Love Your Apple

PC once ruled the computer realm and to an extent it still does, but primarily in business and enterprise environments. In personal computing, Apple has gained quite a bit of ground. Individuals seem to love Apple products. They love the style of the products and people like feeling like they belong to a group. Apple has a cult following and is gaining new converts all the time.

Many people come to like Apple products through their personal devices such as iPods, iPhones and tablets. Many people then move on to Apple computers and laptops, if they decide to stay with the Apple brand. Apple laptops are very stylish, have great battery life and who doesn't like the large Apple logo on the lid.

Apple users are generally attracted to the style of Apple products but, are generally less inclined to be as knowledgeable when it comes to maintaining or repairing the devices. This is true for the vast majority of PC users as well but information and parts are, generally more readily available for PC computers. Apple is not as 'open'. Their designs tend to lend themselves to being more difficult to diagnose and repair. Apple laptop parts are not as easily obtainable as PC parts. Due to these factors, most people simply return their Apple products to the Apple store for repair, whereas PC users may be able to do some diagnosing and repair on their own.

All computer technicians don't even work on Apple products because of their tight control on parts and the proprietary nature of the devices, sometimes require proprietary tools, but any good computer tech should be able to service an Apple. After all, and the root, it's still just a computer.

Microsoft try to make up ground in the Mobile market

Microsoft is trying to get back to being a top-dog in the mobile arena. Not more than six years ago, Microsoft was running more than 25% of all smartphones and was expecting their market share to continue to grow. Apple and Blackberry far out-paced Microsoft since then. Apple dominates the consumer segment and Blackberry has a stronghold on business tech segment
I am not surprised. I have had two phones that ran various versions of the Window Mobile Operating System (WMOS) and I am not impressed! I find that WMOS is slow, compared to Apple and Blackberry OSs and seems to be more 'buggy'. It seems that you have to restart Windows powered devices more often to 'unfreeze' an application and I have also experienced 'restart loops', where the battery has to be removed, replaced and the device restarted; multiple times! I do prefer the WMOS handling of documents (including pdfs) and the fact that it is a lesser transition from working on my PC at work and home to completing tasks on my device.
Microsoft has a plan.

Woman love their tech too!

I would never claim to be an expert on what woman want, no matter what the topic was... but the statistics paint a picture of what the 'average' woman looks for when it comes to her tech.

What technology brands are most admired among women? Apple and Sony take the prize with Microsoft and Dell tying for third place, according to a recent "Women & Digital Life" study conducted by the Solutions Research Group.

About 20 percent of women reported that Apple was the technology brand or company they admire most, followed by Sony at 14 percent, and Microsoft and Dell at 10 percent. Hewlett-Packard came in at 6 percent, followed by Verizon and Google, which each earned 2 percent of the vote.

SRG polled 2,000 women ages 12 and up on six areas: attitudes/use of technology, TV and entertainment, gaming, wireless/mobile, broadband and social media.

When asked about the technology that has had the biggest impact on their lives in the last two years, 26 percent of women said the Internet, followed by computers at 22 percent, and cell phones at 18 percent.

Women polled said they spent an average of 22.9 hours per week online. When asked what they did online in the last month, 61 percent of women said they watched short video clips, 58 percent said they surfed the Web with their kids, and 57 percent said they purchased items online.

About 50 percent used social media Web sites like Facebook and MySpace.

About 17 percent of women are using smartphones, and 18 percent have regular mobile phones. LG was the top brand choice, with 20 percent of the votes, followed by full keyboard BlackBerry devices at 15 percent and the BlackBerry Pearl at 13 percent.

About 12 percent of respondents used the iPhone, and 7 percent were on Palm devices.

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Overall, mobile activity has increased since SRG conducted a similar poll in 2007. Texting has increased from 49 percent to 61 percent, as has taking photos on mobile phones, which jumped from 46 percent to 55 percent.

About 36 percent of women have bought a new gadget like a computer, cell phone, or digital camera in the last six months. About 42 percent of women 25 to 39 have made such a purchase, eclipsed only by the 44 percent of women with kids aged 12 and under.

On the video game front, Sony's high market share among the tech brands most admired by women was largely due to the popularity of its PlayStation 2 gaming systems. Of the women with gaming consoles, 49 percent had the PS2, followed by the Nintendo Wii with 40 percent, and the Nintendo DS and Xbox 360, both with 30 percent.

Wal-Mart's effort to buoy its electronics department has apparently paid off among women. About 32 percent said they used the retailing giant to make their technology purchases, followed by Best Buy at 29 percent, and the now defunct Circuit City at 7 percent. Also on the list was Target at 7 percent, the Apple Store at 5 percent and K-Mart at 4 percent.

SRG also asked women about their thoughts about ease of use and purchase. About 59 percent of those polled believed that today's technology is easier to use, compared to 18 percent who felt the opposite. About 32 percent of women found the number of choices intimidating, but 47 percent were comfortable with the selection.

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The women were also asked if technology was a "guy thing" - to which 77 percent overwhelmingly replied that it was not.

Limited iPhones per person

Bad credit? No credit? No Big problem! In order to thwart iPhone reselling (and the seedy unlocked black market), Apple is reducing the former five per customer iPhone limit to just two—and cash will no longer be accepted on any iPhone purchases.

