoying, I thought, because it was just one more step then to get back to my favorite programs. It also was a hassle because instead of spreading everything out for me to see all at once, I had to scroll through everything.
Microsoft has been bragging about Instant Search since they announced that they were making a new OS, oh... six years ago. I wasn't impressed. Instant Search isn't actually "instant." I mean, once you press Enter, it searches. But to me, an "Instant search" should search AS I type for the letters I have typed thus far. When I did press enter, it didn't work! I typed in "Control Panel." I pressed Enter, a blank dialog popped up for less than a second, then disappeared. That was the end of it. I tried again. I typed "Adobe" and pressed enter. Again, blank dialog opened and closed, but no Adobe. I don't know if this was a glitch or if I was doing something wrong, but if I was doing something wrong then I must state my main pointa gain: An OS should be intuitive, user friendly, and painfully obvious.
Easily my FAVORITE part about Windows Vista: I apologize, but the only thing I know to refer to them as is "Smart Folders." I don't know their official name in Vista, but they're amazing! Finally, Microsoft has done away with "My Pictures", "My Videos", etc. We now simply have "Pictures", "Videos", "Music", etc. Here's where it becomes truly genius. You never have to add any files to these folders! That's why they're smart. The sole purpose of these folders is to keep a list of every type of file that would be associated with that folder. Of course, this is customizable. Pictures scans your hard drive and will present to you every file type found that could be a picture of some kind. Music looks for any audio format. You get the idea. If you think about this for a second, these amazing Smart Folders eliminate third party organization software like Picasa, iPhoto, and Adobe Photoshop Album. Granted, Picasa is still a wonderful tool for enhancing your photos. But now, even with Picasa, you can just point Picasa to your Pictures folder and Windows Vista already has everything organized! You can now enhance your photos all you want in Picasa without worrying about losing them or anything tragic like that.
On that note, this is great for people like my Grandpa. It's perfect for helping avoid the, "Junk, where did I put that file?" feeling. Yes, there is a "Documents" folder as well. It's like having a default search built in to the OS, except every time you want to see every single picture you have on your hard drive, you don't have to run the search again, because it's already run itself. All you have to do is click on the folder where it compiled the list of all these files. It's brilliant, I tell you!
But how much is brilliance worth? Granted, I love a lot of things about Windows Vista. And there are several things that frustrate me about Windows Vista. But, of course, if you know me, I'd have to get the Ultimate edition. I'm not willing to fork out $399.99 for the next OS. And I haven't even begun to talk about the hardware upgrades that are almost always required, and are going to cost you even more money.
I'll let you decide for yourself whether Vista is worth it or not. Microsoft was kind enough to compile a list of 100 reasons to switch to Vista. I'll be sticking with Windows XP, personally.
Click here.
(Grandpa, you CAN'T upgrade!)
The 50 Most Important People on the Web
03/05/07 09:46 AM Filed in: Technology
It's no surprise that
when PC World Magazine did an article on who the top
50 most important people on the web were, the three
executives over at Google ranked in at #1. They
deserve that spot.
Before I go on, please realize this is PC World magazine. Not MacWorld. PC World IS Microsoft biased.
Ranking in at #2 was none other than Steve Jobs.
Sadly, Bill Gates didn't even make the list.
And neither did Al Gore, for that matter.
PC World Magazine Article
Before I go on, please realize this is PC World magazine. Not MacWorld. PC World IS Microsoft biased.
Ranking in at #2 was none other than Steve Jobs.
Sadly, Bill Gates didn't even make the list.
And neither did Al Gore, for that matter.
PC World Magazine Article
It Crashed ...
03/03/07 07:36 PM Filed in: Technology
Wednesday, February
28th, 2007, marks the first day my MacBook Pro has
completely crashed on me. It didn't choose a
convenient time to crash either. No, it couldn't have
chosen a time when I was at home listening to music
or something. It chose the time when it was in the
middle of a sideshow in front of almost 100 people...
TWICE!
