Once you’ve registered with the service and set your time zone, you simply forward your email to a specially formatted @followup.cc email to specify when the reminder will be sent (at a specific time or on a certain day). For example, to set a reminder three days from now you would add the email address 3d@followup.cc to the email, or to set a reminder for for 4 p.m, you add the email address 4pm@followup.cc. There’s a full explanation of the reminder syntax here (note that adding the followup.cc email address to the “To:” or “Cc:” fields means that everyone who receives the email will also get the reminder — if you add it to the “Bcc:” field, only you’ll get the reminder).

Reminder emails quote the original email, and include a box telling you when the reminded was created. They also contain “snooze” links, which let you quickly re-set the reminder for some time in the future.

Helpfully, you can get a calendar view of all upcoming reminders at the Followup.cc site; clicking on a reminder allows you to edit or delete it:

A settings page is also available at the website, where you can get links for adding reminders to your RSS reader or calendar, and also get a bookmarklet that allows you to set follow-up reminders on web pages.

Need some tips on how to construct that follow-up email? Check out Dave Clarke’s excellent recent article, “The Art of the Follow-up.”

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(Via Download Squad)

I generally wait to see how a new product is received before upgrading. I’ve been holding off on moving to Mac OS X 10.6.4, for example, because it’s reported to break some software that I depend on. But for some reason, I decided to upgrade to iOS 4, the latest version of the operating system for my iPod touch, the first day it was available. Unfortunately for those of us who use Exchange to sync our mail, calendars, and contacts with Google Apps, the upgrade required the re-syncing of this data, which in turn slowed Google’s servers to a crawl. It took almost 24 hours before I again had a usable device.

During that time, I got to thinking about the questions I should have asked myself before starting the update. Here’s what I came up with; please add your thoughts in the comments.

• Do you need the new features of the update? If it fixes security issues, then probably yes. If not, then you should consider whether the update will actually improve your workflow. For example, one of iOS4′s new features is the ability to create “folders,” or groups of applications, on the home screen. Is this important to you, even given its limitations? Another feature is multitasking, which has gotten mixed reviews, at best.
• What will the update cost? Of course, some new hardware and software isn’t free, but even if the manufacturer isn’t charging, what is the value of the time and effort it will take you to move to the new version? I suspect that evaluations of this question are why many companies are still using Windows XP and IE 6.
• Are there technical issues in the new version that may cause problems? This is where blogs and discussion forums can be lifesavers. If I had waited only a couple of hours before starting my iOS 4 upgrade, I would have found several posts and threads describing the exact issues I encountered, and would have known to wait until they were resolved.
• What are the consequences if something goes wrong? How easily can I revert to a previous version? Can I afford down time? Luckily, I wasn’t going anywhere the other day, but if I had been, it would have been very inconvenient not to have access to my email, calendars, and (especially) to my contacts.

How do you decide when to upgrade?

Image by Flickr user .schill, licensed under CC

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So what, right? The ads are probably incorrectly labeled, or something. But the word on the street (well, the word on Engadget, anyway) is that these might predict the much-anticipated Mac refreshes that we’ve been waiting for.

From Engadget:

Apple’s Australian online store lists the most affordable versions of the MacBook Pro, MacBook Air and Mac Pro at A$1599, A$1999 and A$3599, respectively, but the ads show significantly higher “starting at” prices of A$1899, A$2399, and A$4499.

Following the ads to Apple’s Australian online store reveals the same Mac models at the same old prices, so either these ads are terribly wrong or they’re been released a little early…

It has been over a year since Apple released a major update to its high-end Mac Pro computer. I know very well because I bought one last April at an astronomically high price, and as such, guard it with my life. (No one else is allowed near it. No one!) If history has taught me anything, it is that I am not allowed to have the best and brightest kit for long. Therefore, an update is imminent. As for the MacBook Pro, we can probably expect to see Apple upgrade it with Intel’s powerful i7 Chipset.

But why so much more expensive? Engadget’s Vladislav Savov suggests:

The rise in MacBook Pro pricing could be attributed to the cost of the i7 chipset, but it seems unlikely that in a recovering economy Apple would increase their prices significantly without having a cheaper baseline model available.

I am hoping to see something more than just a chipset upgrade this time around; support for Blu-Ray is one of those things I want (even though it’s something most people don’t need) and who wouldn’t like to see high-capacity SSD’s as-standard?

I know only this; I’m a weak-willed slave to Apple’s hardware. I was the same way with PC’s, but let’s face it, a tech-obsessed geek with a weakness for shiny new toys will usually spend far less on generic PC equipment than on the latest newness from Cupertino.

