codedifferent.com » Hardware

Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish … RIP Steve Jobs

Christian — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 10:06:43 +0000

Thank you for so much, Steve.

I was deeply moved by Your commencement speech in Stanford as I am when I watch it today …

“Let’s talk iPhone” … 4s Apple Special Event Video Stream

Christian — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 22:31:21 +0000

Sure, it’s not Steve Jobs presenting on this special event … but I think the mixture of Tim Cook, Scott Forstall, Eddy Cue and Phil Schiller giving the presentation works out quite well. But see it for yourself by watching the official video-stream from Apple about the iOS 5, iCould, iPhone 4s, Siri & all the other details.

P.S. Hope Steve Jobs health recovers!

Streaming Video of the iPad 2 Special Event, March 2, 2011

Christian — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 08:35:21 +0000

Great to see Steve Jobs on stage again. The presentation is about three blocks of information:

The market: Steve presents some amazing numbers … 15 Million iPads sold, 100 Million iPhones sold, 100 Million iBooks downloaded, 200 Million Accounts on the iTunes/AppStore/iBookStore with credit cards, $2 Billion payout to AppStore developers.
The iPad 2: Apple listened to their customers and integrated most of the features iPad users are demanding. But they also kept the prices and the battery life. The new A5 Dual-Core CPU is up to twice as fast and the graphics performance up to 9x. With the HDMI-cable accessory, it’s possible to mirror the iPad 2 screen to a flatscreen or beamer. This is perfect for live app demos and presentations. The iPad 2 is now equipped with a front and a rear camera. The new design of the iPad 2 and the magnetic covers speak for themselves. The design team of Jony Ive did a great job.
The software: iOS 4.3 is shipping with a lot of improvements under the hood. By introducing iMovie and Garageband for the iPad Apple shows, that the iPad is not only a consuming device, but also a device to create things.

But I only can recommend to watch Steve Jobs, Scott Forstall, Randy Ubillos and Xander Soren on the Quicktime streaming video yourself. Sorry PC-folks: The streaming video requires Safari 4 or 5 on Mac OS X Snow Leopard or Safari on iOS 3 or later.

Apple Special Event: The year of the iPad2?

Christian — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 16:15:08 +0000

What’s Apple focussing on in the year 2011? Is it “just” the iPad2? Or is there just one more thing …

Let’s find out on the Apple Special Event at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts! March 2nd 10:00 AM PST (7:00 PM MEZ). Apple did not announce a live video feed (yet) … but here’s live coverage:

Shane Richmond & Emma Barnett for The Daily Telegraph, UK … they are blogging since 01:00 PST / 10:00 MEZ.
Ars Technica … live blog will start with the special event (ScribbleLive).
Jason Snell & Dan Moren for Macworld… live blog will start with the special event (Demand-Media)
Joshua Topolsky for Engadget … live blog will start with the special event
John Paczkowski for AllThingsDigital …live blog will start with the special event.
Josh Lowensohn for CNet … live blog will start with the special event (Demand-Media).
Adrian Kingsley-Hughes for ZDNet … live blog will start with the special event (Demand-Media).
MacLife … live blog will start with the special event (Demand-Media)

As soon as the video of the keynote is available as a Quicktime stream or Apple decides to live stream the event … you’ll be updated

Apple iPhone 4 press conference video online

Christian — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 21:38:45 +0000

Apple CEO Steve Jobs gave a presentation on the iPhone 4 antenna issue today, July 16th 2010. The Quicktime video stream is worth watching … and the Apple team really shows a great sense of humor: It all starts with the “iPhone Antenna Song” from Jonathan Mann. Steve Jobs had enough guts to start the presentation with this great little song and it’s chorus line “If you don’t like an iPhone 4 – don’t buy it! If you bought one and you don’t like it – bring it back!”.
So congrats to Jonathan for writing and performing it … and Steve for featuring it.

Press conference facts in short:

Smartphones have weakspots … so the iPhone 4 shares the problem with many other smartphones
AppleCare data shows that complains about the antenna are minimal (0,55%)
ATT return rates are 1/3 of the return rates of the iPhone 3GS
ATT call drop rate is a little bit higher compared with the iPhone 3GS (less than one additional call per hundred)

Conclusion from Apple:

Updated iOS 4.0.1 – Fixes bars and Exchange bug
Free iPhone case for every iPhone 4 customer … or a full refund for the bumper if you already bought one
… if you’re still not happy … you’ll get a full refund if you return your undamaged iPhone 4 within 30 days of purchase.

Video-on-demand of Steve Jobs Apple WWDC 2010 Keynote

Christian — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 06:56:56 +0000

Finally the video stream of Steve Jobs iPhone 4 & iOS 4 keynote at the WWDC 2010 is online now. So tune in to watch his performance.

