This is the first serious competitor to the iPhone. I just finished watching the Pre introduction video at CES and was very, very impressed with it. The software is smooth and the first true multi-tasking system I’ve seen in a mobile and dare I say, better than the iPhone. Even the wireless Touchstone induction charger is well thought out.
No word on price yet and availablity in the UK and Europe but if whichever network bags the exclusive deal and matches O2′s all-inclusive free data then this is going to be a big hit.
Alright Apple, here’s your competition. What are you going to do about it?
Back in 1986 my brother Mahmood started a Bulletin Board Service (or BBS’s as they were known then) called Stray Cats. Remember those? 9600 baud modems beeping, handshaking and connecting? Settings like 8 bits, 1 stop, no parity? Ah, those were the days… online communities stripped to their bare essentials. Except it felt ultra high tech then.
A few years later my boss gave me access to his Compuserve account which I was very careful with. I would log on, download what I wanted and then log out making sure I didn’t spend too long “online”. The only problem was that Batelco, the state-backed telco monopoly, was billing their customers per character instead of time. Yes that’s right, per character. The bill that month was BD 1,500 or $3,980. I stopped using his account after that.
Then came AppleLink. At the time I was working for the Apple dealer in Bahrain and we used it to download software updates, email Apple Support and scour their libraries. It was, as far as I know, Apple’s first online network. It was also where I made my first online purchase. During the first Gulf War when everything was locked down I wanted to buy a fun software package that’ll skin the interface on my System 7-based Mac (it was a Mac IIci as I recall). I couldn’t get the package delivered so I emailed the developer through AppleLink, paid by Visa and downloaded the software. And that felt revolutionary.
It was only after I moved to London that I started using a new innovation called Mosaic to “surf” the World Wide Web. Those dancing hamsters were something else! And GIFs that were first blocky and then resolved themselves to images! And it was zippy fast! 56K fast!
ADSL and broadband came next. 256Kb/sec speeds and always on! No, wait 512Kb/sec now and… how about 1Meg! And MP3′s online! I can download music! Wait, the iTunes Music Store! And now I’m on 2Meg broadband! Please stop, this is going far too fast.
Virgin just launched their 50Meg cable service this month. Here’s what I want now. An online 1080 HiDef film site which sells or rents new release films as they hit the cinema. A beefed up Apple TV hard wired to a blazingly fast 100Meg+ line. A BBC iPlayer that is integrated into a razor thin flat screen that streams HD TV shows especially Planet Earth. Direct downloads from Amazon of film titles, TV shows and games. And all of that controlled from my iPhone. Now, where do I sign up?
I’ve been waiting for these to be released. The iPhone-equipped headphones just don’t work with my ears. They fall out all the time. These ones are in-ear ‘phones with two drivers, a mic and squeeze-button control.
The new Apple In-Ear Headphones are available now for £54. And they mostly work with the iPhones, except for volume control.
They’re in my Christmas list!
About two years ago I was in LA working on a BMW X5 ad and decided to buy a Mac Mini. That was the start of the AlYousif Household® Media Centre™ Project. Of course I had to upgrade a few items when I got home: a Sony 32″ LCD to replace the tube; a 500GB external drive to hold all my daughters’ DVDs (the justification); and a 2GB RAM upgrade for the Mac Mini which was hooked up to the existing 5.1 surround system.
Now it’s almost 2009 and there’s a feeling in the air that we (I) need to upgrade again. You know, like an upgrade shark I have to keep moving forwards or else. Or else I might stagnate, or something.
So… Blu Ray. That winner of the HiDef format “war”. I’ve watched the 720p version of Iron Man on the Mini and on Blu Ray at 1080. To paraphrase Homer Simpson, “Stupid 720p, you’re no match for 1080!” Even though I work a lot at full HD for ads that are 30 to 60 seconds, there’s a world of difference when watching a feature at home in proper progressive 1080 HD res.
Okay then, upgrades. My LCD screen unfortunately is not full 1080 resolution but the lower HD-Ready, ie, 1366×768 instead of 1920×1080. So to buy a new full HD screen, like the Sony 32W4000 is £620 (and I have to mention that I bought my less-then-full-HD-ready screen for £1000 then). Blu Ray players are now as cheap as £170 and add an extra £20 for an HDMI cable. For £810 plus the cost of the BD discs themselves I could have a complete future-proof (yeah, right) home entertainment centre.
But wait. Reading lots of reports on the internet and considering the state of the economy, the costs of all of the items mentioned above will drop and they will drop significantly. I think I’ll hang on and see what happens in January.
To be updated.
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