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Yet another prposed iPhone killer turns out to be more of a limp noodle. According to Infoworld, “But people who were hoping for a credible iPhone alternative fortified with BlackBerry’s strengths as a mobile tool for corporate travelers will likely find the Storm a disappointment. When it comes to touch interfaces, Apple still has no peer.”
Rick Rashid (Microsoft’s Head of Research) claims since he wrote a few lines of code for the open source Mach OS that somehow he is responsible for the Mac (OS X) and the iPhone. As he pointed out to Microsoft developers at a recent developers conference:
“If you use a Macintosh or an iPhone, which honestly, I would not recommend, you would be using code that I wrote more than 25 years ago.”
I guess his point is that he wrote better code 25 Years ago than he and his team can deliver today.
Apple is selling the new models of the iPhone rapidly. It has been on sale only 5 days and already the worldwide stock is limited to that remaining at less than 20% of the Apple and carrier locations.
You can be sure that the iPhone production is ramping even as we speak and the stated goal to sell 1 Million in the first week was eclipsed by the fact they sold over 1 Million the first weekend.
For years now the Global Warming fearmongers have been hard at work blaming a natural and cyclical phenomenon on human activity. Many (in fact most) real scientists dispute the cause and effect relationship that Al Gore and his minions would have you believe exists with respect to Global warming.
To make this misguided deception more tragic and misleading, the social and fiscal costs of their proposed “solutions” to the supposed “problem” are astronomical and are never actually discussed or considered by Global warming wags.
If you would like to get a true account of the reasons for Global warming and other environmental issues go to a site that is popular with scientists and experts in the fields of climate and the environment.
www.cfact.org
Get off the bandwagon of lies and learn the truth.
It’s incredible that Windows Vista (more than one year after it’s release) is still so bad that users and PC makers alike are sad and frustrated that Windows XP is soon going to be unavailable. Having users yearn to be allowed to buy a 9 year old Operating System is unbelievable and could only occur in a virtual monopoly market.
XP is creaky, insecure and lame relative to Mac OS X and Linux so it’s an embarassment to Microsoft that Vista (in which they sunk billions in development cost) is so reviled.
I am a Tivo owner and frequently convert video recorded by my Tivo so I can watch it on my iPhone on travel and when I have time during the week. According to NBC and Microsoft if I buy a Zune only content purchased off the Zune Marketplace is acceptable to watch on a Zune. So if I had a Zune (a likely as a snowball in hell) the device would prohibit me from watching this legally acquired content.
Like you, I or anyone for that matter wants proven criminal Microsoft and some NBC telling us how and what to watch on devices we paid for with our money! NBC and Microsoft may think they have the right to assume we are guilty until proven innocent but I am voting with my $s and say ‘NO’ to Zune and these ill conceived plans to control me.
Gartner Group analysts (Michael Silver and Neil MacDonald) at a conference in Las Vegas presented a bleak picture of future for Microsoft Windows. During their presentation titled “Windows Is Collapsing: How What Comes Next Will Improve”indicated in no uncertain terms that Vista is a bloated and backward operating system and Microsoft must get in touch with market realities and ditch Vista and start anew. They may be too late they said “For Microsoft, its ecosystem and its customers, the situation is untenable.”
McDonald and Silver also stated that Microsoft Windows is a disaster for small platforms like handhelds and mobile phones, “Apple introduced its iPhone running OS X, but Microsoft requires a different product on handhelds because Windows Vista is too large, which makes application development, support and the user experience all more difficult.” They confirmed that Windows is becoming irrelevant and must start with a clean sheet of paper to stay a player when they said, “Windows as we know it must be replaced”
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9076698
Last week Steve Jobs told the world that Adobe Flash is far to resource intensive and buggy to work well on any mobile device. He indicated (quite correctly) that there is no need for Flash on the iPhone since other technologies exist to deliver better functionality and performance. So in not so many words he indicated that Apple would not be supporting Flash on mobile OS X.
