iPod Game Review Video: Pac Man

Much like our review of Ms. PAC - MAN for the iPod, playing PAC - MAN leaves a little to be desired. While the re-creation of the original game is spot-on, the controls are far from perfect. Here's the video review:

TDL Live This week: Apple News Roundup

Adam and Ryan spent Monday night as they so often do: bringing you the latest Apple news and rumors in the live show. You'll want to watch though, because even though you don't get the unbridled thrill of watching the show live, you do still have a chance to win an iTunes giftcard. Watch the show to find out how!

The (digital) shadow knows...

A few weeks ago on our live show, we discussed a study that indicated so much data is flying around these days, that every last person is responsible for roughly 40GB of data.

But here's something related to consider. I call it the digital shadow. Think of all the email addresses you've had through the years: maybe a geocities here, a school email there... Now think of all the silly little websites you may have signed up/registered for using those emails. For all any of us know, the college hoops site you signed up with using your school email five years ago, may very well still be sending emails to your former address. Even if that account has been closed, that traffic still has to be routed far enough on the internet to get bounced.

When we hear about bandwidth issues and congestion on the internet, how much of it might not be do to our daily use at all? How much of it could be millions of emails being sent systematically to emails we no longer check, from sites we forgot existed.

About ten years ago, I signed up for an email address at the novelty @cheerful.com domain. Through the years, the domain has been shuffled to iname.com , and most recently mail.com . While the box has been auto-deleting all this time, I was still surprised to see emails from services I had long ago forgotten. While the trip down memory lane was fond, it was also the digital equivalent of a dripping faucet.

Just imagine how much bandwidth our combined "digital drip" could be using. Is there a solution? Well, it's a bit much to expect individuals to stay on top of every account they've ever had. In my example, it was tough just to figure out who administered the account after all these years. I'm not big fan of regulating the internet, but maybe companies should take an oath to voluntarily remove people from email lists (good luck!) after a certain period of inactivity. If I haven't logged into your site in a year, and you send me multiple warnings that my account (or at least emails to me) will stop in three months, then send multiple warnings, I think it's fair to delete my information.

What do you think? Is our digital shadow/ digital drip a real problem? Is there a way to realistically combat it?

Quick reminder: TDL Live tonight 9PM ET / 6PM PT

Just a quick infomercial to remind you that we will be broadcasting TDL Live, well, live, tonight at 9PM ET. (That's 1:00 Tuesday GMT). We'll be taking a look at the past week in Apple news, and make our (potentially wrong) predictions for the week ahead, I hope you'll join us. And for our over 18, U.S. audience, we'll be giving away an iTunes gift card, but you'll have to watch to find out how to win.

Thanks, and we hope you'll join us tonight.

iPods designed to fail? An old rumor returns...

An opinion piece from the UK's Independent, claims that it's more than coincidence that the iPod fails after about 24 months. The author states that "the fact that these expensive devices rarely last for more than 24 months is hard to swallow. The problem is that as much as I'm frustrated with my Apple experience, I still love my iPod. Even though I know I should take my business elsewhere, it's an addiction."

Well, there's just a few problems with this claim. First of all, is the supposition that all/most iPods fail after about 24 months. I know for me personally, my 4th generation iPod is going strong after nearly four years. Not to mention the first generation iPod my parents still use. Granted, it's battery life is now nearly non-existent, but the thing is functionally sound. It can be unnerving to read these types of articles, and I can only imagine what it's like for the people who have worked so hard on the devices. Of the Apple engineers I've met, none of them seem to be tasked with ensuring product failure. Could the devices be made more reliably? Sure, everything can, or at least it's important to strive towards perfection. I don't know how anyone who uses Apple products could feel that isn't the goal.

That said, I have to say in my own experience, it seems like the build quality/reliability of the newer machines is not on par with "the good old days." While my G4 tower from 1999 is still humming along, I have no expectation for the Intel iMac to be doing the same in nine years. Sure, complaints on the user forums are up, but then again, so are the number of machines sold.

So while yes, there are horror stories of people having their iPods replaced multiple times, it's silly to think there's some sort of directive or intention on Apple's part to make things that don't work. I know when we would see multiple iPod returns when I worked at the Apple store, we became suspect that it may have been the pcs on the other end of the firewire/usb cables that were causing the issues. After all, most of those machines were coming from manufacturers with far less stellar satisfaction/quality ratings than Apple.

