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.

That makes three major update rumors in the last two weeks. Last week it was rumoured that the iMac and MacBook Air lineup had their production cycles slowed down, if not completely halted, to brace for an update. So could we be seeing new iMacs, MacBook Airs, and new Mac Pros in the upcoming weeks. It’s highly unlikely that all three will be unveiled at the same time, unless they’re only getting spec boosts.

System boosts tend to take place in the middle of the night while no one’s paying attention to Apple’s website. If anything the iMacs and Mac Pros fall into this category, whereas the MacBook Air could be delayed until a major Apple event. Given the key differences in the rumours, it would make sense for Apple to plan a press event around the unveiling of the new MacBook Airs. Rumours last week hinted at a completely new device.

If you’re in the market for any of these machines, it might be smart to take a moment and evaluate the rumours before you purchase a new machine. There’s nothing worse than buying a new machine only to have a new model come out the next day. But, in all fairness, these are just rumours, and it could be upwards of six months to a year before anything comes to fruition on this front.

Welcome to the world of Apple rumours. It’s a vicious cycle.

Article Via Apple Insider

As the folks at Mozilla work on their Gecko rendering engine, it is clear that Firefox is their number one priority. That’s very understandable when you look at how popular it is. Being completely fair, Firefox has become much better at fitting in with Mac OS X. There was a time when the Firefox team wanted a standard look and feel on every platform, and that clearly ended up being the wrong path. During that time, Camino was a better experience on the Mac when compared to Firefox. As it stands now, there is much less of a gap.

One of the biggest selling points of Firefox has been their add-ons. While you can extend the functionality of Camino, it isn’t truly compatible with the Firefox methodology. Along with that, it just doesn’t receive the same love and attention the bigger products like Thunderbird get. The last saving grace for Camino, in my eyes, is the integration with OS X’s Keychain password manager. Being able to use one single password manager on your computer is wonderful, and it is only a matter of time until the Firefox team sees that.

Do you use Camino? If so, please comment on this post, and let us know why you remain loyal to a back-burner browser. Maybe you know something that the rest of us don’t.

PhotoCredit: Brennan Schnell

Yesterday, while waiting for Weezer to come on stage, my brother and I were railing on the Flickr App for iPhone pretty hard. It’s kind of humorous to see that the application got an update between then and now, but I’m sad to report that the app is just as mediocre as it was before the update. In version 1.2 of the Flickr application, they’ve added support for HD video uploads, posting photos to Twitter, and uploading photos in the background. Don’t get me wrong. These are great things to add to their application, but why in the world have they decided to forgo any community features in their app?

There’s still no way to access and converse in groups. This is a pretty big feature to leave out of your application, considering the humongous community Flickr has already. For us, Flickr is part community and part photo, and by removing either of these things from an application, Yahoo Inc. is seriously missing a giant opportunity. The community is why Flickr is so successful, and not giving people access to that on their mobile devices is a huge oversight.

Hopefully they’ll get this worked out in an upcoming version.

Sure, we’re here to get pageviews just like everyone else, but at some point a line is drawn in the sand, and some people hit it running full steam ahead. There’s not much left to be said about Antennagate, and yet every pundit and wannabe pundit seems to find some crack in the armour so small, that they continue with sensationalizing this crap over and over and over.

I’m over it. Here’s why.

I haven’t read one legitimate new opinion on this whole debacle for well over a week now, and yet, the same crap keeps cramping up my rss feed. The one thing that put me over the edge was the TechCrunchTV video with Jon Gruber, MG Siegler, Arrington, and Kincaid. The video had potential to really put this whole raging debate to rest, but instead comprised of Arrington acting like Arrington, and Siegler and Gruber sitting dumbfounded by the ridiculous comments coming out of Arrington. Sure, he may have been playing devil’s advocate, but it’s hard to believe anything that came out of his mouth after he said that the iPhone is a phone that doesn’t make calls. If there was ever an inaccurate blanket statement, that might be it. The sad thing was Kincaid had some excellent comments and questions for MG Siegler and Gruber, but instead we got to witness Arrington talking over him and trying to “lawyer” Gruber and Siegler into an intervention. It bordered on embarrassing. But, I can’t for one second blame Arrington. He knows how to get pageviews, and he’s certainly getting them now. And, he’s certainly not alone. Every tech blog on the planet has been beating this horse for 22 days. There’s only so many times you can say the same thing in different ways before everyone realizes what’s going on, and that’s been the case here.

There’s a second reason I’m over it.

I made a calculated decision during the announcement to not write up any posts until the media event was over. We probably lost out on a lot of traffic, but I noticed pretty quickly that others were posting headlines with one sentence of content, publishing the articles, and then filling in the content later. There’s a reason they do this. They’re trying to get their articles around social media sites, google news, and blogs before anyone else. But, we’re not that guy. I don’t see the value in abusing our readers with 15 posts in one hour, in each, a sentence or two. It’s ridiculous.

Apple told us what they’re going to do, now let’s see how it plays out

Everyone wants to knock the top dog on the playground down a peg or two during recess, but even that top dog gets a reprise from the recess-beating during class time. This hasn’t been the case for Apple, nor do we expect it to let up any time soon. We saw this coming right after Gizmodo purchased a stolen phone. Every subsequent Apple article was written in a negative context, pushing an anti-Apple agenda. They have the right to write whatever they want, and I could honestly care less about what they say, but they have influence over the tech world, whether we like to admit it or not. It doesn’t take long for people to jump on the bandwagon for negative stories. A single negative story from an influential source can have a snowball effect, flooding the Internet with thousands of similarly toned articles.

The next time you read an article about Antennagate, I’d ask you to take a moment and critically evaluate what they’re saying. Are they saying anything at all? Are they regurgitating someone else’s viewpoints, or are they adding to the commentary? If it’s a regurgitation, you might want to take a moment and remove them from your RSS feed. Anyone can copy and paste someone else’s thoughts, but very few in this industry seem able to come up with original thoughts. If there’s one thing I can promise to you guys, the readers, it’s that we’re trying hard to create unique commentaries on our posts. Sure, sometimes we fall short, be we recommit to being better every week.

Bullshit headlines that really mean nothing

There’s nothing that pisses me off more than misleading headlines. We’re as guilty as everyone else, but we try to minimize it. Sometimes we even unintentionally post a headline that’s misleading. This particular article, titled, “Steve Jobs confirms: Android outselling iPhone,” is a prime example of everything I’ve talked about in this post. Steve Jobs didn’t confirm anything about Android in his keynote, outside of stating iPhone 4 sales. To pretend that he did is putting words in his mouth, and more importantly, making it the title of your post is outright irresponsible. While this article doesn’t particularly fit with the Antennagate topic, it certainly illustrates how far media reaches to establish a story. It’s been happening a lot since the iPhone 4 release, and it’s getting really old, really quickly.

We might not write 20+ articles a day for you guys, but we certainly only pass on things we think you’ll care about. We also try and combine topics into one post. We try to tell the whole story in a complete format. We don’t do episodic content like some of these other websites. A misleading headline means your article is already beginning out of context, and I’d argue that this is why Antennagate blew up. People who know absolutely nothing about attenuation, or who weren’t engineers were trying to explain things that they know nothing about. You can only boil a point down so many times before the real point gets lost entirely. When that happens, everyone’s left grasping for straws.

The valley isn’t representative of the world

As hard as it is to realize, San Francisco and the rest of Silicon Valley isn’t representative of the world as a whole. While I’m reluctant to point the finger at AT&T for this whole thing, I do find it rather interesting to note that there hasn’t been nearly the same kind of public outcry in Europe or other initial launch countries. People have noticed that a death grip lowers signal strength, but the dropped calls problem just doesn’t seem to be an issue for most. I can’t comment fully on this because the iPhone 4 hasn’t been released in Canada yet, but I’m certainly eagerly anticipating trying it out around town. I know Apple’s been singing the praises of AT&T lately, but this certainly would have been an excellent time to do some international research on the issue. Sadly, the technology echo chamber begins in the Valley and extends around the globe, but it sure would be nice if tech writers would take a moment, remove themselves from their personal surroundings, and figure out if this antenna is a problem for anyone else outside of the US. It would certainly provide some perspective on this whole problem, and it would accurately let them point the finger at the appropriate parties. But, that requires work, and it’s hard to do that when you’re busy concocting fallacious headlines, posting two sentence articles, and pimping them around social media sites.

Obviously, unforeseen delays can happen when demand for a product is high. However, good customer service means informing your customers of any delays in a courteous and timely fashion. For example, I ordered a popular product from Waterfield Cases that was essentially backordered and I received several emails keeping me apprised of the status of my order. What makes Vaja’s treatment of this customer so appalling is that, not only did they treat him discourteously, they charged his credit card over 45 days ago and have not delivered the product. Now, when you order a Vaja case, they tell you that they will charge your card immediately because their products are “hand crafted.” Once you place an order and the process begins, you can’t back out.  Still, it seems to me that when you spend that much money for a product, you should be treated extremely well. Sure, Vaja cases are extraordinary, but the quality of your product does not justify treating your customers rudely. Vaja should graciously apologize for the delay (rather than point out their fine print) and, at the least, refund shipping costs since they did not meet their own deadline.

Have any other Macgasm readers experienced poor customer service from Vaja? If so, please tell us in the comments.

For those who may not be aware, Consumer Reports did their independent testing and concluded that it could not “recommend” the iPhone 4 strictly due to the antenna design and its inherit flaws when holding the phone in a ‘normal’ way.

Now there are those who may be questioning how Consumer Reports did their testing and may claim they are biased and just following the hype that is out there or even blame AT&T for their poor signal and network. Well, for your information, Consumer Reports did their testing in an RF dead-area. This means that no waves were able to exit or enter into the testing area. With the testing chamber completely closed off, Consumer Reports used their own device to simulate connecting to the cell tower. After testing, they were able to determine that the antenna issue is in fact real.

The failed testing with the antenna is the only reason that Consumer Reports cannot recommend the iPhone 4. Despite this, it is the highest rated cell phone that Consumer Reports has available.

I myself know that the antenna issues are real. As I was explaining to Macgasm’s Gerard Lagana over twitter, I am able to replicate the ‘dropping bars’ issue without any case. Along with not having a case, even with Apple’s Bumper case I am still getting bars to drop. Now, it is entirely possible that I’m in a poor AT&T coverage area. If that truly is the case, I’d like to test out a MicroCell at my home on a permanent basis.

As for Apple deleting discussions, I think this is a bad move, no matter which way you slice it. You’re looking at censorship and the inability to express your opinions. This is just plain wrong in my opinion. Anybody should be allowed and encouraged to say exactly what they want regarding a product. Here is a link to one of the removed threads.

Now, I’m not saying that Apple should just let the discussions forums become a free-for-all. I’m not saying that at all. I’m saying that Apple should allow those who wish to stay on topic express their feelings regarding the topic. If the comments are slanderous, libelous or even directed towards an individual then yes, remove them and ban the user. But do not arbitrarily delete discussions just because you fail to recognize that your product is flawed. That onus falls squarely on Apple’s reliance on marketing as the deciding factor in their products and removing all bad press from their website.

To be fair, if you do search on the Apple Discussion boards, you will find threads regarding the Consumer Reports article mentioned (as the screenshot below shows), but there were some threads removed.

Article Via Engadget

Warning: I might go off on a tirade filled with expletives here.

So by now everyone’s heard about the iPhone 4 problems. It’s been on Letterman, MSNBC has done a story, and now Microsoft COO Kevin Turner thinks he has the foreordained right to take pot shots at Apple over the iPhone 4, despite, you know, shipping about 50 Kins.

Kevin Turner spent some time at a conference letting people know his personal opinions about Apple’s problem with the iPhone 4, and he even took a moment to point out that the Windows 7 phone won’t have any limitations about how you hold your phone.  Thanks for pointing that out Kevin; we appreciate your half-formed opinions and misguided intentions.

All kidding aside, if the iPhone 4 is Apple’s Vista, then what the hell is the Microsoft Kin? Sure, the Kin might not have had hardware issues, but the phone should have never made it to market, and instead been kept in the attic like Quasimodo. Can someone please tell these guys that it might be in their best interest to censor themselves in these situations?  Because, before you start taking shots at another company, it might be smart to, you know… ship something. There’s always a lot of talk about shipping stuff from the Redmond crowd, but I can’t remember the last time they actually shipped something progressive and innovative.

Microsoft’s last foray into the cellphone market was the Kin, which was about as big of a success as the JooJoo, or the infamous Phantom gaming console. Before you start flinging crap like monkeys, you might want to make sure you’re standing on the high ground, because crap rolls downhill, and right now Microsoft is at the bottom of that hill, and the crap’s rolling downhill quickly.

Article Via ComputerWorld

Safari

“Before Safari, browsers were an afterthought. Something you put up with if you wanted to surf the Internet. One browser looked and felt just like another, so you chose the one that worked the best and crashed the least. They were ugly, cluttered affairs, whose interfaces competed for your attention and made browsing — the very purpose for which they were created — more difficult. Safari changes all that.”

Chrome

“The web browser is arguably the most important piece of software on your computer. You spend much of your time online inside a browser: When you search, chat, email, shop, bank, read the news, and watch videos online, you often do all this using a browser. … Chrome is designed to be fast in every possible way: It’s quick to start up from your desktop, loads web pages in a snap, and runs complex web applications fast. Learn more about Chrome and speed. … Chrome’s browser window is streamlined, clean and simple. Chrome also includes features that are designed for efficiency and ease of use. For example, you can search and navigate from the same box, and arrange tabs however you wish — quickly and easily. … Chrome is designed to keep you safer and more secure on the web with built-in malware and phishing protection, autoupdates to make sure the browser is up-to-date with the latest security updates, and more. Learn more about Chrome’s security features. … Chrome has many useful features built in, including extensions, translation in the browser, themes, and more. Learn more about Chrome’s newest and most-loved features.”

Stainless

“Although Stainless started out as a technology demo to showcase our own multi-processing architecture in response to Google Chrome, we’ve been inspired by our growing fanbase to forge ahead and craft Stainless into a full-fledged browser. In fact, Stainless now has features you won’t find in Chrome or in any other browser. A prime example is parallel sessions, which allow you to log into a site using different credentials in separate tabs at the same time. This new technology is woven throughout Stainless, from the private cookie storage system, to session-aware bookmarks that remember the session in which they were saved. We’re excited to showcase what we believe is a true browser innovation. Please note that Stainless is still in development and doesn’t yet have all the features you’d find in a production-ready browser. As we work towards a 1.0 release, you can check out what’s new in every update by clicking the version link under the Download button.”

Opera

“The fastest browser on Earth is even faster. But that is not all. Use Opera Turbo to double your page-download speed on slow connections. Download Opera now and get more from the Web. … Make your web browsing faster. Everything from loading webpages to opening tabs is optimized to happen almost instantly. You can even speed up browsing on slow connections, with Opera Turbo. … Reduce your exposure to threats on the Web. Industry-leading security and features such as Web Threat Protection and a security bar, ensure your safety. … Fly through webpages by using thoughtfully-designed features. You can search directly from the address field or launch your favorite pages with one click using Speed Dial. … Get the most from the Web with great features such as custom search, mouse gestures and Find in Page, to help you find content on long pages.”

Firefox

“Bringing together all kinds of awesomeness to make browsing better for you. Private Browsing: Surf the Web without leaving a single trace. Password Manager: Remember site passwords without ever seeing a pop-up. Awesome Bar: Find the sites you love in seconds (and without having to remember clunky URLs). Super Speed: View Web pages way faster, using less of your computer’s memory. Anti-Phishing & Anti-Malware: Enjoy the most advanced protection against online bad guys. Session Restore: Unexpected shutdown? Go back to exactly where you left off. One-Click Bookmarking: Bookmark, search and organize Web sites quickly and easily. Easy Customization: Thousands of add-ons give you the freedom to make your browser your own. Tabs: Do more at once with tabs you can organize with the drag of a mouse. Personas: Instantly change the look of your Firefox with thousands of easy-to-install themes.”

There are many more choices available, and I’ll be covering specialty browsers in an upcoming post. If you have a favorite browser, please feel free to leave a comment on this post, or you can hit me up on Twitter.

The Good

Movie listings, trailers, and ticket purchases at the tip of your fingers can only be a good thing. Instead of finding my way to a computer to look up play times, then surfing to another website for trailers, and yet another to purchase my tickets, I can get it all directly on the couch from my iPad.

Being able to select your town, or have the iPad find your location is a huge advantage when looking up movie times. The Google Maps integrations will probably be overlooked by most, but it definitely sets the application apart from some of the others on the market.

Movies Now immediately lists off the Top Box Office films in an appropriate ranking based on ticket sales, they list films that have been just released, and films that are still kicking around in cinemas, despite no longer being a top grossing film.

Getting details on a film

The steps for getting more information on a particular film is quite simple, click on the movie poster and you’re met with a modal box that now includes a plot summary, actors list, a trailer link, as well as upcoming show times, and the ability to add a film to a wishlist.

The wishlist

I’m not sure if the wishlist is the best term for the section, but the feature is handy none the less. You have the ability to add films to a “must see” listing for later reference. It becomes really handy when you’re sitting around contemplating which films you want to spend a large chunk of your hard earned paycheck on. Most people can’t dedicate much time to checking the film listings on a daily basis, so being able to queue up a list for future reference is a huge bonus for most of us.

Purchase tickets from home

Another doozy of a feature is the ability to purchase your movie tickets directly from movietickets.com in the application. It’s a huge time saver, and a great way to ensure that you get tickets for a premiere before tickets sell out.

The Bad

There’s nothing truly bad about this application, but there is one little annoyance that has been a real thorn in my side. The Showtimes listings seem to only show film times from a theatre sixteen miles away from my house, despite have several closer movie theatres available to me. I’m not sure why, and it only seems to do it when I’m at home.

Final Thoughts

If you’re the type of person who watches more than a couple movies a year at a theatre, I’d highly recommend picking up this application.  We had a hard time finding any flaws with the application, and outside of those we mention, there isn’t really much bad we can say about it.  At 1.99, Movies Now is a steal of a deal.

I get the geek crowd, heck I’m one of you. I tinker with my hardware, hack my iPhone, install Ubuntu on my MBP, tinker with my consumer electronics, and try out more application hacks than I care to admit. People who know me well know that I can waste away an entire week futzing with some form of geeky entertainment.

But, in my opinion, there’s a time for that, and there’s a time for me to actually get some things done without having to worry about permission changes on my phone. I battle permissions in CentOS more than I’d like, and having to do it on a device that lets me make phone calls is more than I’m willing to concede to a phone. I can manage it, if I had to, but what I don’t expect is the rest of my extended family to know how to manage it. My parents, siblings, grandparents, and the rest of the family probably couldn’t tell you what the heck a permission update means, let alone why they should have to do one.

In my opinion, technology should librate people, not enslave them in a world that they aren’t comfortable with. It sounds Jobsian, and I can almost hear the Android fans out there rolling their eyes, but it’s true. The Android, and the iPhone currently meet the needs of two very different markets — hardcore geeks who don’t mind the tinkering, and the rest of the world.

There’s a ton of features on the Android that I wish I had access to on my iPhone, and there’s no doubt that Android will continue to develop over time, but right now, I just want a phone that pretty much manages itself, so I can enjoy it, without having to worry about if I need to update permissions on my phone.

You may not agree, but it’s where I stand.

Think of it like this, you’re about to buy a smartphone for your grandmother, which are you going to choose: An Android device or an iPhone?

PS. If you’re looking for an indepth Android review, this Arstechnica review pretty much covers it all.

When I got the email announcing they were going to sell the deal of the century, unlocked and SIM-free iPhone 4s for £99, I sent it round to my colleagues, family and friends – well done Groupola, you got them to sign up for an account with their emails. An 80% saving isn’t going to repulse anyone, and their great reputation led many to believe this kind of deal would be a blast, including The Guardian who ran a story on the deal that same day. So on Friday 2nd July, we and, according to Groupola, 5 million other people tried to purchase the new iPhone for £99 from their site — if we could get on it. People started to get angry. People started shouting they only had 3 iPhones. People started wondering if this was a legitimate deal at all. They took to Facebook and Twitter in their frustration, creating hate groups and asking Groupola to make a statement to reveal if they ever had any iPhones in the first place.

By this time it all started to click into place. They had just created the biggest hype for their company as well as Apple and gained (according to their figures for the number of users entering their site that day) millions of emails from new users. Even though the hype backfired and many tried to unsubscribe from the company, I’d be interested to know the stats for the providers selling the new phone in the UK as to whether they got more visitors whilst the offer was going on, and what Apple has to say about the hype. I knew that Apple would never have agreed to sell the phones with Groupola at such a discounted price, which started off my concerns that the deal was a little fishy. I worked out that with 200 phones sold (as they claim) Groupola was working off a 90k loss at the start. Wow, risky!

What seems to be the most interesting is how they managed to get 200 iPhone 4s in their possession, or perhaps they’ll be handing out vouchers to the lucky buyers instead. The limit of 2 per person by Apple would have taken a while, so I’m interested to hear from anyone who was lucky enough to get one from Groupola – if they even exist in the first place. I ended up not being lucky enough and like 4,999,800 others I’ll be hanging around my provider for an upgrade. Even if it doesn’t save me 80%.

I don’t want to be left out, so I decided that an upgrade is in order. Unfortunately, the traditional iPod update takes place in September. Buying an iPod Touch now is going to leave me feeling out of the loop in a few months, so I won’t be doing that. In the mean time, I am left on iOS 3.x, looking on as all of the cool kids use shiny new apps like iBooks.

Maybe this is the only way of handling the update that made sense to Steve Jobs, but it is seriously bumming me out. Not only is it hindering me personally as a gadget nerd, but it is also halting me from covering more iOS 4 stories here on Macgasm. If it wasn’t for Apple’s need to control the news cycle, we’d probably have new iPod Touches alongside with the new iPhones.

Am I the only one impacted by this? Let me know by leaving a comment, or you can tweet me.

