Our new blog will feature news, tips and products from the world of technology, as well as highlights from some our clients endeavors. Plus we'll add a few of our favorite picks from YouTube that arrive in our Inbox each month!
Feel free to comment on any of the featured entries.
All the media attention this week has been on the announcement of the new iPhone 3G during Steve Jobs’s keynote at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference. But for Mac users there was another huge story that day, one that took up only a few seconds of the keynote: Snow Leopard, a brand-new version of Mac OS X.
Apple has been working on Mac OS X for more than a decade, and the public has been able to use it for eight years. In that time, the replacement for the classic Mac OS has grown through several stages: it began in an awkward, half-functional state, progressed into a fully functional replacement for OS 9 with increasing levels of speed and stability, and finally became an entrenched system that advanced by acquiring whizzy new features such as Spotlight and Time Machine.
Early in Mac OS X’s history, the operating system sped up with each new version, as Apple engineers tuned the code and got it working better. But those improvements have faded, and the last two releases have certainly been no faster than their predecessors. Instability, too, has returned to Mac OS X.
So how refreshing was it for Apple to announce—albeit out of the spotlight of the keynote, via press release—that Apple is taking a break from rolling out Mac OS X updates with hundreds of new features. Instead, the next major release of Mac OS X will focus on speed and stability.
Tremendous live performance footage from one of our clients, Glenn Hughes, during his recently completed first run of the "First Underground Nuclear Tour" in Europe.
The song, "We Shall Be Free", is taken from his recently released solo album, "First Underground Nuclear Kitchen" (F U N K).
It features, Glenn on vocals/bass, JJ Marsh on guitar, Luis Maldonado on guitar, Anders Olinder on keys and Matt Goom on drums.
Filmed during their visit to Zlin, Prague and Budapest in May 2008.
Apple's soon-to-open online App Store has triggered a scramble among software developers to write business plans aimed at making money off Apple's iPhone, a mini-computer that doubles as a phone.
"I'm seeing an excitement among mobile developers that I've never seen before," said Sam Altman, chief executive and co-founder of Mountain View-based Loopt, a location-based social networking service. "People who said they'd never start a mobile (applications) company because they didn't want to rely on the carriers are now starting companies focused only on the iPhone."
Apple recently provided the tools engineers need to create applications for its popular mobile device. The Cupertino company said some 250,000 iPhone software development kits have been downloaded. The App Store Web site, where applications will be sold or given away, is expected to launch soon, perhaps July 11 when the faster next-generation iPhone goes on sale.
Apple could be creating a billion-dollar industry built around the iPhone, said Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster. In a recent note to investors, Munster wrote that the App Store could create a $1 billion-plus iPhone ecosystem by the end of 2009.
The device allows owners to unlock it by drawing on the screen, and includes a built-in compass to help with navigation
Owners of the new Google-powered mobile phone will be able to unlock the handset by drawing a secret shape on the screen.
The new 'signature unlocking' tool was among the features revealed during a recent sneak preview developers conference event.
Other highlights include a built-in compass that will allow people to orientate maps as they use their phone to scout out a restaurant or venue, and a customisable homepage that lets people bookmark their favourite web pages.
The device - which is unlocked by drawing a shape only the owner knows on a nine-square grid - will also include a magnifying tool, to make zooming in on web content easier on a small screen, and a mobile version of the game Pac Man.
Demonstrating the device at a developers' conference in San Francisco, Andy Rubin, who heads up the project at Google, declined to give a release date, but said that the first phones powered by Google's Android operating system will appear in the second half of the year.
If you were thinking of purchasing an early corporate Christmas gift, we would be most grateful for one of these beauties!!
The Koenigsegg CCX is a mid-engined roadster from Sweden, engineered to comply with US regulation and market demands. The CCX can accelerate from stationary to 100 km/h (62 mph) in 3.2 seconds and 100 miles per hour (160 km/h) in 7.7 seconds. It can complete a standing quarter mile in 9.9 seconds with an end speed of 146 miles per hour (235 km/h).
The supercar reaches a top speed of 395 km/h (245 mph).
