Apple, Movies, iPods etc

Just a quick commentary on the Showtime announcement today (excuse any typos and omissions and general stupid comment).

Just yesterday, my friend Tim emailed me for my thoughts pre-event. I wrote back with the following:

1. Will it work on my iPod?
2. Will it work with my PC?
3. Will it only work on a Mac (and a new Mac at that)? If it's limited to Macs I think that will of course limit the appeal. But it's also a potential reason to switch if used cleverly.
4. What resolution will it be? iPod video is not enough for full length movie at $10-15. It's got to be 480p or the videophiles will slam it.
5. What different TV's will be supported? Top of the line plasma/lcd, or bog standard CRT in kids room? It's gotta be both surely?
6. Will it do Dolby 5.1 etc if available? Again, videophiles will turn away.
7. If there is wireless distribution, real world performance of wireless is typically fraught with problems due to building design and configuration, interfering networks and even microwaves.
8. Can I burn it to a DVD? And if so, can I play back from that? (If DVD's are 1-2GB, that's only 20-30 before you've filled up most people's laptop hard drive).
9. The movie studios are dinosaurs clinging on to the olde worlde as long as they can (with pressure from Walmart etc). So, hitting the optimum price (eg 99p music) will be hard to do.
10. Oh, I almost forgot, it's got to include DVD Extras as well. Don't short-change us of material.

I think the answer is a pretty affirmative yes to just about all of these questions - including the pre-announced iTV device. Question 8 looks like a "no" but then, as with TV shows, you can back up that way. And with iTV, there is distribution to other TVs. Question 10 is up in the air at this time.

Compared to the train-wreck that is Amazon unboxed (see various non-Apple sites for that), this is a huge announcement which shows they understand what they need to do. Even the $12.99 pre-order price is smart and was not predicted. The other movie studios will be on this within months, as they were with TV.

But with the iPod announcements, Apple has again reimposed its lead. The silly commentary given in recent weeks (when it was already widely reported that there would be new iPods) to other announcements culminating in the ludicrous Observer full page article on iPod "losing its cool" is put in its place. Apple is shipping today higher capacity iPod nanos, that also deal with key objections on battery life and scratching. The Sandisk players trumpeted 2 weeks ago with higher capacity are still not shipping (to my knowledge). The new Shuffle is cute. And the changes to the iPod video are important - especially in terms of pricing. Microsoft now has to find a way to shave another $50 off its Zune player just to keep up. Playback of 640 by 480 videos is another leap forward including H.264 compression. No other media player can do that - as witnessed by Amazon's need to increase download time with a second lower-res file for portable players. Subtle other changes - including input of letters for search presages a whole new range of iPod accessories. And don't forget the iPods are still the smallest devices in each category.

Sure iTV isn't here today, and nor is the iPhone. But with the announcements, Apple has demonstrated a complete end-to-end solution including the home office, the living room, the car and your pocket. No one else has anything like that integration today, nor on the horizon.

Press reaction will be interesting, and I've already seen Guardian commentary that the announcements were underwhelming. I just cannot agree with that at all (as usual) and some of their criticisms seem very offbase.

While I'm not interested in buying movies myself - preferring my DVD rental service for that - I think they've gone about it superbly, and the products on offer allow anyone interested in video - from home movies to video podcasts, to benefit, right down to the TV in the kids room.

My one complaint is the complete failure to deal with the market outside the US. We still don't have TV shows. I think I know where the blame lies, but no doubt many will chastise Apple for that, while at the same time criticising the Apple lock-in (the alternative of course being a far more anti-consumer and poorly integrated Microsoft lock-in).

Update: Here's a link to JupiterResearch Analyst Michael Gartenberg with what he has to say. Spot on Michael.

Great stuff!

Tags: Apple, iPod, iTunes, iTV

Hewlett Packard Spying Scandal Reporting

Just a quick word on the HP spying scandal (tons of links around on this).

I find the episode quite amazing - and really a very bad commentary on HP, a company I have always admired. Identity theft, which was essentially used here, is a serious crime. Patricia Dunn should resign immediately. However, you're not interested in my opinion on this.

