Apple NZ and AU Black Friday Pricing Posted

Today the New Zealand and Australia Apple store posted their Black Friday prices on their website. The discounts only apply to the iMac and Macbook Pro with $120 USD off,  the iPod Nano $10 USD, iPod Touch 8gb $25 USD, 32gb $37 USD, 64gb $51 USD. Other discounts would apply to the Apple TV, and other Apple Mac and iPod accessories. This is big leak for the US Black Friday sales and I will update at 12am when the US discounts will be posted.

iChat vs Adium - Fight!

For about two years now, there are always heated debates in the Chat sector of the Mac, debating if iChat or Adium is the best Mac Chatting client. I've used both Adium and iChat for an extensive amount of time, and I personally prefer iChat since it has a simplistic UI and I don't use the platforms it doesn't support anyways, so I don't have a problem with that. So, I've decided to make a few rounds of head to head competition on the major aspects of what is expected of a chat client. Then, at the end, I'll post comments from people who I've asked the preference of client.

Round 1 - Platform Support

iChat and Adium both support multiple chatting platforms, such as AIM, Jabber, MobileMe, and usually work fine. However, Adium supports almost 4 times more of what iChat supports, and it also works fine. What Adium supports that iChat doesn't:

• Yahoo! Messenger
• MySpace IM
• Facebook
• QQ
• LiveJournal
• ICQ
• Novell GroupWise
• MSN Messenger

Adium definitely is the winner in Round 1. iChat doesn't have a wide selection of different chat support, it only supports the basics.

Round 2 - User Interface

Now, here is where things get kind of tough. Adium has an OK basic UI, however you can fully customize it to whatever fits you. iChat has an amazing basic nice and bland UI, however you can't change the font, UI, or colors unless you use a 3rd party application, such as chax. However, the latest version of Chax is no longer an add-on, its an actual app. But it looks exactly like iChat and you can fully edit it. So who wins this one? Its really a tie because Adium's base UI is weaker than iChat's, but you can edit the UI completely and make it just like you want it. You can change fonts and order of how iChat's buddy list is sent by using Chax, but you can't change the actual UI like it's colors. You can change the format which is included in the actual iChat(meaning you can change format w/o Chax), to Bubbles, Boxes, or Compact. Round 2 is a tie between iChat and Adium.

Round 3 - What you think

I asked a few people of what they thought of iChat and what they thought of Adium and also asked them what the better client was. Here's what they Said:

TrueSongmedia answered Adium is better: "because it 1) is more stable ... 2) supports more protocols ... 3) looks better ... 4) can log/organize chats". He also went on to add "iChat is okay, but Apple should get a clue and use the libpurple library for IM instead of writing their own crappy one".

Jeff answered Adium because it had multiple platform support.

So, it looks like the majority of people prefer Adium because of the reasons I've stated in the blog post. It would be nice to see Apple make iChat more customizable, but seeing how pretty much every other Apple-made Application is nice and basic, I don't see that happening in the near future. But since I do LOVE the simplistic interface on iChat, I'll keep to iChat.

If you'd like to follow me on Twitter, I'm @Knunez.

Can Your Network Do That?

Marketing wars. The concept is nothing new. Two companies who have competing products or services often turn to marketing to get what marketing guru's call "mind share". And, unless you have been living in a completely disconnected state from society for the past three weeks or so, you know that Verizon has launched some pretty hard hitting adds against AT&T and their network. My guess is these ads have been pretty effective, because AT&T is now suing Verizon claiming that the ads are deceptive. 

I assumed it was only a matter of time before AT&T shot back at Verizon with an ad of their own, and they did. Sort of. AT&T's ad (which you can see below) featured Luke Wilson and some lame magnet board that listed all of the advantages that AT&T has over Verizon. I must say... after I saw the ad for the first time, I said (out loud): "Really? That's the best you could do?" It was just... bad. 

So here's the scorecard at this point.

Verizon: The most effective marketing campaigns the company has ever had
       The hottest phone of the year.
AT&T: Luke Wilson
           Magnets

But here's the thing, something that AT&T has that they didn't mention in their ad... is the iPhone; And the iPhone has Apple, who you could argue has had some of the most effective marketing campaigns in recent memory. And, in my brain... I imagine an internal conversation at Apple going something like this.

Marketing Genius 1: They have Luke Wilson. Luke Wilson... and a magnet board.
Marketing Genius 2: Seriously?
Marketing Genius 1: We have exclusivity for the next six months. We've got to do something.

Behold. The two Apple ads that do what Luke Wilson and his magnet board could not.

Apple iPhone Ad - What Time's The Movie? from Arik Hesseldahl on Vimeo.

Apple iPhone Ad - Did You See My Email? from Arik Hesseldahl on Vimeo.

Marketing War, commence.

Apple Tablet?

Rumors of the apple tablet may be true.

Click to read more ...

Review: Apple Remote

I recently purchased the updated Apple Remote. I was tired of having to walk across the room to lower or increase the volume of a song, so I thought this would be an inexpensive solution. I was correct! Let me give you guys a quick run down of all the new features this remote sports: 

Design:

It seems Apple is slowly transitioning to an all aluminum product line. The new remote has the same aluminum body like other Apple products. This gives it a nice sleek feel when it’s in your hand. But it isn’t slippery when it’s in your hand, which is nice if you’re carrying it around. 

Features:

When Apple revamped the remote, they added an iPod-esque click wheel, minus the scrolling in circles. Up and down buttons control volume and left and right control ‘Next Song and Previous Song’ and the center button acts as select button. It still has the ‘Menu’ button which, activates Front Row, and a new ‘Play/Pause’ button which seems to do the same duties and the center button. The back of the remote contains a turn-style battery cover, which is very convenient. The remote still works over IR, which is very convenient because it comes standard on most Macs.

Use:

I did some tests to see how far I could from my laptop and still have the remote work. I was able to get about 30ft until it stopped performing actions. Make sure to have nothing obscuring your view of the IR sensor. The remote won’t work if something is blocking it. Surprisingly, this remote will still work even if it is not in direct contact with the IR sensor. If you point it straight up, it will work but it won’t work if you try using it in the opposite direction of the sensor. Shouldn’t be a problem for most people.

Final Rating:

I’ve had this remote for about a week and after playing around with it and testing and experimenting, I have concluded on a rating of...4/5. This remote is great if you need to control you music from a distance and is especially great if you use your Mac as a media unit. So, if you do things like and you don’t want to walk across the room, it’s totally worth the cheap $19.99 USD from the Apple Store.

I hope you enjoy my review and consider buying the new Apple Remote. Thanks!

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http://twitter.com/TroyAllen