Yesterday’s trio of announcements by Apple were like manna even for ardent Apple critics.    With new versions of OS X and iOS on the way, Apple also announced iCloud, a set of cloud based services meant to replace aging MobileMe.  There was a lot to like.  While comparisons between OS X Lion and upcoming Windows 8, and iOS5, Android and Windows Phone 7 are inevitable, I continue to be impressed with Apple’s focus on making life easier for its users.  All three initiatives (Lion, iOS 5, iCloud) are major steps forward.  Which bring me to an interesting point.  Pricing.

OS X Lion will be released via the Mac App Store for $29.99.  Yes, $29.99.  OS X users will remember that the current version of OS X, Snow Leopard (10.6) was also $29, but Snow Leopard was positioned as a minor update to Leopard (10.5).  Lion will be different in several ways.  First, Lion will only be available with the Mac App Store.  No disk based distribution.  Second, Lion can be installed on all home computers for $29.99–one, two, three, or ten, it doesn’t matter.  They all get Lion for a one-time charge of $29.99.  Third, Lion will ship as unified client and server versions.

If one is to believe the Apple marketing machine, the Mac continues to gain market share in the personal computing market–a market that shrunk by ~1% for maybe the first time ever.

This led me to think about the pricing pressure on Microsoft as they contemplate the next version of Windows, Windows 8.  The Apple model is different in two very important ways. One, every copy of Lion will be installed on a device built by Apple and on which Apple has earned margin.  Two, the Mac App store gives Apple a share of the revenue on many of the apps & applications which run on its OS.  Apple is moving the personal computing business model toward the wildly successful iOS/iPhone/iPad model.  Lion is the next step.

At $29.99, Lion should bolster Apple’s OS market position while applying a significant pressure on Microsoft to sell the next version of Windows for much less than it has historically.  This cannot come at a worse time for Microsoft.  Already facing pressure from Google in its core productivity application Microsoft Office, Microsoft now faces an OS challenge from Apple that like the threat from Google, applies downward price pressure, but more importantly changes the underlying business model.

Take the new app business model of Lion and bolster it with iCloud services and the way we think of operating systems fundamentally changes.  Apple is truly moving us into a post PC era and they aren’t afraid to cannibalize current products, profits and business models to get there.  Apple’s willingness to innovate on behalf of its customers is reflected in its current share price (AAPL) and market capitalization.

Thanks to Engadget for the link.

I’m a huge sceptic when it comes to new lighting technologies. Nothing seems to work quite as well as a good old-fashioned incandescent light bulb.  Yes, they are inefficient, they give off large amounts of heat and  yes, they have a short lifespan.  However, they are relatively cheap, provide a nice warm light, they are dimmable and are simple to dispose of.  There is an almost endless variety of incandescent lighting options.   In the Northwest, with our filtered sunshine and 9 months of gray skies, good lighting is vital.

It’s particularly important in our kitchen, which is the hub of our home.  It’s where we cook, eat, entertain, do homework–live.  As in a lot of recently constructed homes, we have standard 6″ can lighting in most of our living areas.  Can lighting generally works well, but requires a fairly bright light, a broad beam, and cans strategically placed to illuminate a room. This usually means a light with at least 65 Watts.  In our Kitchen alone we have 10 can lights.

For the past 5 years, we’ve been replacing the contractor installed, 65W incandescent bulbs, with 75W GE Edison Halogen PAR36 bulbs.  After a bit of experimentation, I found these did a much better job of providing a warm and pleasing light source.  They are more expensive than standard bulbs, they run about $8 each, but claim to have a life span approximately double that of a standard incandescent bulb.  The light output is far superior to a standard incandescent bulb, but they produce a lot of heat.  This is particularly a problem in the summer when our grossly underpowered Northwest A/C unit is struggling to keep us all from melting.  After 10+ years living here, we have a pretty low melting point.

CFL (not the Canadian Football League)

Until very recently, the only commercially available option has been the Compact Fluorescent bulb or CFL, which is manufactured in a variety of forms and which allows it to replace many incandescent lights.  I hate CFLs.  They produce terrible light, they flicker, they are noisy, and they are dangerous.  Given that there has been a concerted effort by the global environment movement to push governments to outlaw incandescent bulbs and force the use of CFLs, I quickly joined the resistance movement.

