Category: Apple

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Amazon strikes back!

It’s no secret that Apple and Steve Jobs dominate the digital music player business and it’s also no secret that the iTunes store pretty much dominates the digital music business. One could even argue that Steve started the digital music revolution with near flawless execution and creating an almost impenetrable fortress with iTunes, the iPod and the iTunes music store. Everyone that tried to compete in this space has failed to make a serious dent in Apple’s armor. This due largely to the iPod being a closed system that only works with a few audio formats and and ONE music store. Most DRM (Digital Rights Managed) solutions from competitors not being compatible also makes them less attractive. However, at the heart of the iPod, it’s an MP3 player! So if you have an MP3 file you’re all set.

Steve even made a very compelling argument against DRM (if you buy an audio CD it doesn’t have DRM protection on it) and EMI blazed the trail by offering tracks that are DRM free on iTunes for $1.29. That’s right for 30¢ more than the standard 99¢/track you can purchase a song in AAC format that is free from DRM protection. This means this track will play on your iPod, your computer and any other device that can play AAC files including competing music players. You could even convert the track into other formats. This is great! However, if you want a song not in the EMI catalog, you’re pretty much out of luck or if you want to play that song on a player that doesn’t support AAC you’ll have to convert it to a different format first. So it would seem that Apple is unstoppable in the music business. Had you asked me this last week I would have said that "Apple is very hard to beat at this music thing. They get it!" That all changed for me yesterday!

I kept seeing the headlines that Amazon.com started selling DRM free tracks and I really didn’t pay much attention to this. After all we’ve seen online music stores come and go and so why would this be any different? Also in the past attempts to unseat Apple, the stores were either not compatible with the iPod or not compatible with the Mac which was a complete turn off for me. Then I saw one more headline about Amazon MP3 and happened to notice something I didn’t notice the first 100 times and that was "in MP3 format!" Woah! Wait a minute! This is game changing! MP3 is the most widely accepted digital music standard. So If I can buy a track that is DRM free in MP3 format then that means it will work on just about anything.

So I headed over to Amazon MP3 and decided to give this new music store a shot. I was floored not only by how easy it all worked, but also by the PRICE! Amazon’s DRM free MP3 tracks average between 89¢-99¢. I found a track that I wanted (it was 99¢) and I clicked the Buy button expecting the world to explode. I was prompted to download a "downloader" app and low and behold it was for the Mac (it detected my platform automatically). Once I downloaded the downloader, Safari (my browser) fired back up and took me right back to the song I was buying (Party Starter by Will Smith). I bought it and then something else pretty amazing happened. The song downloaded neatly to my Music folder in a newly created Amazon MP3 folder and like iTunes it organized the song by Artist, then Album then Track.

This was all going so well that I decided to go for broke. I opened iTunes and simply dragged the song over to my library and it imported it. Not only did it import it, but it automatically downloaded the Album Art for me. Thanks iTunes! (Note: The downloader is supposed to add the track to iTunes automatically by default. For some reason that didn’t happen for me on this first purchase. I’ll try it again later.)

Amazon only has 2 million tracks as opposed to iTunes’ 6 million tracks. However, the Amazon collection of DRM free tracks is MUCH larger than the EMI collection on iTunes.

Apple should be afraid, very afraid! This is the first SERIOUS competition that they’ve had. The service not only works with their iconic iPods/iPhones, but it’s also CHEAPER! The song I downloaded was in MP3 format which many would argue doesn’t sound as good as AACs from the iTunes store. However, it was sampled at 256kbps which should be very close if not on par to the DRM protected tracks you’d buy from iTunes which are at 128kbps at the same price. The iTunes DRM tracks cost more, but they are sampled at 256kbps in AAC format which probably sound better. So if you’re an audiophile, then the iTunes tracks are probably going to sound a bit better to you. For me, I’d have to weigh the cheaper price and more compatible format of Amazon’s MP3’s. That coupled with
Amazon Unbox service which allows me to rent movies and download them directly to my TiVo HD, iTunes is starting to slip a little (ok a lot) off that pedestal. Yes, there is a new contender Apple and they’re gunning for you! Apple, unless you match Amazon’s price, why would I buy any new music from you? Competition is good! This move by Amazon will benefit us (customers) the most.

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Why I’m not in the market for a new iPod

This is probably the first time since before the 3rd generation iPod (the one with the 4 buttons across the top) that I’m not in the market for a new iPod. My first iPod was the original 5GB iPod back in 2001. I skipped all the upgrades until the 3rd generation iPod for one simple reason. All of the iPods that came after the first generation didn’t solve my biggest issue and that was storage. Apple released a 10GB iPod and a 20GB model and I passed on those because they still wouldn’t hold my entire music collection and provide room for growth. It wasn’t until April 2003 when Apple released the 3rd generation iPod with the dock connector and it came in a 30GB capacity that I decided it was time for a new iPod. That was TWO YEARS of using the same iPod! No battery issues either folks.

