Enderle!
AT&T Eager to Wield its iWeapon
Denny Strigl, Verizon's chief operating officer, decided to pass on the iPhone deal and says he has no regrets. Given Apple's cultlike following, however, Verizon isn't taking any chances. Strigl says Verizon is already working with a manufacturer — he declines to say which one — on an answer to the iPhone.
"We do have a very good response in the mill," he says. "You'll see that from us in the late summer."
(Shawn's Comment: Ummm...yeah....we'll all just sit here, holding our breaths, waiting for that one...)
Apple's Hype Phone
Last week the FCC finally approved the iPhone and it should be on the market by June. I am putting a sell on Apple, the company that created the iPhone.
Steve Jobs at MacWorld this January dramatically announced, “From this day forward we’re going to be known as Apple Inc. We’ve dropped the `Computer’ from our name.” With those two sentences, Jobs has effectively pronounced the desktop computer dead.
PPUG Summer 2007 Meeting Announced
From Macworld
PPUG (Philadelphia PowerBook Users Group) will hold our annual summer meeting on Saturday, 16 June 2007. The meeting will take place from 12 noon to 3 p.m. at the Manayunk Brewing Company.
(Shawn's Comment: Cool! Now there's a MUG meeting I'd attend on a regular basis!)
We usually have lunch (and/or a brew) while we talk mobile computing. Jason O'Grady (founder of PPUG and PowerPage.org) will be on hand to talk about latest developments in the Macospere including the newly shipping iPhone (Jason will be bringing his)...
(Shawn's Comment: Really? And where is Jason going to get this device? How does he know it will be shipping by then? And why is this "iPhone unveiling" information only available on Jason's page and not the official PPUG page?)
Click here to read more "PPUG Summer 2007 Meeting Announced"
Rumor: TBWA to Create Apple's iPhone Ad Launch
From TUAW
Advertising Age reports that TBWA will be handling advertising duties for the upcoming iPhone launch.
(Shawn's Comment: Wow...this is some "rumor" considering TBWA has been Apple's agency of record *for the past 10 years*!)
Click here to read more "Rumor: TBWA to Create Apple's iPhone Ad Launch"
The "New" Apple
From Technology Review
It's only not a computer company in name.
(Shawn's Comment: WTF? Could they have mangled that sentence any worse?)
Apple to Target iPod Street Crimewave
The Apple iPod is an easy target for street thieves and school bullies. It's small, valuable, instantly recognisable, easy to nick and sell on. That's why it's responsible for the sharp rise in muggings in 2006.
(Shawn's Comment: The *iPod* is "responsible" for the rise? Really? How about blaming the *muggers*!)
Click here to read more "Apple to Target iPod Street Crimewave"
George Foreman iGrill Offers iPod Connectivity
From iLounge
The new George Foreman iGrill is a floor-standing, iPod-ready indoor/outdoor electric grill. The iGrill sports a 10-watt speaker system that plays music from a connected iPod, MP3 player, or USB device.
(Shawn's Comment: Yet Another Useless iProduct)
Click here to read more "George Foreman iGrill Offers iPod Connectivity"
Microsoft Slams iPhone as "Irrelevant"
From ZDNet Australia
Apple's soon-to-be-launched iPhone will be irrelevant to business users...a senior executive with the software giant said this week.
(Shawn's Comment: At no point in the article does the MS rep actually call the iPhone "irrelevant". His criticisms are valid for business. Shame on ZDNet)
Click here to read more "Microsoft Slams iPhone as "Irrelevant"
Apple iPod's First Virus Detected
It seems like iPod users should now be extremely careful as Security vendor Kaspersky Labs has recently announced it has detected the first virus designed to infect iPod portable media players.
(Shawn's Comment: "The sky is falling! The sky is falling!")
...users need not be too concerned as this is simply a concept program which does not pose a real threat. The virus can only function when Linux is installed on the iPod.
(Shawn's Comment: "Oh...")
If Podloso is inserted by the user, it installs itself to the folder which contains program demo versions. It cannot be launched automatically.
(Shawn's Comment: So you have to install this "virus" yourself?)
