As I’ve pointed out before, I’ve been a PC guy most of my life and have only been using Macs for the last two years. The biggest takeaway for me has been that Microsoft and Apple are really pretty even: they both pose as poster children for anti-competitive practices, generally favor proprietary code over open source, and make very questionable ethics calls.

Microsoft has been living with the reputation of a big bad corporation for over a decade now. But in the last year or so, there has been a subtle but significant shift in the public opinion, for the better. I can actually pin-point exactly when: it’s since Bill Gates has stepped down. Although Slashdot still illustrates all Microsoft news with the now famous Borg avatar of Bill, the tech media seems to have softened its perception of him. People speak of him with some nostalgia now, and he’s often portrayed as some sort of wise elder spokesman for technology. A lot of that may be due to Ballmer being very unpopular and Gates therefore shining by contrast, but I think that there is something deeper going on here. Read the rest of this entry »
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I hate to be blogging about Apple again, but it has been quite ubiquitous of late and given that I own an iPhone, an Apple TV, a Mac Mini and a MacBook Pro, I cannot help caring.

From a PR standpoint, the last few months have been mixed at best for Apple (more on that later), and yet from a financial standpoint it has been pretty much blowing right through this recession, announcing just last month the best non-holiday quarter in the company’s history. What’s going on here?

I grew up very much a PC guy. My first computer, in 1994, was a 75MHz Pentium I with 8 megs of ram and a 500 MB hard drive running Dos and Windows 3.11. I was 14, it was by far the coolest thing I’d ever owned, and the internet was just getting started. Sometimes when I’d go visit a school buddy of mine, I’d take a peek at his dad’s Apple PowerPC which, he liked to remind me, was much more expensive and cooler than my PC. It also wasn’t compatible with mine. It never would be. Apple actually cultivated that difference, it thrived on it: remember ‘think different?’

From that point until about a year and a half ago, I discarded Macs as over-priced, over-engineered rounded cubes without a delete key or a right-click button, designed by and for intellectual snobs.

Read the rest of this entry »

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I’ve been meaning to document my home media setup for a while now because, well, I think it’s pretty sweet and I very much enjoy the setup literally every day. Before I go into the details of how everything works, here are the key benefits of this setup:

• I can watch 3TB worth of content (202 movies and 99 TV seasons at the moment) anytime I want at home. I don’t have to get up and put anything in or out, it’s just all always available. The data is protected against any single drive failure.

• The computers are set up to backup over Wi-Fi without me having to even think about it

• The computers can play music on the Bose speakers by taking over the Apple TV’s speaker output (this is an iTunes feature)

• In addition to playing games, I can use the XBox 360 for DVDs and to stream instantly from Netflix
• I can remote control the Apple TV with my iPhone! (via the excellent Remote app)

Read the rest of this entry »
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This week in etilities: mobile phone practices are under close scrutiny in the public arena, AT&T tries to catch up to Apple, and lagging US broadband penetration is underlined.

Mobile phone practices under scrutiny

Competition between providers benefits consumers in the form of lower prices, better service, and more features. Unsurprisingly, wireless carriers tend to do whatever they can to either land exclusive deals or be on a level playing field with each other. The FCC, at the request of four US senators, is launching a probe investigating the AT&T / iPhone exclusivity deal while the Senate Judiciary Committee is exploring whether Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, and T-Mobile are colluding to set the price of SMS messages outrageously high. AT&T and Verizon claim that this is not the case.

AT&T is playing catch-up with the iPhone 3GS

The partnership between AT&T and Apple is proving quite a headache for the wireless carrier indeed. There has been much coverage about how the carrier is not yet ready to handle some of the new features of the iPhone 3GS, most notably SMS and Tethering. Unsurprisingly, a lot of the information out there is little more than hearsay. AT&T denied rumors that they were going to offer tethering for $55 a month and announced that multimedia messaging (MMS) capability will be included as part of the existing SMS bundles at no additional cost.

