Macgasm

I’m on record as adoring Feedly, so it’s probably not much of a surprise to many of you that I’ve been keeping a close eye on their blog. I’ve been hoping that they’ll give us a sneak peak of some upcoming versions, or even a version for the iPad.

The word is out today is that they’ve put together a prototype for the iPhone; which I’d assume is the first step towards an iPad edition. One of the reasons I’m so excited for the iPad is that I think it’s going to be the ultimate news device. That is something that I just can’t say about the iPhone. I cannot get over the lack of screen real-estate, and having to scrolling an article every three sentences. But, if there’s one developer who can change my mind it’s Feedly. Honestly, they’ve taken the crappy GReader and turned it into something down right amazing. I declared bankruptcy on RSS long ago, but Feedly changed that for me. I have hope that their iPhone app will do the same.

*High Five to Feedly*

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In this episode, we talk about Notational Velocity and SimpleNote.

[01.2 MB] [00:03:40] [Hosted by: Josh Schnell & Grant Brunner] [Subscribe]

It’s no secret that Steve Jobs is on a mission to move the world away from Flash and towards HTML5 supported technologies. Jobs has been quoted as saying “Flash is full of security holes,” and it’s an “old technology” during meetings with the Wall Street Journal folks. He has a bit of a point when it comes to video streaming, but, I’m surprised that not many people are talking about how Apple’s trying to stop Flash games from competing with their iPhone games. If Flash gets approved game developers will be able to continue using the flash platform instead of using the iPhone SDK. That’s the real issue here, not streaming video content.  Flash games will challenge Apple’s AppStore model, and that’s something Apple doesn’t want to encourage.

We haven’t had much proof that flash kills battery life on mobile devices, and we certainly haven’t been given the option to test it out on our iPhones, but there’s an interesting video circulating the internet today that shows the repercussions of having Flash on a mobile device.

The video below shows a Nexus One phone running Flash 10.1. The Nexus One plays a couple of games, and streams a couple of videos during an 8 minute period. How does the battery hold up? It seems like the battery goes from around 50% to about 25% by the seven minute mark of the video — a pretty big battery hit for 8 minutes of use.

Maybe Jobs has a point, Flash just isn’t ready for mobile devices.

Update (Feb 24: 11:57PM EST) : We’ve been getting some blow back about this post so I thought I’d update everyone.

1. There are claims from the video creator that the video in question below was edited extensively. The funny thing is that there’s no indication of editing.  I’ve watched the video over and over again.
2. A number of people have made similar claims in the comments of his vimeo page, but he never explains what’s up with his video.  He just keeps claiming it was edited together despite the clock running continuously the whole time (attached a screenshot below).
3. I wish I had the foresight to screen capture this stuff, but I’m pretty sure Michael Chaize said at some point that he’s an Adobe employee.
4. A bunch of people are complaining about comments being deleted, which seems about right considering the “working at adobe” comment disappeared (again, I might be wrong), but Mark Doherty calls him a colleague here.
5. I’ve downloaded the video to my hard drive from Vimeo just in case it mysteriously disappears over night.
6. You can read an Adobe employees response to my post here.

Sample Conversation from Vimeo Page (admission of guilt? You can decide).

Video of Flash running on the Nexus One.

Flash Player 10.1 on Google Nexus One from michael chaize on Vimeo.

Article Via PC World and Gruber

Some might say it’s romantic, some might not care and some might think it’s the most ridiculous thing they’ve ever seen. Me? I think it’s both sweet and completely memorable. What I’m talking about is the marriage of Ya Ting and Joshua Li on Valentine’s Day 2010…at New York’s Fifth Avenue Apple Store.

Their rings were attached to 1st Gen iPhones, wrapped in silver and red ribbon, and their vows were written on Letterpress cards with ‘I love you more than this:’ and a picture of an iPhone below it. (Incidentally, you can buy those on Etsy if you’re quick enough). Plus, they had their own Steve Jobs minister dressed in jeans and black turtleneck! Most interesting wedding of the century? I think so!

Apparently, the couple met at that same store whilst buying iPhone cases (or iPods some are reporting) and so saw it fit to return to that same place to take their relationship to the next step. Congratulations Mr & Mrs Li! Watch the youtube video below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LQNNv7MFLE

I’ve owned a wireless Apple Mighty Mouse, now just called the ‘Apple Mouse’ due to trademark issues, since December of 2008. In that time, I’ve come to rely on the mouse for everything. However, there is one major issue with the mouse: the scroll wheel.