Weekend Rewind: Our Guy Kawasaki interview

Here's a special treat for stopping by over the weekend: It's a replay of our interview with Guy Kawasaki. We had a chance to ask Guy about the MacBook Air, his new venture alltop.com He had some uncensored thoughts on bloggers as well. Enjoy!

iTunes Comic Book Store?

Next weekend I'll be taking a trip to NYC to check out the New York Comic Con. Long before I had computers and the internet and video games to take up my spare time, I had comic books. Back then I spent countless hours and dollars on comic books, but now I only occasionally pick up a random issue or graphic novel. Why is that? Is it because there are too many other choices of entertainment? Have I simply out grown them? Or perhaps it's the way I acquire my entertainment that's changed.

This got me thinking. Is there an untapped market for digital comics on a device like the iPhone? Imagine if your favorite comic book series was available via the iTunes Music Store. Apple could ofter a digital comic subscription similar to the season pass that they currently offer for television shows. Issues downloaded to your iMac before they even hit your local comic shop.

Others has discussed the possibility of Apple one day offering e-books through the music store. While the current screen size of the iPhone / Touch would probably hinder using it as an e-reader, I believe it is workable for the comic book medium. To prevent the user from constantly pinching and zooming to readjust the comic book panels, issues would need to be "remixed" into lesser panels per page to allow for a simple and elegant interface. While this remixing wouldn't work for all back issues, it would work for enough to sustain the service, and also open the door for companies to create works designed specifically for the touch screen.

I certainly don't see a service like this ever eliminating traditional comic books, but like downloadable music and films, it's just another way for people to discover and consumer entertainment.

Note to AT&T: It's not 1998

Word is starting to get out about pogo, the new browser from AT&T. Yes, a web browser. In fairness, there's probably still territory to explore in the web browser space. flock for example, cleverly integrates the social networking aspect of online life today. What does Pogo bring to the table? Well, tabbed browsing, the ability to group similar pages under themes (like technology or sports) and then (here comes the innovation!) you will be able to see those webpages arranged as thumbnails. You know all those times that you can't remember that you go to cnn.com, but gosh, you remember what the homepage looks like? This is your solution.

It also gives you the ability to search your group of sites for information; handy for all those times you don't want to be bothered by all the most relevant results, just the results from the pages you already visit. You can see sites recently visited by clicking on a "viewed" button. Goodbye "history" button! Yes it's cool to see webpages being flipped through in the exact same manner as Apple's Cover Flow feature, but at the end of the day, it adds nothing. Any of these "features" could be added overnight to Safari or Firefox via plug ins. Frankly, it's almost designed as if internet explorer is the only browser the designers had ever seen. Maybe they're relying on that to be the case with most PC consumers as well.

The whole thing feels like something that would've been bundled with AT&T's Worldnet about ten years ago. The can play string music, and show floating camera views of the screen in the preview all they want, the bottom line is, if this is the best they've got, this browser is worst than DOA, it was already dead ten years ago.

Exclusive: net4mac social networking for mac users only

Sure we Mac users can be seen as a bit of a snobby bunch, so it was probably only a matter of time until there was a special place just for us in the whole web 2.0 social networking world.

Well, that place just launched at net4mac.com Net4Mac, takes a different approach to social networking, requiring a software download to use the service. At first this can seem cumbersome, and frankly it does take some getting used to, but it makes sense, given the interesting features of the service. The application-centric nature of the site allows net4mac to take advantage of the great built-in OS X features. You can take a pic directly from your site, for example, or easily import/invite address book members.

For the service to work longterm, there will probably need to be some sort of web component to access the key features of the site. For better or worse, people are just used to sitting at any computer to access these types of sites. Think of the times you've accessed myspace or facebook from a work computer. Now imagine installing software first on those machines. However, at least in these early days (technically hours, since the service was officially announced about an hour ago) it looks like this will be a different kind of service. It will probably never reach anywhere near the numbers of those other sites, but it has a great potential to create an amazingly tight-knit group of Apple fans. Think of it more as a universal user's group than a facebook wannabe. Give it a whirl, and let us know what you think!

SO give it a whirl (it's free... what isn't online?) and be sure to join thedigitallifestyle.tv viewer's club group on the site.

Root Access: How does Apple handle damage repairs?

There was a recent hubbub about an email sent to Steve Jobs regarding a $300 price quote from Apple to look at his computer's water damage. Something sounded a little fishy, so it was time to ask our resident genius whether this was all just a tad bit suspicious:

iPod Game Review Video: Pole Position Remix

When we were handing out assignments for iPod game reviews, I was thrilled to get Pole Position Remix. The thrill was gone almost instantly.

