To PC or not to PC, Mac is the question…

Watch out Spotify!

Google & Apple are hot to take on Spotify, the subscription based music delivery service.

Hear a track you don’t know, Shazam it. Spotify it. Got it. Simple. And all for a tenner a month! (Unless you’re a Beatles fan, and a few others who haven’t signed up). I’m still desperate for a ‘Genius’ style button so I don’t have to make playlists, but apart from that, Spotify just works. It’s great.

So what’s the problem?

For us, the consumer there isn’t one. It’s happy days. We get great music, easily, quickly and cheaply, but Spotify is soon to become the victim.

Apple has been waiting in the wings, watching Spotify prove the business model. Knowing that if iTunes profits were to fall, or if Spotify were a hit (uhuh), they *could* simply turn on a subscription based version. Plus, to nail coffins – This side of Xmas, Google are releasing their own cloud based music service.

So what happens to Spotify?

It will eventually sink I imagine. Unless they move into movies, offer a better service or diversify in some other way. They do have the heads up but Apple and Google have the infrastructure, the licensing agreements and a HUGE international customer base.

Sign up to alternatives now and see what you think. Also keep your eye on Apple TV & AirPlay (especially how the latter could be used in non-Apple products. V interesting.)

PS Watch Facebook Places kill Foursquare & Gowalla location based social media platforms. A sad .com fact of life. Sometimes the 15 minutes is cut a little short.

Dan

www.theengineroom.co.uk

Making sure IT doesn’t start with S and H

New Apple Toys

A quick run down of the new stuff Apple introduced at yesterday’s talk:

• New iPods, Shuffle, Nano and Touch.
• New iTunes 10
• Ping, social networking for music in iTunes
• Apple TV and AirPlay
• iOS 4.1 and 4.2
• Game Center

The New iPods

These are so cool. Now even smaller, the Nano just looks like something you could ware as a watch. In terms of size, Tom says ‘The new Nano is to the old Nano as the old Nano was to the Mini’, it’s actually tiny and cool, rather than just a small version of the larger one. The Shuffle just shows how much technology has changed and how something so small can hold so much music and play for so long.

The new Touch is just like an iPhone 4 now, just without the phone. One of the new great things they introduced is FaceTime over wifi,  you can now make calls with it to other iPhone or iPod Touch users for free. As Jobs pointed out, it’s just like an iPhone without the contract.

Hand in hand with the new range of iPods is the new iTunes. They changed the icon as iTunes downloads is set to overtake CD sales and it has a new, smoother, interface, as every iTunes version seems to have.

The major new feature is Ping, a social network for finding new music. Basically Apple’s version of Spotify.

There’s also the new iOS updates coming out, giving the iPad wireless printing. It will also introduce the ‘Games Centre’ an Xbox Live/PSN for Apple products. Giving you friend’s lists and achievements for your iPhone/iPod Touch gaming. Not really something new or innovative, but welcome all the same. I imagine great fun will be had on the morning commute between colleges.

Apple TV and AirPlay, what used to be AirTunes will now cover streaming media like photos and TV shows. £99 for Apple TV and the ability to stream any of the shows or movies you buy through iTunes onto your TV. Seems a bit excessive for what it is, you could just plug in a laptop directly.

Amazon followed up with their own announcement of matching the 99c rental cost for shows, while Apple claims that users can view their Netflix rentals through it. Not that relevant for us here in the UK though, Apple advertises a starting price of £2.50 for SD movies here.

All in all, a pretty good show by Apple. They’ve given us a look at some great tech to play with while catching up in providing what others like Microsoft and Spotify provide.

Running around with an iPad in hand?

(Source)

There are a few new competitors to the iPad coming out soon, from HP, Asus, Lenvo and Blackberry, all within the next 6 months. But how have you guys been using them?

Here’s, we’ve not had much cause to switch to using an iPad for anything, they’re just cool bits of tech to play around with. Businesses on Wall Street are apparently testing them out, and Apple’s CFO Tim Cook is quoted as saying that half the Fortune 100 are testing it, but these types of story only seem novel, testing new equipment to see how it could be used, rather than an industry wide standard being set.

However, that’s just the iPad, are companies more likely to adopt the use of tablet pcs when there is a lot more choice in the market?

Is it going to take Google’s Web Store of mobile apps to really open up the market and make it competitive to Apple’s App Store?

