and boy is it great. Today’s software update for the iPhone brought with it a couple of really nice new features and the Wifi pickup seems to be twice as strong as before, I had a list of over twenty wireless networks at one point today. But the really great feature is the ability to access iTunes from the iPhone and make quick purchases, to illustrate how easy it is, search for “Car Crash” by Matt Nathanson on your iPhone or iPod touch, the single will preview really quickly, and if you tap buy, after tapping once more to confirm, your iPhone will download the song straight to your iPhone.Once you reconnect with your iTunes library later in the day, iTunes will transfer your newly acquired song to your library, it’s easy and fun and may be enough to keep iTunes market dominance growing despite Amazon’s spectacular entry to the digital music business.
September 2007
Macworld is an enticing, exciting oppurtunity to see Apple’s new products and developments, Steve Jobs always provides an exciting Keynote, and last year, visitors were treated to the amazing iPhone revelation which made the whole week very exciting.
There’s lots of after parties, connections, and discounts on great Mac accessories and software to be had so run over to the website and grab your four day pass for just $25!
Via TUAW
I am happy to report that registration for Macworld 2008, happening in San Francisco January 14 through the 19th, 2008, is open.
If you register before October 5th you can get a free Exhibit pass (using Priority Code: 08-E-VF01) or special rates for the higher end passes (which allow you into the various classes and labs offered at the Conference).
The environmentally friendly way to watch and listen to home and mobile entertainment has been the digital way for several years now.
I’ll set clients iTunes configurations to automatically import and eject and CD that gets inserted into their Mac, this ensures that the CD Drive motor spins for a maximum of five minutes to convert the audio into digital mp3’s or aac’s on the hard drive, thereby saving the rotations that would be used up if the CD played the standard way, that is, the CD spins around and around for about 60 minutes a la LP’s.
I also endorse this method of Rip now, watch later to DVD’s and video, where a DVD has been purchased, the responsible and energy efficient practice is to rip the DVD using HandBrake and adding the movie or video to iTunes, this can take anywhere from twenty minutes to eight hours for an older Macintosh, however, the benefits are vast. You’ll put your dvd safely away in it’s case post Rip and watch your movie from iTunes, your iPod (Nano, Classic or Touch), your iPhone, your Apple TV, or you can even post it to your personal web space for watching when you’re without any of these things (or if you’d like your girlfriend or family to see the movie).
Ripping DVD’s using handbrake not only, saves energy, wears your Superdrive down less, makes the video portable, protects your original DVD copy and is cool, but also, eliminates any Region Coding that DVD’s may have on them. For example, say you’re in Milan and buy a copy of the wonderful Romanze Criminale DVD, unavailable most everywhere else, this movie is one of Italian cinema’s masterpieces, when you arrive home in California, your Mac informs you that “Hey, your Superdrive will only play Region 1 (American) DVD’s”, sure you can change this to European Region or Asian Region, etc. but you can only change this five times, so after watching Romanze Criminale, you switch back to American to watch a classic Woody Allen DVD and then back to Italian region next week to watch a collector edition Fellini you just bought in Genoa. Pretty soon you can’t change your region anymore!
Enter Handbrake, the one stop shop for converting DVD’s to local video files that will play on your Mac, iPod, iPhone, MacBook, Apple TV or the web.
Try out Handbrake and you’ll be saving the planet as well as carrying Fellini, Romanzo Criminale, and, Woody Allens great movies all on your gorgeous iPod. You’ll never think about Region Coding again!
The Apple Comment by Denny Grabowski
At the beginning of September Steve Jobs introduced the all new iPods and of course the so long desired iPod touch. But at the end he had as usual ‚one more thing’ and that thing upsets few customers. Apple dropped the price of their iPhone by US$200, just two month after it went on sale. Jobs received lots of E-mails and letters on behalf of those price dropping. For all those angry customers Jobs wrote an open letter and offers those early buyers a rebate or any other consideration last week.
Just to clear the situation: There are two groups outside. One is Apple and the other are the customer. Apple did a massive step forward with the iPhone and shows the possibilities of combination of electronically devices in one. The first days have been a success like never before in Apple’s history. So far Apple sold over one million iPhones! And now knocks the holiday season on the door and Jobs wants to offer the iPhone to more customers. The best way to do that is dropping the price. So he did. And by the way that is not unusual. He has to lead a company with the goal to get the best result. So, why are the ‚early buyers’ so angry and speaking about the so called iWar?
