Archive for the 'Analysis & Commentary' Category
There he was, on stage, taking a pot shot at the 4G competition and how the new iPhone 4S was just as fast on Internet speeds. Sadly, Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing, lied to a crowd full of reporters who let Schiller’s claim go right over their heads.
The problem with Schiller’s claim is two-fold. First, the iPhone 4S will only take advantage of the faster HSDPA speeds on GSM/UMTS systems leaving two of the three US carriers out in the cold that use CDMA/EV-DO. Second, that third and only GSM carrier here in the States is AT&T. Remember them? Ya, the company that doesn’t invest in its network but rather changes texting plan prices and killing unlimited bandwidth to add to its coffers. Well, truth behold, AT&T has but a handful of locations in the entire United States that supports the 14.4 HSDPA download speeds. Surprise, surprise!
Do you think the senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing didn’t know this fact when he pronounced to the audience the iPhone 4S was just as fast as the Android competition on the chart of US models behind him on stage? No, he completely knew the truth. What Phil Schiller did was lie to the world that the iPhone 4S was just as fast as LTE equipped phones that have been widely available for nearly half a year here in the United States. While the rest of the world may benefit from the improved modem, basically no one in America will. Essentially, Schiller knew the iPhone 4S offered very little – if anything at all – over the faster Android phones and attempted to level the playing field. He did so like a seasoned politician.
The news around Twitter and Facebook is the new iPhone from Apple. Apple’s newly crowned CEO, Tim Cook, took the stage at 4 Infinite Loop, Cupertino, California, for his first Stevenote, er, Keynote. Cook quickly passed the presentation off to familar Apple faces to essentially drag through a complete recap of iOS 5s features shown off four months ago. Reporters grew weary 20 minutes into the WWDC rehash and began playing Angry Birds. In the course of nearly an hour, Apple only disclosed three new items in conversation! If this is what we can expect of future Apple Keynotes, the Jobs Era of slick presentation has already vanished.
Finally, at 55 minutes, the iPhone 4S was revealed. Nothing changed on the outside – no teardrop case like earlier “leaks” reported – but rather under the hood is were the real stuff was. At the heart of the iPhone 4S is the same processor that runs the iPad 2, the dual-core A5. Also sharing components with its big brother is the graphics processing which is told be 7 times faster, though the demo didn’t really seem to indicate this. The antenna has been completely reworked to include not one but two which the iPhone 4S can use both or one or the other for optimal signal. It also uses the new system for premium bandwidth. In fact, Philip Schiller, Senior Vice President of Worldwide Product Marketing, made a jab at the competition and its 4G speeds pointing out the iPhone 4S 3G speeds equaled that of the LTE phones. Mmm, we’ll see about that, Philly, remember, we’re mostly using AT&T. Additionally, the new 8-megapixel camera was shown off along with the claim of faster access with the ability to take the first picture in 1.1 second. With new infrared and back light technology, this aims to be the best camera on a phone yet with its extreme low light and improved white balance features. The camera will also record 1080p HD video catching up to many Android devices which have been able to make this claim for nearly a year.
The big announcement, the One More Thing if you will, was the fact that the phone will now work at your command. No, not that Voice Command feature we all forgot about, but true voice instructions using the technology of Siri which Apple purchased last year. Siri will do amazing things like tell you the current weather conditions by just asking, “What’s the weather like?” as well as read your incoming SMS and then respond to it with your voice-to-text copy. You can tell it, “Wake me up tomorrow at 8 am” and it will create the alarm for you. Send email, search for a place to eat, add calendar events – to which it will even respond if you have a conflict – and many other features. This is the game changer, as Apple put it, for the iPhone 4S. Because all the text-to-speech and vice versa is happening on the phone and not on the Internet like the original Siri, it requires the power of the A5 chip and thus this iOS 5 feature is only for the iPhone 4S.
