SOURCE
Showing posts with label iPod. Show all posts
Showing posts with label iPod. Show all posts
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
Thursday, September 29, 2011
Happy 10th iPod! Sorry, But You Must Die Now. [INFOGRAPHIC]
Happy 10th Birthday! (almost - it's actually October 23rd) BLAM! Goodbye.
Yep, it's time that Apple put the ol' girl down and sell her to the glue factory. The world was a vastly different place in 2001. George Bush was sworn in as President, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone just came out (along with Shrek; Monsters, Inc.; and Ocean's 11), the Baltimore Ravens won the SuperBowl (34-7 over the Giants), Venus Williams won the women's Wimbeldon match, our Federal Deficit was "only" $5 trillion, unemployment was 4.8% and a stamp cost $0.34.
There were still "record stores" (Google it) where people bought physical media in order to enjoy music. Having a Sony Walkman was considered "cool" (by 2001 all the "cool kids" had a "DiscMan" - the CD version of the Walkman), but lugging those cassettes (or new-fangled CDs) around - was a hassle.
There were other players in the nascent "portable" music player category (Diamond Rio, HanGo Personal Jukebox) - but, as usual, it took Apple and their eye for industrial design (and chutzpah to charge $399 for a music player) to literally change the music industry as we know it.
There were dozens of "me-too" cheapo Mp3 players - but the iPod in all its various incarnations still out-sold all the others.
It wasGoogle's Motorola's ROKR phone in 2005 that broke the ground on having music on your phone. It even "worked" with iTunes (although it was notoriously slow and limited to 100 songs).
Then along came January 9, 2007 - and the introduction of the iPhone... and well, you know that story. You now have a mini-laptop, game player, and GPS unit in your hand that also happens to make calls. In September 2010, Apple came out with the iPod Touch (an iPhone without the phone) - and has sold over 60,000,000 of them.
Oh, yeah, and Apple's made a coupla' bucks on the 10 billion songs and applications people have bought and downloaded... and while music downloads are nice, iCloud subscriptions and higher app prices means it will make even more money as people ditch their modern Walkman for an all-in-one device.
It's been an amazing run! Here's a look back:
:
SOURCE
Yep, it's time that Apple put the ol' girl down and sell her to the glue factory. The world was a vastly different place in 2001. George Bush was sworn in as President, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone just came out (along with Shrek; Monsters, Inc.; and Ocean's 11), the Baltimore Ravens won the SuperBowl (34-7 over the Giants), Venus Williams won the women's Wimbeldon match, our Federal Deficit was "only" $5 trillion, unemployment was 4.8% and a stamp cost $0.34.
There were other players in the nascent "portable" music player category (Diamond Rio, HanGo Personal Jukebox) - but, as usual, it took Apple and their eye for industrial design (and chutzpah to charge $399 for a music player) to literally change the music industry as we know it.
There were dozens of "me-too" cheapo Mp3 players - but the iPod in all its various incarnations still out-sold all the others.
It was
Then along came January 9, 2007 - and the introduction of the iPhone... and well, you know that story. You now have a mini-laptop, game player, and GPS unit in your hand that also happens to make calls. In September 2010, Apple came out with the iPod Touch (an iPhone without the phone) - and has sold over 60,000,000 of them.
Oh, yeah, and Apple's made a coupla' bucks on the 10 billion songs and applications people have bought and downloaded... and while music downloads are nice, iCloud subscriptions and higher app prices means it will make even more money as people ditch their modern Walkman for an all-in-one device.
It's been an amazing run! Here's a look back:
:SOURCE
Monday, June 20, 2011
Portable Media - The Beginning of Apple Domination?
Last Friday I blogged about Chrome OS and the pontificated on life using only browser-based applications. I was thinking over the weekend about the impending release of iOS 5 and Lion for the Mac - and I came up with an interesting theory. Could Apple being trying its own hand at an instant-on, lightweight OS "experience"... ummmm... "for the rest of us?"
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Happy Birthday Mac!
I can't believe that it was 25 years ago to the day that the Macintosh first hit the streets - it seems like it was just yesterday. Gosh, I'm getting old! I haven't always been a PC guy. If you take a look through some of the old blog posts - you'll see that I was quite the Mac fanboy (and vehement "Windoze" hater) back then.