The first crash was before Church had started. I was getting the slides ready for the night. All of a sudden, my screen turned dark grey and a message popped up saying, "A fatal error has occurred and Mac OS X needs to restart. At this point, your Mac becomes completely disfunctional. You cannot do ANYTHING, click anything, type anything, or communicate with your computer in any way except to hold down the power button and restart it. Hopefully your documents are saved...
Someone, who will remain anonnymous to save his humility, came over to poke fun at me and my computer. "Ha, did your computer just crash?" He asked. "Yah, it happens." "It's because it's an Apple." He stated blunty. I covered my computers ears. I turned to him and said, "Oh, really? Is that a fact? Do you know why it crashed?" "No." He said. Brian finished my thought for me and said, "He was opening a Microsoft product... PowerPoint to be exact."
Later in the night, in the middle of singing, I pushed the down arrow to switch to the next slide and all of a sudden... BAM! PowerPoint disappears. My computer didn't freeze this time, and it didn't make me restart. PowerPoint just closed for absolutely no reason!!
The fact that "Microsoft products aren't meant to run on a Mac," which he claimed, is absolutely no excuse. So if I take my P.O.D. CD and put it in your car, it should still play the music I love, right? It's the same concept. You can't just take a Microsoft Office CD and put it into your Mac and install it. No, Microsoft had to specially design the suite to run on Mac OS X which, you guessed it, it WAS meant to run on a Mac. If it crashes, that is asbolutely, without a doubt, a sign of poor programming. Sure, you can claim that it wasn't supposed to run on a Mac anyway, but that doesn't excuse your bad programming. So, Microsoft can't make a product that runs well on a Mac. How about Apple? QuickTime runs on Windows and, for the record, Microsoft used QuickTime as the default player of .mov and .mpg files for a while... I think until XP came out. Also, iTunes is made for Windows. I've never had either one of those programs crash on me using Windows, and QuickTime has been around on Windows since Windows 95. iTunes hasn't been around nearly that long, but still, at least Apple can make a product that will work wherever their users want it. (Disregard the latest issues with iTunes and Windows Vista... they're working on that one.)
But don't you try to blame a programming crashing on my Operating System when I've never had that happen until Wednesday. It was due to the fact that I'm running a Mac. But it was Microsoft's error.
Funny how that works, huh? Nice try though, Tyler.
The first crash was before Church had started. I was getting the slides ready for the night. All of a sudden, my screen turned dark grey and a message popped up saying, "A fatal error has occurred and Mac OS X needs to restart. At this point, your Mac becomes completely disfunctional. You cannot do ANYTHING, click anything, type anything, or communicate with your computer in any way except to hold down the power button and restart it. Hopefully your documents are saved...
Someone, who will remain anonnymous to save his humility, came over to poke fun at me and my computer. "Ha, did your computer just crash?" He asked. "Yah, it happens." "It's because it's an Apple." He stated blunty. I covered my computers ears. I turned to him and said, "Oh, really? Is that a fact? Do you know why it crashed?" "No." He said. Brian finished my thought for me and said, "He was opening a Microsoft product... PowerPoint to be exact."
Later in the night, in the middle of singing, I pushed the down arrow to switch to the next slide and all of a sudden... BAM! PowerPoint disappears. My computer didn't freeze this time, and it didn't make me restart. PowerPoint just closed for absolutely no reason!!
The fact that "Microsoft products aren't meant to run on a Mac," which he claimed, is absolutely no excuse. So if I take my P.O.D. CD and put it in your car, it should still play the music I love, right? It's the same concept. You can't just take a Microsoft Office CD and put it into your Mac and install it. No, Microsoft had to specially design the suite to run on Mac OS X which, you guessed it, it WAS meant to run on a Mac. If it crashes, that is asbolutely, without a doubt, a sign of poor programming. Sure, you can claim that it wasn't supposed to run on a Mac anyway, but that doesn't excuse your bad programming. So, Microsoft can't make a product that runs well on a Mac. How about Apple? QuickTime runs on Windows and, for the record, Microsoft used QuickTime as the default player of .mov and .mpg files for a while... I think until XP came out. Also, iTunes is made for Windows. I've never had either one of those programs crash on me using Windows, and QuickTime has been around on Windows since Windows 95. iTunes hasn't been around nearly that long, but still, at least Apple can make a product that will work wherever their users want it. (Disregard the latest issues with iTunes and Windows Vista... they're working on that one.)
