Kinda a cool little app if you're a D&D guy or gal, Mach Dice: Roll for iPhone supports up to 100 d100 die, and is funky 3d and makes good use of the accelerometer.
This is pretty cool.... iPhone factory workers send message of peace to our lands via the iPhone’s camera is from a guy who found a bunch of pictures on his new iPhone.... not the "accidental" type pictures I've heard of before, but more of a proper photoshoot!
To balance out the last mac-vs-pc-pricing post I made a few days ago, Paul Thurrott has his own perspective on the issue of Mac laptops cost twice as much as PC laptops.
Tom's Hardware has a good article on The Apple Mac Cost Misconception. As a recent mac user, this hits my heart because I've heard a lot of these misconceptions for years from my peers (and myself of course). Good to see it all laid out.
From the section on "I can build a mac pro for half the price":
The above is essentially a baseline Mac Pro replicated using the cheapest minimum required components to build. The difference? A negligible $5.67. Those who claim that they can build "the same" PC for half the price are at this point baseless.
Darren pointed to me the google page on Google Calendar CalDAV support, which is the ability to sync Google Calendar with iCal. Very interesting, I'm going to have to check out how to best use this, as some of my stuff is in iCal and I really like the idea and portability of Google Calendars, but I don't actually use it.
Stage 1 in the new iPhone mania is complete, Apple Released iTunes 7.7 which allows access to the app store. W00t! Well, in theory "W00t!" as I'm still doing the install, and I've seen some people saying that even with the new iTunes they don't see the App Store. Wonder if there'll be different rules for us Canadians too :( Will let you know when my install is done and I can test.
Update: iTunes 7.7 installed on my macbook with the latest Leopard, no app store in sight. Either it's being rolled out in waves, or the Canadian iTunes store is behind the times again. Note that the new iphone 2.0 firmware has been found by macrumors posters already.
Update2: Ah, you have to go into the iTunes preferences and enable the 'applications' source before the store will show up. Only shows a black screen for me though.
Update3: Ah, there it is.... 2 minutes in and already I have about 10 downloads of apps going!
Wall-to-wall iPhone coverage here at UFies.org points to the First iPhone 3G reviews via the WSJ, USA Today and NY Times. Summary:
Overall, the new phone "mostly keeps its promises."
Not bad I guess.....
Story from Darren about the Spat with Rogers leaves Canadian Apple stores without iPhones looks a bit like rumormongering to me, but as Darren noted, it doesn't matter, it's still bad press for Rogers and I really hope that all the bad press and (presumed) public pressure will help to make them reconsider their data plans. Really, they have a huge opportunity to offer reasonable data rates for Canadians, which they should take (says I the consumer). Of course, the minimal competition up here means they have no need to, hence the $115/month plan that gets you 2G of transfer :(
In other iPhone 3G news, engaget has some 3G iPhone in the wild pictures. Not a huge amound there sadly.
Just to get everyone riled up for the Apple keynote on Monday, here's a link to the “Just One More Thing…” Timeline which includes videos from back to the late 90's of all the "just one more thing" moments (and other historical stuff :)
*come on iphone 2.0 available-in-canada-and-non-sucky-data-plans!*
The Macalope looks at the iPhone 2.0 FUD-o-rama.
Rob Enderle, in regards to anything Apple, is not an "analyst", Eric. He is a quote machine. And, thus, the horny one will not be linking to or bothering to dissect the source of Zeman's piece.
Another rumor has it that there'll be a 3G iPhone in Canada next month with reasonable data costs over at the Apple blog. The $7 unlimited data plan they predict sounds very good, especially compared to the $97 for 25mb that they currently have. This combined with an upgraded / tweaked iPhone, maybe a 32mb version, and I'm there. I love my iPod Touch, but would love to combine it with my phone for one less bit to carry around :)
Course, all this depends on a new iPhone, a 3G version, and Rogers not to completely shaft us Canadians with data plan pricing.
The Unofficial Apple Weblog spreads this juicy bit for me and all my Canuck friends:It's official: iPhones in Canada via Rogers. Of course, I'll believe it when I see it "for real". Of course, 25mb for $97/month will kill it for me and many others I'm sure. Canada's lack of decent data plans is going to hinder iPhones up here until someone gets us out of this data backwater (Darren's words).
Very exciting is a feature from Lifehacker on how to Turn Your iPod Touch into an iPhone and allow you to make VoIP phone calls from your iPod touch or iPhone using a freeware application called SIP-VoIP.