I’ve been buying each iPod upgrade since then and even an occasional shuffle, mini and nano along the way. Why? Because each iPod that was introduced after the 3rd generation increased significantly in storage and capabilities. Sure I’d  pass the older ones on to family members and friends. However, when the iPhone came out in June, although it was sorely lacking in capacity, I decided that I was going to try to make due with ONE device. I no longer wanted to carry around my 80GB iPod video AND a cellphone. So I decided that I would forego carrying every song and video I own and judiciously sync playlists of my favorite tracks and clips. It’s not easy and it’s even sometimes frustrating living in only 8GB of iPod storage when I’m used to 80GB’s. I’m usually down to only 500MB of free space on my iPhone at any given time. However, I’d rather do this than carry two devices. So my 80GB iPod lives on an iPod speaker in the recreation area of my home and my iPhone is on my belt whenever I leave the house.

 

The new iPods look great, but…

The new iPod nano, classic and touch look like some pretty nice upgrades. However, when I look at each one I just have no interest in them. Let’s start with the shuffle. The only real difference here is color. I already have a shuffle now (a couple if you count the first generation models) that I don’t use. Then that brings us to the nano. I could see maybe getting a new nano. I have a 4GB nano now that stays in the car 99% of the time connected to my iPod integration kit. I like the nano because it’s the only iPod that works with the Nike+ kit. I haven’t been running as much this year as I did last year and when I do, I just take it out the of the car and use it. Having a new nano that plays video would be a waste for this application. I certainly don’t need video in the car while it’s tucked away and I don’t need video while running either. Since I already have an 80GB iPod that holds my entire iTunes collection with plenty of room left over, the new higher capacity 160GB iPod classic has no appeal to me what so ever. Lastly there’s the iPod touch, which most of you know is basically the iPod from the iPhone and since I already have an iPhone that I love, there is nothing to be gained here either.

So Apple if you want some more "i" cash out of me, bring on the iPhone 2.0 with 16GB of storage (or more) and 3g support. When you bring out that device, I’d be first in line (well probably not, I hate lines!, but you know what I mean).

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iPhone early adopters get your $100 credit FAST

Today Apple released the details on getting your $100 Apple Store Credit if you bought AND activated an iPhone before August 22nd. I have to admit that I was expecting Apple to make it harder than this. I was expecting to download a PDF, fill it out, mail it in and wait 4-8 weeks for a snail mail certificate. Apple could teach the world how to do rebates! Go to the link above on your computer and you basically enter your iPhone phone number and serial number. You then get a SMS text message on your iPhone with your code. You input your code on the same page you were on above and a couple seconds later your rebate certificate is there in your browser (on your computer) for you to print!

Kudos Apple, the whole process took about 15 seconds and now I have two $100 store credits (for our two iPhones) in my hands!

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Adobe keynote at Photoshop World

Terry White & Lesa Snider-King introduce the Histograms

Terry White and Lesa Snider-King introducing the Histograms

 

I had a blast at Photoshop World – Vegas last week and while I still going through all the material and shots that I took, I thought I would share with you the Adobe keynote address by Adobe’s SVP Johnny L. The keynote was great and you’ll see Johnny L introduce the new Photoshop brand as well as some never before seen technology. However, you’ve got to check out the humorous intro that Scott Kelby did which shows us what Photoshop would be like on the iPhone.

See the video here.

Johnny L rolling out the New Photoshop Brand

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Good Apple, bad Apple

Steve Jobs did a very cool thing today! In this open letter, Steve has promised that all early adopter iPhone buyers would receive a $100 refund (store credit) due to the public outcry over the recent iPhone $200 price drop. Like I said yesterday, I wasn’t too upset over the price drop as this kind of thing happens in the tech world, especially to those of us who live on the bleeding edge. I gotta say though, this is pretty cool to know that I’ve got $100 coming back which was totally unexpected and goes a long way towards making me even happier that I own Apple products and stock. Apple didn’t have to do this (even with people complaining), but they did. Prices drop/items go on sale all the time on other things we buy and yes sometimes only a couple of months after we bought them, however we don’t usually expect any kind of refund.

