It’s official, AT&T has sold out of the 8GB iPhone 3G. But that’s not as exciting as the clue provided to us by AT&T about its replacement and the iPad’s soon-to-be-dead unlimited plan. BGR is saying the departing 3G model will be replaced with a $99 3GS soon after the new iPhone is out. And the New York Times is reporting that AT&T has gone ahead allowed customers to just buy – not have in hand – the iPad 3G and retain the right to select the unlimited 3G data plan – for a very limited time. To be precise, you have until June 6 at 11:59pm to get the iPad on unlimited 3G. Run, you fool! [via 9to5Mac]
Saturday, June 5, 2010
With all eyes on WWDC, AT&T makes some changes to their plans and lineup. Again.
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Gmail Adds OAuth Support for Safer 3rd Party Sign-ins
Google announced the addition of OAuth support in Gmail in a blog post today, which is a highly positive move that allows you to give third party applications access to the contents on your email without having to give them your password. You may be familiar with the term from Twitter, who added OAuth support back in April of last year. Besides making a more secure Gmail It remains to be seen if that Gmail app gold rush will take off, but at least one company is already taking advantage of the new OAuth feature. Syphir makes an iPhone application called SmartPush, which lets you define under what conditions an incoming email should trigger a push notification on your phone. As illustrated in the screenshot above, thanks to OAuth you don’t have to give Syphir your Gmail password in order to access your email. Online cloud backup service Backupify let us know they’ll be adding OAuth support for their Gmail backup service as well beginning tomorrow. What do you think: will we see an explosion of third party Gmail Apps emerge? What kind of apps would you want to see built on top of your email?
environment, the news could be even more significant if it inspires a flush of innovation from third party developers to build custom applications on top of Gmail. Google itself occasionally adds experimental new functionality via Gmail Labs that users can opt into, but a secure OAuth sign-in platform could be a key feature that really promotes an explosion of Gmail apps from outside developers.
iTunes 9.1 Released: iPad Syncing and iBooks Support Included
Let the iPad hype and excitement begin: Apple’s preparation for the launch of the iPad has kicked into high gear. Today, the tech giant released version 9.1 of iTunes, its vastly popular music, app, and now book-managing software. The new update doesn’t do anything like radically change the iTunes interface. Instead, it is focused on providing support for the iPad, which launches this Saturday. The big addition in this software update is iPad syncing. Thus if and when you plug that glorious iPad of yours into your computer on Saturday, it’ll sync your computer’s music, movies, books, and other media with your tablet device. There are a few other additions to iTunes worth noting. Support for iBooks has been included in this software update, providing you the ability to sync books you’ve bought between your iPad and your computer. Finally, there have been some changes to the Genius feature — now you can rename, rearrange, and remove mixes you create via the Genius feature. In reality, today’s update is all about making sure that the iPad experience goes smoothly on Saturday. By releasing the software early, they can find and remove any final bugs before one of the most important product launches in the company’s history.
iPad, Meet “Star Trek”
In Star Trek, members of the crew are carrying a tablet-like device called the PADD, or Personal Access Display Device. It comes in many shapes and flavors — there’s even a horizontal one. And, circa 2151, the device that was in common use looked pretty much like the thing we’ll be frantically testing this weekend: theApple iPad. Now, Gizmodo has dug out an iPad app called Captain’s Log that actually makes the real device look very much like the PADD. The app lets you check your mail or social networking profiles, adding, besides the visuals, little details like the inevitable star date. Yes, it looks quite simple, but if you’re a Trekkie, this is the first app you’ll get. hr />
For more mobile coverage, follow Mashable Mobile on Twitter or become a fan on Facebook
Monday, March 29, 2010
Rugged Camera Roundup 2010
About a month ago, I noticed that several of the major camera companies were putting out some rugged, waterproof, and generally durable cameras, something I’ve always said is a very good thing. Everybody carries around their camera as if it were a three-hundred-dollar egg — why aren’t they sturdier? So now we’ve the fully ruggedized cameras from Casio, Fujifilm, and Olympus, along with the new Playsport pocket camcorder from Kodak. I’ll be subjecting to the usual image quality tests, and also checking their purported rough-and-tumble character.Panasonic couldn’t get theirs out to me in time, but I guess four is enough. We’ll get the TS2 later.