Forty-some weeks out of the year, we’re left dangling in the wind without any worthwhile news. We react by finding a rumor, reporting it, and then spewing it all through the echo chamber that is Apple news. The readers react to it because they are like junkies that have gone a couple hours without a hit from the pipe. They like Apple news, and they’ll take fake Apple news when the real McCoy isn’t available. It is a nauseous cycle of ferocious demand with very little supply to speak of.

I try to provide content that is actually interesting. I don’t always succeed, but I believe I am ahead of the game. I’m ahead because I recognize and acknowledge the bullshit that goes along with my job. I’m in doubt that the majority of Apple writers can say this about themselves.

I respect you, and I try to respect myself. I promise that I will work my hardest to give you quality articles with the absolute barest minimum of bullshit.

Photo Credit: dynamosquito

Steam does this regularly, but rarely on this scale. With the number of sales going on, you’d think Steam is trying to sell out of stock before going out of business! To top it off, Steam is also having limited-time sales, which means that there are daily and hourly countdowns to their sales, so you’ve got to act fast!

Get off your high horse and start buying. It’s times like these when the price of a new game (roughly $60) can get you ten games! Venture on over to Steam’s website or log in to the platform to see the ongoing sales.

Article Via Powered By Steam

You really should try some of these other ones out.

Their newest instalment, Aqueduct, is probably their best one to date. Available on the AppStore today, Aqueduct is literally a game about aqueducts. You have to create a sewer system so that the water flows from one point to another. Along the way you encounter obstacles that make going from point A. to point B a little more difficult. You start with a series of tubes that fit together, and you have to optimize the best way to place them together to reach your endpoint.

It’s really straightforward, but it makes you think.  There were a number of levels that had me scratching my head trying to figure out the best way to complete the puzzle.

The image below demonstrates the steps that I took to complete a level. The top left image is how we started off the the puzzle.  The bottom left it how I arranged the tiles to complete my pipeline, and the biggest image is the completed puzzle.

A Giveaway

The Kieffer Bros. have given us four coupon codes to give away to our readers (US only). Here’s the rules: first four people  to comment below wins.  It’s that simple.  Comment  below, using a legitimate email address as your account, and we’ll forward off a redeemable coupon code.  Again, make sure you have access to a US iTunes account, because if you don’t, these coupon codes won’t work.

… what was I saying?

EAT HIGH KICK TO THE FACE, BEEYOTCH.

Right. Arcades. Man, when I was in junior high I loved me the hell out of those places, and the memories of playing some of those old-school games has always stuck with me. For this reason, I always love it when some development company gets a bout of nostalgia and resurrects an old game for one of the newfangled devices the kids are playing with these days, and it was just yesterday that I randomly stumbled across Karate Champ in the App Store. This is no “modernized reboot.” This is basically the original ROM from the arcade cabinet shoehorned into a touchscreen interface, complete with all of the quirks and charm of the original. Trust me, I played this game enough to recognize that digitzed voice saying “BEGIN,” “HALF POINT,” and “FULL POINT” to have it haunt my dreams.

That's right, baby. You'll be all mine as soon as I lay a sound drubbing upon my evil doppleganger over there.

Karate Champ. Probably the first martial-arts video game to pit Player One against Player Two, two identically-skilled twins, one in red and one in white. Think of them as the original Ryu and Ken. Gameplay is very simple. There are no “energy levels” to deplete. Strike your opponent first to either earn a half or full point, and score 2 points to win a round. Win two rounds and move on to the next stage. Lose just one single round at any time and watch the game over screen. The prize for winning a stage? A woman. This game was made in the 80′s, kids, times were different back then. Men were men and women were prizes.

Just STAY DOWN unless you want to kiss my heel again.

Where most video games employ the use of buttons in their interface controls, Karate Champ controls consist of two joysticks. The original arcade cabinet had four joysticks on the control board, two for each player. A rough guide is that the left stick controls your movement and the right stick controls your attack direction (up to kick high, down to leg sweep, etc.), but of course different combos would result in different advanced moves (up and right at the same time to jump kick, right and left and the same time for a spinning reverse kick, etc.). With 16 different directional combos, there always seemed to be more moves and hidden tricks to discover. Of course, pulling off a victory with more advanced moves resulted in scoring more points.

Next time you WILL be mine, pixellated bikini lady!

Obviously, the iPhone is sadly lacking in joysticks and wood-grain paneling, but a touch-screen orientation perfectly suited to laying two thumbs in the corners of your screen rides to the rescue. Left thumb controls the left stick, right thumb controls the right. After a couple of games to get used to how sensitive the controls are (no wasted quarters! yay!) and I was off to the races. Pretty quickly I was beating Red like a rented mule for the first few levels, but just like when I was younger, about the time you get to the stage that takes place on a log across a canyon, Red starts to get a little more aggressive and defensively sound. A couple of stages after that he seemingly gets possessed by the spirit of Chuck Norris, blocking everything I can throw at him before roundhouse kicking my tits off. I will defeat him, though. She will be mine!

Of course I’m biased because of my childhood memories, but so far Karate Champ is turning out to be the best iPhone app I’ve maybe ever purchased. At 99 cents, you really can’t go wrong!

I LOVE YOU I AM MANLY AND VICTORIOUS

Is your iPhone 4 dropping calls? Steve says stop holding it like that.

In case you missed it earlier, the iPhone 4 is dropping calls when users hold the device in their left hands, or block the seam on the left side of the device. How sweet is that.

Well, I’m sorry Steve, but I’m left handed. I was born like that. As much as you like to think that everyone on the planet holds your phone with a right hand, you’d probably be shocked to know that a small population doesn’t fit your mould. But, given that four out of the five original Macintosh designers were left-handed, I’d think that you’d be a little more inclined to the plight of the left-handers.

What if Apple didn’t decide to create those bumpers for no reason. They knew they had a problem on their hands, and since Gizmodo went and ruined a release for everyone, Apple’s hands were tied. An announcement had to be made, and a half-designed device made it to production. Insert your favourite golf clap here.

Some would argue that i’m being a little bit paranoid, but it really has given me a reason to pause and think about it. Wanna buy our phone? Well, you should probably buy this crappy rubber as well so that it works.

I think Apple Inc just made my decision for me — I’ll be waiting for the next model.

I also find it hilarious that all the A-List reviewers who got their hands on one of these phones didn’t notice a problem at all. I say hilarious. You might say curious—tomato, toe-mat-o.

What’s the official word from Apple? It’s “a fact of life for every wireless phone,” and users should “avoid gripping it in the lower left corner in a way that covers both sides of the black strip in the metal band, or simply use one of many available cases.” Classic.

Next up the iPhone 5. “Want to make a call? Step right into our reality distortion field first.”

Article Via The Loop

It didn’t take me long to realize that I’m going to be terrible at shutting down my applications that are running in the background. Open, open open, close, close, close. Forget long enough and you have seven programs running all at the same time, draining your battery life, increase your data usage, and kills the response time of your phone.

To start, you have to enable your multitasking tray by hitting the home button twice. From there, you have to tap once and hold, until a minus sign pops up. Once that little glorified push notification icon comes to life, you then release the tap, and tap again to close out the application, simple enough. But, the problem isn’t how easy it is to close out an application, it’s how often I’m going to forget to close out programs I don’t need any more. For the last three years it’s been handled for us, and now it’s our responsibility to make sure the applications have closed out entirely.  Sure, iOS will close out applications if it realizes the phone’s resources are running in short supply, but who knows when that might be.

There needs to be a philosophical shift here, at the consumer level. On the whole, consumers don’t move too quickly.

A quick aside about MultiTasking

Before we dive deep into geekery, we need to take a moment a think about this from a typical consumer experience on the iPhone. For four years now, Apple‘s been conditioning us to close an application by pushing the home button. Much like Pavlov’s dog, it’s become second nature to us, and now the less than geeky public, who were used to Apple’s procedure for closing an app, has to figure out a completely new way of closing applications.

The solution

Even after knowing that applications are running in the background, I find myself forgetting to close applications. If i’m having a hard time, others are surely having hard times. What can be done to combat the backlog of application running on the iPhone? Noam Bardin from Waze thinks he has an answer, and after speaking with him, I agree whole heartedly.

The challenge is falling directly on the shoulders of developers, but once he expanded his ideas for me, it made a ton of sense. Letting the application determine when a program should close, and at what point, will help solve the problem. For instance, Waze is a GPS application, and like most of us know, GPS applications can be huge resource hogs, and now that they’re able to run in the background, things are only going to get worse. What Noam suggested was using algorithms to determine whether or not an application should continue running in the background. For his specific application, he recommended determining the speed that a phone is travelling at, whether or not the phone is idling, or if the phone loses its GPS signal to determine if a consumer should be running his program.

So, if you’re parked at a restaurant for more than five or ten minutes, the application would close out, and your system resources would be restored. Run away apps would no longer be around to slow down your phone.

Now that’s a smart move. The application is available in the appstore for free, but an updated version with this new functionality is awaiting approval. It has been submitted, so it’s only a matter of time until we hear if Apple will endorse the idea.  We’ll keep on top of the news as it develops.

I’m hoping they do, because the less I have to manually manage my multitasking the happier I’m going to be with my iPhone.

The tale of two tones

Gizmodo is reporting that 81% of applications on the App Store are free, while every other source on the internet is writing that 19% of the applications are not free. Sure the numbers mean the same thing, but both numbers imply very different things. The first implies that no one is making money on the AppStore, while the later implies that some people are making coin by developing for the device.

I’ve been noticing the tone shifting on some major blogs these days, so I thought this might be an interesting way to point out to readers how writers can mold an article to change your perspective on a topic with language they choose to employ.

Where’s the truth lie?

Somewhere in the middle obviously. Headlines are growing more deceiving by the day, and a lot of people get their news from headline snooping. It’s another reason that getting your news from multiple sources is important in todays information society.

It’s obvious that people are making money by developing for the iPhone, but it’s been apparent for a long time that the gold rush might be over. Over night success for developers is long gone, and the old adage of “first to the market” rings true again. That doesn’t mean that people aren’t looking for the next great product, it actually means the opposite. There’s a barrier to entry now, if your application is terrible no one’s going to notice it, but if you make something ground breaking, you’ll reap the rewards.

How much is Apple making?

We suscept that Apple isn’t making that much at all, and that the App Store is the second incarnation of the iTunes store. Selling music isn’t what Apple’s making money from these days, but selling iPods and iPhones is, and having access to a huge library of content helps drive those sales. The App Store is no different. Sure, Apple would prefer to be making money, and sure, they have a vested interest in making sure the developers are getting paid so they continue to develop for Apple’s platforms, but Apple’s more focused on selling the hardware that connects to the platforms. If an awesome app is being given away for free or for a price, either way Apple’s selling the consumer an electronic device.  A prime case in point is iPad sales, and the number of iPad applications that carry a price tag— of the 10,000 iPad apps that are available on the App Store, over 78% of them carry a price tag.  So where are we now?  Apple’s trying to right a ship that’s sailed a little too far in the wrong direction.  We can see the emphasis they’ve been placing on paid content in the iPad store, so claiming that Apple’s not making much money from the AppStore is still a little premature at this point.

There’s nothing like a firesale to get product moving again. Electronic Arts (EA) has decided that they’re going help out new iPhone and iPod Touch users, who might be getting their iPhone 4 in the next couple of days, by offering up 18 titles for $0.99

The games that are on sale,

• FIFA 10
• FIFA World Cup
• Madden NFL 10
• Need for Speed Shift
• Need for Speed Undercover
• SimCity
• Dragon’s Lair
• Jewel Quest Mysteries
• Trivial Pursuit
• NBA Live
• Tiger Woods PGA Tough
• Battleship
• Connect 4
• Surviving High School
• The Game of Life
• Clue
• Yahtzee

I’ve already picked up Dragon’s Lair and Sim City, and I’ll probably also pick up Need for Speed. If you’re looking for some new iPhone games on the cheap, then you’ll want to check out some of these applications.

Huge thanks to Delan for sending this one in!

Who says webcasting is dead, it just may have been given a shot in the arm from an unexpected source.

A preview video is already up on YouTube. It should make for an interesting show tonight.

Tuesday June 15th:

Pre-orders are not being processed due to an AT&T error of some sort; whether it be a system down or networking errors or what have you. Everybody keeps trying and system finally start to come back online around 5:30 PM US Central Time. So, after trying all day, hurry and get my order in. I think, good, I have my order in — I’ll get the iPhone 4 on Thursday the 24th.

Wednesday, June 16th:

Receive a call from the Assistant Store Manager at AT&T, Nick, asking me to have my brother call the store regarding authorizations and the like. I call him and he straightens it all out with AT&T and he is good to go for Thursday the 24th.

Friday June 18th:

News blogs have information trickling in about iPhone 4 pre-orders being ‘prepared for shipment’. Being the compulsive checker I am, I checked mine — no change. I figure I will check again Saturday morning.

Saturday, June 19th:

Wake up — no change in shipping. Check periodically throughout the day, and still no change. Check at 3:00PM (10 minutes before our movie was set to start) — status of order ‘CANCELLED’. Being a bit irritated and hoping it was an error, I attempted to call Apple. Wait on hold for 30 minutes. Get disconnected. Try again for another 15 minutes. Give up due to missing 45 minutes of the movie.

Finish movie. Immediately call Apple and get through the first time (WTF?) and talk to the representative. He says there’s nothing that they can do and he’s not sure what happened.

Next try AT&T, call their support and talk to a nice lady who is apologetic. She’s not entirely sure what can be done, if anything. Head home after eating dinner and check on doing another pre-order. Type in all of the pertinent information and get the following error message:

So, I try pre-ordering a phone with my brother’s phone number and get the option to pre-order. I have determined the issue. AT&T assigned my number to have the phone and not my brother’s line. (We’re on a family plan). At the least, I have figured out the reason my pre-order was cancelled.

Monday, June 21st:

I call AT&T and talk to the store manager, Gary. I explain the situation. He fully understands and wants to make it better. He offers to try and save a 32GB Black iPhone 4 but cannot promise anything. I said I would think about it. While talking to Gary I did get a glimpse of a few things. First off, he did admit it was their mistake. Also, while discussing Tuesday’s debacle, he stated that his store was on manual iphone pre-orders from the time the store opened. Meaning that the whole thing started before 8AM US Central Time.

So that’s where things stand at this moment. My plan of attack for Thursday is to head to the AT&T store early to see if I can procure an iPhone 4. If I am not able to get one on Thursday, I will just go ahead and order one from Apple and wait until it arrives. This, of course, is not the ideal situation, but honestly I can’t argue too much. I mean, afterall, it’s just a damn phone. Forcing myself to wait will be a good exercise in self-discipline. However, there’s no reason I can’t be grumpy with AT&T regardless.

In case you haven’t heard, there’s like a bazillion iPhone and iPad application on the market, and another bazillion OS X applications. It kind of makes it hard to keep up sometimes when your team has ten reviewers, all generous enough to donate their time to review applications.

Be concise and be clear—what’s your app do?

The pitch is key, and if you’re going to waste our time with a 200 word introduction to your application, there’s a good chance that we’re going to be moving on before we get to the good parts. Treat pitch emails like you treat tweets, keep it short, keep it on topic, and keep the fluff out. Chances are, if you tell us exactly what your app does, how much it costs, and provide a link for us, we’ll probably check it out.

Do not provide us with your PR copy, unless we’ve signed up for it, and please don’t go all Charles Dickens on us in the emails that you do send. There’s a very good chance that most of us do these app reviews as a hobby or side project, so please, don’t make us feel like we’re working.

Email reviewers one time, and don’t spam us for updates

If you want to pitch us, by all means, we’re excited to hear about what you’ve done. We genuinely want to tell people about excellent applications that we think might be a fit for our audience. But, keep in mind that it’s about our audience, and we’re catering to them, so they dictate what we review and what we don’t. It’s the nature of the beast. If we don’t think your application is something our readers would like to know about, we probably won’t share it. It’s not a slight on you, or your application, we just don’t think it’d be much help telling our readers about it. If they’re not going to appreciate it, they’re not going to click through and purchase your application, so in short, we’d be wasting our time.

There’s a number of reasons why we don’t review your applications (Outside of the one listed above). Sometimes we just don’t think the application is very good, so we take the high road and move on. Emailing us every twelve hours, or writing snarky posts about us not reviewing your application is only going to encourage us to write an honest review, which is these cases would be negative.

You don’t want that.

Attach a coupon code, or gift us the app

People who review apps sink a lot of time and money into the AppStore. We don’t expect handouts all of the time, but you’re certainly going to make our lives easier if you attach a coupon code, or gift us the app to review. Some would argue that this is “unethical”, but as we see it, we can’t buy every single application on the planet. We’ll gladly pay for things that interest us, but if you’re contacting us to review your application, you’re going to want to make sure we can get your application.

That being said, “gifting an application,” or sending a “coupon code” will not guarantee a positive review, so don’t expect one. We’re going to be honest, which brings me to my next point.

If there’s bugs, we’re going to find them, and then we’ll mention them

I never understood why someone would send a faulty product, or a bug ridden application to a reviewer. We’ll notice that the application is broken, or that an iPad case is falling apart. But, we’re going to mention it, publicly. So, if your application is half baked in the oven, don’t take it out and serve it to us. You’d be better off sitting on it for a couple more versions, and working the kinks out.

We’re not spiteful, and we get that the occasional bug might popup undetected before you send out the program, but if your application barely works as advertised, take our word for it, you don’t want us reviewing it.

We’re just as excited as you are

We love to review applications, and we’re as passionate about this market space as you are so keep that in mind when you’re interacting with us. We’d love to be able to review your application immediately, but there’s a good chance that we have a super long list of applications to review. We’ll get to as soon as we can. We have a vested interest in doing it, so have some patience, and a little faith. It’ll get reviewed eventually.

A new trend in native apps was to create a mobile web app and use Phonegap to be the native wrapper and submit it to the AppStore. Several apps such as Keypoint , Harmonious , and Beer in Japan are based on jQTouch.

Recently David Kaneda has joined the Ext JS company, and they have renamed the company Sencha and have Sencha Touch, the first HTML5 Mobile App Framework for iOS and Android.

They have three full featured demos, GeoCongress, Solitaire and Kiva, which look outstanding and function very well on my iPhone 3GS and scale perfectly for the iPad.

The assumption is that these apps will still be able to be wrapped up by PhoneGap to produce native apps to submit on the AppStore and Android Marketplace.  While the framework is still in beta, there is no commerical license yet.  There is an open source license, so all web apps and web apps wrapped in a native wrapper must be compatible with the GNU GPL license v3.

As the battle between smartphones continue we will see some fail (ahem, Palm webOS) and some team together to corner the market (currently iPhones and Android – 90% of market). However, no one wants to create multiple versions of their site or application. The universal app across different mobile operating systems is the ultimate goal and one step closer thanks to Sencha.

Key features:

• Flexible Themes
• Resolution Independent
• Animations (Slide, Fade, Cube, etc.)
• Touch Events – swipe, double tap, tap, etc.
• Standards Based (HTML5, CSS3, Javascript)
• Data Integration (JSON, AJAX, YQL)

Below are some screenshots of some examples if you download Sencha.

My prediction is you will see a lot of webapps and even native apps starting to use this framework as it speeds up development time and breaks Apple‘s developer strangle-hold!

“The iPhone‘s dead.” That’s what they said. “Android’s going to take over, and Apple‘s going to be left out in the cold.” What proponents of the Android phone don’t realize is that the majority of the world lives outside of the tech-bubble, and Apple’s pre-sale numbers not only disprove early arguments from Android users, but they also pretty much sum up the argument that Android devices are geek-specific.

When was the last time you heard an Android phone selling out on a pre-order day? According to early reports, Apple’s both completely sold out of their first round of phones, and approximately 600,000 phones (On the first day) have been pre-ordered by consumers. That’s a lot of “fanboys” lining up to make a purchase before the phone is even available to take home.  At some point, Android fans are going to have to realize that the iPhone is mainstream, and that Apple’s market reach extends far beyond “Fanboys,” who’ve “drank the Kool-aid.”  Because we’re not exactly sure that fanboys would be able to deliver AT&T the busiest day in their history all alone.

So where’s that put the iPhone market this quarter? About 9.5 million handheld devices could be sold, and put in the hands of consumers by the end of this quarter. That’s one hell of an army of fanboys if you ask us. I don’t care what you think about the phone or the competition to the iPhone; it’s hard not to be impressed with those kinds of numbers.  It’s surely an eye-opening experience for people who argue against Apple’s philosophy of the device.  People don’t care about a garden being open or walled, they just want a phone that works, and clearly they think the iPhone “Just works.”  Is it any surprise that Apple decided to focus on iOS at WWDC this year?

Despite all the setbacks yesterday, Apple managed to outsell their entire stock of the device, and now consumers won’t be able to get their devices shipped until July 2nd when the second batch of phones becomes available for sale.  Fresh off the heels of iPad supply issues, we’re starting to wonder if those “five” international companies who were supposed to be included in the fray sometime in July will see their release dates pushed back — just like they were with the iPad.  It sucks for consumers looking to buy the device, but clearly it’s a good problem to have if you’re Apple Inc.

Being the realist that I am, I understand that there are people all over the globe trying to do exactly the same thing that I am today, and that is place our pre-order for the fancy new iPhone 4 that was recently unveiled at WWDC.

My experience started with a Twitter agent I follow (@AppleStoreCheck),  showing that the online Apple Store was going down then coming back up multiple times throughout the late evening and early morning. That’s somewhat understandable as the online store needs to be updated with all the new information.

Now, since the page has been up I’ve been literally stuck on the https://buyiphone.apple.com webpage–since the damn thing is frozen after I key in the information that I want to replace an existing phone on my account with the new iPhone. Strike 1!

In an effort to be different this go around I wanted to go with the 16GB white model, but to my surprise that option is not available today (see graphic below):

I’m not happy about that, thus Strike 2!

After a few more hiccups and frozen screen incidents I have finally been able to change my choice from white to black, and get past the initial order screen. I proceed to type in my existing phone number, and specifics of the account I want to update and get presented with the following message:

Needless to say, I’m not very happy, and that is Strike 3!

