Motorola Prepares Another Jab at Apple with Super Bowl Commercial

By Federico Viticci

It looks like Motorola is back to its usual business of launching commercials with clear and direct pokes at Apple’s products. After the “giant iPhone” argument for the iPad, here comes a teaser of the ad Motorola will run during Super Bowl for its upcoming Honeycomb tablet, the Xoom.

The ad / teaser, called “Goodbye 1984”, says:

2011 looks a lot like 1984. One authority. One design. One way to work.

It’s time for more choices. It’s time to explore. It’s time to live a free life.

In the video, you can see planet Earth wearing Apple-white earbuds slowly fading from colors to black & white. The “one design” and “one authority” Motorola mentions is an obvious reference to the popular Super Bowl commercial Apple ran in 1984, quite possibility the most famous tech commercial of all time. Tech specs of the Xoom are presented in the ad, like Android Honeycomb support, 5 MP camera and 3G connectivity upgradable to 4G.

Check out the video below. [Youtube via Engadget] Read more

MacBook Air Finds Its Natural Habitat: Floating In The Air

By Federico Viticci

Sometimes Apple can take its product line a little too literally. That’s the only reason we can think of behind Apple’s latest storefront setup in various Apple Stores, where a MacBook Air is gently floating in the air, attached to a balloon. Sure, a metal wire is attached to the balloon – but the trick works. The whole setup looks pretty cool.

Most of all, Apple put an end to all those MacBook “air” jokes. Check out the video below. [Obama Pacman via 9to5mac] Read more

From Russia With Love: Old Films Become Illegal Apps

By Federico Viticci

For as much as Apple wants to curate the content of its App Store, it’s becoming increasingly difficult for the app review team at Cupertino to filter apps based on illegal content with no copyrights from the genuine ones. A new report on the BBC points to several apps being sold in the App Store with no consent from the Russian company that has rights on the content of these apps. The apps, in fact, are based on old Russian films like Gentlemen of Fortune, Assa, The Diamond Arm, Kin-dza-dza and Cheburashka.

The films and cartoons, as noted by the BBC, are still protected by copyright. Russian film studio Mosfilm and the Joint State Film Collection confirmed that they didn’t approve the release of those apps in Apple’s App Store:

It is illegal to present our films as applications either in iTunes or on any other internet site. It is permitted only on our own Mosfilm site”, Svetlana Pyleva, Mosfilm’s deputy director-general, said in an interview with bbcrussian.com.

“The only official internet site where you can watch legal Mosfilm content is the Mosfilm site.,” she said. “There are no third parties which we have permitted to use our content.

An Apple spokesperson told the Russian BBC that the company “understands the importance of protecting intellectual property”, so it won’t be a surprise to see the apps pulled soon. After all, this is not an isolated case of apps sold without consent of the original copyright owners: just open the App Store and look for clones of Nintendo’s Super Mario, Angry Birds or other 1980’s hits. The truth is most companies don’t care about the rip-offs, and some file complaints to get the apps removed. Overall, the App Store is a crowded place with more than 350,000 apps and it’s incredibly difficult, if not impossible, for Apple to check on every copyright agreement ahead of the app’s approval. At least it’s fairly easy to contact the iTunes team and claim copyright infringement.

Spotify’s Head Of Business On iTunes and Music Labels →

Linked By Federico Viticci

Spotify’s Head Of Business On iTunes and Music Labels

Spotify, the European-based music streaming service, is having a hard time trying to launch its product in the United States. Once expected to become available in a self-imposed December 2010 deadline, the service failed to launch due to the lack of deals with major music labels that, as you can guess, have to guarantee Spotify access to their music libraries. Two weeks ago, All Things Digital reported Spotify managed to close a deal with Sony, as a first step to bring the service to the United States. In the past months, rumors surfaced detailing how Apple was subtly playing against Spotify to convince labels that the service wouldn’t be a good source of revenue like iTunes.

Spotify’s head of business Faisal Galaria told Strategy Eye:

Q: But aren’t the labels eager to break iTunes’ monopoly?

A: If you’re the digital team [at a label] and 80% of your revenue was coming from one place, how much are you going to p*ss them off until someone else can guarantee all that revenue from a new source?

Put yourself into their shoes for a moment – you’re a nice, fat big executive at label X, Y, Z. You’re getting half a million dollars a year as long as you hit your bonus. Your bonus means that 80% of your revenues comes from iTunes. Are you going to tell iTunes where to go? Because your half a million dollar bonus has now gone.

