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| Thursday, May 24, 2007 |
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A blog (short for web log) is a website where entries are written in chronological order and displayed in reverse chronological order.
Blogs provide commentary or news on a particular subject such as food, politics, or local news; some function as more personal online diaries. A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, web pages, and other media related to its topic. The ability for readers to leave comments in an interactive format is an important part of many blogs. Most blogs are primarily textual, although some focus on photographs (photoblog), sketchblog, videos (vlog), music (MP3 blog), or audio (podcasting), and are part of a wider network of social media.
The term "blog" is a portmanteau of the words web and log (Web log). "Blog" can also be used as a verb, meaning "to blog".
1983-1990 (Pre-HTTP)
Usenet was the primary serial medium included in the original definition of the World Wide Web.[3] It featured the Moderated Newsgroup which allowed all posting in a newsgroup to be under the control of an individual or small group. Most such newsgroups were simply moderated discussion forums, however, in 1983-84, one exception, named mod.ber, was created, named after and managed by an individual: Brian E. Redman. Regularly, Redman and a few associates posted summaries of interesting postings and threads taking place elsewhere on the net. With its serial journal publishing style, presence on the pre-HTTP web and strong similarity to the common blog form which features links to interesting and cool places on the net chosen by the blogger, mod.ber had many of the characteristics commonly associated with the term Blog. It ceased operation after approximately 8 months.
1994–2001
The modern blog evolved from the online diary, where people would keep a running account of their personal lives. Most such writers called themselves diarists, journalists, or journalers. A few called themselves "escribitionists". The Open Pages webring included members of the online-journal community. Justin Hall, who began eleven years of personal blogging in 1994 while a student at Swarthmore College, is generally recognized as one of the earliest bloggers,[4] as is Jerry Pournelle.[citation needed]
Other forms of journals kept online also existed. A notable example was game programmer John Carmack's widely read journal, published via the finger protocol. Websites, including both corporate sites and personal homepages, had and still often have "What's New" or "News" sections, often on the index page and sorted by date. One example of a news based "weblog" is the Drudge Report founded by the self-styled maverick reporter Matt Drudge, though apparently Drudge dislikes this classification. Another is the Institute for Public Accuracy which began posting news releases featuring several news-pegged one-paragraph quotes several time a week beginning in 1998. One noteworthy early precursor to a blog was the tongue-in-cheek personal website that was frequently updated by Usenet legend Kibo.
Early weblogs were simply manually updated components of common websites. However, the evolution of tools to facilitate the production and maintenance of web articles posted in reverse chronological order made the publishing process feasible to a much larger, less technical, population. Ultimately, this resulted in the distinct class of online publishing that produces blogs we recognize today. For instance, the use of some sort of browser-based software is now a typical aspect of "blogging". Blogs can be hosted by dedicated blog hosting services, or they can be run using blog software, such as WordPress, Movable Type, blogger or LiveJournal, or on regular web hosting services, such as DreamHost.
The term "weblog" was coined by Jorn Barger on 17 December 1997. The short form, "blog," was coined by Peter Merholz, who jokingly broke the word weblog into the phrase we blog in the sidebar of his blog Peterme.com in April or May of 1999.[5][6][7] This was quickly adopted as both a noun and verb ("to blog," meaning "to edit one's weblog or to post to one's weblog").
After a slow start, blogging rapidly gained in popularity: the site Xanga, launched in 1996, had only 100 diaries by 1997, but over 20 million as of December 2005. Blog usage spread during 1999 and the years following, being further popularized by the near-simultaneous arrival of the first hosted blog tools:
Open Diary launched in October 1998, soon growing to thousands of online diaries. Open Diary innovated the reader comment, becoming the first blog community where readers could add comments to other writers' blog entries.
Brad Fitzpatrick, a well known blogger started LiveJournal in March 1999.
Andrew Smales created Pitas.com in July 1999 as an easier alternative to maintaining a "news page" on a website, followed by Diaryland in September 1999, focusing more on a personal diary community.[8]
Evan Williams and Meg Hourihan (Pyra Labs) launched blogger.com in August 1999 (purchased by Google in February 2003)
Blogging combined the personal web page with tools to make linking to other pages easier — specifically permalinks, blogrolls and TrackBacks. This, together with weblog search engines enabled bloggers to track the threads that connected them to others with similar interests.
2001–2004
Several broadly popular American blogs emerged in 2001: Andrew Sullivan's AndrewSullivan.com, Ron Gunzburger's Politics1.com, Taegan Goddard's Political Wire, Glenn Reynolds' Instapundit, Charles Johnson's Little Green Footballs, and Jerome Armstrong's MyDD — all blogging primarily on politics (two earlier popular American political blogs were Bob Somerby's Daily Howler launched in 1998 and Mickey Kaus' Kausfiles launched in 1999).
By 2001, blogging was enough of a phenomenon that how-to manuals began to appear, primarily focusing on technique. The importance of the blogging community (and its relationship to larger society) increased rapidly. Established schools of journalism began researching blogging and noting the differences between journalism and blogging.
In 2002, Jerome Armstrong's friend and sometime business partner Markos Moulitsas Zúniga began DailyKos. With up to a million visits a day during peak events, it has now become one of the Internet's most popular blogs.
Also in 2002, many blogs focused on comments by U.S. Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott. Senator Lott, at a party honoring U.S. Senator Strom Thurmond, praised Senator Thurmond by suggesting that the United States would have been better off had Thurmond been elected president. Lott's critics saw these comments as a tacit approval of racial segregation, a policy advocated by Thurmond's 1948 presidential campaign. This view was reinforced by documents and recorded interviews dug up by bloggers. (See Josh Marshall's Talking Points Memo.) Though Lott's comments were made at a public event attended by the media, no major media organizations reported on his controversial comments until after blogs broke the story. Blogging helped to create a political crisis that forced Lott to step down as majority leader.
The impact of this story gave greater credibility to blogs as a medium of news dissemination. Though often seen as partisan gossips, bloggers sometimes lead the way in bringing key information to public light, with mainstream media having to follow their lead. More often, however, news blogs tend to react to material already published by the mainstream media.