Instead I wanted to remark particularly on the press treatment of this article, as this is a topic near and dear to my heart as you frequent readers may know!

The issue has gained huge notoriety in the US, perhaps unsurprisingly, and most articles are indeed highly critical. I would note however a bit too much focus on the fact that certain journalists phone records were tapped. Let's face it, it's bad whoever you are (and a few journalists themselves are not above similarly illegal activities - hands up News of the World).

Whereas in the US the article has been widely reported, in the UK, it's been consigned to the business pages as far as I can see. Fair enough? Perhaps. But I can't help feeling that if this story had been about another smaller company a few miles further south, and a certain Mr Jobs had been behind this, it would have been all over the main news pages, and probably even the Daily Hate (where the HP incident has not even been mentioned at all).

Tags: HP, Hewlett Packard, Spying, Apple

Apple and Google?

The news that Google's CEO Eric Schmidt (also a former Novell and Sun Microsystems Executive) is to join Apple's board has created a bit of a stir this week. On the one hand it is tempting to dismiss it as a bit of a Silicon Valley lovefest, or a bit of mischief-making on both sides aimed at Redmond.

But is there more to it than that?

Back in January this year, I posted about 3 challenges for Apple, the first of which I wrote about was Partnerships. I criticised Apple (yes, really!) for it's poor record on partnerships - citing examples with both HP and Motorola as attempts which had underdelivered and not stood the test of time. I specifically suggested 3 partners Apple could consider getting into bed with - Nokia on the mobile side, Amazon for logistics to merge the physical and virtual (eg listen to a track of iTunes and buy the physical CD), and Yahoo on the services side. When discussing Yahoo, I also said "maybe Google". At the time, I felt Yahoo was in more need of friends, and that Google, being on a roll, perhaps didn't feel it needed anybody.

There were many elements to a tie-in with Yahoo (or Google) that I liked then. One suggestion was a .mac lite service - an ad-supported service that had some of the features of .mac but could be free. I also suggested Flickr integration with iPhoto, and tie-ins on music search and sampling. Essentially Yahoo becoming the provider of free, ad-supported services for both Mac and iPod users.

But an Apple-Yahoo partnership wouldn't threaten Microsoft, and it wouldn't have worried Google, though it might have pushed Google away from proactively supporting the Mac platform. Instead of course, Microsoft themselves have partnered with Yahoo, and upped the ante there.

An Apple-Google alliance - even a loose one - has the potential to radically alter the landscape if we look into the post-PC future. In this world of services and data anytime, anywhere, there's lots of opportunity for both companies. Whether it's access to your (reliably-stored) photo library or music collection anywhere you want on any device you want, or getting a map/guide to whatever part of town you're in (or museum/gallery, etc). Apple wants to be the key player in providing the physical devices, and perhaps some premium services, and Google will store it for you, let you access it wherever you are (and on any gadget) and put it in context for you (ie ontop of a map of where you currently are).

Pressure from Google on the services side weakens Microsoft, and continued Apple success with the Mac and the iPod squeezes from the other side. I've argued before that Apple and Microsoft don't really compete at this time - that Apple has embraced Microsoft essentially with Office for Mac, with Bootcamp and with the use of Intel so that users don't have to choose Apple vs Microsoft, they choose Apple vs Dell for instance. And, from Apple's perspective, I think that's where the battleground still is, though Steve Jobs almost certainly harbours greater ambitions than that. But, with the Zune strategy unfolding, it is clear that Microsoft isn't ignoring Apple's rise, and is jealous enough of their success to justify upsetting current partners in going it alone. With Microsoft's recent announcement that they are discontinuing Virtual PC (what a surprise, there), and not carrying support for Visual Basic into the native version of Office for Mac, there's more than a hint of upset, even if there are justifiable technical reasons for it.