Who is to blame here? Is it Apple or AT&T? I’m going to push the burden to AT&T since it’s their back-end systems that the webpage is tying into. They’ve already made the internal announcement that no one on the retail side is allowed to take vacation or time off during the month of June. This isn’t the first time they’ve gone through a major launch from Apple so you’d think the internal ordering systems would be beefed up enough to handle the influx of order requests.

Obviously I’ll try again, and again, and again until I am able to get my pre-order in since I’m a loyal subject of all things Apple, but the user experience thus far has not been very cool. In fact, Jeffrey Kalmikoff, VP of Product at SimpleGeo had the best tweet this morning.

Yesterday Valve released a not-so-cryptic post informing us that big things are coming. No, I really mean that. They said BIG things — in caps. They’ve also teased us with this image and a short coded message:

“Big things are happening RIGHT NOW at Valve. Things involving cultivated tree-fruit. BIG things. Things that rhyme with “grapple.” Things that rhyme with “Speem Gortress zmavailable on the Babac.”

Exciting news on the Team Fortress front, unless they’re releasing a new game call ‘Speem Gortress’ which would probably just be awful.

As of 11:30AM EST, there is no sign of TF2 on Steam, and the title [on the Steam platform] still says, “Team Fortess 2 (Mac coming soon).” It would be totally out of line for Valve to release this title on time, let alone early. I would be offended if they broke protocol.

But to all of you TF2 nuts who’ve been waiting years to play this, or just to play again, today is your day! And remember, don’t touch the Heavy’s sandvich! Game on!

News via Team Fortress

There’s no one thing the iPad excels at, because frankly, it excels at everything I throw at it (except maybe flash, huzzah). All kidding aside, the huge advantage the iPad has over its competitors is that it can be anything you want it to be; a gargantuan AppStore means that there’s likely an application out there that meets your needs.

Take for instance a video segment we’ve been working on for the video podcast. We found ourselves getting really annoyed having to hold up a laptop as a teleprompter when we’re out of the studio (in studio we have the infamous GhettoPrompter), so I thought I’d turn my iPad into a mobile GhettoPrompter. A quick search of the AppStore returned a result for PrompterPal for $4.99. I was a bit skeptical about using an application that’s so cheap, considering some of the iPhone prompting applications have a hefty price tag. Turns out, it was a wise investment.

PrompterPal has everything you’d expect from a teleprompter application. The ability to edit your text, increase and decrease font size, mirror your screen, and control scroll speed are all a quick menu away.

But the perks don’t end there. PrompterPal also gives you the ability to connect to the application from your laptop over a wireless network so that you can move your scripts to the device seamlessly. I can’t illustrate enough just how handy that feature is for my workflow. When multiple people write multiple scripts for our podcast, it becomes pretty laborious having to manage them and get them onto our teleprompter. Being able to upload them directly to an iPad is a huge time saver for me.

The creators of PrompterPal, Sunshine Valley Systems, have even put together an iPhone app that acts as a remote so that you can control the scrolling speed of PrompterPal from a remote location, like from across the room while your colleague is trying to read off her lines.

You can download the iPad app on iTunes for $4.99

Photo Gallery of the App

Time for Jenga! The new iPhone also sports a gyroscope, working with the existing accelerometer and compass to help the iPhone do even more, from more accurate compass readings and positioning to better gaming.

Apple has updated the camera to a 5MP sensor, but increased the size of the sensor so the pixels are the same size as with the 3MP camera in the 3GS. Additionally, to increase low light capability, the sensor is backlit and adds an LED flash. Also on tap for the camera is 5x digital zoom.

This new camera will shoot 720p video at 30fps, and can keep the LED light on for video.

Continue following Macgasm for updates throughout the keynote, and in-depth coverage after the event.

As the days are getting warmer and longer, I find my thoughts while sitting at a desk in an office building drifting more and more towards longing for the days when my biggest decision was which slide to go on next.

Slippery when wet

Though it doesn’t involve having to use a gang shower or putting on a swimsuit, Waterslide Extreme on the iPhone is as close as you can get to a real waterslide experience without having to worry about tripping the water sensors inside your electronics. I don’t know which city has built a towering series of glass waterslides above it’s skyscrapers, but holy CRAP do I ever want to move there.

Gameplay is simple: tilt your iPhone left and right to steer, tilt it back towards you to slow down. Try to collect gems on your way down, avoid obstacles, and for God’s sake don’t let yourself fly over the edge on a corner. That’s a LONG way down.

FFFFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU

I’m also not entirely sure just how many safety regulations this waterslide violates. Aside from the fact that you’re starting out a good hundred stories above the ground with no apparent safety equipment, some of the slides – oh, there’s just no way to class this up – appear to be infested with crabs.

I'll admit it. I giggled.

I generally don’t expect a high degree of realism in video games, so I’m willing to suspend my disbelief here. In the end, this is a free app that provided me with more than a few minutes of entertainment value, and it even politely asks me on launch if I want to listen to its included music or tunes from my own library. Fun and polite. Gender equality abounds as well, as you get to choose a male or female racer at the beginning.

Think you’ve got what it takes to master all 9 slides? Give Waterslide Extreme a whirl. There are worse ways to spend time sitting indoors waiting for quitting time!

The application doubleTwist has been out for a while and we have covered it pretty well. Joshua Schnell wrote an article about doubleTwist, and I also did a screencast back in November of 2009. Some changes have happened with the desktop app though. Over the last few months doubleTwist has added the ability to subscribe to podcasts and now Android users can browse the Android market place from the desktop application.

Most recently though, doubleTwist has enabled their Android application to act as a media player. When the Android app first came out, it really offered no user experience. The application was designed to make syncing your Android device easier by automatically mounting the device upon connection to your computer. However, with the latest update this has changed. doubleTwist for Android now has the ability to actually play music, podcasts, playlists, and videos. This is a huge improvement from the original application. Normally this application is priced at $.99, but is currently free for a short time. So if you have an Android device, you may want to check out this app, especially if you use the doubleTwist desktop application currently.

Scan the QR-Code  to download doubleTwist for Android with your Android device.

More Information:

Cult of Mac

DroidGawk

Sure, Apple got a huge boost from international iPad purchasers last week, but no matter how you look at it, 2 million units being sold is a pretty decent number. Everyone worried that the iPad wouldn’t sell well because it didn’t act like a true tablet with a full-fledged operating system, with Apple opting instead to use the iPhone OS. It’s starting to look like it was a smart move by Apple Inc.

BoingBoing's Cory Doctorow won't be getting an iPad. CC-licensed photo by Roo Reynolds

It’s happening; technology is no longer a geek medium

Have you noticed that over the last year that tech blogs seem to be getting it wrong?  Device after device, they throw their claims down about the success of a product, and they end up being wrong? We certainly have (and we’ve also made our fair share of predictions that have been wrong) but these missteps have allowed us to notice a trend that’s been popping up quite a bit.

We’re certainly not alone—the Beatweek team seems to have noticed it as well— the technological divide is closing rapidly, and tinkering geeks are starting to be left out in the cold. Your typical user isn’t spending their free time trying to figure out how to tinker with their device, instead they’re just trying to use their device. That’s a huge paradigm shift from the past, and it’s worth noting that the change is very real. The iPad is the literal embodiment of this movement, and it’s a pretty exciting time for technophobes. I’ve always believed that technology shouldn’t be viewed as a hurdle by society; instead, the technology should be used as a straightforward tool. People shouldn’t have to spend hours of their free time trying to figure out how something works; it should just work intuitively. It’s this philosophy that’s been pushing Apple down their newly charted course, and some geeks are having a hard time coping.  I’m in the same boat; I know exactly where the geeks are coming from, but I also see how excited non-geeks are getting about technology again.  It’s a complex scale to balance, but something tells me there’s more purchasing power in the non-geek sphere than there is in the geek sphere, and the group with the most money is probably going to win this war.

It becomes quite obvious why the hardcore geeks are really concerned about where Apple’s headed: their reality is changing, and embracing change is hard. The real question here is whether or not we’re headed down the appropriate path, and whether or not the iPad is the first major step in a new direction.

Do you think that we’re headed the wrong way down a one-way street?

Article Via MacNN, BeatWeek, and CultofMac

iGmail greets you with a wild goose chase and a plea for cash.

Apparently someone thought that wasn’t good enough.

iGmail – when gmail meets iphone by Idemfactor Solutions is a free download from the App Store for iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad.

In brief, this app aims to solve a problem that doesn’t exist.

The app presents you with… the mobile Gmail interface, with a couple of buttons positioned directly overtop of the menus.  There’s a button at the bottom to hide them, in case they interfere with navigation (which they do).  Before presenting you with a login, the app pushes you two consecutive popups, sending you back to the Home screen, through Settings (and there are more options in the Settings for this app than in the app itself), and back to the app.  I discovered that it is not, as is claimed in the first popup, necessary to go to Settings before continuing, but it did give me some idea of what the capabilities of the app were—that is, the “paid upgrades”.

There’s not much else to explain about the interface, since this app is basically a wrapper for the Gmail mobile Safari site.  The only good thing about that is that it saves me showing you a screenshot of the contents of my Inbox.

This may sound harsh, but I am amazed that this passed Apple‘s App Store review process.  I’ve never been confronted with more pop-ups and… words in an iPhone app.  The iPhone interface is visual; these developers don’t seem to get that.  Even the “screenshots” in their App Store listing have extra labels (complete with hand-drawn circles and arrows) to explain everything.  If you have to do that much explaining, you have missed the point of creating an intuitive interface.  What they’ve done here is to take the Gmail mobile interface, add “features”, and somehow get it approved as an app.

You can blame the SDK in your app and still get approved.

What is interesting is the push notification feature (an in-app purchase—not part of the free app), which includes a handy feature to silence notifications for a period during the day (for example, when you are asleep).  Push notification seems like a good idea on the surface, but since push notifications don’t stack, if you have other apps that use push notification (Howl or Foursquare come to mind) the iGmail notifications are likely to go unnoticed.  Is that worth the price?

Frankly, unless iGmail has one feature you absolutely need (like using the shake gesture to switch to Google Reader), I don’t really see the point.  It tries to improve upon something that doesn’t need improving, and ends up being needlessly complicated.

Photo Courtesy of Smudge Chris via Flickr

Times are changing. Beige boxes (You know, PCs) are no longer ubiquitous at home or at businesses with more people reaching out and trying Macs. However, the medical business is kind of stuck using old Windows machines. Why? Most medical software, if not all of it, is made for Windows only, although this could change with the popularity of Mac steadily increasing.

Many doctor’s offices use tablet PCs for their charts, especially specialists like podiatrists and ENTs (ears, nose, throat) doctors. But would they use something different if given the opportunity? I believe they would. The iPad is a perfect example of a device that could be used in a doctor’s office. With a few custom-made applications, the iPad could help doctors in ways they only dream of. Imagine  going to your doctor’s office and telling them your symptoms. They diagnose you, and then are able to pull up an anatomy app to show you what’s going on. They can then show you an age progression of your symptoms if you don’t get treated in a timely manner. That is a doctor’s office I would love to go to.

So, what is holding this progression back? EMR (Electronic Medical Records) Software. Right now most EMR software systems only run on Windows, with only a handful of programs running on the Mac OS. Sadly, with such a small number of Mac versions, most doctors aren’t going to switch from what they have. Let’s face it, it is hard to teach and learn a brand new system in a short amount of time. Luckily there are some web-based EMR systems, and there is always the ability to run in virtualization (the ability to run the Windows OS on a Mac). But when will those companies that make EMR software finally start making Mac compatible versions? Well, that really is up to doctors and their demands. If more doctors start sharing their concerns and needs to switch their offices to an Apple friendly office, developers will eventually listen.

More information: A guide to Medical Software for Apple Computers

The latest one from Google appears to be innocent, but seems like a doozy. When Google was sending the VW Beatles around with the creepy bug-eye cameras they were apparently wardriving as well. And not just connecting to any open WiFi they came in radio range of to catch up on farmville, but also reading and saving all of the data. The location of these open networks is used to aid with positioning. Devices like the iPod Touch have minor positioning data available based simply on what network they are connected to, and Google set up this system by mapping networks. The problem is that they also grabbed activity logs while they were at it.

Most people don’t understand just how insecure network communication is by default. Another machine on the same network as you will have all packets fly by it, and if the connection isn’t secure (the https you see for things like your bank, paypal, or GMail) then the data just goes by as plain text. Pretty much any web browsing activity, instant messaging, etc. can be seen by perfectly legal and freely available software. One of the most popular examples is Wireshark. The software exists to help network engineers troubleshoot problems, but can also be used to collect things like what sites are being visited, or even passwords sent by unencrypted methods.

So this means Google has collected tons of data from (presumably) anywhere that has Google streetview data on file.

I can see some reason to argue that people who didn’t have their network secured are the ones at fault, but why would Google be collecting and keeping this data. Some privacy advocates aren’t too happy about this, and according to this Financial Times article, Peter Schaar, the German commissioner for data protection, wants answers from the big G.

I really appreciate Google’s continual push for technology, they have done a tremendous amount to advance technology in the last decade. However I truly only hope that events like this and the backlash from both the government and private sector can urge Google to take a step back and remember to keep ethics a top priority.
Image via rpb on flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/rbp/4254683170/

It didn’t take me long to realize that the iPad is a multi-user device, and that Apple needs to take this into account and provide people with the ability to use multiple accounts.

The iPad’s a tweener device. It’s not small enough to replace an iPhone, much like the Touch, and it’s certainly not powerful enough to replace a laptop for some, but it’s the perfect coffee table device.

I have a hard time seeing a family pick up more than one iPad as it stands, but I can certainly see the iPad kicking around kitchen tables, and coffee tables in most homes. This is where the problem begins, and Apple certainly needs to take this into account–more than one user is problematic for most people.

If dad has his work email set up on the device, and mom and the kids enjoy playing a couple of games on it, and the teenager likes it for watching videos and using Facebook, should they all have access to Dad’s email? What if they all want to use the mail client? See the problem? The iPad is more computer than iPod, and it’ll do Apple some good to think about it in these terms.

After spending more than a week with the device, I can see how it would fit naturally into a families eco-system, but I’d be reluctant to leave the device laying around the house without some form of user account. I don’t have kids, and I don’t have teens kicking around, but it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know that a small family could be face with some privacy problems on the device.

Would you want your kids accessing your Twitter account, or Facebook account, how about financial information with applications like Cha-Ching?

The iPod Touch is cheap enough to consider it for a gift for some families, but the iPad is starting to slide out of the traditional families price range as a gift. If Apple get the most people using iPads as possible, they’re going to have to think of a way to make it a little more secure in a multi-user environment. As it is, small and medium businesses might not be comfortable with the level of security the devices currently provides.

Don’t get me wrong, I think the iPad is the next major hurdle in the technology world, and I believe that Apple’s done a great job as getting us there before anyone else. The iPad has changed the way I’ve been using my laptop, and it’s certainly let me re-gain some of my time—it’s just that effective. If you want to do something, you can do it distraction free. No text messages to sidetrack you from answering email, and no twitter to interrupt you while you’re checking RSS feeds. It eliminates sidetracks, and helps you get things done, but if a family wants to use it, you’re limited to having to sign out and back in all the time for applications, or even worse, sharing the mail app with multiple accounts.

The geek in us wishes their phones would have shipped unlocked on day one, but we’re willing to agree that without these exclusivity deals in place, we probably wouldn’t have been able to afford the iPhone anyway. Again, we don’t blame Apple for going down the road.

But, the question remains, is now the time to take the fork in the road for greener pastures? Exclusivity has come to an end in a number of countries. In Canada the phone is available on both the Bell and Rogers networks, and we couldn’t have been happier then we were when that was announced.

Users in both China and the US are still locked to one company if consumers want an iPhone. In the US a lot of people switched to AT&T to get the iPhone, despite their track record for excessive dropped calls, and poor reception areas around the country. Unfortunately the Chinese don’t seem to be doing the same. The iPhone’s key demographic in China isn’t flocking to the device, and it seems like China Unicom is the primary reason. According to Cult of Mac, “Fewer than 10 percent of China residents between the age of 22 and 32 use China Unicom, and of that group, most said they disliked the service.” Out of 2,000 of the mobile phone owners surveyed, “more than 9 out of 10 people questions pointed to rival China Mobile as having better coverage and service.” That’s a lot of hate directed at a company, but it’s an important statistic if you’re Apple looking to sign a deal with a telecommunications company.

Thankfully, the exclusivity era is coming to an end, and with rumors of Verizon getting access to the fourth iPhone generation, these types of problems will quickly be coming to a close in North America. Hopefully, Apple sees fit to do the same thing in China, because the Chinese want access to Apple products just like the rest of us, right?

Article Via Cult of Mac

This has been expected since their purchase of Atebits, developers of Tweetie and Tweetie 2.  In fact, Tweetie 2 users should see the new Twitter app as a “free update” for the Tweetie 2 app in iTunes (even though, as of this writing, the link is not yet live).

Yes, I tried the US App Store too.

As a Twitter user since August of 2007, Tweetie 2 (and before that, Tweetie) has been my Twitter app of choice on the iPhone for a long time.  The user interface, reliability, and support for multiple accounts are key factors in that decision (although lately I’ve been flirting with the TweetDeck app).  In my opinion, Twitter got it right when they acquired Atebits.  Twitter aficionados on the iPhone will have a robust, full-featured app, unlike the official Twitter for BlackBerry app.  No need for beta testing; the app has been tested on the open market for well over a year.  You could say that Twitter, true to Twitter philosophy, “crowdsourced” their app.

Tweetie 2 cost $2.99 when it was available; the Twitter app will be free.

Some questions remain to be answered: Will there be a significant difference from Tweetie 2?  Does this app signal the impending appearance of Twitter ads?  Will an official Twitter app kill competing apps like Echofon?  Most importantly, will there still be amusing sound effects?

As soon as it’s installed, I’ll be test-driving Twitter for the iPhone, and I’ll let you know.

Monkey prepares for launch

Now I wouldn’t know first-hand that meth is addicting, but that’s how the saying goes. Monkey Flight, by Donut Games, looked like one of those senseless games I should have on my iPod just in case I got bored. Then I started playing it. I spent a few hours playing it when I first got it, and had to give myself an intervention. This game is SO much fun… and too addictive.

When you start the game, you have three game modes to choose from: arcade play, challenges, and lite play. Each mode has a different objective: win the high score table, try to beat the challenges, and go for the best score, respectively. My personal favourite is challenges—there are about 40 levels, and they get pretty difficult! With each level, you are launched from a palm tree (as a monkey!) and must bounce your way through collecting enough fruit to advance to the next level. There are elephants and clouds, which help you bounce more, and mud pits, which make you stop bouncing altogether and ultimately end the round. You start each round with two bunches of bananas—you can tap the screen to launch yourself higher in mid-air, which will consume one of your bunches.

Though there is a minimum on each level to unlock the next one, there are also three score levels on each level for a gold star—this gives you even more of a challenge! You can also play the other modes which gives you one level to practice on to try and get the highest scores.

All in all, I love this app. There’s nothing I can think of that it is missing, partially because I don’t need another reason to play it a few hours every day! It’s free, and available in the App Store, so check it out!

If you’re not tied to another ToDo list application, and you seriously hate the price tag that comes with applications like Things (Things is great BTW), you’ll be happy to know that there’s an excellent alternative on the AppStore—it’s named ToDo for the iPad. The customer reviews are pretty telling, and we’d have to concur; for $4.99 you probably won’t find anything nearly as good for the same price point.

The application looks phenomenal, as any iPad app should, and has a host of features that help the application stand apart from some of the alternatives on the market.

ToDo for the iPad syncs with iCal, Outlook, or over the Toodledo.com network which helps ensure that your ToDos aren’t lost forever if your iPad dies on you. You can also get task reminder alerts, manage multiple tasks at once, and take full advantage of the contact and email integration.

I’ve only spent a short deal of time with it, but I’d have to say that the application is holding its own and it may be a contender for full-time use. My current go-to ToDo application is awesome, but it’s hard recommending an iPad app that weighs in at $19.99. Don’t get me wrong though, Things is a stellar productivity application, and if the price tag doesn’t turn you off, I’d recommend giving both of these applications a try.

Luckily, ToDo is currently on sale, so I’d head on over and pick it up before the price updates.

You can get ToDo on the AppStore for $4.99.

This is a perfect example of super nerdy humor. Can you imagine explaining this joke to normal, non-nerds? “Well, Grandma, they are making a joke about plug-in restrictions and web standards.” This is why I love our community.

Do you have any more nerdy Apple jokes along these lines? Let us know in the comment section of this post, or you can hit me up on Twitter.

Article Via TechCrunch

Rather than address any of the technical points that Jobs raised as reasons not to permit Flash on its mobile devices, Adobe chose an entirely different approach: an appeal to human emotion.

“We love Apple.”

Adobe <3s Apple: BFF or stalker?

What?

Apple sent you a breakup letter, and you sent back a love note?  Really, Adobe, that’s a little creepy.

No, this is seriously their campaign: We Love Choice, with a Stallman-esque plea to let people use whatever technology they want (i.e. Flash) to produce content for whatever device they want (i.e. the iPhone and the iPad).

After I stopped laughing, I read through the details of the letter again.

The main point of Adobe’s letter is that “markets” should be “open”.  They state that “the best way to compete is to create the best technology and innovate faster than your competitors.”

That’s quite true.  Probably the worst way to compete is to attempt to force a company to work with your technology (when they’ve given you reasons why they don’t think it’s technically possible), and then claim they’re infringing on people’s freedom of choice.

Adobe says it believes in freedom of choice for developers, content owners, and consumers.  They must feel they’re on really shaky ground if they’re resorting to stirring up emotion with talk of love, beliefs, and freedom.  They may be right. Apple consumers aren’t complaining too loudly about the lack of Flash on Apple’s mobile devices; it seems they’ve already made the choice.

The issue here is not openness of a market, it’s suitability of content for a device.  Apple says there are technical reasons to not run Flash on its mobile devices.  I would like to see Adobe present a compelling technical argument for Flash’s suitability for the iPhone OS, or at least directly address one of the six points in Thoughts on Flash, instead of trying to make this look like a moral decision on Apple’s part.

