This year has been a slow year for Apple with respect of new iPod releases or revisions. Finally, after almost a year of no change, many expect a revised iPod Nano to be released in the coming weeks. However there is an emerging threat to Apple’s music player business and it is not from Microsoft.
Quietly, Sony Ericsson and Nokia have been producing ever better phones with music player capabilities. Sony Ericsson started this trend by using Sony’s ‘Walkman’ monkier to announce that some lines of their new phones were specifically designed to play music as well as text and call.
I have just received a new Sony Ericsson K800i and by a strange co-incidence my iPod 4th Generation seems to have had chronic hard disk failure rendering it useless. So what do I do? Well I purchased a pair of HBH-DS970 wireless bluetooth stereo earphones and transfered 1GB of music onto my phone. The K800i can play .wav, .mp3, .m4a and .3gp music files, which covers pretty much all my library. The only problem is that the K800i cannot play protected .m4a files brought from the iTunes Music Store - although I have found a way of getting around that issue.
For the past year I have been waiting for a video capable iPod that would let me play music, watch videos, browse the web and make calls. In recent months, the rumours surrounding a much wanted iPod Phone have been at fever pitch. However, my new phone has taken me by surprise because it does everything I want, and with wireless headphones/control so I don’t need my phone out on public display to interface with it. Sorry Apple, Sony Ericsson may have just won me over for the time being.
18.Aug.06 
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A year ago I received a new Sony Ericsson K600i 3G phone with 1.3 mega-pixel camera. As I do not have a compact digital camera of my own, this phone effectively became my out-and-about digital camera, even though the quality is relatively low.
Today I receive my replacement Sony Ericsson K800i 3G phone with 3 mega-pixel camera. As I retire my old phone, I will post the best pictures from the year on this blog in the coming days as a reminder of all things from the summer of 2005 to the summer of 2006.
16.Aug.06 Uncategorized Comments (0)
Just in case you didn’t know already, today is my Birthday. Thank you to everyone who sent me cards, especially the ones with money in them - it is very much appreciated and will be split between the;
- Get Sam a new HDTV fund; and
- Get Sam a weeks holiday in Nice fund
This coming Saturday (19th August) there is a planned crawl around Manchester City Centre dropping in on the bars and clubs that take our fancy. The usual suspects from Sheffield will be here along with some of our loyal London crew. The fun kicks off from 6:30pm so see you all there…
As a footnote, I just want to congratulate myself on getting the WWDC announcement predictions almost perfect. Apple released a new Mac Pro, replacing the Power Mac G5, as well as a replacement Xserve. This completes Apple’s transition to Intel. Steve Jobs also previewed ten new features from Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard, heavily laying into Microsoft about their copycat like tendencies.
There are rumours of a new iPod Nano and revisions to the Mac Book Pro family in the coming weeks. It is likely that Apple will place the new Core 2 Duo processor in the Mac Book Pro laptops. It is almost certain that the iPod Nano will be updated as there have been no updates to any iPod’s so far this year.
15.Aug.06 Uncategorized Comments (0)
So it is time once again to turn all of our attention away from the ills of this world and focus intently on events that are about to un-ravel in San Francisco today at WWDC ‘06. At 10am PST (6pm BST) Steve Jobs will take the stage and talk about a number of new products that are or will be released by Apple within six to eight months.
One thing we do know he will talk about is the new version of Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard. However, what new features the next incarnation of OS X will have been a tightly kept secret, until today. Many rumours on the web talk of VoIP capabilities of iChat, Virtualisation Technology, better 64-bit utilisation, better Spotlight search integration, and so on… To be honest, I doubt many people know what Apple have up their sleeves this time round as this has been the quietest run into a new OS that Apple has had in recent years. No doubt Apple’s closed attitude is in response to the fact that Microsoft are about to release their new OS, Windows Vista. Microsoft are known for stealing good ideas, so to keep the edge Apple are not giving anything away.
Outside of software, Apple are expected to announce that their transition to Intel is complete with the launch of the Mac Pro (replaces the Power Mac G5) and the new Xserve. Which Intel processor is powering the Mac Pro is a matter for debate, but it will certainly be at least dual-core and 64-bit. There have also been rumours that new displays will also be announced, but as the enclosure for the new Mac Pro is apparently not all that difference from the current G5’s it wouldn’t be too bad for Apple is they didn’t - a price drop would be well received though.
I think that is probably pretty much all Apple will announce today, as this is a developers event and both the above products would be of interest to the development community. However Apple are know to pull surprises out of the hat and here are some of the other rumours of what we’ll see later today.
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07.Aug.06 Uncategorized Comments (0)