The good news is the virus cannot automatically spread and infect other devices without users installing it first.
(Shawn's Comment: Not much of a "virus" then is it? But thanks for scaring every one needlessly...)
Steve Jobs has Presented the first iPhone to Madonna
The first person on the Earth, becoming user iPhone, became the well-known singer - Madonna. Steve Jobs has presented to her the first iPhone!
(Shawn's Comment:Ummm...not quite...take a look at the pictures...that's just a regular iPod....)
Click here to read more "Steve Jobs has Presented the first iPhone to Madonna"
Newlaunches lists 10 Apple flops... but wait, maybe it's just one
A recent post to Newlaunches.com entitled Top 10 Apple products which flopped gives the run down on some products Apple might like to forget. Also important to note is that the Motorola ROKR is not an Apple flop, it's a Motorola flop--Apple merely licensed iTunes to Motorola for use on the ROKR.
(Shawn's Comment: But Apple was responsible for the look and feel of iTunes on the ROKR. They knew it was going to suck but they still allowed Moto to release it)
Once you eliminate the products that were produced by a very different Apple...
(Shawn's Comment: And why would you do that? The list isn't "Top 10 Apple Flops not developed by Steve Jobs". Some folks seem to think it's bad to point out Apple's flaws and flops. But it shows what Apple tries to do and shows that, 9 times out of 10, they get it right)
Click here to read more "Newlaunches lists 10 Apple flops... but wait, maybe it's just one"
Leopard Launching at NAB
T3’s ear to the ground hears the rumbling of Leopard approaching next month. Eight-core Mac Pros and the final unveiling of Leopard. That’s what’s in store at next month’s NAB event, according to our well-placed source. Our man with his finger on Cupertino’s pulse says Leopard’s tracking for an April release, and is now all but confirmed for the NAB event.
Apple has sent out invitations to the Las Vegas showcase, titled simply "Lights, Camera, Apple,” setting the stage for its next-gen operating system to finally be unveiled.
(Shawn's Comment: First thing - why would I listen to a gadget magazine about when Apple's next OS will ship? And secondly, why is everyone missing the point? NAB is a *professional* show - if anything, Apple will show off *professional* apps. That's what "Lights, Camera, Apple” is all about, you doorknobs)
Why Apple TV Will Bomb
From Macworld
Apple has finally begun shipping pre-orders of its Apple TV wireless set-top, according to news reports. The device can stream media stored on your PC to your TV including music, pictures and 720p High-Definition video. The company has set the price at $299, but I'm here to tell you that it will ultimately have trouble giving them away.
So, although the tech-intelligentsia will slobber over Apple TV and call it the Second Coming, Apple TV will fail to reach beyond the cultish Mac audience, probably topping off at about three million homes.
(Shawn's Comment: I love when "experts" make predictions like this - they *always* end up biting them in the posterior. What do you think?)
Lights...Camera...Watermark?
Appleinsider seems to think it has some kind of coup in announcing that Apple has sent out invites to their Special Event at NAB in April. They've even posted a pic of the invite you can see here.
But can someone explain why Appleinsider sees fit to stick a giant watermark over the image? It's not like Appleinsider created the image themselves. It's not like several hundred other media outlets haven't also received invites. Hell, you can get invited yourself by applying on Apple's web site. And make note of the image you see there - doesn't it look awfully like the one Appleinsider seems to want to claim for its own?
Bob Garfield vs. Bill Gates
At last week's Corbis Creativity 2.0 panel in Manhattan, Advertising Age columnist Bob Garfield sat down for a private one-on-one with Corbis and Microsoft chief Bill Gates. The two discussed the likely impact of IPTV on advertising and the distribution of TV content by the major networks' local affiliate stations. Garfield also asked Mr. Gates about the Apple ads, in which actor John Hodgman plays a character modeled on Mr. Gates. Mr. Gates was not amused.
GARFIELD: I want to ask you one more thing: Those Mac ads -- how do you feel about the John Hodgman character?
GATES: I can't comment on someone else's ad.
