Posts
Yanko Design
YankoDesign.com is a website which allows today's up and coming designers & artists to merge and show the world their prototypes. The site features new creations, from around the globe, that are either in the early stages of development or are just about ready to be available for the public and/or businesses. I could try and explain it better, but why? Instead read this blurb from the site:
"Yanko Design is a web magazine dedicated to introducing the best modern international design, covering from industrial design, concepts, technology, interior design, architecture, exhibition and fashion. It’s about the cutting edge and the classic, the new and the rediscovered. It’s all about the best."
The site has wide range of new and innovative creations. Here are some of my favorites from the past few weeks:
The Post Line: a flat, tape-like version of the extension cord
(original post here)
Graffiti Umbrella: an umbrella with a pointed, silicon tip that allows one to draw outside - not practical, but fun.
(original post here)
Switch: a new take on the screwdriver
(original post here)
Google built an operating system. Chrome OS
It's for netbooks and i think it's a great idea. Not for regular laptops and desktops obviously but for netbooks and maybe some other smaller devices it's brilliant.
Let Them Sing It For You
Let Them Sing It For You is a cool little site that allows your written word to be turned into song lyrics. Basically there is a small text box for you to write down whatever it is the hell you want and the then site pulls each word from a different song and forms a singing sentence. I chose the message pictured above and I have to admit it was not only cool, but actually quite pleasant hearing my computer sing to me "SHUT THE HELL UP!" Give it a try here. It's bound to make you laugh.
Oh and yes, it will say "fuck" if you want it to.
AT&T Drops Refurbished iPhone 3G Prices to As Low As $49
AT&T today announced that it has dropped prices on its stocks of refurbished iPhone 3G models while supplies last. Pricing is now set at $49 for 8 GB models and $99 for 16 GB models in both black and white.
New pricing available in AT&T stores for iPhone 3G refurb devices! $49 for 8GB, available in black, and $99 for 16GB, available in black and white. Available in our stores while supplies last. Contact your local AT&T Store to check availability. Search here for a store near you: http://www.wireless.att.com/find-a-store/
Microsoft Sets Up Zune HD for Failure — Again
Via: http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2009/09/zune-marketplace
The Zune HD’s lack of a compelling software market will make it nothing more than a repeat failure, according to mobile developers and an analyst.
Microsoft on Tuesday released its newest media player. Priced at $290 for the 32GB version, it’s packed with impressive hardware features, including a vibrant, touch-sensitive OLED display. Still, the hardware alone won’t be enough to make the device a success, observers say.
“They apparently had no idea the App Store was coming or was going to be big,” said Phillip Ryu, co-creator of the popular iPhone app Classics. “This all reeks of last-minute scrambling.”
The center of criticism is Microsoft’s Zune Marketplace, the Zune HD’s version of an app store. But it’s not really a store: Third-party developers cannot easily create apps to be sold through Zune Marketplace. In fact, no apps will be sold at all.
Instead, Microsoft has handpicked third-party companies to code apps that will be offered for free in Marketplace. The initial software available for Zune HD will include games, a weather app and a calculator. And in November, Twitter and Facebook apps and some 3D games will launch in the “store” as well.
Unlike other mobile stores, Microsoft’s Marketplace is essentially closed to outside developers.
That’s an unusual move in the mobile tech landscape. By contrast, Apple’s App Store allows anyone to submit iPhone and iPod Touch apps, although Apple exerts stringent (and often capricious) control over which apps make it to the public. Google’s Android Market is completely open to any developers who wish to offer apps for it. Research in Motion, Verizon and Palm have also all opened mobile app stores to compete with Apple’s.
Even Microsoft is drafting developers for its Windows Mobile 6.5 app store — but oddly enough, the company is not integrating the same store for its Zune media player.
Microsoft’s Zune marketing manager Brian Seitz said the Windows Mobile Marketplace is being separated because the Zune HD has a different focus than smartphones. Seitz said the Zune HD’s focus is music and video playback.
However, Microsoft’s message is contradictory, because Seitz later said that since the Zune HD features Wi-Fi and not a constant cellular connection, the device would focus on gaming.
“The thing that Zune HD is made for is really rich music and video playback experiences for people,” Seitz said in a phone interview with Wired.com. “We know there’s other things folks want to do with these devices that are sometimes connected … and those apps are typically games.”
Seitz added that the Zune HD’s primary goal is not to compete with Apple’s App Store. However, he did acknowledge the Zune HD’s main competitor is the iPod Touch.