But don't you try to blame a programming crashing on my Operating System when I've never had that happen until Wednesday. It was due to the fact that I'm running a Mac. But it was Microsoft's error.
Funny how that works, huh? Nice try though, Tyler.
Maybe You CAN Buy An iPhone
01/23/07 01:01 PM Filed in: Technology
When I first saw the
iPhone, my jaw was almost on the floor. Then I heard
the price. At $499, I'll never get one, but it's
still an amazing technology breakthrough. But I read
an article on CNet News the other day that reported
the price of the iPhone should be dropping
significantly pretty quick after it's release.
The 4gb model is currently listed at $499. However, estimated assembly costs are only $245. The 8gb model is listed at $599. The estimated assembly costs for that model are only $280.
Once Apple realizes it's competition, currently LG, it should drop the price significantly to compete with the other companies. Although the current LG KE850 is priced at a hefty $899, so LG needs to shrink it's big head before it really becomes a competition for Apple.
One advantage to the LG KE850--it's unlocked. Apple's iPhone is restricted to Cingular. That will make a lot of people buy the LG KE850. But what sounds better?
"Hey, what kind of phone do you have?"
"I have an iPhone."
"Sweet. I have an LG KE850. It's basically the same thing..."
Yah, except it just makes you sound like a nerd, while Apple's iPhone allows for you to keep some of your dignity.
$250 or even $299 is a very reasonable price to pay for an iPhone. The phone I carry in my pocket costs $149 without a 2-year contract, but I got it for $49. It's just a phone. The iPhone is much, much more. And at $299, it's competing at the same price as an iPod. That's a good deal considering all of it's functionality.
The 4gb model is currently listed at $499. However, estimated assembly costs are only $245. The 8gb model is listed at $599. The estimated assembly costs for that model are only $280.
Once Apple realizes it's competition, currently LG, it should drop the price significantly to compete with the other companies. Although the current LG KE850 is priced at a hefty $899, so LG needs to shrink it's big head before it really becomes a competition for Apple.
One advantage to the LG KE850--it's unlocked. Apple's iPhone is restricted to Cingular. That will make a lot of people buy the LG KE850. But what sounds better?
"Hey, what kind of phone do you have?"
"I have an iPhone."
"Sweet. I have an LG KE850. It's basically the same thing..."
Yah, except it just makes you sound like a nerd, while Apple's iPhone allows for you to keep some of your dignity.
$250 or even $299 is a very reasonable price to pay for an iPhone. The phone I carry in my pocket costs $149 without a 2-year contract, but I got it for $49. It's just a phone. The iPhone is much, much more. And at $299, it's competing at the same price as an iPod. That's a good deal considering all of it's functionality.
I'll Take Apple TV for $300, Please
01/13/07 04:01 PM Filed in: Technology
I've found a solution
to the HD DVD or Blu-ray debate: Apple TV.
I don't know if you've kept up with the argument, but regular DVDs are almost out of the picture. Everyone is switching to HD DVD, or the new (and debatably better) Blu-Ray Disc. So the question everyone (in the nerd circles at least) is asking is, "Which disc will win?" My personal opinion: HD DVD is going ot win the battle. But let's think of an even better idea. One that will be a little more permanent. After all, it wasn't too long ago that we were all on the VHS. The VHS became the DVD, the DVD is now becoming the HD DVD (or Blu-Ray Disc), and the never-ending search for the unscratchable disc will probably be the next thing to throw itself on the scene. My point is, the media scene is constantly a changing one. New technology is always presenting itself. As soon as you get the latest player, a new technology will come out to out date the player you have. Of course, the new HD DVD players will also support older, non-HD DVDs... but they won't support VHS unless you add an entirely separate interface to it. But will the next latest-and-greatest technology support the circular DVD format? Or will it be something even better and smaller, like a plug-in device such as a Flash Drive? That would make your DVD players obsolete then.
