Even with my current job as a systems analyst, a software developer/programmer, I felt a need to document my learning, so I have something to always look back to, especially with my advancing age. But no, I'm not that old yet...
NEW YORK - An American couple, who are obsessed with Apple products, have become the first to marry inside one of the technology giant's stores.
The couple, Mr Josh Li and his wife, Ms Ting, from New York (picture), said "iDo" at the city's Apple store on Fifth Avenue on Valentine's Day in a ceremony dominated with the company's products and references to them.
The pair, who met in the Apple store, had their priest dressed as Mr Steve Jobs, the company's chief executive, read their vows from their iPhones, while the rings were tied to a ribbon wrapped around a first generation iPod.
Part of their vows included a passage from the Apple CEO that said: "You have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something - your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down." Mrs Li had her vows written on a card that said "I love you more than this" followed by a picture of an iPhone.
The unauthorised wedding was attended by about 30 friends. "We got to know each other because Ting was looking to buy an iPod and I managed to strike up a conversation that way," said Mr Li, who was dressed in a suit and a pink tie. "I used to joke that the Apple Store is my church because I am not religious, and I loved everything Apple. Ting then came up with the idea of having the wedding there."
According to a blog on Apple's retail stores, the ceremony was not authorised by Apple, but staff "did not interfere". A video of the wedding has also been posted on YouTube.THE DAILY TELEGRAPH
More on the technology side, and maybe to cut short the competition, nothing of its own functionality should be found in other phone models; that could be the reason why the act was done.
THE star of this week’s Apple Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) was arguably the iPhone 3G S, the long-awaited third-generation model of the smartphone. But to me, and perhaps the 5,200 developers present at the annual event, what was more exciting was the June 17 worldwide release of the iPhone 3.0 software update.
Apple iPhone OS 3.0 shown during the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco. AP
The iPhone 3G S is, of course, very attractive, and will likely drive hordes of existing iPhone users to upgrade. But the hardware upgrade appears to be a token effort to keep up with the Joneses rather than a bona fide re-design. The improvements are evolutionary and predictable enough that it didn’t take a doctorate for industry watchers to get the details right, such as the improved camera, faster processor and more memory.
Of course, the iPhone 3.0 update is not without its critics. Some gripe that despite its admirable list of fresh features, iPhone 3.0 is little more than a bug-fixing release because many features, such as copy-and-paste, MMS and searchable emails should have been added long ago, and rivals have had them for years.
But the iPhone 3.0’s trump card is backward compatibility. The Palm Pre, launched in the United States last week, operates on the new webOS software unable to run on Palm’s older phones like the Treo. Palm can only gain as many new followers on this platform as it manages to sell Pres to. That’s an uphill task.
The new iPhone 3GS being unveiled at WWDC in San Francisco, US.
By contrast, the iPhone 3.0 software will not only run on any generation of iPhone, but any generation of iPod Touch. Apple announced it has sold a total of 40 million iPhones and iPod Touch devices, which translates to an instant base of 40 million iPhone 3.0 users. Application vendors will be able to tap that vast user base to offer iPhone 3.0’s ability to make micro-payments within applications, such as renewing subscriptions or checking out an online shopping cart. That means two revenue streams: The purchase price of applications, and micro-payments within them.
The ability of developers - and Apple, which takes a cut from transactions - to instantly monetise iPhone 3.0 will mean immediate momentum, unlike competitors that might need to wait for user adoption to ramp up before it can show their developers and investors more than mere projections.
Apple’s App Store might not be as big a goldmine for the company as its iPhone and iPod hardware, but software and hardware are symbiotic parts in Apple’s business strategy. One drives the growth of the other, and both portions are profitable. Now that Apple looks like it will triumph on both fronts with its latest announcements, we could be looking at exponential growth from the company, even in this economic climate. There are already more than 50,000 applications in the App Store since its inception less than a year ago, and more than 1 billion apps have been downloaded.
From this perspective, there’s method to the madness of Apple’s slow improvements to the iPhone’s software. A more aggressive stance might have made it tough for Apple to ensure that the version of its operating system today would be streamlined enough to run on the first-generation iPhone and iPod Touch.
Apple’s latest App Store innovations come in the wake of copycats springing up, with Nokia’s Ovi Store, Research In Motion’s BlackBerry App World and Google’s Android Market all vying for a share of the pie that Apple painstakingly created. Keeping existing developers loyal while wooing new ones is crucial, and the iPhone 3.0’s micro-payment abilities could prove just the carrot to do the trick.
It should be obvious by now that while people are drooling over the new iPhone, Apple is hoping for a windfall in profits generated by apps and transactions, and hopes its developers see the same dollar signs it does so they will stay and drive the iPhone-App Store ecosystem.
WASHINGTON - Microsoft plans to release a new version of its portable Zune music player later this year featuring a touch screen, Web browser, Wi-Fi connectivity and high-definitionradio receiver.
The Redmond, Washington-based software giant said late Tuesday that the Zune HD, Microsoft's rival to the hot-selling Apple iPod, would be available in the United States before the end of the year.
It did not say how much it would cost.
Microsoft said the device would feature high-definition video output capability which would allow it to play HD quality video on HD televisions using a docking station.
Microsoft also said it was integrating the Zune with its Xbox Live video offerings "bringing an exciting catalog of TV and film to the platform."
"This marks an important development in the Zune strategy and brings the Zune brand to more than 17 million international Xbox Live subscribers," Microsoft said.
It said the integration of Zune and Xbox Live would be demonstrated at next week's Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in Los Angeles. - AFP/sh
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