ZOMG! Do I really get to write another Apple Death Knell after all these years!??!? Thanks to the introduction of the iPad and John C. Dvorak’s tireless efforts in pushing our buttons, you betcha! If I’d have been smarter, I would have started a pool on how long it would take for an iPad Is…
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Wishful Thoughts on Apple's Tablet: A Thought Experiment in Design
At a glance, the iSlate 101 looks like little more than a typical netbook, albeit one that has spent a little too much time at the fried food line in the cafeteria. (Then again, we’re getting pretty spoiled when we start considering an inch and a quarter a “fat” computer.) Having opted for the milled…
Analyst: AAPL Accounting Changes Cloud Guidance
“Given the change in accounting, the key questionis how conservative this guidance is given the difficulty of using historical outperformance to judge future potential performance,” Mr. Um said.Apple previously used subscription accounting to report iPhone and Apple TV sales, which spread the per-unit revenue out over 24 months to account for major software upgrades. The…
TMO Interviews Netflix
TMO: Mr. Swasey, Nick Wingfield of the Wall Street Journal and Daniel Sorid writing for Wired painted a rather austere picture of the resources and competitive posture of Netflix. What are your thoughts? SS: Well, the Wall Street Journal article was posted about 7 months ago. Up until then, and since that time, we’ve been…
The One Where I Interview a Porn Star
However, I was contacted by one of the exhibitors, Digital Playground. They were interested in having me do a few interviews with their “talent.” To make it more convenient for me to do so, they offered to get me a press press to AEE. I told them that my journalistic interests ran more towards computers…
Android Users Hit with Malware App
While Droid09 is a bad mark for the Android platform and the Android Marketplace, it doesn’t necessarily mean the Google’s smartphone operating system is unsafe. It does, however, show that there’s room for improvement in the app screening process at the Android Marketplace.Droid09 also serves as a reminder that other companies, including Apple, need to…
Is The Industry Moving Closer to Apple's Whole Widget Approach? Not Really
(At least one person has a more…colorful name for it, but note there’s profanity before you go clickling all willy nilly.) At long last, Google is making its own Android device, just like Apple makes the iPhone, or so the narrative I’ve been reading about the device would have us believe. Better yet, because Google…
The Year When Apple's Tablet Means Good Enough Isn't
Consider the following chart that compares a conventional PC to a possible Apple tablet.What jumps out at me in this chart is that refinement, user interface, user experience, and low maintenance will be of paramount importance. A system dedicated to the user, always available on demand, must reach yet a higher level of excellence, even…
CES Highlights: From iLounge Pavilion to 3D Televisions
Next, I was finally off to the main hub of CES: the multi-hall Las Vegas Convention Center. iPod and iPhone products My first stop: the iLounge Pavilion, occupying a moderately-sized section of the North Hall. With over 100 vendors, the Pavilion was billed as “an exhibition of new iPod, iPhone, and Mac hardware and software.”…
Apple Tablet Goes With PA Semi Chip, Verizon iPhone With Qualcomm
Both of those scoops come courtesy of TheStreet’s Scott Moritz and Northeast Securities analyst Ashok Kumar, who relied on his contacts within the supply chains for those products. As expected, Apple, Qualcomm, and Intel representatives had no comment on the matter.“If you believe that the closely-watched Apple Tablet will reshape the mobile computing landscape, then…
The One Critical Success Factor for Apple's Tablet
I believe that the recent ruckus between Ruppert Murdoch’s News Corporation and Time Warner Cable will bear on the future of the Apple tablet. Here’s a recap: When broadcasters radiate their signals from towers, they do so with the consent of the FCC. The only revenue they receive is from ads, whether it’s local ads…
Cooking Mama Lite, Olive Garden Demos, Spam iCan and More
