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‘opinion’ Stories

Editorial – Jobs Really Is Apple

By Brenda Stokes on Monday, Jul 28th 2008 3 Comments

225px steve jobs An article in the NYTimes this past Saturday is sparking controversy. You know how everyone’s been speculating about Steve Job’s health? Did the cancer come back? Why is he so thin? He owes stockholders the answers to these questions. Or, at least, that’s what some are posturing.

Even so, it seems like an invasion of privacy. And while PR reps for Apple continuously said, “Steve’s heath is a private matter,” Jobs set the record straight himself, though off the record, with NY Times columnist Joe Nocera. Jobs called up the columnist and said:

This is Steve Jobs,” he began. “You think I’m an arrogant [expletive] who thinks he’s above the law, and I think you’re a slime bucket who gets most of his facts wrong.

Yikes. I don’t know what I’d do if I got a call like that. But nevertheless, Nocera seemed to have kept his cool and reports that while Jobs had more than a “common bug” his condition was not life threatening and he was cancer free. This is all good news, right?

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Commentary: Technology Has Gone High Fashion

By Brenda Stokes on Friday, Jul 25th 2008 2 Comments

What’s the first thing you notice when looking to buy a new piece of technology? Do you see if it falls within your budget? What about the spec list? Do you go over that in detail? And though these aspects are an important part of any technological buying decision, there’s one that beats them all. You ask yourself one question and if the answer is no, you won’t buy it. That question is: “Is it pretty?”

samsung ln52a650

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You Can Be Green and Tech

By Brenda Stokes on Friday, Jul 25th 2008 2 Comments

Will all the talk going around about how “going green” is a fad due to media saturation and its status as pretty much a buzz word, I started thinking about how environmentalism affects technology. Are they mutually exclusive? While the very essence of the green lifestyle is natural, technology is its polar opposite. It is man made, created and unnatural.

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MobileMe – Why It Makes Me Angry and Hopeful

By Brenda Stokes on Thursday, Jul 24th 2008 No Comments

mobile me Apple’s MobileMe is an innovative synchronization service that allows you to keep your bookmarks, emails, calendar, contacts and photos all up to date on all of your devices including your laptop, desktop and iPhone. This is a fantastic idea because I have wasted more hours than I can count getting all of my devices to sync up and “talk” to each other. I e-mail myself things instead of plugging in my phone to my laptop, because it takes too long. You get the picture.

So with MobileMe, I was pretty excited. It offered a convenient way to connect all of my junk (as I call it) and since I already had a .mac account, this was a no brainer. Of course when .mac switched to Mobile Me, all the images on my website disappeared, but that’s an entirely different story…

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Gadget Envy – Why Early Adopters Are Especially Subject

By Brenda Stokes on Thursday, Jul 24th 2008 4 Comments

You see them several times a year. They stand in lines for hours. They shell out hundreds, maybe even thousands of dollars at a time. And what do they walk away with? The latest piece of technology, of course. But they also walk away with envious stares boring into their backs. “They” are the early adopters. And if you’re reading this, you’re probably one of them, too. (Initiates secret club handshake).

Vincent Nguyen of SlashGear

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Craig Ferguson comments on GTA IV

By Abby McVay on Tuesday, May 13th 2008 No Comments

Craig Ferguson and Grand Theft Auto IV I have always loved Craig Ferguson, I suppose I have the same fascination with him as I would have with a drunken monkey. Although I’m aware he has laid off the booze, he still has that permanent drunken monkey syndrome. Well today he gained even more of my respect after I saw the video about him commenting on GTA IV.

He readily admits that he hasn’t played a whole lot of recent video games including Grand Theft Auto IV, and he makes several references about Pacman as well as Donkey Kong. All in all, he makes quite a bit of sense and doesn’t bash on GTA IV for the amount of violence it holds. He actually believes it is up to the parents to monitor what their children play.

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Android is coming, how will handset manufacturers handle the relationship between their Windows Mobile handsets and Android handsets?

By James Allan Brady on Monday, Apr 14th 2008 No Comments

android live Android phones are starting to slowly come out of the woodwork with no official production ready models being announced yet. However there is an event in London involving HTC on May 6th, a company that vowed to release the first Android phone. They are also known for making some of the best Windows Mobile handsets that are on the market. So the question is, how does Microsoft feel about this, and more specifically, how will manufacturers like HTC keep the peace within their own companies?

It just wouldn’t make sense for mobile phone manufacturers like HTC to make the exact same phone twice just offering your choice of Android or Windows Mobile, it would kind of be nice, but exclusive handsets tipped to one OS or the other are what really moves units. For example, would the XPERIA X1 be such a big deal if it wasn’t running the next generation of Windows Mobile software? Maybe, but I’d guess not.

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iPod held for ransom – teen ends up in jail

By Abby McVay on Friday, Mar 28th 2008 No Comments

iPod held for ransom Now kids, it’s time to play good idea, bad idea. Good idea, playfully attempt to get your girlfriend to do a slightly dirty task by holding her iPod for ransom then giving it back as soon as she gives you, the look. Bad idea, stealing an iPod from a female classmate and holding it for actual ransom until she makes a dirty video for you.

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HP has first thin-client in notebook form

By James Allan Brady on Thursday, Jan 24th 2008 No Comments

That’s right; you can now get a thin-client in a mobile form. It doesn’t have a hard drive per se, but rather a 1GB flash drive that can hold the Windows XPe OS and maybe a few other apps, likely just the ones necessary to access the remote apps.

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New Apple Patent could take control of your volume knob on your iPod

By James Allan Brady on Monday, Dec 24th 2007 No Comments

dlipod123 According to a new patent filed by Apple, the company is considering applying some software to your iPod that will gradually turn down the volume at which you listen to your iPod for you. Sure it’s for your safety, but when you pay for a product, you don’t want the company’s software coming in and saying you’ve had it on max volume for too long.

I rarely have reason to crank my iPod Touch above about 50% volume provided I am using one of my good sets of headphones, heck, provided I am using headphones at all. I have a few devices that I connect my iPod to via the headphone jack that give me better audio if I crank up the volume on the iPod to 100%, that doesn’t mean I am listening to my iPod at 100% of the volume, what about then?

Sure, you can go deaf from listening to your iPod too loud for too long, and Apple has implemented optional measures for those too dumb to turn it down before they go deaf, but implementing mandatory measures such as these just to keep from getting sued is dumb. Especially if Apple is going to continue supplying crappy ear buds with their players that require you to crank up the volume to get any semblance of sound quality.

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