(Shawn's Comment: Mr Gates, you mean you can't comment *again* on someone else's ads, right? Cause the last time you did, you sounded foolish)
Apple is 5th Biggest US Laptop Vendor
Apple laptops were in among the top five biggest selling computer brands in the US this past January, new NPD research shows.
Apple is number five for its US laptop sales — a position unthinkable just a few years ago. The company took 10.1 per cent of the US laptop market.
(Shawn's Comment: Macworld conveniently ignores a crucial part of the Bloomberg story - "Note: figures are for retail channel sales only and do not include direct sales, sales from Wal-Mart or warehouse clubs" - so they ignore numbers from Dell. Apple is, at best, the 6th largest.)
Click here to read more "Apple is 5th Biggest US Laptop Vendor"
Most Interesting Rumor I’ve Heard Lately
Apparently Leopard is going to be released this year. In fact, Rumor mongers have it nailed down - sometime between like next week and June. So rest easy knowing it’ll be here at some point….
(Shawn's Comment: Considering that's exactly when Apple says they will release Leopard...that's not much of a rumor stretch, is it?)
CrunchGear serves it up hot with the idea that Apple could possibly maybe in a million years license the iPhone OS to other manufacturers. Is this Apple’s style? No way. But I (being not even a fraction of the business mind of Steve Jobs) think the potential could be there for Apple on this one. Who couldn’t benefit from a better operating system on their cell phone?
(Shawn's Comment: Everyone can - which is why Apple will want you to buy the *iPhone*)
Click here to read more "Most Interesting Rumor I’ve Heard Lately"
SXSW: Where have All the Macs Gone?
A year ago, at the 2006 South by Southwest festival, I noted with a bit of a twinkle in my eye that one way to know the conference was the coolest place on Earth was by press rooms. The standard province of broken down Wintel desktops had been had been blessed with gleaming new MacBook Pro laptops. And we all know, don't we, that where there are Macs, the cool and hip factors are higher.
So how cool is that, I thought?
At SXSW 2007, however, the coordinators of the pressroom apparently decided that cool was out. How do I know? Instead of shiny new Macs, there aren't even faded old Macs. Rather, the pressroom has 10 seemingly new Dell laptops.
Why? Who knows.
(Shawn's Comment: Ummm...you're a *reporter*.....covering SXSW....why don't you...oh...I don't know....GO FIND OUT!? Or use common sense. How much do you want to bet that Dell either charged less for the machines than Apple or donated them outright to the conference? How about you go do some reporting instead about carping on the computers in the press room?)
Click here to read more "SXSW: Where have All the Macs Gone?"
Unlock the iPhone!
Apple has signed a 2 year agreement to exclusivity with Cingular Wireless and the iPhone. As it stands now Cingular is the sole distrubtor of the iPhone and it will be locked to their network. What does this mean to you and me?
This device has a lot of cool potential and limiting it to a small group of people is uncool.
(Shawn's Comment: "limiting it to a small group of people is uncool"? At last count, Cingular had over 50 *million* subscribers. Not exactly a "small group")
Give us a choice of carriers and let the best service win.
(Shawn's Comment: Why? Where is it written you have a right to "the best service"? Who says you have a right to "choice"? Remember, the Constitution says you have the right to the *pursuit* of happiness. You have no right to happiness itself. :) )
Come on Apple, we're friends of yours!
(Shawn's Comment: OK...if you're "friends" with Apple then you'll completely understand why your "friend" has made this decision and, like a good friend, you'll accept them and still be friends with them......See how that "friends" crap breaks down very quickly?)
All cell phones on the market today can be had for a fraction of their actual retail cost.
Steve Jobs' Bad Bet
Did Steve Jobs backdate the options he got as Apple's CEO? Seems to me what he really did with his options was probably legal - and incredibly dumb for a guy who was making Apple one of the all-time great business turnarounds and America's seventh-most admired company. The great seer of tech trends had no idea what was coming - indeed, no idea how much his company, or he himself, was really worth.