Today Adobe announced they believe that they can port Adobe Flash to the iPhone with the SDK. Adobe believes that they develop support for Flash in the form that can be delivered through the iPhone/Touch Application Store. Perhaps they can but regardless there’s no compelling reason for any iPhone user to download it and plenty of reasons not to.
http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/08/03/05/stevejobspansflashontheiphone.html
According to Gartner Macintosh marketshare will double in the next couple of years. Their prediction is based on the customer satisfaction surveys that demonstrate how Apple customers are extremely satisfied with their systems.
Unbelievable amount of dissatisfaction with Windows Vista!
Gartner predicts Macintosh marketshare doubling | Computerworld Blogs
This newly introduced tablet Mac is called the ModBook. It is a MacBook modified and rehoused in a beautiful tablet form factor with a digitizing stylus. GPS and WiFi are built in with a DVD burning, SuperDrive. The tablet utilizes Apple’s InkWell technology to fully enable stylus use in all applications. The system is able to connect to normal key board and mouse via bluetooth or USB.
I want to put this on my Christmas list for next year!
After detailed and painstaking analysis of Mac OS 10.5 (Leopard) and Microsoft Vista, Computerworld declares Leopard the hands down winner in terms of ease of use, functionality and robustness.
Specifically Computerworld says; “There’s really no contest. Tiger (Mac OS 10.4) is a better OS than Vista, and there are no long-term downsides to Leopard (Mac OS 10.5). Vista doesn’t measure up.”
Maybe it’s time for Windows oriented businesses and users to investigate a superior alternative in OS X.
The verdict: Leopard spanks Vista, continues OS X’s reign of excellence There’s really no contest. Tiger is a better OS than Vista, and there are no long-term downsides to Leopard. Vista doesn’t measure up.
Among it’s many other problems, the X-Box is a fire hazard. An Illinois family whose house burned down killing their infant son is now suing Microsoft. Instead of sorrow for building a flawed and dangerous product Microsoft claims the family was at fault for not unplugging the device when they were not using it.
Microsoft shows disregard and malice toward this family even after proof that the fire was due one of the millions of proven faulty X-Box units killed their son. Microsoft is seeking the legal cases’ dismissal and that their legal fees be paid for by the family. This is a company that should be punished for it’s blatant disregard for it’s customers and human life.
How does Balmer even sleep at night? He makes me sick, trying to paint Apple as customer unfriendly for lowering the price of the iPhone while he freely spends for countless legal services to beat down a family that one of his products indisputably killed their infant boy.
Microsoft Says Xbox ‘Abuse’ Led To Fire That Killed Baby — Xbox Lawsuit — InformationWeek
Microsoft has done it again. The recent release of the updated yet still lame Zune music players demonstrates that Microsoft is totally unable to innovate. These warmed over devices are rough attempts to clone yesterdays iPod.
What the Redmond company forgets that in this market the competitors are not somehow beholden to the Windows monopoly and that they are moving targets delivering products that move forward in function and capability. As noted by CNET after the release of the newest Zunes: “Microsoft unveiled version 2.0 of its Zune family, and this time, it’s got a credible music player—for 2006. Unfortunately for Microsoft, it’s 2007.”
I gather that despite his grin at the product launch event even Bill Gates recognizes that the latest round of Zunes is a loser. Although the new Zunes were unveiled with typical bravado by Gates on Tuesday (Oct 2nd) as of today (Oct 5) Microsoft announced that the new leader of the Zune business would be Rick Thompson another Redmond drone.
Microsoft has shipped 1.2M units of Zunes since it’s launch with most of these still gathering dust as unsold inventory in stores across the world. During the same period Apple has sold well in excess of 50M units. Rick Thompson has his work cut out for him and admittedly may not be up to the task. As he put it during the reorg announcement: “No one would ever confuse me with being cool.” Well that’s okay Rick because no one would ever confuse a Zune with being cool either. (well except perhaps the Zune tatoo guy)
Too little, too late for Zune in ‘07 | Digital Noise: Music & Tech - CNET Blogs
A “Z-Loser” of course! Give that man a Zune Dock!
Forbes Magazine was once perceived as a reputable and trusted publication. Their position as a source of the truth was lost.
In the latest issue of Forbes they provide a soapbox for Alan McGlade, the CEO of MediaNet Digital. His company is a large supplier to the Zune Marketplace and other Microsoft media stores. Without disclosing this clearly biased perspective Fortune gave McGlade pages on which to spew unfounded and incorrect conclusions and bile.