On the surface, these features do not sound all that great. Essentially, it’s a tuned up iPhone 4. Additionally, it’s pretty much what everyone expected, no real surprises like past models. In truth, all this iPhone does is catch it up with most Android phones. Google has had text-to-speech for nearly a year on its operating system and HD video is old shoe. Schiller can claim similar speeds with the 3G equipped iPhone 4S but truth is, LTE blows the doors off of AT&Ts network and Verizon’s older EV-DO. In fact, AT&T ignores equipment investment as proof of the many EDGE towers found easily a few miles off of California Highway 99 in the Central Valley at nearly every exit outside of large cities like Stockton or Sacramento. I think Apple is setting itself up for some uproar by neglecting LTE. This will only further Android’s dominance for another year while we await the LTE iPhone.
Now, that said, here is the if of all of this, and it’s a BIG if. If Apple has genuinely pulled off Siri without a hitch, this could blast the iPhone past any Android. With the ability to add calendar events, have SMS conversations, send and receive email, and buy movie tickets, all hands-free in your vehicle, this would make Siri the killer-feature. Now, of course, there’s that IF. While Siri performed well in the quiet auditorium of Apple’s theater, my noisy F-250 cab is a whole different story. I long ago stopped using Voice Command because of it. Even cars with better cabin noise control can struggle with voice and it will be mighty interesting to see if Apple over came this issue.
Now, if Siri turns out to be a dud and unusable in the real world and those Schiller claimed broadband speeds never really happen, then you have just another iPhone 4 with an extra letter. Google will continue to make further inroads with Android and widen the lead over the iPhone reminding many of us of the Windows vs Macintosh days of the late 80s. Interesting enough, that decline came soon after Steve Jobs left Apple the first time. Will history repeat itself?
Apple finally sent out the invites for it’s upcoming “Let’s talk iPhone” event. There is little doubt the next-generation iPhone will be the topic of this gala to be held at 1 Infinite Loops, Apple’s headquarters, in Cupertino, California. Most expect the A5 processor CPU, better camera, and graphic video improvements. Others feel LTE is a possibility of appearing in the next iPhone. Lately touted, Apple-purchase Siri speech-to-text technology called Assistant looks to be on the agenda as well. Still, some think the iPhone will be larger based on leaked photos of upcoming cases like the one pictured above with the current iPhone sitting inside the case with plenty of wiggle room.
First reports of the larger screen seemed to point to Apple responding to the larger Motorola and HTCs that hit Verizon stores in the last few months. In classic Apple style, it didn’t make it too large as to be obnoxious, was the reason. That may be true, but I started thinking about it and wondered why, if these pictures are to believed, would Apple make the next iPhone just a bit larger? It certainly wouldn’t be for the screen. The minor bump in size would be minimal and most likely even unnoticeable in real world use.
I looked at the picture of the case again and thought, “While that’s not much space at all, if you filled it up with something like lithium-ion, then that could be a LOT of space.” You know, the active component of a rechargeable battery? It makes perfect sense when you pop open an iPad and see the majority of it is a battery and because of that, iPads can run all day long without breaking a sweat. The iPhone has been plagued with weak battery life since its inception and while the iPhone 4 claims the best performance yet, I know many users who have said that their 3GS had better life! iFix-it and the likes found little difference in the iPhone 5s battery.
So, if Apple could make a larger footprint, just a wee bit larger, and use it all for a battery, it’s very possible to gain a substantial about of battery life. I could easily see a 50% increase over the iPhone 4 with the added room seen in the next-generation iPhone case. If components used internally shrink, such as memory, then that’s even more room. Moving things around to better pack the board would also give some net gains. Thus, it’s quiet possible we could hear Tim Cook tell us October 4th that the newest iPhone has double the batter life of its predecessor.
Of course, if the larger size is in fact a done deal, the growth could be for other things like an LTE radio, better antenna, or even more memory, though I doubt the latter. But, I really do think we could be finally getting a smartphone that lasts all day. Boy, I really hope so.
There has been much talk of Steve Jobs failures since his resigning as CEO of the company he co-founded in 1976. The interesting thing about these lists, such as the one below in the cnet video, is the lack of one of Apple’s biggest flop to say the least since Steve officially dropped the i from iCEO in the late 90s. That flop? The Apple iPod Hi-Fi. You remember, the very speaker system for your iPod that replaced Steve Jobs entire high-end audio system at his Palo Alto home. His words, not mine.
