Excited About the iPhone On Verizon? Yes? So Are These Folks At CES

While I am hoping for an LTE version of the iPhone, I think we're a little too early for that. But nevertheless, I am happy about the prospect that in 6 months or so when the iPhone 5 or iPhone 4G comes out, I will have a choice of network providers.

Here's a video WSJ provided. They interviewed a few folks about it. Yeah, they're excited. Too bad T-Mobile has not made an announcement of a special event where Steve Jobs might possibly show too.



Notice there was quite a bit of ATT trashing. Come on, Apple. T-Mobile's HPSA+ network is sooo ready for the iPhone too. Maybe June?

Source: MacDailyNews.

Mobile War – Gaming Front and How Pivotal It is

For folks who don’t use their iPhones or Droids for gaming, that’s fine. You’re a Facebook, Foursquare kind of dude or gal. For the rest of us do are in this for more than casual gaming, having a wide selection of top tier games is important and gaming itself is a very big deal to those companies that provide the mobile platforms.

It’s important to Apple, Google, and anyone else who want to topple them. It’s why Microsoft is pushing the games they’ve got and what Windows Phone 7 can offer in terms of gaming. Don’t’ think that there isn’t a special Halo version coming to Windows Phone 7. Yours truly will be the first in line to get one.

And now, gaming will become instrumental to even app stores. Just this weekend, Amazon opened up their own Android app store. JB knows that there’s a lot of bucks in selling those 99 cent apps. And even more importantly, some app stores, in order to stand out, will likely request exclusives.

Earlier in the year when Angry Birds became available on the Android platform, it was available exclusively to GetJar and no one else. Not even Google’s own Marketplace that sits on every Android smartphone. How’s that for a coup?

Oh, and the wireless carriers have their own app stores in case you’re wondering. And soon, just about every hardware maker, if don’t they already have one, will have their own flavor of app store. Dell, LG, Samsung, Sony already has a vibrant PSP store that it'll likely channel over once their Android-based PSP phone is ready, HTC, and many others.

And who started all this? Apple. But there were app stores even before Apple came along and created a market for the iOS. That’s another matter entirely.

Back to gaming. This year at CES, the headline seemed to be about tablets and which one would dethrone the iPad.

Unfortunately, there’s was something just as important but it got lost in the media blitz. Nvidia’s dual core CPU, Tegra 2, that just about every Android tablet worth buying is running on and a few new mobile devices running on it.

Soon, hardware for WP7 will also sport the same Tegra 2 chip or similar ones.

And Apple is probably readying and itching to unleash their next generation hardware running on newer chips that I reckon will rival anything Nvidia has to offer.

All that graphics muscles and what for? Games. What else could be for? To run Flash? Puuuleaze.

When Steve Jobs gets onto the stage in a couple of months to introduce the iPad 2, he’s not going to demo how cool 3D mapping is. He’s gonna have an army of guys from EA, Sega, and others demo what the iOS platform has to offer in terms of next generation mobile gaming for hard core gamers. And bloggers will drool all over themselves reporting it.

And that could make the difference in the mobile war.

Going forward, I continue to believe that exclusives will be offered on one platform or another just like what’s going on now in the console war. And that will be just as pivotal as the processing power and the sheer numbers of gaming apps.

So, look around. As pretty as some of the UI coming out of RIM or Web OS is going to be on their smartphones and tablets, without games and apps in general, the 18-35 year old demographics are gonna avoid them like the plague.

And while the majority of millions of mobile warriors, who were good in 2010 and found themselves rewarded with iPads underneath their trees this Christmas, probably aren't hardcore gamers, having more gaming apps than what they know to do with is is better than having none at all.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPod touch

Special Verizon Event Next Tuesday

Verizon Wireless is planning a special media event next Tuesday in new York.

Speculation is that this is the fabled iPhone with CDMA support and the venue looks like it might be true.

What does this say?

First, this is a CDMA phone, not an LTE version. And second, Verizon is just another carrier and nothing beyond that will be shared with the public.

Still, for any other company, this would be fantastic news. However, this is Apple no less. Gaining an extra eight to ten million new users just isn't "special" enough for a full on Cupertino treatment.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPod touch

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.