Let's get back to the current argument though. HD DVD or Blu-Ray? I say neither. What if you didn't even need a disc? What if you didn't even need a physical entity of the movie you wanted to watch? Imagine this:
You sit down with a group of your friends to watch a movie. You argue for a while trying to decide what movie is the greatest movie of all time and thus should be watched. Finally, someone chimes in, "Hey, what about that new movie that came out yesterday with Will Ferrell and Ben Stiller in it?" The arguing stops and someone says the name of the movie. Finally, you all agree that it sounds like a fabulous movie... of course it does, it has Ben Stiller and Will Ferrell in it! You can't get much better than that!! You reach for your Universal Remote and click the "Search For Movie" button. A search menu appears and you enter the title of the movie. You wait a few seconds as the online database is searched. A screen then pops up with the name of the movie, a brief description, a picture of the cover, and an option to watch the trailer. Over on the right there's a "Similar Movies" box with movies that are of the same genre. Near the bottom of the screen you navigate to the "Purchase" button for $9.99. The screen fades and you see the spinning circle informing you that the next screen is loading. After about 15 seconds, the movie starts playing.
So let's break this down. You just used the technology of the future. The fool-proof technology of the future. The Apple TV. You also just purchased a new movie that you can watch anytime you want, as many times as you want, without fear or scratching or damaging a disc that the movie might be contained on.
The Apple TV is a very small device, about the same size as the new Nintendo Wii, that has two cables. One plugs into your TV. The other plugs into the outlet to provide the box power. The rest is done wirelessly. The Apple TV wirelessly communicates with you PC or Mac anywhere in the house via Wi-fi 802.11 b, g, and/or the soon-to-be-standard n. It currently comes stands with a 40gb hard drive built in. Using the Apple TV, you can view almost any media file on your computer, whether it be music, photos, or a video. Basically, if it can be viewed using iTunes, and it transfers to your iPod, you can view it using Apple TV. Using a remote about half the size of your palm (which is probably a downside because it'll be super easy to lose), you can navigate all of the media you have on your computer. After browsing through your movies, or whatever, you select the one you wish to watch. As soon as you click on it, a file transfer is initiated, transferring the entire movie file to the Apple TV's hard drive. After a good portion of the movie is transferred to the Apple TV, the movie should start playing--probably after just a few seconds. The rest of the movie file will continue to transfer over as you watch the movie. This is going to be the same with any file you choose to look at, but it would be most significant with a movie file because they are the largest.
The optimal connection to use will be the 802.11n, because it's about ten times faster than the g. And the b... well, that's not even really worth discussing anymore.
Now check this out. You didn't even have to worry about finding the disc. You don't have to worry about ever scratching it. You didn't have to worry about leaving the comfort of your couch (lazy Americans) and going out and buying or renting it. And you just paid $9.99 for a new release, which is a pretty good price!
This isn't limited to just movies. This could be applied to anything, like TV shows. Anything that's currently on the iTunes Music Store can be viewed on the Apple TV via the wireless connection to your computer via the internet connection your computer gets from whatever ISP you have. From your TV remote, the entire iTunes Music Store is at your fingertips. (Just a side note, this is also true with the iPhone, minus the remote part.) In the near future, anything available on a DVD now (and then) could very easily be made available online to download as well. Apple currently only has the rights to Disney movies and some of Paramount's older releases, but nothing new from Paramount. Apple also has a lot of TV shows, both popular and unpopular, available. I think as soon as this technology catches on the online database of movies is going to grow tremendously... right now all the movie producers are freaked out about the DRM. But as soon as they calm down about that, they should release their movies for download as well.
This of the possibilities for ease of use and the ability to make America even fatter... yet another convenience for us! Now we don't even have to leave our house to purchase a movie!
Quit arguing about HD DVD or Blu-Ray for the new standard. I choose Apple TV for my entertainment system when I get my own house and a few million.
