My Top 5 Favorite Apple Related Posts 4 the Past Week

It's Friday and that can mean only thing: It's time for my '5 Top Apple Related Stories 4 the Past Week.'

Today, as usually is the case, there are far too many stories from which to choice from, but from the hundreds of Apple related news stories and various tidbits, my first post of the week is, "Apple's unadvertised retail store price matching policy," from AppleInsider.com.

AppleInsider is reporting that Apple has an unadvertised PRICE MATCHING POLICY effort underway, for this holiday season, to help ensure that Apple's products won't be undersold. All of Apple's retail staff have been quietly notified that they now have "the authority to match the prices of other authorized retailers."

This is not only a good move on Apple's part, but frankly, in these tight economic times a very necessary one. I hate to see Apple lose a sale to a customer just because another retailer has a lower price point which ends up in a customer going down the street to buy a PC. As far as I'm concerned, its not only bad because Apple could potentially lose a sale, but its even worse if a customer ends up buying an inferior PC simply for the lack of a little wiggle room on Apple's part. Oh, the frustration of it all!

My second favorite Apple related post of the past week comes from the fine folks over at Edible Apple.com for their article: "Why the iPhone doesn't need to compete with the Nintendo DS or Sony PSP."

They go on to point out that, as nice as they are, many simply don't believe that either the iPhone or the iPod Touch, will ever be good enough to be able to replace either the DS or PSP. As Edible Apple.com points out, such thinking is faulty, because, as they put it:

"But this misses the point entirely. What makes the iPhone as a gaming platform so exciting isn’t that it’s going to compete with Sony and Nintendo for the hardcore gamers, but rather that it appears to be opening up an entirely new market of gaming by appealing to the casual gamer. "

I agree. There are tons and tons of folks out there, myself included, that will never be hard-game enthusiasts. No, you can give those types their PSP's and DS's if they want them. For the rest of, and I think that is the majority, we will gladly take the iPhone, because, like myself, most people only play games casually as a way of killing some time, for example, while commuting to work on a bus or train, or while waiting in doctor's offices, hospitals, airports, or what have you? For us types, the casual gamer, both the iPhone and Touch are the perfect solution and thus don't need to compete directly with the PSP or DS - they are their own unique gaming platform, fulfilling a unique need!

Trust me on this one, as far as gaming on the iPhone and iPod Touch are concerned, we have barely seen the surface scratched. A lot more is coming, and as great as gaming currently is on Apple's devices, we truly haven't seen anything yet - because the best is yet to come!

iTwire's wacky story, "Going green with an onion powered iPod and a paper iPhone dock?", is my third favorite Apple related post for the past week, simply because I remember seeing an electric alarm clock once that was powered by the current generated by a big, fat and juicy potato that I thought was just so cool! However, never in my wildest imagination would I ever would have thought that I would read about onion powered iPod's or a paper iPhone dock!

Sadly, as iTwire points out, this story is just a hoax, but it's a good one. After all, with the rising concern for products to go "Green" and with energy prices being what they are, who couldn't resist the idea of an onion power iPod? If, for no other reason than being entertaining, this very short post is a good read. I'm sure, someone, somewhere, someday, will somehow figured out a wacky and nutty way to get more juice out of an iPod or iPhone from an unconvential source, but until then, well, we at least can all have some fun reading article's like iTwire's to amuse us in the meantime.

My fourth favorite top 5 Apple related post 4 from the past week is from Fortune for their post titled: "The Beatles and iTunes: A question of money?" Well, it's always about the money for goodness sake, everybody knows that! Actually, many different posts have commented on this story. It seems, according to this article, that the Beatles, unfortunately, won't be coming to iTune's this year after all.

What a big fat bummer that is!

Even though Paul McCartney said that he really wants to see the Beatles on iTunes and soon, there is just this one little sticking point - EMI, the Beatles music distributor. But, of course, what he is really saying, at least according to Fortune, is what Sir Paul really wants is just more money! But then again, don't we all? Just as we would all like to have more money, the sad fact of the matter is that the present world-wide economic crisis makes that all so the much more harder to achieve and justify, whether your just an ordinary bloke and citizen, like most of us are, or you just happen to be Sir Paul McCartney!

All-in-all, the Beatles, in the minds of many, are simply the greatest band of all time, and that having them on the world's greatest distributor of online music, iTunes, would be greatest thing ever. However, just whether we actually end up seeing it happen anytime soon, I honestly can't say? But one thing that I will say is that I believe it will eventually happen and most likely by this February or coming March. This is pure speculation on my part, but still, if the remaining Beatles - all two of them, wish to see any more money, then they are going to have to reach an agreement soon. After all, they are not exactly spring-chickens any more and something tells me that they realize that, so expect to see the Beatles on iTunes come early in the new year.

My fifth and final favorite Apple posting 4 the past week was for a post titled: "Apple Macs and Notebooks Remain Hottest Holiday Gift Ideas in 2008," from eWeek.com, who state:

"With the 2008 holiday shopping season here, consumers looking for that special gift are likely checking out the new Apple MacBook and MacBook Pro that hit the market earlier this year. The two new Apple MacBooks remain high on the list of must-haves this holiday season. For those interested in PCs, Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Gateway and Toshiba all have new notebooks ready for the 2008 holiday season as well. While laptops remain popular, there are still bargains out there for a solid home desktop PC."

With so much depressing economic news out there, I guess what I really like about this article is simply that its just so refreshing to read of some good news for a change - anything positive other than all of the gloom and doom that we have been getting lately.

I only hope that this type of upbeat news is something that we will be reading a lot more in the future. Not only about Apple, of course, but about the entire economy in general.

And there they are, though not an exhausted list, or even a perfect list, these are my 5 top Apple related posts from the past week that I though were interesting and thought provoking, and, hopefully, ones that you will enjoy as well?. So, for crying out turkey neck sandwich's, do yourself a favor and check out these posts for yourself.

