Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Gaming, Software, Odds and ends, Developer, iPhone, App Store
Now that's interesting -- a big time studio forced to close by their corporate overlords is finding new life in iPhone development (FuzzyCube isn't the only studio to come out of the Ensemble breakup -- Robot Entertainment, Bonfire Studios, and Windstorm Studios are all being started by ex-Ensemble employees right now, though FuzzyCube is the only group to have released a game so far). Lots of game developers are facing a crunch right now, and with the iPhone easy and cheap to develop for, we might see even more of these former larger game devs turn to the smaller screen.
TUAWiQuarterback 1.1 from former Ensemble Studios devs originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 14 Apr 2009 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Nehalem EX in Action
During the IDF 2009, Intel made a demo of a hardware based on Nehalem EX. The current Xeon Nehalem powering the new Mac Pro belongs to the EP series. The Nehalem EX will be available up to 8 core CPU, but one can install 4 or 8 units on the same motherboard. Hereafter is the task manager on Windows for a computer powered by four Octo Core Xeon Nehalem EX; in other words, 32 physical cores or 64 logic cores thank to hyperthreading. In order to feed such CPUs, there are interconnected with 4 QPI link, and each CPU is able to manage simultaneously 4 RAM modules (for a total of 16 in the current example)
One can now better understand the dilemma and the problem currently faced, and to be a growing concern in the forthcoming months, for application and OS developers: how to code and/or design their software/OS in order to fully benefit from such raw power? It will also be true for Larrabee, the graphical solution developed by Intel, initially based on 8 to 64 cores, and which will need to be managed and feed with data/request to be fully effective and to fully deliver.
Billboard: iTunes prices up, sales down
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, iTS, Multimedia, iTunes
I coulda told you this, though I am a little surprised that we've seen the results so fast. Despite iTunes having put the new tiered pricing into effect just last week, Billboard is reporting that they've already seen sales drop on the higher-priced tunes. The iTunes Top 100 chart has 40 different songs with a new price of $1.29, and one day after the changes, those songs dropped an average of 5.3 places on the chart, while cheaper songs moved up on average. And on the second day of the price change, ten of the tracks that saw their prices rise within 24 hours dropped a huge 12.4 chart positions on average.Of course, we're talking only a matter of days here, and there are all kinds of things that could have affected this average drop -- lots of the tracks that became expensive were from a Rascal Flatts album, and it could be just that the album has lost popularity, bringing the average down. And don't forget that even though these sales figures may be dropping, they haven't dropped nearly enough to show a loss of revenue (though fewer songs may be selling, they're still making more money).
But for those convinced that higher prices mean lower sales numbers, these first few days of figures will seem to connect all of the right dots. We'll have to wait and see if the long-term effects match up to the figures Billboard has seen so far.
TUAWBillboard: iTunes prices up, sales down originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 13 Apr 2009 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
.Mac Groups and Homepage: This Is the End
Mobile Me offered the option to create Groups for easily sharing photos, info and files with friends, as well as Homepage to generate webpages via an online interface. Both services incldued in mobile Me will be cloased own on July &th without any further details. This was for sure planned for a long time, as both services interface were not upgraded to the Mobile Me design and were still featuring the aging .Mac look.
If one looks at solutions offered by third-parties, from Google to Adobe, including microsoft, they are all working on implementing online applications to allow users to create, edit or publish documents, webpages, photos, etc. from any computer without the requirement of running a local application or hosting any files. With iWeb and iPhoto, we simply have easier publishing tools, but we are still running both applications locally. It is only with iWork '09 that Apple seems to have understood the interest and needs to release its own online application solutions, eventhough it remins limited when compared to Google Documents or Microsoft Office Live... In some years, we will know if this decision from Apple was right or not.
