Tuesday, September 4, 2007

The Apple Blog (7 сообщений)

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The Apple Blog, published by and for the day-to-day Apple user, is a prominent source for news, reviews, walkthroughs, and real life application of all Apple products.
http://theappleblog.com
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  • Breaking News: NBC Has Shot Itself in the Foot

    NBC announced late Thursday afternoon that it will not be renewing its contract with Apple to sell NBC TV shows through iTunes. That is, unless NBC can convince Apple to enforce stricter DRM and allow NBC to charge even more for the TV shows that iTunes has put on the map.

    That’s right, I’m a little worried. But not for Apple… for NBC.

    As we all know, most “good” TV has been replaced with approximately 9,435 reality TV shows that do nothing but prove that we may not be as smart as we think we are. With a lack of quality television, many networks have seen a decline in viewership. However, out of the ashes have risen a few shows that are starting to achieve a “cult” status - due in large part to iTunes.

    My favorite example, of course, is The Office. One of my favorite comedy shows, The Office didn’t exactly turn into a favorite overnight. In fact, according to NBC execs, the show wasn’t necessarily going to survive another season. However, due in large part to its availability on iTunes, The Office has turned into Thursday night’s biggest hit for NBC.

    “I’m not sure that we’d still have the show on the air” without the iTunes boost, says Angela Bromstead, president of NBC Universal Television Studio, which owns and produces “The Office.” “The network had only ordered so many episodes, but when it went on iTunes and really started taking off, that gave us another way to see the true potential other than just Nielsen. It just kind of happened at a great time.”

    According to the WSJ, NBC’s move appears to be a negotiating tactic. Months away from a joint-venture online video site, Hulu.com, NBC is feeling like it can muscle a few more dollars out of the iTunes giant. After all, estimates from Forrester Research put TV show downloads through June at only 50 million. Either NBC thinks its scare tactic is going to work, or they truly believe they’ll make up the revenue from online ads at Hulu.com.

    I believe there are plenty of people who will catch a missed episode or two online, even if they have to put up with embedded advertisements. However, there are apparently a few million people who actually want to own their digital content to watch again and again. Having those digital downloads available turn ordinary computers into home media centers. Somehow I just can’t picture watching NBC shows via my Apple TV on an ad-saturated Hulu.com.

    So if NBC goes through with its threat and pulls all NBC shows in December, I’ll be sad. But I believe NBC will be the one kicking themselves in the a** when they see a perfectly good revenue stream dry up. And who knows how many other sleeper shows will go unnoticed because they never had a chance on iTunes. Oh, the tragedy!

    UPDATE: Just after finishing this post, Apple issued their own press release stating that NBC wanted to double the price of TV downloads from $1.99 to $4.99! And, in a proactive effort on Apple’s part, they’ve decided not to offer any NBC downloads for the coming fall season so that fans (and season pass holders) don’t get screwed come December.

    "We are disappointed to see NBC leave iTunes because we would not agree to their dramatic price increase," said Eddy Cue, Apple's vice president of iTunes. "We hope they will change their minds and offer their TV shows to the tens of millions of iTunes customers."

    I sure hope they do too Apple. I really do.

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  • On Mice

    The Mighty Mouse. Loved and hated, this little gadget looks like nothing else around. (I, personally, am firmly in the love-it camp; I’ll say that right now.)

    But mice are a very idiosyncratic kind of thing; unlike any other peripheral, the mouse is the one that the average user spends the most time using. Because they literally have to fit the user, there are seemingly more tweaks and features than anything else offers. As for the Mighty Mouse - while I like the lack of buttons, using only right- and left-click, may people complain about a lack of configurable buttons. I, personally, don’t need a way to set the side buttons to something else, and more buttons than four or five are, in my opinion at least, overkill. And I love the aesthetics and long battery life.

    But, as I said, that’s me. What do you need in a mouse? If Apple redesigns the Mighty Mouse to match the new keyboards, what would you want to see? (Aluminum? More buttons?)

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  • Booq Vyper exo Laptop Bag Review

    Vyper exo XL

    Back in March I sold my G5 tower in favor of the mobile life and have been using a 17″ MacBook Pro since then.

    There are a plethora of bags/totes/backpacks/etc for traveling with your laptop so there was a pretty big sea of things to chose from. I’ve tried a few different bags over the past few months a must say that the bag I use now is by far my favorite.

    Booq is know for their durable and sleek bags. Almost all of their bags are made out of ballistic nylon, waterproof zippers, and a hard shell with seatbelt nylon straps. These things are seriously heavy duty. I was particularly attracted to their Vyper exo line which is large enough to carry some extras with you but not so bulky that it looks like you’re carrying around a duffle bag.

    Their Vyper exo line is also their first product to make use of their new Terralinq feature. Each booq bag comes with a unique ID number etched in metal and attached to your bag so that if you loose your bag (and laptop), the person who finds it just goes to the booq site and reports the bag with the unique ID. You’d then hopefully get your precious cargo back.