Since 2002, blogs have gained increasing notice and coverage for their role in breaking, shaping, and spinning news stories. The Iraq war saw bloggers taking measured and passionate points of view that go beyond the traditional left-right divide of the political spectrum.
Blogging by established politicians and political candidates, to express opinions on war and other issues, cemented blogs' role as a news source. (See Howard Dean and Wesley Clark.) Meanwhile, an increasing number of experts blogged, making blogs a source of in-depth analysis. (See Daniel Drezner and J. Bradford DeLong.)
The second Iraq war was the first "blog war" in another way: Iraqi bloggers gained wide readership, and one, Salam Pax, published a book of his blog. Blogs were also created by soldiers serving in the Iraq war. Such "warblogs" gave readers new perspectives on the realities of war, as well as often offering different viewpoints from those of official news sources.
Blogging was used to draw attention to obscure news sources. For example, bloggers posted links to traffic cameras in Madrid as a huge anti-terrorism demonstration filled the streets in the wake of the March 11 attacks.
Bloggers began to provide nearly-instant commentary on televised events, creating a secondary meaning of the word "blogging": to simultaneously transcribe and editorialize speeches and events shown on television. (For example, "I am blogging Rice's testimony" means "I am posting my reactions to Condoleezza Rice's testimony into my blog as I watch her on television.") Real-time commentary is sometimes referred to as "liveblogging."
2004–present
In 2004, the role of blogs became increasingly mainstream, as political consultants, news services and candidates began using them as tools for outreach and opinion forming. Even politicians not actively campaigning, such as the UK's Labour Party's MP Tom Watson, began to blog to bond with constituents.
Minnesota Public Radio broadcast a program by Christopher Lydon and Matt Stoller called "The blogging of the President," which covered a transformation in politics that blogging seemed to presage. The Columbia Journalism Review began regular coverage of blogs and blogging. Anthologies of blog pieces reached print, and blogging personalities began appearing on radio and television. In the summer of 2004, both United States Democratic and Republican Parties' conventions credentialed bloggers, and blogs became a standard part of the publicity arsenal. Mainstream television programs, such as Chris Matthews' Hardball, formed their own blogs. Merriam-Webster's Dictionary declared "blog" as the word of the year in 2004.[9]
In 2004, Global Voices Online, a site which "aggregates, curates, and amplifies the global conversation online – shining light on places and people other media often ignore" surfaced, bringing to light bloggers from around the world. Today, the site has a relationship with Reuters and is responsible for breaking many global news stories.
Blogs were among the driving forces behind the "Rathergate" scandal, to wit: (television journalist) Dan Rather presented documents (on the CBS show 60 Minutes) that conflicted with accepted accounts of President Bush's military service record. Bloggers declared the documents to be forgeries and presented evidence and arguments in support of that view, and CBS apologized for what it said were inadequate reporting techniques (see Little Green Footballs). Many bloggers view this scandal as the advent of blogs' acceptance by the mass media, both as a news source and opinion and as means of applying political pressure.
Some bloggers have moved over to other media. The following bloggers (and others) have appeared on radio and television: Duncan Black (known widely by his pseudonym, Atrios), Glenn Reynolds (Instapundit), Markos Moulitsas Zúniga (Daily Kos), Alex Steffen (Worldchanging) and Ana Marie Cox (Wonkette). In counter-point, Hugh Hewitt exemplifies a mass media personality who has moved in the other direction, adding to his reach in "old media" by being an influential blogger.
Some blogs were an important news source during the December 2004 Tsunami such as Medecins Sans Frontieres, which used SMS text messaging to report from affected areas in Sri Lanka and Southern India. Similarly, during Hurricane Katrina in August 2005 and the aftermath a few blogs which were located in New Orleans, including the Interdictor and Gulfsails were able to maintain power and an Internet connection and disseminate information that was not covered by the Main Stream Media.
In the United Kingdom, The Guardian newspaper launched a redesign in September 2005, which included a daily digest of blogs on page 2. Also in June 2006, BBC News launched a weblog for its editors, following other news companies.[10]
In January 2005, Fortune magazine listed eight bloggers that business people "could not ignore": Peter Rojas, Xeni Jardin, Ben Trott, Mena Trott, Jonathan Schwartz, Jason Goldman, Robert Scoble, and Jason Calacanis.
In 2007, Tim O'Reilly proposed a Blogger's Code of Conduct.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BlogLabels: Blog, Blogger, Google, Internet |
| posted by Perimbean @ 11:33 AM |
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| Wednesday, May 23, 2007 |
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Sony turning PSP into Apple iPhone competitor
BT and Sony reach deal to transform the PSP into a mobile phone
Jonny Evans
Sony will transform its popular PlayStation Portable (PSP) into a mobile phone and internet appliance.
BT and Sony Computer Entertainment Europe (SCEE) this morning announced a deal to transform the PSP by adding wireless broadband communications functions, including high quality handheld video calls, voice calls and messaging.
The two companies have inked a four-year contract to develop extra features for the PSP, which has sold 24 million units worldwide and 8 million in Europe.
BT will be SCEE's lead wireless communications partner across SCEE territories and is already working with other communications providers to deliver the new services, which will launch initially in the UK
BT has developed the ability to provide high quality video and voice calls over the internet as part of its 21CN project. This partnership will integrate PSP with already available BT Broadband video and voice products.
David Reeves, president of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, said: “It's very exciting for us to be partnering with BT on such a unique project. The opportunity to combine our market leading expertise with BT’s knowledge in communications opens up many possibilities and we look forward to bringing many exciting communication functions to PSP fans.”
http://www.macworld.co.uk/digitallifestyle/news/index.cfm?newsid=18107&pagtype=allchandateLabels: iPhone, PSP, Sony |
| posted by Perimbean @ 6:41 PM |
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Apple iPhone on AT&T for five years?
