New At Marketnews: Custom Corner: Apple Airplay & Custom Installation

Marketnews: Custom Corner: Apple Airplay & Custom Installation

Sphere: Related Content

Apple iPad FAIL

Today's installment of iFAIL comes courtesy of my local community newspaper, who covered the grand opening of the new Southgate Mall Apple Store, which also coincided with the release last week of the iPad. Click the image to view it in it's full resolution.

Too bad the reporter wouldn't know an iPad if it bit him on the ankle.

Sphere: Related Content

This Week In Marketnews: Integrators and iPads

Marketnews: Custom Corner: Integrators & the iPad - First Impressions

Sphere: Related Content

If Palm Falls, Will Anyone Care?

I was roused from my slumber by the news that Palm's smartphone sales haven't been doing so hot.

Business Insider: Palm Sold Only 408,000 Smartphones Last Quarter

Specifically, Palm's smartphone sellthrough was just 408,000 units last quarter, down 29% q/q and down 15% y/y. This is worse than expected -- remember, a year ago, the Pre wasn't even on the market yet. Mike Abramsky of RBC was expecting 650,000 units, for instance.

It's kind of apples to oranges (sorry), but in addition to the 7.5 million iPhones in a Quarter that the article references, consider how it's been estimated that Apple sold 120,000 iPads on the first day of pre-orders. That's without people even being able to go to a store and hold one in their hands.

The comments below the Business Insider story are well worth reading for their insight, not least of which is the observation that Palm's advertisements suck. I had to laugh at the radio spots I heard this past Christmas, with a teen voice saying "WOW, a Palm Pre! Thanks Mom!"

In what universe are you going to find a teen who covets a Palm above all other phones?

Sphere: Related Content

CE Pro calls the market top for iPod docks

As you are no doubt aware, iPod docks come in every conceivable shape and size. My friends at CE Pro have put together a slideshow to round up the most egregious examples.

CE Pro: 13 Most Ridiculous iPod Docks

As you may recall, I was declaring that the market for iPod docks had jumped the shark back in 2006.

Sphere: Related Content

New Apple iPods: Just What The World Needs

Marketnews' Robert Franner runs down the new iPod models unveiled at Apple's Let's Rock event in San Francisco.

Marketnews: Genius at the Core of New Apple iPod Announcements

The new iPod Touch is cool looking and all but 32gig just isn’t big enough. I have an 80gig iPod, and I’m using ~55gig.

Wake me when the 1TB iPod comes out.

In all seriousness though, I’d like to see the iPhone in the same sleek form factor as the new iPod Touch. That might push me off the fence and make me get one.

Sphere: Related Content

Quick Flipancy About The iPhone 3G

I'd like to say that I've been ignoring the foofrah about the iPhone 3G for the last couple of weeks, but I have to be honest and say that I've been ignoring lots of news, while I beaver away at a few urgent projects. That's more or less my half-assed, backhanded apology to my faithful readers for the dearth of blog updates lately.

Regardless, savvy CE expert and Marketnews editor Christine Persaud does a great job of summing up her frustrations with the endless gyrations in the media about the launch of the new iPhone.

MarketnewsGadgetTalk: iPhone is Here, Hundreds Line up, Now Can We Get on With Life?

It seems like all we've been hearing about for the past few weeks is iPhone, iPhone, iPhone. The device has finally made its way to Canadian stores today. In Toronto, hundreds lined up outside the Dundas St. store on the corner of Yonge & Dundas in the pouring rain just to have the chance to fork out at least $200 for the device, plus $30/mo. in data (in addition to the price
of a voice plan) for the next three years. (see related story) Is it all worth it?

I will say that much good has come out of the attention the iPhone has garnered. It's nice to see that Rogers has (somewhat) relented to consumer pushback, vis a vis their mobile data plans. It's still not enough, but it's a start.

Also, as commenters like myself have noted, we're just now seeing the forward edge of more advanced handhelds, for which the title "smartphone" is kind of inadequate. Samsung, LG and others are bringing competitive handhelds to market, and fostering new innovations. Whether or not the iPhone achieves the same market domination that iPod has in media players remains very much in question.

Lastly, I'm eagerly awaiting the news to break that some clever dude somewhere has successfully unlocked the 3G iPhone. Despite Apple's best efforts at delivering an inert "brick" to customers, that can only be activated by Apple, that won't last forever. As the old No Fear t-shirt read: "It's Not If, It's When And How Bad!" My personal over/under on a cracked 3G iPhone is a week. Tops.

