Apple isn’t commenting and is officially treating all this as rumor and speculation (it rarely comments on acquisitions, anyway). But the deal is being reported in Israeli newspapers, and the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tweeted a welcome message to Apple today, which sure feels like confirmation. So I’ll proceed under the assumption that the reports of this acquisition are true.

Welcome to Israel, Apple Inc. on your 1st acquisition here. I’m certain that you’ll benefit from the fruit of the Israeli knowledge.

December 20, 2011 2:55 am via webReplyRetweetFavorite

@IsraeliPM

The PM of Israel

That makes this a cause for celebration. With the Anobit buy, Apple is now the latest member of the Flash Madness Club, which I created over the summer, in the wake of the Fusion-io IPO and other activities by notable flash-technology companies like Violin Memory, Pure Storage and Qwilt.

So why is Apple willing to throw down a reported half-billion dollars on this company? It’s because flash memory has a fundamental problem: As it ages, its ability to store data wears off. This problem is sometimes compared to the semiconductor equivalent of Alzheimer’s. Individual cells on the flash-memory chip lose their ability to store the individual ones and zeros that make up the pictures and music and other data they may be storing, especially after millions of read-and-write operations — the act of putting data on the chip and then loading it from the chip for use. After a lot of heavy use — this can vary depending on the chip — the chips begin to suffer problems with “endurance.”

As flash starts to show up in data centers and PCs and other places beyond consumer gear like iPhones and iPads, this becomes a more important problem. If your iPad gets old enough to suffer data-endurance problems, it’s a pretty simple matter to replace it. But in the more rigorous world of an enterprise data center, where millions of reads and writes will be done on a chip daily, data endurance is a potentially very expensive problem. In the enterprise, a solid-state drive is considered suitable only if it can stand up to five full-drive write cycles, where the drive is filled to capacity and then erased every day for five years.

Anobit’s solution to these problems involves techniques known as memory-signal processing and the use of some secret-sauce memory-processing error-correction algorithms, plus some management tricks for moving data around a flash chip in more efficient ways, in order to make them last longer.

It’s also the sort of problem that a company like Apple — which is the world’s largest consumer of flash memory, and has been for several years — would want to solve. Think of the many places where Apple uses flash — the iPad, iPhone, iPod, MacBook Air and Apple TV. And those are just the products we know about, so far. Flash can’t help but appear in many more products.

On top of that, flash technology plays a significant role in Apple’s data centers. Fusion-io, the company that builds flash-based insert cards that speed up garden-variety servers, has named Apple as a significant customer, so there’s plenty of flash inside Apple’s facilities in North Carolina. Flash endurance can’t help but be a problem Apple might face with its iCloud service, for example.

Israel has a big connection to the flash industry. SanDisk’s founder, Eli Harari, is Israeli; a few years back SanDisk acquired an Israeli company called Msystems, which, if my memory serves, was the first to popularize what we now call a thumb or keychain drive. So, historically, there have been a lot of useful innovations on flash memory that have come out of that country. Supposedly, the deal calls for Apple to open a research center there, so it will get the benefit of ongoing innovations on flash. Chances are it’s going to need a few.

Ahead of the dinner, Anderson stopped by my office to let me have a peek at his 10 predictions, and we talked them over a bit. All 10 are below, along with some comments from Anderson that emerged from our conversation.

Before diving into the predictions, Anderson tells me there is a grand theme that unifies them all: “Integrating everything.”

What does that mean? “It means a whole lot of stuff that needs to be integrated. We don’t need anything new at all. There’s so much work that needs to be done with the existing tool sets. Steve Jobs didn’t really invent anything at all. But he was great at integrating things into a product. There’s a lot more of that work to do. We have to do it in the phone world and the TV world and the health care world. We have lots of devices and lots of chips and lots of operating systems and lots of content. The bigger question is, how do human beings use it all efficiently?”

As an example, he cites the collaboration between Nuance, the speech software company, and IBM, bringing the Watson computer of “Jeopardy” fame into the area of health care. “For the first time, the idea of evidence-based medicine won’t just be in a magazine article,” Anderson says. “A doctor will be able to pick up his phone and describe four symptoms, and find out what the likely diagnosis is, what the indications are. It’s fantastic.”

So here are those 10 predictions, with additional comments from Anderson:

1. TV becomes the new center of gravity in the tech universe. All the other devices find their niches in the TV galaxy. Microsoft’s attempt to integrate Kinect into TV is a strong if qualified success. Smart phone-TV integration software becomes a new category. Pad-TV integration becomes common.

“Apple will hustle to launch the next version of Apple TV, and it will be a roaring success and be seen as Tim Cook’s first great product success. But what it really will be is Steve’s last product.”

2. 2012 will see tectonic shifts in phone markets. “Nokia will fail to come back, which is pretty clear to everyone except the people in Finland.” Samsung, Anderson says, will retain its spot as the new global leader in mobile phones by volume, and will keep this crown despite the debut of Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7.

Meanwhile, Anderson says, Google will lose control over the Android operating system, mainly because unlicensed versions of Android will multiply in type and in installed base, especially in Asian countries. “It’s already a balkanized environment. Now Google loses control of the technology entirely. China is already running an unlicensed version of Android, and I think there will be more of that.”

Finally, the smartphone will finally emerge as the dominant category of wireless phone. “Why would you have anything else? And why would sellers of content and services want you to?” he says. “It doesn’t matter if you’re in a rich country or a poor country. This stuff is cheap.”

3. Clouds are for consumers, and for start-ups. Even as a large number of big companies move pilot projects onto external clouds, it will become clear that the real trend is for enterprise to stay away from clouds in all key areas, for reasons of both security and reliability.

“The cloud guys hate this because they want to sell to enterprises,” Anderson says. “But the security issues are becoming really intense. If you’re a CIO, it’s a terrible environment, and you’re a target, for sure, especially if you’re a company with a lot of intellectual property. I’m not implying that things like SAAS (software as a service) aren’t a big trend. But no one is going to put their valuable IP on the cloud.”

4. Security splits the tech world in two, finally getting attention from CEOs. Companies with real IP start to realize they have to “go big or go home” with their security response, and their spending on protecting their “crown jewels” rises dramatically.

5. Siri stuns the world. Siri, on Apple’s iPhone 4S, has sounded the arrival of Internet personal assistants, and the world will spend this year marveling at what Siri and its rivals can and cannot do — and what they can learn to do.

“I think we’ll see a bunch of these things,” Anderson says. “Siri will get much better. It will learn how you learn. We’ve never seen people have long-term relationships with machines before, but it will be a long-term relationship, and she will remember everything, but make good use of it. She will know you learn better by seeing than hearing, or that it takes three times to tell you something. All those things that you have to program today should be learnable. None of that has been done yet. That creates a real friendship. And I think we’re going to start seeing personal assistants not just for everyday life, but for professions like medicine or car repair. Instead of just having Siri be everything, there will be many Siris for different contexts.”

6. We enter the amazing world of Dave and HAL, as voice recognition comes of age. From hospital to car, mobile to home, Kinect to Siri, exercise to play, work to entertainment, remote control to direct action, from Microsoft to Apple, from Tellme to Nuance — the time has come for computers and humans to talk to each other. With lots of funny stories, big bloopers and amazing breakthroughs, humanity at the end of 2012 will be talking to machines in a normal voice, and it will not seem unusual, nor be the cause of unending frustration.

“The voice-recognition part is almost trivial,” Anderson says. “The important part is context-sensitive understanding. It used to be that all the researchers at Carnegie Mellon used to think that all you needed was more computing horsepower to do better at voice. It turned out that was wrong. It was right for a little while, but the real problem is context. And so, if you can build up that database where you can search it contextually for what to expect, that is where you get all the mileage.”

