by Jay GotPassport on October 5, 2011
If you didn’t read the morning news, and just dropped by apple.com to check out the latest iPhone 4S, or to shop for a MacBook Pro, you were greeted by the image of Steve Jobs, who died of pancreatic cancer at age 56.
Whether you are an Apple “fan” or not, all of us can agree that America (in fact, the world) lost one of the largest visionaries in the tech world. Ideas that computers, phones, should be easy to use, are common sense today, but not when the first Mac products hit the shelves. When most experts assumed that a tablet with the funny name ‘iPad’ would fail miserably, Jobs somehow had the vision that it would be successful, and it has changed the consumer electronic landscape since its introduction.
Sure, not all of his ideas panned out, but that’s not the point. Most successful entrepreneurs experience many failures before experiencing large successes. Taking risks is part of that personality. Leaders of companies that played it safe, wonder why their company is stagnant, and products not at the head of the class.
So, who will fill the vacuum created by Jobs death? Not just at Apple, but in the tech world in general… Does anyone come to mind?
by Jay GotPassport on October 4, 2011
Apple’s Tim Cook made the long awaited (every Apple debut is ‘long awaited,’ right?) new iPhone announcement, and it’s not the iPhone 5, but the iPhone 4S. It’s the same iPhone 4 form factor, on steroids. New, faster chip, camera (8MP, 1080p video), and “Siri,” a voice recognition system assistant.
So, did the 4S underwhelm, meet, or exceed, your expectations?
More details after the break, like release dates, pricing structure, etc.
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by Jay GotPassport on October 4, 2011
Good news for consumers: T-Mobile (aka “We ain’t AT&T yet”) is offering a $30 “unlimited” text and data (their words, not mine, since data is not truly unlimited) prepaid plan through Walmart stores and online. The plan includes 100 voice minutes, above which will be $.10 /min, which is fairly high. Definitely targeted towards the heavy texters who don’t talk much. ;-) The plan will be available beginning Oct. 16th, and six prepaid phone models will be offered through T-mobile.
The U.S. market sorely needs more prepaid SIM options on the GSM networks, and this is a good addition. On the downside, as you’ll see from T-mobile’s press release (after the break), only the first 5GB will be available at 4G speeds, but it does not specify the speed after you’ve used up the 5GB. Will it be 3G, or Edge? Definitely a question you should ask your T-mobile rep in the store.
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by Jay GotPassport on October 2, 2011
While smart phone fanatics are awaiting the new iPhone announcement this month, or drooling over Android’s latest Ice Cream Sandwich OS, there’s an underdog named Microsoft (yeah you heard right) that’s going to make a run for its money in the smart phone OS wars.
Follow me after the break:
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by Jay GotPassport on September 28, 2011
Big news from Amazon earlier today, regarding the release of 3 new Kindles. The lineup will begin at $79 with a basic Kindle, up to the new “Kindle Fire,” color touch screen running Android, for $199. Any mention of “Special offers are fairly non-intrusive screen savers that provide yes, special offers on Amazon. They are not pop up ads, and generally do not intrude upon the reading experience.
A summary about each model, with pre-order links, after the break:
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by Jay GotPassport on September 26, 2011
Do you get the sense that I love Infographics? But only if the data was collected and presented in an authentic way. Here we have a partnership between Mashable, AYTM (Ask Your Target Market) and PaidViewpoint, looking at data gathered from 1,000 adult responders who owned iPhones.
Take a look at the shiny infographic after the break (because it’s too big to fit here!).
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by Jay GotPassport on September 22, 2011
The long awaited Kindle feature has finally arrived. The ability to download e-books from your local public library. The Nook and other E-readers have had this capability for some time, and Amazon has finally come on board after announcing this months ago. One interesting feature noted in Amazon’s press release was that the reader’s margin notes (and highlights, bookmarks) will be saved, even after the book expires, and will be there when you borrow the book again, or buy the book. Neat.
Check out the details from Amazon’s page, as well as the Engadget report.
by Jay GotPassport on September 21, 2011
via chartsbin.com
Pando Networks (see press release) recently published data on world wide internet speeds, by country and by city. The data was collected between January and June of 2011, via 27 million downloads from 20 million computers in 224 countries. I’m pretty sure you’ll be surprised by the countries listed in the top five, and check out how the superpowers like the U.S. and China fared.
Check out the informative infographic (was that redundant?) after the break, including access to an interactive version of the map as well.
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by Jay GotPassport on September 19, 2011
So, who is Jason Castillo, you ask? Only one of the most popular Twitter users today, ever since Netflix announced that it renamed its DVD rental business as “Qwikster,” but many on Twitter soon realized that Netflix did not obtain the Twitter handle by the same name. It belongs to Jason, and as you can see from his profile image, he’s just a regular pot-smoking Elmo, hanging out on Twitter, talking smack, not exactly who Netflix had in mind to be their spokesperson. If you want to see some entertaining tweets, check out Jason’s Twitter feed and look at the @replies, basically advising Jason to hold out for big buckaroos from Netflix to buy the name from him.
I’m sure Jason’s enjoying the attention.
by Jay GotPassport on September 16, 2011
Windows 8, the successor to the Windows 7 operating system from Microsoft, was recently announced, and it’s getting a warm response from the tech bloggers. Like Apple’s OS Lion, which tries to integrate some tablet-friendly features to a desktop, Windows 8 takes it a bit further.
Details, as well as a YouTube demo video, after the break:
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