“You won’t be disappointed” – Steve Jobs WWDC 2010 Keynote Live-Coverage

Christian — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 15:16:15 +0000

Again, it’s keynote time: The sold out Worldwide Developer Conference 2010 – WWDC10 – is about to begin. At 10:00 PST Steve Jobs will be on stage. Developers, fans and all others who are interested in Apple’s business development will be hypnotized of Apple CEO Steve Jobs. Millions of people are sitting at their computers, iPhones, iPads or other mobile devices and want to know instantly what Steve is presenting today.
It’s really fascinating how Steve plays with the masses … so it does not surprise too much, that the big German news magazine Spiegel Online refers to the event as an “Californian worship”. That’s not how I would describe it … but it shows how hard it is to understand and describe that keynote phenomenon. Just thnik about the “viewing rates” or reach of a presentation of Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo (Nokia CEO), Jim Balsillie (Research In Motion co CEO) or even Eric Schmidt (Google CEO).
What will present us today … nobody really knows. But there is a lot of rumor out there: The iPhone HD or 4G? A sneak preview of the next Mac OS X version? New Mac hardware? … the first photos from the Moscone West Center suggest that it’s all about apps … maybe a Mac AppStore
Some weeks ago, a developer wrote a provocative email to Steve, whether he will counter Apples competitors like Google/Android. Steve’s short reply was “You won’t be disappointed!”.

So the expectations are high … and for all of us, who are not able to attend the Steve Jobs show at the Moscone West Center in San Francisco live: Here are some of the most important live coverage blogs for the WWDC keynote 2010:

Jason Snell & Dan Moren, Macworld.com
Jason Chen for Gizmodo … won’t get access to the keynote – because of the iPhone 4G case
Erica Ogg for cnet news
Joshua Topolsky for engadget
John Paczkowski for All Things Digital
Technologizer-Staff for Technologizer
Ars-Staff for Ars Technica
Greg Kumparak for TechCrunch / CrunchGear

As soon as the video of the keynote is available as a Quicktime stream … you’ll get an update

QuickTime video-on-demand of the Apple iPad special event 2010 keynote

Christian — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 07:02:08 +0000

Apple CEO Steve Jobs presents the iPad on January 27th 2010 (Picture: Apple)

Finally Apple officially published the video-on-demand of the Apple special event “Come and see our latest creation”. Apple CEO Steve Jobs unveiled the iPad at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Theater in San Francisco on January 27th 2010. You can watch it as a QuickTime video stream or as MPEG-4 … and it’s really worth it

Apple Event Keynote “Come and see our latest creation” – Live Coverage [Update]

Christian — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 08:25:43 +0000

This is the day: Apple will start their press event at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Theater in San Francisco. At 10:00 am PST or 07:00 pm MEZ.

Like the legendary Steve Jobs Keynotes in the past, it is quite a tradition that some journalists blog live from the event … so Apple fans all over the planet can take part on the press conference. Here are the most important liveblogs:

As soon as the videorecording of the event is online as a Quicktime videostream … there’ll be an update

Battle on the emerging market of Active Content: Amazon Kindle versus Apple

Christian — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 07:08:24 +0000

Apple invited the press to their “Come see our latest creation” event in San Francisco on January 27th. And the computer and e-book industry starts trembling with fear: Companies like Microsoft and Amazon are getting really nervous, because Apple may conquer the emerging market of Active Content.

Apple did not announce that the company will be engaged in the e-book or tablet-market – but the rumors about an “iSlate” or “iPad” are quite persistent. Therefore Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer tried to steal Apple the show at his keynote at the CES in Las Vegas: He just renamed the tablet-PCs on stage as “slate-PCs” … but it’s not about a name.

Kindle Development Kit (picture: Amazon)

Now Amazon announced, that the company will open up their e-book platform for third party developers: Within some month, they’ll release a Kindle Development Kit (KDK) and will also provide the sales channel for the active content created with that software development kit (SDK).
The revenue sharing model looks quite familiar to iPhone developers: 70% to the developer and content provider, 30% for Amazon. But Amazon charges an additional $0.15 per MB for content delivery … as the Kindle is not sold with a mobile phone contract. Amazon has to pay the distribution costs to the mobile network operators if the content is delivered via the mobile data channel.

Amazon is probably in a better starting position in the battle for market shares in the emerging market of Active Content: They have a lot of experience with content distribution with the Kindle and they are in direct contact with the publishers … but Apple has the ability to rouse the e-book-market from slumber by innovation. They may transfer the pathetic e-books into a new and emerging market: Active Content.

There are a lot of advantages for Apple to tip the scales:

big and growing iPhone SDK developer community … Amazon has to build up a comparable dev community around the KDK
well-engineered and sophisticated iPhone SDK … with a full bandwidth of network-, graphic-, data- and sensor-support
color instead of grayscale screens and computing and graphic power
touchscreen with gestures
amazing design
… and there are probably some innovations we don’t expect

Amazon’s move to open up the Kindle to 3rd party developers and create a platform for Active Content is absolutely right … but can it compete with Apples offering? On January 27th 2010 we’ll know much, much more.