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Items by The Business Insider

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  25 Things You Can Remote Control With Your iPhone [Apple]

  Posted: March 16th, 2010, 2:40pm EDT by The Business Insider

  #apple One of the more interesting things you can do with the iPhone is use it as a remote control for other devices. Since the iPhone App Store launched almost two years ago, developers have created hundreds of remote control applications. More »
  
  
  
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  Which iPad 3G Data Plan Should You Buy? [Apple]

  Posted: January 29th, 2010, 11:53am EST by The Business Insider

  When Apple's iPad 3G ships in April, U.S. wireless partner AT&T will offer two data plans for the gadget, with different costs and monthly download allotments.

  Specifically, AT&T will offer a $14.99 monthly plan that allows for 250 MB of data consumed, and a $29.99 monthly plan that allows for unlimited Internet consumption.

  Which should you buy? That depends on how you'll be using the device on a 3G network, of course. (We think most people will buy the cheaper iPad without 3G service, but many will buy the 3G model, too.)

  For an idea of what the cheaper plan offers, here's what 250 MB translates to:

  * About 35 minutes of YouTube video at standard-definition
  * OR about 8-10 minutes of YouTube or iTunes video at 720p hi-definition
  * OR about 70 songs from iTunes
  * OR a few thousand Web pages and typical email usage
  * OR more than 4,000 Facebook photos

  So, if you think a month's worth of 3G access looks like this, then you should be fine with the 250 MB plan:

  * Browsing a few dozen Web pages a day and typical email usage (without downloading big attachments)
  * Looking at a few dozen Facebook photos a day
  * Watching a few minutes of YouTube video a week
  * Downloading a few songs and podcasts from iTunes per month
  * Downloading a few small iPhone or iPad apps per month, light app usage

  If you think you'll be using more bandwidth than that over 3G, you may consider the $29.99 plan. Remember that you can cancel anytime, change plans on a monthly basis, or turn service off and on, because there is no contract. (And no "activation fee" was disclosed during Steve Jobs' presentation.)

  Remember, using the iPad in a wi-fi zone doesn't count toward this limit. So if you're going to be using the iPad primarily at home—the best use case—or at the office, or anywhere there's wi-fi, you won't need to worry about hitting the 250 MB cap. AT&T is also including free access to its wi-fi networks in its 3G plans, which includes Starbucks locations.

  What happens if you go over 250 MB? Will AT&T stick you with unreasonable overage charges?

  The company won't say.

  But our hunch, because this is prepaid service — no contract or credit check required — is that once your 250 MB are up, AT&T's network meter will simply require you to upgrade to the $29.99 plan to continue using the Internet.

  This seems the more consumer-friendly, responsible thing to do, and eliminates AT&T's risk of offering you credit. But AT&T refuses to immediately give more information than what Jobs said in his presentation. So we can't be sure.

  
  
  
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  Android Taking Wind Out Of iPhone's Sails [Data]

  Posted: January 4th, 2010, 5:20pm EST by The Business Insider

  Just in time for Google to unveil its own Nexus One smartphone, ChangeWave Research reports the public is more excited than ever to buy an Android based handset — at the expense of Apple, Microsoft, and Palm.

  ChangeWave surveyed 4,068 consumers in the first weeks of December and found that 21% of people looking to buy a smartphone in the next 90 days want to buy one running on Android. That's up from 6% when ChangeWave asked people in September.

  Considering Verizon is spending tens of millions marketing the Droid, this shouldn't come as a shock. Google is a popular brand unto itself, so it makes sense that people are excited about its smartphones.

  Apple remains the smartphone of choice for now, with 28% of the people saying they will buy an iPhone. The BlackBerry falls to third place with 18% — but interest in BlackBerry devices actually perked up. Meanwhile, Palm needs big help.

  
  
  

  
  

  
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  Amazon Won't Be The Only One Selling Kindle Books Next Year [Kindle]

  Posted: December 18th, 2009, 2:14pm EST by The Business Insider

  Scribd, the YouTube for print, is working on a new way to get e-books onto your Kindle without buying them from Amazon.

  Right now, to get one of the tens of millions of Scribd documents has — books, papers, and other content — off the web and into a Kindle, a user has to email the document to his or her Kindle email address.

  Trip Adler, the company's CEO and founder tells us it will be a "seamless" experience next year.

  Trip couldn't tell us if his plan was part of an official Scribd-Amazon partnership or not. He just said, "I can tell you that we talk to Amazon a lot."

  Will Scribd-To-Kindle be a threat to Amazon?

  For now, Scribd's store is no threat to Amazon. It's a smaller selection more heavily favoring obscure documents Amazon doesn't sell. Down the road, it represents a possible threat.

  That's because Scribd is quietly developing a strong e-book storefront to match its hoard of user generated content.

  This week Scribd announced that John Wiley and Sons would be selling books through Scribd's store.That gives Scribd access to the "For Dummies" series, as well as "Frommer's" travel guides. It already had Simon and Schuster on board, along with other prominent publishers.

  If Scribd can put its books on the Kindle, this number should only grow, especially since it offers publishers a better business deal than Amazon.

  Amazon reportedly offers a 50/50 sales split. Scribd only keeps 20% and allows publishers to set their own price.

  Is this a Hail Mary for Scribd?

  No. Regardless of what happens, Scribd will keep chugging along. It plans on rolling out mobile applications next year for the iPhone and Android.

  Adler declined to give us a revenue number, but he said the company was profitable in the second quarter this year, but decided to hire more employees to focus on growth. It has about 40 employees.

  Our back of the envelop calculations put revenue in the range of $7 to $10 million. Adler says revenue is growing 10-12% month over month.

  image: Flickr/Jamesjyu