Apple on The Huffington Post

Hugh McGuire: 40,000 E-Books a Day

2008-11-21T13:28:12Z

40,000-a-day. That's how many e-books are getting downloaded through Stanza, the simple e-book platform for the iPhone/iPod. I've got 35 of them sitting on my iPod. All of them free, public domain or creative commons, and DRM-free.

40,000-a-day. If you are a publisher, think long and hard about that number.

The reason I have 35 books downloaded onto my Stanza is: a) it is easy, b) it is free.

What does this mean for your business model? I don't know, but I assure you that when I finish War & Peace, I'll be buying a hard copy. And I also assure you: I love reading on that little thing.

From GalleyCat:

Lexcycle, creators of the popular Stanza digital reader for mobile phones, announced today that their application has been downloaded 500,000 times -- reaching a vast readership in four months.

The application allows users to read books on the iPhone and iPod Touch, offering free downloads of titles that range from The Prince to Moby Dick. From the release: "Each day, over 40,000 books are downloaded wirelessly from Stanza's Online Catalog, which offers a wide range of free books and periodical content from a variety of sources in more than 20 languages." [more...]

What The Google Phone Stole From The iPhone

2008-11-17T17:40:58Z

There is a story that Steve Jobs likes to tell about fonts. In 1972, Jobs enrolled at Reed College in Portland, Ore.; after a semester, seeing little value in college, he dropped out. But Jobs hung around Portland--he crashed in friends' dorm rooms, recycled Coke bottles to buy food, and sat in on several courses that he found interesting. One of these was a calligraphy class; it was there that Jobs first realized the simple, underappreciated beauty of the written language on a page. Calligraphy, he recalled in a 2005 commencement speech at Stanford, was "beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can't capture, and I found it fascinating."

For many years, Jobs' interest in typography played no part in his work. In 1976, Jobs and his hacker friend Steve Wozniak started Apple, and their first great machine, the Apple II, featured the same bland, monospaced typefaces found on other computers. But in the 1980s, when Jobs and his team were developing the Mac, he realized that he could squeeze all that he'd learned in his calligraphy course into the new computer. The Mac was the first consumer machine to offer multiple fonts and the first to use "proportionally spaced" typefaces, meaning that unlike on a typewriter, some characters could be wider or narrower than others. (The letter I needs less space than the letter W.) Jobs' revolution in typography didn't go unnoticed; Microsoft wisely copied his proportional fonts when it developed Windows. In other words, there's a direct connection between a choice Steve Jobs made in college and that unfortunate PowerPoint you just made in comic sans: As Jobs told the Stanford grads, "If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do."

I got to thinking about this anecdote as I spent time over the past few weeks with the T-Mobile G1, the first phone to run Google's new Android mobile operating system. Among Android's many visually arresting features are its fonts. Google commissioned Ascender, a font house in Illinois, to create a custom Android font to render most of the phone's text; the font, Droid, is both stylish and highly readable, calling to mind Apple's minimalist aesthetic. That's not the only thing reminiscent of Apple in Google's phone. The G1 and the Android operating system are not copies of the iPhone and its software--they're not Windows Vista to Apple's Mac OS X. But in a deeper sense, everything about the Google phone seems inspired and indebted to the iPhone.

Was That New MacBook Really Green, After All? (VIDEO)

2008-11-17T08:42:31Z

When it announced its newest laptop computer, Apple touted it as a more environmentally-friendly model, citing less energy use and more efficient construction. For example, the body of the computer is one aluminum piece, cutting down heavily on plastic. Some users are even reporting that they think the new MacBooks are running cooler than their predecessors -- which are known to get pretty hot.

Here's a quick summary of the good (at the beginning -- feel free to stop watching when it transitions to "glamping," or "glamorous camping"):

But Green Inc. reports that some experts remain skeptical of the "greenest" MacBook:

Well, as green gadgets go, the machine performs well. It achieves both Energy Star 4.0 compliance, as well as a gold rating from the Green Electronics Council. (Of course, 103 other notebooks have received gold status, too.)

The new MacBook has received mostly positive reviews from green-gadget watchers elsewhere -- albeit with caveats. "Its new laptops are definitely better," Casey Harrell, Greenpeace International's toxic campaigner, "told the technology news service Newsfactor, adding: "But not all toxic pieces have been eliminated yet."

Hank Green, founder and editor of EcoGeek.org, saw a different problem. "Although the computer is very efficient and uses less toxic and more recyclable materials," Mr. Green said in an e-mail message, "the one revolutionary aspect of the Macbook -- its solid aluminum brick construction -- is not green at all."

Read the full story here

Julia Cheiffetz: 4 Questions I'd Like To Ask Google On The iPhone

2008-11-14T11:31:36Z

Today Google announced the release of a new voice recognition application for its search software on the iPhone. The software, which is said to be released as early as Friday, can tell you where the nearest Starbucks is, answer factual questions like "How high is Mount Everest?" It can even provide restaurant recommendations based on your location, which is clearly going to be a game changer for advertisers (Google is currently not selling location based ads). No, it won't clean your apartment, hail you a cab, or do your taxes.