7. E-readers prosper, but pads continue to dominate what Anderson calls the “carry-along” market. Pads and tablets will come down in price and get closer to prices of e-readers. Meanwhile, Anderson says, Amazon’s Fire will move upmarket and evolve into a full-fledged tablet.

“If you look at the specs on the Fire, it’s a tablet, but it’s hobbled,” Anderson says. “So I think that this is part of the whole strategy: Come in and sell at a low price, and then later unveil a more complete tablet. Apple will stay ahead, though. A lot of people are asking me if Amazon will catch Apple, and the answer is no. The way it’s configured right now, there’s no way the Fire will catch up with the iPad.”

8. The consumption world explodes. Get ready for new devices, new content, new bundles, new connection techniques, new distribution channels, new aggregators, new tablets, new phones, new players, new self-published authors, new garage bands, new consumption models riding on social networks. There is nothing but high energy in the content consumer market. People are now ready to spend subscription money, and the publisher response will be huge. “It’s going to be a huge melee of stuff,” Anderson says. “We’ll invent more stuff to consume, and it will be very hard to figure out who the players are from week to week, and how they’re doing. They may not even know themselves.”

9. Governments and corporations focus on intellectual property as though it were their most prized asset. It is. This new global understanding leads to a reevaluation regarding giving critical IP away for nothing versus protecting it. The age of what Anderson calls “IP naïveté” is over, and the question of proper IP valuation is here.

What is IP naïveté? “When Jeff Immelt stood on the steps of the White House the day after he was named jobs czar, and handed the plans for GE’s most important jet-engine project to Hu Jintao in order to get the permission to be allowed to bid on maybe selling engines to China — that’s IP naïveté,” Anderson says. “Thinking that’s not going to come back and show up for sale in Houston from some Chinese company in about six months is IP naïveté.”

During 2012, he says, companies and countries will start valuing their intellectual property not for its replacement value, but for figures that are magnitudes larger. State-sponsored IP theft will shift from being considered a nuisance and more along the lines of an act of aggression.

10. Amazon gets it all. Between outdoing Wal-Mart online, to beating the booksellers and delivering groceries, and making new inroads in video streaming, Amazon will prove that one company can indeed have it all. Strong Kindle and Fire sales will only be icing on the cake.

The Macintosh TV

A new iMac with integrated TV functionality.

That’s the latest speculation from Wedge Partners analyst Brian Blair, who believes there will be a step between the Apple TV and the Apple Television.

“We believe Apple’s redesign of the iMac in the first half of 2012 will likely usher in some … TV capability into the iMac offering first, effectively taking the high end and larger screens of the iMac line and pushing it toward the TV market by integrating Apple TV and iCloud features into a slimmer all-in-one PC,” Blair writes. “Apple could effectively start with what they already have on the manufacturing line and slowly push their offering from 27 inches and scale up from there to 32 inches and then move on to the 42, 50 and 55 inch market.”

Blair figures these new iMacs would behave like Apple TVs, streaming movies, TV shows, photo slideshows and more to newer Wi-Fi-enabled televisions and providing them access to content stored on iCloud as well.

It’s not an outrageous idea, particularly as an interim step on the way to a true television set. Or as a good reason for consumers to abandon their current TV sets in favor of iMacs. This would be particularly compelling if Apple was able to persuade the cable companies to stream their content though the Apple TV interface. Add to that AirPlay mirroring on the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch, voice navigation via Siri, and integrate it all into a 42-inch or better screen, and and you’ve got a pretty good reason to watch TV in your office. Or mount your PC on the living room wall.

Of course, Apple has been down this road before, first with the ill-starred Macintosh TV and then with its Front Row media center program, which was abandoned with the launch of Lion.

The company may not be interested in traveling down it again, particularly these days, when it seems so focused on disruptive changes. If Apple hews to that strategy for its HDTV, there will be no interim step. Just a single big announcement intended to upend the industry as we know it and send the competition scrambling.

Here’s the company’s story in an almost-easy-to-understand chart. Pay attention to the parenthetical numbers, which denote subscriber losses. The two to focus on are the video subscribers — down 128,000 for the quarter — and the total subscribers — down 16,000.

And, as usual, there are plausible explanations for the loss which don’t have to include people ditching their TV subscriptions for some kind of Apple TV/Hulu/Netflix combo. The most obvious one is that Time Warner Cable is dealing with competition from telcos like Verizon and satellite guys like DirecTV.

One counter-argument for the cord-cutting crowd: Time Warner Cable’s broadband data subscribers numbers increased — by 89,000 — even as video subs declined. Again, that doesn’t have to be a cord-cutting signal — it’s possible, for instance, to use DirecTV for video and Time Warner for data. But if you’re inclined to think otherwise, that’s what you’re going to do.

Meanwhile, a warning for the advertising business: The company said that “soft advertising” trends it saw last quarter were continuing this quarter.

Cable providers like Time Warner don’t typically have a robust ad sales operation, because it’s a minor point of the business, so you don’t want to make too much of this. But that heads up does sync up with other murmurs about Q4 ads I’ve been hearing from other companies, in other industries, so worth keeping an eye on.

That remark, published Monday in Isaacson’s “Steve Jobs,” has quickened speculation that Apple is poised to reinvent yet another product category and tap into what some analysts believe could be a $50 billion to $100 billion revenue opportunity.

So what might an Apple HDTV look like?

Akin to the Bose VideoWave integrated home entertainment system, against which it is reportedly being benchmarked, says Global Equities Research analyst Trip Chowdhry.

“Apple HDTV is directionally similar to Bose VideoWave TV, in terms of simplicity, image and sound quality, and reducing clutter,” Chowdhry theorized in a summer research note republished Monday, adding that Apple, in typical fashion, will take it quite a few steps beyond as well, using its spartan-but-elegant design sensibility to virtually eliminate the more cumbersome aspects of current TVs.

Whereas the VideoWave requires three cables, says Chowdhry, Apple HDTV will likely need just one. It may also be significantly thinner, though he expects it to have an equal number of built-in speakers. “Bose VideoWave HDTV is 6 inches thick and has 16 speakers,” Chowdhry writes. “Apple HDTV will be one third of that thickness and will also have 16 speakers -– these 16 built-in speakers give a complete surround sound experience, without the need for any external speakers.”

Finally, while there is but one VideoWave (a $5,200 unit with a 46” screen), Apple will likely produce three models of its television across a range of price points.

And assuming Apple is working on such a device, there are likely to be other features as well — iTunes support, obviously, a wider viewing angle than the industry standard, voice control via Siri, and integration with iCloud and Apple’s broader hardware and software ecosystems.

But again, that’s if an Apple television is in the pipeline. And at this point, that’s not yet clear.

UPDATE: AllThingsD’s Peter Kafka discussed the subject on “Digits” today. Here’s the clip:

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20111025/apple-tv-bose-videowave/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20110922/iphone-5-ipad-3-and-lte-iphone-mean-more-monster-quarters-for-apple/ http://allthingsd.com/20110922/iphone-5-ipad-3-and-lte-iphone-mean-more-monster-quarters-for-apple/#comments Thu, 22 Sep 2011 10:34:50 +0000 John Paczkowski http://allthingsd.com/?p=123319 With a number of new products in the pipeline, Apple’s fiscal first quarter will likely be a monster, and its second even more of one.

That’s the theory put forth by Wedbush analyst Scott Sutherland, who predicts Apple will continue to dominate the connected devices market for some time to come with a conga line of new gadgets that includes everything from the soon-to-be-unveiled iPhone 5 to its LTE successor and the next iteration of the iPad.

