Larry MacPhee: Macintosh: Commentary on all things Apple

01.18.2012 iTextbooks?

Rumors are swirling about Apple's next announcement, scheduled for January 19th at 10:00 am ET in New York City, the heart of the publishing world. Promised to be an "education announcement" involving no new hardware, the blogs speculate that this could have to do with textbooks. While an iPad is a very expensive "bookbag," I have been excited about the concept of carrying all of one's college textbooks in electronic form ever since I took Intro Chemistry, Calculus, Biology, English, and Political Science in my first semester of college. The cumulative weight of those books must have been 50 pounds! So, for the backstrain of the kids, once again, Apple may come to the rescue. Ok, sure, this is all more than a little premature. As at the recent 2012 Consumer Electronics Trade Show in Vegas, all Apple had to do, without even showing up, was let a few rumors slip about revolutionizing the television and all of the other vendors panicked. Ceding the market to Apple before they even release a product doesn't seem like such a good idea, but I will say this. If they do it right, as they so often do, Apple really could revolutionize the textbook industry in K-12 and higher education. The iPad is the best reader for rich media, and iBooks is a fine delivery system. All that remains is to get McGraw-Hill, Wiley, Cengage, MacMillan, Houghton-Mifflin, and Pearson on board. If you've already got an iPad, it's a no-brainer. Think of the trees it will save! But boys won't be able to hit on girls by offering to carry their books anymore. On the other hand, it's not 1950 anymore.

Update: 01/19/2012 Apple has released an inspiring video, a free eContent authoring system for the Mac, and the eContent will be delivered, of course, via iPad only (or so it would appear). Some samples are already available from a few of the big publishers. Apple is starting in K-12 because schools that participate will have class sets of iPads. Maybe they'll even let the kids take them home if the parents sign a damage deposit! The best arguments from the student perspective for eContent are: 1) textbook weight, 2) textbook cost, 3) textbook limitations (can't be updated, can't do multimedia). Similarly, from the publishers' perspective, there are one time costs to create the new eContent, but then it's got to be cheaper to distribute if you don't have to print, bind, and ship physical books. Keeping them up-to-date is another opportunity to charge a little more each year. The problems that are being downplayed are: 1) price of an iPad, 2) fragility of an iPad, 3) theft target of an iPad, 4) the changed metaphor; books are linear and multimedia is non-linear, 5) the interface; it's often hard to know what one can swipe and pinch, and what is going to happen when one does, 6) the distractions; how do you keep your students "in the book" when the iPad has so many distractions? There is no doubt that eContent is coming to K-12 and higher ed, but will Apple's format win? Also up in the air is whether this fancy technology will do anything to enhance education in America. Call me a skeptic, but that's not something I'd put money on. I often think about the fact that the educational software I bought for my kids when they were little won't work anymore, but the books I bought for them still work great ;)

01.03.2012 Fanboys & Fandroids

Hats off to you Samsung. You may not have any original ideas when it comes to making phones, but this is one funny ad.

11.10.2011 Stylus + iPad + AppleTV + HDMI LCD Projector + WiFi = Wireless Whiteboard

Q. What do you get when you combine a stylus, an iPad 2, an Apple TV, WiFi, and an HDMI equipped LCD projector?
A. You've got a magical and revolutionary wireless whiteboard and mobile presenter tool, that's what!

I'm not sure anyone at Apple intended it for this purpose, but this combination has enormous potential as a teaching tool. It's the digital equivalent of a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup! Here's what you need and why:

• A stylus (optional but I think it would help)
• iPad 2 (the original iPad doesn't do video mirroring)
• Apple TV (not the old one, the new $99 black one)
• HDMI to HDMI cable (it's the only output on the Apple TV)
• LCD projector with HDMI input (you can't easily convert digital HDMI to analog RCA or Component video)
• A local wireless network to which both the AppleTV and iPad are joined.

This all works because of a proprietary technology called AirPlay that wirelessly sends video from the iPad to the AppleTV. It was designed as a way to let you watch iTunes videos you purchased on your iPad on your big flatscreen tv, but we see lots of potential for this combination as a roaming presentation tool.

To begin sending video, double-press the iPad's home button and then swipe to the right. A control panel will appear. Next, tap the AirPlay button and a menu pops up. Select AppleTV and set the iPad to mirror video. If the projector to which the AppleTV is connected is not displaying the iPad's screen, search the sources until HDMI comes up. Now you can walk around the room wirelessly projecting your iPad's display to the class. Simply reverse your steps to disconnect. One note: You might want to put a passcode on the AppleTV because anyone in wireless range with an iOS device (iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch) can potentially do the same thing. Share the passcode only with those who you want to allow to display to the projector.

11.01.2011 Dual boot computer lab management

Not the most glamourous topic, but I've had a lot of inquiries lately, so I created an expanded tutorial with how-to instructions and links to useful tools. Creating a dual-boot Mac/Windows machine (or a whole lab of them) can be very useful. Even though I spend 90% of my time on the Mac, there are certain programs I need to teach, support, or test on Windows and Apple just so happens to make some of the best Windows PC hardware in town!

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10.5.2011 Thanks for everything, Steve!

10.4.2011 Oh no, it doesn't have a 5 on it!

Apple's new iPhone 4S looks pretty impressive, but the analysts are calling it a letdown. Why? This is one of those situations where Apple's legendary secrecy has backfired, because the rumors have gotten really out of control. All of the bloggers were referring to the unreleased device as the "iPhone 5," and when Apple came out with a phone labelled 4S, that suggests only small improvements over the 4. The 4S is actually quite impressive, and significantly improved over the previous model. Siri, the new voice recognition tool, distinguishes the 4S from any other phone on the market today, and Apple appears to have gotten it right. Android voice recognition is still a year away and I'd be surprised if it works when first released. But, you know, the new iPhone doesn't have a 5 on it. Don't worry. The fanboys always get worked up to a fever pitch, and begin predicting all kinds of crazy stuff like teleportation and holographic death beam features right before any new Apple product release. Reality is always a bit of a disappointment. But if you need a new phone, this one will be a winner. Here is a comparison of the iPhone 4 and 4S models. As you can see, the "S" is significant.

iPhone 4	iPhone 4S
$99	$199, $299, $399
8 GB storage	16, 32, 64 GB storage
A4 processor	Dual Core A5 processor (2x faster)
7 hour battery life on 3G	8 hour battery life on 3G
5 megapixel camera	8 Megapixel camera
720p video recording	1080p HD video recording
GSM or CDMA	GSM and CDMA (worldphone)
-	Siri voice recognition
Bluetooth 2.1	Bluetooth 4
Minor Antenna issues	Redesigned, intelligent antenna

Other improvements include the addition of Sprint, the last of the big three U.S. carriers to the list of cell service providers. And, despite having a processor that is twice as fast, the battery life has improved! For those who complain that the new iPhone doesn't have 4G (LTE), check the coverage maps for 4G before you get too hot and bothered. The case, which was described as the pinnacle of industrial design only a year ago, has not changed (except for the antenna improvements). Apparently this is a major issue for the pundits, who wanted something visually even more stunning. I guess I personally care more about the internals, but perhaps a case redesign would have allowed people to show off that their iPhone is better than your iPhone. Whatever!

10.4.2011 Stuff you "must" have. Stuff you no longer need.

It struck me while watching the introduction of Apple's new and very impressive iPhone 4S today that I am in the dwindling minority of people who still don't feel they "need" a SmartPhone. My pay-as-you-go phone costs about $100 per year. If you want the latest iPhone, you'll need to pony up for the price of the phone (that's the "cheap" part) and then sign a 2-year contract with one of the major cell phone carriers (Verizon, AT&T or Sprint). This means, at about $80 per month and a minimum 24 months, you will be spending $2000 before the contract is up. Is any phone worth that? If you're a frequent traveller or live in a big city, possibly, and moreso if you can write it off as a business expense. Otherwise probably not. And don't kid yourself. While the Android phones may be a little cheaper up front, the phones aren't as good and the contract is just as bad. But, if you want a smartphone anyway, perhaps I can help you come up with a justification. Digital convergence has reached the point where you no longer need to go out and buy (or replace) a wristwatch, an iPod, a video camera, a point and shoot camera, a GPS navigation system, or a standalone cell phone. You might also be able to forego a netbook or iPad if you were thinking about one of those mobile devices. You can skip the Kindle too. You can reap additional savings by disconnecting your land line at home. If you're into games, you can now skip the Nintendo DS or Sony PSP. Unless you're a hard core gamer, you can also ditch the Sony PlayStation, Nintendo GameCube or Microsoft XBOX 360 console system. Most of the functionality of all of these devices, and more, is now packed into your smartphone. And while the individual devices might each be slightly better at the one thing they do best, the smartphone is very rapidly closing the gap. Someday soon, almost all phones will be smartphones. Expect that many of the single purpose devices we now own will fall by the wayside as the smartphone ascends. Apparently sales of wristwatches are already in steep decline among the cell phone generation. But if you're over 40, there's at least one accessory you'll never want to lose: A pair of reading glasses is essential for viewing that tiny smartphone screen :p

10.3.2011 Why discontinuing the Zune is a "Big Deal"

Microsoft has quietly discontinued the Zune MP3 player this week. This story is not going to get much attention. No big deal, right? After all, it was never a big seller. Wrong! While killing it is a sensible move, the Zune is emblematic of a deadly serious problem at the still mighty but not-so-influential-as-it-used-to-be software mega-corporation. Microsoft is really only a two product company. It has the Office Suite, composed of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and some other minor pieces, and the Windows operating system that most of the personal computers in the world run. Both of those products have been so incredibly successful for so long that they have allowed the company to bankroll various other ventures, like the Zune and the Xbox 360. None of those other ventures have been particularly successful from a return on investment (ROI) standpoint, but they create the impression that Microsoft is into a lot of things. Cancelling the Zune is sensible because, despite being a fine MP3 player, it never caught on. It was too little, too late to challenge the intuitive and elegant iPod with its convenient and well-stocked iTunes Music Store. The second reason is that with the rise of the smartphone, which does everything an iPod can, and more, even Apple is experiencing the first ever decline in iPod sales since the iPod was introduced by Steve Jobs 10 years ago. If Apple can't sell iPods, there's no way Microsoft can sell Zunes. The third reason is the most serious. With the rise of tablets and smartphones, Microsoft finds itself very suddenly on the ropes, because these popular "post-PC" devices run neither Windows nor Office. If Microsoft is to survive, they need, and Steve Ballmer needs even faster, a winner. That winner might just be WIndows Phone. It is not, like Google's Android, just an inferior copy of Apple's iOS. Rather, it is a careful rethinking and an original take on what a smartphone should be. But more than that, it's Microsoft's big chance to get back in the game. If they fail, Ballmer is done. It won't be easy for Microsoft to claw its way back, because Microsoft is the embodiment of all that is uncool. Apple's I'm a Mac ads so damaged Microsoft's brand, and Microsoft so ineffectively fought back, that next-gen gadget owners are kind of embarrassed by Microsoft products. Expect the new, more desperate, Microsoft to be more willing to take chances, make alliances, and push the Windows Phone harder than it's pushed any product in years. And expect Microsoft to cut away anything, like the Zune, the Xbox, and Ballmer, that doesn't help them to recover their position of former dominance. It's time for Microsoft to bet the farm or fade into history.

