Apple Ware

My father has always been a traveling salesman. He started out with a regional job and over the years has moved closer to home for his territory. The advent of the cell phone, PDA, and notebooks has made his life much easier, but he keeps his focus on work and doesn’t look at what else his products might do for his life.

I recently broke down and got a notebook. Work was the first thing I thought about, but I’m quickly learning that having a portable computer can translate in to so much more than a portable office. That’s exactly what Apple is trying to get across to the general public.

The iPhone came out with much fan fare and a HUGE price tag, but people still lined up (some times for days) for a piece of the action. The attraction is not that the iPhone is just another smart phone. It’s that it is capable of so much more. The iPhone is as much about entertainment as it is about practicality.

When it comes to dropping big money on electronic devices, the more the buyer can get from the device, the more valuable it becomes. As Apple continues to stretch the limits of portable computers are for and can do, the company will continue to see its market share grow.

The iPhone has made its debut and it seems that it is either loved or hated. The deal with AT&T hasn’t won over any users. The bugs and problems from set up to finish haven’t endeared it to any one’s heart. Still, it is the most exciting thing to hit the cell phone industry since the mass production of cell phones began.

Now the use of Skype on the iPhone is suppose to be the next great thing. Since the iPhone was locked to using anything but AT&T services, I’m sure that there are hundreds of people thrilled to use the internet software. The downfall is that the users will STILL have to pay for the AT&T service or else be forced to shell out hefty early cancellation fees to get out of the two year contracts.

Even then, I wonder how convenient the Skype services will be. The coverage is not what the cell coverage is by any means. Still, it could be a good choice for those users with easy access to WiFi connections.

For the cost of the iPhone, you would think that Apple would be going out of its way to make the phone the most useful, assessable, user friendly phone in the history of the world. Then again, maybe it thinks it has already accomplished this feat.

When you think iPhone, you probably think Apple. Cisco went to court to make sure that wouldn’t happen. Instead, the two companies agreed that both were free to use the iPhone trademark on products through out the world. Unfortunately for Apple, Cisco isn’t the only company with a dog in this fight.

As Apple sets its sights on other countries for the launch of iPhone, it will undoubtedly face more legal battles. It is possible that there could be a trademark lawsuit in Canada, and a patent lawsuit in Europe.

Apple doesn’t seem all that impressed with the lawsuits and has referred to at least one of them as just silly. But that doesn’t mean the industry giant isn’t willing to pay up to avoid the court room. It is a wise company that realized you may be right, but you would be crazy to give it to a jury (or even a judge in this day and age).

With other products carrying the “i” (such as iMac and iPod), the iPhone would call up images of Apple no matter who tried to launch it. I doubt the companies that are preparing to fight for their rights to the iPhone are interested in the name. It all comes back to the almighty dollar. It’s much more likely that they just want a piece of the pie.

In the end, the only one who suffers is me - the consumer. Can’t we all just get along?

Apple always seems to be the best choice, but the least utilized in the electronics department.

In college I had the privilege of working on an Apple computer. Designing newsletters and flyers was quick and easy and quite painless. But Apple was the Beta of personal computers. It was slow making its way into mainstream use, and now it’s doing the same thing with home entertainment.

When I broke down and spent real money on a personal computer, I stayed away from Apple. Even though I KNEW it was the best choice for what I wanted to do, it was not the best choice for other things I needed to do over the internet.

Now I’m moving into the family room and the Mac debate is back on. Although I know that Apple tends to make superior products, the Mac Mini just does not do it for me. Even though there is a way to make a Mac my home entertainment center, I’m not sure I want to go to the hassle or experience.

Apple hit it big with the iPod and the iPhone. Even the personal computers are making it into the mainstream. Now Apple only has to meet my family room needs and I might finally be happy.

A nice tutorial from the CNET Applesource, on how to stream video from a Mac to PS3.

It reads like an uber-geek lovefest - a page full of code and software directives. But this could actually be one killer how-to.

Reason being that MS and Sony both really want to push IPTV on their various video game stations, especially MS. A key part of this is user-generated-content (UGC) which basically means people jamming custom game cutscenes into their own little entertainments, sharing them, and so on.

If you can then mix that all up with real video footage and other media applications - you have a powerful group of forces at work.

And as few desktops both have and deserve a reputation as an ultimate media mixer as the Mac, we could be looking at the beginnings of something much much bigger in time.

A couple of interesting stories on the iPhone at present:

iPhone 1.0.1 update released - apparently it’s really just a security update for Safari, but it would be really nice to see some other issues addressed - though maybe we’d need an iPhone version 2 for that (such as replacing the crappy camera with something more deserving of a multimedia device).

AT&T Wireless drops iPhone from main page - despite the 3 million or so iPhones either shipped or being shipped, apparently AT&T are happy to drop the marketing on this. Typical short-term outlook, though I guess who can blame the company when it’s basically being used to Trojan Horse Apple into the phone market, leaving all of AT&T’s phone products untapped for the iPhone. A bitter pill indeed - AT&T says it’s swallowed, move on.

iPhone deve team continues unlocking progress - still no unlock code for the iPhone. Damned annoying to see the phones market still so locked into carrier agreements, but if Apple really are creaming a percentage from AT&T charges for iPhone use, will be very interesting indeed to see the consequences of the iPhone being locked, if possible.

The Apple iPhone is one of the biggest sensations to hit the tech market in a long time.   Even with its glitches and high price tag, it’s selling faster than anyone expected.  How does the iPhone hold up to other smart phones?  Everyone may have a different answer, but most will agree that it holds its own. 

The camera is not the best on the market, but Steve Jobs has been quoted as saying that its not designed for that purpose and the user is better off getting a “real camera”. 

The current evolution of iPhone does not have a removable battery, which can become a security issue.  There is no voice dial feature and a lack of video.  But with the iPhone shacking the industry and teaching consumers a new way of seeing and doing the cell phone, it is definitely having an effect.

The iPhone is great for Web 2.0 functions.  It is extremely user friendly - offering convenient touch screen options for the address book and other features.  Even more exciting is that Apple is already in the process of making a new evolution of iPhone that will offer more, bigger, and better.

Apple may have been looking for a niche market share with the introduction of the iPhone, but they found consumers that were eager for something different and willing to pay the price.