Apple’s big announcement = big apple

Despite numerous rumors about Apple’s big announcements for Tuesday, Apple showed only new line of Mac Mini computers (as I was expecting) along with not-really-portable iPod Hi-Fi system priced at $349 and incredible (cough) leather case for iPod video. That’s all folks. Now sit back and enjoy while waiting for “Big Origami Thursday”.

The real story about iPod

Finally! Someone revealed the real truth about iPod and its evil existence. As many have feared, iPods really came from the sky. I just watched trailer for Scary Movie 4 which features tripods (yeah, they call it like that) attacking the Earth. Among other things, Dr. Phil and Shaquille O’Neal had their own piece. More information’s about movie can be found here.

Oh, and we’re still waiting for Apple’s big announcement. Latest rumor is Apple “tablet PC”, but I’m also expecting to see new line of Mac Mini computers.

Update: If you are looking for something really cool to add on your iPod, then make sure to check Encyclopodia project which brings whole Wikipedia on your iPod!

TWiT #43

New episode of world’s most popular podcast is ready for download. In episode 43 of This Week in Tech, hosts Leo Laporte, Kevin Rose, Patrick Norton, David Prager, Dough Kaye and John Dvorak are talking about Google Base and its taking of credit cards, Google’s Page Creator, meaningless of Alexa’s ratings, Xerox’s hidden dot-code, iTunes 1 billion songs being sold, Dvorak’s new IPTV show any many other things.

You can find full show synopsis here and download latest version right here.

Origami coming

Are you excited? Only 4 days left until Microsoft shows “the thing” that will set us free. I was hoping Microsoft would drop the idea and give real software support to the PDAs, but that isn’t going to happen. According to various rumors, Origami will bring touchpad along with support for Wi-Fi and Xbox games. Now I’m just wondering what will people say if rumors about touchpad iPod come to true as well. This will be interesting week, there is no doubt. Now someone please set me free.

Office 2007 FAQ, new nVidia drivers for Vista

Paul Thurrott from winsupersite.com has put small Office 2007 FAQ that should answer some basic questions for people who either never met with Microsoft Office (who are those people?) or who would like to know what exactly is each version going to deliver. You can check his FAQ here. Also, make sure to check his in-depth articles on Windows Vista.

In related news, nVidia just released updated drivers for Windows Vista. Drivers are in beta (version 87.15), of course, but you can download them here for classic 32-bit Vista configuration and here for x64 version of Windows Vista OS.

“IT Crowd” first season is now over

I’ve just read that first season of very popular show “IT Crowd” is over. IT Crowd is much like American show The Office, but this one is about geeks and you might find some similarities with your life. Well, at least I did. Hopefully, you don’t mind British humor since show is really great. Guys from Geeks are Sexy blog posted short synopsis for each of six available episodes so make sure to check it out. All episodes are free for download via filecloud service.

Lenovo puts pressure on Dell

It seems that Chinese company Lenovo finally decided to take own brand to the new horizons. After being seen as IBM with different name for most of time since they acquired IBM’s PC Division, Lenovo decided to go strong with brand name promotion by sponsoring Winter Olympic Games. Lenovo became world’s third-largest PC maker with 6.4% market share behind leaders Dell and HP with 17.2% and 14.7% market share respectively (according to research published by iSuppli). However, Lenovo finished 2005. as number one on Chinese market, ahead of mentioned companies. That said, last year was definitely successful for Lenovo, but that’s hardly enough since both Dell and HP are expecting significant raise in market share trough this year.

Lenovo decided to strike and they did it good. By introducing new and very cheap line of desktop and notebook PCs, Lenovo did something IBM was afraid to do for many years. They’ve decided to use AMD’s cheap and effective Sempron along with powerful Athlon64 processors in their configurations. With new line, Lenovo finally gave customers something they really wanted and needed – a choice. Not to mention that their new notebooks aren’t black. Of course, such decision gave Lenovo more flexibility in terms of price, but it also put great pressure on Dell to rethink its policy on use of Intel-only processors in their configurations.

