posts

Wired:

FCC chairman Julius Genachowski delivered Monday on President Obama’s promise to back “net neutrality.” But he went much further than merely seeking to expand rules that prohibit ISPs from filtering or blocking net traffic — he proposed that they cover all broadband connections, including data connections for smartphones.

It’s encouraging to see the Obama administration taking this on — a tiered Internet would be a huge detriment to the United States, which is already behind other nations when it comes to not only high-speed usage, but education — which is becoming more and more dependent on the Internet.

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The Apple Blog:

The Mac Portable development project was launched in 1986, not long before Steve Jobs’ departure from Apple, and the product was first released for sale on September 20, 1989. It was featured on the cover of the November 1989 edition of MacUser magazine, which called it “by far the most complex piece of machinery devised by sale by Apple computer.”

While it incorporated a laptop-style foldable form factor with a front-mounted carry handle/lockdown lever, the Mac Portable weighed only about a pound less than contemporaneous Mac Compact desktops — a hefty 16 pounds, due partly to it having a robust lead-acid battery. It wasn’t cheap either, selling for a likewise heavyweight $6,500 — or $7,300 with an optional hard drive.

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iPodNN:

The App Store is believed to be the current center of Apple’s attention, as iPod sales are flattening after years of growth. The problem, says BusinessWeek, is that record labels are now more dependent than ever on Apple, as some 90 percent of US digital music sales are handled through the iTunes Store, and approximately 75 percent of all media players sold are iPods. CD sales are continuing to fall, which means that without Apple’s help, the record industry will further shrink.

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From iLounge’s review of the original iPhone:

There are some issues. First, there’s AT&T. If you’ve ever had doubts about the company, they’re not going to go away with iPhone: we’ve experienced very significant problems activating two of our iPhones, attributable not to iTunes but rather to AT&T, and its customer service has been atrocious. To say that they are making a bad first (or tenth) impression would be an understatement, and the shocking part is that in each of our situations (and others we’ve been following), the company can’t seem to do the right thing by people who are all but waving $1,500+ in fees in their faces. One wonders how bad the experiences need to be before Apple can hold them in breach of contract and work with other carriers instead.

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The FCC has posted Google’s responses to the government’s inquiry into the Google Voice app being banned from the App Store.

From reading through it, it seems that Apple did indeed reject the application, contrary to what Apple’s Phil Schiller stated a few weeks ago.

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Kottke:

Once someone has an iPhone, it is going to be tough to persuade them that they also need to spend money on and carry around a dedicated GPS device, point-and-shoot camera, or tape recorder unless they have an unusual need. But the real problem for other device manufacturers is that all of these iPhone features — particularly the always-on internet connectivity; the email, HTTP, and SMS capabilities; and the GPS/location features — can work in concert with each other to actually make better versions of the devices listed above. Like a GPS that automatically takes photos of where you are and posts them to a Flickr gallery or a video camera that’ll email videos to your mom or a portable gaming machine with access to thousands of free games over your mobile’s phone network.

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Mac|Life:

About 10 months later, at Macworld San Francisco in 2001, Apple debuted iTunes alongside iDVD and the CD-RW-enabled Power Macs. While it wasn’t exactly a show-stopper (though 275,000 copies were downloaded in the first week), the “world’s best and easiest to use ‘jukebox’ software” definitely raised the bar for music players on the Mac, which were relatively sparse and rather pricey (SoundJam cost $40). By offering iTunes as a free download and installing it on every new Mac, Apple essentially cut down the competition at the pass–or at least put a good scare into them. “Apple has done what Apple does best–make complex applications easy, and make them even more powerful in the process,” said Steve Jobs at the time. “iTunes is miles ahead of every other jukebox application, and we hope its dramatically simpler user interface will bring even more people into the digital music revolution.”

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Oh boy:

Beginning Oct. 24, the WSJ Mobile Reader application, currently available on BlackBerry smartphones and Apple iPhone and iPod touch devices, will require a separate mobile subscription for full access to Journal subscription content. The application itself will remain free to download and contain both free and subscription content, emulating the experience found on WSJ.com.

WSJ, you’re doing this all wrong.

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Wired:

As for Verizon? The company has the popular but critically panned BlackBerry Storm and the rather staid and Wi-Fi–less BlackBerry Tour. The carrier known for the best network now has the least attractive lineup of smart phones.

It’s a puzzling situation for Verizon. The wireless carrier has had the most customers of any cellular operator in the country since its 2008 acquisition of Alltel, and it’s widely regarded as having the largest network coverage area. So the fact that it can’t offer its customers better smartphones is a bit of a mystery.

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From Engadget’s in-depth Zune HD review:

Perhaps the most compelling reason to buy a Zune HD right now isn’t the gorgeous screen or forthcoming apps, HD radio, or slick design. Make no mistake about it – this is a fine, fine device, and no one would fault you for buying one – but it’s not the device itself that is the most attractive part of this package. To us, it seems like the single most compelling reason to choose this device over something like the iPod touch can be boiled down to one thing: Zune Pass.

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Gizmodo:

At the two week mark, OS X Snow Leopard—despite having few user recognizable features—has sold more than twice the number of copies that Leopard did, and four times the number of copies that Tiger did. That makes sense given the $29 price and Apple’s higher percentage in the market these days.

Surely the $29 price — a full $100 less than most OS X upgrades — is helping drive sales, but I also think users see Snow Leopard as less dangerous of an upgrade.

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Speaking of photos, Time has posted a collection of the ‘Top 10 Doctored Photos’ of all time. The first few are quite old.

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