Apple to Stock 4 Millions of the New iPhone Prior its Launch in June
According to Slashphone, quoting sources from manufacturers, Apple has ordered 4 millions units of its new iPhone. Three models will be available: one EDGE, one 3G and one dedicated to the chinese market, compatible with the TD-SCDMA format. The new iPhone should be launched mid-June (might be during the WWDC).
iPhone found ready for enterprise, better than BlackBerry
A close study has shown that opening the doors to iPhones at large-scale business has not only made workers happier but has often saved money over competing smartphones in the process.
Next Generation iPhone Component Suppliers?
Digitimes publishes this list of component suppliers for the next generation iPhone that is rumored to arrive in mid 2009. The component list isn't particularly revealing except it reinforces the rumor that Apple will be using a 3.2 megapixe...
Let your tweets incubate with Birdhouse for iPhone
Filed under: Software, Internet Tools, iPhone
For these types, a tweet isn't something that's typed and quickly posted a few seconds later -- it's a chance to make his/her followers chuckle. To that end, they take great care to ensure that each tweet is finely honed and worded to deliver the maximum amount of gag within the 140-character limit. Birdhouse is an application for these people.
Dubbed by its creators as "A Notepad for Twitter," Birdhouse isn't your typical Twitter client. Instead of reading, replying to and favoriting your buddies' tweets, it focuses on composition. Got an idea for a really hilarious joke? Plug the idea into Birdhouse, then come back to it when you have time. Tweak and refine it until you've got just what you want, and hit publish.
There's no hard limit to the number of drafts you can keep at once, and it maintains a timestamped history of all of the tweets you've published. You can rate each message using a 5-star system, and it also allows you to email yourself a complete list of all pending and published tweets in case you're staring at the business end of an iPhone restore and you don't want to lose that truly golden mom joke you've been working on.
Birdhouse [App Store] is available now for $3.99US.
TUAWLet your tweets incubate with Birdhouse for iPhone originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 13 Apr 2009 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Apple to sell $899 20-inch aluminum iMac to schools
Apple this week quietly announced plans to begin selling an aluminum 20-inch iMac configuration to qualified educational institutions for just $899, effectively closing the book on the white 17-inch legacy model that had previously assumed a similar role.
iQuarterback 1.1 from former Ensemble Studios devs
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Gaming, Software, Odds and ends, Developer, iPhone, App Store
Now that's interesting -- a big time studio forced to close by their corporate overlords is finding new life in iPhone development (FuzzyCube isn't the only studio to come out of the Ensemble breakup -- Robot Entertainment, Bonfire Studios, and Windstorm Studios are all being started by ex-Ensemble employees right now, though FuzzyCube is the only group to have released a game so far). Lots of game developers are facing a crunch right now, and with the iPhone easy and cheap to develop for, we might see even more of these former larger game devs turn to the smaller screen.
TUAWiQuarterback 1.1 from former Ensemble Studios devs originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 14 Apr 2009 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Nehalem EX in Action
During the IDF 2009, Intel made a demo of a hardware based on Nehalem EX. The current Xeon Nehalem powering the new Mac Pro belongs to the EP series. The Nehalem EX will be available up to 8 core CPU, but one can install 4 or 8 units on the same motherboard. Hereafter is the task manager on Windows for a computer powered by four Octo Core Xeon Nehalem EX; in other words, 32 physical cores or 64 logic cores thank to hyperthreading. In order to feed such CPUs, there are interconnected with 4 QPI link, and each CPU is able to manage simultaneously 4 RAM modules (for a total of 16 in the current example)
One can now better understand the dilemma and the problem currently faced, and to be a growing concern in the forthcoming months, for application and OS developers: how to code and/or design their software/OS in order to fully benefit from such raw power? It will also be true for Larrabee, the graphical solution developed by Intel, initially based on 8 to 64 cores, and which will need to be managed and feed with data/request to be fully effective and to fully deliver.
