Apple Archives - Page 75 of 89

iPhone Service Plans Announced, Not Too Shabby

iPhone week continues! Earlier today Apple and AT&T announced service plans for the iPhone… And while they’ve said all along they wouldn’t be subsidizing hardware, they’re obviously subsidizing subscriptions. The least expensive plan runs $60/month, which includes unlimited data and 450 minutes of talk time. For comparison, I pay AT&T $80/mo (1/2 voice, 1/2 data) … Read more

Picture of the Day: The iPhone Cometh

Seeing as how it’s iPhone week, Mari and I are required to mention the revolution at least once per day… When visiting the Cingular AT&T earlier today I snapped this pic of an iPhone display. On my Windows Mobile device. ;)

The Onion’s iPhone Feature Roundup

A dedicated Apple fanboy I know sent me this link to The Onion with a list of the most anticipated iPhone features. (see below) Sure there’s no keyboard or stylus, but can you beat the Lightsaber sound effects? Click through to read the full Onion post. Trust me, it’s worth it. iPhone Features: Nanotechnology enables … Read more

Digital Media Bytes

Stories Dave missed while he was away… AT&T launches HD Homezone service: EngadgetHD Microsoft’s IPTV Mediaroom Makeover: Ars Technica Proposed Amendment To Ban All DVD Copying: PC Mag AppleTV adds YouTube: AppleInsider Veoh TV as TiVo for the Internet: Business 2.0 Sirius Echo Home Repeater System now available: Orbitcast

Front Row… Looks Like Apple TV

I didn’t find much of interest reading the WWDC keynote today… I’m not a developer and most of the Leopard features are a rehash of what we already knew or not so grand. ZFS has been a no-show so far. And Safari on Windows? Yawn. Now a Windows port of iPhoto – that would have been exciting. Or how about a .Mac photo and video sharing YouTube/Flickr mashup.

However, in the aftermath of the keynote and the apple.com site refresh, at least one interesting nugget has turned up. Front Row, under Leopard, gets a makeover:

When you summon Front Row in Leopard, you’re greeted by an elegant interface much like the one on Apple TV. Finding and enjoying whatever you wish couldn’t be simpler. Just click the Apple Remote (included with most Macs) to step through the options: music, movies, TV shows, and photos. You can even view slideshows of iPhoto albums on other computers in the house.

Makes perfect sense to me. I’d suggest Microsoft do something similar in merging their Media Center experience and Xbox 360 blades… but without the banner ads currently plastered all over my console.

On-box Ordering of Amazon Unbox on TiVo?

USA Today is out with a movie-ordering comparison of Apple TV versus Amazon Unbox on TiVo. Buried in the article is an interesting nugget:

Amazon and TiVo are expected today to announce direct sales that bypass the PC altogether.

Movies can currently be ordered via Amazon’s website on computer. (Unofficially: Unbox OnDemand) This method generally works out fine given movies can ‘t be watched until the download completes, but it makes sense to provide ordering directly on the TiVo unit – for both service and as a means of advertising the feature. The challenge isn’t really the technology of building the Java HME widget, the challenge is creating a well organized and friendly TV interface for Amazon’s large collection of content. We shall see…

iTunes Plus… Email

As promised, iTunes and EMI (partially) delivered on their promise of releasing DRM-free music. However, the initial batch of tracks doesn’t include anything in my collection. The bigger news with the new service seems to be iTunes Plus embedding personally identifiable info, such as name and email, into every file. I don’t have a problem … Read more

Apple IPTV?

Normally, I’d immediately dismiss this as crazy talk… But coming from Peter Rojas of Engadget, we have to consider the possibility: A well-connected source tells us that AT&T and Apple are working on adding IPTV capabilities to the Apple TV beginning sometime next year. Even with Apple’s recent hard drive upgrade, the A-TV won’t become … Read more