 

Apple also did a very uncool thing today! It seems that the new iTunes 7.4 (which features Apples iPhone ringtone maker utility) will remove the custom ringtones that you may have already put on your iPhone. Actually upon further study, it doesn’t actually remove the ringtones, but it simply rewrites the index file upon each sync to make the iPhone not look at any other ringtones than the ones that iTunes puts there. I understand that Apple wants to sell ringtones. Hey, it’s America and if you got a legal product that people want to buy, more power to you. However, I don’t have any desire to buy ringtones and I had a perfect solution for putting ringtones on my iPhone with iToner. So it’s a bit unfair to take that ability away in favor of an Apple ONLY monopolistic solution. While it’s true that I could simply put the ringtones back on after each data sync with iTunes, I would also have to reassign them to the contacts that I’ve designated to ring a certain way when they call.

Luckily the folks over at Ambrosia Software are hard at work figuring out a way around this in a update to iToner. I also got wind of this before I downloaded iTunes 7.4 so I’m good for now. I just think it’s wrong for Apple to try to “control” the iPhone in this manner. It’s almost as bad as if they made it so that you could only put music on your iPod that you bought from the iTunes music store. No one would go for that and no one should have to be limited to ringtones purchased from iTunes either.

If you have custom ringtones and want to keep them intact, don’t go to iTunes 7.4 just yet.

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New iPods, iPhone price drop and more

iPod touch

Besides dropping the price of the iPhone (read below), the big news today is the brand new iPod Touch. I gotta admit, that while I predicted Apple would come out with an iPod that was everything that the iPhone was without the phone, I didn’t think that they would actually have the guts to do it. Apple will sell boat loads of these. While the iPhone appeals to many (including yours truly), there are millions that won’t buy it. Some of those millions would love to have a touch/wide screen iPod that also has Wi-Fi and internet surfing capabilities. Does this mean that the iPhone is a failure? Absolutely not! It means that Apple is smart enough to try to sell the right product mix to EVERYONE! If I was stuck in a contract or for whatever reason (such as AT&T) didn’t want an iPhone or was happy with my existing phone, I would definitely want an iPod Touch.

With the iPod Touch you basically get an iPod that looks very much like the iPhone. You get a gorgeous 3.5" touch screen, 8GB or 16GB of storage (which the iPhone sorely needs), Wi-Fi, Safari, YouTube, and Wi-Fi music downloads from the iTunes store.

How is this different from the iPhone?

The obvious one is that there is no phone and therefore no EDGE data network. So you can only surf the web and use YouTube when you’re in a Wi-Fi covered area. There’s also no Bluetooth, not that you’d need it since there is no Bluetooth syncing yet. No camera, no Widgets, no SMS texting and no Google Maps.

Where’s Mail ?

The one BIG thing that is mysteriously missing from the iPod Touch is email? Granted if you have access to webmail, you can check your email with Safari, but it would be nice to have the Mail app that comes with the iPhone. I guess Apple had to draw the line somewhere and to entice you to move up to iPhone, Mail was that line.

Although the iPod touch is missing some of the iPhone goodies, it’s still a great iPod for those that want their music, videos and do a little surfing while waiting in a line somewhere. Hey Apple, are we ever gonna see games again on these touch screen iPods/iPhones?

 

Apple drops the iPhone 8GB price by $200 bones

You knew the day would come when Apple would drop the price of the iPhone. However, you probably didn’t think it would happen in just over two months and by $200. Yeah, that’s one is kind of a shocker and I’m sure there are some $600 iPhone owners out there that are a bit steamed at the moment. However, I’m not one of them. Why? Is it that I have this unlimited fountain of money? Nope, I just don’t get ticked about money I’ve spent months ago for a product that I’ve been enjoying. Sure, if I had just bought an iPhone this past week, I’d be marching down to the Apple store for a refund. However, I’m just not going to sweat money I spent on bleeding edge technology 65 days ago. Ouch! OK, I’m over it.

Now the real question is, how much is the 4GB model? Apple says they will sell the 4GB model while supplies last (read – they don’t have many left), but they didn’t say at what price. Does that mean that the 4GB model is now $299? If so, that would be a steal  for someone that could get by with 4GB of storage. NOTE: A quick call to my Apple store and yes the 4GB model is $299 while supplies last. So if you want one at that price, don’t hesitate.

iPod Classic

Apple kept the award winning iPod interface intact. They realize that everyone doesn’t want a touch screen (you know who you are). So if you still want the very easy to use without looking at it click wheel, you can get an iPod Classic. You might also note that Apple did away with the “white” color and now uses a grey to match the rest of their new products. Also if your music/video collection didn’t fit on the previous iPods, there’s now a 160GB version! Wow! Is that a music store in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?

iPod nano gets phat (fat too)

Woah! Now you too can watch videos on your iPod nano. Basically Apple is allowing video (and photo) playback on any iPod with a screen. I’m not sold on the design though. It looks like someone took a regular iPod and squished it in Photoshop. The nano was very popular because it was just so darn small and thin. The new nano (aka fatty as some are calling it), kind of loses some of that sleekness. However, it is still very thin since it doesn’t have a hard drive. iPod case manufacturers, get your pencils out. You now have a new market to go after.

iPod shuffle

Not a lot of news here. Apple refreshed the line with some new colors. Quite honestly I couldn’t tell you what the old colors were. I do own the original second generation shuffle in silver and since I got my iPhone I haven’t used it. So I haven’t been keeping up with what’s going on in the iPod shuffle world.

