Archive for the ‘Apple’ Category
Tuesday, August 23rd, 2011
For so long, e-books have been a waste of their technology. Sure, it’s a far less cheaper distribution model than traditional publishing. But, within an electronic format, we weren’t taking advantage of any of the possibilities of this format. Until now.
Now, a new line of college e-books is incorporating links to videos by Khan Academy, the free educational institution offering more than 2,400 free online videos.
Right now, these videos can be accessed through links. In the future, it will be exciting to see embedded video and animation within an e-book itself. Imagine Alice in Wonderland, the audio/visual/literary adventure for children via iPad. Oh man, the possibilities!
Tags: e-books, internet-marketing-company, ipad, khan-academy
Posted in Apple, ipad, mobile-marketing | Comments Off
Thursday, August 4th, 2011
It is just me, or has Apple seemed a little bit behind in the online streaming wars?
Apple TV was/is a mainstream bust, with extraordinarily limited content. Yet, here come the rumors about Apple running with a Netflix competitor. Ok, but it’s a little late, isn’t it? You’re way behind Google and Amazon already – who are both light years behind Netflix.
Historically, Apple has created brand-new technology. So, if Apple creates a much much better Netflix, they might win. But, if it’s simply a limited version of the same? Or perhaps they’re simply trying to keep their own market from making the same leap they’ve been so great at convincing others to make over the years by offering what no one else does?
Tags: Amazon, Apple, Apple-TV, Google, internet-marketing, netflix, online-streaming-wars
Posted in Amazon, Apple, Google | Comments Off
Monday, July 25th, 2011
These are just rumors. But, Apple may be considering a purchase of Hulu, the online video provider.
Now, as a Hulu Plus subscriber, I’m not really thrilled with this news. I love Apple. But, they’re a closed system. They like keeping their music files on their own proprietary devices. And I’m afraid that an Apple purchase of Hulu will force me to buy an Apple TV to watch it on my HDTV.
The acquisition price is a fun number to discuss amongst friends, though, after the company decided not to go through with a $2 billion initial public offering (IPO). It also appears that the company who buys Hulu will own two years of exclusivity to Hulu content, including Walt Disney, News Corp. and NBC programming.
Tags: Apple, Apple-TV, Hulu, internet-marketing-company, NBC, news-corp, Walt-Disney
Posted in Apple, Digital Video | Comments Off
Wednesday, July 20th, 2011
We thought we would let you know. Mac OS X Lion is now available for purchase in the Mac App Store.
This new OS release features multi-touch capabilities (on compatible devices) and fluid animations. Desktop Macs can utilize Apple’s Magic Trackpad in order to take advantage of this new touchscreen functionality.
OS X Lion is the appiest operating system Mac has ever released. We’ll see if the fact that they are only offering the release through the Mac App Store ushers in a whole new world of app usage. And I’ll be honest, I’ll be tempted to get the Magic Trackpad once I get Lion.
Note: Snow Leopard users can upgrade for $29.99.
Tags: mac-app-store, Mac-OS-X-Lion, magic-trackpad, mobile-marketing, snow-leopard
Posted in Apple, mobile-marketing | Comments Off
Friday, July 15th, 2011
Mac OS X Lion will be released any day now. And here’s a quick preview of what you can expect. Because we know you’re going to get it. After all, Apple is smart, and usually makes it pretty cheap for users to upgrade. So, here’s what you’re going to get.
Unlike the previous OS Snow Leopard, which was simply a tweaked version of the prior OS, Leopard, this is a whole new world.
All My Files View is a new way to view your files in a way that makes organization almost obsolete. Because within All My Files, you can search to organize. Not sure if this helpfulness is going to make my hard drive look like a pig sty. But perhaps it doesn’t even matter anymore. Launchpad is a steal from Apple’s mobile OS. It’s a way to organize your apps for utility and navigation. It makes you wonder when Mac desktops are going to move to touchscreen interfaces. AirDrop allows for instant transfer between networked computers. Of course, those computers have to have Lion OS X as well. And Mission Control offers a real-time view of every app running on your desktop and provides easy navigation to any you have open.
Tags: air-drop, Apple, internet-marketing, launchpad, Mac-OS-X-Lion, mission-control, mobile-marketing, snow-leopard
Posted in Apple, mobile-marketing | Comments Off
Wednesday, July 13th, 2011
The common maxim is that the iPhone is more than a phone. But, is the reality that it’s much less?