“A key part of the Apple story remains new product launches,” Sutherland said in a research note. “While the iPhone 4 appears to be selling well due to existing market demand and new markets, we expect a bump up from the iPhone 5 this October, and a lower end iPhone geared towards emerging markets. With the introductions ahead of the holidays, we expect a monster FQ1 (Dec) from Apple. Furthermore, in 1H12, we expect the introduction of a 4G LTE iPhone with a materially improved user interface and the iPad 3.”

Along with those devices, Sutherland sees updates to Apple’s Mac and iPod lines, some improvements to Apple TV and that long-rumored first foray into the connected TV space. Add to this continuing demand for the iPad and iPhone and the broadening of their global distribution — and the official debut of iCloud, which, if properly executed, should further drive app and media sales — and Apple’s financial picture is as rosy as they come.

With this sort of momentum, Apple seems almost unstoppable. With that in mind, Sutherland says he expects Apple to ship 26 million iPhones in FQ1, up from 23 million. And he’s raised his estimate on the company accordingly. His new 12-month price target: $530.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20110922/iphone-5-ipad-3-and-lte-iphone-mean-more-monster-quarters-for-apple/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20110907/a-mac-on-windows/ http://allthingsd.com/20110907/a-mac-on-windows/#comments Thu, 08 Sep 2011 01:02:29 +0000 Walter S. Mossberg http://allthingsd.com/?p=118270 Q:

My goal is to watch video from Netflix and Amazon on my TV. Which of the set-top boxes you recently reviewed will allow me to do that?

A:

Of the three I tested, only the Roku 2 player will deliver both of these particular services, plus others, to your TV. It starts at $60, plus the cost of a subscription to Netflix or downloads from Amazon. The other two—Apple TV and Boxee Box—do provide Netflix, plus some services the Roku lacks, such as iTunes for Apple TV and Vudu for Boxee.

Q:

In your column last week, you noted that the latest version of Parallels Desktop for Mac can run a second copy of the Mac operating system inside a virtual computer on a Mac. Will it also allow people to run the Mac OS on a Windows PC?

A:

No, according to both Apple and Parallels. First of all, the new Parallels product, which is mainly meant to run a virtual or faux Windows computer on a Mac, can run only on Mac hardware.

The company does make a similar product that runs on PC hardware, but Apple says its Mac operating system is designed to only boot up on Mac hardware, even if it is installed in a virtual computer.

I know that some techies and engineers have been able to get around this and run the Mac OS on PC hardware, but it often doesn’t run perfectly normally, and I don’t believe average users can pull this off in any case.

Q:

I am interested in a tablet for reading books, newspapers and magazines, email and light Web surfing. Which tablet do you recommend?

A:

Assuming that, by “tablet,” you are excluding simple monochrome e-readers like the current Amazon Kindle, I’d recommend the iPad. It’s the best overall tablet I’ve tested, with the best battery life and the greatest variety of apps. All of the tablet contenders can do email and Web surfing adequately, but the iPad has a greater selection of newspaper and magazine apps.

However, there are two caveats. One is that the iPad cannot display Flash video, so if that is of prime importance, look elsewhere. The other is that Amazon is widely expected to soon offer a more limited, but less expensive, color tablet that—given Amazon’s business—might well be very good for books, newspapers and magazines. So you might want to wait to evaluate that product.

Email Walt at mossberg@wsj.com.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20110907/a-mac-on-windows/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20110831/high-definition-streaming/ http://allthingsd.com/20110831/high-definition-streaming/#comments Thu, 01 Sep 2011 01:00:59 +0000 Walter S. Mossberg http://allthingsd.com/?p=115989 Q:

I am curious if any of those three set-top boxes you reviewed last week offer the movies in high definition.

A:

All of them do. If a service included on the box streams or downloads in high definition and you have an HDTV and the proper cable connection (usually an HDMI cable), then all three will output the video in high definition. The top-of-the-line Roku I tested (called the XS) and the Boxee Box support what’s called 1080p resolution, while the Apple TV and the entry-level Roku HD only support 720p. However, most experts say that average people, sitting at an average distance from a TV, can’t tell the difference between these two types of HD.

Q:

I have elderly parents who can’t seem to be able to use a mobile phone, and become very frustrated. Is there a phone that seniors can see and work? It needs to be simple.

A:

The best-known cellphone for seniors is called Jitterbug. It offers large buttons and a variety of operator-assisted features. We tested and generally liked an earlier model. The phone is sold by GreatCall, at greatcall.com, for $100. Another company, Doro, makes less expensive models with large buttons aimed at seniors. See this page. The Doro phones are also sold by a carrier called Consumer Cellular, which promises low rates and offers discounts to members of AARP. See here.

Q:

What is the preferred way to pair iPad 2 with a TV? By using the AirPlay feature or through the Apple HDMI adapter? Also, the upcoming iOS 5 operating system comes with this functionality built in, right?

A:

Each method is a bit different. AirPlay, which requires a $99 Apple TV, wirelessly beams a particular video you’re playing on the iPad 2 to a TV. The Apple HDMI adapter, formally called the Digital AV adapter, which costs $39 and requires an HDMI cable, beams the entire screen of the device to the TV. It works on both iPads, as well as on the iPhone 4 and the latest generation iPod Touch, and doesn’t require an Apple TV. In both cases, some video providers block the video stream from going to the TV, presumably due to their business policies or legal issues.

In the forthcoming iOS 5 operating system, using Airplay and an Apple TV will enable full-screen mirroring on a TV from an iPad 2, just as the physical adapter does today.

Email mossberg@wsj.com.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20110831/high-definition-streaming/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20110826/apple-pulls-the-plug-on-tv-rentals/ http://allthingsd.com/20110826/apple-pulls-the-plug-on-tv-rentals/#comments Fri, 26 Aug 2011 20:51:29 +0000 Peter Kafka http://allthingsd.com/?p=114429 Last year, Apple pushed hard to get the TV networks to rent their shows at cut-rate pricing through its iTune store. Now it has bailed on TV show rentals altogether.

Apple has completely removed customers’ ability to rent shows from iTunes; the remaining options are to buy individual episodes or in some cases a “Season Pass” for a year’s worth of shows.

This doesn’t come as a huge shock, as by all accounts few customers have been interested in rentals, even after ABC and Fox dropped the prices on some of their episodes from $1.99 to 99 cents nearly a year ago.

And Apple has recently given customers the ability to watch shows they purchased via iTunes any time they want, on any Apple device, by streaming it from its “iTunes in the Cloud” service.

“iTunes customers have shown they overwhelmingly prefer buying TV shows,” Apple spokesman Tom Neumayr said. “iTunes in the Cloud lets customers download and watch their past TV purchases from their iOS devices, Apple TV, Mac or PC allowing them to enjoy their programming whenever and however they choose.”

A statement from Fox (which like this Web site is owned by News Corp.) suggests that the studio was no longer interested in rentals, either: “After carefully considering the results of the rental trial, it became clear that content ownership is a more attractive long-term value proposition both for iTunes customers and for our business. To further enhance the value of ownership, we are working with Apple to make content available within their new cloud-based service.”

If customers have proven resistant to the idea of rentals instead of purchases, the TV networks and studios have always taken that stance.

Former Apple CEO Steve Jobs and his lieutenants worked hard throughout 2010 to get studios on board with the idea of cutting their rental prices to spur more transactions. But in the end Apple was only able to get two major partners to sign up: Disney, where Jobs is on the board of directors and is the company’s largest individual shareholder, and News Corp., which at the time was working closely with Apple to launch The Daily iPad newspaper.