Daniel Eran Dilger is the writer at one of my favorite tech sites “Roughly Drafted”. He has written a great piece pointing out the actual facts and analyzing and unwinding the article authored by McGlade in Forbes.
If you a reader of Roughly Drafted this a piece you can’t miss. If you are not yet a follower of Daniel’s work and have technical curiosity and want the unvarnished truth let this be your first encounter at Roughly Drafted.
Daniel’s articles are factual and interesting with a good balance of humor and depth. For example, Lately I have been seeing some trolls on Blogs and discussions where Apple is described as the new Microsoft. Alan McGlade uses his free ride from Forbes to spout this crap. As Daniel points out in his article:
“McGlade then describes Apple as the Orwellian “Big Brother of the digital music scene.” In case you didnt get the memo thats being passed around by every flack in the business of shilling, Apple is the New Microsoft, and so consumers should revile the company and flee to the safe harbor of Microsoft, which is now, logically, less of a Microsoft than Apple.”
Now that’s funny!
Well in summary enjoy the article at Roughly Drafted and don’t waste good money on Forbes.
In 74 days Apple has sold 1 Million iPhones. With the recent price reduction they ought to be a part of everyones wish list.
Pam and I each have one and they are awesome in capabilities and ease of use. We would recommend it to anyone we know.
Scott Finnie at Computerworld has done an analysis of Macs versus PC costs and concluded that Mac’s are in fact less expensive for a similar configuration than Windows based systems from Dell and others.
Scott writes: “I was a little surprised to find that Dell’s Inspiron line doesn’t currently offer processing power equaling that of the MacBook Pro. To get a 2.33-GHz Core 2 Duo processor (a 2.4-GHz version isn’t available yet), you have to move up to Dell’s more expensive XPS M1710 with Vista Home Premium.
Once I did that, though, and tricked out the M1710 with only those extras it had to have to compete with the MacBook Pro, I was surprised to see the Dell come in at a whopping $3,459, some $650 more than the Apple product.”
The cost analysis can be found at:
Mac vs. PC cost analysis: How does it all add up?
Also of interest is a follow on article headlined as Round II in which he compares ease of use and life cycle cost of the alternatives. In this article he concludes:
“Mac users who have Windows in their past tend to agree on a simple point: The Macintosh operating system and its custom-tailored hardware make for a far more reliable, less trouble-prone environment than Windows. It’s difficult to put a price tag on that advantage, but it’s the advantage that I find the most compelling.”
Moving on to point out the pleasurable experience of computing on the Mac:
“The unexpected advantage I gained is that using my computer is more enjoyable. My concentration isn’t broken periodically by problems, updates, security pop-ups and the like. I’m not thinking that I’m using a Mac. I’m thinking about what I’m using the computer to do — what I’m reading, writing, figuring, buying, watching and so on. The Mac becomes just so much chrome wrapping the data I’m interacting with.
You’re not conscious of your TV while you’re watching it. That’s the way it is with a Mac. I found that much harder to achieve on Windows PCs, which are constantly drawing attention to themselves.”
Since businesses and users starting connecting PCs running Microsoft Windows to networks, problems with the inherent lack of security of MS Windows have been exposed and cost Billions of dollars in lost productivity, compromised data and totally trashed systems. Lately the Windows pundits have been trying to throw up a smokescreen to shield Windows from criticism by saying Macs and the iPhone too are vulnerable.
Given many of these supposed ‘experts’ make a living in ways that are connected to the health of Microsoft and Windows market it is no surprise they spend time and effort to try to focus attention away from the debacle that is Windows Security and the weaknesses in WinCE. If what they were saying about major issues with Mac OS X were in fact true one might expect that a least one real virus or malware technology might exist in the wild that would turn Macs into spambots or compromise user data. None exists so why don’t they spend their quota of hot air on something else?