Very exciting stuff!
After a few weeks with a "Beta has expired" message, and no new beta to download, looks like MS has gotten their act together and released Beta 3 of the RDP Mac Client.
Now the question is, is this a new beta with actual changes, or just the same software with the expiry date removed? Being that the only information about the beta is here there's no actual information about any changes. Oh, and the 'feedback' link to read the forums about it doesn't work. *sigh*
If you're looking for an alternative (if you hadn't found one already), the de-facto seems to be CoRD, which I've played with a bit.
An article I've been waiting for, on Developing Rails Applications on Mac OS X Leopard. Most important is that it has "official" update commands... myself being a total rails newbie I was glad to see this:
Out of the box, you get Ruby version 1.8.6 and Rails version 1.2.6, the latest stable releases at the time Leopard shipped. Ruby releases are few and far between (it's still at 1.8.6), but Rails has frequent new releases. In fact, the application we'll build requires Rails 2.0.2. The good news is it's easy to upgrade Rails and RubyGems. Make sure your system is up to date now by running these commands:
Instead of just hoping that running random commands would make it work. Coming from a Linux world of package managers where doing something "outside" the package world potentially pollutes the filesystem with outside code.
The Unofficial Apple Weblog asks some questions to Cory about What do you expect from the upcoming iPhone SDK, which is scheduled to launch Thursday March 3rd. Not all questions answered, and some guesses in there, but still, bit of news.
Glad my iPod Touch is on it's way back home to me!
Interesting writeup called Things I Learned At The Apple Store (here's part 2).
* For God sakes, people were lining up -- waiting time, 22 minutes -- to get a seat in the Apple "lounge" at the back of the store. What was special there? Nothing. A chance to sit, read some magazines, drink coffee and sample some computer stuff.
Interesting read and follow up... especially to see how vile the reaction is to saying nice things about an apple store.
Humanized has a good article on one particular aspect of usability in the Mac Vs. Windows dispute.... Luxury Computing talks about some of the challenges in doing some simple things in both Mac and Windows.
After going through the same three dialog boxes, the wizard appears yet again; this time it’s found a “HID-compliant device”, and I have to go through the same song and dance, after which I get yet another wizard for a “HID-compliant device”.
Another "what tool for what toolbox?" debate, though some usability issues are more like using a hammer that randomly smacks you in the thumb by itself (Ok, so I'm not all that good at analogies :)
I'm not sure if I would have paid $2500 for a 20 year old computer.... but the unboxing pics and story about it certainly is interesting.
Unofficial apple weblog has a Complete guide to iPhone car integration now online.
Rogers, please move your butts and get me an iPhone up in Canada!
iTransmogrify! allows iPhone and iPod Touch users to view flash video on their devices. Bookmark a javascript bookmarklet and it'll magically transmogrify the flash into a format playable on the non-flash apple devices (damn you Steve Jobs!).
How simple is this... there is a 1.1.3 "JailBreak" in Installer. Basically ensure you have the right version of a couple of packages, and a couple of settings (autolock set to never!) and time to wait (about 20-40 minutes from the forums)... then click the '1.1.3 jailbreak (dev team)' icon. Doesn't get any easier than that does it?
Darren sent me a link to just what I was looking for for my popcorn watching for MacWorld..... a page with all the MacWorld live blogs on it! Watch Macrumors, engaget, mac observer and gizmodo updates all at the same time!
RSS Reader for Mac - NetNewsWire now no longer is a for pay version and a Lite version, but a completely free version. Version 3.1 is available for download here.
I've been a Google Reader fan since the new version came out a couple of years back... I'm definately going to give NNW a shot again as I did used to use it back in the old days when I had a PowerBook. Via 50 Leaves.
Macenstein has asked the question I've been pondering the last few days, remind me again why we want an ultra portable? The biggest rumor that I've seen of what's incoming at macworld in a week is that Apple will be releasing an ultra portable, touch based system that is whafer thin. From the Macenstein article:
For some reason I am just missing the allure of a wafer thin MacBook, and I would like someone out there to set me straight. What am I missing here?
Anyone remember Origami, the Microsoft UMPC? They had a great advertising campaign which seemed to peter out as soon as it was released. Has anyone heard anything about UMPC in the "real" media since then?