9.29.2011 Multi-touch Tablet status report

While Apple's iPad remains a hot seller, the rest of the tablet manufacturers seem to keep struggling to come up with a winner. Sales of NetBooks, the diminutive low cost laptops that were all the rage before the iPad came out, have all but dried up. Google's recently released ChromeBooks, which are basically a NetBook that is nothing more than a web browser, have also apparently flopped. The PlayBook from RIM, which was supposed to herald the end of iPad "amateur hour," has been described as a "dog with fleas" that nobody wants. Inventory is piling up and price drops are imminent. HP, who bought the WebOS and Palm, was getting nowhere with its TouchPad but has finally started selling them briskly at fire sale prices to move stale inventory. While some try to spin this as a success, I think HP's strategy is to try to recoup some money for them rather than have them all returned from retailers to be buried in a hole. But selling them at $100 rather than the original $500 just has to represent a loss, and is an unsustainable last ditch hope to generate some excitement. HP has acknowledged their failure with the termination, along with the WebOS division, of their entire PC line and shortly thereafter of their CEO, Leo Apotheker, who was only on the job for 11 months. But both the RIM and HP tablets were at a huge disadvantage because they ran neither Apple's iOS nor Google's Android OS. Both of these platforms had a huge and unsurmountable lead with tons of apps in their respective app store/marketplaces. But sales tell us that for consumers, it's still not much of a competition. Faced with buying either an iPad or an Android tablet of similar price, why wouldn't you get the iPad? Amazon has taken a different tack. While their just released tablet, called the Fire, runs the Android OS, it only runs Amazon's special version of that OS and is not able to install and run apps from the regular Android Marketplace. But as a media consumption device (Amazon has a huge library of books, tv shows and movies it wants to sell you) priced at only $199, it may not matter that it only delivers media and doesn't run apps. In fact, expect these devices from Amazon to be sold at cost (I bet $199 is pretty close to cost) or eventually given away for free as loss-leaders. Because Amazon makes its money on sales of content. The Kindle tablet is just a content delivery vehicle, like the cardboard box the paper books used to come in. So, does the Fire threaten Apple's iPad, the top-of-the-line tablet that consumes media and runs apps, or the also-ran Android tablets that cost as much as an iPad but aren't as good? My bet is on the latter.

11.21.2011 Update: Here's an interesting read that appears to confirm what I predicted a few months ago.

8.1.2011 Essential Tech Tools for the Modern Traveler

The family recently went on a cross-country camping road trip. We drove our Honda Element with the eCamper conversion, and the car performed beautifully. On this trip, I discovered that my wife is much more of an early adopter of technology than I am. She used a variety of tech tools to help us get where we were going as economically and enjoyably as possible. We brought along her Mac laptop and an iPad with Verizon 3G. The laptop only got used at hotels, where free wifi was available. I installed a second user account on the Mac so I could stay out of her way and set up the basics: email and a browser. I brought along my trusty Garmin Nuvi 360, which Alice hates. The Nuvi is fantastic if you're navigationally challenged like me, but she has a good map sense and frequently second guesses it, which leads to conflict. The Nuvi is usually right, but my wife is always right (this is the secret to a good marriage) so there were times when I had to turn the Nuvi off. The iPad turned out to be the device in most demand, but as I have described previously, it's much better for consuming information than for composing. Great for web surfing, terrible for anything more involved than a Facebook status update. As Verizon advertises, we had 3G coverage (though it often dropped to 2G) across most of the U.S., but we had to turn the 3G off when we crossed into Canada to avoid exorbitant roaming charges. We used a cigarette lighter power inverter to keep our electronics charged up while driving. It was absolutely essential to keep the boys' Nintendo DSes operational at certain points of the journey :D While my cell phone plan doesn't cover Canada, I kept in touch with my parents by calling them via Skype *. Alice effectively used Priceline and Expedia to find us some sweet deals on hotels when the weather was predicted to be bad. She used the WeatherBug app to check the forecasts. We used a book, and later discovered there's an app for that, called The Next Exit, which tells you what you'll find in the way of facilities as you're barreling down the Interstate at 75 mph with small boys who drank too much juice at breakfast. Alice also found Trip Advisor very handy as a way to find a good hotel. We used Yelp and Urban Spoon to get restaurant recommendations. Alice likes the Yelp interface better. Both are fairly accurate. Google Maps was handy for plotting routes, and the Maps app on the iPad is way cooler than a map book. It includes a moving blue dot that shows you where you are, and you can zoom the map in and out with a quick swipe of the fingers. CampWhere is another great app for picking and reserving your campground, and they have details about amenities and comments on each site within the campground. Perhaps the finest moment for tech on the trip was when we discovered in Devil's Den, Arkansas, that we were leaking coolant. While I was driving, Alice found us three Honda Dealers in Memphis and we selected the Wolfchase dealer because it was near the mall so we could occupy the boys while the car was being checked out. We replaced a cracked radiator and were back on the road with loss of only a half day. In the airport on the return home, a fellow traveler raved about FlightTrack, so check that one out too! Maybe I'm just getting old, but I have to admit that I was amazed by being able to access the Internet and all of these services while zooming down the highway. Just don't try any of this stuff while you're driving please. There are enough distracted drivers already.

*8.1.2011 Trouble with Skype

Worst moment for tech on the trip? My Skype account was somehow hacked, despite a strong password. Each time the hackers ran down the account to zero, Skype's auto-replenish "feature" kicked in and PayPal cheerfully recharged it with money. B of A flagged the suspicious activity, but then wanted to shut down my credit card, which would not have been a good thing while I was on the road. I was able to talk them out of that by killing my Skype account and discontinuing the billing agreement between PayPal and Skype. Skype, of course, was difficult to reach and was not owning up to any responsibility and charged me for a bunch of calls from Yemen to Qatar and Indonesia to Saudi Arabia. Yikes! I argued with them that this was very suspicious activity for my account given my past usage, and while they agreed that it appeared to be fraudulent, they also said, "sucks for you." While Skype remains a very useful tool, they seem to be aware that there is a lot of fraudulent activity but are willing to look the other way because they always get paid. Blaming the customer is not going to serve them well in the long run. If you depend on Skype, my advice is to immediately turn off the auto-replenish option (though a hacker with your password can re-enable it) and change your Skype password frequently. I learned along the way that one reason Skype is vulnerable to hacking is because they don't lock an account after too many failed attempts. They just let the hacker try again. With automated dictionary attacks, this is often successful though I still don't know how they got me. In any case I'm done with Skype for a while and I withdraw any previous endorsement of the service because of their policy of "blame the customer." Even the credit card companies aren't that disreputable! If you require another reason to give up on Skype, they just got bought by Microsoft.

07.31.2011 Competing Standards: Is dominance inevitable or a fluke?

Recently, and I'll try to dig up the reference, someone said that Apple was clearly in trouble because Android's market share is growing fastest and they will eventually take over as the standard smartphone, just like Windows did in the world of computer operating systems, with Apple once again relegated to a small sliver of the pie if they survive at all. This claim has the air of inevitability. Evidence cited includes the classic example of the VHS vs Beta struggle that eventually resulted in the dominance of JVC's VHS format as the video standard. Google became the search standard. Facebook won the social network battle. Does one standard always win out? When does the market tolerate competing standards? In which cases is one standard most likely to dominate? It is important to distinguish that "the Apple way" has always been to combine hardware and OS. The iPhone is a piece of hardware that exclusively runs the iOS. In the case of Android, Google makes the OS but various hardware manufacturers make the phones. And, to further confuse things, phones run on one or another carrier such as AT&T or Verizon. Although they look the same, Apple actually makes a GSM iPhone for AT&T and a CDMA iPhone for Verizon, these being the two most common carrier standards. Ok, now consider some of the following:

• Cell Phone Companies: Why are there so many? In the U.S., Verizon and AT&T both seem very strong, yet they are incompatible. I must buy a new phone if I want to switch carriers.
• Credit Card types: Visa and Mastercard. Can anyone tell me why one is more popular than the other? And why are Discover and American Express still in the game given their more limited acceptance?
• Camera Lens Mounts: Why does every vendor have its own type, incompatible with the rest?
• MP3 players: Why did Apple's iPod win out? The same files can be played on many devices, yet one brand became dominant.
• Electric outlets: In the modern world, it seems silly that we haven't standardized on one. But yet, here we are.
• Railway gauges: There are so many. Why?
• Weights and measures: Most of the world has gone to the metric system, but America continues to use the old English system which even the English have given up!
• Currency: While each country has its own, there are multiple currencies against which each monetary unit is benchmarked, including the yen, the dollar, the pound and the euro. Even metals like gold remain in use.
• Soft drinks: Coke and Pepsi have continued to coexist for close to 100 years.
• Fuels: Natural gas, propane, gasoline, diesel, coal, nuclear, electric. None has won out.
• Automobile brands: Chevy, Chrysler, GM, Honda, Toyota, VW, and so many more coexist. And style even wins out over interoperability, since parts aren't always compatible even within brand from one year to the next.
• Side of the road on which we drive: This clearly is a source of confusion and sometimes great danger, yet we continue to tolerate it.
• Languages: Some nations have one language, but many have numerous languages. Why has none become dominant?

As I see it, several factors drive things towards a single standard: 1) a significant price or performance advantage over the alternative, 2) network effects; the utility of a service grows as the number of its users grows, and that effect tends to snowball. 3) Degree of lock-in of users and lock-out of the competing standard.

