The GigaOM Network: Cleantech | Tech Insider | Gadget Gurus | Online Video | Open Source | Web Life | Research | Live Events | About | Contact

Archive for the ‘Commentary’ Category

Microsoft’s Bad Image Should Be a Warning to Apple

Written on November 20, 2009 by Liam Cassidy and 27 people have commented

“I’m just wondering why your marketing group can’t do something to try to rein in this next generation, because you’ve got a real bad image out there.”
So said a Microsoft shareholder to CEO Steve Ballmer at the company’s shareholder meeting yesterday. TechFlash reporter Todd Bishop notes that the same shareholder added that Apple’s TV commercials [...]

Apple Patent Describes Smart Remote Technology

Written on November 20, 2009 by Liam Cassidy and 3 people have commented

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office yesterday published a patent application Apple made way back in 2008 for “Pushing a User Interface to a Remote Device.” So, then…Smart Remotes. Cool!
MacRumor’s Eric Slivka reports that the patent’s lead inventor is William Bull, now Yahoo’s Senior Director of Mobile User Experience, but once upon a time Apple’s [...]

Jobs’ Personal, Terse Reply to Developer

Written on November 20, 2009 by Liam Cassidy and 24 people have commented

Gotta love that Steve Jobs. He never was one to hold back, and even now, when he’s the CEO of the Universe (or something like that), he won’t be found spouting corporate speak.
CrunchGear tells the story of a small software development company called The Little App Factory. It made an app for the Mac called [...]

Apple Sued Over MMS: But Who Really Uses It?

Written on November 19, 2009 by Liam Cassidy and 27 people have commented

According to a report this week on The Mac Observer, Apple and AT&T have been presented with a class action lawsuit by a customer who accuses them of misleading the public by advertising the MMS capabilities of the iPhone 3GS despite not making those capabilities available in the U.S. when it launched.
(Yawn.) I’ll let you [...]

Cut the Drama: Private APIs, the App Store & You

Written on November 19, 2009 by Andrew Bednarz and 36 people have commented

I’ve had a rant building up for a few weeks. A rant about developer’s treatment at the hands of the App Store submission procedure. However unlike many rants on the topic, mine is not directed towards Apple. It is directed towards the iPhone developers who complain about the poor, unfair treatment they get, carrying their [...]

Rumored Apple Tablet Now Rumored to Be Delayed

Written on November 19, 2009 by Charles Jade and 4 people have commented

Ever entertaining—if unreliable—DigiTimes has not one, but two big tablet rumors today. The mythical device (subscription required) has been delayed from early 2010 to the second half of next year, and there will an OLED model. Seriously.
According to anonymous sources inside that the electronics supply chain, Apple changed the launch from March—as opposed to January—to “switch [...]

Ozzie Misses the Point, says Apps Don’t Matter

Written on November 18, 2009 by Liam Cassidy and 10 people have commented

Speaking yesterday at the Professional Developer’s Conference, Microsoft’s Chief Software Architect Ray Ozzie explained what’s really important when it comes to the smartphone business, and it’s apparently nothing at all to do with the number of apps available on any one platform.
All the apps that count will be ported to every one of them. It’s [...]

Apple Has Been Working on OS X 10.7 for At Least a Month

Written on November 18, 2009 by Darrell Etherington and 17 people have commented

Snow Leopard has barely gotten its paws wet, and now news comes that Apple is already working on its replacement. It’s not really surprising, since Apple is basically always either working on the next iteration of its products or releasing them, but still, it does whet the appetite for the next version of OS X.
The [...]

TweetDeck for iPhone Gets Facebook Integration

Written on November 17, 2009 by Darrell Etherington and No one has commented

The iPhone isn’t capable of true multitasking if you’re running a legit, non-jailbroken device, so you can’t do something like, say, have Facebook and Twitter open at the same time. Thanks to the latest update, though, for TweetDeck for the iPhone (free, iTunes link), you can experience most of the advantages of that hypothetical situation [...]

Apple’s Black Friday Sales Leaked Early

Written on November 17, 2009 by Darrell Etherington and 21 people have commented

If you’re planning your holiday shopping but want to get a good grasp of the budget available to you in advance, it helps to know what kind of deals you’re going to get. Luckily, Apple’s Black Friday discounts have been leaked early, so you can factor in those price reductions while you’re figuring out how [...]

