Gary Go will perform with an iPhone as his backing band at Wembley Stadium.
The 24-year-old Go, born Gary Baker, will open for boy band veterans Take That in July. He’ll stand in front of thousands (90,000 if it’s a full house) with only his device for some tracks, a live back-up band for others.
“The fact we’re going to see someone playing an iPhone at Wembley is something I don’t think even Apple thought would happen,” said Stuart Dredge, of industry site Music Ally.
“The software started out as a gimmick, but now we are seeing real musicians producing real music with it. Of course, you still need talent, but the phone means you can make and record anywhere.”
(Unfortunately, none of the stories I saw on Go mention which virtual four-track app he used to write his songs, some are lush ballads far from the brittle synth-pop of yesteryear.)
“My biggest worry is that my phone will ring mid-song,” Go said.
Yesterday, I had the pleasure of viewing “Art & Copy,” a new documentary about the best ad agencies on the planet, during the San Francisco Film Festival. It’s a wonderful film, full of great stories about the creative process and the origins of the 20th Century’s most memorable ads. Critically for Mac fans, this includes a brilliant blow-by-blow for how Apple’s amazing “1984” commercial was created, courtesy of TBWA Chiat-Day Chairman Lee Clow.
The clip itself isn’t available to embed, but what Clow says about “1984” — and then demonstrates in 1997’s “Think Different” — is worth remarking upon for anyone who has a long-term relationship with Apple. Clow says that the reason “1984” could be brilliant is that, first of all, he was given absolute creative freedom, second, Ridley Scott typified a new way of making movies that was just starting to take off in the U.S., and, most important, Apple actually had a revolutionary product and was aware of how revolutionary it was. When a great creative force gets a near-unlimited budget to promote a genuinely amazing product, it would be hard not to do so well.
Fascinatingly, Clow claims Apple’s board tried to kill “1984” right before it aired, at which point Jobs and Woz offered to split the cost of airing it in the Super Bowl — so it helps to have rich, passionate executives, too.
What’s interesting about looking back to “1984” and “Think Different,” both of which are considered in the film, is just how emotional they are. They make a profound appeal to people who feel like outsiders, rebels. Whether Apple ever really represented that feeling or not (I personally believe that it did), those spots went an incredible distance toward summing up what being a Mac user meant in the pre-iMac era. It meant everything, in a lot of ways. Pretty much any long-time Apple user will get misty watching either spot — or even talking about them.
That’s why the segment of the movie that shows Clow and his team working on iPod dance commercials in the present day was ultimately such a shock. Apple doesn’t make passionate ads any more. The emotion is gone. Apple makes cool ads — iPod dancers, Mac v. PC — and it makes educational ads — iPhone explanations, iPod touch as gaming system — but it no longer makes a real emotional appeal. Now, this transition is unquestionably more successful. But it does make me feel less a part of a movement. And that’s something I miss pretty much all the time.
I can’t recommend this film, which gets distributed in September, highly enough — nor that you click through the jump to watch “1984” and “Think Different.”
TUAW has the scoop on a very curious entry in the stats for Adium: a single user machine identified as the “MacBook Mini”. Now, this could easily be spoofed — last I checked the “Lenovo reModelFaMacBookAir” was not a computer — but on the other hand, it might be the very first appearance of the long-rumored Mac netbook.
After all, the very first place the name MacBook Air appeared was in the very same Adium stats. Only Apple knows what Apple is working on. But for now — we can dream.
“Dept. of deja vu: MacBookMini found in Adium stats” TUAW
What it is: A tool for accessing ‘fresh’ items on your Mac—recently used/saved documents/folders are placed in the Fresh Files zone, and user-defined files you deem ‘fresh’ can be dragged to the shelf-like Cooler. Fresh also provides tagging functionality.
Why it’s good: Initially, this app might nonplus. After all, it effectively duplicates functionality found elsewhere in Mac OS X. However, in a surprisingly short amount of time, Fresh worms its way into your workflow, due to providing a simple and central location for fresh items.
Primarily, It’s great having system-wide configurable access to recent items (you can decide which file types or locations should be ignored by Fresh, and remove single items from its zones), and being able to bring up Fresh to find recent downloads or saved files seems far more natural than rooting around in Finder.
The Cooler proves handy—it’s a more convenient and useful shelf than the Dock. Also, Fresh’s tagging is robust, and the method it employs enables you to do tag searches via Spotlight, meaning you’re not restricted to Fresh’s Tag Search window. And as with any top system add-on, Fresh is stable, usable, and gets out of your way when it’s not needed.
