Some long overdue Apple support coming

     Some life changing news is coming to all you lucky people with iphones. It looks like Adobe is working with Apple to help fix one of the iphones biggest complaints. The news on this is sketchy at the moment but engadget has the run down on this. 

     It seems that the full version of flash is just a little to much for the current version of the iphone right now, but the "lite" version will not cut it. So Apple and Adobe have begun working on a custom version just for the iphone. So very soon all of the flash sites will no longer be out of your browsing goodness.

    I will keep my eyes on this and bring all of you the updates as I can find them. Al I know right now for sure is this is all sounding very promising.

Netflix to end premium cable?

       It seems that Netflix had an open vote for anyone using their service about coming out with a new tier for their streaming service. Netflix though the current talk about the price increase would be somewhere around $10.00 extra a month. 

   

      Now that may seem like a lot, but considering the extra you pay for Cable or Satellite plus the extra cost on top of that for HBO. So an extra $10 to get to stream HBO shows and movies in a timely manner may not in fact be such a bad deal. With such big hits like Dexter, Sex in the City, The Sopranos just to name a few. Plus with it's ever growing movie library this might not be a bad deal.

     Doing a tier system is not a completely new thing to Netflix. They already charge a little more bit more for Blu-ray movies so they know that some people are OK with paying a little extra to gain access to premium services. My big hope is that is proven successful and all of the movie services follow suit.   

Sony and SanDisk to hit 2TB flash card

     The nice people over at Cnet have an interesting read about the new Sony SanDiskin collaboration the works.  Out of all the things that need to be worked on to get this very ambitious task is to get a new name. The current name that was given for the project is "Memory Stick for Extended High Capacity." The biggest hurdle they will have is the transfer rate. Flash is not known for its fast sustained transfer rates. 

    So I'll keep my eyes peeled and bring all of you up to speed as I learn details. Though for the time being Sony will be coming come out with a 16gig flash drive next month. The big downside is we will not see this state side at that time.  It seems that the drive will be able to take a bit of a beating at least when it comes to temperatures.  The drive will be able to take down to 13 degrees below 0 and up to 185 degrees Fahrenheit. So the good news is if you happen to leave the drive in the car you should still be OK when you remember it and grab it from the glove box a few hours later.

iMac update sooner than later?

        So how do you know when Apple is about to update a product line? You ask the guy at the Apple/Mac store if they are getting less and less of something. It seems that is happening right now as you are reading this, the iMac seems that it is finally getting that update.

        It looks like Electronista has some good theories on what the new machine might look like. The most reasonable theory is that the iMac will remain at the same price point. That has become a Apple staple. They improve the hardware and leave the price point the same to help out the consumer. The only time in recent memory where this has not been true is when the laptop line was changed over from Intel to the new Nvida line. So while the normal rule would be true about the iMacs but if they are in fact switching like it seems they are expect the price to change accordingly.     

        Now I can not guarantee that the new iMac is coming anytime soon, but it is well known by all Apple enthusiast that short supply of a product means emanate upgrade. 

17" MacBook Pro now shipping

    Macnn is reporting that the new 17 inch unibody laptop has begun shipping it's pre-orders today. On top of that if you go to purchase one these new bad boys and it will be in your hot little hands in 7-10 days. Though if you still need a MacBook Pro the other models are still shipping in 24 hours.

 

    The base price for the new 17 inch MacBook Pro is $2,799. Though you can upgrade the machine to 8 gigs and to a beastly 2.9ghz processor though you will paying through the nose to the tune of $4,299. That would be $300 to upgrade form a 2.66ghz to 2.9ghz processor. The ram is what will get you. To double your ram from 4 to 8 gigs will set you back $1,200. Though if you are looking for a deal you can drop the glare for the preferred matte by photographers for only $50. 

   

Next iphone out all pink and naked?

            Is that what the new firmware looks like for the next iphone? With the fact that it says iphone 2,1  holds some validity to the question. With the original iphone it was given the title 1,1 and the 3g version was given 1,2.  So with that known 2,1 might be the code for a big jump in technology.  The newest rumor surrounding the new iphone is that it will be an multi-core Cpu and maybe a multi-core GPU from image technologies. With June now becoming the time for iphone news it seems we still have some time before we have a better idea of what we are dealing with.  

Love to tag and crazy about cats?

     It seems that the people over at Mac life have found a cool new feature with ilfie09. You can in fact tag pictures of your pets. Or at least you can do it with your cats, it's still unknown if this new power will be used for good or annoyance. 

      Also on the unconfirmed side, it seems some of the commenters where able to get the face repagination to work on tux the linux mascot and Wlado from the where's Waldos books. The people at Mac Life said they would also try dogs to see if the face recognition was more robust than just human and feline. I am eagerly waiting to see what the outcome will be. 