Posted May 22nd 2007 1:53PM by Ryan Block
There are carrier exclusivity agreements, and there are carrier exclusivity agreements -- and Apple's iPhone deal must have been pretty sweet for Cupertino to guarantee their new hotness to AT&T and AT&T alone for five friggin years. USA Today reports the supposed half-decade deal precludes Apple from developing a CDMA handset in that time (duh), meaning that if you live in the US and don't want to move to AT&T, it's going to be 2012 before you even have a chance at an iPhone. Better still, Today reports that Cingular's arch-nemesis Verizon is claiming to have an iPhone-killer in the wings. According to Denny Strigl, Verizon CEO, "We do have a very good response in the mill. You'll see that from us in the late summer." It's war, people, make no mistake about it.
http://www.engadget.com/2007/05/22/apple-iphone-on-atandt-for-five-years/Labels: Apple, iPhone |
| posted by Perimbean @ 6:38 PM |
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| Monday, May 21, 2007 |
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AMD unveils 'Puma' notebook platform
By Antone Gonsalves, TechWeb
21 May 2007 10:47 AEST
US-based Advanced Micro Devices on Friday introduced its next-generation Turion notebook platform, which includes a new processor and chipset designed to compete with Intel's Centrino-branded products.
The overall platform, codenamed Puma, is expected to be available in high-end notebooks in mid-2008. The package is comprised AMD's 64 X2 dual-core "Griffin" processor and a new mobile chipset, called the RS780. The chip package will include support for 802.11n, HyperTransport 3.0, and PCI Express 2.0.
Different from previous Turion processors, the Puma package supports DirectX version 10 (DX10), which is Microsoft's latest graphics application programming interface. DX10 is exclusive to Windows Vista, the latest version of Microsoft's operating system.
Intel won't have support for DX10 in notebooks until it ships a chipset codenamed Montevina in the second half of 2008. Intel's chips, however, already have technology for faster booting of the operating system and loading of applications.
AMD also said it focused on improved energy consumption on Puma. To do that, the chipmaker said it will place the two cores in Griffin on separate power planes, so they can be managed independently.
If a job requires only one core, for example, the other can be placed on idle.
Puma is also expected to compete with Intel's Centrino chips in the realm of hard drive support. AMD's future mobile processor package includes support for hybrid hard drives (HHD) which can speed up boot times and take advantage of larger memory cache sizes.
The Puma platform is an interim step toward AMD's goal of combining the core and graphics processing units on one piece of silicon. Codenamed Fusion, the combo microprocessor is scheduled to ship in 2009. Fusion stems from AMD's US$5.4 billion (A$6.5 billion) acquisition of ATI Technologies last July.
http://www.itnews.com.au/newsstory.aspx?CIaNID=52464&src=site-marqLabels: AMD, DirectX, Intel, Puma |
| posted by Perimbean @ 11:00 AM |
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Apple iPhone gets thumbs-up from FCC
By Shaun Nichols
21 May 2007 10:22AM
Apple's iPhone came a step closer to reaching the hands of eager US consumers today after the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced that it had approved the device.
The approval means that Apple has the green light to use the device for calls within the wireless spectrum, and can start selling it whenever it is ready. The company said that it still plans to release the iPhone in late June.
The FCC requires that all devices using the wireless spectrum are tested and approved before being released. Regulations limit the amount of power output and spectrum use in wireless devices.
The agency has made the test results publicly available, although sensitive information such as internal photographs and the user manual were not posted at Apple's request.
Development of the much-heralded iPhone has been a bumpy road for Apple. The company faced a naming dispute with Cisco in February, and development problems led Apple to divert resources causing the delay of Mac OS X 10.5.
Most recently, rumours about a possible iPhone delay sent the company's stock tumbling.
http://www.pcauthority.com.au/news.aspx?CIaNID=52476Labels: 10.5, Apple, FCC, iPhone, OS X |
| posted by Perimbean @ 10:25 AM |
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| Wednesday, May 16, 2007 |
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Analyst warns of Apple TV failure
16:00, May 15th 2007 by Ben Parfitt
Forrester says paid for video services are “dead ends”
Despite Apple’s recent push behind its existing iTunes Video service and upcoming Apple TV set-top box, US analyst Forrester has warned that the paid for video download market is destined to fail.
The Inquirer reports that Forrester’s James McQuivey believes that the content offered by the services will soon be eclipsed by television and cable networks as they ramp up their content on demand offerings.
Stating that streaming ad-funded content was to prove the dominant model, McQuivey adds that Apple’s model, as it stands, will eventually “go the way of the dodo”.
http://www.pcretailmag.com/news/27061/Analyst-warns-of-Apple-TV-failureLabels: Apple, iTunes, TV, video |
| posted by Perimbean @ 9:44 AM |
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Apple Updates MacBook with Faster Processors
The new MacBooks come in three models--all include a built-in iSight video camera and the latest generation of 802.11n wireless networking.
Jim Dalrymple, Macworld
Tuesday, May 15, 2007 8:00 AM PDT
Apple on Tuesday updated its consumer MacBook computers adding faster processors, 1GB RAM and larger hard drives in all models.
The new MacBooks come in three models — a white 2.0GHz and 2.16GHz, and a black 2.16 GHz model. All of the MacBooks include a built-in iSight video camera and the latest generation of 802.11n wireless networking. The notebooks also come with iLife ‘06 and Mac OS X 10.4.9 Tiger.
“Our Mac business is doing just great right now and the MacBook is a huge part of that,” Todd Benjamin, Apple’s director, Portables Product Marketing, told Macworld. Quoting data from market research firm NPD, Benjamin said that Apple now holds more than 10 percent of the U.S. notebook market.
The MacBook, which turns one year old tomorrow, has seen a significant speed boost since its introduction. The new models run between 24 percent and 37 percent faster than the original models. As Benjamin points out a lot of that performance boost has to do with the move to Intel Core 2 Duo chips.
The 2.0GHz 13-inch white MacBook costs $1,099 and comes with an 80GB hard drive and a slot-loading Combo drive; the $1,299 2.16GHz white MacBook comes with a 120GB hard drive and a slot-load 8x SuperDrive with double-layer support; and the $1,499 2.16GHz 13-inch black MacBook has a 160GB drive and a slot-load 8x SuperDrive with double-layer support. There are also several build-to-order options available from the online Apple Store, including larger hard drives.
“Our consumer users are big fans of iPhoto, iMovie and buying music on iTunes, so there is a big demand for more storage,” said Benjamin.
Apple explained that instead of moving to Intel’s new Santa Rosa chip for this update, the company decided to focus on the value of the MacBook line.
