The latest from TechCrunch
- Death By Air And Thunderbolt: Is It The End Of The Line For The MacBook?
- NEC Medias: Docomo To Offer The World's Thinnest Smartphone In 3 Weeks
- Online Freight Brokerage Open Mile Raises $6 Million
- Readability Tries Again With Apple — Has The Subscription Policy Already Shifted?
| Death By Air And Thunderbolt: Is It The End Of The Line For The MacBook? | Top |
| As you’re undoubtedly aware by now, tomorrow (in just a few hours, really), Apple is expected to unveil their latest line of laptops. News has already started to trickle out about what’s getting upgraded and what’s changing . Noticeably absent in this talk is the MacBook itself. And that begs the question: is it the end of the line for the product? Simply put: it should be. Given last year’s significant upgrades to the MacBook Air, the MacBook is now a lame duck . It’s not the smallest Apple laptop, it’s not the most powerful Apple laptop, and it’s not even the cheapest Apple laptop anymore (the 11-inch Air has tied it at $999). And given the specs leaking out about the new 13-inch MacBook Pro, it’s hard to imagine a scenario in which someone would buy a regular MacBook anymore. Well, unless they’re really into white plastic. Sure enough, one report has the white MacBook going away. And the truth is that Apple has seemingly been slowly phasing it out for sometime now. It used to be that the MacBook was a flagship product. It was one that sold extremely well to students and first-time Mac buyers since it was introduced in 2006 to succeed the iBook. In 2008, it even got the aluminum unibody upgrade that enticed some MacBook Pro users (like myself) to get one. It really seemed as if it was more of a “Pro” machine — a natural successor to the old, popular 12-inch PowerBook G4. And as such, by mid 2009, Apple essentially decided to elevate the 13-inch unibody MacBook into a MacBook Pro. That left the 13-inch white plastic model as the only remaining MacBook. Apple gave it a small makeover and continued to give it spec upgrades, but it clearly only existed to satisfy the bottom of market (well, the bottom of Apple’s market) — it existed so that Apple could say that had a laptop for under $1,000. But again, the new MacBook Air models changed the situation. The 11-inch model was far more portable for the same $999 entry-level price. And the 13-inch model was just as powerful and also much more portable. These are now the low price-point models. But they don’t exist just to be cheap. Apple has effectively killed off that option while maintaining the “cheap” price point. It’s now a price point tied to arguably the best laptops Apple has ever made . With the MacBook Pros now about to gain faster Intel chips and new technology like Thunderbolt (the Intel-created high speed port formerly known as “Light Peak”), but maintaining elements such as large (but slower) traditional hard drives and optical drives, they’re more clearly differentiated from the Air line. At the same time, the 13-inch Pro model will likely keep the $1,199 price point (thanks to less powerful graphics options, among other things) and it will allow those who really want something like an optical drive, a chance to get one for relatively cheap. And again, it will be much more powerful than the 13-inch MacBook. Just about the only reason Apple would have for keeping the MacBook alive at this point is if they wanted to offer a really affordable laptop. The MacBook only makes sense as at a price point around $700 at this point, in my mind. But Apple has been reluctant to go that low in the past; I doubt they will now. And so we may be left with a MacBook line without an actual MacBook. CrunchBase Information Apple Information provided by CrunchBase | |
| NEC Medias: Docomo To Offer The World's Thinnest Smartphone In 3 Weeks | Top |
| On Monday, we've just shown you some leaked pictures , but we can now confirm the world's thinnest smartphone, NEC Casio Mobile's MEDIAS N-04C, is real. And provider NTT Docomo , Japan's biggest mobile carrier, doesn't want to lose time in bringing it to market: it will hit stores over here as early as March 15. Read the rest on MobileCrunch . | |
| Online Freight Brokerage Open Mile Raises $6 Million | Top |
| A freight brokerage is a service that brings together someone who wants to to transport goods (like oranges, or iPods) with the trucking company that wants to transport them. Open Mile , which is today announcing a $6 million round of Series B funding, is the first such service that attempts to bring these relatively unglamorous transactions online, tapping into a $60 billion industry which is heavily phone and fax based. Read: It’s disruptive. The financing was led by Globespan Capital Parters and rounded out by existing investor Charles River Ventures . “The team has tapped into a real need in a market fraught with outdated manual approaches,” says Globespan’s Andy Goldfarb on the motivation behind the significant (for the relatively slow-moving industry) investment. What makes the Open Mile platform different from other freight brokerages is that it uses mobile devices to connect thousands of truckers with thousands of shippers, managing the entire process from booking through delivery. And its emphasis on employing innovative technologies allows it to operate at a lower cost than traditional brokers. Right now Open Mile works with over 5,000 trucking companies as partners, connecting them to a wide range of shipping organizations from small to large. Open Mile plans on using the funding to further expand on its engineering and core product efforts, as well as hire into its marketing and sales teams. CrunchBase Information Open Mile Information provided by CrunchBase | |
| Readability Tries Again With Apple — Has The Subscription Policy Already Shifted? | Top |
| @readability Readability The Readability iOS app has been re-submitted. Coming soon: our open love letter to Apple. about 11 hours ago via web Retweet Reply A couple days ago, Readability was pissed off . In an open letter to Apple, they noted that the new subscription policy “smacks of greed”. And they threatened to abandon Apple’s platform in favor of the open web. This message resonated with many, as there’s a huge amount of unease about Apple’s new policy in the developer community. But now, just two days later, Readability has re-submitted their app to Apple for review. And apparently, a “love letter” to the company is forthcoming. So why the change from war to peace? Has Apple’s policy already changed? Well, no — not yet, anyway. Readability’s Richard Ziade said his tweet was a “joke” and had this to say: We did re-submit to Apple with an explanation of why we think they should approve Readability. We did not speak to anyone at Apple. We have no idea if they'll approve it. We just explained ourselves as best we could through the appeal process. So no good news yet, but there may be hope. The reason for Readability initial outburst was because Apple rejected their app on the grounds that it didn’t use their in-app purchase system — the one that would require them to give 30 percent of their revenue to Apple. The company thought this was unfair and didn’t make a lot of sense because they think of themselves as a software as a service (SaaS) company that doesn’t actually sell content, but a service. This matters because an email supposedly sent by Steve Jobs shortly after this incident claimed that the subscription rules were meant for “publishing apps, not SaaS apps”. This is a bit of a gray area because Readability does sort of serve up content, but it’s not their content, it’s re-purposed content. Still, Apple taking 30 percent of their revenues would drastically alter their business model, and could have forced them to shut down, or simply not do an iPhone app. How Apple approaches the app now post-Jobs comment will say a lot about their intentions for the policy going forward. As Ziade says, “stay tuned!” CrunchBase Information Apple Information provided by CrunchBase | |
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