UK gets screwed over on conversion rate

       The U.K. is just now getting the privilege to download shows in HD. I know, thats been a long time coming but now that you finally get to sit down at your MacBook or MacBook pro what do you get to download? It seems that season five of Lost is up and running. Not a bad choice overall it's one of the most popular shows in the  world.  

      So far so good, A good show to kick off that sweet new HD video content. Just what is that you see when you go to purchase? 2.49 Euro!? That's right As of this morning that would bring the U.S. price from $2.99 an episode to $3.28 an episode. This pricing seems wrong to say the least. Which is odd because they sold the iphone 3g at $199.00 U.S. across the board.  So this may not be Apples doing on the price.   

      At best this a mixed blessing the British. You now get to see the show in HD but it's going to cost you a b more than your American counter parts. Maybe if a big enough stink is thrown by the community Apple will fix this little problem.

The Zune can't catch a brake

      Apple insider is reporting that Microsoft's Mp3 player the Zune can't seem to get a brake. After two plus years of being out on the market they had finally hit the one million mark in sales, and they introduced the new models with more choices in tradition hard drive and a couple flash based ones. This along with the fact they switched to glass first for the screen.  It was even chosen best hard drive based Mp3 player by consumer reports. Though while Microsoft was perfecting the hard drive it seems Apple and the majority of consumers have moved onto wanting a ton of futures on their Mp3 player with the ability to surf the internet while listening to their favorite bands.   

     With the new models last year this was a big step forward for Microsoft.  Yet it seems that the Zune will not even make the shores of Europe till later this year. Microsoft's biggest problem it looks to be right now is the ipod touch. Yes it may be unfair to compare the Zune 120gb to the ipod touch but those are in fact the two companies now signature products. 

     To add insult to injury the ipod  had a record year of 22.7 million ipods sold over the holiday season. That is 3% higher than last year at this time. This might have to do that the ipod touch dropped in price.

EU to bring Microsoft of court....again

        For those of you not been following this story I'll bring up right up to speed. The EU is demanding that Microsoft no longer package Internet Explorer with Windows. The charge is that Microsoft has an anti-competitive behavior. Now this may seem a little odd but this is case that Microsoft might loose. 

       It seems that Microsoft has already lost a case in which the EU said that Windows Media Player was anti-competitive. So now that they are taking Microsoft to court again a few questions come to mind. One if they do win the case what browser are they going to put on? Safari, Opera, Fire Fox the list goes on for a while. If that's the case will it be put on in store or  will it just come now with a dozen or so browsers? The other part of this that annoys me is that the European Union assumes that other Europeans are dull witted to put it nicely. If someone does not like I.E. such as myself it was not hard to get another browser and delete I.E. 

       So we will know have to wait and see how this turns out. Though the deck seems a little stacked that the EU will be trying the case in a EU court. So I wish Microsoft the best of luck in the case. Not so much because I am huge fan of the company, (I'm writing this on a Mac.) but I se it more as they are also fighting the EU because they also know we know how to go online and get a different browser if we want one. Or for those that like I.E. even better no hunting required. 

ilife09 just now geeting out the door.

Some good news seems to be coming out of macrumors.com the people over at the fine site seem to have been told by some their readers that the new ilife09 is now shipping. So it looks like in true Apple fashion that they will make there deadline by just the skin of their teeth. To all the old mac fans this is really nothing new and has become a standard for Apple.

the prices are being reported that they will stay the same, so it'll be $79 for a single licenses and $99 for a family pack. twenty extra dollars is not a bad price to throw ilife09 on four extra machines. Though now that they have dropped serial numbers we'll now see just how honest the average Apple user is. With the susses of gaming programs like steam, it has been proven that people don't have a problem with D.R.M. but they do have an isue with poorly done D.R.M. So we will just wait and see what Apple will do now without any protections on their intellectual property rights.

It seems that people have already traken the oppertunity to prey on some Apple users. An over zealous hacker has released the new ilife09 with a worm. Could this be the first sign of what we are to expect when Apple releases the reigns even just a little form it's products? Lets just hope they never take this relaxed attude to their hardware. Though on the subject of ilife if I have the choice to put in sixteen numbers and letters so I don't have to worry about a worn then a typing I'll do.

Windows seven waiting for everyone to join in

Microsoft has now once again extended the time you have to get the windows seven beta. The new deadline is February 10th as reported on Endgadget. So if you have been on the fence about trying out the beta now is the time to get it. Plus if you are new to the beta idea in general this is a great one to start on.

Windows seven is wowing the almost everyone who has tried it. It keeps the newer Vista look but that about it. To those of you familiar with how the OSX dock works then you will be a pro at the new windows version. In that one you can drag all the programs you use most often and "pin" them there so you will always have quick access. Plus the new I.E. is making leaps and bounds in improvements. they have everything from in private browsing to teh abilty to look up any word on the fly with how the dictinory works now.

