What are Apple’s plans for TV?

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PC Mag:

While Apple could still make a physical TV, I think this move incorporating Hulu and Amazon is very telling of Apple’s future TV strategy. The key here is that for Apple’s current TV device to make money, it needs content. By biting the bullet and offering competing services to iTunes, the value proposition of an Apple TV device rises. Apple can now accelerate its TV plans through areas it excels in, namely software and human interfaces. I believe that it can do all that it wants to do in these areas through an external box that connects to a TV and delivers iTunes and its cloud services.The problem with TVs is that people buy them and hold on to them for five to seven years on average. While Apple could design a TV that could be upgraded in software, it makes more sense to create a sophisticated box that works with all televisions and allows the company to innovate around this model.

Bajarin has been around for a long time and is a smart guy. I’ve been saying the same thing about Apple’s direction with regards to the Apple TV set-top box but The Esteemed Publisher of The Loop still believes Apple will still produce an actual HD television set. Time will tell.

How we screwed (almost) the whole Apple community

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Day4:

How easy is it to spread disinformation?One afternoon we sketched out a screw in our 3D program, a very strange screw where the head was neither a star, tracks, pentalobe or whatever, but a unique form, also very impractical. We rendered the image, put it in an email, sent it to ourselves, took a picture of the screen with the mail and anonymously uploaded the image to the forum Reddit with the text ”A friend took a photo a while ago at that fruit company, they are obviously even creating their own screws ”.Then we waited …

If you ever wonder where all these untrue Apple rumors come from, this will answer the question for at least some of them. It also shows how many web sites post “information” with little to no facts, research, details or common sense attached.

Are new Kindles coming soon?

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Dwindling inventories of Kindles and Kindle accessories suggest that Amazon is getting ready to refresh its line of tablets.

2012 Perseid Meteor Shower Aug. 11th through 13th

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NASA:

On the nights of Aug. 11th through 13th, the best meteor shower of the year will fill pre-dawn skies with hundreds of shooting stars. And that’s just for starters. The brightest planets in the solar system are lining up right in the middle of the display. The Perseid meteor shower peaks on the nights around August 12th as Earth passes through a stream of debris from Comet Swift-Tuttle.“We expect to see meteor rates as high as a hundred per hour,” says Bill Cooke of NASA’s Meteoroid Environment Office. “The Perseids always put on a good show.”

NASA even has a free app you can use to count meteors and upload the data to researchers.

Google’s iOS search app to gain “enhanced voice search”

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Ars Technica:

Google’s search app for iOS is about to become more Siri-like. The app, which already allows users to enter search terms via voice, will soon gain the ability to better understand your intent—that is, what you actually mean with all those extraneous words coming out of your mouth. Google announced on Wednesday that the feature will be available “soon” for iPhone and iPad.

Big advantage of this Google “version” is that it will be available on the iPhone 4.

Full moon rises at Tower Bridge

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Reuters:

The full moon rises through the Olympic Rings hanging beneath Tower Bridge during the London 2012 Olympic Games.

As a photographer, you dream about getting perfect shots like these.

A look at Railroad Story for iPad

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Railroad Story is a time management game with a twist: You’re in charge of a railroad in burgeoning parts of the country needing rail commerce.

How to watch the Mars Rover land on Sunday

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Wired:

The moment is almost here. In just a couple days, NASA’s new Mars rover, Curiosity, will begin its descent to the Martian surface and hopefully start beaming back amazing images and data.Unfortunately, there’s no way to watch the probe actually plunge into the Martian atmosphere and undertake the carefully orchestrated sequence of landing events known as the “Seven Minutes of Terror.” Even the radio waves that indicate the rover’s position have to obey the laws of physics and recognize the 14-minute communications delay between Earth and Mars.But there are still plenty of ways to catch the action online and feel like you’re getting a front-row seat for NASA’s next big mission.

If you can, spare some time on Sunday to watch this event – and it’s on less of a tape delay than NBC’s Olympic coverage.

#nbcfail economics

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BuzzMachine:

Reading the #nbcfail hashtag has been at least as entertaining as much of NBC’s coverage of the Olympics. It’s also enlightening — economically enlightening.The people formerly known as the audience have a voice and boy are they using it to complain about NBC’s tape delays of races and the opening ceremonies, about its tasteless decision to block the UK tribute to its 7/7 victims, and about its commentators’ idiocies.The counterargument has been an economic one: NBC has to maximize commercial revenue, which means maximizing prime time viewership, to recoup the billions paid for the rights to broadcast, billions that pay for the stadiums and security and ceremony. The argument is also made that NBC’s strategy is working because it is getting record ratings.

What do you think? Are you watching the Olympics live, either on TV or online? Or are you waiting for the evening recaps? Thanks to Dan Frakes for the link.

Apple design chief: “Our goal isn’t to make money”

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The Telegraph:

Apple might be the most valuable company in the world, with a market capitalisation of $556bn, but its design chief insists it is not in it for the money.Sir Jonathan Ive, whose personal fortune stands at an estimated at $130m, said yesterday that Apple’s guiding principle was nothing to do with its balance sheet, and that it simply wanted to make “great products”. “Our goal isn’t to make money. Our goal absolutely at Apple is not to make money. This may sound a little flippant but it’s the truth,” said the British designer.

70 years – at the same job

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Cockpit Chronicles:

Al “Blacky” Blackman has reached a milestone few can claim. He has worked for 70 years as a mechanic for American Airlines based in New York, starting when he was only 17 years old.Surprisingly, he has no plans to retire. “I don’t consider this work. It’s being able to do what you like and getting paid for it.”

Al celebrated his milestone in a way suitable to his amazing employment longevity – with a flight around New York City in an original American Airlines DC-3, the oldest DC-3 still flying.