We can only assume that credit cards allow Apple to better track mass purchasers since, if anything, plastic allows people to spend more money on products than they have in their bank accounts. We're guessing that neither of these new restrictions will impact 99% of consumers, but that perfumed old lady with her huge jar of change will just need to settle for a Prada. [nytimes]

Apple unveils new iPod with Wi-Fi

SAN FRANCISCO (Business 2.0 Magazine) -- Apple announced Wednesday the first major overhaul of its popular iPod music digital players in nearly two years and slashed the price of its new iPhone.

CEO Steve Jobs unveiled a series of iPod upgrades - including more storage and bigger screens - but the showstopper was a new model dubbed the iPod Touch and fashioned after the iPhone.

The new iPod Touch is modeled after Apple's new cell phone, the iPhone.

Apple (down $7.40 to $136.76, Charts, Fortune 500) also announced a new version of its iTunes music store that will allow users to buy songs wirelessly.

In iPhone news, Jobs said Apple will discontinue one of the two models sold since late June. The remaining version, with 8 gigabytes of storage, will now sell for $399, or $200 less than before.

Investors, however, weren't happy about the price cut (and neither were iPhone owners). Apple shares closed down 5.1 percent on Wednesday.

Jobs detailed the iPhone changes and other developments at an invitation-only press conference held in San Francisco.

The biggest news centered on Apple's iPod line. To date, the company has sold more than 100 million iPods, but sales have been drifting since last year's holiday shopping season and profit margins are shrinking.

Apple now sells four different types of iPod: the Touch, Shuffle, Nano and the original model, which Jobs christened the Classic on Wednesday.

A new version of the Classic comes with a full metal design and is thinner than its predecessor. A $249 version has 80 gigabytes of storage and 30 hours of audio. A slightly thicker model features 160 gigabytes of storage and will retail for $349.

"This boggles the mind," Jobs said. He noted that the original iPod could hold up to 1,000 songs. Today, an iPod can store 40,000 songs.

The new Nano, meanwhile, will have video and a larger, brighter screen with an interface similar to the iPhone. Apple will also bundle three games into the new Nano, including Sudoku from Electronic Arts.

The new Nano will feature two memory sizes: A 4-gigabyte model for $149 and an 8-gigabyte model for $199. It will be sold in black, red, silver, blue and green.

Jobs said the new Nanos should be in stores by this weekend.

As for the iPod Touch, Apple watchers had speculated for days that Apple would unveil an iPod similar to its new mobile phone. Though slimmer than the iPhone, the iPod Touch features a similar multitouch interface, built-in Wi-Fi and the Safari Internet browser.

Like the iPhone, the iPod Touch can play YouTube videos. It will retail for $299 or $399, depending on the memory installed.

One thing the iPod Touch can't do that the iPhone can: make or receive phone calls.

Jobs said Apple will begin shipping the iPod Touch this month.

Next up: The 'iCar'?

Look At The iPhone

June 29 - iPhone

Apple Inc.'s highly anticipated iPhone will be available June 29 in the U.S., according to TV commercials broadcast Sunday and posted on the company's Web site.

The combination cell phone, media player and wireless Web-surfing device will retail for $499 and $599, depending on configuration. It will be offered exclusively in the U.S. by AT&T Inc.'s wireless division, formerly known as Cingular.

'DRM-free' music - Embedded information

DRM technology puts a sort of software lock on digital songs or movies, dictating where and how the content can be played and distributed. With DRM-free content, some songs purchased from iTunes now work directly on portable players other than Apple's iPod, including Microsoft Corp.'s Zune.

Apple Inc.'s recent rollout of songs without copy protection software at its iTunes Store has given consumers new flexibility, but questions have emerged over the company's inclusion of personal data in purchased music tracks.

Are the songs that are being billed as free of so-called digital rights management technology really "DRM-free" or are there still strings attached?

The Electronic Frontier Foundation, a consumer watchdog group, said the embedded user information in the purchased track raises privacy issues.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation, which also analyzed the DRM-free song files on iTunes, said it did not want to jump to any conclusions on Apple's reasons for embedding the personal data.

Users can remove their identifying data from the files simply by burning the tracks to a CD and then ripping the songs back to their computer in the MP3 format, said Fred Von Lohmann, an attorney with the San Francisco-based group.Still, the group takes issue with the fact that the personal information stored in these type of song files is not encrypted. If someone were to lose their iPod or have their laptop stolen, for example, anyone using simple software tools could access the personal data in the songs.

excerpts from 'DRM-free' iTunes songs raise concerns

YouTube on your Apple Tv

Starting this month, Apple TV users will be able to select "YouTube" as an option from the device's main menu and view thousands of the most viewed and most popular videos on the site.

Apple TV is designed to connect a wide-screen television with content purchased or downloaded over the Internet by a Mac or PC. Until now, however, Apple TV users looking for content were mostly dependent on television programs or movies they had purchased through the iTunes Store. There's no browser inside the interface that would let users access other Internet videos, though they could move their home videos to Apple TV.

Now, Apple has designed a hook into YouTube that will let Apple TV owners access the most popular videos that have been converted into the h.264 standard, said David Moody, vice president for Mac hardware marketing at Apple. The full catalog of YouTube videos will be available later in the year, as YouTube converts the rest, Moody said.