 

iPod/iPhone pricing

Here’s a break down of what the iPods and iPhones cost. I still don’t get why you’d buy a 8GB nano for $199 when you can get an 80GB Classic for only $50 more, but hey, Apple sells a ton of nanos.

  Capacity/Price Capacity/Price
iPod Touch 8GB $299 16GB $399
iPod Classic 80GB $249 160GB $349
iPod nano 4GB $149 8GB $199
iPod shuffle 1GB $79  
iPhone 8GB $399 4GB $299

 

iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store & Custom iPhone Ringtone Maker

OK, where do I begin here? I think it’s very cool that you’ll now be able to buy a song right on your iPod and listen to it right away. That makes total sense to me and it’s hot! However, I just don’t get the whole "buying ringtones" thing. I’m not just talking about Apple, I’m talking about the market as a whole which brings in MILLIONS of dollars every year. It’s only natural that Apple would want their fair cut of this growing pie.

Don’t get me wrong, I totally love custom ringtones. I have some on my iPhone right now and had them on my Treo and RAZR before that. However, in each of those cases I made them myself out of songs that I already bought. I just don’t understand the business model of selling "ringtones" specifically. A quick sanity check over at Sprint.com reveals ringtones that they are currently selling (Beyoncé just started blaring "Me, Myself and I" – I hate when sites play music that I didn’t click on. I love Beyoncé, but that’s besides the point) for $2.50 each! How can this be? I can go to iTunes and buy the WHOLE SONG for .99¢ and play it back on several devices and even burn it to an Audio CD. Yet, Apple (and others) expect me to pay MORE for a 30 second version that only plays on my phone? Help me understand this. Apple’s price is a little better than Sprint’s. Here’s the deal. You buy the song you want (out of only 1 Million of the millions of iTunes songs. So you might not even get the one you want), and then you pay another 99¢ for the ability to customize it down to the 30 seconds you want to be a ringtone on your iPhone. Granted you still get to keep the full song and use it anyway you want just as before, but to use it as an iPhone ringtone, you pay $1.98.

No thanks! I’ll continue to use iToner and put my own ringtones on my iPhone (unless of course Apple breaks this ability with an iPhone software update and then I would be ticked off).

 

Apple and Starbucks

Apple just got all chummy with Starbucks in an exclusive deal that you will be able to go to a Starbucks location with your Wi-Fi enabled iPod touch/iPhone and download music from the iTunes store without paying a Wi-Fi charge to Starbucks. OK, whatever.

If you really want to get my attention, let me surf on my iPhone free of charge while I’m in a Starbucks. I don’t even drink coffee, never mind.

Buh-bye iPod Hi-Fi

Looks like sales of the iPod Hi-Fi were disappointing enough that Apple quietly removed the iPod Hi-Fi from its online store. I’ll kind of miss the Storm Trooper. Oh well. Bose and all the others win this round.

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New iPhone Ringtone App for Mac

As many of you know I had found an app (iphoneringtonemaker.com) for adding custom ringtones to the iPhone. While the app works great! It is currently Windows only. The great folks over at Ambrosia Software have just released a new app that allows you to add your own ringtones to the iPhone and it’s a Mac app. It’s called iToner. iToner is a no frills app that does one thing and one thing well. It lets you put your own .mp3s, .AACs, etc. on your iPhone to be used as ringtones.

The app itself look just like the iPhone interface. You simply launch it and drag your audio files into and hit the sync button. That’s it! They are then on your phone without the need for any special hacking, jailbreaking, passwords or other secret backdoors. It even recognized the ringtones that I had added previously with the other app.

