Consider this your monthly dose of patent trolls (BetaNet LLC in this case) seeking to profit off the hard work of others.

Post from: The Gadget Blog

“We’ve learned and struggled for a few years here figuring out how to make a decent phone. PC guys are not going to just figure this out. They’re not going to just walk in.” Palm CEO Ed Colligan, commenting on then-rumored Apple iPhone, 16 Nov 2006

“Apple is slated to come out with a new phone… And it will largely fail.” Michael Kanellos, CNET, 7 December 2006

“The only question remaining is if, when the iPod phone fails, it will take the iPod with it.” Bill Ray, The Register, 26 December 2006

“Apple will likely have a tough time convincing application vendors to build specialized clients for the iPhone until the volumes are there, and the volumes could be limited by the lack of third-party applications – a Catch 22.” Jack Gold, J. Gold Associates, 10 January 2007

“The iPhone is nothing more than a luxury bauble that will appeal to a few gadget freaks.” Matthew Lynn, Bloomberg, 15 January 2007

“Five hundred dollars? Fully subsidized, with a plan? It is the most expensive phone in the world and it doesn’t appeal to business customers because it doesn’t have a keyboard which makes it not a very good email machine… So, I, I kinda look at that and I say, well, I like our strategy. I like it a lot.” Steve Ballmer, Microsoft CEO, 17 January 2007

I am not sure how it will stand against Sprint’s Wimax (when it successfully launches) and its phones, which I am looking forward much more than over-hyped Apple iPhone.” Bhaskar Chitraju, Indews Broadcast, 18 January 2007

“iPhone may well become Apple’s next Newton.” David Haskin, Computerworld, 26 February 2007

“Apple should pull the plug on the iPhone… What Apple risks here is its reputation as a hot company that can do no wrong. If it’s smart it will call the iPhone a ‘reference design’ and pass it to some suckers to build with someone else’s marketing budget. Then it can wash its hands of any marketplace failures… Otherwise I’d advise people to cover their eyes. You are not going to like what you’ll see.” John C. Dvorak, 28 March 2007

Let’s take a break, and a trip down memory lane, back to January 9, 2007:

“There’s no chance that the iPhone is going to get any significant market share. No chance. It’s a $500 subsidized item. They may make a lot of money. But if you actually take a look at the 1.3 billion phones that get sold, I’d prefer to have our software in 60% or 70% or 80% of them, than I would to have 2% or 3%, which is what Apple might get.” Steve Ballmer, Microsoft CEO, 30 April 2007

“How do they deal with us?” Ed Zander, Motorola CEO/Chairman 10 May 2007

“Apple begins selling its revolutionary iPhone this summer and it will mark the end of the string of hits for the company.” Todd Sullivan, Seeking Alpha, 15 May 2007

“What does the iPhone offer that other cell phones do not already offer, or will offer soon? The answer is not very much… Apple’s stated goal of selling 10 million iPhones by the end of 2008 seems ambitious.” Laura Goldman, LSG Capital, 21 May 2007

“We Predict the iPhone will bomb. Which means that when the iPhone comes, Digg will likely be full of horror stories from the poor saps who camped out at their local AT&T store, only to find their purchase was buggier than a camp cabin.” Seth Porges, The Futurist, 7 June 2007

“The forthcoming (June 29) release of the Apple iPhone is going to be a bigger marketing flop than Ishtar and Waterworld combined. Because its designers forgot Platt’s First, Last, and Only Law of User Experience Design (“Know Thy User, for He Is Not Thee”), that product is going to crash in flames. Sell your Apple stock now, while the hype’s still hot. You heard it here first.” David S. Platt, Suckbusters!, 21 June 2007

“God himself could not design a device that could live up to all the hype that the iPhone has gotten.” Harvard computer science professor David Platt, 25 June 2007

I guess it pays to make professional-sounding predictions. Those prophesies embellished with colorful metaphors made me cringe even more. Again, to be fair, this is all about hindsight, and the smugness it confers. Also, I can’t imagine Steve Ballmer cheering Apple on anyway—nor Palm actively trying to make the Pre work with Apple’s iTunes.

See Also: The iPod Dealt With a Lot of Hate During It’s Debut

Post from: The Gadget Blog

The video camera, while a welcome feature in emergencies or must-capture moments, delivers 640 x 480 output. Even under good lighting however, nano videos lack clarity. The FM radio isn’t that different from your typical cell phone radio; you need to plug in the earphones to listen to your favorite FM stations, as the cord acts like an antenna. The built-in pedometer? You can only maximize it when you buy an iPod + Nike kit—which you have to do so for the previous-gen nano anyway. And the less said about the external speaker, the better.

What does work in the iPod nano’s favor is its status as an affordable, stylish, and high-capacity portable music and video player. This remains true for the fifth-generation iPod: nothing else on the market costs below $180, features a bright 2.2″ 240 x 376 screen, is really thin, and makes short work of browsing through music and videos.