4 Questions I'd like to ask Google on the iPhone:

1. Has the real estate market in New York bottomed out?
2. Are the "Skinny Cow" ice cream sandwiches I eat filled with toxic chemicals?
3. Where is the money from the $700 billion dollar bailout going?
4. Why did HBO pass on Mad Men?

Julia Cheiffetz is a Senior Editor at HarperStudio, a new imprint at Harper Collins. You can find her at www.26thstory.com where this was posted simultaneously.

BlackBerry Storm To Be Released November 21 For $199

2008-11-13T10:54:52Z

It's official: Verizon Wireless will start selling RIM's (RIMM) new touchscreen BlackBerry Storm on Nov. 21. The iPhone-ish smartphone will sell for $199.99 after subsidy and a $50 mail-in rebate, assuming you are eligible and sign a two-year contract.

This is an important launch for both companies, as Apple (AAPL) beat RIM in unit shipments last quarter, and Verizon (VZ) hasn't yet had a credible answer to the iPhone. However, this is hardly an aggressive play. We think Apple still has the upper hand.

We had read rumors that Verizon Wireless was considering selling the Storm for free after subsidy, as its part-owner Vodafone (VOD) is doing abroad. That would definitely give the iPhone a run for its money. But at $199, the Storm is the same price as Apple's 8-gigabyte iPhone, while offering fewer features. (And the obnoxious hassle of a mail-in rebate.)

Shelly Palmer: iPhone Number One in 3Q: MediaBytes with Shelly Palmer November 11, 2008

2008-11-11T09:47:12Z

According to a study by the NPD group, Apple's iPhone has overthrown Motorola's RAZR as the most popular selling phone during the third quarter. The iPhone claims the top spot, followed by the RAZR, and smart phone offerings from BlackBerry and LG. Apple has shipped 6.9 million iPhones in the third quarter of 2008 alone.

Circuit City filed for bankruptcy on Monday. The struggling consumer electronics retailer is hoping that a $1.1 billion line of credit will keep stores open through the holiday seasons. Circuit City, which has had financial problems since the 1990's, has lost 90% of its value since the beginning of 2008.

Cisco Systems is introducing new hardware to help increase the flow of video and data traffic on the Web. Cisco's spent $200 million over four years to develop its new equipment, which can handle six times the amount of data competitors hardware can process. For example, the ASR 9000 can move 250,00 mp3's in a second.

Nortel Networks posted a third quarter lose of $3.4 billion. Nortel, which manufactures telecommunications equipment, noted that it plans to cut its workforce by 5%. The weak financial report lead to a 25% drop in the company's share price.

Sirius XM posted a $4.88 billion net lose for the third quarter. Since the satellite radio providers merged, subscriber growth has been weak, while shares have fallen. To make matters worse, Sirius XM has $1.1 billion in debt due next year.

Plus, today's consulting question, "When is network DVR going to be available?" Shelly has the answer on today's MediaBytes.

Shelly Palmer is a consultant and the host of MediaBytes a daily show featuring news you can use about technology, media & entertainment. He is Managing Director of Advanced Media Ventures Group LLC and the author of Television Disrupted: The Transition from Network to Networked TV (2008, York House Press). Shelly is also President of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, NY (the organization that bestows the coveted Emmy® Awards). You can join the MediaBytes mailing list here. Shelly can be reached at shelly@palmer.net

Shelly Palmer: Madagascar Earns $63.5 Million at Box Office: MediaBytes with Shelly Palmer November 10, 2008

2008-11-10T09:26:45Z

"Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa" took home the top spot at the Box Office this week. The DreamWorks-Paramount production took in $63.5 million at 4,056 theaters nationwide, besting runner-up Role Models by over $40 million. Madagascar helped increase Box Office earnings this week by nearly 30% over this week last year.

MGM announced that it will share some full length features via YouTube. The struggling studio will begin by hosting older films like "Bulletproof Monk" and "The Magnificent Seven", as well as original episodes of "American Gladiator." While MGM certainly isn't sharing prime content, the deal is notable as it is a crucial step for studios to take in digitally reinventing themselves.

MySpace COO Amit Kapur announced at Web 2.0 Summit that MySpace is working on a payment platform for widget developers. Rival social network Facebook has reportedly been developing a "PayPal" enabled micro-platform for months, however, MySpace may beat them to the punch. MySpace is also launching virtual gifts, which were popularized on Facebook.

Blockbuster CEO and Chairman Jim Keyes said that Blockbuster will begin to market a set-top box that can deliver movies on-demand this holiday season. The box, similar to offerings by Apple and Netflix, will serve up movies from Blockbuster's "Movielink" download service. The announcement is in direct contrast to a statement made by Keyes in August, which noted that Blockbuster was in no-rush to roll out a set-top offering.

Plus, today's consulting question, "Was Britney Spears really going to play the Virgin Mary in a movie?" Shelly has the answer on today's MediaBytes.

