DVR the damn Apple TV

March 13, 2008 at 10:51 am · Filed under Rumors, Hardware

In theory, Apple TV sounds like a good idea. Unfortunately, as a stand-alone product in my living room, it’s not going to cut it.

Apple TV’s handling of television content is abysmal

I have no problem with Apple’s model of purchasing and renting videos. In fact, I am a fan of it. Insofar as television goes, Apple needs a reality check. We currently live in a DVR world. We record what is streaming into our homes and consume it at our convenience. Once getting a hold of a DVR recording of what is coming into your home is free (assuming you have avoided having to pay a monthly access fee). Not so with Apple TV.

With Apple TV, to have access to a show which aired yesterday, or two weeks ago, you have to pay for it. Two bucks. For me, that is not a viable solution. On the TiVo in our home we have no less than seventeen season passes currently set up. We constantly delete programming we’ve watched and always have a fresh stable of scores of shows to watch. I can’t imagine what we’d have paid Apple if Apple TV was our solution for all this.

But, it seems as though Apple may wake up to the DVR revolution and their lack of living room presence.

Apple TV DVR functionality patent

A recent patent filing that Apple Insider posted about this morning calls attention to a version of Apple TV capable of browsing and recording live television programming in addition to serving iTunes content.

Personally, I couldn’t be happier to see this patent filing, and hope that Apple follows through. My gut tells me that they’ve been slow to move on it due to the complex nature of negotiating with the music, television and movie industries to-date. Hopefully there’s a plan to put the DVR in the little lackluster box and bring it to the living room in force.

TiVo is getting worse by the day. I’d love to see Apple to pick up the slack.

Perspectives from elsewhere on the web:

• A Cheap Way To Beef Up Apple TV As A DVR? (Wired)
• AppleTV Needs Recording Add-on Capabilities: Does Miglia Hold the Key? (Seeking Alpha)
• Apple TV DVR: Old News I Talked About Already (Christopher Price)

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5 things Steve Jobs will not announce at MacWorld 2008

January 14, 2008 at 11:28 pm · Filed under Predictions, Rumors

The web’s abuzz with speculation about what secrets tomorrow’s MacWorld 2008 Keynote holds.  Here’s a few things that will definitely not be announced:

1. Black MacBooks cost the same to manufacture as white MacBooks
2. Serious gaming does, in fact, still suck on a mac
3. Apple was wrong all along about the one-button mouse
4. The real Steve Jobs is the fake Steve Ballmer
5. RAM price-matching

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iPhone firmware upgrade leaked?

December 29, 2007 at 12:19 pm · Filed under Rumors, Hardware

It’s not MacRumors or AppleInsider with the rumored shots of Apple’s iPhone 1.1.3 firmware upgrade. It’s GearLive, a site not known for iPhone or any other Apple rumors with the purported goods this time. GearLive’s site posted a iPhone 1.1.3 firmware feature gallery article with some convincing images.

New iPhone features seen in rumored 1.1.3 firmware:

• Sending SMS messages to multiple recipients
• Cell tower triangulation of ones location when using Google Maps
• Viewing Hybrid map view when using Google Maps
• Pagination on the springboard (main) screen
• Drag-and-drop of application icons on the springboard screen
• Ability to add web bookmarks to the springboard screen

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NOT a rumor: Think Secret shutting down

December 21, 2007 at 3:39 pm · Filed under Rumors, Software, Hardware

Popular Apple/Macintosh rumor site Think Secret will cease to be published as a part of the terms of an undisclosed settlement with Apple, Inc.

Apple sued Think Secret in 2005 citing leaked software and hardware information published on Think Secret.  While no formal mention of money changing hands has been made, it has been widely speculated that Think Secret was compensated financially as a part of the agreement.

The following press release was posted to the ThinkSecret web site:

Apple, Think Secret settle lawsuit

December 20, 2007 - PRESS RELEASE: Apple and Think Secret have settled their lawsuit, reaching an agreement that results in a positive solution for both sides. As part of the confidential settlement, no sources were revealed and Think Secret will no longer be published. Nick Ciarelli, Think Secret’s publisher, said “I’m pleased to have reached this amicable settlement, and will now be able to move forward with my college studies and broader journalistic pursuits.”

