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Predictions for Tomorrow’s “Rock and Roll” Media Event

September 8, 2009 By Alex Jordan 3 Comments

I am going to shamelessly copy John Gruber’s format, and tell you how much you should wager on certain rumors regarding tomorrow’s media event.

Wager heavily upon:

  • At bare minimum, the announcement of camera equipped iPods. I can almost guarantee the nano and touch will have cameras, I can only assume the iPod classic will too. The evidence for the former is overwhelming, while evidence for the latter is scarce. I also expect the iPod touch to receive the same processor and RAM upgrades the iPhone 3GS received in June. Lastly, I suspect the camera on the iPod touch will be able to capture video.
  • Price drops – I’ve heard both major and/or minor price drops are a possibility. This is to maintain Apple’s sales volumes while the iPhone continues to eat away at the iPod market.

Wager minimally upon:

Would wager agianst:

As a whole, I suspect tomorrow’s announcements will be pretty standard. Nothing ground breaking, just the next logical step in Apple’s media strategies.

Filed Under Apple TV, Editorials, Rumors, iPod, iTunes Tagged With Apple TV, camera, classic, iPod, iTunes, media, nano, rock and roll, September, tablet, touch

Earth to Apple: You Must Fix The App Store

July 25, 2009 By Alex Jordan 1 Comment

The App Store is obviously a huge success for Apple, this goes with out saying. With over 65,000 apps to choose from and 1.5 Billion downloads in the first year, Apple is smiling, with good reason.

Apple may be grinning from ear to ear, but that’s not the case for many developers. Granted, some have made a killing. Most have not, which brings me to an interesting thing said at Apple’s recent conference call.

Enter Mr. Charles Wolf analyst for Needham & Co. Wolf suggested in a question to Tim Cook COO of Apple, that there was a “race to the bottom” in the App Store.

What did Wolf mean by “race to the bottom”? In a word: Pricing.

With an unlimited supply at hand, and a series of developers that do this as a hobby and not as a living, they can afford to price their apps, which are often junky, at $.99. Developers looking to make substantial money are being deterred from charging more than a few bucks because they have to compete with crappy applications at low prices. This artificially dilutes the cost of applications of all calibers, because the public is too cheap to pay for better quality, and instead goes for the cheap stuff. This isn’t a fair fight.

Apple is simply bunching all of the apps together and letting them fight each other, effectively killing real competition. The best marketing tool an app developer can hope for is to sell enough product to show up on the “top 25 list” in the App Store. How do you get on this list? By selling the most, not by merit. Most of the apps on this list are $.99, meaning the chances of a $4.99 app grabbing a place on the list is almost non-existent.

This of course, is crap.

Mr. Craig Hockenberry, long time Macintosh developer summed up Apple’s view of the situation rather nicely in this tweet:

You may need 10,000 songs, but essential apps are < 10.

Exactly. Apple is running this show very similarly to how they run the music store. That approach works splendidly for music, not so much for apps. $.99 a song feels right. $.99 for a truly groundbreaking app feels cheap, and is cheap in any sense of the word.

This isn’t even considering the cascade of other problems the App Store has, like user/developer communication. You don’t need feedback from the music artist if you have a problem with a song, you do however need feedback from developers if you have a problem with an application. The same goes for developers, they need user feedback to continue to improve their apps.

So what is Apple doing to fix these problems? Nothing has been said yet on the communications problems, but back at the conference call, Cook did say that Apple had “some ideas” on how to improve the experience. So Apple is looking into the problem. I wouldn’t hold my breath.

Wolf later wrote:

“In some respects, the App Store has taken its place alongside YouTube, where poor taste is the defining metric. More ominously, it has led to a deterioration of the entire pricing structure for iPhone applications. The risk is that developers who hope to build quality applications that have a long shelf life may be discouraged from doing so because prospective development costs exceed the revenues they expect to earn on the applications. In short, this race to the bottom has the potential to degrade the overall equality of the applications sold at the App Store.”

This quote sums up everything I could hope to say about the App Store situation in far better language than I could ever conjure.