“MacBook already offers some of the technologies available in Santa Rosa,” said Benjamin. “We decided with this update that we would add more value with processor speeds, RAM and hard drive space. We feel this is the prefect line-up for the Spring.”
http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,131871-c,macnotebooks/article.html |
| posted by Perimbean @ 9:00 AM |
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| Monday, May 14, 2007 |
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Microsoft, SanDisk take smart USB drives back to school
Rick Merritt
EE Times
(05/11/2007 1:08 PM EDT)
SAN JOSE, Calif. — Microsoft and SanDisk are hitting the re-set button on the move to smart USB flash drives. The duo announced Friday (May 11) they will roll out next year new hardware and software to create drives that can securely carry and launch both data and applications, giving users a portable version of their desktop they can take plug in to any computer.
The move aims to replace as many as five different approaches now in use, including an effort called U3 launched in early 2005 and based on proprietary software from SanDisk running on its embedded flash controllers. In early 2006 flash drives maker Lexar Media Inc. debuted a competing approach using code from Israeli software developer Ceedo Technologies Ltd.
Although tens of millions of USB flash drives ship every year, few of them to date are so-called smart drives that can launch applications software. In part that's because consumers do not yet understand the value of such products or are not willing to pay a premium for them.
Microsoft and SanDisk are forming a new group to license their hardware and software technology that is behind the new effort with the two companies sharing revenues from the deals. SanDisk said it will launch in the second half of 2008 new versions of its flash cards and Cruzer USB drives using the new hardware and software, including a so-called TrustedFlash security technology, it is developing with Microsoft.
SanDisk claimed as many as 20,000 software developers are working with its existing U3 approach. The flash maker said it will continue to support the U3 organization and product until the new offering is released to the public next year. Both companies said developers will be offered a migration path to modify existing U3 applications to run on the new offering, with Microsoft opening discussions immediately about licensing its software. The new offering will let users carry on a flash card or USB drive data, apps and an environment with their personal preferences. The cards and drives will work on any Windows XP or Vista system
"We are excited to work with SanDisk on this next-generation experience, which will allow hardware manufacturers to better differentiate their products and provide an even richer software and services experience for customers," said Will Poole, corporate vice president of the market expansion group at Microsoft in a prepared statement.
At the Consumer Electronics Show in January 2006, Lexar showed its USB Flash drives running a handful of programs using software from startup Ceedo Technologies. Lexar claimed the software would become an industry standard available in products later that year.
The USB Flash Drive Alliance, a consortium of USB flash drive makers led by Lexar, said last September it would endorse "a new generation" of USB smart drives that let users run programs. However, it provided no details at that time. Microsoft is a member of the USB Flash Drive Alliance.
The Alliance now says it will not endorse any specific approach to creating smart USB flash drives, but promote the overall market for them instead. Steffen Hellmold, chairman of the Alliance and a senior executive at Lexar said he is aware of as many as five different software approaches to enabling smart USB drives. Some like Ceedo work with any application while others like the U3 approach require modifying Windows apps, something Microsoft disdains.
"We welcome the Microsoft and SanDisk announcement as something that could further expand the market for smart drives," said Hellmold.
The two companies did not inform the Alliance of their plans before their announcement today.
Hellmold said at least two organizations may be working on formal standards for smart USB drives. They include the mass storage devices working group in the USB Implementers Forum and the IEEE P1667 group developing a standard for password and certificate security technologies for use with USB drives and other devices. The IEEE group was launched in early 2005 and is chaired by a SanDisk engineer.
http://www.eetimes.com/news/latest/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=199501125Labels: flash drives, Microsoft, SanDisk, U3, USB |
| posted by Perimbean @ 10:00 AM |
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Apple grabs 10% of laptop market
Posted on May 13th, 2007 by Jonathan Schlaffer
iPod domination is not enough for Apple, they’re here to conquer the world and conquer it they shall. With figures just released from NPD group, sales of Mac based laptops were up for the month of March by itself but still slightly down from February.
Apple was fourth on the list for that month ahead of Compaq but behind Gateway, Toshiba and HP. For Apple a 10% share of laptop sales is certainly a good thing and hopefully it will only go up from there. Now, if they could only start competing in the price arena that would help things along.
As for the desktop market, Apple has almost 8% worth of sales but again is behind the same companies that are leading in the laptop market. AppleInsider has the full report from NPD.
That being said, I don’t know what can account for this, it simply is the wrong time to buy a new Mac, especially a laptop. With the new LED display technology due to appear on the MacBook and MacBook Pro line not to mention the inclusion of Intel’s “Santa Rosa” aka Centrino Pro platform on the laptops, why are people buying?
There is also the issue of Leopard not being released until October which even if you did manage to pick up a MacBook Pro with the Santa Rosa chips in them you would still need to wait until June which is the rumored release for the LED displays and until October for Leopard otherwise you will be a generation and a half behind. You don’t WANT to be left behind, do you? Of course not so just wait until October.
When it comes down to it none of this really means that Apple has neither an 8% share of the desktop market nor a 10% share of the laptop market, it’s just sales figures but for Apple impressive figures.
Between now and October I think sales are going to fall off as people wait for the new technologies and the release of Leopard which Apple could mitigate some by offering an “Express Upgrade” once it releases, I think someone tried that to great effect.
http://mac.blorge.com/2007/05/13/apple-grabs-10-of-laptop-market/Labels: Apple, Laptop, market |
| posted by Perimbean @ 2:01 AM |
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Apple TV coming to India next month
Apple would be launching their Apple TV product in the Indian market sometime next month. The launch seems to be a non event for the Indian consumer as we do not have the iTunes store in India and high definition televisions are a rare commodity in this country as well.
The announcement of the availability was made sometime back and they would begin the shipments to the Indian market next month.
Sanjay Chordia, an Apple premium reseller revealed that the company would be selling the device in India for Rs 18,700 and be available across the country. They would also sell it through their Imagine stores in the country.