Anyway, the same goes, IMHO, for an apple device. Yes, the apple touchscreen from the iPhone and iPod Touch is fantastic and could be an improvement over the pen based interface, and the on-screen keyboard and predictive typing that those devices have could be useful on such a device. Isn't this a solution looking for a problem? Macenstein goes through what the current Apple offerings have, where the holes are and aren't, cost thoughts, etc.
I have to agree, it's a supremely cool idea, but I can't see it being hugely useful outside a couple of minor areas.
We'll see in a week I guess. I personally am prepared to be totally disappointed by this years MacWorld.
Macenstein and Gear live have details on the iPhone firmware 1.1.3. This of course will also break any jailbroken apps.... *sigh* :(
Mac Buyer's Guide: Know When to Buy Your Mac, iPod or iPhone, with info based on trends, how recently things were updated, etc.
Don't want to pay a boatload for an iMac or Powerbook? Lifehacker show how to Build a Hackintosh Mac for Under $800.
If you're a lucky one with an iPhone or iPod Touch and want to upgrade to the 1.1.2 firmware but don't want to lose your custom apps and setup, conceited software has released a windows/linux solution as TUAW. I've as yet untested by myself on my Touch, so read the comments and research before you put your baby at risk. Apparently the big draw to the 1.1.2 release is a speed boost, but that looks like about it (unless you use non-english characters a lot).
As they generally do, Ars Technica has produce a fantastic Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard review.
Very cool... no more needing a mac or PC to install custom apps on your iPhone or iPod Touch. Check out this Instant Jailbreak for iPhone and iPod touch which lets you do it all by visiting a webpage on your iPhone or Touch's Safari web browser.
It'll be very interesting to see what happens with the next firmware update...
Darren pointed me to an article proclaiming that a Molson beer contest confirms Apple iPhone coming to Canada in January. $800 though, that's a bit steep (assuming that's the the retail price). Are they going to be selling for $200 less in April though?
Still, good to know things are heading north. Big questions now are a) will the carrier be Rogers and b) will they come out with an unlimited data plan...
Stuff like this Mac OS X Leopard - Guided Tour show once again why Apple is the king of marketing. I watched the movie and even though I have never used any of the features they show, nor have ever wanted them, I so want a mac running Leopard right now. The goodness wasn't only in the demo, but also the slickness of the features. Timeline, ichat, stacks..... all soooo slick. Am I right or am I right about this?
Course, I want to be able to play more than 3 games, so sadly it'll doubtfully replace my windows gaming box. But a nice macbook pro? Hmm.....
TUAW also has some thoughts.
Adrian Kingsley-Hughes says he admits that Leopard has more “Wow!” than Vista … in theory anyway and goes on to enumerate some of the bits (a nice summary by the way). One thing really stuck out for me though.:
Google Map Addresses
View a detailed map of any address in Address Book. Just hold down the Control key while clicking any address and select “Map of” and Safari will show you its location in Google Maps.
[Note that this is one of those re-tweaked features - I believe that this is already in OS X Address Book but uses MapQuest instead of Google Maps. But yeah, it’s cool. Why can’t Outlook Express/Windows Mail have this?]
Isn't this basically the feature in MS Office where it would parse out addresses / phone numbers and make them yellow and clickable to add them to your address book or something? And wasn't this the feature that when it was announced (2002 or 2003 probably) had people up in arms about invasion of privacy, Microsoft stealing our data, etc etc? Sure it's slightly different, hooking into maps, but still... a bit of hypocrisy mayhap (not on Adrian's part as much as the net in general giving Apple/Google a big pass and coming down harder on MS for some things).
Darren passed me on the best news I've heard all day.... the Apple Hot News that a third party SDK for the iPhone and iPod Touch will be available in February. Should be sooner, and it'll be interesting to see how they make it open to developers, without putting way too many hoops to jump through for developers. Putting some of the iPhone apps on the Touch would be great as well :)
Also while you're at it, availability in Canada and unlimited data plans would be great!
Apple Answers Leopard Questions and gives some interesting insight to what's going to be out in less than 10 days.
Jailbreak Guide for the iPod Touch over at TouchDev.net. Looks like it's still a bit convoluted and sounds like you still need a Mac to do it though. Hopefully it'll just get easier (or heaven forbid), get blessed by apple to allow access into the device without jumping through hoops.
Darren passed on the rumor that Holt Renfrew Insider Says iPhone Coming to Canada in Two Weeks. Interesting to see, fingers crossed after I had a chance to check one out recently.
