Word of the Day: Obstreperous

Please use in a sentence.

"My Dean thinks that I am obstreperous."


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iPhone Availability

Walked by the San Francisco Apple store today. Still huge line of people waiting to get an iPhone.


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Location:Market St,San Francisco,United States

How Many iPhones Will They Sell?

Based on my experience today at the Apple Store, they'll easily sell out. If not tonight, sometime tomorrow. Some in the line were speculating that they might sell 4 million by the end of the weekend. Based on the 600,000 pre-orders and rumors of display shortages I wonder if Apple even has enough stock to sell that many.

3 million iPads in 80 days and now this - it good to be Apple!

iPhone 4 selling out, could top 1.5 million in one weekend

Apple is selling iPhone 4s quickly enough that some stores have already sold out before the end of the day, Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster discovered today. A check in the morning found that nine of 20 Apple stores had already exhausted their stock, and all others expected to clear theirs by the end of the day. Earlier iPhone launches have usually taken a full weekend before significant sellouts. Munster also saw Apple selling many more iPhones than it has in the past. Assuming Apple reserved about half its total launch supply for those who hadn't pre-ordered, Munster expected to see at least one million and as many as 1.5 million iPhones sell this weekend. The low end would match Apple's previous best, with the iPhone 3GS, and so any higher sales would automatically make the iPhone 4 launch a new record.

Video Calls with FaceTime on the iPhone 4

I just tried this with my mother - dead simple and great quality! To the people around us, it was like science fiction come to life.

Facing off with FaceTime:

if there’s one company that can bring the technology from exception to everyday, it’s probably Apple, and the folks from Cupertino have certainly given it their all, as evidenced by FaceTime’s elegant simplicity. All you need is a Wi-Fi network, an iPhone 4, and a friend with an iPhone 4 and a Wi-Fi network—chances are you’ve already got the first two, no problem.

1 Hour

... and we're not quite there.

People in the line speculating that Apple may sell 4 million by Sunday.

They have counted the people in the non-reserve line, so they can tell them there will we iPhones left for them. I think they closed off that line, so they may deplete their stock in 1 day.




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Is There Demand for the New iPhone?

Little bit ...

In line at the Short Hills Mall with my mother. She has a reservation for a new iPhone. We got here just after 5 pm, thinking everyone would have been in and out since 7 am when they started.

One line is for reservations and another for purchases - first come; first serve. If you have a reservation, your iPhone is guaranteed to be available until closing today. No reservation, no guarantee.

We were told the wait is about an hour from where we started.

When I asked one of the employees if it's been like this all day, she said it's been like this and worse at times, with the line running out of the mall and onto the sidewalk.


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iBooks on the iPhone and iPad

I've been reading a couple (three actually) books on the iPad and now the iPhone. iBooks is a great application! The only shortcoming is the availability of books - which should improve over time. I have other books in the Kindle app (also available for iPad and iPhone), but if a book is available for both platforms, I opt for the iBooks version.

iBooks Review:

iBooks is an excellent e-reader that feels impressively like the future—while simultaneously feeling a heck of a lot like an actual book. Right now, Amazon’s dominating selection renders it the top dog in the iOS e-reading world. But if the book you’re after is available for iBooks at a good price, the app provides an immersive and thoroughly pleasant reading experience, particularly on the iPad.

Top 10 Must-Have Skills for IT Pros

Interesting list.Do you cover all of these topics in your IT program? Click the link below to read more about each.

Top 10 Must-Have Skills for IT Pros:

1. Troubleshooting

2. PowerShell and Scripting

3. Networking and Interoperability

4. Virtualization

5. Wireless

6. Disaster Recovery

7. Security

8. Database Administration

9. Desktop Imaging

10. Helpdesk (People Skills)

 

The Kno: Tablet Meets Textbook

Another iPad/Kindle killer? Hopefully this is isn't just a concept video - like Microsoft's Courier.

The Kno:

The Kno is a multi-dimensional two-screen tablet that could lighten your bag -- and change the face of textbooks.

According to Tablet PC Review, the Kno was designed specifically for students and may be able to do for them what the Kindle, Nook and iPad have not. It has been in development for a year.

Its student-geared features include a durable clamshell design, a "smooth and effortless" writing stylus that lets you highlight and annotate text and the ability to display a full textbook at once, eliminating the need for scrolling.

Kno Movie from Kno, Inc. on Vimeo.

Here's a student testimonial.

Reaction Video M2 from Kno, Inc. on Vimeo.

 

iOS Multitasking and Background Updating

Marco Arment describes the limitations of iOS4 multitasking and why iOS 4 won't allow his popular iPhone/iPad app Instapaper to run in the background and periodically fetch content. Marco.org

Here's his proposed solution:

Proposed solution: A new multitasking type

The addition of one more multitasking service would solve this issue for a lot of application types: a periodic network request. Here’s how I would do it:

• The application gives the system an NSURLRequest and an ideal refresh interval, such as every 30 minutes, every few hours, or every day.

• iOS executes that request, whenever it deems that it should, and saves the response to a local file.

• Next time the application launches, iOS hands it an NSData of the most recent response.

Executing the request “whenever it deems that it should” is important. iOS can decide, for instance:

• Not to update when the battery is low, connectivity is poor, other requests are running, free memory is low, CPU usage is high, or the user is predicted to exceed their monthly data limit.
• Not to update as frequently as the app requests, or to increase the interval over time, or to dynamically adjust the interval based on how often it receives a 304 (Not Modified) response.
• Not to update at all if the requesting app has not been launched in a long time.

Safari 5 Reader

I just installed the new Safari 5 - announced yesterday. One of the new features in Safari 5 is "Reader." When you visit a site that Safari 5 identifies as having an article - such as the story on the New York Times below - a new "reader" button shows up in Safari's address bar. Clicking the "reader" button strips away all of the ads, branding, etc and just leaves the text of the article. You can see the before and after below.

 

What if iPad Came First?

Steve Jobs admitted Tuesday that the iPhone came from an internal project working on developing a tablet-like device. When he saw a prototype he realized Apple could use the technology to create a phone. Some interesting thoughts from Matt Drance at Apple Outsider

iPad is neither an iPod nor a phone. It’s positioned as something entirely new between a laptop and a smartphone. iPhone gave users a much softer transition to this new interaction model, and built a tremendously successful platform off of it. People immediately understood iPad as a result. Without that transition, it risked being completely misunderstood: a new platform, form factor and interface that intentionally does less than a PC and has no third party apps. Not only would this have been a harder sell, but any lackluster reception would have completely tarnished an iPhone introduction later. We could be living in a much different world today.

Chrome OS versus Android

I have to admit I'm confused about Google's mobile OS strategy - it seems incoherent. Are they going with a tablet with Android or Chrome OS? Or maybe both? This bit from Ray Ozzie helps explain.

Microsoft’s Ray Ozzie says Chrome is the future, Android is the past

According to Microsoft Chief Software Architect Ray Ozzie:

Android is a bet on the past. Chrome is a bet on the future.’ Android is still about installing applications on a specific device. Chrome OS is designed for a future where everything is online, in the cloud.