Android phones compete with each other on price and some will be cheaper than the iPhone (win for the Android platform, but not for a particular hardware vendor on point 1) even if they are sometimes inferior to the iPhone, and this appears to be the primary driver of Android's growth in popularity. This lead may be mitigated if Apple releases a cheaper iPhone. Both the Android Market and Apple App Store are huge and offer enough variety that choosing based on apps is not a factor. Phones can make calls to each other regardless of platform, and many apps allow interaction between Android and iPhone users, so there is minimal lock-out, and network effects are minimal. Both the iPhone and its Android competitors work on all major carriers, but purchased apps don't run on the other platform's devices so once one chooses and starts paying for apps, there is some degree of lock-in to a platform. In favor of the iPhone is a base of more affluent customers who are more willing to pay for apps, which is favorable to continued app development. Apple holds the reputation as having the standard setting smartphone, though there are competing Android phones that beat it in some feature categories. Apple is also making more money than the rest, and owns a considerable number of important patents which it may use to its advantage in the courts. At this point, I'd say it's too close to call a winner (if there will be one), but it's likely game over for RIM and Nokia, who are in decline, and Microsoft and Palm, who are unlikely to gain sufficient momentum without massive investment and years of losses.

6.17.2011 Forecast: Cloudy Skies

The iCloud announcement from Apple is not getting me too excited. iCloud combines the media management functionality of iTunes with the syncing functions of MobileMe, the flop formerly known as dotMac. The best change is that you should no longer need a computer to activate or manage an iOS device. You should be able to sync with the cloud. For the longest time, it has baffled me that I can't delete something from my iPod without first connecting it to a computer and launching iTunes. It's high time Apple cut the tether between the computer with iTunes and the smart web connected iOS device, which is a wifi capable computer its own right. There is no longer a need. Tethering is a throwback to the days of "dumb" pre-iOS iPods that had to have stuff loaded onto them from a computer because they had no processing power or wifi of their own. The original iPod was, in fact, little more than a portable hard drive. But what annoys me is that while Apple now wants me to store my music (and presumably movies and other media purchases too) in the cloud, I still have to download it and save it to my iDevice to consume it. iCloud could have served an immensely useful role (and perhaps someday it will?) as a streaming service. iOS devices are flash based, and storage is still quite limited compared to devices with voluminous hard drives like the classic iPod. So streaming content from the cloud, whenever I've got an internet connection, would be fantastic. That way, I could consume media without having to download it and fill up my iDevice. But, at least for now, iCloud is still not a streaming service and therefore has virtually no appeal to me. My 16 GB iPad is completely full of really cool apps. It has no media on it, and it won't get any because there's no room. I can use it to watch streaming videos from Hulu Plus and Netflix because they take up no space on the device, but Apple's not getting my purchases because they want me to download before using. Well, it's still iCloud beta. Maybe the clouds will break and Apple will see the light of day before the iCloud rollout this Fall?

06.17.2011 King of Cats?!?

The lion is supposed to be the king of cats, but it lacks the speed of the cheetah and the grace of the panther. It's actually kind of a lumbering brute who often steals from the harder working animals that made the kill. Or so the nature shows tell me. I don't like most of what I've seen so far of Lion, the next installment of Mac OS X, version 10.7. Making it available only as a download seems like a horrible idea for starters. Lion is dropping the Rosetta emulation layer, so the last vestiges of PowerPC software will be gone from the Mac. Not happy about it, but I was expecting that. Apple doesn't care about legacy support. That's one of the reasons they can innovate; they throw yesterday's stuff out with the trash. I can still run Claris HomePage on Windows 7, but haven't been able to use it on a Mac for years! Microsoft works hard on legacy support and that's why they deserve at least a little respect and loyalty. They won't drop you for the latest shiny thing. But it's also what makes Microsoft so boring. Of greater concern is that Lion is adopting lots of clunky iOS interface elements. I understand why Apple is doing this, but it troubles me. The Mac is old (even OS X is 10 years old!) and lacks the pizzazz of the iOS devices, the iPhone and iPad. To convert newbies from the hugely successful iPhone and iPad to the Mac, it helps to make the Mac look more like an iOS device. I find myself very much in agreement with this review. This means adding lots of cutesy interface elements that don't work well for power users. Take Cover Flow for example. Why would anyone in their right mind use Cover Flow to browse files? But it looks so cool in a demo, and all those people who use iTunes are familiar with it. Among Lion's iOS inspired interface elements that I don't really want on my Mac are Launch Pad, which gets cumbersome when you have a lot of apps, or Mission Control, which won't work well if you have more than a few things open at once. The application menu (in list view, NOT the ridiculous fan or grid) already works great and should not be messed with. And while full screen view is ideal for watching movies, it actually makes multi-tasking harder. I don't need or want full screen view for most apps. Disappearing scroll bars are another nuisance. I want to know where on a scrolling page I am just by looking. And with all this talk of gestures, will Mac Pros be coming with trackpads instead of mice from now on? Or perhaps I'm not thinking big enough. Will the next iMac lay almost flat on your desk and sport a stylus and touch screen? Well, that might actually be cool. But my point is that all of these iOS features are designed for simplicity, whereas power users want flexibility and, well, power; not a dumbed down interface. At least for now, I can bypass this fluff and continue to work the way I want to. What worries me is that Apple is increasingly chasing the consumer at the expense of the sophisticated creative professionals (scientists, publishers, designers, artists) who have sustained the Mac for so long. This is the first major OS update in a long time that I'm in no rush to install.

05.12.2011 ChromeBook: Another Google misstep?

Google yesterday announced the ChromeBooks. Oddly, they did this on Day 2 of their annual developer conference, as if it wasn't big news. Google doesn't actually make the hardware. The first two ChromeBooks are made by Samsung and Acer, but the operating system is Google's "ChromeOS." That makes two OSes that Google is giving away: Chrome and Android. That's the first problem. Google didn't develop Android internally; they bought a small unknown company because Chrome wasn't anywhere near ready, and gave it away to the SmartPhone competitors of the iPhone, knowing that iPhone's lead would be too great if they waited for Chrome. Android remains buggy and fragmented across a wide range of hardware, but the platform has succeeded. So much so that it's unclear whether Android has stolen Chrome's thunder. The ChromeBooks are odd beasts too. They are basically low budget "netbooks," the last big thing in computing before the iPad and copycat tablet craze. Nobody's buying netbooks anymore. But they are even more limited in function than netbooks, because they are nothing but a web browser. I can see why Google wants them to succeed. People who surf the web support Google's highly profitable ads based on search. The non-web world, which includes closed services like Facebook and the "Apps" found on smartphones and tablets, locks Google out. The ChromeBook would have been a huge hit before the iOS and Android. Today, a device that only surfs the web is limited to what's on the web. And, increasingly, the momentum is shifting towards web connected apps that can do more than the most sophisticated websites viewed through a browser.

05.11.2011 Tablet Wars

I've been watching with fascination as Apple continues to steal headlines with the iPad, while the naysayers keep finding ways to spin it as doomed. They aren't calling the iPad an outright failure any more. That prediction has no remaining credibility given the 15 million sold in the first year. As Steve Jobs points out, that's more than all the Windows Tablet PCs ever sold! Instead the argument has shifted to something like, "There's no way Apple will maintain its position of dominance in this market." While they'd never admit it, this is implicit acknowledgement that Apple has once again defined an entirely new category of consumer electronics. And yet, competing tablet after tablet is introduced as the "iPad Killer" and is then panned by the tech reviews and sells poorly. Often the argument is that the Android alternatives aren't as good as the iPad, but they're more open. But the Android platform is more unregulated than it is open. The complaint that the iPad doesn't run Flash has certainly died down; I don't miss it at all, and I doubt most people are even aware of its absence. Netflix and Hulu Plus work great without it and clearly the lack of Flash is not doing any harm to iPad sales. Also common is the argument that when the next major Android update (insert Froyo/Honeycomb/Gingerbread here) comes out, the tablets will be more functional. "Just you wait, Android tablets will be as good as the iPad soon..." is the never ending refrain. In the beginning, there was the Samsung Galaxy Tab. Flawed, smaller and cheaper than the iPad, it was the first alternative to make it to market. Then the Motorola Xoom; similar in specs to an iPad, but more expensive and with only half the apps. Most recently, it was the proprietary PlayBook from RIM, the makers of the Blackberry. There are others, too numerous to mention, but all are very forgettable. A friend in the office recently got the boss to buy him a Motorola Xoom, which runs the Android OS. He loves it, but acknowledges he's never used an iPad. I think that's a bit like saying, "These soy burgers are delicious but I've never actually tasted real meat." RIM CEO Jim Balsillie recently said, after the release of the PlayBook, that it's not fair to compare it to the iPad. Maybe so. Apple defined what a tablet was supposed to be, and the PlayBook was rushed out the door over a year late with a long list of missing features that are promised "soon." And just as most competitors are coming out with their first generation tablets, Apple has released the iPad 2. Is it fair that Apple has a fantastic product and a year's head start on the competition? It is to the consumer. Which Tablet do you want? Take the poll on the right -->

01.30.2011 Too much of a good thing

Burger King had a slogan a few years back. "Have it your way." Choice is great, right? Who doesn't want things their way? But when I ask people which fast food chain makes the best burger, the answer I most often get is "In-n-Out." Now wait a minute. Sure, In-n-Out makes good burgers but their menu is really simple and choices are limited, right? Exactly. They do a few things really well. I bought a Garmin Nuvi 360 in the Spring of 2007, back when these automotive navigation devices were both rare and expensive. I paid about $600 for it, and I have been more satisfied with this gadget than any other device I've owned. It did everything I wanted, nothing I didn't want, and it was both powerful and simple to use. Four years later, when the battery died, I went back to Garmin's site to look for a replacement. I was faced with a bewildering array of choices, none of which offered all the features the original one had, although most had new features that I didn't care about. In fact, there are so many models to choose from that Garmin figures you need the help of their Product Finder wizard to pick the one you want. In the end, I bought a used Nuvi 360 on eBay for $60 and then took apart and successfully replaced the battery in the original for $30. Garmin lost its way and lost a sale. Apple's Steve Jobs understands this. Make only a few products. Make all of them terrific. And don't make junk. I just read a great article along these lines that describes how Steve's Apple out Sony'd Sony. It's right on the money. Give it a read. And, just for fun, take the poll on the right -->

01.15.2011 WinClone, I hardly knew you!

As with so many good tv shows like Firefly and The Good Guys, that I only found out about after they were cancelled, I lament the loss of WinClone. I've been using Apple's Boot Camp Utility to make dual boot Macs for several years now, and I just stumbled across a real life saver: a little shareware utility called WinClone. It is fully functional even if you don't pay a dime to the author. Not that I wouldn't pay for such a useful tool. Unfortunately, it seems that not many did and the website where it used to be hosted is gone. You can still find the utility on some of the download archives, but some day when it stops working, there is little hope it will be updated. This brilliant tool is a lab manager's dream; it lets me make an image of the Windows partition I created, and redeploy that image to a lab full of machines. A process that used to take days to get right now takes about a half hour per machine. Here's a good description of the technique involved. Why oh why people didn't you pay for this? And why Apple, didn't you buy this tool and make it a part of Apple Remote Desktop? Professional lab management tools like Ghost work great on a PC, but the Mac side suffers in comparison. And when it comes to creating a Mac lab that can also run Windows, something that is very popular these days, why hasn't Apple made this easy? It would certainly sell more Macs to schools and universities! Maybe Apple only cares about selling iPads and iPhones anymore. Too bad. I'd like to see the author get some credit. Winclone sure helps me out! And hats off (and checkbooks out) for the authors of a few other really useful Mac Manager's tools: ReFit, Super Duper, and Carbon Copy Cloner. Thanks guys! You make my day!