Clearly, the App Store is a success, possibly for the wrong reasons. Apple must address these pricing issues immediately if they hope to continue to see a growing thriving developer community in the App Store.

These are strictly my views and may not represent the views of other Mactropolis city counselors.

Filed Under Editorials Tagged With App Store, Developers, success, wrong

Review: Phases 3.0 for iPhone

July 20, 2009 By Alex Jordan Leave a Comment

I reviewed Phases 2.0 a few months ago. Since then, my friends at bjango have released Phases 3.0 which brings some new features to the table.

The most notable new feature is a new page of detailed information about the moon (and a little about the sun). The information displayed on this page is as follows: age, illumination, distance, azimuth, and altitude. This same page also displays the current phase of the moon as well as moonrise, moonset, sunrise, and sunset.

New Stats Page

You can toggle to any date in the past or future with the arrows located on either side of the date. In case the date you are looking for is more than a few days in either direction, you can tap on the calender icon located in the upper right corner, and up comes a date selection tool. From here it is much easier to find a distant date compared to the toggle buttons. Once at your selected date, Phases displays all of the data that would be available for the current date. All of this works without a data connection, meaning iPod Touch users can use this while away from a wifi hotspot, say, gazing at the night sky.

Date Selection Tool

As with the last version, the first page displays the current phase of the moon, along with the next 8 major moon phases and their corresponding dates.

Phases List

The last page is a calendar that shows all of the phases of the moon for that month, with the current day highlighted in blue. As with the stats page, you can toggle to any time in the past or future.

Calendar page showing all of the moon phases for that month.

These pages, as far as I can tell, have remained largely untouched from the previous versions. That’s not to say that they needed changing. It’s hard to improve upon perfection.

Lastly, there have been some minor updates to Phases’ settings. You can now choose to display distances in miles, and select what hemisphere you are in, which improves moon displays for customers who live in the southern hemisphere. Oh, and you can set your exact location, for more precise results.

Just like before (and with all bjango apps), the user interface is bright, and well thought out. The navigation scheme is very similar to the iPhone’s built-in weather app, meaning this app should be easy to navigate, or at least familiar feeling, from the very first use. Also, what few buttons that are used, feel very natural and are perfectly designed to fit in with the rest of the cool colors used throughout the app.

Granted this app appeals to a fairly niche audience, it is so well polished it should be mandatory for all iPhone owners. If you haven’t already, you can pick up a copy of Phases from the App Store for $.99. I highly recommend it. [iTunes Link]

Filed Under Editorials, Software, Software Reviews, iPhone Apps Tagged With bjango, iPhone App, Phases 3.0, review

Pathetic or Funny You Decide. Microsoft Pays for Fudged Report

April 10, 2009 By Alex Jordan 1 Comment

Before I even dissect what can only be called “Bullshit” let’s get this out of the way. Apple makes no junk machines. That is why they appear to cost more than a PC. If you place a comparable PC system next to a Mac you’re going to be spend about the same amount of money. You are simply paying for what you are getting, and in the Mac’s case you are paying for quality and a fast system.

Now here is where the fun starts. Microsoft has been caught faking data to make there machines look good to the average Joe mashed under this recession.

An annalist by the name of Roger Kay of Endpoint Technologies was commissioned to pump out a report that shows the “hidden tax” of buying Macs, both in the cost of the machines and the software and services that accompany them. Microsoft provided him with the information for the report.

In it, Kay rambles on about how Apple has boxed itself in by producing a proprietary niche of the market that only allows users to buy Mac OS systems from Apple and in turn prevents them from buying a wider array of models that are cheaper.

He then goes on to say Apple has chosen to ask a premium for a small range of computers and, consequently, knocked itself out of the running in a larger market. This supposedly worked well for Apple when the economy was doing well and Vista had just had a lackluster launch.

If you’re crazy and or not familiar with the Mac this all sounds believable so far. He then presents his data for his argument. This is when the wheels fell off.