Shelly Palmer is a consultant and the host of MediaBytes a daily show featuring news you can use about technology, media & entertainment. He is Managing Director of Advanced Media Ventures Group LLC and the author of Television Disrupted: The Transition from Network to Networked TV (2008, York House Press). Shelly is also President of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, NY (the organization that bestows the coveted Emmy® Awards). You can join the MediaBytes mailing list here. Shelly can be reached at shelly@palmer.net

iPhone Best Smart Phone For Business, Says JD Power

2008-11-06T14:15:57Z

This is a stunner for Apple and its iPhone, and just goes to show why Research in Motion and its BlackBerry have a little more to worry about: JD Power and Associates ranked the iPhone highest in customer satisfaction, not for everyday consumers as you might expect. But for "business wireless smartphone users."

Why is that significant? Remember that Apple [AAPL 99.47 -3.83 (-3.71%) ]set out to build a smartphone for consumers that hopefully business users would eventually adopt. It was a way to address the market that RIM [RIMM 48.61 -4.36 (-8.23%) ]had practically ignored by creating a business-friendly BlackBerry at the expense of the kinds of things consumers really wanted, like multimedia, cameras, games, etc. It would appear, based on the JD Power report this morning, that business users like what they see when it comes to iPhone.

The study, in its second year now, measures five key factors: Ease of operation; operating system; physical design; handset features; battery aspects. Apple ranked highest among overall smartphone customer satisfaction with a score of 778 out of 1,000, "performing particularly well in the ease of operation, physical design and handset factors." Apple was followed by BlackBerry (a score of 703) and Samsung (701).

Read the full story here

-or-

More in the smartphone wars:

::BlackBerry Storm (Touchscreen) Review
::Google Phone Hits The Streets
::A Case For The BlackBerry Curve

iPod Creator Tony Fadell Surprisingly Quits Apple

2008-11-04T07:35:22Z

Apple SVP Tony Fadell will leave the company and be replaced by former IBM exec Mark Papermaster, sources tell the Wall Street Journal. Apple refused to comment.

Fadell's departure is a surprise. At Apple, he lead the iPod's development, which Fortune magazine said was Fadell's idea in the first place. The WSJ says Fadell was "part of the executive team" that created the iPhone. Some pictured Fadell as Apple CEO Steve Jobs's eventual successor.

At IBM, Papermaster lead design of the Power PC processor, but at least for now, he won't lead chip design at Apple. IBM sued him last month, accusing him of breaching a noncompete agreement.

Steve Wozniak's "Toolbox That Built The Apple Computer" On the Block For $3,000

2008-11-03T13:43:52Z

"The tool box that built Apple Computer," a battered blue thing that belonged to Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak (right) is up for auction by Alexander Autographs. The toolbox -- which would probably go for $20 at a garage sale, is expected to fetch between $3,000 and $5,000. From the catalog description:

An extraordinary relic from the founding of one the largest, and certainly most influential computer design and manufacturing companies in history, the blue steel toolbox owned and obviously heavily-used by Apple Computer founder Steve Wozniak in Apple's formative, pre-1978 years! The aqua-blue enameled toolbox measures 13" wide x 5" tall x 7" deep and when opened has a three-section tray attached to the lid. Additionally, the top of the tool box bears a 4" long yellow "Dymo" self adhesive label bearing its owner's name: "STEVE WOZNIAK".

Rob Kall: Famous People on Why The Chicken Crossed the Road--From a Liberal Perspective

2008-10-30T11:43:13Z

An old friend sent me something like this, but clearly written mostly with a right wing slant. So I rewrote every one, deleted some and added some to better reflect a more liberal perspective. Feel free to copy and pass on. www.opednews.com

Famous people explain:
Why Did the Chicken Cross the
Road?
BARACK OBAMA: Now is the time. This is the place. This is the chicken and crossing the road will produce the change this chicken wants.
JOHN MC CAIN: My friends, I guarantee, even if it takes 100 years, that chicken will cross the road in victory
SARAH PALIN: That chicken was crossin' the road, but you betcha, I got in my state paid-for helicopter with the first dude's shotgun and blasted that liberal, godless chicken right off the road.
THE 110th CONGRESS: Do you mean the chicken could actually cross the road and not just sit there doing nothing?
HILLARY CLINTON: I was shot at by snipers while helping that 58 year old white chicken wearing a pantsuit cross the road.
GEORGE W. BUSH: That chicken is part of the axis of evil, but maybe it will stand and pose for a picture with me. No-one else will.
DICK CHENEY: Sorry about shooting the farmer helping the chicken cross the road.
COLIN POWELL: On the left side of the satellite image you can clearly see the mobile kitchen threatening to cook the chicken crossing the road.
ALBERTO GONZALES What chicken? I can't remember.
BILL CLINTON: I don't know why that chicken was holding a cigar while crossing.
AL GORE: Due to global warming the chicken was cooked by the time it crossed the road.
TED STEVENS: The chicken crossed the Alaskan road, and the bridge which I funded with benchmarks for $250 million.
DIEBOLD VOTING MACHINE: There were 200 hundred chickens that crossed the road (from the town of 100 chickens) and they were all Republicans
MAINSTREAM MEDIA The chicken crossed the road with Brittany Spears and a missing Siamese twin after separation sugery, and was almost hit by an SUV pursued by police cars, with helicopters transmitting images of the event.
ALTERNATIVE MEDIA: A chicken, funded by big oil, big Pharma and pork barrel legislation promoted by lobbyists, crossed to the right side of the road.
PROTESTERS: We protested the unsafe chicken crossing the road from our protest cage a mile away.
FOX NEWS: The chicken was obviously a communist chicken. It was red.
DRUDGE REPORT: The chicken shown below was funded by liberal democrats Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi with $10 million in funding

