AI, Mobile, and Eveything Around the Cloud

This just from Appleinsider. There will be a special event on the 14th to unveil the new crop of Macbooks.  Special secret product or just Macbooks. We'll know in 120 hours! Source: Appleinsider

Hardly.  Technologically, the iPhone is still the only game changer in town.  But I'm very glad Blackberry, finally somebody, sought to challenge what no one else has done since the iPho came out about 15 months ago. This is why Apple does not have to worry.  Storm, with all its wonders, is missing a lot of things the iPhone has.  And some of these things are not likely to come to the Storm if ever. No Wi-Fi.  Seriously? 1GB - in this day and age?  This is the same complaint I have got with the G1.  (15 more days till I get it!) It's bulky.  It's something some executive or manager might like but the bulk of the consumer will still prefer the sleek form factor. Ease of use is still something Apple dominates. Mind set.  Teenagers, college students still identify with the iPod.  That is translating into iPhone.   Innovation.  Innovation.  Innovation.  Apple is the only company today to change the landscape of t...

We did not post a lot of Mac updates last week because there really was not a lot to write about and I don't want to waste your time for the sake of clicks. Just to recap a bit from last week, Apple finally lifted their nondisclosure agreement for iPhone developers. I can't call it the right move.  It was just "a move" that really should have been done.  Apple really screwed up by not communicating with the iPhone community on this issues. Also today, NDP stated the iPhone took command of the smartphone market with 17% of total units moved.  It's possible Apple has already broken through the 10 million mark it set for itself for total 2008 sales. Onxo Updates: Pole Position for iPhone   Can Apple make America read again? Need a better way to blog on the iPhone. Mac Hybrid Onxo  on the best non-Apple Macbooks. Hand crank  to charge the iPhone or iPod Podcaster via Jailbreak Onxo  feels iPhone games should contain more depth. iPho...

The buzz this morning is the NDP data point to a dramatic change in leadership in the smartphone sector.  Who are the top sellers? iPhone Blackberry Curve Blackberry Pearl Palm Centro Here are some statistics to chew on: 30% of people who bought iPhones were new customers to ATT versus industry numbers 23% customers switchers 47% - nearly half of new iPhone owners came from Verizon 24% - nearly a quarter of new iPhone owners came from T-Mobile (I'll be staying with T-Mobile for the G1 experience) 19% of new iPhone customers came from Sprint 11% of smartphones sales were iPhone before iPhone 3G intro.  17% after iPhone 3G was made available.  About a 55% increase. NDP surveyed 150K customers for this report Related links: Virtual Press Office Gizmodo Macsimum News : Cult of Mac :   Cult of Mac :  Numbers suggest big sales for iPhone.  A little analysis. BullCross :  Use of IMEI numbers to track iPhone sales (via MacDaily News ) Macnn ...

It's been widely known that when approached about ebooks, Jobs said Americans just don't read anymore. I initially took offense to that until I realized there might be some truth to that. I don't know if reading is now an elitist thing to do but I was at Borders last night and I did see a good crowd there.  I was at a different book store last week and I saw quite a line at the checkout counter.  So I think it isn't that folks aren't ready anymore. The truth is, people aren't reading ebooks.  Ebooks have been around for quite some years now.  And digital growth for books are not growing as fast as other media like music. Can Apple Make America Read Again?  Maybe.  According to Forbes, Apple may have overtaken Kindle with respect to the number of folks using iPhones to read ebooks.  I encourage heading over to look at it a bit. I don't like the flippant use of download numbers to suggest that more folks are using iPhone to read books t...

You might know from Onxo or else where that Fring, an IM/VOIP, app was made available yesterday for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Now, it looks very straight-forward.  I'm asking my friend if he can give a try.  I'll get back to you with our own results. Here is the Youtube link .  If we have an opportunity to post our own instructions, we'll let you know. Via Macrumors You can download from iTunes link here.

I'm in the market for a new Macbook.  Possibly a Macbook Pro.  I make it a point to check out the competition to see how the specs fair and like most mobile warriors, I check out the prices as well. I've been taking a hard look at  the newly introduced HP DV3500t 13" LED with a dedicated GPU for $1100 (I added $100 because I would want the LED option) and Sony's Vaio SR series ($1200).  But are competing with the Macbooks and whatever upgrades Apple will be offering. But these three looks to offer serious competition going forward.  All things being equal, it's a no brainer for me to pick the machine that runs OS X and, if needed, Windows. However, HP has upped the game with a GPU that allows serious gaming.  Hope we'll see the Macbook follow up or come up with a major price drop. Look-wise, the dv2500t, well, it's a standard PC laptop.  The Macbook we're familiar with.  Sleek.  Well designed.  Looks great to work on.  Th...

Like a lot of folks, we're waiting Apple to release the next generation of Macbooks.  Word on the steets (Internet Drive) is middle of October.  Well, apparently someoneis not willing to wait that long. Meet MacWind. Wired has been writing a series on hacking and installing OS X on MSI's Wind.  You can check it out below.  In fact, there are now fixes and drivers to make this baby easier to use.  In fact, with some Wi-Fi issues, there will be new genuine OS X drivers from Realtek as well. Also check out our post  on the best non-Mac Macbooks. Impact:  This is becoming more than jus tone guy's obsession.  Wired has legitmized OS X hacking with these posts.  I can't help but wonder if Apple is secret monitoring the situation.  It may well create a deeper and more obsessive cult than the general mainstream Apple fanboys. Also, we may see more OS-hack-friendly netbooks in the future from the likes of Asus and other Asian...

Oh, you didn't know Podcaster was still available, did you? Well, not officially since Apple killed off any sanctioned avenue for Podcaster's developer to get it on the iPhone.  Fortunately, iPhone owners' got a lot of smart developers who brought us tools for jailbreaking and unlocking.  And that's how I found Podcaster.  I clicked on Cydia on my iPhone and "wow, podcaster!" Well, here's the catch.  It'll cost $5.  Not a bad price for an app that let's you directly access, download, and listen to podcasts.  Traditionally, Apple wants you to hook up the iPhone or iPod Touch to iTunes to access any podcast you may subscribe to.  (Control?  Yes.) Here's the thing.  You don't have to do that.  In some instances, you can access the podcast directly from the podcast website.  So along came Podcaster and it made much easier to access your podcast. Podcaster was seen as an attempt to cut the umbilical cord between iTunes and A...

You probably already know unless On Apple is your sole Mac and iPhone information but Apple withdrew their NDA. And just as we wonder why they continued to implement the NDA, we now switch to why withdraw it now?  Their claim:  competition.   But it does make sense since all their main competitors, including Android, is out on the market or soon will be.  There won't be any need for Apple to hold developers hush-hush.  Although, I just have to wonder though.   Since anyone can download the iPhone SDK and have a peek around, what why would the NDA be an issue?   We had speculated on why the NDA was so important to Apple but we were right when we said it wouldn't go on forever. iPhone-iPod Update: Yesterday, the biggest news was Adobe making a boneheaded announcement about Flash for the iPhone pending Apple's approval.  With the NDA lifted, Adobe should be able to say more about it.  No word.  Wouldn't bet in it happen unles...