But Jobs had insisted that pricing was the key to increasing content consumption, and that if his partners would charge less, he could help them sell a whole lot more. “Price it aggressively and go for volume,” he said in an onstage interview at the D: All Things Digital conference in June 2010.

Right now the TV business seems to be going the other way. Here’s what your options looked like yesterday if you wanted to pay for an episode of last season’s “Simpsons” on iTunes:

And here’s what it looks like today:

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20110826/apple-pulls-the-plug-on-tv-rentals/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20110826/steve-jobs-through-the-years-highlights-from-the-d-conference/ http://allthingsd.com/20110826/steve-jobs-through-the-years-highlights-from-the-d-conference/#comments Fri, 26 Aug 2011 13:30:25 +0000 Beth Callaghan and Drake Martinet http://allthingsd.com/?p=113843 Since the inception of the D: All Things Digital conference in 2003, Steve Jobs was a frequent guest onstage, and his appearances have always made for some of our most popular videos. Here are some favorites:

D1: Steve Jobs Onstage in 2003, on the Tablet

A day after Bill Gates took the stage, enthusiastic about the future of the tablet computer, Jobs dismissed the idea as a niche product for rich guys. “We looked at the tablet, and we think it’s gonna fail.”

View the full session video of Steve Jobs at D1.

D2: Apple CEO Steve Jobs in 2004, on Not Doing a PDA

Specifically referring to ongoing speculation about Apple’s development of a PDA, Jobs said “I’m as proud of the products that we have not done as I am of the products we have done.”

View the full session video of Steve Jobs at D2.

D3: Steve Jobs Onstage at D3 in 2005

As Kara pushed for info about an “iPod phone,” Jobs laid out the challenges of creating such a product, though he didn’t make any outright denials that Apple was doing so.

View the full session video of Steve Jobs at D3.

D5: Steve Jobs Flashes the iPhone

In the first of two appearances at 2007′s D5 conference, Jobs joked with Walt about Apple’s “three businesses and a hobby” and gave attendees an oh-so-quick peek at the forthcoming iPhone.

D5: Steve Jobs and Bill Gates look back

In their first joint appearance in 20 years, Gates and Jobs reminisce about competition between their two companies and the state of the graphic user interface in the mid-nineties.

D5: Steve Jobs and Bill Gates look ahead

Jobs and Gates discuss the future of the industry and the roles of Apple and Microsoft as entertainment delivery systems.

View the highlight reel of Steve Jobs and Bill Gates together at D5.
View the full session video of Steve Jobs and Bill Gates together at D5.
View the full session video of Steve Jobs at D5.

D8: Steve Jobs on the iPhone’s Origin

In 2010, Jobs told Walt and Kara how the iPhone actually grew out of a multitouch display Apple was developing for a tablet. The OS was so promising that Jobs put the tablet on the back burner and used the OS for the iPhone instead.

D8: Steve Jobs on Apple’s Relationship With Google

“Just because we’re competing with somebody doesn’t mean we have to be rude.”

D8: Steve Jobs on Foxconn

Apple has a better understanding than most companies in the tech industry of the working conditions in its supply chain, Jobs told Walt and Kara in 2010, but it’s still working to understand the suicide rate at its Foxconn plant in China.

D8: Steve Jobs on iAds Restrictions

Here’s a hint for iOS developers: Don’t put third-party analytics software in your apps, especially not if the analytics firm involved is going to publish personal data about your users and their devices without asking them first. It really pisses Steve off.

D8: Steve Jobs on Television

The reason that Apple TV remains a hobby, Jobs explained at D8, is a balkanized television market that makes it impossible for the company to innovate across the board.

D8: Steve Jobs on AT&T

With the Verizon iPhone deal still on the horizon, Jobs was unable to offer any concrete hope to the Houston-based iPhone user in the D8 audience, whose only real problem with the phone was its inability to make any calls.

D8: Apple CEO Steve Jobs Talks About Flash

At D8, Jobs discussed his still-fresh “Thoughts on Flash” memo with Walt and Kara.

View the full session video of Steve Jobs at D8.

Related posts

• Steve Jobs Resigns as CEO of Apple; Cook Takes Reins
• Steve Jobs’s Resignation Letter: “I Have Made Some of the Best Friends of My Life at Apple.”
• Apple Stock Falls After Jobs Announcement
• Steve Jobs Live on Stage in 2010 (Video)
• Tim Cook as Apple CEO: A Tested and Steady Hand
• Essay: Jobs’s Departure as CEO of Apple Is the End of an Extraordinary Era
• What Happens Next at Apple?
• Mossberg on Jobs (Video)
• Analysts Confident in Apple’s Prospects
• Apple Shares Bounce Back
• Tim Cook: Apple Will Continue to Make the Best Products in the World
• Does Tim Cook Need His Own Tim Cook?

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20110826/steve-jobs-through-the-years-highlights-from-the-d-conference/feed/ 6 http://allthingsd.com/20110824/ways-to-make-web-watching-more-like-tv-less-like-a-pc/ http://allthingsd.com/20110824/ways-to-make-web-watching-more-like-tv-less-like-a-pc/#comments Thu, 25 Aug 2011 01:04:16 +0000 Walter S. Mossberg http://allthingsd.com/?p=113724 Some folks watch movies, TV shows and videos from the Internet on their TVs by plugging in their computers, using ugly cables, keyboards, or mice that seem out of place in the living room. That PC-to-TV experience is more like using the computer than leaning back to enjoy TV.

So this week, I decided to try out three inexpensive set-top boxes that aim to make this process easier and neater. They are the $100 Roku 2 XS, the $99 second-generation Apple TV and the $199 Boxee Box from D-Link. The intent of the three products I tested is to do what a computer can, but in a simpler, cheaper and more TV-like manner—with easy setup, clear onscreen menus and small, simple remotes.

None of these boxes can handle your regular cable or satellite service. Typically, you plug these gadgets into a separate input on your TV and switch to that input to use them, just as you do when using your DVD or Blu-ray player. Nor do these boxes play discs.

Clockwise starting from the left: Roku 2 XS with ‘Angry Birds’ on the TV; the uniquely shaped Boxee Box with its remote; and the Apple TV box.

While all three products carry some of the same popular Internet video sources, such as Netflix, YouTube, MLB.TV and Vimeo, they otherwise have different offerings. Apple’s huge and popular iTunes video store is available only on Apple TV. But Roku and Boxee each have numerous sources that Apple lacks, such as Hulu Plus and Amazon Instant Video on Roku, and Vudu on Boxee.

Of the three, I’d recommend Apple TV primarily for people who frequently use iTunes, or who own an iPad or iPhone. I’d recommend Roku for people who aren’t hooked on the Apple world and crave simplicity, variety and a low entry price. I’d only recommend the Boxee Box for techies because of its complexity.

Roku 2 XS

This is the smallest of the three, a tiny black gadget about 3 inches square and less than an inch thick. It’s the high end of a lineup that starts at $60.

The Roku uses a large, simple menu of “channels” of content providers—some free and some requiring a subscription or a pay-per-view fee to the content provider.

In my tests, the Roku 2 XS set up easily on my 50-inch Pioneer Plasma TV, and provided sharp, clear high-definition TV shows, movies and other videos from a wide variety of sources. Menus were mostly consistent and clear. I was able to watch TV shows like “30 Rock” and movies like “Star Trek,” though the most recent movies aren’t available and the selection of newer TV episodes was spotty.

The newest feature of the Roku is casual gaming, notably the popular “Angry Birds.” However, the Roku can’t access video, photos or music from computers on a home network, though it can play content from a USB drive.

