Month: May 2007

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Apple announces “one to one” personal Mac training at the Apple Store

From the email files… today I received a promotional mail from Apple Computer, promoting their new “one to one” training at the Apple Store.



One to One Card“Now you can get a whole year of hands-on learning, with a personal trainer who can help you get the most from your Mac—and yourself. Choose sessions that cover everything from getting started on a Mac, to mastering the latest pro software. Your trainer will customize every hour to match your capabilities—and even help you with any project you can dream up. It’s like having a best friend who knows how to do just about anything on a Mac.”


All this — access to trainers that are “experts in all things Apple” (which would include Entourage and our Mac products) for $99 per year. That get’s you a 50 minute sessiononce per week, booked online via the Apple Store Concierge. 


This sounds like a good move. I’m curious to see the level and proficiency of the trainers.

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Gordon Bell and MyLifeBits in Levy’s article “This Is Your Life, Every Bit of It!”

This in a recent Newsweek magazine, Steven Levy’s article “This Is Your Life, Every Bit of It!” with a look at individuals (such as Gordon Bell) who are working on “capturing everything [they] see and hear… a Pandora’s box for the digital age.”



“Since 2001, Gordon Bell, a 72-year-old computing legend now at Microsoft Research, has been heading a project called “My Life Bits.” The idea is to accumulate a definitive record of one’s life, from images and sounds captured by a “SenseCam,” to phone calls, e-mail, Web searches and so on—and then to develop techniques to search those disparate media on demand. You won’t be surprised to hear that Google is also developing its own solutions to searching video and audio. And a start-up called Ustream (now in beta) lets anyone do Webcasts live—sort of Justin.tv lite.”


And, for reference, this on Bell’s MyLifeBits…



“He is putting all of his atom- and electron-based bits in his local Cyberspace. It is called by MyLifeBits the successor to the Cyber All project. This includes everything he has accumulated, written, photographed, presented, and owns (e.g. CDs). In February 2005 an epiphany occurred with the realization that MyLifeBits goes beyond Vannevar Bush’s “memex” and is a personal transaction processing database for everything described in June 14, 2005 SIGMOD Keynote.”


As noted in a previous entry, see “How To Build Your Own version of Gordon Bell’s “MyLifeBits” (Wired)” Wired, Nov 2006. See the complete article “A head for detail.” 


At home, we’ve attempted our own small slice of MyLifeBits, with a couple of scanners (sheet fed and a slick yet inexpensive see-thru HP Scanjet 4600 Scanner), Paperport software (for collecting scans and managing image files) and Windows Desktop Search. In addition, we have the bulk of our bills and statements sent in electronic form.


But we’re not as hard-core as Bell: one of the biggest collection of papers so far that we simply don’t have (or make) the time to process? Paper receipts (a drawer in the kitchen is just easier, thank you), our children’s artwork and schoolwork, and hard copies of a select few magazines: I enjoy having the paper versions of Wired, Fast Company and Fine Homebuilding. Everything else is scanned or referenced on the web, especially nice as so many magazines are now available via on-line archives (usually free for subscribers).

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CNET interview with Ray Ozzie and his “quiet revolution at Microsoft”

No sooner do I talk about how Ray Ozzie is connecting with customers that I see this on CNET News today, discussing SilverLight at Mix and “about the company’s ongoing transition from the age of desktop software to a new era.”


Ozzie’s quiet revolution at Microsoft
Chief software architect Ray Ozzie says nearly everything Microsoft does will include an online services component.



There is this impression that Microsoft is protecting its turf when it comes to Web-based Office-style applications. You see Google doing it and start-ups like Zoho–and there are online ERP applications–and Microsoft hasn’t done that yet. But Microsoft could do it, so why don’t you?


Ozzie: People as far back as Desktop.com have done it. Well, I don’t know how to say it other than to say that we’re running a fairly significant business. Protecting implies setting up barriers–there are no barriers. These people are free to go take whatever solutions they want to put them in a browser. We believe–and I believe this deeply, I’ve been a desktop business for a while–that the deployment environment of using desktop tools on a PC is a really valuable one. Sometimes, just because you can doesn’t mean that you necessarily should. To the extent that there are scenarios that involve the Web that are very useful, we are going to go after those scenarios because it helps our customers–we got to stay focused on those customers.


We’re not going to be in a reactionary mode that just because somebody proves that something can be done, and it has some trade-offs, then we just immediately have to follow suit. I think that there are a lot of lessons they learned right now with those competitors of things that they’ve done that people just aren’t using, and things that they’ve done where people are actually using it in ways that they aren’t using desktop apps today. So I think that we are all learning from this and our product will end up in some hybrid form.

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Perspectives on the transition to TV in the US, from analog to digital in 2009

This from CNET this morning… a view on the future of digital TV in the US by Jason Oxman, vice president of communications for the Consumer Electronics Association. This was in rebuttal to a piece by Michael Hulfactor –“When regular TV broadcasts go dark” from early April (sounds like a cable television reality show) — the managing director of DecisionTrend Research, on the transition to digital TV. 



U.S. is ready to move to digital TV
Bumps in the road notwithstanding, the Consumer Electronics Association’s Jason Oxman says transition from analog to digital TV is on schedule.



Between now and February 17, 2009, all new television sets shipped to retailers will include a digital tuner capable of receiving over-the-air digital broadcasts. Cable and satellite households will be equipped by their service provider with everything they need for the transition, so consumers will see no change. And for those over-the-air households who haven’t made the switch, there are plenty of choices and government-industry resources available to make the transition smoothly.


Free over-the-air television, broadcast with crystal-clear digital clarity, will be available to households that wish to receive it after the February 2009 analog shut-off. Consumers who already have a digital television will be able to receive these broadcasts via an antenna, cable or satellite.


Consumers who do not own a digital television, and do not subscribe to a multichannel video provider, can purchase from local retailers an inexpensive (as low as $60) and easy to install digital-to-analog converter box to connect to their analog sets. Even better, the government will have two $40 coupons per household available for these boxes beginning in January 2008 that will bring the cost down to around $20 per box.



This from Michael Hulfactor…



Normally, technology adoption involves a choice between competing solutions in the marketplace, but the federal mandate removes from consumers the power to choose and buy technology. Consumers will not be able to continue receiving free over-the-air broadcasting.


By February 17, 2009, those who wish to continue watching TV will have had to purchase something new, such as a digital-capable TV or a special analog-to-digital conversion box. Or they may abandon the free over-the-air model altogether and buy cable or satellite services. If they don’t, television will go dark for them.