While this app is great, I’m not sure if it will be needed much longer. The rumor is that Apple is going to launch a ringtone service during their announcements on September 5th. However, Apple’s solution will likely be a pay per ringtone solution whereas apps like iToner let you use your existing tunes. My hope is that Apple releases their own solution, but doesn’t wipe out or disable the ringtones I’ve already put on there. In other words I hope we’re not "forced" to use their paid service.

iToner is $15 and while there are free solutions out there, none are as easy to use as iToner or as elegant. My biggest ask for the next version is the ability to allow you to trim the songs to just the portion you want to use as a ringtone right in the app. You can download it today and run it in trial mode for 30 days fully functional. That way we can wait and see what happens on the 5th and if we still need it or can still use it, great! Otherwise, you wouldn’t have to buy it only to find out that it’s no longer usable after Apple rolls out their service. So you have nothing to lose. Go download it now and give it a spin.

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It’s the little things

The original 85W MagSafe adapter on the left and the NEW 85W MagSafe adapter on the right.

 

If you have a MacBook Pro, one thing you’ve probably noticed is how freakin’ big the AC adapter was. Apple has quietly addressed this and made a NEW 85W MagSafe Power Adapter (Part# MA938LL/A) available. I ordered mine immediately when I found out about it as my notebook bag is already heavy enough. Anything I can do to lighten the load is worth it. This new adapter is on par with the MacBook adapter which is a 60W MagSafe Power Adapter. Although the MacBook adapter will power a MacBook Pro, it doesn’t provide enough juice to charge the battery. So you really want the 85W adapter if you have a MacBook Pro. The 85W adapter will work with either the MacBook Pro or MacBook.

Now if only the folks over at iGo could figure out a way to make a MagSafe tip for their universal adapters (or get Apple to license the technology to them), I’d be in heaven.

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In Apple related News

New iMac

Apple had four major announcements yesterday. Yes, I know in the technology field something that happened yesterday is old news, but I wanted some time to digest the announcements before posting my take here. After all, there are other sites out there that are dedicated to "Apple News" and if that’s what you were looking for, chances are you already got your fix. So here goes:

 

A New iMac

Apple updated its very popular all-in-one iMac and lowered the entry price point for the 20" model at the same time. The 17" model has been discontinued. So if you wanted an iMac you would go with a 20" or 24" model. It’s all about design! The new iMacs are aluminum and have the popular glossy screens found on their notebooks. If you’re in the market for a simple all-in-one computer design with a nice beautiful large display it’s hard to go wrong here. As you would expect the internal specs have also been updated with more RAM capacity (up to 4GB now), larger hard drives (250GB and 350GB standard with upgrades to 1TB possible) and faster intel processors (2.0GHz or 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo). Apple also added Firewire 800 (Firewire is not dead – yet) ports standard and improved ATI graphics cards.

So all in all, a very nice upgrade for those in the market for a desktop computer. Also keep in mind that even if you’re a Windows user, this is a great computer because it can run Windows XP or Vista natively via Boot Camp, Parallels or VMWare.

Apple also replaced the keyboard on the iMac with one that has a much lower profile and of course matches the aluminum styling. However, what I found most interesting is that the new wireless keyboard doesn’t have the numeric keypad. Granted I probably wouldn’t miss it and the smaller size for lap typing is nice. I’m just wondering how well that will go over since it’s $30 more than the wired version which includes a numeric keypad. Has anyone ever tried pairing one of Apple’s keyboards with a PS3? I wonder if that would work? For home theater applications the new smaller size would also be a plus.

I think that the iMac is an important product, but I have no plans to get one. My family uses iMacs currently however, when it’s time to upgrade them I’ll most likely replace them with notebooks (MacBooks). Especially for my daughters who will be going off to college in the not too distant future.

 

iLife ’08

Skipping iLife ’07, Apple has released the long awaited update to their iLife suite of products. iLife includes iPhoto, iMovie, iDVD, iWeb and GarageBand. As you would expect all the products received updates. However, the most significant updates were to iPhoto and a completely new iMovie. iPhoto gains the ability to organize your photos into "Events" automatically. So if you come in from shooting all day, when you download your images iPhoto will organize the day’s shoot automatically into an "Event" which you can name. If you shot more than one event that day, you can easily split the shots into multiple Events. While I haven’t played with this yet, it seems like they took their existing "Film Roll" concept and enhanced it a bit. "Events" sounds better than "Film Rolls" in this digital age.

The story behind iMovie in that an Apple engineer took a weekend diving trip and when he returned he was frustrated with the way iMovie and Final Cut Pro worked (or didn’t work the way he wanted) and therefore he wrote a new version of iMovie from scratch. Wow! That’s pretty ambitious for one guy. My suspicion is that he was shooting with an HD camera that stores video in AVCHD (a highly compressed video format stored on memory cards) and was frustrated because iMovie and FCP didn’t currently edit in that format (most editors don’t). According to Apple iMovie still doesn’t edit in this format, but it does convert the video into an editable format upon import. So the real question is how long does that conversion really take? Look for benchmarks once people get their hands on this new version and put it to the test. Otherwise iMovie looks like a nice upgrade. I’m not sure that it’s really easier, I’ll let you be the judge of that since I’m not an iMovie guy.