So what do you have to loose? The beta will move all your current data so you will still have all your documents pictures videos and even your browser of choice and the all important bookmarks.

How long till Apple drops Leopard?

With Snow leopard coming out sometime this year a huge change will happen. Snow Leopard will bring the down the final curtain on all of the stead fast PowerPC users. Granted Apple users are now legendary for holding onto their machines for what seems like an eternity to PC users. But is this really a bad move for Apple? To be fair they have treated their computer line with much more thought on longevity then their ipod line.

Granted it's not like the Power PC was just fazed out just recently the line is was finished almost three plus years ago. though the goes back to almost 2000, Also they only left that line of computing because they where at the time being out done by Intel. Now AMD are big dogs on top now, being why Apple recently did a complete laptop refresh. Plus you are still buying the only computers on the market that could run both Windows and Mac OSX. On top of that there are a couple ways to run Windows, either the free way with boot camp or you can with parallels or VM fusion you can run Windows in a window while you have mac OSX up and running. The only thing being I would not game with that set-up. Being as you are running two OSs at once.

I have heard from an anonymous person about how well Snow leopard is coming along, things like how fast it runs certain photo program and that the OS as a whole has been slimmed down a decent amount. Apple is also pushing for a fifteen minute install this time around. Plus on top of that with stability higher than even what Leopard is now out of the box for Snow Leopard is sounding very hopeful f or Apple to make an even bigger splash in an ever shrinking Windows market. So even though you may be forced to pick up a new machine you should be far from disappointed about the boost you will be getting.. Plus with the fact that AMD chose Apple to debut it's new line of processors you will jump back to the bleeding edge of technology for a reasonable price for what you get. A added bonus to boot is you will also have the greenest computer in the world currently. Now with the ability to choose matte on the 17" screen photographers are back in business.

So even though Snow leopard will force a few of us to upgrade the overall benefit to it'll bring to advancing computing in general will be worth a few casualties in the end Even this blogger will feel some shrapnel for a while at least till he comes up with some cash to save up for a new MacBook Pro. �

Recession proof?!

Recession proof, it's a nice thought but is there any part of the public work sector that is? A lot of people thought the the gaming industry would be that shining beacon of hope. But it seems that no one knows what people will spend money on anymore or if in fact that they will.The new question is what type of rescission would be best for the U.S.?

It's pretty obvious we are not going to all build hoover shanties again, though we may have the same greeting soon. With a Japanese style recession things could just limp by for the next decade or so. By the way you can thank anyone over thirty-five for that. It's a great thing to hand the next generation, a college degree that's not worth the paper that it was printed on.

The only positive that one might see in all this is that this will trim a lot of the fat when it comes to poorly run businesses. Granted this is only a good thing if you are in a well run one otherwise there is nothing good to come out of this. that may b e a tad cynical look at it but it's the best spin I could come up with.

I have been told if you don't mind working in other parts of the world there is tons of work. To give you an idea of what you would be doing you would be most likely be in construction. That's not to bad until you are told you will be building in Iraq or if you are very lucky in the hand chopping off parts of Africa. so sure there is work if you want to work in parts of the world where you will sleep with one eye open and the safety off on your Mp5. Why an Mp5? it has better burst for close quarters.

Apples hit and miss last year

          It seems that we all might have guessed wrong about the iphone and how well it did last year. Apple as a whole is up in a big way in sales. The ipod had an incredibly strong showing this winter quarter. It seems even though the economy is down most us have been very good this year. Or at least good enough last year. 

          Though it's not all not all sugar smiles and puppy dog tails. It seems that the ipod touch might just be a little to big. The iphone did not have quite as hot fourth quarter last year. Now this may be because not everyone is a huge AT&T fan. With all hopes you will be able to pick up the iphone on any carrier by the end of 2010. That is the best guess I was able to come up with. Granted it was not a random number I just made up. It was made public that when the iphone was dropped in price that AT&T was able to wrangle another two years out of Apple.

          Now one other reason why the iphone might not be growing as fast as been hoped for is because of the cost of the plan. The plan was not any easier to swallow when AT&T dropped text messaging from the basic plan. It was well known that Apple originally tried to get Verizon but the word was they where not able to agree on a cost of the phone. The irony being AT&T was able to accomplish what Apple was against in the second go around.

          So with all hopes you will be able to pick up an iphone sometime next year on any provider. With everyone getting to offer it expect that plans will begin to drop fast. That includes all of you on AT&T. It's all about free market to the rescue of our pocket books. Plus with that you might start seeing specific apps appearing on different providers. So the cut and paste argument BlackBerry users always fall on may become a moot point shortly, though you could argue the need of that application to the general end user. Granted this is already something you can have if you are using a jail broken iphone.

