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Jamie Shaw of Geeks-on-Wheels knows what’s new in computerland

Google TV
Google has a new platform called Google TV in partnership with Sony, Intel, and Logitech that is meant to merge the web with your living room television. Google say Google TV will help you access web videos and other online content, TV programming, recorded shows on your DVR, and more. Google TV will feature universal search capabilities making it faster and easier to access the content you want to find, whether it’s online or scheduled on regular TV. The search giant is also planning to integrate third-party applications into Google TV to bring more web functionality to the platform.

Apple cash sales
In the US Apple has reversed its policy of accepting only debit and credit cards for purchases of its latest device. The policy change was prompted by a Diane Campbell, who tried to purchase an iPad with $600 cash she had saved up, only to be turned away from the Apple Store because she didn’t have a debit or credit card. Picked up by a local news station, the story caught the attention of Apple brass, leading to the reversal. Best of all, Apple also delivered a free iPad to Campbell, who was amazed and gratified by the offer. In an interview with the reporter that broke the story, Apple senior vice president of retail Ron Johnson explained that the previous policy had been enacted to strictly limit iPad purchases to two per customer, ensuring that everybody would have a chance to buy one.

Hotmail update
Microsoft has unveiled the next version of Hotmail, showing off several new features which already exist in rival Google’s Gmail. Hotmail remains the world’s biggest webmail service, although it has trailed behind Gmail in terms of features for many years. Now it appears Microsoft is keen to close the gap. Among the list of new features being introduced into Hotmail are in-message previews of YouTube videos and Flickr photos, a facility that graduated from Gmail’s Labs earlier this year.

YouTube celebrates
YouTube has celebrated two milestones: generating over two billion views a day, and turning five years old. The California-based video sharing site, now a subsidiary of Google, was launched in beta five years ago with a mission to provide people with a place to upload and share their videos with the world. YouTube started very much as a site for tech-savvy video bloggers, but has since evolved into a global platform used by Hollywood studios and broadcasters to reach a huge audience. Its use in the corporate world has also grown, as companies exploit the site to push marketing and other material to customers, as well as internal video communications such as training videos and addresses by senior executives.YouTube was bought by Google towards the end of 2006 for around $1.65bn.

iPad a hit
The Apple iPad is selling almost twice as well as Mac computers, according to new figures. An RBC Capital Markets analyst claims the tablet is exceeding all expectations in the US, with sales almost reaching iPhone levels. In a research note the analyst says: “Checks indicate that US iPad sales remain strong post-launch, driven by rising consumer visibility to iPad’s user experience, sustained PR/word-of-mouth marketing, 3G iPad launch, and broadening iPad apps/content.” The note also states that: “We believe Apple is now selling >200k iPads/week, greater than US Macs (estimated 110k Macs/week) and just below US iPhone 3GS first quart (246k/week).” The healthy launch figures have prompted forecasted global iPad sales from five to eight million in 2010.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 2nd, 2010 at 12:51 pm and is filed under Geeks. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.