In other words, the iPod nano is perfect for those who’ve fallen for Apple’s effective (and mostly accurate) iPod marketing, but aren’t willing to pay more for the iPod classic or touch, and would rather do without the display-less iPod shuffle experience.

Visit the Apple Store to buy the iPod nano

Post from: The Gadget Blog

Well, maybe not. Apple may have good reason refusing warranty repairs to the computers of smokers, as proven by one of the customers who have his warranty money rendered useless: “[Steve] Jobs’ office did not help Derek, but he resolved some of the problems himself by disassembling his Macbook and cleaning it out with a can of compressed air.” Maybe it’s not the smoke, but the inevitable ash that flies around in a smoker’s environment.

Still, the least Apple could’ve done was state clearly within the AppleCare agreement that smoking may void the warranty. Apple’s protection program isn’t exactly cheap, and the company should at least make it even more clear what kind of activities will affect the warranty. Especially as it rolls out its own Black Friday promos.Source

Post from: The Gadget Blog

Another notable trend becomes clear when comparing brands. Here’s the list of nine different brands, ranked from most reliable to least, in terms of malfunction rate:

1. Asus
2. Toshiba
3. Sony
4. Apple
5. Dell
6. Lenovo
7. Acer
8. Gateway
9. HP

Looks like Asus‘ marketing department have a new talking point to advertise, while Apple has another reason to stick its nose up at Dell. I’m also sure Sony would like to mention being second in reliability while pimping its stylish VAIO lines.

The most depressing trend noted, while somewhat obvious, is still a bit depressing: From an average of 7.2% after 12 months of ownership, the average rate of “total failure” rises to 19.7% after 24 months, and steadily rises to 31% by the third year.

Great info from Squaretrade, relevant to makers and consumers alike. What I’d like to see though is a survey on the reliability of desktops. In any case, do you own a laptop? How reliable (or not) has it proven to be?

Post from: The Gadget Blog

Flipswap will give anyone as much as $350 for their iPhone plus a guaranteed $25 bonus with Droid proof of purchase. By taking advantage of this third party promotion, your readers will not only be the first of their friends with the latest gadget – but they’ll still have enough left over to buy out their current smart phone contract or pick up a Droid Multimedia Station.

The specifics are simple: Trade in your iPhone by November 30th and use promo code “getdroid” at checkout to receive a $25 bonus credit. Include a copy of your DROID purchase receipt with your traded phone as proof of purchase to receive the bonus. You can visit www.flipswap.com/DROID to check it out.

Whoever came up with this idea is taking quite a risk, and most likely hoping the Motorola DROID is making a splash as enjoys distribution in the US courtesy Verizon Wireless.

Post from: The Gadget Blog

elitemacor: “iPoop… iCry. I was so hoping for something more.”

WeezerX80: “Great just what the world needs, another freaking MP3 player. Go Steve! Where’s the Newton?!”

Pants: “hey – heres an idea Apple – rather than enter the world of gimmicks and toys, why dont you spend a little more time sorting out your pathetically expensive and crap server line up? or are you really aiming to become a glorified consumer gimmicks firm?”

And, my personal favorite:

nobody special: “All that hype for an MP3 player? Break-thru digital device? The Reality Distiortion Field™ is starting to warp Steve’s mind if he thinks for one second that this thing is gonna take off.”

Still tripping on smug nostalgia? Here’s how Steve Jobs packaged it for the masses, at a “low key” event:

I disagree that the iPod was a “quantum leap”, as Steve Job insisted, as there were already MP3 players with hard disks on the market when the iPod was launched. But there’s no doubting the iPod’s appealing usability, nor the willingness of Apple to stick with its own vision.

Post from: The Gadget Blog

I hear newbie Mac Users argue that since they paid so much already for an Apple unit, paying for Apple Care is just way too much. But let me remind you that you don’t actually have to buy an Apple Care at the same time you buy the unit. You can actually defer it until a month before your current Apple Warranty expires. So that gives you ample time to save up for an Apple Care Protection Plan that costs roughly around $250-$350, depending on the Apple Product.

Courtesy Apple Gazette

Now all I have to do is save up enough money for that 15″ Macbook Pro I’ve always wanted—so that I can install Windows 7 on it!

Post from: The Gadget Blog

• The competition (CanSecWest) was held last February; Apple should’ve closed the hole exploited by now
• The exploit became successful in the second day of competition, which featured a halved $10,000
• That’s because on the first day carrying a $20,000 pot, no one could successfully compromise any system
• Systems available to hack were running: Linux, Mac OS X, Vista

Now you can watch the report here (opens in a new window/tab).

In any case, it’s probably good news that, despite a $20,000 prize and the attention of some experienced exploiters, no computing system proved relatively easy to compromise. Perhaps this is a reminder to keep our systems running smoothly and practice safe computing habits, to keep the gates secure?

Post from: The Gadget Blog

My personal favorite? The “How to Infuriate Other Members” of the Mac Zealots Cult: “Write an honest, negative tech review about an Apple product [or service, for that matter].”

Post from: The Gadget Blog