Because it seems that iPhone is really becoming much more of a gaming device than anything else. In fact, it has become a legitimate gaming platform. A recent Nielsen report claims that video games are now the single most popular apps for mobile devices, and that iPhone users are the most frequent video game downloaders.
The average smartphone user spends 8 hours a month playing video games on their mobile device, while iPhone users play for 14.7 hours a month.
The next question is, is Apple a legitimate competitor in the Nintendo, Playstation, XBox wars?
Tags: gameboy, iphone, mobile-marketing, nintendo, phone, playstation, smartphone, video-games, xbox
Posted in Apple, mobile-marketing, Smartphones | Comments Off
Thursday, June 30th, 2011
The new iPhone 5 due this Fall is getting the majority of news time lately. But, what’s flying under the radar is the “iPhone Lite“, a cheaper and affordable iPhone designed specifically for consumers in developing countries.
At this point though, discussing specific features would be purely speculative. But, in terms of how to keep costs down, what could the iPhone Lite lose? Industry insiders say that a cheaper shell and overall construction and losing internal memory altogether could do a lot.
So, the question is, will the iPhone Lite come to America, or focus on China and other still developing countries? And, if launched in America, the iPhone Lite is priced equivalent to Android models, could Apple’s market share regain the lead once again?
Tags: android, Apple, iPhone-5, iPhone-Lite, mobile-marketing
Posted in android, Apple, mobile-marketing, Smartphones | Comments Off
Thursday, June 30th, 2011
At this point, we shouldn’t even be calling them tablets. They’re iPads. Apple makes them. And everyone else makes copies.
So, we’re not going to try and get you overly excited about Amazon’s new venture into this space. Although, it is intriguing. Rumors are that Amazon will launch its own tablet as soon as this August, anticipating up to 4 million units sold by the end of the year.
Just like the Kindle is a natural product for Amazon as the world’s leading e-book seller, as Amazon ventures further into online streaming, a tablet PC makes sense. The question is, will Amazon become one of the leaders in online streaming purchasing? Perhaps that’s their real goal, and this product is just designed in support of that larger goal?
But, as long as the iPad stays awesome, it’s hard to see this Amazon tablet happening like Amazon hopes.
Tags: Amazon, e-book, ipad, kindle, mobile-marketing, online-streaming, tablet, tablet-pc
Posted in Amazon, Apple, ipad, mobile-marketing | Comments Off
Monday, June 27th, 2011
Yahoo wants to be the app aggregator of the mobile Web, and have built Yahoo AppSpot to do just that.
Right now, when you’re looking for new apps, what do you do? Do you jump on to your phone’s app store? Quickly scroll down the “best selling” chart and see if anything looks interesting? Or you learn about new apps from friends, only to search and search to no avail to find the same app available on your mobile operating system?
Yahoo AppSpot hopes to help make finding new mobile apps easier. Search by title, category or interest and you’ll receive a comprehensive list of apps sorted by popularity, price, user rating and operating system.
Plus, AppSpot makes recommendations for you based on the other apps you’ve downloaded in the past. For a company that doesn’t seem like its doing much in terms of new innovations, this might actually be one that catches on. At least, I’m not familiar with something similar. And it could definitely be useful.
Tags: app-search, mobile-marketing, social-media-marketing, yahoo-appspot
Posted in android, Apple, Google, mobile-marketing, Smartphones, Social Media, windows-7 | Comments Off
Thursday, June 23rd, 2011
Once again, Mac has developed a pretty clever way to incentivize the use of their new offering. For college students and higher education faculty and staff, if you buy a new Mac before September 20th, you get a $100 back-to-school gift card good only at the Mac App Store.
This is beyond brilliant. A) It feels like $100 off a new Mac. B) With $100, you can get a lot of really cool apps to soup up your new computer. C) By using the Mac App Store to utilize your gift card, you’ll familiarize yourself with it. You’ll see the endless app possibilities. And it will become the next iTunes for apps.
That’s the theory at least. And I think it’s a pretty good one.
Tags: higher-education, mac-app-store, mobile-marketing
Posted in Apple, mobile-marketing | Comments Off