For his data Kay goes on to compare Macs and allegedly equivalent PC. Several errors show up here that can only be deliberate or just plain sloppy and both make Kay look like an ass.

In Kay’s multi-colored chart he points out that the PC’s have several features such as memory card readers or HDMI video output that the Mac’s don’t have. Notice he is also comparing new PCs to an old end-of-lifed  $999 white MacBook. This is the only way he could win, if he had compared a newer MacBook to these machines they would have been blown away by things that matter, such as processing speed and graphics power. Other factors such as included Bluetooth or faster 802.11n Wi-Fi support, battery life and weight, were also excluded from the comparison.

This sloppy pattern continues with more of the same errors in desktop comparisons. Even overlooking mistakes such as including only discontinued Macs in the charts but new models in text, the analyst dismisses the fact that the Mac desktop lineup was recently overhauled with faster graphics, and processors while trying to sensationalize the few advantages the PC has over the Mac such as TV tuners, you know, stuff no one cares too terribly about.

If you cut through the crap, the current Mac lineup is now equal to, and often times better than the PCs picked by Kay for comparison, and it gets downright silly when he begins to cobble together “real-life” buying scenarios.

Kay portrays the average buyer in a five-year time span as purchaseing a high end desktop and a low end laptop, then stacks the odds in Microsoft’s favor by adding unnecessary costs to the Mac.

The extra cost’s include one year of Apple One-on-One service, a copy of iLife, 5 years of MobileMe, AppleCare, and copies of Microsoft Office and Quicken that he just assumes PC customers already own. He furthers the expense buy adding on an Airport Extreme (when any cheaper wireless router will do). Oh, and did I mention he forced the Mac buyer to purchase a Mac Pro instead of a high-end iMac?

Before it’s all oever with, the hypothetical Mac user in this study’s concocted world will pay $2,517 more than necessary over five years, that is if they bought a $1,799 iMac.

A difference does exist, however it difference slims down to just $850 and assumes that the systems are equivalent amd that the Windows user has no other costs, like yearly subscriptions to security anti-virus programs (which are used more commonly than free alternatives) or the bundled crapware used to subsidize the store price of the PC.

Kay told CNET Thursday that he didn’t include everything Microsoft told him to, stating that ” [the price difference]wouldn’t change things much” he also still stands by his conclusion, that despite the massive discrepancies in his report, Microsoft’s core argument should be: Apple only offers a small collection of systems, so buyers are less likely to get the exact systems they want or to know they’re being charged fair prices.

Kay goes on to say “That particular piece of the economics seems to hold up pretty well”. Uh-huh.

Once again, it’s Microsoft playing people as stupid in a desperate attempt to recover slipping sales.

I got most of this information in this wonderfully written article at AppleInsider. So, if you see similarities that’s why.

Tell us what you think of this! Leave a comment!

Filed Under All News, Editorials, Microsoft

New Microsoft Ad Proves Once Again That They Just Don’t Get It.

March 27, 2009 By Alex Jordan 4 Comments

Microsoft has once again shifted gears and is now trying to paint generic Windows PC’s as an affordable alternative to Macs in this down-turned economy.

Before I dissect the new ad, lets take a look at Microsoft’s recent ad campaigns.

First, Microsoft tried to play everyone as stupid with the Mojave Experiment ad campaign, where they sat down random subjects and showed them an early version of “Windows Mojave” Microsoft’s “next version of Windows.”

Of course the test subjects they bothered to show us were the awestruck ones. Then the Microsoft spokesperson proceeded to tell them they were witnessing the awesomeness of Windows Vista. Then the subjects proceeded to go all bug-eyed on us.

What that ad campaign didn’t do, is allow those same people to use Vista with their own hardware, software and peripherals. I suspect they wouldn’t have been as awestruck.

Next, Microsoft tired to paint a humorous, humble or even “cool” image with a $300 Million ad campaign featuring Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld. This campaign was cut short due to poor public reception.