Audiophiles around the globe immediately commented on the quality of this $350 white speaker box and the comments weren’t pretty. Muddy high frequencies were soaring on most lists while the lack of an AM/FM radio found its way on others. The placement of the iPod, on the top of the Hi-Fi itself, was another criticism due to the expensive media player being susceptible to damage due to lack of protection that seemingly begged to be hit by a passing object. The inability to use anything but an iPod, and only the older ones on top of that, was another gripe from the masses.
What most likely killed Steve Jobs home stereo replacement, the iPod Hi-Fi, was its price. For less money, one could pickup a quality speaker from either Bose or Altec Lansing for example. Competing brands also offered auxiliary inputs as well as other features lacking in Steve’s beloved white box.
For me, when I first saw the iPod Hi-Fi and it’s associated price, I laughed (yes, a true LOL!) and figured it would quietly disappear soon after introduction. It didn’t take long for that to happen. Just a little over a year after its May introduction in 2006, Apple discontinued the iPod HI-Fi in late 2007 without apology. No one’s sure if Steve eventually put his home audio system back into his AV rack but chances are good he did.
Every year it’s the same, millions of people wake up early in the wee hours of the morning – before the sun even wakes up – with a belly full of turkey to venture into the malls of America for…a deal. A really, really, good deal. The day is affectionately called Black Friday. Not because it’s dark outside the morning after Thanksgiving Thursday but because it’s the first day merchants historically begin making a profit for the calendar year.
Stories of amazing finds are often reported but rarely had by most. Those too-hard-to-believe opportunities are the hype that draws the pack to the stores of crazed buyers such as last years TJ Maxx’s sale of $399 iPads which the store never carried before nor did after it sold out in seconds of opening its doors that cold Friday morning.
You can find true deals, however, without the need to wake up first thing in the morning and you don’t even have to leave your home. Most Black Friday sale items run the course of the weekend and are available online as well, according to the examiner.com. I know five years ago I purchased a full-sized side-by-side fridge and freezer from Sears for nearly half off on a relatively quiet Saturday afternoon the weekend of Turkey Day.
So, what will be the deals this year, you ask? Mark LoCastro at dealnews.com sent us a nice little chart (below) of some of its predictions for 2011.
Topping the list are HDTVs. Expect something to really happen here since Best Buys recent earnings showed these electronic toys to fall harder than a 60″ LCD off the wall onto your living room floor. The economy isn’t enticing anyone to spend money on TVs and with most homes filled with thin screens at this point, there is little reason to replace existing models. Well, if you do need to replace that 60″ that did fall onto your living room floor, dealnews thinks you’ll see them as low as $699.
Next on the list are laptops. The basic no thrill models will hover around $200 with nicer desktop replacement models around the $700 mark. Apple? dealnews thinks free shipping (you can get that most of the time anyway) and maybe a 5 to 10% discount on the iPods and MacBooks is what you’ll see. I accept that as well since that’s about what Apple has done in years past. In other words, don’t waste your time looking at Apple too long.
Amazon, Samsung, and Motorola, however, will want to save you some money and dealnews says watch out for some sweet tablet and eReader reductions.
The one I’m most excited about is $50 network enabled Blu-ray players. Sony has a nice unit that you can control with your iPhone. I hope to get that one…if priced right. 
Noise cancelling headphones are probably the best sort of headphones on the market today to help get rid of unwanted sounds. When choosing noise cancelling headphones there are actually two different types; you can choose from active noise cancelling headphones or passive noise cancelling headphones. Each pair works a little bit differently, however each pair has the same end result in mind, and that is successfully reducing unwanted noises.
Passive noise cancelling headphones work to muffle offending sounds. They have a special design known as circum-aural sound dampening. Basically this means the headphones are built into the shape of cups. These cups are then made to fit the entire perimeter of the ear. These cups are constructed of high density foam. This foam is specially made to muffle or reduce the decibels of certain sound waves. As a result, passive noise cancelling headphones can keep out noises as high as 20 decibels.
The second class of noise cancelling headphones is active ones. Active noise cancelling headphones are made of a design similar to that of the passive models. Again the circum-aural dampening design is used but another feature is added on to the active noise cancelling headphones. Technology has been created to be part of these headphones and they are designed to eliminate unwanted sounds.
