Random tech ramblings

I’m surprised that noone’s really picked up on this, but why is T-Mobile’s HotSpot service still in existence?! Like really, AT&T already had a good following, then when it took over WayPort’s services (which were pretty dominant), AT&T became even MORE dominant. Can someone explain to me WHY T-MOBILE HOTSPOT IS STILL IN EXISTENCE???? Their rates are ridiculous, and it’s not even that much advertised by T-Mobile USA anymore.

Quick update

SNOW LEOPARD IS THE FIRST MAC OS X VERSION TO BE INTEL ONLY; POWERPC IS OFFICIALLY NOT SUPPORTED.
this is probably due to the whole 64-bit thing now.

WWDC Wrap-Up

OK, lots to talk about. No time to waste, so let’s get started.

Laptop Upgrades all around

Phil didn’t have time to waste either as he immediately stunned a lot of people by announcing MB/MBP upgrades; this was a low-level rumor on most sites and a mid-level rumor from what I drew. While the actual rumors about upgrades to the laptops were false (namely 3G integration/WWAN, etc.), the upgrades themselves were pretty surprising. For instance: SD card slot integration, FINALLY. But ExpressCard goes bye-bye despite months of them touting it as a latest-and-greatest technology; more commentary on that later. Also, price drops across the laptop line (an obvious response to “Bargain Hunters”). The most severe price cut has to be the SSD Air version going from $2499 to $1799. This makes the Air, by far, the most affordable SSD mainstream laptop available right now.Macbooks also have backlit keyboards standard now and are now offically Macbook pros (the aluminum ones that is).

I know a fair # of people will be saying “how DARE they take away expresscard integration”. I say to them PHOOEY. Expansion cards, in general, are sort of dying out IMO. Most wireless providers don’t even tout them anymore; they tout USB or integrated solutions. Now I might have to eat these words if there were some finicky FireWire “updates” of sorts, but really I never thought ExpressCard had a chance in hell. It was only meant for expansion purposes (for which we have hubs) or if your computer didn’t have wireless (PCMCIA was the last to really do that) or if you wanted to expand your storage to SSD (for which we have flash drives and external hard drives are still wildly popular right now). And anyway, most consumers don’t even know WHAT EXPRESSCARD IS. The prosumers might be a little miffed however.

Snow Leopard

There were a whole bunch of improvements which we already knew of last WWDC, but were more elaborated on today. My favorites probably are re-coded Finder and MUCH tighter Exchange support (which will probably face flaws but whatever). But the most important thing? Pricing. I was spot on in hoping for a mid-range price, but we’re not really sure how this impacts users who refused to update to Leopard. All we know is that, for sure, for Leopard people the upgrade is $29. Family pack? $49. Still though, it’s really a good # of little features packed into a perfect price. Anyone who complains about it not being free, well I’ll pay for them (not really).  September though to do all this? Seems a little while. But if you think about it this is perfect timing for minor desktop upgrades (not to mention the iPod/laptop promotion ends then. Which reminds me…did a lot of people just get jibbed? hah).<< That also reminds me, when will we see new touches? Which goes to my next subject.

iPhone 3GS/iPhone 3.0 OS

I think our last minute blogger John Gruber was right on the money, at least on the iPhone 3GS part. The “S” stands for speed, with which supposed speed improvements come in all places. 7.2 HSDPA is now supported as well as OpenGL|ES 2.0. No front-facing camera (as I kind of thought would happen) but video editing (at respectable VGA resolution, 30fps, auto-focus and auto-exposure) and 3MP still camera now included. The 30fps is comparable to MOST consumer-level digicams and what they can do video-wise, and the AF is something most of them can’t even do in video mode. Auto-exposure also on photo end obviously.

iPhone 3.0 OS notables: a lot of new apps taking advantage of a lot of new APIs, specifically subscription-based apps (that textbook app for example) and a lot of apps taking advantage of Push Notifications. Remote Wipe for iPhone was necessary for enterprise level users, but that fact that it’s on MobileMe scares me. It should be a feature all consumers can use IMO, and I think MobileMe pricing should be aggressive to allow for more consumer entry.

