Macgasm

Apple definitely has a winner on their hands after selling over three million iPads, and some are saying that this is causing Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer to suffer from iPad envy.  Why would he care?  He has publicly denounced the iPad.  During the All Thing D conference, he said that someone was using a tablet in a meeting, and it was difficult to watch them use it.  Well, during Microsoft’s earnings call Ballmer was asked what are they doing about the iPad.  What does Microsoft have up their sleeve?

Well, if it’s the purported MS Slate, I would have to say they have nothing up their sleeve.  I am not saying this to bash Microsoft, but to illuminate how they are bringing a tablet to market.  The original specs for the Slate were basically a Netbook without a keyboard.  It was using a Intel Atom processor instead of an ARM chip. Heck, the price point was even higher than the low end iPad.  Microsoft has to hit one out of the park with whatever they bring to market, or they’ll just have another Kin on their hands.

So, in true Ballmer fashion when confronted with a challenge from Apple, he responded to investors with – “Apple has done an interesting job of putting together a product — they’ve certainly sold more than I’d like them to sell.”.  Really, Ballmer, more than you’d like to have seen them sold.  Sounds to me like someone is being a sore loser.  If I were Ballmer, I would focus all my attention and resources to building a tablet device that is built from the ground up.  Consequently, Microsoft doesn’t have time on their side.  If they want to keep their investors happy they’ll probably slap a light version of Windows 7 with touch on a tablet.

Moreover, Ballmer tells the investors the tablet “…is job one…”.  In my opinion, Microsoft is playing catch up.  They are scurrying to stay relevant in a world were they are being left behind by the likes of Apple, Google, and HP/Palm.  Maybe it’s time for Microsoft to go back to their core competencies, and develop software.  If their hearts are truly set on putting out a tablet device, take the time, and do it right.  Look at what Apple has done.  It took them years to get where they are today — it didn’t happen over night.  Microsoft has to realize this.  Maybe they need to fall like Apple did before they can be a true competitor in the tech consumer market.

Photo Credit: Steve Ballmer

Article Via 9to5Mac & MarketWatch.com

If you like Macgasm.net and our RSS Feed, I guarantee that you’ll enjoy our presence on your favorite social networking site. We’re constantly creating and harboring the best Apple-related content on the web, so let’s have a run down.

Flickr

Our community shares all of the cool nerdy Mac-related photos with us on Flickr, and their photos get to be featured right on the sidebar of every post on the site.

Facebook

If you want only the cream of the crop, you can “Like” our Facebook page. You’ll get wall posts linking you to the best we have to offer. Also, this is a great way to find and communicate with fellow ‘Gasm-ers.

Twitter

If you have something to say, you can tell us directly through Twitter. If you’re interested in the Tweets of a specific write, you can find that person in the Macgasm Team Twitter List.

Are we missing your favorite social networking site? Let us know in the comment section of this post.

You only have a few days left to enter the Macgasm Screencast Challenge. If you want to become a part of the Macgasm team, you should double your efforts, and submit your screencast entry this weekend. We’ve received some really great screencasts already, but we want to see what you can do. The competition is still wide open.

Just remember, these are the rules:

1) Keep your Screencast under five minutes.

2) Keep it relevant to Mac users. No Windows or Linux tips, please.

3) The Screencast must have audio narration. Visual-only Screencasts will not be considered.

4) The two winners will be chosen by myself and Joshua Schnell based on which Screencasts we like the most.

5) Please e-mail a link to your screencast (YouTube, Vimeo, etc.) to gbrunner@macgasm.net by August 2nd, 2010. Please don’t e-mail the files directly.

6) If you’re selected, you’ll become a member of the Macgasm team. You’ll be asked to provide at least one Screencast each calendar month.

We’re very excited about this, so hit us with your best shot. We want to see what you’re capable of accomplishing. Rock our socks off.

Image Credit: Juliana Coutinho

ComputerWorld (Beware annoying ads in that link) is reporting that Apple has posted an ad looking for a new member of the Mac OS X Dev team that has intense experience with HTTP.

