_____________ The recent fires in Colorado Springs and near Ft. Collins, Colorado have made it very clear that some TV stations that have websites have dropped the ball when it comes to serving the public interest. That’s because residents, in any geographical area, for any kind of weather emergency, are likely to be on the…
Search: smart home
San Francisco Blocks Mac Purchases After Apple EPEAT Pull Out
EPEAT is an environmental organization that certifies products based on their recyclability, among other criteria. Apple was one of the founding companies that established those criteria in 2006, and EPEAT certification is now required for purchases by some institutions, including cities like San Francisco. The news that Apple had pulled its Mac products from EPEAT…
The Apps That Came in From the Cold
______________ One of the things we know about the Mac App Store, from interviewing developers, is that many new or inexperienced customers look at the MAS first for solutions to their problems. It’s a convenient and trustworthy watering hole, and it provides many developers with incremental revenue. Historically, many experienced customers know how to go…
iOS-ification is Coming. Why It’ll be Good For Us
__________________ Once upon a time, companies built computers because there was money to be made by putting computational power into the hands of skilled individuals. In the Apple II days, people who bought them likely were already working with computers at work, and they revelled in the idea of having some computational fun at home.…
Apple Nano-SIM Design Wins ETSI Approval
ETSI stated,The fourth form factor (4FF) card will be 40 percent smaller than the current smallest SIM card design, at 12.3mm wide by 8.8mm high, and 0.67mm thick. It can be packaged and distributed in a way that is backwards compatible with existing SIM card designs. The new design will offer the same functionality as…
RIM Outlines BlackBerry’s Future, Previews BlackBerry 10
Research in Motion made the case for the continued relevance of its BlackBerry platform during its Blackberry World keynote Tuesday morning. Three months after taking the helm at the struggling company, RIM CEO Thorsten Heins took the floor to argue for the “unique value” that BlackBerry delivers to its customers. Distinguishing BlackBerry customers from those…
Should Your iPhone Be Your Only Camera?
In brief: Yes. But not without a few important caveats. The first caveat is that “majority of users” does not equal “all users.” Clearly, there are professional photographers and dedicated amateurs for whom nothing but a digital SLR, or something close to it, will do. These users may be content with a smartphone camera on…
Google Hopes Co-Branded Tablets Will Compete Against iPad
Google Tablets – Now With More Unicorn! The move would edge Google a tad closer to Apple’s whole widget business model, and it would also signal that the company is dissatisfied with its Android licensees when it comes to the tablet market. For instance, Google briefly sold its own Android smartphone, the Google Nexus One,…
Research In Motion Hiring an iPhone App Developer [Update]
According to AllThingsD, which found the ad, RIM is working on bringing BlackBerry Mobile Fusion to Apple’s mobile platform. Such a move would mark a departure for RIM, which built its empire with a proprietary model similar to that employed by Apple for iPhones and iPads. It should be noted that a departure is precisely…
3 Free iOS Apps For The House Hunter
I guess if your pockets are deep enough you can hire someone to do much of that stuff for you, but if you’re sa simple man (or woman) of even simpler means then the rake, shovel, and broom are your weekend companions. I love the outdoors, but I hate yard work. I can think of…
How Steve Jobs May Have Snookered the TV Industry
Mr. Jobs’s comment (Isaacson, p 830) is taking on the stature of Fermat’s Last Theorem. That is, everyone believes Mr. Jobs (and Fermat) had the solution, but no one could figure out what it was. The TV industry, without vision, research or a demonstrated understanding of first principles seems to be jumping to the conclusion…
iOS 5: Adding Folders to the Dock
If you’re not familiar with the process of putting icons in folders that started with iOS 4, here’s what you’ve been missing. First, you touch and hold on any of your application icons, and they’ll start to wiggle furiously. While they’re in that mode, you can pick ’em up, drag ’em to different screens, or…
