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Apple's App Store homepage will soon feature ads
Apple has famously bragged that it will never invade your privacy to serve ads, but it does have an ad business on its App Store and elsewhere.
NBC is creating a 24-hour version of 'Today' for Peacock
NBC is bringing an around-the-clock, free, ad-supported feed of 'Today' to its Peacock streaming platform.
Fantastical vs. Today: Mac calendar app faceoff (Updated)
Earlier this week I reviewed Flexibit's new Fantastical app and Today from Second Gear Software. Both offer attractive and useful front-end access to iCal. Today I'll compare the two head-to-head and pick a favorite. Why these two apps? First, Fantastical is the fresh newcomer, garnering much well-deserved attention since its release a few days ago. Today offers similar functionality and has been around since 2008. They perform similar tasks but differently, and in subtle ways cater to different audiences. Before we get started, catch up with the Fantastical review and the Today review. All set? Then let's begin.
Today is a useful, lightweight calendar app for the Mac
Today from Second Gear Software is a lightweight calendar app for the Mac that focuses on simplicity and speed. It's not an alternative to iCal, but rather a tidy front end. With some configuration, you'll be using Today to create events, tasks and more, all with custom keyboard shortcuts. I've spent a few days using Today. Here is my review. Note: yesterday I reviewed Fantastical from Flexibits, and tomorrow I'll post a head-to-head shootout between the two. Don't miss it. Additionally, I'll have a brief bonus comparison to Quick Cal from Smelly Puppy. For now, on with the review.
Steve Ballmer teases three WP7 handsets on Today, gets no respect from Matt Lauer
Today's going to be a big day for Microsoft, and Steve Ballmer's kicking it off early. Showing up on the Today show, Samsung Cetus in-hand, he let loose a humble smile and spent a little time showing off a trio of phones. Along with the Cetus, nestled in the middle in the picture below, is an LG C900 on the right and an HTC Mondrian on the left, none of which got as much face time as the man himself, who took a (tersely) polite ribbing from host Matt Lauer about the status of Microsoft's mobile efforts compared to the competition over the past year, even making mention of Ballmer's recently cut bonus thanks in part to the Kin debacle. Steve was having none of that, not interested in looking back, showing off an "always consistent" interface that is simply "delightful" according to the man. How delightful is it? Look to learn a lot more as the day progresses. Update: Thanks to muslimsteel for pointing out in comments you can watch the segment yourself right here.
Today 1.6 adds natural language parsing for new events
Second Gear Software released version 1.6 of Today on Tuesday, fixing some minor bugs and adding natural language parsing to create new events. Today is a handy utility that fetches data from your iCal calendars, and displays only the events for today in a tidy list on your screen. Adding an event was simple, thanks to the natural language processing. Typing in Thursday at 9 am or today at 2 pm for the start time or end time of a new event yielded good results. Bug fixes included improvements to Spaces behavior when in menu-bar mode, and miscellaneous performance tweaks. Version 1.5, released in November, added Growl notifications and alarm support. Today is $15, universal binary, and available as a 10-day trial. A screencast showing off the software's major features is also available on Second Gear's website. Steve has reviewed a previous version of Today, and Brett spoke with developer Justin Williams at WWDC last year.
Al Roker discovers Xbox 'recall' on Today Show
Sadly we can't embed video from the Today Show, so you're just going to have to follow the link, but you can pretty much imagine the exact moment Microsoft's PR department went nucking futs. During a Today Show segment about the "video game wars," somehow it was written into the tech guy's voice-over that there was an Xbox 360 "recall." We all know this is far from the truth. After the segment finishes the tech guy quickly corrects the "recall" error, but Roker ain't havin' none of that. Roker restates it as a "recall" and then says, "This one, they are voluntarily saying to bring this back, what's wrong with it?"Microsoft gave the same song and dance to the Today Show that they've given everyone, saying that there is something wrong, but they won't say what. On the bright side for Microsoft, the Today tech guy does say the Xbox 360 is the one to own. He says the PS3 is the most "high-tech" because of the Blu-ray player and calls it the "Trojan horse," which has Roker asking if people will jump out of it and kill everyone. Yes, he does actually say that.They then show off the Wii and awkwardly state that it's the #2 "player" and the Xbox 360 is #1 ... um, well in context of those three systems that is true, but please let us not bury the PS2 yet, which according to Nielson and overall sales is definitely #1. Oh well, it was just another video game piece by the mainstream, they flubbed a nice bit and in the end Roker was actually most bothered by the idea that Nintendo's Miis don't have arms. And here we thought the little Greeks popping out of the PS3 killing everyone would have been far more frightening.
