talkingDigital

Amazon Spindle

UPDATE: I missed the part of the story where the author in wired mentioned that this was a hypothetical piece of equipment. Nevertheless, my commentary still applies.

Earlier this week Apple announced the new iPod Shuffle. A device that could only be worse if it was made by Coby.

Wired is reporting that Amazon is looking to get into the game with a new type of device called the Spindle. While the images look like mock-ups, the concept may just work. Amazon’s music store may not have as rich of a catalog as iTunes, but its versatility makes it superior in many ways.

If Amazon can find a way to add the Spindle to the Kindle’s 3G network for music downloads, Apple may have a real fight on their hands. Especially if their innovative products continue to almost dare their beloved followers to prove their loyalty.

The Macbook Air, iPod Shuffle, and iPhone’s lack of background process are just a few examples of how Apple may become like Palm in the future. By releasing devcies that are just innovative enough to give competitors an idea of how to improve upon the concept and release a superior product.

Spindle: Amazon’s Secret Plan To Beat iTunes | Gadget Lab from Wired.com.

Remember the second mouse button that Apple didn’t have for roughly 15 years. OS X supported the right mouse click and perhaps even OS 9 supported it, but Apple refused to release such a piece of hardware. A fact for which Logitech and Microsoft were no doubt grateful.

When they did release the right mouse button, it was not actually a button, the right side of the mouse just worked like a right mouse button. Even today, the right mouse button is a special feature for Mac desktops and is still not supported on Macbook touch pads. Apple still wants you to use the keyboard shortcut for the context menus.

Cut, copy and paste is the right mouse click of the iPhone world. A feature that is so high in demand that it made CNET’s top predictions for 2009. Type “Copy and Paste iPhone” into Google and you come up with nothing but rants and rumors for dozens of pages. Everyone wants copy and paste for the iPhone.

Many sources for Mac rumors are predicting that copy and paste is coming to the iPhone with the new 3.0 update. That’s right, Apple waited 3 generations to release the biggest complaint about their most popular device.

Like the right mouse button, when it is announced everyone will go crazy. They will say stuff like, “It’s about time!” Then they will send out press releases, blogs and tweets about how revolutionary Apple is to address their users concerns.

One last prediction – copy and paste will most likely work differently than it does on any other device. In order to address the concern they will need to make it work differently as to create the illusion that the delay was due to difficult development – not to sell more devices or an update later. I would also not be surprised if the 3.0 update did not work on first generation models. I expect it to, but it wouldn’t surprise me if this was the case.

Apple May Give iPhone 3.0 Cut And Paste — IPhone — InformationWeek.

There are lots of reasons I don’t watch the Sci Fi channel much. I don’t watch it because the shows are better on Hulu or Netflix. I can’t imagine that I will watch it any more often if they change the name to Syfy?

Who’s idea was this?

I can just imagine the marketing conversation that lead to this decision.

Sci Fi Channel Aims to Shed Geeky Image With New Name – TVWeek – News.