From a nearly impossible to maneuver car, to bad music, to a poor design choice in making the steering wheel (click wheel) also control acceleration, there's a lot of disappointment in this game. Yes, it's cool to see some of your album cover art show up on billboards throughout the game, but the only reason you see them is that the gameplay is dull.

Here's a look at the video review of Pole Position Remix for the iPod:

iPhone V2 Prediction - Blackberry Pearl paving the way??

There has been a great deal of speculation on when we're going to get the next version of the iPhone and even more speculation surrounding its new features.  I'm going to add one more to the menu today based on the announcement coming out of the RIM & T-mobile camp.  RIM released the Blackberry Pearl 8120t.  WHO CARES

Well I do.  I think it's significant for several reasons . . . ARE YOU PAYING ATTENTION APPLE??

Here goes . . . the 8120t does all the great stuff the other Blackberrys do, but it goes one more step and adds Hotspot @ Home to the list of features.  This means that the smartphone will use Voice Over IP (VOIP) when making calls from your home network.  This marks the first consumer focused smartphone to use this technology.  I can hear the screams already . . . yes there are several other Blackberry devices utilizing this technology, but the pearl is a consumer device so stick with me.

In the all you can eat world of cell phones today, consumers demand unlimited everything.  Currently AT&T offers unlimited data , texting (if you choose to pay for it), and voice (again if you choose to pay for it).  Should you opt for all 3 your monthly service bill before all those taxes is $140.  Pretty steep if you ask me.  In contrast Hotspot @ Home will run you $20 additional.  Assuming you make the majority of your calls from home you can get away with the $40 or $50 plan and pay $60 or $70 total each month.

Besides from the cost basis alone, VOIP is just plain old cool.  Apple likes to be the first to do everything.  They've missed the VOIP smartphone game just slightly, but it's not too late.  My prediction for iPhone V2, VOIP, and not just @ Home.  You heard it here first folks, Apple and AT&T are going to deploy technology that will allow the iPhone to make a call over any WiFi network it can join.  This would mean massive rollover minutes so AT&T better get those calculators and slide rules out to keep track of it all.

So there you have it.  T-mobile has decided that consumer smartphones should have VOIP technology, and I agree.  The cool factor alone will sell tons of phones and the industry once again will have to figure out how to keep up.

April Apple Fantasy Merger: Adobe

(Each month we weigh the pros and cons of a particular potential merger for Apple. Please note the "fantasy" part of this speculation: Many times the mergers mentioned couldn't or wouldn't be realistically possible. But put all that aside and enjoy this month's edition of Fantasy Merger.)

For this month's edition of Apple fantasy merger, I went with an old standby: Adobe. Why? well, because frankly time may be running out on this merger rumor. There was a time when controlling Photoshop may have seen like a golden ticket to allow Apple to grow an even larger share of the creative community. However, with the release of Aperture, and most recently the 2.1 Aperture update supporting 3rd party plugins, the feature gap between the two programs continues to shrink.

However, there is one other Adobe property that might just make it all worth it for Apple: Flash. Flash has been widely accepted as the standard for internet media. Sure QuickTime (and Windows Media) provides a far superior picture, Flash, thanks to it's near-100% install base has become the streaming media format of choice for Youtube, Metacafe, and just about every other online video site.

And if you follow iPhone news, it would be hard to miss the back and forth struggle of bringing Flash to the phone. Some people think it's the missing piece to completing the feature set of the phone, while others see it as a nuisance. Yes, the code can seem bloated. But imagine what Apple could do under the hood... While all web video is slowly migrating to the h.264 open standard, think of the interactive possibilities if Flash and QuickTime became one. You could create interactive slide shows with iPhoto, giving people the ability to add their own features. You could make the full feature set of Photoshop available online for manipulation and adjustment of the pictures. As we move past disc-based media, the winner in online content might be the first format that allows for stunning playback and ease of purchase, as iTunes and QuickTime already do, coupled with the authoring tools, and universal install base Flash provides.

There would still be a big "get" for Apple in the creative market as well. While they would acquire Premiere, a Final Cut Pro competitor, they would also get After Effect, which is far and away the most popular/most used effects software for video production.

Apple could make even greater in-roads in the consumer market with the Flash/QuickTime combination, while simultaneously bringing another important product into their pro software portfolio.