Lastly, Microsoft put out a mishmash of ads going by the tag-line of Windows Vs. Walls and by the “I’m a PC” catchphrase popularized by Apple’s “Get a Mac” ads. These ads tried to take on an “I can do anything you can do, but better” image, by showing adorable children doing mundane tasks on a Vista PC. They did have decency to leave out the part about doing anything but making there own ads, which were produced on a Mac.

All of these ad campaigns have been used within the last 12 months in rapid succession. If one didn’t work they simply switched to another one.

That brings us full circle to their brand new ad. Microsoft found participants on Craigslist and gave them anywhere from $700 to $2,000 to buy a computer fitting certain criteria, and were told they could keep the computer they picked.

So the ad starts out with a lovely young lady (who is actually an actress, but we’re not supposed to know that)  walking into an Apple store to then promptly walking right back out empty-handed. They then film her saying “I’m just not cool enough to be a Mac person.” The only notebook Apple had that fit her price range was a 13-inch MacBook. Darn it, she said she wanted a 17-inch notebook, so she’s going to get one, consequences be damned.

Granted the “I’m just not cool enough to be a Mac person.” line is supposed to be biting sarcasm, but I don’t think Microsoft realizes yet that they promote the Mac more than Apple does.

She then high-tails it over to Best Buy finds a shiny new HP. Microsoft hands her the money and everyone walks away with what they wanted. She has a new laptop, and Microsoft has a new ad.

Remember those consequences I mentioned? Here comes! The machine she bought did have a 17-inch screen but at the resolution of Apple’s 15-inch MacBook Pro not the full resolution of Apple’s 17-inch MacBook Pro. To put it plainly, the screen isn’t as high resolution as it could/should be.

Well, that can be easily over looked, but what about it’s other short commings compared to the 13-inch MacBook she could have bought? It’s missing wireless 802.11n, fast Gigabit Ethernet, digital audio inputs and outputs, and it weighs nearly 8 pounds. But that doesn’t matter, she got her 17-inch screen. Right?

Simply put, the new ad is a half-baked attempt by a company, that is losing market share, to change it’s public image.

With my hazing I just dealt to Microsoft, I am not criticizing the thousands of brilliant people that work there. I’m criticizing the higher management there. They simply have no taste, and are willing to play the public as too stupid or unconcerned, as to put out such garbage as the new ad, in an attempt to change it’s decaying public image, and bolster falling market share.

What makes this whole thing funny is Macs actually have a lower cost of ownership than PC’s do over the life of the hardware.

This proves to me they just don’t get what they are trying to sell, and who they are trying to sell it to. To quote Daniel Eran Dilger of Roughly Drafted. “Microsoft is a marketing company, not a tech company”

What do you think of Microsoft’s Ad? Please let us know what you think, leave a comment!

Filed Under Editorials, Get a Mac, Microsoft Tagged With ad, Microsoft

New iTunes Pricing to Take Affect on April 7th

March 26, 2009 By Alex Jordan 1 Comment

The LA Times is reporting that iTunes hottest tracks will cost $1.29 starting April 7th.

The article goes on to say what the rest of us already know. This is only going to hurt the music industry. The major music labels are trying to offset declining CD sales with higher digital download prices. This is a stupid move on there part. How can this work during a recession, in already piracy riddled industry?

I think this except from the article sums it up nicely:

Jim Guerinot, who manages such bands as Nine Inch Nails, No Doubt and Offspring, said the industry’s pricing was moving in the wrong direction if it hoped to compete with still rampant music piracy.

“Wouldn’t it make sense to try to price it cheaper instead of squeezing the handful of people who are still willing to pay for music?” he said.

Apple (rightfully) set music prices at $.99 a track when it opened the iTunes Music store back in 2003. This blanket price made buying simple, and appealing to the average consumer. Now with a three tiered pricing system (announced in January at Macworld), aimed at making the most money it can off of the latest craze, it would be a safe bet confusion and mud slinging will follow.

This whole article has more or less been my opinion, but hear me now believe me later; THIS WILL NOT WORK. Naturally, Apple will get the blame for the music industry’s bone-headed move. That said, Apple didn’t have much choice but to go along with this evil plan if it wanted to compete with Amazon’s DRM-free music service.

