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Posts Tagged ‘Computer’

The new iPod nano is a tour de force, the Swiss Army Knife of mobile entertainment. I’m sure there’s some obscure gadget from Japan that packs more features per cubic millimeter, but I’ve never heard of it, and chances are neither have you. This one’s a major consumer product, just in time for stimulating the economy this holiday season. Speaking as a technophile, I want one of the new nanos for the same reason I want a Dremel with 300 different bits: just because.

I’m also impressed by the new price point on the iPod Touch. Apple frequently overhypes its announcements, but the $199 price point in the US truly is a milestone that should lead to much higher sales. The improvements to iTunes and the App Store look promising as well, and I’m especially intrigued by Apple’s effort to make paid apps more prominent. More on that in a future post.

But the thing that surprised me the most about Apple’s announcement wasn’t the features of the new products, or the absence of a tablet or an iPhone Lite. It was something Steve Jobs said when he talked about the video camera in the nano:

“We’ve seen video explode in the last few years,” he said, showing a picture of a Flip video camera. “Here’s one, a very popular one, four gigabytes of memory, $149, and this market has really exploded, and we want to get in on this.”

Think about that for a minute. “There’s a big new market, and we want in.” Not, “we’re creating something new” or “we can vastly improve this category.” Just, “we want a cut.”

It sounds like something Don Corleone would say. Or Steve Ballmer. But it’s not what I expected from Apple.

Now, it’s logical for Apple to put video cameras into iPods. A friend of mine worked at one of the companies producing cameras-on-a-chip, and he’s passionate about the potential for building vision into every consumer product. It’s not just an imaging issue; when the device can see the user, you can create all sorts of interesting gesture-based controls that don’t require you to ever even touch the device. Instead of point and click, the interface is just…point.

So it’s been inevitable that video cameras would eventually be built into things like the nano. For Pure Digital, the makers of the Flip, this ought to be a tough but normal competitive challenge. The first step is to make sure your camera works better than theirs (check). Next, since music players are becoming cameras, you might want to build a camera that can also play music.

But that’s where the situation becomes abnormal. Because even though Pure Digital was recently purchased by Cisco, giving it almost limitless financial resources, it’s more or less impossible for its products to become equivalent to the iPods as music players. Not because they can’t play music, but because they aren’t allowed to seamlessly sync with the iTunes music application.

The issue of access to iTunes has already been simmering in the background between Apple and Palm, with Palm engineering the Pre to access the full functionality of iTunes, Apple blocking that access, and Palm breaking back in. To date I’ve viewed it as kind of an amusing sideshow, and I didn’t really care who won. I figured the folks at Palm had plenty of time in the past to build their own music management ecosystem, but they (including me) didn’t bother, so there wasn’t any particular moral reason why they should have access to Apple’s system.

Apple the predator

The situation with Pure Digital is vastly different, in my opinion. Pure Digital pioneered the market for simple video cameras. It identified an opportunity no one else had seen, and built that market from scratch. In a declining economy, it created new jobs and new wealth, and made millions of consumers happy. It’s incredibly difficult to get a new hardware startup funded in Silicon Valley, let alone make it successful. For the good of the economy, we ought to be encouraging more companies like Pure Digital to exist.

But there’s no way for a small startup like that to also create a whole music ecosystem equivalent to iTunes. Yes, third party products can access iTunes music. But not as seamlessly as Apple’s own products, and as we’ve seen over and over in the mobile market, small differences in usability can make a big difference in sales. So Apple gets a unique advantage in the video camera market not because it makes a better camera, but because it can connect its camera more easily to a proprietary music ecosystem.

In other words, iTunes is no longer just a tool for Apple to defend its iPod sales; it’s now a tool to help Apple take over new markets.

In the legal system they call this sort of thing “tying,” and it is sometimes illegal. For decades, Apple complained that Microsoft competed unfairly by tying its products together — Office works best with Windows, Microsoft’s file formats are often proprietary so you can’t easily create a substitute for their apps, and so on. I was heavily involved in the Apple-Microsoft lawsuits when I worked at Apple in the 1990s, so I know how passionately we believed that Microsoft’s tactics were not just unethical, but also harmful to computer users and the overall economy.

So it’s very disappointing to see Apple using tactics it once bitterly denounced, and declaring that it’s decided to take over a market because “we want to get in.” If Apple can use iTunes as a weapon against Pure Digital and Palm, what’s to stop it from rolling up every new category of mobile entertainment product? Where’s the incentive for other companies to invest?