Billboard: iTunes prices up, sales down
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, iTS, Multimedia, iTunes
I coulda told you this, though I am a little surprised that we've seen the results so fast. Despite iTunes having put the new tiered pricing into effect just last week, Billboard is reporting that they've already seen sales drop on the higher-priced tunes. The iTunes Top 100 chart has 40 different songs with a new price of $1.29, and one day after the changes, those songs dropped an average of 5.3 places on the chart, while cheaper songs moved up on average. And on the second day of the price change, ten of the tracks that saw their prices rise within 24 hours dropped a huge 12.4 chart positions on average.Of course, we're talking only a matter of days here, and there are all kinds of things that could have affected this average drop -- lots of the tracks that became expensive were from a Rascal Flatts album, and it could be just that the album has lost popularity, bringing the average down. And don't forget that even though these sales figures may be dropping, they haven't dropped nearly enough to show a loss of revenue (though fewer songs may be selling, they're still making more money).
But for those convinced that higher prices mean lower sales numbers, these first few days of figures will seem to connect all of the right dots. We'll have to wait and see if the long-term effects match up to the figures Billboard has seen so far.
TUAWBillboard: iTunes prices up, sales down originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 13 Apr 2009 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
.Mac Groups and Homepage: This Is the End
Mobile Me offered the option to create Groups for easily sharing photos, info and files with friends, as well as Homepage to generate webpages via an online interface. Both services incldued in mobile Me will be cloased own on July &th without any further details. This was for sure planned for a long time, as both services interface were not upgraded to the Mobile Me design and were still featuring the aging .Mac look.
If one looks at solutions offered by third-parties, from Google to Adobe, including microsoft, they are all working on implementing online applications to allow users to create, edit or publish documents, webpages, photos, etc. from any computer without the requirement of running a local application or hosting any files. With iWeb and iPhoto, we simply have easier publishing tools, but we are still running both applications locally. It is only with iWork '09 that Apple seems to have understood the interest and needs to release its own online application solutions, eventhough it remins limited when compared to Google Documents or Microsoft Office Live... In some years, we will know if this decision from Apple was right or not.
Apple to Stock 4 Millions of the New iPhone Prior its Launch in June
According to Slashphone, quoting sources from manufacturers, Apple has ordered 4 millions units of its new iPhone. Three models will be available: one EDGE, one 3G and one dedicated to the chinese market, compatible with the TD-SCDMA format. The new iPhone should be launched mid-June (might be during the WWDC).
iPhone found ready for enterprise, better than BlackBerry
A close study has shown that opening the doors to iPhones at large-scale business has not only made workers happier but has often saved money over competing smartphones in the process.
Next Generation iPhone Component Suppliers?
Digitimes publishes this list of component suppliers for the next generation iPhone that is rumored to arrive in mid 2009. The component list isn't particularly revealing except it reinforces the rumor that Apple will be using a 3.2 megapixe...
Let your tweets incubate with Birdhouse for iPhone
Filed under: Software, Internet Tools, iPhone
For these types, a tweet isn't something that's typed and quickly posted a few seconds later -- it's a chance to make his/her followers chuckle. To that end, they take great care to ensure that each tweet is finely honed and worded to deliver the maximum amount of gag within the 140-character limit. Birdhouse is an application for these people.
Dubbed by its creators as "A Notepad for Twitter," Birdhouse isn't your typical Twitter client. Instead of reading, replying to and favoriting your buddies' tweets, it focuses on composition. Got an idea for a really hilarious joke? Plug the idea into Birdhouse, then come back to it when you have time. Tweak and refine it until you've got just what you want, and hit publish.
There's no hard limit to the number of drafts you can keep at once, and it maintains a timestamped history of all of the tweets you've published. You can rate each message using a 5-star system, and it also allows you to email yourself a complete list of all pending and published tweets in case you're staring at the business end of an iPhone restore and you don't want to lose that truly golden mom joke you've been working on.
Birdhouse [App Store] is available now for $3.99US.
TUAWLet your tweets incubate with Birdhouse for iPhone originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 13 Apr 2009 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Apple to sell $899 20-inch aluminum iMac to schools
Apple this week quietly announced plans to begin selling an aluminum 20-inch iMac configuration to qualified educational institutions for just $899, effectively closing the book on the white 17-inch legacy model that had previously assumed a similar role.
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