May

28

The iPad Goes Global

Filed Under Fun, iPad | Leave a Comment

Let the Madness ensue – only an Apple Product can generate such ridiculous excitement! Enjoy!

Munich

Frankfurt

Tokyo

Paris

London – Honeymoon Purchase

Stephen Fry comparing the iPad to a Dog in London

More London

Zurich

Milan

Rome

May

27

I Am Not A Number (well, maybe…)

Filed Under Tech News | 2 Comments

The Prisoner

Number 6: Where am I?
Number 2: In the Village.
Number 6: What do you want?
Number 2: We want information.
Number 6: Whose side are you on?
Number 2: That would be telling. We want information… information… information.
Number 6: You won’t get it.
Number 2: By hook or by crook, we will.
Number 6: Who are you?
Number 2: The new Number 2.
Number 6: Who is Number 1?
Number 2: You are Number 6.
Number 6: I am not a number, I am a free man.

From the 1967s TV Show, The Prisoner – Opening Sequence

If Apple were a number it would be number 2 – in terms of Market Capitalization (a measurement of size of a business enterprise (corporation) equal to the share price times the number of shares outstanding of a public company). Yes folks, Apple today hit a milestone. It surpassed Microsoft and is second only to Exxon in terms of it’s net worth in the economic village. From the Globe And Mail (article sent to me by one of my wonderful clients – thanks Julian):

The financial scorecard – a $222.1-billion (U.S.) market value for Apple versus $219.2-billion for Microsoft – marks a symbolic changing of the guard. Only one company is worth more: Exxon.

And it parallels a remarkable reversal of fortunes for the two U.S. technology titans – one who wooed consumers, the other who chased Big Business.

The consumer won. Apple, which once relied on one-hit wonder computers, has transformed itself into a consumer electronics giant by cleverly linking its trendy devices – including the iPod, iPhone and its latest iPad – to lucrative sales of songs, books, photos and movies.

Microsoft, meanwhile, has become a stagnating giant, content to be a technology follower, too reliant on pushing its Windows operating system on business customers.

Holy Smokes! And what is amazing is that in 1997 it was Microsoft helping the almost bankrupt Apple to stay afloat (and avoid more anti-trust accusations) when it agreed to continue to support Microsoft Office for Mac and invested $190 Million in stock options (methinks it made more on that deal than through any innovation since). At the time, those of us die-hard Apple watchers were a sad lot indeed – being bailed out by the Man from Redmond – seeing Big Bill Gates on the screen at the MacWorld Keynote 1997 hovering over the huddled masses like the 1984 commercial that gave birth to the Mac itself. Ahh, how the village scene has changed…Is Microsoft on it’s way to becoming the new number 6? As the FCC in the US investigates the Apple’s sway in the Music business is it becoming  the new villain?

May

21

“This River I Stand In…

Filed Under Tech News, Views, iPad | Leave a Comment

is not the river I step in…” – text part of “Time and a Clock” by Eldon Garnet. Completed in 1990 using stainless steel at Broadview and Queen, Toronto.

It’s been a while since my last post – just really busy doing what all good Macmedic team members do – supporting our clients. But it’s time for a post and boy oh boy there has been a lot going on:

iPad In Canada!

Yes folks, May 28th is the day Canucks can get their hands on their very own iPads without begging, borrowing or pleading with people to please, please bring them one from the US. In fact, Apple has finally opened the International iTunes stores to iPad applications – no need to set up a US iTunes account now! Prices are $50 above US listings.

Some of my clients have asked about capacities to purchase (16, 32 or 64GB) and if it’s worth getting the 3G model or just the WiFi version. My view is this: I think it terms of capacity the 32GB model is the sweet spot. iPad applications tend to be larger and people are going to also be buying books and magazines on this thing (and games if you have kids). The 3G option really depends on whether you want to spend money on another data plan – you would already have one on an iPhone or Blackberry if you use these – and if you want/need always-on access to the internet.

Now, I use a MiFi which is a wireless cellular router that Rogers is offering and Bell used to support. Up to 5 devices can surf off of this portable network including the iPad and iPod Touch or laptop so I opted for a non-3G. I also require access everywhere to support my clients. That said, the iPad is an internet device. Many of it’s apps depend on it. So, my feeling is if you can afford it then the 3G option is worthwhile. Check the data plans with your carrier of choice. Another positive aspect is that the iPad is unlocked which means a user can sign up with ANY local carrier when travelling abroad for temporary always-on access!

Television’s Future Today

What happened today? Well, Google took a shot across Apple’s bow is what happened and introduced GoogleTV incorporating a new Open Source codec called WebM.

What does this mean? Well, it seems pretty obvious that the convergence of the Web and Television is upon us. Apple has had their AppleTV out the marketplace for a while and they have publicly called it a hobby product. However, I don’t think Apple wants to yield the ‘living room’ to Google and it’s partners. I am very curious to see what it has in the works vis a vis a real product offering that addresses this area.

I have an AppleTV and it’s a pretty interesting device – more for it’s possibilities than it’s actual feature set. Music and pictures can be streamed and stored to it from iTunes and iPhoto. You Tube and Flickr can be viewed in addition to Podcasts in full High Definition if desired. Movie, Music and TV rentals and purchases can be made via the iTunes store online and it supports wireless and wired connections. It can even be used as a remote speaker source in iTunes. Other software developers have released useful offerings as enhancements to this hobby gadget such as atvFlash which adds the ability to transfer files to AppleTV as well as the ability to play non-iTunes file formats such as .AVI, .MKV and .MOV files without having to convert them. Users can also get access to services like Boxee (a media centre interface with a social network element), Joost, surf the Web with a built-in browser and much more.

Google’s set-top box (or embedded services in new TV’s supporting it) would have a lot these features built-in without a hack plus the power of Google’s search engine and other technologies. Big stuff.

In The News: Privacy and Security Issues

It’s interesting to note that during the keynote given this week to kick off Google’s I/O conference (Google’s Developers Conference) references were made to Apple in regard to Google’s Android phones and OS offering:

“If we did not act, we faced a draconian future. Where one man, one company, one carrier was the future…”

Who’s become Big Brother? Apple? Given Google’s recent privacy issues surrounding the discovery that their Street View vans roaming the World’s cities were unknowingly picking up and storing data being transmitted through unprotected wireless networks one has to wonder.

Note: I’m a huge Google fan – I use them to host my company’s email systems and implement their solutions for many of my clients. Also, they do respond quickly to mistakes when discovered. The operative word is ‘discovered’. It is a little disconcerting that such huge blunders like the Street View incidents and more recently it’s initial Google Buzz problem were not foreseen. Reminds me of Toyota’s mistake of growing too quickly at the expense of quality (and in this case, Privacy). Google co-founder Sergey Brin addressed the issue at I/O conference on Wednesday saying:

“Let me just say that we screwed up. I’m not going to make any excuses about it. The answer is yes. We do have a lot of internal controls in place but obviously they didn’t prevent this error from occurring. We are putting more internal controls in place and bringing in third parties to work on this issue, as well. Trust is very important to us. We are doing everything we can to preserve that trust.”

Google’s bread and butter is based on reliability, security and trust and if this is breached or tainted it can bring this Goliath down. Privacy and security must be the default experience and choice of all these cloud and social networking services and the parameters for users should be easy to configure and understand (Facebook anyone?). The Agenda on TVO has been airing some pieces on internet security and the panel on Tuesday evening’s Web Conference touched on these important issues:

That’s all for now. Coming soon, a piece I’ve been thinking about a long time to be titled Data Rot!