Yey, I know that you read about possible Dell-AMD partnership every single day with rumors floating around, and it is getting definitely boring, but Dell can’t ignore the threat, not anymore. After being so sure in Intel processors, Michael Dell isn’t giving famous speeches about quality and quantity, but he is rather being open to all solutions that would benefit his company. If there is one thing company can’t ignore, then its market and customers, and customers obviously want more solutions to choose from. Dell knows it and in my opinion it is really just matter of time before partnership between Dell and AMD is announced. If they want to remain world’s largest PC maker, they have to change, and the change is happening right now. Negotiations with Google about adding Google’s software on Dell’s configurations along with Intel’s “new love”, Apple, should be clear signs for everyone. Dell isn’t going to crack partnership with companies that made Dell great, Intel and Microsoft, but Dell isn’t going to let its market to others, and if it means installing Google applications and adding AMD processors to their configurations, so it will be. As Rahul Sood said, it is no longer matter of “if”.

Speaking about Rahul, I have to mention his already famous bet with Inquirer’s Charlie Demerjian. Those fellows have somewhat different opinion on whole Dell-AMD case. On one side there is Rahul with his belief about Dell and AMD working together pretty soon, while on the other side is Charlie who believes in forever love of Intel and Dell. They’ve put a bet, and fate of the world will be decided on upcoming IDF where the loser will wear pinky bunny suit for one day. Yey. I guess it was the only way to slow Charlie in his quest for another title in super fast PC assembling. To spice things a little bit, maybe they should add some contest for cheerleaders and for best geek cheerleader offer some prices like date with famous Inq-Dell girl or some nasty VoodooPC configuration, depending who wins the bet. Anything can happen if you believe.

DigitalLifeTV Episode 38

Guys over DLTV just released download links for episode 38. of their popular tech show. In this episode they’re talking about new Windows Vista build (see some additional information’s here), Google’s brand new Page Creator, Apple’s iTunes service and more.

You can download this show in different versions from this page. Enjoy.

Gone with wind editorial

I’ve received great feedback for column published last week on hardware e-zine “Hardware Base” regarding the issues in IT world of journalists, so I’ve decided to post it here as well. I’d like to hear your opinions on this one.

“It has been a while since it became known that marketing is more important than the final product, yet many ignore its power. Those who are aware of its power use their knowledge to uncover the real truth, but considering today’s media, truth can have several faces. Prestige in being an editor in some printed or online magazine is long gone, considering the pressure coming from the management, not to talk about the market. Many will say that there is no room for error, and only the best stay in business.

The story starts with the 3 letters that mean everything: NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreement). For a good while now within IT field, leading hardware and software manufacturers, gamble with such deals. The deals are backed up by journalists of course. The prime rule of journalism is that exclusive information is worth its weight in gold, and the one that goes live with it, is the winner. That is the beginning of a myth called NDA. Journalists are split between those that respect such agreements, since breaking it would most likely end in a law suit, or even worse, the end of partnership between publication and the manufacturer. Fear of the consequences makes most publishers respect the agreements made, though some, like TheInquirer, have developed their own brand based on not making these kinds of deals, but always publishing information before everyone else. And as I mentioned earlier, having the information first, makes you the winner, and the winner always have superb information sources.

Taking into consideration that all major hardware and software presentations have been marked with traditional leaks of information before the NDA deadline, the question appears when will those journalists become hostages of these companies that bond them on signing those deals? The fact stands that every chain has its weak link, and don’t come tell me that you don’t believe the information leaked from within. I don’t intend on going into the reasons that result into the information leaks before the deadline, but the fact is such leaks were in abundance through whole last year (and examples are more numerous that I would even bother listing them), and considering the launch of 2 major consoles, Microsoft’s new operating system, quad core processors and what not, even now we can understand what will become. Let us do our jobs, please.