BILL O'REILLY: The chicken was running from a rapist, but she was a liberal chicken slut, so who cares if the road was a three-laner with high traffic. She deserved whatever hit her.
LOU DOBBS: The chicken was an illegal alien chicken running across the road to escape capture by the first brigade soldiers protecting America, in violation of Posse Comitatus, thank GOD.
REPUBLICAN PARTY: That chicken crossed the road without photo ID, making it ineligible to vote or cross the road-- and it's name wasn't on the chicken registry either, probably because it was a former prisoner.
RONALD REAGAN: First, the people earning over a million a year cross the road, then the big corporations. This will make it easier for the chicken to cross the road and while it's crossing, the chicken can clean up the trash they left on the road.
A VEGETARIAN: Do you know how many acres of rainforest have to be destroyed for one chicken to cross the road?
JERRY FALWELL: The chicken was run over while crossing the road because it was in a gay marriage and God cursed it.
PETA: Why couldn't a broccoli cross the road, or some tofu?
DECARTES: The chicken crosses the road, therefor it is.
THE BEATLES: Here comes the chicken. Here comes the chicken. It's alright... da da da da da da da da da.
NANCY PELOSI: The chicken was off the table, so it crossed the road.
CNN's WOLF BLITZER: The 12 foot tall chicken crossed the road. That's what the GOP tells us and we have no reason to ask any questions or doubt it.
BILL GATES: The road has been optimized so the chicken will cross the road faster and more safely if it uses Windows Vista as it's walking system. If there is a crash, we've made it easy to reboot the chicken. We call it MS egg.
WINDOWS VISTA: First make sure that no other animals are on the road. If there are any, start the next day with a clear road. Then, first, be sure the asphalt is within 60-80 degrees Fahrenheit. Then, call traffic control. Confirm that all lanes are clear for two miles. Feed the chicken the following mix of food. Check the chicken's feet. Yadda Yadda yadda. And then click the right button on the mouse....
APPLE MAC: The chicken crosses the road.
MACHIAVELLI: I helped the chicken cross the road to get its eggs.
DALAI LAMA We must ALL cross the road to be one with the chicken
MICHAEL JACKSON Look at that cute beak. I wonder if my plastic surgeon could do something like that for me.
JESUS It is easier to thread a camel through the eye of a needle than for a wealthy chicken to cross the road.
WOODY ALLEN: My brother thinks he's a chicken, so I help him cross the road, for the eggs.
Crossposted from OpEdNews.com

Peter Sims: The iPhone: How to Design a Great Business Model

2008-10-28T12:20:08Z

Apple's impressive quarterly earnings report this week, bolstered by iPhone sales, exemplified what has become increasingly clear: Apple has not only designed a highly successful product with its iPhone, the company's use of design principles have allowed it to build an incredible business model and ecosystem that has even Microsoft admiring it. Steve Balmer, CEO of Microsoft, wrote in a company-wide email on July 23rd that, "...there is no doubt that Apple is thriving. Why? Because they are good at providing an experience that is narrow but complete..."

What can we take from this? Design has always been a part of Apple's DNA and two key underlying principles from the world design thinking, which is being advanced in remarkable ways by my colleagues at the Stanford Institute of Design (the d.school), can be seen with the iPhone.

First, it's critical to understand the underlying needs of your customers or partners, which can be very different than what they say they want. Not only is the phone enjoyable to use, the iPhone value chain (or value network) has incentives for its partners and monetization opportunities for Apple throughout. The prime example is the iPhone Application Store where outside software developers keep 70% of each sale for the products they develop, since Apple understands that outside software developers need the right incentives to work weekends and late nights. But, Steve Jobs seems more than happy to take 30%, especially as he predicts gross sales of iPhone applications will soon reach $1 billion.

When it comes to iPhone service and distribution, AT&T needs ARPUs and users, so Apple gives AT&T those in spades on an exclusive basis, and in exchange AT&T pays Apple an estimated $320-$420 for each new subscriber (according to Oppenheimer). Meantime, Best Buy needs to improve its brand and customer pull for mobile phone products and services. Adding iPhone sales to its stores will do just that, while Apple's distribution reach will grow dramatically.

A second key design principle to highlight here is the use of rapid, low-cost prototypes to gather market insights in order to innovate and improve the offering. Each time a new application is launched, no one knows if it will become a big winner. Perhaps people will flock to games like "Texas hold 'em"; or, maybe the entire financial community will rush to download the HP-12c calculator iPhone application. The original HP-12c does, after all, cost $80 compared to the $19.99 iPhone application. Apple cannot predict all of the needs it can serve with the iPhone and, as Chris Anderson brilliantly observed, there's a Long Tail of needs. Through the iPhone Application Store, the market can surely align needs with solutions and Apple has designed its business model to facilitate the operation of that ecosystem, while taking nice profits along the way.

As more people and companies are incented to contribute to the iPhone ecosystem, the phone's utility grows and the customer experience improves. That drives overall demand. All of this helps to explain why people are still willing to wait two hours in line to buy one or why one of the biggest challenges CIOs face these day is managing requests for iPhones (just ask any CIO).

