"This is pretty brilliant in its own special way. Let's paint the scene -- you're wandering the cold streets of Chicago a few months from now, and you're wondering where the closest pizza place is. You whip out your iPhone to pull up the Google Maps application, but wait -- your hands are covered in gloves, and no matter how much you try to swipe the screen, you can't get it to register your swipes, much less hit those little keys on the keyboard. But it's too cold to take your gloves off -- what do you do?"
According to Microsoft they do, or at least one of their top officials. CNET sat down with Brad Brooks, who happens to be the Vice President of Windows Consumer Product Marketing. First off, take a look at this guy...
In my opinion, he looks like a toolbag. Although looks can be deceiving, after reading his interview, I feel my initial judgment was correct. I pulled a few good questions and answers from the interview, but it's definitely worth reading in its entirety if you're at all a nerd and need a good laugh.
"Q: Where are things at right now with Vista in the market?
Brooks: No. 1 is that we're seeing consumer perceptions in general swinging in a much more positive direction. We're seeing people have an even better experience after SP1, and we also are starting to see people realize the value that has always been inherent in Windows, that is really starting to play out with the economic conditions that are starting to swirl around us today."
Explain to me exactly what you mean about economic condit... Read more
"There are a lot of App Store submissions and works-in-progress that trigger anticipatory drooling here at TUAW, among them the program guide and movie finder i. TV; we first saw it a few weeks ago and I've been checking every day to see if it's shipped. Now you can download this free tool from the App Store and see for yourself what's so exciting. (The promo video on the i.tv site borrows heavily from Apple's 1984 ad and the Apple TV intro, so clearly there's an effort to brand this app as 'revolutionary.')
The heart of i. TV is a TV listings browser, which connects to the free data feed from the i.tv site (registration is required), including synopses and cast info. You can select your zip code and programming provider and the current schedules are there at your fingertips; you can rate, review, filter or flag shows as favorites and optionally share your feedback with other i.TV users."
This is pretty damn cool. I hope Apple approves it.
"Heart Monitor on the iPhone 3G uses the in built microphone to detect, calculate and store your heart rate. You can measure the pulse on your neck or wrist and even directly over your heart.
A second mode allows you to simply measure your pulse manually when training by telling you when to start and stop counting. You can then enter your pulse count and this too will be stored."
Part one made it's debut a few weeks ago, which explains how to enable iTunes library sharing, but what if you don't want to manage all of your music from one computer? What if you want a physical copy of all your songs on multiple computers? This is where part 2 of sharing your music with iTunes comes in. Actually, we won't be using iTunes to share the music at all. Windows comes with the ability to share files and folders, which is how we'll get this up and running. Sorry Mac users, but you're sharing article will be written in a few weeks.
After Googling a few steps I wasn't so sure on, I found an amazing write up on lifehacker that uses the method I was going to explain plus they throws in a few extra goodies to make it even easier. Opposed to reinventing the wheel, I decided to just link to their article for this part.
iTunes version 8 was recently released but unfortunately it appears as though it is not yet ready for prime time. In my own experience, frequent blue screens of death (BSOD) have occurred courtesy of the new iTunes, but all is not lost! Simply rolling back your iTunes install or using System Restore should correct the problem. I recommend trying to uninstall iTunes and installing an older version to remedy the issue. I unfortunately couldn't find the last major release of 7 (7.7.1), but did find a link to 7.0.2 (sorry iPhone users).