Last March, the NPD Group reported that Apple’s retail market share — its cut of the computers sold in brick-and-mortar stores — had climbed to 14%, a figure that’s roughly double its overall share of the U.S. market and reflects the power of the Apple Store to draw customers and move product.
What NPD didn’t report at the time was the huge growth in Apple’s share of the so-called “premium” computer market — machines that cost more than USD$1,000.
To some extent, Apple’s (AAPL) share of this market is growing by default. Companies like HP (HPQ), Dell (DELL) and Lenovo ship enormous quantities of PCs at price points between $500 and $750, whereas the only Macintosh that sells for less than $1,000 is the $599 Mini.
Still, Apple’s share of the $1,000-plus retail market was less than 18% in January 2006 according to NPD. By September 2007, it had grown to more than 57%. And in the first quarter of 2008 it hit a record 66%.
Microsoft Corp.'s attempt to take over Yahoo Inc. has become so tortured it may help Internet search and advertising leader Google Inc. grow stronger, undermining Microsoft's main reason for pursing the deal in the first place.
"We find this to be a very advantageous situation for Google," Cantor Fitzgerald analyst Derek Brown said Thursday. "The longer this gets dragged out, the better for Google."
Yahoo signaled it is bracing for a protracted battle late Wednesday when an announcement and a media leak provided a glimpse at its labyrinthine search for alternatives to Microsoft's bid of more than $40 billion.
The options include an experimental advertising alliance with Google that could lead to a broader partnership and, according to published reports, a combination with the online operations of Time Warner Inc.'s AOL. Google also owns a 5 percent stake in AOL.
An especially awesome piece of music from one of our clients, Glenn Hughes, has just recently been given the video treatment.
The song, "Love Communion", which is taken from his soon to be released album, "First Underground Nuclear Kitchen" (F U N K), which is due out in Europe on May 9th and the rest of the world, May 11th.
It also features, Chad Smith (Red Hot Chili Peppers) on drums and Luis Carlos Maldonado on guitar.
Morph is a concept demonstrating some of the possibilities nanotechnologies might enable in future communication devices.
It's a flexible two-piece device that can adapt it's shape to different use modes. It can sense its environment, is energy harvesting and self cleaning. Nanotechnology enables it to have adaptive materials, yet rigid forms, on demand.
In a deal that’s been years in coming, the Boingo aggregated hotspot service now includes 9,000 McDonald’s stores: Coming on the heels of Starbucks’s switch from T-Mobile to AT&T, this is a very good month indeed for Boingo Wireless—they’ll be adding the two biggest chain networks in the U.S., both of which dwarf the next largest network.
Boingo sells aggregated access to roughly 100,000 hotspots worldwide: unlimited U.S. access is $22 per month, while worldwide is $39. A mobile device service is $8 per month worldwide.
Christian Gunning, Boingo’s marketing director, noted that McDonald’s may have a reputation for bringing in local people and consumers, but, “The McDonald’s [addition] also helps you with a subset of the business traveler group, the windshield warriors, the regional sales guys, who go from town to town to town.”
McDonald’s locations are operated by Wayport under an arrangement that they first secured in 2004 where resellers of the service pay a flat rate per location in the network rather than a per-session fee, which is otherwise common in the industry to this day.
Boingo also announced today that it had joined the Wireless Broadband Alliance, a several-year-old international group that facilitates roaming agreements among its members, T-Mobile’s U.S. operations being the only American component. Boingo operates 28 airports in the USA and UK, and that gives them some leverage.
Starbucks Corp. said today that it is moving away from T-Mobile as its in-store Wi-Fi provider and will transition to AT&T Inc.'s Wi-Fi service in more than 7,000 of its high-end coffee shops beginning this spring.
The deal will benefit Starbucks Card holders and Wi-Fi users who are among the 12 million people who subscribe to AT&T broadband service, according to the companies. Starbucks Card holders will get up to 2 hours of free Wi-Fi service in Starbucks shops per day, and AT&T broadband customers will get unlimited service.