The device comes loaded with a 40 GB hard disk drive that can locally store 50 hours of movies, 9,000 songs and 25,000 pictures. Considering it is compatible with both Windows and Mac platforms, it might find a couple of buyers here in India
In India, the Apple TV’s sole rival would be the Microsoft’s Windows Media Center PC.
http://news.techwhack.com/5766/apple-tv-india/Labels: Apple, Center, lifestyle, Media, Microsoft, TV |
| posted by Perimbean @ 1:59 AM |
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AT&T gifts iPhone, Apple contemplates 3rd party software access
Posted May 13th 2007 12:52PM by Conrad Quilty-Harper
Filed under: Cellphones
Your latest "anything iPhone related happens" post is here, this time with the news that AT&T has given away an iPhone to a member of the public, coupled with a recent statement that Apple is wrestling with the decision of whether to allow 3rd parties to develop iPhone apps. It's rather odd that the first iPhone to make it into the hands of a mere mortal didn't cost its new owner a single cent, but in a video taken at the commencement ceremony at West Texas A&M University, the CEO of AT&T Stan Sigman gave away an iPhone to one Dr. O'Brien. (At least, that's what the very crackly movie of the speech shot on a Treo appears to indicate.) The statement about the 3rd party iPhone software comes from a similarly authoritative voice -- Steve Jobs -- and through a clearer medium -- a phone-in of a recent Apple shareholders meeting. Jobs said that the company "is wrestling with" the decision to allow external developers to create their own software for the iPhone. Our wish is for Apple to open up the iPhone, or at least compromise and allow developers to create their own widgets. In the phone industry, standing still (which is effectively what Apple would be doing with a closed iPhone) is not an option: or, maybe it is. Hmm, we seem to have missed the smackdown.
http://www.engadget.com/2007/05/13/atandt-gifts-iphone-apple-contemplates-3rd-party-software-access/Labels: Apple, gifts, iPhone |
| posted by Perimbean @ 1:57 AM |
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| Saturday, May 12, 2007 |
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Apple Patent Hints At Touch Screen For More Than iPhone
The filing sparked speculation among tech bloggers that Apple could be considering the use of a touch screen on the iPod.
By Antone Gonsalves
InformationWeek
May 11, 2007 07:26 PM
Apple has filed for a patent that indicates the company may be considering the use of a touch screen on other devices besides the iPhone, which is scheduled to ship next month.
The patent request, filed Thursday with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, shows blueprints for placing a touch-sensitive screen on the backside of a device for control purposes, leaving the front side for presenting information appropriate to the device, such as video.
The filing sparked speculation among tech bloggers that Apple could be considering the use of a touch screen on the iPod. Apple, which has a policy not to comment on future product plans, was not immediately available for comment.
According to the patent application, the touch screen would have a cursor that would follow a person's finger. Once the cursor was above a control element, the user could apply pressure to activate the associated function. As a result, the device could be operated with a single hand.
The front of the device would be used for displaying video, graphic or textual information, while the back would have the control elements, which could include a QWERTY keypad, sliders, and control wheels, the application said. Apple listed a number of devices that could use the backside touch screen, including handheld computer systems, tablet computer systems, personal digital assistants, portable video or audio playback systems, and mobile telephones.
To date, Apple has only announced plans for a touch screen on its iPhone, which the company unveiled in January at Macworld in San Francisco. The iPhone introduction has drawn lots of attention toward Apple, and its hopes of creating a product line that matches the popularity of the iPod.
Rivals looking to grab a bit of the spotlight are claiming to have their own surprises coming. Ed Zander, chairman and chief executive of Motorola, said this week at the Software 2007 Conference that his company would be showing a device next week that's a "media monster," capable of running video at 30 frames per second off secure digital memory cards pre-loaded with movies.
http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=199501265Labels: Apple, iPhone, patent |
| posted by Perimbean @ 4:15 PM |
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Pacemakers Threatened by iPod Interference
By Frederick Lane
May 11, 2007 8:54AM
An iPod-versus-pacemaker study by a Michigan student revealed that three different types of interference can occur between an iPod and a pacemaker: Two types of iPod interference, oversensing and telemetry interference, were the most persistent, while the third type, complete pacemaker inhibition, happened in just 1.2 percent of patients.
Memo to Baby Boomers: An Apple a day might keep the doctor away, but your iPod might send you to the emergency room. On Thursday, a 17-year-old Michigan high school student named Jay Thaker presented a paper on iPod and pacemaker interference to the 2007 annual meeting of the Heart Rhythm Society in Denver, Colorado. His study concluded that iPods caused various types of interference in pacemakers in 50 percent of the patients tested.
The population tested in Thaker's study had a mean age of 76.1 (plus or minus 8.6 years), which is admittedly not the prime demographic for iPods and other MP3 players. However, the results of the study give some indication of the kinds of issues that will arise as those currently in their 40s and 50s start to develop their own personal relationships with cardiologists.
Testing for Interference
Thaker, the son of an electrophysiologist and a rheumatologist, worked with several doctors from Michigan State University and the University of Michigan to test his theory of interference. Four different iPods -- a third-generation MP3 player, a video iPod, a photo iPod, and a Nano -- were held 2 inches above the chests of 83 patients with pacemakers. Each iPod was held there for five to ten seconds while a technician monitored electrocardiogram and pacemaker telemetry equipment.
The study revealed that three different types of interference can occur between an iPod and a pacemaker. Two types, oversensing (spurious sensing of atrial/ventricular events) and telemetry interference, were the most persistent and were measured in more than 50 percent of the patients. The third, most serious type of interference -- pacemaker inhibition, or a failure to pace the heart when pacing was expected -- occurred in just 1.2 percent of the patients.
Dr. Krit Jongnarangsin, assistant professor in the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine at the University of Michigan, and one of Thaker's collaborators, told the ABC affiliate in Denver that "[i]f the pacemaker is inhibited by the iPod and the patient does not have their own rhythm, they can be in serious problem."
Training New Heart Doctors
Ironically, iPods are becoming a valuable tool in the training of new cardiologists. At the University of Michigan, in fact, Dr. Richard M. Judge has developed a podcast called "Electrocardiogram of the Week," which third-year medical students can store on their iPods to practice reading and interpreting electrocardiograms.
Over at Temple University School of Medicine and Hospital, Dr. Michael Barrett, a clinical associate professor of medicine and cardiologist, has recorded several heartbeats with irregularities and stored them as MP3s.
