Category: Apple

$29 Apple Earphones with Remote & Mic

On By Rick McIn Apple, audiocasts, product endorsements, videocastsLeave a comment

I’d buy an iPhone. But refuse to lock in to a 3yr contract. (The minimum in Canada.)

But I love my new Touch iPod.

No complaints.

Apple iPod touch 8 GB (2nd Generation)

Apple iPod touch 8 GB (2nd Generation)

I bought an armband case, as I use it a lot for running and cycling.

And — recently — the new Earphones with Remote & Mic. They work perfectly. I can increase and decrease volume. Pause and restart from a tiny, convenient button.

remote

I also use the tiny, convenient microphone for voice notes using a software app called iTalkRecorder. (One of several free options from the iTunes store.)

That’s for documenting my BRILLIANT ideas while out and about.

Leave a comment if you have other recommendations for the iPhone or Touch.

MacBook video

On By Rick McIn Apple, product endorsements1 Comment

I’m using the new glass and aluminum basic MacBook these days as my primary computer.

Small. Light. I like the LED screen despite how reflective it is.

The glass multi-touch trackpad definitely takes a few days to get used to.

But the biggest improvement is durability. It feels far more rugged than any other laptop I’ve used.

The old white MacBook starts at about US$1000. This new aluminum one about $1300. The cheaper one is better for most. But if you fancy yourself a “power user”, go with the new aluminum MacBook.

MacBook – Apple.com

Both the MacBook Pro $US2000 and MacBook Air $US1800 are overpriced, in my opinion.

if only Microsoft could build it

On By Rick McIn Apple, product endorsementsLeave a comment

A video is going viral called Microsoft’s Future Vision 2019.

Very cool.

This is the complete 5min version on YouTube.

The engineers at Apple are watching it. (And building it into the next version of the iPhone.)

It was released a few days ago at the Wharton Business Technology Conference by Microsoft’s Business Division president Stephen Elop. It’s the latest production from Microsoft Office Labs.

Microsoft has the vision.

But — for some reason — they simply cannot bring anything cool to market.

… Microsoft needs to focus.

And it needs to realize quickly that focus doesn’t include wasting huge amounts of time and money on fights it will never win. Fights like the ones it’s bogged down in with Google for Internet search and advertising, and with Apple in portable media players.

Products like its Surface computer show that Microsoft has the potential to fulfill the promises made by the video above. And if it does that, I’ll have no problem once again using Microsoft products in my life. …

Digital Media – This is the Microsoft I want to see

Apple could dominate micropayments

On By Rick McIn Apple, economicsLeave a comment

How many years have I been waiting for micropayments to become the norm on the internet? The buying and selling of product in fractions of a penny.

It looked like PayPal would be the future … at one time.

But PayPal was purchased by Ebay. And never fulfilled the potential I envisioned. Many don’t like PayPal. Ebay does not know how to build the company.

People do like buying from the Apple iTunes store. It’s insanely easy and convenient to one click a $.99 purchase of a music track.

What if Apple extended their payment system to third party companies?

If I could buy a product on the internet, relaying the transaction via the iTunes store.

Speculates Narendra Rocherolle:

iphone-cost-money

… Apple is in the catbird seat to dominate micropayments. Their “batch and bill” implementation in iTunes, which boasts perhaps the smoothest online purchasing UI ever, now serves as a foundation for the App Store …

I would be spending a lot more if Apple extended the API to allow for the ability to transact within apps. It would give real viability to virtual gifts, currencies and goods across the myriad of apps out there by allowing pennies and dollars to change hands in a frictionless way. As both a developer and a consumer, that is exciting. …

GigaOm – Apple’s iPhone Offers the Ideal Micropayments Platform

new Safari 42x faster than IE 7

On By Rick McIn Apple, Google, internet, product endorsements2 Comments

As my default browser, I’m just about to switch from Opera to the beta version of Safari 4 on Mac.

It’s fast. (smaller is faster)

pc_benchmarks1

The main thing this graph shows is that Internet Explorer is for idiots. It’s horribly slow.

Opera is good. But has some annoying features that cannot be modified.

In future, I will keep Firefox and Safari open at the same time, switching back and forth. Safari now offers full screen zoom like Firefox. That’s the main feature I need, aside from speed.

Google Chrome is not yet available for Mac.

Cnet – Safari 4 benchmarked: 42x faster than IE 7, 3.5x faster than Firefox 3

Arstechnica – Hands on: Safari 4 beta fast, mixes polish, rough UI edges

cruel and shallow money trench

On By Rick McIn Apple, books, music1 Comment

I love the Hunter S. Thompson line so often attributed to the Record Industry:

“The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There’s also a negative side.”

This week Apple announced that all 10 million songs in itunes will soon be DRM (Digital Rights Management) free. A death sentence for the old model of music distribution.

Appetite for Self-Destruction is a new book by Rolling Stone magazine editor Steve Knopper.

The Spectacular Crash of the Record Industry in the Digital Age
The Spectacular Crash of the Record Industry in the Digital Age

… Should anyone care that in the process, the iPod has all but killed the music industry as we’ve known it? Maybe not, Steve Knopper writes in “Appetite for Self-Destruction,” his stark accounting of the mistakes major record labels have made since the end of the LP era and the arrival of digital music. These dinosaurs, he suggests, are largely responsible for their own demise. …

NY Times – When Labels Fought the Digital, and the Digital Won

This quotation has has achieved the status of urban legend. Here’s the original:

… The TV business is uglier than most things. It is normally perceived as some kind of cruel and shallow money trench through the heart of the journalism industry, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free and good men die like dogs, for no good reason. …

Generation of Swine: Tales of Shame and Degradation in the ’80’s

Price / music track will drop steadily into the forseeable future.

if Steve Jobs ran Chrysler

On By Rick McIn Apple, economics1 Comment

Controversial Tech pundit Robert X. Cringely has an interesting column this week …

… I find myself wondering what would happen if Steve Jobs were put in charge of any of the Big Three car companies?

It wouldn’t be boring, that’s for sure, and I’m fairly certain Steve could do a better job than the Detroit executives currently in charge.

… Today Apple and Jobs are at the top of their game, taking market share from other computer companies while at the same time establishing game-changing new product concepts like the iPod and iPhone. Apple is America’s largest music seller (who could have seen that one coming back in ’97? Nobody), has no debt, and $22+ billion in the bank. Even at its currently depressed stock price, Apple is worth more than any of the car companies and for good reason: Apple has a future. …

What would Steve do?

icar

… He’d look at the car market and conclude a number of things: 1) it’s a no-brainer to embrace dramatic design (no boring cars); 2) performance sells, and; 3) safety and fuel economy are co-equal secondary goals. So Steve’s goal for his car company would be to make a limited line of vehicles that were dramatically styled with visibly different technologies from the competitors and were uniformly 20+ percent safer and 20+ percent more fuel-efficient. …

Read the post – Robert X. Cringely – Insanely Great: What if Steve Jobs ran one of the Big Three auto companies?

Why will governments bail out car companies but not computer companies like Yahoo?

Because of jobs.

Ford, GM and Chrysler will keep inefficient vehicles and plants in North America because it’s easier to leverage the potential loss of those jobs into tax benefits, loans or gifts of tax dollars from Canada and the USA. That might work short term, IF the taxpayer can afford to subsidize auto workers, but long term those companies are doomed to lose out to foreign competitors.

It’s so predictable.