*****

The proof that NDA deals aren’t the only problem got confirmed by discovery of nVidia’s deals with a company called Arbuthnot Entertainment Group (AEG) which makes its living by polling consumer opinion. Anyway, this wasn’t confirmed in some public announcement, but it surfaced as accusations on some weird forum messages. Thing was that nVidia gave away gifts to some enthusiasts which helped in promotion and spreading the information about company’s new products. This was of course denied by nVidia, but the situation was too weird that it could be easily forgotten. Numerous journalists have sounded their opinions on the subject, so I suggest that you take a look at those articles. This case shows what kind of pressure we journalists have to cope with when getting in touch with a new danger that’s almost impossible to spot.

But, the duty of every professional journalist is to write the truth, because sooner or later, the community will understand when a journalist or the whole organization have been victimized by marketing, or rather some 3rd party. Just take a look what happened with once most popular hardware site, Tom’s Hardware. No matter how large the number of sites that offer different information and advice, the truthful information about products become more and more important. You have the right to know the truth about a product since journalists are paid to tell you the truth, with exception of those that are on manufacturer’s pay rolls.

It would be wrong to put all the guilt on the manufacturers, because they make use of departments that work on selling a product, just like some newspapers make use of renowned journalists, which with their reputation and writing style, bring new readers. But the line has to be drawn. Now! Why, you ask?

LegitReviews.com, one of the most popular hardware sites, have published an article yesterday in which the site editor let Corsair, a known memory manufacturer, a chance to publish their opinion on usefulness of heat spreaders used on their RAM modules. On first sight this looked innocent enough, but you have to ask the question about why a journalist would let one of the manufacturers publish testing results on a site that lives off publishing impartial hardware reviews? Isn’t the whole point of such sites to deliver test results, done by 3rd party testers that have no connection with the manufacturers, to prove which product is the best one?

The engineer from Corsair (codenamed: journalist) published his in-depth research on the subject, which showed that heat spreaders on RAM modules made no difference. I can consider that as a truthful article, but the writer also used considerable space on writing about a solution used by OCZ, an American RAM manufacturer, that is a direct competitor to Corsair. The journalist concluded that neither solution offered any advantage, and that the whole thing was one big marketing trick. But, wait a bit, a spokesperson of one company presenting all of this on a site that is supposed to be objective, and taking real good time to write about the competition too, how convenient is that?

As expected, OCZ answered that such analysis is of no interests, but I am still shocked about the fact that LegitReviews.com went ahead and published such partial article. I am sure that editor in question will come with elaborate explanation and reasons behind this decision, but what has been done is wrong, very wrong. I might be mistaken, but this could be a start of a trend where friendly manufacturers would supply already written articles, and even test results on request, and all we would have to do is to publish them. To some it may sound as a vacation, a solution to drop all the hard work that they put into this unforgiving profession, but to me it sounds like a start of the end of free and professional journalism. The question now is how to stop this from happening. If it has already become impossible to influence the journalists and their superiors, then the power lies with you, the community, to recognize the people that write the truth, because it is the only way to save professionalism, and with that, this profession. Support the truth!”

One player to rule them all

With all the fuss and so called leaks about new Apple iPod player coming next Tuesday, I’ve decided to post something I wrote to Microsoft’s Robert Scoble few weeks ago. Hate to say, but it seems I had a point regarding the PDAs – just look what are all those iPod leaks about.

“For quite some time, magazines and e-zines have been reporting about Microsoft’s interest in releasing a product that would compete with Apple’s iPod. I believe it is safe to say that there have been such reports ever since Apple released first generation of iPod player and after tremendous sales analysts used their logic and proposed that Microsoft (among other companies) would jump into market and take away the crown of evil company called Apple in this case. Well, many tried, no one had much success, not even Creative. But hey, people have right to express their opinion.

Anyway, rumors are back again. Apple released Apple Video player (after saying they wouldn’t do so) and Apple released brand new line of computers based on Intel’s chips (after saying they would never…) so it looks Apple is on the move again. Q4 sales was really, really good, stocks are up and everything is going really well, so someone has to write a new conspiracy theory because you can’t just let them do their thing too good, right? So, to make conclusion, Apple is evil there, they have monopoly and they are using Intel’s chips, but before they get crusaded, let’s add someone else in the mix.

