For those of you who have seen the movie Demolition Man you know where I'm coming from. I still haven't figured out how the damn 3 sea shells work.
So in honour of this confusion and disfusion I'm ranting mildly against the 'sea shells' in my life. These include my heroes, technology and things of general interest to me.
Thanks for stopping by and checking out my mild rants.
In an article by By WILL WEISSERT, Associated Press Writer, dated Wed Nov 7, 12:14 AM ET, the author brings to our attention the facts found by Jean Ziegler, the UN's Independent Investigator on the right-to-food.
photo taken from news.yahoo.com
Cuba is one of 32 countries that include the "right to food" in their constitutions, and fewer still — including Brazil, Latin America's largest economy — meet pledges to provide food to all their citizens, he said.
Rumour on The Street is that Apple will be releasing a newer, sleeker version of the 15" MacBook Pro along side the launch of the new OSX - Leopard on Friday, October 26th.
I logged in tonight, like I do every night, to check my mail. When I got to my Yahoo mail, I was surprised. Yahoo has updated their mail program and it looks really good.
From initial preview it seems more organized and looks better than the previous mail that they offered. One of the new features in this upgraded mail program is the ability to chat with windows (msn) users right from within your mail window. This feature can be seen to be similar with Google's chat program except that Google chat only allows you to chat with Google chat users.
Bringing the founder back was indeed a good move by Yahoo. Not only has the mail been improved, but so has their aggression towards paid ads on their site. This means that their earnings will only go up.
In a BBCNews article "Google dominates world search" shows Yahoo in a distant second place at 8.5 billion searches behind Google's 37 billion. Expect these numbers to be closer together at the next posting of these search results.
Valued Exposure: Argentinean born Cuban revolutionary Ernesto Che Guevara during the battle of Santa Clara. 8th October marks the 40th anniversary of execution in the Bolivian village of La Higuera. Photo: Keystone/Getty Images
This is how the BBC article opened, reporting on the ceremony celebrating the life of the Argentine-born, honorary Cuban Revolutionary Hero. His face is the most widely and easily recognizable face on print and is able to sell anything from buttons, to mugs to t-shirts.
The ideals and the fantasy of Che has indeed captured and inspired the hearts and minds of many people, both young and old, for many years now and continue to do so even to this very day. An ideal of standing up against oppressors in a fight for the common man.
Some of the countries celebrating Che Guevara are Cuba, Bolivia and Venezuela. The Venezuelan leader, Hugo Chavez referred to Che as an "infinite revolutionary" while in a message from Fidel Castro he was described as an "exceptional soldier."
The revolutionary hero / freedom fighter was killed in Bolivia during an attempt to liberate that country. His death marked the end of a brand of being that is yet to be seen today. His body may have been stopped short, but his ideals and image lives on. I am reminded by the line "a missile is not invented that can kill an ideal" ... neither is a bullet.
9 to 5 Mac reports that blu-ray discs are finally available for Macs. The lines supported include MacBook Pros, iMac Intel, iMac G5, Mac Mini, PowerBook line iMacs among others.
However, this does come with a $1000 pricetag attached...chi-ching. A disc almost the price of the the 15" iMac. I don't know. But we'll see how desperate consumers are to have blu-rays units to cough out that price.
The units are being offered by Fastmac, who are offering options of 50GB discs, and not by Apple themselves. This leaves questions of warranty issues up the air, for now.
Well, you were warned. The latest iPhone update 1.1.1 to iTunes release has indeed rendered the many hacked iPhones unusable, as reported by BBC News
The resultant in-operability of your iPhone thus voids the warranty under which it exists. However...there is a way. As reported by 9to5Mac, a loop exists for you to get Apple themselves to fix your iPhone. All you have to do is lie! Lie? But we were always told that was wrong. According to 9to5Mac there is a flaw in the IMEI destruction software that destroys AT&T's GoSIM's IMEIs as well.
The latest version of Office for the Mac was unveiled today by Microsoft.
The software comes in three versions: 1. Home & Student Edition Price: $149.95 (Full version) 2. Standard Edition Price: $399.95 3. Special Media Edition Price: $499.95
Apple released a statement earlier this week saying that iPhones unlocked using SIM Unlock causes irreparable damage to the iPhone which voids it under Apple Warranty.
The soon to be released latest version of the iTunes software threatens the many already unlock iphones. It holds that the update would render issues with iPhones unlocked using SIM unlock.
Update: In a small article posted on Guerillanews, Steve Jobs promises to fight iPhone Unlocking Hacks.
There is software that allows you to hack your iPhone, and allows you to install and uninstall apps to your new iPhone.
Because Apple has the the structure locked it's not easy for other apps to be installed on the iPhone. The current method right now to use apps other that what Apple has installed, is to do so via the built in browser.
This new app called installer.app allows you to hack the iPhone and install software apps right onto the iPhone over. wifi.
Most of the phones features are available so far, including SMS, Edge, calling In/Out, etc. One noticeable and obvious exception is the visual voice-mail. Well, that's until someone figures that out too.
Thanks to the iPhone hacks for making this possible for the rest of us...especially the guys around the world.
Apple promised to sell 10 million iPhones by the end of the year, and with the availability of the software (one that Apple legal has not approached) combined with the price drop of the iPhone means that Apple is well on it's way to meeting its mark.