Medical students can download the recordings to their iPods and use them to practice "cardiac auscultation," or listening to the heart through a stethoscope. Dr. Barrett has found that when physicians and students practice first with the recordings, their ability to identify specific heart murmurs is twice as good.
Dr. Barrett is working with the American College of Cardiology to make the heart recordings available online and on CD, so physicians could listen to them during their commutes to and from work.
http://www.newsfactor.com/news/Pacemakers-Threatened-by-iPods/story.xhtml?story_id=023001BY3XS8Labels: Apple, ipod, mp3 |
| posted by Perimbean @ 4:00 PM |
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| Wednesday, May 09, 2007 |
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Apple Sends Out WWDC Teaser EMails
Apple has sent out brief teaser emails to developers inviting them to WWDC 2007. The email reads:
See the future.
Then take it home with you.
The Leopard beta. Available first at WWDC.
At the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference, we're planning to show you a feature-complete version of Mac OS X Leopard, and you can take home a beta copy. Be the first to get your hands on the Leopard beta and get a huge head start on development. Register now for WWDC 2007 -- it's your ticket to the future of Mac OS X.
Apple had previously announced that they would be providing a "feature-complete" version of Leopard at WWDC. "Feature-complete" presumably indicates that Apple would finally be revealing the "secret" features that they have been hinting at for months.
In the email, Apple also lets developers know that they had extended early registration until May 11th.
http://www.macrumors.com/2007/05/08/apple-sends-our-wwdc-teaser-emails/Labels: Apple |
| posted by Perimbean @ 1:15 PM |
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Microsoft, Apple Work Together…WTF?!
Hell hath not frozen over, folks. Microsoft, with the help of Apple, released a patch today for Vista users who have been getting corrupted iPods upon ejection. I just about spewed my drank all over my screen when I read this quote from Vista product manager Nick White:
“The long and short of it is this: Apple and Windows have partnered together to ensure a great experience in using Windows Vista with iTunes and the iPod, and both companies recommend you download this update.”
Download that badboy now or you can wait until May 22 when it will automatically be downloaded for Vista users.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/936824/en-us
http://crunchgear.com/2007/05/09/microsoft-apple-work-togetherwtf/Labels: Apple, ipod, iTunes, Microsoft, Vista |
| posted by Perimbean @ 1:00 PM |
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| Saturday, May 05, 2007 |
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Creative’s new ZEN Stone: it rocks!
By Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Saturday, 05 May 2007
Sure, it might be inspired by the iPod Shuffle with no screen and its tiny size, but as an iPod owner this is one Creative mp3 player I’d actually want to buy, especially at the price!
Creative offer units that look similar to the iPod Video and the iPod Nano, along with a larger screen sized widescreen model with a screen similar to that found on the Sony PSP, along with some variants in between, and despite a bigger range with more features, are way back in the number 2 spot, fighting it out for the rest of the market share with other brands including Sony, SanDisk, Toshiba, iRiver, Samsung, LG and others.
So can Creative do any better this time? It looks like the ZEN Stone might very well be the coolest mp3 player to come from Creative for some time, at approximately half the price of the iPod Shuffle with a smooth and shiny ‘stone’ design in a range of funky colors – black, white, red, blue, pink and green.
Priced at $69 Singaporean dollars and available now, which equates to approximately US $45 (although I’ve seen that the US retail price is supposed to be US $40, with a £28 price in British pounds), the unit has 1Gb of memory which is enough for 250 songs encoded as 128k mp3 files or 500 songs encoded as 64k WMA files although unfortunately there is no AAC support. Audible 2 and 3 encoded audio-books are also supported.
The internal lithium-ion battery lasts for up to 10 hours of continuous playback, with initial reports suggesting the playback time is accurate. The unit connects to PCs and Macs via USB 1.1 and preferably USB 2.0, and needs no drivers – it installs as a mass storage device.
This means that you can copy mp3 and wma files directly to the unit – and you can copy them off the unit back onto your PC without hassles. The ZEN Stone plays the songs sequentially or via a switch, can play them in random order. This is just like the iPod Shuffle, and as with the Shuffle, there is no LCD screen - only a logical assortment of playback buttons to play, pause, fast forward, rewind and skip tracks.
Optional accessories include “attractive translucent skins that include a clip and are available in five matching colors, a sporty armband that comes with a skin, and even a fashionable keychain with a tiny case that carries the player”.
The Skins with clip are $15 Singaporean dollars each (US $9.90), the Armband and Skin in black is available S$29.00 (US $19.15) and the Keychain Case is available for S$25.00 (US $16.50).
Sim Wong Hoo, chairman and CEO of Creative says that “The Creative ZEN Stone, at just S$69, opens up a huge new market for MP3 players. This is an incredible price for everyone to get a superior quality MP3 player capable of holding up to 500 songs. Whether it is your only player or a second player to take with you anywhere, the low price lets you think of MP3 players in a whole new way. You can loan it to a friend just like you would a CD or a mix tape and not have to worry about it, but you'll like it so much that you'll want another so you always have one with you.”
http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=5065777Labels: aac, Apple, Creative, ipod, mp3, nano, player, PSP, Sony, wma, zen |
| posted by Perimbean @ 10:00 AM |
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| Thursday, May 03, 2007 |
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Danes 'prove' sudden iBook death syndrome
Danish turnover Apple
By Austin Modine in Mountain View
The Consumer Complaints Board in Denmark claims to have evidence of a original design defect in the iBook G4 that has been hotly denied by Apple.
Many iBook 64 customers complained that after about one year's use, the laptop acquired the nasty habit of powering down and greeting the users with a blank screen and a loud whirring fan on bootup.
Laptop dissectors soon fingered a logic board failure for the sc. Creative, but decidedly not iSleek methods to fix the problem were invented from c-clamping their shiny white laptop on a table to squeeze the logic board to shoving cardboard shims in place in order to make it reboot.
Apple had rejected attempts to have the fault repaired or returned on the grounds there is no question of a design fault.
But now the Danes have something to say about that. Just as Denmark forced Sweden to pay a war indemnity of 1 million silver riksdaler after the 1611-1613 Kalmar War, they hope to squeeze some cash out of Apple.