Apple barely gave mention to iDVD. Steve even made the comment that "there are some people that still want to create DVDs." I thought about that statement for a moment and I then realized that this attitude may explain the lack of any kind of Blu-ray announcements from Apple. Also keep in mind that even in their latest professional video suite that DVD Studio Pro wasn’t touched and remained at version 4.x. Is DVD dead to Apple? Is it all about streaming video on the web, watching it on your iPod/iPhone or Apple TV as far as they’re concerned? Is it that this format war (HD DVD vs. Blu-ray) getting in the way and Apple (who was strongly behind Blu-ray) has decided to sit this one out? Only time will tell, but I was really taken back by the lack of attention in the DVD space. iDVD didn’t even get a video tour like the rest of the iLife apps did.

Clearly Apple’s iPhone partnerships have had influence here as well. For example, now in iMovie you’ll be able to publish (Share) directly to YouTube and in iWeb you can now add a Google Map to your page with a single click and add YouTube videos and other HTML snippets.

Rather than continuing this blow-by-blow on iLife ’08, it’s best to check out this video on the new features found in iLife ’08. Apple did a really good job covering what’s new here.

 

iWork ’08

Apple also updated it’s productivity suite for business users and students. iWork ’08 includes Keynote (my favorite presentation app), Pages (a visual word processor) and a brand new app "Numbers" which Apple’s new entry into the world of spreadsheets. Numbers has been rumored for years and is finally here. Yet, I really didn’t even look at it. Why? because I don’t do much spreadsheet work or word processing for that matter. While I’m sure it’s a great app, the spreadsheets I receive from others are in Excel format (which Numbers will open) and If I need to make any changes and give it back to them, it’s just easier and safer to open it in Excel, do whatever I need to do, hit Save and give it back to them. I’ve created maybe one or two spreadsheets from scratch in the last year. So Numbers, while I’m sure it’s cool has virtually no appeal to me. Same goes for Pages. If I create a document, it will likely be something either very simple that TextEdit will handle just fine or something more complex that I’ll use Adobe InDesign CS3 for. So while these two apps are probably welcomed from those looking to break away from Microsoft Office, they have little appeal to me. However, on the other hand I’d buy the upgrade to iWork ’08 just for the new version of Keynote! Keynote is a joy to use and simply blows PowerPoint away in most cases. This new version of Keynote includes new text effects and transitions, Action Builds (which it sorely needed and this was one area that PowerPoint excelled over Keynote) which gives you the ability to animate objects along a path or scale objects. Apple has also included Voice-over recording so that you can create a presentation that can be played back later without you having to deliver it in person. Apple also finally gave Keynote an Instant Alpha feature which allows you to remove the background from an image on a slide. Again PowerPoint has had this for a while and it’s nice to finally see it in Keynote. Another cool addition is Smart Builds which lets you create sophisticated animations from your images without having to know how to do this in a 3D or video app.

Check out these new features and watch the videos on how they work here.

 

Apple updates .Mac

Each year that goes by, I wonder how much longer .Mac will survive or will Apple really upgrade it to the be the service that we all want? One of the biggest complaints has been solved and that is the complaint that for $99/year the storage space was anemic. Gmail accounts for example had more space for FREE. Well Apple has done something about this by upping the .Mac storage space to 10GB per account at no additional cost. While this is a nice and welcomed upgrade, the second biggest complaint comes to mind and this is the one of speed or lack there of. It’s great having all this extra storage space, but did they speed up the access to it? It seems like it takes forever to upload or download from an iDisk. As a matter of fact it’s faster to use the web interface to the iDisk as opposed to the one built into the Finder.

Apple also now allows you to more easily have your own personal domain name point to your .Mac website. They also integrated .Mac with iPhoto in that you can press one button and create a web gallery of your photos with a unique URL and you can even allow others to add photos to your gallery either via a standard web browser or via a special email address for that particular gallery. In true Apple fashion the gallery pages and options are beautiful and very well designed.

.Mac is nice and easy, but for $99/year I want more! I had to switch my Adobe Creative Suite Podcast and this very blog away from .Mac hosting because Apple was too restrictive on bandwidth and iWeb was just to limited. Even with the new .Mac’s bandwidth limit being raised to 100GB/month, that’s not enough and their policy of simply cutting you off once you hit that limit just doesn’t make sense to me. Why would you cut someone off (for days at a time) instead of charing them more money for the overage? So I have no plans to return to .Mac for web hosting beyond a simple personal page here or there.

