(Credit: RIM)

Is it a coincidence that Apple’s iPhone 2.2 update was released on the same day the BlackBerry Storm hit stores with a touch screen, 3G connectivity, and enterprise-friendly functionality that rivals anything Apple has on the market?

I think not.

Today’s iPhone update is Apple’s first salvo of many in its fight against Research In Motion for dominance over the cell phone industry. Some might say Apple’s decision to update the iPhone is pure coincidence, but I don’t think that the company is that naive.

Apple realizes that RIM is releasing a major offering that could shake Steve Jobs and Co. to its core, and it doesn’t want anyone to think it’s not doing everything it can to continually update its own product.

But Apple’s decision to release the update just as RIM releases the Storm strikes me as one of the most fascinating moves the company has made in quite some time. After checking out the update and considering the timing, I can’t help but wonder if Apple is more than a tiny concerned about the BlackBerry Storm and RIM in general.

Sure, it’s simple for some to state Apple has no reason to be scared of RIM, because the iPhone’s popularity keeps growing, and its business functionality is now on par with RIM’s, but I’m not so swift to concur. The BlackBerry Storm appeals to consumers who want a “next generation” cell phone, as well as company employees that want a new BlackBerry with all the extra fixins, to boot.

Say what you’ll, but Apple is scared. And it should be.

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source The Digital Home

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A new report advocates that Apple and three of the “Big Four” record labels are in talks to bring DRM-free tracks to iTunes, and once and for all do away with copy protection on the world’s largest music store.

I applaud the companies for finally coming together and trying to remove draconian policies while adapting to our changing times, but this news even surprises me a bit.

To me, the larger news here’s not that Apple is trying to bring DRM-free tracks to iTunes–it needs to, thanks to Amazon.com’s DRM-free store–but rather that iTunes is an unbridled success, although DRM abounds on the service.

Any tech lover will tell you that buying songs from Amazon is preferred. After all, why would anyone want to support DRM? And even though demographic data isn’t readily available, I don’t think it’s much of a stretch to say Amazon’s customers have a heavy population of individuals that are knowledgeable about tech and realize that buying copy-protected tracks only hurts us over the long term.

iTunes customers are entirely different, though. Unlike Amazon customers, I think the majority of iTunes customers are mainstream consumers that don’t possess strong tech knowledge, and they’re more concerned about convenience and impulse than doing what’s best for consumers. After all, if they really cared about what the Recording Industry Association of America is doing to us (and the artists, by the way), they wouldn’t purchase songs from iTunes, would they?

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source The Digital Home

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I was surfing around the Web today and didn’t have to go far to find a quick column by Matt Asay over on CNET’s “Open Road” discussing YouTube and Hulu.

In a piece entitled, “Quality pays: Hulu trumping YouTube,” Asay makes the point that because of Hulu’s $12 million profit, Google needs to do more with YouTube. Asay believes that Google “needs to show equal care for the [entertainment] industry’s IP” and “improve quality.”

Generalizations aside, I need to disagree with my colleague on what YouTube should do. Asay claims that YouTube shouldn’t become Hulu, but I think that’s plain wrong. Hulu is a success this day not because it has high-quality programming or respects intellectual property. Hulu is a success today because all the content contained on the site is controlled and demographic data is readily available.

Rest assured that no matter how much money Google is losing on YouTube, it’s well worth the cost. No matter what we might think about YouTube and its obvious issues, we can’t lose sight of the fact that without all that copyrighted material, YouTube wouldn’t be half as popular as it is this day and whether Google wants to admit it or not, it needs those clips on there.

It’s no longer a question of whether user-generated video is important — it is — or if it should be kept on YouTube. User-generated video is how YouTube can bring people to the site and grant it to funnel those people to professional content that Google can monetize. User-generated video isn’t the key to making money, it’s the professional video that matters most to advertisers.

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source The Digital Home

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In case you missed it, Hewlett-Packard announced today that it will be bringing a multitouch notebook to consumers in the form of the TouchSmart tx2. The device will feature a swivel, LED-backlit display, Windows Vista, and full touch abilities on the screen.

That’s quite the development. Sure, HP already had some touch-screen devices in the desktop market and other companies are trying desperately to make some headway in that space, but why has no one made such a large deal about the device?

I know what you’re thinking: why should we make a big fuss about a device that has evolutionary abilities and hasn’t been put through the paces? We need to wait and see.

Sorry, I just don’t purchase that.

When Apple announced new MacBook Pros last month featuring its own multitouch abilities in the trackpad, the world rejoiced. Consumers were already saying how they couldn’t wait to pick one (or maybe two) up at the Apple store and every major news outlet was discussing it in minute detail. I turned the nightly news on when it was first announced and it was everywhere.

And yet, as HP ups the ante, we don’t hear anything about its latest notebook.

…

source The Digital Home

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In case you missed it, Hewlett-Packard announced today that it will be bringing a multitouch notebook to consumers in the form of the TouchSmart tx2. The device will feature a swivel, LED-backlit display, Windows Vista, and full touch capabilities on the screen.

That’s quite the development. Sure, HP already had some touch-screen devices in the desktop market and other companies are trying desperately to make some headway in that space, but why has no one made such a huge deal about the device?

I know what you’re thinking: why should we make a large fuss about a device that has evolutionary capabilities and hasn’t been put through the paces? We need to wait and see.

Sorry, I just don’t purchase that.