How about Sony? Yeah, that’s sounds too good even for Spanish TV novel, but it’s IT. After being company no 1. with CD players for years, Sony never managed to produce decent mp3 player. However, they did other things right. Yeah, I’m talking about PlayStation here. 100 millions of PS2 consoles speak pretty much for itself, but they didn’t stop there and they’ve released a handheld console, PlayStation Portable (PSP), and attacked Nintendo’s long time basement. Press was excited. Excitement didn’t last long (if we don’t count famous firmware updates).

Finally, we reach for winning card. Microsoft! (press gets crazy) In the mix we already have long time “enemies” of the Microsoft, known as Apple and Sony. OK, people will say that Microsoft already answered to Sony by producing Xbox and to Apple by making Windows Vista (which “brings it all”) but that’s far from enough, since both of “other” companies have other stuff where they do well and press just thinks that Microsoft can’t watch it. Well, it is true that every big company wants to be on market where it can earn more money (nothing wrong about that), but is Microsoft going to attack iPod and PSP’s market?

Some time ago, I remember Mr. Gates saying that Microsoft had no plans or whatsoever of producing the handheld console. If I’m not mistaken, he could’ve said it in interview he gave for you Robert. When press finally gave up on evil conspiracy theory, BusinessWeek published article and quoted Moore saying “It can’t just be our version of the iPod”! Argh, here we go again. I just think Microsoft shouldn’t do it because from this point it looks almost impossible to make unique device and I’ll tell you why I think so.

Handheld market exists and it is almost too crowded with Nintendo and Sony being leaders there. People are already offered devices that can play video and mp3s along with modern games, but it comes in a big size (PSP or DS), so you have Micro and other GameBoy versions for people who want true “pocket gaming” but without great graphics and other features. So, I believe our new device has to be small. How small? Small like a cell phone. Hey, it should be a cell phone! If you want to make some distance between competition, you have to add something. So let’s you have cell phone and great features there (e.g. screen quality, 3D graphics and sound effects), but doesn’t this sound familiar?

Yes, it does. Nokia, world’s largest manufacturer of cell phones, already tried exact approach with Ngage and it didn’t work. Sony-Ericsson made something similar with their Walkman series of cell phones and it is going pretty well, except it doesn’t have games (someone said Java?). You could add a service for buying music, videos and games, but guess what, Apple already offered something similar in cooperation with Motorola. So tell me, where is the space for innovation right there?

I just don’t see it there, meaning, Microsoft could go just one way and produce a device that is ultimately Xbox Portable (hm, gotta admit it sounds cool to refer it as XP). Why? Because when you offer great graphics, people just want bigger screen. If you add GSM features, no one is going to use it since the device itself would be too big. You’ll get chance to play Xbox games, share music and other stuff trough wireless, play music and videos and definitely have better cooperation with Windows operating system, but does it really differ from iPod and PSP? It doesn’t and it can’t. That’s why I believe it would be too much of risk even to Microsoft to gamble on a new market that would bring it all-in-one since end-users are simply too picky.

If Microsoft decides to go “other way”, it will end up producing the product that’ll be better then others in terms of performance and probably features, but it won’t be unique. Any solution? Well, I see only one product in mind – PDA: loaded with some Windows “Multimedia” OS and with possibility to play “Xbox games”, watch videos and listen to music with ease. Is this something that we want? I’d certainly like to have some Xbox-like games on my PDA (HP hx4700) but do we really need whole new platform for that? I’d just release new Windows OS for PDAs and bring Xbox games to the table since hardware inside newest PDAs isn’t being used by current applications anyway. And yes, PDAs already have the most you’d ask for: their size is acceptable, there are models with GSM integration, they have hardware, they have applications, integrated WiFi, BlueTooth, cards for storage etc.”