Posts from — September 2008

Daniel Eran Dilger
The previous segment looked at how Apple is uniquely situated to deploy ubiquitous WiFi by offering iTunes affiliate commissions to encourage casual AirPort sharing. A second issue Apple is poised to solve relates to iPhone tethering. Here’s what the current problem is and how it could be solved.

Ideas for Apple: AirPort Mobile
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Google Video is hosting Adam Curtis’ “The Power of Nightmares,” a powerful BBC documentary on the rise of radical fundamentalism and how it has changed the world.

Daniel Eran Dilger
Until Apple introduces its new MacBook line there’s no new official hardware to talk about. That can’t stop us from considering major new areas of business available to the company though. One of the most promising relates to its AirPort wireless products and the potential for sharing ubiquitous WiFi service.
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Prince McLean, AppleInsider
Apple has volunteered to work with the state of Massachusetts to make iTunes 8 and the new iPod nano fully accessible, unlocking music, movies, and the free lectures and other educational material in iTunes U to blind users.

Apple makes iTunes 8, iTunes U content accessible to the blind

Kasper Jade & Prince McLean, AppleInsider
Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer, who’s watched his company’s PC business come under immense pressure from Apple, used a forum this week to discount the Mac maker’s potential for future share gains and designate its mobile phone business as a doomed initiative that will “lose out” in the long run.

Ballmer changes tune while dancing around Apple’s success

Daniel Eran Dilger
According to a Wall Street Journal report, the iPhone has completely flopped in Japan due to high prices and consumer apathy. This story has been widely syndicated, but its basis is questionable and its logic is strained. Here’s a look at why.
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Daniel Eran Dilger
Someone who I am no longer allowed to name has reported that my scoop about Microsoft’s “I’m a PC” ads using Macs was non-noteworthy, while also reporting that Microsoft’s canceled third Seinfeld ad was. The problem is that I reported both publicly a week ago, and the 90,000 visits to RDM on that first specific article (and untold traffic to other web sites who syndicated my reports) say otherwise.

[graphic thanks to reader KG]

Microsoft $300 Million Ads
Microsoft’s Mojave Attempts to Wet Vista’s Desert
Microsoft’s Mojave Experiment Exposes Serious Vista Problems
Paul Thurrott calls Apple “the Bad Guys” of Microsoft’s $300 Million Ads
Gates, Seinfeld and the $300 Million Ad to Nowhere
Microsoft’s $300 million ad campaign tumbles with new PC ads
Microsoft’s “Windows vs Walls” Ad Tries to Think Different, Fails
Microsoft’s “I’m a PC” Millions Actually Promoting the Mac
Microsoft’s ‘I’m a PC’ Campaign Keeps Getting Stranger (With Videos
I’m a PC too… touché
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Prince McLean, AppleInsider
T-Mobile’s new G1 smartphone based on Google’s Android platform has been positioned against Apple’s iPhone by the media, but that attempt to set up a dramatic showdown has fizzled as details show the two products aren’t very similar.

Breakdown: Android G1, iPhone share little in common
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Daniel Eran Dilger
According to the predictable opinion scribes, Apple is risking disaster in the iPhone App Store by imposing critical authority over the mobile software it chooses to sell. If it doesn’t stop turning ideas down, all that creative energy will abandon Apple and prop up other mobile platforms. They’re wrong, here’s why.
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Daniel Eran Dilger.
Warren Buffett outlined one reason why Microsoft is spending another $40 billion buying back its stock over the next half decade (and why HP is also spending $8 billion to buy back its own stock). I’ll outline another.
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Daniel Eran Dilger
In the final days of 1996, Apple signed the deal to acquire NeXT. Within six months, the company was effectively taken over and began to dramatically change course. America needs a similar transformation today.
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Daniel Eran Dilger
Google new Android mobile platform has been received by some members of the tech media with such glowing adoration that one might get the impression that Android is destined to waltz into the smartphone business just as surely as Bill Gates’ robotic dance killed off the Seinfeld ads. Here’s five aspects of Android reality that they’re failing to consider.
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Daniel Eran Dilger
In its efforts to hijack Apple’s Get a Mac ads and embrace and extend their message to suit itself, Microsoft apparently forgot to actually watch Apple’s clips. User Sigma902 remixed the two for comical effect (well, probably not so funny to Microsoft after it spent $300 million brainstorming it all), but his post managed to get waylaid in my spam filter. So here it is in full glory.

Microsoft $300 Million Ads
Microsoft’s Mojave Attempts to Wet Vista’s Desert
Microsoft’s Mojave Experiment Exposes Serious Vista Problems
Paul Thurrott calls Apple “the Bad Guys” of Microsoft’s $300 Million Ads
Gates, Seinfeld and the $300 Million Ad to Nowhere
Microsoft’s $300 million ad campaign tumbles with new PC ads
Microsoft’s “Windows vs Walls” Ad Tries to Think Different, Fails
Microsoft’s “I’m a PC” Millions Actually Promoting the Mac
Microsoft’s ‘I’m a PC’ Campaign Keeps Getting Stranger (With Videos
I’m a PC too… touché
[Read more →]

Prince McLean, AppleInsider
The 2008 iPod touch inches closer to the iPhone line while retaining its iPod branding. It gets new audio input and recording features, volume controls, a speaker, and a full assortment of bundled apps, including Nike+ support.

Review: Apple’s second-generation iPod touch

Daniel Eran Dilger
If subliminally advertising Apple’s Macs through implied comparisons wasn’t bad enough, Microsoft’s subsequent ads make the case of Apple’s Get a Mac message even harder in an expanded series of “I’m a PC” ads: “I am Not Alone,” “Stereotype,” and “Our CEO is a Raging Nutcase.”

Microsoft $300 Million Ads
Microsoft’s Mojave Attempts to Wet Vista’s Desert
Microsoft’s Mojave Experiment Exposes Serious Vista Problems
Paul Thurrott calls Apple “the Bad Guys” of Microsoft’s $300 Million Ads
Gates, Seinfeld and the $300 Million Ad to Nowhere
Microsoft’s $300 million ad campaign tumbles with new PC ads
Microsoft’s “Windows vs Walls” Ad Tries to Think Different, Fails
Microsoft’s “I’m a PC” Millions Actually Promoting the Mac
Microsoft’s ‘I’m a PC’ Campaign Keeps Getting Stranger (With Videos)
I’m a PC too… touché
[Read more →]