Apple's strategy with Microsoft has been defensive of course - make sure a Microsoft product is not a barrier to using a Mac or an iPod. That's done with the OS, with iTunes and much of Office for Mac is secure for a few more years. But Apple is vulnerable to Microsoft discontinuing Office for Mac ultimately. While it needs alternative applications (Keynote is a great Powerpoint replacement, Pages, a not-so-substitutable Word replacement; and Excel is er, unique), for the masses, Apple is probably better helped by the application as a service (though a decent Open Office native product would also help). Nobody has this in their sights better than Google, and it is the threat to the MS Office monopoly from Google that I think most worries Microsoft.

The opening up of the MS Office file formats will only help this, and it is no surprise MS avoided this for so long (why didn't the EU force that on them all that time ago?). It is in both Google's and Apple's interests that the MS Office monopoly is ended, and working together, they could help hasten that.

So, Apple will be helped if Google is successful with its application strategy, and perhaps we can look for closer tie-ins between the Apple iApps and Google's products.

But I think there are some more speculative opportunities building upon Google's strong services and Apple's iPod mobile device. For some time there was speculation about Google entering into the music market, and of course, there is also the Google video offering. But I wonder if this is an area Google will not focus on, but instead beef up its value in helping people find music and videos etc. in a tie-in with Apple? But even this pales into insignificance next to where some real excitement could be.

For sometime now (having jumped on the GPS bandwagon and also observed the iPod + Nike products) I've been deliberating about how Apple could bring location services onto the iPod - as the iPod matures into a complete mobile platform. While the mobile phone industry has seemed likely to provide solutions here, they seem expensive and unintegrated and with users forced into extra addons, software that may or may not work, and expensive 3G data connections.

Let me put it another way. Anyone visiting here ever use an Apple Newton? Irrespective of your views, one of the best applications out there was TimeOut's London guide with maps, basic navigation, restaurants, attractions etc. It was actually very nicely done for the most part but with two fundamental problems. First, the data was static - it was out-of-date the moment you bought the card on which it came (I used it recently and had to laugh at the phone numbers using a format 3 BritishTelecom changes ago!). The second problem is that it didn't know where you were. Now fast forward to an iPod with a GPS add-on connecting to the iPod via bluetooth or wi-fi (similar to the Nike solution). Add in Google maps for showing you were you are, and the Google mapping services for finding locations and you've got a live TimeOut for London - and indeed any other place in the world. Lots of opportunity for other companies to supply content for such a service (eg Lonely Planet/Rough Guide; TimeOut for event listings) perhaps via a podcast like feature (note such guides already exist for the video iPod). Companies could also provide downloadable files for a user to show their own points of interest on the maps (eg all Starbucks in Manchester). Loads of advertising revenue for Google! If anyone can make this stuff simple to use, it would be Apple, built around data provided by Google.

Apple and Google could sow this market up before Nokia/Motorola/Microsoft and the phone companies themselves have even woken up to why they've failed so far. Sure there are weaknesses with this solution (which an iPod phone could go some way to fix). But if I was visiting another Town or City or just living in a big one, this is a solution that would make me carry my iPod with me everytime, everywhere - probably attached to the handlebars of my bike! I'd have the equivalent of Time Out, an A-Z book, Rough Guide all in one place (with my music too). Wouldn't this be cool?

I've been thinking there will be more on mapping and location features in Mac OS X 10.5 (aka Leopard) - perhaps one of the top secret features? I was thinking along the lines of interfacing this with iPods. The weakness though with this argument is it would mean iPod users on Windows would be second-class citizens - something Apple has been careful to avoid. Working with Google on this is a classic win-win for both companies. While Google doesn't want to marginalise itself by being seen as an Apple-flavoured solution, it would surely jump at the opportunity to be a significant part of the iPod universe, and much of it could be done without formal relationships as such a tie-in is already consistent with both companies directions.

Obviously this is all wild speculation. What do you think? Is there more to the Google/Apple story? Would you like this sort of information on your iPod?

Tags: Apple, Google, Eric Schmidt, iPod, Leopard

Obesity - How the Government Must Lead

Lot's of stuff on obesity lately, including this one from the BBC.

I'm always amazed how many people think that it's the government's problem first and foremost, and want all sorts of actions that deprive/tax/annoy people who are not obese. Is this really the sort of state we want? The government cannot regulate away obesity, and in fact its efforts, however well-intentioned, will just increase it. When the state's actions are seen as an alternative to personal responsibility, is it any wonder people get lazy?