A microphone is included in the active noise cancelling headphones to pick up sounds from the surrounding environment. These would be any sound that cannot be muffled out by the foam in the headphones. The sound is analyzed so the active noise cancelling headphones can then create the exact opposite sound. This sound is then made by the headphones and neither this sound, or the annoying sound, are ever heard by the ear.
There are significant implications when choosing active noise cancelling headphones. For instance, there is no longer a need to hike up the volume of a device in order to try to block out the background sounds. The active noise cancelling headphones do this job for you. This helps save your eardrums from music that is way too loud.
Between the two methods, active noise cancelling headphones are the better option to preserve your hearing. If you want anymore information visit lindy.co.uk.
First and foremost, our heart felt prayers go out to Steve Jobs and his health.
Wednesday, Steve Jobs announced his resignation as CEO of Apple, Inc, the most valuable company in the world. The tech world as well as the entire world was shocked. Jobs promised the board that when he could no longer function fully in his capacity as a CEO, he would step down. Wednesday, that promise was fulfilled and Steve Jobs stepped down. Interestingly enough, in his resignation letter, he asked the board to “execute” its plan for succession of his position indicating that his stepping down has long been planned out.
Jobs has carried Apple through much since his taking over as iCEO in 1997 and that past has shown a well laid out plan. From his severing of the Mac clone and the Newton to the bringing of the iMac and OS X, Jobs from the start since returning to Apple has proven he had a plan. With the iPod as an obvious calculated maneuver to boast Apple into the next dimension and the iTunes Store as the icing to that cake, Steve Jobs knew from the start what his attentions were for Apple. Further, Jobs admitted to the crowd in Moscone Center in 2010 that the iPad was a decade long endeavor, clearing indicating Jobs has well planned out Apple’s destiny.
Has Jobs gone the final step and planned out his removal from the company he saved and done it in a way that would minimize the damaging effect to the company’s stock by announcing his resignation just weeks before the iPhone 5 announcement? Think about it for a minute. By announcing the resignation just a few weeks before the biggest news of Apple of the year would be perfect. Give the media and public just a few weeks to chew on the fact that the greatest CEO has just stepped down and then – bam! – announce the iPhone 5 with all its new features. Distraction. After stories of long lines, sale outs, sale records, and then Christmas sales, months will pass by since Jobs stepping down and many will simply forget of the “devastating” effects it could cause. In a few more months, the iPad 3 will be announced and then more months of amazing stories. All of sudden we are nearly at the year mark of the fabled announcement and one realizes, ‘Hey, Apple is doing fine.’
Is Jobs announcement his last master piece or just one more amazing decision in a long line of more as the Chairman of the Board? Time will tell.
In-stat finds in a recent study that the vast majority of the United States will own a smartphone and/or a tablet in just a few years. With the insane growth of both Android and iOS, these figures are not surprising at the least. In fact, with the App Store and the Android Market Place and their plethora of applications that are preached about on TV shows, office watering holes, and even shown off at the kids soccer games, more and more of those stuck with a dumb phones are kindled to move up.
Take a read of the findings…
In-Stat Release
Video entertainment in the US now allows consumers to access more content, on more devices, and in more places, than ever before. In-Stat (www.in-stat.com) forecasts that within five years, over 200 million people in the US will own a smartphone and/or a tablet PC. This market trend will have a huge impact on how video entertainment is acquired and consumed.
“To track the use of mobile devices for entertainment purposes, In-Stat has introduced a unique research service called the US Multiscreen Video Database,” says Keith Nissen, Research Director. “The US Multiscreen Video Database quantifies consumption and interaction with video entertainment on mobile devices both outside and inside the home. This new research complements that of the US Digital Entertainment Database, which tracks the rapidly evolving online/pay-TV video market.”
The US Multiscreen Video Database is updated quarterly in Excel format and it quantifies:
Mobile device shipments
Mobile broadband subscriptions
Mobile video content and sources
Frequency of use
Primary devices being used
Location of use
Multiscreen forecasts including the adoption of social TV, device-to-device interworking, paid mobile apps/services, and advanced multiscreen network features
In addition, the US Multiscreen Video Database(#IN1105139MSV) is an invaluable trusted resource for market statistics and analysis. Quarterly updates track key metrics and five-year forecasts indicating that by 2015:
86% of smartphone/tablet users will view video on their mobile devices.