         Now with widespread WIFI and Voip programs the ipod touch might just become the choice for inner city phones. It would be a cheap way to stay in-contact with friends and family on a budget. So Apple had the right idea to include a phone on a ipod. We just might have found a better way.

Apples new battery choice for the big daddy

So the big thing I have been seeing all around the internet is that the seventeen inch battery can not be replaced by the end user. At first I was surprised and a little annoyed about this direction Apple went. So I went to go look at the rest of the line and was happy to see that you could in fact replace the rest of the line yourself.

To Apples credit I have read that the battery life touted in seventeen inch pro model is to last five years. If this turns out to be true then Apple has really stumbled on to something. That model is also claimed to get an eight hour battery life off a single charge. So even though you can not replace the battery, it should get more than three times the cycles an last half a decade. Not a bad trade-off to not getting to replace a battery.

What does the U.S. get out of it?

That's something I have been thinking about for a long time. I have never heard what benefits we as a country get out of supporting the Israel "state?" Besides appealing to a small but very vocal minority. To give you an idea of how small this group is, we now have more people who openly say they are atheist in this country. Which is no small feat in such a religiously controlled state.
Though you have to remember that we where not the only country to support there statehood. Great Britain also had a hand in it, but as time went on you can openly disagree with Israel. When a journalist speaks ill off the harsh treatment in Gaza they get letters written to them, with harsh and slanderous accusations, such as anti-Semite. Have we come to this point that you have to only speak words against one country safely behind the anonymity of the internet? How did a such a small population change the very way we are allowed to speak our mind?
Though do not get me wrong, Israel was being attacked by rockets so they did have to do something. Though you would hard pressed to deny the disproportionate levels of attacks. So what is a fair way to deal with the situation? I have no idea but something does need to change.

Are we global or American citizens

So I know it is an easy question to answer in theory. Yet it may be harder and more complicated then you first thought. They both bring heavy repercussions on how we are seen in the world and how this country will act and see the world itself.

Since we are in fact becoming a smaller more tightly knit world, the question becomes does the old ways on dividing the worlds land still relevant? Also, if we are global citizens do we now all get to take part in the best parts of what the world has to offer? Since the U.S. is often asked to take part in peace keeping due in part to our military budget compares to other countries. Which is a noble thing, trying to save the world and punish those who would do it serious harm. Without borders or citizenship there are no illegal immigrants to treat poorly and when it comes to getting a better job they would not be looked over for a "native." Plus with a more global look at the world we could intact a global health care system. So you could be able to see a doctor anywhere in the world.

Though what if we where to keep going and return to an pre-world war U.S. state? The first thing is we would still be trading at the same level we are now. We are and cannot be a self sufficient country. Trade would still be a major business and would still have to be done. Though if the country was less involved in global affaires new trade routes would be open. Granted no every country would be feasible to trade with. Though without having standing armies around the world stopping the natural order we would be seen as more of global market instead of a watchman. With a lack of involvement we would have more money to pump into schools, roads, health care and other essential avenues that desperately need a boost.

So which is the right way? I'm not sure, they both have their advantages and disadvantages. Maybe after all the tight rope we walk is in the best. With having bases around the world we can continue to work in a preemptive way. So American lives do not have to be lost before we are aware of a dire situation.

A new battle once again

So now that the middle-east is completely falling apart because of the blood thirsty Hamas; an a over zealous Israel. Should we in the U.S. re-think our links in the middle-east? With still over two weeks out before we have a new president, people around the world are already taking it to Mr. Obama. With President Bush sitting on the side lines just counting down the clock like a kid to summer vacation; we are in a interesting time.

With no major call for blood of either side in the United States, either because the U.S. populace is sick of war, or because there is really no "good" guy in this battle. We now may be on the verge of something; that has not been seen in many years. A interest in staying out of it. Though U.S. non involvement is nothing new, just ask anyone living Africa. Or even in some of the smaller south east Asian countries.

A reason for this lack of intervention might be, well plainly we have no one left to send. Even with stop loss you will only have the support of your own troops for so long. If pushed to far they will openly disobey or worse revolt. Now add the fact that this country is in a very fragile state as it is. So to have forced service would only hasten the demise to open conflict in our own streets.

Though if the U.S. is forced to go into combat one last time which side do you back? We have old and strong ties to the state of Israel. Yet if we are only in this for ourselves we could in fact help Palestine as a show of good intentions to try and repair the damage that has been done. Neither side looks that appealing to back. So it brings us back to a possible non intervention scenario. Both sides would criticize us, but none of us would be forced to lace up possibility the last time.