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It appears Sony is threatened by Apple’s growing portfolio of portable devices.  In response, Sony is developing a new lineup of handheld products.  One of the products include a smart phone that will be able to download and play playstation games.  Really?

In addition, Sony also has plans to develop a portable device that looks like a cross between a netbook, an e-reader and a PlayStation Portable. With this gizmo, it looks like Sony has taken dead aim at Apple’s upcoming multifunction device, the iPad.

All this hullaballoo seems to be a more robust version of Sony’s product development plan from last year. With the arrival (March) of Apple’s iPad now an established fact, Sony is scrambling to remain relevant.  Which begs the question.  Since when did anything Sony build to compete with an Apple product actually succeed?  All those VAIO laptops couldn’t hold a candle to even Apple’s entry level Macbooks.  And now Sony thinks it can compete against the iPhone, iPod and iPad?  What is Sony drinking?  They seriously need to check that kool-aid.

No one doubts Sony’s leadership position in the mobile gaming segment, but that’s about to be relegated to history, as Apple surges ahead with its own gaming portfolio made available through the App Store.  Sony will be annihilated if it doesn’t circle the wagons and protect what little they have left.  Instead, Sony is dreaming of greater glory and is now committed to fighting the Apple juggernaut on many fronts.  This is like attacking the Russian front in the middle of winter wearing nothing more than boxers with happy faces on it. 

Sony’s strategic thinking is flawed, and it will end up being whipped by Apple, tossed aside like an irrelevant piece of ancient rubble by the masses.  Why is this concept so hard for Sony to understand?

Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard is not even three months old and it appears that the wizards at 1 Infinite Loop are already hard at work on 10.7.  Evidence has surfaced that Apple is hard at work on the next version of OS X, based on an entry posted earlier today in a database of changes to the open source "launchd" framework.

That framework oversees booting of Mac OS X and administers processes running on the system. More telling is an error message instance which contains the text string "11A47" which appears to be a reference to the Mac OS X build number in use.

11A47: SecurityAgent no longer visible via Accessibility

It is established that Apple’s build numbering scheme employs a numerical prefix indicating major release, then a letter code indicating the minor release and a finally a numerical suffix indicating iterations throughout development.

Taking the recently release Mac OS X Snow Leopard as an example,  when released it had Build 10A432.  A subsequent update (10.6.1) was designated Build 10B504 and the most recent update (10.6.2) was assigned Build 10C540. Prior to Snow Leopard, Mac OS X 10.5 (simply Leopard) had a build number of 9A571 at launch.

With this scheme, the "11A47" string in the launchd change database would appear to refer to the initial version of Mac OS X 10.7.  That the iteration number is merely 47 indicates that it is still early in the development effort.  It does indicate, however, that Apple has been hard at work on this version of OS X for the past month at least.

This actually shouldn’t be that much of a surprise, and should be consider par for the course for Apple.  Operating Systems require an inordinate amount of time to refine and polish.  Many are speculating that 10.7 will usher profound changes in user experience when released, unlike 10.6 Snow Leopard which primarily dealt with behind-the-scenes improvement.

This Apple Tablet thing isn’t a new concept.  In 1997, the man himself (that’s Mr. Jobs for those of you asking), pulled the plug on the Newton, a device that was to revolutionize personal computing, but in the end couldn’t quite live up to the lofty imagineering at One Infinite Loop.

Fast Forward to 2009, and we are again at the doorstep of an anticipated product launch, a ultra portable personal device that is expected to deliver on what the Newton couldn’t do over a decade ago.  There is a race to deliver a keyboard-free, touch-screen ultra portable machine in the next six months.  All eyes are on Apple, which is expected to deliver such a product early next year.

The excitement surrounding such a product release might be perplexing to some; after all, tablet machines have been around in various forms for quite some time now.  Unfortunately, those early incarnations were cumbersome at best, failing to deliver on the promise of a true ultra portable with the power of a desktop.  Fresh blood in the industry, coupled with technical advances have generated far reaching visions of what these Tablets would mean to the market, ranging from the savior of newspaper and various print media, to a true portable tv/movie/video game device.  Think of it as an iPhone on steriods.

Early Tablets, such as those marketed by Microsoft and its hardware allies suffered from a fatal twin problem: their machines cost too much and did not do much of anything.  They were practically worthless.  Despite that, Microsoft appears ready to make another foray. Images of a pad-like Microsoft device called Courier, with two 7-inch color screens, made its rounds on the internet earlier this year.  Ballmer, Microsoft’s head honcho, would not discuss particulars, but intimated that the company experiments with such prototypes all the time.  It appears the market is anxiously awaiting a new computing platform, but the question is, will they be disappointed again?