Apple TV

This small black box seems to have inspired the new Roku design, although it’s a bit larger. It allows you to rent movies and buy TV shows from the iTunes store. A new feature also allows you to stream, for free, any TV show you’ve purchased from iTunes, even if you bought it on another device.

Though Apple won’t confirm this, I expect this same free feature to apply eventually to movies as well.

In my tests, Apple TV delivered great video, even though its resolution isn’t as high as those on the other two devices. Its user interface is clean, simple and consistent, and its remote is tiny and very simple.

The selection of non-Apple Internet sources on Apple TV is very limited. It includes a few paid services and some free ones, but ignores most of the non-Apple video on the Internet. But Apple TV really shines in fetching video, photos and music from any PC or Mac on your home network that is running iTunes.

Apple TV is becoming even more useful as an adapter for an iPad or iPhone. Using a feature on those devices called AirPlay, you can wirelessly beam some videos to your TV via Apple TV.

And, with a software update due soon, you’ll be able to wirelessly mirror the entire display of an iPad 2 to your TV, and stream music and photos you’ve stored on Apple’s new iCloud service.

My main gripe with Apple TV, in addition to its limited Web content, is that the remote lacks a “home” and “back” button.

Boxee Box

This is a much larger device, with an unusual, angled shape that costs twice as much as the others. Even with a new software update, I found Boxee more confusing and geeky than the other two.

Boxee’s strongest feature is that it has loads of content, and can play almost any video format. But this content is presented in two very different ways. If you just select a movie or TV show, you may find yourself in a Web browser, trying to control the video with a cursor—a scenario I find annoying from 10 feet away. If, however, the content comes from an app, such as Netflix or Vudu, it’s presented in a TV-friendly fashion. Depending on how you navigate to the video, you may be surprised by which interface you get.

In addition, Boxee has the flavor of a techie device. For instance, it includes setup choices like Deinterlacing Policy, and watching content from your home network requires you to choose from a geeky list of options.

Boxee also is rough around the edges. It failed to play any of the standard-formatted songs on my home network, and it froze on me twice.

A free Boxee iPad app can fetch videos from social networks or bookmarked Web pages, and has its own method for sending videos to the TV via the Boxee Box. Boxee also claims to support Apple’s official AirPlay feature, but, in my tests, this failed more often than it succeeded. (The company calls this feature “experimental.”)

On the other hand, the Boxee remote is the only one with a built-in keyboard—on the back of the remote. With the others, you have to peck out letters on an onscreen keyboard when doing things like searching.

Bottom line: To watch Internet video easily on a TV, either Roku or Apple TV is the best choice for average consumers.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20110824/ways-to-make-web-watching-more-like-tv-less-like-a-pc/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20110801/apple-tv-gets-a-little-icloud-love/ http://allthingsd.com/20110801/apple-tv-gets-a-little-icloud-love/#comments Mon, 01 Aug 2011 18:54:43 +0000 John Paczkowski http://allthingsd.com/?p=104958 Apple added a bit more polish to its Apple TV “hobby” Monday, issuing a software update for the device that adds some noteworthy new functionality. Specifically, the 4.3 version of iOS for Apple TV now allows owners to purchase TV shows directly from the iTunes Store and stream the shows they already own. Also included: Support for Vimeo.

An interesting departure from the rental-only model Apple had been previously pursuing with Apple TV and a sign of the company’s new direction with iCloud. As Daring Fireball’s John Gruber points out, “Apple just rolled out a cloud-based storage locker for TV shows.”

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20110801/apple-tv-gets-a-little-icloud-love/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20110622/free-live-streaming-music-on-your-iphone-from-apple/ http://allthingsd.com/20110622/free-live-streaming-music-on-your-iphone-from-apple/#comments Wed, 22 Jun 2011 11:30:43 +0000 Peter Kafka http://allthingsd.com/?p=89412 There are more than 425,000 apps in Apple’s iTunes store, but it’s always worth paying attention to the ones that Apple produces itself.

Here’s the latest: “iTunes Festival London 2011,” a free app that will stream live footage from an Apple-branded concert series throughout July.

The app will work on both iPhones and iPads, and includes AirPlay support so you can get the shows up on your plasma, via Apple TV.

This looks like a pretty cool lineup (Coldplay! Bruno Mars! The Arctic Monkeys! And, um, Gwyneth Paltrow!), so it’s hard to see why you wouldn’t want to at least play around with the app on a slow summer day. Concert giant Live Nation handles the actual producing duties for the shows, and will stream them via its app, too.

Wired.com’s John Abell thinks this app could be the precursor to a long-running series of live events streamed by Apple. Who knows? Could be. My hunch is that Apple is putting the app out as a glorified demo and will be happy to let other companies carry the ball forward from here.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20110622/free-live-streaming-music-on-your-iphone-from-apple/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20110504/google-tv-aims-to-turn-the-channel-with-new-release-later-this-year/ http://allthingsd.com/20110504/google-tv-aims-to-turn-the-channel-with-new-release-later-this-year/#comments Wed, 04 May 2011 14:00:47 +0000 Ina Fried http://mobilized.allthingsd.com/?p=7230 Google TV may not have won over many critics or fans with its first season, but Google still thinks it could be a long-term hit.

Before renewing the product for another season, though, Google is making a number of changes to the script. In addition to trying to make it more approachable, the company is hoping to change the way Google TV is thought of in the market. Initially, many people saw the product as a potential way to get around the big TV providers by using Web-based services. However, Hulu and other mainstream Web video services quickly blocked access via Google TV.

This time around, Google TV will be pitched more clearly as something that can add to a traditional TV experience, both through a wave of new applications and by delivering video that even the broadest satellite or cable package doesn’t have.

Google TV debuted last year as an option on certain Sony TVs and Blu-Ray players as well as via a set-top box from Logitech. However, it was met with disappointing sales and lackluster reviews. Logitech, for example, said it sold just $5 million worth of Google TV products last quarter, far less than it was expecting.

But Google sees the marriage of Internet and the television as in its early days. And it imagines the first version of Google TV not unlike the G1, the first Android phone. While the phone offered hints at what Google’s phone would eventually become, it was itself not much to look at and more than a little clunky. Over time, of course, Android became a major force in the smartphone business.

The first glimmers of the new TV will come next week at the Google I/O conference, where Google will present a session for developers on creating TV-friendly Android apps. However, the next version of Google TV and the TV-centric version of the Android Market won’t be announced until some time in the coming months, according to sources familiar with the matter.

The goal, sources said, is to have a new version of Google TV ready at least in time for this year’s holiday season. The company is bringing on additional hardware partners, including Samsung and Vizio. Business Insider reported that new hardware will be based on faster chips, although sources told Mobilized that existing Google TV models should also be upgradeable to the new software.

Google is not alone in chasing this Internet-centered view of TV, however. Apple has made the latest version of Apple TV based on Apple’s iOS. Although today’s version doesn’t support running third-party apps, the company has certainly laid the groundwork architecturally to head in that direction. Microsoft, meanwhile, is attacking the living room both by adding entertainment features to its Xbox 360 and by making its Mediaroom IPTV platform more app friendly.

Nor is this the first go-around at this. The dream of marrying TV and the Internet has been around since before the dot-com bubble with companies like WebTV and Wink all chasing the goal of bringing interactivity to the television.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20110504/google-tv-aims-to-turn-the-channel-with-new-release-later-this-year/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20110412/tk-5/ http://allthingsd.com/20110412/tk-5/#comments Tue, 12 Apr 2011 10:35:45 +0000 John Paczkowski http://digitaldaily.allthingsd.com/?p=60230
It’s looking more and more like Apple’s fifth-generation iPhone won’t debut until the company’s 2012 fiscal year, which begins in late September. That’s the latest intelligence from Avian Securities, which says the supply chain chatter it’s been hearing suggests Apple plans to launch its newest iPhone quite a bit later than it’s launched others in the past.