Where to get it: Fresh requires Mac OS X 10.5.5 or later, and costs $9. It’s available from Ironic Software.
Apple may begin offering a CDMA version of the iPhone branded to Verizon sometime in 2010, according to a report at USA Today.
Citing apocryphal “people familiar with the situation,” the report claims Verizon began talks with Apple prior to Steve Jobs’ health sabbatical and says conversations have continued in the ensuing months. The report comes in the wake of news reported earlier in the month regarding AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson’s efforts to extend his company’s exclusive US iPhone distribution deal through 2011.
Sunday’s USA Today story also flies in the face of recent comments made by Tim Cook, Apple’s Chief Operating Officer, who has been in charge of the company’s day-to-day operations in Jobs’ absence.
Speaking last week during Apple’s quarterly earnings call, Cook dismissed the idea of producing a CDMA version of the iPhone, asserting that it has no future, because many CDMA carriers plan to adopt the same 4G standard that will soon be used on GSM networks.
Whether Verizon is successful in closing a deal with Apple for 2010 or not, it only stands to reason, especially in the light of how the iPhone saved AT&T’s financial bacon in 2008, that iPhone’s luster continues to grow.
Every rumor like the one trumpeted Sunday by USA Today serves to increase anticipation for a certain (thus far unannounced) Tuesday event in June or July at Apple’s Cupertino headquarters.
Barely 19, Muscovite Vera Uvarova landed herself in the hospital after a car crash that left her immobile, save for one arm.
Four days after the accident, a friend gave her an iPhone. The device became Vera’s visual connection with her beaten body and the resulting pictures are showcased in an exhibition at Moscow Gallery Na Solyanke.
“This transformation was important to me…” Uvarova told the Moscow Times. “Unable to lift my head, the only way I could see my legs, for instance, was through the lens of my iPhone.”
She was restricted to hospital life for close to three months, but the exhibition focuses on the first transformative 800 hours, hence its title, “800 Hours on My Back with an iPhone in Hand. How I Was Born Again with the Help of Photography.”
In Bridgewater New Jersey, the police blotter reports (between rock-throwing incidents and credit card theft) that someone managed to walk out of the local Best Buy with a MacBook from a display. Anyone else come across scenes of attempted five-finger discounts?
Here’s the report:
THEFT, 5:41 p.m. March 31: An employee of Best Buy reported that someone was able to remove a MacBook computer, valued at $1,800, from a display and leave the store undetected.
Number Seven Hundred and Thirty Six on the list of things that really torque me off are people who intentionally and knowingly mislead folks for fun and profit. And to this list of Mortgage Brokers, Right Wing Talk Radio Hosts, and Tobacco Lobbyists, we can now add Roger L. Kay president of Endpoint Technology Associates (aside — people who are ‘president’ of companies employing 50 or less people, are number 977 on the list of things that annoy the crap out of me.)
El Presidente Roger authored a white paper at the behest of Microsoft titled: “What Price Cool” which serves to illuminate us all as to how we all have been paying some imaginary “Hidden Apple Tax” all these years.
Of course, a younger man might shrug this drivel off, yet as I grow older I find my patience for such things eroding. While I’m not quite at the yelling at kids to get off my lawn stage, I am quite crotchety enough to spend my Saturday night debunking this garbage.
Follow me after the jump where we reveal the obviousness with which Le President Kay sold his credibility.
What it is: Think social media is a kick in the pants? Big twitter and Facebook fan, are you? Well, you may want to consider upping your game with Foursquare, a newish social media app/game for iPhone and iPod Touch.
Foursquare feeds the social, yet competitive spirit in users, who leverage the location-aware functionality of Apple’s mobile devices to let friends and others on the network know where they go, what they do and what they dig in 12 major US metropolitan areas (so far).
Why it’s good: The built-in gaming aspect of Foursquare lets users earn points for checking in at different places around the city and giving tips on what makes those places so cool (get the curry duck at Thep Phanom, for example). By hitting different spots and making combinations of recommendations, players can unlock “badges” and become a “Mayor” of their city.
By keeping up with and adding friends, users get to leverage the collective knowledge about a city into lists of cool things they have done and cool things they want to do.
Users can check in by logging on to accounts through a mobile browser, directly from within the app itself or by texting their location from a mobile phone.
Apple lost a patent infringement lawsuit Thursday in Texas, when a jury awarded Opti Inc. of Palo Alto, Calif $19 million in damages. The plaintiffs argued Apple willfully infringed on Opti Inc.’s patent covering a computer operation that enables a “snooping” function designed to help computers more easily retrieve previously accessed data.