Apple's latest ("it'll brick hacked iPhones") update has garnered a re-review from Gizmodo.
It's understandable for Apple to wage a war on unlocking the iPhone, since the company shares revenue from fees with AT&T. But the truth is, if cellphone service was awesome, like it is on iTunes, there wouldn't be a need to unlock the iPhone.
The last image on the page, the chart, is the most telling I think. Hopefully Apple will change their way/tune soon to win back some of the love.
Well, according to Gizmodo, the new iPhone firmware (1.1.1) won't brick your iPhone. Good thing to know, not that I have an iPhone of course... Lots of other good info in the article though, best to read the full thing through.
Apple, please bring them to Canada. Pretty please? With sugar on top?
I totally agree with this Muppet's rant about iPhones (or rather, lack thereof) in Canada.
Just cause I really want one of these puppies, heres some iPod Touch unpacking tour and first look pics and commentary from AppleInsider.
[...] but the Touch lacks a fourth conductor on the headphone jack, so there's no way to use the iPhone's mic, a second strike for the potential of VoIP after its lack of Bluetooth.
Macrumors.com posted a link to the iPod Touch Manual which will be interesting to read through.
Suddenly the decision (for me as a Canadian) to get an iPhone or an iPod Touch just got a bit murkier. The iPhone has no ETA in Canada yet, so before the rationale was it's not here, the iPod Touch is (or will be sometime, my local apple store is giving me the "1-2 weeks for the new nano and classic, no ETA given for the Touch" run-around), so the only real choice for now is the 16G iPod Touch right? Now there is a iPhone Free Software Unlock that GIzmodo has tested, which means in theory I can go down to Seattle, get myself an iPhone, and use it up here unlocked.
Grrr......
My ex-boss made his first iPhone call, and talks a bit about how the The iPhone came to Canada. Still not sure I'd pay $600 for this especially with rumors of a new iPod (please, please let it be touch with full screen video and a hard drive or at least 64G of solid state storage) and that Apple could turn it off with one sync of new firmware pushed down. Still, cool to know someone who had used an iPhone :)
Welp, looks like it only took a month or so... Engaget says: iPhone unlocked: AT&T loses iPhone exclusivity. Glad it's finally happened..... now gotta get me some of that (assuming that this isn't nuked the next iPhone update).
How I broke into the iPhone UNIX files and lived to tell about it, via The Unofficial Apple Weblog. Full shell access via software, no serial or special hackery required.
Ars Technica has a great iPhone in depth review full of pictures, screenshots, tech info, etc.
Well, that didn't take long? iPhone full shell access is here! Course, you need to do a bit of soldering to get the serial cable connected. Still, shouldn't be long now.
Well, I spent what little time on Saturday I had free reading iPhone reviews, watching the 'first unboxing' videos, usage videos, screenshot galleries, etc. Darren found a nice initial (but in-depth) review of the wee beastie (I want one!).
The end result from pretty much everything I've read is that it's gorgeous and amazingly user friendly (JK has a nice writeup on the little details that make Apple the leader in UI. It's not the major things, it's the little bits....) and gorgeous to look at and use. They keyboard gets some getting used to, and EDGE for data transfer sucks slightly more than other options. Definitely sounds like the pros outweighs the cons by a long shot though.
Sorry for yet more iPhone news, but I'm going to be pretty busy the next couple of days, it'll be quiet around here :) Till then though, here's the Slashdot story, the Mossberg review after two weeks of use, and other reviews. Looks like basically the iPhone will be mostly a winner. Some details that people are pointing to seem perfectly legit (not being able to set itunes songs as ring tones for example) but knowing apple these sorts of deficiencies are either a) not really that big a deal, and people will quickly learn to live with out them or with the alternatives or b) quickly addressed with software updates.
There'll be lovers and haters though. How about a nice Windows Vs Linux flame war instead? :)
Engaget did some research and found out just How does the iPhone stack up in total cost? Hint: bloody expensive :) The base $500-$600 sure doesn't help that's for sure, but the yearly price is way above even double or triple that! Course, the other providers compared aren't that much better.
Daring Fireball has some thoughts Regarding the 80 GB iPhone Capacity in the Activation and Sync Video.
