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iPad orders start at 8:30AM tomorrow morning

We knew iPad pre-orders were starting tomorrow, but know we know exactly when all you lovable crazies have to stumble out of bed and transmit your credit card numbers to Steve’s brain: 8:30AM ET, or 5:30AM on the West Coast. We generally recommend a bed shaker alarm clock, but hey, let’s not pretend we haven’t all turned a few long nights into tomorrow with our old friends Jackie D and Mistakes. See you on the other side, chochachos.

iPad orders start at 8:30AM tomorrow morning originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 11 Mar 2010 20:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Facebook’s 1st CTO Launches His Next Company (Screen Shots)

Adam D’Angelo was a programming genius who knew Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg in high school, became the young company’s first CTO and has just begun to unveil his new startup company, Quora. Built by D’Angelo and a team of crack young engineers, Quora is a real-time enabled Q&A site. The company calls itself “A continually improving collection of questions and answers.” In our very early testing it’s a pleasure to use, but we’re going to share screen shots with you tonight and write about it in depth after more extensive use tomorrow.

Is this the next Facebook? Probably not – but it does look pretty fabulous. The service is still in closed beta (we’ve been trying to get in for months) but here’s some screenshots that show some key features.

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Quora is a little like Aardvark, the social Q&A service founded by ex-Googlers and rumored to be in Google’s acquisition sites, and it’s a little like Stack Overflow, the carefully crafted Q&A site for programmers that’s shot through the roof with reader interest.  It’s definitely different though.  

Co-founder Charlie Cheever says it’s built on Tornado, the real-time infrastructure built by FriendFeed, then bought and open sourced by Facebook. That’s a nice touch.

Here’s what we’ve seen so far. Click these screenshots to get a bigger view of each of them. There are more coming up. We’ll do our best to offer invites tomorrow morning.

Discuss

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The Pricing Smoke Around The Tablet Fire

Just when you thought everyone was all talked out about the Apple Tablet, there comes more news. But today’s news is both odd and interesting for a few reasons.

The big news today comes from a Wall Street Journal article which definitively states in the title: Apple to Ship Tablet Device in March. You’d think WSJ would be opposed to using such a title unless they were sure that it is accurate. But early in their own story, the two authors note that “the device’s ship date hasn’t been finalized and could still change.” Still, I guess that’s forgivable if the company’s current plan is to ship in March. Regardless, this would seem to be yet more fuel to the fire that the device is actually real, and is coming soon. But things get a bit stranger as the article goes on.

The article as it appears now has been rewritten from when it first appeared earlier. I know this because I read both versions, and a simple Google search turns up a number of sentences and phrases that are no longer in the story, but are being quoted by multiple other sites and blogs. It’s not uncommon for blogs to write something quickly if there is a breaking story, and then flesh it out and perhaps even alter it a bit later, but again, this is the WSJ, and not their blog — this presumably is an article that will run in the paper tomorrow morning. Still, they had one version, and then changed it.

So what changed? Mostly it has been fleshed out more, but the wording of a few passages have been altered as well. For example, originally the article had this line in it:

Analysts currently believe an Apple tablet will be priced at about $1,000, possibly including a subscription to a nationwide Wi-Fi wireless service.

That line, which originally was featured prominently (high up) in the story, no longer exists. Instead, farther down we get this new wording:

A key factor for the tablet’s success will be price. Yair Reiner, an analyst for Oppenheimer & Co., said in a research note last month that the tablet would be priced at about $1,000, citing sources. One challenge: Apple’s MacBook laptops start at $999.

And below that, we get:

Richard Doherty, director of technology consulting firm Envisioneering Group, said such a price could include a subscription to a nationwide Wi-Fi wireless service such as those run by AT&T Inc. and Verizon Wireless, which provide Internet access at thousands of hot-spots such as airports, hotels and restaurants.

It would seem that the WSJ wanted to make it more clear that it was specific analysts, and not them, suggesting the $1,000 price tag and the nationwide Wi-Fi idea. And that’s understandable since literally dozens of blogs and traditional media outlets are reporting right now that the WSJ is stating the price is “about $1,000″ with some also noting the WiFi idea as coming from WSJ. And it’s hard to blame any of these sites, since that’s exactly how I read it originally. And tweets like this, from the main WSJ account, didn’t help:

Exclusive: Apple to unveil a 10- to 11-inch tablet later this month for about $1,000. Shipping in March.

