Apple’s $99-a-year .Mac service is not all that popular among the Mac community mostly because of its price tag, even though it makes Web publishing and online storage fairly easy with tight links to its iLife software. But the big opportunity these days for .Mac could be related to the
iPhone.

(Credit:
CNET Networks)

John Gruber of Daring Fireball has assembled a list of evidence that Apple is holding onto the domain, with the likely scenario that the company wants to launch a new Internet service. The domain is currently held by a company called MarkMonitor, but the administrator of Me.com bears an Apple e-mail address. Last month, Network World noticed that Apple had snapped up a bunch of Montenegro’s new Web addresses, such as apple.me and itunes.me, and the company trademarked the term “MobileMe” a few years ago.

It’s hard to believe that no one in the “Me Generation” beat them to it, but Apple has apparently registered Me.com as a possible replacement for its .Mac service.

Monday marks the official kickoff of iPhone Month within the Apple universe, although some would argue it started long ago. Apple is expected to release a faster iPhone with additional features perhaps as early as next week, and new software and applications should be out by the end of the month.

Could Me.com be Apple's portal linking the iPhone and the Mac?

Mac users appear to be intrigued by the idea of extending .Mac’s syncing features to their iPhones, allowing them to access files and resources stored on their home Macs via the iPhone. This could be an interesting opportunity for Apple to get iPhone buyers on the Mac train, and to entice current Mac users to obtain an iPhone.

(Credit:
Corinne Schulze/CNET)

The Palm Pre next to the current iPhone 3G.

Since then, the cell phone editors have received numerous reader e-mails wondering whether we’d be doing a prizefight between the two smartphones and we just wanted to let you know that the answer is most definitely yes. As soon as the
iPhone 3G S is released on June 19 and we get a review unit, we’ll pit the two devices against each other in various categories, so stay tuned!

While many lined up this past weekend to buy the
Palm Pre, some decided to wait on making a purchase to hear what would come out of the WWDC 2009 keynote, and as we all found out on the Monday, the answer was the iPhone 3G S.

By adding Facebook compatibility (with OpenSocial platforms next on their list), DoubleTwist users can share media through the social network. A Facebook application called TwistMe will allow users to drag and drop media content into a box on a fellow user’s Facebook profile. The friend will then see the shared files show up in his DoubleTwist desktop client.

(Credit:
DoubleTwist)

“Digital media is dominated by two players, Windows Media and iTunes, and they each have their own agenda…we see ourselves as the Switzerland of digital media. We are format and device agnostic.”

Instead of iTunes songs or videos taken with a Nokia N95 remaining locked on the phone, DoubleTwist software allows for dragging, dropping, and syncing of different media formats no matter the device.

Farantzos says they’re not picking on any one particular brand of DRM, especially since the entire industry, led by Amazon, is leaning toward a DRM-free policy.

Beginning Tuesday, the first product from his company, DoubleTwist Ventures, will enter open beta. Called DoubleTwist, it’s a free desktop client that essentially allows any kind of music, photo, or video file to be shared between a long list of portable media players, and through Web-based social networks.

The man notorious for cracking the DVD code, and Apple’s FairPlay DRM, is looking to make a legitimate business out of his expertise.

It works like this: When a device is plugged into a PC (Windows XP and Vista only right now,
Mac OS X coming soon), DoubleTwist launches and recognizes all the media files on the device. Any file can be selected, dragged, and dropped into DoubleTwist to be synched up to a separate device, or shared with other users you’ve “friended” who also use DoubleTwist.

The idea, according to DoubleTwist founder and CEO Monique Farantzos, is that media files should be more like e-mail. It shouldn’t matter what service you create the file in, or on what type of hardware, it all should work together seamlessly, she says.

“It’s one opportunity to write something for your Web site for use by a couple thousand geeks,” he said in an interview. But with DoubleTwist, the idea is to hide all the complexity of making easy transfers of files from the user so that even non-techie types will understand. “The goal is to make something your parents can use,” he said.

Farantzos recruited DVD Jon, or Jon Lech Johansen, and the two have been working with about 10 others for the past eight months on the DoubleTwist software. Johansen says DoubleTwist allows him to bring the success he’s found to a wider audience.

Social-network compatibility is key to enable real sharing of media between users, Farantzos said. “It closes the loop between the Web, devices, and the desktop.”