What do you think? Let us know in the comments,

iPod Game Review Video: Sudoku

Macgirl's back with another iPod game review. Today we take a look at Sudoku:

From Within The Loop: An inside look at Apple

From time to time I'm going to give you an inside look at Apple from Within The Loop. Having spent some time at "The Mothership" I have some tips, advise, and insight to share with all the tDL readers and viewers.

This installment of From Within The Loop: Cafe Macs.

No one likes working on an empty stomach, and Apple employees are no different. Cafe Macs is centrally located and is open for breakfast and lunch. Offerings vary from day to day, but you can always find fresh made-to-order sushi, brick oven personal pizza, a fresh salad bar, pasta station, the grill, and my own favorite the built to order burrito.

Burritos vary from breakfast to lunch, but I recommend both. The tortillas are giant . . . much larger than your "standard" tortilla. For breakfast you have your choice of eggs, breakfast meat, and fresh veggies. Lunch is where it gets really exciting . . . behold the burrito bar. Thousands of combinations. I'm convinced you can eat a different burrito every day for lunch for a minimum of five years and not eat the exact same combination once.

Now you may be asking how do I get my hands on such a burrito. It's going to be difficult. The only access to Cafe Macs is through the corporate doors. The only way through there is if you are an employee or are accompanied by one. The good news is, if you do get the chance to eat there, you'll have the inside track.

Do get:

1. The Burrito

2. Brick oven pizza

3. Sushi

Don't get:

1. Hamburger / Cheeseburger

TDL Live This week: Apple News Roundup

If you haven't seen it yet, here's this week's TDL Live. And yes, the rumors are true... we were rick-rolled...

Review: Ms. PAC-MAN for the iPod

It seems like the iPod would be ripe as a platform to breathe new life into old/classic games. Namco tried with Ms. PAC-MAN, but came up a little short. Here's our video review:

iPhone gaming: Top Five Unanswered Questions

The iPhone SDK is out there, (And actually it just had an update today.) and we know a lot of people are working on a lot of great applications, many of which will be games. Unlike the launch of a true gaming console at CES or the heyday of E3, this is the rare instance in which millions of the "console" have already sold, and no one quite knows what will happen with games. And so we present (in no particular order) the top five unanswered questions about gaming on the iPhone.

1. Is the hardware up to the challenge? Or more precisely, how much of the hardware power will Apple allow to be unleashed? According to specs from Roughlydrafted.com, iPhone specs include a 620mhz processor (underclocked to 412mhz), compared to the 67mhz ARM processor in the DS, and a 333mhz processor in the PSP. Of course as anyone from the PowerPC days knows, processor speed is only a small part of the story. The iPhone also has four times the RAM, and much more than ten times the storage capacity. However, it is after all, a phone. How much of this hardware can be maxed out for gameplay? How much of that RAM needs to be ready for use by mail, iTunes, Safari, etc? How hard does Apple want to push the hardware, and was this in mind when the phone was designed? After all, some have questioned whether Apple ever wanted to put out an SDK to begin with.

2. What will happen with battery life? Again, related to just how much of that raw hardware power Apple wants to unleash. The processor is already underclocked by more than 100mhz, presumably to save battery life. And as mentioned on this blog previously, battery life can be slightly shorter than expected already. What happens when you have 3D graphics running all the time during game play, as well as accelerometer input, etc? Look for a surge in 3rd party battery solutions to give gamers more juice.

3. What happens when the phone rings? When you're playing most consoles and the phone rings, you can ignore it, or glance over at your phone and take the call. It's presumable that gameplay will pause, and a dialog box will ask you whether to take the call. Given the concern over Apple's limitations on running apps in the background though, will you lose your game/saved data? This seems like an unlikely scenario, yet the SDK limitations could be interpreted to show this as a potential problem.

4. Can your music be integrated with gameplay? Already some games for the iPod allow you to continue listening to your iTunes while playing. Will Apple's restrictions around music, ie. not allowing developers to access iTunes, limit this capability on the phone? And more importantly, will it limit the creation of exciting new games that could integrate the users media already stored on the device? Imagine a 3rd person shooter in which the tv in one of the settings is playing your favorite music videos. Personalization could be taken to a whole new level, or it could whither on the vine.