“Conversations with yet another key component supplier indicates that production for iPhone 5 will begin in September,” Avian’s analysts said in a note. “This is consistent with Avian findings in the supply chain in recent months and we believe the consensus view is moving towards this scenario.”

Certainly seems that way. As I’ve reported here before, Apple doesn’t plan to unveil a new iPhone at its Worldwide Developers Conference, which this year will be largely software-focused. And increasingly, I’m hearing speculation about the company possibly commandeering its annual September media event to launch the device instead. Which seems plausible. Buzz-wise, the iPod has been subsumed by the iPhone. And the continuing evolution of the iPod line isn’t nearly as exciting as it once was; just look over the hardware announced at last year’s fall music event: A new Shuffle that looked a lot like its second generation predecessor, a smaller multi-touch nano, a thinner iPod touch and a smaller Apple TV. Pretty staid stuff for Apple.

And we’re likely to see more of the same at this year’s event. Let’s face it, once you’ve perfected the iPod the way Apple has, there’s only so much you can do to refine it, and we’re at the point now where “thinner” and “smaller” aren’t the impressive achievements they were a few years back.

So why not spice things up by throwing the iPhone into the mix? Doing so would not only give Apple a few more months to prep the device and the services rumored to launch alongside it, it would re-energize one of the company’s most important annual events and introduce the iPhone 5 right as we head into the busy holiday shopping season.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20110412/tk-5/feed/ 6 http://allthingsd.com/20110328/huffington-post-cofounder-ken-lerer-wants-you-to-watch-his-next-company/ http://allthingsd.com/20110328/huffington-post-cofounder-ken-lerer-wants-you-to-watch-his-next-company/#comments Mon, 28 Mar 2011 12:30:20 +0000 Peter Kafka http://mediamemo.allthingsd.com/?p=31197 What do you do once you sell your digital media business for $315 million?

Start another digital media business!

Huffington Post co-founder Ken Lerer, who sold his company to AOL earlier his month, has his next project lined up: He’s a co-founder of Bedrocket Properties, a video studio/incubator.

Bedrocket plans on creating and investing in programming that could find a home on the Web or on traditional TV. But it’s really interested in all the new, content-hungry video outlets that sit somewhere between those two poles: Netflix, Apple and Google TV, Roku, mobile phones, tablets, etc.

“I think this is the next sweet spot,” Lerer says. “The distribution is all built out. It just needs to be filled with content. It’s absolutely identical to cable in the 80s.”

Joining Lerer are Brian Bedol, who built and sold two TV networks (Classic Sports Networks to Disney’s ESPN and College Sports Television to CBS), Patrick Keane, a former Google and CBS marketing executive who ran Associated Content for a year before selling it to Yahoo, and hedge fund manager Jim Pallotta.

Bedol will be Bedrocket’s CEO (his personal investment company is called Bedrock Ventures) and Keane will be president. Lerer will be chairman and says he “will be hands on for some period of time,” as he was in Huffington Post’s early years. He says Pallotta will be an “active investor.”

Bedol and Lerer aren’t ready to go into detail about their plans, other than that they intend to build slates of programming–you could call them “channels”, if you like–that they can sell to distributors. And that they likely won’t have programming in front of viewers until the end of the year. They won’t discuss the amount they’ve invested in Bedrocket.

But their basic premise makes sense: There’s a big–and growing–market for video, and it won’t be sated with TV reruns and dog-on-skateboard videos alone.

“We’re at the beginning of a new paradigm, and you’re going to see a generation of really valuable content properties come out of this,” Bedol says.

They’re not the first ones to think this, of course. But earlier incarnations of Web-only video studios have failed, in large part because Web advertising economics haven’t been able to support much in the way of new programming.

And networks like Keane’s former employer, who should be good at this stuff, haven’t done much more with new video beyond a few webisodes. That’s because they have a fundamental channel conflict: It’s hard for them to build up a real alternative to the broadcast and cable channels where they’re already making money.

But now Web ad dollars are getting big enough to support “real” programming–note that Google is out persuading Hollywood to build shows for YouTube. And subscription services like Netflix and Amazon are going to be in the market for new stuff to show their subscribers.

Lerer, who has been an active angel investor along with his son Ben, via their Lerer Ventures fund, still plans on raising a second fund this year. But he says BedRocket will be the startup that gets most of his time (Ben Lerer will also be working with Bedrocket in addition to Thrillist, his own newsletter startup).

“I know much more than I did 6 years ago,” he says. “I see this one much more clearly than I originally saw the Huffington Post. I think this one has a real business plan from day one.”

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20110328/huffington-post-cofounder-ken-lerer-wants-you-to-watch-his-next-company/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20110309/ipad-2-thin-not-picture-perfect/ http://allthingsd.com/20110309/ipad-2-thin-not-picture-perfect/#comments Thu, 10 Mar 2011 02:01:33 +0000 Walter S. Mossberg http://ptech.allthingsd.com/?p=1812 Just as most of its competitors are rolling out their first multitouch tablets to compete with its game-changing iPad, Apple on Friday will start selling a second-generation model, the iPad 2.

The new iPad 2 is about a third thinner and over 10% lighter, yet speedier and more powerful than the original version, which sold a whopping 15 million units in its first nine months and, for many users, challenged their laptops as a digital tool. And it costs the same as the original.

I’ve been testing an iPad 2 for about a week and I like it a lot. While it’s evolutionary rather than revolutionary like the first model, the changes Apple has made are generally pleasing and positive, and the device worked very well for me.

Its improvements, including front and rear cameras, outweigh the few drawbacks and feature omissions I found. For most average, nontechie users, I would recommend it over the handful of tablet competitors I’ve tested so far, especially given that the entry price remains attractive.

The camera application on the iPad 2 demonstrated after an Apple event in San Francisco.

Dozens of tablet competitors are coming this year and I haven’t had a chance to test them. But the iPad 2, in my view, offers an excellent balance of size, functionality and price, and keeps Apple ahead in the tablet race, at least for now.

However, unless you are desperate for the cameras or feel you are laboring under the greater bulk of the original model, I don’t advise that iPad owners race to get the new version.

The first iPad, which can be upgraded to Apple’s latest iOS operating system, is selling for $399 while supplies last.

Airy, but Potent

Apple’s design wizards have made the new iPad feel much airier. Placed on a table between the original model and the new Motorola Xoom, it makes the others look bloated. Its top surface doesn’t even reach the side buttons on the original model. It has much more sharply tapered edges, and a new, optional, white color adds to the sense of lightness. While the 1.33-pound weight isn’t that much less than the original’s, I found the difference noticeable when carrying the device.

The iPad 2 is about a third thinner yet speedier and more powerful than the first.

Despite being slimmed down, the new iPad 2 still has the same vivid, large 9.7-inch screen, and claims the same lengthy 10-hour battery as the original. Like its current and planned competitors, it now sports a dual-core processor (a chip with two brains) and graphics that Apple says are up to nine times as fast.

But, despite gaining a faster processor, and the front and rear cameras, it still carries the same base price of $499, which competitors have so far found hard to match. Like the first model, it can range up to $829, depending on configuration.

