This week: Dan gets punched in the face by the Kinect, 10 reasons Android beats iOS, and why your laptop is probably cooking your lap.
Note: Video coming soon (we hope). For now, enjoy the soothing sounds of the audio-only version of this week's show.
Don't forget: You can download the show's theme song as a free MP3 here for a limited time!
When you're listening to music, it's likely your earbuds are plugged into an Apple device. Making a phone call? One out of every five people buying a smartphone are choosing an iPhone. And Apple's share of consumer laptop sales jumped to 10.6 percent in the last quarter.
Now here's the big question: Does your IT department, the guys who think it's just fine that you're still using a Windows XP laptop (and P.S., stop whining about it), give a hoot about all this Apple stuff?
Apple executives hope so. The pitch the company has been making in recent months is simple: Employees are already using plenty of Apple products on their own time and like them, and the iPad is a great, lightweight tool for Web-based corporate software. If you thought this was just lip service, Apple is even now working with the decidedly old-school consultants at Unisys to approach big corporate and government customers.
If Apple can make these sorts of corporate inroads, it could be Steve Jobs' greatest trick yet, because he's got a lot going against him in the corporate market. As of the third quarter of 2010, Apple sold 1.4 million of the 40.8 million computers sold to commercial customers, according to data gathered by IDC. That's 3.6 percent of all corporate computer sales.
Blame history...and inertia. Large companies usually have a contract with a Windows-based PC seller, often a third party. Switching contractors could result in higher costs and a lot of hassle, and can also be stymied by an old-school perception among the often conservative IT outfits at large companies that Macs are "toys," and can't integrate easily with Windows-based systems. On the mobile side, corporate IT shops long ago became comfortable working with Research In Motion's Blackberry; supporting the iPhone could add new complexity and potentially more cost to their work. Many people don't even know Apple sells servers. (It does.) And the iPad? Well, you could argue the touch-screen tablet computing market didn't exist a year ago.
Andrew Kaiser, a former Apple business sales manager who hawked enterprise systems to companies of all sizes until recently, said often the biggest barriers in selling were opinions formed sometimes decades ago, before Office for Mac, before virtualization, and before Apple switched to Intel chips. "Some had no idea Apple could integrate into a Windows platform," he recalled.
Employees like Thomas Caleshu, an interactive producer for educational software maker WestEd, have seen that firsthand. Caleshu is an iPhone and Mac user outside of work, and though he said there were no technical issues in getting his company's IT guys to add his iPhone and MacBook to the network, they were definitely skeptical.
"Some of the established IT people didn't trust or believe that I could sync my calendar on my phone, and on iCal on my Mac, and in a (corporate) Web interface," he said. "I had to prove it to them." … Read more
A patent application recently filed by Apple reveals that the computer maker is looking to reduce the amount of junk on your desktop by consolidating menu items and making them scrollable when touched, AppleInsider reports.
By touching an area of the screen, menus and commands would be activated (such as the pictured Shut Down menu).
Keeping these types of commands off the screen would theoretically allow for more screen real estate for Apps running. This would definitely prove useful for the smaller-screened iOS devices like the iPhone, iPod Touch, and even the new iPod Nano.
Icons in Apple's patent … Read more
This week, Apple releases iOS 4.2 beta Gold Master including AirPlay and AirPrint, the Apple Byte guys illustrate iOS 4.2 text tones, and Brian hooks you up with seven free Apps for your Mac including VLC, Quicksilver, and Carbon Copy Cloner. Also, iTunes song previews are now 90 seconds, Steve Jobs hints at a 64-bit Final Cut, and a 58-inch iPhone table is demoed.
Want to have a really rotten day? Lose your iPhone. It'll make you feel sick down to the pit of your stomach. Trust me: I've been there.
Actually, losing anything important can be a nightmare: your car keys, your wallet, that cute guy/girl's phone number. The thing is, those items can't tell you where they are. Your iPhone can. All you need is the right services and apps.
I've rounded up three that should cover just about any lost-iPhone situation:
FoneHome and iHound These two very similar apps run in the background, transmitting your … Read more
Maybe the 7-inch iPad is dead. (Or Maybe not.) But it's worth resurrecting a discussion about the design, because it may have been much closer to product life than thought.
