Author Archive | Doug Aamoth

Ten Important Themes Covered in the New Steve Jobs Book

Posted by Doug Aamoth on October 24, 2011 at 10:21 am

Walter Isaacson’s aptly-titled Steve Jobs book is available today and, at 650+ pages, it’s a doozy. If you’re looking to hone in on a particular section of the biography, here’s a roundup of recent articles from around the web that highlight various themes presented throughout the book:

On design:

Steve Jobs Would Annoy Jony Ive By Taking Credit For His Design Work [Business Insider]

“Jonathan ‘Jony’ Ive, Apple’s design maestro, was regularly frustrated with his good friend, and boss, Steve Jobs taking all the credit for Apple product’s design.”

On apps:

Steve Jobs resisted third-party apps on iPhone, biography reveals [The Guardian]

“Apple chief was initially reluctant to allow non-Apple apps but was swayed by lobbying from execs and board members.”

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The Best iPhone 4S Plans by Carrier

Posted by Doug Aamoth on October 10, 2011 at 2:58 am

With three carriers now selling the iPhone, your options have gotten a bit more complex as far as monthly service plans go. We’ll take a look at which carrier’s plans are best for cheapskates, big talkers, big texters, and those who want it all—voice, data and text messaging.

Before we start, some constants between all three carriers:

The iPhone 4S starts at $199 with a two-year contract.

Voice plans include unlimited minutes to people on the same network, so even if you have the 450-minute plan on Verizon, for instance, you won’t use any minutes when calling other Verizon customers.

Apple’s new iOS software features “iMessage,” which lets you send and receive free text messages (for now, at least) between other Apple devices that have the iMessage feature turned on as well.

And with that, let’s get started.

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Sell Netflix to Amazon? That Might Be Crazy Enough to Work

Posted by Doug Aamoth on September 24, 2011 at 5:46 pm

This whole Netflix-Qwikster split had a fair number of people wondering if Reed Hastings had lost his mind. Hastings is no dummy, though, so there’s got to be some sort of method to the perceived madness.

Industry analyst Michael Pachter wrote in a note to clients the very same thing; that there’s “a method to their madness,” reports MarketWatch.

Pachter’s theory? Netflix could sell its streaming business to Amazon, a company with deep pockets that’s been aggressively trying to make inroads with its digital content offerings. It’s done well with digital books, it’s still trying to get its footing with digital music, and perhaps now we get to see how big it can go with movies and TV. And what better way to go big with streaming movies and TV than to buy the company best known for streaming?

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Turkish Authorities Claim Arrest of 32 “Anonymous” Hackers

Posted by Doug Aamoth on June 13, 2011 at 12:59 pm

Hot on the heels of Spain’s recent arrest of three members of the hacking group known as “Anonymous,” Turkish police are now claiming to have rounded up an additional 32 members of the group.

According to Security Week:

The Anatolia news agency said today that the suspects were taken into custody after conducting raids in a dozen cities for suspected ties to Anonymous.

The group recently targeted Web sites of the country’s telecommunications watchdog, the prime minister’s office and parliament as a protest to Turkey’s plans to introduce Internet filters.

Spanish authorities arrested three members late last week with alleged ties to the infamous PlayStation Network hacks. The BBC reports that in retaliation to the arrests in Spain, other members of Anonymous apparently knocked Spain’s police website offline for about an hour yesterday.

(via Slashdot)

(This post republished from Techland.)

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Devastation! White iPhone 0.2mm Thicker Than Black One

Posted by Doug Aamoth on April 29, 2011 at 8:34 am

A man returns home with his newly-purchased white iPhone. Ten months of waiting—HE THOUGHT THIS DAY WOULD NEVER COME!

His trembling hands struggle to remove the cellophane surrounding Apple’s minimalist, yet irresistible product packaging. “I wish my fingers were knives!” he sputters to himself, breathless with anticipation.

Finally, the cellophane is no more. He grabs the box and gently shakes it up and down, waiting for WHAT SEEMS LIKE AGES for that weird, science-y suction phenomenon that holds box tops against box bottoms in a tender embrace to finally run its course. He imagines the box halves screaming to each other, “I’ll never forget you!” until they’re finally separated like high school sweethearts going off to different colleges.

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Apple Rep Thinks iPad 2 Stock Plentiful “Within a Couple Weeks”

Posted by Doug Aamoth on April 18, 2011 at 11:35 am

If you’ve been feverishly searching for an iPad 2 without any success, things might get better in the next couple of weeks. I was in a Boston-area Apple store yesterday and, as is my custom, decided to ask one of the employees if they had any iPad 2s in stock.

He, like so many before him, looked at me as if I had three heads before telling me that they were completely sold out—every model, every price point, everything. This was not the first time I’d been told this exact same information, as stock levels of the iPad 2 have been scarce everywhere.

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