I get about 250-300 spam messages a daily in my inbox. These messages come from millions of systems that have been taken over by spammers using malicious code to control these systems to do their evil bidding. If I charged the OS vendor of the PCs that were taken over and converted to spambots (clearly at fault since their poor code allowed the systems to be hijacked in the first place) .03¢ for each annoying spam message I received, Microsoft would owe me $2737.50 a year just for my personal mail account. How much would Apple owe me? Exactly zero.
How much does Microsoft owe you? Shouldn’t we be contacting a lawyer to get our due?
For a thorough overview of the issues with security on these OS X and Windows platforms click on over (see link below) to Roughly Drafted. Daniel does a great job providing balance to the debate.
A Thoughtful comparison of security issues on Windows versus Apple OS X
To date the 80’s rock and roll band AC/DC has denied the existance of Digital Music as a market. Only now is the band got even a tenuous grip on reality. Apparently they are still in semi denial as to how the market works. They have taken a bizarre step in selling their catalog inline in the form of an 8 month exclusive contract with Verizon (Huh?). The arrangement they struck for the 8 month exclusive period with Verizon is going to be a dry spell for their online sales. Verizon is only selling the music at it’s online store (not over the air) and only in complete albums for $11.99. After using your computer to download the album conceivably you could move the music to your Verizon mobile phone. How much work does the band believe people will perform to buy a copy of music for which they probably already have license for in the form of a CD or Vinyl. (Consider this: “Amazon.com Inc. sells the band’s “Back in Black” CD for $9.97” why would you want to work s hard to get the music and pay 20% more to boot?) Any potential new AC/DC converts will be turned off not only by the amount of effort required and the onerous whole album limitation.
I surmise that after the dismal 8 month exclusive period with dismal if any sales; AC/DC members will awaken from their drug induced coma and put the catalog on iTunes by the song like it should be. I might buy a song or two when that happens but only if they ‘get a clue’ in a hurry.
If the band dwells in the fog too long thinking about whether to provide their musical IP in a form that is convenient for me and the some 100 million fellow iPod owners they may miss the boat. I have been thinking about that fact that my wife and I have some of their songs on vinyl and given the state of P to P today do they really need me as a repeat customer for songs I already have licensed? …”Hum?”
Digital-Music Holdout AC/DC Spurns iTunes, Signs WithVerizon - WSJ.com
Apple announced today that it had sold over 3 Billion songs through the iTunes store. Recently ranked as the third largest Music retailer in the US it is clear that Apple is as they say in the music biz “Number three with a bullet!”
According to some dimwitted analysis by TheStreet.com the true cost of buying an iPhone is $17,670. Is Brett Arends onto something the public is unaware of or is he just a clueless link monger? You be the judge.
According to Brett the true cost of the device is not only the price and that of the plan for two years ($2,039.00) but should include the income tax you had to pay to afford the phone in the first place. Who in the their right mind calculates cost this way? What is the real cost of a Double Cheeseburger at McDonalds? (Oh wait let me determine my tax bracket before I figure that out.)
Beyond that Brett suggests that if you were to invest that $2,720 (real cost over two years plus taxes on the original income) in your 401K over the next 35 years you could expect to yield $17,670. (Hey Brett who besides one of your cretinous readers hasn’t already maxed out their 401K?)
Is Brett really that short sighted that he would forgo a mobile phone for 35 years? As laid concisely out by Daniel Eran Dilger at RoughlyDrafted as he neatly flayed Brett’s weakminded arguments “How about telling us how much we’ll save by not driving a vehicle or not living indoors, too? I bet we’d be able to leave lots of money to our grandkids if we just worked hard and lived under a bridge for forty years with a maxed out 401(k).”
‘TheStreet.com ’ is not to be taken seriously. Apparently it is not any more a worthwhile financial website than Judge Judy is a respectable legal figure.
The Universal Music Group of Vivendi has decided to push back on Apple and is considering removing it’s music catalog from the iTunes music store.
Consumers should see this for exactly what it is, ‘a slap in the face’. Universal wants to charge more for it’s songs than the flat 99¢ that is the standard at the iTunes store today.
Universal is considering a risky step since iTunes is the third largest music reseller and by far the number one digital music sales channel. If Universal removes it’s songs from iTunes it will give many consumers cause to consider that perhaps they should just download the Universal songs they want using Bit Torrent or Limewire/GNUtella (exactly what most were doing prior to iTunes) and then import these into the iTunes client on their computers so they can listen to them on their 100 Million iPods.