12.02.2010 Facebook vs. Google

What do you mean, Facebook vs. Google? They're not the same thing at all! Bear with me here. Guess what just happened back in March of 2010 that you probably didn't hear about? For the first time ever, Facebook got more visits in a day than Google! About nine months before that, back in June of 2009, Wired wrote an article cryptically entitled the "Great Wall of Facebook." I don't think it got the attention it deserves, but I find myself going back to it again and again. The point was that Facebook is a major threat to Google. Not because Facebook has a killer search engine. It doesn't. And not even because it's something Google doesn't own and has failed, with Buzz and Orkut before that, to compete against. Although I'm sure that's a sore spot. Facebook is a threat because they disagree with Google about who we should trust. Why is this important? Because Google wants you to trust the masses; that's how they assign the relevance of every page out there on the web when you do a search. Google uses brute force and complex algorithms and cold rationality to figure out what you want. But Facebook knows that you trust your buddies about what movie to see this weekend more than you trust the wisdom of the crowds. It's social, it's personal, it's friendly, but more importantly, it's your own demographic. And of course, you can't use Google to search Facebook. Google is completely locked out. Facebook is in fact another walled garden, like Apple's app store. So that's why Google is freaking out a little bit. Without the ability to get inside and search Facebook, they can't put ads on the page and they can't get the revenue from those ads. So as Facebook grows, Google shrinks. And really, Facebook is right. You're more likely to "like" what your friends do. And Facebook owns that.

Further thoughts: How could Google fight back? Well, they could ask you to reveal your likes and dislikes to them. Actually, they're already gathering that information. Didn't you know? (Note: you can opt out, and so far they're not even very good at it. They think I like Cadillacs!) That way, you get search results tailored to your interests. But somehow letting Google know too much about us creeps people out whereas giving all this information about ourselves to Facebook is done without a second thought. Why is that? Now don't get me wrong, I'm not saying Zuckerberg is any more or less trustworthy than Larry and Sergey, who used to be not quite so evil. Just stop and think about it, ok? Decide for yourself.

12.01.2010 The Web is dead. Who stands to inherit?

I think Wired's got it right. The web is dead. Read all about it here. While the Internet is alive and well, the world wide web, as accessed via a web browser on a computer, is in decline. We now live in the "age of the app." Apps are the little programs found on smart mobile devices running Apple's iOS or Google's Android OS. Apps access the Internet directly rather than through a web browser. The majority of those apps are running on Apple's iOS, and are therefore invisible to Google and its ad-funded search business. If you ever wondered why Google is giving away the Android OS to mobile device makers, now you know. They need a toehold in this increasingly important space. There is also no Microsoft presence in this new world. Neither Windows nor Office, Microsoft's only big money makers, are found on these mobile devices. Now Microsoft is trying to get back into the game with Windows Phone, but I suspect they're too late. This makes the iPad a much more important product than people think, and it makes Apple an even more dominant technology company. Just last week, Oprah declared the iPad her "favorite thing ever." Sure, she was pitching her new magazine but, still, how does a significantly smaller, clunkier, and just-as-expensive tablet from Samsung or Dell or RIM or Acer compete with Oprah and Apple? They don't. With more than twice the number of apps available on the Android Market, and with a "magical and revolutionary" delivery device that far outclasses the competition, Apple is the heir apparent to the new post-www age.

11.19.2010 The Revolution will not be televised.

The analog media giants are falling. The way we watch video entertainment, something that used to be called "television," is the big tech battleground of the coming year. The first sign of trouble for the networks, back in the late 1990s, was TiVo, which allowed the viewer to record shows for later viewing and, better yet, to skip the commercials. Then Blockbuster, the dominant video rental chain only a decade ago, watched its business slip away to NetFlix, a web-based service that delivered videos by mail. NetFlix had a superior content delivery system and a better selection than the neighborhood video rental store. Now Netflix itself is transforming into a web-streaming video service. And then there's Hulu, which allows you to stream recent TV episodes for free over the Internet. But the majority of people don't watch entertainment on their computers or their smartphones, right? They watch it on their TVs. True, but something recently changed. Analog broadcast television ended in 2009 and most people now own a big flatscreen digital television. Internet-based streaming video services are about to do to cable television what Netflix did to Blockbuster. All the pieces are falling into place. If you want to watch content when you feel like it, rather than when it's on, you can hook your TV up to one of a wide variety of inexpensive devices (like the Roku, my personal recommendation, the AppleTV, the GoogleTV, the Boxee Box, or, if you're also a gamer, to your network enabled Wii, XBOX or PS3) tied to one of several services (like Amazon, iTunes, or Netflix) and stream content to your TV over your Internet connection. The newest TVs are coming with these Internet services built-in, and with the wifi and/or an ethernet connection to deliver them. And for those of you with money to burn, you could even hook up a dedicated computer like a Mac Mini or Media Center PC to your new TV and have it all. But however you do it, cancel your cable and bump up your bandwidth. And when "Dancing with the Stars" brings down the Internet, please don't tell anyone this was my idea :D

11.02.2010 Triple Boot Machine

It's been a while since I've written anything here. It's been a busy Fall semester. One project that I was able to slip in was re-doing a triple boot Mac the right way. Near perfect instructions were provided by LifeHacker. I bought a big 500 GB Seagate Momentus 7200 rpm SATA drive for the MacBook and used Apple's Disk Utility to format and partition it. I used SuperDuper to migrate the contents of my old Mac drive to the new partition and then installed Windows 7 and Ubuntu Linux as the directions instructed. I used ReFit as a bootloader. It's all working beautifully and has been stable for over a month. I am less enchanted with the virtualization products every day, but this way you get the full power of each OS in a single box. I don't think I can ever go back!

07.12.2010 Wireless Woes

I have been reading a lot about the new iPhone 4 and its "antennagate" woes. In fact, iPhone and AT&T bashing seems to be a sport of growing popularity among IT dweebs, who are increasingly brandishing Verizon's Android devices with the hope that it will make them seem cool. Good luck with that, guys. I just read a report on the issues you will face when switching from an iPhone to a Droid, and what I gleaned from it is that if you want an elegant intuitive phone, the iPhone is still the one. If you like to constantly jigger (as tech dweebs do) with your phone to make it work better, Android is for you. Most of this stuff is pretty well trodden ground, so I'll simply try to add a few points that I haven't read much about in the tech blogosphere. 1) Not Apple or AT&T's fault. The iPhone is a victim of its own overwhelming success. There are so many iPhone users and so many of them are doing things with their phones that nobody did before that AT&T's network is simply being overwhelmed. AT&T is slowly responding, but blaming AT&T is fun, right? While some criticize Apple for going with AT&T, they had the largest network. If Apple had gone with Verizon, iPhone users would be having very similar, and possibly worse, problems right now. Going with more than one carrier would have helped, but technical issues prevented that from being a good strategy at the beginning, and it's all changing soon anyway. But guess what Android lovers? When all those iPhone users move to Verizon, they are going to cripple your network too, and take some of the lustre off of your precious Droid. 2) This one is Apple's fault. Apple's wireless sucks. I personally think the blame rests with Jonny Ive, though Steve should take some heat for it too, since nothing at Apple happens without Steve's approval. Apple has been dressing up its machines in metal cases going all the way back to the Titanium Powerbook. That trend has extended to the iPhone and iPad. All of these devices have lousy wireless reception and it is, in large part, due to the metal case. Apple's consumer level machines, dressed in plastic, do not have these problems. It's not the hardware, as Apple uses the same wireless components as everyone else in the industry. So we are slaves to fashion. Want better wireless reception? Don't buy devices wrapped in metal skins. Steve and Jonny need to look up the definition of a Faraday Cage.

06.30.2010 iPad Roadtrip

Instead of my laptop, I took the iPad along on two recent road trips to Nova Scotia, Canada and to the Big Island of Hawaii. I used the iPad exclusively for a week in each location as my only computer, and I got along pretty well. Here are my findings:

1. This is a very personal device. It really is designed to be set up for a single user. Sure, you can share it, but only one person will be the owner. There is no concept of multiple users as there has been for some time on the computer.
2. Fat fingers and insertion points don't mix. Steve says Apple did "cut and paste" better than anyone else. I say they've still got a ways to go.
3. I don't mind the virtual keyboard at all, but I also wouldn't try to write a novel on the thing. Even responding to email gets a bit tedious.
4. The iPad should be great at web surfing, but Safari still needs a lot of work. Instead of tabs, you go to another screen to select a thumbnail of the screen you want. Annoying. Creating and managing bookmarks is also more difficult than it ought to be.
5. Lack of an accessible file system and lack of ability to print. I suppose they will eventually fix the latter, but not so sure about the former. The lack of a file system seems more of a deliberate decision whereas the lack of printing seems like an oversight. That will take some getting used to.
6. Very weak wireless reception, and no way to enhance it with an external antenna. Alice's plastic MacBook worked far better.
7. Super long battery life. This thing easily lasts all day without a charge.
8. Multitasking: didn't miss it. Don't really care all that much. On a device like the iPad, you are usually only doing one thing at a time. Like Words With Friends. That game is addictive.
9. My 4 year old has trouble with the mouse, and the left click right click drag and drop concepts are lost on him. But he sure gets this multitouch thing. It's really impressive watching a four year old swipe and pinch the screen like a pro.
10. My parents and the other older relatives, most of whom have no clue about computers, were enthralled by it. It was truly magical to them. And yet, they were interested and wanted to touch it, unlike the computer.
11. Free games are a killer app. The kids love it. But they now want to buy games and nag us all the time. So paid games are likely in our future.
12. You would need to plan ahead if you wanted to watch a movie on the plane (unless the plane has wireless; this is becoming available on some long distance flights)...downloads take a really long time; almost a minute of download time for every minute watched... streaming is far preferable when there's WiFi available. Not only that. Your iPad will fill up fast if you download movies to it. But the Netflix app is great!
13. Usability gripe: as I rotate the iPad, the volume controls should adjust. When aligned vertically, the upper button should raise the volume and the lower button should lower it. When aligned horizontally, left should lower the volume and right should raise it.
14. Missing Flash? I wouldn't exactly say I'm missing it. I barely noticed its absence. Of course, we did pay for Hulu Plus. Don't bother with Skyfire. Waste of $3; only low res 1x mode, and still doesn't work with Hulu.
15. Way lighter than a laptop, but too heavy to be a good book reader, and too much screen glare to use it in full sun. If you want a device primarily for books, the Kindle is better. If you want something that does more than books, the iPad is it.