Also very notable is pricing; iPhone 3GS 16GB $199; 32GB; $299. What happened to the iPhone 3G? It is now $99. But remember, no video camera and slightly slower than the 3GS.

What we didn’t see

We didn’t see the iPhone video chat, but that was to be totally expected. This feature will have to wait until 4G. We also got a lot of disappointment in the US because AT&T is a bunch of fags and won’t put MMS or tethering until later in the year, something which is totally not Apple’s fault for once.

We also did not see Steve Jobs, which is sort of expected but was still hoping for.

And of course, no Apple netbook or tablet. ALTHOUGH the transition of the 13″ Aluminum MB to MBP IS VERY CONVINCING of a possible new lower-entry MB, especially because the white MB is still (somewhat) on par with Aluminum MBP. Expect a September event where we will (definitely see) new iPod touches with maybe a new product down the line.

update: did Safari return to normal tab styles?

Live updates

New 15″ MBP. Noone expected that possibly.

An SD slot?! DEFINITELY NOT EXPECTED

$1699!

Very interesting: complete transition to non-removable batteries (except Plastic MB probably).

MB 13″ lowered too, 1199$ base model. Definitely a response to Bargain Hunter ads by Microsoft, although Apple will never admit it.

MB = MBP. Response to 12″ PB clamoring? Rumor confirmed, regardless.

Possible room for netbook?

Snow Leopard now.

Snow Leopard

Meh, bunch of features that should’ve been integrated all along and been part of an OS.

Usual Vista/7 bashing

why do i need chinese text input? I prefer drawing natively on the trackpad so i don’t need a tablet nemore

Oooh I feel special, I called Safari 4.0 today HAH.

(random: I think Vid chat will come but in the obvious form of wi-fi only right now)

so when’s the release date schilly?

a little too much SL coverage which probably means we’ll end up with iPhone/iPhone OS. But that’s good, it is, after all WWDC.

still excited from the new laptops

HOLY CRAP $29 FOR SNOW LEOPARD. $49 for family pack (woot).

Still not known if we can go from Tiger –> SL. (probably not)

September availability.

iPhone now.

iPhone

apps blah blah blah

3G[s]…really?

Quickly:

I’m following Gizmodo and MacRumors; they are automatic live streams.
Engadget is still on manual refresh, but may be more reliable.
Seems like we’re going to be more software based.

I’m back!

So I had to take some time off to sort some personal issues of mine, but now I’m back and I should be blogging full-time for the most part. I just had a bunch of things that I needed to take care of that took precedence before my casual blogging.

Just because I haven’t been blogging though does NOT mean I haven’t been keeping up with my dose of tech news. And a LOT of things have happened since I stopped blogging temporarily:

