Thursday, July 31, 2008
Saturday, July 26, 2008
New Product from Apple Or Am I Just Dreaming?
There are rumors that there will be a new product from Apple coming soon. Of course, September is coming up so you might expect a new iPod. Maybe an upgrade to the iPod Touch, like adding a microphone and possibly a camera. That might happen, basically give people an iPhone without the cell network connectivity.
But the one thing that I think might be coming down the pike is what I call and iBook. Not the old PowerPC-based laptop. But a device that is the same size or maybe up to 50% large than an iPhone which has two screens that are fold like a Nintendo DS, so that it can still be held comfortably in your hands, but it is an Internet device that uses the iPhone UI including multi-touch and virtual keyboard. The virtual keyboard is important for things like Mail and Internet browsing. The great thing about it is that you can also buy eBooks and read them on the device. That is why I am thinking it would be large. Possibly the height and width of a normal paperback book. You can use swiping to flip through the pages and the pinching to blow up the text or the pictures that are included. Of course, to pull this off Apple would need to have agreements in place with multiple publishing companies including ones that produce textbooks. Imagine going to school and all you carry is a little electronic device that will have all of your books on it. People could enter in notes on individual pages and sometime in the future class rooms would go electronic allow students to download the lesson that the teacher/professor is discussing on that day.
But the one thing that I think might be coming down the pike is what I call and iBook. Not the old PowerPC-based laptop. But a device that is the same size or maybe up to 50% large than an iPhone which has two screens that are fold like a Nintendo DS, so that it can still be held comfortably in your hands, but it is an Internet device that uses the iPhone UI including multi-touch and virtual keyboard. The virtual keyboard is important for things like Mail and Internet browsing. The great thing about it is that you can also buy eBooks and read them on the device. That is why I am thinking it would be large. Possibly the height and width of a normal paperback book. You can use swiping to flip through the pages and the pinching to blow up the text or the pictures that are included. Of course, to pull this off Apple would need to have agreements in place with multiple publishing companies including ones that produce textbooks. Imagine going to school and all you carry is a little electronic device that will have all of your books on it. People could enter in notes on individual pages and sometime in the future class rooms would go electronic allow students to download the lesson that the teacher/professor is discussing on that day.
Friday, February 01, 2008
iPhone February
This month Apple will be releasing the iPhone SDK. I can't wait for this. It might be my gateway to developing on the Mac. Currently, I own multiple Macs and I develop using the Mac in Java. But I can't wait for the iPhone SDK to come out. I think it would be really cool to develop on it. I think this will open the iPhone/iPod Touch to alot of cool apps. I think they will announce the SDK, so people what you can do with it a little (as if we don't already know), tell us about how we can sign up to get apps on the phone. I am hoping that Apple will apps in a multi-level approach. I am hoping you will be able to install custom apps (i.e. ones that will not be released to the public). But I know that Apple announced that they are going to have some kind of signing to verify the owners of the applications so that virus, trojan, harmful apps will be kept in check. So that is why I was thinking of a multi-tiered approach the tiers would be something like:
1) Self-signed apps (these are custom and upon installation the person will be notified that it is self-signed and make sure that they trust the application before being installed)
2) Low cost signed apps (have developers pay $50-$100 to get a signature from Apple that can be used to sign the application upon install the sign will be verified against the one at the Apple site)
3) Higher cost signed apps (increase the cost to $250-$500, the app gets submitted to Apple for verification and it will be marked that)
Number 2 & 3 might have iTunes option. Like either, they both get a listing on the iTunes but #3 gets a preferential listing because it will be marked verified by Apple (have a seal of some kind)
or only #3 gets a listing on iTunes. Another possibility is the #2 as free apps only and #3 allows people to charge through iTunes and have people paid through their iTunes account.
There is one thing, that I am willing to bet Apple when it announces the iPhone SDK, a new 32GB iPhone. I have a hard time believing that Apple will need to submit the iPhone to the FCC for just a memory upgrade. So it would make sense that Steve Jobs comes in announces the iPhone SDK and some of the developer programs that will be available and thne he says "and just to go along with all these new applications that you are developing we have increase the memory capacity of the iPhone to 32 Gigabyte". To me it would be perfect timing, but I am not Steve Jobs so I can't be sure about the other ramifications of it. I am probably missing something like it iPhone sales would drop because of it or for I know it will re-vitalize sales. People with 8GB phones will be selling them and getting new 32GB ones.
Well, we shall see.
1) Self-signed apps (these are custom and upon installation the person will be notified that it is self-signed and make sure that they trust the application before being installed)
2) Low cost signed apps (have developers pay $50-$100 to get a signature from Apple that can be used to sign the application upon install the sign will be verified against the one at the Apple site)
3) Higher cost signed apps (increase the cost to $250-$500, the app gets submitted to Apple for verification and it will be marked that)
Number 2 & 3 might have iTunes option. Like either, they both get a listing on the iTunes but #3 gets a preferential listing because it will be marked verified by Apple (have a seal of some kind)
or only #3 gets a listing on iTunes. Another possibility is the #2 as free apps only and #3 allows people to charge through iTunes and have people paid through their iTunes account.