It is now being theorized that due to the lack of OS X coverage in this year’s WWDC, 2011 will be the year of 10.7 and Apple’s full out war with Google. That is all hearsay and speculation, but I must say that it has stoked my fire. I am looking forward to seeing what Apple has in store for us in the next year, and I think it is a safe bet to say that Steve isn’t taking Google’s Chrome browser and OS very lightly.

I’m now pondering what could possibly make Mac OS X substantially better. Nothing is jumping to mind as far as missing features go. If you have any theories about what Apple’s next move is, please take a moment to drop us a note in the comment section of this post. We love to hear what you have to say.

Article Via Cult of Mac

Cult of Mac got into some trouble with commenters due to an article showing step-by-step how-to on installing pirated application on your iOS device. As an iOS developer I am not up in arms regarding Cult of Mac showing a step-by-step guide on how to install pirated applications. I will explain my reasoning.

Piracy is a fact of life on the Internet. There are those who refuse to pay for items. Whether it be software, music, movies or any other media they just out-right refuse to pay. You cannot change their behavior.

There are those who believe as though Cult of Mac is an absolutely horrible blog for posting a guide on how to install pirated applications. To be fair, they had a disclosure. Yes, it was a small one, but it was on the site none-the-less.

While discussing the incident with someone, I made the point that what Cult of Mac did is no different from a reporter showing you how to steal a car. They are not necessarily condoning the action, just showing you the means on how to do so. What you do with the information is entirely your responsibility. Below is a screen shot of their disclaimer since the original has been taken down.

As an iOS developer if my applications shows up on a pirate repository, what legal action do I really have. Sure I could complain and sue the repository; but is it worth the cost of going through a legal battle over lost sales? In a single word: No. It would not be worth my time or effort to actually pursue legal action. In a strange way, it could potentially be advertising by allowing those who do not want to pay for the App to not pay and potentially become supporters by telling others about the application. Sure, some of those users will pirate it as well, but some will not want to risk jailbreaking their device and will purchase it instead. Basically, I do not count pirated copies as lost sales.

One thing I have noticed is an increase in sensationalism and failure to recognize the extent of an issue. Take, for instance, the antenna issue that Apple has had to deal with regarding the iPhone 4. There are many within the Apple reporting universe that made the story out as 90% of iPhone 4s were defective; when this was clearly not the case. Yes, a portion of those who have purchased the iPhone 4 have experienced issues with AT&T and the antenna dropping quickly; but no where near 90%.

Actually, according to Apple’s own statistics only 0.55% of people called Apple to complain about their iPhone antenna issues. Out of the 1.7 Million iPhone 4s that were sold in the first three days this leaves only 9350 potential people who could call regarding the iPhone 4 antenna issue. This is not a small number, but 0.55% is small in the grand scheme of things.

The Sensationalism within the Apple reporting community needs to drop. There is no reason why everybody should think that a potential issue is the ‘absolute end of the world’ just because it happens to be something that everybody is reporting. These sensationalists are not reporting that 99% of iPhone 4 owners are completely satisfied with their iPhone 4.

Maybe it is just me, but Cult of Mac did not do anything wrong. They should not be persecuted within the Apple press for showing somebody how to install a pirated application on their phone. Yes, they should have made their intentions more clear up front. But you can not fault them for merely providing information.

Mac users aren’t bogged down with the same viral issues as their Windows-using brethren, but they aren’t bullet proof. They can still get scammed, hoaxed, and bilked out of their time, energy, money. ClamXav is a free, open source virus and scam scanner for Mac OS X.

By default, it doesn’t run in the background at all. It won’t use your system’s resources you pressing the scan button. It has the capability of thoroughly scanning your computer for any malware it is harboring, but that’s not what impresses me the most. It also scans your mail from Mail.app for phishing, spoofing, and other scams. That really blows my skirt up. I like knowing that my mail is being watched for scams with little to no hassle on my part.

If you want more intense protection, you can use the Sentry feature to constantly monitor certain folders for malware. If you prefer, you can also have a full scan automatically run at a certain time of day. Quarantining and whitelisting are also available from within the settings menu, so you can customize the scan to your liking.

