thegeekchannel.com

Who Said Geeks Don’t Have a Sense of Humor?

geek — Thu, 06 May 2010 18:03:56 +0000

In this day and age I’m not sure what I would pick up off the ground, but with a several hundred dollar retail value, Microsoft Office might be one of the things that I look twice at. Now… not so much. Definitely a good video for a laugh!

~geek

HP to Buy Palm for $1.2 Billion

geek — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 21:41:26 +0000

Hewlett-Packard has announced a $1.2 billion deal with Palm, Inc. that would allow HP, the highly successful technology mega-company to expand further into the smartphone market.

Nearly everyone on the street has known for some time that Palm has been shopping around their technology, looking for a buyer, and it seems that they may well have found their white knight in the coffers of Hewlett Packard. By offering a 23% premium, HP is paying a small price to show a commitment to the massive smartphone market. Once well known for their IPaq mobile product line, which includes a Windows Mobile based smartphone, HP has continually lost ground to the competition including Apple and Google.

As the words of this article are reaching the screen I, like many likely will, am wondering why HP, a company of such vast resources, would buy Palm, a company that has been floundering in recent years. Their last big success, the Treo, has been replaced many times over and their recent products were met with harsh criticism from even the staunchest Palm supporters. Hopefully they know better and we can all sit back and watch what they turn out of this acquisition.

~geek

AT&T Talks iPad and Mentions Free Hotspot Access

geek — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 20:16:47 +0000

With Apple set to release their iPad 3G on Friday it’s about time that AT&T got in on some of the action and for those eagerly awaiting their iPad the news is actually pretty good.

AT&T is announcing firm(er) pricing for their data plans and adding in that all subscribers to any of their data plans will have included, at no additional charge, “access to more than 20,000 AT&T WiFi Hot Spots nationwide. Not a bad deal and another reason that the 3G unit may offer more than the $130 price difference would leave you to believe.

Additional information can be found on the AT&T site here and of course all the Apple related information can be found here.

~geek

More Late than April – iPad 3Gs are Prepared for Shipping

geek — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 19:52:03 +0000

When Apple says “late April” – as in their project delivery date for the new Apple iPad 3G + WiFi – they apparently mean much more of the late and much less of the April, with deliveries and availability expected on April 30, 2010. Appearing almost everywhere today are messages from people like me that the status on their order has been changed to Prepared for Shipment, leading me to believe that the promised Friday date will be met. What time Friday is yet to be seen, although I’m not holding my breath. At least people that haven’t pre-ordered already know that they may be able to buy one in the retail store after 5:00PM.

Not sure how I feel about that, either, as it would seem to me, as is so often not the case with Apple, that people that took the time to pre-order and offer up their first born and credit card should get some benefit of having ordered before the masses. If that’s simply that Federal Express shows up at some point early in the day on Friday… I’m not sure that’s enough for to truly consider pre-ordering in the future. Of course, I really feel sorry for people that are using the Apple store to order today with an anticipated delivery on the 7th of May at the earliest, then knowing that they can probably go buy one in the store after 5:00PM.

Did you pre-order your iPad? Do you have any more information? When are you expecting your new iPad to arrive on Friday?

~geek

Amazon Kindle Goes to Target

geek — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 16:23:19 +0000

Sunday is going to be an interesting day for internet giant Amazon.com and retail giant Target. For Amazon it’s an admission that sometimes consumers really do want to touch and feel a product before making a decision and for Target it’s the chance to market a product that has until now only been available from a web retailer, the Amazon Kindle. Personally, this seems like a win-win to me, even if it goes against everything Amazon stands for.

Unfortunately for most Americans, Sunday won’t be the day that they can run out to Target and grab their Kindle as the initial launch (in store and online at target.com) will be limited to Target’s Minneapolis store and 102 stores scattered throughout South Florida. Why Florida, I’m not sure, but it would seem like there are areas more likely to buy high-technology products. Current pricing on the Kindle will remain competitive with Amazon at $259.

As this is a purpose built device – reading books, magazines, newspapers, etc. – I believe that ultimately this represents a much better opportunity for Amazon than it does for Target. What was once something that had to be thought through and ordered will quickly become something that for many could be considered an impulse by. After all, why buy three hardbacks for $70 when you could buy those same three books on Kindle for $30? Sure, fuzzy math, but over the life of the product it’s a good deal for Amazon and a good deal for the consumer.

Unfortunately, as is so often the case, there might well be a loser in this story, too, and at this point that sounds like Sony might be the biggest loser here. Why Sony, you may be wondering? Well, if you haven’t already noticed, Target has been selling the Sony Reader ebook for some time now and some might say that the Sony product offers less functionality at a sometimes more significant price. Will Target be phasing out Sony from their offerings?