Nearly 60% of smartphone/tablet owners will also be viewing OTT video at home.
There will be nearly two smartphone/tablet owners per OTT household.
The average Apple household will have four Apple devices.
The average Google Android household will have over two Android devices.
So, here we are all happy now that Apple’s Mac OS X update, Lion. Yes, 10.7 has finally arrived. App Store users across the land clicked Install faster than you could say, “Dude, how long is this going to take?” Long? How about how much?
My Lion download was 4.78GB, nearly 5GB in size. That’s massive. I remember installing Windows 3.11 on my PC back in the early 90s from only three floppies. Floppies! Now I’m downloading the equivalent of a DVD movie? Shesh.
Fortunately, or maybe unfortunately, I am on a T1 and I can download to my hearts content. But what about all of those on satellite or cellular Internet connections? Granted, I understand they are the minority, but with the fast majority of us becoming accustomed to smartphones and tablets, more and more of us will start relying on mobile Internet. It won’t take long for us to snip our cords like we are doing with cable television and land-line phones.
There is a minority group of users on mobile Internet with caps. The number is not a small number, however. No, that number is a double digit number ranging from 10 percent to 15 percent when compared to wired broadband users. That puts a good chunk of people on limited Internet to upgrade. What will become of them? Is this the beginning of the revolution against these lines in the sand? Will providers make exceptions or become greedy with overage fees?
Apple is pushing the media-less distribution of software and the App Store was the beginning of the end for boxed software. Its release of Final Cut Pro X was the test for Apple to see if it could handle large amount of requests for a big fat download. While the downloads had better success than user feedback concerning the actually software, it didn’t quite push the bandwidth envelope like Lion.
Lion is the king of the jungle and its users will make a roar when Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, and the folks at Hughes ding its clients for going over their 3, 5, or 6GB caps. Hughes users actually have it worse with even lower limits.
Apple has commented that users without true broadband or with limits can stop by an Apple Store and log into the free Wi-Fi network to download Lion onto a laptop. I guess if you want to bring your desktop in, you could do that as well. But my problem with this solution is the wait time. Unless Apple has cached the download onto a proxy server, users will be looking at an hour or more for download depending on the amount of users on the network.
I do not see this as a good work around. Truth is, most people who are using a wireless broadband solution are doing so due to their location and the absence of a wired connection such as DSL or cable. In other words, they live out in the boonies. I doubt there’s an Apple Store near by. What once could be ordered from Amazon and delivered in a day or two now has turned into an ordeal for some to get the latest operating system from Apple.
Time will reveal just how bad of a problem this is and I doubt too much noise will be made. However, as Apple continues to push software through the Internet and as mobile connections, such as “4G”, become more common, the natives will become restless. Add in all that streaming from Hulu and Netflix and, ya, things are going to get messy for Verizon, AT&T, and others.
How will Apple respond to this? Time will tell.
Being behind the GSM folks is no fun, especially if some prime features are not making it to your phone. Couple that with the fact that CDMA can not perform simultaneous voice and data tasks like the GSM 3G iPhones do and now you even more separation. Also certain features, such as disabling Caller ID and Three-way Calling are not supported by CDMA iPhones.
While I despise AT&T and it’s horrible signal, dropped calls, slow data rates, and other issues, at least I have the most current iOS, full-feature set, and when not in an EDGE network – Hey Ha Bell, others are working on “4G” and you still don’t have a full 3G network! – I can chat while checking email or surf the web. These are all important to me and are enough to weigh the scales into the Death Stars favor, just by a tad, for me to carry on another year with it before going to Verizon.
Lastly, even leaving the Evil GSM carrier a year early with its termination fee would be cheaper than purchasing a new LTE iPhone with Verizon since it does not subsidize the iPhone year after year like AT&T.
I guess what it comes down to is over all, Verizon is inferior. Ouch, I don’t like saying that, but it’s the truth as it stands today. However, if Apple surprises us with the next generation iPhone supporting LTE, then heck, it’s good-bye AT&T.