As a part of the settlement no sources of Think Secret’s content were named.

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Apple hiring: iPhone Exchange test/sync

December 13, 2007 at 10:47 am · Filed under Rumors, Support, Software, Hardware

Apple may be looking to close the iPhone/Exchange/ActiveSync loop itself depending upon how you read into this recent Cupertino job posting (emphasis mine):

Job Description

We can only hope…

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iPhone ActiveSync poll

September 11, 2007 at 11:00 am · Filed under Poll, Rumors, Support, Hardware

Rumor has it Apple has licensed Microsoft’s ActiveSync technology which would allow synchronization between an iPhone and Microsoft Exchange. How important is synchronization with a Microsoft Exchange server to your iPhone purchasing decision?

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If you have any comments about the iPhone, ActiveSync, and Microsoft Exchange, please comment below.

UPDATE: 13 Dec 2007: This post was recently referenced on Apple Insider (Apple Working on improved Exchange support for iPhone), indicating that ” In a recent web poll, 98 percent of respondents said support for ActiveSync or some other form of Exchange synchronization would greatly influence their decision to eventually purchase an iPhone.” At the time of Apple Insider’s post, that option in the poll was representative of 98% of all poll votes. As that post drove traffic to the poll, the numbers have deviated from the aforementioned 98%.

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Email on a Mac in a Microsoft world

September 4, 2007 at 11:37 pm · Filed under Rumors, Software

Last month amidst much iMac fanfare a new version of iWork, iWork 2008, was announced. While iWork now touts three programs (Keynote, Pages, and Numbers) it is missing the one key component to truly be positioned as a relevant, competitive office productivity suite—a mail, calendaring, and contact management application which is compatible with Microsoft Exchange.

Now I know, I should take what Apple gives me overthrow the IT department in my company, but I’m not going to, so let’s just ignore that concept for now. There is a problem. Macs are making it into business environments on the greater set of their merits, only to be frowned upon for their abysmal support of Microsoft Exchange. Here are the options that I’m currently faced with:

1. Use Microsoft Office 2004’s Entourage mail client
   I tried this for awhile but became frustrated with Entourage’s sluggish performance, not to mention time spent chasing down KB articles on the Microsoft site to debug mysterious behavior.
2. Use Microsoft’s Outlook Web Access (with Safari or Firefox)
   Unfortunately, our organization isn’t running the latest and greatest version of Exchange and OWA. That said, even if we were running the latest and greatest version of Exchange, a web-based version of the Outlook isn’t a productive full-time solution.
3. Use the Windows flavor of Microsoft Office through virtualization
   This is what I am currently doing with Parallels Desktop for Mac, Windows XP, and Microsoft Office 2007. Performance is relatively good, and I have no complaints about Outlook-it works as advertised. I would, however, prefer to not give up a share of my video and ram resources to virtualize an entire operating system in order to run one program.
4. Use a bunch of hacks to get Mail.app, iCal and Address Book to work with Exchange
   Just kidding. That’s really not an option. Not for me, nor for anyone else who bought a Mac because of things like say “ease of use.”

What is on the horizon? Microsoft Office 2008. Microsoft was slated to release Office 2008 in the second half of 2007, and, it looks promising from the screen captures that have been released. A new, more competent Entourage and a beefed up suite all around could put the whole issue to bed. Unfortunately, that date has been moved to early 2008.

Is it possible that Apple will make a move at the problem first? In an interesting subtext brought on by the iPhone, the rumor mill is throwing around the idea that the iPhone will have Exchange support through the licensing of Microsoft’s ActiveSync.

If that is true, I’d have to say that while that while that is a great move on behalf of the iPhone, there is likely another story here. That story: Full Microsoft Exchange support with an Apple authored application. Far fetched? iWork’s interoperability with Microsoft Office’s Word, PowerPoint, and Excel documents is proudly displayed on the iWord ‘08 landing page already. And, if Apple was going to make the iPhone play nice with Exchange, I’d find it hard to believe that a desktop solution wasn’t also in the works.

How would it come about? Possibly by retooling the Mail/iCal/Address Book “suite,” or, more likely by way a new productivity application geared toward the Mac user in a business setting which has full Exchange support and is available as a part of an iWork upgrade.

Any takers?

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