Added to the CFLs list of sins are high cost and mercury, about 4 to 5 mg per bulb.   Used CFLs need to be disposed at a toxic waste depot rather than tossed out with the ordinary household trash. Because mercury is cumulative, this poisonous element would add up if all the spent bulbs went into a landfill. Instead, the mercury in dead bulbs is reclaimed at such depots and recycled.  A broken CFL requires special cleanup.  According to the EPA, if a CFL breaks in your home you should follow the following cleanup procedures:

1. Before cleanup
   • Have people and pets leave the room.
   • Air out the room for 5-10 minutes by opening a window or door to the outdoor environment.
   • Shut off the central forced air heating/air-conditioning system, if you have one.
   • Collect materials needed to clean up broken bulb.
2. During cleanup
   • Be thorough in collecting broken glass and visible powder.
   • Place cleanup materials in a sealable container.
3. After cleanup
   • Promptly place all bulb debris and cleanup materials outdoors in a trash container or protected area until materials can be disposed of properly. Avoid leaving any bulb fragments or cleanup materials indoors.
   • If practical, continue to air out the room where the bulb was broken and leave the heating/air conditioning system shut off for several hours.

For a look at the detailed cleanup recommendation, see the EPA website.  I refuse to use CFLs.  I refuse to allow environmentalist whackos to dictate which products will be available to consumers and which won’t.  If there is a need to replace the good old incandescent light bulb, I have faith the free market will provide.

Enter LED

LED which stands for Light Emitting Diode is not a new technology, it’s been around for several years, 1962 to be exact.  The first LEDs were relatively low power and emitted a red light.  Today LEDs can emit light across the visible, infrared and ultraviolet electromagnetic spectrum.

LED usage in commercial and residential lighting is just now taking off.  Previously, LED lights that could replicate the warm light of an incandescent light, or even the blue/white light of a CFL were prohibitively expensive and therefore commercially inviable.  In early 2010, I experimented with a Philips AmbientLED™ PAR30L Indoor Flood.  It was $59 at Home Depot.  It claimed to give off the light of a 50W incandescent bulb, but at only 11W.  At the time, the Philips bulb was the best LED lighting I’d ever seen.  It was relatively bright, instant on, very well-built and came with a 15-year lifetime.  It had some downsides.  The light was not very bright (it couldn’t replace a 40w bulb, in my opinion) and it was not dimmable.  Because of its high price and low light output, I decided against purchasing it as a replacement bulb for the kitchen and I continued to buy the GE Edison Halogens.

Last week while at Home Depot, a helpful employee saw that I was purchasing some replacement bulbs and he asked if I had seen the latest in LED lighting.  I told him about my experience with the Philips AmbientLED™ PAR30L and he said, “no, you’ve got to see the latest from EcoSmart”.

EcoSmart LED

The EcoSmart E26 10.5-Watt (65W) LED Down light Light Bulb produces 575 lumens with 10.5 watts of power and can last for up to 35,000 hours. The LED bulb features Cree TrueWhite technology for efficiency and color accuracy and can be used to replace a standard 65-watt bulb.  This thing is amazing. Here’s a quick demo.  Impressive huh?  Now since this unit replaces more than just the bulb, the installation is a bit more complicated.  I found the installation took me about 5 minutes, most of that time was getting a ladder from the garage and reading through the provided instructions. After installation, I went to YouTube and found a number of great installation videos, so I decided not to make one myself. Here’s the best one I found.

