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I’ve given up on blogging for the past months. But my lack of patience is not going to let me get down. Starting August 25th, I will be writing one daily blog. Sorry to disappoint anyone out there for my extremely long hiatus. Grass takes long to grow; a blog is likewise.

Pretty good strategy you two, but it is completely pointless. We already have enough “social sites” not including Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, or Friendster. And plus, how are they going to integrate it into their existing services, AND establish “friend” relationships? That sounds like it is going to be pretty hard. I hope they can accomplish it. I just wish them both good luck.

Google will definetely have more success in this type of business than Yahoo. They already sink into various area of an internet user’s life, not limited to web, e-mail, video, search, and news. And they also centralized it very well by requiring only one log-in for using all of these services. I just hope that Google knows how to execute this properly. It could mean a big screw up, but not to lower their user base. I wish the best of luck to Google (Yahoo, not so much).

This does not sound like something like Microsoft would do, so I was a little bit surprised. Apparently, the whole “reason” of UAC (User Account Control) was to push third-party vendors to make their code run securely, so their software use won’t display a prompt. Normally, I would be pissed off at Microsoft, but the fact that you can disable user account control holds me from letting it all out (which by the way might not be so pretty).

I actually find this to be a pretty good move on Microsoft’s part.This is one of the few times Microsoft tries to improve security in an effective way. I mean, the Windows XP firewall was a complete BUST! Lets hope Microsoft does these things more often.

Apple, you have GOT to be kidding me. I mean, look at the photos! Here is what Apple actually thinks:

….Apple’s legal challenge to the seemingly innocuous GreenNYC logo, claiming that the looped green apple would cause “consumer confusion resulting in damage and injury” to Apple, and will “cause dilution of the distinctiveness” of Apple’s trademark….

Consumer confisuon that is resulting in injury for Apple?! This has got to be joke! We are talking about a green-conscious organization that happens to have a logo shaped like an apple. Why the heck would Apple lose profits? Apple is starting to become one of the big, bad corporations that files lawsuits over anything! I mean, who would could confuse the two apples? For the sake of comparing, here are the two logos, courtesy of The New York Times:

I don’t know what person could confuse these two logos, but that surpasses me. Apple is pissing me off right now. (Walks away )

VIA New York Times

Ha, I think not. MySpace is very late to the idea of offering a music site, and if the two other music websites haven’t caught up to iTunes, I don’t think any site will at this point. If MySpace had gone into the game a lot earlier, they would of had a good chance of being a successful music site. I mean iTunes has the majority of music subscribers, it’s just as simple as that. I don’t think anyone will come in their way at this point. The sales of the Apple iPod definitely garnered attention from many people, and if it weren’t for the Apple iPod iTunes could have crashed-and-burned. To me, Apple has some sort of advantage in this market, although I do have to say that they pull off the software part of it extremely well and that also helps promote their sales.

VIA eFlux Media

It was about time. I knew this time would come eventually. And now, that time is here. Apple finally surpassed everyone else in the digital music download services. And looking at the CD trends stated by NPD, it does not look like this trend is going to let up. Here is how Michelle Quinn and Dawn C. Chmielewski from the Los Angeles Times describe it:

NPD Group, based in Port Washington, N.Y., did not release figures on how many albums each company sold. It said it counted every 12 singles sold as one album, and that Apple probably received a boost during the two months by people cashing in iTunes gift cards — which Wal-Mart and other retailers also sell — received during the holiday season.

So it looks Apple might have had a sales boost for certain parts of the year. In my own opinion, Apple would have dominated the market even if they were counted in a more accurate way. Although I am an avid user of iTunes myself, I do have to say that it does have some flaws. First and foremost, from what I recall from reading other forum posts, you can only redownload your lost iTunes songs ONCE. And to do that, again from what I recall, you have to go through a more or less complicated talk with Apple support. Also, some of the songs on movie soundtracks could ONLY be purchased when you buy the whole album. That is another flaw that has irritated me so. I have yet to know why Apple does these kinds of things, and I am interested in knowing. But for know, I am hanging with iTunes, until other competition, like Sony BMG, blows them out of the water (hopefully ).