Indeed, Apple is benefiting from the virtuous cycle of the iPhone ecosystem:

1) Design a product that people love to use;
2) Develop ways to fill the needs of partners who will then increase the value of the ecosystem;
3) Monetize each element of the value network; and,
4) Allow everyone in the ecosystem, most notably Apple, to reap the benefits of scale through increased revenues, profits, and defensibility of the model.

Case in point: Nokia recently announced plans to launch a phone with 300 songs pre-sold, but good luck competing against an iPhone ecosystem that becomes more valuable every day.

Let's just hope Google's Android platform doesn't disrupt the iPhone phenomenon. It's still too soon to tell.

Even still, we can all learn from Apple's DNA - their innovation mindset - that by constantly observing and understanding the needs of those we are serving and challenging our assumptions against market desires through rapid, low-cost experiments, we can first create great value for our customers and partners, then capture and monetize that value throughout an ecosystem.

Kevin Grandia: Want to Know the Carbon Emissions for Your Mac?

2008-10-23T13:31:20Z

Part of the solution to climate change lies in companies being transparent when it comes to reporting their greenhouse gas emissions and Apple is a great example of how to do this right.

Straight-up information on greenhouse gas emissions helps us cut through the PR spin on climate change and get down to the real business of solving the problem.

Apple has released its 2008 environmental report and here's a handy list I've pulled together from their report on the total greenhouse emissions for each model of Mac computer, the iPhone and the iPod: (I've listed them from best to worst)

iPod Nano: total greenhouse gas emissions for the entire lifecyle of a single iPod Nano is 15 kg CO22e (CO2 equivalent). To give you an idea of how much greenhouse gas that actually is, burning a gallon of gasoline in your car produces about 11 kg C022e.

Here's the entire environmental report on the iPod Nano (pdf).

iPod Touch: total greenhouse gas emissions = 30 kg CO22e

Here's the entire environmental report on the iPod Touch (pdf).

iPhone 3G: total greenhouse gas emissions= 55 kg CO22e

Here's the entire environmental report on the iPhone 3G (pdf).

MacBook Air: total greenhouse gas emissions = 340 kg CO22e.

Here's the entire environmental report on the MacBook Air (pdf).

MacBook: total greenhouse gas emissions = 460 kg CO22e.

Here's the entire environmental report on the MacBook (pdf).

15-inch MacBook Pro: total greenhouse gas emissions = 560 kg CO22e.
Here's the entire environmental report on the MacBook Pro (pdf).

20-inch iMac: total greenhouse gas emissions = 1070 kg CO22e.

Here's the entire environmental report on the 20-inch iMac (pdf).

24-inch iMac: total greenhouse gas emissions = 1500 kg CO22e.

Here's the entire environmental report on the 24-inch iMac (pdf).

This is all very fine and good and as I mentioned at the outset, it is important that companies are open and transparent about their carbon emissions, but as Rob Knox points out, as have many others, Apple still has a long way to go before they could be considered friendly to the environment.

How Much Of Apple's Value Is Steve Jobs?

2008-10-22T15:06:17Z

Apple's single biggest corporate priority is (or should be) to diversify its dependence on Steve Jobs. In the past month, investors have gotten two stark reminders of just how much value the market attributes to Steve's ongoing health and presence:

* A fraudulent report that Steve Jobs had had a heart attack (10% drop in stock in 10 minutes)
* A surprise appearance on Apple's quarterly conference call yesterday (stock immediately up about 10% in after-market)

Shelly Palmer: Google's G1 Hits Market

2008-10-22T09:40:06Z

Google's first Android enabled phone, the G1, will go on sale today. Google has also made the code for Android available to developers through an Apache 2.0 license that lets developers add to the codebase. The open-source mobile device, available thru T-Mobile, will retail for $179.

Apple reported a 26% increase in quarterly profit yesterday. During the September quarter, Apple also posted a 27% increase in revenue. Steve Jobs noted that after 3 months on the marker the new 3G iPhone has helped Apple become the number 3 mobile phone supplier by revenue, beating out Research in Motion's Blackberry.

Yahoo announced it would lay off 1,500 employees. The company announced the layoffs yesterday, along with its quarterly earnings, which were down 64%. Yahoo blamed the decrease in revenue on its online advertising business, which have been affected by the souring economy.

News Corp COO Peter Chernin will head to the Supreme Court to fight for Fox's right to broadcast freely. Chernin will take the stand in the FCC v. Fox Television Studio's trial, a case that revolves around the use of "fleeting expletives" on television. The case will inevitably decide whether the FCC has the power to punish broadcasters for airing explicit banter.

Plus, today's consulting question, "What's happening with Elite XC?" Shelly has the answer on today's MediaBytes.