And thats my 2 cents 4 this Friday, November 28, 2008

Please vote for this post by clicking the fire button. Thanks

New iPhone Flip Phone Photos!

The iPhone is a great phone and it's innovative styling, features and functions have inspired a wave of knockoffs not only from it's legitimate competitors such as Nokia, Samsung, RIMM and others, but also from a wave of Chinese counterfeiters - downright frauds that try to pass themselves off as the real McCoy. However, as a recent post from Gizmodo points out some of these fake Apple phones can actually one-up Apple as is the case with a clam-shell version seen above.

The Gizmodo writer seems to like this version, as do I, but I bet to venture that if Apple ever did make a flip-phone version, it would be arguablly better looking than this one. As you can see from the photo below, it's a not a bad looking rip off at all.  I suppose that the MacBook Air like look of aluminum is in keeping with the 'Apple look', but on the other hand, the keyboard layout seems to be lacking. For one thing, there's no real 'BlackBerry' style layout, one that would lend itself for emailing and what have you - but what do you expect from a fake anyway?

As Gizmodo points out, this phony iPhone Flip mobile can be all yours all for the incredible recession proof price of only $100 - a steal of a price for a phone that steals heavily off of Apple's real McCoy! Off course, what we don't know much about is the actual functionality of this phony phone, or it's durability. Somehow, I expect that the old rule of 'you-get-what-you-pay-for' applies here as well.

Personally, I might go for a genuine  iPhone Flip phone, but not this one. Still, I can't help but wonder if Apple could learn a thing or two from this and the many other counterfeit iPhone's coming out of China these days, or, for that matter, come to think of it, the flood of fake iPod's, many which simply try to pass themselves off as the real thing, while others at least try to improve on Apple's offerings by adding various features that the real Apple products lack, such as radios, voice recorders and what have you?

Anyway, you can catch more photos at Gizmodo, just click on their link above, or you can access them directly from this Chinese site, including this shot of the fake iPhone's back side. I don't know about you, but it looks a little fat to me.

In conclusion, I think that the chances of Apple ever borrowing any ideas from the numerous Chinese fake iPhones is pretty small, if not utterly nil. All we know for sure, is that when Apple does upgrade their iPhone with newer models and features, that you can count on the phony Chinese iPod and iPhone counterfeiters will have a field day, producing ever more iPhone fakes, with some, like the one featured here, being better than the others!

And thats my 2 cents 4 this Thursday, November 9, 2008

Counterfeit iPhone pics via: Gizmodo         

Please vote for this post by clicking the fire button. Thanks

 

Apple to Break Sales Record Despite Current Economic Crisis?

No one in their right mind can deny that we are now facing one of the worst economic outlooks in the past 50 or 100 years. Already, the current economic slowdown is affecting many people in many different sectors of the economy. Three of the big five investments banks are now history; AIG, Citi-Bank and the big three auto manufacturers are all hanging by the skin of their teeth. Retailing, in particular, has been especially hard hit with Circuit City recently, as you probably already know, filing for bankruptcy. 

As terrible as all this surely is, there is apparently one exception: Apple! Yes, its hard to believe, but so far Apple seems to be doing just fine, thank you very much! Apple's 250 stores, for the most part, are jammed packed these days, something that is in stark contrast to the almost empty stores standing nearby. With almost half of Apple's 32,000 employees focussed in retail, the Apple store has been very successful thus far, but one has to ask, given the current economic crisis, can the Apple and the Apple Store continue on it's winning path?

LowEndMac.com posted an article today called, "Apple Retail Will Break Records This Christmas".  But in all seriousness,  can Apple really do that, do what most retailers can only dream of doing this season - break sales records? I don't know, no human can, but going through LowEndMac's article I am not only hoping that it can, but I am beginning to think that they just might do just that - actually break sales records! 

Apple isn't stupid, of course, which is why, as LowEndMac pointed out, they won't be opening up too many more stores for now, they will instead wisely wait for the economy to improve before doing that. After all, with virtually no debt and close to 25 billion dollars in cash reserves, Apple is a much better position to ride out any economic down turn far better than most companies  - period, let alone those in the rest of the PC business.

Even if Apple does break sales records this year, one has to ponder and ask the question: how much bigger and how better would any record sales numbers be if we were not in such uncertain economic times? That question would be very hard to calculate, of course, but just maintaining one's current sales, I would think, would count as a great achievement, let alone actually going on to break them.

If anyone can be expected, however, to actually grow and beat sales records it would have to be Apple. This is one company that is firing on all cylinders and if Apple is ever does get clobbered by the economic downturn, well, then I really hate to see how the rest of the industry goes. 

So far, as tracked by the various analysts and marketing firms, Apple growth rate is indeed down, but it's still up, over all, for the year and Apple should do far better than any of their PC counter parts. That is something that many other companies, unfortunately, won't be able to claim this year. The sad fact is that many companies simply won't be around come this time next year, as many of them will simply be forced out of bussiness and be no more! That is the sad reality of the very sad economic times that we all find ourselves in these days. I only wish I could report otherwise.

Yes, as far as Apple is concerned, it should easily survive this year, but the big question will be next year, and then, the year after that. Many great companies, ones that were a lot bigger and around for a lot longer than Apple, are simply no more! I'm not predicting that Apple will be going out of business anytime soon, but regardless of whether Apple breaks sales records or not, one thing remains crystal clear - everyone, Apple included, is going to have a significantly harder time not only in breaking sales records, but to even survive! Such is the reality of today's world-wide economic crisis. We can only hope that things will change and, hopefully, very soon.

However, in the mean time, as far as the question of whether Apple and the Apple Store can continue it's winning ways, or not, well, all I got to say is:  that if anyone can survive and actually go on to break sales records in this depressing economic climate - its got to be Apple, and that is a lot more than can be said for most other companies out there!