06.29.2010 The Mac is dead. Long live the Mac.

Is the Mac dead? Fake Steve Jobs blogger Dan Lyons and tech blogger Bob Cringely say so. Steve says not. Let's look at some of the reasons people could argue that the Mac is on the way out, if not officially dead just yet. Steve killed MacWorld Expo several years ago. That was the big Mac event of the year. At the last two WWDCs (that's World Wide Developer Conference, the remaining big Apple event of the year), the Mac was hardly mentioned and the iPhone and related devices took center stage. Remember that back in January of 2007, Apple Computer changed its name to just plain Apple? And when's the last time you saw a Mac in the spotlight on Apple's home page? You could also argue that Macs these days aren't as different as they used to be either, since the move to more industry standard hardware. But nobody has recently mentioned an old quote so I'm digging it up for your consideration. Back when Steve returned to Apple, he made a claim that seems to have been borne out:

"If I were running Apple, I would milk the Macintosh for all it's worth -- and get busy on the next great thing. The PC wars are over. Done. Microsoft won a long time ago." -- Fortune, Feb. 19, 1996

But wait. The Mac is selling better than ever. The halo effect is working. Apple's net worth just passed Microsoft's! All true. But Steve is always looking ahead, and the Mac is not the future. So the man with the famous reality distortion field may have been caught in a rare moment of candor. I don't think the Mac is truly dead, but it's increasingly dull. The future is in media and small portable devices with innovative interfaces, like the iPhone and iPad. But as far as the obituary goes, the Mac has died and been reborn several times already. The jump from Motorola's 680x0 processors to PowerPC was a rebirth. The jump from the classic Mac OS to OS X was a rebirth. The jump from PPC to Intel was a rebirth. And now, the leap from Mac OS X to iOS 4 is another rebirth. So don't mourn for the Mac. Even the dinosaurs didn't really die out, so much as they evolved into birds.

Update: 12.01.2010: Gruber has, as usual, some interesting thoughts on this.

04.13.2010 Apple II Forever? No Thanks

Slate did a recent retrospective on Woz, Jobs and the Apple II. They laud the Apple II as a tinkerer's dream and long for the good old days when you could crack open your computer like a cold Budweiser. Back in 1986, I owned an Apple IIc. It was the most expensive computer I have ever purchased with my own money; and a shockingly large percentage of the money I had at my disposal! It was the machine on which I learned to write software, and where I gained an appreciation for those who do it well. That was at least partly because there was no software that did what I needed! The lab I worked in had a number of Apple IIe machines, most with expansion cards and rainbow colored ribbon cables coming out the back to drive various devices such as HPLC rigs, pH probes and other data collection devices. The Apple ][ was indeed an open box and, as Apple likes to say in their PR releases, it ignited the personal computer industry in the late '70s and early '80s. But when I first laid hands on a Macintosh, my jaw dropped. It was so clearly a superior experience. Yes it was a sealed box and there was no BASIC programming language, but I didn't mind because the thing was so damned brilliant, and the software for it was equally brilliant. In line with Farhad Manjoo, I'm feeling the same way now about Apple's new iPad, as I watch my 4 year old use it without frustration. My parents, who are complete technophobes, had the same reaction. Steve's right. This thing IS magical and revolutionary. Which is why I am saddened but not surprised by the negative reaction to the iPad from some tech bloggers. They complain about the app store approval process, the DRM, and the sealed, tamper (and tinker) resistant case. All true but also, I think, acceptable tradeoffs in order to get such a remarkable device. Allowing third party apps is what has made Apple's multi-touch platform such a hit, but Apple is obsessive about quality control and so the app store approval process was born. Is the process sometimes heavy handed or silly? Sure, but it also keeps the lousy apps out and the quality high. For Apple at least, control is working. DRM is the entertainment industry's response to piracy. As annoying as it is, I understand why it's there. That was the deal Apple had to make to get music on the iPod when the industry was in ruins. The industry was in ruins, of course, because of a new technology, the CD burner, and a new mentality, that you didn't have to pay for anything you could copy. As for the sealed unit, well it's a design aesthetic, but it's also a philosophy that you shouldn't have to crack open your computer and spend all day tinkering to make it work right. Remember one of the Mac's early slogans? It's "The Computer for the Rest of Us."

03.07.2010 The Walled Garden of Good and Evil

The iTunes App Store, the place where you get software for the iPhone, the iPod Touch and the new iPad, is sometimes referred to as a "walled garden." Since its inception, Apple has acted as gatekeeper in order to ensure the consistency and quality of the experience. The app store, now with close to 150,000 apps, has been a huge hit and may ultimately be the thing that seals the success of the iPhone and related devices. Third party developers are encouraged to submit their apps for approval, but Apple has not provided clear guidelines on what is and is not acceptible. Even worse, they seem to apply those unpublished and changing guidelines inconsistently. Apple's resurgence is in large part due to Steve Jobs's obsessive urge to control every aspect of the user experience, but they may have gone too far. Starting with the crude, Apple then began banning apps it deems as duplicative of the built-in functionality of the device, such as Google Voice. Recently, Apple began banning the sexually suggestive and pornographic but extended the ban to a company that sells women's swimwear (which has now been unbanned again), all while inexplicably leaving the Playboy app on the store. And now, Apple is deciding which apps are useful and banning some of the ones it says provide little utility. Likely there are unspoken motives here, and Apple is having trouble deciding where to draw the line. But one thing is very clear: the backlash is driving tech-savvy customers to the Android platform, where the experience is more open. I'm beginning to hear it and I expect the problem to grow. My advice to Apple would be for them to unclench a little and let the market decide what is useful but, since this is Apple, I doubt that will happen. Meanwhile, the open versus closed debate rages on.

Further thoughts: You know what's another walled garden that seems to be doing just great? Facebook.

02.28.2010 Smartphone Wars: Survivors and Casualties

By now, just about everyone who wants a cell phone owns one. But competition to convert people from dumb phones to smartphones is fierce, and Apple has set the technology standard with the iPhone. Only six months ago, I wrote about the emergence of challengers to the iPhone. Let's take a fresh look at the battlefield and see how they're doing. At the time, the Palm Pre was being hailed as the putative iPhone Killer. Only just released, the specs looked great and there was lots of buzz about the Pre. But Palm went with Sprint, the weakest of the big three US carriers, there were only a handful of apps, and the early commercials were not well received, so sales faltered. Now Palm has issued a warning that earnings will be significantly below their estimates, and the stock just lost 20% of its value in a single day. There might still be time to turn it around, but Palm is down for the count. Nokia, with its Symbian platform, is the biggest worldwide but has not been successful in the U.S., and market share is stagnant. RIM continues to do very well, and has carved out a niche among the obsessive texters and business people that Apple has not been able to penetrate. Loyalty to the Blackberry is mostly due to its good physical keyboard, which the iPhone lacks. Windows Mobile stagnated years ago and has been in marketshare freefall since the release of the iPhone back in January 2007. Microsoft is starting over with Windows Phone 7 but the WiMo brand is tarnished and it will be a rough road back. The most interesting up-and-comer is Google's Android platform, with some nice devices like the Motorola Droid and Google's own hardware entry, the Nexus One. But Google's challenge with the Android platform will be fragmentation. Can they make their software work well on hardware with different features from a variety of device makers? Expect growth of the Android platform in the coming year, but remember that numbers can deceive; it's pretty easy to go from 1 to 2 percent market share, which can be reported as a doubling of growth. The bigger you get, the slower the percentage gains. With well over 100,000 apps for its iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad platform, a number that dwarfs the competition, Apple's share of the pie is growing rapidly and they remain the most likely victor in the smartphone war. Which Smartphone do you want? Take the poll on the right -->

12.03.2010 Update: Palm has been bought by HP. I don't think that will end well; they can't figure out what to do with it. Apple has sold a staggering 1.7 million iPhone 4 devices in its first three days. Loyalty of iPhone users is twice that of Android device owners, but the Droid has reached critical mass and will be a strong contender. Apple is likely coming to Verizon in January. Expect many holdouts, myself included, to jump on board.

02.23.2010 Why the AppleTV is still a "hobby"

According to Tim Cook, Apple's Chief Operating Officer, they have a gut feeling that the AppleTV will develop into something, but today it's still just a hobby project. This is marketing speak for, "We don't sell very many AppleTVs." It's very clear to me why the AppleTV has not yet taken off, and why it might never do so as an Apple product. It should be free. "Free?" you say. Yes, and this is exactly why Apple doesn't get it. Apple is, down deep in their DNA (as Steve Jobs likes to say), a hardware company. Because of that mindset, they can't figure out what they've got in the AppleTV. What they've got is... a media distribution system where they own the tollbooth! Steve says they can't sell the AppleTV because people are used to the cable model where the set-top box is "free." I say if you can't beat 'em, join 'em. Apple simply needs to turn their business model on its head and think of the AppleTV as an inside out iPod. Giving away the AppleTV to consumers of iTunes content makes good business sense. If you're selling lots of blades, you can afford to give away the razors, right? Netflix is on the right track with their Roku box. (The Roku is a sweet deal and it also works with Amazon's Video On Demand. For Apple, this could work one of two ways. They could make up the cost of the unit either by skimming a tiny bit of profit from every iTunes sale, or by letting the networks subsidize the cost of the device, just as AT&T does for the iPhone. There are also many unexplored content pricing options: own (multiple views, no DRM) or rent (single view, DRM), download (high quality) or stream (low quality), and ad-free or ad-laden. Price the content right for each option and the consumer will bite, especially as more and more households get fancy new HDTVs. While streaming offers instant gratification, downloading gives you quality. Someday, with sufficicent broadband, we may get both but for now it's a choice. Oh, and one more thing...unlike music, people don't tend to watch the same movie over and over so an ownership strategy has limited appeal. If anything can, it will be childrens' videos that make ownership a winner, because kids like to watch the same content again and again, they are murder on DVDs, and they hate commercials. But if Apple wants to get in on the action, they better move soon because Walmart just acquired VuDu and a certain search company we all know is developing the GoogleTV. And very soon, there won't even be a separate box to sell. My friends have a brand new Blu-Ray disc player, and it has built-in wi-fi, ethernet and a dumbed down interface for Netflix, Pandora, YouTube and a few other web services I've never heard of. New TVs are going to have these services built-in, so you can control it all with one remote. The Internet connected TV is the next big thing in entertainment, and you can bet that all the major players will be building them or partnering with those who do. But right now it's anybody's game.