 

What Apple didn’t announce…

Apple managed to quietly upgrade a few products without any fanfare. For example, the Mac mini received processor updates (1.83GHz and 2.0GHz processors). The Mac mini is one of those products that hasn’t received a lot of attention since it was first launched. I think it’s because sales of this particular Mac aren’t where Apple would like them to be. However, it remains an important entry level product so it stays in the product line for now.

Apple also added a hardware RAID card option to the Mac Pro. This $999 add on allows you to increase (or decrease with redundancy) your storage beyond the box with multiple hard drives raided together.

Apple also updated the NEW AirPort Extreme Base Station to have Gigabit Ethernet ports. This was one of the biggest wishes from people that evaluated the earlier version.

Lastly, the iPhone got a "magical" update to support the emailing of photos to a web gallery. I call this upgrade magical because it just appeared on people’s iPhones yesterday. My guess is that it was a time/date released update that was a part of the iPhone 1.0.1 update or a part of the original iPhone firmware. Now if you go to any photo in your Photos and tap the send button, you’ll have a new option to "Send to Web Gallery." This feature requires a .Mac account to be configured for posting from mobile devices. Now if they could just magically turn on 3g support that would really be something 🙂

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Apple iPhone Bluetooth Headset Review

Terry with iPhone Bluetooth Headset

Keep in mind this review is by a guy who doesn’t care for in-ear Bluetooth headsets.

I’ll start by saying that even as I sat there in Steve Jobs’ keynote back in January and he splashed the photo up of the iPhone Bluetooth Headset, I wasn’t the least bit excited because it’s an in-ear headset and I’ve had horrible luck with all the ones I’ve tried in the past. So my immediate response was, "next!" I had zero interest in it. So when I was in my local Apple Store the other day buying an AirPort Base Station, the manager walks up to me and says, "you know we have the new Bluetooth Headsets in right?" I said, "yeah, I know." I could tell by the look on his face that he could tell that I wasn’t the least bit excited or interested. As I explained to him about the whole in-ear thing, he totally understood. I then said it would be nice to at least review one for my blog. So I bought one with the thought that if it doesn’t work out I could return it for a full refund in 14 days or less. He jokingly said, "see you tomorrow."

Unboxing it

When I got home, I set up the AirPort Extreme Base Station first (see my earlier review of that product). Then I remembered the headset and said, "OK, let’s see what this thing is all about." I was once again amazed at Apple’s attention to detail in the packaging. Opening this thing was almost as cool as opening the iPhone itself. If you’ve never unboxed an Apple product, I wouldn’t expect you to understand, so I’ll move on. I knew that the headset came with a dock that allows you to charge/sync your iPhone AND charge your headset as well. However, what I didn’t expect to get was the separate travel cable that does the same thing while you’re on the road: a nice and necessary addition. At first I didn’t see the instructions. They were tucked away in some of the packaging. The dock has a hard wired USB cable and an audio out port just like all the other docks. There is no AC power adapter. You’ll either have to power it from your computer or the USB AC adapter that came with your iPhone. You’ll also find two foam covers in the same area of the packaging as the instructions.

At first glance

The headset is black and very sleek looking. It doesn’t look half as dorky as most other headsets out there. Also, you’ll be happy to know that there is no big blue flashing LED on it. As a matter of fact, there is only one button (sound familiar) on the end of it that controls all of its functions.

Pairing it to the iPhone

I pulled out the instructions because I wanted to know how to get it into pairing mode. I was astonished to read that it pairs automatically by just putting in the dock with the iPhone. It’s stuff like this that makes us appreciate and love Apple engineering. Speaking of Apple engineering, Apple did a really cool thing in that if both the iPhone and Headset are docked, the headset’s battery status appears on the iPhone’s screen. Very Cool! If you’re just charging the headset alone, the headset has a small LED (about the size of the one on the MacBook/Pro MagSafe adapter) that changes from orange to green when it’s charged. Also speaking of MagSafe, the headset magnetically goes in the charger/dock just like the MagSafe adapter on MacBooks.

Putting it to the test

I forced myself to wear it all day. I wanted to see if I could because I can’t stand anything being in my ear that long. Unlike other in-ear sets I’ve used, this one doesn’t feel like it’s about to fall out. This headset is very light weight at a mere 6.5 grams. The audio quality is crystal clear. Granted I haven’t been in noisy environments with it yet. Since it is in-ear, I can tell that it would be as good if not better than most headsets of this type. I called a few friends and didn’t mention that I was using a headset. When I told them that I was on a headset, they couldn’t believe that I wasn’t talking directly into the handset or a land line. They said that the sound was "GREAT and clear." As you would expect, it works perfectly with the iPhone. I had no trouble making or answering calls. When I would walk out of range of the iPhone, the headset would beep twice to let me know. That’s a cool feature. The one thing that’s missing though is there is no redial function. This is a basic feature of most headsets and the iPhone does support it if the headset does. From my Jabra BT 500v, I can hit the button for a second and it redials the last number I called. The Apple headset surprisingly doesn’t do this.