Anyway, here's my suggestion on how the government could lead on this one:

Fire that fat, and useless John Prescott!

That would send a message.

Fascinating Debate on Overseas Aid

I was listening to Radio 4 last night, unusual on a Wednesday night, and came acrosss a fascinating debate on a 45 minute show called Hecklers. Last night's show concerned the premise of Overseas Aid and Debt Relief and the arguments were put forward by a Ugandan journalist, Andrew Mwenda. Andrew's views were quite startling, but also eloquently put.

If you're interested in this topic, you will find it an interesting 45 minute listen. You can do that apparently on Saturday evening, 2nd september at 22.15 when it's repeated, or you can of course Listen Again. (Sorry, I don't know whether Listen Again is available to internet users outside the UK?).

Tags: BBC Radio4, Hecklers, Overseas Aid, Debt Relief, Mwenda

Infallible or just plain stupid?

IMHO, religion has a lot to answer for.

Now, we have news that the pope (sorry, not going to give him a capital letter), is ready to embrace intelligent design. Even conservative Pope John Paul II had apparently said that Darwin's theories "were more than a hypothesis".

So, what gives with this pope? Is he having fond memories of his time in the Hitler Youth, and the Nazi's attempts at "intelligent design", generally known as eugenics? Or is he thinking back longingly to those Catholic Church glory days before Gallileo was causing trouble?

Cycling Hereford/Wales Border

Here's some directions and information about another wonderful cycle ride we just completed, and this one isn't directly in any book that I know of (though bits and pieces of the ride can be found elsewhere). The ride is mostly in Herefordshire, but crosses into Wales on a few occasions. The satellite image of the route is here. GPS track information available from me - just drop me an email. OS Landranger Map 161 (Abergavenny) is all you'll need (though we actually used a map from Hereford Cycle User's Group that we picked up many years ago, but which doesn't appear to be online any more).

Unlike the last ride I posted, this one is quite a bit tougher - but about the same overall distance (about 41 miles). But, this is a really beautiful ride - fantastic scenery, a few castles, lovely churches, pubs, gardens, etc. It's all on-road, but in 41 miles merely traverses an A-road (twice), and probably has only about 6 miles on B roads.

We started from Skenfrith Castle on the B4521, with easy parking. Take a quick tour of the castle if you've got time (or when you return) - it's free! We then headed up to Grosmont - which also has an old castle, tea room and pub. We then passed through Kentchurch and Pontrilas before heading off (slightly off the route we meant to take) up a very steep hill towards Balls Cross down towards (but not into) Walterstone, then heading up to Clodock, Longtown and then onto Michaelchurch Escley. All of these tiny villages are lovely with a nice church and pub, and the scenery is just wonderful (skirting HayBluff, Black Hill, and Offa's Dyke path). Michaelchurch Escley is the highest point on route (well, just after) at about 950ft, but you're rewarded by a wonderful downhill to Vowchurch which also has a lovely unusual church. Briefly onto the B4348, then right onto the B4347 towards Abbeydore.

We visited the Abbey (photo above) a couple of weeks before. It's a real Abbey, but became a church around the reformation. Although being restored, it's still a lovely and impressive site. Around the corner is Abbeydore gardens with an award-winning tea-room/cafe. Well worth a stop, but not open every day.

We then headed back into the (mostly) pretty Ewyas Harold (pronounced, I think, u-wuss) back to Kentchurch, and this time followed a lovely road to Garway Common with more wonderful views (and a climb). We had a total climb on this route of around 2,700 ft. But the advantage with that is that there are few nice descents, and the best one was the last - back from Broad Oak to Skenfrith Castle (don't take the Skenfrith turn on Garway Common or you'll miss this one). You can then retire to the refurbished and seemingly popular Bell Inn for sustenance.

Truly a lovely route that shows the best of the Herefordshire countryside. And, lots to see and do to take up a full day if you've got time.

Tags: Cycling, Herefordshire, Skenfrith Castle, Abbeydore