Don’t Pre-judge the Kindle Touch
Poor performance? Not in my bookWhile waiting for my Kindle Touch, I began reading reviews of the new Kindle models. Most of them complained of the Kindle Touch’s poor performance relative to its cheaper Kindle 4 sibling. In the end, they recommended going with the Kindle 4.Jim Tanous, writing here at TMO, lamented: “Due to the…
Apple Clarifies CarrierIQ in iOS, Promises Removal
CarrierIQ became a hot button issue this week as a demonstration of what the software was logging on HTC Android devices was published to YouTube. That demonstration found that CarrierIQ hid itself from the list of running apps, logged every keystroke (including text messages) and button push the user made, logged phone numbers dialed, and…
iPhone 4S: OtterBox Defender Case is Ultimate Protection
If you’re looking for an iPhone 4/4S case that can handle fairly extreme conditions, the OtterBox Defender may just fit the bill. It encapsulates the iPhone with a dual layer system and even includes a built-in, clear plastic display protector. Many of the less often used ports have flaps or silicone buttons to protect them.…
Music CDs Near Dead; iPods Fade
“The major labels plan to abandon the CD-format by the end of 2012 (or even earlier) and replace it with download/stream only releases via iTunes and related music services.” Before you jump out of your seat to jeer or cheer, bear in mind that this remains unconfirmed: “EMI, Universal and Sony…all declined to comment.” Still,…
Snow Leopard Didn’t Die - How About Some Tips?
Substitutions (TextEdit and Other Software) Auto-dashes. If you write in TextEdit a lot, there’s an easy way to automatically turn a double hyphen (—) into a nice, neat long em dash (—), choose Edit from the Menu Bar, then Substitutions, and then just click on Smart Dashes so that a check mark appears next to it.…
The iPhone 5 Frenzy & Galaxy Tab Detention
Apple’s Big Ol’ iPhone Money Bags It looks like we’re going to have to retrain ourselves in thinking about how much Apple makes in the phone business. While I was stunned when Apple was shown to be taking in half of the profits of the entire cellphone business, I now find myself forced to be…
Judge Considers Stay in Oracle vs. Google Patent Suit
Oracle has been seeking licensing royalties for every Android device sold, something that would turn Android from a “free” open source OS to a “not-free” open source OS, which would benefit Apple, Microsoft, RIM, and any other competitor in the smartphone business. Any form of stay in the case would put Oracle’s case in serious…
Apple - Outwitting Competitors Through Deep Analysis
Sometimes I think that Apple has a supercomputer in some secret complex that completely models the consumer electronics market. Imagine for a minute a digital simulation that has all the elements of the market place: customer usage patterns, the price elasticity of products, component part prices and extrapolation for the future, the average broadband speeds…
Marco Arment & Instapaper’s Reading List
Dave Hamilton: We’re here at WWDC with Marco Arment. As I recall, you’ve had a very interesting history of developing for Apple. Is Instapaper your first real project? Marco Arment: Yeah, it really is. After playing with it one night at a time for a few years, it’s my first Apple environment product. DH: Of…
Macally SNAP2-MR iPad 2 Case: Beauty and Minimalism
This is the third in a series of reviews of iPad 2 cases that wrap around the back and sides. Some also come with a screen protector, but the Macally SNAP2-MR does not. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. Differences when compared to the previously reviewed Scosche glosSEE and snapSHIELD are immediately obvious. The SNAP2-MR…
Z-Boost METRO YX-540 Boosts Cell Phone Reception
Cell phones aren’t perfect. No matter how smart their features, their ability to make and receive reliable calls often suffers. Sometimes it seems that just moving your head or a change in wind direction is all it takes for a call to drop. The Z-Boost METRO YX-540 offers a solution for apartment or condo dwellers…
Time Warner Pulls 12 Cable Channels from iPad App
In addition to the glint of direct revenue opportunities sparkling in the eyes of cable network execs, Dow Jones reported that the networks were also fearful of a hit to ad revenue as there are no established means of measuring viewership on an iPad. Time Warner had reported that its app was seeing high demand…