John Gruber on Daring Fireball writes: “The Cocoa text system has a built-in auto-complete feature that is tied to the system-wide spelling checker dictionary”
As revealed in Johns Tip today, one can access a list of osx’s dictionary by hitting the ‘esc’ key or the ‘F5′ key from any Cocoa Application, including Mail, iChat, Textedit and many more. This is really a great help to native speakers and foreign speakers alike. I haven’t tried this out in the word processors native to OSX (Pages, Word and NeoOffice) as I use docs.google.com for word processing, but I have tried it on forms under safari and it comes in truly useful when commenting a posting to wordpress.
Internet and digital technique are changing the music industry but their are giving big opportunities. Members of the music industry fear the changing and see dark clouds in the sky. The reason is the ongoing collapse of physical music sales not only in the USA. And that gives a taste what will occur in the next years. Wal-Mart, Amazon and iTunes are only a few companies who sale music online and the online service is multiplying not only in the United States and Europe. It is true the time is changing but in wich direction?
In the early 1990`s the CD started their increasing and the Vinyl was nearly dead. But the Techno-Movement secured the Vinyl and kids explored this plastic plate. But since a couple of years is another format very famous called Mp3. Mp3 changed the music business and opened the way to share music worldwide via the Internet. Will the single download substitute the album and wich format will be sold and bought? How much should music cost? And is the copyright a good thing? Will Blogs and online videos substitute music magazines? Have music stores still a future in that business?
Those are only a few questions that will change the music industry. So far only the music industry did the disissions but now the single customer get more and more involved and with the customer also the music maker itself. Social networks like MySpace or YouTube will have a bigger influence in the music market but not lead by the music industry. More and more involved is the single customer and he will change the whole music industry. In this point the music bosses must have a closer look what a single customer prefer. This is the point where not only the Label bosses have the rules in heir hands. I think the single customer, you, will have the rule of the music industry in your hands. It is your dissision in wich way the music is going.
In an unexpected PR move, the zune now shows striking differences in contrast to the 80gb Video iPod on amazon.com. iPod and Zune Comparison
Notable differences include 12hours battery life on zune compared to 20 hours on the iPod, 3 audio formats supported on zune compared to over six on the iPod, but incredibly despite the mrketing spin that the zune team has put out, amazon reveals that the true dimensions of the zune are 7.44″ x .6″ x 7.44″ and a shocking weight of 5.01 lbs. Welcome to the 70’s Zune, you weigh about the same as my eight track player, I hope you don’t suffer the same fate…
As reported in a press release today, “Apple MacBook Pro Notebooks Now With Intel Core 2 Duo Processors“, Apple is shipping its new Macbook Pros, as had been rumoured yesterday, they include the intel core 2 duo processors and have remained at the same price point.
Domain Names, back in the boom, they were worth a fortune, proof:
The sale of the domain name “Business.com” achieved, at the time, a record domain-name sale at $7.5 million by Marc Ostrofsky to eCompanies.
However, once search engines evolved to index relevent content, the domain name became irrelevant, because flickr.com had no meaning, google.com had no meaning, like all good things they developed a service and hence users went to flickr because it was good, not because wereagoodphotographysite.com was its domain name.
Marc Ostrofsky made the mistake of paying for a relevant sounding domain name, everybody said, that was dumb and moved on…
Except one group. The predators… they registered flickt.com, flicjr.com, fliclr.com and all the other mistypes of the webs top fifty web sites, why? to fill the copycat site with
(a) Similar content and capture the unsuspecting user to a lower quality more expensive service. (e.g. http://piratebay.com/ a completely fake spam spyware inducing version of the authentic piratebay.org)
(b) Fill the page with advertising, banking on the one in ten users who arrive follow the yellow brick road through a few clicks and make the domain owner alittle financially better.
So domains still have value as flypaper or as its called goodwill, someone must explain this to Ralph Girkins, president and owner of Universal Tube and Rollerform Equipment Corp. near Toledo, Ohio
The story from CNN via gmsv.com reads:
“If there’s any company even less happy with YouTube than the entertainment outfits, it’s Universal Tube and Rollerform Equipment Corp. near Toledo, Ohio, which has the misfortune of doing business on the Web at utube.com, its site since 1994. Since the video-sharing site took off, Universal Tube has had trouble keeping its site up under the load of misguided searchers (68 million page views in August alone). “It’s killing us,” said Ralph Girkins, president and owner, told CNNMoney. “All my worldwide reps use our Web site. Customers all over the world use it to bring up photos of the machinery, descriptions and specifications there. … And a customer who can’t find my $3-$400,000 machine online will just keep searching the Web until they find it elsewhere.” Also troublesome — do a Google search for “utube,” and links to YouTube come up first (one at the moment titled “lazyboy - underwear goes inside the pants”), which tends to put off potential customers. Girkins hasn’t been able to find anyone at YouTube or Google to ask for help, and I don’t think they owe him any, unless as a goodwill gesture. But then again, he may want to follow the lead of the entertainment companies and try threat-of-litigation negotiation.”
My response? Sir, I’ll gladly take troublesome utube.com off your hands, I have some friends who could do with 68 MILLION hits a month by 16-24 year old americans looking for videos to watch (see:MSN Soapbox and Dailymotion.com and myspace.com and nbc.com(heck any of the tv networks will take them)).
From roughlydrafted.com, an eyeopening comparison of the zune and the ipod.
Some highlights:
“The lower pixel density of the Zune’s screen means its display can only be less sharp.”
“It just distorts the display to show it in a stretched 3×4 aspect ratio, at the very same resolution. Microsoft carefully avoids calling it a wide aspect display because it isn’t.”