Now, with benefit of hindsight, let's get out the calculator and see how smart Jobs looks. That bag of restricted stock he got in 2003 is today worth about $848 million. Not bad. But what about the options he gave up? His first mega-grant, the one that landed him on our cover, would today be in the money not by the $436 million for which he offered to sell it to us, or even by the $872 million we said it was worth, but by just over $2.5 billion.
The supremely self-confident aren't always what they seem.
Conde Nast Backs Up Fake Steve Jobs in Fight with Real Steve Jobs
When Fake Steve Jobs, the anonymous blogger who parodied the real man, was asked to cease and desist, he asked for a sugar daddy to keep the site going. After only a few weeks, Wired News emerged as the lucky sponsor. I wonder how much he sold his soul for -- fighting those lawyers can't be cheap.
(Shawn's Comment: What do you think the odds are of "Fake Steve Jobs" having *fake* lawyers "chasing" after him?)
Click here to read more "Conde Nast Backs Up Fake Steve Jobs in Fight with Real Steve Jobs"
When did Apple become Microsoft?
For as long as Microsoft has been setting -- and missing -- schedules, Apple has been announcing and simultaneously shipping its biggest breakthroughs.
Apple spokesperson told the Reuters news agency that the company would have to delay shipping of the Apple TV -- which aims to wirelessly deliver downloaded videos, music, and photos from your computer to your TV -- until mid-March. Apple gave no reason for the postponement.
That's fine. Delays happen, especially when the forthcoming product is groundbreaking. For the Mac maker, Apple TV is exactly that.
Still, Apple shouldn't get a pass here.
(Shawn's Comment: Apple doesn't get a pass. Apple has been just as bad as MS on various delays. The writer makes it seem this is the first time Apple has delayed the release of a product)
Apple to Latin America: We Don't Care About You, Compadres
It seems that Steve Jobs, Apple's Mariachi-in-Chief, doesn't care much about Latin America other than to get his soy cheese and tofu-stuffed jalapeños. According to the argentinian correspondent for Silicon News, «buying an iPod in Latin America is almost an odyssey.
The official prices are certainly outrageous: a 2 gigabyte iPod nano costs $328 in Brazil and $323 in Argentina, compared to $149 here. Things get even worse after the jump.
This price differential, evaluated by Commonwealth Securities in their latest iPod Index, is caused by a load of taxes and import costs that pushes most of the purchases to US-based grey market import channels.
(Shawn's Comment: And that's Apple's fault....how exactly?)
Click here to read more "Apple to Latin America: We Don't Care About You, Compadres"
1st iPhone Ad Premieres, Sucks
...Apple aired its first iPhone commercial during the Oscars. It's basically just famous clips of actors saying "Hello" in TV and movie classics. Then there's an iPhone. Then it says "Hello" in white text on black. And that's it. It might well be the perfect Oscars ad, incestuous as it is. But it's already passed its expiration date. It's instantly irrelevant. And they could have at least used the Mac saying "Hello" at some point."
I think this is a misstep. It might work for the Oscars, but as a launch, it's a mistake.
(Shawn's Comment: Anyone else think Kahney may have missed the point of the ad?)
Apple's coming 'Bypass Vista' Campaign
Apple has also apparently promoted videos that position Vista as a Tiger clone on sites like YouTube.
(Shawn's Comment: Nice to see Enderle is still living up to his reputation. Apple does not "promote" videos on YouTube)
Click here to read more "Apple's Coming 'Bypass Vista' Campaign"
Gates and Jobs to make History
(Shawn's Comment: "Make history"? You're kidding, right? Jobs and Gates have been on stage with each other many times)
"Neither executive is a stranger to the conference, but this will be first time they will appear together at D, a fairly rare occurrence."
(Shawn's Comment: Um...actually, the D5 conference *isn't* a "fairly rare occurrence". It happens every year. Maybe you meant that Jobs and Gates appearing together was fairly rare. Well, in that case - write better!)
Gates Loses Out to Jobs in Cool
Have you ever wondered why Steve Jobs is always cast as the digital messiah and Bill Gates as the digital anti-Christ?
(Shawn's Comment: Perhaps because people in general and reporters for the Birmingham Post are lazy and look to use facile characterizations of people?)
