___________________ Some examples are in order. A phone carrier starts with unlimited service to entice customers and later does everything it can to force-convert customers into capped or metered service. A company, which had a fine product for sale can't generate enough growth with a mature technology, so it makes its product available via subscription…
Search: iPhone 17
A Mad Magazine Experiment with iPad Gone Sour
___________________ In September of that year, I wrote: … I’ve started a pilot project to eliminate most of my paper magazine subscriptions and convert to digital format on the iPad. Of course, this has been possible previously on the Mac in some cases, but the size and portability of the iPad creates a critical psychological…
Is Amazon Setting the World on Fire? Or to Itself?
_____________________ Social pendulums swing back and forth. It could be women's hemlines over the years or changing attitudes about American involvement in foreign conflicts. One constant remains: whenever we go too far in one direction, there's a social backlash, and the pendulum starts to swingback the other way. Right now, we've gone about as far…
Rhapsody Launches unRadio, Yet Another Streaming Music Service No One Wanted
“Today marks another important milestone in Rhapsody’s 13-year history of pioneering new ways for music fans to find, discover and experience music,” Paul Springer, Senior Vice President of the Americas and Chief Product Officer of Rhapsody International, apparently oblivious to what the word “pioneering” means. “Finally,” he added, equally unfamiliar with that word's proper usage,…
OS X Mavericks: How to Easily Reset the Administrator Password
[Note: this article was edited and updated in November, 2014 with additional methods.] _____________________ To be clear, there are several technical ways to reset the administrator password on a Mac if you cannot log in. Some of them are rather Unix-geeky and can make a novice user nervous. For the sake of completeness, I'll reference…
iOS 8 gets Wi-Fi Calling Support, T-Mobile Already On Board
Apple's Craig Federighi shows off iOS 8 features at WWDC “With the news coming out of Apple's keynote today that Wi-Fi Calling will be enabled with iOS 8 – I'm excited to welcome our iPhone customers to the convenience and ease of T-Mobile Wi-Fi Calling as well,” said T-Mobile Chief Marketing Officer Mike Sievert. “When…
IZON Video Monitor Makes for Handy Security Observations
Stem Innovations has released the IZON 2.0 Wi-Fi Video Monitor and the free IZON app. With these two products you can monitor a location with a video feed from anywhere in the world. The app delivers real-time video and audio from the IZON camera to an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch. IZON 2.0 Wi-Fi video…
A Critical To-do List for Apple's New VP Angela Ahrendts
____________________ First, as some have suggested, a decorative makeover of Apple's retail stores is the least of Ms. Ahrendts' concerns. The original design, perfected by Steve Jobs, is clean and attractive. For Apple to sink many millions into a project like that would not only be a waste of money but also greatly ignore the…
California Rejects Smartphone Kill Switch Bill
California's smartphone kill switch bill is dead for now The vote was close, according to CNET, with 19 legislators in favor and 17 against. While there were more votes in favor of passing the bill, California requires a minimun of 21 votes, leaving proponents two votes short of the majority they needed. The now defeated…
Why Apple Didn't Try to Copy Google Glass
Google Glass had a nifty sci-fi feel to it when the product first came out. Along the way, however, Google apparently failed to fully appreciate both why the product should exist in the chosen form and the social aspects of the device. Calls for Apple to quickly follow Google's lead now look silly. ______________________ The…
Judge Denies Rockstar Consortium's Bid to Move Google Patent Fight to Troll Town
Rockstar misses out on moving Google patent counter case to Eastern Texas The patent holding company filed its infringement suit in U.S. District Court in Eastern Texas, and Google countered by filing a patent invalidation suit in California. Rockstar Consortium then petitioned the court to move Google's suit to Texas, but District Court Judge Claudia…
Microsoft Word for iPad Gets Touch Word Processing (Mostly) Right