If they are going to use it, I think it’s going to take the form of more of a universal remote device, such as Dell’s idea of a device that you can dock to your laptop. Using it as a true extension of your main computer/netbook, to control things on it, to enhance your user experience and make it easier to do what you want, not just another toy to play with.

Are you an iPhone Worshiper?

Recent reports will argue that the world is going a little iPhone crazy…they may have a point, but is the iPhone worth it, or should we all take a step back for a minute and remember it’s ‘just a phone’?….it actually pains me to say it.

My current phone is…well, is a pile of rubbish, but I am battling through (both physically and mentally) until the end of my current contract until I can join those hordes of happy people with an iPhone, joyous glow.

Whilst using the worst handset in the world, I have convinced myself that I actually need an iPhone, not want, but physically couldn’t survive without one – that fact that I have managed to get through life up until now without one, really isn’t the point.

So why an iPhone?

Well….

• It looks cool
• It sounds cool
• It makes me feel cool (though I will never actually be, but there is probably an app for that)

There are obviously ‘useful’ features and quirky apps, but the fact is we love the iPhone because it’s the iPhone – it’s an original and the look-a-likes never cut the mustard (think cyclone vacuum cleaners and Dyson).

Interestingly however, although Apple is selling a whopping 4million iPhones every month, Android sales are in fact higher (marginally) at 4.8million per month.  Does this mean that Apple is losing its shine?  Will the Android win out?  Or will Apple come up with another commercial genius gimmick and take the lead once again?  What will they do next?

One thing is for sure, give me one and a half more months and Apple will have at least one more sale.

iPad Reality Part Deux

As i get tossed around on the Virgin 006 flight coming back from Miami, 3 ipads in my man-bag, I’m considering early adopter reviews in the media. Meaningful balanced opinion is still sparse as the device is only a few weeks old at TOP and polar headline grabbers are still choice.

Speaking from my own experience, I’m sold, but I shouldn’t be.  It’s not a business tool and I so need it to be. Steve Jobs promised me personally that it would revolutionise my life.

Draw a line with ‘fun and frivolous’ on the left and ‘serious business machine’ on the right. Guess where it sits? Yup, you’re right. It’s a beautiful multimedia tablet, not a laptop replacement. Keynote and Pages ARE available (Albeit in cut down form), iWork beta sharing platform is running well, Mail/Cal/Contacts perfecto and this big iPhone screen shouts ‘leave the laptop at home, I can do it all, I promise i can’. But sadly, it’s just not so.

On the flip, the iPad has so many workarounds already that I’m doing just that. Converting that file type to upload there, downloaded & translated so it plays here. All the forum scouring, twisting and contorting eats into my valuable business day but I just cant help it. I will make it work. And if I can’t, I’m going to lie to you anyway, I’ve had 10″ pockets sewn into my jacket.

I have no doubt our children will be typing on glass. I have no doubt gesture based computing is the future and I have no doubt that it will be an Apple device trail blazing the way.

Just stand down for the moment, we’ll have to wait for the water walking moment, but as with most revolutions they often occur in the rear view mirror.

Sent from my iPad. Get me!

UK Release 28th May. Do pre-order now..

iPad Reality

It walks on water and feeds the poor. No, it’s not Bono. Ladies and gents I bring you the iPad… Tadaa

All hype aside, here are some practical tips & thoughts after my first 3 days:

1. It’s heavier than you think it should be
2. The keyboard is really easy to use
3. iWork apps have limited functionality but a must have if you want to use the iPad for business
4. The iPad marks the ‘real’ beginning of cloud computing
5. Great apps on the iPhone are not necessarily great on the iPad
6. iPhone apps run but are annoyingly small on the iPad
7. US iPads don’t work on the UK App Store (it isn’t open yet, but there are workarounds)
8. The Apple case is the only one to have (Folds into a wedge shape which helps lap usage as it’s a flat device) but is globally sold out (if you can find one, buy it)
9. WiFi is not great
10. The screen needs wiping all the time (but only because you want it perfect)
11. HD video playback is crystal
12. Battery lasts for ages
13. Flash is really missed (bring on HTML5 and sharpish)
14. No webcam is criminal
15. WordPress app is really buggy (used here ;))

So, Gen 1 iPad, I have to say I love it. It’s understandably not ‘there’ just yet but you can buy one now without disappointment.