[読んだ] Report: Apple’s Tablet Just Weeks Away | Cult of Mac

apple_tablet_mockup

Apple will release its fabled touchscreen tablet as early as September, the Taiwanese paper Apple Daily claims. If true, the announcement is likely just weeks away. Apple will have to put the device on store shelves by the fall in time for the crucial holiday shopping season.

Financial Timesの記事がきっかけで、来年初めから今年9月に時期が早まったApple tablet。
はてさてどうなんでしょうねぇ。

 

[読んだ] As Apple Predicted, iPod Sales Sliding

Hesseldahl posits that Apple will shift its focus on to the iPod touch line, as future iterations of the iPod family will derive from that device’s advanced features. He suggests Apple will soon drop the iPod Classic’s reliance on hard disc drive-based storage, moving instead to Flash storage. Certainly that makes sense, given the functional advantages NAND storage has over spinning magnetic discs — not to mention Apple’s frankly gargantuan orders for flash memory chips (orders that seem to get ever higher year over year.)

Much of the rest of Hesseldahl’s article is a mix between idle conjecture about, and a wish list for, future generations of the touch.

They’re decent suggestions, to be sure; a 5- or 6-megapixel camera; built-in microphone for Skype and other VoIP services; Mini-SD expansion port; and a GPS chipset for full, always-available personal navigation. (He makes the point that some products from Garmin and TomTom sell today for $100 below the price of an entry-level iPod touch.)

Will Apple’s product roadmap for the iPod see an end to classic click-wheel designs? Probably. Apple’s experience and skills acquired from the iPhone, iPod touch, and very likely, upcoming Tablet device make it one of the world’s leading developers of touch-based consumer multimedia technology. It’s not hard to imagine an iPod Nano with an entirely virtual click-wheel (or better) interface that gets out of the way when it’s not needed. Apple can do that now. Perhaps it’ll just wait to see if the sales continue to slide before it releases such a device.

次期iPod touchへの希望として
・5-6メガピクセルのカメラ
・マイク内蔵
・mini-SD対応ポート
・GPS
が挙げられてますが、これらは是非入れられるものなら入れて欲しいですね、たしかに。

[読んだ] Apple Tablet, Little More Than A Big iPod? - Business Center - PC World

Weight and balance will matter, but trying to imagine using just the screen of my Acer netbook as the whole computer way concerns me. It's hard to hold and type on the screen at the same time. Makes me wonder how useful the new Apple device will be for typing-intensive applications.

If it's hard to type on, the device will be limited to primary use as a media player and games device, which may be enough for market success but would be a letdown in terms of functionality for both personal and business applications.

記事を書いたひとも憶測が憶測を呼んで混乱しちゃってますね。
片手で持ちながら片手でタイピングとか、バッテリーの問題とか、値段とか、たしかに色々考えちゃいますね。

[読んだ] iTunes Store to add enhanced liner notes, extra media to album purchases

Digital music purchases have been dominating the market for some time now as physical CD purchases continue to fall. For Apple, a significant lead over the rest of the music proprietor world is not enough: according to the Financial Times, the company is now working together with the four largest record labels in the business to add new features to accompany digital music purchases through its iTunes Store in hopes of stimulating full album purchases.

Apple has formed an alliance with EMI, Sony Music, Universal Music Group, and Warner Music to bundle whole albums with perks like interactive booklets, digital sleeve notes, and video clips. By doing so, Apple hopes to increase sales of the albums over single track purchases, a sales model that has been immensely popular in the advent of digital music.

そういえばアルバム単位で買う必要が無くなったことがiTunes Music Storeの当初の売りだったような気もします。
でもアルバムで買ってもらった方がAppleに支払われるマージンが大きいんですね。
ならばアルバム単位で買ってもらうよう、テコ入れに乗り出すのは自然な流れかも。

[読んだ] The Apple tablet is a non-starter in Ed without content | Education IT | ZDNet.com

No matter how cool this new tablet ends up being, without smart educational content, it’s the last thing I want to see in a classroom. I can view those PDFs (if they exist) on a $200 netbook. I want Apple to announce that it has major textbook publishers on board posting fully interactive versions of their textbooks to the iTunes store, not that media companies are making bigger and better liner notes that will look pretty on a 10″ screen. When Houghton-Mifflin and Harcourt and Pearson start developing for multitouch, then we can talk. Until then, the new tablet about which the Financial Times (and everyone else’s brother) is talking can stay in a bedroom with a lava lamp and said bean bag chair.

Apple tabletがウワサ通り"jumbo iPod touch"として出てくるのであれば、一番需要があるのは教育現場かも知れませんね。

アップデートして使い心地が格段に向上した英英辞書アプリ「Speaking English Dictionary & Thesaurus」[115円]

115円でこの程度ならまぁまぁかなと思っていた「Speaking English」。
今日のアップデートで深く言葉の意味を知ることができるようになりました。
今回の追加機能は
+ (NEW) Adding Etymology Dictionary
+ (NEW) Adding Thesaurus Dictionary
+ (NEW) Adding Notes Module
+ (NEW) Supporting web dictionary: Google dictionary, Wikipedia, WordReference, Answers.com
の4つ。
文字にしただけでは分かりにくいかも知れませんが、使い心地は格段に向上してます。
Wi-Fi環境下にあればネット上の辞書サービスへも簡単・即座にアクセスできて非常に便利。
値段も安いし、最初に買う英英辞書アプリとしてオススメできるレベルです。

[読んだ] Apple Flip Flops on "Mature" iPhone App Policy

While on the surface, Apple's prior decision to regulate the mature iPhone applications by disabling promo codes seems innocuous enough - protect the children, right? - the way they went about it came across as over-zealous and not very well-thought out. Besides, one has to wonder why they ever decided promo codes were an issue in the first place. Were these codes really being used to corrupt young innocent minds by giving them free copies of adult-themed iPhone apps? We think not.

Appleが成人向けコンテンツのアプリを今後どう受け入れていくのか、まだ模索している中で開発者が振り回されている構図ですね。

Appleの判断基準もあいまいで一層の混乱を招いている感じ。

プロモコードというシステム自体も含めて疑義を呈し改善を促すこの記事は好感が持てます。