For more specs on the Apple TV, check this link to Apple. Apple TV
I don't know if you've kept up with the argument, but regular DVDs are almost out of the picture. Everyone is switching to HD DVD, or the new (and debatably better) Blu-Ray Disc. So the question everyone (in the nerd circles at least) is asking is, "Which disc will win?" My personal opinion: HD DVD is going ot win the battle. But let's think of an even better idea. One that will be a little more permanent. After all, it wasn't too long ago that we were all on the VHS. The VHS became the DVD, the DVD is now becoming the HD DVD (or Blu-Ray Disc), and the never-ending search for the unscratchable disc will probably be the next thing to throw itself on the scene. My point is, the media scene is constantly a changing one. New technology is always presenting itself. As soon as you get the latest player, a new technology will come out to out date the player you have. Of course, the new HD DVD players will also support older, non-HD DVDs... but they won't support VHS unless you add an entirely separate interface to it. But will the next latest-and-greatest technology support the circular DVD format? Or will it be something even better and smaller, like a plug-in device such as a Flash Drive? That would make your DVD players obsolete then.
Let's get back to the current argument though. HD DVD or Blu-Ray? I say neither. What if you didn't even need a disc? What if you didn't even need a physical entity of the movie you wanted to watch? Imagine this:
You sit down with a group of your friends to watch a movie. You argue for a while trying to decide what movie is the greatest movie of all time and thus should be watched. Finally, someone chimes in, "Hey, what about that new movie that came out yesterday with Will Ferrell and Ben Stiller in it?" The arguing stops and someone says the name of the movie. Finally, you all agree that it sounds like a fabulous movie... of course it does, it has Ben Stiller and Will Ferrell in it! You can't get much better than that!! You reach for your Universal Remote and click the "Search For Movie" button. A search menu appears and you enter the title of the movie. You wait a few seconds as the online database is searched. A screen then pops up with the name of the movie, a brief description, a picture of the cover, and an option to watch the trailer. Over on the right there's a "Similar Movies" box with movies that are of the same genre. Near the bottom of the screen you navigate to the "Purchase" button for $9.99. The screen fades and you see the spinning circle informing you that the next screen is loading. After about 15 seconds, the movie starts playing.
So let's break this down. You just used the technology of the future. The fool-proof technology of the future. The Apple TV. You also just purchased a new movie that you can watch anytime you want, as many times as you want, without fear or scratching or damaging a disc that the movie might be contained on.
The Apple TV is a very small device, about the same size as the new Nintendo Wii, that has two cables. One plugs into your TV. The other plugs into the outlet to provide the box power. The rest is done wirelessly. The Apple TV wirelessly communicates with you PC or Mac anywhere in the house via Wi-fi 802.11 b, g, and/or the soon-to-be-standard n. It currently comes stands with a 40gb hard drive built in. Using the Apple TV, you can view almost any media file on your computer, whether it be music, photos, or a video. Basically, if it can be viewed using iTunes, and it transfers to your iPod, you can view it using Apple TV. Using a remote about half the size of your palm (which is probably a downside because it'll be super easy to lose), you can navigate all of the media you have on your computer. After browsing through your movies, or whatever, you select the one you wish to watch. As soon as you click on it, a file transfer is initiated, transferring the entire movie file to the Apple TV's hard drive. After a good portion of the movie is transferred to the Apple TV, the movie should start playing--probably after just a few seconds. The rest of the movie file will continue to transfer over as you watch the movie. This is going to be the same with any file you choose to look at, but it would be most significant with a movie file because they are the largest.
The optimal connection to use will be the 802.11n, because it's about ten times faster than the g. And the b... well, that's not even really worth discussing anymore.
Now check this out. You didn't even have to worry about finding the disc. You don't have to worry about ever scratching it. You didn't have to worry about leaving the comfort of your couch (lazy Americans) and going out and buying or renting it. And you just paid $9.99 for a new release, which is a pretty good price!
