Views from the Ivory Tower

Leaping Into Innovation

by Ted Bade

Happy New Year to all my readers! I hope you had a great winter holiday season, no matter what celebration(s) you take part in. Let us hope that the new year leads our world down a path of peace and prosperity.

As our blue planet reaches the point where it is closest to that fiery orb we call the sun, Apple Corporation is making ready its next leap into innovation. Many of us are looking forward to what new things will be displayed and perhaps even offered at MacWorld Expo later this month. Will Apple have an Intel-based Macintosh ready for market? What for m factor will it take when released an iMac, iBook, or perhaps a PowerMac or Powerbook? Will it be a success or a flop? Perhaps we will see streaming videos, more networks offering a downloadable versions of their older shows. Will Steve Jobs surprise us with an exciting new electronic toy?

It has been a good year for Apple. You know you are a successful innovator when all the media can say bad about you is that you cannot keep up the innovation forever! While ultimately, this is true, I believe that as long as Steve Jobs is at the helm of Apple Corporation, we will continue to see more interesting items.

I am looking forward to watching the Keynote and will be sure to share my comments in the next edition of this article ;-)

Selling houses with an iPod - There are a lot of things one can do with an iPod. I recently read that Real Estate Agents have learned to use video, made for the video iPod to sell homes.

The Real Estate Home Show web site http://www.therealestatehomeshow.com/ provides information on upper scale homes across the US. If you visit this site, you will see that some properties sport an iPod symbol. This means that there is a movie designed for a video iPod that you can download that shows and describes the property.

This is a pretty cool use for the iPod. I can see other agencies across the US using this as well. An agent could come to a prospective buyers home, show a number of short videos on the iPod (or even on the TV). This can help weed out homes without the cost of driving all over the place. Very Interesting.

iPod 101 - If you are new to the iPod (yeah right), or know of someone with more questions then you have answers (or at least time for), Apple has made a site for you. The iPod 101 site. http://www.apple.com/support/ipod101/.

The site is broken into various topics, each topic is broken into specific lessons. For instance, the “iPod Anatomy” section offers four different lessons, each discussing a different aspect of using the iPod. While this site might not offer any of the tricks and tips you would get from a good book on iPods, it will get you into the basics of using one.

If you have some time, take a look, even if you are an experienced user, the site is nicely done and easy to use.

TV on the iPod - While we are on the subject of iPods, what do you think about the video iPods? As an older Mac fan, my eyes are weary enough that I have come to enjoy large screen TVs. But being able to download a video episode of my favorite show is a pretty cool idea.

Personally, I would like to see a lot more classic shows for download. With a Tivo or a similar service through a cable company, it is really easy to catch newer shows at odd hours. But being able to catch a really old show that you remember from when you were a kid, that would be cool!

I think Apple has the right idea with the video and the time is ripe for it. However, I still say, as I have said before, that the video iPod should be a very different form factor then the audio one. It needs a bigger screen. I realize that Apple gets a lot of sales off the fact that newer iPods look a lot like the earlier ones. But I think this portable video thing would be a lot more popular if the screens were bigger! But that’s my opinion.

In the mean time, more and more networks are making shows available through the iTunes Music Store. (When are they going to rename it the iTunes Media store I wonder?). If you are interested in TV shows or music videos, take a moment to check out those areas at the store.

A hole made by the people who fill the holes - Here is one story that caught my attention. Apparently Norton AntiVirus can be confused in such a way as to allow a virus to insert itself! Scary.

Check out the following article from PC World http://www.pcworld.com/resource/article/0,aid,124058,pg,1,RSS,RSS,00.asp

In a nutshell, when NAV scans a rar file, the virus program can attack NAV and cause a “heap overload”, which can then be exploited to allow the virus to insert itself on the computer. (you can get a lot more detail on this by reading the article).

If find this scary. The guys who are supposed to be protecting you are now part of the problem. Of course, it isn’t their fault, somebody spent a lot of time figuring this out. What is even more interesting is that this could affect a Macintosh! (Of course, the virus code might not work on the Mac, but the overload would.) I guess in this case, my decision to not use NAV again until there were a few MacOS X viruses that I needed to worry about is a good idea in this case ;-)

Apple recognized as a pacesetter - Apple has made a number of great advances in the technology corner over the past several years. First there was the iMac, then the iBook, and then the iPod, all three devices made waves in the technology arena. The iPod was not only a major innovation, but Apple has used its success with the iPod and the realm of digital music, to shape the way we listen to and buy our music. Definitely setting the pace in the US and many other countries.

A recent article, published on the Seattle Times web site, pointed these facts and more out very eloquently. http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2002704276_btview26.html

In the article, author May Wong calls Apple a Pacesetter. Apple moved from being an “afterthought” company to the front lines over the past five years.

It is all about innovation and giving the customers what they want in a new and interesting package. There were all-in-one computers before the iMac, but Apple gave us one with colorful pizzaz! It wasn’t the ease of use, for which Apple is renown, that sold the iMac, it was its colorful exterior and appealing shape. However, the iMac would never has succeeded if it had been just a pretty package. Once people brought an iMac into their homes and began to use it, they learned how easy it could be to use a computer. So the cool colors were followed with ease of use and the computer could become a tool and a source of entertainment for everyone.

It is the same with the iPod. There were mp3 players long before Apple released the iPod, but Apple designed one that applied the Macintosh ease of use rules, and people fell in love with it! Then Apple did something that really shocked the world, they embraced the Window’s world and released a version of iTunes for Windows. (Steve Jobs joked about this at a Keynote speech, using the term “Hell just froze over!”) Suddenly the iPod wasn’t a Macintosh thing, it was a consumer thing, and boy have people bought them!

As with the iMac, once people bought and used the iPod, they discovered the ease of use Apple puts into their products. Many people spoke about the halo effect. People buying and using an iPod would perhaps say, if this iPod is so easy to use, then Macs are probably easy as well, perhaps I should try one. Sadly, this effect didn’t really take off, although iPods continue to sell in great numbers, Macs sell as they normally do.

So now I wonder, about the so called Mactel computers, Macs with an Intel chip inside. Could people owning a Windows based machine be coaxed to replace it with a Intel Mac, that has the ability to run all of their Window’s based applications, but also has a Macintosh side to it? Could this experience be enough for them to realize that running a computer with Windows is no where near as elegant (or as easy) as doing it on a Mac? Perhaps shifting many people from Window’s to Macintosh? Dare we hope?

If Apple releases a really appealing consumer type of Intel-based Macintosh, than I would truly wonder if this effect was something they have in mind! No doubt we will hear about this in the next few weeks.

Have a happy and prosperous new year!