Google announced yesterday that its free email service is now open for registration. From a post on the Official Google Blog:
Gmail sign-ups are now open worldwide! No more waiting for someone to invite you—just create an account directly at www.gmail.com
According to a PCWorld article:
With Vista just out the door, Microsoft Corp. is now drawing up plans to deliver its follow-up client operating system by the end of 2009, according to the executive in charge of building the product’s core components.
It looks like they also have a name for it besides “Vienna”:
Last year, Microsoft said that the code name for this Vista follow-up is Vienna, but Fathi said he could not disclose the current name. “We’ve been told not to use it publicly,” he said.
Here’s the scoop from a PCWorld article:
Cisco Systems sued Apple today [January 10, 2007] to prevent it from using the name iPhone for the new smart phone that it introduced yesterday at the Macworld Conference & Expo in San Francisco.
[...]
The name iPhone is a registered trademark of Linksys, a division of Cisco. Linksys picked up the iPhone name when it bought a company called Infogear Technology in 2000. Cisco’s iPhones are telephone handsets designed for use on a VoIP (voice over Internet Protocol) network.
[...]
Apple and Cisco have been in negotiations for about two years over Apple’s desire to license the iPhone trademark, according to Cisco spokesman John Noh. When Apple CEO Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone at Macworld, Cisco had not yet received a signed trademark licensing agreement from Apple, though the two companies had been negotiating terms as recently as last Monday night.
[...]
In an interview Wednesday afternoon, Greg Joswiak, Apple’s vice president of worldwide iPod marketing, pointed out that Cisco’s iPhone brand applies to a line of voice-over-IP products, whereas Apple’s iPhone is a cell phone. “They’re different products,” Joswiak said.
“Yeah, but they’re both phones,” is what I have to say to that. Cisco seems to agree:
“Today’s iPhone is not tomorrow’s iPhone. The potential for convergence of the home phone, cell phone, work phone, and PC is limitless, which is why it is so important for us to protect our brand,” Chandler [senior vice president and general counsel for Cisco] said.
Cisco seems to be pretty upset, but I’m sure they’re loving this publicity for their product!
Apple announced yesterday the Apple TV, the new name for what was previously codenamed “iTV.”
Apple TV has found a web home under the “iPod + iTunes” category of the Apple website. From the Apple TV homepage:
Say you’ve just downloaded Cars from iTunes. Instead of huddling around your computer to watch, you pop some popcorn while your computer wirelessly syncs your new flick to Apple TV. [...] Apple TV connects to your TV via an HDMI port or component video and audio ports. Its built-in, superfast 802.11 wireless capability syncs your iTunes library to any Mac or PC in the house.
I think this is a really cool thing, even more so because it works with PCs, meaning us Windows users aren’t left out. I think this will also be really neat for podcasters in particular, as Apple TV users will be able to watch video podcasts from their televisions. Now how cool will that be?
The much-anticipated iPhone was released yesterday. From a CNET News.com article:
The Mac OS X-based iPhone is most akin to an iPod in design, but allows users to listen to music, make phone calls, send text messages and e-mail, surf the Web, and take and upload photos, all using a wide touch screen and a single button. Apple plans to make the device available in the United States in June, with a 4GB model going for $499 with a two-year service contract, and an 8GB model with the same contract for $599.
My thoughts:
For one, it seems very expensive (as seems to be typical with quite a few Apple products). Though I’m guessing the price will likely decrease as time goes on.
Second, I’m not sure if dropping the keyboard is such a good idea. I understand there’s some sort of touch-screen equivalent, but I’m not clear on how that’ll work.
The iPhone does have a lot of the “cool factor” though: for example, it has a sensor that detects when you hold the iPhone up to your ear and turns off the touch screen, turns off any music, and switches the iPhone to calling mode.
Very cool, but I have a few questions: How does that work anyway? Is it simply a proximity sensor? Does this sensor use radiation that might revive the cellphone radiation concerns? And what do you call this feature anyway? I vote for “sonear” 
(that is, “sonar” with an “e” in just the right spot).
So in summary, the iPhone is cool … but it’s way beyond my budget. 