The jury’s still out on Apple’s price drop and subsequent mea culpa to early purchasers, but one thing is for sure… the iPhone’s doing well. Seventy-four days from the drop, and there are a million people walking around with one in their pocket. Not bad…
Alright, back to the grind. A week off and I not only have a fair amount of production work to catch up on, but I think I have a kajillion hours (more than a bajillion, less than a googol) of podcasts queued up!
A quick hit from Costa Rica… Just heard about the new iPods and the
(gulp!) massive price drop on the iPhone. Kudos to Apple for pushing a
rebate to us early adopters though.
From a podcasting perspective, I’m most intrigued by iTunes wifi
music store… I’ve ranted about the possibility of wireless downloads
of podcasts for months, and this brings us a step closer. From what I
can tell, however, the wifi store does not include podcasts… Maybe a
future add, perhaps? Regardless, I think these new products and
services are good additions to the tech marketplace. And, since I
apparently have a $100 rebate available from my iPhone purchase, I
suspect apple will get more of my money. It’s an illness, really.
Back in the States tomorrow… Regular blogging resumes Monday. I
missed you too.
Reporters sans frontières has out out this amazing map showing the places where the Internet is pretty much dark as far as the free flow of news is concerned. I’m happy to say I’m not going to one of the countries devoid of light on the map tomorrow… I just might not be able to access the ‘net all that frequently! Have a great Labor Day weekend for my US readers… and a great week if I don’t get to find much to say from Costa Rica!
Thanks to Valleywag for the original source…
Podshow/Daily Source Code’s Adam Curry dropped his iPhone in a place you flat out don’t want to drop an iPhone. Pre-flush. He’s now apparently resorting to a kitty litter moisture absorption rescue mission (see left).
Word to the wise out there… if you drop your precious iPod, phone, PSP, etc. in the drink (or toilet), get it out… turn it off… remove the battery (if you can). Let it dry out completely. You have a shot at getting it back. Last March a buddy of mine pushed me in the pool at a resort in Tobago… pretty funny, except for the nice digital camera in my pocket! A couple of days drying out in the tropical breezes, and my camera was up and running again.
Which reminds me… I’m going to Costa Rica for a week starting on Saturday, which means it’s entirely possible the blog will be dark from September 1st to the 9th. Well, not dark I guess… just stuck on whatever wackiness I find on the Internets this Friday.
I just ran across an interesting article on voiceover tips… complete with embedded audio examples of course… I’d say I agree with most of what the author suggests. Here’s one I don’t:
Practice your voice-over technique and don’t be afraid to sound a little weird and “over the top”- everyone does it.
No… no… a thousand times no! Well, the practice part is fine… but the over the top technique is not. If you want to sound like a whacky morning DJ, follow that advice. If you want a professional sound, just be yourself. Slow down and have fun. Never worry about making a mistake… that’s what post production is for!
A hard-core Linux user who was busted for pirating Star Wars Episode III (the least objectionable of the painfully bad second set of Star Wars flicks) was smacked upside the head by his sentencing judge. Because he will have his computer use monitored as a part of his probation, and because the monitoring software doesn’t run on Linux… yes, he is being forced to use Windows for all computing needs. Open Source users are proud of their lack of affiliation with Apple or Microsoft… now this guy is being fored to turn to the Dark Side. Cue the irony alert!
I have several clients in the yoga industry (Hello öm time and Hip Tranquil Chick!)… this short on Ogden, the Inappropriate Yoga Guy is simply genius, whether you’ve hit the mat before or not. Have a great weekend!
Some 17 year old in Jersey apparently has his iPhone running on T-Mobile… the significance is that it’s supposed to be locked in a way that only works on AT&T’s wireless network. Some are suggesting this will open up the phone for use around the world. I think it will just cause el-Jobso to press the “release the hounds” button on this kid. Fake Steve Jobs has already got his people on it.
Duck and cover, my friend… the lawyers are coming…
UPDATE – seems like the whole world now claims to have unlocked the phone. Meanwhile, Apple continues to get trillions of dollars in free media coverage of their phone…
An IBM study states what a lot of us already knew… new media is starting to replace old media in the hearts and minds of the public. Here are some of the findings:
This trend impacts everything… media delivery, advertising, the works. If you’ve got a product or a point of view, this is the time to start strategizing a new media plan.
Not to make this an all Apple blog, but I read a terrific piece today on Mac applications for business. As most of you have figured out by now, I run Nineball Media largely on Apple computers… although I certainly use Windows when clients need it, and I’m by no means anti-Windows. It’s been a truism for many years that Windows is better for business and Macs are better on the creative side… I think that conventional wisdom is starting to shift a bit, and many of the applications listed in this post help me tremendously.