This isn't limited to just movies. This could be applied to anything, like TV shows. Anything that's currently on the iTunes Music Store can be viewed on the Apple TV via the wireless connection to your computer via the internet connection your computer gets from whatever ISP you have. From your TV remote, the entire iTunes Music Store is at your fingertips. (Just a side note, this is also true with the iPhone, minus the remote part.) In the near future, anything available on a DVD now (and then) could very easily be made available online to download as well. Apple currently only has the rights to Disney movies and some of Paramount's older releases, but nothing new from Paramount. Apple also has a lot of TV shows, both popular and unpopular, available. I think as soon as this technology catches on the online database of movies is going to grow tremendously... right now all the movie producers are freaked out about the DRM. But as soon as they calm down about that, they should release their movies for download as well.
This of the possibilities for ease of use and the ability to make America even fatter... yet another convenience for us! Now we don't even have to leave our house to purchase a movie!
Quit arguing about HD DVD or Blu-Ray for the new standard. I choose Apple TV for my entertainment system when I get my own house and a few million.
For more specs on the Apple TV, check this link to Apple. Apple TV
Welcome to 2007/The Power of Portability
01/09/07 04:10 PM Filed in: Technology
History was made on
Tuesday, January 9th, 2007, by Apple, Inc. It was:
115 x 61 wide x 11.6mm
3.5 inch multi-touch display screen
320 by 480 at 160 ppi
4gb or 8gb storage
Wi-fi (802.11 b/g), EDGE, or Bluetooth 2.0
2 megapixel camera
4.8 ounces
Up to 5 hours of battery for talk/video/browse
Up to 16 hours of battery for audio
And yes, it does run Mac OS X.
Introducing the new iPhone from Apple.
When Steve Jobs stood on the stage at Macworld on Tuesday and presented the iPhone in all of its glory to the masses, he wasn't just selling us a new phone--he was selling us the future! A future where the iPod, phone, internet, and essentially a PDA all come together on one OS X platform in a handheld device!!
Also released on Tuesday was the Apple TV, though it's significance was severely dwarfed with it being released next to something as spectacular as the iPhone. But I'll cover the Apple TV in all of it's glory in another post.
Apple is known for the effort they put into the design and simplicity of their products. The iPhone is no exception. But the iPhone is more than a pretty phone. Much more.
You navigate the iPhone using multi-touch technology. That is to say, you simply apply pressure to the screen to make the device perform various functions. Tap to click, slide to scroll, two fingers down and pinch to zoom in and out, etc. I would love to get my hands on one of these just to experience it, but the day where that might happen seems very far away at this point.
There was a lot of speculation as to what Apple was going to release at Tuesday's Keynote. Some people said a widescreen iPod. Others said an iPhone. Others said other things, like a wireless internet device, or a newer model of the laptops or desktops. Apple took three of those rumors and made them reality, but instead of three separate devices, they have put them perfectly into one handheld device.
The iPod is, of course, a widescreen, touch screen iPod that piggy-backs off of the phones 4gb or 8gb memory. The iPod feature now supports CoverFlow, which is really neat to see. The videos are such high quality as well, they look fabulous on the little screen.
The phone has many more features than even the smartest of smart phones. Of biggest note (I think), the iPhone syncs with your computer in the exact same way your iPod does... even the same cable, I believe. It also syncs through iTunes. Every time you plug your iPhone into the dock, it will charge and update all of your music, contacts, calendar events, movies, photos, favorites, mail, and more... And you don't even have to click anything!
To make a call, simply click contacts, scroll through your list with the flip of your finger, and click on the name you wish to dial. It's that easy! Now calling... place the phone next to your ear and a sensor automatically senses a close object (your face) and turns off the display to save battery. Bring the phone back down in front of you and the display with turn back on automatically.
As I said, the phone runs OS X, so all of the main features from your Mac will also be on the iPhone. For instance iCal, Mail, and Safari. iPhone is the first portable device to support a fully featured web browser. The entire browser runs natively on your iPhone, which is truly amazing. If you can't read the text on the page after it loads, simple place down to fingers and push them apart to zoom in... or just double tap on the area and it will automatically zoom in where you tapped. The phone will automatically detect a Wi-fi or Bluetooth internet connection, if present. If not present, it will automatically (if it's in your plan) log you on to the network's (Cingular) wireless internet via the cell phone towers. As soon as you move back into an area with Wi-fi, it will take you off of the network's wireless internet and place you on the free Wi-fi without even bothering you with a notice dialog.