The big music labels days are numbered, and they don’t seem to realize it yet. An indie artist can circumvent the music labels and make money on their own with service like TuneCore. They are panicked and hemorrhaging money, and I don’t think they are going to bully there way out of this one.

Tell us what you think! Leave a comment, I’d love to hear your opinion on this matter!

Filed Under All News, Editorials Tagged With iTunes, pricing

One More Day…

October 13, 2008 By Mr. Mayor 2 Comments

One more day till the Apple MacBook Event. I’m stoked. I’m excited… but I’m trying my best to be cautiously optimistic. Why? My MacBook Pro still works great!

The truth is the majority of us already running on a Mac do not need a new MacBook or MacBook Pro, but we all get those knee-jerk reactions to drop the cash and buy the latest and greatest model. I have to admit, there’s a chance I may cave and buy one depending on the outcome of the event… But it’s probably not the smartest move.

My MacBook Pro is a few years old now but is still performing as solid as ever. I haven’t had any issues with the unit other than a freak battery issue that actually turned out to be a chronic problem for a lot of MacBook Pro users. Apple replaced my battery for me at no charge and I was on my merry way.

For those of you considering ‘making the switch’, this event could usher in a great opportunity to try out a Mac for the first time. Rumors have been lurking that the new line to be announced tomorrow will feature some MacBook’s at a very reasonable price-point. Try $800 or $900 for the base model. That brings the MacBook into competition with the Dell’s of the world. A great laptop at a very low price. Should be VERY interesting to watch sales of the new MacBooks and MacBook Pros, especially if there is a cheaper option.

So, I suppose the question of the day is this. If your MacBook or MacBook Pro is doing you just fine, how likely are you to drop more cash on a new one if the specs and pricing blow you away?

Filed Under Editorials Tagged With Apple MacBook Event, New MacBook, New MacBook Pro

Working Out With the Nike + iPod Sport Kit

August 7, 2008 By Mr. Mayor 1 Comment

Nike+ Shoes and iPod Sport Kit

So, I’m finally ready to roll with the Nike + iPod Sport Kit. I received it as a gift back at Christmas time, but hadn’t used it for a few reasons… First, my old running shoes were old, beaten down and not fit for the road. Second, I wanted to pick up a new pair of Nike + shoes to get things going.

Yesterday I picked up a pair of Nike Men’s Air Max Moto + 6 shoes (wow, that’s a mouthful) and so far they feel great. Have been wearing them around the office a bit to get used to them and break ‘em in.

At any rate, I’ll be posting on my experiences with the Nike + shoes and sport kit. I’m sure it’ll go super-smooth, but stay tuned to find out my point of view.

Anyone else out there train with the help of the Nike + system?

Filed Under Editorials, Fun Stuff Tagged With Nike + iPod Sport Kit, Nike+

Rogers Landing on Their Feet?

July 14, 2008 By Mr. Mayor 1 Comment

Rogers Wireless iPhone 3G

Before I get started… In all fairness to Rogers, Friday was an insane day up in Canada with the iPhone launch. From all accounts I heard, they were having major troubles with their systems going down, in-store systems needing rebooting, etc… it was a mad-house.

On the morning of July 11, I had half a dozen friends emailing me from a lineup at a Rogers store, or from directly in the store. Each account was different. A few said the process was flawless. Most said it was chaotic and unorganized. Others yet complained that their computer systems kept crashing and couldn’t process or activate new phones fast enough… often times as slow as 1 new iPhone per hour. Seems as though the situation was a patchwork of similar experiences across the country.

That said, I certainly hope Rogers has learned from this. Overall the customer service rating has to be horrible for all of those that braved the lineups on Friday. 75% of the folks I talked to were either disappointed or disgusted with the whole process. Frustration levels were high.

On the positive side, it seems as though they’ve turned things around. Over the last few days more and more people are coming to me telling me how Rogers delivered on their promises to deliver iPhones, activate new accounts, etc… Initial delays and frustrations were wiped out with better customer service in the following days (no doubt because of the less chaotic atmosphere in which to work).