So, all of these cameras (big version of header image here) are waterproof and shockproof to various degrees. I’m headed out to Volunteer Park to give them a good time. I don’t feel like diving 30 feet into Lake Washington to test the Olympus, though, so a dip in the duck pond is going to have to suffice.
The first review (and the omnibus video) should be going up tomorrow, and then I’ll do a roundup and comparison at the end of the week.
So, all of these cameras (big version of header image here) are waterproof and shockproof to various degrees. I’m headed out to Volunteer Park to give them a good time. I don’t feel like diving 30 feet into Lake Washington to test the Olympus, though, so a dip in the duck pond is going to have to suffice.
The first review (and the omnibus video) should be going up tomorrow, and then I’ll do a roundup and comparison at the end of the week.
Hello, iPad. Hello, Cloud 2.
Editor’s note: What does the iPad have to do with cloud computing? Glad you asked. In this guest post Marc Benioff, chairman and CEO of salesforce.com, explains how liberating the iPad will really be.
The first piece of software I ever wrote was on the TRS-80 Model 1. It was called “How To Juggle”, and it had 4K of memory. It was my version of “Hello World”, what every programmer first writes on a new piece of hardware. CLOAD Magazine purchased it for $75, they distributed it to their subscribers on a cassette (there weren’t disks for the TRS-80 yet). It was 1979. I was 15 years old, and I was a software entrepreneur. I still am.
Just five years later, I was an intern at Apple writing some of the first native assembly language on the Mac and working in a building called Bandley 4 with a pirate flag on the roof. Guy Kawasaki hired me to help developers write software on the Mac without using its predecessor, the Lisa (something that had been required when the Mac launched). My first example of how to write for the MDS 68000 development system manifested itself in a video game called “Raid on Armonk.” It was an allusion to IBM’s headquarters. They were the anti-Mac and we clicked and destroyed them. (Turns out they eventually clicked on themselves.)
I’m sentimental this week, and thinking about the past, because I have seen the future. The future is not a Mac, or even a PC. Its father created a lot of the computers I’ve loved: Apple IIe, Mac, and iPhone. There have been others I have loved, even some PCs and yes, my Blackberry, but none of that matters anymore. Looking ahead, I am energized, a door is opening, and we are all going to walk through it. We’ll soon enter a new world of computing accelerated once again by the industry’s creator Steve Jobs, and amplified by someone conceived after the PC, Mark Zuckerberg.
The future of our industry now looks totally different than the past. It looks like a sheet of paper, and it’s called the iPad. It’s not about typing or clicking; it’s about touching. It’s not about text, or even animation, it’s about video. It’s not about a local disk, or even a desktop, it’s about the cloud. It’s not about pulling information; it’s about push. It’s not about repurposing old software, it’s about writing everything from scratch (because you want to take advantage of the awesome potential of the new computers and the new cloud—and because you have to reach this pinnacle). Finally, the industry is fun again.
Last week I gave presentations to more than 60 CIOs in various meetings throughout America’s heartland. My message to them: We are moving from Cloud 1 to Cloud 2, and the iPad is the accelerator. Many of them haven’t even made it to Cloud 1—some are still on mainframes. They are working on MVS/CICS, or Lotus Notes, and they have never heard of Cocoa, or even that there is now HTML 5. This is unacceptable. The next generation is here. The iPad that shows us what now is really possible—and that we all need to go faster. Unfortunately, some CIOs would rather retire than go faster.
Cloud 1 ————————————->Cloud 2
Type/Click———————————->TouchYahoo/Amazon—————————–>FacebookTabs——————————————>FeedsChat——————————————>VideoPull——————————————->PushCreate—————————————->ConsumeLocation Unknown————————->Location KnownDesktop/notebook————————->Smart phone/TabletWindows/Mac——————————>Cocoa/HTML 5
What’s most exciting is that this fundamental transformation—cloud + social + iPad—will inspire a new generation of wildly innovative new apps that will change entire industries. Take health. We have all been waiting for the health application that will revolutionize how we share and communicate with our doctors, and help us make better health care decisions. The apps we have seen as first generation EHR/PHR just have not cut it, and now with ObamaCare there is no killer app to accelerate through the new EHR reimbursement program. The shift ignited by the iPad will allow the proliferation of these new missing apps, and automate the industries and professionals left behind by the last generation of technology. Now, no industry will be left behind.
