Soon cars will have iPod connection August 4, 2006
Posted by Ryan Jarrett in Advertising, Apple, Microsoft, Podcasts, Tech.1 comment so far
Apple have done deals in the States with Ford, GM (Vauxhall) and Mazda to have iPod connections installed in new cars. These connections will, obviously, link in with the car’s stereo system, but they will also charge the iPod and allow control via the stero’s controls (including steering column cotrol). I presume this will also go as far as using in-car displays to show the name/artist/duration of tracks.
I see this as a good thing – I listen to my iPod while I’m driving my car. However, I have to use a lead with two 3.5mm headphone jacks and plug one end into my ‘pod and the other into my car stereo (fortunately it has a 3.5mm input on the front). Not ideal, especially as I still have to use the iPod itself to change tracks (only when parked your honour) and it certainly doesn’t charge the thing. A neat socket I can quickly shove my Nano into would be much easier (and neater). I hope this comes to the UK, and that also other car manufacturers follow suit. I can see iPods being bundled with new cars soon.
Apparently in the States the broadcast radio industry is a little worried about this. Radio still rules in most cars but if people start using their iPod to listen to music and podcasts then their audience will obviously decline, reducing the advertising revenue they can generate. This may mean moving into commercial-supported podcasting.
The other issue that crossed my mind is whether other media player manufacturers (read Sony and Microsoft) will try and secure similar deals to retain some share of this market and block Apple. Sony may add some sort of compatability to their car stereos.
You want to help Microsoft? It will cost you! August 4, 2006
Posted by Ryan Jarrett in Microsoft, Tech.add a comment
Microsoft are going to charge users $1.50 (£0.80) to download the 2nd beta of Office 2007. Now, correct me if I’m wrong but aren’t these beta testers helping Microsoft? Aren’t we saving them thousands of dollars by testing it for free? Sure, the demand for the beta may be higher than they expected (and lets face it, demand was always gonna be high) and that may have cost them a bit, but they can afford it! Its not like Microsoft are a small startup struggling to make ends meet, they are one of the wealthiest (if not the wealthiest) companies in the world and surely they can afford to carry the cost of the bandwidth to serve these betas. If not, why didnt they set a limit (as they have done previously) and simply stop after it was reached?
OK, lets do the maths – if they serve an extra 100,000 downloads at $1.50 each, thats $150,000 in revenue before the software even hits the shops. I can see why that looks attractive to Microsoft – it helps pays for the constant delays to release dates that they keep fobbing us off with. But the repercussions of this could be far wider. With Microsoft making money from betas (lets face it, they might release another couple of Office betas before it hits the shelves), the drive to finish the software quickly diminishes (although you could argue Microsoft products wouldn’t be any worse off with a couple more testing cycles). Also, will other software companies (especially larger ones) follow suit if they know they can get away with it?
You know you’re using too much Microsoft when… August 2, 2006
Posted by Ryan Jarrett in Funny, Microsoft, Tech.add a comment
- You expect the spelling on your hand-written shopping list to be corrected automatically.
- When someone takes the rubbish out at then of the day, you jump in front of them, waving your arms, and ask “Are you sure?”
- You look for an F1 key on the washing machine when you cant work out what program you need for woolens.
- You wonder why your paperclips are inanimate.
- The speed at which your pocket calculator “boots up” amazes you, but you are then confused by the lack of a drop-down menu.
- Your work colleagues are baffled by your filing system with each folder labelled “New Folder”, “New Folder (2)”, “New Folder (3)”, etc. Each are crammed with yet more identically names folders.
- Your car starts going slower so you shut all open windows, turn off the stereo and throw away anything that makes your car look nicer.
- Your alarm clock plays a tune by Brian Eno (click here for an explanation in case you dont get it!)
- You burn your toast and blame it on conflicting patches on the toaster from the last Service Pack.
- You promise to cook for your other half. Ten minutes before its due to be served you say there has been a delay and that it wont actually be ready for another thirty minutes. Repeat four or five times.
Feel free to add your own!
Google Minesweeper June 16, 2006
Posted by Ryan Jarrett in Funny, Games, Google, Microsoft.add a comment
Take a look at Google's next foray into Microsoft-beating web applications…
chamblog 