DoubleTwist also recognizes and imports all iTunes playlists and will read instantly which ones are protected by digital rights management technology. The software automatically plays the song files in the background (sans volume) and re-records them as MP3 files so they can be transferred to any device. Note: DoubleTwist only does this for songs you own or are authorized to play in iTunes.

Starting this month in 15 stores around Dallas only, employees manning a new kiosk concept called Solutions Station by Dell will be available to do TV and home theater installations, PC repair, wireless network setup, and probably some other tech-related stuff too.

Dell and Wal-Mart have a pretty cozy relationship–Dell picked Wal-Mart as the first place to sell its PCs when the company started selling retail again last year–so the pairing isn’t so surprising.

And this could potentially work out well for both. Dell has had problems with its customer service; in-person tech support, if Solution Stations customers feel satisfied, could be helpful in fixing its image. And Wal-Mart says this pilot program will help it find out more about what its customers want when it comes to installation and tech-related services–or if they want them.

For now, Wal-Mart says there are no plans to expand the service.

(Via Check Out)

According to the company, Wal-Mart has pulled all Linux-equipped computers off its shelves because it “didn’t attract as much customer attention as Windows machines.”

“This really wasn’t what our customers were looking for,” said Wal-Mart Stores spokeswoman Melissa O’Brien.

Gee, really? To see if its customers wanted Linux, the company stocked the $199 Green gPC in about 600 stores to see if people really wanted to try out a new, far more advanced, operating system. And although the company won’t announce sales figures, it looks like its decision to sell Linux-based machines was doomed from the start–in stores.

Ironically, the gPC has performed much better online and Wal-Mart will continue to sell it on its e-commerce page.

Wow. What exactly did Wal-Mart expect? Did its buyers truly believe that a Linux-based machine would do well in a store where the majority of its clientele have never heard of someone named Linus Torvalds?

Suffice it to say, Linux lacks mass-market appeal. And although some Linux apologists may attempt to tell me it doesn’t, how can any other argument be proven?

Most surveys put Linux market share at or around one percent and Wal-Mart–the retailer that exemplifies mass-market–won’t even consider selling another Linux-based machine in stores to save its life.

Doesn’t a “mass-market” product have “mass-market” control over the industry? Wouldn’t the masses know more about it? Wouldn’t the average person put it up there with the rest of the operating systems when they need to buy their next computer?

The fact of the matter is Linux is a great operating system for those who know what they’re doing and want the greatest level of adaptability. But for the average person, who many in the Linux community are simply out of touch with, they don’t want anything of the sort. Instead of discussions on GNU, the average person wants to know why they can’t use Internet Explorer. Instead of talking about Linus Torvalds, the average person wants to discuss Bill Gates and how he made his fortune. Instead of command line, the average person wants a mouse and keyboard.

And it’s that average person who frequents Wal-Mart and is more than willing to buy a computer that offers an operating system they know–Windows. Linux folks can talk until they’re blue in the face saying that Linux is safer than Windows and people can do more, but until it’s as easy to use as Microsoft’s OS, it’s in as many offices as Windows and it’s on the nightly news, the chances of people switching are nil.

Linux must stay true to its roots and remain the bastion of hope for all the people in the world who want an advanced operating system and the option to modify it as they see fit.

Linux will never be a mass-market product, so why push it?

That said, if Gartner is even close to on point, there are plenty of trends that could be worrisome for Microsoft. First and foremost is the research firm’s prediction that Apple will double its U.S. and western Europe market share by 2011.

Also of concern to folks in Redmond should be some of Gartner’s other predictions. One is that a whole lot of us will start leaving our laptops at home. Gartner is estimating that the rise of pocket-size Web surfing products at around $400 means that by 2012 half of traveling workers will be able to leave the notebook at home. Helping that trend is the fact that it is growing easier to store your data and settings on the Internet and access them through any Web-connected device.

This should be a wake-up call to Microsoft. The company has been slow to compete in this area. Many of the most sought-after products, such as Apple’s iPhone or Asus’ Eee PC do not use Windows. Also, with Vista, Microsoft has created an operating system that requires more hardware, while the trend for these devices are to use slower, more energy efficient processors, along with more limited capacity flash memory.

Also of note for Microsoft watchers, Gartner predicts that within five years fully 80 percent of commercial software will include elements of open-source technology.

“Many open-source technologies are mature, stable and well supported,” Gartner said. “They provide significant opportunities for vendors and users to lower their total cost of ownership and increase returns on investment. Ignoring this will put companies at a serious competitive disadvantage.”

