This viral video is too meta to be believed. It stars Randi Jayne, the sister of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and David Prager, COO of online TV channel Revision3, which hosts the Diggnation show, and the video’s about an Apple product. It’s like a Silicon Valley intermarriage.
It’s still pretty funny, though. Especially if you’re into parodies of “Freak Like Me.
Via Apple 2.0
Visual comparison of rumored new iMac keyboard to existing iMac keyboard. [Gizmodo]
Hackers release proof-of-concept “Hello World” application for iPhone [TUAW]
USB Hard Drives Now Work with AppleTV — But Not Well [AppleTV Hacks]
iPhone Making Calls on Australian Carrier [MacNN]
Minor GUI improvements in latest Leopard Builds [ThinkSecret]
Shut Down Dell and Give the Money Back to Shareholders [ZDNet]
New Apple hardware platforms are the new favorite home of interesting software development. When the AppleTV launched, the box was immediately hacked to do a lot of things it was never designed for. Now, the iPhone is rapidly filling with Web 2.0 applications, even 10 days before it actually rolls out the door.
You can see ample evidence of this over at iPhone Application List, which is trying to keep track of every new development for the device. While some apps look great — the shopping list one I linked the other day, news reader iActu — others are not quite up to Apple interface standards, to put it mildly.
It’s interesting proof that good apps can be built solely on Web technology. On the other hand, the applications all behave in pretty much the same way. And we’ve also very rapidly reached the ugly phase of iPhone development. One problem with Apple’s deliberately vague non-SDK approach is that iPhone apps look a lot like the Internet. And at this point, it’s safe to say: The Internet ain’t always pretty.
What are you still waiting to see in iPhone app form? Anything you don’t think is possible (other than anything requiring Flash, obviously)?
Today’s D: All Things Digital conference has been quite interesting, from the introduction of Palm’s ludicrous Foleo device to Microsoft’s over-the-top (literally) Surface computing initiative and Apple’s more modest but interesting announcements of YouTube for AppleTV, iTunes Plus and the Big AppleTV upgrade.
Nothing, however, compares to the currently rolling Steve Jobs and Bill Gates chat on stage together. They’re mostly looking back with humor on their linked history. It’s hilarious stuff, from Engadget’s liveblog of it:
Steve: Gil (Amelio) had a saying, “Apple is like a ship with holes in the bottom leaking water. My job is to get that ship pointed in the right direction.”
No, no. I’m not crying. It’s just been raining…on my face!
Technorati Tags: bill gates, Steve Jobs
I’m genuinely puzzled by AppleInsider’s melodramatic post pronouncing the death of the Mac mini. The article recounts Apple’s many slights of its lowest-end platform and then proceeds to show know evidence that the line will soon be killed off.
It has seen just four updates since inception, one of which was so insignificant in Apple’s own eyes that the company didn’t even bother to draft a press release. Even now, the current minis’ 1.66GHz and 1.83GHz Core Duo processors are a far cry from the silicon offered in the rest of Apple’s PC offerings.
Well, that’s actually to be expected. And I would say that hardware is significantly better than a lot of low-end PCs from other manufacturers. But that’s neither here nor there. Apple needs the Mac mini just to get people looking for a cheap Mac in the door. The AppleTV might be incredibly popular as a hackable Mac substitute, but that’s not what it is out of the box. Apple still needs a low-end entry, and the Mac mini costs very little to develop and revise. I don’t see Apple just walking away.
And this quote says it all:
Whether Apple will squeeze another revision from the mini, and how long it plans to allow existing models to linger, are both unclear.
Oh, so at some point in the future, possibly after Apple releases new Mac minis, Apple will stop selling the Mac mini. Yep, dead as a doornail. What?
Though DVRs are still far from mainstream technology, some folks are already moving from the time-shifting of a DVR to the place-shifting offered by Sling Media, which uses a hardware/software combo to take incoming TV streams and make them available at any time at any place over the Internet. But until yesterday, the software didn’t run on Mac. No more. the new Sling Player for Mac OS X is compatible with a wide variety of sources and viewing hardware:
With this software release, Slingbox owners can now view their television directly on their Macintosh computer screen. With full remote control, they can watch content from their home entertainment system whether from cable, DVR, DVD and even a full range of Apple entertainment products including: Apple TV®, Front Row, iPod® in Apple’s Universal Dock® or iPod in an iPod Hi-Fi.
They did a great job meeting Apple’s own interface standards, judging from the screenshot. Anyone already got it up and running? How’s it going?
Sling Media – Sling Media’s Popular SlingPlayer Now Ready For A Mac Near You
Technorati Tags: slingbox, slingplayer
Though DVRs are still far from mainstream technology, some folks are already moving from the time-shifting of a DVR to the place-shifting offered by Sling Media, which uses a hardware/software combo to take incoming TV streams and make them available at any time at any place over the Internet. But until yesterday, the software didn’t run on Mac. No more. the new Sling Player for Mac OS X is compatible with a wide variety of sources and viewing hardware:
With this software release, Slingbox owners can now view their television directly on their Macintosh computer screen. With full remote control, they can watch content from their home entertainment system whether from cable, DVR, DVD and even a full range of Apple entertainment products including: Apple TV®, Front Row, iPod® in Apple’s Universal Dock® or iPod in an iPod Hi-Fi.
They did a great job meeting Apple’s own interface standards, judging from the screenshot. Anyone already got it up and running? How’s it going?
Sling Media – Sling Media’s Popular SlingPlayer Now Ready For A Mac Near You
Technorati Tags: slingbox, slingplayer
Apple on Monday triumphantly announced it has sold 100 million iPods in five years with a big splashy ad in the New York Times and across the front page of its website. Apple claims the iPod is the “fastest selling music player in history.” That may be so, but it’s not yet the biggest seller: Sony sold 340 million Walkmans (and others sold countless millions of knockoffs).
But Apple watchers are actually more interested in the growth of iTunes. Carl Howe at Blackfriars Marketing notes that iTunes has now sold 2.5 billion songs — 1 billion more songs than 6 months ago. These numbers are only semi-official (Jobs mentioned them casually in an interview), but if Apple is now selling 1 billion songs every six months, that’s a very sharp growth curve.
Also, Howe points out that Apple is also beginning to dominate online sales of movies and TV shows. Wal-Mart revealed on Monday that its online movie store sold just 3,000 movies in the first month. By contrast, Apple sold 125,000 movies in the first week.
“Once you’ve bested the largest American retailer, the sky is the limit,” Howe writes.
So, I might or might not be interviewed by On the Media soon regarding my thoughts about the Apple/EMI deal that will soon bring us DRM-free iTunes music downloads. It’ll basically depend on if they can find me a studio in Toronto or not — I’ll keep you posted. In collecting these thoughts, the following thing occurred to me: I have no idea if it’s a good thing or not. After giving it some more thought, it’s definitely good, bad and ugly…I mean, unclear. This is the most theoretical I’ve gotten in awhile, so definitely click through to see what it’s all about.
On the eve of Macworld, who totally nailed the products Steve Jobs unveiled? Was it Think Secret, or Mac Rumors?
No. It was Kevin Rose, founder of Digg and a former presenter of the Screen Savers TV show.
The night before Jobs unveiled the intel iMac and the MacBook Pro, Rose had it all, including the pissy iPod FM radio/remote.
Rose also claimed to have been tipped off to the iPod nano two days before his Jobness pulled it from his hat.
Will Rose and his secret tipster bag Apple’s “fun products” event on Tuesday morning?
Photo of Rose and friends at Macworld pinched from Leo Laporte.