I saw first-hand the stifling effect that Microsoft and Intel’s duopoly control had on personal computer innovation. PC hardware companies learned not to bother with new features, because Microsoft and Intel would insist that anything new they created be made available to every other cloner. And software investments were restrained by the belief that Microsoft would use its leverage to take over any new application category that was developed.

Good fences make good neighbors

There’s a danger that Apple’s behavior will have the same chilling effect in mobile electronics. So I believe Apple should allow any device to sync with iTunes content, the same as an iPod. But not because it’s morally right or even because it’s legally required, but because it’s the best thing to do for Apple. Here’s why:

The two biggest threats to a very successful company are complacency and consistency. Complacency is more common — a company that’s very successful starts to relax and loses the hunger and drive that made it a winner. I think we can safely assume that won’t happen to Apple as long as Steve is around. But the second risk, consistency, is more insidious — behavior that’s appropriate and accepted for a spunky startup gets punished when a big company does it.

This is what tripped up Microsoft. The same aggressiveness that served it well against IBM got it a series of lawsuits and intense government scrutiny a decade later. Even though Microsoft eventually won those suits, its execs were distracted for years, and it was forced to dramatically change its behavior. It has never been the same company since. I think Microsoft would have been much better off had it proactively adjusted its own behavior just enough to pre-empt legal action.

That’s where Apple is today. It has to realize that it’s no longer the underdog. It’s the dominant company in mobile entertainment, and the fastest-growing major firm in mobile phones. It’s already under a lot of legal scrutiny for the way it manages the iPhone App Store. If it also leverages iTunes to take out small competitors, and especially if it’s dumb enough to say things like “we want in,” it will guarantee unfriendly attention from government regulators — a group of people who actually have more power to hurt Apple than do most of its competitors.

The Obama administration in the US is making noises about enforcing competition law more vigorously, and look at how the EU is picking on details in the Oracle-Sun merger, allegedly to protect local companies (link). If they’ll do all that to help SAP and Bull, what will they do to protect Nokia?

Apple, you don’t need the special connection with iTunes to keep on winning. You’ve already proven that you’re much better at systems design than almost any other company on Earth. The huge iPhone apps base is exclusive to you, and that won’t change. By opening up iTunes, you take away an easy excuse for regulators to pick apart your business, a process that would be distracting, expensive, and could result in much more dramatic restrictions on your actions.

Ease up a little on the gas pedal, Steve. It’s the best way to keep moving fast.Copyright 2009 Michael Mace.

Tags: apple, application, apps, AWS, blog, blogs, business, car, Computer, consumers, Design, functionality, gadget, google, Hardware, hardware companies, Innovation, iphone, ipod touch, jobs, Mac, Management, microsoft, Mobile, mobile market, mobile phone, mobile phones, music player, new ipod nano, nokia, palm, personal computer, silicon valley, Software, steve jobs, system, Windows

There is a simple way to change the MAC address without any prior knowledge in hacking and absolutely free of cost.Well most of us know what is MAC address,although i will mention it again.MAC id is a unique identifier of the network adapter which determins the ip address of the respective computer.By changing or masking the MAC we can change our ip address.For this you have to download a application named macmakeup.

Step By Step Procedure is given below:

1.Open a command window in your computer which is havin a windows operating system.

Start>run>cmd

2.Find your mac(Physical address) addresss and computers ip(ip4) address by typing “ipconfig/all” in your command window.

3.You have to download a free program called macmakeup from the following link given below
DOWNLOAD
NA:If you are using vista or windows right click on the application and run the program as administrator.

4.Select the network adapter from the list and click to generate random mac id.And select the specific manufacturer from the drop down menu and one you have generated the mac,click on the change button.

5.Again take the command window and type the commands given below.
“ipconfig/release”
“ipconfig/renew”
“ipconfig/all”
6.Find the ip address of default gateway by typing “ipconfig/all” in command window.

7.Open up a webbrowser and go to default gateway address.You have to give router password for entering this section.If you dont know the router password,find it from www.routerpasswords.com

8.You want to change the router mac address to “Use computer MAC address”
in the settings of router.Reboot the router.

9.Now your ip is changed.Visit www.myipaddress.com for checking the ip.
Still ip is not changed????Feel free to conatact me by commenting.I will get back you soon.