It was on TechCrunch in late February that I first suggested that the enterprise software industry has to move forward and posted an article, “The Facebook Imperative.” In 1999, I was obsessed with the question, “Why isn’t all enterprise software like Amazon.com? And in 2010, the question evolved: “Why isn’t all enterprise software like Facebook?” This week we will have the answer to that question in our hands with the iPad. It’s a more productive, easier, and fun way to work and live. The iPad shows us the old world is no longer good enough. We’ll need new software with a new UI.
Our industry has gone through many shifts, but ultimately, the big ones have always been about software, not hardware. Now, we are seeing a simultaneous software and hardware revolution. The key apps we use in productivity, collaboration, communication, entertainment, education, and even health, will all be rewritten to take advantage of the new capabilities. This will result in a new generation that looks more like Facebook on the iPad than Yahoo on the PC. Our industry is changing. We all need to step up to meet this change head-on or we will leave an incredible opportunity behind.
The first piece of software I ever wrote was on the TRS-80 Model 1. It was called “How To Juggle”, and it had 4K of memory. It was my version of “Hello World”, what every programmer first writes on a new piece of hardware. CLOAD Magazine purchased it for $75, they distributed it to their subscribers on a cassette (there weren’t disks for the TRS-80 yet). It was 1979. I was 15 years old, and I was a software entrepreneur. I still am.
Just five years later, I was an intern at Apple writing some of the first native assembly language on the Mac and working in a building called Bandley 4 with a pirate flag on the roof. Guy Kawasaki hired me to help developers write software on the Mac without using its predecessor, the Lisa (something that had been required when the Mac launched). My first example of how to write for the MDS 68000 development system manifested itself in a video game called “Raid on Armonk.” It was an allusion to IBM’s headquarters. They were the anti-Mac and we clicked and destroyed them. (Turns out they eventually clicked on themselves.)
I’m sentimental this week, and thinking about the past, because I have seen the future. The future is not a Mac, or even a PC. Its father created a lot of the computers I’ve loved: Apple IIe, Mac, and iPhone. There have been others I have loved, even some PCs and yes, my Blackberry, but none of that matters anymore. Looking ahead, I am energized, a door is opening, and we are all going to walk through it. We’ll soon enter a new world of computing accelerated once again by the industry’s creator Steve Jobs, and amplified by someone conceived after the PC, Mark Zuckerberg.
The future of our industry now looks totally different than the past. It looks like a sheet of paper, and it’s called the iPad. It’s not about typing or clicking; it’s about touching. It’s not about text, or even animation, it’s about video. It’s not about a local disk, or even a desktop, it’s about the cloud. It’s not about pulling information; it’s about push. It’s not about repurposing old software, it’s about writing everything from scratch (because you want to take advantage of the awesome potential of the new computers and the new cloud—and because you have to reach this pinnacle). Finally, the industry is fun again.
Last week I gave presentations to more than 60 CIOs in various meetings throughout America’s heartland. My message to them: We are moving from Cloud 1 to Cloud 2, and the iPad is the accelerator. Many of them haven’t even made it to Cloud 1—some are still on mainframes. They are working on MVS/CICS, or Lotus Notes, and they have never heard of Cocoa, or even that there is now HTML 5. This is unacceptable. The next generation is here. The iPad that shows us what now is really possible—and that we all need to go faster. Unfortunately, some CIOs would rather retire than go faster.
Cloud 1 ————————————->Cloud 2
Type/Click———————————->TouchYahoo/Amazon—————————–>FacebookTabs——————————————>FeedsChat——————————————>VideoPull——————————————->PushCreate—————————————->ConsumeLocation Unknown————————->Location KnownDesktop/notebook————————->Smart phone/TabletWindows/Mac——————————>Cocoa/HTML 5
What’s most exciting is that this fundamental transformation—cloud + social + iPad—will inspire a new generation of wildly innovative new apps that will change entire industries. Take health. We have all been waiting for the health application that will revolutionize how we share and communicate with our doctors, and help us make better health care decisions. The apps we have seen as first generation EHR/PHR just have not cut it, and now with ObamaCare there is no killer app to accelerate through the new EHR reimbursement program. The shift ignited by the iPad will allow the proliferation of these new missing apps, and automate the industries and professionals left behind by the last generation of technology. Now, no industry will be left behind.
