Much of the Apple iPhone community is in an uproar over Apple knifing the Google Voice baby. While the debate rages as to whose fault it is – AT&T, or Apple’s – it ultimately makes Apple look bad. And it has made many developers scratch their head and re-evaluate their commitment to Apple’s handheld device.
Apple’s got a good thing going with the iPhone apps written so far, but they would be smart to remember their history. RIM CEO JIm Balsille offers this reminder:
“About 10 years ago there was a well-known PDA company with 40,000 apps and 100,000 developers,” he said. “We had just one application, which turned out to be a very good application. And you see what happened.”
Think it couldn’t happen? When some of your brightest stars in the development community feel like this, you better bet that it can.
Category: News
Apple released a new version of Final Cut Studio today. Touting over 100 new features, Final Cut Studio includes Final Cut Pro 7, with enhanced ProRes support, and new iChat theatre support for real-time collaboration. New versions of Motion, Color and Compressor are also included.
Final Cut Studio costs $999 ($300 less than the previous release), and upgrades are available for $299 from the previous version.
Category: News
Apple has unveiled new versions of Logic Studio and Logic Express today. Logic Studio gets AmpDesigner and PedalBoard, two new features for guitarists. Additionally, new versions of MainStage and SoundTrack Pro are included. A new feature, dubbed FlexTime, promises to make time shifting of audio much easier for Logic users.
Logic Studio is $499, with upgrades from previous Logic Studio versions costing $199.
Logic Express adds FlexTime, PedalBoard and AmpDesigner, but eschews MainStage, WaveBurner, SoundTrack Pro and all the audio loops that come with Logic Studio.
Logic Express is $199 with upgrades from previous versions costing $99.
Category: News
Much has been made about the god awful Adobe Installer/Updater for their Creative Suite and associated apps. Personally, I find the Adobe Updater to be the single worst designed application on my Mac that I’m forced to live with. To say it is widely panned and loathed would be an understatement.
That said, Adobe seems to have gotten the message. The team responsible for the installer/updater has even launched a blog detailing their goals for the next release.
I definitely welcome the transparency that Adobe has given this issue. I sincerely hope that when Creative Suite 5 ships sometime next year, I will have one less thing to complain about.
Category: News
According to Microsoft COO Kevin Turner, Apple Legal asked Microsoft to stop running their Laptop Hunter ads. Microsoft, of course, declined reports the WSJ.
Personally, I don’t get these ads. For one thing, while Microsoft makes a sale on every PC laptop sold with Windows, that Windows license fee is a lot less than the full retail license cost of Windows. And since Mac users don’t get a bundled version of Windows with their Macs, they are potential customers for a full retail version of Windows for use in either Boot Camp or a virtual machine emulator like VMware Fusion 2
or Parallels Desktop
.
So, by trying to steer people away from Macs with these ads, Microsoft is actually turning off potential customers who would be possibly paying a premium for their product (retail copies of Windows). I don’t see the logic in this, but then again, I never see the logic in anything Microsoft does.
Category: News
Steven Frank of Panic fame evokes the ghost of Chris Farley for his iPhone 3GS unboxing video.
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Category: Blog Watch
I’m no fan of Microsoft, but I will give them credit when it is due. First of all, they gave Dean Cain a job, and second, they are trying to convince the luddites still using IE 6 (or gasp, older) to upgrade to IE 8.
While I would rather people ditch IE altogether, I’m a realist and understand that many people will stick with whatever piece of crap Microsoft shoves down their gullet. And IE 8 is a lot less crappier than IE 6 or 7, so I’m all for this. Go ahead Microsoft, knock yourself out.
Category: News
With the most recent Macbook Pro updates, Apple has finally extended the “Pro” to a Macbook with a screen smaller than 15″. Apple’s previous diminutive pro machine, the Powerbook G4 12″, was discontinued years ago, but many fans of the machine clamored for something smaller than the 15″. With the Macbook Pro 13″, Apple has given these fans something to be excited about.
Of course, the new Macbook Pro is very close in appearance and features to the Macbook 13″ Unibody machine it replaces. The big additions come in the way of Firewire 800, Backlit Keyboard, SD Memory Slot, and of course, the built-in 7 hour battery. Additionally, Apple bumped the CPU speeds and memory/hard drive capacity, all while lowering the prices. In short, Apple has really out done itself with this release of portable computers.
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Category: News
In case you missed it, Daniel Lyons, writing as the Fake Steve Jobs, is back. Now that Jobs is back to work, Lyons has resumed posting under the Fake Steve moniker. As Fake Steve himself says, “I’m back bitches, deal with it.”
Sure, it’s satire. But it’s incredibly insightful, funny, and more often than not – truthful.
Category: News
While AT&T tries to figure out what it wants to screw, er, I mean charge its customers for iPhone tethering, some enterprising young person has figured out a way to enable it on your iPhone for free, for many different carriers. Configuration appears to be drop dead easy, requiring you only to point your iPhone’s browser to http://help.benm.at/, selecting your carrier, and connecting your iPhone to your computer. That’s it.
Of course, don’t blame us if your carrier finds out what you are doing and decides to charge you for it.
Category: News