And that's my 2 cents 4 this Wednesday, November 26, 2008 

Apple Store Fifth Avenue pic:  Apple.com

Please vote for this post by clicking the fire button. Thanks
 

Is a Totally DRM-FREE iTunes Just Around the Corner?

Apple's iTune store is by far the largest distributor of music in the U.S., be it in digital downloads or be in the traditional brick-n-mortar stores.

However, its been increasingly frustrating that Apple also seems to be in a long-standing war with three of the four major music companies that have denied it the right to distribute their wares in the DRM-Free format. In their attempt to make iTunes over in their image, Warner Music, Universal and Sony's BMG, have all repeatedly denied what Apple has long sought to provide it's millions of patorns - DRM free music.

But could it now be possible that an all DRM-Free iTunes store is just around the corner as some recent reports are suggesting?

As it is now, all three music companies have hypocritical allowed other digital providers, such as Amazon and others, the right to distribute their music without DRM protection, but not Apple's iTune's. The the one exception being EMI. So why not Apple's iTune store? Simple: the remaining three music companies wanted to break Apple's seemingly unbreakable strangle hold on the digital download business, and thus allowing them to dictate iTune's prices and distribution policies.

By giving iTune's competitor's DRM-Free advantages, the three big music companies all hoped that customers would flock instead to Apple's competitors and thereby force Apple to raise their prices, thus removing one of iTune's biggest advantages. This, naturally, would have been, or so they thought, very, very good for the music companies bottom lines. On the other hand, it would have been anything but good for Apple's iTune store and it's legends of customers.

I agree with Apple, that such a dramatic increase in iTune's prices, through it's popular distribution model, which allows it's patrons to be able to buy, in addition to whole albums, singles at 99 cents a pop, would have been a bad move, and a move that would have only encouraged people to resort to buying, or should I say - steal their music by reverting to illegal downloading, something that Apple's low priced, easy-to-use, iTune store has helped to combat and lessen.

In other words, if the big three remaining music companies where hoping to shore up their dwindling bottom lines, then they are going about it the wrong way! They would have only ended losing additional sales to music pirating, something that surely couldn't be good either for them, iTunes and, most importantly, for us, the consumers of their music.

However, as I have stated, there are increasingly strong rumors that the long-standing war between Apple and the big three music companies may be finally coming to an end. Let's hope so. As some astute observers have pointed out, and as Distorted-Loop.com reported:

"Overnight sundry spies have spotted tracks from the three hold-out majors popping up in the ‘Upgrade My Library’ section of iTunes, where users can upgrade their purchases from DRM’d to DRM-free tracks.

For example, Rakim’s rather special ‘The 18th Letter/The Book of Life’ is currently available to upgrade to iTunes Plus. The major label behind this release is, of course, Universal.

iTunes Plus was introduced in April 2007 with DRM-free tracks from EMI. The catalogue later grew to include music from many independent labels. While songs cost slightly more, they ship in higher-quality 256k bitrates. You can upgrade existing purchases for 20-pence."

Well, there you go, just possibly, and very soon now, Apple will be announcing an agreement with the remaining three biggies of music that they will be joining EMI and the independent music companies in allowing the world's biggest and best download service to finally offer their millions and millions of customers the very same rights and benefits that it's competitors have unfairly, if you ask me, been granted now for some time.

The excuse that DRM removal would be have been a threat to the music companies is pure and utter bunk! After all, EMI didn't seem to suffer too much by allowing DRM-Free music on iTune's, nor the three big music companies themselves with their own DRM-Free offerings that they gave to iTune's competitors.

My hat off to EMI for being the first company with the guts and brains to recognize that DRM-Free music, through iTune's, was anything but a threat, but rather it was a very smart business move on their part and not only did it greatly enhanced their bottom line, but it also enhanced both the iTune store and it's thankful and appreciative customers.

EMI's move was courageous and it proved to be a win-win situation for all involved. Hopefully, this will also be the case for the other three remaining holdouts, if indeed the rumors turn out to be true?

Let's hope so, and that all of this speculation is anything but, and will prove to be true and that we shall soon see, indeed, a level playing field, and one that will benefit all concerned: the music companies, iTunes and we the music lovers the world over!

And that's my 2 cents 4 this Tuesday, November 25, 2008

iTune's Plus pic via: Distorted-Loop.com

Please vote for this post by clicking the fire button. Thanks

Steve Wozniak: A Video Look at the Woz

Most people in this modern, stressed-out, high-pressured and wacky world probably have heard of Apple's two famous Steve's, or as I like to call them: Big and Little Steve. Since Steve Jobs gets the biggest press coverage, he's naturally the Big Steve. The Little Steve, of course, is non other than Steve Wozniak.

Steve Jobs might have been the mastermind, the business wiz kid, behind Apple's success, but it was Steve Wozniak, on the other hand, who was the real technical brains behind Apple. He, more than anyone else, was responsible for Apple's early success due to his Apple I computer board, and much more importantly, his Apple II line of computers. It was, in the early Apple days, the initial driving force behind Apple, making possible, in the process, what Apple has become today.

That success, or more importantly, the money that it brought in, by the buckets full, was what enabled Apple to go on and do bigger and better things, such as creating the world famous Macintosh line of computers. This was the computer that forever changed not only the face of computers every where, but also, indeed, the entire world - the way in which it worked and played. It doesn't matter what platform you use or prefer, the Mac's influence can be see and felt in numerous ways, and all, in part, because of Woz's initial engineering talent at Apple.

Steve Gary Wozniak, was born in the Californian city of San Jose, of Polish background, in 1950 and was one of the three founders of Apple Computer. The other two were the famous Steve Jobs and the little known Ronald Wayne, who left Apple shortly after he helped to create it.