As for the iPhone 3GS early upgrade controversy, AT&T has announced that more 3G owners who are currently locked mid-contract will be eligible for the upgrade price of $199 for the 16GB model and $299 for the 32GB model as opposed to $399 and $499, respectively. There are several criteria for determining eligibility, including whether you’re a big spender with AT&T, and not everyone will benefit.

US broadband penetration needs a lot of work

Ars Technica published an article last week dicussing a topic dear to our hearts: broadband penetration. According to the survey, which measures per household broadband penetration rather than per capita penetration, the US ranks 20th, with 60% of households connected by broadband as opposed to 95% in South Korea, the top country on that list.
©2008-2009, Gallop Services, Inc. All rights reserved.

This week in etilities: the DTV transition finally happens, two highly anticipated phones are placed under the spotlight, and AT&T takes a beating in the media.

The Digital TV Transition has finally happened

We’ve been talking about this for a long time, and it finally happened on Friday. Endgaget has a good summary of lead-up coverage here. As was expected, millions of people were still not ready, but the consensus seems to be that the transition was mostly smooth and that the delays did help in preparing more households for it.

New smartphones: the Palm Pre and the iPhone 3GS

This was a big week for smartphones, with the release of the Palm Pre and the announcement of the iPhone 3GS. Both phones have gotten a lot of media attention and generated much emotion among their respective fan bases. We are thrilled that the technology behind smart phones is further maturing, allowing you to take advantage of your online services everywhere you go.

AT&T wireless under fire

This week should have been a good one for AT&T (Etilities Forum), given that they are the only authorized iPhone carrier, but it was not. Indeed, not only is the carrier not ready to handle the 3GS’ new Multimedia Messaging Service or tethering capabilities, but this was pointed out pretty explicitly by Apple during its developer’s conference. This is being seen by some as a clue that it is going to be parting ways with AT&T as soon as it is legally able to do so.

Adding insult to injury,  AT&T also announced that it is charging $399 and $499 for an early upgrade as opposed to the $199 and $299 price tags if you are a brand new customer, which has generated much anger among current iPhone owners.

One thing is for sure: AT&T has a lot of PR work ahead…

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You might have heard the Apple announcement of the iPhone’s 3.0 Operating System on Tuesday. The slew of new features is lengthy, but the question is: will any of it help you save money? The answer seems to be: yes, potentially.

First, the Tethering capability of the 3.0 OS is huge. What this means is that you’ll be able to use your iPhone as a modem. A couple of uses there:

1. If you already had an internet dial-up connection “just in case”, you may be able to ditch it provided that you get good cell reception at home.
2. If you want to be connected everywhere you go with your laptop, you’d have to get a USB wireless modem card, and they go for about $200. So by using your iPhone instead, you’re saving quite a bit of money up front.

One thing to consider about tethering though is that you will likely need to pay a bit more for on AT&T plan to have this capability. Some sources estimate that extra charge to be around $30.

Second, the push notificaton mechanism finally being complete will make VOIP a more viable option, provided you’re connected to a wi-fi network. Push notifications basically allow third party apps to notify your phone when certain events happen. For example: you’re receiving a VOIP phone call. Since 3rd party apps are not allowed to run in the background, this will solve the existing simple problem of: when do I know someone’s calling me.

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In the world of technology, there are almost always two major and conflicting forces being exerted on providers and consumers: the continuous improvement of the service, and its longevity.  This has been evident for a very long time in both hardware and software: when you buy a new product, you want it to have all the latest bells and whistles, but you also don’t want to have to replace it every six months. This can be a delicate balance to strike, and can be the source of much frustration for all parties involved.

AT&T (Etilities Forum), like most wireless providers, is experiencing this squeeze as well: most of their consumer base has phones that use the 2nd generation ‘2G’ network, some have already moved to the third ‘3G’ generation, and already products are coming out that support tomorrow’s network, ‘4G’. Their challenge is therefore to extend their 3G network, plan ahead for the development of their 4G network, and encorage users to move away from 2G. The way that they are going about it, however, has the potential to be rather controversial.

Read the rest of this entry »

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