John Brownlee:

Apple’s not serious about ditching Intel for the Mac, but even so, the next few years will be very interesting as ARM and Intel trade body blows. If Intel plays its cards right, come 2015, we could all be talking very seriously indeed about whether or not Apple will be putting Intel’s new mobile chips in the iPhone 8 and iPad 6.

Interesting rundown of the chips and what we may see.

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Neil Hughes:

By potentially partnering with carriers and cable operators, Apple could enter the market on a level playing field with everyone else for content. With access to a variety of content through existing providers, as well as the content already available on the iTunes Store, Misek believes that Apple could package everything with a “superior user interface and ecosystem” and beat out the competition.

There are a lot of variables to consider, but many have hoped that Apple could bring some type of subscription service to Apple TV.

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AppleInsider:

Apple has added its Genius recommendation system from iTunes to Apple TV, offering to suggest titles related to previous purchases.

Sounds like a good update.

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About AirPort Base Station and Time Capsule Firmware Update 7.6.1

This update is for all 802.11n AirPort Express, 802.11n AirPort Extreme and Time Capsule models. It fixes an issue with wireless performance and provides support for remote access to an AirPort disk or a Time Capsule hard drive with an iCloud account.

[...]

In 107 days since iCloud went live, and 235 since Apple’s announcement at WWDC ’11, it appears the majority of third-party developers are still considering whether or not iCloud is something worth investing their time — and customers’ money — or not.

An interesting read.

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Horace Dediu:

The evidence I see is that Apple does not change pricing but rather stakes out a specific price point as resonating with consumers given their positioning. They then doggedly stick to it. Competitors tend to exploit open price points or try to position with specs on the same spots Apple occupies.

Apple doesn’t do anything based on what its competition does, including price. Apple’s products are priced fairly and at what consumers can afford, and are willing to pay. The proof is the 37 million iPhones, 15million iPads, 15 million iPods, and 5 million Macs the company sold last quarter.

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AmpKit LiNK HD is based on USB digital audio technology, providing high fidelity while eliminating crosstalk and feedback. It’s perfect for AmpKit’s authentic high gain amps.

Some nice features on the LiNK HD. AmpKit is my goto amp software on the iPhone and iPad, so I’ll be interested to see how this interface does. I’m expecting good things though.

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(As an old school bonus, click on the “Kick Ass” in the upper right of their web

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Diehard Mac & Apple fans often have a lot in com­mon — per­son­al­i­ties, cre­ative pro­fes­sions, a sim­i­lar sense of style and aes­thet­ics, taste, and a love for tech​nol​ogy. As Apple fans we love to hang out in cafés with our Mac­books and iPhones. Cupidtino is like that neigh­bor­hood café where the peo­ple are hip, decor is classy, con­ver­sa­tion is intel­li­gent and prices are rea­son­able. But it’s open at your con­ve­nience, folks are from around the world, and it’s less awk­ward to talk to someone.

If you’re going to meet someone with common interests, why not start off with an Apple fan.

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“If you use a MacBook, iMovie is the best way to do it.”

Couldn’t agree more.

No one is defending the argument that folks like Samsung copy everything that Apple does. Or that Apple doesn’t copy certain trends sometimes. But the amount of shameless copying and blatant efforts of coming up with unoriginal marketing jargon going on at CES are just too much for me.

I think Federico summed up many people’s CES experience.

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The consumer electronics market in 2012 can be easily summed up as Ferraris and Fords. Apple, of course, is the Ferrari of the tech market, while the competition is the Ford.

I’m not talking about speed, but rather the outlook on similar markets. [...]

I was reading an article on Macworld UK this morning about the flood of Ultrabooks being released at CES this year and how Apple would respond. The answer is very simple — they won’t. [...]

Daniel Ionescu:

Apple is not taking part in the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas but is present at the trade show through rip-offs of its products. From MacBook Air-inspired ultrabooks, to iPad-like tablets, smart TVs, and cloud computing technology, you will find clones of Apple’s product lineup at CES 2012—and this is just a taste of what’s coming up at the show this week.

If there is any doubt about how much influence Apple has in the industry, this should put it to rest.

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That pain execs at HTC, Samsung, Google and RIM get when Apple announces a new product or initiative.

These are things they don’t want to blatantly copy, but because they want to keep up with Apple, they blatantly copy them anyway.

Dell is still planning on being a lead player in the mobile laptop space and stressed that it has been spending time developing higher-end, premium laptops like the XPS 14z. Dell’s Marketing Director Alison Gardner was very clear about the strategy: “Thin and powerful is where it is at for us.”

Dell quits MP3 players. Dell quits tablets. Dell quits

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Spiderweb Software has announced the release of Avernum: Escape from the Pit, a new version of their classic turn-based fantasy role-playing game for the Mac. (Windows and iPad versions are coming in 2012). A free demo is available; it costs $20.

In Avernum, you’re banished to a subterranean kingdom after raising the ire of the emperor. You lead a struggle in this prison underworld to return to the surface. The game

Apple on Tuesday posted shipping info for those considering making a purchase from the company over the holidays.

Of course, if you want something special, like engraving, it will take a little longer. Basically here’s how it goes:

Earlier today Apple released download figures for the Mac App Store. The numbers were impressive to say the least, but they are even more impressive than we thought.