Analysis: How Apple’s new subscriptions stack up to the competition

MacWorld has an interesting analysis about the new subscription pricing for iTunes.  Overall, in a nutshell, most competitors are charging between 40-60% plus data transfer charges for their subscription plans…

Here take a look.  Analysis: How Apple’s new subscriptions stack up to the competition

But, I was very disappointed about one of the comments to the article:

Think you have missed an important point about this model.

Where Apple or others are finding the customer through their store then the premium rate is accepted as they are doing some of the go to market work. However, where they are not doing the go to market work, why should they command any moe than a credit card company?

This is disappointing looks like they are being greedy.

Apple indeed has costs associated with services, after all the Cult of Mac estimated that iTunes would cost over $225,000,000,000 ($2.25 Billion) to operating by the end of 2011.

The issue here is are we referring to the iBooks?  Or a software subscription package, or something else?

Here are some of the costs that might apply: Continue reading →

Random freezing from Snow Leopard? Insert-Hang-Detected?

Is your Macintosh hanging up ocassionally with the Beach Ball of Doom?  Check your console.log….  And see if you see this:


Sep 11 18:03:00 Perseus kernel[0]:
Sep 11 18:03:01: --- last message repeated 1 time ---

Sep 11 18:03:01 Perseus Safari254: INSERT-HANG-DETECTED: Tx time:21.280277, # of Inserts: 1, # of bytes written: 157639, Did shrink: NO

Sep 11 18:06:57 Perseus kernel[0]:
Sep 11 18:07:22: --- last message repeated 3 times ---
Sep 11 18:07:22 Perseus Safari254: INSERT-HANG-DETECTED: Tx time:46.772571, # of Inserts: 1, # of bytes written: 1150, Did shrink: NO
Sep 11 18:07:38 Perseus su280: maymay to admin on /dev/ttys000

If you see the INSERT-HANG-DETECTED messages, then I may have a solution…

  1. Run a Repair permissions
  2. Shut system down.
  3. on power-up, click and hold down option-command-R-P after you hear the 1st beep. Keep holding it through two beeps then release.

What is “awacsd”? And why do I need to have it running?

Did you just recently upgrade to Mac OS 10.6.5 or 10.6.6+ and have your firewall report that “awacsd” is accepting inbound connections?

awacsd-firewall.png

Apple has added a new component into Mac OS X, called awacsd. This component is called “Apple Wide Area Connectivity Service daemon”, or awacsd… This daemon is used to assist in making connections between devices for users that are using Back to My Mac, at least according to the Unix man page documentation.

According to DrBeez..

I finally got a Senior Advisor, Taylor, at Apple to answer this. Three previous technicians claimed they’d never heard of this issue.

APACSD is Apple Wide Area Connectivity Service Daemon. It is a function of MobileMe. It doesn’t pertain to BTMM only, but to a world of connections such as Calendar, Contacts, Synch, iWeb, etc.

Taylor explained that this a a form of handshaking between MobileMe and your Mac. If the connection is disabled by your firewall protection, you will see many malfunctions in anything MobileMe-related.
hello.connectivity.me.com is a platform established in OSX 10.6.6 that will later support other added services.

Is this a security risk? I believe not, at this time, I see no reason to believe this is a concern as long as you ensure that your Apple ID, has a secure password. Now there are a few reports that the daemon will handshake with the remote server even if Back to the Mac is turned off, that could be due to a bug, or just part of the normal startup process for the daemon.

If you have any additional information or questions, please feel free to leave it in the comments…

Smaller iPhones?

Well, I have been quite silent about some of the iPhone chatter going around… But I have decided to throw in my 5 cents…

  • Will there be a smaller form factor?  I seriously doubt it.  If the iPhone is made any smaller, then I believe it will be at least the size of the current touch screen…  Anything smaller would reduce the usefulness of the product.
  • It will be a streaming only device?  Doubtful.  Unless Apple starts using the new data center for streaming content, I doubt that Apple would allow online streaming of video content.  Possibly for Audio, but doubtful for Video.
  • Dual Core?  I suspect this has a grain of  truth in it, simply because of the need for processor upgrades…
  • Flash support?  Never…
  • Slide out Keyboard?  Doubtful.  I give it 10-1 odds against…  There’s too many parts, and the keyboard would be a major step backwards…

Analysis: World of Goo’s iPad Launch

world of goo logoHere’s a behind the scenes Analysis of the “World of Goo”‘s iPad launch… for the creators of “World of Goo”.

By the way, it’s a tough game, but a good game, never the less… It’s challenging, inventive, and cross platform!

Remember, support the cross platform developers… Learn from the escapee of OS/2, and Desqview. We want Native applications, and to keep those coming, we need to reward the native platform publishers…

We attempted, and failed, to bring World of Goo to iPhone in the summer of 2009. Development was sporadic and slow as we worked with a series of four different contractors who, for various reasons, did not bring the project to completion. So we dropped it.

When the iPad came out, we thought we’d try again, this time with a fresh round of confidence that the bigger, more powerful device would be able to support a console quality port of World of Goo. We started working with Ron’s brother, Gil Carmel, in November 2010, who finally got this project done. There is nothing all that remarkable to tell about the development of World of Goo for iPad, but this being our first App Store title, the month leading up to launch and the month that followed were very interesting times, as we gathered information and lessons about the App Store market that we hope will be of use to other developers.

Read the rest of the Analysis here!

Aycelcus cosplaying Agatha Heterodyne (Girl Genius)

Have you seen / read Girl Genius by Phil Foglio?

The setting: In a time when the Industrial Revolution escalated into a full-on war, rival mad scientists, (“Sparks” to be polite), are the ruling powers in most of Europe. Keeping them all in line is Baron Wulfenbach, a particularly powerful and cranky Spark who, when someone starts causing trouble, simply steps in and makes them stop. His captial is the gigantic airship fortress Castle Wulfenbach.

The main character: Agatha Clay was a student at Transylvania Polygnositc University, who had truly rotten luck until she was revealed as a Spark. (Some might argue that this, also, was rotten luck.) She has also recently discovered that she is the last of the famous Heterodyne family—beloved heroes who disappeared under mysterious circumstances many years ago. Folk legend claims that they will someday return, but so far they haven’t managed it.

Well, evidently Aycelcus decided to do some cosplay…

girlgenius_wallpaper.png

NewImage

Continue reading →