Messy, public breakups are just plain ugly.  Adobe’s not doing itself any favours by drawing this one out.

Article via AppleInsider

Nearby. I thought I was in a more exciting area of town…

None of these frills are available in the Wikipedia Mobile app.  It’s basically an application front-end to the Wikipedia Mobile site.  This isn’t a bad thing; on the contrary, its cleanliness and simplicity make it more useful than a more heavily-featured app.  With Wikipedia, the importance is being able to find what you want quickly.

The advantage that the Wikipedia Mobile app has over others I’ve tried is speed.  I was particularly impressed with the speed of the search; it suggests completions even faster than the App Store or iTunes apps, leading me to believe that there is a local cache of search terms.

Unfortunately, the speed does not hold for the “Nearby” feature; at least not the first time I launched it.  This was more than a GPS delay; I was concerned that the app might have crashed.  When it eventually showed signs of life, it did locate me correctly and provided a map (and list) of articles about local points of interest.  I would definitely use it when travelling to a new city.

It’s also possible to search in languages other than English (I tried Japanese), even with the English keyboard, which is useful if you can read another language—sometimes Wikipedia articles from the non-English sites have more detail or different information than the English articles do.

Edamame: it's what's for dinner

I’m mildly surprised that the app doesn’t provide any editing functionality—not that anyone really wants to edit Wikipedia “on the go”, but it would be interesting to have the option in the official app, considering the lack of other bells and whistles.

If you currently use the Wikipedia mobile site from your iPhone, this app will enhance your experience without changing what you’re used to.  It’s also perfect for those who only occasionally use Wikipedia.  If you already use another app to access Wikipedia, and you like it, there’s no compelling reason to switch.

Of course, the standard warnings apply: Wikipedia consists of user contributions; citation needed or no, never rely on it as an infallible source.

While the content released with it is very limited and there is a bit of trickery involved from Valve, you can still have FULL access to all of Steam and its goodies. The games available on its launch include Portal and Torchlight, with a few others that you can find here.

Where the trickery [EVIL TRICKERY] comes into place is on their store page. Everybody can go in and see that the client has been released. They aren’t hiding that like many PC users would like. However, they are misleading people by saying things like “Now Available on Mac & PC” for certain popular games that may or may not entail you building a civilization and conquering the world. However, when you mosey on over to your game library to download said games, you’re unable to… just yet!

Valve announced that while the selection is limited today, they plan to release new games each subsequent Wednesday making Hump Day one to look forward to! Next week’s releases are unknown at this time, but hopefully we’ll see Team Fortress 2, Left 4 Dead 2, and other popular titles in the coming weeks.

News via Steam.

Another day, another Apple leak, and this time Apple’s got a leak in Vietnam. Someting tells me the police there aren’t going to be as cordial as the ones that raided Mr.Chen’s apartment in California.

It seems like this prototype has undergone some refinements to the body of the iPhone, which could indicate that this device is a later prototype than the one previously featured on Gizmodo, and that Apple may still be tinkering with the design. Hopefully it’s true, because the two piece aluminium strap is ugly. The device does have Apple’s A4 chip, so it is very likely to be an official prototype.

Engadget is reporting that these guys paid US $4,000 dollars for the prototype. Should we start the timer to see how long it’s going to take before the team at Taoviet get raided by police?

Here’s some video of them showing it off (It’s in Vietnamese, or so we’re assuming).

Article Via Engadget

You’d be wrong.

Apple has only furnished the Apple stores with the ability to handle pre-ordering of the coveted iPads, both in the UK and Canada.

A spokesperson for Apple claims that “select” resellers will be able to take pre-orders, but it remains to be seen who those might be.

IPad pre-orders began yesterday in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland and the UK. Given the extreme success of the iPad in the United States, it is difficult to determine whether or not Apple is afraid of running out of the units if resellers are able to take pre-orders, or if they simply want to command the clearly lucrative iPad revenue stream themselves.

It seems that Apple has taken a short-sighted route on this. When I spoke to a source at a local Apple reseller, he was more than happy to launch a tirade against Apple on this issue. Most of what he said was too blue to reprint, however it can be said without a doubt that this decision on Apple’s part has caused a rift between Apple and the resellers.

Additionally, this causes a problem for those consumers who prefer to shop in local stores rather than big boxes or at the local mall. Speaking from a personal point of view, my local reseller is in my neighbourhood and is locally owned and operated, as well as being a stand-alone store. The Apple store is a bus ride away and in a mall. Ethically, I am more likely to spend my money at my local reseller in the hopes that some of my retail dollar will stay in my neighbourhood.

Finally, this encourages questionable behaviour on the part of the retailers: who is to say that a reseller couldn’t or wouldn’t sell me a $600.00 piece of paper that I could then “redeem” for an iPad on May 28th?

Was Apple wrong in this decision? Well, alienating consumers and retailers is never a good idea.

In the past, iTunes has sold recordings from a number of live shows held in Apple stores under this heading. These live shows have featured popular musicians such as Wolfmother in Sydney, Australia, Moby in Montreal, Canada, and Taylor Swift, Linkin Park, The New Pornographers, and Kings of Leon in Soho, England. By filing for a trademark for the name, Apple may be revealing their intention to expand their live content on iTunes. Presumably this may mean more in-store live concerts, but it could also suggest that they plan to offer more general live content through iTunes. Perhaps we will soon even see a separate section of iTunes devoted entirely to live music. Of course, it could also mean nothing except that Apple is protecting a little sideline project that they have had going for the past couple of years.

Article Via Patently Apple

After reaching a historical high last summer, the netbook manufacturers have seen a massive slope downwards in sales which coincidentally coincide with the announcement of the iPad in January and the US release in April. It’s important to note that despite the correlation between the iPad announcement and netbook sales, the iPad may not have been responsible for the downswing in netbook sales.

Off the top of my head, I can think of at least one reason for the sales slump.

People were excited about small and cheap computers at a time when the economy was taking a serious hit. I’d be a little more comfortable attributing the sales of cheap computers with the state of disposable income levels last year. If you were without a job, would you prefer a full-priced computer or a two-hundred dollar netbook? Seems like a simple choice.

Is the iPad going to cannibalize Touch and MacBook sales?

It’s obvious that Apple has to be a little bit worried about the bottom line of their other products, especially considering the successful launch of the iPad. The top management brass have been frank about seeing the iPad as a complimentary tool to their existing lineup, but the question remains, does the public see it the same way?

According to the latest research out of Morgan Stanley, 41% of people polled were planning on buying an iPad over the iPod Touch. Again, this might have a lot more to do with the iPad getting most of the attention these days, but there’s also a very good chance that the iPad could hurt sales.

It’s all about the price point, and we have a hard time seeing the price being a problem. As of today an iPod Touch comes in at $199.00 and the iPad at $499.00. No matter how pundits slice it, the iPod Touch is going to be around for a while–there’s a fifty dollar difference between the iPod nano and the iPod Touch. Don’t be surprised if Apple phases out the iPod classic and nano and starts focusing on the iPod Touch.

We’re a long way from laptops being replaced

We’ve yet to have an iPad in our custody for a prolonged period (we’re blaming FedEx), but we’re having a very difficult time seeing how the iPad can be classified as a laptop killer in the short term. Sure, maybe three or four generations from now, as mobile hardware catches up to the power a laptop can push out the iPad might replace the MacBook lineup, but I wouldn’t go holding your breath.

It’s a complimentary device, not a cannibal

The iPad was designed to compliment a typical Apple environment, and it’s been doing that exceedingly well for most. There’s time’s where you’ll want a laptop to conduct business, and there will be other times when an iPad might be the more logical choice. Having both is going to be an asset–but, it’s also going to be a frivolous luxury for some. Some people won’t be able to justify the expense of a MacBook, but an iPad is a cheaper pill to swallow. It’s those people, the people who check email, read the web, and watch the occasional video online that are going to be buying an iPad.

Actually, on second thought, maybe the iPad is responsible for destroying the netbook market. Every argument that can be made for a netbook, I just made for an iPad. I take it back, the iPad is eating at netbook sales.

Article Via The Apple Blog

Yeah, I’m probably going to have to answer for that one someday.

I'll take one of each, please.

However, you can surround yourself with as many loving pets as possible without damning your immortal soul to the fires of Hades with Petfinder.com’s iPhone app. Unlike simply shilling for puppy farms and pet stores, Petfinder.com aims to find loving homes for homeless pets that need someone to take them in. Many of the animals found in here were abandoned, abused, lost, injured, or otherwise malfortuned.

Petfinder.com makes it easy to narrow your search down by allowing you to search as broadly or as narrowly as you like. Whether you want to look at all dogs in the state of California or are specifically looking for a female Netherlands Dwarf Rabbit in Trenton, New Jersey, it’s easy to customize your search to as granular level of detail as you need in order to find the animal that’s perfect for you.

Not a lot of dwarf rabbits in New Jersey, oddly enough.

From there, you’re presented with pages and pages of heartstring-tugging photos of animals all waiting desperately for you to drive over and pick them up. Many of these thumbnails photos are oddly skewed and distorted since the app forces them into square dimensions with no attempt to crop, but the fullsize photos look just fine. A disturbing number of cat photos were fraught with red-eye, which may fit into your personal worldview of cats as evil, malevolent beings intent on destroying you. Or maybe it’s because they’re just not smart enough to look away from the camera when it’s flashing.

Along with photos of the animals, you’re given a bit of information about where they are, what their backstory is, and how you can adopt them for your very own.

If you find a pet that you think might be right for someone else, the Usual Social Media Suspects are all at your fingertips as well – the Facebooks and Twitters can be alerted to Yana’s presence immediately. Individual pets can also be Favorited to go back to later if you’re putting together a wish list. The “Happy Tails” section is essentially a news feed of even MORE hearstring-tuggingly-awesome stories of successful pet adoptions to put you over the edge of adopting your own if you weren’t already.

If this doesn't move you YOU HAVE NO SOUL.

The app feels pretty solid and stable, though my completely unscientific choosing-areas-of-the-world-at-random would return zero pets for large swaths of land in Canada, and zero results for anywhere in Europe, so it seems to be pretty USA-centric at this point, though I did get some results for Canada so hopefully the catalog fills itself out before too long. If you do live in an area where pets are readily available, this would appear to be a pretty simple way to get yourself started on the road to a new member of the household, and you won’t even have to break the petting zoo rules to do so.

It should come as no surprise, then, that Adobe has reportedly filed a complaint against Apple under US antitrust law. The New York Post reports that the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice are currently trying to decide who would handle the antitrust probe. If it turns out to be the DOJ, Apple could eventually be fighting criminal penalties under the Sherman Antitrust Act. Either way, such an inquiry is bound to drag on for years.

Let’s put our personal feelings about Apple and Adobe aside for the moment: Adobe is claiming that Apple is engaging in unfair, anticompetitive practices by refusing to support its products on its mobile platforms. What Adobe would need to prove is that Apple is seeking to establish a monopoly, or that it is unfairly blocking competition.

Not exactly a monopoly…

So, is Apple seeking to establish a monopoly? Well, as of February, Apple had managed to capture only 25% of the smartphone market share in the US. That doesn’t sound like a very secure monopoly. The iPhone is clearly behind RIM’s ubiquitous BlackBerry, and faces competition from devices running on Google’s Android platform, not to mention a well-established base of Palm products. It’s still a competitive field, with plenty of room for everyone. Adobe makes it sound like Apple’s the only game in town, when they’ve already made plans to roll out Flash and AIR to Google Android devices.

People are already comparing Apple’s impending situation with the 1998 Microsoft antitrust suit. Then, the accusation was that Microsoft, by shipping Internet Explorer with every copy of Windows, was making it very difficult, on purpose, for Netscape (the dominant web browser at the time) to compete. That doesn’t sound like what’s going on here; rather, Apple is declining to take the extra business that Adobe claims Flash would bring them.

It’s almost as if Adobe wants Flash to be the new IE: an unmarketable product riding on the back of a successful one. It certainly can’t survive on its own.

If Flash were as intrinsic to the mobile web experience as Adobe claims it is, Apple’s decision not to support it would be suicide—as opposed to an attempt to establish a monopoly. Adobe would also be too busy rolling out Flash support to the three-quarters of smartphones that are not made by Apple to worry about it.

But that’s not the case, because Steve Jobs is right. Flash is too bulky, too bloated, and too processor-hungry to be anything but a drain on the iPhone platform. Mac and PC (Windows, Linux, or otherwise) users already know that Flash is a processor hog, and the quickest way to crash your browser (Mac users: keep Activity Monitor open; if Safari freezes, you can kill the Flash plugin independently and keep working), or worse, hang your entire system. Can you imagine what that would do to a small, battery-powered device?

Adobe's passive-agressive note to iPhone users.

The problem with Flash (and AIR) now is the same as the problem with Java in the 1990s. Being portable across every system, especially when real-time graphics are involved, means taking advantage of as much processor power as you can grab. These software technologies were all designed in the hopes that hardware would evolve to run them without choking. But Apple’s business model isn’t planned obsolesence; they want the iPhone you buy today to still be useful three years from now. With Flash installed, it wouldn’t even still be useful today.

Antitrust laws exist to protect the consumer from one company forcing another company’s competing product off the market through unfair practices. Adobe’s having trouble keeping Flash competitive (or even relevant) as it is. They’re resorting to the last-ditch tactic of trying to get Flash onto the iPhone and iPad by legal decree, rather than on its own merits.

That’s dirty pool.

It would be a gross misuse of public funds for either the FTC or the DOJ to treat this complaint as anything but the nuisance action it is. Adobe, for their part, should pour less resources into fighting with Apple and concentrate on reworking Flash and AIR so that they are marketable products.

No free rides on the Apple cart, Adobe.

Dear Adobe: when you’ve been standing on the highway for this long with your thumb out and nobody has stopped to pick you up, you should realize that you’re not getting a free ride, and it’s time to start walking.

During an event in New York, Chris Palma revealed that Google plans to offer books on a host of devices. Before a Zombie-Orwell arises from the dead it’s probably important to note that Google plans to sell the books through their book search portal. This means that Mom & Pop stores will be able to sell the Google versions of books online, meaning that bookstores can continue to turn a profit.

Oh, who am I kidding, Orwell’s probably turning in his grave right now. Doesn’t digitizing books mean it’s easier than ever to control access to “printed” materials? Would the Apple’s and Google’s of the world have the kahuna’s to stand up to a government that asks them to ban a book?

Google did it once, and I’m not so sure they wouldn’t do it again.

Via AppleInsider

Ok, so maybe not quite around the corner. As usual, in just 4 months (based on the yearly turnaround in the past) we will be getting the next generation iPod announcement. One has to wonder what exactly will happen with this year’s announcements.

Last year many were caught off guard by the iPod Nano having a video camera and the iPod Touch getting passed up for one. This year I believe we will finally see the iPod Touch getting a huge upgrade. Maybe even an entire larger format to make an actual iPad Mini. I think we will see a camera in this model and even have a 3G version with GPS to work with the AT&T data plan like the iPad.

The Nano was kind of disappointing to some because it only had video capabilities, and this year I think we will actually see support to take still pictures.

Of course size is always an issue, though I believe the Touch will probably stay where it is at, I think the nano will go 16GB and 32GB versions.

The iPod Classic will probably get a slight update storage wise, but that will likely be the extent of it. That is if Apple even keeps the classic around much longer.

My biggest hope is that apple announces a new version of the Apple TV. It is time for an upgrade and there are so many ways to make the device even better than it already is currently.

Finally, some rumors are already spreading that we will see the iPad get a version with a built in camera. While I don’t agree with this, it is very possible. I think Apple will hold off until February before they announce any kind of update to the iPad.

What are you guys hearing around the grape vine?  We’d love to know.

It’s one thing to use Adobe’s AIR platform to create a proof of concept tablet magazine, and it’s another to think that you’ll be able to use it on the iPhone after years of anti-Flash rhetoric coming out of Cupertino.

Apparently Condé Nast was hoping to create a version of their application so that it would be multi-platform. This is where Adobe’s AIR technology came into play, and it would have been a smart move if Jobs wasn’t so hell-bent on keeping Flash off of Apple‘s mobile devices. But, Jobs doesn’t want Flash on his devices, and everyone even remotely connected to the industry is well aware of that. Every single person who’s been keeping dibs on the situation knows that Jobs is adamant about Flash’s exclusion from their devices, and everyone knows Jobs doesn’t change his mind too often.

Wired and Adobe are now scrambling to reprogram the Wired app in Objective-C. Go figure.

So this begs the question, who the heck was in the room when Adobe pitched a Flash based app to the Condé Nast group? Anyone with a remote bit of sense knew the likelihood of Jobs approving Flash-based technologies on the iPhone and iPad were slim to none, and yet somehow they went down the Adobe AIR road anyway.

Sure, the application is going to run on a host of other devices, so the project isn’t a complete loss, but it’s still rather mind-blowing that they set out to create “an Apple-approved Wired app” and came out the other side with an AIR application.

Article Via AllThingsD

Take a look at the features:

VirtualBox Version 3.2.0 is a major update. The following major new features were added:
• Following the acquisition of Sun Microsystems by Oracle Corporation, the product is now called Oracle VM VirtualBox and all references were changed without impacting compatibility.
• Experimental support for Mac OS X guests
• Memory ballooning to dynamically in- or decrease the amount of RAM used by a VM (64-bit hosts only) (see the manual for more information)
• CPU hot-plugging for Linux (hot-add and hot-remove) and certain Windows guests (hot-add only) (see the manual for more information)
• New Hypervisor features: with both VT-x/AMD-V on 64-bit hosts, using large pages can improve performance (see the manual for more information); also, on VT-x, unrestricted guest execution is now supported (if nested paging is enabled with VT-x, real mode and protected mode without paging code runs faster, which mainly speeds up guest OS booting)
• Support for deleting snapshots while the VM is running
• Support for multi-monitor guest setups in the GUI (see the manual for more information)
• USB tablet/keyboard emulation for improved user experience if no Guest Additions are available
• LsiLogic SAS controller emulation
• RDP video acceleration
• NAT engine configuration via API and VBoxManage
• Guest Additions: added support for executing guest applications from the host system
• OVF: enhanced OVF support with custom namespace to preserve settings that are not part of the base OVF standard

Interestingly, OS X’s terms of use does not allow it to be virtualized legally. The only Apple-approved way of virtualized OS X is with OS X Server. Does this mean a legal fight is coming between Apple and Sun? I’ll go out on a limb, and say “Yes” unless there was some backdoor dealing already between the companies.

What do you think about this chess move from Sun? Comment on this post or hit me up on Twitter

Article Via Slashdot
Photo Credit: Silveira Neto

Every year or so, it is in our best interest to try out a couple of different browsers. For example, I wasn’t a huge fan of Safari when I first switched the the Mac, but when Safari 3 came out, I fell in love. I’ve been a full-time Safari user since then, but I still keep other browsers around.

Stainless is a really neat little browser that uses the same rendering engine as Safari. It started out as a technical demonstration of the multi-process model à la Chrome. Since then, it has become my secondary browser of choice. It launches in a snap, and it allows you to spin off multiple sessions for the same site. This is a showcase of what a small offshoot can accomplish.

Opera doesn’t get enough credit. There has pretty much been an arms race between the WebKit team and the Opera team to see who can make their web browser the most standards compliant the fastest. Mozilla and Internet Explorer are taking a laid-back approach in that regard. I commend the Opera team for aiming for the fences. Let’s not count them out yet, folks.

Firefox, in contrast to Opera, gets way too much credit from the nerd audience. Yes, it did help break away from the reign of IE 6. That was a great thing for us as a community, but there has been stagnation on Mozilla’s part. Firefox has become very bloated and slow in the last few years. It’s not too late to right the ship, but there are more problems than solutions out of the Mozilla camp lately.

To be fair, Firefox is hands-down the most easily customizable browser available today. You can tweak it ten ways to Sunday, but the major problems of performance and standards compliance still remain.

Speaking of overrated, Chrome has all sorts of adoration from the nerds because of the branding effort. One could make a very good case that Google took a very good rendering engine (WebKit), broke it, and then spent the next two years fixing it. We also have the issue of Google treating Mac users like second class citizens. Features have pretty much always launched on Windows first, and then slowly trickled to OS X and Linux. There are too many options out there for me to use a browser from people who think of me as an afterthought.

Whatever browser you choose, just make sure you try out a couple every once in a while. You’ll thank me later.

Photo Credit: indi.ca

In the open letter Jobs reveals his thoughts about Adobe’s claims that Flash is an “open” system, and that 75% of the internet video is being served up by Flash players.

Perhaps the most important argument Steve makes is that relying on third party tools to develop for the iPhone can cause a slew of other problems because “developers grow dependent on third party development libraries and tools, they can only take advantage of platform enhancements if and when the third party chooses to adopt the new features.”

I’m not sure if I agree with him fully, but it’s nice to see where Steve’s head is at currently. Most of these arguements have been played out in the media, but it’s nice to see a compiled list from Apple’s CEO.

Keep in mind, this is only one side to the story, and we’ll certainly be seeing some more fallout from Adobe.

You can read the letter on Apple’s website, or below.

The Open Letter in Question

Apple has a long relationship with Adobe. In fact, we met Adobe’s founders when they were in their proverbial garage. Apple was their first big customer, adopting their Postscript language for our new Laserwriter printer. Apple invested in Adobe and owned around 20% of the company for many years. The two companies worked closely together to pioneer desktop publishing and there were many good times. Since that golden era, the companies have grown apart. Apple went through its near death experience, and Adobe was drawn to the corporate market with their Acrobat products. Today the two companies still work together to serve their joint creative customers – Mac users buy around half of Adobe’s Creative Suite products – but beyond that there are few joint interests.

I wanted to jot down some of our thoughts on Adobe’s Flash products so that customers and critics may better understand why we do not allow Flash on iPhones, iPods and iPads. Adobe has characterized our decision as being primarily business driven – they say we want to protect our App Store – but in reality it is based on technology issues. Adobe claims that we are a closed system, and that Flash is open, but in fact the opposite is true. Let me explain.

First, there’s “Open”.