Shelly Palmer is a consultant and the host of MediaBytes a daily show featuring news you can use about technology, media & entertainment. He is Managing Director of Advanced Media Ventures Group LLC and the author of Television Disrupted: The Transition from Network to Networked TV (2008, York House Press). Shelly is also President of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, NY (the organization that bestows the coveted Emmy® Awards). You can join the MediaBytes mailing list here. Shelly can be reached at shelly@palmer.net

Ron Galloway: Apple's iPhone as Leviathan

2008-10-22T09:23:53Z

In the card game Magic: The Gathering, the largest card in the game was a creature called Leviathan. Apple's earnings call yesterday proved that in the realm of handheld devices, the iPhone is the largest card in that game, and in fact, it is the Leviathan of its product line.

In the last quarter Apple sold 6.9 million iPhones. Their goal for the year was 10 million units. Apple sold as many iPhones last quarter as the four previous quarters combined. Notably, more iPhones were sold last quarter than Blackberrys.

Apple accounts for iPhone revenue over a 24 month period, unlike Macbooks or iPods. If the iPhone's revenue were accounted for in the same manner as an iPod, then Apple's revenue from the iPhone would have been $3.8 billion higher, adding a further $1.3 billion in net. Put in context, this additional revenue from an 15 month old product in one quarter is worth more than all of General Motors.

In just 15 months (using normal accounting, not subscription-based) the iPhone accounts for 39 percent of Apple's sales and ranks third amongst mobile vendors in terms of revenue behind Nokia and Samsung. In 15 months.

Apple has $25 billion cash in the bank, enough to buy GM 8 times over, but the real value of this cash hoard is the flexibility to take their time developing products, or to acquire companies during a bear market. Apple could buy Adobe for cash and still have about $8 billion left over.

People are lined up at Apple Stores to buy Macbooks, even with a higher price than other laptops. Ipods are still selling well, and we are heading into Christmas, where iPod sales typically double over the preceding quarter. But both of these products are dwarfed in potential by the iPhone.

What I love about Apple is that they manufacture things. Real things. Things you can touch and use, as opposed to the thin-air financial products (SIV's, CDO's) that collapsed the banking system. The financial sector grew to nearly 20% of GDP over the last 20 years by selling....nothing. Like Seinfeld, the last financial era was about nothing. Apple is about something tangible, something manufactured and sold. The new Macbooks are fabricated (from a single brick of aluminum) guess where? Here. The U.S. needs to get back to making things, products as opposed to services. Apple is proving there is huge money in it, and you don't need a government handout.

Google Phone Review Roundup

2008-10-16T10:21:55Z

A slew of reviews were released today for T-Mobile's G1, the first Google phone.

David Pogue from the New York Times decided to review the software, phone and network separately. The three criteria received grades of A-, B- and C, respectively:

The T-Mobile G1, the first cellphone with the Android operating system designed by Google, will be available Oct. 22.

Actually, to be completely accurate, there isn't anything called "the Google phone." You can't buy "the Google phone," any more than you can buy "the Windows PC." Google makes the software (called Android), and it's up to the phone manufacturers to build cellphones around it.

What has its debut on Oct. 22, therefore, is a Google phone, the very first one: the T-Mobile G1 ($180 with two-year contract). Others will follow in the coming months.

Walt Mossberg of the Wall Street Journal ended up, like Pogue, praising the phone's potential, but also dwelled on the inevitable iPhone comparisons:

Overall, I found the G1's user interface inferior to the iPhone's. It lacks the iPhone's ability to flick between multiple pictures and Web pages, or to zoom in and zoom out of a photo or Web page by simply using two fingers to "pinch" or expand the image. It also doesn't automatically change the orientation of the screen from portrait to landscape simply by turning the phone.

Further, many common controls that are easily visible on the iPhone can be accessed on the G1 only by pressing a menu button or by using keyboard shortcuts you have to memorize. Examples are stopping the loading of a Web page or moving forward to the next Web page.

There's also no on-screen keyboard even for quick tasks, such as typing Web addresses, so you're constantly having to turn the phone and open the physical keyboard, which quickly becomes a pain.

Tech blog Gizmodo was even more harsh, saying that the phone and operating system were "not finished products":

We have high hopes for third-party coders to fill in gaps Google intentionally or unintentionally left in this OS. There's already a video player, and we're sure VLC will try and port some kind of version over. But your question is not whether the phone will be great down the line, it's whether or not it's good enough for you to buy it now.

The answer depends most on who you are. Despite all the UI quirks and bad design decisions, it's still better than other smartphone OSes out there. It's not perfect, but for people who like tinkering, its cons are outweighed by its pros such as Gmail and the Marketplace. Hopefully Android updates and more ports of Google apps will augment not just future phones but this one too. This isn't something you're going to give your mom for Christmas, but if you're an adventuresome gadget guy with some money to spend ($179) on a totally new, pretty exciting venture, then why not?

Steve Jobs Shows Humor, Reveals Health Fact, MacBooks (VIDEO)

2008-10-14T14:56:47Z

Another Apple product event, another round of speculation and gossip over Steve Jobs' health. This time, Jobs himself acknowledged, in his own way, that his health is a topic of vigorous discussion.

If you're more interested in the products and actual business covered at the conference, click through to the story on the new MacBooks. If you want the humorous clip of Steve Jobs telling reporters they can't ask about his health, watch below:

New Apple Laptops Feature Glass Trackpad, Lower Price

2008-10-14T14:45:47Z

CUPERTINO, Calif. — Apple Inc. touched up its line of laptop computers Tuesday with a minimal nod to the economic turmoil that might push consumers to be more frugal this holiday shopping season.