Some might call this paranoia, but I think it is worthwhile to scan your home folder every now and again for the crap that Windows users deal with every single day. Let’s stay frosty, everyone.

If you’re interested, you can download the latest beta of ClamXav for no cost. That said, the developer requests that you donate via Paypal if you enjoy the app. I thoroughly recommend that you do.

One of the knocks against Mac OS X is the oft-mentioned lack of customization. Windows users and Linux users often yammer on and on about every switch they can flip to customize their OS. That’s fine, but Mac OS X has the ability to be tweaked just as much as any other operating system. Apple just sees the wisdom in hiding advanced features from your everyday user. You don’t want Great Aunt Frances changing the default OS font to Comic Sans, do you?

TinkerTool allows you to make changes to Mac OS X without actually performing any tomfoolery. Everything that you change within TinkerTool can easily be reversed by clicking the restore button. It’s a very, very low risk way of getting the most out of your Mac. If this sounds like what you want, keep on reading for a short list of some of the features:

• Display hidden system files
• Turn off OS X’s creation of .DS_Store files on external drives
• Turn off the 3D dock
• Disable Exposé in the Dock
• Change file format of Screenshots
• Enable developer mode for the Dashboard
• Allow half-star rating in iTunes
• Change the default font for the operating system
• Turn off inline PDF viewing in Safari
• Allow multiple concurrent recordings in Quicktime X

TinkerTool is free, so don’t be afraid to try it out. Please take a moment to drop us a line in the comment section to let us know what your favorite feature of TinkerTool is. We love hearing from you.

Back in April when Apple announced the new iOS 4 Operating System, a lot of original iPhone users were upset that iOS 4 could not be installed on their iPhones, nor would Apple be supporting the original iPhone.  The average consumer felt that Apple was forcing them to ditch their iPhone and upgrade to the latest and greatest.  That couldn’t be further from the truth.  The new iOS is designed for hardware that supports a faster processor and more memory.  Apple said that iOS 4 could be installed on the iPhone 3GS and the iPhone 3G.  This made the 3GS and 3G customers happy, but as of late only the former are happy, while the latter are suffering the woes of slow performance.

Why would the iPhone 3G suffer slow performance if Apple said that iOS 4 could run on it?  As I noted earlier, iOS 4 is designed to run on hardware that supports a faster processor and more memory.  Consequently the iPhone 3G falls short in both of these departments.  The iPhone 3G only has 128MB of memory, whereas the iPhone 3GS has 256MB of memory.  Moreover, the iPhone 4 trumps its predecessors with 512MB of memory.  Are you getting the picture now?  In my opinion, the iPhone 3G should have been excluded like the original iPhone from running iOS 4.

In the name of customer service, Apple probably felt that they should at least have iOS 4 on the iPhone 3G.  This decision is proving to be an issue with most consumers.  Digits is reporting that consumers feel that the “phone has gone from being a dream to constantly annoying…”.  Unlike Antennagate where only a small fraction of users were reporting issues, this is an issue that all iPhone 3G users are experiencing.  Like Antennagate, Apple is aware of the issue and they are investigating what can be done to resolve it.

A couple of things can be done on your own to boost performance a little bit.  The first would be to perform a hard reset.  This is done by holding down on the home and on/off buttons.  During this process you will see the screen power off, and then the iPhone will go black.  After this happens you will see the Apple logo.  Once you see the logo you can let go of both of the buttons.  Don’t release the buttons before that.  Think of this as restarting your computer to restore performance.  The other option is to wipe your iPhone, and then load the new iOS 4.

One final option is to Jailbreak your iPhone 3G.  Many people have done this and said that their iPhone 3G works fine.  Since the iPhone 3G is out of contract and warranty, Apple cannot be held responsible, nor would they if it were still under warranty. So feel free to Jailbreak to your heart’s content.  I would like to leave everyone with this. Computers, or any electronic devices for that matter, are obsolete before you know it.  Even though Apple makes top notch hardware that lasts a long time, the unfortunate truth is that more sooner rather than later your device will need to be replaced.

Photo Credit: iPhone 3G official pics

Article Via WSJ Blogs Digits