On the software-as-a-service front, Gartner is estimating that by 2012, businesses will be spending a third of their application budget on subscription products, as opposed to product licenses. The firm also believes that forward thinking businesses will start buying their IT infrastructure as a service.

“Increased high-speed bandwidth makes it practical to locate infrastructure at other sites and still receive the same response times,” Gartner said. “This trend to accepting commodity infrastructure could end the traditional ‘lock-in’ with a single supplier and lower the costs of switching suppliers.”

Among its other predictions, Gartner is predicting a huge rise in 3D printers, ever more environmental focus and a trend of businesses bowing to end user demand for a larger number of hardware and software purchases. What do you make of Gartner’s guesses? Which are spot-on and which are off-base?

(Credit:
Stereophile/Robert Deutsch)

Stereophile magazine sponsored the Festival Son & Image show in Montreal, Canada, that ran from April 3 through the 6th. The show was the largest ever, with over 120 brands represented. True, most are unknown outside of audiophile circles, but that’s part of the appeal. These small companies aren’t trying to dumb down their products to reach a mainstream market, no, they just build the best sounding speakers, amplifiers, CD players and turntables they can. Many are hand crafted, lavishly designed products. Point is, in a world where true quality, as opposed to marketing hype, is the rarest commodity, high-end audio is the real deal. If you love music and want to hear it like never before, check out the wares on Stereophile’s show report. There’s nary an
iPod in sight.

Yes, a lot of high-end audio is expensive, but after looking at this week’s New York Times Magazine’s six page spread on high-end watches–the Patek Philippe Nautilus goes for $25,000–you might conclude the bling market knows no bounds. Actually, there’s a lot of relatively affordable high-end audio covered in Stereophile magazine, and as I’ve pointed out in this blog before, audio is a much better investment than video. Anybody want to buy an $800 HD DVD player, cheap?

Update: All gone. Sending them out to folks now–check your spam boxes.

(Credit:
AT&T)

It almost seems like every other handset is getting the red or pink treatment in time for Valentine’s Day, and the Pantech Duo smartphone is no exception. If you’ll recall, this dual-slider smartphone runs Windows Mobile 6, and has features such as a 1.3-megapixel camera, quad-band support, as well as HSDPA/3G speeds. We were not terribly impressed with the Duo’s slider mechanism and user interface, but it is one of the cheapest smartphones. It will set you back $99, with an AT&T contract. You can see the red Duo in shelves and online retail starting next week.

(Credit:
Expansys)

MSI put out a vague news release today that details some, but not all, of the specifications of its upcoming and unfortunately named Wind mininotebook. At the top of the release, it states the 10-inch notebook will “feature the new Intel Processor,” but it fails to explain what that processor might be. An Intel Atom processor is a safe bet; the chips are expected to be released this summer.

The only mention of pricing in the release states that MSI Wind configurations will start at less than $500 in early June. The MSI Wind is available, however, for preorder at Expansys, which lists a $560 price for a Linux-based model and a $605 price for a Windows model (and a ship date of June 24–decidedly late June). Expansys lists the processor as a 1.6GHz Intel processor. I’d hazard a guess that the Wind will use the 1.6GHz Intel Atom Z530 chip. Available colors for the models on Expansys are white, black, and pink.

The MSI Wind news release does reveal that there will be two configurations, one based on Novell Linux and another based on Windows XP Home. Both models will feature a 10-inch, LED-backlit screen with a 1024×600-pixel resolution, the Intel 945GMS chipset, and an 80GB hard drive. Common features also include three USB ports, a card reader, an integrated Webcam, and 802.11b/g Wi-Fi.

The Linux version serves up 512MB of RAM and a three-cell battery, which MSI estimates will run for 2.5 hours. The Windows version doubles the memory to 1GB and the battery to a six-cell unit, which it equates to 5.5 hours of running time. The Windows version also adds Bluetooth. With its smaller battery, the Linux-based MSI Wind weighs 2.3 pounds to the Windows version’s 2.6-pound weight.

Asus offers the both versions of its Eee PC 900 at the same $549 price, but it supplies a larger hard drive in the Linux version–your bonus for skipping the fee for the Windows license. MSI is taking a different approach, outfitting the Windows version with better specifications and more features, which means the sub-$500 price it quotes will almost certainly apply to only the Linux model.

Perhaps the most interesting detail included in the release was how MSI arrived at the Wind moniker. Wind = Wi-Fi Network Device.