Through the decades, we've never known anything else but Microsoft Word for Windows and Mac. In late March, however, Microsoft brought its monolithic word processing software to the iPad, a totally new paradigm from its PC legacy. Right away we see the familiar workings of Word, including cross-platform file compatibility. But it's also developed with many of the key…
Sponsor: The Omni Group
This week it is my absolute pleasure to welcome The Omni Group as our sponsor. And not only is The Omni Group this week's sponsor here, they were also big sponsors of ours during Macworld/iWorld recently, helping to make Cirque du Mac 2014 happen. They deserve (and got!) a big round of applause just for that. But that's…
OS X: How to Share Calendars
There are quite a few ways you could go about it. First, you could open the Calendar program on your Mac and hover over any of your calendars in the left-hand list to reveal a sharing icon: Don’t see a list? Select the “Calendars” button on the toolbar. Click that, and you’ll get a little pop-up…
Sponsor: Get MacX DVD Ripper Pro for Free This Week
I'd like to thank Digiarty for again sponsoring TMO this week. They're always good for a very useful freebee, and this time is no different. In fact, this time is even better than last! From now until the 24th, they're giving away MacX DVD Ripper Pro for free just for you. Yeah, when you go…
Microsoft Steps into Evernote Territory with OneNote for the Mac
Microsoft OneNote for the Mac. Finally. Microsoft OneNote for the Mac lets user create and manage notes, photos, and other pieces of information. It can synchronize that data with OneNote on other platforms such as iOS on the iPhone and iPad, Windows, and Android. The Mac version brings with it a couple firsts, according to…
A Touchscreen Remote With a Next Gen Apple TV Would be Amazing
There are many technical issues related to a next generation TV system, as conceived by Apple. It's mind boggling. But one small area where Apple could cash in on its expertise would be a touchscreen remote, a simpler, less expensive version of the iPod touch to accompany a 4th generation Apple TV. ________________ Over the…
3 Free iOS Apps That Will Smarten You Up
I'm comfortable with my intelligence (or lack thereof), but whenever I encounter these mental giants, I am at once awed, envious, and humbled. Awed by the absolute wonder that is the human brain and its ability to perform at levels that just don't seem human at all. Envious of the person who possesses what can…
Tim Cook Tweet Reminds World "It's Worth Waiting to Get It Right"
Steve Jobs would have been just 59 years old on Monday had he not died in November of 2011. Mr. Cook's tweets note that they were in remembrance of his predecessor. The first tweet quoted one of Steve Jobs's favorite phrases, a phrase that Mr. Jobs used in his spectacular Stanford commencement address in 2005…
Android Creator Andy Rubin on Apple's Witness List in Samsung Patent Fight
Apple calling Android creator Andy Rubin to testify in patent infringement trial with Samsung Mr. Rubin left Apple in 1992 for the Apple spin-off company General Magic which just so happened to be a mobile device development company. That never panned out for Apple, so in 1995 he started working for WebTV, and then Microsoft…
Wearable Tech at CES: The Scent of Desperation
2014's wearable tech: Bling that knows when your phone rings Going for the Wrist The big rumor bouncing around the Internet is that Apple is hard at work on a smartwatch product that'll take the industry by storm. It was pretty clear tech gear makers were hearing those same rumors because they all rushed to…
Does Apple REALLY Care About You?
“The first principle is that you must not fool yourself, and you are the easiest person to fool.” — Physicist Richard P. Feynman A question has been raised by one of TMO's readers whether Apple genuinely cares about its customers. In addition, do Apple customers occasionally have to overcome hurdles that Apple places in the…
5 Free iOS Apps to Get You Collaborating
So, what will you do with your yearly do-over? Travel more? Quit a bad habit? Start some good habits? How about getting that idea or project you've been toying with off the ground finally? Wouldn't it be great to collaborate with friends and get feedback from them about why your idea is so cool, or…
What's the ONE New Thing You Have Time For in Your Life?
______________________ When the original iPad came out in 2010, its was after there had been a lot of discussion about how a tablet would fit in between a notebook computer and an iPhone. Some thought there was no room, but then they were proved wrong. The tablet concept, as instantiated by Apple, was so brilliant,…