Apple’s App Store Approval Process Now Includes an Automated Layer

Written on November 17, 2009 by Darrell Etherington and 12 people have commented

App Store developers now have more to contend with than just the fickle tastes of the humans Apple has reviewing submissions. Now, submissions also go through an automated filter that determines whether or not the app is obeying the rules and not using any of Apple’s private APIs, which is a no-no, according to the [...]

What if OnLive Came to the iPhone?

Written on November 16, 2009 by Darrell Etherington and 5 people have commented

OnLive made a lot of noise when it first appeared on the scene way back in March at the Game Developer’s Conference of 2009. It’s a service that’s said to be able to make a gaming machine out of any computer that can run the latest browsers, which would effectively end the madness that is [...]

Apple’s New Job Posting May Hint at Early Tablet Strategy

Written on November 16, 2009 by Liam Cassidy and 14 people have commented

There’s been talk lately that Apple’s execs are a little unhappy with the direction the iPhone and iPod touch have taken in regards to gaming. They didn’t anticipate such strong interest in gaming, it wasn’t really a key concern in their initial plans for the platform…and anyway, Stevey J’s not much of a gamer, and [...]

Opinion: Psystar Ruling Could Have Set Precedent for Upgrading Your Mac

Written on November 16, 2009 by Dave Greenbaum and 46 people have commented

This past Friday, your future ability to upgrade your Mac may have been significantly restricted. Psystar, the company that tried to create “open” Macs by running OS X on non-Apple hardware, suffered a quick defeat in its effort against Apple’s OS license restrictions.
No question this was a long shot and Psystar was going for the [...]

AdMob Could Have Gone to Apple, Sources Say

Written on November 16, 2009 by Darrell Etherington and 3 people have commented

AdMob, the mobile advertising firm that recently made headlines thanks to a Google acquisition, might have become part of the Apple fold if things had worked out differently, according to a report by Bloomberg that appeared this weekend. Apple reportedly approached AdMob with interest before the Google deal went down.
That’s according to “people familiar with [...]

The Apple Store: An Unsung Hero

Written on November 13, 2009 by Charles Jade and 7 people have commented

Apple previewed its Upper West Side store in New York yesterday. Besides welcoming the media into the company’s latest example of retail minimalism taken to its logical extreme, Apple Senior VP Ron Johnson talked retail.

Glass and stone enclose 8,500 square feet of retail space on street level, topped with a glass ceiling 45 feet above, and [...]

Eliminate Pro Becomes First Free App in the Top Grossing List

Written on November 13, 2009 by Darrell Etherington and 3 people have commented

I’m not sure how many of you are playing Eliminate Pro on your iPhones, but I’m guessing it has to be a fairly high number, considering the app’s success since its recent launch. ngmoco’s ambitious first-person shooter for Apple’s mobile platform is third overall in the App Store’s Top Free list, but what’s more impressive [...]

Apple Launches iTunes Preview

Written on November 13, 2009 by Liam Cassidy and 5 people have commented

This is one of those items I find so hard to get behind, rather like the infrequent (boring) updates to MobileMe. But here goes; Apple has ever-so-quietly launched a new web-based front-end to their iTunes music library titled “iTunes Preview.” It allows a visitor to view lists of music available on the iTunes Store via [...]

Microsoft Admits, Then Denies, Copying Mac OS X

Written on November 13, 2009 by Liam Cassidy and 17 people have commented

It boggles the mind, it really does. Microsoft tries so hard but for each step forward, it seems to take three steps back. Windows 7, Redmond’s answer to the train-wreck that was Vista (subscription required), has been out for just a matter of weeks and has managed to garner mostly positive reviews. But Microsoft can’t help [...]

iPhone Increases Marketshare Again

Written on November 12, 2009 by Charles Jade and 9 people have commented

For Q3 2009, Apple’s iPhone accounted for 17.1 percent of worldwide smartphone marketshare, a new high for the company. That’s the good news from Gartner, and there’s more where that came from.

While overall mobile phone sales were flat for the quarter, smartphone sales were up 12.8 percent, some 41 million units. Carolina Milanesi, research director [...]