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Apple Releases Two New Commercials

Apple has released two new commercials targeting Microsoft Windows:


The first commercial points out the plethora of viruses that target Windows systems, a problem which Mac OS X does not suffer from. This, while true, is not because Apple’s operating system is so much more secure than Windows, but rather because it makes more sense for a virus maker to focus his efforts on targeting Windows-based computers as they represent a much larger market than Mac OS X. In the end though, the message is true, you do not need to worry about viruses as much when running Mac OS X.


The second commercial portrays Microsoft as being desperate and going to quite some lengths to attempt to combat the good reputation of Mac OS X as being more stable and easier to use than Windows and not being target by viruses.

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By Antoniu – August 25, 2009

Mac OS X Snow Leopard Available This Friday

Apple has announced that they will begin to sell Mac OS X 10.6, also known as Snow Leopard, beginning this Friday, 28 August, at their Apple stores and other Apple Authorized Resellers (a list of which can be found here). Their online store has also begun taking pre-orders. Mac OS X Leopard users will be able to upgrade to Snow Leopard for $29 for one computer or purchase the Snow Leopard Family Pack, which can be used on up to five computers, for $49. Users who purchased an Apple computer on or after 8 June 2009 will only need to pay $9.95. Those looking to upgrade from Mac OS X Tiger will need to pay $169 for an individual license or $229 for a family pack.

With Snow Leopard, Apple has put the focus on making improvements rather than adding new features. Snow Leopard will increase system stability, include 64-bit versions of many of Apple’s programs, including Finder, Mail, iCal, iChat and Safari, and be 7GB smaller than Mac OS X Leopard, space that will be freed up when upgrading to Snow Leopard. Snow Leopard will also include other optimizations to take advantage of multi-core and 64-bit processors. Support for Microsoft Exchange, a collaborative software used by enterprises, will be included without the need to install any additional software.

Performance and stability updates are always welcome and it will be nice to recoup that 7GB of space. I’m going to be picking up a Family Pack on Friday for my two Apple computers and posting my thoughts here after I try it out.

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By Antoniu – August 25, 2009

Microsoft Releases OneApp to Emerging Markets

Today, Microsoft launched OneApp, which allows less-powerful mobile phones to have access to Twitter, Facebook, Windows Live Messenger, Mobile Wallet and other apps. The goal is to allow even those who do not have access to smartphones, such as the iPhone or Blackberry, to have access to these services. The application is a mere 150 kilobytes and the average app for it is only around 30 kilobytes, allowing them to run even on mobile phones with a small hard drive. Users will not even need to download apps, as Microsoft will include a cloud service where users can store apps and from where users will be able to access apps without downloading them onto their own phones.

Developers will be able to write their own apps that take advantage of OneApp’s service and applications developed for OneApp will run on all phones that support OneApp, reducing the number of phone models that a developer must ensure his code is compatible with.

Microsoft OneApp will be available first to Blue Label Telecom customers in South Africa, but Microsoft is also looking to bring OneApp to other emerging markets in the future.

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By Antoniu – August 24, 2009

Republican New Media Caucus Gets it Right

Mashable reports that Congressmen from the Congressional House Republican New Media Caucus have met with various technology companies including Facebook, Apple and Google. During a roundtable discussion, Congressman John Culberson of Texas said:

“…all these companies thrive or created and became successful because they were free to develop on their own. None of them started out of a government program, none of them grew out of a government stimulus…all began out of the hard work, sweat equity, and creative genius of their founders, their employees and are growing as fast as they can. And we, as fiscal conservatives, share their commitment to cut their taxes, free them from unnecessary regulation and litigation, and to do everything we can do get the Federal Government out of the way, out of their pocket, and off their back.”

The Congressmen get this right: if they want effective, innovative technology companies to continue to succeed they should lower taxes on them and ensure that the Government gets out of their way and allows the market to choose winners and losers. Without any sort of Government funding that supports ineffective businesses, the good companies will succeed while the ineffective ones will not. When the Government does not allow the invisible hand, which encourages innovation, to work unabated, it is the consumers who lose. It is good to see the Caucus taking this hands-off approach to technology companies.

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By Antoniu – August 23, 2009

Reverb Communications Posting Positive Reviews on the App Store for Clients

In exchange for $0.75 per app sale on Apple’s App Store, Reverb Communications, a public relations firm, offers their clients a slew of services, amongst which is a group of interns that post positive reviews of their clients’ apps on the App Store and on Internet forums, according to a tip sent to TechCrunch. TechCrunch did their own research and found several iTunes accounts that only reviewed the apps of Reverb Communications’s clients and that wrote only positive, fire-star reviews of these apps. Reverb Communications’s response denies that they have a team writing positive reviews for clients and claims that the tip must have come from a malevolent former Reverb employee.

While such a practice can boost the sales of an app and help it get off the ground when it first launches, it is bound to reflect poorly on the PR firm and its clients when it is finally discovered. The clients are also partly responsible because Reverb Communications was rather candid about this practice (at least that is how it appears from the leaked document, which describes this service in detail) and yet some of its clients have been with the firm for years. Reverb’s clients were at best ignorant or, at worst, supportive of Reverb’s actions. Either way, we will probably see many of Reverb’s clients crying foul and claiming that they were completely unaware that Reverb was doing this. It will be interesting to see if Reverb will continue to actively deny this claim or if it will sit quiet and hope this all dies down soon and to see whether they will cease this practice.

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By Antoniu – August 23, 2009

Cuil Becomes a Real-Time Search Engine

Cuil, a search engine created by former Google employees, was launched to much fanfare last year, when it was touted as a Google-killing search engine with superior search results. However, it soon saw a drastic drop in its traffic post-launch as it failed to live up to the hype. Hoping to turn that around, Cuil has recently added a “Realtime Results” button to its search results. Clicking this button launches a pop-up window which displays recently indexed links that are relevant to your search in chronological order and also displays how much time has elapsed since those links were indexed.

While the feature is useful when searching for a current event, in which case new, relevant links are constantly being indexed and it is beneficial to get the most up-to-date information, it remains to be seen if Cuil will be able to bring back the traffic that it lost after it launched.

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By Antoniu – August 21, 2009

Google and Apple Respond to FCC Inquiry

In response to Apple removing Google Voice apps from its App Store last month, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) sent letters to Google, Apple and AT&T asking Google about its Google Voice app for the iPhone, asking Apple why it chose to remove Google Voice apps and asking AT&T if it had any role in the removal of those apps.

Now all three have responded:

Google’s Response
AT&T’s Response
Apple’s Response

Update: Google has now released its full response, which includes previously redacted parts.

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By Antoniu – August 21, 2009

Twitter Becomes Location-Aware

Biz Stone has written on the Twitter blog that Twitter will soon update their API to allow developers to add latitude and longitude information to tweets. This new feature will allow users to search for tweets within a certain area, such as from within their city or just within a few mile from where they are.

While some third-party Twitter clients have already implemented such an option, it was based on using information within the “location” portion of a profile, where a user can enter whatever information he wishes. This update will provide more accurate location information. Those who do not want their location broadcasted should not fear, by default the feature is disabled. Users will have to manually opt-in to the service to allow clients to use their location information.

Third-party Twitter clients such as TweetDeck and Tweetie will have access to this feature first and it will be integrated into Twitter.com at a later time.

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By Antoniu – August 20, 2009