Universal may learn the hard way that consumers don’t want the record companies telling them how to get their music and what devices on which to listen to them.
Universal in Dispute With Apple Over iTunes - New York Times
When the iPhone finally went on sale at 6pm last night lines were around the block at most AT&T and Apple stores. The hype has been a bit much even for me and I knew this was a game changing device at it’s introduction in January. But the jury has returned it’s verdict and that validates that regardless of who you are you will want one. I suspect that even Steve Ballmer desires to own one. He will certainly never say so but deep down he knows that in his dreams he would spend many times the price of the actual phone just for the priviledge to have one combined with the opportunity to shed his role as the Apple bashing Microsoft rant master for a few hours of bliss with the device that will change the world’s expectations overnight.
I believe it’s summed up best by Hiawatha Bray of the Boston Globe in her article yesterday:
“After the relentless buildup of the past six months, the temptation to trash Apple Inc.’s new iPhone is pretty much irresistible.
If only I could.
The iPhone is exactly as cool as you’ve heard, and then some. For it’s not just cool; this phone is important, in the same way that Apple’s first Macintosh computer was important. The Mac showed us a better way to interact with computers, and forced the entire industry to follow its lead.
Here we go again.
…
Lots of phones have music players and Web browsers, and there’s this clever Korean phone with a video screen on a hinge, which changes into wide-screen mode like one of those Transformer robots you played with as a kid. But these other phones look like high-school science fair gadgets compared to the iPhone, an elegant marvel that even a hype-weary journalist has to love.”
The iPhone is a machine of unequaled quality and functionality. Steve jobs and Apple have done it again. I thank you and the world thanks you.
The iPhone: A gadget even a hype-weary journalist can love - The Boston Globe
With the Apple iPhone ship date just 2 weeks away it is clear that AT&T will be snatching customers from the other wireless carriers just due to the fact that they have the iPhone. With over 18M people expressing considerable interest in having an iPhone even if it means switching wireless carrier the product will be a huge success and AT&T will be the primary beneficiary.
Verizon was initially approached by Apple to be the carrier for the phone. They declined based on Apple’s demands that they change certain aspects of their service to benefit the iPhone users. At this point however Verizon has to be bracing themselves for the rush of customers towards the door when iPhone launches. “Can You Hear me now?”
I personally know of dozens of current Verizon customers who will be acquiring an iPhone within days of launch despite the fact they will need to move their service to AT&T. It was foolish for the carriers (in particular Verizon) to believe that people actually value the carrier as opposed to the functionality of the device they choose to access the service. For a clear example of how network doesn’t matter just look at Internet Access. People care about their system (Mac, PC, etc.) not the way they access the network. This has resulted in cutthroat competition to somehow acquire customers for Comcast, Verizon, Earthlink and others because the network doesn’t matter. If it works one carrier is as good as another.
Keep watching as the realization dawns on Verizon that they have made a huge blunder. I predict that they will be paying a large sum to AT&T in a couple of years to remove the exclusivity clause from Apple’s contract just to get iPhone available to users that would prefer their network for one reason or other but not enough to use a lesser device on the Verizon network.
iTunes is the defacto standard Jukebox software in the world. It’s ready availability and tight integration with ipod coupled with the excellent quality in design and stability have made resulted in 300 Million copies of the software installed. With over 90% of the installations on Windows this provides a platform beachhead that will open the value of Apple TV as a quick and inexpensive ($289 at costco) step to take to access their photo, music and video libraries on the Television.
Walt Mossberg says it well in his article on Wall Street Journal Online: (requires subscription) Personal Technology - WSJ.com
“… in the past few years, Apple has mounted a sneak attack on the Windows world. Its weapon has been the Windows version of iTunes, the free media organizing, recording and playback program that most people think of as just a companion to Apple’s iPod music and video players. I think of iTunes as the most subversive software on the Windows computer, not because it does users any harm or does anything underhanded, but because it is allowing Apple to subvert, from inside, Microsoft’s dominant platform position.”
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