I remember my first encounter with a Mac... (insert Wayne's World flashback here)
Back in the heady days of 1985 I was working at a company that designed swimming pool heaters. At the time I was a mechanical engineer... ummm... ok, ok, so I was just a drafting puke... ANYWAY - my job was to sit a huge E-sized drafting table and create and update sheet metal drawings as needed.
My boss at the time was sort of anal-retental and was very, very proud of the fact that he had a "two year backlog" of change orders waiting to be processed. Let's just say he was WAY into "job security."
My friend (who got me the job) was a graphic designer (and an aspiring cartoonist) who somehow talked his boss into letting him have this new Macintosh "personal computer." He immediately started doing all of the wiring drawings using MacPaint (yes, on the original 512 Mac with a SINGLE floppy that you had to swap out with the "system" disk to save the data!).
He was able to save loads of time - because 95% of wiring drawings are identical. He could just "save as" and create about 5-10 TIMES more drawings in a single day. The productivity was amazing. He would then print it out on the dot matrix ImageWriter (braaaawat...braaaawt....braaaawt - sounds coming out of his office all day).
I was intrigued - and he taught me how to use the thing (although I'm more autistic than artistic) - and pretty soon we would take our lunch huddled around the glow of that tiny black and white screen with that really, really klunky keyboard (with the HUGE keys!) and we had a blast.
At the time, in my own department we used a "dumb terminal" to do all the change orders. This was the classic "green screen" AS400 setup. I was an expert at tab-tab-tab-F12-F8-tab-enter way of computing.
This went on for about 18 months.
When Apple came out with the first expandable model - the IIcx - of course my friend was able to get one along with the LaserWriter Pro - the original laser printer.
I had seen the future.
I did a proposal - written on my lunch breaks - using MacWrite and illustrated using the "new" hot vector drawing program MacDraw - and made a business case for why we should ditch the manual-drawing-erasing-blueprint-copying-filing method and just "go digital." Our parts were not rocket science - they were squares, rectantgles and minor variations with holes and vents in them - a PERFECT match for this new digital technology.
Changes were a snap, and (so I thought) - we could plow through all that backlog in less than 4 months - and the system would pay for itself in less than 12 months. I knew this would drive my boss crazy - so I "pulled a Bob" and just went over his head to his boss (the VP of Operations).
I scheduled a meeting, made my pitch... and... they didn't do it. In fact, my boss called me in an accused me of going after his job. I literally quit on the spot and walked out (the only time in my life that I've done that).
After that, I bought my own Mac (SE30 with DUAL floppies and a whopping 20 MEGAbyte hard drive! "I'll never run out of storage EVER!"). Then I eventually moved on to the IIcx, then the infamous "pizza box" Performa line, and so on and so on. I did everything on the Mac.
I had my first graphic design company and used Illustrator 1.0 to draw realistic, shaded technical illustrations, I used PageMaker to make catalogs and ads and manuals. I was one of the AppleScript addicts - and had macros that I used with QuicKeys to automate every single action (and interaction) that I ever needed. I became somewhat of an expert in all things Mac - and I became one of Apple's biggest evangelists - all the way up to System 9.
Then all my customers stopped using Macs and were all using PCs running Windows 3.1 - and their software just didn't work with mine. So, I grudgingly bought my first Dell... and as I used the Mac less and less I sort of "fell out of love" with it. I became less of a Mac bigot and although I didn't "love" my PC - at least I could get the same versions of software that my customers were using and continue doing business.
Of course we all know the "rest" of the story - the way Apple has come out with great hardware, updated their software to OS X, etc. etc. They are starting to make inroads back into corporate america with people hooked not on OSX, but on iTunes and the iPod and the iPhone.
Does this mean that I'll give up my Dell notebook and Windows XP? Actually.... maybe. I'll wait-and-see how Windoze 7 pans out, but I have a sneaky suspicion that my next notebook will not be running Windows - and may just include an all-white piece of fruit on the lid.
I remember my first encounter with a Mac... (insert Wayne's World flashback here)
Back in the heady days of 1985 I was working at a company that designed swimming pool heaters. At the time I was a mechanical engineer... ummm... ok, ok, so I was just a drafting puke... ANYWAY - my job was to sit a huge E-sized drafting table and create and update sheet metal drawings as needed.
My boss at the time was sort of anal-retental and was very, very proud of the fact that he had a "two year backlog" of change orders waiting to be processed. Let's just say he was WAY into "job security."