Another crucial strength: The iPad 2 can run about 350,000 third-party apps, including 65,000 that have been optimized for the tablet’s large screen, rather than for the iPhone’s smaller display. Those numbers far exceed what is available for Google’s fast-growing Android platform—Apple’s main mobile competitor—that, according to Google, has 150,000 third-party apps, including fewer than 100 optimized so far for its brand-new tablet version.

I didn’t find the speed difference on iPad 2 to be dramatic, but it was noticeable. Apps launched and ran a bit quicker and the whole device felt very snappy.

It never crashed in my tests, unlike every Android tablet I’ve tested.

Like the original iPad, the new model can be purchased with just Wi-Fi connectivity or with added cellular-data connectivity, which doesn’t require a contract. But the iPad 2 offers a choice between AT&T and Verizon, for those who want cellular. My test unit used Verizon and got decent data speeds. Verizon’s fees start at $20 a month for 1 gigabyte of data. AT&T’s start at $15 a month for 250 megabytes of data.

The iPad 2′s cameras offer decent quality video, good enough for making calls, but disappointing still photos.

Drawbacks

The iPad 2 does have some drawbacks. Its cameras take mediocre still photos and Apple won’t even reveal their megapixel ratings. The company says they were designed for video, not still photography. They did capture decent video in my tests, including high-definition video from the rear camera and video good enough from the front camera for satisfying video calling. But, for a company known for quality, which bundles a new still-photo app with the device, the cameras are disappointing.

Also, the battery life, while very good, isn’t as strong as I found it to be on the first iPad. In my tough battery test, where I played full-length movies until the battery died, with the screen brightness at about 75% and both Wi-Fi and cellular radios running, the iPad 2 just barely exceeded Apple’s claimed battery life, dying after 10 hours and nine minutes. That’s 2.5 hours better than the Xoom did on the same test, but more than an hour less than I got from the original iPad, which clocked in at 11 hours, 28 minutes.

On the other hand, in mixed and non-constant use, with the screen set to turn off when idle for a few minutes, the iPad 2′s battery life was impressive. It easily went 48 hours between charges, even while downloading hundreds of emails and dozens of apps, songs, and books. During this period, I played a few light games, viewed photos, briefly streamed some video clips, read newspaper and magazine articles, consumed several chapters of books, frequently checked Twitter and Facebook, surfed the Web, and made a few video calls.

The new Apple iPad 2 shown during its launch event in San Francisco.

Another drawback I encountered was that the new, more tapered design makes it harder to plug cables and accessories—including the charging cable—into the main port on the bottom of the device, because it is now angled.

Despite being slimmer and lighter, the iPad 2 still has roughly the same length and width as the original, so it can’t compete with the Amazon Kindle, or the smaller seven-inch tablets, if you’re trying to juggle it while standing in a crowded subway.

Finally, there are two big omissions, one old and one new. The old one is that, like Apple’s prior phones and tablets, the shiny new iPad 2 still won’t play Adobe’s Flash video in its built-in Web browser. This is a deliberate decision by Apple, and puts its devices at a disadvantage for some users when compared with Android tablets, which can play Flash, or say they will soon, albeit not always well.

The other omission has to do with cellular data. The iPad 2 can’t use, or be upgraded to use, the new, faster 4G cellular-data networks being rolled out.

Apple says this is because the chips needed to do this are too immature, draining battery life. But the Xoom promises to be upgradeable to 4G later this year, though I have no idea how that upgrade might affect its battery life or monthly fees.

Software

Hardware matters, but software matters more and has been a key strength for Apple products. The iPad 2 doesn’t come with software radically different from the original model. But the latest version of its operating system speeds up the Safari browser, expands the capabilities of its wireless AirPlay system for beaming media to a TV using the $99 Apple TV, and lets you stream music and video from iTunes on a computer in your home. This all worked as advertised.

Apple also has two new $5 content-creation apps for the iPad 2: tablet versions of its Macintosh programs—iMovie and GarageBand. I used iMovie on the iPad 2 to create my own edited video, with titles, soundtrack and special effects. All of the apps I tried that worked on the original iPad worked on the iPad 2, only faster in some cases.

Accessories

Apple has a new $39 adapter that connects an iPad 2 (or iPad or iPhone 4) to an HDTV and mirrors what is on the device screen on the TV screen. It worked fine for me.

The company also has a very cool-looking, very slim cover for the iPad 2 that costs $39 in plastic and $69 in leather, and comes in a variety of colors. It attaches magnetically and turns the screen off and on when you close or open the cover. It also folds into a stand for the iPad and has a lining to keep the glass clean. Unfortunately, I found the cover’s magnetic latch came open in my briefcase, turning the screen on and wasting the battery. Also, the light gray color I had picked up smudges.

The Bottom Line

As new contenders move into the field, Apple isn’t likely to keep its 90% share of the booming tablet market. But the iPad 2 moves the goal posts, by being slimmer and lighter, boosting speed and power, and holding its price advantages, available apps and battery life. As of now, I can comfortably recommend it as the best tablet for average consumers.

Find all of Walt Mossberg’s columns and videos at the All Things Digital website, walt.allthingsd.com. Email him at mossberg@wsj.com

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20110309/ipad-2-thin-not-picture-perfect/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20110309/microsoft-says-10-million-kinect-sensors-sold-for-xbox/ http://allthingsd.com/20110309/microsoft-says-10-million-kinect-sensors-sold-for-xbox/#comments Wed, 09 Mar 2011 19:40:23 +0000 Tricia Duryee http://emoney.allthingsd.com/?p=3429 Microsoft announced today that it had sold 10 million Kinect sensors for the Xbox just four months after it went on sale.

In addition, more than 10 million standalone Kinect games have been sold, the company said.

The Kinect allows players to use body motion to control the game, rather than the traditional controller.

While Microsoft calls the sales robust, it appears the pace is slowing.

In the lead up to the holidays, Microsoft sold eight million Kinect devices in the first 60 days. But in the following 60-day period, it sold only two million more.

Still, the 10 million-strong user base has the potential to breathe new life into the Xbox platform and broaden its audience beyond the hardcore gamers. Microsoft’s competition is no longer limited to Sony’s PlayStation or the Wii, but extends to Google TV and Apple TV.

According to Nielsen, game console owners are most likely to use the boxes first to play games and watch DVDs, but after that, entertainment services are a close third.

Video-on-demand and streaming services such as Netflix, MLB Network and ESPN3 account for 20 percent of Wii users’ time, 10 percent of Xbox 360 users’ time and 9 percent of PlayStation 3 users’ time.

Microsoft said starting this spring, consumers will be able to connect to Netflix and Hulu Plus using hand gestures and voice control. Also coming this year is Avatar Kinect, which was announced at the Consumer Electronics Show in January. With Kinect, you can control your avatar’s movement and expressions, so when you smile, frown, nod or speak, your avatar will do the same.

Of course, new game titles will give users new excuses to buy the Kinect. On April 12, Ubisoft will launch Michael Jackson: The Experience, which features the artist’s songs with dance moves, and many other titles are coming.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20110309/microsoft-says-10-million-kinect-sensors-sold-for-xbox/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20101229/whats-in-store-for-technology-in-2011/ http://allthingsd.com/20101229/whats-in-store-for-technology-in-2011/#comments Thu, 30 Dec 2010 02:03:49 +0000 Walter S. Mossberg http://ptech.allthingsd.com/?p=1707 It has been a big year in personal technology, from the debut and early success of Apple’s iPad, to the rise and continuous improvement of Google’s Android smart phone platform, to the continued surge in social services led by Facebook and Twitter.

