Mac App Store Impressions

After dinner, I finally got an opportunity to play around with the brand new Mac app store that appeared magically on Intel Macs all over the land, provided you upgraded your OS to 10.6.6. Once that little business has been taken care of, you'll notice a small icon that appeared on the left-hand side of the dock.

So, good is this app store for? And who does it benefit? And will this translate into something that will be as successful as the iOS app store?

App Piracy: Does Offering Free Apps Help Stem Theft?

You would figure that 99 cents is not a whole lot to pay for a decent app.  However, you'd be surprise just how many folks will go to length to avoid paying for it.  I don't get it.  Developers put in hard work and paying them that isn't really asking a lot.

But since the inception of the iPhone store, many app stores including the Android Marketplace has sprung up.  Web OS has its own as does Window Phone 7.  Almost no mobile platform I know of does not have an app store.  In fact, though you might be not aware, Android has quite a few operated by carriers, hardware makers, and, apparently now, even Amazon.

And while generally paid apps vary in quality, I have to say the price reflects just how much users are willing to pay for it.  But piracy is still rampant.  

And with some developers offering both paid and free but ad-supported versions of their apps, I wonder if that has helped things some what.  I really hate to find out that folks will continue to pirate paid apps to not only avoid paying developers for their work but avoid ads as well

In my own little world, if I were a developer, I probably would offer a free and a paid version just to cover my basis.  

So, any developers out there know how things have turned out?  Does offering free ad-supported apps help stem piracy of their paid apps?  

Apple, Thanks for the Mac App Store - Now, How About iBookstore for Mac Too?

iTunes, Then the app store for iOS.  After that we got the iBookstore also for the iOS.  And today, we got the Mac app store.  And while my Macbook is at home waiting for me to update it to 10.6.6 so I can start downloading Aperture for dirty cheap, I want to know when the iBookstore will come to the Mac too.

It does make sense that Mac users, possibly even Windows users, will want to be able to read and buy books from the iBookstore especially if they also own an iOS device.

I know I will.  I spend a lot of time browsing on Safari, for Mac and Windows, to check out apps before I purchase it for the iPad.  I think this is a similar behavior repeated by millions of users.  

I know I'll do that with an desktop iBookstore as well.  Fine, don't let us read the book except on an iPad or iPhone but at least let us browse and buy books we want and have it remotely downloaded to the iOS device or iTunes for syncing later.  

What do you think?

Note:  Just so I don't make a bigger ass of myself than I already am, I checked iTunes to see make sure Apple did not sneak iBookstore in there for desktop purchases.  I was not able to find it.  

iPad Versus Everyone Else

Is this about Apple and its iOS versus everyone else more like iOS versus Motorola versus Samsung versus RIM versus HP versus Sony? I can go on and on and name more companies in the mobile and tablet market. However, the gist is with many of these same companies fight to for a piece of the Apple pie, what are we Apple fans suppose to think about it?

Well, first, I want to say this is a great thing. More likely than not, competition has given us a lot of tech that we might not have otherwise seen on the market. Google and Android has certainly up the game. And let's be honestly, there are areas where Android is doing better than iOS such as voice control.

And it becomes necessary for Apple to try to catch up or surpass any advantage that Android might have over the iOS. And that is a great thing.

Today at CES, we saw a slew of tablets based on the Tegra 2 chip by Nvidia promising to run on Honeycomb, Android only version for tablets. And from the looks of things, Android tablets have come a long long way since the Samsung Tab running on Android 2.2, which by the way, cannot be upgraded to the latest Android tablet OS.

Imagine if Apple had done that to us original iPad owners. Regardless, I fully expect Apple to up the game when it comes time for the iPad 2. And let's be clear, looking at the specs from these new Honeycomb tablets, I see a lot of promises but we have yet to see Google and its partners deliver on the experience. And by no mean does it mean that competitors managed to create an iPad killer.

I still put the iPad head and shoulders above the competition. Nevertheless, I hope this has kicked Apple in the butt and force them to try and pull further ahead. And I fully expect Apple to deliver more powerful specs in the next iPad version but more importantly, I like to see Apple show us what else this magical device can do that no one else can.

Intel's Sandy Bridge In Macbooks Should Take Performance And Battery Life To A Whole New Level

Right now, Macbook users should be happy with Apple has to offer. I've got the late-2008 unibody Macbook and I'm happy with Apple offered then. And obviously, in what should be another great Christmas for Apple, their brand new Macbooks are giving users something to smile about.

But wait until you see the next upgrade that Apple is likely to offer. Intel's new mobile offering, Sandy Bridge, should offer even greater performance over all.

I won't be able to get into into too much detail here. But let's just say that I think I just might be compelled to upgrade the next time around.

Anandtech has a very detailed post on Intel's new mobile solution. I think it's worth a read, especially if you did not pull the trigger this past Christmas. Judging by the battery life and increased performance in graphics, future Macbooks should gain measurable performance increase.

More at Anandtech.

CES Impact On Apple - Summary

We know Apple's impact on CES this week. Even though a no-show, as expected, Apple has a huge impact and it shows.

Competitors are out in force with just about everything they've got to throw at Apple. On deck today was Asus.

It showed off four tablet devices running Windows 7 or Android. Some have keyboards while others are just touchscreens. One of them even can detach from the keyboard.

The Transformer, as it is called, showed the largest promise. With the keyboard attachment, the 10" tablet-network runs a combination of 16 hours running on Nvidia's Tegra 2 chip.

And with an entry price at $399 for the 16GB, it does look like iPad competitors are off to a strong start.

Obviously, we cannot take Asus at their words. Not until folks have had time to play with it and see for themselves. But forget about the tablets running Windows 7 or anything that running other than Android 3.

This is the tablet to watch. Tomorrow, we'll see others get into the ring.

One more thing. The Transformer, like many Android 3 tablets won't be available until June. So, these guys will not be going up against the iPad. They'll be dealing with iPad 2 or whatever Apple decides to call it.

What Does Disney, Netflix, Dell, and Sony All Have In Common?

What does Disney, Dell, Netflix, and Sony all have in common? Well, one way or another, Apple has dealt with them directly as competitors or in cooperation to gain access to media for the iTunes ecosystem.

However, there's one more that these four companies have in common as it relates to Apple.

And what would that be?