Another Appendage of Childhood Fades Into History

Ouch. Somewhere deep down inside, my 7 year-old self is beside himself.  KB Toys is no more.

RIM Enjoys A Mirage Of Market Share Gains

If you're taken aback by the recent IDC report showing major gains for RIM in the US smartphone market, rest assured that Q3 will paint a very different picture. Most major news outlets are running with a story this morning citing the recent IDC report that shows RIM capturing over 50 percent of the US smartphone market. This report is based on Q2 sales figures. What today's news reports aren't being clear about is the fact that Apple essentially spent Q2 without a product on the market as they had completely sold out their channels ahead of the iPhone 3G launch. RIM should enjoy this temporary reprieve as the eye of the storm passes over them.

The Macintosh Genesis of PowerPoint

Did you ever wonder how PowerPoint got it's start? Here's a hint - as with most of Microsoft's most successful products, it wasn't cooked up in Redmond.

Check out this MindJet Connections interview with Bob Gaskins, the father of PowerPoint. It's an interesting read.

Music Labels Look To Luddite Kid Rock For Answer To It's Apple Problem

Kid Rock is selling music without the internets.

Note to Bob - if it's not on iTunes, it's surely going to be on Limewire. If the labels are looking at this as a way to push people back towards the physical sale, they're sorely mistaken. Although, that should come to us as no surprise.

First of all, the average Kid Rock listener is most likely going to be a Wal Mart shopper who's not so much into the digital music market to begin with. While these are good numbers for a non-digital release, they need to consider the audience. Furthermore, we've all grown accustomed to the convenience of being able to purchase our music on impulse in the comfort of our homes. You simply can't just take that away. Doing so will most likely just push people back towards file sharing and the tech is a lot more robust now than it was in 2000.

Part of the reason why iTunes worked was because many of us were already feeding from the binary music trough. iTunes was attractive to those of us with a conscious about stealing music. Also, most of us now use an mp3 player as our primary music source. Does Bob or his label honestly think that we're going to carry our fat, lazy American asses out to retail to buy CDs that we're going to have to bring home and rip?

I think the answer is going to be a resounding no for the majority of artists out there that unlike Kid Rock, don't have a solid luddite, white-trash fan base.

Microsoft is now a panhandler

Okay, so I knew it was out there but had never seen direct evidence of it before.



The clearest evidence I've seen yet that proves Microsoft has no taste. None whatsoever.

Apple MacBook Update Rumors Are Kinda Lame

Seth Weintraub at Computerworld has posted some rumored details of Apple's forthcoming portable refresh.

Please pass the Nodoze. Maybe if they could replace the entire keyboard with a glass surface that would morph into whatever input device required. Garageband? You get a mixing board. iPhoto? you get a standard keyboard with a set of photo editing controls - sliders, dials, etc.

If this is simply a glass trackpad with some of the same lame gestures that appear on MBA, I'll pass. Wake me up when the real revolution comes to town. Seriously, is this Apple's idea of next-gen tech that their competitors simply can't compete with?

Anything less than direct manipulation of objects on the screen is gimmicky at best. When are we going to move beyond detached and remote pointing devices and into a computing experience that lives up to the promise of iPhone OS?

How To Put iPhone Into Recovery Mode

If you reach the point where your iPhone will no longer get past the start screen, as mine did this morning, you have a powerful option.  Put your iPhone into recovery mode.  Here's what you do:

1.  Hold down home and sleep buttons until you see the phone power down.

2.  As soon as it powers down, let go of the sleep button but continue to hold the home button for a couple of seconds.

3.  Once you have verified that it is completely powered down, hold down the home button while connecting to your computer.

After a couple of seconds, you will see the iTunes logo and USB cable appear on your phone.  iTunes will prompt you to restore the phone.  From there, you should be golden.  Hope it works out!