‘Hope you have a few extra hundred bucks. Steve needs it.

Apple Zombies unite! Camp out in line. Lie to the wife. Whatever! July 11th – the day before my birthday – the new iPhone is out! Slimmer, faster, better, or so Steve tells us. The new phone will boast G3 technology, better browsing, and promised longer battery life – hopefully enough to satisfy the hungriest [...]

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Review: BlackBerry vs. iPhone. An Apple Zombie’s Perspective.

I am an Apple Zombie, a brain-numbed follower of all things that come from Cupertino. So, I should be carrying an iPhone, right? Well, not so fast. I have written extensively about my iPod Touch, the entertainment device, identical to the iPhone, without the phone. So, before deciding on a smart phone, I became quite [...]

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So, can we call it the Eye-Phone?!

You know…  it’s tough to be Bill Gates.  You think the iPhone is really cool, but, alas, carrying one around the party circuit in Seattle just wouldn’t be cool, now would it?  So, what’s a multi-billionaire to do?  Make your own! At the “D: All Things Digital” conference on the West Coast, current MicroSoft CEO, [...]

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Apple TV, Pt. 1: A brief history of Apple TV

Believe the hype. Apple’s movie rental announcement is a game changer for the maligned Apple TV, which should finally get some traction after a rough start. We don’t know yet whether the studios will stock huge catalogs of movies, but the iTunes Store-Apple TV-movie rental ecosystem is ready for its close-up. A brief history of [...]

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Macworld: Warner Brothers on list for iTS movie rentals

Wow, the gang’s (almost) all here. Bloomberg says today that Warner Bros. will join several other studios in making movies available on iTunes Store for sale and rental. The announcement will come in Steve Jobs’ keynote address Monday morning at the Macworld Expo in San Francisco. Bloomburg says Warner Bros., 20th Century Fox, Paramount, Disney [...]

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Competing formats holding back HD disc, player sales

The New York Times has a good piece today on the Blu-ray vs. HD DVD format fiasco. Basically, the studios and equipment manufacturers have continued to dig in their heels over agreeing to a single format and — surprise! — consumers are still sitting on the sideline. The impulse Apple angle is to say that [...]

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Macworld: Fox, Disney will kick off iTunes movie rentals

Half full: Movie rental downloads in iTS. Half empty: Only two of five major studios are on board — not enough to justify buying an Apple TV and dropping Netflix or Comcast. Variety says Steve Jobs will announce Jan. 14 in his Macworld keynote that 20th Century Fox and Disney movie titles as pay-per-view downloads [...]

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Macworld: Fox movie rentals headed to iTunes Store?

Finally, PPV movies in the iTunes Store. The Financial Times is reporting tonight that Apple and 20th Century Fox have agreed to make Fox new releases available on iTS both on a pay-per-view basis and as embedded tracks that can be ripped from DVDs. Apple Insider and MacRumors have both picked up the story. Announcement [...]

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Does Apple have a strategy for Apple TV?

I have a love/hate relationship with my Comcast DVR. It allows me almost complete freedom to set my own viewing schedule, but it screws up a lot. I mean, a lot. “The Office” often records with bad, echo-y audio or no audio at all. Three straight weeks, “How I Met Your Mother” recorded only about [...]

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Paul, John, George and Ringo… and still no Beatles

Consider: On February 5, 2007, Apple Inc. and The Beatles’ Apple Corps Ltd. settled a long and ugly trademark dispute. But no Beatles in the iTunes Store. On April 2, 2007, Apple began offering all of Beatles-distributor EMI Music’s tracks as DRM-free, higher quality tracks for $1.29 each. No Beatles in iTS. On April 12, [...]

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