So above were some of the things that interested me and I’m only commenting on those that did. First off, the iPhone Touch (video above) seems to be the much awaited for Video iPod. I noticed that it was still not called the “Video iPod” and I am tempted to think that Apple is yet to unveil that device. Remember the iPod with video some claimed was the video iPod?
iPod Touch Tech Specs Price: 8GB $299; 16GB $399
Display * 3.5-inch (diagonal) widescreen multi-touch display * 480-by-320-pixel resolution at 163 pixels per inch
Audio * Frequency response: 20Hz to 20,000Hz * Audio formats supported: AAC (16 to 320 Kbps), Protected AAC (from iTunes Store), MP3 (16 to 320 Kbps), MP3 VBR, Audible (formats 2, 3, and 4), Apple Lossless, AIFF, and WAV
Video * H.264 video, up to 1.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 frames per second, Low-Complexity version of the H.264 Baseline Profile with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats; H.264 video, up to 2.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 frames per second, Baseline Profile up to Level 3.0 with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats; MPEG-4 video, up to 2.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 frames per second, Simple Profile with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats
Wireless data * Wi-Fi (802.11b/g)
Battery life: Audio: 22 Hours; Video: 5 Hours
This is an amazing device as you might have well realized. It’s the iPhone but without the Phone. I won’t go into too much details about it as you can read from the tech specs (above) and see from the video what exactly it does and is.
One thing I notice missing was Google Maps from it. I don’t know if this was something Steve Jobs missed or if it’s something that’s going to be added in later. But it has everything else. The Starbucks partnership is a great deal. The ability to preview and download songs - up to the last ten - played at a particular Starbucks is a nice idea.
I take issue with Apple. I think they have too many very similar products. It makes it very hard for me to choose which product to get. Like, I really want to get an iPhone, but now the price has dropped to $399 for the 8GB model - the only model they will be making and selling from now (4GB are still being sold but discontinued....get yours while supplies last). That’s a similar price I would pay for the 16GB iPod Touch. Granted the Touch is not an iPhone and can’t make calls...but it does basically the very same things the iPhone does plus it’s twice the capacity. So which do I choose.
In addition the iPod Classic is similarly price but has a 160GB capacity - that’s 80 times the capacity of the iPhone..granted it does not do as much. I’m saying why can’t we get a 30GB Touch?
Now now, we all know it would be hard to sell the one over the other if the lesser of the devices had features that made it stand out over the better, but with those devices possession such simiilar features and with prices so close, makes the decision hard. At least for me. I think there should be distinguishing features that makes each one stand out over the other.
Apple stock went down at the end of the day after the keynote address. The stock to me is greatly undervalued, for several reasons. One is that, as announced, Apple’s iTunes is the number one in online downloads in 22 countries where it operates. The partnership struck with Starbucks which has “over 44,000 stores world wide and growing at rate of 7 stores a day” (ceo and founder of Starbucks Howard Schultz).
The iPhone has greatly increased the revenue base of Apple who is scheduled to ship 1M iPhones by the end of this month..and thus far the iPhone is only sold in the US. Deals are being struck in the UK and France for possible carriers of the iPhone which means that the customer base,, and hence sales of the iPhone will only increase, i.e. more money for Apple.
Plus, the iPod Touch, which is very much an iPhone without the phone functions, ships worldwide from the end of the month.
This means that for those customers who badly want and can’t get an iPhone can now get a Touch which does practically the same thing. With just these few things in mind, it’s clear that Apple Stock (at close of the day - Sept. 4 - was $136.74, down 5.15%) is clearly undervalued and will only go up.
Mark these words, analysts are going to raise their share price estimates of the company come end of the week.
I’ve been waiting a long time for an iPod with a screen this size and now that it has the touch technology I’m even more excited. I’m getting mine soon after it starts to ship.
Here is some information from the other iPod lines released today
Overview An anodized aluminum top and polished stainless steel back. Five eye-catching colors. A larger, brighter display with the most pixels per inch of any Apple display, ever. iPod nano stirs up visual effects from the outside in.
And it’ll wow you for hours. Play up to 5 hours of video or up to 24 hours of audio on a single charge.1 All that staying power and a wafer-thin, 6.5-mm profile makes iPod nano one small big attraction. taken from Apple.com
With 80GB or 160GB of storage,1 iPod classic gives your music and video room to move. It also has plenty of energy (up to 40 hours of audio playback2), good looks (a sleek, all-metal design), and a great personality (a brand-new interface with Cover Flow). In other words, iPod classic makes an ideal companion. Why not get to know it better? taken from Apple.Com
According to a post in MacRumors today, iPhoneSIMFree has software that would allow you to unlock your iPhone freeing you up to use your novel device with any carrier.
Yes, so you can keep your TMobile SIM, even Rogers in Canada, instead of switching to AT&T ... and use your iPhone with that current service and plan.
According to this same article iPhoneSIMFree will start selling the application to unlock the iPhone next week.
Engadget has provided some screen shots of this. Check them out. Leave your thoughts...
"Some of my friends think I wasted my summer but I think it was worth it,"
This hack however involves soldering as well as software manipulation but the young hacker is trying to make it an all software process. Visit his blog for instructions on how to unlock the iPhone: Finding JTAG
CNBC Interview
What does this mean? Well, increased sales for Apple, that's for sure. This definitely does not affect the price of the iPhone. AT&T on the other hand will suffer a reduction in new accounts, as users are now not required to transfer existing accounts or sign new ones with them in order to get an iPhone. APPL share price and revenue goes up, ATT goes down.