So, in todays posting, what I would like to do is to take a closer look at Steve Wozniak - YouTube style. Here are several videos of Steve, who is also known as Woz, The Woz and the Wonder of Woz. In the first video, which you can click on and view at the beginning of this post, is of a video interview with Steve on the program, 'On the Hour'.

Our second video, shown below, featuring Steve as he talks about the Pirates of Silicon Valley, a movie that highlighted the history of the rise of Steve Jobs and Bill Gates and, of course, their respected companies, Apple and Microsoft.,

Here, one of my favorite tech people, Leo Laporte, conducts a video interview with the Woz:

The next video shows Steve as he discuses his game of Breakout. Now that game takes me back.......way back!

Here, again below, we find a much younger Steve Wozniak being interviewed way back in 1984:

The Woz is more than an engineer, of course, he's many things, including that of being an author. In the next video, we see the Woz talking about his book aptly named: iWow. Enjoy:

Our next video is an animated video featuring the Woz as the Commander of the Future!

Here, in our next YouTube video, Steve gives his own unique view of the history of Apple computer:

No doubt about it, Woz boy, Steve Wozniak, is a fascinating character no matter how you wish to look at him. An engineer, a co-founder of one of the world's largest computer and most successful electronic companies, an author, lecturer, educator, and a celebrity in his own right, Little Steve was, and still is, the most approachable of the two Steve's. Technically, he's still an employee of Apple Inc., but it's more of an honorary position, as he rarely sets foot in the place these days, let alone actually do any real work or involved in anyway in the operation of the company.

So, in closing, I would like to thank the Little Steve for all of his Big contributions to Apple's glorious past, and to point out that you may also access online, the following Woz videos:

Why Apple founders got 'fired up,' BBC Click's recent Interview

An Evening with Steve Wozniak

Steve Wozniak Speaking Live At UC Berkely

Forbes Inteview

iWoz: From Computer Geek to Cult Icon: How I Invented the Computer, Co-Founded Apple, and Had Fun Doing It

And, before I forget, be sure to also check out Woz's own personal site: Woz.org

And that's my 2 cents 4 this Monday, November 24, 2008

Please vote for this post by clicking the fire button. Thanks

http://www.woz.org/

My Top 5 Apple Posts-4- the Past Week

Well, it's another Friday and its time for another one of my "Top 5 Favorite Apple Posts 4 the Past Week". I love doing these top 5, except that I really hate choosing from so many different Apple related articles - there's just so many great ones out there! 

Well, a guy's got to start somewhere, so my first top 5 Apple related post comes from AP Technology Writer, Rachel Metz for her article, "Review:  New BlackBerrys cool but can't beat iPhone". 

Rachel mentions in her post that the new BlackBerry Storm couldn't have come a moment too soon. After all, in a matter of no time, the iPhone has come from out of nowhere to become a very formable threat to BlackBerry's domination of the smart phone market.  As she points out, Apple recently has sold some 6.9 million iPhone's as compared to BlackBerry's 6.1 million in the last quarter and they had to do something  - and the Storm was the result. In other words, if it wasn't for the iPhone, the Storm would probably have never had seen the light of day, as would many other phones out there such as the Samsung Instinct!

Regarding the newest member of the BlackBerry family, Rachel writes:

"But while RIM's latest offerings are packed with features like stereo Bluetooth, standard headphone jacks, video recording, multiple e-mail options and, in the case of the Storm, a unique touch screen, the multifront attack may not be enough to unseat the mighty iPhone.

BlackBerry Storm: Set to be released Friday through Verizon Wireless, the much-anticipated Storm -- RIM's first touch-screen smart phone -- has slick looks and tons of features. But while the device gets some things right, a number of issues make it difficult to use."

I agree with Rachel, the BlackBerry Storm looks to be a great phone with some great features, especially it's innovative 'Sure Touch' technology that gives it's multi-touch screen more of a real keyboard type of feel. But still, compared to the iPhone,I still feel that neither the Storm or any other smart phone, for that matter, still quite measures up to Apple's offering. Apple set the standards for smartphones with the iPhone and the Storm and the rest, for the most part, are just desperately trying hard to copy it. They may add a little something here, or add a little something there, but in the end, they all seem to come up short including the new Storm. Mind you, these latest offerings from RIMM and others are great phones, but still they are just following the leader, Apple and it's amazing and trend setting device.

It's a great read, so if your interested in either the iPhone or the Storm, then I definitely recommend that you check it out by clicking on her post found  here.  

My second top 5 favorite Apple related post comes from InfoWorld's Tom Yager, who's titled article, "Test Center review: MacBook Pro is built to last". In it he states: 

"Apple has done a complete and meaningful redesign of its top-selling commercial notebook, the MacBook Pro, for durability, serviceability, energy efficiency, and eco-consciousness. A one-piece, rigid, machined aluminum frame ("unibody") forms the MacBook Pro's internal structure, a design feature it shares with the new aluminum MacBook and MacBook Air. As with the MacBook Air, the clamshell laptop that upended the thin-and-light PC notebook market, Apple made some marvelously unorthodox design decisions for the MacBook Pro."

Tom also goes on to state that he prefers the older MacBook Pro's backlit keyboard to the newer one, which leaks light under the keys as opposed to the older one which manages to only illuminated the individual letters. I don't know, however, because even though I liked the older illuminated keyboard, I still think that I rather much rather prefer the newer one. I don't know why, I just know that I do. 

All-in-all, a great article and one that this link will conveniently take you to.

