John Lamansky

I’ve been considering an iPod purchase recently, and I noticed that Amazon has cut prices on the 5.5 generation iPods by about $13 for the 30GB version and $18 for the 80GB.

So yes, this is only a 5% discount, but I thought this was of note because I’ve rarely seen iPods below the standard retail price. I wouldn’t be too surprised if the iPhone announcement had something to do with it, considering the recent buzz about how it might impact iPod sales.

You heard it here first: have a listen to TechNews Podcast episode 3 for more info.

(And just so I don’t have an angry mob of disappointed Apple fans after me, this is not real. It’s still pretty funny though. Though to tell you the truth I wouldn’t be too surprised if Apple really did get into automobiles and developed an Internet-connected car. That would be pretty cool.)

Here’s the scoop from a PCWorld article:

Cisco Systems sued Apple today [January 10, 2007] to prevent it from using the name iPhone for the new smart phone that it introduced yesterday at the Macworld Conference & Expo in San Francisco.
[…]
The name iPhone is a registered trademark of Linksys, a division of Cisco. Linksys picked up the iPhone name when it bought a company called Infogear Technology in 2000. Cisco’s iPhones are telephone handsets designed for use on a VoIP (voice over Internet Protocol) network.
[…]
Apple and Cisco have been in negotiations for about two years over Apple’s desire to license the iPhone trademark, according to Cisco spokesman John Noh. When Apple CEO Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone at Macworld, Cisco had not yet received a signed trademark licensing agreement from Apple, though the two companies had been negotiating terms as recently as last Monday night.
[…]
In an interview Wednesday afternoon, Greg Joswiak, Apple’s vice president of worldwide iPod marketing, pointed out that Cisco’s iPhone brand applies to a line of voice-over-IP products, whereas Apple’s iPhone is a cell phone. “They’re different products,” Joswiak said.

“Yeah, but they’re both phones,” is what I have to say to that. Cisco seems to agree:

“Today’s iPhone is not tomorrow’s iPhone. The potential for convergence of the home phone, cell phone, work phone, and PC is limitless, which is why it is so important for us to protect our brand,” Chandler [senior vice president and general counsel for Cisco] said.

Cisco seems to be pretty upset, but I’m sure they’re loving this publicity for their product!

Apple announced yesterday the Apple TV, the new name for what was previously codenamed “iTV.”

Apple TV has found a web home under the “iPod + iTunes” category of the Apple website. From the Apple TV homepage:

Say you’ve just downloaded Cars from iTunes. Instead of huddling around your computer to watch, you pop some popcorn while your computer wirelessly syncs your new flick to Apple TV. […] Apple TV connects to your TV via an HDMI port or component video and audio ports. Its built-in, superfast 802.11 wireless capability syncs your iTunes library to any Mac or PC in the house.

I think this is a really cool thing, even more so because it works with PCs, meaning us Windows users aren’t left out. I think this will also be really neat for podcasters in particular, as Apple TV users will be able to watch video podcasts from their televisions. Now how cool will that be?

The much-anticipated iPhone was released yesterday. From a CNET News.com article:

The Mac OS X-based iPhone is most akin to an iPod in design, but allows users to listen to music, make phone calls, send text messages and e-mail, surf the Web, and take and upload photos, all using a wide touch screen and a single button. Apple plans to make the device available in the United States in June, with a 4GB model going for $499 with a two-year service contract, and an 8GB model with the same contract for $599.

My thoughts:

For one, it seems very expensive (as seems to be typical with quite a few Apple products). Though I’m guessing the price will likely decrease as time goes on.

Second, I’m not sure if dropping the keyboard is such a good idea. I understand there’s some sort of touch-screen equivalent, but I’m not clear on how that’ll work.

The iPhone does have a lot of the “cool factor” though: for example, it has a sensor that detects when you hold the iPhone up to your ear and turns off the touch screen, turns off any music, and switches the iPhone to calling mode.

Very cool, but I have a few questions: How does that work anyway? Is it simply a proximity sensor? Does this sensor use radiation that might revive the cellphone radiation concerns? And what do you call this feature anyway? I vote for “sonear” (that is, “sonar” with an “e” in just the right spot).

So in summary, the iPhone is cool … but it’s way beyond my budget.

I recently found a message from my ISP in my Junk Mail folder, with the subject “Spam - How It’s Growing and What We’re Doing About It.”

Oh, the irony.

It seems like wherever you turn there are reviews of 2006 predictions, investigating what came true and what didn’t.

I’m going to do that also, but my predictions list is different because I made these predictions back in 2003 rather than at the beginning of the year. In 2003 I actually made a list of predictions spanning from late 2003 to 2075. So here are the 2006 predictions from that list, made four years ago by yours truly:

1. Floppy Drives will become obsolete.
This has certainly happened indeed!

2. PDAs will become obsolete in favor of multi-purpose cellphones.
Not quite, but we might be heading in that direction.

3. Robotics will be in almost all toys
Well, maybe not robotics, but certainly electronics!

4. 14.0 GHz proccessors will be available
Woah, maybe not: we’re still at 4 GHz. However, realize that this was written during an era of huge acceleration in the development of ever-greater processor speeds.

So I was right-on in some areas, close in others, and totally wrong in others. Sounds like a typical predictions list to me!

It’s 11:59 PM at the moment, at least in my time zone. Goodbye two-zero-zero-six!

…Oops, didn’t finish typing fast enough. It’s 2007! Happy New Year!