Apple’s enormously successful iPod/iPhone/iPad line have something in common with their iPod ancestors: you can’t even get started without a computer and iTunes.
This is given Apple a huge advantage, one that Apple’s competitors have failed to do anything about. And that advantage has nothing to do with songs, videos, apps or podcasts.
No, the real advantage of iTunes is that it ensures every iDevice user, first generation Nano
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Sadly, the latest actions by Apple push them from the control-fanatics state to Lawful-Evil. No way to argue it.
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I’ve had the Droid-X since July; long enough to settle into a groove as far as applications go. These are my go-to apps; the ones I would recommend without hesitation.
Note that these apps are not all free; after spending $200 for a phone and $60/month for the phone, spending $5 for an app doesn’t bother me. My logic, doesn’t have to be yours. The links are not links into the Marketplace though most should lead you there eventually. No order or ranking implied, and the prices are merely what I found on the net.
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Two weeks ago I pulled the trigger. Two days prior I had stopped in my local Verizon store, said I wanted a Droid X. The next day, the rep called and said he had one for me, as long as I was in the store by 5pm the next day, launch day. After dropping my kids at camp, I hustled in at 10am sharp. By 10:40 I was out the door with my new beast. So what has it been like? (more…)
Let’s face it, Google’s real business rival is Apple — Apple’s app store, Apple’s iAd (why do I have to pay for the ad bandwidth, by the way?), Apple’s controlled computing enviroment. It is interesting to look at one area that Apple has leveraged for decades and wonder why Google isn’t going there.
Where’s Google for Kids?
Seriously, it is a big missed opportunity for Google.
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AT&T says that 65% of its users use less 200 megabytes per month; a whopping 98% use less than 2 gigabytes. (NYT) AT&T looked at these numbers and concluded it was time for tiered pricing; time to soak these “data pigs”.
I am a data pig. I average between 1.5 and 2 gigabytes a month over the last 6 months. AT&T hates me, apparently, though they are happy to take my money.
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I’ve dabbled in jailbreaking my iPhone a couple times, with varying luck. When I had a 3G, despite trying several times, I only got it to boot jailbroken once. Usually it failed somewhere and got hung followed by a looong restore process. Since I need to use the phone this got old in a hurry.
Everyone’s entire iPhone experience is controlled by Apple. Ditto for iPad owners.
Good thing Apple is never mistaken about what a user wants. I am awed by Apple’s ability to know not only what I want to do today, but whatever I might want to do in the future.
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Since before the release of the iPhone, the feature flow has been from Apple’s Mac OS X operating system to the iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad operating system. Part of the iDevice’s reliability is the solid core of OS X underneath.
But with the release of the iPad, the future seems clear: The touch-based interface’s features are headed back to the Mac computers.
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