Adobe’s Flash products are 100% proprietary. They are only available from Adobe, and Adobe has sole authority as to their future enhancement, pricing, etc. While Adobe’s Flash products are widely available, this does not mean they are open, since they are controlled entirely by Adobe and available only from Adobe. By almost any definition, Flash is a closed system.

Apple has many proprietary products too. Though the operating system for the iPhone, iPod and iPad is proprietary, we strongly believe that all standards pertaining to the web should be open. Rather than use Flash, Apple has adopted HTML5, CSS and JavaScript – all open standards. Apple’s mobile devices all ship with high performance, low power implementations of these open standards. HTML5, the new web standard that has been adopted by Apple, Google and many others, lets web developers create advanced graphics, typography, animations and transitions without relying on third party browser plug-ins (like Flash). HTML5 is completely open and controlled by a standards committee, of which Apple is a member.

Apple even creates open standards for the web. For example, Apple began with a small open source project and created WebKit, a complete open-source HTML5 rendering engine that is the heart of the Safari web browser used in all our products. WebKit has been widely adopted. Google uses it for Android’s browser, Palm uses it, Nokia uses it, and RIM (Blackberry) has announced they will use it too. Almost every smartphone web browser other than Microsoft’s uses WebKit. By making its WebKit technology open, Apple has set the standard for mobile web browsers.

Second, there’s the “full web”.

Adobe has repeatedly said that Apple mobile devices cannot access “the full web” because 75% of video on the web is in Flash. What they don’t say is that almost all this video is also available in a more modern format, H.264, and viewable on iPhones, iPods and iPads. YouTube, with an estimated 40% of the web’s video, shines in an app bundled on all Apple mobile devices, with the iPad offering perhaps the best YouTube discovery and viewing experience ever. Add to this video from Vimeo, Netflix, Facebook, ABC, CBS, CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, ESPN, NPR, Time, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Sports Illustrated, People, National Geographic, and many, many others. iPhone, iPod and iPad users aren’t missing much video.

Another Adobe claim is that Apple devices cannot play Flash games. This is true. Fortunately, there are over 50,000 games and entertainment titles on the App Store, and many of them are free. There are more games and entertainment titles available for iPhone, iPod and iPad than for any other platform in the world.

Third, there’s reliability, security and performance.

Symantec recently highlighted Flash for having one of the worst security records in 2009. We also know first hand that Flash is the number one reason Macs crash. We have been working with Adobe to fix these problems, but they have persisted for several years now. We don’t want to reduce the reliability and security of our iPhones, iPods and iPads by adding Flash.

In addition, Flash has not performed well on mobile devices. We have routinely asked Adobe to show us Flash performing well on a mobile device, any mobile device, for a few years now. We have never seen it. Adobe publicly said that Flash would ship on a smartphone in early 2009, then the second half of 2009, then the first half of 2010, and now they say the second half of 2010. We think it will eventually ship, but we’re glad we didn’t hold our breath. Who knows how it will perform?

Fourth, there’s battery life.

To achieve long battery life when playing video, mobile devices must decode the video in hardware; decoding it in software uses too much power. Many of the chips used in modern mobile devices contain a decoder called H.264 – an industry standard that is used in every Blu-ray DVD player and has been adopted by Apple, Google (YouTube), Vimeo, Netflix and many other companies.

Although Flash has recently added support for H.264, the video on almost all Flash websites currently requires an older generation decoder that is not implemented in mobile chips and must be run in software. The difference is striking: on an iPhone, for example, H.264 videos play for up to 10 hours, while videos decoded in software play for less than 5 hours before the battery is fully drained.

When websites re-encode their videos using H.264, they can offer them without using Flash at all. They play perfectly in browsers like Apple’s Safari and Google’s Chrome without any plugins whatsoever, and look great on iPhones, iPods and iPads.

Fifth, there’s Touch.

Flash was designed for PCs using mice, not for touch screens using fingers. For example, many Flash websites rely on “rollovers”, which pop up menus or other elements when the mouse arrow hovers over a specific spot. Apple’s revolutionary multi-touch interface doesn’t use a mouse, and there is no concept of a rollover. Most Flash websites will need to be rewritten to support touch-based devices. If developers need to rewrite their Flash websites, why not use modern technologies like HTML5, CSS and JavaScript?

Even if iPhones, iPods and iPads ran Flash, it would not solve the problem that most Flash websites need to be rewritten to support touch-based devices.

Sixth, the most important reason.

Besides the fact that Flash is closed and proprietary, has major technical drawbacks, and doesn’t support touch based devices, there is an even more important reason we do not allow Flash on iPhones, iPods and iPads. We have discussed the downsides of using Flash to play video and interactive content from websites, but Adobe also wants developers to adopt Flash to create apps that run on our mobile devices.

We know from painful experience that letting a third party layer of software come between the platform and the developer ultimately results in sub-standard apps and hinders the enhancement and progress of the platform. If developers grow dependent on third party development libraries and tools, they can only take advantage of platform enhancements if and when the third party chooses to adopt the new features. We cannot be at the mercy of a third party deciding if and when they will make our enhancements available to our developers.

This becomes even worse if the third party is supplying a cross platform development tool. The third party may not adopt enhancements from one platform unless they are available on all of their supported platforms. Hence developers only have access to the lowest common denominator set of features. Again, we cannot accept an outcome where developers are blocked from using our innovations and enhancements because they are not available on our competitor’s platforms.

Flash is a cross platform development tool. It is not Adobe’s goal to help developers write the best iPhone, iPod and iPad apps. It is their goal to help developers write cross platform apps. And Adobe has been painfully slow to adopt enhancements to Apple’s platforms. For example, although Mac OS X has been shipping for almost 10 years now, Adobe just adopted it fully (Cocoa) two weeks ago when they shipped CS5. Adobe was the last major third party developer to fully adopt Mac OS X.

Our motivation is simple – we want to provide the most advanced and innovative platform to our developers, and we want them to stand directly on the shoulders of this platform and create the best apps the world has ever seen. We want to continually enhance the platform so developers can create even more amazing, powerful, fun and useful applications. Everyone wins – we sell more devices because we have the best apps, developers reach a wider and wider audience and customer base, and users are continually delighted by the best and broadest selection of apps on any platform.

Conclusions.

Flash was created during the PC era – for PCs and mice. Flash is a successful business for Adobe, and we can understand why they want to push it beyond PCs. But the mobile era is about low power devices, touch interfaces and open web standards – all areas where Flash falls short.

The avalanche of media outlets offering their content for Apple’s mobile devices demonstrates that Flash is no longer necessary to watch video or consume any kind of web content. And the 200,000 apps on Apple’s App Store proves that Flash isn’t necessary for tens of thousands of developers to create graphically rich applications, including games.

New open standards created in the mobile era, such as HTML5, will win on mobile devices (and PCs too). Perhaps Adobe should focus more on creating great HTML5 tools for the future, and less on criticizing Apple for leaving the past behind.

Steve Jobs
April, 2010

This is a lot to digest, and I think we are all still figuring out what is going on, and what is going to happen.

The situation is unprecedented. We can’t make a strong guess at what Apple will do. Apple makes great hardware and software, but a huge part of their marketing is the secrecy, the excitement, and the surprise. A post at Codulate.com today compared Steve Jobs works of wonder and amazement with Willy Wonka.

Engadget pointed out this Twitpic from TUDream

There are still questions swirling about the legitimacy of the device. In fact our most recent post questioned it. Josh and I have talked about it a little since and I think there is now very little question of the legitimacy of the device. The device came from Apple. There are a couple of arguments, and I think by now all are proven false.

1) Gizmodo is faking this. – Probably the best argument, and one we even considered here at Macgasm. However, the fact that Gizmodo’s biggest competitor, Engadget, had posted pictures of the same device before Gizmodo posted about it means Gizmodo has either established an incredibly elaborate scheme, or it really exists. Additionally, John Gruber, who few would accuse of practicing sketchy journalism, has separately confirmed that Apple is indeed missing a device, that more than just Gizmodo knew of the device, and that Gizmodo had purchased it. He referred to it as an open secret that Gizmodo had obtained the device.

2) The device is a knock off, or the person the blogs heard about it from fabricated it. – That seemed possible until Gizmodo posted the pictures and videos. The hardware is too specialized. If someone crammed an older iPhone into a funky case, there would have been a SIM card slot at the top, not a micro slot on the side. I haven’t confirmed this, but according to Gizmodo nothing exists on the market right now with micro SIM. The iPad will be the first. Not to mention lots of other stuff that is too different from prior iPhones to be one, but too Apple to be a knock off.

Image Credit Gizmodo - Click image for their article

However this brings up a good point, and one that John Gruber also mentioned: even if this is a device from Apple, it may not be exactly what the new one will look like. Apple historically keeps the hardware engineers, hardware designers, and software engineers separate. A similar concept is used in the automotive industry, called a development mule. Most new sports cars are first seen in some super ugly shell, with the new drivetrain underneath. This helps keep spy photographers from getting the design out to the public. The fact that everyone at first thought this phone was some sort of copy-cat says a lot for that possibility. The seams seen on the device lean toward this too. According to Gizmodo, the Apple employee that lost the phone was working on the Baseband Software, which handles phone functions. His test unit almost certainly had the legit hardware, and the legit software, but the design could have been totally different. The only thing that makes me really hesitant to think this is the case is the puddle of drool on my desk after going through the Gizmodo pictures yesterday. I totally believe Apple could release a radically different design for the iPhone, the current design has been used for 2 years, and is really quite similar to the first generation iPhone.

Finally, the legal and ethical issues around this are nuts. Gizmodo certainly had a choice in how they handled this. The article about the letter Apple sent tries to make Gizmodo out to be a good Samaritan, and I don’t think they have much argument for that. The initial reaction is that all is fair in journalism. Apple has a responsibility to keep secrets if they don’t want them out, and they failed. However this isn’t really how things work. Andy Ihnatko wrote a column about this if you care at all about good writing, good journalism, etc., go read it now.

Andy has been in this game a long time. Apple is an entirely different topic than it was 15 years ago, before the return of Jobs. In fact, it is a very different company than it was 7 or 8 years ago when I started following. The secrecy has been there as long as I remember, but the leaks are getting more common these days. Many, many more people care. The number of people that have either an iPhone, Macintosh computer, or iPod must be several times what it was a few years ago. This means lots of money goes through the company, and means that both the media and the financial industry care a lot more. I think Apple is also starting to play the game a bit more. There are more “leaks” from places like the Wall Street Journal, which I am certain are on purpose.

Andy goes on to tell the story of an executive that told way too much, and Andy offered to retroactively consider it off the record. I think a lot of leaks like this happen (both Engadget and John Gruber knew about this before Gizmodo posted it) but journalists have to make a judgement on what they publish. Publishing a hot scoop can generate lots of traffic and ad revenue, but it can also alienate industry contacts. Furthermore, it can alienate readers who view the actions as unethical. There are those that don’t do something because it is unethical, even if the cost benefit says it is worth losing the contacts or reader, and then there are those that just look at the cost benefit. I think this story puts Gizmodo in the latter category, along with the likes of TechCrunch.

Additionally, Gizmodo could see some serious legal fallout. There isn’t much to prove that this unit wasn’t actually stolen from Apple. The vibe at this point is that Apple considers this unit stolen. I am not a lawyer, nor do I even play one on TV, so I won’t pretend to know if there is any possible trouble. However intellectual property is a big deal. Apple is a big company, and I’m certain they’ll hire some of the best lawyers in the industry, to protect Apple from IP theft, and to protect Apple from IP suits.

The whole thing is interesting. I can even see some reason to wonder if this is some publicity stunt and Apple is behind it in the first place, but it doesn’t seem at all like their style. I think the only thing that is certain is that there are many parts to this puzzle we will never know.

What would I bet on? A higher resolution screen in the new iPhone, a move to micro SIM (SIM stuff is critical to what this engineer would have been testing), and a not entirely different interface. Expect the home button, volume buttons, silent switch, and power buttons to still be the only buttons. The front facing camera is a very strong possibility, but it also might be axed before production. I think the overall design is still in the air. I would be surprised if it looks exactly like what Gizmodo has, the seams would probably be gone if nothing else. It might be very close to the device Gizmodo obtained, or it might look like the iPhone 3GS sitting on my desk, or it might look like something we have never seen before. But I have a gut feeling that what Gizmodo has is close.

I do echo Gizmodo’s comment about Gray Powell, the engineer that reportedly lost the phone. I hope Apple goes easy on him. I don’t know him but if he graduated from NC State in 2006, we went to school together. He is probably as upset about this getting out as anyone, and not just for his own sake. I seriously doubt he would ever make a mistake like this again. It’s too bad that Apple handles these things so harshly, and that some people (*cough*journalists*cough*) value getting a story over the fallout it could have for an individual.

I’ll give you a parting DF link and prediction. John Gruber also linked to this picture of Steve Jobs office, which brings about a final prediction that we might not see a new iPhone at all for 2010. If the pictures Gizmodo posted are the final design, Jobs might be so pissed off to axe the entire project, and if he doesn’t we will certainly hear a smarmy comment during his keynote.

Dog Lover Ad

• PetFinder – find pets at local shelters
• Facebook – sharing photos with friends
• Hey Walkies link – find pet friendly parks nearby (In NYC)
• iCam link – monitor a webcam remotely

Backpacker commercial

• HostelWorld – Checkout and Book Hostels
• Jibbiho Speech Translator (English to Spanish)

In February, according to Compete.com Gizmodo had 1.5 Million unique visitors, a decline by 9.04% over the previous 30 day span. Today, on news that the 4G iPhone that was “lost” and subsequently confirmed as being legit by Gizmodo, the site is currently raking in over 1 Million unique views today alone (According to the traffic count on their blog post).

Believe what you want about the leak, but it seems like others are a little skeptical. Apparently “Jonathan Ive” on twitter thinks it’s a joke as well. Notice that it’s not a confirmed account, though.

Also, here’s a question for you.  A company like Apple, with its hordes of rabid lawyers, usually jumps all over leaked material.  Wouldn’t they be sending out take down letters already?  Heck, normally the post would have disappeared by now.

iAd

John Gruber linked to a super-paranoid rant on Bnet about how iAd is essentially Apple’s move towards non-stop advertisements that will take over the content. Ironically, I was distracted by the giant advertisement blocking some of the content on the article. This is complete bunk.

Developers need to make money in order for them to continue to make applications. There is a limit for how much people are willing to spend on mobile applications. Instead of twisting in the wind at the $20 price point, maybe a great app can drop down to $4.99 with the implementation of iAd. If I get to see a surge of cheap, free, and high quality apps, I’m more than willing to look at advertisements.

When developers make money for their applications, that means good things for consumers.

Multitasking

I am excited to see Apple’s implementation in action. Fast app switching alone will make the experience much better. When background audio streaming and background VOIP support are worked into the mix, I become very interested.

I love the trend of Apple listening to the criticisms of their products, taking them into consideration, and then coming up with creative ways to solve the problem. Instead of just giving into the demand for full multitasking, they created a fat-free method of getting the same feature set. I approve of the concept. I’m just waiting to see it in person.

Folders

This is incredibly important. Icon management has been lacking ever since pagination was implemented way back even before the App Store. Apple capitulated, and gave use in-iTunes management of them, but it still leaves a lot to be desired. Now that I can streamline my home screen, I’m more likely to leave ancillary applications on my device. As of now, I pretty much delete anything that I’m not using frequently.

iBooks

Having an iBook client on both the iPad and the iPhone makes a ton of sense. It seems like that if you have one, you probably have the other. The two devices have different uses, and that means you’ll have them at hand during different times. If I can do the bulk of my reading on my iPad in bed, and then do some casual reading on my iPhone in a waiting room, I’ll be in heaven. If bookmarks sync between the clients, we’ll be in for a great user experience.

All in all, there are some great things in store for us. Best of all, we haven’t even seen everything yet. What are you excited about? Let us know in the comment section, or you can hit me up on Twitter.

Photo Credit: romainguy

In order to get other companies to get involved and start integrating a third parties system into their products, their would already have to be widespread adoption of the device. Enter the iPhone/Touch/iPod.

Who doesn’t have one of these devices? Apple’s market share in mobile media players is pretty huge, so implementing a device that lets you care your tickets and coupons digitally would be a logical next step for the company.

Patents have been filed, and a concept application has been created.
Who knows, you may be able to purchase concert tickets through iTunes in the near future.

Via Patently Apple

Go figure, while the US is enjoying their iPads, the rest of the waiting world has to sit back and wait while Apple builds up reserves to ship internationally. It’s an old song and dance, but they open fresh wounds every single time it happens.

We don’t like sliding release days, and we certainly don’t appreciate them sliding by a full month. It’s a joke. On the heels of great news about international iPhone sales, Apple’s decided that iPads won’t ship internationally until May. What a great way to show your international supporters that you don’t really value their purchases.
Why companies insist on releasing products before they have enough supply to meet demand is beyond me. We get that there’s marketing value in creating shortages, but blocking sales in other countries is pretty unacceptable in this globalized world.

Rogers and others hinting at iPad-specific data plans

I’ve been on record saying that it’s completely unethical for companies to charge for the same data twice. Paying for 6GB of data should mean that I get access to 6GB of data on whatever device I please. Rogers has recently extended the free tethering option for large data plans, but there’s been no comment on whether we’ll be able to tether our phones to the iPad. Only time will tell, but don’t be surprised if you’re forking over more cash for another data plan, despite barely using 100MB of data per month on your 6GB plan.

Via TechCrunch

We’re not sure what Skype was thinking when they introduced mood messages. I mean, we get that status updates are the new cool thing to do, and that every single service on the planet now needs to have some type of status field, but do we really need a chat notification every time someone updates their status?

We’ve been integrating skype into our workflow for the site, and it has been a great way to get all the writers interacting, but I’m not alone in saying that these Mood Messages have to go.

Skype doesn’t give us an intuitive way to turn off the mood messages, so forgive us if this is a little contrived. In order to turn this off “simply” you need to have the mood messages window open. If you’ve closed it, or clicked “dismiss all” you’re gonna have to wait until it comes up again.

Step One: Turn the Feed Off

1. Click on the Skype menu item
2. Click on Preferences
3. Click on the Advanced tab
4. Uncheck Enable Mood Message Feed

Step Two: Disable The Chat Notification

1. Open the Mood Message Feed
2. Right click on the Mood Message Feed Chat listing in the drawer
3. Click the Chat Notification Settings Option
4. Make sure Do not notify me has been checked
5. Also check the Mark unread Messages as read immediately
6. Click OK

Step Three: Quick Note

Time is money, and the less time I spend trying to close these mood messages the more money I can make… right?

Some people have told me that doing only one of the above steps should take care of your mood messages.  Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case for me. I disabled mood messages in the system preferences, but I was still getting notices.  Doing both of the steps above finally got rid of them all together.

Paul and Jamie, y’see, were playing Monopoly, and since TV is exactly like real life, it was determined that Monopoly must be played post-haste. Of course, I live to make my bride happy, but the difficulty of living in a foreign country means that finding a Monopoly board we would be able to even vaguely comprehend could be… problematic. A quick spin around the Googles later, and lo! The gods at EA, bless their cottons, have bequeathed unto us not one, but TWO versions of Monopoly for the iPhone: MONOPOLY ($2.99) and MONOPOLY Here and Now: The World Edition ($4.99). Because I’m cheap, and had to buy two copies (more on that in a bit), I elected for the vanilla version. One quick download and like a true old married couple we found ourselves skipping a weekend party with free drinks to stay home and play board games.

Shake, Rattle, and Roll

At it’s core, Monopoly is, well, it’s the Monopoly you know, love, and have probably played a few hundred times over. All of the familiar bits are there: Thimble, Racecar, Dog (I always play as Dog) and the rest of their friends. Plastic-looking green Houses & red Hotels. Color-coded money, only now without the extra hassle of forcing the role of Banker onto one unlucky soul. All of the same properties and price values from the original game remain as well. $10 Beauty Contest prize? $15 Speeding Ticket? $50 Bail? You’ll feel like a high roller throwing all that cash around!

Of course, being digital, the old faithfuls have gotten a bit of a modern makeover. You actually shake your iPhone to roll the dice (and the sound effects are PERFECT). Player token movements and bankruptcy are accompanied by amusing animations (Battleship sinks, Racecar smokes out of the engine, Dog lies down and, uh, goes to sleep). Going to Jail is accompanied by police sirens and flashing red & blue lights.

Leashes and baggies not required

Games can be played solo against AI opponents, against up to 3 other iPhone-equipped friends (WiFi or Bluetooth only, so sitting in the same room is pretty much a requirement), or a combination. Note that each human player requires their own purchased copy of the game, hence my dual purchase. There is also the option of playing with multiple humans on one device, passing the iPhone to each player as their turn comes around, but this is a bit inefficient in practice as only one person at a time can see the board, so games tend to move fairly slowly.

So at the end of the day, is it fun? Does it faithfully replicate the time-tested Monopoly formula? Is it worth my hard-earned scratch?

Like so many things in life, the answer is a resounding “it depends.” After a bunch of plays over the last week, both some real bright spots and stunning shortcomings have made themselves apparent.

Really? This is the best offer you can come up with? Huh.

Pros:

• No Banker required. Having the computer do all of the math for you takes a lot of waiting out of the game
• “House Rules”: at the beginning of any game you can alter certain rules, like how much money you start with, how much you earn for passing Go, how many Houses are required to build a Hotel, randomly-distributed properties to start out, etc.
• Animations. I could watch Dog run around the board (complete with jingling leash sounds) all day.

Cons:

• The AI players can charitably be referred to as “mouth-breathing troglodytes.” Even on the highest difficulty setting, I was able to engineer trades for highly-lucrative properties that would complete sets for me for peanuts. Some of the trades offered to me were so blindingly stupid that I wonder just what kind of logic was built into the game to allow it to happen.
• I don’t have conclusive proof, but it seems like the higher difficulty setting is simply made more difficult by fixing dice rolls. One game was down to me and one AI player, I owned every single property on the board except one set, he had one Hotel, and I landed on it four times in a row while he kept skipping my properties to land on Chance or languishing in Jail.
• Multiplayer games over Bluetooth had some syncing issues. One game my wife and I played, my iPhone showed me as having $76 to my name after landing on one of her properties and paying rent, while her iPhone showed me as Bankrupt and played the “You Win!” animation. We were also subject to the occasional dropped connection and app crash.
• This game SHREDS your battery life. Single player games are bad enough, but if you’re going to play a Bluetooth game or two you’d better be close to a USB port.

