IntoNow: The Shazam of TV Shows
IntoNow launched its iOS application today which is able to identify 2.6 million broadcast TV airings. IntoNow will listen to what you’re watching and in four to twelve seconds the app returns the exact episode and whether or not the content is live or a re-broadcast.
Additionally, IntoNow allows one-touch access to show info, IMDb, iTunes and Netflix, and app notifications alert you to activities and comments from friends. IntoNow can optinally share what you are watching with your friends on Twitter and Facebook.
Learn more at IntoNow’s website or grab the app from the iTunes iOS App Store.
via Star Padilla and Mashable
Xynga at WWDC Introduces Farmville for iPhone
The same farm you've currated on Facebook is now on your iPhone OS device.
- Get a Snow Leopard for your farm, only on your iPhone OS device
- Push notifications for withering crops
- All the features of Farmville you're used to: fertilizing, sending gifts, etc.
Available end of June, in time for the 1 year anniversary of the original launch of the game.
Netflix Comes to iPhone/iPodTouch/iPad
Netflix CEO Reed Hastings is introducing the Netflix app for iPhone OS.
- Coming this summer for free
- Same service you're used to on your iPhone OS device
- Start on your TV and pick up wherever you'd like
- Personalized recommendations
- Access to Netflix's complete library
iPad iBooks Update Coming "Later This Month"
Adding Highlights and Notes
Control in upper-right to bookmark a page
Table of Contents lists bookmarks and notes you created
There is a new bookshelf for PDFs that you upload to iBooks
Need More Data? Answer Center Says You Can
Question: The Answer Center has conflicting information from their press release which says, “Should a customer exceed 2 GB during a billing cycle, they will receive an additional 1 GB of data for $10 for use in the cycle.” This would make pricing identical to the Verizon or Sprint MiFi which allows 5GB for $60. AT&T tethering plus an extra 2GB is $25+$20+$10 = $55 for 4 GB or $65 for 6 GB.
What happens if I exceed my smartphone data plan’s monthly allowance? Answer:
If you have DataPlus and use more than 200 MB, you’ll receive an additional 200 MB for $15. If you’re on the DataPro plan and need more than 2GB, you’ll receive an additional 2 GB for $10. Overage is replenished as often as necessary during your billing period.
iPad to Lose Unlimited Option June 7
For new iPad customers, the $25 per month 2 GB plan will replace the existing $29.99 unlimited plan. For all of you hoping to take your new iPads to MLB games to take advantage of the excellent augmented reality experience, or any other potentially excellent bandwidth intensive features, the time has come to buy your iPad or else you’ll have to live with 2 GB for $25 or 3 GB for $35. See my article to learn more about the New AT&T Internet Plans.
iPad - Target Audience part 2 - Baby Boomers
The target audience for the iPad? Baby Boomers. Steve Jobs invented a device for his people. An APPLICATION COMPUTER. The generation that introduced YOU to the computer is the one in greatest need of a computer built for them. My dad (electrical engineer and at-first-glance-geek) has had computers all his life starting with punch-card mainframes. But as he ages, he becomes more and more resistant to change. He went the Apple route starting with an Apple II. This was followed by a Macintosh, a PowerBook, a Macintosh II, and a G3. But System 9 was really showing it's age and our entire household went to Windows. Despite the return of Steve Jobs and the innovation brought by Mac OS X, my dad kept to Windows XP. He understood it and could use it to do everything he needed. Despite his familiarity with System and Finder moving him to OS X 10.4 Tiger was somewhat more difficult than I expected. In fact, I think it was easier to move my 90 year old grandfather from Windows XP to Tiger (in truth, because my grandfather doesn't do as much with his computer as my father). Computers are flexible. There's many ways to do the same task. Some are more powerful than others. Some are easier than others. Some are faster than others. It seems things can be powerful, easy, or fast, pick two. Let's look at things my dad and grandfather do: Both of them have a Mac Mini. My dad sits far too close to his, and my grandfather uses a 60" DLP at 720p. Oh, and have you ever watched a 90-year-old use a mouse or touch pad? They just don't have the muscle control us young'uns do. The iPod Touch can do everything they need, in a much easier interface that they can't screw up, but neither of them can see the screen worth a darn. Also, the lack of keyboard is troublesome. Enter the iPad. It's a great size for them (132ppi might still be small, but with 2x scaling of iPhone apps we essentially get 66ppi). There's a keyboard for them to use for e-mail. They can't screw anything up. It's $499. Netbooks, even laptops, are too small for them, and they're too complicated. Desktops are too complicated. This is a device that fulfills a role that there is no competitor. The iPhone interface might not be the best, but when it comes to easy and intuitive, it's leaps and bounds ahead of any desktop OS. This audience is not looking for flexible. They're not looking for powerful. They're looking for one easy way to get stuff done. the iPad gives it to them.
iPad - Target Audience part 1
In my last post I argued the iPad is aimed at a new Target Audience. Who is that exactly?
First, let's get the obvious out of the way:
- Apple FanGeeks
- Technophiles
- CEOs
The Apple FanGeeks will buy a nice pile of steaming poo if it had an Apple logo on it. Don't be insulted; that's just the way it is. The sooner you can admit this to yourself, the easier it will be to accept who you are. By the way, we know you'll buy the Wi-Fi version in 59 days and then buy the 3G version 30 days after that, and that's what makes Steve Jobs a brilliant marketer and sales guru.
Technophies and gadget lovers will buy this device because it's in their blood. Love it or hate it, you'll still buy it because you're curious; at the very least you'll buy it to publicly post how much you hate everything about it as you continue to use it day in and day out. You too, might also buy both versions.
CEOs like to be up on the current trends and they have the money to make it look like they're hip to what's new. Some might be legit technophiles, but most like the status symbol of carrying around a hot-market item.
iPad - I missed the point.
Yesterday, I said I was underwhelmed. I think a lot of other people were too. Many people probably had grandiose expectations from a company and visionary the likes of Apple and Steve Jobs, and many people assumed the new iPad would be a revolution in computing that would make us all ditch our netbooks and laptops; it clearly does not.
No, the iPad is probably something akin to what Jef Raskin had in mind when it comes to the human interface to a computer.
Is the iPad powerful? Questionably. Flexible? Definitely not. Adaptable? Not without Apple's say-so.
Much of the detraction I hear about the iPad is that it can't do x, or that it will never be able to do y. Here's where I (and it seems many other people) are missing the point. It's not supposed to.
Steve Jobs clearly places the iPad in a space that is not yet defined and a supplement to the other technical devices we use. It's not meant to replace the laptop, and by correlation the cheaper, less powerful laptop we dubbed the netbook. The iPad is aimed directly at a new target audience.
About Me
Jason IshibashiBS in Computer Science with focus in Getting Stuff Done, Social Media, Social Networking, Teamwork, Leadership, Personal Finance, Young Business, High School and College Education, Web 2.0. Mentor through Future Business Leaders of America, and program staff for Destination Imagination in Los Angeles, San Bernardino, and Riverside Counties.
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