It was on TechCrunch in late February that I first suggested that the enterprise software industry has to move forward and posted an article, “The Facebook Imperative.” In 1999, I was obsessed with the question, “Why isn’t all enterprise software like Amazon.com? And in 2010, the question evolved: “Why isn’t all enterprise software like Facebook?” This week we will have the answer to that question in our hands with the iPad. It’s a more productive, easier, and fun way to work and live. The iPad shows us the old world is no longer good enough. We’ll need new software with a new UI.
Our industry has gone through many shifts, but ultimately, the big ones have always been about software, not hardware. Now, we are seeing a simultaneous software and hardware revolution. The key apps we use in productivity, collaboration, communication, entertainment, education, and even health, will all be rewritten to take advantage of the new capabilities. This will result in a new generation that looks more like Facebook on the iPad than Yahoo on the PC. Our industry is changing. We all need to step up to meet this change head-on or we will leave an incredible opportunity behind.
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Gist Acquires Startup Weekend App ‘Learn That Name’
Every few weeks (and sometimes even more often than that), dozens of techies gather together for regional Startup Weekends — fast-paced code writing frenzies where entrepreneurs and developers conceive of and build a new application in less than 60 hours (and lose quite a bit of sleep in the process). Many of the apps die off soon thereafter, but some of them live on. And now they’re becoming acquisition targets: Learn That Name, a game that uses your LinkedIn contacts to help you remember the names of your business acquaintances, has been acquired by Gist. Terms of the deal aren’t being disclosed, but the LTN guys say they’re “very, very happy” with the result.
Learn That Name was built last August at a Microsoft-sponsored Startup Weekend and won top prize (which was amusing, because it was built for the decidedly non-Microsoft iPhone). The app’s idea came from lawyer Eric Koester, who was inspired to create it after he failed to remember someone’s name earlier during the event. A team of 14 people came together to build the app that weekend, and since then, a subset of the original LTN team has continued working on it, releasing an updated iPhone version, Palm WebOS app, and Flash app.
The deal is for LTN’s tech assets, and the proceeds are being split among the 14 original team members. Going forward, the standalone iPhone and Palm applications will still be available, and the game is also integrated into Gist’s own iPhone application, which you can find here. The Gist version will tap into Gist’s database of contacts (the original uses LinkedIn).
For those that haven’t used it, Gist offers services that help you keep tabs on the people in your professional network. The service’s web interface allows you to see past messages and attachments from each contact, news about their company, and their recent messages on services like Twitter. Gist also offers an Outlook plugin that shares similarities with Xobni. Given the business oriented nature of Learn That Name, this seems like a good (and fun) fit.
Given the success of the Learn That Name team, it will be interesting to see if more Startup Weekend teams continue working together following the conclusion of their events.
Learn That Name was built last August at a Microsoft-sponsored Startup Weekend and won top prize (which was amusing, because it was built for the decidedly non-Microsoft iPhone). The app’s idea came from lawyer Eric Koester, who was inspired to create it after he failed to remember someone’s name earlier during the event. A team of 14 people came together to build the app that weekend, and since then, a subset of the original LTN team has continued working on it, releasing an updated iPhone version, Palm WebOS app, and Flash app.
The deal is for LTN’s tech assets, and the proceeds are being split among the 14 original team members. Going forward, the standalone iPhone and Palm applications will still be available, and the game is also integrated into Gist’s own iPhone application, which you can find here. The Gist version will tap into Gist’s database of contacts (the original uses LinkedIn).
For those that haven’t used it, Gist offers services that help you keep tabs on the people in your professional network. The service’s web interface allows you to see past messages and attachments from each contact, news about their company, and their recent messages on services like Twitter. Gist also offers an Outlook plugin that shares similarities with Xobni. Given the business oriented nature of Learn That Name, this seems like a good (and fun) fit.
Given the success of the Learn That Name team, it will be interesting to see if more Startup Weekend teams continue working together following the conclusion of their events.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)