T-Mobile, in comparison, offers its hot spot service in about 5,000 Starbucks stores for $6 an hour, or $9.99 a day, according to its Web site. Starbucks said its T-Mobile HotSpot customers will have continued Wi-Fi access at no extra cost because of a separate deal between AT&T and T-Mobile.
Starbucks spokeswoman Sanja Gould said in an interview that there were "no technical issues" with T-Mobile. Rather, AT&T was an "ideal partner" because of its reliability, quality and customer support, she explained. In addition, AT&T has provided Starbucks with point-of-sale systems and other store technologies for 10 years, making the Wi-Fi deal an expansion of an existing, successful relationship.
The Wi-Fi business with AT&T represents a new "comprehensive communications agreement" that allows Starbucks to streamline business operations while enhancing the customer experience, Starbucks said in a statement.
Analysts agreed that T-Mobile's service was not known to have any particular technical problems, so the decision was evidently based on money and market opportunities. "Starbucks and T-Mobile have been doing business together for quite a long time, so the deal must be better for both customers and the company," said Jeffrey Kagan, an independent analyst.
In a separate statement, the two companies said the new Wi-Fi services will be a mix of two free hours of service and then paid service. For AT&T, the deal means that there will be 17,000 U.S. hot spots for its Wi-Fi network and more than 70,000 globally. All of those hot spots are managed by Wayport Inc. on behalf of AT&T.
Up to 2 hours of free Wi-Fi service per day will be available for Starbucks Card holders, while 12 million qualifying AT&T U-verse Internet and broadband customers will have unlimited free access. In addition, more than 5 million of AT&T's remote access services business customers will be able to access Wi-Fi at Starbucks locations.
After the 2 free hours, customers with Starbucks Cards will be able to purchase two more hours for $3.99 per session. They will also be able to get monthly subscriptions for $19.99.
AT&T business customers who have remote access services can have unlimited flat-rate access at Starbucks as well.
Kagan said that offering free service to AT&T broadband customers is a "brilliant move" by AT&T, since the company faces challenges in its efforts to offer bundled Internet and wireless and voice services.
"This deal shows the changing and increasingly competitive world of telecom," Kagan said. "Companies have to think of ways to hang on to the customer without contracts." And while AT&T wins, Starbucks does as well, he said, because it can expand the digital entertainment it provides customers while giving them more reasons to spend time in its stores.
Here are some tips for different things you can do with Apple's iTunes.
You can change the visualizations in iTunes using these keys:
- Q and W changes the corridor
- A and S use these keys to change the style of the visualizations
- Z and X changes the color of the visualizations
- F displays the frame rate
Made a Visualization you like? Push shift and a number (1-9) to make it a preset.
M key changes the mode (i.e. random, user config, freeze the current visualization) O turns on overscan mode
During a download, go to the downloads page under “Store” and click on the dash between the filesize and how minutes it has left to display how the download speed.
Say you want to download a song but don’t have time, find the song in the iTunes Store, and drag the 30 second clip into your iTunes Library where you can purchase and download it later in one click.
You can add “Smart Playlists” from the File menu. These playlists are self-updating based on the preferences you choose. Such as how many times a song is played, the year it was released, even the BPM.
You can add web radio stations to your library that come from the iTunes “radio” menu so you can easily stream them without having to go through a lot of lists and menus.
Want to know what’s all free on iTunes? Down near the bottom of the store page, there is a “free on iTunes” box. There is new stuff being added every week.
Our favorite TV auto show, Top Gear, test drove the Bugatti's Veyron. It's the world's most expensive and powerful production car ever. At $1.3 million, it boasts a 8.0L quad-turbo W16 engine that produces 1000+hp and 927 ft. lb torque - rocketing the vehicle from 0-60 mph in just 2.4 seconds.
Call it the iPhone economy.
What NPD didn’t report at the time was the huge growth in Apple’s share of the so-called “premium” computer market — machines that cost more than USD$1,000.
Microsoft Corp.'s attempt to take over Yahoo Inc. has become so tortured it may help Internet search and advertising leader Google Inc. grow stronger, undermining Microsoft's main reason for pursing the deal in the first place.
Starbucks Corp. said today that it is moving away from