Today’s the big day for Apple fans waiting for Steve Jobs to take the stage and finally reveal all the “magical” details of the much hyped iCloud. Unlike the competition, Amazon Cloud Player and Google Music Beta, Apple has actually secured licensing deals with music labels and could offer up something much more comprehensive and appealing. Add to that iTune’s already secure first place lead in the music download arena, makes it one cloudy day for rivals.
The much hyped Apple Store 2.0 10th anniversary retail revamp didn’t quite deliver the magic and revolution folks were anticipating. The top secret operation was rumored to bring NFC-enabled registers, interactive iPad 2 signage, and even some ginormous sale among other endless possibilities. And although the use of the iPad 2 as new interactive product signage turned out to be true, the execution was rather underwhelming.
Last week’s Google I/O kicked off the first keynote with an image on the big screen of an adorable Android robot ready to swallow an apple, bringing laughter to the crowd of 5000 attendees. This certainly isn’t the first time we’ve seen shots taken at the bitten apple logo, which being an inanimate and already injured fruit has very little means to defend itself. Apple probably won’t be fighting back with its own cartoon, but they could bring some major announcements at next month’s WWDC to take a bite out of Google’s recent developments.
Last week, we had the launch of two more ’4G’ devices on the AT&T network, the HP Veer 4G and the Samsung Infuse 4G, which sparked new complaints about the carrier’s marketing strategy. Back at CES earlier this year, AT&T had already downgraded the term 4G to their “evolved” 3G network, but this past week, they further downgraded 4G to mean the combination of 3G and a fast backhaul. So, what happens when they actually complete their promised 4G LTE network?
The PlayStation Network outage looks to be resolved soon with the latest response from Sony stating that services will start coming back this week. Many PSN subscribers were upset with the situation, both frustrated at Sony’s delay in response and at the hackers responsible. However, many couldn’t help but aim their anger at Sony, with reports claiming 1 out of 5 would switch to the Xbox. Nonetheless, will Sony’s response be enough for PSN subscribers and will they be able to regain trust? For both panels of this week’s comic, continue after the cut.
Apple’s patent suit claims Samsung copied the “look and feel” of their user interface, including having a grid of colorful square icons with uniformly rounded corners, a bottom row “Springboard” of square icons, and an overall rectangular product shape that has four uniformly rounded corners. The TouchWiz UI resemblance to Apple’s iOS UI is certainly there, but it will still be one tough legal battle with Samsung fighting back that will bring plenty of analysis on its implications for Apple and the smartphone/tablet industry as a whole. But, let’s just imagine for fun if Samsung were to lose on the UI design battlefront…
Last week Cisco announced that it was shutting down its Flip video camera business that it bought just two years ago from Pure Digital for $590 million dollars. It was their bid to tackle the consumer market, a segment that is apparently beyond their expertise. There are many reasons behind their decision.
Last week we had an episode that seemed almost like an April Fools prank between Google and CNN. You would think that these two big shots wouldn’t run into such a PR problem. CNN may have been a little too enthusiastic on their reporting claiming Google was busy at work developing a facial recognition app, while Google may have been hyper-sensitive given their run in with the privacy police in the past.
AT&T made a big announcement this past weekend—on a Sunday of all days. The carrier has committed to purchasing T-Mobile for $39 billion, a deal that will take 12 months to complete. The acquisition is said to help more quickly expand AT&T’s LTE network coverage. But merging the two largest GSM carriers in the US, leaves little room for competition.
The Apple iPad 2 started selling last Friday, March 11th to massive lines at major flagship Apple Stores. One NYC woman was able to sell her first place spot in line for $900. This could become an interesting trend for future Apple product launches…
We had a flood of Apple news last week, but what seemed to be “winning” news in mainstream media was an awful lot of Charlie Sheen. After a slew of crazy and offensive antics over the past few weeks including anti-semitic slurs, hookers, drugs, and getting fired off of “Two and a Half Men,” the troubled actor seems to only be gaining in popularity. Spawning several catch phrases including “winning” and even trending #tigerblood, the actor has now landed on the Guinness world record for hitting 1 million followers on Twitter just one day after he signed up for an account last week on March 1st.
Several devices are finally getting their updates for Android 2.2 Froyo that will be rolled out in batches over-the-air. But with all updates, there’s always a chance of firmware issues wrecking your phone. So be sure to backup first. Sprint last week announced that they would be rolling out Froyo updates for the Samsung Epic 4G, but had to quickly halt the update as complaints arose over Epic 4G phones getting bricked after the new install. Other devices announced for firmware updates last week include the Samsung Captivate, Sanyo Zio, and the Samsung Omnia 7. Check out the full comic after the jump.