My third top 5 Apple related post 4 the past week comes to us from Ars Technica for their article," Apple customer service gets highest marks among callers," written by Justin Berkin who says:

"When it comes to customer service satisfaction, Apple can normally be found towards the top of the list. The company seems to be holding on to its spot thanks to a recent survey conducted by a company  Vocal Laboratories (or VocaLabs). As pointed out by the Consumerist, Apple received Top Marks ,

Personally, I have always found Apple to be top-notched when ever I had dealings with them. I'm not alone, as countless articles from various sources have have also pointed the same thing out. This has mostly been the case with Apple's customer service in the past, and, as well, presently. God only knows, of course, whether this will continue to be the case, but I expect it to continue to remain true in the future as well. You can read Justin's short, but excellent post here. 

My fourth top five 5 post comes from Forbes's Brain Caulfield, who's article, "Snow Leopard endangers Vista," goes on to illustrate some pretty amazing statistics, statistics where Brian shows how the Mac is making some serious inroads into Windows once unassailable turf. Brain points out that Apple has grabbed some 20.1 percent of the U.S. retail market in October and how Apple is on track to sell between 2.4 and 2.7 million Macintosh computers for the quarter ending this December, up by some 13 percent from the year-ago period, and all of this in spite of the financial crisis that is now plaguing the world!

This is another short post, but again, its a great one, so check it out for yourself here. 

Finally, my fifth top five Apple related story for the past week is, "Why developers prefer Macs" by Peter Wayner, writing for InfoWorld. Peter starts his post:

"When Terry Weaver wants to create .Net applications, he fires up Visual Studio and types away like any other .Net programmer. The setup gets a bit weird when he wants to test how the .Net application might appear to a Mac user visiting the Web site. Instead of starting up another machine, asking a colleague with a Mac, or simply ignoring those crazy followers of Steve Jobs, Weaver just pops over to the browser in another window. That's easy because Visual Studio is running on Windows inside a Parallels virtual machine, which, in turn, runs on his Mac. He has a PC, a Mac, and a Unix development box all in one."

Peter points out there are many more similar stories like this out there and he illustrates some of the many reasons why developers really love and prefer the Mac as their main computer of choice. One of these, Peter points out, is the explosion of interest in smartphones. He points out that X marks the spot, simply because OS X has made it so easy, with its SDK, for developers to experiment in writing iPhone apps.

Personally, I think that the old human need to want to be seen as sophisticated, sleek, modern, sexy and popular probably has has a lot to do with it too. Not only for developers, but for the rest of us as well! After all, Apple's OS X based Mac, iPhone and the iPod exhibit all of the above traits and its only natural to see why the Mac and Apple's other products helps to enhance that image. 

So, if you want to know more on why developers prefer Macs, then you all know the drill - just click here!  

So, until next Friday and my next Top 5 Apple related posts 4 the week:  work hard, play harder and, for goodness sake - be safe while doing so!

And that's my 2 cents 4 this Friday, November 21, 2008 

Please vote for this post by clicking the fire button. Thanks

 

Psystar vs Apple, Round One: Apple Kicks Serious Butt!

Self appointed Mac cloner Psystar may be little, but, apparently, they are very big in the brave and fearless department. Or, rather is that suicidal?

After all, when your the little guy, it takes either one or the other when you decide to take on one of the world's largest corporations as they have done with Apple Inc. Psystar, as you may remember, is the little Florida based company that decided that they would boldly manufacture and sell Mac OS X clones - all on their own!

They claim that they are simply giving people the 'right' of having more choice by making and selling the fastest OS X machines that money can buy, for the lowest prices in town!

Too bad they didn't bother to tell Apple, or ask them for a license to do so in the first place.

So, it was no surprise when Apple, after taking what seemed like an eternity, finally decided to let the other shoe drop by going after Psystar with a legal vengeance. Apple claimed that Psystar violated Apple's user agreement, patents and copyrights and ordered Psystar to cease and desist immediately! Psystar did the opposite, however, and even went to court to counter-claim that it was Apple, not themselves, that were in violation of the law - the antitrust law that prohibited the creation of a monopoly!

Well, the nerve of those guys! How dare they, thought Apple who fought back by asking the courts to dismiss all of Psystar's antitrust arguments, that claimed that Apple was acting like an illegal monopoly.

Both Psystar and Apple have a lot riding on the out come of this case and, as it looks to me, well, it isn't looking too pretty for Psystar, no sire, not pretty at all. In round one, Apple's big boot kicked Psystar's little butt and it kicked it hard after U.S. District Judge Williams Alsup ruled against Psystar claims, stating that they failed to, "allege facts plausibly supporting the counter intuitive claim that Apple's operating system is so unique that it suffers no actual or potential competitors," with the judge also adding that Apple's huge extensive series of advertising campaigns were proof that was "..... a sign of competition, not a lack thereof."

Psystar's only hope now is to come up with a defense against Apple's original claims that it's OS X license can be strictly limited for use only on original Apple equipment, and that Apple's claims that no one has the right to use or install it's software on equipment other than it's own, is indeed monopolistic.

For Psystar that will be a tall order, especially considering that they have only the next 20 days in which to change the judge's mind! But just how likely are they to be able to actually convince the judge to do just that - nullify Apple's OS X software user agreement? Well, I guess I could always win the lottery jackpot, but as with the lottery jackpot, I wouldn't exactly want to hold my breath on that one. And nor should Psystar or anyone else that was hoping that they would win this case! For me, the merits were clear from the very beginning - Psystar was totally wrong in assuming that they could just take and do what ever they wanted, willy-nilly style, with somebody's else's intellectual property.

It was greed, pure and simple, on Psystar's part. It was not because they were trying to protect people's software rights, namely that people have the right to do what ever they want with whatever they pay for. Just because you pay for something doesn't mean you the right to do what ever you please with it. For example: just because I legally pay for a car, it doesn't exactly mean that I have the right to drive it at any speed I like, anywhere I like, or however I feel like - like on the wrong lane for instance! So it is with software. You don't pay for the software or actually own it, just the right to use it under the terms and conditions of it's licensing agreement - it's EULA! Of course, you also pay for the media that it stored and distributed on, but nothing more!