(a) The demo screencast was recorded using a super-secret pre-production iPhone 2.0 with 80 GB hard drive; or (b) the original 4 and 8 GB iPhones are still so secret that the screencast was recorded using an 80 GB iPod hacked to resemble an iPhone in iTunes.
See this post on the unofficial apple weblog about the mysterious 80G space.
The Unofficial Apple Weblog points out that Apple posted and iPhone welcome video. It's about 20 minutes and has a fairly complete tour of the iPhone functionality and features.
The graphics are nice, though I'm wondering if they are "real" at all or it's composited from the actor and CG.
Well, guess there's no point in me lining up for an iPhone on the 29th, as Darren pointed out that there's no iPhone coming to Canada anytime soon. Not even in talks with Rogers yet. Bastards!
Until things do happen this directory of Leapoard screenshots will have to do.
JohnK, my ex-boss has some good thoughts on The genius of the iPhone’s keyboard that I have to agree with. I have a blackberry for work and find it very fast to type with, but a pain to have a huge form factor just to get that, and I also hardly ever text anyone with a normal phone.
I'm not sure that the iPhone isn't for the theoretical 17 year old who texts hours every day... I have a feeling that your teenagers will learn to text by feel on the iPhone, tactile feedback or not, just as they learned to text 26+ characters on a 12 key phone handset, though.
Worth a read, thanks John!
So I finally managed to download Safari for windows (ironically it only worked for me in IE, not Firefox).
Pros:
Nice look.
Nifty appleness with the input field highlighting.
Nice working with RSS.
Sheets work and look nice for bookmarks, RSS, etc.
Built in bug reporting from the toolbar, including option to send in screenshot as well... nice and fast and will no doubt lower the barrier to entry for bug reports.
Plugins seem to work out of the gate.
Nice font smoothing, cleartype-ish, almost a little too cleartypeish for me though.
Gorgeous apple native widgets.
Dragging around tabs works nicely and is great visually (drag a tag off the window and it gives you a shaded thumbnail of the new browser window that'll appear.
In page find is great and spotlight like.
Cons:
My MS mouse back button doesn't work.
No adblock and other Firefox plugins I've grown used to.
No ctrl-backspace in text entry boxes and textareas.
No built in spellcheck in textareas (I'm very used to this in FF).
Other:
The way the address bar works I don't really like... in FF I can start typing in an address, then hit TAB to move to the autocomplete entries. In Safari TAB moves from the address bar to the search box, down arrow moves to the other autocomplete entries, which takes my hands off the home row. Maybe a familiarity thing, but kinda a con for me.
Sadly the lack of a working back button (might be just this particular computer... will test more when I get home tonight) and the lack of adblock are deal breakers for me :(
Probably the last Apple post for a bit, unless new stuff comes out, but here's the details of Steve Jobs live from WWDC 2007 from Engaget.
To summarize:
Another Apple story? Bah! Well, Wired says we will Kiss Boring Interfaces Goodbye With Apple's New Animated OS. According to them:
When Steve Jobs takes the stage Monday at Apple's programmers conference, he's likely to give the world a glimpse of an upgraded Mac operating system that could herald the biggest changes to the machine's interface in 30 years.
Basically this will integrate animation into the core of the OS. The example they show are a CD burning app that smokes while it burns CDs. If you blow into the microphone the smoke blows across the desktop.
I'm all for eyecandy, but that sounds a bit pointless no? That's just an example 3rd party app though, we'll have to wait until Monday to see what Steve will bring in this regard (if anything).
As WWDC on the 11th and the iPhone release on the 29th approach, more iPhone news, rumors and info are coming out. Gizmodo has An Insider's iPhone Hands-On & New Details. Most of the stuff there is either obvious or easily guessed (ie: already having aol/gmail/hotmail/etc set up already), assuming any of it is true, of course :)
Thanks Darren for the link to some footage of Quake 4 running in Parallels 3.0, showing that the hardware acceleration seems to work just fine. Wonder if it goes fullscreen?
Found the video footage of Steve Jobs talking about Mac, iPhone, etc from the posting the other day. Interesting read if you have 10 minutes to listen.
So it sounds like Parallels 3.0 will come close to doing what the new version of Mac OS/X is rumored to do as far as supporting running Windows apps natively (or at least, very close to it). It has snapshots (a la vmware), support for OpenGL and DirectX (wh00t! gaming!) and "SmartSelect", which lets you open any file from either windows or mac operating systems.
Interesting to see what this brings.