That's right. I have a hotel on EVERY. SINGLE. PROPERTY.

Should you get it? Well, at $2.99, I definitely feel like I’ve gotten my money’s worth, but the app still has somewhat of an “unfinished” feel to it. The obvious performance issues and occasionally-frustrating multiplayer hiccups can sometimes make playing with friends a drag, and after a couple of games against the AI, you’ll have figured out exactly what kind of early moves you need to make to outsmart them, heavily tilting the board in your direction. I’m now to the point where it would take some staggeringly terrible dice rolls for me to lose a game, simply because the AI is so predictable.

Final verdict: if you like Monopoly, you’ll enjoy the app for a bit, but until EA patches some of the flaws, don’t expect it to be taking a spot up on your iPhone’s Home screen for too long.

Photo Credit: matsuyuki

Adobe thought they were on to something. CS5 is supposed to have a cross compiler for flash that would allow developers to continue developing flash applications, and then port them to the iPhone so that developers can get their applications approved in the process.

So, how’s Apple sticking it to flash developers? Apparently, cross-compiled applications are now “banned” from the AppStore. Adobe recently announced on their website that, “Adobe® Flash® Professional CS5 will include a Packager for iPhone that will let you publish ActionScript 3 projects to run as native applications for iPhone. These applications can be delivered to iPhone users through the Apple App Store.”

Well, as of Thursday at 4:37PM EST, it’s against Apple’s SDK. Don’t believe us? Check out section 3.3.1 of the Developer Program License Agreement.

Applications that link to Documented APIs through an intermediary translation or compatibility layer or tool are prohibited

Looks like Apple’s twisting the knife in Adobe’s back. .

Recently, the founder of Posterous wrote up an article positing that the finder is dead. He believes that files, folders and documents will cease to exist on a computer. Needless to say, it was an interesting read. That said, I disagree with the concept.

Sure, we are moving further away from actually using the “Finder” or taking full advantage of file systems. Our phones work almost completely off of apps, but can we really live with out them? When it comes to an actual computer, I like to have my files where I need them. Sure,there are tools that help me organize my files like iPhoto, iTunes, iMovie and more. There is even iDocuments which I did a screencast on in a recent macgasm video cast, but the files still need to exist. We can’t trust every thing in the cloud, and most people aren’t going to want their files archived and to be only accessible through certain apps.

If we want to dig deeper, we have to look at the apps that we would use as well. First, all file formats would have to be able to work across all applications. Can you imagine the pain of writing a paper in one app, then finding a new app that is better and having to actually make a whole new copy of that? Lets take photos for example if that doesn’t click. Lets say you use iPhoto to import your photos from your camera, but you want to use the Photoshop app that doesn’t allow you to import directly from the camera to do some hardcore editing. What if it wont read the format of the pictures you just imported and the only way to get them to read is by exporting those photos to the other app and taking up even more space on your hard drive? It just doesn’t make sense to me at all.

Sure, there would be some app that we could use to make things make more sense, but do we really need to live in an app ran world outside of our iPhones, iPod touch, and other cell phones? I think not.

More Information: Is finder dead?

Photo Credit: Ambient Damage

The HD kinda makes sense, if you can resign yourself to believe that 1024×768 is High Definition, unless HD really stands for Higher Definition, which may be an even more appropriate term, but I digress.

Didn’t we just finish fighting a DRM war where we, as a society, determined that forcing consumers to buy a song for my desktop, then buy it again for iPod was garbage? I think we did, and I’m pretty sure we won that battle. Doesn’t HD just mean buy this second version of our game for your iPad?

It kinda looks like it.

I worry that this makes it easier to charge people two, maybe three times for the same software package. How would you feel about that as a user?

Are HD apps differentiated from regular apps?

If developers want to do this right, they need to take a step back for a second and figure out if they want to port their iPhone app to the iPad, or seize the opportunity to add something new to the iPad version. If it’s the previous, some people are going to be awfully pissed, which is nothing new on the internet. But, people can be awfully vocal when they’re passionate about something.

Apple’s taken an interesting approach when it comes to using their software on two of your machines. For instance, you can run Final Cut Express on your iMac, and then use the same serial code for your MacBook. Works fine, but there’s a catch. You can’t use Final Cut Express on both the iMac and the MacBook at the same time. It’s the perfect solution, and a lot of people don’t mind the restrictions because it makes perfect sense.

If you’re trying to use both computers at the same time, there’s probably a good chance a second person is using the application, and if that’s the case, you should probably be paying for another license.

So, if HD apps turn out to be direct ports of iPhone apps, wouldn’t that be a step away from the traditional software license approach of letting a consumer use an app on all their personal machines?

Only time will tell.

The framework exists in the SDK to make universal apps, and support for universal apps is present, despite the “ghetto” approach. So, if developers start releasing ported copies of their app for the iPhone and iPad, don’t believe for a second that a universal application isn’t possible.

There is a financial incentive to release separate iPad and iPhone apps, and better pricing controls remains the key component for most developers. We can’t blame them, alternative revenue streams will certainly help fund the development of their applications, and that’s something we can get behind.

The developer we peppered with questions clearly gets it. He mentioned that there’s an opportunity to use the iPad to provide a different experience for the user, an experience that would be unique on the device, something new, something better. If most developers believe this, most consumers will have no problem paying for an iPad version of their favourite iPhone apps. Give me something new, and I’ll open up my wallet.

What’s better for the consumer?

The developer we interviewed was quick to note that developers developing separate apps for the iPhone and the iPad shouldn’t be directly porting their apps from one device to another. He certainly isn’t, and he hopes his compatriots aren’t either. Apple’s encouraging users to create new versions of their apps, and they’re hoping that developers will help differentiate the iPad from the iPhone. Our interviewee also pointed out that people also expect the first week to be a giant cash grab when the iPad apps are introduced into the AppStore. He warned about not gauging trends in the first week alone, and that we should let the AppStore stabilize itself before we start judging the quality of applications in the AppStore.

Final thoughts

I really hope that the HD editions of the apps that were leaked weren’t just ports of the iPhone versions, because if they were it’s going to set a serious precedent in the AppStore. As consumers, we want innovative, value filled applications and games, not direct ports from other sources, especially if we already paid for that application once on the iPhone. Blow our socks off, give us something new and exciting and we’ll gladly pay the 5, 10, or 15 dollar price tag you slap on the application, but if you give me more of the same, I’ll just keep using my iPhone apps instead.

If you’re not aware of how we run our advertising program on the site, let me elaborate a little bit. We don’t just take anyone. We actually go out and track down the advertisements ourselves, and we only approach companies that we love. We think of our advertisements more as paid endorsements for products we love. It’s a little naive, but we really believe it’s a more effective form of advertising.

Were not sure how it’ll play out in the future as our expenses start to balloon, but it’s how we plan on doing things for a while.

That being said…

Huge props goes to Avatron, as well as the AirSharing Pro team.

I not only love this app, but I’ve been using it since it was first released. It really has been the goto application for getting documents and files to my phone. If you’re looking for an application that lets you use your iPhone as a file storage device you need to check out their app.

I’ve also, historically, stunk at chess. Mac OS X’s Chess program would regularly beat me up and steal my lunch money without even breaking a sweat. Like a huge sucker for punishment, I kept on doddering back to it — ready to take my medicine like a champ.

No, not this guy.

Times have changed now. I’ve got Shredder on my side.

Shredder is the name of a chess engine that’s been handily beating the tar out of other chess programs since 1993, and is now available to beat the tar out of you on your iPhone or iPod touch. Shredder Chess is a Chess application built using the Shredder engine, and it flat-out kicks ass. Rather than being just a chess game, it acts much more like a chess teacher. The program is intelligent enough to detect your ELO ranking (a measurement of your skill level) and adjust it’s own ELO to equal yours, making for very even matches. It occasionally makes deliberate mistakes to more closely resemble a human opponent. And, like any good teacher, gently gives you a little smack on the back of the head when you’ve done something stupid.

Takesies Backsies

Not content with merely being a simple game, Shredder Chess also comes complete with a huge library of chess puzzles. You’re shown a board setup and asked what one side’s next best move is. You’re awarded points based on how quickly you solve the puzzle and how many mistakes you made (or hints you requested) in the process. Any chess player worth the locker they were stuffed into during middle school will tell you that solving chess puzzles is one of the best ways to improve as a player, and Shredder Chess is packed with them. The app says it has 1000 puzzles contained within, which should be plenty enough for anyone. If any puzzle you come across strikes you as an interesting point to play from, with one tap of a button you can start playing from that set-up as either side.

Choose wisely, grasshopper.

A few other bits added on top make this program all the more worthwhile. Getting slaughtered and want to switch sides mid-game? G’head. Need a hint? Just ask. Want to make a custom board setup and start the game with the White Rooks flanking the Black King? It’ll make for a short game, but Shredder will let you.

Do I have any complaints about Shredder Chess? Not many. For one thing, it’s only a single-player game, so if you want to play against another human, you’ll need another app. There are also no Timed matches, so if you want to practice playing against a clock, you’re out of luck. And finally, though this is pretty much entirely my own stupid fault, the prominently-placed Hint button is just way too tempting to use repeatedly, which likely results in both my ELO and my ego being a bit artificially inflated.

Overall, this is an extremely well-built app that has done wonders for my chess game and caused me to miss my stop on the train home from work on more than one occasion. It’s a bit pricey as iPhone apps go, checking in at $7.99, but considering Shredder-based games for OS X and Windows start at $40 and go up into triple-digits, it’s not so bad.

FATALITY.

Final verdict? Let me put it this way: Shredder Chess replaced “Phone” as one of the 4 icons in my iPhone’s Dock last week. Think about that for a second. I can no longer access the Phone functionality from any screen, but I sure can start a chess game any time I please.

Photo Credit: nestor galina

If you look at the page for Google’s Quick Search Box, the beta version that I’ve been using hasn’t even been touched since last August. If beta software is meant for public consumption, doesn’t it stop being a beta in spirit?

On the flip side, we also get 1.0 software that is fundamentally broken. Sadly, this is all too common in the gaming world. They focus on just getting something to ship, and then we’re left waiting for a patch to fix all of their bugs. This just isn’t an acceptable practice.

To be fair, it is impossible to test your software on every configuration that exists. Hell, public betas even reduce the bugs in 1.0 software. Unfortunately, we seem stuck in this everlasting beta phase in either name or functionality.

So, what can we do about it? Pay for your software. If you can chose between a free application and a paid application, you’re far more likely to have a responsive support team. Even if the support team is made up of one guy in his home office, his paycheck is on the line. If you’re complaining to a development team for free software, you’re more likely to get the high hard one.

Supporting your favorite applications by paying the developers is the best way to keep those apps great. If the developers don’t feel like they have any incentive to fix bugs, or innovate, good luck trying to get them to respond to your issues. They are people with bills and families. If they’re just developing software as a hobby, you’re going to get hobby-level support.

What are your thoughts? Are you obsessed with finding the latest betas? Maybe you’re sick and tired of “Stable software” not being so stable. Please let me know by commenting on this post.

Photo Credit: Verity Cridland, Google, redjar

An initial reaction would be to visit your local Apple Store. After all, each store comes equipped with a repair team, known as the Genius Bar. You bring your iPhone to them (or any Apple product) and a Genius will fix your device.

Sounds simple enough. But if the screen on your iPhone is cracked, or it’s been exposed to water, it’s not covered under Apple’s warranty. To get a new phone, you’re then faced with shelling out the full price of $200. You’ve got to pay rent, and bills, and $200 is looking pretty hard to stomach.

This is where Dr. Brendan comes in.

Dr. Brendan (real name Brendan McElroy) is a veritable one-man iPhone repair operation. Working out of his apartment in the West East Village in Manhattan, Dr. Brendan is able to repair your iPhone for a fraction of what Apple charges.

For example: that cracked screen? Dr. Brendan’s asking price is a mere $85. And he understands what it’s like to break an iPhone.

“I dropped my phone after a bartending shift, and looked into YouTube videos on how to fix it, and it was just broken glass, that’s all. And that’s a pretty easy fix,” said Dr. Brendan during a visit to his West Village apartment. “[After that] I started off just putting up CraigsList ads. The biggest part was building a network of people here in the city of referrals. One customer can be so valuable because people have friends that have iPhones… to provide a good experience that then leads to them giving a referral is huge.”

Dr. Brendan's workspace

So huge, in fact, that a small writeup in popular graphic design blog Swissmiss had Dr. Brendan fielding repair requests from all over North America. But what makes customers trust him with their precious iPhones?

“I think the customers are looking for an alternative, something that’s more affordable. I take accountability for what I’m going to do. If someone goes onto eBay, buys a part and does it themselves, then who’s going to take accountability besides them? If they screw up their phone they pay the price. If I screw up their phone, I will replace it. I have a reputation for standing by my work,” explained Dr. Brendan.

Anyone familiar with Apple product repair knows that obtaining the correct parts is a difficult task. Dr. Brendan would not reveal where he purchases iPhone components, so as to protect those relationships. Dr. Brendan said, “It was hard for me to find a supplier that would give me a good price and was also reliable. Because there’s a lot of scheisty Chinese distributers out there. You know, there’wes people over there that will sell you used parts and tell you that they’re new, they’ll tell you that they’re original parts and they’re actually third-party, knockoff cheap parts… I use OEM [Original Equipment Manufacturer] parts unless they want the cheapo knockoff ones.”

An opened iPhone, revealing the battery and motherboard.

Watching Dr. Brendan in action was a mere 15 minute process. A middle-aged man arrived at the apartment, broken iPhone in hand. He had accidentally shattered the glass during a rambunctious night out. As shown in the picture below, his iPhone now looks as though it was never dropped.

An iPhone with new glass. All in a day's work.

After his customer left, Dr. Brendan mentioned the enjoyment he gets from his work. “If you’re into fixing stuff, and you’re not terribly worried about breaking your iPhone, it’s fun to do. Which I don’t encourage. I encourage them to come to me!”

Editor’s Note: We accidentally said Dr. Brendan’s apartment was in the West Village.  He’s actually in the East Village.

Mind you, the iPad hasn’t come out yet. It won’t be coming out until the third of April. Most people haven’t even seen a glimpse of an iPad in person. The only things we have to go on are press releases and the rumor mill. Based solely on having read those thousands of articles, I’ll wager the majority of them are rumor-based instead of insight-based. Shocking, I know.

If you search for the iPad on YouTube, you’ll see over 13,000 results. Google Image Search has nearly 13 Million results for iPad. Mind you, the top results on that page as I am writing this has only mock-ups of the iPad. These aren’t even photos of the real product. What possesses people to create all of the iPad repetition?

Now, some might say “If you’re so upset by repetition, why do you keep bringing it up over and over?” Why? Because I haven’t heard a good answer to my question yet. Oh, I’ve heard answers, but not a single good answer. Nobody seems to really know why there is so much demand for iPad content despite nobody having ever seen one in person. I’m not talking about announcements or overviews of the iPad. Those are perfectly acceptable in my mind. What I don’t understand is the incessant speculation.

I get to see article after article with no new information. Articles without any use beyond driving traffic. These articles aren’t even trying to bring forth concepts, or drive conversations. I am sick to death of it, and it has to stop for the good of our community.

So, what can you do if you’re in agreement? You need to comment, e-mail, tweet, and direct message your favorite Apple writers. Tell them that you’re tired of recycled newsless posts that are sans insight. Tell them you expect a better caliber of content from our community. You deserve it.

Do you think I’m full of hot air? Am I missing something? Let me know by commenting on this post.

Photo Credit: Happy Little Nomad

Joshua says that the next web-reproduction he will attempt is mobile Safari. In the mean time, you can go get the source over at GitHub. He encourages people to go out, and try to get the Safari-in-Safari to load pages.

I’m excited to see what else can be done along these lines. Have any cool ideas or links? Comment on this post, or hit me up on Twitter.

Photo Credit: Cayetano, General Metrics

I was reading over the comments on my article Apple’s $40 Billion What to do: Big and Bold thoughts. There were 20 comments, which honestly is more than I expect on any of my articles. However, there were two particular comments that stuck out.

The first comment is from Federico. It states:

“Yeah, deprive the tax coffers of billions, just like those “philanthrophists” do, while their foundations play the markets.

Then they pretend and protest why their secretaries pay more in taxes than they do. I say pay the tax, then donate the money.”

While I respect Federico’s viewpoint on CEO’s finding any way possible to avoid paying taxes (I whole heartedly agree that it’s ridiculous that they pay less than most), I may not have been clear in what I was attempting to convey. So let me try again.

I wasn’t saying that Steve Jobs would be the head of this foundation, and that it would be him making the sole decisions. I meant, like most foundations, that there be a board of people who oversee the decisions that are being made.

I am not necessarily insinuating that Steve Jobs even really be involved, besides lending his name, or the Apple, Inc. name. I’m merely stating that he may initially fund the foundation, or Apple may, but that it be an entirely different entity from Apple Inc. itself.

The second comment is by Jose_X. He states:

“I would add to federico’s comment:

– Use the tax-free money (and other donors’ money) as the marketing muscle of your for-profit companies (helping spread freebies or subsidized products as necessary to hurt competition while promoting your for-profit products and even to helping meet revenue/sales goals).

– Use the organization to help lock-in lucrative government (and private) contracts for the for-profit businesses.

– Use the organization to help pass laws (and establish standards) that favor your for-profit companies.

– Use the organization to spread misleading lofty ideas about the (imaginary) value of patents (and other monopolies) in helping society and promoting progress, monopolies that ultimately help you gouge the public more easily.

– Do all of this while keeping a straight face.”

What Jose fails to realize is that this is no different from what the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) has been doing since 2002. The BMGF has been giving software and hardware to libraries since 2002. It first started with Gateway Desktop computers, along with all of the FREE Microsoft software that goes along with that. Windows 2000, Office 2000, 5 Magic School Bus Games, Streets and Trips, Encarta, all of the language packs and more.

After that, they provided free upgrades to Windows XP, with Office XP, updated games, and all of the other software upgrades. This all propped up the continuation for libraries to use Microsoft products. But we’re not done yet kids, no.

The third go around was for Wireless Computer Labs. This came complete with carts, 12 laptops, antivirus, Windows XP, Office 2003, wireless access point, router and more.

Did the BMGF do this entirely out of pure generosity and desire to expand a library’s ability to provide computers for the Public? I don’t think so. I do believe it was mostly of a philanthropic nature and a desire to see library’s provide computers to their constituents; however, the BMGF used what they had, Microsoft Products, to accomplish this goal. For those libraries that have since replaced their computers how many of them decided to switch to Macs, not many. How many went with open source linux machines as replacements, probably a few. But for the most part they have stuck with Microsoft.

Why stick with Microsoft Products? Quite simple, you give them some stuff for free, but when it comes time to update instead of having to deal with the backlash from their users, they just go ahead and buy Microsoft products again because it’s what their users know. I do not see how Apple doing the same thing could be seen any differently than Microsoft’s approach.

Maybe I’m looking at the whole thing wrong, maybe I’m being naive. Maybe everybody is instantly bashing Apple just because they appear to be consumer unfriendly and do not care what they think. Well, they are a business and a public entity. They are responsible for reporting to the share holders. Share holders expect a profit.

If you have any thoughts on this, or any other article, please let us know in the comments.

Image source is Apple.com.

Our little nerdy community is well known for our special brand of echo chamber. Original, thought provoking content is at a minimum. The bread and butter of our news is sensationalized nothingness. A search on google news brings forth nearly one thousand articles for “iPad Camera.” That is one thousand articles about a feature that doesn’t exist on a product that is not available yet. Does anybody else see a problem with this?

To be fair, the iPad isn’t alone. We got the same treatment with the iPhone as well. My peers in the Apple news community create un-content for the consumption of their audience. I can’t blame them, and I certainly can’t blame Apple for exploiting a large avenue to market their products for free. I don’t even blame the readers. I do, however, want you to take a look at the reasons why you seek out this speculative masturbation of made up fluff. What does it give you? What does it provide? Are we just going through the motions?

I am left scratching my head. If you really want a this certain type of content, I can provide it. I won’t feel good about providing it. In fact, I will feel quite uneasy, but I am here to write about things that might interest you. If you’re not interested, there is no reason for me to write in the first place. I have a picture in my head of what is interesting. I use the picture to choose what topics I write about. Unfortunately, that picture isn’t matching up with your pictures lately.

Please, give me your feedback. Let me know what it is about Apple that leaves you desiring fairy tales about the mythical Yellow Submarine iPod and super secret unreleased iProduct that my cousin’s roommate told me about. I sincerely want to know what motivates you. You can comment on this post or hit me up on Twitter.

Photo Credit: NeoGaboX

Cult of Mac reports on a Wall Street Journal piece that iPhones are frowned upon at the Microsoft campus in Seattle.  This must make it difficult for Microsoft employees to hide their iPhones from management.  I mean if they use their iPhones like I use mine it would seem impossible for someone not to notice that they are using it.  I practically use mine for everything at work.  I use it to take notes during meetings, or I write down information for something important, then I email it to myself for later review.  I’ve even take pictures of areas or equipment and email them to my boss.

However, recently Microsoft went as far as to only allow the expensing of Windows Mobile smart phones.  So, that leaves out BlackBerrys, Google Androids, and iPhones.  They didn’t say you can’t buy them or that you can only buy a Microsoft Mobile smart phone, Microsoft just won’t expense any other smart phone but their own.  I can understand brand loyalty, but this is getting down right childish.

Whenever someone asks me what kind of smartphone they should get I always tell them to get an iPhone, and I explain to them the good and bad points of the iPhone.  I mean it’s their money, so if they want a Google Android or a Blackberry smart phone that’s their decision.  I’m not going to force them to get something that they will be unhappy with for two years.  However, most of the time they come back and say that they wished they got an iPhone because of x, y, and z reasons.