No, Psystar didn't have the moral, let alone, the legal right to do what they did. It's plain and simple for even a simple-minded person like little old me to see. And yes, Apple owns their software, not the user, and they have the right to set the terms and conditions for it's use, not Psystar or anyone else!

I hate to see a company get clobbered, but in Psystar's case they plainly deserve to get what's coming to them. People who think that software is their natural born right to use any old way the want, be it obtained by freely downloading it via P2P networks, or whether they obtain it legally by paying for it, are just wrong, plain and simple! Just as a car rental company has the right to limit and dictate to it's users how, when and where, their customers can use their cars, so does Apple and other software providers have the right to dictate how their software is used and governed as stated in their respective EULA's.

Psystar likes to appear like they are sticking up for all us little guys, by protecting our rights to have whatever we want, whenever we want, no matter what, and all in the guise of freedom of choice. Nothing could be further from the truth! What they are actually doing is sticking up for their little company, and what they see as their right to make a profit on somebody's else's hard work, as with Apple.

Even though I am neither a judge, lawyer or a prophet, at least from where I stand, I wouldn't be surprised if the last words we hear in this case will be something along the lines of:

"Psystar 2008-2009 RIP!"

And that's my 2 cents 4 this Thursday, November 20, 2008

Open Computer Image: Psystar

Please vote for this post by clicking the fire button. Thanks

Google's Voice Search: Is This the Next Killer App?

Apple's iPhone is a nifty little rid. You can browse the world-wide web, play games, send and receive email, make calls and do many other useful things, and now thanks to Apple's connections with Google, the iPhone may now have the biggest killer app of them all - Google's Voice Search.

When it was learned, several days ago, that Google Voice Search was coming to the iPhone, people actually expected it to arrive immediately. However, when it didn't arrive for 3 or so days, there was much speculation as to why, and some even feared and speculated that Apple may have been even foolish enough to ban it. After all, it has already banned several other cool apps. Any fears that people may have banned it, however, has thankfully been proven to be unfounded as Google's latest and greatest has finally made it's way into the App Store.

Google's Voice Search does basically what it's name implies  -  search's Google by simply talking into the phone! Wow, I must say that if your a lazy person (like me) or if you just hate to type, can't type well, or maybe you can't type a word to save your life - then this app is definitely for you!

And so far, judging from the reaction of many who have tried Google's Voice Search  - it's a winner!  The Inquirer even went so far as to report that it could very well be the iPhone's "Killer App"!  Indeed, it may, and after watching Google's demo of the app in action, it looks to me to be absolutely amazing, as you can judge for yourself by clicking on the YouTube video above.

CNet's iPhone Atlas  says:

"In initial testing, the feature works surprisingly well, easily recognizing simple, single words like “animals” and “cookies,” and even complex phrases like “what is my dog thinking” (don’t ask). In fact, despite our skepticism, this feature might actually be faster than the iPhone’s onscreen keyboard for complex phrases. Add to this well-oiled functionality the fact that search results are displayed in an iPhone-optimized format, and the app’s access to other time-saving features, Google’s iPhone offering may have actually become useful."

And according the web site, ReadWriteWeb:  

"This new capability takes the Google Mobile App for the iPhone from a rather bland search application to a whole new level. Now, you can just say something like "sushi in Portland" or "movie showtimes" and the application will return a highly relevant set of results. In order to be useful, voice recognition has to be extremely accurate, and here, the new Google Mobile App delivers.

The app also makes use of the iPhone's built-in GPS and always returns local results together with the standard Google search results whenever these could be relevant. For us, this worked especially well when we searched for restaurants or stores.

Surprisingly, the app also did quite well when we search for relatively complex addresses, though it didn't automatically take us to Google Maps, which would have been really nice."

As if the iPhone wasn't already an amazing device, then along comes this amazing application from one of the most amazing and innovative companies out there and el-presto - the iPhone suddenly becomes just as amazing as any Star Trek type Communicator that you'll find out there anywhere in the whole galaxy! But, that's not all, because as amazing as all this sounds, this is only the beginning! Trust me on this one, not only will Google's Voice Search evolved into a much better product over time, it will also inspire many other apps to do the same and become "Voice Ativated" as well!  

After all, if you can search Google via voice command, then you should also certainly be able to do a host of other voice activated things, via a host of other voice activated apps, such as using a voice activated calculator, a voice activated web and email reader, or a voice activated language translator.  In fact, voice activated programs are only limited, as they say, to the human imagination, which, as we all know, is virtually unlimited in it's scope and breath!

Yes, as amazing as Google's Voice Search is, the really amazing thing is that this is only the beginning. Google's Voice Search isn't perfect, but it's off to a flying start and it's accuracy and it's sophistication are bound to improve even further, and no doubt, a lot sooner than you or I can blink the old proverbial eye.

For the time being, Google's Voice Search is limited to the iPhone, but you can bet your last pair of woolly long John's, that Google will be adding it to their Android platform shortly, and maybe, who knows, even add it to Windows Mobile and Symbian based phone platforms as well?

So, could Google's Voice Search for the iPhone actually become it's "killer App"? 

Well, I suppose maybe if it remains limited to the iPhone then it  just might be. However, as I have already stated, we should reasonably expect that it will, at least with Android based platform, be ported over, which would 'kill the iPhone 'killer' part,  if you ask me.

But remember, the really important thing is this:  Google Voice Search is just the first voice activated phone application for the iPhone, and I assure you that  - it certainly won't be the last! You can expect a lot more voice activated, or voice recognition, applications will be forth coming to the iPhone from this point further and in ever increasing numbers and sophistication.

And you can quote me on that!

And that's my 2 cents 4 this Wednesday, November 19, 2008 

Please vote for this post by clicking the fire button. Thanks

 

The Strange Apple: Growing Apple Logos On Apples!