According to various reports, Apple may be blocking Spotify from launching in the States because of a similar music streaming service they are building on top of iTunes, based on the data center in North Carolina. [via Cult of Mac]

Permalink

This Front Row Mockup Is Totally Gorgeous

By Federico Viticci

Designer Zach Forrester tried to imagine what would Front Row look like if Apple updated its interface with new shiny pixels, animations and a visualizer. The result, a series of mockups available here, is impressive: Zach took the basic concept underlying Front Row’s UI and the Apple TV’s browsing experience and re-imagined them with a bit of artistic sense and pixel perfection in mind.

I’m not sure about the keyboard as-you-type he designed, but everything else looks great: from the Movies view with larger poster art and slide-in animation for a single item, to the music player that includes a subtle visualizer on top of the Cover Flow navigation and next to the Now Playing album art.

More screenshots are available here, and there’s a limited web demo for you to play around as well. [via Beautiful Pixels] Read more

Android Gains 22% Of Tablet Market, Becomes #1 Smartphone Platform by Shipments

By Federico Viticci

According to two different reports surfaced this morning, Google’s Android mobile operating system has gained 22% of the tablet market share and has become the world’s leading smartphone platform with 33.3 million shipments in Q4 2010.

The first report, as noted by The Loop, details how Android-based tablets grabbed 22% of the market in the fourth quarter of 2010, and while the iPad is still “dominant”, the Samsung Galaxy Tab drove sales of tablets running Google’s OS.

Strategy Analytics sees continued growth for Android-based tablets in 2011 with the release of Motorola’s Xoom and other high-profile devices. The company expects that as more Android devices hit the market, media developers in the United States and elsewhere will increasingly support the devices with content.

Mac App Store: Miro Converts Videos for iOS, For Free

By Federico Viticci

Available for free in the Mac App Store, Miro Video Converter is a little utility that converts almost any kind of video to formats compatible with iOS and other Apple devices, Android handsets, WebM, Theora and a variety of other platforms. As you can guess, Miro Video Converter comes from the creators of Miro, video player and torrent downloader.

The app doesn’t offer all the control and customization possibilities seen, for example, in the popular Handbrake video conversion tool, but it’s got a nice and simple interface where all you have to do is drop a file, select the output and hit Convert.

Miro Video Converter is available here. Check out the list of supported formats and devices below. Read more

Netgear CEO Makes A Few Predictions on Apple, Steve Jobs →

Linked By Federico Viticci

Netgear CEO Makes A Few Predictions on Apple, Steve Jobs

Netgear CEO Patrick Lo doesn’t get it:

At a lunch in Sydney today, Patrick Lo said Apple’s success was centred on closed and proprietary products that would soon be overtaken by open platforms like Google’s Android.

Lunch was not the main point. Here it is:

Lo said Apple’s closed model only worked because, in many product categories like MP3 players, “they own the market”.

“Once Steve Jobs goes away, which is probably not far away, then Apple will have to make a strategic decision on whether to open up the platform,” said Lo.

This is a common mistake: thinking that Apple’s integrated model is somehow linked to Steve Jobs’ personality or physical presence at Apple. But there’s more:

Right now the closed platform has been successful for Apple because they’ve been so far ahead as thought leaders because of Steve Jobs,” said Lo.

Wrong again. They have been successful because they predicted what consumers wanted, not because of Jobs’ personal tastes.

Eventually they’ve got to find a way to open up iTunes without giving too much away on their revenue generation model.

What does this mean, exactly? This is business lingo. I think he wants Apple to accept any kind of app. The real gem is about Flash:

What’s the reason for him to trash Flash? There’s no reason other than ego,” he said.

Or maybe – but you know, I’m just guessing here – it was a business decision.

Permalink

Marco Arment’s MacBook Pro Speculation →

Linked By Federico Viticci

Marco Arment’s MacBook Pro Speculation

Marco Arment predicts a new MacBook Pro 15” inspired by the success of the new MacBook Airs:

And I’m guessing that the 15” will undergo its most significant change in a very long time: it will adopt the wedge shape of the Air, losing its thick, uncomfortably sharp front edge. Removing the optical drive will free up a lot of space inside, leaving room for a rearrangement that can enable the wedge shape without giving up a significant amount of battery volume.

No glass and SSD by default may end up on the new MacBook Pro as well. The problem with a wedge design is that it leaves small room to “big ports” like FireWire and Ethernet, something users are really used to have on the MBP 15-inch. I agree with Marco when he says there’s little sense to keep the 13-inch MacBook Pro in the line-up now that the 13-inch MacBook Air is so portable and powerful.

Also, Apple’s homepage says it all: MacBook Air is the next generation of MacBooks. We just have to wait to see where do we go from here.

Permalink