At a time when the entry-level iPad would more than easily meet my needs, I know for a fact that, instead, I’ll be ordering the most expensive model available when we Brits can (finally!) get our hands on them. The same thing happened a year ago when I bought my painfully-expensive Mac Pro — truth is, I could have gotten by with an iMac. And even now, despite having twin 30” HD Cinema displays, I feel like I’m missing out not owning a 27” iMac as well. Thankfully, I’m in a tiny minority of crazy people.

Are these ads correct? If they are, will we have new Macs before the end of the month? Apple’s New Zealand online store also displays odd pricing inconsistencies along similar lines to those on the Australian store. Perhaps we’re reading too much into it (as Apple crazies want to do) but let’s face it, one of two things will happen from here; either the ads will be replaced with ‘corrected’ prices, or, one day very soon, that little yellow sticky note will appear on Apple’s online store and insane gadget freaks like me will reach for our credit cards…

Am I as crazy as I think? Share your thoughts with me in the comments below.

Popbox is the latest product from Syabas, which has been creating hardware for connecting TVs to PCs for a while. When asked what differentiates Popbox from Roku, Popbox marketing lead Jeff Reine pointed to the content that is available beyond video, which includes casual games, social networks like Twitter and Facebook, music, and photos. Reine also said that according to developers he’d been working with, it was far far easier to build apps for Popbox than to build them for the Roku box, primarily due to Popbox’s use of Flash Lite.

Developers are given complete control over their apps — “it’s the mall approach,” Reine said, wherein a mall offers slots to various stores, who then decide how to use the space — and the SDK is coming out soon. The banner ads seen on the box interface in the video above are not paid ads, but rather opportunities to promote partners within the channel.

Popbox is aiming for global distribution, and while there’s no official street date yet, the box should hit the streets sometime this spring. UPDATE: Popbox will be released first in the U.S., but currently has no plan for international distribution.

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27 years old, with longish hair (no helmet), wearing tan boots and a light-colored shirt with sleeves rolled back (no black turtleneck), Jobs looks like he’s having the time of his life riding the two-wheel Bimmer in San Francisco freelancer Moira Johnston’s feature “High Tech, High Risk, and High Life in Silicon Valley,” published in the magazine’s October 1982 issue.

However, notwithstanding his (excellent) taste in bikes, Steve’s stated ambition, when interviewed by Johnston over herb tea at a vegetarian restaurant, was modestly at the time to become “the Volkswagen” of the microcomputer sector rather than its BMW — which became a popular automotive analogy with Apple-watching commentators later on — although he emphasizes that “We’d rather call the Apple a personal than a home computer.”

The article notes that the Apple computer “has inspired a dedicated cult of hard-core enthusiasts who trade new uses for the computer in the columns of Apple magazines” and that Jobs had “become a potent role model for a new breed of bright kids who are writing and selling software programs and, with their arcane computer skills, gaining the prestige formerly tasted only by the high-school football team.”

Johnston also reports that besides the BMW two-wheeler, Jobs, already holding $100 million worth of Apple stock, also owned “the requisite Mercedes,” but that “success seems not to have spoiled the first folk hero of the computer age,” who still preferred according to an unnamed friend quoted, “to drive his motorcycle to my place, sit around and drink wine, and talk about what we’re going to do when we grow up.”

Of more than passing interest is that not unlike Apple’s performance through the current economic recession, the company seemed to be weathering a late ’82 downturn the microchip sector rather well, with revenues soaring 81 percent year-over-year and Apple occupying 22 buildings in Silicon Valley as well as having plants in Texas, Singapore, and Ireland.

Plus ca change, plus c’est la meme chose.

Read here for a scan and transcript, with photos, of the entire National Geographic article.

A tip of the hat to Modern Mechanix for posting the article scan and to Peter Orosz of jalopnik.com for drawing my attention to this fascinating snippet of history.

Atimi is one of the leading iPhone development firms in North America and by December of 2009 had produced more than 25 iPhone applications for leading U.S. brands in Media & Entertainment; Fashion; Health; Education; Finance; Games; Municipal Mapping and Utility. Atimi is also is one of the leading Macintosh development houses in the world; it supports global firms in development and porting of applications to the Mac platform. Atimi’s immediate partnership goal will be to help AT&T support its ever-growing base of iPhone and Mac desktop clients.

thePlatform’s new mpx Beta is designed to help video publishers adapt to the changing broadband video landscape faster and more efficiently. mpx Beta provides all the scalability, flexibility and industrial-strength video management capabilities you’ve come to expect from thePlatform, but adds a new layer, one that promises increased efficiency, simplicity and adaptability.

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A new report by BroadPoint AmTech analyst Brian Marshall about the cost of production of the iPad based on the going rate for component parts, manufacturing cost and built-in warranty repair costs reveals quite a wide profit margin on a per device basis. The entry-level $499 model apparently generates $208 in profit, while the top of the line $829 model more than doubles that, raking in $446 per unit.