Since I'm not able to do a regular posting today, I will at least like to take the time to comment on an interesting post in yesterdays TechEblog. The post is about a Japanese Apple fan who likes to grow Apples on his apples! 

Yes, you read that  right - he loves to grow apples on his apple's! But how do you do that, you say? Well, apparently, by simply blocking sunlight from certain parts of an apple, while it's still in it's growing faze, it will leave it's mark in the shape of what ever is blocking it when it fully ripens! 

Thats correct, my faithful two or three readers, why this cleaver Apple fan actually went to the time and the trouble of blocking parts of his still growing apples with special stickers - specifically, stickers of Apple and iPod logos, as you can see from the photo above!  Who would have thunked such a thing? Not little old me, that's who.

So, what's my take, or should I say, what's my 2 cents on the whole thing? Well, for starters, I sincerely think that there's one Japanese fellow out there with probably a little too much time on his hands. That said, I also have to confess that it's pretty cool looking too, if not down right apple-bubbly-delicious. 

By the way, if you like the above photo and you want more, well partner your in luck - TechEblog has several more interesting photos of these not so ordinary apples that you can easily bite into by clicking here .

So hats off to TechEblog for for pointing out this peachy little apple story. I must also say, that as much as I love most everything Apple related, I still sincerely doubt if I would ever go to the extreme of branding my apples with apples, but hey, when you don't have the time to do a regular post, why these cute little Apple branded tidbits sure come in handy!

And that's my 2 cents 4 this Tuesday, November 18, 2008 

Photo via TechEblog  

Please vote for this post by clicking the fire button. Thanks

 

Blast-from-the-Past: The Apple II

On June 4, 1977, one of the most famous and one of the biggest selling personal computers of all time, the Apple II, went on sale for the very first time.

Even though other personal computers were on the market before the Apple II, they were mostly kits, computers that you had to put together yourself, kits that took a lot of tech knowledge and hand holding to be able to use. The Apple II, many people felt, was different - it was the very first one that you could actually use straight out of the box - the world's first user freindly machine, and as such I have made it my, 'Blast-From-the-Day' feature for today.

The Apple II was a vast improvement over it's predecessor, the Apple I, as it included color video output, eight internal expansion slots and a built-in keyboard, a rarity at the time. It used the BASIC programing language as it's OS and it's expansion slots easily allowed it's users to expand the computers capabilities with various cards, either from Apple or from others, which enabled memory expansion, the addition of floppy disk controllers, PASCAL, CP/M emulator cards, parallel, serial, SCSI and, as well, processor accelerators cards and what have you.

Originally, as stated, the Apple II came with it's operating system in BASIC and burned onto a ROM chip, but later Apple DOS was added to support the diskette drive. This was later replaced by Apple ProDOS which allowed the Apple II to support a hierarchical filesystem and much larger storage devices. 

The first real spreadsheet, VIsiCalc, greatly helped the Apple II's popularity to sky-rocket. That popularity continued throughout the 80's and the 90's and it quickly became the de-facto standard computer used in American education. In fact, many of these machines are still operational in some schools even today.

The Apple II series of computers eventually grew into a family line which included the following models:

- The Apple II
- Apple II Plus
- Apple II Europlus and J-Plus
- Apple IIe
- Apple IIc
- Apple IIGS
- Apple IIc Plus

Along with the Commodore Pet, the Radio Shack TRS-80, the Apple II was among the earliest personal computer to achieve mass market appeal and I remember the very first time that I ever seen one up close and personal. I had a Commodore Pet, my pride and joy, at the time, and I thought that it was absolutely the pinnacle of technology. I couldn't imagine how anyone could create a computer better or more versatile than the PET - that was until I came across the Apple II that is! 

It was in a Radio Shack store of all places! No, they weren't selling the Apple II along side their lack-luster TRS-80, but my friend, the young manager of the store, had personally bought one and he would daily bring it to the store to use at every opportunity that he could get. How he could sell the TRS-80 in the front of the store, while gushing and gloating over his Apple II in the back of the store, is something that I never could quite figure out or understand.

I remember how passionately in love with the machine he was, and how it showed on his face each and every time he demonstrated it's amazing capabilities. His demos, I assure you, resulted in any pride or arrogance that I might have had for my Commodore Pet in quickly flying out the window! I was stunned on how his Apple II put my once invincible PET to shame! I will never forget the humbling experience. His exuberance for the machine was probably just as impressive as the machine itself. Somehow, ever since then I felt cheated each and every time I booted up my Commodore Pet, as his Apple II made my Pet look so old, so antiquated, and it's superiority in both hardware and software made me and my machine feel, well, oh, so, so inferior.

Now-a-days, of course, the Apple II is a relic, totally underpowered and next to useless as compared to the powerful computers running Windows, OS X and the Linux platforms that we have today. Yet, along with my Pet, the TRS-80 and many of the other earlier personal computers, I must say that looking back on that era, the Apple II era, I do so with a sense of wonder and longing. Personal computers, like the times, were so much simpler then. They were new and they were a rarity that left people with with a sense of wonder, something that the newer machines of today just quite don't seem to do, even though they are so much more wonderful in every sense of the word then either the Apple II or the others were. 

It was the times, not so much the machines themselves, I guess? 

The Apple II, of course, was and still is a great computer. Many Apple II's are still being used out there, doing what they have always done - entertaining and fascinating their owners. I never did buy an Apple II as the Macintosh and it's big sister, Lisa, replaced any interest that I may have had for the Apple II. 

However, whenever I look back at the Apple II and those early days, a time when the Apple II was the king of personal computers, I can't help but feel that, even though most of these computers have all been relegated to the history books, they still had something special, something that todays computers lack. This could all be due to the fact that personal computers were in their infancy and because they were simply so new, so mystifying and so utterly different from any other device or appliance that ever went before. 