Nor did the one from their community Twitter account:

Word is out – Apple to Ship Tablet Device in March, priced around $1,000

You’ll notice the main WSJ Twitter feed tweeted the story again, presumably after it was altered.

Here’s what I’m wondering about all of this: Is Apple itself behind some of this information?

Of course, there’s no real evidence to prove this, so this is all speculation, but hear me out for a minute. Back in June, you may recall that the WSJ broke the story about Steve Jobs’ liver transplant. The news sent shockwaves around the tech community because Apple had done such a good job of keeping it a secret despite the fact that Jobs had to go live in Tennessee for a few months to get it done. And the timing of that story was suspicious, to say the least. The news broke on June 19, a Friday, at night no less, after the stock market had closed for the weekend (leaving the whole weekend for investors to settle down and realize that Jobs was now okay). It also broke two months after the actual transplant had occurred. Oh, did I mention it also broke on the day of a huge and hugely successful new launch for Apple: The iPhone 3GS? Yep. Curious.

And guess who was the lead author on that article? None other than Yukari Iwatani Kane, the lead author of this latest article as well.

So, why would Apple leak some information now? Well, there are a few possibilities. First, Google is holding a big event tomorrow that is presumably for its new Nexus One Android device. The device is widely considered to be the best Android phone yet, and brings the platform closer in terms of hardware to Apple’s own iPhone. The rivalry between those two camps continues to grow, and undoubtedly Apple would have no problem stealing some headlines and buzz away from its frenemy.

Second, CES starts this week. Normally, Apple would be attending the Macworld Expo around now and holding a keynote event to unveil some new products which in recent years have almost completely overshadowed CES. This year, Apple will not be participating in Macworld for the first time, and the event has actually been moved to a later date. Apple is also expected to hold its own event later this month (to presumably show off the tablet), but leaking some of this news now continues the tradition of overshadowing what its rivals are doing at CES.

Third, and most importantly, Apple leaking any information about the tablet in the weeks leading up to the event helps to set expectations — and if they’re doing that, they’re meaning to set them realistically, or maybe more likely, low. The amount of hype surrounding the tablet right now is incredible. About the only thing you can compare it to is the hype leading up to the iPhone three years ago. And this may be getting even bigger. If it gets too big, and Apple underwhelms with what is announced, it will obviously look bad for them.

While it’s certainly possible that the WSJ decided “about $1,000″ was a good price to quote from analysts, there are at least as many people out there suggesting the device would be more like $600 – $800 — a price that would be much more attractive to consumers. With that in mind, and going along with my little thinking-out-loud-speculation here, I don’t think it’s impossible that Apple could have nudged WSJ towards the $1,000 predictors to temper expectations a bit.

The fact that the wording was odd, and it seemed like the WSJ itself was saying the thing would be “about $1,000″ is even better. It’s in people’s minds now that this is how much it will be, and they can ponder that for a few weeks leading up to the event. That way, if the device actually is around that price, people will have been prepared for it when it’s officially announced. It will put the product’s features back into the spotlight, rather than the price, which will have been already known.

Let’s remember, above all, Apple loves its high margins. If this tablet device is really as great as many of us are expecting, it has got to be expensive to build. Apple is not going to sell a device at low margins, they’re just not going to do it. So I certainly would not rule out a $1,000 price tag depending on what it costs to make.

These next few weeks, analysts and pundits will go on and on about how a $1,000 tablet will be a total failure. Of course, they’ve been saying that about iMacs in a time of cheap PCs, MacBooks in a time of cheap netbooks, iPhones in a time of cheap cellphones, etc, for a long time now. Apple has a great track record of defying those rules. Even at $1,000, I would not bet against this device. And if there is any truth to this WiFi subscription service idea (which, again, is a bit odd that WSJ would randomly mention), the thought is that it would be baked into the price of the device — something which Apple would undoubtedly play up. This is similar to how Amazon bakes the cost of wireless service into the Kindle (which has been selling very well despite what many to believe a price tag that is too high).

That said, Kane’s statements in her video follow-up to the article are interesting as well. She notes that “the price could come down really quickly if Apple decided that that’s what they wanted to do.” This is of course what happened with the original iPhone in 2007. Apple launched it at $600 but shaved a few hundred dollars off the price just a few months later to spur sales. And that seems to suggest that Kane, for whatever reason, really believes the device will be around $1,000. Are we really to believe she’s that confident in one analysts’ guesswork?