The jury in the courtroom of Judge Charles “Chad” Everingham IV of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas in Marshall, rejected Apple’s contention that Opti Inc.’s patent should be declared invalid and awarded the verdict as fair and reasonable compensation to Opti for Apple’s willful patent violation, according to the verdict form.
No word a yet on the status of Apple’s intent to appeal the verdict in the case.
The lucky downloader of the billionth app from iTunes (winner of a MacBook Pro, a 32GB iPod Touch, a $10,000 iTunes Gift Card and a Time Capsule wireless hard drive) is reportedly a 13-year-old who hit the jackpot with a free app called “bump.” Apple reached the billion mark with apps in just nine months.
Call it hacking, or just common sense: getting into actress Salma Hayek’s Mobileme account was apparently as easy as knowing her birthday and her favorite starring role.
An anonymous post on imageboard 4chan.org provided MobileMe login details for Hayek:
Go to me.com, forgot password, type [email protected]
Her //snip//
Answer to change password question is: //snip//
Voila : a peek at Hayek’s iPhone apps downloaded from iTunes — including restaurant finder Urbanspoon, Shazam and the Say Who voice recognition dialer — plus emails from uber-magnate husband Francois-Henri Pinault and an invite to America Ferrera’s 25th birthday party.
Wonder if iPhone loving twitterer Ashton Kutcher’s next…
In computer software circles, there’s a lot of discussion about the “10-foot UI,” designed for interactions from across a living room. Now that streaming video has truly come into its own, the space has exploded. Apple’s Front Row is a 10-foot app, as is Boxee.
But if you’re a Mac user, especially a Mac mini owner who keeps it hooked up to an HDTV, there’s only one choice: Plex Media Center, a Mac-only offshoot of the Xbox Media Center software. Basically, Plex pulls all of your content — whether on your hard drive, your network, your Tivo — and blends it with everything on the entire Internet, including Hulu, Pandora, BBC iPlayer, Netflix, and The Daily Show, then wraps it in a stunningly beautiful interface that makes it a snap to navigate all of the world’s video and music with arrow keys are a simple remote control. Better still, it’s an open architecture, and people are adding to it like crazy.
It’s been around as Plex since last July, but many of the best features, like the Netflix plug-in, are recent arriving in the last two weeks. What’s maybe most exciting is that Plex has plug-ins that the original XBMC application lacks. The Mac development community is passionate enough to dramatically improve their offering beyond other versions. Heck, it has its own App Store. And it’s 100 percent free, running on all Intel hardware running Leopard.
This is the media operating system of the future. Now, if they’d just release a companion remote application for iPhone, this thing would really take over the planet.
Were you aware there is an annual conference devoted to the Apple II computer? And that it’s been held for 20 years?
Make plans now to be at Rockhurst University in Kansas City, MO from July 21 – 26 for, yes, the 20th annual KansasFest, a computer hoedown all about Apple’s iconic Apple II computer.
The keynote speaker will be Jason Scott, webmaster of
TEXTFILES.COM, director of “BBS: The Documentary”, and caretaker of Sockington, the cat on Twitter with over 300,000 followers.
KansasFest 2009, the world’s only annual Apple II conference, invites any and all Apple II and Macintosh users, fans, and friends to attend what oganizers call the “summer camp for geeks.” For photos, schedules, presentations from past year’s events, and inquiries, visit the event’s Web site.
It took two days of people complaining, but Apple finally yanked Baby Shaker from the App Store on Wednesday – though the screaming and crying over why it was ever approved in the first place has probably yet to reach a fever pitch.
With nearly umpty-thousand applications now in the App Store and Apple fast approaching a billion downloads, it’s not unreasonable to expect that some things might slip through the cracks.
But, seriously, Baby Shaker?
Think I could slip my Shoot the President app past ’em somehow?
In a gloves-off analysis of Apple’s unexpectedly good earnings report yesterday ($1.2 billion in profits, up 20 percent from 2008), Time attributes the uptick to brand cachet, not the products.
“Apple and RIMM results are an example of why brands matter and why companies are willing to work to develop them by making huge investments which can stretch over decades.”
Writer Douglas McIntyre falls back on a number of generalizations “a lot of people” “a lot of experts” “a lot like the iPhone” “a lot of cheap phones” and then pulls a few punches took a few cheap shots at people who buy Apple products.