However, one thing that I do know is that even though the Apple II has also been relegated to the history books, it, unlike most of those other now mostly forgotten machines, will still remain one of the few machines that will continue to have a warm and special spot in my heart and memory, as my reflections of it also brings back long forgotten memories from my youth and of those much simpler times - the very beginning of the personal computer era, an era that the Apple II helped to advanced and pioneered.

Those times are now sadly gone forever and are now nothing more than mere memories in the pages of history.

And that's my 2 cents 4 this Monday, November 17, 2008 

Apple II imagines: OldComputers.net  



Please vote for this post by clicking the fire button. Thanks
 

My Top 5 Apple Posts of the Past Week

It's Friday and time for my second, 'Top 5 Apple Posts of the Past Week' feature. 

My first top pick for the past week is a post called, "15 reasons Macs are still better than Windows". This is a great post that highlights some pretty sound reasons as to why, including these five:

1 - Reliable sleep mode. I have personally wowed several Windows users with this feature, one that I now couldn't live without. This is one feature that I use a lot and I too think that it makes for a very compelling reason for anyone considering a Mac. No wonder why they say it's a ".....killer feature of every Mac which can't be underestimated."

2 - Extremely fast boot times. Enough said.

  
3 - Apple uses good quality parts. What can I say, " you get what you pay for!"

4 - Less blinking lights. A biggy in my book.

5 - OS X + Windows is better than just Windows. This is one of the biggest advantages of owning a Mac - you can, if you wish, have the whole cake and eat it too! With a Mac, it means you never have to feel left out or left behind, because not only can you enjoy all of the benefits of the OS X platform and not only all of the benefits of the Windows platform, but also all of the benefits of the Linux platform as well!

Of course, APC has ten more solid reasons as to why buying a Mac is still a far better deal then buying a cheaper, but less capable computer which you can discover for yourself by clicking on their link above.

My second top Apple related post comes from Tech Crunch. In their post they speculate that Apple may be possibly working on creating their own search engine that would compete directly with Google and Yahoo. And why not? After all, Google is competing with the iPhone with their Android initiative, so tit-for-tat I say. 

Another reason, naturally, would be that search engines, at least Google's, is a proven money maker. Despite the fact that Apple has one of the largest bank accounts in the entire world, as we all know, you can never have enough money in the bank, now can you?

Seriously, as great as Google's search engine is, I think it would be better if there were even more alternatives to Google or Yahoo out there. Some people are speculating that one good use of Apple's mountains of cash would be if Apple simply bought out Yahoo, especially since Microsoft claims that they are no longer interested in buying it themselves.

 I would just love to see what would happen and what Microsoft's reaction would be if Apple ever did go after Yahoo? No doubt about it, if you ask me, I think that Microsoft would jump back into the game and we would see a fierce bidding war as a result.  That would be great for Yahoo stock holders, naturally, but not so good for either Microsoft or for Apple. In other words - it probably isn't going to happen anytime soon.

My third favorite top Apple related post is one by one of the absolutely best sites (if you ask me) on the web, Engadget. Their post is about Sparky, the amazing Mac Mini robot. In their post they say, "When robot builders try to put a human face on their creations, the results usually range between mildly creepy and downright disturbing." Personally, I say Sparky is frankly damn cute. Of course that's probably because I don't have Sparky following me around, watching my every move. Now that would be a little creepy, now that I think of it. 

However, if you want to find out more about Sparky the robot and you would like to view the YouTube video link of the little fellow, then, by all means, click on Engadget's link above.

And now onto number four of my favorite Apple posts for the past week. Number four is a post titled: "How Apple has affected the music industry"  by The Daily Barometer. 

This is a short post, but a good one. Apple, as the post says, has become the backbone of the music industry, which depending on which side of the fence you are sitting on, is either a good thing or a bad thing. 

No one, however, can doubt or argue the fact that Apple now casts a pretty big shadow on the world of music and entertainment as a whole. The reasons, of course, is the iPod and the iTune's commanding market share. Apple's market clout is now so enormous that it makes it very hard for even some of the biggest company's in the world, including even mighty Microsoft, to make a dent in Apple's dominance. 

Understandably, the five big music companies are all upset that Apple is now in the position to be able to dictate to them how to price and run their business, and yet, despite the many attempts by these giant corporations to lessen Apple's commanding position and influence, they have utterly so far failed to reign Apple in. This is bad for them, but over all it's been very good for music lovers since Apple has defended their famous 99 cent per song pricing policy, which many, many customers, including myself, just love and is one of the primary reasons why Apple and it's influence has gotten to be so huge in the first place. 

Finally, my last favorite Apple post of the past week comes from the fine folks at the online addition of the Wall Street Journal for their post, "Apple iPhone Faces Off With the Game Champs". I've already referenced this piece in one of my posts, but it's such an interesting read that I will highlight it again.

As the Wall Street Journal's post points out, the iPhone/iPod Touch is making some incredible headway into the world of hand-held gaming. Whether this is by design or simply by fluke, the results, none-the-less, is there for anyone who cares to look and they are truly amazing. With over a whopping 200,000,000 apps downloaded from the App Store, in the first six months of operation, many of which are games, it would be hard to dispute the fact that the iPhone and Touch have become overnight gaming sensations. 

This great post gives the reader a lot of facts and figures and lots to ponder and think about, so if your into gaming, especially of the hand-held variety, or if you are simply interested in all things Apple related, then this fine post is for you, so what are you waiting for - go check it out. 

Well, there you have it, my second, and certainly not my last, list of my favorite Apple related posts for the past week. My list isn't necessarily in order of importance, but simply lists posts that caught my eye and made me think. 

My hope is that some of these posts might just do the same for you, so enjoy clicking on and reading their respected links. I sure did.

And that's my 2 cents 4 this Friday, November 14, 2008 

Please vote for this post by clicking the fire button. Thanks