sbjforever

Is Apple Stepping Into the Cloud?

Most owners of Apple TV of course currently download from the cloud via Airport Base Station. Most as well would rather rent than buy so movie storage is not a problem. I mean why buy with all that entails when you can rent the thing for a couple of bucks? What the Apple Replay initiative will in effect do is provide an increase in quality content since as of now movies and other video stuff available through ATV appears very much teen-comedy-centric and lacks sophistication. Most movies one sees displayed so colorfully in their box covers on the big screen are trashy that most mature viewers would never consider downloading in the first place. The advent of Apple TV raises the bar in this respect.

Who Will Win the Home Entertainment Battle?

Apple TV is a huge flop! Isn't it kind of chump to state that? I don't find it chump at all to spend $230 to watch $4 HD movies, YouTube clips, TV shows, IPhoto etc on the big screen - all done without the need for yet another hulking and expensive DVD-DVR box alongside the existing Sat TV DVR and audio CD player. And why do I need DVD's and CD's anyway? With Apple TV and iTunes that silly cabinet stuffed with silly discs has gone the way of the Dodo - at least in my house.

What more do you want?

Apple needs work, yes. And it will get it over time that will keep it ahead of other options.

The use of a gaming console most often found lying on the living room carpet or in the kid's bedroom next to a towering DVD/CD cabinet cabled across the floor to the TV that must have a TV-tuner equipped PC - everyone has one of those - right? - is hugely chump.

Initial Thoughts on Android and the G1 Smartphone

Your piece should be headlined and end with what it begins: :for someone who can't use an iPhone touch keyboard. That said, for the tens of millions of others who are perfectly happy with iPhone touch typing, indeed, would never ever go back to a keyboard, it can be disregarded.

Apple's iPhone to Capture Chinese Internet Market

With Apple's price at circa $180, buying the stock ahead of a China Mobile deal is a headless no-brainer.

Six Attractive Stocks with Hidden Gems

Most readers like to turn a page, even if it's one bent back beneath a crumpled paperback. Seniors crave this too. I know, I'm one of them. I also like going into a bookstore when I'm on holiday, browsing for a good read. Imagine, carrying a Kindle around. Imagine, sitting in a coffee shop reading your Kindle. On the beach, trying to see the screen in the bright sunshine. Okay in the nursing home though.

Apple's iTunes: Rapid Sales Acceleration

The future added ingredient here is Apple TV Games. I mean real people ones, sophisticated, insightful, challenging contests that are in our near future. Think of downloading one of those suckers for an evenings pleasure! And with box and software integrated into your widescreen TV. No lifting our that mess of boxes and cables to be strewn across the living room floor.

Digital Music Titans Battle for Eardrums and Dollars

The answer, having extensively used MySpace and iTunes for the last year or so, is the two company's offer a unique blend of music; the largely new and untried mixed with the mature artist attached to record company label. MySpace is wonderful for trolling the up and coming. For example, enter "Jazz" and scroll through thousands of tunes so written and produced, many as good as or better than professional studio. Then correspond with the artist!

Over time there will be a blurring of such offerings - for example iTunes having a MySpace-like section and MySpace growing an iTunes-like one. Key for success: CONTENT, CONTENT, CONTENT - get it?

3G iPhone: Growth and High Margins for Apple?

Tom B: agree with you except for one absolute gleaming jewel in that crown; MS Word, a version of which is fortunately available for Mac. And don't spout off about Pages. Instead, go lay out a book with multi-section titling, page numbering and chaptering with intelligent double-sided printed output! After ten trashed reams you'll get the picture.

Is the End of the Cable Box Near?

One day the set-top box will go the way of the Dodo. And the sooner the better. The brain of such devices of course resides in the software. Stuff that chains the viewer to the whims of the cable company, tells the box and the subscriber what to do and what can and cannot be done.

Apple TV could be attached to the TV set today (retaining clips, power outlet, HDMI panel on the back panel) so as to appear as if part of it. A more mature version of the device could be built right in. You couldn't do that so easily with the relatively humungous set-top box. Trouble is, there is stuff in the box - remote control, satellite set-up, channel authorization, selection, billing, display etc, that is must have stuff too.

Don't look for Apple to be producing such a union themselves although such strategy must be the subject of keen debate within the company. Rather, they would strike up partnerships with set manufactures and cable-satellite companies - much as Sony is trying to do today. Compelling content will decide the winners.

One thing is certain, Apple TV must have a screen. And to content hungry viewers, increasingly, their dumb TV needs an Apple.

Apple Experiments with Sun-Powered Devices

The ironic fact of life with regard to portable devices is, pun unintended, big-time smallness, whereas solar energy needs collection surface. The more unobscured area catching sunlight the more power available to more speedily charge waning batteries. Such surface as is available on a miniature device residing in ones pocket or handbag is quite useless for such purpose.

Apple Experiments with Sun-Powered Devices

The photocells could be sewn into the surface area of a hat, the shoulders of a shirt or jacket to which your device is connected, the aim being to extend battery life rather than a replace.

Raw Data Report: Technology

Gasp, so whatawe do now, jump thru a hoop?

American Airlines Struggles With High Oil, Weak Dollar

Oil price need not effect airline earnings. A highly visible ticket surcharge that mirrored oil costs' rise and fall. Implemented on a daily basis (if need be) via a prominently displayed notice behind each ticket counter and on travel web pages; WSJ, FT indexes etc., showing daily fuel surcharge to be added to scheduled ticket price thus eliminating much confusion and uncertainty.

American Airlines Struggles With High Oil, Weak Dollar

Oil price need not effect airline earnings. A highly visible ticket surcharge that mirrored oil costs' rise and fall. Implemented on a daily basis (if need be) via a prominently displayed notice behind each ticket counter and on travel web pages; WSJ, FT indexes etc., showing daily fuel surcharge to be added to scheduled ticket price thus eliminating much confusion and uncertainty.

Blue Ridge Capital - Portfolio Holdings

It's not rocket science to present a portfolio that contains Google and Apple when these two companies provide 85% of the growth making fund managers appear market-savvy. It doesn't require that your manager works out of a luxurious office in a Manhattan skyscraper either. That YOUR money pays for. The technique is plain vanilla deception no matter how you spin it.