After regular complaints, the National Consumer Agency in Denmark sent a suspect iMac G4 to Delta, an independent electronics laboratory to have it examined. (In much the same way Denmark's Niels Bohr examined quantum theory to develop the first working model for the atom in 1913.)
The investigation showed solder joints between two components had broken, so a current could no longer pass through them. The breakage was found to occur because the joints loosen slightly every time the computer is turned on and off.
"It is a bit like a person dying a little bit every time he breathes because the cells break down," C.C.B. lawyer Frederik Navne waxed poetically. "In the same way, the computer dies a little every time you turn it on and off."
As a result, the C.C.B. determined that Danish consumers will be able to return computers with the fault to Apple. Apple International is beginning to settle a number of cases in Denmark on the basis of the investigation.
The board now wants Apple to acknowledge the alleged design fault outside of Denmark's borders — not unlike how world recognized the Danish drummer for Metallica, Lars Ulrich.
And since we can't think of a way to fit it in: Denmark's national anthem is "Der er et yndigt land" and has a total area of 43,094 square kilometers. ®
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/05/03/danish_consumer_complaints_board_claim_ibook_defect/ |
| posted by Perimbean @ 1:55 PM |
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Ballmer: Apple's iPhone will be a niche player
By Tony Smith
2nd May 2007 11:27 GMT
Analysis So did Microsoft CEO Steve 'Monkey Boy' Ballmer actually claim Apple's iPhone strategy is "flawed" or "bust", as a fair few bloggers picking up on his USA Today interview suggested? Not quite.
In fact, Ballmer admitted the iPhone will make Apple "a lot of money". Which is the whole point, isn't it? However, it's an understandable mistake. Pundits have been filling acres of column inches in print and online on the iPhone's potential for, and in almost every case they've used the iPod as the metric to measure the iPhone's success and failure.
But they're missing two key factors: first, the way the iPod and the demand for it developed, and, second, how the phone market works.
Apple released the iPod back in November 2001. It was expensive and it was only of use to Mac owners. Yes, it was smart looking, it had a great user interface and it had a hard drive to hold what was then an enormous 5GB of songs, but its high price and limited market opportunity did not bode well.
Why didn't Apple release the player with Windows software? Why not price it more aggressively? Because the first iPod was a toe-dipping exercise to see what demand there might be for such a device. Apple management clearly believed consumers would want one otherwise the iPod would never have been released, but what was the potential? The first iPod can be seen as a test.
Apple knows it has a very dedicated fanbase, many of whom are fairly well-heeled and will buy anything with the Apple logo on it, no matter what. Releasing the first iPod allowed the company to test the market, and to test its attempt to buy the music player for the rest of us. Early iPod adopters - this reporter included - were essentially unpaid beta testers. As early adopters always are.
They also fund development. Apple's high initial price paid for the development work undertaken to produce the second-generation product, an iPod design fuelled by all the feedback from the first versions. Somewhere in Apple is an Excel spreadsheet that shows if the company released the iPod when it did, to whom it did and at the price it charged, Apple would probably make enough money to cover the development of a device more favourable to a broader market.
By which time, of course, greater volumes and greater integration reduced the manufacturing and other costs, allowing the price to fall a little. Again, spreadsheets allow any company to adjust the price and see how it can best balance uptake and revenue to best meet its financial and marketshare goals.
And Apple's doing it all over again with the iPhone. Expensive, check. The potential purchaser base isn't quite so limited this time, but the high price more than compensates for that. But it's a first generation, early adopter-focused product. But unless it's phenomenally bad, it will sell in sufficient numbers to cover the development cost of this generation and the next.
The spreadsheet never lies.
Well, almost never. This time Apple has had to factor in the cost of delaying Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard to allow it to pull its operating system software coders across to the iPhone's OS, though we've only Apple's word for why Leopard was delayed. Perhaps it doesn't want its marketing team distracted from the iPhone by having to launch a major OS upgrade too, particularly one so clearly lined up against Microsoft's latest.
Which brings us back to Ballmer. Here's what he said:
"There's no chance that the iPhone is going to get any significant market share. No chance. It's a $500 subsidised item. They may make a lot of money. But if you actually take a look at the 1.3 billion phones that get sold, I'd prefer to have our software in 60, 70 or 80 per cent of them, than I would to have two or three per cent, which is what Apple might get."
Some 252m handsets shipped in Q1, according to market watcher Strategy Analytics. Two per cent of that is just over 5m devices. We don't know what subsidy if any AT&T is contributing to the cost of the iPhone, but even if it's just eating up its hardware profit in return for the gains it'll make in airtime charges, that means Apple's getting at least $500 per phone. So 5m units amounts to $2.5bn.
There's no way Apple's going to win two per cent of the mobile phone market immediately, much less three per cent or even the four per cent that Ballmer also suggests. But it does show that a niche product has the potential to make big bucks.
The consumer electronics world is full of examples of companies that do very nicely by pitching otherwise mainstream products at very specific audiences. Think Bose. Think Bang & Olufsen. Think Porsche. Apple has managed to do the same in the computer market - the only strategy it could adopt, to be honest - and it started out doing the same thing with the iPod.
Its approach to the iPhone is no different, though the perhaps unexepected scale of the iPod's mass-market success will inevitably persuade some that Apple wants to be Nokia. Only the Apple TV has been positioned from day one as a mass-market product - Apple calls it the "DVD player for the 21st Century" - but that's because, unlike the iPhone and the debutante iPod, it's cheap to make and cheap to sell.
The antithesis of the iPhone, in other words. Apple TV is predicated on big demand from day one. The iPhone isn't, and to assume otherwise is plainly incorrect. Yes, Apple would like to sell huge numbers of iPhones. Yes, it would like it to follow the iPod's trajectory. But it knows it's up against very large, very well established rivals, and it will be developing its product, its marketing and its strategy accordingly, waiting for the moment that one Excel cell changes from red to black.
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/05/02/ballmer_vs_iphone/page2.html |
| posted by Perimbean @ 1:05 PM |
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Wednesday, 02 May 2007 Apple mends QuickTime security
Apple has fixed the QuickTime flaw found recently by a hacker
Jonny Evans
Apple has issued a patch to close the QuickTime security hole recently identified by hackers.