The Wii makes its way to the Today Show
In this minute-and-a-half clip from the Today Show, Weatherman Al Roker takes a turn at trying out Wii Sports: Tennis. The man very much has no idea what is going on as he swings wildly without any sense of timing, making us wonder if the press is even worth it. If Al Roker makes the thing look broken, doesn't that deter from the console's (and game's) appeal?As always, the video is embedded into the post past the break.
Today show, Dancing with the Stars debut in HD, how did they look?
Last night was the beginning of a new seasor for ABC's Dancing with the Stars, and also the first time the show aired in HD. We didn't get a chance to check it out here, but TV Squad did in SD, and complained that the show wasn't letterboxed and many bits of text on the screen ran off on the edges. While we feel for our SD brethren, one of the many complaints we hear frequently is that shows aren't framed properly to take advantage of widescreen HDTVs so if they err a bit on the side of 16:9 that's ok with us. Also this morning was the first episode of the Today show in HD, complete with new set and host Meredith Viera. With The View, GMA, the Today show and rumors about Oprah going HD we may have reason to start doing all-day HDTV Listings.Read - Dancing with the Stars: Week 1 (season premiere) - TV SquadRead - A look at Meredith and the new Today show studio - TV SquadRead - The Today Show goes HD on NBC! - AVS Forum
USA Today checks out next-gen systems
USA Today, a respected and widely-read newspaper, recently took an objective look at the next-gen lineup of systems. While they summarize each system into fairly short "blurbs," a majority of the piece centers around wondering who will end up on top after the dust is settled. The piece points out several key factors such as Sony's choice to go Blu-ray, as well as Microsoft's year-long head start in the market.The content is somewhat lacking in speculating on where Nintendo will be at through all of this, but we at The Fanboy don't see this as being such a bad thing. Even after Nintendo's failure to provide launch date and price info for the Wii at Leipzig, buzz surrounding the system is still strong.
'Today' show going 1080i and we know what equipment they are using
This is for the high school video nerd in all of us. We already knew that the Today show is going high-def, but if you want the nittly-gritty details of their HD gear and technical stuff, DVguru has you covered. They have dug up all details including what cameras to the kind of software/hardware content servers to everything. Intresting enough, the show is going to be filmed in 1080i rather then Good Morning America's 720p. This may not be for everyone one, but if this is your sort of thing, check it out.[Via DVguru]
NBC's "Today" Show to go HD
Variety is reporting that NBC's "Today" show is getting a new studio and as you might expect any new studio built today supports HD. The studio should be completed by September 13th and in time for a relaunch of the show. This makes the second morning show to go HD after GMA, but it really makes us wonder why none of the nightly news shows are in HD. We can only assume it is because the morning shows have higher ratings than the nightly news.[Via TVPredictions.com]
NBC gears up for NFL and "Today" show in HD
NBC will have it's first NFL games in quite a few years this fall and of course they will be delivered in HD. They also have plans this Fall to go HD with their morning news show "Today". Today will be the second network news show to go HD following Good Morning America last November. NBC is preparing for all this additional HD coverage at this year's NAB conference. Among other things they are looking at HD clip servers for highlights, HD graphics systems and HD news-gathering technology. As well as looking for ways to utilize MPEG4 to make the most of their limited bandwidth. John Wallace, NBC Universal executive VP of television operations and production services says they are even looking for ways to use MPEG4 with the NBC television network. I am not sure they can do much considering MPEG4 isn't part of the ATSC spec, I supposed delivery to the affiliates is one option.
