iPad to have front facing camera after all?

For many who were admittedly less than impressed with the iPad, Apple’s most recent technological releases, one of the major issues that was brought to question was the lack of a camera, front-facing or otherwise. While, I personally don’t believe that the iPad needs a camera, I can understand why some who would benefit from the added functionality of the camera are unhappy with this exclusion. Well, for those of you who are in the camp that wishes the iPad had a camera there may be some good news. I haven’t heard any news set in stone, however, many writers and tech bloggers throughout the internet have began to report that both the iPad bezel has support for a camera and that new iPhone/iPad OS 3.2 has camera and video conferencing support.

Read more here…

iPad: Did Apple revolutionize us again?

Long time readers of my blogs might remember in 2007 how elated I was to be sitting at Moscone, watching Steve Jobs just 20 yards away from me introduce the iPhone, a product that in my mind was no doubt going to be a slam dunk. I said at the time, “I don’t care if this thing is $1000, I’m going to have it on day one.”

Today was not like that.

Today was more like 2001, the day the first iPod was introduced. Like many others, I thought, “what, an MP3 player?” And like many of the less-than-crazed-Apple-fans, I didn’t get one the day they shipped. In fact, I didn’t have my first iPod till months later. But once I had one, got to experience it with all of the design nuance and interface touch that Apple is so well known and (at least by me) appreciated for… well, even then, I had no idea that it would take 70% of the market and completely up-end the music industry, but I knew I liked the product and would never have another MP3 player.

That’s how iPad is going to be for a lot of people.

Its appeal is not immediately obvious. I’ve talked to a few people who said something to the effect of “So what? It’s a big iPod Touch.” And they are right – when you get right down to it, that is indefensible. There’s no USB, no optical drive, no Ethernet. It runs the iPhone OS, not the full fledged Mac OS X that runs on a Mac. So that means no third party apps running in the background, and the only place you’ll get said third party apps is from iTunes.

That said, it’s set apart from iPod Touch because of the size and its 1GHz processor. That point is understated: you ever read a book or watch a movie on a Touch or iPhone? I have; it’s…difficult. Heck, even writing this article on my iPhone is slower than had I been at my desk. iPad won’t have these problems based solely on it’s size and speed.

It won’t compete with iPhone because you can’t make calls with iPad, and it has no camera.

Apple never made an eBook reader like the Sony product or the Amazon Kindle but I have to believe it destroys both of those. (Unless the unique screen of the Kindle appeals to you, and I could see why it might.) And with iTunes selling books to go with iPad – this thing could be a hit all on it’s own just doing to books what it did to music. Imagine every kid in school having one these instead of textbooks.

But how does it compare to a MacBook, which is what I think the disappointed groups were hoping for? I think the addition of iWork apps to the platform (on top of the other productivity apps like QuickOffice) in addition to the ability to use a Bluetooth keyboard (or the iPad dock with keyboard that essentially makes it a little workstation) mean that this could substitute for a computer for office work. Apple took the Netbook concept and made something in that same vein but without using a slow, awkward mini laptop. Yet at less weight and a smaller form factor than MacBook Air, iPad is certainly a road warrior’s dream.

Back when iPhone 3GS was released I postulated that a fast capable mobile device with the addition of 7mbps 3G cellular data would marginalize a desktop or laptop computer. iPad is the next logical progression of that theory.

The only question is, can it do everything a typical business person would need it to do? I’m very much looking forward to finding that answer when I get one this summer.

Apple Media Conference!

Steve Jobs

It’s official, as many of you may or may not know the media conference that Apple has been planning has been confirmed for Wednesday January 27th. At this conference many sources say that Apple will reportedly release a major new product into their family of existing products. There has been a lot of speculation as to what this “major new product” will be, however, most members of the online media believe that it is without a doubt an Apple Tablet in some form or another.