• The biggest thing that’s happened, in my opinion, is Lenovo’s S12 with nVidia ION. Lenovo makes smart netbooks, albeit a tad more pricey than the current 10″ netbook average right now, but they did a good job with the S10 and are doing a decent job (in terms of specs, no clue on sales) with the S10-2. But the smartest thing they’ve done right now is announce a netbook with Ion, and even smarter than THAT was putting the Ion platform on a 12″ factor rather than a 10″. Now I know what you may be thinking: 10″+ is NOT a netbook anymore, but I beg to differ. I figure as long as it’s small and dimunitive, and still has anAtom, it’s a netbook. People have made such ridiculous claims as “12″ is too big”. I kindly remind them of the 12″ PowerBook, the most elusive of small form-factor dreams in a while. Good job Lenovo for beating everyone to the punch and making it seem like that every other netbook manu (minus Acer) doesn’t even know what ION is.
• The Apple world, especially, has been abuzz about iPhone and iPhone OS. I realized that, while all the new features purported to be coming out of BOTH are cool and stuff, I still don’t need a real need for them. A magnetometer? Really? Like I’m going to the Arctic circle any time soon. iPhone OS 3.0 brings stuff that should’ve been in iPhone 1.0 in the FIRST PLACE, so it doesn’t bring any real fresh air, just, well, air. The only thing that would change my mind about this is if two things happened: 1) Video chat, 2) a better, more functional camera. I realize apps can do this, but I’d like to see more hardware-based efforts by Apple to possibly see a decent camera replacement.
• Apple tablet? I’ll believe it when I see it. Same goes with Apple netbook.
• Snow Leopard? I am kind of hoping that we see reduced pricing for SL upgrades, considering the features in SL are good enough to merit me shelling out money, but not $129 (granted as a student I pay $70, but that’s besides the point). I honestly will not buy SL unless I see more need to keep my MacBook.
• I was hoping the Palm Pre would be a tough competitor against the iPhone, but it’ll be interesting to see how sales numbers are. WebOS strikes me as more advanced but definitely more error-prone compared to iPhone OS (not that iPhone apps don’t crash). A not-so-valid argument by some reviewers, in my opinion, is that “people won’t know how many apps to open before it uses up all available memory”. If you think about an average consumer they’ll be using only three things constantly: Pandora, the phone app, and maybe some other app in the background. But I don’t know, the reviewers also have a point. WebOS wins my vote for versatility but iPhone OS still wins in terms of pure simplicity
• Speaking of Palm Pre reviews, overall reviews are mixed, putting software on an altar and putting the actual phone design possibly in the dumps. Many reviewers have tried pitting the Pre’s physical keyboard against that of a Blackberry and simply found it no match for the Berry. In addition, Gizmodo had a very interesting video on the sharpness of the bottom of the phone, claiming it could cut cheese. Many people have also exalted the wonderful, crisp screen of the Pre.

I’ll be semi-liveblogging WWDC @ 1PM EDT today; kind of excited because there’s always that one element of surprise. So here are my predictions:

Very likely

• New iPhone(s), probably more countries announced as well as possibly a new US carrier effective next year? I feel like a carrier announcement is more probable for MWSF 2010. Oh wait, there IS NO MORE MWSF. I still actually more or less stand by my earlier call that we will NOT SEE A NEW CARRIER ANNOUNCEMENT UNTIL 4G IS MAINSTREAM. I have no comment on iPhone 3GS, but it is not normal and yet normal for Apple to put random letter appendages in front of its products (namely the old Power Mac/iMac lines of 1999). But hopefully they won’t be like some other comapny :cough: ASUS ::cough:: BTW, iPhones would not be released until July.
• New iPhone OS that is in finalization stages. Push notification has already ended, and there are probably some last minute bugs to be worked out. Expect a release in late June/early July, possibly coupled with new iPhones.
• A Snow Leopard update, and I do think we’ll see Marble despite some last minute blogs saying Marble’s delayed until 10.7

Possible

• iPhone 3.5/4.0 track? It would not surprise me at all if Cupertino’s already working on 3.5/4.0.
• Safari 4 Beta –> Safari 4 (unlikely)
• Jobs’s appearance is our “One more thing” in which he’ll announce a major event in the end of June/early July.

Kind of Unlikely

• iPod touch silent announcement, if iPhones were to be released TODAY.
• Aluminum MB/MBP updates; they’re good enough as-is right now, despite some people saying upgrades are needed. There’s really nowhere else to upgrade other than maybe speed bumps.
• Slew of iPhone accessories to be displayed, maybe new iPhone apps to take advantage of 3.0 features.

Unlikely (meaning I won’t bet money on it at all)

• An Apple tablet (this does NOT mean it’s not coming, just not today).
• An Apple netbook (same as above)
• An Apple pie for every attendee today.
• SL released to public today.