12.3.2010 Update: Apple's second generation AppleTV is priced much better at $99, but the Roku still beats it on content, and on price at $59. Reviews of the GoogleTV call it a big step in the wrong direction. Ouch! Larry recommends Roku, and gets no commission on any sale, and loses money on his Apple stock. How can he be wrong?

02.13.2010 Kindles, iPods, razors and blades

Amazon's Kindle is aptly named, as it has indeed ignited the eBook industry. Amazon says that it now sells 6 eBooks for every 10 paper books. The Kindle has a great screen for reading books, but that's all it does, and some complain it's slow. With the introduction of the $499 iPad, a comparably priced multi-purpose device that is also a book reader, rumors that Amazon is "rethinking" the Kindle, or offering to give it away, might at first seem like acts of desperation. But it actually makes perfect sense, because ultimately the Kindle is a loss-leader; it's only as important as the match that started the fire. As long as eBook sales remain brisk, the fire keeps burning and what happens to the Kindle is unimportant. Apple, for example, makes very little money from iTunes sales; the content is passed along without any markup. But Apple can do it because all that content goes on their very profitable iPods. Amazon on the other hand sells books. So no matter who builds the eBook readers, what counts for Amazon is that people buy their eBooks. Amazon doesn't care if the iPad kills the Kindle, because the Kindle has done its job and gotten the fire started. In fact Amazon makes a great Kindle reader app for the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad. What Amazon does care about is eBook piracy and competing eBook formats, so expect them to push their proprietaty format and strong DRM (digital rights management), just as the music industry insisted upon with Apple. Apple sells razors. Amazon sells blades. There is no conflict here.

12.3.2010 Update: Amazon's new Kindle has found a great price point at $139, well below that of the iPad, and will fly off the shelves as the best dedicated eBook reader.

02.10.2010 iPad Arrives; threatens Kindle and Flash

Apple introduced the iPad on January 27, 2010. Interesting device, surprisingly low price, terrible name. The buzz over the new device was almost swamped by the jokes. Maybe if Apple had a woman on the board of directors they could have caught that one? Despite the spin from Apple, the device is neither magical nor revolutionary, but it is a nice addition to a very successful product line. In essence, it's a giant iPod Touch, which is itself just an iPhone minus the phone. Not the Netbook killer people were expecting, but still significant enough to send wannabe competitors back to the drawing board. Not really a productivity device at all. Not yet the device I wanted for watching movies, because it came without Flash for streaming and without the storage capacity for downloads. On the other hand, as Jobs killed the floppy, maybe this is also the death knell for Adobe's Flash and a big boost for HTML5? And the iPad will keep getting better. Either because of technical problems or to keep costs down, or to sell you another one later, the first generation model lacks a camera. Dont worry. It will come. Not being revolutionary doesn't make it a flop. It's just that this device was so hyped and we have come to expect so much from Apple that reality was bound to disappoint. Whether it's a Kindle-killer remains to be seen, though its introduction has clearly given eBook publishers short-term pricing leverage over Amazon. Even if the Kindle is extinguished, Amazon and the iPad will both win big as eBooks take off. With 140,000 apps and counting, I think this device will find its niche. I just don't think that Steve Jobs or anyone else knows yet what that niche will be. Maybe this?

10.20.09 New MacBook: Better in Every Way? Not!

Apple does it again. After making several really nice improvements to the last of the plasic, oh, sorry, polycarbonate, MacBooks, they discontinued it and replaced it with a completely redesigned model. Ok, so that sounds good. Improve on a winner, make it cheaper, and we're on the right track. So what did Apple do? They advertize it as "Better in Every Way." I'm sure there are some improvements, but the previous model had Firewire, which is now gone. The old model had an IR sensor so you could use it with the Front Row remote, which was also included free at one point. Both the sensor and, not surprisingly, the remote are gone. The old model had a handy battery charge indicator so you could check your power level without turning on the computer. Gone. And the old model was designed so that replacing the hard drive, RAM, and battery were a snap. Not any more. The separate jacks for audio in and out have been reduced into one combo jack so you can't use both at the same time. And the price, which really needed to come down to compete with the Netbooks, didn't. Still $999 for the base model. So I would call the new MacBook a disappointment in just about every way. Bump up to a MacBook Pro 13" for $200 more and you'll be much happier. Maybe that was Apple's plan to start with?

10.18.09 Trouble with Time Capsule!

Uh oh. It looks like Time Capsule will not be lauded as one of Apple's many reliable products. The idea is a good one; combining a wireless access point and a network attached storage device is clever and useful. But the choice to enclose a power supply and hard drive in a fanless and underventilated plastic case was just plain dumb. We've had many similar problems with recent LaCie drives. Sure, fans can be noisy and annoying, but they keep your devices cool. Heat reduces the data fidelity of drives as well as shortening the life of many electronic components such as capacitors. So now there's a website where you can log the death date of your Time Capsue. The average failure time among units that have failed is about 17 months. But given that the product is only about 24 months old, this is not good. If you're in the market for that particular functionality, I'd suggest an Airport Extreme and an external OWC hard drive attached to it via USB. Separating the components also means that if one part fails, you have less to replace. Or, if you do need a Time Capsule, add AppleCare to extend the warrantly to 3 years and make Apple pay to replace it when it dies. But AppleCare won't get your data back :(

7.6.10 Update: It now appears that Apple may replace your dead Time Machine free of charge even if it is out of warranty. However, if your data is more important than the unit, which still suffers from an overheating problem due to lack of adequate ventilation, you can always take it apart. Hint: use a hair dryer to melt the glue under the big rubber foot or it will tear. On the other hand, if it's dead and you take it apart, who cares? It doesn't need to go back together. Just grab the drive.

10.13.09 Top 10 Reasons to Get A Mac

1. Innovative industrial design. Want to see tomorrow's PC? Look at today's Mac.
2. No PC viruses, malware, spyware, worms, or trojan horses. Is that one reason or five?
3. Macs last longer, are more reliable, have higher resale value and best overall TCO.
4. Apple's software works seamlessly with the hardware.
5. Your current devices (external drive, camera, printer) will move right over. True plug and play.
6. Microsoft Office and Open Office are both available for the Mac.
7. Your Mac can also run Windows, either simultaneously or as a boot option.
8. There are no stripped down Macs. They come standard with stuff that costs extra on most PCs.
9. The Mac OS is stable, secure and easy to use, and the "pro" version doesn't cost extra.
10. The highest customer satisfaction rating of any computer, year after year.

Top 10 Reasons Not to Get A Mac

1. It won't make you cool.
2. It is not completely idiot proof.
3. You don't mind that your computer is always screwed up.
4. You don't see any important difference between American and Japanese cars.
5. You love shopping at WalMart.
6. You love Internet Explorer.
7. You think you need a Mac to use iTunes, an iPod, iPad, or iPhone
8. You beat the crap out of your computer.
9. You like to replace your computer frequently.
10. Cheap matters to you more than quality.

10.13.09 Apple Education Licensing Program

Apple has discontinued its Apple Maintenance Program, and replaced it with the new Apple Education Licensing Program. It looks like a good deal because Apple comes out with new versions of the OS and other products pretty frequently compared to Microsoft, for example, where a new version of Office comes out only every 4 years and the Windows OS is refreshed about every 3-4 years. That got me thinking...how often does Apple renew its core pieces; the Mac OS, iLife (which everyone uses) and iWork (which hardly anyone uses)? The following graph is the result of that research. Across all versions of OS X, Apple has refreshed the OS on average every 1.46 years. Of course, as the system has become more refined, the time between refreshes has slowed. iLife versions average 1.11 years, and iWork versions average 1.33 years.

9.30.09 What is the point of iWork?

Back in the late 1990s, Microsoft made some threatening noises about dropping Office for the Mac. It sent a chill through the Mac community at a time when Apple was struggling to get back on its feet. Of course, Apple had ClarisWorks (later renamed AppleWorks) but that was seen as not professional enough, even though it was and still is a great program that meets most people's needs. In fact I would argue that AppleWorks which, sadly, you can no longer buy, is superior to iWork because, in addition to competent Word Processor, Spreadsheet, and Presentation modules, it also included good Draw, Paint, and Database modules. So Apple went off and developed Pages, Numbers and Keynote to replace Word, Excel and PowerPoint just in case the worst case scenario happened. The bundled package is known as iWork. But sales of iWork must be dismal. I know this even though Apple doesn't talk about it, because almost nobody I know who uses a Mac uses any of these tools and I know lots of Mac users. But if MS Office wasn't free at work, would I buy iWork? Probably not. With Open Office and Google Docs as solid MS Office alternatives, I just don't see the need for a Mac only Office suite. Kill it off Steve. Put the money you save into usability enhancements for iTunes. It sure could use 'em.

5/31/2011 Update: With iWork Lite versions now available for iPad, there is actually another reason to try iWork. However, I still wouldn't try to do any serious work on an iPad, or any tablet, in the first place. Tablets are great for games, watching movies, and web surfing, but not for productivity.

9.23.09 So now Microsoft's got a tablet concept?!

Wow. That makes things interesting. Microsoft has leaked a concept tablet that the folks over at Apple are probably studying pretty carefully. Usually, it's the other way around. A dual screen model that folds like a book is interesting, but I'm not sure how practical it is. The interface looks slick, but complicated. Will this thing ever see the light of day? Will it be the new Origami? You know. Origami. When Microsoft changed the world back in February 2006? Oh, right. That never happened. Well, keep trying guys. One thing you can say about Microsoft. They're pluggers. And they do an amazing job when they've got something to copy. Cough. Zune HD. Cough.