Here’s some quick stats:

• Light output: 575 lumens
• 90 CRI
• 2700K
• Dimmable to 5%
• Energy used: 10.5 watts
• Life hours: 35,000 hours
• Cree TrueWhite® Technology delivers high efficiency and color accuracy
• Energy Star qualified to meet or exceed federal guidelines for energy efficiency for year-round energy and money savings
• Uses up to 85% less energy than comparable incandescent down lights
• Uses up to 50% less energy than comparable fluorescent down lights
• Reduces cooling costs by producing little heat

I hope this was interesting and helpful.  The Home Depot employee told me he’s had a couple of customers try these and replace every can light in their homes all at once.  One customer spent almost $1500, but reported his power bill had gone down by 70%.  I’m going to take take a different approach.  I plan to replace my incandescent fixtures as the bulbs die, rather than a wholesale replacement.   As with any new technology, things change rapidly and I expect this lighting to get better and less expensive.  Once again, the power of free-market capitalism.

According to Comcast with the Xfinity app you can:

• Browse and discover video content from either TV listings or selections from the On Demand library in a rich user interface with colorful poster art and details.
• Use it as a TV guide so, in just a few finger taps, users can find what to watch by reviewing their TV listings and change the channel in real time.
• Program their DVRs to record TV shows, series and movies so they never miss their favorites.
• Sort content based on different filters like Networks and Genres such as Movies, Kids, Sports, or by HD content.
• Search by keyword or by title A-Z in TV listings or On Demand.
• Watch movies and TV shows directly on the iPad anytime, anywhere (coming in December).
• Personalize viewing with a “MyTV” feature to create a “Watchlist” of favorite TV shows and movies (coming soon).
• Seamlessly access social networking sites to share what they’re watching with others (coming soon).

After using both the iPhone and iPad apps for a few hours I am impressed. Now, if you really like trying to find something to watch using the current Comcast STB guide and your current remote control, these apps might not be for you. However, if you are like most people, you’ve never liked the STB based guide, it’s slow, not particularly well organized and difficult to search.

Screenshots

Finding Something to Watch

Finding programs to watch is a snap.  You can scroll through the guide visually applying filters for HD, movies, sports and kids programs.  You can also search for programs by keyword.  This was always awkward and difficult to do on the STB guide.  Entering text one character at a time via remote control was a error prone and non-intuitive way to find something to watch.  Contrast that experience with the excellent user interface of the Xfinity TV apps.  For example, the ability to see visually program information, including enhanced program metadata is very helpful.  The filtering and searching functions are surprisingly fast.  I believe this is due to the app locally caching Electronic Program Guide (EPG) data on the iPhone/iPad.  Once you find the program you can click to “Watch on TV”, record an individual episode or record a series.

Best Remote Control Ever?

I always watch TV with my iPhone right by my side.  I’m increasingly watching TV with an iPad in hand.  Often this is the best way to do quick some quick research or fire off a quick email while watching TV.  Now I can find programming to watch and actually control my STB right from my phone.  Now Comcast didn’t magically add infrared (iR) capabilities to your iPhone, but by selecting a program to watch, you send a command to your STB to change the channel and instantly it does.  It seems like a little bit of magic, but in reality is due to the magic of Internet Protocol.  Yes, even your coax connected STB has an IP address.  I don’t have access to all of the technical details about how channel changing is accomplished, but it’s good to see the Comcast team is definitely thinking outside the set-top box.

My only criticism is that the Xfinity TV app can’t control my TV.  That means I have to reach for the universal remote control if I want to turn the volume up or down.  The fault lies with the hardware and not the Xfinity TV app.  There are no IR ports on the iPhone and iPad and I don’t expect there to be any time soon.  When Comcast releases versions for other devices, this shortcoming might be resolved.

Over the Top of OTT

The current version does not appear to allow streaming to the iPhone or iPad, although Comcast has announced plans to do just that–at least for the iPad version.  It will be great to be able to access Comcast programming on the road, at the office or with a 3G enabled iPad, on the go.   If Comcast can acquire content rights to lots of TV content and stream it to devices on the go, it’s tantamount to going over the top of the OTT guys (Netflix, Apple).

If Comcast supports Apple’s new AirPlay in iOS 4.2, one could, in theory, stream Comcast delivered content to an AppleTV box connected to your TV, and with the exception of DVR, obviate the need for a Comcast STB.  Assuming more and more linear TV programing is available on demand, I wouldn’t mind losing the Comcast STB and the $15/mo fee (Yes, that’s 3 * $15/mo, although one STB is included in my Xfinity TV bundle).

