Wize Blog

Apple Releases A Brand New iPod Shuffe

 

What do you think of the new iPod Shuffle? I'm a fan of "The Apple Experience" and just like all of their previous releases, this one is full of all the great PR, display ads, commercials, etc., but this release also has some interesting aspects to it.

First of all the size of the iPod has shrunk even more than the previous ones and is smaller than the size of an average house key! The access controls are now located on the right ear bud headphone cord, which is probably going to be the reason for contention. Let me explain. For now at least, you have to use Apple's own headphones in order to control this device. Oh, but did you just shell out $300 for Beats by Dre? Well as Engadget has pointed out, you'd need to get another $20-$30 adapter to make that work!

I've already spoken to a few people and over and over I keep hearing:

"Sure, but what is apple thinking? It may look super sexy, but where's the usability? You can't just pick it up and start listening to music on it. Also, I doubt people want to pay $20-30 for an adapter to use their existing in-ear or wireless headphones. Two years ago, when people had more expendable income, they could get away with it, but I don't think now.

The one cool feature that has promise is the new VoiceOver feature they've introduced. It's easy to read online reviews about it and to read Apple's own description of the technology, but this to me is just one of those things where you have to try it out yourself. The best way to test this feature and figure out if it's as good as it seems is to get out on a treadmill and determine for yourself whether it's really going to keep the Shuffle as one of the best MP3 players for working out.

Samsung Instinct Attempts to Nail iPhone

Imagine a touchphone that looks like an iPhone and costs only $130. The Samsung Instinct is attempting to nail the AT&T iPhone, giving the Apple product a run for the money.

The phone even has its own Web site--samsunginstinct.com. This effort is part of a $100 million marketing plan for the Sprint Instinct.

The real question is does it have some of the same features as the iPhone?

The answer would be a resounding "yes."

It has: touch-screen interface, hi-speed wireless, Bluetooth, 2MP cqmera, expandable memory, GPS and visual voicemail.

The next question would be which network is faster AT&T or Sprint. Please comment.

Laptop as a Desktop

If there's one laptop that could be used instead of a desktop it's gotta be the 17-inch MacPro. That's the opinion in a review of the Mac at Computerworld.com.

The 2.6-GHz machine that the reviewer, Ryan Faas, reviewed weighs 6.6-lbs, a bit lighter than he expected. (Faas has always thought that a 17-inch laptop isn't a laptop at all, it's more like a desktop.)

The first item Faas details is the screen, one he thinks is the best in the world. Its native resolution is 1,920 by 1,200 pixels. (That's the upgraded resolution, which you pay a bit more to get.)

Second on Faas list of good things about the machine is its great gaming hardware--a Nvidia G3Force 8600M GT card. Gaming is good on this Mac.

Also worth mentioning is that Apple of late has made their MacBook pros faster than they did two years ago--50 to 75% faster. Faas tested the Mac to see if this was true, and many tests confirmed that it was.

Last to discuss here is the touchpad which "includes the ability to swipe through items (photos in iPhoto/Aperture, Web pages in Safari or songs in iTunes, for instance) with a three-finger gesture on the trackpad, as well as the ability to zoom the contents of an image or the text of a Web page by pinching, much like on the iPhone or iPod Touch."

If you have room for a big laptop or even want to use this laptop as a desktop, it's well worth the price.

5 Reasons the New iPhone is a Hit

iPhone reached super-celebrity status yesterday making more news than the presidential election.

Every major news publication is covering the product from Time to the Washington Post.

Here are 5 reasons why the new iphone is such a hit:

1. In a demo Steve Jobs conducted during his talk to software developers yesterday, the new 3G iPhone loaded an Internet Web page 3X faster than its predecessor, which ran on the Edge network.
2. You get 5 hours of talk time until the battery runs dry.
3. Will be available in 70 countries from Brazil to Japan, to name a few.
4. Has software services from email to calendars.
5. Has GPS.

Look at New iPhone

The buzz has arrived. The new iPhone (8GB) will be $199. Engadget has spilled the details. There's also a video look at the phone, too. It's below.

Some of details are:

The phone's to be released on July 11.
There's 3G.
Runs 3rd party apps.
Internet 3G page load 36% faster than some other popular phones.
There's GPS.
16GB is $299, both 8GB and 16GB require contract.

iPhone News Coming

Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference is underway and Steve Jobs is speaking right now.

He's expected to announce new news about the iPhone.

The New York Times published a list of "Eight Questions for Steve Jobs."

Their effort to figure out what will be new to the iPhone is impressive.

The first point is the question of 3G technology, that technology that can provide Internet access from just about anywhere you are. AT&T, the iPhone's carrier, has been erecting cell phone towers like crazy to get ready for iPhone's 3G service. (3G technology can bring Internet access via the towers.)

Other things to watch for in the iPhone are: new model iPhones, the price, battery life and new carriers.

Jailbreak Your iPhone

Want non-approved Apple apps on your iPhone? Then you're going to have to jailbreak.

CNET has come of with a video showing you how to put "apps on your iPhone the nonApple way."

Jailbreak means you're going to set up your phone to accept third party apps.

It's all at Ziphone.org, a site where you can download a program that can unlock your phone to use other networks other than AT&T and/or where  can set up your iPhone to accept anyone's apps.

The program modifies your iPhone and then reboots. It doesn't take long.

Installer is the app that lets you install other programs.

iMac running Up to 3.06 GHz

Processor speed freaks will be happy to know that the iMac is faster than ever. That's the big word when you arrive at apple.com these days.

They call it "Beauty. Brains. And now more brawn.

Apple iMacs run on Intel Core 2 Duo processors, which have advanced 45-nm process technology and 6MB of shared L2 cache.

Final Cut Pro will run 28% faster than it did on previous machines. Photoshop CS3 runs 22% faster.

With the new iMac, you also have the option to upgrade to a NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GS and 512MB of dedicated video memory.

MacBook Touch Years Away

Touchscreen Macs are in the news today. Forbes.com has written about the possibility of the computer being 3 to 5 years away.

I'm not sure how I feel about that idea. I think it might be hard to give up scooting my finger along the touch pad. I have many questions about what a touchscreen Mac might look like. My guess is that it probably will be like a tablet computer offered by the PC makers.

Why hasn't Apple introduced such a machine already?  I don't know the answer to that, but there's much speculation at Gizmodo as to why it hasn't and what it might look like when it finally does.

What's in Store for iPhone?

There's one thing that's going to happen with the iPhone that's a given--it's going to have new applications for users. Apple has a developer program that "provides a complete and integrated process for developing, debugging, and distributing your free, commercial, or in-house applications for iPhone and iPod touch."

The program is "complete with development resources, real-world testing on iPhone, and distribution on the App Store, you have everything you need to go from code to customer (see image to left).

Everyone's big question today is how much is the iPhone going to cost in the future. The answer is up to AT&T, iphone's carrier, and Apple.

Two things could happen, according to the New York Times: AT&T could subsidize the phone, making them less expensive (and raising monthly fees to buy the plan) or Apple could raise the price of the iPhone and let users use whoever they want to get phone service.

Anyone have a crystal ball to predict the future?