Lately Apple keynotes have been pretty sparse (MWSF ‘09 is quite the example) in terms of new product announcements and have been more iPhone/SL based. I would probably say that today’s keynote will just comprise of three parts: iPhone, iPhone OS and Snow Leopard. If I were to choose anything outside the Very Likely category, my bets are on a Jobs apperance today.

Happy WWDC!

Commentary: Windows 7 Starter Edition on netbooks

Lately, with the impending release of the Windows 7 RC coming soon to the masses, there’s been more uptick in debate over whether Windows 7 starter edition should be used on netbooks or not. Everyone is pretty much up in arms about the 3 program run-limit and says that it’s too restrictive, but there are a bunch of reasons why this is actually better for the consumer in the end.

 

Let’s think about how much an average consumer would actually DO on a netbook. At most, he/she will do word processing, browsing the web and/or iTunes. The first two are pretty much guaranteed necessities. The last one can be interchanged with a bunch of other things, either AIM or another Office program. But everything can be remedied somehow. For instance, if you can’t use iTunes, you can still bring your iPod with you. This also might be better because “outsourcing” your music playing could save battery life. You could also use Pandora, and I’ve seen more kids starting to use Pandora these days rather than using their own music libraries, an interesting trend indeed. 

AIM is finicky in my opinion. I completely forget if I had a post about the death of AIM, but I’m pretty sure I did. AIM is a moot protocol in my opinion, still on everyone’s computers as a sort of backup conduit for communication but not mainstream anymore. Facebook (very sadly) has replaced live-time communication, and IM has been replaced by the (ironically slower) ubiquitous text messaging on our cell phones. Because we’re so attached to our cell phones, texting really is the only universal way to communicate on the go because not EVERYONE has an iPhone. AIM simply has this thing of being related to computers, and you can’t carry computers all the time. But why can’t AIM be used on cell phones? THAT’S a totally different story. My point is, while AIM can be used online with services such as AIMs own or meebo, AIM will be on its way out by the beginning of the next decade. 

With software put aside, think about the hardware on a netbook as well. Let’s ignore the Atom part for a moment and stick to RAM, as RAM is needed for good multi-tasking. I’m on Windows 7 Beta (ultimate) right now and 78%-82% of my RAM is already being used up by 6 tabs on Chrome, OpenOffice Writer, and Foxit reader. If people were really all up in arms about the 3 program limit, they probably wouldn’t be having great performance if they had more programs open anyway. 

 

My whole point in all this is that if people REALLY wanted to circumvent the three program limit, they would, at the very least, upgrade the RAM and THEN buy a new edition of Win7. But the only people who should be doing severe multitasking is business people or straight-up geeks. The average consumer need not worry about Starter Edition.

Ion netbooks soon?

Finally, my day of reckoning is here!

http://www.liliputing.com/2009/04/nvidia-ion-powered-netbooks-with-better-graphics-on-their-way.html

Breaking…in my time frame.

Because I just woke up, I consider this to be breaking news, but this just in from Neowin.net on the Pirate Bay case:

The Pirate Bay, notorious for providing BitTorrent files of all things copyrighted and illegal have lost a trial in Sweden today. The news first surfaced from founder Peter Sunde who used Twitter to break the news. Sunde said “according to leaked information from the court we lost (got the news last night). Trustworthy source as well.” Sunde is also insisting “nothing will happen to TPB, us personally or file sharing what so ever.

Source: http://www.neowin.net/news/main/09/04/17/the-pirate-bay-founders-we-lost-our-trial

More details later in the day.

1000HE for $349.99…at Best Buy?!

Without rebate (even though TechBargains.com is so confused about this new development from Best Buy that it thinks there’s one), Best Buy is sellin this thing for only $349.99, and $19.99 shipping. Best deal, except for ZipZoomFly’s deal (which I believe ended yesterday).

But then again, if you want Ion…ehh…