Food, I mean the good stuff, is a huge part of any holiday gathering regardless of what the occasion. Of course, this isn’t Star Trek or Hogwarts so food does not magically appear before us when we sit down to dine (unless you are rich enough to not have to deal with such trifling concerns)…
MailForge Follows Ghost of Eudora Past
In the 1990s, the heyday of Macintosh e-mail programs, Eudora shone with a strong light. (As did Claris Em@iler.) But as time passed, events conspired to force Eudora to end of life. Today, MailForge, from Infinity Data Systems, continues the spirit and tradition of Eudora as a ground up rewrite. Those who were bumped off…
Pocket Girlfriend
This week (12/11/09), however, Pocket Girlfriend appeared as #4 on the top ten paid apps list at the App Store. Now, that got me really curious. What could possibly be so great about an app that purports to be a virtual girlfriend. Apple’s app reviewers would not let an app through that displayed anything racier…
Dragon Dictation
That may be, but if you have 100,000 plus applications available for a platform there are bound to be some absolute gems in the pile. This week one such gem appeared and it was my initial opinion that this one app will do for smartphones, and for the iPhone in particular, what Apple has done…
Predicting the Future
I was reminded of this recently when, via some chatter on Twitter, I was alerted to aaplinvestors.net’s iPhone Death Watch. The page consists simply of a collection of quotes — from a variety of journalists, analysts and corporate executives — all predicting bad things for the iPhone’s future. The most fun quotes to read are the ones…
HDNet Fights, Elsie's Yoga Class, Cows in Space, and Mooo-re
You can’t touch stress, but sometimes touching can make you stressful. You can’t see stress, but you can see its results. About the only thing you can do is feel stressful, but in reality what you feel is likely the result of one of our most basic animal instincts and quandary; to run away or…
Particle Debris (week ending 12/4) Corporate Confusion and The Big iPhone Lie
Also on Monday, I laughed out loud when I read about a Nokia strategist talk about how they’ve focused too much on the technology of their smartphones instead of ease of use. Also mentioned was the glacial response to the Apple iPhone, borne of a bit of overconfidence. Anssi Vanjoki, chief strategist and number two…
More HDTV Gotchas to Know by Black Friday
Audio in HDTV systems can be even more tricky and confusing than video. As Mac (and PC) users, we’re fairly familiar with video, but simple stereo audio is usually relegated to a pair of analog desktop speakers or headphones. However, when you move up to an HDTV system, you’ll be faced with new terminology, perhaps…
What You Need to Know about HDTV & Blu-ray by Black Friday
LCD or Plasma? Manufacturers would have you believe that LCDs, even LED backlit LCD HDTVs are just as good as Plasmas. That turns out not to be the case. In the September 2009 issue of Widescreen Review magazine, Raymond Soneira, Ph.D. in a series of instrumented and calibrated tests reported that a lot of, ah,…
How the TMO Staff Members Use Their iPhones, Part I of II
Here are the questions we asked ourselves: What kind of iPhone and case do you have? Is the iPhone a separate but equal computer for you? If you use the iPhone in a fundamentally different way, how so? Do you try to use the same apps on the iPhone as your Mac — or do…
ikee Worm Rickrolls Jailbroken iPhones
The worm works by trying to find other jailbroken iPhones on the same cell phone network. If the jailbroken iPhones are still set with their default SSH password, the worm installs itself and changes the wallpaper to a photo of 80’s singer Rick Astley and the text “ikee is never going to give you up.”ikee…
Particle Debris (week ending 11/6) Failure IS an Option
So the lesson here is that when you take your prototype in and demo it to the big boys, better have lots of lawyers, an iron clad NDA, a pending patent, and maybe even a video of the session. So much for any illusions about Barnes & Noble innovating against Apple. European regulators are not…
The Mysteries of Rosetta Housekeeping
The first thing you need to know is that Rosetta is a very small piece of code, about 2.1 MB. It’s not at all like the Classic environment of old, so any obsession with eradicating it from your system is unwarranted. It just waits in stand-by mode and is only invoked when a native PPC…