While there may or may not be a tablet computer released, this event should still bring excitement to those who are half as nerdy as I am about new gadgets. Tablet or not I am certainly excited for the possibility of Apple demonstrating some of the new features of a new Operating System for the iPhone.

Regardless of what is or is not released, mark your calendars for the 27th and get ready for another Apple media day.

Apple’s Game-Changers

A few weeks ago, Apple announced some pretty big overhauls to their product line with new iMacs, new Minis, new MacBooks, etc. Maybe I’m just jaded from my time in retail, but new product announcements from Apple rarely excite me anymore. I doubt anything is going to top the pinnacle: witnessing the revelation of the iPhone in person a couple years ago and getting in line to get one on the first day. Something simple as the new mouse? Yawn. (To be fair, now that I have a Magic Mouse, I really, really like it.)

But as the title of this blog post alludes, there were a couple of items that gave me cause to do a double-take.

Read the rest of this entry »

MMS update for iPhones Tomorrow!

Many iPhone users may let out a massive cry of joy or dread tomorrow based on how AT&T’s network holds up to the MMS service that they will be releasing. If you have been paying attention you may know that tomorrow Sept. 25th late morning AT&T will be releasing it’s MMS update for iPhones via iTunes finally. What exactly is MMS and what does this mean for AT&T? Read on to find out.

Read on for more…

Apple Press Event Sept. 9th

There have been many rumors that have been passed around on the internet recently regarding a possible Mac tablet-computer and also possibly new iPods. Well, these rumor’s validity will be tested tomorrow with Apples Press Event in Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Theater in San Francisco, CA starting at 10:00 a.m. Pacific time.

Event Invitation

Based on the music themed invitation this event seems as though it will ultimately feature music as its main component. The tagline of this event is “It’s only rock and roll, but we like it” so we can probably expect to see a new iPod and things of this nature. This event can be watched on many sites around the net which will post updates as events unfold and as always you can check back here to get our take on any new products that Apple may release.

Microsoft Reviving Outlook on 2010 Office for Mac

You read that correctly. Office 2010 for mac will feature Microsoft’s email powerhouse Outlook. No more entourage for us to fumble with. It appears that Microsoft is seeing that there is indeed a lot of money to be made in the Apple software sector and has totally revamped this portion of their software suite in order to increase sales in the enterprise business sector. Macrumors.com posted an article here giving more details on the specifics of the product. One downside is that it isn’t coming out until “holiday 2010″ but for those of you who don’t like Entourage and prefer something a little more robust than Apple Mail this is welcome news indeed.

Snow Leopard Coming August 28th?

It appears that the boys over in Cupertino have been busy working on getting Snow Leopard ready for its September launch. Developers have been receiving new builds of the OS on an almost weekly basis. With the latest build many developers cited they thought the release was the Gold Master candidate. This means that this is the build that Apple feels is ready to be struck onto discs and shipped to consumers. What this means for us consumer folk, is that the release date may be moved up to August 28th according to some rumors found here. Only time will tell when it will be released but this is exciting news for anyone patiently (or not so patiently) awaiting the release of Snow Leopard this fall.

iPhone 3.0.1

If you have an iPhone and have OS version 3.0 you need to sync your phone today to get new version 3.0.1. This release addresses the much publicized SMS exploit. Read more about this issue here. This is an instance where an update WILL help and is needed to correct a pretty serious security risk. This does not just effect the iPhone either. Microsoft based and Android based mobile phones have the same issue because they use a similar method in handling SMS messages. So, if you have one of these types of phones please look for an update.

Microsoft Plans to Raise Price of Netbooks

Why oh why would I write an article about the monolithic beast that is Microsoft? Well, that is quite simple. Apple controls a little under 10% of the global consumer market share, and desires to have a bigger piece of that pie. Microsoft owns 80+% and would like to get to 100%. Over the past 2 years Microsoft has played a dangerous game with regard to pricing. They figured they would drop the bottom out of the PC market and sell tons and tons of units at a lower margin. However this strategy has  failed them. Read the rest of this entry »