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Tag Archives: iPhone

For Pandora Web radio and founder Westergren, success is hear

Monday, March 8, 2010

I was very pleased this morning when I opened the New York Times to see a story about Pandora — the Web radio service, not the fictional planet — on the front page of the Business section. Better, it was a story about Pandora turning a major corner in its development, not a plea for [...]

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Too much traffic for dashboard-mounted GPS units

Thursday, March 4, 2010

An excerpt from my Vegas Seven column. This week, why prices for dashboard-mounted GPS units are crashing.
A quick search of Amazon.com returns several fine models, most below $150 and many priced below $100. Two major players, Garmin and TomTom, dominate these price points, offering models at a steep discount compared with this time last year, [...]

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Keeping up with social media is tiring

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

I have no great insights beyond that headline. I just spent about 15 to 25 minutes updating my profiles on LinkedIn and Twitter,  checking my Facebook news feed and glancing — but not committing — to the chatter that filters through on Google Buzz.
Sometimes I think of checking up on all those virtual hangouts I [...]

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NBC strikes gold with iPhone Olympic app, Twitter integration

Monday, February 15, 2010

In a pleasant surprise, NBC has delivered an iPhone app for the 2010 Winter Olympics that lives up to the promise of the games themselves.
When I downloaded the free app — awkwardly titled NBC Olympics on AT&T — I expected a TV guide-type utility, where I would find the schedules for the events airing across [...]

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What are Chicago’s best iPhone Apps?

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Well, that’s a loaded question. The best apps, in my view, are the ones that provide the most value to the user. So when Chicago Magazine asked me to explore the topic of Best iPhone Apps for Chicago for its January issue, I considered the apps I use each day plus the ones I thought [...]

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The flaw in the Apple iPad’s e-reader plans

Thursday, January 28, 2010

Reading ebooks on the Apple iPad’s big screen will probably be more enjoyable than reading on the Amazon Kindle or the Kindle app on the iPhone. (Some people may prefer actual books.)
But will it matter if you’re reading an ebook using the Kindle app on the iPad or Apple’s new iBook app? Frankly, I don’t [...]

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The Apple iPad pricing is revolutionary. But is the iPad?

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Apple’s iPad is iCandy, that’s for sure. But based on the demonstration I saw today — from the Internet and not live — I was largely underwhelmed with the exception of one key area: price.
The iPad looks like a giant iPhone or, more precisely, a giant iPod touch, a device I don’t think is generally [...]

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Last.fm: My new favorite iPhone app

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

If there is a type of iPhone app that could be considered my favorite, it would easily be those that stream music or radio. When I work, I listen to music. It keeps me relaxed and focused; but if there’s a drawback, it’s that I listen to so much music that I crave variety.
Look no [...]

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Tech’s endangered species: the stand-alone GPS unit

Friday, January 22, 2010

Even though Nokia foresaw a huge market for GPS services on mobile phones when it bought Chicago digital mapmaker Navteq in late 2007 for $8.1 billion, I’m pretty confident it didn’t plan on offering free turn-by-turn driving directions on Nokia phones. At least not so soon.
But that’s exactly what Nokia announced Thursday, saying 10 of [...]

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The Apple tablet: Will we really need one?

Thursday, January 21, 2010

I’m as interested as anyone in seeing the tablet-type product Apple is expected to introduce on Jan. 27. But there is one thing I am especially curious to find out: Will people feel they really need an Apple tablet?
Apple will not be the first computer maker to introduce a tablet. Indeed, the iPod was not [...]

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