When Apple announced new MacBook Pros last month featuring its own multitouch capabilities in the trackpad, the world rejoiced. Consumers were already saying how they couldn’t wait to pick one (or maybe two) up at the Apple store and every major news outlet was discussing it in minute detail. I turned the nightly news on when it was first announced and it was everywhere.

And yet, as HP ups the ante, we don’t hear anything about its latest notebook.

…

source The Digital Home

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User-generated video is great, but there aren’t any opportunities for making money, which makes it useless to video services. Find out why in my latest video.

Even superior news: you can now subscribe to this show. Just add it up right here!

And as always, drop me a line

…

source The Digital Home

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User-generated video is great, but there aren’t any opportunities for making money, which makes it useless to video services. Find out why in my latest video.

Even better news: you can now subscribe to this show. Just add it up right here!

And as always, drop me a line

…

source The Digital Home

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When Microsoft finally releases its follow-up to Windows Vista and it’s time for the business and technology journalists (yes, bloggers are included in that grouping) across the world to decide if Windows 7 is the kind of operating system most people should want to use, Microsoft will be facing a deluge of biased individuals that, aware of that bias or not, won’t give Windows 7 a fair shake.

Maybe it’s wrong for a journalist to call out colleagues and fill you in on a dirty tiny secret that occurs across all sectors of this business, but, to be quite honest, I don’t think I’m saying anything that should come as a surprise to anyone who follows the news. Regardless of whether you believe in the greatness of Steve Jobs or you choose to use only Velocity Micro machines out of your hatred for Apple, one thing remains: the vast majority of journalists use Macs to write their stories and have a deep-seated love for Apple products.

And even though some journalists are expected to be “objective,” I’m a firm believer that that’s impossible. Aware or not of the language being used, there isn’t one journalist in the world (tech or not) that can be undeniably objective at any time. I applaud it, though — I think objectivity is a crock and doesn’t truly reflect the history and time-honored tradition of journalism.

But I digress. When Windows 7 hits store shelves and countless Computers near you, don’t anticipate too many glowing endorsements. Granted, there will be some and I’m sure that you’ll find some of the ideal coverage here on CNET, thanks to a relatively diverse set of journalists that fall on either side of the fence. But across the Web, don’t expect too many positive reviews.

Why? Because when a journalist that was (at one time, at least) a geek writes a review about Windows on a Mac machine, which they’ve used for the past decade, immediately they’ve lost true objectivity and they’re playing in a world that’s unknown. In essence, they were raised and continue to thrive off a Mac and now they’re expected to comment on a Windows machine?

I don’t think so.

…

source The Digital Home

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When Microsoft finally releases its follow-up to Windows Vista and it’s time for the business and technology journalists (yes, bloggers are included in that grouping) across the world to decide if Windows 7 is the kind of operating system most people should want to use, Microsoft will be facing a deluge of biased individuals that, aware of that bias or not, won’t give Windows 7 a fair shake.

Maybe it’s wrong for a journalist to call out colleagues and fill you in on a dirty little secret that occurs across all sectors of this business, but, to be quite honest, I don’t think I’m saying anything that should come as a surprise to anyone who follows the news. Regardless of whether you believe in the greatness of Steve Jobs or you select to use only Velocity Micro machines out of your hatred for Apple, one thing remains: the vast majority of journalists use Macs to write their stories and have a deep-seated love for Apple products.

And although some journalists are expected to be “objective,” I’m a firm believer that that’s impossible. Aware or not of the language being used, there isn’t one journalist in the world (tech or not) that can be undeniably objective at any time. I applaud it, though — I think objectivity is a crock and doesn’t truly reflect the history and time-honored tradition of journalism.

But I digress. When Windows 7 hits store shelves and countless Computers near you, don’t anticipate too many glowing endorsements. Granted, there will be some and I’m sure that you’ll find some of the best coverage here on CNET, thanks to a relatively diverse set of journalists that fall on either side of the fence. But across the Web, don’t expect too many positive reviews.

Why? Because when a journalist that was (at one time, at least) a geek writes a review about Windows on a Mac machine, which they’ve used for the past decade, immediately they’ve lost true objectivity and they’re playing in a world that’s unknown. In essence, they were raised and continue to thrive off a Mac and now they’re expected to comment on a Windows machine?

I don’t think so.

…

source The Digital Home

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Why is it so hard for everyone discussing Circuit City’s Chapter 11 filing and New York Stock Exchange stock suspension to tell the world what really happened with this company?

No, Circuit City isn’t dying because of the credit crunch, and there’s no way we can blame its demise on the preferential treatment competitors like Ideal Purchase are receiving. And we certainly can’t blame it on the online-retail industry.

For some reason, every story I see written about the topic gives the company line–Circuit City is forced to file for Chapter 11 protection because of the “tight credit market”–and yet no one tells it care about it really is: Circuit City is dying this day, and will be a mere memory in just a few short months, because the company’s executives ran the business into the ground.

Some believe that with the on the internet onslaught being what it is, there’s really only room for one major electronics retailer in the brick-and-mortar space. Anyone who believes that has no grip on reality.

There’s room for multiple big-box electronics retailers. If Circuit City executives established a business model that competed with Best Buy’s instead of trying to replicate it, none of this would have ever happened, and we would be wondering which retailer will have the superior holiday shopping season.

Instead, we’re digging Circuit City’s hole.

…

source The Digital Home

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