VIA Los Angeles Times

It’s about time that AT&T catches up with Verizon and Sprint in the mobile TV race. They finally started making sense to me when they proposed a mobile TV service yesterday. Right now, I am not worried at all if the 3G network from AT&T can’t handle it. It can already handle live video, so why couldn’t it handle regular TV? I just hope they gain a competetive edge in this market by lowering the prices. They are already beat by Verizon in the most widespread network in the U.S. Maybe they could go ahead of Verizon in at least one more area. And what better area other than multimedia content?

Right now, it doesn’t look that many phones have mobile TV support, let alone 3G capabilities. I am worried about you AT&T. Verizon has most, if not all of their phones equipped with EV-DO. If you don’t step up your game in the phone department, you might lose your game to Verizon. I don’t know if I have mentioned it already, but I hate Verizon even though it offers one of the most comprehensive cell phone service in terms of wide-spread internet access and cell phone service coverage. Their high prices is what makes me want to scream. This is very believable considering I am from the poor man’s cell phone service, T-Mobile.

All in all, I am rooting for you, AT&T! Probably only because I don’t want for them to fall into the hands of Verizon. Other than that, I pretty much hate AT&T’s guts (No offense to all you AT&T fans )

Apple, this is a shocker from you. My precious Apple is going down like the rest of the corporations that have false advertisements. Originally, I didn’t hear of the lawsuit filed against you in May in 2007. Here is how Jacqui Cheng states the situation:

The plaintiffs, Fred Greaves and Dave Gatley, originally brought the suit against Apple in May of 2007, alleging that Apple’s displays were “grainy” and “sparkly,” and that some customers had observed banding (when the display shows you bands of different shades when it is supposed to display a smooth gradient). Their proof, aside from their own observations, were pages of printed discussion threads from Apple’s support forums. The lawsuit alleged that customers who complained about the displays were allegedly told that they were being too picky or that they were imagining the problems.

Apple, I would have never expected something like this from you. I thought you were different from the rest of the evil corporations.  You have let me down. But enough of my rant.  Let’s get down to the nitty-gritty. Apparently, they used dithering to attempt to acheive what the advertisements actually say. Along with their observations (the people who filed the lawsuits), they used forum discussions to support their case. As many lawsuits are, the agreements were undisclosed. This type of deceptive advertising seems pretty low on a corporate standard. I better watch for you Apple.

 VIA Ars Technica

Sony looks like they are planning to enter the music subscription service. They look very promising from a detail you will hear afterwards. Even though Sony BMG is a record label, that can’t stop it from being a crash-and-burn music download service. The price range is just your average US $9-12 per month. Song BMG CEO Rolf Schmidt-Holtz also said that there will be also way to buy “unexpiring” music a-la-carte in addition to subscribing to the service which will you all-you-can-download music store. Nothing new there. But what he added is that the music library downloads will be compatible with all types of DRM devices, including the iPod! I would be very excited to see all-you-can-download type services for the iPod that doesn’t involve breaking any DRM code. Maybe we can actually see someone competing with Apple’s iTunes. I am very anxious to know when this service will be released, but Mr. CEO did not specify a time.

VIA Ars Technica

Apple, once again you have lit my fire for the day! Even if this is all speculation, I am pumped! If Apple hears about this, maybe it will have plans to include such a thing! According to AppleInsider:

More specifically, he claims that a 3G version of the iPhone hardware due in a few months will employ two digital cameras situated back-to-back — one on the front side of the unit behind the transparent touch-screen, and a second one on the back of the handset as it exists today

“He” is the Digg social networking site’s founder Kevin Rose. Sure, he claimed the Apple iPhone would have some extra features it didn’t turn out to have, but what does that have to do with being pumped about an idea like this? Along with being obvious, it seems second-nature for 3G video chat to be included with the Apple iPhone.

Apple hasn’t let me down YET, but I am definetely keeping my fingers crossed for this one.

VIA AppleInsider