Interesting article on theories and rumors about what Leopard's most top, Top Secret is.
Let's imagine that Steve Jobs wasn't kidding when he said he didn't want to show Leopard's Top Secret stuff at last year's WWDC. He wasn't merely having fun at Microsoft's expense knowing full well how close Vista was coming to the look (but not feel) of OS X. He was quite serious at playing his cards not just close to his vest, but playing a bet-the-house, put-up or shut-up game of poker.
Read linked article for the full deal....
Cool stuff from Steve Jobs from Engaget about the iPhone, Apple in general, and stuff that we'll find out more about at WWDC in a few days.
Very cool little hack for OS/X, Sticky Windows allows you to (go figure) stick your windows to the sides of the screen for easy access. Not 100% sure why this is easier / better than using the dock, but hey, it's a neat idea for sure.
Since the new Apple TV is all the rage the last few days with people hacking them and all, Gizmodo has a Apples and Oranges Hands-On: Apple TV vs. TiVo Series3 HD. Obviously for people in the "Apple Lifestyle" one will work better than for people in the "Tivo Lifestyle". Same as xBox / Media Center extender will work for people who are Windows/xBox people. Anyway, it's an interesting comparison if for nothing less than comparing how the two companies have done their user interfaces (I do love the comparison of remotes and the obvious targetted audience for each :)
According to some Apple WWDC details including the agenda, which will focus a large amount of attention to Leopard. Can't wait to see what's there! Now I need to wait another 3 months (at least) before looking at macbooks :)
Macenstein has an interesting look at how it appears that Using Safari can slow your system down as much as 76% vs Firefox. Interesting analysis, wonder if there is a conspiracy theory, or this is something to do with the HTML / Javascript rendering system being deeply embedded in the operating system. It'd be interesting to see a similar study of IE vs Firefox on Windows, and sites with heaving javascript / flash vs static HTML.
What happens when you get 500 MacBook Pros delivered? You make a movie of course!
Another Gizmodo link has the news that iPhone Confirmed on Rogers Wireless, which luckily happens to be my provider. Of course, we'll see what happens when this sexy phone is actually out though :)
Tog, of AskTog has his views on The iPhone User Experience: A First Look. Looks at the phone, sms, ipod and other areas with a realistic look at the amount of innovation and usability that is either there or not there.
Looks like the Apple keynote is now done, and The Apple iPhone is real. A combination full screen video iPod, phone and internet communicator device (has wifi, web browsing, etc). Full screen touch screen, system runs OS/X and has all the sexyness that Apple brings to not only hardware and software. Everything it runs is like the desktop app as far as contacts, safari, ichat (for sms messages), etc. Visual voicemail, imap, push imap, google maps, etc.
Dana's comment is that he has a smartphone already and half the stuff that the iPhone does doesn't really matter (80/20 rule). I say we'll see. The first iPod that was introduced was poo-pooed as well as being useless and no one would ever use one. Personally I am confident in Apple's ability to create a market.
They also changed their name to Apple Inc, from Apple Computers Inc. Change of focus maybe? Something more ominous?
As usual, MacRumors have MacWorld San Francisco 2007 Keynote Live Coverage.
Looking forward to new toys!
Daring Fireball has some Macworld Expo 2007 Predictions. I agree with him for the most part, though the sub-compact notebook, not saying "tablet" or not, just doesn't make sense to me. Of course, I don't see a purpose for the Microsoft ultra-portable "origami" (or rather, "ori-where-did-that-go") or their tablets for the mass market beyond a couple of very specific applications either.
Maybe not "agree" with the predictions as much as "yea, I can see that" anyway. We'll see in an hour or so I guess!
Really good article by John Siracusa on the top secret features of the as-yet-unreleased OS 10.5. A really well thought out look at just what might be left that hasn't been leaked already, and why (and "if").
Here's a completely unsubstantiated, pulling stuff out of the air rumor for ya. CNBC says possible touch screen iPod in December. Fingers crossed it's ready for my vacation in January.
Interesting response from Steve Jobs regarding the ear. Basically says that Apple clients get the girl.
Personally I'm not all that interested in the Zune. Just like the other 30 "iPod Killers" on the market right now with similar and in some cases higher specs / more features, they just don't make me frunny in the pants if you know what I mean. I'm sure that MS will continue their grassroots / astroturfing campaign to show how so many people just love the Zune and might even gain some foothold in the market. However, since they are still being compared to the iPod still, and since music/media players are still referred to as "iPod Killers", we know who is on top. When we're looking at the top 32 Zune killers some Christmas, then things will have changed.
