On Thursday, we’ll be publishing an exclusive interview with ex-Apple CEO John Sculley. It’s the first time Sculley has talked publicly about Steve Jobs since he was forced out of Apple in 1993.
In the interview, Sculley reveals the secrets of Jobs’ methodology, and a few surprises:
httpvhd://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HyOUGm0btcI
Alright, couch potatoes… set your TiVos to start recording on Thursday, October 14th at 9:00PM ET. That’s the time you can expect the second episode of Bloomberg Game Changers to air, focusing on Apple CEO Steve Jobs.
This new TV commercial for Microsoft’s new Windows Phone 7 inspired me to write a script for this weekend’s Saturday Night Live. No, really!
WEEKEND UPDATE SEGMENT
Seth Meyers, Amy Poehler
SETH
Microsoft this week unveiled its long awaited Windows Phone 7 to compete with the Apple iPhone and Google Android phones. The company also released a TV commercial depicting a world of people so engrossed in their cell phones that they fail in their jobs, neglect their kids and ignore the sexual advances of their spouses. To which people in the commercial respond: “Really!?!”
Which brings us to a segment we like to call, “REALLY!?! with Seth & Amy.”
<Applause>
One thing that you tend to notice when you watch as much television as I do is that almost ever character on TV uses a Mac … usually with a big sticker conspicuously placed over the glowing emblem on the lid, because while writers and set designers want to show that their characters are cool enough to use a Mac or an iPhone, Apple doesn’t go in for product placement on shows it doesn’t like.
When they do sponsor, it always smacks of love: Consider critic’s darling 30 Rock and their proudly prominent “Sponsored by Apple” product placement … all despite the fact that the shows ratings have been in the toilet for seasons now. Steve Jobs grooves on some Liz Lemon.
CBS’ hit sitcom How I Met Your Mother is one of those shows in which every character has a MacBook Pro with a sticker over the Apple logo, despite the fact it’s pretty much the biggest sitcom out there. Apple clearly thinks the show’s a bit artless … which is funny, because that’s the only way to describe the product placement bukkake party for Microsoft products that was last night’s episode.
The timing of Scosche’s new sneakPEEK II accessory seems curiously timed.
You can’t fault it’s functionality, really. The sneakPEEK II allows you to pump content from your iPad or iPhone to your television easily by just connecting it to your device via their umbilical. On one end is the standard Apple docking connector and, on the other, composite and component inputs for plugging into pretty much any television out there. It’ll even charge your iPad while you watch a movie or play a game, thanks to an integrated micro USB connector and AC adapter.
That’s not bad functionality, but when iOS 4.2 rolls around, isn’t the point of a cable like this going to be pretty much obviated when AirPlay allows you to stream video or audio from any app to any AirPlay-compatible device… including Apple’s own $99 AppleTV?
The sneakPEEK II, of course, is cheaper than an AppleTV, but at $59.99, the price discrepancy is so minimal that we can’t help but feel there aren’t a lot of people who will opt for Scosche’s solution over Apple’s sexy black box. In fact, about the only thing to recommend it over an AppleTV is if you want to pump video from a classic iPod up to your television, or if your television lacks an HDMI port.
Are you on iOS 4.1? Eager to jailbreak? Better set an alarm now to remind yourself to check the Internet on October 10th at 10:10:10AM. That’s the cheeky time when hackers will release the first working jailbreak hack.
We start the day with a deal on an 8-Core Mac Pro Xeon Workstation. The model is powered by 2.4GHz processors and includes 16GB of memory for $3,879. Also, there is a deal on an iPhone 4Superleggera case from Acase with two screen protectors. The final deal in today’s spotlight is an iP9 Clock radio for the iPhone or iPod.
Along the way, we’ll also check out other hardware and software deals for the iPhone, iPod or Mac. As usual, details on these and many other items can be found at CoM’s “Daily Deals” page after the jump.
The iPad is set to become the fastest selling consumer electronics product in history, with initial sales running at three times that of the current record holder: the DVD player.
“The iPad did not seem destined to be a runaway product success straight out of the box,” retail analyst Colin McGranahan of Bernstein Research wrote in an investors’ note. “By any account, the iPad is a runaway success of unprecedented proportion.”
We start off another week of deals with a blast from the past: a 1.26GHz G4 iBook with 12-inch screen and software for $250. Next is a Kensington Battery Pack and charger for your iPhone or iPod. This unit includes a dock connector and flip-out USB tip. Finally, to help keep your private personal information secure, there is a deal on “Hands Off!”, personal information security monitoring software from MacUpdate.com for just $12.50.
We’ll also take a look at other items, along the way. As always, details on these and many other gadgets can be found at CoM’s “Daily Deals” page after the jump.
Ever wonder how they come up with those great songs you hear in TV, film, advertising and interactive media? You know, those songs that sound like they might be huge hits but are actually songs you’re probably hearing for the very first time?
Odds are — in recent years, at any rate — producers of that TV show, film or ad got the music from Jingle Punks, a New York-based firm with a proprietary search algorithm and a huge (and growing) library of independent music that is changing the way music makes it into consumer media almost overnight.
Time was, creative directors in the entertainment industry sat in offices behind mountains of cassette tapes and CD jewel boxes, sifting through demos sent in by every Indy band from Bellingham to Boca Raton, searching for the right sound to make their productions sing. Often it amounted to drudgery as a job and a crap-shoot for musicians and songwriters, who never knew if their masterpiece would get played for the right set of ears.
Now, thanks to Jingle Player, an iPad app with advanced meta-tagging magic built inside, former drones for the likes of NBC, MTV, VHI and countless ad agencies on Madison Avenue are suddenly freed from their dank hovels to roam the earth brandishing iPads, fulfilling the dreams of indy musicians toiling in obscurity. The Jingle Player’s secret sauce lies in its ability to serve up the right songs based on the way people actually talk about music, using pop culture-relevant terms instead of technical music business jargon.
