Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Update from the Tech World

Big yawn and a stretch from me. It's been too long since I blogged here, and it's nice to stretch my fingers some and get back to typing. 1337 Librarian here, your faithful techie extraordinaire. Remember me? I'm the one who gives the updates on technology, answers your burning librarian questions, and reviews a lot of books and stuff. Yeah. Me. And it's Tuesday, which means it's time to talk tech.

First, a disclaimer. I've been on vacation for a while, and when I returned, I had over 1000 technology blog posts waiting to be read. That's a lot of blog posts, and time was short. So you want to know what I did? I marked them all as read. Sue me. I didn't read them. I skimmed over them to see if there seemed to be anything terribly important I was missing, but all seemed more or less okay, so I whisked them off my blog reader and into oblivion. So . . . there's a chance I've missed some developments in the past month or so, and if that proves to be the case, you have my apologies.

Of course, the nice thing about the tech world is that they never miss an opportunity to review what's been happening. I'm sure I'll catch up quickly.

Speaking of never missing an opportunity, Apple's doing it's conference thing again. Tomorrow they're launching something music-related. Traditionally, early September is when they launch new iPods. Of course, the debate now is what exactly the demand for new iPods is. For many people, MP3 players have been replaced by all manner of new devices: iPhones, iPads and the like. What's the need for such a specific piece of technology these days? Then again, if any company has proved it excels at showing what the need for a piece of technology is, it's Apple.

Still, chances are the Apple conference won't be iPod-exclusive. There are rumblings that Apple will launch a new version of it's Apple TV device, perhaps to compete with Google's upcoming gadget. (On a side note, can I just say how much it pleases me that there are finally things that are in the pipeline that will hopefully crush cable/satellite's grip on television channels? Cable and satellite are both outdated, and they need to be replaced pronto.) Rumor has it that Apple will start renting television shows for something like .99/show. When you consider that there are sometimes only a handful of shows people really want to follow that aren't available online already for free (I'm looking at you, Mythbusters), this is a price point I can get behind. It would let me watch the shows I want at a fraction of what I'd pay for cable or satellite.

Other potential items for the conference: iPad software updates, iPod Touch updates (front facing camera and Facetime, anyone?) and who knows what else. Suffice it to say, it should be interesting to see what comes of it. Tune in next week for an overview and rundown of the basics.

No comments:

Post a Comment