So I thought I’d take a look at the challenges and opportunities facing some major players in consumer tech in 2011. As with all my columns, this one is focused only on products and services provided directly to consumers, rather than to businesses. Also, as usual, this column isn’t meant to offer investment advice or to evaluate the management skills or financial condition of companies. It is a look at the products and competitive positions of the key contenders as they enter the new year.

Apple: Coming off a highly successful 2010, in which it introduced a new category of portable computer—the multitouch tablet—and sold millions of the product, Apple will have to withstand an onslaught of competitors by wowing consumers again with the second version of the iPad. At the same time, it will have to make a widely expected transition for the iPhone from a single carrier in the U.S., AT&T, to a second, likely Verizon. This could present a new opportunity to reach lots of new customers, but the sleek phone will have to work well on different network technology. At the same time, Apple will be hoping its planned new Macintosh operating system, Lion, can preserve the surprising momentum of the high-priced Mac, which the company is trying to enhance with certain iPad-like features, such as an app store and longer battery life.

Apple’s iPad will face an onslaught of competition in the coming year.

In 2011, Apple also is likely to try to address two areas where it has been weak: cloud computing and social networking. Both its MobileMe cloud service and its Ping social network had rough starts, and MobileMe charges $100 a year for services others give away. Apple is so popular, it has a huge opportunity to link users of its family of devices and of iTunes via the cloud and social networks, but it will have to aim higher and execute better. The second area where it likely hopes to improve is in the living room. The new, cheaper Apple TV is selling better than its predecessor but still lacks much Internet content. To break through, Apple will have to strike landmark deals with media companies.

Google: The search giant, also riding high, is now in so many product areas it competes with nearly everyone. In its core search business, it must focus on fending off a surprisingly strong challenge from Microsoft’s Bing by giving consumers more attractive, actionable results. Its Android operating system is a big hit, but still isn’t as polished or easy to use as the iPhone’s software, and even a Google official admitted it is still “an enthusiast product for early adopters.” One big test will be the forthcoming Honeycomb version of Android, meant for tablets that challenge the iPad.

A separate group at Google will try in 2011 to revolutionize the PC operating-system business and muscle in on incumbents Microsoft and Apple. Its new Chrome OS will power notebooks that essentially act as Web browsers, and run programs stored in the cloud, not on a hard disk. They also store all your files in the cloud. We’ll learn in 2011 how many consumers are comfortable with that approach.

Google also may take another whack at social networking, where it hasn’t made much of a dent after its Buzz service failed to take off. And it will have to rework its overly complex Google TV effort to bring Internet video to the living room.

Microsoft: The software giant still generates strong consumer loyalty with its older products, like Windows and Office and Xbox, all of which have had updates in the past year or two. But it faces big challenges in two hot areas: smart phones and tablets. Its new Windows Phone 7 platform has some nice design features, but also some missing capabilities that need to be addressed. Initial sales seem respectable, but will have to accelerate to get Microsoft back in a game it once led. The company also is a long way from the 300,000 apps available for the iPhone or the 100,000 for Android.

In tablets, Microsoft is hinting that a new version of Windows is being designed with a tablet focus to complement its PC focus. That product can’t be too late, given the rapid rise of the iPad and the many planned Android and other tablets for 2011. One golden opportunity Microsoft has is to expand the reach of its brilliant Kinect technology for games to other forms of computing. This system can recognize individual users and interpret gestures without the use of a controller device.

Meanwhile, Microsoft hopes to seize on a surge in concern about privacy to help keep its diminishing lead in browsers by building new privacy features, unavailable so far in other browsers, into the 2011 version of Internet Explorer.

RIM: The BlackBerry maker had a good 2010 in some ways, though sales were propped up by two-for-one giveaways, and consumer surveys show enthusiasm fading for the iconic smart phone. It needs a radically new user interface to keep up with iPhone and Android, and a lot more third-party apps. But it can’t afford to alienate its fan base. The company has an answer: a new software platform called QNX, but is vague on when that will show up on the BlackBerry. For 2011, RIM’s big move will be a new QNX-based tablet, the PlayBook, which looks speedy and highly attractive in the limited demos RIM has provided. What isn’t clear is how much the PlayBook will be aimed at consumers, as company officials have consistently stressed its appeal to businesses.

HP: The technology behemoth’s laptops and printers have proved popular with consumers. But it hasn’t had any real presence in smart-phones, tablets or consumer cloud services. To solve the problems, in 2010 HP bought innovative but struggling Palm, whose smart-phone operating system, webOS, and phones, the Pre and Pixi, got good reviews but sold poorly and didn’t attract many third-party apps. In 2011, HP hopes to use its ample money and talent to revive webOS with new phones and tablets to challenge Apple and Android. A successful Palm re-launch, with the new initiatives from RIM and Microsoft, would be good for consumers by providing more choice and competition. HP also hopes to boost home printing with a new line of printers that can print anything emailed across the Internet and wirelessly print from Apple’s hand-held devices.

Facebook and Twitter: The twin leaders in social networking were red-hot in 2010, attracting vast numbers of users. They have huge opportunities for further success, but face challenges. Smaller services, like social-coupon company Groupon, continue to emerge with new social and community ideas consumers like. Apple and Google could be big headaches if they get social right in 2011. Facebook must continue its recent initiative to let members share personal details with more limited groups of friends, and to find ways to make money while offering more privacy, which has been a thorn in its side. Twitter is on a mission to get more than an active minority to post, while convincing people it is a valuable way to keep up with news and opinion even if you never post.

Despite the poor economy, the consumer-tech companies continue to show vibrancy, innovation and success. But every year brings challenges and surprises, and 2011 promises to be another fascinating ride.

For all of Walt’s columns and videos, go to the All Things Digital site, walt.allthingsd.com.

Write to Walter S. Mossberg at walt.mossberg@wsj.com

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20101229/whats-in-store-for-technology-in-2011/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20101229/itunes-video-rentals-a-1-billion-business-by-2015/ http://allthingsd.com/20101229/itunes-video-rentals-a-1-billion-business-by-2015/#comments Wed, 29 Dec 2010 18:57:17 +0000 John Paczkowski http://digitaldaily.allthingsd.com/?p=54767 How big is Apple’s iTunes video rental business? In a research note today, Gleacher & Co. analyst Brian Marshall hazards a guess: Apple’s serving about 475,000 rentals a day and raking in upward of $60 million per quarter doing it.

Not too shabby for a service launched in January of 2008. And if its growth follows a trend line similar to that of Netflix–which is certainly within the realm of possibility given sales of next-generation Apple TVs and the popularity of iOS devices like the iPhone and iPad–Marshall figures Apple’s iTunes rental operation will be big business by 2015.

“Over the past five years, Netflix’s subscriber base has quintupled while revenue more than tripled,” says Marshall. “If Apple can grow its related business similarly to Netflix’s historical growth profile, it is feasible iTunes’ annual rental revenue could exceed $1 billion by 2015.”

That’s another $300 million per year for Apple’s bottom line, assuming the company keeps about 30 percent of the total.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20101229/itunes-video-rentals-a-1-billion-business-by-2015/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20101227/its-official-1-million-apple-tvs-sold/ http://allthingsd.com/20101227/its-official-1-million-apple-tvs-sold/#comments Mon, 27 Dec 2010 17:36:21 +0000 John Paczkowski http://digitaldaily.allthingsd.com/?p=54596 Last Tuesday Apple said it expected sales of its next generation Apple TV to top one million units before Christmas. Today the company confirmed to me that they did just that. Seems the addition of AirPlay support for wireless streaming, better iOS integration and the device’s aggressive new $99 price point have done quite a bit to spike sales of Apple’s so-called “hobby.” A million units sold within three months of the device’s launch is certainly impressive.

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