There are three main sensors in the iPhone. One senses if objects are close, to turn off the display when the phone is held up to your face. The other senses ambient light, to dim the screen when lights are turned off to conserve energy. And the third is a motion sensor. In any application on the iPhone, simply turn it on it's side and the phone goes into widescreen. Turn it back
115 x 61 wide x 11.6mm
3.5 inch multi-touch display screen
320 by 480 at 160 ppi
4gb or 8gb storage
Wi-fi (802.11 b/g), EDGE, or Bluetooth 2.0
2 megapixel camera
4.8 ounces
Up to 5 hours of battery for talk/video/browse
Up to 16 hours of battery for audio
And yes, it does run Mac OS X.
Introducing the new iPhone from Apple.
When Steve Jobs stood on the stage at Macworld on Tuesday and presented the iPhone in all of its glory to the masses, he wasn't just selling us a new phone--he was selling us the future! A future where the iPod, phone, internet, and essentially a PDA all come together on one OS X platform in a handheld device!!
Also released on Tuesday was the Apple TV, though it's significance was severely dwarfed with it being released next to something as spectacular as the iPhone. But I'll cover the Apple TV in all of it's glory in another post.
Apple is known for the effort they put into the design and simplicity of their products. The iPhone is no exception. But the iPhone is more than a pretty phone. Much more.
You navigate the iPhone using multi-touch technology. That is to say, you simply apply pressure to the screen to make the device perform various functions. Tap to click, slide to scroll, two fingers down and pinch to zoom in and out, etc. I would love to get my hands on one of these just to experience it, but the day where that might happen seems very far away at this point.
There was a lot of speculation as to what Apple was going to release at Tuesday's Keynote. Some people said a widescreen iPod. Others said an iPhone. Others said other things, like a wireless internet device, or a newer model of the laptops or desktops. Apple took three of those rumors and made them reality, but instead of three separate devices, they have put them perfectly into one handheld device.
The iPod is, of course, a widescreen, touch screen iPod that piggy-backs off of the phones 4gb or 8gb memory. The iPod feature now supports CoverFlow, which is really neat to see. The videos are such high quality as well, they look fabulous on the little screen.
The phone has many more features than even the smartest of smart phones. Of biggest note (I think), the iPhone syncs with your computer in the exact same way your iPod does... even the same cable, I believe. It also syncs through iTunes. Every time you plug your iPhone into the dock, it will charge and update all of your music, contacts, calendar events, movies, photos, favorites, mail, and more... And you don't even have to click anything!
To make a call, simply click contacts, scroll through your list with the flip of your finger, and click on the name you wish to dial. It's that easy! Now calling... place the phone next to your ear and a sensor automatically senses a close object (your face) and turns off the display to save battery. Bring the phone back down in front of you and the display with turn back on automatically.
As I said, the phone runs OS X, so all of the main features from your Mac will also be on the iPhone. For instance iCal, Mail, and Safari. iPhone is the first portable device to support a fully featured web browser. The entire browser runs natively on your iPhone, which is truly amazing. If you can't read the text on the page after it loads, simple place down to fingers and push them apart to zoom in... or just double tap on the area and it will automatically zoom in where you tapped. The phone will automatically detect a Wi-fi or Bluetooth internet connection, if present. If not present, it will automatically (if it's in your plan) log you on to the network's (Cingular) wireless internet via the cell phone towers. As soon as you move back into an area with Wi-fi, it will take you off of the network's wireless internet and place you on the free Wi-fi without even bothering you with a notice dialog.
There are three main sensors in the iPhone. One senses if objects are close, to turn off the display when the phone is held up to your face. The other senses ambient light, to dim the screen when lights are turned off to conserve energy. And the third is a motion sensor. In any application on the iPhone, simply turn it on it's side and the phone goes into widescreen. Turn it back