More Platforms on the Way

Comcast will launch several Android™ apps this year and also plans to offer apps with similar functionality on as many different devices as possible including BlackBerry® and other smartphones, tablets, laptops and PCs.

Download

Download the Xfinity TV apps at the iTunes App Store.

Support for shared printers is not available in the initial release.  Mac OS X shared printers are not available to my iOS 4.2 devices.  According to AppleInsider,

Today’s public release of Mac OS X 10.6.5 does not appear to include support for AirPrint through Printer Sharing, meaning that while iOS devices will likely get AirPrint support in the upcoming iOS 4.2 update, they still won’t be able to print to shared printer queues set up on a Mac, which would appear to limit AirPrint to late-modeled printers specifically supporting HP’s ePrint feature.

After installing the public release of Mac OS X 10.6.5, AppleInsider could not get either an iPad or iPhone 4 running the GM developer build of iOS 4.2 to recognize a shared printer on the network. However, users with Windows 7 have reported being able to set up a printer share that is visible and usable by iPads running the GM developer build of iOS 4.2.

Apple may deliver an update that enables AirPrint-compatible Printer Sharing in Snow Leopard if the issue is simply a last minute technical issue and not being blocked by patent disputes. The company has pulled advertised features from Mac OS X in the past without explanation, only to add them back at a later time. One example of this was wireless Time Machine backups to Time Capsule. At the same time, Apple has also abandoned advertised efforts over patent issues after investing significant resources, such as it recently did with ZFS support.

Macstories.com had this take,

Update: Unlike many other blogs that linked to this post claim, the rumor isn’t about AirPrint being cancelled. It’s about AirPrint through shared printers on Macs and PCs.

When Apple released the first beta of iOS 4.2 for iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad, they also officially announced AirPrint, the wireless printing system that would work with specific HP printers and shared printers on Macs and PCs:

“AirPrint is Apple’s powerful new printing architecture that matches the simplicity of iOS—no set up, no configuration, no printer drivers and no software to download,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. “iPad, iPhone and iPod touch users can simply tap to print their documents or photos wirelessly to an HP ePrint printer or to a printer shared on a Mac or PC.”

No official word from Apple, but Steve Jobs allegedly weighed in on the controversy

From: Steve Jobs [mailto:sjobs@apple.com]
Sent: Wednesday, November 10, 2010 11:47 AM
To: --------
Subject: Re: Is Apple Promoting Vaporware

AirPrint has not been pulled. Don't believe everything
you read. 

Sent from my iPhone

On Nov 10, 2010, at 5:07 AM, ------------------------> wrote:
Good Morning, Mr. Jobs:

As a release-day purchaser of an iPad, I was elated when you
revealed iOS 4.2 would support AirPrint. Now comes reports
AirPrint support has been pulled from 4.2. Between
announcements/assurances of the white iPhone, and now the
pulling of AirPrint, is Apple going to lose credibility and
become known for announcing “vaporware”?

Respectfully,

[UPDATE #1] 9to5 Mac had the following to say:

After talking to several users of iOS 4.2 GM and Mac OS X 10.6.5 (public release) it appears that AirPrint functionality does not work. The printing option is definitely still present on the iOS software but it doesn’t actually print what you are telling it to print. On the other hand, it appears that AirPrint is working for users with the iOS 4.2 GM whom have upgraded to Mac OS X 10.6.5 final from one of the betas.

Flickr user TalkaboutDesign has uploaded pictures to his account detailing that AirPrint is in fact working for him with Mac OS X 10.6.5. Because of this, we figure he upgraded from a beta and iOS 4.2 final will be required for AirPrint to actually work. After all, Steve Jobs said that AirPrint wasn’t removed from iOS 4.2 and he would not lie, right?

We’ve heard multiple reports from users that the golden master seed of iOS 4.2 still had a few bugs and because of this, we believe Apple has been fixing up iOS 4.2 the last couple days and has changed some algorithms related to AirPrint. So, hopefully Friday we’ll know the full story as to if AirPrint will work with iOS 4.2′s public release or not.