The one button also controls the call waiting features of the iPhone. You control the volume of the headset from the iPhone’s volume control on the side. Mac users will also be happy to know that the iPhone Bluetooth Headset can be paired with your Bluetooth equipped Mac for use in A/V applications such as iChat AV. Talk time is rated at up to 5.5 hours and Standby Time is rated at up to 72 hours. This is much lower than my existing headset which easily lasts all week without having to be recharged. Since the iPhone Bluetooth Headset comes with one cable to charge both the iPhone and headset at the same time, I cut Apple a little slack here. The charging time is about 1.5 hours. However, for the price I would expect a longer battery life.

 

The Bottom Line

I’m not an in-ear headset guy. Since this headset takes the one size fits all attitude, some will love it and some will hate it. Other than the in-ear aspect, I LOVE the design and integration. Although you can use this headset with other cellphones, I couldn’t see recommending it for non-iPhone users. It’s integrated so well with the iPhone and for the price of $129 you could do better with other headsets for other phones. Now, will I keep it or return it? I’m not totally in love with it, so I’m undecided. However, at this point I’m leaning towards keeping it. I’ve been wearing it pretty much all day for 2 days straight and it doesn’t hurt my ears like headsets of the past. We’ll see over the next 12 days with more real world use in less than ideal environments. For now it’s a keeper. For design and ease of use, I give it 5 out of 5 stars. For comfort, I give it 3.5 stars and for value, I give it 3.5 stars.

 

In other iPhone news

Apple sold 270,000 iPhones in the last two days of their 3rd quarter (June 29th and June 30th).  Apple expects to sell its One Millionth iPhone by the end of September 2007. That’s more phones in 30 hours sold than AT&T has sold in an entire month of any other cellphone product launch, blowing the RAZR out of the water.

 

Our New iPhone Book has gone to press!

 

The iPhone Book

I got the honor and privilege of co-authoring "The iPhone Book" with my buddy Scott Kelby (author of the insanely popular iPod Book and number one best selling computer book author in the world) Scott is a joy to work with and we had a blast writing this book. We covered every detail that we could find at the time. However, as you know, new iPhone details, apps, accessories, etc. come out daily now (like this headset that shipped after the book went to press). So we’ll provide updates to the book via PDF downloads as needed. I’ll also continue to cover newsworthy iPhone developments here. So don’t hesitate, run, don’t walk over to amazon.com and place your order. Or buy it wherever you buy your cool books from.

 

Make your own ringtones for your iPhone

One of my number one complaints with the iPhone is that it doesn’t allow you to use your own music as ringtones. So when my buddy Dave Moser sent me the link to iPhone Ringtone Maker, I was a little skeptical. This $10 app allows you to convert your own MP3s, WAVs, etc. into the iPhone ringtones and loads them on your iPhone. So I decided that I’d give it a shot. I went to the site and found that it was a Windows only app. It would be nice to have it on the Mac, but it does work with intel Macs and Boot Camp/Parallels. So I fired up Windows XP on my MacBook Pro and installed the latest version of iTunes (7.3.1) for Windows. I then immediately set the preferences in iTunes NOT to automatically sync iPhones. This way I could plug in my iPhone without it trying to disturb the content that’s already there. I added a few MP3s that I wanted to make into ringtones. Next I loaded the iPhone Ringtone Maker app and plugged in my serial number.

The app is very simple to use. You choose your MP3 (or other file type), then you can trim it to as long as you want it to be. It automatically does a 2 second fade in/out. Next you hit the Send to iPhone button and it downloads the ringtone into your iPhone. You have to turn the iPhone off and back on for the new ringtone to appear in the list, but that’s it! Bam, my new ringtones were there and working. So now when Dave calls me I can hear the Imperial March that I’m used to when he calls 🙂

My only very minor issue with this app (other than it being Windows only) is that the ringtones don’t seem as loud as the original song and although there are audio effects there is no way to boost the gain. Otherwise, it was the best $10 I’ve spent all month.

 

AppleCare is now available for the iPhone

Apple has started selling AppleCare for iPhone. This $69 coverage covers the iPhone and Apple Bluetooth Headset for an additional year. I’m not jumping on this one, because it is very likely that I’d be on a new iPhone within a year, especially if they come out with a 3g model.