And there is a flip-side to all of this: Again, going along with my scenario, maybe Apple pointed towards the $1,000 price to set expectations very low in the weeks leading up to the event. That way, if they announce the device at $800, the public will erupt in applause, overjoyed that it’s not $1,000. Classic under promise, over deliver.

This is of course all just speculation, but I’m not so sure it’s that far out there. Certainly, I wouldn’t put any of the scenarios I laid out past Apple, which has a masterful hand when it comes to manipulating the media.

One more thing: A lot of sites are also re-reporting the WSJ saying the tablet will be 10 or 11 inches, with some even saying it could come in both sizes. What they actually said was that it would be 10 to 11 inches. Again, in the video, Kane makes this more clear. That presumably means the tablet will come in one size that is between 10 and 11 inches.  Though who knows what they’re talking about with the two different possible finishes. Maybe one aluminum and one plastic, like the various stages of the iPhone and Macs? Hopefully, all of these things will be answered at the end of this month.

[photos: flickr/tombothetominator and myuibe]

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How Serious Is Justin.tv About Fighting Live Broadcasting Piracy?

Justin.tv, one of the most popular live webcasting services on the net, will be testifying in a hearing held by the House Judiciary Committee tomorrow morning. The topic of the hearing: the future of live online sports broadcasting.

We got hold of the startup’s written and oral testimony, which Justin.tv hopes will be enough to convince the Committee that the nature of live video broadcasting makes it impossible for them to avoid copyrighted content from ending up on the site, whether it’s live sports or other content like TV shows.

Ultimately, Justin.tv calls on the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), which they claim should provide them with a safe harbor for copyright-infringing content that appears on the website before they or the appropriate right owners get a chance to remove it.

In the testimonies, Justin.tv goes to great lengths to make sure they’re considered a technology provider first and foremost, which delivers a platform that can unfortunately be misused by individuals to violate the rights of third parties. The startup states that it aims to bring live video into the mainstream much like Flickr, The Huffington Post and YouTube have done for online images, news and video clips.

The question is: are they really doing everything they can to fight piracy?

In October 2009, Justin.tv claims to have delivered over forty-seven million hours of live video to over thirty million viewers around the world. The company says it has worked with content owners to assure that the appearance of unauthorized content on Justin.tv remains limited, and that they provide rights owners with tools that permit them to monitor the site and directly initiate the takedown of content they claim is being transmitted without authorization.

In addition, Justin.tv claims to have developed a “commercially-viable” system in partnership with Vobile that permits unauthorized content on the site that is not immediately detected by a copyright owner to be identified and removed automatically from Justin.tv. The company says it does way more than the law requires to prevent illegal content from ending up on the site.

But seriously, all it takes is a visit to this page, which features streams from the most popular “producers”, to see that their efforts have been mostly in vain. As you can tell from the screenshot above, that page is (for now) filled to the rim with unauthorized content, which undoubtedly brings a lot of eyeballs with it. Browse Justin.tv long enough, and you’ll discover everything from movies to TV shows to hardcore porn.

How hard can it be to monitor only the most streamed live channels and take down broadcastings of TV shows such as Friends, South Park and The Office? The biggest copyright infringements are the ones going on in channels that get the most traffic – that’s the nature of the beast – so they shouldn’t be too hard to spot.

Either their identification and fingerprinting technology doesn’t work all that well, or Justin.tv isn’t as serious about fighting piracy as they claim to be in their testimonies. Or both, of course.

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Google’s Busy Week

I thought December was supposed to be a quiet month, where people go on vacation, and companies don’t launch new things. I was wrong. This week is shaping up to be a very busy one for Google as they could have as many as three substantial launches in three days.

Monday: Tomorrow morning, the company is holding an event in Mountain View, CA to talk about the evolution of its search product over the years. That may sound ho-hum, but they are also promising to introduce a “few new features that we hope will change the way people search in the future.” Presenting will be no less than Google VP of Search Products and User Experience, Marissa Mayer, Google Fellow, Amit Singhal, and Google VP of Engineering, Vic Gundotra. All heavy hitters.

Is this Google’s answer to the Bing event last week, where they showed off the impressive looking new Bing Maps beta product? You can bet that whatever they unveil, it won’t involve Silverlight. And I wouldn’t bet against it involving Twitter in some way, just like Microsoft’s announcements did.