I remember reading some months back that Microsoft held a company meeting, in which an unsuspecting employee used his iPhone to snap a picture of Steve Ballmer.  Ballmer saw what this employee had done and decided to make an example of this poor guy.  He snagged the phone from his hand and took it on stage where he proceeded to pretend to step on the iPhone.  Really Ballmer? You’re going to take your employee’s phone and make a spectacle of him because he’s got an iPhone? Grow up.  I’m not sure what the outcome was with the guys iPhone.  I’m guessing he got it back, but he probably also got stern talking to from Ballmer.

I understand brand loyalty all to well.  However, you shouldn’t berate your employees over their phone selection.  If you want your employees to use your products why not make a product that they will want to use?  Just saying.

Photo Credit: IMG_3769

Article Via Cult of Mac

Seth Weintraub of 9to5Mac is reporting that due to high iPad sales there might be shortages in our future.  Does this mean there’s going to be rioting in the streets?  Will those who didn’t get up early on Friday morning to reserve their iPad be left out in the cold?  I doubt it.  It sounds more like PR hype to me than anything else.  Earlier in February everyone was saying that Apple was only able to produce 300,000 iPads.  Now the new count is at 700,000 iPads.

I’m reminded of when the iPhone launched, and people wanted to buy as many iPhones as possible to sell them on eBay.  They thought that Apple was going to have a limited stock of iPhones.  To the contrary, after the initial rush of customers, there still were iPhones available.  Only shortly after that did they run low, but they seemed to be able to keep up with demand.

On Friday morning I read two reports.  The first that Apple was selling 20,000 iPads per hour, and the other report stated that they were selling 25,000 iPads per hour.  So, if Apple were to sell 40,000 to 50,000 iPads in two hours, that is a small fraction of the 700,000 that have been produced.  Even if Apple sold 25,000 iPads an hour for a twenty-four hour period, they would have only sold 600,000 units.  That would still leave 100,000 units available.  I seriously doubt that, that type of momentum kept up for a twenty-four hour period.

More reports are going to be coming out in the weeks to come.  Some will have a great outlook on supply, while others paint more of a bleak picture, and cause people to say, “darn I wish I pre-ordered early”.  Whatever the case may be, Apple is in the business of making money not losing money.  So, if you didn’t order on Friday the 12th, I’m sure you’ll be able to get your iPad.  Maybe not on launch day, but shortly after.  What do you think?  Do you think there’s going to be a shortage?  Or, do you think it just a lot of FUD (fear, uncertainty, and doubt)?  Let me know by leaving your comment in the comments section below.

Photo Credit: iPad Apple

Article Via 9to5Mac

Apparently I’m in the minority. Apple Insider has it on “good authority” that multitasking will be delivered to customers with the 4.0 software update. Giving access to users shouldn’t come as a big deal since the iPhone OS supports multitasking already, as mail, SMS, iPod, and Nike+ applications all run in the background already.

There’s been very little actual information given about how Apple plans on ensuring quality control over a device that might have a ton of applications running in the background, but we can all certainly agree that it might be a sticky issue for a lot of consumers.

The geeky crowd will understand how to kill a process or an application that’s out of control, should Apple give us the tools to do just that, but the majority of people have no idea what a process might be and they certainly have no idea what killing a process might mean. If we’re getting multitasking then you can be sure that Apple’s also going to be giving us the tools we need to easily manage apps running in the background.

I just hope that the solution isn’t some locked down method that only allows you to run two applications at once. But, given Apple’s track record with controlling the user experience on their devices, I wouldn’t be surprised if they try something like that. Apple’s long touted that a lack of multitasking is because of security concerns as much as it’s about battery life. Stopping the phone from running background processes has decreased the likelihood that a phone might be taken over by malware or virii. Who knows how much of that is PR and how much of it is truthful, but one thing is for certain, giving typical users more controls of their device could be a little bit of a mess.

Repair shops better start clearing their phone lines. They might be getting an influx of people calling and asking why their iPhones look like they’re booting into Safe Mode.

Via AppleInsider

Dell Inspiron 560s and the 21″ iMac

I configured a Dell Inspiron 560s with a 21.5” LCD Display, an integrated webcam and microphone.  I also added anti-virus software; which is something that is needed to protect a Windows computer from Viruses.  I tried to match the hardware and Software as close as possible to the iMac that I will be talking about in just a bit.  The total price of the Dell Inspiron 560s was $1,136.50.  This price was after discounts that were applied.  The original total price if Dell did not include discounts would have been – $1,420.75.  This is a $284.25 difference.  The thing with Dell’s discounts are that they change weekly.  So, if you don’t act quickly on the configured computer, you could be paying that extra $284.25.

Next, I configured an iMac 21.5” 3.06GHz computer.  The only thing I added to the iMac configuration was iWork to match the Office Productivity software from the Dell Inspiron 560s.  The new iMacs come standard with a wireless Bluetooth keyboard and Magic Mouse.  In contrast to the Dell Inspiron 560s, it only comes with a wired USB keyboard and mouse.  The total price of the 21.5” iMac configured was $1385.68.

As you can see the Dell Inspiron 560s costs more than the equivalently configured 21.5” iMac without the discount on the Dell computer.  The Dell is actually $35.07 more than the iMac.  However, the iMac is $249.18 more than the Dell with the discounts applied.  Basically, if you can get the Dell with the discount, it will be less than the iMac.  However, if you don’t get the discount, it will end up being more than the iMac.

Total Cost Of Ownership (TCO)

I would now like to talk about Total Cost of Ownership (TCO).  If this phrase is a new concept to you, here’s a quick and dirty example.  Total Cost of Ownership is what the total cost of the computer would cost you during the time you own the computer.  Maintenance and repairs are included in this.  One of the biggest costs for Windows owners is Virus and malware annual software subscriptions.  Generally, you can use free malware removal tools, as well as anti-virus applications.  But for anti-virus software you’re probably going to want something with a subscription.  With that said, you’re probably going to pay annually about $60.00 to $70.00 to protect your Windows computer from being attacked.

Another expense that is incurred by a typical Windows customer is virus and spyware removal done by a computer repair center, such as Best Buy’s Geek Squad.  You might be asking yourself why do I need to pay someone to do this when I have the software on my computer to protect it from this.  Well, sometimes people don’t update their virus definitions, or they get a virus or malware that is new, and it hoses the computer.  This is when you take your computer to Best Buy’s Geek Squad, and start forking over the dough.

This doesn’t come cheap.  The Geek Squad offers three different virus and spyware removal services.  For online support it will run you $149.00, for in-store support it will cost $199.00, and finally for in-home it will run you $299.00.  As you can see this starts to add up.  Click here for a complete explanation of the the services you’re paying for.

Now let’s add up the Dell with the discount, and the in-home service, now the price comes to $1435.50. Can you imagine what that $1136.50 Dell computer would cost you at the end of three years, if you have anymore virus/malware removals?  The iMac that you paid $1385.68 for will still be the same price over the three years.  I’m going to play devils advocate and say something might go wrong with your Mac.  If this does happen then your TCO will end up being more.  In my experience this has not happened.

When you really get down to it, Macs end up costing less in the long run.  The next time a family member or a friend tells you that you spent way too much on your Mac; you can ask them how much they paid the Geek Squad in the last couple of years.

Photo Credit: Apple.com/Dell.com ; •?pfaff

Even by App Store standards, the last few weeks have been wild. After months of being able to count on the alarm sounding, the sun rising, and store RSS feeds overflowing with ‘Sexy Bikini Girls Herding Sheep’ and ‘ Sexy Lingerie Girls Quoting Shakespeare’ type apps in the productivity category, all of a sudden all ‘overtly sexual’ apps were banned from the App Store. So very large numbers of apps (as many as 5,000 according to several web reports) were banished from one day to the next.

Oh, with one tiny exception though – overtly sexual apps from overtly established names (like Sports Illustrated and Playboy) are still ok.

Then earlier this week an app (that made duck quacking noises) was banned from the App Store because it offered ‘minimal user functionality’. For a moment that one seems fair enough – no real use, no real place for it in the store. Then after a little less than two seconds, you recall that there are currently around 10 million apps in the store devoted exclusively to farting and other wonderful bodily noises. Do those offer maximum user functionality?

Also this week, we’ve seen Apple ban all WiFi-detecting apps from the App Store – once again banishing some long-established apps in the process.

To say that inconsistent is Apple’s middle name when it comes to App Store decisions would be a huge understatement. That makes it incredibly tricky to try to predict what they may ban next from the store. Incredibly tricky, but loads of fun I think. :)

So here goes – a few quick suggestions on how Apple may want to take App Store Banning to the next level …

Hold an Opposites Day Ban Fest.

Being inconsistent is obviously a recurring theme for the App Store – so why not just embrace it all the way and have an opposites day sort of banning initiative. During this day they could …

• Ban all those apps that are not quite overtly sexual enough – this would get rid of lots of those tiresome, legitimate productivity apps that have nothing to do with sexy bikini girls and herding sheep.
• Ban all apps that are judged to be ‘excessively useful’.
• Ban all apps that are not WiFi detecting apps.

Use App Store Reviews as Grounds for Banning.

Scan for one-star ratings with particularly scathing reviews – things like ‘this app costs too much to even consider trying’, ‘this app sucks’ and similarly powerful indictments. Ban ‘em.

Let Users Get Even More Involved

Draw a lucky monthly winner from all users who purchase an App Store app each month. Let that user choose a random category or type of app to ban from the store. No rules, no restrictions – just let the winners fire away and say things like ‘I hate all apps with red icons’ and then put those wishes into action and banish all red-iconed apps.

Get Developers Into the Process As Well

Start a Reality TV show with 10 developers trapped on a far-off island and pit them against each other in a series of survival challenges that involve sheep herding, with one contestant eliminated each week. The Last Developer Standing gets a check for 70% of $37 from Apple and the right to have all of the apps by the other nine developers banned.

BanHammer Roulette

Design and build a customized App Store Roulette Wheel, with 150,000 pockets for the ball to fall in. Place it in the App Store Review Staff break room. Let them play it all day. Assign a number to every app in the store. Every app’s number that comes up is banned. This would help increase the randomness of banning decisions, which otherwise might be tough to accomplish.

That’s it for my suggestions for now. I feel like those have real potential to reduce that overcrowded-feeling number of 150,000+ apps in the App Store. I’m sure there’s lots more fun and creative ways to achieve this though. What are your thoughts? What should be banned next from the App Store?

Image Via Know Your Meme

INTERVIEW WITH PAUL KENT, MACWORLD CONFERENCE & EXPO

Paul Kent is the General Manager, Macworld 2010 and Vice President, IDG World Expo and a 25-year veteran of the technology industry. He oversees the Macworld Conference & Expo, which this year took take place on February 9-13 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, CA.

PROFESSIONAL

According to your bio at IDG, you started as a programmer. For us long time Mac users, are they any programs that you worked on that we might recognize?

I did contract custom programming for hire. Pascal, dBase /Foxbase, Basic and Multi-tasking Basic. This was in the stone age of PC programming. While it was exciting to meet and know many of the pioneers of PC hardware and software, I never contributed to a commercial product.

What lead you to start your own consulting firm in 1984?

It was really an outshoot of the custom programming efforts. In those days it was the like the Wild West – everyone who learned a programming of any kind had a marketable skill as companies were rushing to automate various tasks. I started with programming and then learned local area networking.

From that, you started Mactivity?

Yes, specifically the networking skill set. Mactivity stood for “Mac-Connectivity.” I was installing AppleTalk / LocalTalk, Novell and 3Com networks for people. Business was good and I had several clients in Silicon Valley – I couldn’t keep up with their needs, so I developed a basic network admin class to teach them how to be self-sufficient and troubleshoot simple problems. That led to me partnering with a well known trainer from Farallon Computing (creator of LocalTalk) and taking the class on the road to help others learn how to design and install networks. Feedback from those classes and demand for more topics led me to host my own conference – and form my company – Mactivity.

Where did Mactivity have its shows and what other type of shows did you help manage before you moved over to ING World Expo?

Mactivity: The Macintosh Connectivity Conference was held from 1991 to 1997. The shows started at the Santa Clara Convention Center and then grew into the San Jose Convention Center. For a thin slice of the world, we had a very loyal attendee base, and a very interesting exhibit floor. Those were the days when 14 companies were battling it out to be the leading bridge and router manufacturer, several server technologies were being launched, and different physical topologies were on the market.

Are you still involved with Mactivity?

No – Mactivity ceased operation when I joined IDG World Expo full time.

MACWORLD CONFERENCE & EXPO

How did you come to your current position at IDG World Expo and what was your first Macworld Expo that you managed?

The owners and operators of Macworld liked what I had built with the Mactivity events and asked me to become their conference chair as a contract position. I did this from 1997 to 2005.

I had been offered the opportunity to take over the whole show (as opposed to just the conference aspects) several times over the years. Mactivity was doing well and I didn’t have an interest in working for someone else. In late 2005, Mactivity’s business had slowed, I had a daughter who was going to college in Boston (IDG is located outside of Boston) and several other stars had lined up that cleared the way for me to take a full time position. IDG is a great company to work for – I’ve been very happy there.

We’re you involved in managing any of the other Macworld Expo’s in Boston, New York, Tokyo, etc.?

I was conference chair for all of the US Macworld’s during that time. The international events were owned by IDG, but managed by the business units in those respective countries.

What would you say are some of the differences in managing Macworld Expo when you first started compared to doing it today?

The tradeshow industry has certainly changed over this time – most notably the concerns about safety and cost of travel after 9/11. We spend a lot of time negotiating with air and travel companies to negate this as a concern. As for the show itself – our team is much more connected with the Mac market than it was in the early days. I always felt that in order to build the best show possible, we all had to live in the market we were serving to best understand our customers needs.

What effect did the iPod have on Macworld and do you see a similar effect happening with the new iPad?

One affect that many people noticed was the proliferation of iPod case and accessory manufacturers that would exhibit at the show. The iPad will have an effect similar to the iPhone – I expect many app developers to come to Macworld to show off their products.

After Apple slowly pulled out of each Macworld, were you surprised that Apple finally decided to no longer attend the flagship event in San Francisco?

While I was keenly aware of Apple’s actions with regards to pulling out of other shows around the world, and had certainly taken note when they would compare Macworld to their stores in some of their keynote presentations, I didn’t think Macworld SF was on the table quite yet. I was surprised when Apple actually informed us of this – it was just two weeks before our 2009 show.

What do you love best about Macworld and how did that translate into producing a show without Apple?

At our core – my team and I are hosts. We build this temporary world for our friends and customers, and we take a lot of pride in inviting people to come and enjoy this world. I love when we succeed in delighting our customers by providing them with a fun new experience at the show – whether it’s something to see like a new exhibitor that we’ve been able to bring in, something to learn in one of the many classes we offer, or some fun personal connection they make at the many social activities associated with the show.

Now since Macworld 2010 is over, how did the show do without Apple?

We were very pleased with the result. Attendees, press and exhibitors alike reported that the show exceeded their expectations and was a success for them. We succeeded in answering the question – “Is Macworld viable without Apple?” – and gave people a glimpse into how the show will evolve into a “fan fest” environment that they can enjoy.

The show floor was very crowded; do you have an estimate on the number of attendees?

We don’t estimate attendance numbers. We will release an official number once our attendance audit is completed.

We know there will be a Macworld 2011, which is scheduled for January 25-29, 2011 in Moscone West. From your experience this year, what are you going to keep the same, or do differently for next years show?

In a word: more – more exhibitors, more and new Feature Presentations, more/new/timely conference sessions. We’ve got a lot of great ideas and look forward to providing the market with another fun and productive show. The next chapter in the new era of Macworld will be growth on the exhibitor side. Exhibitors from this year are re-signing and the exhibitors from previous years will start coming back now that they’ve seen the overwhelming press and market demand for this show.

IN DEPTH

MACINTOSH

When did your love for the Mac first begin and what was your first Macintosh?

Saw my first Mac in 1985. I’d been dealing with text based computers since 1981 – and the first time I used that graphical user interface (I doodled with MacPaint) – I knew this was going to be world changing.

How many Macs have you owned since your first one?

I’d have to guess 40-50. I’ve had just about every model they’ve made in one form or another over the years, including a 20^th Anniversary Mac (TAM) – that was a lot of fun when it first came out.

What Mac do you currently use and do you see a place in your life for an iPad?

I have a MacBook Pro now. Absolutely – I think the iPad as a communications and media consumption device will be very useful. Still need the big screen for media creation, though.

What Applications could you not live without on your Mac?

Mail, BusyCal, Garageband, and all the iWork apps.

Are you an iPhone user and if so what are you favorite apps?

Of course, I’m an iPhone user! Favorite App is iMacworld – the app I helped design that helps people get around Macworld. Other cool apps – Tweetie, Shazam, Tab Toolkit, Wurdle and Money.

SPORTS

Do you have a favorite sports team or teams and what Apps (assuming you have an iPhone) do you use to follow them?

My favorite sports teams are the San Jose Sharks (I live near San Jose) and the New York Yankees (born and raised in NY). SportsTap is my trusted sports app.

MUSIC

What instrument do you play and who are your musical influences?

I play guitar and sing. Many influences – I love Springsteen, The Stones, The Beatles, Southside Johnny & The Asbury Jukes, 60’s Soul (Stax and Motown), Roy Orbison. I appreciate great guitar players like Larry Carlton, Robben Ford, Satriani and Vai – but mostly I love songs that stand the test of time – Pretty Woman, Born to Run, A Day in the Life, Brown Sugar, Like a Rolling Stone.

What’s your history with the Silicon Valley Houserockers Band?

I formed the Houserockers in 1999. I played guitar through high school and a little after, but put it down when I started my business. My wife gave me a guitar as a Christmas gift in 1997, and I immediately got the bug again. I originally wanted to put together a band just of guys in the tech industry, but eventually started meeting other great musicians and decided I just wanted to play with the best guys I could. The band went through a few lineup changes, but has had the same group of guys for the past 5 years. We’ve become one of the most popular groups in Northern California – the only band I know of that plays Rock and Soul with a 5-piece horn section. It’s a lot of fun – definitely a great release after a long day planning Macworld.

MACWORLD ALL-STAR BAND

What’s the history behind the Macworld All Star Band, how did you become a member and who’s all in the band?

Originally it was an idea of Macworld’s Chris Breen and myself. We wanted to put together a group of Mac industry people to jam at Macworld’s. Ilene Hoffman had an interest in taking over the legacy of the Mac the Knife parties – so we now had a venue and the basis for a band. Ilene referred drummer Dave Hamilton from The Mac Observer, and bassist Chuck LaTournous from Random Maccess– both very accomplished musicians – and we had a foundation. Bob Levitus on guitar, Duane Straub on bass, were added to the group as we prepped for the first gig at Macworld NY 2001. The band has truly become a band of brothers – we all look forward to these parties at Macworld as a chance to renew the deep friendships we have formed. We exchange song ideas by email, someone sets up a server to host the songs we decide to learn, we learn them on our own, rehearse ONE TIME (a few days before the show) and then perform at Macworld. For the last 7 years we’ve performed at the Cirque du Mac parties that Dave Hamilton hosts. Bryan Chaffin joined the group on guitar and vocals in 2002. We actually had two other original members – Tom Irish (amazing Mick Jagger impersonator) and Scott Scheinbaum on keys – but unfortunately they stopped participating after a few years as they got busy with other non-Mac related personal projects.

Here’s a good recap by Ilene:

http://www.ilenesmachine.com/macworld/ny01/macworldny01.shtml

INSIDE THE MAC STUDIO

What is your favorite word? Tone.

What is your least favorite word?  - None. They’re just words.

What turns you on? Harmony

What turns you off? Dishonesty

What sound or noise do you love? Acoustic guitar

What sound or noise do you hate? Nails on Chalkboard

What is your favorite curse word? F*ck

What profession other than your own would you like to attempt? Professional Musician

What profession would you not like to do? Politician

If Heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the Pearly Gates? “Thanks for treating everyone with dignity. Good job.”

Make sure your game works on release day

The Assassins Creed II Multiplayer edition sure got a lot of buzz on release day. Every single blog on the planet was talking about it, but what no one mentioned was that they were facing some serious problems–downtime. A quick look at the comment revealed that people were stuck on loading screens, couldn’t sign up for an account, and were constantly getting disconnected. The attention span of iPhone users is far too short to put up with that kind of crap. You get one shot, and if your game doesn’t load or play like a user expects it’s doubtful they’ll relaunch your app. Gamers haven’t invested a large chunk of their weekly salary to play your game, so the investment is minimal. That lack of investment transcends the financial burden and encompasses the emotional investment. Users can become invested in your game if it doesn’t work, and no one’s going to stick around for version 2.0 of your app.

If you want to make sure your game is a success invest the time to get the bugs out of the game to begin with. Meeting corporate deadlines isn’t a good enough excuse for a launch. Test, test, test, and then test again when you don’t think you can test any more. Give yourself the best chance to stick around by ensuring that your game gets passed the splash screen on first launch.

It sounds pretty straight forward and a whole lot of captain obvious, but you’d be surprised how many app reviews I do where this isn’t the case.

Make sure your game is dynamic enough to keep your users entertained

Fart apps, tip apps, and other do-one-thing applications might be good enough to stand on their own as an application, but a game that doesn’t deliver the goods gets axed from my phone pretty quickly. My internal conversation goes like this, “Hey this game looks pretty cool”, “Oh, it’s not that hard”, “Really 5 *expletive that rhymes with ducking* levels?”. To be fair I go through a lot of applications so my penchant ability to see crapware is amazing. Go above and beyond the expectations and you’ll be rewarded. Rush to push the game out the door and you’ll probably regret it. Finish your game, but then take a step back for a while, think about what it does that can be done a little bit better. Think about what you can do with it that no one has done before, think about what you could do that would be completely unexpected, then implement it. Only once you’ve done that should you release your game.

Don’t provide new levels without ever telling the user on first launch.