“A lot of people think that consumers who buy brand are suckers, the kind people WC Field used to mock in old movies. Samsung builds a smartphone that looks and works a lot like the iPhone. It is called the Instinct and Apple owners think it is junk.”
“A lot of experts claim to know why people buy branded products, but there are probably as many reasons as there are people. All Apple cares about is that their customers have enough money to buy an iPhone, iPod, or Mac. Suckers have money, too.”
What it is: A real-time Risk, set in space. You conquer planets by sending a percentage of your ships (from one or multiple planets) to attack, and each planet under your control builds more ships to replenish your forces. Strategy lies in securing larger planets, which have faster production, and also determining where to station your forces for protection or counter-attacks in multi-player games.
Why it’s good: Although having similarities with Risk and even games like Civilisation, Galcon is fast. Games can be over in a matter of seconds, thereby making it a perfect pick-up-and-play title. Visually and aurally, it’s great, and a number of single-player modes and levels enable you to ‘train’ yourself in the Galcon ways.
Galcon also has an online mode, enabling you to play ‘live’ against up to three opponents. The gameplay varies slightly from easier single-player games, since you don’t see how many ships are guarding each planet. Therefore, gameplay becomes a combination of Risk, bluff elements of poker (in luring opponents into a false sense of security, or leaving large planets almost bereft of forces, to put more into attack) and a Mexican stand-off, with matches often ending in a frantic arcade-like orgy of destruction.
If being brutally honest, there does appear to be a certain technique to winning multiplayer matches, and a lot of success is down to whether you get a good starting position in the randomly defined maps. However, given the cost of the application, and the sheer fun to be had (in both multiplayer and single-player modes), it’s a definite favorite, and we urge you to check it out.
Where to get it: Galcon’s available on the App Store, and is at the time of writing on sale for $2.99. There’s also a free lite version with the ‘Classic’ mission. More information about the game, along with forums and sign-up for the online mode, can be found on the Galcon website.
Regardless of how much Steve Ballmer is cackling about Apple’s problems from charging a premium, the company’s performance suggests that the House That Steve Built is extremely well-adapted to thriving in the current recession.
Over the past three months, Apple enjoyed its best-ever non-holiday quarter. $8.16 billion in revenue, up 9 percent from last year. Profits of $1.2 billion, up 20 percent from a year ago. Apple beat consensus estimates by about 24 cents per share.
Mac sales did slow down a bit, but iPod sales were up 3 percent and iPhone sales an astounding 123 percent. The company is delivering results like no one else right now. The fact that the analysts were so pessimistic (they predicted a drop in revenue and profit) should elevate the price further.
Remember — this is the first quarter without Steve Jobs in charge since his cancer treatments five years ago, and Apple did better than ever before. And we’re six to ten weeks from a new version of the iPhone. Apple is sitting pretty, and no one can touch them right now.
The Better Business Bureau is warning Facebook users to read the fine print when responding to ads.
A recent BBB press release stated that an estimated $1.3 billion will be spent on social networking advertising this year. The large print on ads featured on social networking sites, like Facebook and Myspace, do not always tell the entire story.
The warning about MacBook Air scams is a hoot:
Also common on Facebook are ads to get a free MacBook Air claiming that the company is seeking laptop testers. The ads lead to an incentive marketing program at https://www.colormyrewards.com/ where participants must sign up for various products and services in order to earn their free laptop.
The Fine Print: Customers must complete two options from each of the three tiers, Top, Prime and Premium before receiving their “free” MacBook. Example offers listed in the Top and Prime tiers include signing up for credit cards or trial offers for subscription services such as for vitamin supplements or DVD rental services. In some cases, the participant will need to pay for shipping, and if they aren’t vigilant about canceling the trial offers they signed up for, they’ll begin being billed every month.
Examples of the Premium offers listed on the Web site that must be met in order to get the MacBook are much more expensive and include paying as much as $1,500 for furniture or purchasing a travel package with a minimum value of $899.00 per person.
BBB Warns: Incentive programs can be extremely costly in the long run and the fine print shows that the customer might have to pay a significant amount of money in order to get their “Free” items. It is also a red flag that Apple does not even make MacBook Air in purple, red, pink, or green. (Emphasis mine.)
And as flickr user 4braham noted (image used with a CC license) the Mac in the scam pic isn’t a MacBook Air. Sheesh!
What gadgets and software applications do you use on a day-to-day basis?
Steve Wozniak: I have such a crowded life and crowded schedule. When people send me a link with a gadget, I’ll look at it and buy it if it looks interesting, but I don’t have time to check out everything I’d like to.