    Booq Vyper exo XL

    I lugged around my 17″ MackBook Pro all over the country in both cars and planes and must say it easily withstood the beating. It fit perfectly in under-seat airplane storage while still holding all the random extras I was carrying with my laptop.

    The only thing I might change is to lower the number of extra pockets and storage areas. It seems a tad overkill to me but I’m sure others could easily put them to use.

    The price tag on a Vyper exo XL (the largest size) is $195. The price can give a little bit of sticker-shock, but these really are top of the line bags that you’ll get years of use out of. 10 out 10 stars…easily.

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  • Transmit 3.6 - Now with Amazon S3 Support

    Transmit

    Today Panic released Transmit version 3.6. It’s been over 18 months since 3.5 was released (though there have been multiple smaller version releases between then).

    The biggest new feature in 3.6 is the addition of Amazon S3 support which undoubtedly has been one of the bigger feature requests lately.

    Transmit Amazon S3 Pane

    In addition to the Amazon S3 support, another new feature they are touting is a “Copy URL” feature. If you are connected to a remote server you can copy the direct URL of the file on your server by using the contextual menu.

    Along with these 2 new features are over 50 new fixes and improvements.

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  • Submit Tips/News to TAB…win some free stuff!

    The Apple Blog wouldn’t exist in any form if we didn’t have all our fantastic readers. We’d now like to give back in a new way by giving away free stuff each month!

    We obviously can’t know about every single thing going on in the world of Apple and that’s where sending in tips to us really helps.

    To reward for that we’re going to start randomly giving away a $25 Amazon.com gift certificate each month to one person who submits a tip or piece of news that we publish.

    Submitting a tip is super easy. Just click on this link or the button in the sidebar that says “Submit Tips & News to TAB”. Easy as that!

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  • iPhone Headphone Adapter Roundup

    iPhone users quickly found out that the headphone jack on the iPhone is recessed several millimeters and standard headphones won’t fit in the jack.

    Belkin Adapter

    Belkin iPhone Headphone Adapter The first company to release an adapter was Belkin, but the adapter is rigid, ugly and looks like a 3″ antennae sticking out of the top of your iPhone. The adapter sells for $10.95, but is getting bad reviews, and I’d recommend looking into other options below.

    Griffin Adapter

    Griffin iPhone Headphone Adapter The Griffin adapter looks better, as it’s not rigid and doesn’t pose the risk of breaking your headphone adapter by bumping into a wall or door. Still, it’s bulky and very noticeable and is not even available yet.

    RadTech Adapter

    ProCable iPhone Headphone Adapter The best looking adapter available now is the RadTech Audio Extension Cable. Available in two lengths, 3″ and 4″, this adapter is as sleek as you could expect and is the least expensive, at only $7.95. I highly recommend this adapter, and have bought one for my iPhone.

    Shure Adapter

    Shure iPhone Headphone Adapter The Shure adapter has a longer cable and includes an inline microphone, so you can still use the phone function while listening to standard headphones. At $39.95, it is the most expensive adapter. I don’t think an inline microphone is worth an extra $30. I want an adapter to use old-style over the ear headphones to get superior sound quality. If I get a call, I’ll unplug them and put the phone to my ear.

    Apple Adapter

    Apple iPhone TTY Adapter There are more choices than previously, but I am still surprised no one has released a simple, elegant adapter that is as minimalistic as possible. While I was browsing the iPhone Cables cateogry at the Apple Store, I couldn’t help but notice the TTY Adapter by Apple. It’s small and sleek, just like you would expect from Apple. I wonder, if a TTY adapter can be made this small why can’t they a headphone adapter?

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  • Gyminee - Track workouts & weight loss on your iPhone

    Gyminee

    The iPhone is consistently being used in other areas besides simple phone calling and messaging.

    Web-based health and fitness tracking website, Gyminee, has adapted their web application’s interface to work perfectly with the iPhone.

    Now when you go to the gym you can take your iPhone with you to help keep track of your work out along with some other snazzy features:

    • Exercise demonstration - Watch short videos that cover how to do certain excercises
    • Weigh-ins - Quickly enter your weight for the application to track
    • Cardio Progress - Record details such as distance, time, and calories burned
    • Excercise Library - If you’re getting bored with the same exercises, fire up the Exercise Library to access a slew of new things to try out

    Right now Gyminee is in a private beta but is constantly adding new users and will be opening up for the public soon.

    Andy from Gyminee was kind enough to give me 10 30 invites to hand out to folks, so if you would like an invite in to the private beta just let me know in the comments area. The first 10 30 people to respond that they want one will get one.

    UPDATE: Andy from Gyminee is hooking us up even more. We now have a total of 30 invites to hand out. :)

    UPDATE: I’m now officially out of invites. Each person that got one of the invites will also have their own invites to give out (I think they’ll have 5 or 10)…so if you got an invite feel free to post in the comments about sending more to others here.

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