9.9.09 New iPods, More Capacity, Same Prices

New iPods arrived as expected today. The Nano got some great upgrades. A built-in FM tuner, a pedometer, a speaker, a microphone and a video camera. Everything but the kitchen sink! Ok, but what happened with the Touch? Kind of a disappointment there. According to Steve Jobs, who we're all happy to see back, there's no camera in the iPod Touch because it's for gaming and their focus was on making the Touch more affordable. But if you compare the old prices with the new, you will see that the 8GB Touch (the one Apple calls "updated") dropped only $30 in price and got no new features; it's essentially a discounted year old model. The $299 and $399 models got more capacity but those are the same price points as last year. So while the same money gets you more capacity, they haven't really gotten any more affordable. Rumors suggest that there were hardware problems and the cameras got pulled at the last minute. The teardown shows there's a hole where the camera could have gone. If that 8GB model was a 16GB with a camera for $199, I'd be ordering it right now. As it is, I think I'll wait and see if Apple releases an off-cycle update after the holidays. Or possibly a software update to enable a few hidden features? Apparently the wireless chip in the new iPod Touch is capable of FM transmission and reception and 802.11N wireless, but none are currently implemented. But as my lovely and very smart wife points out, this sleight to the Touch may have been done to sell more Nanos, which are starting to look increasingly clunky compared to the ultra-slick multi-touch devices. Indeed, sales of click wheel iPods are in decline and probably won't recover. They can always add a camera to the Touch later, after everyone has bought a Nano. And they may need to. Apple will be facing some new, and much needed competiton soon from the Palm Pre, the Zune HD and maybe even some Android phones like Motorola's Droid. That's a good thing because it would drive down prices and add features in a market that Apple has dominated for too long. I recently read a review in Consumer Reports that compares the Touch to the Palm Pre and they came out about equal. As far as the review goes, they are correct. But that's clearly wrong. The iPhone platform just passed 100,000 apps. Palm's Pre has, maybe, a hundred. As Steven Levy of Wired argues convincingly, the Apps make all the difference and that's why Apple is winning the Smartphone War.

Old iPod Touch (2G) Price Points		New iPod Touch (3G) Price Points		Discount
$229	8 GB	$199	8 GB	$30
$299	16 GB	$299	32 GB	$0
$399	32 GB	$399	64 GB	$0

8.13.09 More thoughts on the coming MacBook Touch

Brian Lam just wrote a new article at Gizmodo about the unannounced Apple product everybody's waiting for. Based on no insider information at all, but just on probabilities as a long time Apple watcher, here's what I think:1) It has to be priced above $500 and the entry model at least will be priced below $1000, but closer to $1000 than $500 because Apple likes its profit margin and, at least initially, there is pent up demand for this product and people will pay it. Remember what the first iPhone cost? This does not preclude a tricked out version that costs more than $1000 2) It will be called the MacBook Touch, representing a hybrid between the venerable low end MacBook and the iPod Touch. On the day it is available for sale (or possibly the day it is announced), the low end white MacBook will drop out of the product grid. 3) If it was just a scaled up iPod Touch it would run the iPhone OS and would have been released already. But I think Apple is more likely to add multi-touch to Mac OS X, and this technology will later sweep across the whole product line. There are no iPhone apps for a 10" screen. There are lots of Mac apps for one. So the OS will be a hybrid too. 4) This thing is too expensive to be just an e-book reader, but it will do that too. OLED would make the screen readable in full sun, and the selling point will be "Why spend the money on a Kindle when this does so much more?" 5) It will not be a giant phone, because that would look dumb.

12.03.2010 Update: Ok, I'll admit it. I couldn't have been more wrong. The iPad was cheaper than I or anyone expected. And it was just a giant iPod Touch.

6.20.09 The soon to be announced "MacBook Touch"?

There are some great concepts out there on what Apple's rumored new iTablet will look like. I'm linking to some of the best ones. Let's examine some of them just for fun. Will it be a slate, a convertible, or a netbook? It's useful to consider some of the things Jobs has said because, sick or not, you know he's been all over the design of anything this important. Steve says they don't know how to make a $500 Netbook that isn't junk and he doesn't like the cramped keyboard. But he loves the iPhone and the iPod touch, which lack an actual keyboard, even if some would say typing on the virtual keypad is also somewhat cumbersome. If you figure that this theoretical device has Bluetooth and WiFi, it barely needs physical ports or attached peripherals and can still work with lots of external devices. Can't you see Steve boasting about the first computer with no ports at all? Not even a headphone jack. A completely sealed unit! Apple has been messing around with handwriting recognition for years (they call their version Inkwell) and has, for the MacBook Air, created a Remote Disk solution for sharing an optical drive over the network. The latest MacBook Pros now sport a tiny SDHC slot. And the iPhone's multi-touch is now quite refined. So some or all of these things could make their way into this new product. Your electric toothbrush has inductive charging, so why not this new device? Just set it in a cradle and it charges itself wirelessly with no exposed contacts. It will compete with the Kindle as a book reader, and it will compete with netbooks as a fully functional computer in an ultra-slim, lightweight package. But as I mention above, it won't be cheap. Apple doesn't do cheap. It will do more than the Kindle, with a color multi-touch screen, and will definitely be more than $500. It will be beefier than an iPod Touch, so it will likely have an Intel Atom processor, and maybe even 3G for connectivity even when out of range of WiFi. Remember that a 10" capacitive touchscreen does not come cheap, but Apple can buy in volume, just like they did with Flash RAM for the iPod. So $999 feels about right. And given that they've made room for it in the product grid, I'm expecting it to be announced very soon. Welcome back Steve!

More concepts: Fortune Mag | MacFormat | O'Grady | Popular Mechanics | Gizmodo

6.12.09 Apple refreshes laptops, creates giant hole in Product Grid

Apple has a brilliantly simple product grid. Three laptops and three desktops at low, intermediate and high performance and price points. But after the most recent refresh of the laptop line, the only remaining MacBook is the dated polycarbonate white model at $999. The sleek unibody 13" aluminum MacBooks got Firewire 800 (fantastic!) and illuminated keyboards (great!) but, oddly, Apple moved them over into the already crowded MacBook Pro category, which is now crammed with six base models over a $1000 price range. Steve doesn't believe in selling last year's computer at a discount and there is now a big gap in the MacBook part of the grid. What could Apple be up to? I think the old MacBook, which should really have been discontinued by now, is only there as a placeholder until something new at the same price point is ready. There have been lots of rumors about a 10" touchscreen device and Apple really needs an answer to the Netbook. Steve is due to return in late June after his medical leave of absence, but you know he's been working on something. I'm predicting that moving the 13" MacBooks into the low end of the MacBook Pro line was because something else needed the MacBook name. And this new product will be announced by Steve in a special event sometime in July or August. The new MacBook, reinvented, with multi-touch will come in at the low, low Apple price of $999. It will look like a scaled up iPod Touch. Could be a Kindle killer if they do it right. And you know Steve wouldn't do it at all if he couldn't do it right.

4.15.09 Netbooks and Hackintoshes

Time for a new project. According to a chart I recently discovered at Boing Boing, those braver than me have figured out which Netbook is most compatible with Mac OSX. And the winner is...Dell Mini 9. Then along comes Gizmodo and lays it all out for me. WIth just a bit of tinkering, I have a fully functional netbook running MacOS 10.5.7. The screen is a bit small and the keyboard a bit cramped, but the performance is far better than I expected. With an external mouse and keyboard, it works well as a second machine. We got the 32 GB SSD with 2 GB of RAM and the higher end camera for about $400.00 Pretty sure it will blow up when 10.6 comes out, but in the meantime, it's working great. Here's a new link for anyone trying to create a Hackintosh using the latest Snow Leopard 10.6 software.

6.18.09 Closer to wanting an iPhone, no closer to wanting to pay $80/month for a data plan.

The iPhone just keeps getting better. Now that GPS turn by turn stuff is maturing, they added video, copy/paste is delivered, and the speed has improved, I only have one reason left for not owning one. AT&T and their pricey data plan. Over the mandatory 2-year contract you end up spending over $2000 on the thing! Too rich for me. I'm glad to see that the Palm Pre looks like a hit and that Blackberry continues to do well. Apple can use some competition in this market. But good luck. The app store has 50,000 iPhone/iPod Touch programs and counting. Nobody else even comes close. This is Apple's greatest advantage beyond the phone itself. Like the iPod/iTunes synergy, others can produce a great phone but without the apps, it's not nearly as compelling. I love my tiny flash based 8GB iPod nano; especially the little radio add-on so I can listen to the BBC world service at 3:00 am after I get a bottle for Thomas the sleepless. "This is Owen Bennet Jones with the latest cricket scores." I'm an NPR junkie. So maybe an iPod Touch with Skype? After all, I'm rarely out of range of a WiFi network. If you have an iPod Touch 2nd gen (the one that has microphone integration), pick up an iPhone mic from the Apple store and install Skype for $0.02/minute long distance. If you find it works for you, buy a Skype number so you can receive calls as well. This summer, you can get a new Mac and they throw in an iPod Touch for free. And that means new Touch models in the Fall. Twice the storage for the same price. Buy now or buy later. You win either way.

3.29.2009 TCO: Total cost of ownership.

Everybody's got less disposable income these days. The economy is doing wonders for the sales of super cheap, low performance laptops known as netbooks. There's also a new series of attack ads that Microsoft is testing. In them, they make the argument that Macs are more expensive that PCs. It's the first attack in a while that has a shot at working, because it's based on a half truth. Macs are indeed more expensive than no-name brand bargain basement PCs. But when comparing Macs to reputable brand PCs such as those made by Dell and HP, which come with a "Pro" version of Windows and have comparable hardware specs, the purchase prices are actually remarkably similar. The difference is that there are no* low-budget no-name brand Macs. But this is also one of the key reasons that customer satisfaction with Macs is so much higher; the hardware is reliable and software is designed to work with it. But while the up front price of a Mac is higher, the total cost of ownership, spread across the lifetime of the computer, is actually much lower than that of a cheap PC. Read all about it. While there are a handful of hard core build-your-own-box types out there, most Windows PC owners don't know how to fix their computer so, when something goes wrong, they just buy a new one. They often do this far sooner than necessary. Macs go bad less often because they are less prone to viruses and the hardware is of generally high quality, so people run them into the ground only after years of faithful service. So if you really want to save money, go open source and put Ubuntu Linux and Open Office on your old PC. Why every school in America is not doing this is beyond me. Yes, if you want quality, get a Mac. But if you're tempted by that that bargain Windows PC at WalMart, just remember that when it gets sluggish or dies due to spyware, viruses and cheap components, you got what you paid for. And don't forget to factor the cost of downtime, buying another computer, and migrating your data to it in the not-too-distant future.