“Microsoft isn’t supporting Audible audiobooks, nor providing any support for podcasting, nor has it announced any support for notes, tasks, calendars, contacts, or games. So all it does is play music.”
“What value is Microsoft offering at the same price? A rewarmed WinCE PDA, packaged as the PlaysForSure Gigabeat music player which failed in the marketplace, and then rebranded again as the Zune. How many layers of failure does it take to deliver an iPod killer?”
“Even more oddly, despite all the talk about sharing and community, a received song can’t be forwarded on to others, so there’s no real community involved at all, just a single buying recommendation. Of course, given the scant likelihood of three Zunes being sold within the same county, this may never come up as an issue.”
“One would expect a certain level of interest and excitement out of Microsoft’s own users, but that isn’t really happening. Nearly every Zune site on the web is carefully stepping around the piles of problems to spend a lot of time on Microsoft supplied bullet points, including the “celebration of music,” the slightly larger or at least stretched display, and how wireless DRM sharing is such a brilliant idea.”
ThinkEquity Analyst Sees Unwarranted Worries About Apple’s First Quarter
NEW YORK (AP) — A ThinkEquity analyst said Monday shares of Apple Computer Inc. may be under pressure because of unwarranted concerns about its first quarter results.Analyst Jonathan Hoopes, who kept a “Buy” rating on the stock, noted that the stock has “underperformed” relative to major indices last week, possibly because of first-quarter uncertainty.
“In our opinion, Apple stock is positioned to outperform based on a series of potential quarterly catalysts we highlighted two weeks ago,” Hoopes wrote in a note to clients. “We believe investors are overly discounting concerns about Apple’s performance in the December quarter.”
Hoopes, who has a $100 price target on the stock, expects the company to report 79 cents per share earnings on $6.72 billion in revenue for the first quarter, while analysts polled by Thomson Financial forecast, on average, forecast 77 cents per share with $6.46 billion in sales for the quarter.
Apple rose 41 cents to close at $74.63 on the Nasdaq.
It is now only a couple of weeks ago but it’s happend already. I got this special feeling. If you are not an Apple user you might don’t have a clue what I am talking about, but all the other guys know what I mean.
Since Apple Computer offers the Intel based Apple Computer the Apple Fan-Community is increasing. Why ever! It does not play a role! Everyone has its own reason. One of my main reason was the instabile Windows-System. I never used an Apple based computer before, unfortunately, but anyway, after few hours, my own Apple became very familiar to me. The software is fantastic and the hardware too. Everything is very easy to use and i became addicted.
The graphic is breath-robbing and not only by the nice screen. There are also the very nice icons. But the best thing is that you can set up your computer in the way that you like. You are in charge, it is your own turn! Breathless! But there is one more thing. As Windows user you feel like nobody on this planet. With Apple you do know that you stepped in the world of specials. You will never be on your own. There are a lot of other people outside waiting to help you if you got some problems with your Apple machine or giving you tips when you need them. Speechless, isn’t! But there is one more thing! When you stripped your new Apple out of the box and when you started up your computer you will see the extensively software. And she is great too. Directly you can start your creative life with your own music, photos or movies. But be careful, it could determine your life because it makes a lot of fun to work with software which works very close with your hardware and you will forget the time around you. And that gives you the special feeling, the Apple – Feeling!
Es sind erst einige Wochen vergangen, aber es ist bereits passiert: Ich bekam jenes Apple – Feeling zu spüren. Wenn Sie kein Apple User sind werden sie nicht wissen was ich erfahren habe, aber all die Anderen wissen genau von was die Rede ist!
Seit der Umstellung der Apple Computer auf die Intel basierenden Chips wächst die Apple Fangemeinde Tag für Tag, warum auch immer. Es spielt keine Rolle! Jeder hat seinen eigenen Grund. Mein Grund war das instabile Windows-System, was mir regelmäßig den letzten Nerv raubte. Ich hatte zuvor noch nie einen Apple, leider, aber wie auch immer, nach einigen Stunden mit der neuen Maschine wurde ich sehr vertraut mit ihr. Die Software ist großartig, ebenso die Hardware. Hier zeigen sich die Vorteile fein abgestimmter Komponenten sehr deutlich. Hardware und Software kommen aus dem gleichen Hause und sorgen für eine optimierte Schmierung. Alles ist sehr einfach zu bedienen und was soll ich sagen, ich bin süchtig nach meinem Apple!Alles überzeugt, der Widescreen Monitor ebenso die Graphik, mit ihren coolen Icons, der schnelle Prozessor und nicht zuletzt die Sicherheit im World Wide Web. Daneben bietet Apple seinen Nutzern auch die freie Möglichkeit, die Gestaltung des Computers in die eigenen Hände zu nehmen, angefangen von der Programmierung eigener Widgets bis hin zu eigenen Icons.
Aber da ist noch eine andere Sache: Als Windows-User kam ich mir als einer von vielen auf diesem Planeten vor. Nicht so mit meinem Apple! Die Gemeinschaft ist eingeschworen, für einander da bei Problemen oder einfachen Chats und immer mit dem einen oder anderen Tipp an meiner Seite! Wow! Aber da ist noch eine andere Sache: Wenn der Apple Computer aus seiner Box befreit wird, ist er sofort startklar mit seiner umfangreichen mitgelieferten Software. GarageBand, iPhoto oder auch iWeb unterstützen die Kreativitaet und machen den Apple zum idealen Werkzeug.
Aber Vorsicht ist geboten, all das kann sehr schnell das Leben bestimmen, denn es macht einfach nur Spaß mit Software zu arbeiten die auf das Allerhöchste auf die Hardware abgestimmt wurde. Unerwartet verfliegt die Zeit und ich meine, wenn so etwas spürbar wird, dann ist es das bestimmte Gefühl, das Apple – Feeling!