As always, Apple’s version of the tablet is the most highly anticipated. Apple rehired the original chief marketer of its old Newton, Michael Tchao and Apple colleagues believe he will help market this new device.  It appears that the right questions are being asked internally, at least by Apple.  They are right to question how such a device will be used by the market, for if they fail to articulate that in their marketing schemes, then the device may not become the hot seller they are hoping for in 2010.  The industry in general can ill-afford to bring to market a 2010 version of Microsoft’s failed Tablet device.  This time, they need to deliver a useful product that will be adopted.  Simple enough?

And the copycats keep rolling in.  This time it’s 7digital, a European online music retailer who’s taking its turn at the US market, the latest MP3 store to challenge Apple’s iTunes kingdom. 7digital’s pricing reflects the company’s obsession with the number 7: single tracks for 77 cents, albums for $7.77. Easily 20% less than Apple typically charges but still no guarantee that it will help 7digital to break Apple’s stranglehold over the market.  Remember, others have tried, some are still trying, and to date, no serious threat has emerged. 7digital is counting on partnerships with the likes of LastFM and Spotifyin order to crack the market open.

The risk in partnering with a the likes of LastFM and other streaming service is that users won’t be interested in buying.  When was the last time you “bought” a music streaming through your FM radio?  And with free music streaming available elsewhere, why would they want to?  Admittedly, seventy-seven cents is an aggressive price, but the right balance between the royalties for downloadable tracks and the ones for streams has not quite settled.  Unfortunately, it appears 7digital will be heading to the same unprofitable limbo that many would-be iTunes conquerors now find themselves in.  Yet, they appear undaunted.

If you’re a blogger and you receive any form of compensation to review a product, and you fail to disclose this, you could run afoul of new federal regulations on advertising.

The Federal Trade Commission announced these new rules which are part of the revisions to the Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.  The last time these guides were revised was in 1980!

Are bloggers so influential now that they are beginning to command the attention of the FTC?  It seems so.  Bloggers are mentioned several times in the 81-page revisions.  A blogger can still accept a free sample of a product for review purposes and not have to disclose it, so long as the product isn’t a high-ticket item.  That means if you received a Lexus to review and keep, you’re gonna need to disclose that badboy.

So, what constitutes disclosure?  As always, in their infinite wisdom, the FTC does not specify how the disclosure must be made.  They do require it to be conspicuous.  Perhaps we can juxtapose it to an Adsense block?
New rules go into effect on December 1.  Initially, there are no penalties directly associated with violations. Constantly break the rules and the FTC could seek a cease-and-desist order.  This is when it gets real.  If you ignore the cease-and-desist and continue with your wily ways, you can get fined up to $11,000 per incident.

Unauthorized Mac clone manufacturer Psystar is at it again.  They have announced the launch of a new licensing program that will enable PC manufacturers to preload their machines with Psystar’s boot loader.  This will facilitate simple installation of Mac OS X Snow Leopard directly from the retail DVD.  Psystar has been active of late, launching a number of its own hardware products over the past year and a half that provides the ability to run Mac OS X. Evidently, the licensing initiative will allow manufacturers to have their hardware Psystar Certified, and loaded with the Darwin Universal Boot Loader. Once certified, the products may be purchased by consumers off the shelf or through other channels.

Apple and Psystar have been wrangling with several ongoing lawsuits over the Psystar’s unauthorized use of and modification of Apple’s Mac OS X.  Apple’s licensing precludes modification of the operating system or installation on non-Apple hardware.

There’s still talk swirling around the decision by Apple to leave out a camera from their newest iPod Touch.  Seems like case manufacturers bet on the camera being made available, and went ahead and mass produced cases that anticipated the new design; however the camera was not to be.  That didn’t stop the enterprising case makers, and oddly, some of these cases are now finding themselves in retail stores.  Yes, you read that right: cases are making their way into the retail world, cases that are sporting access holes for a camera that is not to be.
It is not often that Apple shares pre-release design information with case manufacturers, so these guys have to find another way to get such information to enable them to gear up production prior to launch, and have cases available and ready to be sold on launch day.  Unfortunately, in this case, the bet didn’t quite pay off, and though the cases will work with the camera-less iPod Touch, it is odd to have a port hole where it is not needed.