[UPDATE #2] According to the folks at HardMac, it’s possible to re-enable that option by installing manually the files that were in the last beta.  I’ve followed the steps below and can confirm that printing works.

• Download the files here: http://cl.ly/99eaa26e6a7273db9ca0
• You will have to install them in an invisible folder called ‘usr’. you can make it appear by typing the following line in the Terminal:open -a Finder /usr/
• Copy the content of the folder ‘mime’ into ‘share/cups/mime/’ and ‘urftopdf’ into ‘libexec/cups/filter/’this is where files should go:/usr/libexec/cups/filter/urftopdf/usr/share/cups/mime/apple.convs/usr/share/cups/mime/apple.types

• Remove your printer from the printing preferences
• Reboot
• add your printer again and activate printer sharing.
• If everything went well, you’ll be able to print from an iOS 4.2 iDevice. Of course, there is certainly a reason why Apple didn’t enable the option, and there could be some bug. If you choose to enable Airprint, we advise you to do a backup of your system in order to be able to go back in case of a problem.

.

The Löopa gyro-bowl may look like it’s out of this world because, well, it is. Made with revolutionary spill-resistant technology, the Löopa gyro-bowl will keep your kids entertained and your living room clean at snack time. With gravity-defying engineering, dry food and snacks stay inside the bowl and off your floor no matter what kind of high-flying fun your kids get into.

Posted via web from Xlog

Posted via web from Xlog

Posted via web from Xlog

Of course, as Duncan Watts’ of Yahoo research on the effect of key influencers flies in the face of the prevailing wisdom about why Facebook and Twitter have become such “viral” successes.  Guy Kawasaki wrote,

You’ve got to read “Is the Tipping Point Toast?” by Clive Thompson in FastCompany. The gist of Thompson’s piece, based on the work of Duncan Watts of Yahoo Research, is that the theory that a select few “key influencers” matter more than “the rest of us” when it comes to viral and word-of-mouth marketing campaigns is flawed. Said Watts:

“It [achieving marketing success through influentials] just doesn’t work. A rare bunch of cool people just don’t have that power. And when you test the way marketers say the world works, it falls apart. There’s no there there.”

In contrast to influential marketing, Watt’s believes the key factor is the readiness of the market: “If society is ready to embrace a trend, almost anyone can start one—and if it isn’t, then almost no one can.” There will be first movers, but almost anyone can be this first mover—and therefore what Watts calls an “accidental influential.”

My money is on Watts. If you agree, it should change your perspective on marketing:

• Spend less time and effort on industry events and other focused PR and marketing that involves sucking up to journalists, analysts, and experts. Spend more time and effort pressing the flesh of real customers. Typically, you won’t meet too many customers at a Ritz Carlton.
• Try mass marketing because you never know who will be your “accidental influential.” Or, as the saying goes, “Let a hundred flowers blossom” to determine who “gets” your product. Admittedly, the challenge is to find a cost-effective way to do mass marketing.
• Forget A-list bloggers. Lousy reviews by them cannot tank your product. Great reviews cannot make it successful. Focus on big numbers—any Technorati 1,000,000 blogger can be a channel to reach people. If enough people like your product, the A-list bloggers will have to write about you.

How does Watts’ thinking square with evangelism? I don’t see a conflict because evangelism is about “bringing the good news” to everyone and then supporting the people who “get it.” Evangelism is not about sucking up to only people who are famous and self-important. To wit, few Fortune 500 CIOs helped make Macintosh successful. It was unknown artists, designers, hobbyists, and user-group members who made Macintosh successful, and we could have not identified them in advance.

Watts suggests we think of trends not as viral, but more like forest fires.  He says, “There are thousands a year, but only a few become roaring monsters. That’s because in those rare situations, the landscape was ripe: sparse rain, dry woods, badly equipped fire departments. If these conditions exist, any old match will do. “And nobody,” Watts says wryly, “will go around talking about the exceptional properties of the spark that started the fire.”

Thoughts?  What are you worth to Facebook?  Find out.