Tuesday: This is far from certain, but word is that Tuesday could be the day Chrome for Mac beta finally gets released. We know the launch is imminent, as the beta version is now complete and the team has moved on to getting the left-out features working. But there is one bug that might hold up the launch (it popped up late after all the beta blocker bugs were previously eliminated).

It’s definitely worth noting that on the Chromium Development Calendar, December 8 (this Tuesday) is the date listed for “4.0 Beta to Beta Channel.” Chrome 4.0 is already in beta testing for Windows, and before that launched in early November, the calendar featured the same message. No word on the Linux build, but that could certainly go beta on Tuesday as well. Also worth noting is that 4.0 is scheduled to go “stable” on January 12, so that may be the Chrome 4.0 official launch (at least for Windows).

Wednesday: This is the day that Google will officially launch Chrome Extensions, is the latest thing we’re hearing. We noted over the weekend that at some point this week (and probably mid-week) this would happen, and it looks like Wednesday (and possibly Wednesday evening) is the day.

The one-two punch of launching Chrome for Mac beta and then having Chrome Extensions would be nice, except for the fact that Chrome for Mac beta won’t support them right away. But the latest builds of Chromium do, so everyone will be able to try out the new extensions at launch.

The Rest: So that’s the first three days of the week with possible things on each day. And if you count Sunday as the start of the week, I guess you could throw in Google CEO Eric Schmidt finally joining Twitter as another event.

Is Google going to give us a breather on Thursday and Friday? Who knows, but at this rate they’ll probably announce that they are dropping all support for IE on Christmas.

[photo: flickr/bramus]

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Gboard: The keyboard Gmail users have been waiting for?

I’m not terribly interested in most of the devices that could hypothetically improve interaction with my MacBook. An ergonomic keyboard? Yawn. A mouse? Whatever. But there’s a new product called the Gboard that I can’t wait to try out.

The Gboard, as you might be able to guess, is a keyboard made up of buttons for the different keyboard shortcuts in email service Gmail. So instead of mousing and scrolling around the Gmail site to accomplish different tasks, or learning the keyboard shortcuts in Gmail, you just hit a button to search, to reply, to archive, to delete, and so on.

I like the idea because my work life is really built around Gmail (I probably spend more time in my work Gmail account than anywhere else on the web), yet I still haven’t learned the keyboard shortcuts. Anything that makes me more efficient in dealing with email would be much appreciated. It’s supposed to be easy to set up (just plug it into your USB port and turn Gmail shortcuts on), and is priced very reasonably — only $19.99.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to get a Gboard to test before tonight’s launch, but I’ve been told one will arrive in the mail first thing tomorrow morning. I’ll be sure to report on my impressions. You can buy a copy for yourself at the Gboard website.

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Apple 3×3 access point hits the FCC with 5.8GHz bands

The FCC did let one Apple product through to its online database tonight, although nothing that’ll excite you quite like magical mice or revved up iMacs. Instead we’re looking at models A1354 and A1355, a pair of 802.11 a/b/g/n 3×3 access points with the exact same, nondescript label picture that indicates some heft to the unit. There’s not much to say here, although the A1354 had a revision on the antenna gain in the 5.8GHz band. At this point it’s just another thing to add to that penciled-in list of rumored Apple announcements for tomorrow morning.

Read – BCGA1354
Read – BCGA1355

Filed under: Networking

Apple 3×3 access point hits the FCC with 5.8GHz bands originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 19 Oct 2009 22:41:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple to introduce host of new machines, new multitouch input devices tomorrow?

We’re not sure why John Gruber and Dan Lyons are having some sort of megalomaniacal Apple super-pundit standoff, but we’ll sit here and take the spoils: Gruber’s just one-upped Lyons’s earlier vague tease of new Apple gear tomorrow with a pretty specific list of things he’s apparently heard we’ll see, including new iMacs and plastic MacBooks, revved Mac Minis (including one that runs OS X Server), a new multitouch “Magic Mouse” (ha!) and some sort of multitouch desktop trackpad accessory. That pretty much covers every rumor and vague whisper we’ve heard over the past few months, so it’s actually a fairly conservative set of predictions, outside of that trackpad — which itself may or may not be related to this multitouch input device patent from a couple weeks ago. We’ll see what happens tomorrow morning — at this point we’re half expecting a tablet, a pony, and some sort of multitouch waffle maker as well.

Filed under: Desktops, Laptops, Peripherals

Apple to introduce host of new machines, new multitouch input devices tomorrow? originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 19 Oct 2009 20:51:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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