Arthur is now on The Other Side of the Sky. We wish him well.

For the last two weeks I have been somewhat of an obsessive-compulsive, continuiously navigating to the “Software Update” option on my Apply TV to see if the “Take 2″ software update was available. By this point I had resigned myself to doing this over and over again until the end of February, little more than a shallow husk of my former self suffering from lack of light and malnutrition. So, image my surprise when this morning my incessant clicking actually resulting in a new software update being available!

So, what should you expect? First, make sure you have a little time spare. The download time is about 4 minutes, and the install itself can take from 10 - 15 minutes. Once everything is installed you will be greated with an update welcome animation complete with inspiring “apple tv” tone. And if the swirling purple and blue haze behind the apple tv logo is anything to go by, I’d say this update is indeed leopard powered.

Let’s look at what’s in store after the break!

Read the rest of this entry »

In a recent article on his site, Guy Kawasaki blogs about “Word of Mouth Versus Key Influencers“, citing an article from the Journal of Advertising Research. Guy writes:

“The marketing lesson is this: Create something great, sow fields (not window boxes), “let a hundred flowers blossom,” and pray that “regular folks” will spread the word”

Whilst the article does have merit, I disagree that “Key Influencers” (especially in The Tipping Point sense of the word) should be discounted. What we are really looking at here is a long tail situation; The key influencers are still setting the pace and direction, but the effect of information rippling throughout social groups (word of mouth) has a large, almost equal effect on the population en masse.

The real point of course, is actually about trust. You will be influenced more by those you trust, whether they’re close personal friends or whether they are respected experts / bloggers. If the two disagree, you are likely to go with the one you trust most. If you are trying to influence others, ask yourself the same question - do they actually trust you?

Voyage is a unique way of visualizing RSS feeds. Rather than stick to the traditional list view, Voyage presents your feeds in a time-based context, with articles slipping in and out of the fog as you navigate forwards and backwards in time. One advantage of this presentation is that it allows you to focus only on recent, pertinent information (unless you subscribe to feeds that spout endless information about paris hilton that is), whilst still being able to zoom in on articles that catch your eye.

The web app is not without its issues -  no saved state, articles don’t disappear when read and it’s difficult to scroll so that all articles are accessible. But it’s good eye candy and makes passers by go “oooh” - and that’s no bad thing.

Voyage -  http://www.rssvoyage.com/

Having been an also-ran since it’s inception, Google Video has finally given up its aspirations to provide for-sale and for-rent video to the masses. Whilst this in itself is news, its the flipside of this which is most interesting - as soon as the shop finally closes its doors, those who have previously purchased videos from the service will no longer be able to view them.

This of course is the greatest argument of all against DRM. As much as we would like to believe otherwise, no-one and nothing lasts forever. Apple and its products are very much in vogue, but during the the lifetime of the average consumer, who knows? The hip 20-something kid who has just bought his first iPhone is highly unlikely to still be using iTunes in another 60 years time as he seeks to recapture his youth. It’s only through open formats and conversion tools that we can manage the transition from one generation of technology to the next. I’m a firm advocate of digital formats, but still prefer to buy music on CDs because I know that sometime in the future I may need to re-convert to another format, with higher quality. Throw DRM into the mix and you screw it all up. The DMCA seeks to prevent users from circumventing protection methods, but if they do nothing then they end up losing all the media that they have legally purchased - with each passing wave of technical innovation you have to leave the past behind and buy all over again. Good for the media companies, but not so good for you.

So, be warned - if you purchase media that uses DRM there’s a high likelihood that at some point in the future you may find the rug pulled from underneath you. My advice would be to either purchase music that’s DRM-free (now that major companies are finally offering this), or go with physical formats and convert it yourself. The extra money you spend now might save you a lot in the future.

[via Engadget, the BBC and Others]

“Think different” - that used to be the rallying cry of the Mac Illuminati. A generation of tech heads and design purists who secretly wanted to be pirates, a privileged minority that not only had great taste but could also afford it in spades. Being different was what it used to all be about.

Not so any more. The new iMac unveiled today was not so much of a giant leap as a small step - its undeniably sexy anodized aluminum curves and shiny, sharp glass display, whilst appealing, are just minor improvements upon the design ethos already lain down by the G5 in October 2005. Apple has a history of introducing periodic innovation followed by long, drawn out minor improvements on the design. As an example, it took over 6 years for the trail blazed by the introduction of the first iPod to finally be eschewed by the miniscule and sexy iPhone. Each iteration of the iPod from its G1 incarnation was undeniably an improvement, but ultimately was just more of the same.

Now the important question is, is this actually a bad thing? Let’s take a look. Read the rest of this entry »