Recent Comments:
MacTribe goes to print magazine format {The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)}
Oct 10th 2008 2:51PM Yeah, fair enough -- and even I don't expect this utopia to last too much longer. The Kindle is the TRS-80 of ebook readers, but once there are decent (bright, thin, and sturdy) color displays and more reliable transfer methods, the print magazine format *is* going to take a good hit. We've been looking into PDF distribution for years, but none of those things are there yet, and it's still expensive and slow enough to distribute that it doesn't have a big advantage over print yet.
MacTribe goes to print magazine format {The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)}
Oct 10th 2008 1:22PM I don't know why you think that; it isn't true. Maybe you don't read unless you're in front of a computer; I've worked in the magazine industry for 25 years, so I've got a little perspective. Right now the magazine format is much healthier than, say, the Reagan-era recession; the monthly magazine I work for (not in the computer field), over the six years I've been here, has finally leveled off at an audited circulation of well over 1.2 million, from somewhat under 800,000 in '02. So you're saying magazines are dead, and here we are jumping some 50% in about five years. Whom do I believe?
The trade sources I read show that every month, between eight and two dozen new magazines are launched -- that's eight to 24 new *regularly published* magazines *per month*, mind you, pretty contradictory to your claim -- and publishers of extant magazines are releasing more and more special issues and one-shots. Those are risky investments but pay off handsomely when they hit.
If all you read is computer magazines, your view might be skewed because so many of those are platform-dependent that as platforms come and go, so do the magazines. I've worked for computer magazines and won't get into that industry again. Those publishers *are* too slow to adapt.
That said, I wish MacTribe luck, but after watching MacAddict's slide into irrelevance and its transformation into the near-beer of computer magazines, I'll assume they're going to be among the two-thirds of magazine launches that don't make it five years. (That's a stat that long predates the Web, incidentally, and hasn't changed since it matured.) If they do survive, more power to 'em.
Android Market will offer free trials, but not free bandwidth {Engadget}
Oct 2nd 2008 3:53PM T-Mobile does something very similar with the Sidekick. (You Engadget writers remember the Sidekick, right? Invented by some Rubin guy.) Most apps are a one-time fee, but apps that use the network on a regular basis carry a monthly recurring charge based on the bandwidth the apps use.
(Also, there's nothing mysterious about how this could be accomplished. User-agent fields, for example. Most of the network traffic is HTTP-based.)
T-Mobile soft capping 3G data at 1GB per month {Engadget}
Sep 23rd 2008 4:33PM But perhaps the problem is that this plan's definition of "unlimited" is that it's "unlimited as long as you don't go over the limit."
T-Mobile soft capping 3G data at 1GB per month {Engadget}
Sep 23rd 2008 3:42PM Shee-it. T-Mobile charges us Sidekick owners $19.99 a month for unlimited data and unlimited text messages, and both are the unlimited kind of "unlimited." Maybe all the Googlephone owners can pull together some kind of class action suit because they're being treated so unfairly!
Fujifilm intros FinePix Real 3D system, Super CCD EXR at Photokina {Engadget}
Sep 22nd 2008 10:49AM Cool. I spent Saturday taking 3-D shots here in Chicago, but it's a tedious process that requires a lot of postprocessing to align the photos correctly. (Although considering right now the process is entirely handheld, when you nail it during shooting, it's sweet.) I hope the FinePix system is affordable.
iPhone Safe Mode: Who knew? {The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)}
Sep 19th 2008 4:54PM "So let's see, a blue screen of doom and safe mode. Hmmm. I thought this phone was manufactured by Apple."
Um, while this particular "safe" mode is from a third party, Mac OS X has had a safe mode built into it for, apparently, longer than you've realized.
http://www.tuaw.com/search/?q=%22safe+mode%22&invocationType=wl-tuaw
(In case you don't read the site, Erica.)
BlackBerry Storm pre-launch datasheet surfaces {Engadget}
Sep 17th 2008 2:27PM I can tell this is fake because it doesn't even have McCain's initials, let alone his signature.
Product review - Slacker G2 personal radio {Gadling}
Sep 17th 2008 11:28AM Hey, Scott, thanks very much for the additional info (and for the welcome!). I kind of glossed over the whole Slacker deal originally because their first player got such awful reviews, but I think you're right -- it looks like it's time to check it out. (It sounds like we share the trait of having bought stacks of CDs every week back in the day and then slowly burned out. Thanks to XM, I've started checking out new artists again, so if Slacker can one-up them and include better sound quality to boot it just might be a viable option. Thanks again! (And I'm looking forward to checking out the rest of the site. I'm in a position to travel more than I have the last few years, so this might be a serendipitous discovery all around.)
TUAW Hands On: iTunes 8 {The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)}
Sep 10th 2008 10:28AM Always back up all of your iTunes support files before upgrading, even what seem to be the most minor dot releases.
That said, look for a folder named "Previous iTunes Libraries." As I was backing up my support files last night, I was surprised to see that my MacBook Pro, which is only two years old, has iTunes libraries dating back to iTunes 3.x. If you find the 7.7.1 library files, you may still need to trash the various .plist files (search using Spotlight for com.apple.itunes to find these). But that may be relatively minor pain compared to starting from scratch again.
