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Archive for January, 2010


Sunday, January 31st, 2010

As expected, the iPad consumed much of the chatter about Apple this past week, but it didn’t stop there. As most of you know, few tech pundits talked about anything else in the weeks leading up to the introduction of Apple’s latest and greatest.

At the same time, the official Apple responses to various and sundry questions from the media left lots of gaping holes that will only be filled over time. Indeed, in reading the text of an interview between Steve Jobs and the Wall Street Journal’s Walt Mossberg, I wondered yet again whether the dean of tech journalists is losing his edge.

Consider a major concern about the iPad. You create a document in iWork, or see some material in a Web site that you want to preserve. So you click the Print button and — wait — there is no Print button! Well, at least no such capability has been confirmed, nor did Mossberg address it in his first impression piece on the iPad.

Now this isn’t to say you can’t print on such devices. There are several print apps for the iPhone and iPod touch that will no doubt run perfectly well on the iPad. All right. you don’t really expect robust printing functions on a smartphone. But when you’re using a gadget that supposedly bridges many of the functions between Apple’s handheld mobile devices and regular Mac notebooks, you have to wonder whether someone was asleep at the wheel.

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Thursday, January 28th, 2010

Before I get into the meat of this commentary, one thing troubles me, and that’s whether Apple has jumped the shark when it comes to using the infamous “i” prefix for its products. Beginning with the position Steve Jobs assumed when he took over Apple shortly after his return to the company, iCEO, and ending with the iPad introduced this week, you have to wonder whether enough is enough.

Of course until the name of the new tablet-based device was revealed, the tech media was thinking in terms of an iTablet or iSlate. You sometimes wonder if the actual name was conjured up late in the game by Steve Jobs simply because he wanted to do something contrary to conventional wisdom. Then again you have to wonder whether Apple is going to face legal troubles over the name, because there was once a Fujitsu “iPAD.”

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Wednesday, January 27th, 2010

Consider your choices. You can spend $489 for an Amazon Kindle DX (unless they suddenly drop the price), which does little more than read books and publications. You can spend $300-$400 for a netbook, which is a pathetic excuse for a notebook computer — or you can, beginning in March, buy a basic Apple iPad for $499.

Which would you choose?

Before I go there, however, consider this: Whatever Apple does, there will be complaints. After reporting record income that beat estimates from the financial community, some analysts were still carping that Apple didn’t meet some of those inflated iPhone sales estimates. The analysts had been talking about nine million or more, whereas Apple reported 8.7 million sold, actually a 100% increase over last year. That ought to be a good thing, but not when the prognosticators are working their Ouija boards overtime.

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Tuesday, January 26th, 2010

Anyone who experiences dropped calls from the wireless carrier that once promised fewer dropped calls must be wondering if AT&T’s exclusive on the iPhone is poised to expire. There are reports now that Apple will announce during their Wednesday morning shindig that the iPhone will become available at more than a single U.S. carrier.

Before the disgruntled AT&T customers in our audience let out a resounding cheer, let me remind you that we don’t know the real details of that exclusive iPhone deal. Other reports suggested a three-year pact that would expire this summer, and that AT&T is striving to extend it. A two-and-a-half year arrangement sounds less sensible, but there’s no real confirmation for either version.

But even if Verizon Wireless does ultimately carry the iPhone, would it make things better? You see, one of the problems with the iPhone is that its easy Internet access means more customers are surfing; hence online data usage has soared to previously unheard of levels. AT&T got the brunt of this traffic and suffered mightily as the result, so maybe Verizon deserves a share of the misery.

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