You do have to somewhat feel for the lowly Rogers (or any other providers) sales people. Most of the time these staffers receive limited training, and are paid horribly with a huge focus on sales commission. Sell, sell, sell… and get that 3-year contract signed. That’s what it boils down too. I’m not sure how it works in other countries, but in Canada that seems to be the norm. Rogers would appear to be happy with their model. Go into any Rogers store in Canada and I’ll bet you that you find an 18 year old kid with spiky hair pushing phones as fast as you can. Just hope he or she knows what he’s talking about. Half the time he/she does not, and things get a little tricky.

I’d better stop this ‘rant’ here before I get too carried away. All I can say is I sincerely hope Rogers better prepares for events like this in the future. Rogers needs more competition. They’re getting complacent and it really does show. Can anyone out there hear me? Jump in the market against these guys, and guaranteed rates will go down, customer service will improve, and overall, EVERYONE will be the winner!

Filed Under Editorials, iPhone Tagged With iPhone 3G, iPhone Canada, Rogers Wireless

A Canadian iPhone Launch Experience

July 12, 2008 By Jarrod Tully 4 Comments

Rogers iPhone Experience

My plan to purchase an iPhone was hatched several weeks ago. I called a nearby Rogers wireless store and put my name on a pre-order list. The girl on the phone said she’d call me by July 11th with more details but I was effectively ninth on the list.

So, launch day arrives and I’ve heard nothing. I called this morning to ask what was happening for those of us that pre-ordered. Apparently there was no waiting list allowed. So instead of calling to inform me so that I could make other plans, they just didn’t call. The guy on the phone told me I would have to come down and take my chances. The store had been open for about an hour and a half and apparently the lineup “wasn’t too bad.” This is exactly what I wanted to avoid but with no other choice, I went down to join the herd of cattle.

There were probably about 20 people lounging around the store when I got in there. The manager came up to me and gave me a little ticket, numbered 25. They were still on number 3 and having problems activating any iPhones. I asked how many phone they had in stock but apparently they couldn’t tell us that. It was “confidential information.” This sounded crazy to me. So I was waiting around on the assumption that they even had enough to get to number 25. The sales reps were running around complaining about crashing computers. One was on hold, trying to activate over the phone for an hour and 45 minutes. Others simply couldn’t even access the database.

The minutes ticked by slowly and turned into hours. The system was clearly not working. People were ordering phones for friends, totally flouting the 1-per person mandate. There was a guy in front of me talking on his old cell-phone trying to relay the price plans to his girlfriend as he tried to activate a phone for her, on top of his own. A man who came in an hour after I did somehow coerced a Rogers rep over and was signing a contract in spite of those of us who had been waiting for hours. It seemed to be the law of the jungle.

Many people who had numbers lower than me just ended up leaving. I was there for about three hours and finally got my turn. They were long since sold out of the 16-gig models so it was 8-gig or nothing. The sales rep then told me that nobody was leaving the store with an iPhone. The system had crashed and they couldn’t do in-store activations. I could sign a contract and they’d put a phone aside and call me once they got it activated but it “probably won’t be today.” Having already stood there for three hours, I figured I might as well bite the bullet and sign the mandatory 3-year contract. So I did. And then walked out without a phone. Who knows when I’ll see it.

Rogers has had months to prepare for this day. This was supposed to be the “most important product launch” in their history. I’ve heard this is happening right across Canada. Some say it was an iTunes crash that’s causing a problem with activation worldwide. But even getting to the activation stage was a nightmare. The fact that Rogers was so ill-prepared is totally baffling. In the end, they got my money. I guess I’m either a die-hard or a sucker. But the amount of customers they must have lost, who weren’t willing to put up with as much as I did, had to be staggering. Overall, just a bad experience on what should have been an exciting day. I actually switched carriers to get an iPhone so this is my first Rogers experience. It has not been a good one… And as I type this, I still have no iPhone.

Filed Under Editorials, iPhone Tagged With iPhone, Rogers Wireless
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