Category: Technology

Categories
Internet

AppleTV update

Recovered from the Wayback Machine.

Now that’s the ticket…Apple has released its anticipated AppleTV update. I’m installing now, as I write this.

Among the changes are support for HD TV shows, of course, but also Genius playlists, as well as being able to put the machine into Standby mode using Settings, rather than having to hold and press the Play button. This is comparable with being able to put an iPod into Standby via a menu option rather than esoteric button/time combination.

Apple also added support for music videos. I have a couple, which I’ll have to move over to the machine, see how they do.

Other than that, no, Steve Jobs did not have a heart attack. I can’t believe how gullible the online world is, to accept the word of some anonymous commenter in a CNN any-hack-can-post site. Is “fact check” old fashioned? CNN’s any-hack-can-post site states with pride that the material is Unedited. Unfilterd. News. I guess two our three is good enough for CNN.

Interesting, though, how tightly Apple shares are tied into Jobs. He needs to take a lesson from Bill Gates and work to ensure that the company does survive his death. Well, unless Jobs wants Apple to be like the Viking Queen and immolate itself on his funeral pyre.

Categories
JavaScript

The Ajax experience

The Expert Panel session at the Ajax Experience conference should be an interesting experience for one and all. I wonder if there will be an automated device that senses the blood pressure of the participants, and automatically sprays safety foam between them, if need be?

I did want to reassure one and all that though the Ajax Experience conference is almost exclusively male, we women do work with Ajax technologies and even publish libraries and tutorials for others to use. Of course, we’re typically ignored when we do provide code, libraries, or tutorials, but still—no matter how many walls the guys put up, we seep through.

Categories
Internet

Game over?

Recovered from the Wayback Machine.

From GigaOM:

There are other participants, some that are well known, like HP with its HP MediaSmart Connect, or TiVo. And some are upstarts, like Vudu, Zv, Verismo and Sezmi. But the future belongs to Amazon, Netflix or Apple. It’s still too early to tell which one will win the race to your big-screen TV, but they all have the right combination of size, recognition and content to get there.

The move to stream video to your TV from the Internet it too new to declare a winner. For instance, of the set top boxes the author of the article mentioned, he forgot a major one: your PC.

When the prices of computers drop into the 400 dollar range, and even Apple sells the Mac Mini at a reasonably affordable price, expect to see more computers hooked to TVs. Through our computers we can not only get iTunes, Unbox, and Netflix WatchNow, we can also access cbs.com, abc.go.com, Hulu, and a host of other video streaming sites.

The opening shots in this battle have just been fired. We ain’t seen nothing yet.

Categories
Internet Media

AppleTV Rumors

Recovered from the Wayback Machine.

Rumors abound this weekend that something is up with AppleTV. TUAW first wrote about the AppleTV signs coming down, and erroneously mentioned about machines being pulled. The site later made an update that the machines haven’t been pulled, and conjecture in comments is that the signage change is because of one year licensing and old publication material. Still, another rumor mentioned a webcast related to the AppleTV on Tuesday. Comments in Gizmodo mention AppleTVs on clearance at Target, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that Target is making way for new products.

There has been speculation for some time now on a new AppleTV that combines the old AppleTV streaming and direct purchasing capability, and features of the Mac Mini. Speculation runs the gamut from a new box with Blu-Ray, to a merge between the Mac Mini and the AppleTV with Blu-Ray thrown in. I think one thing we can safely say is that whatever happens to the future of AppleTV et al, it won’t stream Netflix’s WatchNow.

The rumor that most interested me, from MacBlogz, was that a software upgrade for AppleTV is in the works enabling direct purchase of HD TV shows through the machine. Now, you have to purchase the shows in iTunes on the computer and then transfer them to the machine.

I tried posting a note on these at the official AppleTV discussion forum. It was pulled in ten minutes and I received an email from Apple, slapping my hands and telling me not to post “rumors” and “speculation” in the forum. Considering that rumor and speculation form the heart and soul of Apple marketing, I would think the company would welcome increased exposure for both, but it would seem it likes to play coy within its own environments. Mustn’t smudge the shellac.

I do find this latest round of Apple buzz to be less than endearing—necessary updates to hardware should not be handled within the same PR stream as new products or innovations.

Categories
Browsers

Congratulations to Safari/Webkit

Congratulations to Safari/Webkit for being the first browser in the wild that provides a completely passing Acid3 test.

My own results:

[image no longer available]

I’m really getting excited by how much The Big Three (Safari, Firefox, and Opera) are improving, not only in standards support, but also innovation and application speed. It’s as if the web has suddenly shed its cocoon, unfurled glorious wings, and is ready to fly.