Tag Archives: Apple

The Allure Of Free

There’s a response that is, I believe, inherent to human nature, transcending boundaries – almost unanimous. And it is the response to something that is free.

If I tell you I’m willing to give you something for free, what would be the first thing that comes to your head? Yes, there it is… “What’s the catch?” And what do you do? You don’t take the thing.

My cousin was telling me earlier today about her dilemma in Australia. She works at a leading TV station and is often given tickets to movie premieres. We’re talking about the star-studded events, involving red carpets and bling, not the excitement we feel when we watch the first screening of a movie on its release day. And more often than not, she can’t go to those premieres so she usually asks around if someone wants those tickets, only discovering that giving this tickets away for nothing is harder than her actual job.

And it happened to me when I was at AUB outdoors. There was some guy offering free hugs and the moment I saw him, the second idea the crossed my mind (the first one being how weird it was) was that there was definitely a catch somehow in those hugs.

But why do we have such a response to free stuff? Why is it that most people would take the premiere tickets from my cousin if she had asked for an insignificant amount of money but refrain from doing so if she was handing them for nothing in return?

Our mentality is apparently wired to go away from things that are too good to be true. Even for things that are not totally free. If you find a bargain online, you are as skeptical.
But in the world of today, do not underestimate the power of “free.” I am most definitely not an economy expert but with most things getting cheaper and cheaper because of competition, offering things for free has become a way for some companies to topple others. Offering things for free is also a way for those companies to introduce services.

When I started buying stuff off amazon, I was offered a free trial of “amazon prime” in their attempt to hook me on speedier deliveries. And if I had been living in the US, I would have totally gone for it. Amazon redid a similar thing with Lady Gaga’s latest album: they sold the mp3 version for $0.99 along with a free trial of their newly introduced “cloud” service, as a way to get ahead of Apple before they introduce their own version of cloud services, probably later this year.

According to Chris Anderson, “free” is the future of prices. He wrote his book Free: The Future of a Radical Price on a $250 netbook, running a free version of Linux, free Google Docs, which offer him free backup and on-the-go access and then he offered the work for free on iTunes. He argues that billion dollar industries are being formed today around the price of “zero dollars and zero cents.” And if you think about it, isn’t Google one of the leading companies in the world today and it gives almost everything for free? So don’t freak out when you’re offered something for free. Odds are, someone, somewhere, is making money off of it somehow – with no catch to you.

Apple Is Recording Your Every Move

Do you have an iPhone or a 3G iPad? Well, if you do, that is the case.

It looks like ever since iOS4 was released, both devices have been keeping a record of your location within a hidden file on the device.

It’s not sure, however, what the point of this mass data collection is but it looks to be intentional as the location databases are backed up and are automatically transferred with phone migration.

The file where this information is stored is unencrypted and unprotected so it can easily be accessed if your phone falls into the wrong hands and they can get an approximation of your location for the past year, since the release of iOS4.

However, should people be as worried?

Continue reading →

White iPhone 4 Available For Order

It seemed to many that the white iPhone 4 would never happen. But apparently, it’s a certainty now.

The U.K’s 3 Online Store had the white iPhone 4 available, starting April 20th.

You can check out the listing here.

The white iPhone 4 was supposed to launch alongside the black one in June 2010, but unforseen production complications saw Apple postponing the release many times until it looked like they buried the product.

Tweets around February re-sparked the interest in this iPhone as many Apple insiders and employees tweeted about how “beautiful” it was.

Apple had confirmed last week that the white iPhone would see a late April release date and it looks like it’s now set for the 20th.

So for those still holding out for a white iPhone 4, your time has come.

One Month Phoneless

On March 12th, my iPhone’s power button decided to sink in and become unusable. After asking around, it seemed that any attempt to fix it in Lebanon would render the warranty void, so my friend Ali agreed to do me a favor and I sent him the phone on March 14th to Canada so Apple could check it out.

Ali postponed his flight to Lebanon due to unforeseen complications and Apple eventually replaced my phone with a new one. How awesome is that?

But I’ve been without phone for a month.

Many people asked why I didn’t just use any other phone. Apart from the unavailability of any other phone (I’m not going to buy a phone just to use it for a few weeks), I also have to get my simcard replaced since my iPhone uses a microsim, which I decided not to do.

Instead, I convinced myself that I’d be sort of giving up my iPhone for lent.

So what did I learn from a month of being phoneless?

Continue reading →

The iPad 2 Event Rundown

Apple announced its upcoming product today, the second generation iPad, named: iPad 2.

Steve Jobs, whose presence at the event was doubted, came on stage to give the keynote address, starting, as usual, with a few stats.

iBooks:

– Over 100 million books have been downloaded so far.

– Publisher “Random House” (DaVinci Code…) is now available on the iBooks Store, adding up over 17,000 books.

Apple ID:

– Over 200 million subscribers, possibly the biggest credit card subscribers online.

App Store:

– $2 Billion is the total revenue App Developers have made by selling their apps via Apple’s AppStore.

iPhone:

– Apple has crossed the 100 million iPhone threshold.

Pretty interesting, right?

Jobs then proceeded with a brief presentation about how 2010 was the year of the iPad. Calling it their third post-PC blockbuster, it’s both “magical and revolutionary.”

With over 90% market share, the release of the iPad has been the most successful consumer product launch yet. Over 15 million iPads were sold between April and December 2010.

Moreover, he announced the availability of over 65,000 apps for the iPad currently. Other platforms have a measly 100.

A brief video was then played about how ground-breaking the iPad was: used with doctors, in brain surgeries, in helping autistic children, in universities…

Then it was time to announce the main event of the keynote:

iPad 2:

– All new design.

– Boasts an A5 processor, becoming the first tablet to have a dual core processor, using the same low power as the A4 processor found in the original iPad and the iPhone 4.

– Has a built-in gyroscope, like the iPhone 4.

– It’s thinner than the iPhone 4, at 8.6 mm and 33% thinner than the original iPad. It’s also, at 1.3 pounds, lighter than the original iPad.

– It has two cameras: One on the front and one on the rear.

– Comes in two colors: black and white.

– Battery life is over 10 hours, or a month on standby.

– Same prices as the original iPad.

– Supports HDMI video output via a separately purchased cable for $39.

– Available starting March 11th in the U.S. and March 25th in 26 other countries.

Next was another highlight of the evening, the Smart Cover:

– Instead of hiding the iPad’s design, this is a front cover.

– Has magnets, allowing it to auto-align.

– iPad sleeps when the cover is closed and wakes up when it’s opened.

– Can be folded into different shapes, depending on your need.

And it wouldn’t be a complete Apple event without a part addressing iOS.

iOS 4.3:

– Available March 11th, along with iPad 2.

– Involves improvement to Safari’s performance.

– Enables iTunes home sharing, allowing you to get your iTunes content over Wi-Fi.

– Involves improvement to Airplay.

– And for the iPad, it enables the preference if you want the side button to be a mute button or an orientation lock button.

– Enables personal hotspot, for iPhone 4 only.

– Facetime is also added to iPad 2, along with PhotoBooth functionality, allowing the user to have split-screens, tamper with colors, etc…
Facetime iPad2

Then two apps for the iPad were demoed: iMovie and Garageband, both available on March 11th as well. They looked pretty cool and on a Dual Core device, I think they’d be pretty functional, as evident by the many video and song demos that were played at the keynote, made only by those apps.

So are you buying an iPad 2?