Marshall estimates that the cost of making the 16GB Wi-Fi model of the iPad runs around $270.50, plus $20 for warranty costs for a total of $290.50. Most of that cost accounts for the 9.7-inch touchscreen display, which Marshall guesses costs around $100. Apple sees considerable savings on its own in-house A4 chips, which run around $15 per unit. With a cost of $290.50 and a selling price of $499, Apple stands to see a profit margin of 42.9 percent with each sale.

On other models that margin ranges from 48 to 55.1 percent, giving the iPad line as a whole an overall profit-generating power of about 50 percent, a number which assumes that the Wi-Fi models will sell considerably more than the 3G-capable devices, a reasonable assumption. Computerworld points out that while the number seems fairly high, it is in fact on par with Apple’s other hardware offerings:

High profit margins are standard for Apple, which earlier in the week boasted that its corporate margin for 2009′s final quarter was 40.1%. Some products, in fact, have estimated margins even higher than Marshall’s iPad numbers: The consensus for the iPhone 3GS is above 60%, for example.

iSuppli, a research firm which is well-known for its Apple product tear-downs and component analyses, has refrained from making any estimates about the iPad’s cost to build as of yet, though it does acknowledge that there’s reason to believe many costs will be similar to those found in the manufacture of the iPhone and iPod touch:

We really want to wait until we know a little more about what’s inside. We’d rather not just throw numbers at it yet. It does seem like a gigantic iPod Touch, which means that although some costs would just scale up from the iPod, like the display and the touch screen, a lot won’t.

Considering that the iPad is a brand new product just getting out of the gate, news that it already enjoys such a wide profit margin is a very promising sign of things to come for future Apple customers. Just like it eventually became profitable for Apple to sell the iPhone 3G at a subsidized $99 price point as parts became cheaper and manufacturing costs went down, so too is it conceivable that we will eventually see a significant dip in the price of the iPad. If the 1G iPad sticks around when Apple eventually introduces a 2G camera-equipped model, for instance, 1G pricing could drop to a point where it would decimate netbook sales.

There’s also the possibility that the iPad will eventually get the same subsidy treatment the iPhone currently enjoys, though Apple doesn’t appear to want to go that route with consumers just yet, preferring instead to keep the device unlocked and therefore theoretically available to a broader buyer-base. Subsidies attached to contracts could reduce the initial purchase price considerably, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see $199 as the cost of entry for the 16GB Wi-Fi/3G model.

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Two weeks ago, the second series to be commissioned under the TSIY banner, LG15: Outbreak launched under the creative lead of Gregory Austin McConnell, known originally to members of the fan community as Greg Mason, a fictional critic of LG15.

While it’s common for LG15 fans to create their own contributions to the series’ narrative, though, McConnell didn’t start off as a fan: “I really didn’t like the show,” he said via phone. “And being the sort of mean-spirited guy I am, I thought I’d give them a piece of my mind, so I created [Mason] within the universe of the show to criticize it.” However, the community responded positively to Mason’s comments, so he continued producing videos critiquing the show — and submitted his own idea when the second round of TSIY came up, figuring that he “could do a better job than they’re doing.”

The result, Outbreak, is a mystery-laden new entry focused around Crystal (Dani Martin), a mysterious and attractive young woman who refuses to discuss her past with her new YouTube friends, but appreciates the support they offer when, her first week in her new apartment, she experiences a strange break-in and advances from a creepy neighbor. The narrative so far is pretty light, with the focus on building up character taking precedence even over kinda-big plot developments like the Eiffel Tower being destroyed, but the fan interaction and use of text and video content is classic LG15.

The only notable difference is that Outbreak videos are filmed with a lot more visual flair than previous LG15 installments — a change to the house style, but cleverly explained. In Crystal’s case, the production quality of her videos are explained by her being a film school dropout who studied editing and animation; in the case of Mason, whose updates are the biggest hint at the larger mystery at work here, the dreamy style fits his circumstances.

A Missouri-based filmmaker, McConnell found the $5000 budget sufficient for putting together the show, though his production company, Tempest Films, already had a full complement of production equipment. Outbreak is scheduled to run for eight weeks, with new video or text content being posted every day. “Now that I’m doing what they did,” said McConnell, “I understand exactly what it takes and the kind of investment you need.”

From the very first episode, he and his team have been working to make sure that they kept the audience fully engaged with the narrative, in some cases rewriting entire storylines when fan response went in an unexpected direction. “In the first episode, Crystal pulled a book out from a box,” McConnell said. “It was a last-minute prop, because what we wanted was for people to ask what was inside the box. But instead they focused on the book, so we had to sit down and figure out how to build the plot around the book instead.”

But McConnell sees this sort of twist as key to the interactive nature of LG15. “You can’t really run a show like this without looking at the fan perspective,” he said. “The show thrives on having an audience who’s willing to play along.”

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