5. What about wifi/bluetooth? Three cell phones ago, I enjoyed playing Battleship with a friend via bluetooth. Yes it was nerdy to sit there at the same table and play on two different phones. But it was also fun. The bluetooth functionality of the iPhone is limited right now, to put it kindly. Devices like bluetooth-enabled cars, with integrated address books are unable to communicate with the phone. Will we see more support of bluetooth standards in general, or will developers have to create their own solutions? And even if they can, will Apple give them access to the system calls and underlying OS to make that possible? The same questions surround wi-fi. Will iPhones be able to communicate directly with each other? Will a wifi network be required?

Clearly those five questions lead to many, many more. What are your predictions? Let us know in the comments.

iTunes Movie Store: I am McLovin' BUT I'm not for keeps

When Steve Jobs announced on January 15th the addition of movie rentals to the iTunes Movie Store AND that all major labels were onboard I was extremely excited.  I saw this as the rebirth of iTunes and it's companion product, AppleTV.

I anticipated being able to rent any movie I wanted and if I really liked it I could simply purchase it.  I even went so far to think that I would be able to purchase the movie within 48hrs of watching it.

As it turns out my vision for the rebirth of the iTunes Movie Store has been far from reality.  There seems to be no method to the madness anymore.  Three different scenarios appear on the movie store: some titles you can only purchase, others you can only rent, and if you're one of the lucky ones out there, you'll have the option to do both.

I can understand that a new release may be available to rent before it's available to purchase.  I cannot understand why a new release may never be available to purchase and why there isn't some indication of this.  There is no way of telling if a title will eventually be available to purchase.  Would it be so difficult to add a line of test saying "available to purchase on . . .".  For now it seems that we'll have to guess and keep our fingers crossed.

But what about older movies or movies that were available before the rental feature went live?  For example, I can rent OR buy Kickboxer 4 (and who wouldn't want both options).  I know that I have both of these options because it's listed as "View Movie" on the Action / Adventure genre page.  The original Die Hard . . . only available to rent.  I'd like to have been at the meeting where the decision was made that View Movie would make sense and consumers would equate that to Rent or Buy.  This is just plain bad.  For a uncomplicated store, it's becoming more and more difficult to navigate, but what about the product pages?

One of the great features on the Music Store is the ability to see what other people purchased who also purchased the album you're looking at.  This feature has carried over, but now it's just inaccurate.  Some may say it's semantics, but I don't care.  If you're looking at the movie Independence Day (only available to rent FYI) you can see that "viewers also bought": The Fifth Element (a favorite of mine), The Matrix, Batman Begins, X-Files, and Aliens.  The punch line is that all of those titles are only available to RENT.  Apple seems to think that rent is synonymous with buy or the past tense, bought.

If you've been watching tDL Live, on Monday night at 9pm eastern, over the past few months I've been ranting about Superbad only being available to rent.  As it turns out I'm not the only one who is confused and unhappy about the state of the store.  Little_Man says, "...I highly reccomend u to buy this".  Sorry Apple, Little_Man is sending business elsewhere.  Joe Awesome says, "This movie, was the best comedy I've ever seen.  But the downside is that I want to buy this movie."  I agree Joe Awesome.  Unfortunately you can't, and Apple won't tell you if you'll ever be able to.  From comments on the first page of reviews alone, Joe Awesome and Little_Man are in good company . . . why can't we buy it?  More importantly why can't we tell when / if we'll ever be able to.

I'll save you some time . . . Don't visit the support page on Apple.com, it won't help.  Until further notice . . . Keep those fingers crossed.

Apple Retail Opening

If you live in either Philadelphia or South Jersey, most likely Apple has already spammed your inbox announcing the new Cherry Hill retail location.

The grand opening is Saturday March 29th. If you're a Mac fanboy or even just a casual Apple user, I highly recommend checking out an opening in person. When the doors open you will be greeted with some thunderous music and enough hooting and hollering that you might actually think a rock concert is about to begin.

As someone who was lucky enough to work as a Mac Genius during such an opening, I can honestly say it was one of my best experiences while at Apple. You definitely feel like a rock star, even if only for a few hours. It's also one of the few times where the job doesn't feel very much like a job, and in retail those day are hard to come by.

The employee turnover at Apple appears to be much higher now than when I worked there. That's to be expected in high volume retail. Chances are many of the faces you see tomorrow in Cherry Hill won't even be there come winter. Retail has a way of chewing you up and spitting you out. But these sort of events and the people you work with are what made it all worth it.

Of course the pay wasn't bad....and the endless supply of black t-shirts, and the free iPods....Oh and the groupies....hmmmmm groupies :-P