The Apple Mighty Mouse has the most abhorred and useless item on any mouse. The scroll wheel has a tendency to get dirty due to use, which is understandable, yet there is no way to actually clean the scroll wheel.

The major issue I’ve been having is that sometimes the scroll wheel will stop working in one direction. Whether it be up or down depends upon the mood of the mouse. Take today for instance, the scroll down function decided not to work any longer, while last week it was the ability to scroll up that stopped.

Now this has probably been rectified by the Apple Magic Mouse and its touch-sensitive technology. However this is hardly helpful for those of us who have the Apple Mighty Mouse. This does not help in terms of user-serviceable parts.

In contrast to the way that Apple does things, almost every ‘PC Mouse’ manufacturer allows access to the innards of a PC mouse in order to clean out dust and dirt that gets into the scroll wheel area. It is typically two screws, lift off the cover, clean the area, put the cover back on, replace the screws and it is good to go for another year or so.

Apple has not had a very good track record with their mice. Like the puck mouse. I think Apple should stop manufacturing mice all together and contract with another company like Microsoft or Logitech, or even Razer to manufacturer their mice.

I may try one of the Apple Magic Mice, but I may just end up buying the Microsoft Bluetooth mobile Keyboard and the Microsoft Bluetooth Notebook mouse.

Image Source from Chris Mear

With about a month to go before the iPad is released, you might be asking yourself, which iPad am I?  Will you be waiting for the 3G version, or maybe you haven’t decided which capacity you want 16GB, 32GB, or 64GB?  I’m personally torn between the 16GB and 32GB Wi-Fi model.  I’m not to big on having to pay for another data plan, since I already pay for two, with mine and my wife’s iPhones.  I’ll get back to that a little later.  Or are you simply going to wait, because Apple has stated that they would lower the price of the iPad if it doesn’t sell well.

9to5Mac, is currently running a survey asking this very question.  They’ve broken it down between Wi-Fi and 3G, with their respective storage capacities.  As well as two other categories for “Going to pass on this one” and “Comments”.  As I write this article it seems that the 16GB Wi-Fi and the 64GB 3G models, are tied at 18%.  However, there are 29% of the people who took the survey that are “Going to pass on this one”.  These people are the ones that probably have no interest in getting an iPad, or they are simply going to wait for Apple to lower the price.

In my opinion the whole lowering the iPad’s price if it doesn’t do well has a fifty-fifty chance of happening.  Apple never stated what they deem to be “doing well,” and in what time frame they will act on this price alteration.  For all we know Apple might sell the iPad for less at launch.  This would in the long run sell more iPad’s; however, Apple might wait two months and drop the price like they did with the original iPhone.  Guess we’ll just have to wait and see.

I mentioned earlier that I’m torn between the 16GB and 32GB Wi-Fi models.  I currently have a 16GB iPhone 3G, and I tend to have about 5GB of free space.  So, I’m not sure if I’m going to need the extra 16GB, because I’m not sure if I want to load my music and Videos on the iPad.  I think I would load more videos than I would music, but I also want to load photos on it.  So you can see my quandary.  I’m also really excited about the iBooks application that will allow me to read books on the iPad.  I’m not sure the size of an iBooks download, so I guess I’ll just have to wait and see which one will better suit my needs and wallet.

I want to take a moment and talk about the 3G data plans with the iPad.  I think it’s great, however, it’s not for me.  The only reason I’m saying this is because I feel at this point AT&T is taking advantage of their current iPhone customers who already are paying for a data plan.  In my case I’m paying for two data plans.  One for my iPhone, and one for my wife’s iPhone.  AT&T should incorporate the iPad with their current iPhone customer’s data plan.  Whatever AT&T’s reasoning for this is, be it for charging twice for the same service, or it might be that they are trying to curtail the traffic on their already over saturated network by deterring customers to get the 3G version, is just simply wrong.  The only thing I can say that they have done right is to provide the service with no contract, and offer two plan options, one for 250MB of data and the other for unlimited data use.