If there’s one thing that can be learned about user behaviour from computers, it’s that updates rarely happen. People with a vested interest might update, as will the geeky crowd, but for the most part people won’t update. Heck, most might not even know that they have to update. Relying on updates to fix your application is a bad idea in general, and providing new game play in an update might go unnoticed by those who had lukewarm feelings toward your game. I can’t even begin to count the number of times that I’ve updated all the apps on my phone, but never really spend time trying to find out which app or game has added features, and I have a vested interest in knowing. If you’re hoping the new level you’ve introduced won’t go unnoticed you might be wrong. The only times I’ve checked back for an upgrade or new “chapter” to a game is when the developer makes it painfully clear that more stuff is coming, or that more content is unlockable and will be provided in the near future.

Plan ahead. If you think you might be adding a second installment to your game, or you think that additional levels may be in the pipeline at some point, let your customers know in advance, and preferably, let them know within the game. You get one shot at hooking them on your franchise, and knowing that additional levels are coming is a strong incentive for them to stick around and check out future installments of your games.

I have plenty of opportunities to try a game out for 10 minutes, but I have very little time to dedicate to playing a game for a long time. If I don’t love your game, and I can’t figure out everything about it that I need to know with in ten minutes, I’ll probably move on to something else that I like more. Don’t make your players think about how to play your game. Show them quick, and let them jump right in.

Time’s a ticking, and hopefully you can convert some clients in that time.

Robert McMillan, who writes for PC World, wrote that Microsoft would like the consumer to pay an Internet tax to help combat these threats.  Microsoft Corporate Vice President for Trustworthy Computing Scott Charney is quoted in the following statement:

So who would foot the bill? “Maybe markets will make it work,” Charney said. But an Internet usage tax might be the way to go. “You could say it’s a public safety issue and do it with general taxation,” he said.

Wow!  A public safety issue, really Scott,  how about Microsoft fixing Windows so that these threats wouldn’t be an issue.  The Windows community already pays for anti virus protection, don’t you think that’s enough.  I’m reminded of the old Mafia movies, where the local gangster goes into a store and tells the store owner that he will protect him for price.  This is exactly what is happening to Windows users, they are being strong armed into having to pay for protection.  So now Windows and Mac users alike would have to pay for protection.

This is one of many reasons why I own Macs, and will never go back to using a Windows computer.  I don’t have to pay an annual fee to protect my computer from attacks.  Nor will I want to pay this ridiculous Internet tax.

Moreover, I feel that we also need to educate people on the threats that are out there.  There is social engineering that will trick people into giving up there credit card or bank information.  So, there is more than one way to skin a proverbial cat if you wish.

The Internet is great place for knowledge and entertainment.  However, it’s also a place of thieves, scam artists, and low life’s.  Microsoft, I suggest to you, instead of charging an Internet tax, educate the masses on the threats that are out there.  Haven’t we paid enough?  Would you as a Mac or Windows consumer be willing to pay for an Internet tax to combat these threats?  I’d like to know your opinion on this matter.  Leave a comment below in the comments section, and tell the world and Microsoft how you really feel about this.

Photo Credit: Microsoft’s Scott Charney Presents at RSA, San Francisco 4-21-2009

Article via: PC World

The report said that while the average hardcover bestseller is $26, the cost to print, store and ship the book is just $3.25. That cost also includes unsold copies returned to the publisher by booksellers.

Publishers get roughly half — $13 — of the selling price of a book. But after factoring in payments to the author and the cost of cover design and copy editing, only about $4.05 is left. And, the report noted, that doesn’t even include overhead such as office space and electricity. (Apple Insider)

Here’s some rudimentary economics for you: New innovations mean higher prices, despite the savings that are realized. It was cheaper to create tape cassettes than it was vinyl records, prices went up. It was cheaper to create CDs than it was cassette tapes, and still prices went up. It’s cheaper to go directly to digital formats like MP3s, and yet still fat cats are trying to make the prices go up.

No matter how it’s sliced, the latest and greatest will always cost more. The publishers can justify it any which way they want, but even if it was costing them 1/5 the amount, it did before, from writing to distribution, the price would go up. There’s always an excuse.

Here comes the rant…wait for it…

They’re absolutely right. Cheaper e-books would mean more e-book sales, and that would probably mean less paper book sales. That would probably mean less bookstores, and then that would probably mean less warehouse space needed. That would probably mean publishers would be on the hook for the costs. “What costs,” you might ask. The cost of trying to keep a dying sector alive. The cost of clinging to old world ways — the cost of marketing.

Those are all things that nobody cares about. That is, except fat cats in suits. Authors don’t care because they’re already getting gouged by publishers. Consumers don’t care because they just want the cheapest book possible. Librarians might care because they’re out of jobs, but other than that…

No one cares.

So here it is, the proverbial proof in the pudding, it’s not our problem you’re to fat for your own pay cheques. Buy a belt like the rest of us! You’re lucky author’s are still putting up with your crap.

If there’s one thing I hope the iBook Store does, it’s make it easier for writers to publish their own work.

Is anyone else tired of out-of-date businessmen crying about their business models failing? Will the years 2000 to 2010 go down as the years of the corporate cryfest? It’s starting to look that way. Western corporations have spent so much time singing the praises of capitalism that they seem to have forgotten what being a capitalist involves.

Do book publishers really think that consumers aren’t going to be just as pissed at them as we already are of the RIAA and MPAA?

Evolve or get left behind. Better yet, retire, so a college graduate can get a job. If a corporation has the same rights as a person, does that mean they can be fired?

Where’s Donald Trump when we need him?

Article Via New York Times

Photo Credit Jackie Kever

The iPad looks to be a great device for reading books.  Now some aren’t to hot on the idea of reading books on an LCD display.  They feel that E Ink screens are better suited for this task.  Without actually having seen a book on the iPad, I think the reading experience is going to be pretty good.  Apple is employing IPS technology that will make the display sharper and crisper.  It will also give you a larger viewing angle.  With all the technical stuff aside, I’m really excited to get a book on the iPad and start reading.  I just haven’t decided which one.

Next I want to talk about games on the iPad.  I recently got Star Wars Trench Run for my iPhone.  When I first played it I said to myself, “This game would look great on the iPad’s screen.”  Plus there are countless other games I have like Assassin’s Creed that I can’t wait to play.

I wrote an article last week Which iPad are you?.  In the article I stated that I was torn between the 16GB and 32GB versions.  Well, quite a few Macgasm readers commented and said that they want the 64GB version for storing videos and games.  So now I’m torn between the 32GB and 64GB versions.  I have quite a few Digital Copy and iTunes Movies that I can’t wait to watch on the iPad.  As I mentioned earlier we’re going on a cruise, and this would be the perfect device to take with us to watch movies during our down time.

When we are on our cruise I plan on taking lots of pictures.  I was going to bring my MacBook, so that I can offload our photos, and free up my camera’s SDHC card.  With the iPad, and its camera SD expansion port I can leave my MacBook at home.  Plus it will make a great photo displaying device at dinner time.  We can all look at photos from the days events.

I was really glad to hear that the iWork Suite will be available for the iPad.  What’s also great about it, is that Apple will be selling each application individually for $9.99.  So, if all you want is Pages, then, that’s all you have to pay for.  I think it will be great for me to edit papers, or even write a Macgasm article or two on it.  The other great feature is that I don’t have to use the on-screen keyboard.  I can pair one of my Apple keyboards, and it will be like I’m typing on one of my Macs.  Numbers also looked great to use.  I’m an avid spreadsheet user, and it seemed to work like Numbers on the Mac.  Looks like Apple did not sacrifice on the way you use a spreadsheet.

Now that you’ve read what I want to use my iPad for, I’d like to hear how you are going to use your iPad.  Will it be a gaming device, or the book reader you’ve been waiting for.  I’d also like to hear from those who don’t think they would find the iPad useful for any of the things I mentioned.  So, leave your thoughts in the comments section below, or hit me up on twitter at twitter.com/glagana.

Photo Credit: cheap ipad (7)

People are excited about the iPad. There is no question about that, but are we going to see more app rejections because of this? Apple has policies that don’t quite make sense to the outside world. We can’t get replacement mail apps or replacement SMS apps for the iPhone. We don’t get the Google Voice app because it duplicates iPhone functionality. So, what will the new trend be for the iPad?

The iPad is being promoted as the ultimate eBook reader. Apple is launching their own iBook Store, so does that mean that all of the books that are currently in the app store will be removed? What about Readers like Stanza or, more importantly, Amazon’s own Kindle app? Apple is going after the eBook market aggressively, so it seems like a logical extension that Apple would want to eliminate their competition.

Sadly, if Apple were to reject apps like Kindle, Stanza, and Classics, this would ruin the iPad for a portion of the potential user base — even myself. I am currently planning on purchasing an iPad. As a Kindle user, all of my books are in the Kindle format. If I lost access to my library of eBooks, I would be less than pleased. We are still a few weeks away from the launch of the iPad, so let’s hope that Apple doesn’t try to assassinate the competition.

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

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

MacNN is reporting that Apple is said ” to have a ” lifetime” deal [in place] with Samsung for AMOLED screens but to have held back on using it for now.” But, the move could mean a thinner and larger screen in for the iPhone, which would be a welcomed change for many.  A transparent screen on a mobile device opens up the device for a slew of more innovative applications.  Augmented reality applications could easily become the next major step forward in this particular computing space.  Like the Samsung representative says in the video below, these screens are perfect for heads up displays.

The AMOLED display is pretty badass, and instead of rehashing what it is I’ve added the video from CES below.

Via MacNN

Each of the five episodes are downloaded and operated separately. Once you move the applications from the .dmg to the Applications folder on your Mac, it starts a splash window. Once you log in with your Telltale Games account (DRM, boo!), you can launch the game itself. I went straight into the options, and then changed the resolution to fit my monitor. Your milage may vary as it comes to default settings. So far, the game runs like a dream on my year-old MacBook Pro. As long as your Mac doesn’t use integrated graphics, you’re probably good to go!

Currently, they are holding a poll to see which game should be the next to be ported to Mac OS X. If my opinion holds any sway to you, please go vote for Sam & Max. I have been a huge fan of the freelance police since the days of Hit the Road. Trust me, you want to play this game. It is awesome.

What do you think? What game are you most excited about? Comment on this post or hit me up on Twitter.

Image Credit: Telltale Games

I did the basics. I installed Safari, iTunes, and QuickTime on this computer. I did that thinking I could trick myself into thinking I was working on my computer. While some things feel nice and cozy (Like Top Sites and the iTunes Store), there are a lot of problems a Mac user will be tripped up by if he or she tries to use a Windows 7 machine to do work without doing metaphorical stretching.

The first thing that really got my goat was the way that the user interacts with windows in regards to scrolling. In OS X, your scroll focus follows your cursor. Anything that your cursor hovers over is what you will be scrolling. In Windows 7, you can only scroll in the front-most window. This drives me absolutely bonkers. If I am switching back and forth between windows, I have to force Windows 7 to change focus just so I can scroll down. This is incredibly unintuitive.

My other big problem with Windows 7 is the godawful Control Panel. When you’re trying to change settings on your computer, it spawns new windows left and right to go into specific areas like audio or gadgets. Your settings aren’t self contained. They are scatter shot everywhere, and Control Panel is basically just a list of links. This hodgepodge is really terrible to use.

Okay, don’t let these gripes make you think I hate Windows. It functions well enough. It really just showcases why user interface should be designed by graphic designers, and not engineers. Functionality and intuitiveness go hand in hand.

Have you been forced to use Windows 7? Maybe you use it volitionally. I’d love to hear about your experience as a Mac user. Comment on this post or hit me up on Twitter.

Photo Credit: basykes

I’m a nerd. I am used to having dedicated clients for everything. In fact, I still do. Mail.app, iChat, and X-Chat Aqua are all open on my desktop as I write this. However, that isn’t what the Kids These Days™ are doing. My little sister doesn’t even know that there is a program designed specifically for checking e-mail.

Services like Meebo and Google Talk are taking the place of the Adiums and iChats for less technical people. Opening bookmarks and clicking links are easier for them to handle than downloading, installing, configuring, and running dedicated applications. Heck, don’t even get me start about Facebook chat. That is a whole article in and of itself.

I am seeing this truly proliferate. Communication, work, music, videos, and even games are all being done strictly in the confines of the web browser. It actually makes me feel warm and fuzzy that the web has really matured. When I think about the fact that I am living in an era where movies will stream to my screen wirelessly with the press of a button, my mind is completely blown. It is a good time to be into technology.

So, I want to hear from you. Are you moving to web apps? Is there a place in the future for dedicated local applications? Comment on this post or hit me up on Twitter.

Photo Credit: skatoolaki

Bill Gates explains to BNET why he’s not impressed:

“You know, I’m a big believer in touch and digital reading, but I still think that some mixture of voice, the pen and a real keyboard – in other words a netbook – will be the mainstream on that,” he said. “So, it’s not like I sit there and feel the same way I did with iPhone where I say, ‘Oh my God, Microsoft didn’t aim high enough.’  It’s a nice reader, but there’s nothing on the iPad I look at and say, ‘Oh, I wish Microsoft had done it.’”

Let’s look at the first sentence in his statement.  Bill Gates has always pushed for a mobile platform in a tablet format.  However, he first talks about a Tablet, then he says that netbooks are going to be mainstream.  But Bill, I thought you were talking about Tablets.  You lost me there.  As for his comment on voice and pen inputs, the last time I looked there was no real voice interaction with a Tablet PC.  Don’t even get me started with Pen Recognition.  My company tested one of the early Tablet PCs, and at the time it was quite impressive, but I seem to remember the Pen Recognition not being up to par.  Now Microsoft could have improved on it, so don’t start the hate mail.  I’m going to give them the benefit of the doubt on that one.

He goes on to complement the iPad as a nice reader, but then he says, “…there’s nothing on the iPad I look at and say, ‘Oh, I wish Microsoft had done it.’”  Really, is that why a week before Apple announced the iPad, Microsoft showed off Slate PCs at CES?  Was Microsoft trying to say hey we did it first, or look we got three different vendors behind us?

It’s like sibling rivalry.  I’m going to top you before you can top me.  I personally think Microsoft saw the iPad as a possible threat, that’s why they announced their Slate PCs the week before.  Out of the three different Slates, only one of them appeared to be working.  And if memory serves, it seemed to do the basics of the iPad.  Read eBooks and watch movies.  When Steve Ballmer was listing off the features of the Slates, it almost sounded like a laundry list of items from the iPad.

Whether Bill Gates is, or is not impressed with the iPad seems to be irrelevant.  Microsoft seems to be playing catch up these days.  You see it in search, in cell phones, and now with the iPad, in the form of the Slate PCs.  I can’t say that the iPad will dominate, nor can I say  the same about Slate PCs.  The only ones that will determine this is John Q. Public.  That’s right, you the consumer.  You’re going to decide with your wallets.  It doesn’t matter if I’m impressed with the iPad, or if Bill Gates is not.  All the pundits thought that the iPhone was doomed before it left the gates.  Now look at it.  It’s out-selling every other cell phone on the market.  Because we decided with our wallets.

Photo Credit: Bill Gates

[via @All Things Digital, @BNET]

Apple‘s facing a real opportunity to increase revenue for developers.

It’s no surprise that there’s a lot of developers out there that are a little annoyed by the downwards push of the appstore pricing. It’s made it hard from some great innovators to turn a coin on their applications. They might not complain publicly about it, but they’ll certainly gripe about it over a couple of beers. Apple’s facing a real opportunity to help developers with the iPad. A bigger screen means more features, and in some cases a better experience. Things that were smooshed into the small screen on the iPhone now has a bit more space to breathe. Suddenly an application like TweetDeck might become a little more use on a device like the iPad. No offence to the TweetDeck team (I use the app on my desktop), but I just couldn’t stand it on the iPhone. While there will obviously be a slew of new applications for the iPad, some developers might be finding solace in the fact that they can now offer a more in-depth version of their iPhone apps on the iPad, and as a result sell them for a little bit more. The difference between a Sim City on the iPhone and a Sim City on the iPad could be substantial, and if done properly, and not a direct port to a new system, could easily increase revenue for the developer.

What do you think the average price point for an iPad app might be? I’m going to say between 5.99 and 9.99. The iPhone has taught us a valuable lesson, and there’s some mistakes that won’t be made this time around. Developers know that if they start under pricing themselves off the start they’ll be in a world of hurt once the market economy for the iPad starts stabilizing and meeting consumer expectations.

The real power of the device might be a combination

I get why people are speculating about the iPad in terms of a completely unique and new device, but lets take a moment and evaluate what the iPad could mean in conjunction with the iPhone. It’s a whole new possibility that many aren’t thinking about, and I’d like to see some developers really challenge the perception as it currently stands. Imagine having the calculator on your iPhone connect to Numbers on the iPad, and work together to create a whole new experience? What about being able to load up Eliminate Pro on your iPad, and have the iPhone act as the controller? If this were to become a reality companies could developer a whole bundle of applications to support an application on the iPad. We might see a 0.99 cent application for the iPhone that’s a controller for a development firms games, then an iPad game for 9.99. Talk about a new spin on the expected revenue model that’s being discussed.

All it’s going to take is some innovation from developers, and if there’s group of developers that can do it it’s iPhone developers.

So, how do you get back to a less cluttered system without reinstalling your OS? Just create a new user account. It won’t be a magic bullet, but it certainly will make for a snappier system. Most of those quirks you’ve accumulated on your system are unique to one account. When you start a new account by going to the Account pane in System Preferences, you essentially get to start fresh. All of your apps remain the same, but you get to go at it with a blank slate.

If you’re worried about keeping all of your data without re-entering it, that isn’t a problem. The easiest way to move over your bookmarks is Xmarks. Google has got you covered for calendar and address book syncing, and you have all of your mail waiting for you on your server if you’re using IMAP. Also, a few quick cut and paste keystrokes will have all of the files from your old Home Folder moved over to your new account.

At least for a while, you’ll have a shiny new account to run around with. It’ll load faster and take up less resources until the inevitable slew of auto-launching apps creep back into your life. Luckily, you can just switch accounts again in a few months. Trust me, we’ve gotta stay ahead of ourselves in the world of computing. It might seem like a hassle, but thirty minutes of switching things around every six months will make things a lot better. Waiting around for useless background processes to start really irks me.

Photo Credit: Redvers

Here’s the video

[Thanks for the tip Jon Wingård]

Pros: Instant access to your files, no delay when opening save dialogues.
Cons: Incessant noise, potentially more wear and tear on the platters.

For some folks, time is the most important factor. They just cannot wait for the disk to spin up when they want to access it. Frankly, the delay while the drive spins up when you open a save dialogue is a tad ridiculous. If the OS handled the drive better, it would only spin them up if you attempted to access it.

On the other hand, external drives tend to be very noisy. My iMac is whisper-quiet. When I walk into my bedroom, I can’t even tell that anything is powered up… Until my godforsaken FireWire drive decides to spin up. I am then treated to the glorious sound of whirring for the next minute and a half. If I had to deal with that noise pollution all the time, I would go absolutely bonkers.

It should be noted that there is some debate about wear and tear on drives. Some people argue that they’ll last longer if you keep them spun up. Others argue the exact opposite. As far as I can tell, there is no conclusive scientific data either way. As long as your drive is stationary — therefore not likely to be dropped — this really shouldn’t be much of a factor.

So what about me? I let my drives spin down because I hate the noise so very much, but the decision is up to you. There are good reasons on both sides of the table. What do you do with your external drive? Comment on this post or hit me up on Twitter to let me know your thoughts..

Photo Credit: broma

Firstly, hard disk space is always at a premium. No matter how big your drive is, you’ll always end up filling it eventually. Sometimes I am at a complete loss for words when I see how much space I’m taking up. I’ve found the best way to find big files is by visualizing your hard drive. There is a great application called Disk Inventory X that will scan your entire hard drive, and then display a graphic that lays out all of your files. The disk hogs will become apparent immediately.

Secondly, desktops get messy very quickly. While you’re taking the time to cleanse your Mac, you might as well file away those documents you have flung about your desktop. Hey, if there is stuff that you don’t need, feel free to trash it. Truth be told, I take a perverse pleasure in trashing old projects.

Thirdly, clear off all of that crap on your dock. Little by little, a million apps will find their way onto my dock throughout the year. Do yourself a favor, and trim out all the icons you don’t use daily. It will make everything look much more tidy.

Lastly, go into the System Preferences. Go to the Accounts preference pane, and then click the Login Items tab. Skim through all of these applications that auto-launch when you login. If there are things you don’t use anymore, toss those suckers. You might just see better performance.

In sum, it is very important to take some time to tidy up your Mac every once in a while. It makes your experience substantially better. So, do you have any tips for cleansing your Mac? Comment on this post, or you can hit me up on Twitter.

Photo Credit: orphanjones

There are three groups, as I see it, of people whom I believe jail break. The first is the hardcore jail breakers. These are the types of people who want to run cracked version of software that is legally available on the iTunes App Store. There is no hope of Apple “converting” this group. This group also includes the ‘hard-core’ jail breakers. Those who use methods that most would never even contrive. These people like the famous “GeoHot” hardware hacks, and they are a group unto themselves. The second group is the tinkerers. These are the types of people who like to see what jail breaking has to offer, but they are willing to go back to the “sandbox” if something shiny catches their eye. These types of people are already converts. They just tend to slip away sometimes when they need to see what’s going on in the other playground. The final group is the customizers. These people are those who jail break just to customize the phone they way they want it. They like to change the backgrounds, colors, themes, and other glitzy items. They do not want to leave the sandbox, but they are forced to due to the restrictions in place. This last group is the ones that Apple should be going after.

These restrictions are arbitrary. Why can’t somebody set a background picture, much like the new iPad, as they please? Why can’t they change the background color of the ‘dock’ on their iPhone OS based device? On that note, why not a different background for each screen? That way, a user can easily differentiate between the screens. All of these ideas seem quite simple to implement given the complexity that already is the iPhone OS.

I know Apple loves to control all of the aspects and provide a “consistent” user experience, but these devices are ours to use and do with what we wish. Having the ability to customize certain aspects that mean very little to the overall “stability” of the platform is fully within reason. I really believe that Apple should bring these features to us in iPhone OS 4.0. Putting some trust in the user’s hands would come a long way in gaining users back.

Photo Credit: Ella’s Dad