Sphere: Related Content

Movies On iTunes Coming To Canada

Marketnews: Movies Finally Come to iTunes Canada

iTunes Canada customers will finally be able to download movies from major film studios via the digital download site, then play them back on the PC, an Apple iPod, or through Apple TV.
Over 1,200 films are currently available for rent or purchase from studios like 20th Century Fox, The Walt Disney Studios, Paramount Pictures, Warner Bros. Entertainment, Universal Studios Home Entertainment, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. (MGM), Sony Pictures Television International and Lionsgate and Maple Pictures. Over 200 films are also available in high-definition quality for viewing on a big screen via Apple TV. Once downloaded, customers have up to 30 days to begin viewing a rental movie; and once it has been started, they have 48 hours to finish it. Pricing for rentaql titles will be $3.99 for library titles and $4.99 for new releases, and $1 more for HD versions. Purchased movies will range from $9.99 to $19.99. As in the U.S., films will also be available for download on the same day they are released on DVD in stores.

You know, not that long ago, whenever I wrote about downloads, I'd get emails and comments telling me that it would never happen. Lately though, when I write about non-download digital delivery (such as kiosk based flash stores) I get emails and comments telling me that downloads are the only way to go.

The shift has definitely begun.

Sphere: Related Content

Apple Store To Open In Vancouver

Apple Store to Open in Vancouver

Apple is slated to open a new store in Vancouver, BC this Saturday, May 24 at 10 a.m. By my count, this will be Apple’s fifth store within Canada, and its first in the West.
Like other Apple stores, this location will feature Apple’s wide range of products, including the new MacBook Air and iPod touch. Apple’s One to One program will include sessions on topics like getting started with a Mac or iPod, advanced moviemaking, and digital photography skills. Additional resources include the Genius Bar, and workshops and special programs for kids.
The new Vancouver store is located in the Pacific Centre Mall at 910-609 Granville St.

I'm sure all the Apple fanboys in the Lower Mainland are hyperventilating into their Venti Soy Lattes right now and blogging furiously into their Macbooks about this.

Sphere: Related Content

Speakercraft And iPhone, Together Again

I'm no Apple fanboy, but I am a huge Speakercraft lover, and have designed, sold, installed and programmed my share of their outstanding MODE music distribution system. This announcement, of a MODE control application for the iPhone is simply the cat's pyjamas.

CE Pro: SpeakerCraft Launches iPhone Interface for MODE Multiroom A/V

Now the company is taking its ties to Apple one step further with an iPhone interface for the MODE distributed-audio system. The interface is generated through an embedded Web server residing inside SpeakerCraft’s ERS 1.0 Ethernet-to-serial adapter. Since the interface is accessed through the iPhone’s Safari browser, there’s no software to install on the phone (or iTouch).
The ERS also dishes up an interface for standard PC/Mac Web browsers, allowing users to control the system from any iPhone/iTouch on the network.
Multiple interface devices can be used simultaneously to control different zones of the house.

I can't even begin to tell you how cool I think that is. Seriously. I'm aflutter.

Sphere: Related Content

Libraries Warm Up To iPod

The ubiquity of the iPod* has been further reinforced by Overdrive's decision to being supplying libraries with DRM-free mp3 files.

Library Journal.com: OverDrive Breaks the iPod Barrier for Downloadable Audio

For years, librarians and patrons have complained that the most popular digital audio player, the iPod, was incompatible with the Windows Media Audio (WMA) files, the format for library downloadable audio. OverDrive nowsays it will offer at least 3000 titles—about 15 percent of its catalog—in MP3 format without digital rights management (DRM), which means compatibility with nearly every MP3 player and mobile phone, including iPods. OverDrive MP3 Audiobooks will go on sale in May at Borders.com and should be available to libraries by the end of June, to be followed with the release of OverDrive Media Console for the Mac.

*does anybody remember when Apple was a computer company?

Sphere: Related Content

This Week In Marketnews: Coming To Grips With Apple

Marketnews: Custom Corner: Apple for Integrators: yea or nay?

Am I going to turn into an Apple fanboy? It's too soon to tell, but frankly stranger things have been known to happen.

Sphere: Related Content

Video Rentals on iTunes: what does it all mean?

I'll tell you what it means: it's the future of media distribution.

Marketnews - Gadget Talk: Rent Flicks with iTunes

As it stands in the U.S., participating studios include 20th Century Fox, The Walt Disney Studios, Warner Bros., Paramount, Universal Studios Home Entertainment, Sony Pictures, MGM, Lionsgate, and New Line Cinema:pretty much all the majors. Movies can be "rented" for 24-hour periods, and watched any number of times during that slot. If you watch the flick immediately, no worries: you'll have 30-days before the rental expires, so to speak. And the movies are actually comparable in price to what you might pay in an actual rental store: US$3.99 for new releases, US$2.99 for library titles, and US$5 for new releases in HD. Not too shabby.