Mac Clones and Hackintoshes

There is some interesting stuff happening in the world of Mac. The iPhone has both been jailbroken, meaning that you can run apps not approved by Apple, and unlocked, meaning that you can use a carrier other than AT&T on it. Apple releases periodic software updates that can either inadvertantly or maliciously (depending on who you ask) "brick" your hacked phone so all of this is risky stuff. One might argue that if a few hackers do this, it's no big deal to Apple because they already sold them the phone and AT&T is the big loser. Since Apple moved its Macs to Intel processors, one has been able to run a full copy of Windows on a Mac using various methods. This is useful. But this also means that it is possible to run the MacOS on a generic PC clone with only a few alterations. Apple must really hate this, because hardware is their bread and butter, but again, the risk is still small because only the fairly technical can accomplish this task. But as tutorials on how to do this are starting to pop up all over the Internet, what will Apple do? And now there are a couple of PC vendors like Psystar and PearPC who are selling PCs with legally purchased copies of OS X on them. And even more interesting, they are suing Apple for monopoly practices, arguing that Apple is preserving an artificial hardware monopoly with their software. Apple freely admits that they produce great products explicitly because they control both the hardware and the software. Clones would, and did the last time Apple experimented with clones, both degrade that experience and undercut sales of Apple hardware rather than significantly grow the market share. Shouldn't Apple be allowed to be the exclusive seller of hardware that runs the Mac OS, given that Apple owns both pieces? I guess only the lawyers know for sure. Take the poll on the lower right...

Cinema Displays, Old and New

2.23.2009 It is worth reminding people that Apple has never had a problem abandoning old standards (even the proprietary ones they foisted upon us) and leaving their loyal fans twisting in the wind with a bunch of useless legacy hardware. Remember the floppy? SCSI? ADB? ADC? Firewire? Well they did it again. Say hello to Mini Display Port, the latest in a long line of new video adapters that may or may not catch on. Apple just came out with a brand new line of Cinema Displays after years without a major revision or much of a price drop. They finally added a built-in iSight camera, which is great, and a MagSafe power cable to charge your laptop if you should choose to use one as a dock. They dropped Firewire ports from the hub, and there's no matte option; only glossy finish, which should annoy the graphic design and photo purists as well as people with sticky fingered small children. But the oddest thing? They discontinued the old displays (except for the giant 30" model) while Apple's entire desktop line, including the lucrative Mac Pro which sells to Hollywood types and graphic designers with deep pockets, still has DVI and can't use these new displays. This makes no sense. Unless Apple is about to refresh the entire desktop line to include Display Port. So which Mac interests you most? Take the poll on the right...

*Update: March 3, 2009: Less than two weeks later, Apple introduces, without the usual fanfare, new Mac Mini, iMac and Mac Pro towers. So you still can't buy a new Cinema Display to use with your old Mac, but at least all the new Macs will work with the new Cinema Display.

Firewire: 1999-2008 RIP?

So long IEEE 1394 aka i.Link aka Firewire. It was good to know you. Apple really bungled this one, and it's a shame. Licensing greed during the early days led to naming confusion and a reduced rate of adoption among PC vendors, and failure of Apple to promote the technology in all of its machines led to a smaller market for the makers of Firewire peripherals. Except in the area of DV Cameras, Apple's emerging standard never quite made it to the mainstream and USB2 eventually became an "almost-as-good" alternative. Although there has been plenty of foreshadowing (James Wiebe wrote the "Evolution of FireWire" white paper in 2004 and reduxxed it in 2006), the removal of FireWire from the latest MacBooks is still a bit of a shock. Mac tech people rely on Target Disk Mode and the Migration Assistant, and Mac users depend heavily on external Firewire drives and DV Cameras. It appears we can use Ethernet for the Migration Assistant and since Apple made the MacBook hard disk much easier to grab, maybe this gizmo will be a decent substitute for Target Disk Mode. USB2 works to drive a DV Camera in Windows Movie Maker, so maybe iMovie will work via USB on some legacy cameras. Fearing this eventuality, I have been hedging my bets for several years by purchasing external hard drives from OWC with FireWire 400, 800 and USB2 connectors. Since the new MacBooks came out, Apple has been deleting posts on their discussion boards regarding the removal of FireWire from the MacBook, so they are certainly aware of customer concerns, and are apparently hoping they (the concerns, not the customers) will go away. But maybe Apple will recover from this temporary insanity and put FW back in Rev B. They did add FW800 in Rev B of the original Intel MacBook Pro, so there is precedence. But unless I miss my guess, the new MacBooks will sell well and Steve will be able to justify the decision. And who knows? Maybe eSATA or USB3 will fill the hole. Or is Firewire about to make a revival? The new Mac Mini has FW 800! That's promising.

Update: June, 2009: The Rev. B unibody MacBook gets Firewire 800. So the RIP is for FW400, but FW800 looks safe for a while. Big sigh of relief. That means target disk mode lives! But does Firewire have life beyond 800? Will FW1600 and 3200 ever see the light of day? Doubtful.

BootCamp, Parallels or VMWare?

The recent Intel based Macs use the same processors that power Windows PCs. If you need Windows on your Intel Mac, there are several ways to do it. Which one is best? Well, that depends. If you want convenience, the answer is VMWare. If you want performance, the answer is Boot Camp. If you want to waste your money, get Parallels. All three require a full version of Windows to install. I recommend Windows XP because even though Vista works as well on a Mac as it does on a PC, there is no compelling reason to upgrade, and the OS is more demanding. VMWare and Parallels are similar products except that VMWare works better and costs about half as much. Both allow you to run Windows alongside the MacOS and go back and forth between the two without a restart. Both also resize the Windows partition as needed, which is nice. But both are slower than BootCamp because you are running one OS on top of another. In contrast BootCamp, which is the hardest of the three to configure, requires that you create a separate Windows partition (FAT or NTFS) on your hard drive and that you reboot the machine when you want to run Windows. This means you cannot copy and paste across OSes. FAT has a maximum partition size of 32GB, but is readable/writeable from the Mac side, making file transfer from PC to Mac a bit easier. NTFS partitions can be larger but are only readable, not writeable, from the Mac side. Therefore, a handy trick is to use a FAT formatted Flash drive for file transfers. BootCamp works well with as little as 2 GB of RAM on Apple's wimpiest machines, the Mac Mini and MacBook AIr. The virtualization programs require more RAM and beefier processors for acceptable performance. BootCamp comes free with MacOS X 10.5 (Leopard). After you install Windows on your Boot Camp Mac, be sure to install the Mac drivers that come on the Leopard DVD to make all the custom Mac hardware work under Windows. A word of caution: Once you've got Windows on your Mac, you will need to pay more attention to security. Run Windows Update regularly and keep your anti-virus software up to date.

Update: A fourth option, called CrossOver, lets you run Windows applications in the Mac OS without a copy of Windows. This uses a technology called WINE, but I haven't tried it yet.

News flash: AAPL anounces amazing stuff. Stock price plummets.

What is the deal, people? Why is it that when Steve pulls a golden rabbit from his, um, hat, all people can say is "I wanted a platinum rabbit." Overall, my AAPL stock has been doing quite well, thank you very much. But right after a keynote, the stock drops precipitously. When Apple announces a big profit, the stock drops. Why? Because it wasn't enough. Man, it's gotta be tough to be Steve. No matter what he gives, the fanboys want more. There is just no satisfying the stratospheric expectations of a fanboy. Even Steve's trademark "Reality Distortion Field" can't do that. My advice? Sell on the rumor and buy on the announcement. And while AAPL is in the tank right now, buy all you can. Don't worry. Apple has lots of life beyond Steve, even though he has been, and I hope will continue to be for a long time to come, the iCEO. Happy B-day and get well Steve. Hey, we're all interim if you stop and think about it.

2.26.2009 Update: Apple just passed WalMart to become the #1 music seller in the world. Not digital music. Music. Period. And as usual in the tech industry, nobody saw that one coming. Beating WalMart at the volume game is quite a feat. Apple to the Music Industry: "All your payola are belong to us."

AppleTV? Sold! To the highest bidder. And good riddance.

Between the Hollywood writers' strike and Apple's battle with NBC over iTunes content, which ultimately ended in a loss for both sides, I finally decided my AppleTV was not doing it for me. Another factor was the much touted and much anticipated Take 2.0 software announced at MacWorld 2008 which, frankly, kinda sucked. So we put the AppleTV on e-Bay and sold it. Not missing it a bit. But here's the question I'm sure you're asking. What is your new media hub now that AppleTV is gone? Easy. It's an Intel Mac Mini. Sure it costs a bit more, but it does everything the AppleTV did and it's a real computer too. Which means I can still buy things from iTunes. Or I can go to Hulu and watch stuff for free. Or I can stream video from Netflix, which is working pretty well. While Boxee looked briefly promising as a means to extend the functionality the AppleTV, Hulu just pulled their stuff from Boxee so there goes that. I'd still like to see a new revision of the Mac Mini. It's the right computer for these tough economic times.

Update: 3.3.2009: New Mac Mini released on my birthday. Bought one. It rocks.

6.9.2008: MobileMe? Bite Me!

I saw a homeless guy walking down the sidewalk the other day. On the front of his t-shirt, in big bold letters, it said "Bite Me!" Hunh. I think not. Sorry, but that doesn't appeal. On virtually any level. "Bite me!" is an expression that I've never really gotten. At daycare, they will expel your kid if he bites. Maybe it was my sheltered Canadian upbringing or maybe it's just a lame expression. In fact, most of the marketing things that end in "-Me" don't work for, um, me. Like WindowsMe. That whole "me and my" thing that Microsoft started just bugs. It's like the boomer mantra or something. SocialSecurityMe! Humvee-Me! ViagraMe! Steve's a boomer too, you know. And he couldn't resist messing with .Mac and renaming it MobileMe. Ugh. Not that it was a great service mind you, with all the good free Web2.0 stuff that's available now, but it just wasn't quite bad enough to stop using. Until they changed the name, that is. That was the last straw. So I'll be Flickring and g-mailing and del.icio.us-ing and Facebooking and Twittering from now on. UnsubscribeMe.