Author Archive | Ed Oswald

Aldus Pagemaker: The Mac’s Savior?

Posted by Ed Oswald on April 13, 2011 at 2:13 pm

Guy Kawasaki claims that a single piece of software was responsible for saving the Macintosh platform — a claim that while seemingly a bit outlandish may actually make sense. That piece of software was Aldus Pagemaker, one of the first visual page-layout programs.

Speaking at the Ad:Tech conference in San Francisco on Tuesday, the former chief evangelist at Apple said that the original Mac did not do tasks such as spreadsheet creation or database management all that well. But desktop publishing was a natural fit.

Indeed, Mac aficionados will tell you that one of the platform’s biggest strengths is that it is visually driven — which is exactly what you need for a task such as what Pagemaker did. Kawasaki was frank: “Desktop publishing — it saved Apple.”

Continue Reading →

17 comments

Report: iPhone 5 “Production Roadmap”‘ Nowhere to Be Found

Posted by Ed Oswald on April 13, 2011 at 12:53 pm

DigiTimes says that touch-panel manufacturers have yet to receive a roadmap for production of the next-generation iPhone, giving more credence to increasing reports that the device will not be released this summer as usual.

There’s been a variety of different reasons mentioned as to why Apple is deciding to “delay” the launch of the iPhone 5: whether it be to line up with the holiday shopping season, the (late) launch of the Verizon model, or as DigiTimes claims component shortages and continued high sales of the iPhone 4.

Continue Reading →

2 comments

Bing + Yahoo = Search Success?

Posted by Ed Oswald on April 12, 2011 at 10:48 am

While at first some of us (myself included) may have looked at Microsoft’s deal last August to power Yahoo searches with skepticism, the move may finally be paying off–and could be eating into Google’s dominance in search.

Hitwise found in March that the two sites combined now account for 30.01% of all searches in the US, up about a point and a half from the previous month. Google on the other hand dropped, moving from 66.69% to 64.42%, indicating that the people who weren’t using it were likely headed to Bing.

What’s behind this change? It could be that Microsoft’s algorithms are doing a better job at finding what searchers want. Experian Hitwise — who provided this data — found that on Yahoo and Bing, about 81 percent of all searches resulted in a visit to a website. Compare this to Google, which is significantly lower at 65 percent of all queries.

Could it really be that Bing just has a better handle on search? Sounds like Internet blasphemy (Google even accused Microsoft of stealing its search results) but that really could be the case. Microsoft has been hard at work behind the scenes making changes, and it’s clear it’s serious about becoming a player.

I’m still a Google guy, but hey technology changes fast, and that might not always be the case. Go ahead Bing, impress me…

4 comments

YouTube to Expand Live Programming–Gradually

Posted by Ed Oswald on April 8, 2011 at 2:51 pm

Looks like YouTube is set to take on services like UStream, Justin.TV, and the like — it announced its roll out streaming capabilities to its platform on Friday in a blog post. Simply called YouTube Live, it marks the first time that its technology would be used for live streaming outside of one-off events.

Now don’t dump UStream just yet: “certain YouTube partners” are the first to gain access. YouTube says that the service will gradually be opened up to more and more partners, although it did not specifically say whether or not consumers would be able to use the live streaming. I’d venture to guess this is in the works, but obviously YouTube will need to make sure their servers would be able to handle the obvious extra load above their traditional video business.

Al Jazeera English has already been using this technology for at least two months now, helping that channel further reach US audiences that so far are still shut out by cable companies from being able to watch it on their televisions.

If you’re interested in checking out some live video on the site, head over to this page on the company’s website. Nothing too interesting so far– let’s hope that the company attracts some more high-profile content providers.

No comments

Uber, The Luxury Transportation Service, Now in NYC

Posted by Ed Oswald on April 7, 2011 at 4:34 pm

Want to feel like a rockstar, with your own private car to whisk you from destination to destination across the Big Apple? San Francisco-based Uber is making a push into New York City following a successful launch in its home city last fall. The concept is simple: all reservations are done through the company’s mobile applications or via text message, and professional drivers will pick you up in a luxury sedan in “about 5-10 minutes.”

Obviously, this service costs more than your average taxi. The base fare is $8.00, with a $4.90 charge per mile, and $1.25 per minute idle charge. The minimum fare is $15.00, but no tip is necessary as Uber has included it in the fare. For a private service that seems all but one step below a limo, I guess that’s not too bad.

Continue Reading →

2 comments

Ballmer’s Right: Five Reasons Why Microsoft Should Open More Stores

Posted by Ed Oswald on April 7, 2011 at 1:49 pm

As Harry noted earlier, the Business Insider’s Matt Rosoff has the news of an internal debate with Microsoft on the future of its retail stores. The gist is this: CEO Steve Ballmer and COO Kevin Turner are itching to push full steam ahead and take on Apple by vastly expanding Microsoft’s retail network. However others in the company have convinced them to hold back, citing the expense.

Thus, we’re left with a small network of nine stores (with another on the way), all but three of which are on the west coast. There’s a good chance a majority of consumers don’t even know Microsoft even has a retail strategy.

Continue Reading →

27 comments

Seagate’s Svelte New External Hard Drive

Posted by Ed Oswald on April 6, 2011 at 9:22 pm

Thin is in, and Seagate has answered that call by launching the thinnest external hard drive on the market. Dubbed the GoFlex Slim, the drive has 320GB of storage and retails for $99.99. The drive measures in at about 9mm, which is about the average overall height of the MacBook Air.

If your computer supports USB 3.0, you’ll be able to take advantage of the faster transfer speeds with the GoFlex Slim. It is also compatible with both the Mac and PC, and includes backup software with the device. For you Apple purists, there is a Mac-only version available, making it an appealing companion for Time Machine.

From where Seagate is going with this drive, its market is pretty obvious: netbooks and ultraportable notebooks. If you’re going with something that small, you’re not going to want a bulky external drive with it — so Seagate sees a natural market for a drive that puts the emphasis on thinness, even though it’s possible to buy a chunkier drive with higher capacity for the same price.

2 comments

Report: 2 Million-Plus iPad 2s Shipped in March

Posted by Ed Oswald on April 6, 2011 at 12:40 pm

All those “stock outs” at iPad retailers across the US (and worldwide) had to mean something right? Well, according to Taiwanese tech site DigiTimes, which cites unnamed Apple suppliers, it did. These sources claim that the company may have taken delivery of as much as 2.6 million iPads last month.

Seeing that the iPad 2 is sold out just about everywhere, it’s not out of the realm of possibly that the company sold just about all of its incoming stock. If that’s true then sales of the second generation device more than doubled sales of the first one in its initial month of availability.

DigiTimes goes on to say that its sources estimated that Apple will be able to take delivery of upwards of four million units every month as long as components remain available. Now, iSuppli had sad last month that the massive earthquake in Japan could affect supply, so we’ll have to wait and see.

I still wonder why Apple has been so silent regarding sales numbers. Typically, it is the first to toot its own horn when things are going well. Just seems a little strange, but then again all the anecdotal evidence we’re seeing indicates the iPad 2 is selling just fine.

2 comments