Matt Drance, Apple’s former iPhone evangelist and current owner of Bookhouse, an iPhone app development company, said Microsoft was wise to shy away from directly competing with the App Store, because the tech giant is already too far behind in this market segment.
“I’ll give [Microsoft] credit for acknowledging they’re not ready to compete,” Drance said in a phone interview. “They’re going to have to do something really special at this point. When you’re staring in the face of 75,000 apps in the App Store that have been downloaded 2 billion times, you can’t just say, ‘Hey, me, too.’”
There’s very little Microsoft can do with the Zune HD at this point, MKM Partners analyst Tero Kuittinen said, because the software that launched with the Zune is too underwhelming to drive momentum for the gadget.
Kuittinen questioned why Twitter and Facebook apps were not immediately available for the Zune HD upon launch, because practically every smartphone today supports this type of software. He added that Microsoft failed to communicate to the public, via marketing and media, what exactly the Zune HD would do other than play music and video. This added up to a poorly executed launch, he said.
“To get the maximum impact you have to have the software services the moment you’re ready,” Kuittinen said. “When you start bringing it out later it dilutes the impact.”
“We’re getting close to Christmas now, so if you don’t start now telling consumers what the device can do, it’s going to be kind of late to give them Twitter app in November,” Kuittinen added.
What, then, should Microsoft do? Lower the price, suggests Kuittinen, who believes the price difference between the iPod Touch and the Zune is not a strong enough selling point. Microsoft is selling the 16GB Zune HD player for $220 and the 32 GB version for $290.
Apple’s iPod Touch comes in three models: $200 for 8GB, $300 for the 32GB and $400 for a 64GB model.
The iPod Nano, by contrast, costs $180 for a 16GB version, making it — price-wise — another possible competitor to the Zune HD.
“What exactly do they have to lose at this point?” Kuittinen said. “Why not just go to $130 or $140? They’re going to lose money anyway.”
New Analyst Mockup and Sales Estimates for Apple's Tablet
Via:Macrumors
Fortune summarizes a new research report from Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster, who estimates that Apple could sell two million of its rumored tablet computer in 2010 at $600 each, adding a small but not inconsequential 3% to Apple's revenue stream for the year. Munster also provides a mockup (above) of what he believes the device will look like.
The device, as he sees it, will…
- Be similar to an iPod touch, only larger, capable of running most of the 70,000 applications on the iPhone App Store plus a new category of apps designed for the bigger screen.
- Will be used primarily for Web surfing, e-mail, and digital media, competing with netbooks without being a netbook.
- Will be priced between an iPhone and a MacBook -- between $500 and $700.
- Is likely to include a 3G cellular modem and could be subsidized by a carrier -- either AT&T or Verizon.
- Will sell better than Apple TV did its first year (1.2 million units).
- Could in fact sell 2 million units at $600 each to generate $1.2 billion and add about 3% to Apple's revenue stream in calendar 2010.
Munster stands by his previous comments claiming that the device will launch in 2010, noting that he has received word from component suppliers in Asia that Apple's orders with them for the new parts of the new device are scheduled for delivery late this year, pushing the device's launch into early 2010. Other sources, however, have claimed that Apple's tablet computer could launch as early as September.
Netflix Streaming on iPhone coming soon?
Via: macrumors
According to a report from Multichannel News, the iPhone may be next in line to gain the ability to stream video via Netflix's "Watch Instantly" feature. The feature is currently available on Mac and PC for all Netflix members, but subscribers with an unlimited membership plan may also take advantage of "Watch Instantly" on compatible devices other than a computer, such as an Xbox 360 or Roku Digital Video Player.
Netflix, ahead of pay-TV providers, continues extending its own "TV Everywhere" strategy to more devices.
Next up: The company will soon offer the Watch Instantly video-streaming feature on Apple iPhones and iPod Touch devices and the Nintendo Wii gaming console, according to an industry executive familiar with Netflix's plans. (Netflix wouldn't confirm the info, with a rep saying it declines to comment on "rumors or speculation.")
While some iPhone applications such as YouTube offer video streaming over Wi-Fi or a cellular network data connection, other apps such as SlingPlayer Mobile are only capable of streaming video when connected to a Wi-Fi network, purportedly to avoid over-taxing cellular data networks. The report notes that a similar restriction is likely for any Netflix video streaming on the iPhone.