We Should Hear About iPad 5 Event Soon

Although I have no specific information, I think we should the hearing from Apple regarding a new October iPad event fairly soon. Perfect like everyone else, we wait for Apple to tell us when to mark calendar and call for the live blogs does who are fortunate enough to be invited to Apple's campus for the iPad event.

It's already October 3rd. Its typical the Apple give you a couple weeks to prepare. That means, we can text and it sent to fall on October 15th or the 22nd. Both of those days are Tuesdays. And we all know how Apple love to do events on Tuesdays.

I'm willing to wager that if it's the 15th, we should hear those privileged few bloggers and tech reporters to begin to receive their invitations this week. However, it is on the 22nd that's likely to fall on next week.

Then the following up question is how long after that will we be able to pick up or ordering the new iPad. That's a little hard to guess. It really depends on inventory build up Apple has prepared.

It is possible that Apple will open up pre-ordering on Friday after the event. Then, they will make it generally available for the public to go into the Apple stores and other retailers to buy them in person.

Between the 15th and the 22nd, I think it's like we were talking about the 22nd rather than the 15th. 

That is just me. Hope it's the 15th but life as you know has a way of disappointing you. So to be cautious I'm going to pick the 22nd as the likely date for the 2013 Apple iPad event but if it turns out to be the 15th, hey, that's even better.

iPad 2 Still On Sale - What Happens After iPad 5 Comes Out?

There.  You see?  iPad 2 is still on sale after it has been out since 2011.  We've gone through the iPad 3 in the spring of 2012 and then the iPad 4 the Christmas shopping season later that year.  Nothing in the spring of 2013 so we know something's up for Christmas of 2013.

And that would be the iPad 5.  I wonder if the iPad 2 will remain on sale?  After all, sitting at $399 with 16 GB, it's enticing.  Schools or folks who just want to save that extra $100. They can go with the iPad 2.

My feeling is that it'll still be around.  Maybe it'll be called the iPad Classic and might get an upgraded CPU to go with the times.  If that's the case and if there is enough demands, Apple can continue to put the iPad 2 with CPU updates each year without increasing the screen resolution.

However, it's also possible that Apple will get rid of it entirely.  Maybe drop the iPad 4 down to the $399 spot with 8 GB of storage for anyone who's interested.  There are plenty of people who can live off 8 GB.

One other scenario is that Apple will just get rid of the $399 entry point and point iPad owners to the mini instead.

Mobile: Blackberry Tells Wall Street What Main Street Already Knows But Was Surprised Anyway

The title of the post didn't quite get it.  Essentially, Blackberry is in a lot worse shape than they thought.  Worse than Wall Street expected as well.  Essentially, things are unraveling at a rate that Blackberry had not expected and the pace is picking up as customers look else where for their mobile fixes.

How's this to wake up to.  A $400 million charge out of its cash reserve, which Blackberry is burning through rather quickly, is 4x the expensive it thought it would cost to cut about 40% of its workforce.  Essentially, someone screwed up majorly.

It also says that the company could be worth less than what the Canadian insurance/financial company, Fairfax Financial, is paying for with the deal valued at $4.7 billion.  As of this moment, Blackberry has dipped below $4 billion.

The worrying thing is the defection.  I know this feeling as I expected it as an Apple fan back in the late 90s when many around me, particular the university environment which I was working in, began hooking up HP PCs in labs, replacing the rooms and rooms of Macs that were there before.  And while some of the professors and post-docs remained true, the departments were beginning to save money by going with cheaper Windows options.

Unfortunately for Blackberry, the smartphone market and is current situation is vastly more different than the one that Apple faced.  While Windows 95 and 98 had their issues, Apple was still able to convince enough of its fans that it can turn things around.  Sure, the Macs then were not that great but they were still enough to make us stick around.  And then, of course, Steve Jobs came back to Apple.

For Blackberry, the alternatives to Blackberry was not like Macs and Windows PC.  The iPhones and Androids are very good.  Not to mention that Windows Phone is beginning to take hold in certain markets.

It is over for Blackberry.  I'm hoping that we will see another refresh in the hardware before everything begins to unwind.  I'm hoping there is an improved Q10, maybe a Q30 that I can pick up before Blackberry abandons hardware development and focuses exclusively on software and app services.

Woman Woman Short By Rainfall Films - Whoever They Are, The Short Was Too Short!

Here's a short clip.  I wouldn't call it anything else but that.  Clip of their re-imagining of Wonder Woman.

Acting.  Well, what acting?  But totally dig the costume.

What do you think?  Recognize the actress/model?

How Much Cable Companies Pay Per Subscriber To Media Companies To Carry Channels

Source:  NPR.

Here's a neat breakdown of just how much cable companies have to pay per subscribers to carry certain channels from media companies like Disney and NFL.  What's interesting is how much companies have to pay for Fox News.  You'd think it's more of an entertainment ("feel good (let's get angry together)" channel) than a news channel.

Also, more on why ESPN is able to command such a bigger subscription rate (NYT).

You would think that maybe some other new players (oh, you  know), certain high tech companies with huge ad or hardware profit margins, could step in, pay more or even upfront, to secure new deals to provide users with a new business model to compete against the bundling that cable guys have been forcing down our throats for decades.

Considering how little the NFL channel costs, getting a deal together for the top ten or twenty cable channels is nothing for Apple, Google, or Microsoft.

64 GB Gold iPhone 5s: It's Here!

Just like a couple of minutes ago!







- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Tale of Two iPhone 5s: Just Seven Minutes Apart

I ordered two iPhone 5s's.  One for me and one for my brother.  He's a decent guy, ungrateful at times but he served the country well.  Anyway, both of them were ordered a couple minutes after midnight on Friday, September 20th.

I was fortunately enough to have both of them shipped at the time they were this Monday out of Zhenzhou, China.  And along with the half million iPhone owners tracking that same UPS99 flight, we saw it land safely in Louisville, Kentucky.  And from there, we go our separate ways.

Here's what's interesting. My information said that I would not get my iPhones until this Thursday.  But I had hoped that somehow, they would squeak by and make it out on the UPS to Ontario, California flight today.

When I woke around 5 am PST to check, sadly, one of the tracking numbers said "The scheduled connection was missed".

I was like "frak!" and I went back to bed.  This morning, I tracked the other number right when I woke up.  I couldn't believe!

Out for delivery!

As you can see, the two tracking information - one is coming to me today, the gold 64 GB version (mine) while my brother's is still in Louisville, and won't get here until Thursday at the earliest.

The difference was this:  7 minutes.  The two import scans - mine at 2:10 am local time and the other one at 2:17 am local time.