My friend (who got me the job) was a graphic designer (and an aspiring cartoonist) who somehow talked his boss into letting him have this new Macintosh "personal computer." He immediately started doing all of the wiring drawings using MacPaint (yes, on the original 512 Mac with a SINGLE floppy that you had to swap out with the "system" disk to save the data!).
He was able to save loads of time - because 95% of wiring drawings are identical. He could just "save as" and create about 5-10 TIMES more drawings in a single day. The productivity was amazing. He would then print it out on the dot matrix ImageWriter (braaaawat...braaaawt....braaaawt - sounds coming out of his office all day).
I was intrigued - and he taught me how to use the thing (although I'm more autistic than artistic) - and pretty soon we would take our lunch huddled around the glow of that tiny black and white screen with that really, really klunky keyboard (with the HUGE keys!) and we had a blast.
At the time, in my own department we used a "dumb terminal" to do all the change orders. This was the classic "green screen" AS400 setup. I was an expert at tab-tab-tab-F12-F8-tab-enter way of computing.
This went on for about 18 months.
When Apple came out with the first expandable model - the IIcx - of course my friend was able to get one along with the LaserWriter Pro - the original laser printer.
I had seen the future.
I did a proposal - written on my lunch breaks - using MacWrite and illustrated using the "new" hot vector drawing program MacDraw - and made a business case for why we should ditch the manual-drawing-erasing-blueprint-copying-filing method and just "go digital." Our parts were not rocket science - they were squares, rectantgles and minor variations with holes and vents in them - a PERFECT match for this new digital technology.
Changes were a snap, and (so I thought) - we could plow through all that backlog in less than 4 months - and the system would pay for itself in less than 12 months. I knew this would drive my boss crazy - so I "pulled a Bob" and just went over his head to his boss (the VP of Operations).
I scheduled a meeting, made my pitch... and... they didn't do it. In fact, my boss called me in an accused me of going after his job. I literally quit on the spot and walked out (the only time in my life that I've done that).
After that, I bought my own Mac (SE30 with DUAL floppies and a whopping 20 MEGAbyte hard drive! "I'll never run out of storage EVER!"). Then I eventually moved on to the IIcx, then the infamous "pizza box" Performa line, and so on and so on. I did everything on the Mac.
I had my first graphic design company and used Illustrator 1.0 to draw realistic, shaded technical illustrations, I used PageMaker to make catalogs and ads and manuals. I was one of the AppleScript addicts - and had macros that I used with QuicKeys to automate every single action (and interaction) that I ever needed. I became somewhat of an expert in all things Mac - and I became one of Apple's biggest evangelists - all the way up to System 9.
Then all my customers stopped using Macs and were all using PCs running Windows 3.1 - and their software just didn't work with mine. So, I grudgingly bought my first Dell... and as I used the Mac less and less I sort of "fell out of love" with it. I became less of a Mac bigot and although I didn't "love" my PC - at least I could get the same versions of software that my customers were using and continue doing business.
Of course we all know the "rest" of the story - the way Apple has come out with great hardware, updated their software to OS X, etc. etc. They are starting to make inroads back into corporate america with people hooked not on OSX, but on iTunes and the iPod and the iPhone.
Does this mean that I'll give up my Dell notebook and Windows XP? Actually.... maybe. I'll wait-and-see how Windoze 7 pans out, but I have a sneaky suspicion that my next notebook will not be running Windows - and may just include an all-white piece of fruit on the lid.
Thursday, January 08, 2009
Microblog: WebEx Goes To iPhone
In the "damn, Gina!" category we have Cisco which announced that users of it's WebEx service can now initiate and join meetings via a free iPhone/iTouch application. That's pretty cool!
There is no extra charges to start or attend a meeting from the phone - and the service will even call the attendees to link them up to the audio (iTouch folks or iPhone users can also use a third-party conferencing service as well, of course).
The application already includes chat, and it's compatible with both portrait and landscape mode. You can't host a meeting from a iPhone/iTouch, but you can "pass off" the presenter "ball" to anyone else in the meeting.
Ummmm.... wow. I never thought I would/could attend a webinar on go (or at least as much of it as I could before the battery dies). Here's the link if you want the info from the horse's mouth...
There is no extra charges to start or attend a meeting from the phone - and the service will even call the attendees to link them up to the audio (iTouch folks or iPhone users can also use a third-party conferencing service as well, of course).
The application already includes chat, and it's compatible with both portrait and landscape mode. You can't host a meeting from a iPhone/iTouch, but you can "pass off" the presenter "ball" to anyone else in the meeting.