Apple did lower its least expensive laptop, the existing version of the entry-level MacBook, by $100 to $999.

Apple Notebook Livebloggers: What's Jobs Up To This Time?

2008-10-14T13:02:25Z

Will Apple unveil a sub-$1000 notebook? Will they unveil a $700,000,000,000 bailout? These are strange times, and it's hard to tell. Keep up to date with two of HuffPost's friends, who are both liveblogging the event:

Peter Kafka and associates liveblogs the Apple Notebook event at Silicon Alley Insider and Laptop Magazine's Mark Spoonauer liveblogs it for his mag.

(Spoonauer works with popular HuffPost blogger Joanna Stern!)

Apple's New Notebooks: What To Expect

2008-10-13T15:59:15Z

Wired offers some ideas on what to expect from Apple's new notebooks:

Both the MacBook and the MacBook Pro will be aluminum. The aluminum MacBook has been rumored since forever, and if we take the leaked shots as real, Apple is finally going all-metal in its Mac lineup.

We can also be pretty certain that the MacBook Pro will gain the chiclet-style keyboard of the Air and the stock MacBook, most likely in backlit black. Ditto the magnetic latch which holds the MacBook Pro closed -- that little button is so 2001. The other advantage the current MacBook has over the MBP is the easy-to-swap hard drive. Along with the RAM, the HDD is a simple five-minute slot-in replacement. Expect to see this in the Pro...

...Touch Screen: So far, so evolutionary. What about surprises? The big expectation is a touch screen. We say no. Touch screens are just too hard to use in a notebook, unless Apple has also invented some kind of iSling to support your arm. We'd like to be wrong on this, but we doubt it.

Apple is rumored to be rolling out a laptop that will cost under a thousand dollars. CNBC calls this going "nuclear." Here's why:

Why nuclear? Because it stands to have an explosive impact on the PC market. A device not too expensive that it alienates an ever more skittish consumer; not too cheap, ala sub-$500, that it soils the aspirational brand that Apple has become; but a high-end, slick device with the Apple bloodline priced just right that a big chunk of the market goes for it whether its mildly uncomfortable doing so or not. The Goldilocks price point.

I've spoken to several people inside and outside Apple about what to expect, and while no one is ready to go on the record about any of this, they're all telling me the same thing: Apple is ready to play in sub-$1k. That's a big deal and about time.

Apple Likely To Unveil Sub-$1,000 Laptop

2008-10-10T12:00:35Z

Apple Inc. next week is expected to unveil new laptop computers -- including a model that sets a new low price point for the company -- as it sets its sights on one of the fastest-growing categories in the business.

The Cupertino, Calif.-based company issued invitations to media and analysts on Thursday for an event Tuesday that indicated the event would focus on its portable Macintosh line. The invitation shows a single spotlight on the company's logo on a notebook computer.

An Apple spokesman declined to provide further details, but the company is widely expected to unveil new versions of its MacBook and MacBook Pro notebook computers, including a model that would be priced below $1,000 for the first time.

How Green is Your Computer?

2008-10-06T12:42:45Z

Reusable tote bag? Check. Prius? Check. Rooftop solar panels? Check. In the bid to secure your green bragging rights, you have the usual suspects covered.

But what about your personal computer?

After all, the object that, via the Internet, can provide you with more information on how to lead an environmentally sound life can also be one of the things that contributes to the very same problem.

Read the full story here.

Related:
Dell Commits to Mercury-Free Laptop Displays

8 Ways to Green Your Office Supplies

Jason Notte: Have A Latte, Idiot: The Coffee Wars Turn Bitter

2008-10-03T17:41:09Z

How does a seemingly ubiquitous entity touting change and social responsibility become known as an elitist, foreign-speaking pseudo-intellectual completely out of touch with the general public?

For Starbucks, it starts with an opponent so hungry for a victory that it is willing to label its own supporters as knuckle-dragging, mouth-breathing, gender-stereotyped poseurs who are exhausted from soaking up culture with their cappuccino. McDonald's has caffeinated its campaign against Starbucks with a high-octane accusation usually reserved for New Jersey diner coffee talk: "You think you're better than me?"

Within the last month, the folks beneath the Golden Arches have centered their negative coffee campaigning around two gender-specific ads entitled "The Intellectuals." In the first installment, which makes Lyndon Johnson's "Daisy Girl" ad look like a Peanuts holiday special, two women sitting in an unnamed coffee house are so relieved to hear that McDonald's is serving lattes that they slowly untangle the web of lies that is their existence. Apparently, their love of caramel macchiatos had cost them the ability to read gossip magazines, wear heels, watch television and freely admit to others that they don't know or care about foreign languages or countries.

Poseur No. 1: "I don't know where Paraguay is!" No. 2: "Paraguay?"

Notice the moment right around the 37th second when one woman casts off her shackles of oppression by throwing a book over her shoulder and, seemingly, into a fireplace. Vive la resistance! No, I'm sorry, "Fuck yeah, resistance!" These women don't want to knuckle under to those evil bastards who'll force them to listen to Bob Dylan records or "jazz." In their minds, such places just want to repress you and make you feel bad about made-up places like "Paraguay" so you'll buy "fair trade" coffee they say gives farmers a larger percent of the profits. Puh-lease! They know how much a thing of Folgers costs and are just a little sick of women who wouldn't know how to show off a set of knockout gams if Betty Grable walked into the room and gave them a lesson.