~geek

Apple Cuts it Close with Late April Deliveries

geek — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 18:40:46 +0000

When I originally ordered my 64GB WiFi + 3G iPad from Apple’s online store, I wasn’t too worried about the “late April” ship date, assuming incorrectly that the release of the WiFi only models meant that those with 3G couldn’t be all that far behind. My mistake was assuming that late april meant sometime after the 15 – not the last day of the month as Apple has just announced.

Am I disappointed? Frankly, I am, even though I guess I don’t really have the right to be. I’m just left wondering, what in the world is going to happen to my order if they don’t make that delivery date? After all, part of the reason I even chose to wait was because the delivery date was as early as it is. If I had known that it would truly be months I might have considered other options.

I’m wondering, how do others feel about this hail-Mary delivery promise from Apple?

~geek

Is the Gizmodo iPhone 4G Real or Marketing?

geek — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 17:49:48 +0000

Honestly, I am not sure what to believe. On one hand it’s highly likely that an engineer got drunk on his birthday and left his next-generation iPhone at the bar for some ~~unscrupulous~~ lucky soul to find and release to the world. At the same time, it’s very likely that this is Apple’s PR/Marketing machine trying to learn how the world will feel about their possible changes to the phone that has nearly spawned a religion.

There, I said it, Gizmodo may have found the holy grail or created the best marketing stunt ever known, and it is likely that we, the consumers, will ever really know the truth. In the meantime, I recommend trotting over to Gizmodo.com and reviewing their review of what may well be the next iPhone available to the masses.

~geek

Apple Now Accepting iPad App Submissions

geek — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 22:45:31 +0000

I’ve been thinking for some time now that the biggest changes for the iPhone are going to come from iPad developers, simply because there are things that users will want/need to do on the iPad that I am hopeful will trickle-down to the iPhone – take printing, for example. With Apple’s announcement that they are now accepting iPad apps, I am hopeful that some of these hopes will come to fruition.

Based on what Apple is leaking, applications submitted now will have a shot at being reviewed and approved before the iPad launch next month, but I would expect, since almost all apps have been developed with only the simulator, that many apps will experience problems on day/week one. Only time will tell, but I am hopeful that some good will come out of this and not a new round of fart and beer guzzling parodies.

~geek

Is there a market for Apple’s iPad?

geek — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 22:36:49 +0000

Apple’s recent announcement of the long-awaited and soon to be released Apple tablet – which they have dubbed the iPad – brings with it more questions that answers. They’ve done a decent enough job of telling us what the iPad brings in the form of new technology (I see it as a great big iPhone… er, without a real phone), but it would seem, like the Newton before it, that this is more of a product in search of a market than a solution to a problem that we all share. Even as an evangelist for technology I question how useful this is compared to my traditional or ultra-light notebook computer.

So while all of these are opinions, my reasons for giving this a great big fail are as follows:

No keyboard: I’m not sure that I believe there is a better (currently available and feasible) input device than the traditional keyboard. That is absolutely personal opinion, but one that I’d be happy to reconsider the next time my flight encounters turbulence. And, yes, I know that an external keyboard will be possible, it just doesn’t seem practical to carry along.

No camera: it’s a digital world, Apple, and your products are supposed to be opening doors and windows – not closing them. This should be as powerful as something like the MacBook Air and that said users are going to expect to be able instant message with tools like iChat and Yahoo Messenger with cam. Not to mention photograph things. Just looking at this from a purely business perspective it sure would be nice to be able to take a picture of someone’s business card and have it dropped into contacts like I can do on the iPhone.

Weight. So depending on what you have to carry with you this could be good or bad, but generally speaking I don’t think that people are going to want to lug around a notebook sized tablet and power and the other crap that they need to make it through their day – they may as well be carrying a notebook computer.

Size and durability. So I get that it’s relatively small and thin and easy to hold and pretty on the eyes, but there are two immediately obvious flaws to me. First is the bezel – does it really have to be that thick? Okay, so assuming it does, isn’t this also something that looks like it will break on the first drop or the first time something like my keys are dropped on it?

CleanlinessMaybe I’m just a pudgy geek with sweaty palms, but keeping my iPhone as clean as I like it has been difficult enough. I can’t imagine how difficult this is going to be to keep clean. Looks to me like it could be more work than it’s worth.

So those are my rants – at least for now – and I am planning a follow-up to this with why I think that this is a game-changer, if only for what it might do for mobile computing and the iPhone platform. As always, your comments are welcome.

MacWorld 2010

geek — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 18:52:45 +0000

Its first year “without Apple” and Macworld seems to be doing okay – frankly I think that the break-away could be the best thing to happen to some of the smaller developers. This gives people the opportunity to make their wares shine without being overshadowed by the large Gorilla in the middle of the room. That said, it’s difficult to say what the end result will be and I wonder if MacWorld can or should continue.

What do you think?? Are you attending this year?

geek