Ummmm.... wow. I never thought I would/could attend a webinar on go (or at least as much of it as I could before the battery dies). Here's the link if you want the info from the horse's mouth...
Thursday, June 12, 2008
iPhone Apps in Business Shackled to iTunes
It's the day-after the day-after the "big" announcement - and the iPhone fanboy sites are buzzing (again!) with speculation. Although the speculation is somewhat toned-down - I've seen a bunch of commentary written on how this or that is great or sucks - what the problems are (or will be) - for a product and operating system that has not even shipped yet!
Geez, people - get a life! Just wait another month, stand in line, and actually buy the damn thing before you go off and start predicting doom and gloom - or joy and balloons.
The reality will be somewhere in-between. From a technical point-of-view, the phone is pretty good - but not as impressive (or feature-rich) as those that are already on the market - or ones that will come to market soon.
But that doesn't matter. What matters is - people's perception of the iPhone as "the next big thing." That spells both opportunity for developers building native iPhone applications - and it also means that business folks will have to get ready to adopt iTunes officially into their stable of "blessed" applications.
For small businesses, this is no problem. It's no big deal to have personal media assets on company equipment, and they can just use a single install of iTunes for everything from browsing the iTunes store, to downloading games, to uploading pictures as well as the more "business-like" functionality of contacts and calendaring.
So, let me throw my speculative hat into the ring - and talk about corporate application distribution. There will be certain applications that businesses will develop for in-house use that also happen to run on the iPhone. As announced, there will be only two "official" mechanisms for distributing them:
Both of them have something in common: iTunes.
Now, iTunes is a terrific consumer application, and from the announcements that Steve made the other day, Apple is really trying to "get" the enterprise. It's put in the synch to Exchange, the ability to remotely wipe a device, etc.
What they didn't announce (and what I'm speculating on) - is a "corporate" version of iTunes. Can't you just imagine all the enterprise IT folks going crazy at people installing iTunes on their corporate boxes?
As of the currently shipping version of iTunes, there's no way to centrally control the application. No support for Active Directory Group Policy, no way for the IT wonks to disable the iTunes store, no way to set the default media download location, no way to limit the updating of QuickTime and iTunes versions to a centrally "blessed" version, etc.
Even in SMB companies of 30-500 people, such controls would (will?) make life much easier for an already-overworked IT staff. Hopefully Apple will "get" the needs of business - and include it into their future strategy and roadmap for a business-friendly iTunes.
Geez, people - get a life! Just wait another month, stand in line, and actually buy the damn thing before you go off and start predicting doom and gloom - or joy and balloons.
The reality will be somewhere in-between. From a technical point-of-view, the phone is pretty good - but not as impressive (or feature-rich) as those that are already on the market - or ones that will come to market soon.
But that doesn't matter. What matters is - people's perception of the iPhone as "the next big thing." That spells both opportunity for developers building native iPhone applications - and it also means that business folks will have to get ready to adopt iTunes officially into their stable of "blessed" applications.
For small businesses, this is no problem. It's no big deal to have personal media assets on company equipment, and they can just use a single install of iTunes for everything from browsing the iTunes store, to downloading games, to uploading pictures as well as the more "business-like" functionality of contacts and calendaring.
So, let me throw my speculative hat into the ring - and talk about corporate application distribution. There will be certain applications that businesses will develop for in-house use that also happen to run on the iPhone. As announced, there will be only two "official" mechanisms for distributing them:
- Make them publicly available on the Apple App Store; OR
- "Register" the iPhones in your organization and roll out apps just for those devices
Both of them have something in common: iTunes.
Now, iTunes is a terrific consumer application, and from the announcements that Steve made the other day, Apple is really trying to "get" the enterprise. It's put in the synch to Exchange, the ability to remotely wipe a device, etc.
What they didn't announce (and what I'm speculating on) - is a "corporate" version of iTunes. Can't you just imagine all the enterprise IT folks going crazy at people installing iTunes on their corporate boxes?
As of the currently shipping version of iTunes, there's no way to centrally control the application. No support for Active Directory Group Policy, no way for the IT wonks to disable the iTunes store, no way to set the default media download location, no way to limit the updating of QuickTime and iTunes versions to a centrally "blessed" version, etc.
Even in SMB companies of 30-500 people, such controls would (will?) make life much easier for an already-overworked IT staff. Hopefully Apple will "get" the needs of business - and include it into their future strategy and roadmap for a business-friendly iTunes.
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