Apple IPhone
Ipod’s death rattle
Sep 7th
In what has becoming obvious to everyone outside of the most fervent Apple fans, the iPod is in a serious decline in terms of both sales and stature. The fact that the mobile phone is replacing the stand-alone MP3 player is starting to sink in to the makers of such devices and to the consumer as well. It makes no sense to carry around two devices when a phone can now do the job of both in a smaller and cheaper package.
The need to spend $200+ on a device that has limited audio and video capabilities is becoming obsolete. The iPhone has contributed to this fact and in the end could lead to the demise of Apple’s most profitable business and this is why the upcoming Apple launch party will have both slashed prices and new iPod designs in hopes of drumming up excitement for what is essentially the sinking ship of technology. The only real purpose of an iPod in the near future will be for use in a car, at least until hard drives become standard features of the audio package.
I can only assume some people will disagree with this assessment but consider that mobile phones have equal to better sound quality, large storage capacities in addition to hot swappable media, prolonged battery life, advanced GUI, superior optics, HD video capabilities, small form factors, OLED displays, gaming capabilities, video conferencing, high speed data connections and on and on and on. Not to mention the huge price discounts for a contract you already had in the first place.
Of course this will be a gradual decline and not an overnight collapse but does Apple really think that any of the 10+ million iPhone users will ever purchase an iPod again? Every iPhone purchase will mean one less potential iPod sale and competing with yourself isn’t the most ideal business model.
This could turn into a big opportunity for phone manufacturers to put further innovation into the mobile phone, including the capability to control everything from starting your car remotely, preheating your oven while your still at the grocery store to becoming a personal security device capable of tasering a would be assailant. It will become an all encompassing device that could even make your laptop obsolete, just how long this will take is anyone’s guess but it is sooner than most can imagine.
Nokia N96 Launched
Sep 5th
The highly anticipated Nokia N96 is now available for order in Europe via the Nokia website for a mere £535.00 or $942.09. The tech specs on this Symbian powered smart phone are a dream come true for mobile phone aficionados. There is really nothing on the market that compares to this device, it is basically a fully functioning computer with DVR and advanced Video/Phone capabilities that fits in a front shirt pocket. The iPhone 3G is so far behind the N96 that its not even fair to compare the two devices and yet I can guess which one will outsell the other by at least a tenfold margin. We all hope this is coming to the states but with all the network problems and data capping going on here its just not very practical and that’s a shame. Perhaps in a year or three we will catch up but don’t count on it.
A quick look as some of the features:
Live TV with DVR recording capabilities and instant replay functions.
A 5 MegaPixel camera which does 30FPS video and TV-Out.
Turn by turn GPS.
Browser supports both Java , Flash, RSS, PDF, and QuickOffice.
A 16 GB hard drive.
Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP stereo audio. Hi-Speed USB 2.0 connectivity.
Integrated kickstand and landscape-oriented speakers.
Digital music player - supports MP3, AAC, eAAC+, WMA, album art.
Stereo FM radio (87.5-108MHz, 76-90MHz) with support for RDS and Visual RadioT.
WLAN - IEEE802.11 g/b with UPnP support.
Video call and video sharing.
N-Gage Gaming.
SMTP, IMAP4, POP3, MMS, SMS.
Internet Radio.
Specs:
* WCDMA 2100/900 1900/850 (HSDPA) / EGSM900, GSM850/1800/1900 MHz (EGPRS)
* 2.8″ QVGA (240 x 320 pixels) LCD TFT 16 million colors
* Operating system: Symbian OS 9.3
* WCDMA HSDPA (PS max speed DL/UL= 3.6Mbps/384kbps, CS max speed 64kbps)
Starbucks HotSpots free for the iPhone
May 2nd
Starbucks have made some dramatic changes in their HotSpot service, first they dumped T-Mobile and along with them the gargantuan charges that ranged from $9.99 a day and higher, then they partnered with AT&T which will bring in all those hipster wannabees that make up a huge number of iPhone owners, lastly they will give those hipsters in training iPhoners free unlimited WiFi so they can write that screenplay about the geek who is thrust into the world of espionage when his supermodel girlfriend is kidnapped by Steve Ballmer.
This also includes Barnes & Nobles but using your iPhone in a book store is the epitome of douchebaggery, which for uninformed is simply a person who cares for no one other than themselves and expresses this attitude at every available opportunity or in other words an Oakland Raider fan.
Bluetooth headset for both mobile phone and iPod
Apr 29th
With the new JayBird Bluetooth Stereo Headset (130 bones) you can control both your phone and your MP3 player at the same time using the newest update to the A2DP protocol. As of now there aren’t any Bluetooth enabled iPods so an adapter will need to be purchased but expect that Bluetooth will be built in to most new MP3’s players just for the wireless headset capabilities alone and with the dual capabilities of this headset, it can only further develop wireless accessories.
Am I the only one that finds it odd that the iPod Touch doesn’t have Bluetooth built in? Was this strictly a price cutting measure or a deliberate attempt to not give the device any ‘phone’ features, so as to not anger the iPhone owners? I cant imagine the fanboys reaction would be all that favorable if the Touch could have Skype added and thus skirt all the network/subsidy lock issues of The Jesus Phone.
