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Users of the iPhone have long been looking for ways to utilize their powerful mobile phone as a portal to access internet from their laptops. Most cell phone by the major providers make it it possible to tap into the phone’s network and access it through the user’s laptop. Unfortunately the iPhone was never given such an ability so it fell to the development community to create their own applications.
It was not long that homebrew applications were created to tether the iPhone to a laptop, but Apple heavy handedly shut down the application and refused to support such an application, more because of the contract with AT&T rather then outright unhappiness of what the application did. Still, when the iPhone was “jail broken” tethering became an option and users were frantically trying to share the information with the masses and get them on board in support of jail breaking the iPhone. Apple turned around and said that no Apple store or mail location would support an iPhone out of service due to a botched jail break attempt. Such attempts would be consider a breach of agreement and null and void any support from Apple.
Until now most non-tech savvy users were unawares of jail breaking an iPhone and simply settled for the inability to link up service with their mobile computers. Until now…
The Announcement
On Thursday Nov. 6th, AT&T Mobility Chief, Ralph de la Vega announced that users of the iPhone 3G would be able to tether their phones to their laptops and use them as modems for internet service. The remarkable service will not be available until 2009, but users were left wondering just how it would be implemented, and how much it was going to cost.
Reports state that AT&T was afraid to offer tethering believing that the major influx of users would bring down the network, and thus frustrate customers from purchasing an iPhone. What they failed to realize is that customers were finding work arounds, and even while Apple was shutting applications like NetShare down for providing modem compatibility, AT&T remained deaf to user’s needs.
Information on Apple’s and AT&T’s tethering option became available six days later with costs of $30/month and a 5GB cap on data usage being the key release information. Already users of iPhone with bloated bills are complaining about the cost saying that applications like NetShare are offering their services free of charge. Why would you pay $30 if you know a tried and true app can provide you the same service for free? That seems to be a question AT&T won’t answer for now, but the real question is if tethering is now legitimate, will NetShare be allowed to offer its alternative on Apple’s App Store?
Still, to AT&T’s benefit, after acquiring Wi-Fi provider Wayport, the network is boasting another 20,000 locations to access the network. Could AT&T become successful in having iPhone users pay the monthly fee for the benefit of tethering. With so many access points now added to the already expansive network, only time will tell.
Netflix, an extremely popular online movie renting site, has done what other sites have been unable to do so successfully, bring the end of brick and mortar video renting locations. Not only have physical video rental locations dwindled, but other online competitors simply could not get the following that Netflix was able to acquire with its extensive selection and quick mailing turnaround.
But even with all of its successes, Netflix was still marred by one fact, their streaming option was not supported by Apple computers. Earlier this year Netflix announced that members of their site would be able to directly stream content from their site, making it easier on the user to view as opposed to having to wait for the mail out. This easily accessible option drove streaming use through the roof, but only for Window’s users. Mac owners were left out in this major announcement until now.
Last week it was announced by Netflix, Inc. that testing was being done to ensure that Mac users would be able to stream content by the end of this year. The announcement which many members thought would never come, came with a catch. The streaming technology would only be available for Intel based Macs, and not be supported by older models.
Thanks to Microsoft’s Silverlight technology, Netflix is able to bring it’s streaming library of over 12,000 movies and TV shows to non-windows users. I personally find it ironic that the only way streaming media could have been brought to the Mac was via a windows bridge, ala Silverlight. Nevertheless, those holding onto older Macs have a reason to ditch it for the Intel based models.
Currently there is a Mac media player that is available for beta testing. The product, now available for public beta testing can be downloaded by anyone. The beta as admittedly experienced several bugs that may interfere with the quality of the movie played, but plans from Netflix are to have most if not all of these bugs worked out by the end of the year.
Personally I love Netflix’s “Watch Instantly” choice, and have longed for support on the Mac. Interestingly though, the DRM only allows a certain number of machines that you can watch your streaming media on. This limitation is similar to what iTunes has with its account set up. I’m not necessarily sure this will be much of a problem for most of us, but the limitation seems silly to begin with.
Thus far the player has worked fine on my machine, but even with my limited use I may not come across all of the bugs that are expected to pop up. If you are using the public beta software to stream movies on a mac, I’d like to year about your experiences and whether this was a good move for Netflix, Inc. Make sure to leave your comments and be heard!
Cloud computing has been a buzzword tossed around within the last year, but in the plans for much longer. The idea of cloud computing basically takes files and applications typically native to your hard drive and placing them in the Internet “ether” for users to retrieve on a need basis.
Google has taken great steps to place files in the cloud with apps such as Google Calendar and Google Documents. Amazon has taken strides to offer cloud services and currently leads the market in the cloud-computing sector. While critics will debate the pros and cons of cloud computing, suffice to say that companies are making the move, and just recently Microsoft has taken that step with Azure, which will be discussed in another post.
Two weeks ago, Rackspace managed to host a major event in Austin, TX to announce their movement to the cloud. Rackspace is already a leader in the hosting industry, and now with the cloud computing additions, looks to tackle the market that Amazon has held for a number of years.
The announcement was kicked off by sharing the two companies that Rackspace had acquired to move them closer to full coverage in the cloud, Jungledisk and Slicehost. These two acquisitions fulfill the comprehensive portfolio of services that Rackspace offers to coincide with their hosting services.
According to the Rackspace blog, “Rackspace’s cloud strategy is supported by three core offerings…” These three core areas are:
- Clouds Sites: This is Rackspace’s flagship offering, which offers customers the ability to handle huge spikes in traffic with an easy to use and follow pay-as-you-go strategy. Currently there is support for both Windows and Linux.
- Cloud Files: The idea behind this initiative is to offer developers unlimited storage possibilities with a full scalable service to fit all of their needs. No longer will data need to be stored locally cutting costs for companies by avoiding the high cost of computer hardware.
- Cloud Servers: This new service option for offer on demand hosting services for businesses of all sizes. Using Slicehost as the company’s developer brand, Rackspace will utilize the Xen virtualization software to create innovative new features that will merge Slicehost intellectual property with Rackspace’s development initiatives. The goal is to offer low prices to keep the concept as an attractive and affordable option.
The services will be handled by a subsidiary of Rackspace called Mosso, which is their software development arm. You can catch the rebroadcast this major announcement at RackspaceCloudEvent.com
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