Whichever storage capacity I decide on I know I’lI enjoy using the iPad.  Now I would like to hear from you the reader – Which iPad are you?  Will you be getting the Wi-Fi version, or the 3G version?  Or are you simply going to pass on the iPad?  If you are, I would love to hear your reasons.  If you think it’s just a big iPod Touch, then, I would like to hear from you too.  Leave your comments below.  I would love to hear everyones opinion.  In the end it will make my buying decision that much easier.

Photo Credit: my paper iPad

via @9to5Mac

Article By: Cesar Garcia

Well, i’m pretty sure the fine people at Cupertino all use the right click, and they right click to right click, not to option click (well, maybe Jobs. But he’s a genius. He can do whatever he wants), and still they insist on defaulting the system to a no right click stance.

But why?

Because it’s Apple.
And they care.

How did I come to this conclusion? I was forced invited to setup an iMac G5 as an Xmas gift to my aunt. Since I’m the resident Apple genius in the family (and there are no Apple stores in Portugal *hint hint Apple!*, to get a genuine genius from), I took the G5 and did the usual: erase, reinstall, set up.

While setting up my own Macs, I usually go through every common app (Safari, iTunes, etc) and all the menus in System Preferences to adjust the settings. This usually means changing most default options.

“Enable right click” being my personal (un)favorite.

Every new OS, every new Mac, every new initial setup, I go through all those menus and always, upon arriving at the “Mouse” one, I secretly hope for a “Right click enabled” default. That would definitely bring a lot of joy to the whole procedure – did I mention I’m a bit of a geek..? – Well, new operating systems have come, new Macs as well, but no “Right click enabled” by default from Apple. As any other fanboy, I tell myself: “Just change the damn setting and get on with it. Remember, Apple knows best. They have Steve and Jony and the rest of the gang. You are but a mere mortal. A superior mortal because you use a Mac, but a mortal still.” And so I do.

*click* Right click enabled.

But it was when setting up the Mac for auntie, that it hit me! I did, as usual, go through all menus in Sys Pref, and contrary to what I usually do for myself, the settings here were being set in accordance to: “Which setting is the easiest choice, the easiest to explain, and the least prone to (user) errors?”
And every time, the Apple default was the best choice. Why?

Because it’s Apple.
And they care.

Apple doesn’t care for the advanced user, for the super user, or for the genius. These people don’t need Apple to make the best choice for them. They already know what’s the best choice for themselves!

So what is the absolute most important type of user that Apple needs to take care of? Auntie never-seen-a-PC-before-much-less-a-Mac type user. And yes, right click is damn easy to teach. It’s just “hey, you can click like this *left click* AND like this *right click*” boom. Not so hard. But….
It’s easier to just say “you click like this *click*”, isn’t it?

And that’s what Apple’s all about. The most simple, elegant, and easy scenario.

That’s why we all love our Macs and iThings. They’re simple, elegant, and easy.
That’s why it just works.
That’s why right click isn’t enabled by default.

So next time you want to bitch about Apple, and not having a right click (which we DO, windows-people-lost-in-the-internet-who-ended-up-here-still-not-knowing-how), and not having flash on the iPhone, and iPods not having FM radio, and all the other nagging things you always come up with, just trust the good people at Apple. They’re probably taking care of your auntie. Not you.

You’re a super user. Deal with it.

Photo Credit: zlifestreaming

If you’re into mobile me, and I know there’s a lot of you, you might have noticed that Apple has finally decided to update the landing page to be iPhone compatible.

So, in addition to getting information on how to set up your mobile me accounts, you now also have the ability to “Find My iPhone” in mobile Safari.
If there was ever an incentive to go vigilante on an iPhone thief, this might be it. I know I’d

borrow a friend’s iPhone for an hour to track down my stolen iPhone.

Apple’s support document says the following:

Accessing me.com with your iPhone/iPod touch allows you access to the following items:

• A link to setup instructions for setting up Mail, Contacts, Calendars, and Find my iPhone on your iPhone/iPod touch.
• A link to use Find My iPhone from a friend’s iPhone/iPod touch if you need to locate your lost iPhone/iPod on a map, display a message, play a sound, or remotely lock or wipe it.
• A link to download the iDisk app on the App Store.
• A link to download the Gallery app on the App Store.

Via MacRumours

Photo Credit: Mr Andrew Murray