I think Amazon just built a giant web scraping service. I’m curious to see how this will work in the real world.
Month: September 2011
Not a Tablet
We are excited to announce four new products: the all-new Kindle for only $79, two new touch Kindles – Kindle Touch and Kindle Touch 3G – for $99 and $149, and a new class of Kindle – Kindle Fire – a beautiful full color Kindle for movies, TV shows, music, books, magazines, apps, games, web browsing and more, for only $199.
I think it’s clear that the Kindle Fire is not meant to be an iPad competitor. It’s a Kindle for media.
Amazon may not be competing with the iPad yet, but it is spending more and more time and energy fighting iTunes. Put another way, the Kindle Fire’s biggest problem isn’t the iPad — it is iTunes itself.
(Of course, as many have pointed out on Twitter, the big loser here is Barnes and Noble’s Nook reader.)
On the new Samsung Galaxy Players
It’s amazing just how familiar these things look.
Apple to Kill iPod classic and shuffle?
We’ve been sitting on a tip for a while until things came into greater focus, but now that the speculation meter has exploded, it’s a good time to tell you all what we’ve heard. It seems that the “product transition” Apple mentioned on the last earnings call could very well be within the iPod line. Specifically, if you want to buy an iPod shuffle or iPod classic from Apple, you should do it sooner rather than later. We’ve heard those two iPods are getting the axe this year.
This makes sense. The iPod touch is by far the most popular member of the iPod family. If anything, I bet the iPod shuffle gets killed before the Classic.
On MythBusters’ Success
Jamie Hyneman, in an interview with USA Today:
Why is our show successful? It’s not like you’re going to get a Ph.D. by watching us, but if you’re sitting on a couch with a beer, you might as well learn something.
I can’t wait for the ninth season to start tomorrow.
Iain Broome Reworks Write for Your Life
Iain’s revamped site not only looks great, but as always, is full of good links and articles about the art of writing.
It seems this fall is the time for site redesigns.
On Invitation Numerology
‘In the Meantime’
T-Mobile chief marketing officer Cole Brodman:
We’ve heard from many customers who love their T-Mobile service, but are disappointed that we don’t carry the iPhone. To these customers, first, thank you for your business. Please know that we think the iPhone is a great device and Apple knows that we’d like to add it to our line-up. Today, there are over a million T-Mobile customers using unlocked iPhones on our network. We are interested in offering all of our customers a no-compromise iPhone experience on our network.
In the meantime, we continue to bring to market some of the most advanced, cutting-edge Android devices. Today, I had the chance to take the stage at the Mobilize event in San Francisco and introduce our fastest 4G smartphones ever, the Samsung Galaxy S II and the HTC Amaze. We’re very confident that these Android smartphones rival or beat any smartphone out there in terms of functionality, speed, overall experience and features – including the iPhone.
It doesn’t sound like T-Mobile is getting the iPhone in a few weeks. If Sprint gets it, the boys in magenta will be the only ones without Apple’s device on their network.
A Modern Docking Station
James Galbraith at Macword, in his review of Apple’s 27-inch Thunderbolt Display:
For owners of the 2011 MacBook Air, the Thunderbolt Display is a fantastic way to get iMac-like features while still being able to walk away with one of the lightest laptops available. If your Mac has Thunderbolt, FireWire 800, and gigabit ethernet, the case for buying the comparatively inflexible Thunderbolt display is a little less interesting.
This setup is very attractive to me, but it isn’t new. Thomas Brand at Egg Freckles points this out:
The Thunderbolt Display is Apple’s first attempt at a laptop dock since the DuoDock was discontinued in July of 95. With it you can leave all of your peripherals at home and reconnect them to your laptop at the end of the day with a single cable. A Thunderbolt Display is more than an outstanding high-resolution monitor, it will change the way you use your computer.
The PowerBook Duo line was Apple’s first round of sub-notebook computers. From 1992 to 1997, Apple released seven models, starting with the Duo 210. It’s specs were hard to believe for 1992:
- 4.1 pounds
- 10.9 × 8.5 inches
- 1.4" thick
The lineup included color (!!) screens on the 270c, 280c and 2300c. The 2300c was also the only PowerPC model — the previous versions were all powered by Motorola 68030 or 68LC040 processors. As such, the 2300c can run up anything from System 7.5.2 to Mac OS 9.1. It also was the last machine from Apple to be built using the Snow White design language.
Versatile little guy, that one was.
Like the first MacBook Air, the Duos lacked most normal ports. Apple included a 156-pin Processor Direct Slot port, giving access to the machines’ processor and data busses.
That slot gave birth to the Duo Docking Stations.
Apple sold three docking solutions for the Duos.
The first — the “Duo Dock” — was the most ambitious. It included a CRT with a slot underneath for the notebook to slide into. When docked, the notebook could be used on AC power, and gained a floppy drives and expansion slots of a second hard drive, more VRAM, an optional FPU and two NuBus expansion slots.
In short, the Duo Dock took a tiny notebook computer and turned it into a screamer of a desktop computer.
Apple was pretty proud of this, as this ad shows:
The Mini Dock allowed users to use the Duo’s internal display and battery, but added connections for ADB, Ethernet and more. The Mini Dock did not include NuBus expansion slots, however.
The Micro Dock was kind of boring compared to the other two. It was a breakout box that created additional ports for users, including SCSI, ADB, Ethernet and video ports. They were cheap, but popular.
Clearly, Thunderbolt is today’s equivalent in many ways. Lots of peripherals can be driven by its single port — even external GPUs are possible with it, as Thunderbolt is basically PCI Express over a cable.
With its new display, Apple has created a desktop setup that a user can simply drop a MacBook Air into and keep working. While it isn’t as crazy as the Duo Docks — or the iMac-like docking station rumored back in 2010, in many ways, it’s the same thing. With Thunderbolt adding optical support next year, things are just looking better and better for notebook users looking for a desktop-class expereince.
Capture Form Updated
Based on some feedback, I’ve created an alternative version (right-click to download) of the Capture Form, with an expanded Notes section and no Reference Information section.
‘Kindle Fire’
I’m excited for this. Except for the name.
Positioning
This image is from AT&T’s page describing Internet speeds available to home users in my neighborhood. I know the descriptions are marketing BS, but to the average consumer, its confusing. AT&T is trying to position that middle options as the lowest possible connection speed required for Facebook. Terrible.