If anybody can be trusted to bring about paid HD downloads, it's iTunes.

This is the thin edge of the wedge that will open up the brave new world of content on demand via the Internet. It's also bad news for Blockbuster Video and bricks and mortar rental stores like them.

Sphere: Related Content

iPhone software apps gaining traction

Don't believe me? Check this out:

Sphere: Related Content

Apple increasing DRM-free iTunes inventory

TWICE: Apple Expands DRM-Free Catalog

Apple raised the number of downloadable DRM-free songs to more than 2 million and dropped the price of the unprotected downloads to $0.99 from $1.29.
The company, however, didn’t change the $0.99 price of its protected downloads, which are encoded at lower quality than the unprotected songs, in a move that might have been intended to put pressure on other music labels to make their songs DRM-free. In fact, an Apple spokesman said the price reduction on protected songs were not in response to the $0.89 to $0.99 prices on unprotected MP3 downloads from Amazon or a response to Wal-Mart’sannounced plans to offer some unprotected songs at $0.94.

Gotta love the free market in action. The demand for DRM-free music is there, and the vox populi is getting louder.

The bell tolls for DRM, methinks.

Sphere: Related Content

The ZunePhone Ad that's sweeping the net

Although I'm not 100% clear on who is or is not being mocked here.

Sphere: Related Content

Apple iPhone results cause unrest

It seems that the iPhone's launch was either a success, or a failure, depending on who's reporting on it.

The Street: Finally, Apple's iPhone Lowdown

USA Today: Apple: 270,000 iPhones sold in first 2 days

"270K in the first 30 hours" reads like one of those amorphous metrics that retailers manipulate to make themselves look good, like "Sales per square foot." It sounds great, but it's neither here nor there in relation to the big picture.

Nobody hands out gold medals at the 30 meter mark in the 100M sprint for best start. It's all about the number by the end of the year.

Sphere: Related Content

My token iPhone post mortem, and I'm not even going to do any work

Instead, I'm going to swim in the wake of Dealbreaker.com's Keith Hahn:

Dealbreaker: Why the iPhone is no PS3, but should try to be more like it

To put things into a mobile telecommunications market perspective, Nokia shipped 91 million units in the first quarter. In order to penetrate the cell phone market in any meaningful way or provide a more digestible iPod replacement for when your Mini breaks, Apple will have to get used to thinner margins (and probably thinner than the 40%+ made on most iPod models).

iPhone. Rah.

Sphere: Related Content

Paris Hilton released early from jail before the Apple iPhone launch: Coincidence? I think not!

Since The Epicurean Dealmaker has pretty much called me out (deservedly, perhaps) for shamless blogwhoring, I might as well ride this pony all the way.

Paris Hilton!

Paris Hilton!

Paris Hilton!

Apple iPhone!

Apple iPhone!

Apple iPhone!

It's kind of like summoning Beetlejuice.

...I've had a lot of coffee this morning, even by my standards, and I get a little goofy when that happens.

Sphere: Related Content

Pundits weighing in with iPhone reviews

The moment of truth is here at last. Key tech pundits have their hands on iPhones and are telling we unwashed technoproles how they measure up.

Wall Street Journal's Walter Mossberg had quite the love-in with his phone:
We have been testing the iPhone for two weeks, in multiple usage scenarios, in cities across the country. Our verdict is that, despite some flaws and feature omissions, the iPhone is, on balance, a beautiful and breakthrough handheld computer. Its software, especially, sets a new bar for the smart-phone industry, and its clever finger-touch interface, which dispenses with a stylus and most buttons, works well, though it sometimes adds steps to common functions.

By contrast, the NYT's David Pogue is pleased, but more reserved:

So yes, the iPhone is amazing. But no, it’s not perfect.
There’s no memory-card slot, no chat program, no voice dialing. You can’t install new programs from anyone but Apple; other companies can create only iPhone-tailored mini-programs on the Web. The browser can’t handle Java or Flash, which deprives you of millions of Web videos.
The two-megapixel camera takes great photos, provided the subject is motionless and well lighted . But it can’t capture video. And you can’t send picture messages (called MMS) to other cellphones.
Apple says that the battery starts to lose capacity after 300 or 400 charges. Eventually, you’ll have to send the phone to Apple for battery replacement, much as you do now with an iPod, for a fee.
Then there’s the small matter of typing. Tapping the skinny little virtual keys on the screen is frustrating, especially at first.

All in all, for a first-generation device, it sounds like it's off to a good start.

Sphere: Related Content