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Apple: The Real News Is What Wasn't Announced

I don't understand the fascination with an iPad. Why would Apple want to build the biggest small screen on the market? Why add a power hungry display to an iPhone? To make typing easier?

Personally I think that would be a dead end for the product line and I hope Apple thinks so too. The conspicuous refusal to allow the Google voice app on the iPhone should tell sophisticated pundits something about Apple's plans; they don't want voice apps from Google because they plan to do that themselves.

The iPhone is the ideal platform for a piconet master device. An iPhone coupled with a Bluetooth 2.0 headset (video glasses, microphone, earphones) makes the perfect voice operated internet device.

The future of portable computing is not bigger, it's smaller.

S&P 500 Watch: March 'Winners' Are Actually the Biggest Losers

You should read up on chaos theory.

Preparing for the Shift to Club Cloud Computing

Do you honestly think major corporations are going to outsource spreadsheet software to a third party just to reduce licensing and hardware costs? Are you insane?

A Simple Solution to the Micropayments Problem?

I think Deepfryer has a good point and I'll expand on it; people in the US are conditioned to expect advertiser funded content. Being a content provider myself I prefer the micropayment model, it lets me compete with the NYT on a level field. For this reason alone micropayment systems will fail.

Apple Refreshes Desktop Lineup: Is the Mac Mini Irrelevant?

I was waiting for a refresh on the mini to drive the current aftermarket down. I use the 1.6 Ghz dual core minis to drive the TV sets in my house. Apple TV might be ok but I need something I can administer easily in a network, right now I have 3 minis and 4 Mac Book Pros, I don't need the headaches that would come with an embedded version of FrontRow. It's a *whole* lot easier to integrate a mini.

Sure, an Apple TV box is a cheap way to get iTunes on your flat screen. Personally I have better things to do with my time. For me, the mini is very well positioned as a media server/access point. It has a niche. It has a very large niche.

Is Apple Poised to Move into the Living Room?

Time after time I read theses articles predicting the ultimate move into the living room by Apple and I think "where have these people been?"

Folks, it's over. I've been running a network of television and stereo systems in two separate states using Apple equipment for almost 3 years and I don't own an Apple TV box. The 1.6GHz mini with a DVD player works fine.

Apple connected television? You've never seen a DVI -> HDMI cable? Please.

This article is a lot like predicting it will rain someday. It's over folks. Apple is already firmly entrenched in the living room. Anyone around here use Front Row?

Apple's Been iSued

For once it would be nice to see people buying new tech rollouts doing their homwork befre complaining about 'defective products'.

I don't own an iPhone, let alonea 3G iPhone. I do own at least two of every other product apple makes save only the Apple TV box, and I don't own one of those for the same reason I don't have an iPhone.

3G networks don't work yet in the US. In fact they're have serious problems in Europe even though that continent is about 2 years ahead of N. America in deploying the infrastructure. AT&T aren't even close to having a decent coverage map for the US and they make no secret of that.

Anyone who went out and bought an iPhone thinking it was going to outperform their EVDO solution is ignorant. For the next two years the 3G iPhone is going to be a cocktail party conversation piece, nothing more.

This is like suing Ferrari because the State won't let you drive your car past 75 mph. Dumb. Really, Really Dumb.

Paradigm Capital Analysts Raise Base Metal Targets

Let's see. A world moving towards electric vehicles as fast as it possibly can. Copper, the principal element involved in electric motors, drops 66%? Are you joking?

And uranium's going to go down too I suppose? What with all those nuclear plants Westinghouse and Areva are building? Heck, those plants won't need copper since the distribution infrastructure is mostly in place.

But Toyota is going to need copper. Lots and lots of copper.

Is Apple TV a Viable Replacement?

Good point about Apple TV being a stealth product, but I'm not certain you're really looking in the right place.

While Apple TV looks like the company's first foray into the set top box, it really isn't. Pretty much everything you've suggested Apple do with the product is already available with a Mac Mini, the exception being the Blu Ray drive. The Mini has a standard def DVD drive.

If you take a Mini, hang 4 terabytes of storage off of it (1394 preferred), hook it up to a gigabit LAN and a widescreen TV you can not only archive your complete DVD and CD collections you can use the thing as a server to stream video to every computer in your home. I put in an Airport Extreme along with a few Airport Express remotes around my house near audio amplifiers and now I can watch my entire DVD collection or listen to my complete iTunes Library from any laptop I own, on any monitor I have connected to a Mac, from any amplifier I have connected to an Express.

It's pretty cool. I agree they need to do something about Front Row; it's painfully slow sometimes.

It isn't $229 though. You aren't going to find a system that can drive 5 displays and 8 speaker systems all over your house for $229. A gigabit ethernet switch alone will cost you more than that. However if your house is already wired for CAT 5, all you need are a few eBay Minis, a switch and some storage. Life will be good.