Not content with pouring a steaming cup of java into the laps of empowered women and Ronald McDonald Scholarship recipients everywhere, McDonald's set its sights on their male counterparts. The gents' critique is based more in aesthetics, as the McLiberated guys take self-ameliorating jabs at the goatees, turtlenecks and fake glasses that they were using in an apparent attempt to slip roofies into some unsuspecting barista's Americano.

The lesson to be learned here, men of America, is that Starbucks is out to neuter you. They want to strip you of your football, hot cars, meat, beer, Will Ferrell movies and rock music and force you to watch Vicki Cristina Barcelona until you develop a fondness for The Preservation Hall Jazz Band and a crush on Diane Keaton. If McDonald's comes off as a bit anti-intellectual for claiming that men don't have the mental capacity to enjoy films and football at the same time, it's only doing so out of a sense of self-preservation.

Bookish, coffee quaffing eggheads such as "Fast Food Nation" author Eric Schlosser and "Super Size Me" director Morgan Spurlock have been causing McDonald's quite a bit of grief lately. Between Schlosser's assertion that Ronald McDonald doesn't give a damn about his workers or the children he's inflating with high fructose corn syrup and Spurlock's nausea-inducing documentary that resulted in the artery-choked death of super sizing, Mickey D's reasons for shooing America's men off to their fantasy football leagues and fall fashion outings at Sears appear understandable.

Also valid are the reasons McDonald's seems to believe its customers are George Romero-style zombies too hungry and brainless to know they're being called idiots. This is the same company that both lost a high-profile, $2.86 million lawsuit ($640,000 on appeal) that led to warning labels on every cup of its coffee and, just last week, witnessed CNN equate the $700 billion economic bailout bill to "2,000 McDonald's apple pies" for every American. None of this bodes well for Mensa applications from McDonaldland.

Though McDonald's has made the harshest statement in the corporate coffee class war thus far, it wasn't the first. Even before Starbucks closed 600 stores and laid off 1,000 employees in July, Dunkin Donuts took the opportunity to mock the Starbucks sizing system as a language it refers to as "Fritalian." It would seem that ad teams that fail to grasp "grande" or "venti" also find irony elusive. While Coen Brothers go-to-guy and cinematic everyman John Goodman noted that competing Dunkin' Donuts lattes were ordered "in English," he left it to the audience to figure out that latte is an Italian word. Also, the "Fritalian" anthem is being sung by They Might Be Giants, a band that centered its last album for adults around the single "The Mesopotamians," which re-imagines ancient Middle Eastern kings Sargon, Hammurabi, Ashurbanipal, and Gilgamesh as a touring band. Such commercial numbskullery is much easier to swallow when you're aware that, if the the language existed, the band singing about it just might write a whole album in Fritalian.

That the class debate has spread from coffee is of somewhat greater concern. Microsoft's latest commercials lambaste Apple for daring to say its users are somewhat hipper than a competitor with roughly quadruple its computer market share. You'd expect this kind of reaction from Miller High Life, whose deliverymen yank the "Champagne of Beers" out of every bistro in America in its ads, but from Bill Gates? In a way, Gates and McDonald's get it, and it's killing them. Apple and Starbucks aren't exactly mom-and-pop shops and don't have the philanthropic reach of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation or Ronald McDonald House, yet they're still treated like rock stars while McDonald's and Microsoft are the old couple who come home to nothing but grief. "Stop being a monopoly, stop making us fat." Bitch, bitch bitch.

By lashing out, they let loose that inner voice that says "coffee and iPods can't make you more artistic, creative or well-educated!" No, but your competitors can embrace those qualities in their customers and reap the financial and social benefits while you throw your tantrum.

"You think you're better than me?" Absolutely, and I'm lovin' it.

Steve Jobs Heart Attack Bogus Report Sends Apple Stock Reeling

2008-10-03T12:02:48Z

More evidence that the fate of Apple is tied to Steve Jobs and his health, from Silicon Alley Insider:

"Citizen journalism" apparently just failed its first significant test. A CNN iReport poster reported this morning that Steve Jobs had been rushed to the ER after a severe heart attack (story and screenshot below). Fortunately, it appears the story was false. We contacted an Apple spokeswoman, who categorically denied it.

CNN's iReport kept the report up until at least 10:15 AM, about 20 minutes after we published Apple's denial. The story has since been removed.

It's certainly not the first time that Steve Jobs' health has been the source of a lot of Internet buzz. And outlets as large as the New York Times have reported the inevitable denials of Steve Jobs' health problems that result.

MORE ON THE STEVE JOBS HEART ATTACK HOAX:
::Apple Stock Has Heart Attack [Valleywag]
::Steve Jobs Is Still Not Dead, Take II [Epicenter]
::Did Steve Jobs Have A Massive Heart Attack? [BloggingStocks]
::Steve Jobs Heart Attack Rumor Not True [BusinessWeek]