As for as I can find there is only one Bluetooth enabled MP3 player on the market and that is the Philips GoGear SA5245BT. I guess the industry is a little slow on this so lets this is a sign of things to come…and fast.
Apple sells 1.7 million units
Apr 24th
Apple announced revenue of $7.5 billion and net profit over $1 billion in its 2nd fiscal quarter, with revenue beating expectations. This is what happens when you sell 10.6 million iPods, 2.3 million Macs, and 1.7 million iPhones — which the company said kept it on pace to reach its year-end goal of 10 million iPhones sold.
However the 1.7 million is down from the 2.315 million reported for the fiscal first quarter and some analysts have seen this as a possible trend of decreasing sales. Others believe the 3G iPhone will jumpstart sales again but news has been quiet on that front since Apple slapped around Mossberg.
iPhone 2.0 beta: Screen caps
Apr 15th
The latest iPhone 2.0 beta firmware allows users to save web images to its running camera roll for later download to its host machine (or sharing via email). In addition the iPhone, with a flick of two buttons, (sleep & home) will be capable of taking full screen caps. Of course all of this is just in a testing phase and some bugs will no doubt need to be worked out, so there is no telling when these features might go live. Apple is staying in the news of late, perhaps this is leading into an announcement about a much sleeker and faster iPhone that will be capable of such advance things as picture messaging and the old copy and paste.
When old people attack
Apr 8th
Walt Mossberg finds himself the scorn of many a Apple fanboy today with his retraction of his 3G iPhone in 60 days announcement. This should have been obvious to most, as you just shouldn’t get your tech news from someone that looks like he loves the early bird special, wants you off his lawn, and smells like old people. Yep, I said it, someone had to…Walt Mossberg is old!! Seriously, he remembers a time when TV hadn’t even been invented, it was called his childhood.
Now I can’t be that mad at him as he did screw with the 2nd scariest group of fans on the web but this does bring up a point, when is the proper age to start ignoring old people? Should there be sliding scale for the smarter ones? And once we’ve determined that they no longer serve a purpose, is Solent Green too cruel an ending? The answers are age 50, no, and hell no.
Crackberry addiction spreads across nation
Apr 3rd
Research In Motion RIM (Nasdaq RIMM), the home of the Blackberry, just announced Q1 ‘08 numbers and they continue to grow at an astonishing rate. Some of the highlights include 2.18 million new added subscribers in the quarter, which is a new record, which brings BlackBerry’s total amount of subscribers to over 14 mil.
The Waterloo based company earned an impressive $412.5 million, or 72 cents a share, up from a profit of $187.4 million from last year. Market forecasters expected earnings of around 68 so they outperformed most if not all expectations. Their outlook is even more impressive considering that the financial outlook in Uncle Sam’s back yard is less than stellar. Maybe the Jesus phone really isn’t dominating the smart phone market, its just the market is exploding right now.
RIM sees per-share profit of 82-86 cents; analysts expected 76 cents. This announcement has the stock jumping some 5+ points on the late show called Wall Street: After Hours. I for one will be calling my broker and he will once again pretend he has no idea who I am.
Microsoft mobile licenses Adobe Flash and Reader
Mar 17th
Microsoft has licensed Adobe Flash Lite and Adobe Reader LE PDF software for their mobile software, this of course is in addition to their own Silverlight technology. No word on an actual time table for when these will become reality as “the engineers have to work together to integrate the technology, and then the platforms have to be distributed to OEMs,” advised Anup Murarka, director of technical marketing at Adobe. Adobe hopes to see this implemented by the end of the year but as of yet refer those questions to Microsoft.
LG, Samsung, Nokia, Sony Ericsson and Motorola all have Flash-enabled phones but the one notable exception is the iPhone and Adobe would love to make that happen but it doesn’t seem likely after Mr Jobs harsh critique of the mobile Flash product. Perhaps Silverlight on the Jesus Phone? Yet another partnership after the Active Sync and Exchange shocker could bring Apple fans what they love most, more of the evil, crush everything in its path, ruthless Microsoft who steal babies at night and then train them to be software engineers before the age of 10.
Maybe Jobs and Gates actually get along, I mean its kinda hard to dislike Gates considering how much of his own money he is spending to help cure and stop the spread of disease as well as all the educational donations his foundation has made. Maybe they are just getting older and don’t care about the rivalry all that much anymore.
iPhone SDK disapointments pile up
Mar 12th
While there are a lot great things about the Apple SDK many are starting to question its brutal terms of service, its blocking of VOIP and GSM connections as well as its blocking of Opera and Firefox. Some experts are wondering how this is legal considering how much trouble Microsoft got for having IE as its default browser in Win98?
Add to this that ‘only one iPhone application can run at a time, and third-party applications never run in the background. This means that when users switch to another application, answer the phone, or check their email, the application they were using quits.’ Advised developer Robert Balousek.
So consider the fact that you will lose the game your playing and must re-log into all the websites and IM programs because you wanted to answer your phone. This could become incredibly irritating in record time.