I do have a Nixie Tube watch… The biggest benefit in my life comes from my Segway, which I use everywhere I am. If I’m going to San Antonio, for example, I’ll load it in the car and just go everywhere with it. The other crucial thing is my Verizon wireless card, which I have to have because hotel Wi-Fi is just so unreliable.
What are you using to manage your email?
Steve Wozniak: Eudora….The reason I do is, it has an incredible feature that every single mail client should have.
Any feature in the menu list, any action there, can be added as a button. I changed it so I have a vertical menu bar, so I can have tons and tons of pre-made buttons saved right where I want them up top, and I learn where those place are. You can script actions to the buttons, too, so I can quickly copy messages to my assistants. There are scripts I wrote for joke lists so I can forward a message, remove the brackets and formatting, and make sure all the original attachments are included, to a pre-defined “joke” group. Apple’s Mail app just isn’t scriptable enough to really handle my mail buttons.
Some of the buttons will re-direct mail with quote marks, or not. I’ve got another script that will actually customize a mail forward, like my own version of mail merge. So even if something’s going out to 400 people, I can set it to single out certain people and take away all the forwarding markings, so it looks like I singled out someone to send them mail. Which is, I hope, a nice little moment for them.
The near-term economic horizon appears to be surprisingly bright in the Apple/Mac universe, according to a survey released Tuesday by MacTech Magazine.
Despite recent dismal numbers from many sectors of the economy, 90% of respondents in “the Apple market ecosystem” polled by surveyors from MacTech believe 2009 will be “almost as good as or better than 2008”; 62.8% reported feeling good or great when asked about the Apple/Mac segment.
“The MacTech team decided to survey those in the market after seeing two significant trends starkly contrasting the general U.S. economic news,” said Neil Ticktin, Editor-in-Chief/Publisher, MacTech Magazine. “It’s been easy to get wrapped up in the bad news of the U.S. economy, but the reality is that for the Mac and Apple markets, things are strong and expected to get stronger.”
MacTech’s own advertising results and forecasts appear to support Ticktin’s optimism, with the magazine seeing a 13% increase in ad revenues 1Q09 over 1Q08.
A news editor from another well-known technology-focused magazine told Cult of Mac Tuesday, “after an abysmal holiday season, ad sales for the June issue look to be the best EVER!” MacTech’s Ticktin added “our staff has heard from many MacTech advertisers how well they are doing despite the economy.”
The sunny outlook from Apple-land certainly contrasts with anecdotal sentiment Cult of Mac gathered Tuesday night at an AdTech after-party in San Francisco, where several attendees reported a very down-beat vibe from the bellwether digital advertising conference.
Yahoo also reported Tuesday plans to cut 5% of its workforce in the wake of a nearly 80% drop in profits in the first quarter of 2009, and media guru Shelley Palmer said at the post-AdTech gathering in San Francisco he gives the economy 10 months to show its hand as far worse than anyone believes it is today.
If you’ve ever wondered why some developers can’t stand Apple, perhaps Marco Arment can help.
Arment makes useful websites in New York, according to his bio. He’s the lead developer of Tumblr, the Web 2.0 sharing sensation, and creator of the very popular iPhone application Instapaper, which allows users to save web pages on their devices for reading later.
Arment penned a revealing blog post Monday that serves to highlight the frustration even established developers must endure in navigating the uncharted, fickle waters of Apple’s approval process for third-party iPhone and iPod Touch applications.
After submitting an update to Instapaper that included the mobile phone icon shown in the screen capture above, Arment was informed his update could not be accepted because it ran afoul of SDK guidelines that prevent “use [of] the Apple Logo or any other Apple-owned graphic symbol, logo, or icon … except pursuant to an express written trademark license from Apple.”
A friend of Arment’s had designed the icon and offered it to him for use with Instapaper.
Arment concedes the App Store is “an amazing deal for independent developers” but laments the fact that “problems seem so arbitrary, avoidable, and developer-hostile.”
In the end, the frustrated developer must resolve to “make a different icon from scratch that doesn’t contain any depictions of any Apple products,” with Arment asking, “can I use arrows, or does that violate the arrow key on Apple’s keyboards?”
And the bottom line, something with which even Apple is undoubtedly familiar, is that a developer in Arment’s position is forced to resubmit, wait another 7 -14 days, hope to be accepted, and lose a few weeks of the increased sales that the new version will generate, all the while chalking it up to “another annoying cost of doing business on the App Store that [you] can’t do a thing about.”