What I am looking for for myself (and I doubt such a thing exists):
Not to be outdone by sponsored research from Microsoft coming to the conclusion that Microsoft is better/faster/more productive and uses less calories, Apple has recommended that 30" monitors increase worker productivity compared to 17" or 19" monitors. Todd Weiss writes about it here.
You don't think that it's a coincidence that Apple has some 30" displays? No, couldn't be.
As an aside I checked out an Apple 30" display in the local Apple store last weekend. Gads the thing was massive, I felt like I'd have to sit on the other side of the room to not have to move my head looking at it. Still a bit pricey for my pocketbook (unless of course you use Scoble Finances, which involves just putting big expensive things on your credit card... :)
Hands on: A Mac fan takes on Vista... vista via bootcamp from a Mac. No surprise which one comes out on top of course, though the way that I read it it wasn't due to a glaring bias towards mac, the article seems relatively fair and balanced to me. Some of the critisism can also be boiled down to familiarity. If you're used to hitting a key combo to get your widgets up then not having that will seem like a bad thing. If you've never had key-combos, you won't miss it (as an example).
Course, if you're a Vista fan I'm sure you'll disagree with some of the assertations.... feel free to discuss here of course!
Update - OK, sites with updates: MacRumors, stuffmag.co.uk and MacNews.de. Short story is new iTunes, new ipods, video ipods, new imac with built in isight, and new apps. Looking foward to Apple.com being updated.
Update well, it was up....
Summary: iWork app suite, mac mini (think shuttle-X case form factor) and a 1oz flash based ipod. Here's the slashdot story.
Ok, just finished "watching" the Apple WWDC keynote on IRC with about 1100 other people, and the previously noted webpage at macrumors. The summary for features in OS 10.4 went something like this.
My thoughts are that there are some neat things (searching, RSS) but the rest is a bit of a yawn. However, Apple is known for putting out evolutionary updates, not revolutionary ones, and this will be the 5th new release in as many years of their OS since Windows XP was put out as well. If you're upgrading that often you really can't have every release being as huge a change as OS9 to OS/X was.
This is all shipping in Q1 of 2005, so until then this stuff is as "real" to me as the wonderful features in Longhorn that the evangelists have been yakking about for the last year. Until it's in my hand I won't believe it. Of course, I fully belive I'll have Tiger before I have longhorn.
Anyone else have any thoughts?
Scoble, or at least some of his commenters, are annoyed.
Update: The site is back up in a low bandwith version, updates every three minutes and has pointers to IRC channels with live updates.
It'll be neat to see what the folks at Apple have planned. They contrast sharply with the Microsoft folks these days, who are telling us again and again how wonderful Longhorn will be when it comes out .... uhmm.... eventually. History though has shown that this MacOS update will probably be an evolutionary jump like Panther was and not the revolutionary jump that the original Mac OS/X was. If the hype from Redmond is correct though, Microsofts Longhorn will be revolutionary (well, assuming it ever comes out :)
This may be right, but the thing is I doubt that iTunes could exist without the "blessing" of the RIAA. Like the godfather, if the big buys that basically control what music we hear every day don't like it, it doesn't happen, and they have the $ to try to sue anyone out of existance (they have lots of $ of course, from years of exploiting artists). So is no iTunes store better than one that lets the artist continue to be screwed?
Personally I say that no, iTunes is good. Artists still may not get the compensation that they deserve, but with the infrastructure in place subversion can start. Maybe apple can start introducing independant artists, giving them the FULL cut of the profits (minus the Apple take of course), or adjust artists vs record company cuts. What would happen if [random artist] decided to cut loose from their RIAA handlers and move to being independant, and have the support of iTunes? Suddenly they'd be getting a lot more per song then they do being in the shackles of servitude to the RIAA. Could it work?
Well, in my opinion it might or might not, but there'd be no way to try without a large and established infrastructure such as the iTunes store, which now that it's available to Windows users, will no doubt start increasing.
It's an interesting page anyway, I've seen it before, but never really read through it. Make your own call.
They are sexy, but mac-mike needs to a hold on himself! (Not in that way you perverts!) Wish I could justify buying a new mac.
All I want is spring loaded folders dammit! And I don't want to pay for Apple hardware to get them!