Apple CEO Steve Jobs' ramblings during the October 18 earnings conference call are well documented. But to recap excerpts of the homily he delivered on the sins of a 7-inch design: "Apple has done extensive user testing and we really understand this stuff...There are clear limits on how close you can place things on a touchscreen, which is why we think 10 inch is the minimum screen … Read more
Boy Genius Report has uncovered documents containing Apple's policies regarding dead pixels, including replacement requirements for iPhones, iPads, and various-size Macs.
The document suggests that Apple employees have leeway when dealing with customers that have dead pixels on their screen, but should abide by the grid (see below) when determining if a unit should be replaced.
iPhones, for example, should have no dead pixels, whereas an iPad can have as many as two before it would be replaced. Screens on bigger Macs could have as many as 16 dead pixels before an Apple employee might replace it.
Of course, … Read more
You can't download Photoshop for your iPad yet, but the technology is getting close enough for Adobe Systems to begin showing what it's got in mind.
Yesterday, John Nack, the Adobe Systems program manager leading the effort, revealed some ideas of how Adobe envisions marrying its flagship image-editing software to tablet computers.
Adobe displayed two broad possibilities in mock-ups and a presentation at the Adobe Max conference: first, a direct editing application for tablets that's operated with a multitouch user interface, and second, a companion application that would let a mobile device augment Photoshop running on an … Read more
Like crossword puzzles? Put down that archaic newspaper and pencil and pick up your iPad. As I discovered recently, there's no better platform for crossword play.
Think of it: tons of puzzles on demand, zero trees sacrificed, hints and clues when you need them, and solutions on the spot (no need to wait for tomorrow's paper).
I also discovered that one of the best crossword apps--definitely the best free one--is hidden inside an app that has nothing to do with puzzles: USA Today for iPad.
Granted, the print version of the paper runs a daily crossword, but its … Read more
Facebook just launched a new suite of features for Facebook Places that might be the beginning of the end for Web privacy as we know it. Luckily Natali Del Conte is around to calm us down and explain what's really going on with the new location-based deals.
Facebook Places is a service that lets users share their location directly on their mobile phones, but the latest product is called Deals, and it allows businesses to advertise to target customers by offering a special discount for those who "check in" at a location.
Once users activate it, Facebook will share the deal on their walls so others can cash in as well, and business can even offer "loyalty" discounts for members that return to a venue. The FourSquare and Loopt offices must be getting pretty hot right now.
If mobile tracking weren't enough, soon you won't even be able to watch a movie without being watched yourself! In an effort to combat Web piracy, some movie theaters are installing video cameras in front of the movie screens, designed to also monitor crowd reactions to trailers for market research on what audiences prefer to watch.
Even worse, the same company, Aralia Systems, is also planning to roll out infrared scanning systems at the ticket-purchasing stations that scan for recording devices and will sound an alarm to alert management if an illegal instrument is detected. It sounds similar to the TSA's "enhanced" security screenings we've been hearing about recently!
Internet "Captchas" have been around for a while--they're tests placed on some Web sites to determine whether the user is human, and they usually come in the form of a randomly generated word or phrase that you have to copy into a field to gain access.
They're only slightly irritating and require little participation to enter, but a software firm called NuCaptcha is hoping that video advertisement captchas will be the online ads of the future.
Instead of traditional squiggly words, the new system forces users to watch a video advertisement with a short message scrolling across it. After it's done, it'll ask you to identify and retype a part of the message to continue toward your destination, and although it sounds like an annoying process, companies like EA, Wrigley, and Disney have already signed up with hopes that people will actually pay attention to the ads instead of just clicking through. Soon we'll be reminiscing about a time when all you needed was a pop-up blocker to surf under the radar!
Thanks to Natali Del Conte for joining us on this rainy Thursday, and be sure to check us out tomorrow morning with Steve Guttenberg, aka The Audiophiliac!
Episode 702 Subscribe in iTunes audio | Suscribe to iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video… Read more
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Christina Milian and the gadgets she loves
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