There is one thing, that I am willing to bet Apple when it announces the iPhone SDK, a new 32GB iPhone. I have a hard time believing that Apple will need to submit the iPhone to the FCC for just a memory upgrade. So it would make sense that Steve Jobs comes in announces the iPhone SDK and some of the developer programs that will be available and thne he says "and just to go along with all these new applications that you are developing we have increase the memory capacity of the iPhone to 32 Gigabyte". To me it would be perfect timing, but I am not Steve Jobs so I can't be sure about the other ramifications of it. I am probably missing something like it iPhone sales would drop because of it or for I know it will re-vitalize sales. People with 8GB phones will be selling them and getting new 32GB ones.
Well, we shall see.
The New Apple TV
I can't wait for the update for the Apple TV. Allowing rentals directly from your TV. I think that is great. Heck, I think what would be killer is if they started having rental TV episodes at $0.99 per episode. Because really, how many people really watch the same episode more than once unless they have too. (i.e. there is nothing better on). Of course, I don't think the production studios wil go for it. Because in my mind that is what caused the decline in the music sales. That is allowing people to buy just the good sounds on an album instead of being forced to by the whole album with the good and the bad. I think the music industry basically got lazy. Instead of trying to product 10 to 15 good songs on an album. They just needed to produce 2 or 3. Enough to get people interested enough to buy the whole album just for the couple good ones. But when iTunes and other online music sellers (not to mention the peer-to-peer) started to allow people to get individual songs that is when the music industry needed to change. But they realized it a little late. So they will be playing catchup. They will need to produce more good songs.
Back to the point that I wanted to make with this entry. That is I have been listening to many Mac podcasts and everybody is complaining about the 24 hour rental period. Saying they can get better on other sites on the Internet. But here is the thing, Apple is not competing with them directly. With the new Apple TV, Apple just made a leap over them. Why? Because sites like Netflix require you to use the computer to get your rentals. Apple has gotten smarter since last year and dropped that idea. What people want and are used to is going to there TV and click on a few buttons on their remote and voila here is the movie that I just rented. For me, it is called Comcast On Demand. And they offer the same conditions as Apple (i.e. you need to watch the movie within a 24 hour period). But again Apple is ahead of them because of the number of TV shows that are offered and the number of movies. Also, the Apple TV's interface is much better. Why you may ask? Because I have used Comcast On Demand pretty much since they offered it and the one thing that drivers me crazy is that there is no centralized location to find movies. There are movies that you can buy. And then there are movies available from each premium channel. The ones that are not associated with HBO, Cinemax, Showtime, etc are available in one location. But if it is HBO offering it. You need to select "Premium Channels" then "HBO" then "All Movies". It would be much better to have it like the Apple TV where you have a single list and that list changes based on what channels I have offered. And then have a way to search it and probably have separate sections for each genre. So instead of waiting for Comcast to catch up, I am going to save my pennies and get an Apple TV. And heck, if the Apple TV is better than Comcast I might cancel the Premium Channels and save a little money too.
Back to the point that I wanted to make with this entry. That is I have been listening to many Mac podcasts and everybody is complaining about the 24 hour rental period. Saying they can get better on other sites on the Internet. But here is the thing, Apple is not competing with them directly. With the new Apple TV, Apple just made a leap over them. Why? Because sites like Netflix require you to use the computer to get your rentals. Apple has gotten smarter since last year and dropped that idea. What people want and are used to is going to there TV and click on a few buttons on their remote and voila here is the movie that I just rented. For me, it is called Comcast On Demand. And they offer the same conditions as Apple (i.e. you need to watch the movie within a 24 hour period). But again Apple is ahead of them because of the number of TV shows that are offered and the number of movies. Also, the Apple TV's interface is much better. Why you may ask? Because I have used Comcast On Demand pretty much since they offered it and the one thing that drivers me crazy is that there is no centralized location to find movies. There are movies that you can buy. And then there are movies available from each premium channel. The ones that are not associated with HBO, Cinemax, Showtime, etc are available in one location. But if it is HBO offering it. You need to select "Premium Channels" then "HBO" then "All Movies". It would be much better to have it like the Apple TV where you have a single list and that list changes based on what channels I have offered. And then have a way to search it and probably have separate sections for each genre. So instead of waiting for Comcast to catch up, I am going to save my pennies and get an Apple TV. And heck, if the Apple TV is better than Comcast I might cancel the Premium Channels and save a little money too.
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Late Prediction for MacWorld
I am going to predict that a new Apple TV is what is going at least one of the things that Steve Jobs announces. An Apple TV that adds the "Buy Now" and "Rent Now" options. Also, add either a optional and internal Blu-Ray drive for the Apple TV. Why do I think they will add Blu-ray? Well, I was just thinking about all of the companies that have announced that they will no longer be producing HD DVD videos and start producing Blu-ray instead. What I think happened is when Jobs went into discussions with the movie houses about renting video content over the web, he mentioned that they would be adding a Blu-ray drive to the Apple TV and they saw a great opportunity to get on the Apple money band wagon. And after hearing it, they decided that HD DVD is dead if Apple is behind Blu-ray.
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