Alan D.

Thoughts on the Apple Tablet, iPhone Rumors

The existing iPhones and iPod touches can access Amazon's Kindle books. Amazon has a FREE application for the iPhone OS devices. They also have a free application for PCs and one for Macs is on its way.


On Dec 27 10:09 AM Cherotree wrote:

> Please excuse my ignorance but I don't know a lot about the Kindle
> or the new "tablet" that Apple is releasing soon. My question is,
> in reference to the comment below, would the new Apple tablet be
> able to access electronic books from Amazon also, or is it proprietary
> technology? Just asking. Peace!

The iPhone's Next Carrier Is Likely T-Mobile, Not Verizon

To the commenters above: LTE is close enough to GSM that MacGal's insider info from her AT&T relative is (roughly) accurate...

"LTE" is the "Long Term Evolution" -of- GSM. It's not the same, but it's intimately related...

I've believed for a year or two now that the iPhone will come to VZ when VZ supports LTE. 12-18 months. Not holding my breath, but I am crossing my fingers...

What Will the Next iPod Touch Offer?

Do you understand what Google Voice is? It's a way of CONSOLIDATING your phone numbers & phone devices. It is NOT VoIP, it does not route 'normal' telephone calls to VoIP. It WILL route 'normal' telephone calls to a SkypeIN number if you have one, but then you are again paying someone for minutes (Skype or the equivalent).

Yes, an iPod touch running a Google Voice app (including their updated mobile web app) will allow you to make calls from and receive them at whatever (registered) phone you're sitting near. But that won't help you at Starbucks or Panera...

A Closer Look at Those iPhone App Store Revenue Numbers

"For Jobs to throw out that figure and say that the App Store could one day be a billion dollar a year industry, to me means that he thinks it will at least be that big of a business."

Yes - definitely. But should the issue at hand be revenue (I can see them taking in a billion dollars a year) or profit (they'll 'only' keep $333 million of that, and we don't know how much their 'Cost of Doing Business' is for the store - operating staff + hardware + software + bandwidth + marketing + ?)... Keep in mind that the CoDB is the same for a free app as for a paid app, and that the ratio of free to paid apps is quoted as being anywhere from 15:1 to 40:1, and you'll see why there's no way to guess how much PROFIT the store makes... (As an aside, I checked, and I seem to have downloaded about 30:1 free to paid... How about you?)

I think that's why Apple isn't considering the store a 'profit generator' - they want to focus on the hardware, which is what generates the market for the apps, not the apps themselves.

Apple, Internet Radio Will Not Cancel Out Satellite Radio

802.11n is faster wifi, that's all - everything pats said is accurate. 802.11n means you can "do wifi stuff faster" but has nothing to do with "internet in the car" unless you're parked outside your house or a Panera...

What the BCM4329 adds over the existing model is both FM transmit and receive capabilities, so you no longer need an FM transmitter to hear the phone over your (car) stereo. Of course, I bought an FM transmitter for my iPhone 3g for $15 including shipping.

Other issues with your article - I pay $90/month for voice + 'unlimited' data + SMS. 450 daytime minutes plus free nights & weekends. If you need more than the base plan, you'll pay more, obviously...

When push comes to shove... I am long in both AAPL and SIRI but to think either will have an effect on the other because of 802.11n being added to the 802.11g that the iPhone already has, is inconceivable. (Yes, I know what the word means.)

That all said, I think the streaming SIRI/XM Radio app for the iPod/iPhone WILL provide some number of new subscribers/new revenue, at a lower support cost... IF AT&T allows us to stream it over the 3g network. They've already forced the blocking of Sling Media's SlingBox app over 3g...

DOJ Uses Google to Send a Message

... that being one difference between the Democrats and the Republicans. *ducking and covering*

How Much Profit Is Apple Making from the App Store?

I think you have underestimated the hosting costs - bandwidth (at this scope) is $$Expensive$$ - and I also think you have overestimated the ratio of paid::free applications; I have downloaded > 150 apps; around 130 of them were free, the others range from .99 - 9.99 (for a game I already knew I wanted on my phone). Admittedly this is not typical consumption but I DO think it significantly more likely that people will purchase free apps than paid apps.

Apple Sales Look Healthy

I may be missing something, but I'd like to see historical results of such a survey... The only (literally, ONLY) time I've seen Apple discount products in-store, is Black Friday in November. And I'm in Apple stores somewhat frequently...

Apple stores (including store.apple.com) do offer discounts to students/faculty, government employees/military, and many large corporations, but those are ongoing discount programs, not a 'sale'.

Apple: Eight iPhone Annoyances

Wow... I agree with all of these. I'm not sure I've had that happen before. :-) App Launching would be another I'd add; being able to find apps by name (perhaps in a cover-flow type manner) would be awesome. I hate having to flip through 6-8 screens hoping to quickly recognize an app's icon, and then have to go through again more slowly looking at the names... And btw I found out (the hard way) that the iPhone only allows 148 apps onto the phone - 9 screens of 16 apps + the 4 at the bottom. Is that an unreasonable number? Not really. Is it arbitrary? Seems that way to me... (I need to prune some of the free apps that just seemed nice at the time.)

#s 2,5,8 don't bother me that much but #1 is a huge issue for me - not having a character counter is just broken.