QuickTime 7.1.6 is available for Mac and Windows systems and prevents the flaw, in which visiting a malicious website may lead to arbitrary code execution.
Apple described the weakness as an implementation issue in QuickTime: “By enticing a user to visit a webpage containing a maliciously crafted Java applet, an attacker can trigger the issue which may lead to arbitrary code execution,” Apple said in its description of the problem.
The update addresses this by performing additional checks when creating "QTPointerRef objects," the company said. "Credit to Dino Dai Zovi working with TippingPoint and the Zero Day Initiative for reporting this issue," it added.
Dino Dai Zovi won $10,000 in a Mac hacking contest initiated at the CanSecWest security conference in Vancouver about two weeks ago, for reporting the flaw.
It's interesting to note that the competition originally challenged conference attendees to break into a Mac that wasn’t running any applications. When no one was able to achieve this, the contest was changed to allow hackers taking part to attempt a break-in using Safari.
The security update is available for: Mac OS X v10.3.9, Mac OS X v10.4.9, Windows XP SP2, Windows 2000 SP4.
The Mac version of the update also delivers numerous bug fixes, addresses a critical security issue with QuickTime for Java and includes support for: Final Cut Studio 2 and Timecode and closed captioning display in QuickTime Player.
http://www.macworld.co.uk/news/index.cfm?newsid=17912 |
| posted by Perimbean @ 1:03 PM |
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Digg users show who's the boss in Web 2.0 world
By Dan Moren
Recently, someone leaked the cryptographic key (a 16-digit hexadecimal number) that can be used to decode content on the high definition HD-DVD format, making it possible to rip HD-DVD discs—something which has long been possible, though illegal, for conventional DVDs. The story made it to the Web site Digg. If you’re not familiar with the site, it works like this: People submit stories from around the Web and other Digg users give them a thumbs up (“digg”) or a thumbs down (“bury”). The more popular the story gets, the more prominently it’s displayed on the site. There are other similar sites, like Reddit, but Digg is among the most popular, able to drive vast amounts of traffic that can bring even big sites to their knees. Getting dugg can be both a boon and a curse to a webmaster.
The story about the cryptographic key didn’t stay on Digg long; it was removed by the administrators, who claimed that the “the owners of this intellectual property [believe] the posting of the encryption key infringes their intellectual property rights.” While it’s unknown precisely what organization approached Digg, many suspect it was the Advanced Access Content System Licensing Authority (AACS-LA), the organization that maintains and owns the AACS copy protection system. (Legal action has also been threatened on other sites that have published the key.)
Unfortunately, while this may have seemed like a logical step for the AACS-LA to take, it was also pretty darn stupid.
You see, from my experience, the kind of people who are interested in this information also tend to be the kind of people who will react quickly and vehemently to what they perceive as censorship. As a result, dozens upon dozens of stories containing the key have now popped up on Digg and elsewhere. Some users have disguised the key as other information: for example, sneaking it into the Wikipedia page on the IPv6 protocol as a hexadecimal IP address. (It was subsequently removed) One person translated the hex values into colors; another user made an OS X screensaver that does nothing but display the code. Geek celebrity Wil Wheaton encouraged people to add the code to his Wikipedia entry as his favorite number. It’s even been immortalized in song and on shirts. Other stories were as simple as “I would like to share my favorite new numbers with everyone!” In short, that code is now everywhere. It’s quite possibly the most quickly spread piece of information to ever appear on the Internet.
The HD-DVD folks have run into a prime example of the hydratic equation. You may remember the story of the multi-headed Hydra from Greek mythology: Every time Heracles cut off one of the heads, two more sprang up in its place. Not that there was anything that really could have been done about it—once the code genie got out of the bottle, he wasn’t going back in. That inevitability points to one of the fundamental flaws of digital rights management (DRM). Most DRM systems depend on “security through obscurity;” they rely upon keeping one crucial piece of information, like a password, secret. The problem is, if you keep information in an encrypted form and somebody wants to view that information, it has to be decrypted first. And that entails having that secret key. So the key is, in effect, just waiting to be discovered, and the combined ingenuity of the world’s hackers ensures that sooner or later, the key will come out.
So, how do you protect a system that’s doomed to failure? Legislate it, naturally. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) makes it a crime to break the encryption schemes, even for totally innocuous acts like making a digital copy of your DVD for personal backup purposes. It’s also worth noting that breaking this encryption is the only way users on platforms like Linux can watch protected content like DVDs on their computers, since officially sanctioned programs usually aren’t made available for Linux.
There’s also a larger question here: can numbers can be considered intellectual property? Certainly a word or phrase can be trademarked or otherwise copyrighted, but can I type 909897234985792834759237495 and say that nobody else is allowed to use that number without my permission? If so, then I contend that something is very, very wrong with our intellectual property system. Now, I would certainly be annoyed—and for good reason—if my password was suddenly posted on Digg, but I don’t think that I’d have grounds for legal action, especially of the intellectual property variety, merely because someone had plastered pleistocene42 all over the Internet. For one thing, merely having the secret code doesn’t allow you to break the encryption; you still need a program to do it. I’m guessing (and fervently hoping) that any attempt to use the DMCA to prosecute those spreading the code would be thrown out of court. It’s like suing somebody for guessing what number you’re thinking of.
Back to the Digg administrators, who found themselves stuck between a rock (the HD-DVD group) and a hard place (their own users). If they censored the stories, as the HD-DVD people have requested, they may be upholding their terms of service and protecting themselves, as Digg CEO Jay Adelson stated in his blog post, but they also break their promise of a democratized system of information proliferation. Digg founder Kevin Rose is smart enough to realize this (and, from a more practical standpoint, smart enough to realize that the cat was not just out of the bag but well on its way to Mexico). His ultimate “if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em— decision to post the key on the Digg blog and vow to “go down fighting” was really the only thing he could do if he hoped to retain any sort of credibility.
Digg has, at least, learned an important lesson here which the HD-DVD people would be well advised to heed: when you give the power to the people, sometimes they’re going to turn it right back on you.
Dan Moren is the author of Macworld.com’s Gadgetbox column and co-editor of the MacUser blog
http://www.macworld.com/weblogs/editors/2007/05/digg/index.php |
| posted by Perimbean @ 12:54 PM |
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