Well, from their point of view they could be right. A massive price drop of US$200 is a lot. But folks that is capitalism. The market has his own rules and by the way such price droppings are not so unusual for Apple after a while. The valued iPhone customers and lucky iPhone owners were so keen about that, the could not even wait to get one however the high price is like. And Steve Jobs is right when he is writing in that open letter: ‚If you always wait fort the next price cut or to buy new improved model, you’ll never buy any technology product because there is always something better and less expensive on the horizon.’ And that the iPhone is a very right technology device shows their sale numbers.
The 16gb iPod touch previously reported by us to be in third place on amazon is now in first place on the top sellers list, click here to check it out, if you buy it through a link from this site, you’ll be helping make this site prosper.
First off, The iPod Touch has blasted into third place in Amazon.com’s prestigious Top Selling Electronics list, available for pre order only, it’s taken third place already behind two deeply discounted GPS units that almost anyone would buy.
Also of note, Apple.com/uk is listing September 28th as the ship date for these new iPod Touch models, that’s really quick global distribution of this product.
Blackfriars Marketing:
Let’s rewind a few months and review what actually happened. Apple went into its June 29 iPhone launch with a stock of about 300,000 iPhones and a manufacturing capacity of roughly 150,000 a month, give or take. It knew it wanted to price the phone at $399 for the holidays, because it expected to ramp up its production lines significantly by then. But until about September or so, Apple was looking at constrained production. Demand was going to exceed supply — big time.
This article sums up the superb marketing by Steve Jobs and Apple, read more here
Just in time for the holiday season, Apple today unveiled a massive revision to it’s 110 million selling iPod line.
The revisions began with the iPod Shuffle, this small iPod is the size of a stamp and clips onto a lapel or shirt collar in a discreet manner suitable for bringing on trips to places that an iPod Nano might be too valuable to have, lke the beach, a jog through the woods, or when you’ve got to carry as little as possible. The iPod shuffle is now available in five new colors, including a Product (Red) edition which benefits African charities, they are still $79.
The iPod Nano received one of it’s most sensational revisions yet when the third generation became a video playing, game playing slender and sleek model. The iPod Nano starts at $149 for the 4GB model and $199 for the 8GB model, prior to hands on testing, the blogosphere was concerned it was too broad, but Engadgets Ryan Block said this after getting hands on with it at the Moscone center:
Ok, we know we’ve been calling it the fatty, but we’ll be straight up with you guys: the third gen iPod nano is friggin’ tiny. It’s maybe not the most beautifully proportioned iPod we’ve ever seen, but its tapered edges and ridiculously thin frame make up for the squatness going on here.
The iPod that we’ve known and loved has gotten a beautiful aluminum wrapper and beefed up storage, it can now hold 80GB of music videos and pictures for $249 or 160GB for $349. The iPod classic is exactly what can be expected a sleek and good looking elder iPod who seems content to hand the throne over to the successor King, his beautiful and technologically amazing son, the iPod Touch
The iPod Touch is the iPod to rule them all, Multi Touch Wide Screen Display, Web Browser, iTunes purchasing on the go, slender as can be, and absolutely gorgeous. Starting at $299, it’s got a generous 8GB of storage and goes up to 16GB of storage for $399 (at which price you can also now buy an iPhone 8GB model)
The iPod Touch and iPhone have similar feature sets with the iPhone having enough extras to make it a tantalizing temptation, Maps, Email, and, Camera are certainly three of the top reasons I’ve got my iPhone, it’s a business tool through and through, the iPhone meets a certain user set and I’ve a feeling the iPod touch is going to meet the larger user set who is simply seeking an iPod, after all, two days ago folks were paying $249 for an 8GB Nano with a small screen, they’ll surely love a full screen multi touch display, with Wifi web browsing and iTunes purchasing built in. They don’t even need a Mac or PC anymore to fill it with Music.
Both the iPhone and iPod Touch are gaining the superpower of Wireless iTunes purchasing through a new custom application that looks nice and simple.
With this revision of the iPod lineup, Apple is sure to reignite the interest of consumers and leave competing music players scrambling for competitive solutions, the iPhone price drop is a masterful piece of Machiavellian marketing, let Steve Ballmer and others scoff at the iPhone for the last six months, “Pfff, $600 for a phone!”
Then stun all by making it incredibly affordable, to compare, examine the price of unlocked Palm Treo’s and Rimm Blackberries, both sets of smart phones are in the $350 plus price range with the Palm 750 at $599. Out of the clear blue sky the iPhone is now a major competitor on price and a clear winner in terms of functionality.
One more feature worth noting is the existence of CoverFlow on all three of the new iPod models, iPod Nano, iPod Classic and iPod Touch, more than making these devices incredibly sexy to navigate, this confirms the existence of a OS X style operating system under the hood, great news for all Mac Programmers, developers and users, it verifies Apple’s commitment to the OS and their skills in advancing their software for the benefit of customers.