Tags: application, blog, blogs, Computer, Computers, Free, google, Mac, Mobile, Network, operating system, password, system, Windows

Our site works with third-party advertising companies to serve ads when you visit our website. These companies may use non-personally identifiably information (not including your name, address, email address, or telephone number) about your visits to this and other websites in order to provide advertisements about goods and services of interest to you. The privacy of our visitors to Textio is important to us.

At Textio, we recognize that privacy of your personal information is important. Here is information on what types of personal information we receive and collect when you use and visit Textio, and how we safeguard your information. We never sell your personal information to third parties.

Log Files
As with most other websites, we collect and use the data contained in log files. The information in the log files include your IP (internet protocol) address, your ISP (internet service provider, such as AOL or Shaw Cable), the browser you used to visit our site (such as Internet Explorer or Firefox), the time you visited our site and which pages you visited throughout our site.

Cookies and Web Beacons
We do use cookies to store information, such as your personal preferences when you visit our site. This could include only showing you a popup once in your visit, or the ability to login to some of our features, such as forums.

We also use third party advertisements on Textio to support our site. Some of these advertisers may use technology such as cookies and web beacons when they advertise on our site, which will also send these advertisers (such as Google through the Google AdSense program, as well as the Kontera Advertising network) information including your IP address, your ISP , the browser you used to visit our site, and in some cases, whether you have Flash installed.

This is generally used for geo-targeting purposes (showing New York real estate ads to someone in New York, for example) or showing certain ads based on specific sites visited (such as showing cooking ads to someone who frequents cooking sites).

Kontera and DoubleClick DART cookies
We also may use Kontera and/or DART cookies for ad serving through Google’s DoubleClick or Kontera advertising networks, which places a cookie on your computer when you are browsing the web and visit a site using DoubleClick advertising (including some advertisements).

These cookies are used to serve ads specific to you and your interests (“interest based targeting”). The ads served will be targeted based on your previous browsing history (For example, if you have been viewing sites about visiting Las Vegas, you may see Las Vegas hotel advertisements when viewing a non-related site, such as on a site about hockey). These cookies use “non personally identifiable information”.

They do NOT track personal information about you, such as your name, email address, physical address, telephone number, social security numbers, bank account numbers or credit card numbers.

You can choose to disable or selectively turn off our cookies or third-party cookies in your browser settings, or by managing preferences in programs such as Norton Internet Security. However, this can affect how you are able to interact with our site as well as other websites. This could include the inability to login to services or programs, such as logging into forums or accounts.

Deleting cookies does not mean you are permanently opted out of any advertising program. Unless you have settings that disallow cookies, the next time you visit a site running the advertisements, a new cookie will be added.

Advertising Networks Privacy Policy

You can review Google’s Privacy Policy by visiting http://www.google.com/privacypolicy.html You can review Kontera’s privacy policy by visiting the following website: http://www.kontera.com/index.php/em-privacy-policy

Tags: advertisement, Advertising, amp, ash, car, Computer, email, google, information, Internet, internet explorer, internet service, Network, Real Estate, Technology

Do you wat to become an internet radio jockey by sitting home itself.Yes there is a simple way to start your own internet radio free of cost.

There is no additional setup is required for starting the radio.The media player giant winamp is the service provider.They named the service as shoutcast.
You can download tha SHOUTcast radio DSP plugin and SHOUTcast DNAS application freely from www.shoutcast.com

Requirements:

1.Computer which is installed with shoutcast application.

2.Internet connection or any other IP based network connection.

Procedure for setting up a SHOUTcast internet radio is given below as video tutorial.

HAPPY BROADCASTING!!!!!!

Tags: amp, application, blog, blogs, Computer, Free, google, Internet, Mobile, Network

[ec] The way we use media is changing, the volume of information enormous, demanding more of us than being able to read, write or use a computer. The European Commission today warned that Europeans young and old could miss out on the benefits of today’s high-tech information society unless more is done to make them ‘media literate’ enough to access, analyse and evaluate images, sounds and texts and use traditional and new media to communicate and create media content. The Commission said EU countries and the media industry need to increase awareness of the many media messages people encounter, be they advertisements, movies or online content.

Commission sets new information society challenge: Becoming literate in new media

Tags: advertisement, amp, blog, blogs, Computer, information, online