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- UPDATE: Cult of Mac Blog HAS Moved
The Cult of Mac blog is moving to a new address. The blog can now be found at www.cultofmac.com. And we're serious this time. We're still part of the Wired family, just decamped to our own domain to make some...
The Cult of Mac blog is moving to a new address. The blog can now be found at www.cultofmac.com. And we're serious this time. We're still part of the Wired family, just decamped to our own domain to make some mischief. We even have several posts from this week, if you've been wondering where we've been... Here is the new RSS feed. We'll see you over there.
Pete Mortensen - Boulevard of Broken iPods
Lots of iPods have bitten the big one over the last six years. But never before have I seen so many totally trashed "breakthrough digital devices" in one place as at the great Pile of Photos of Broken iPods. Head...
Lots of iPods have bitten the big one over the last six years. But never before have I seen so many totally trashed "breakthrough digital devices" in one place as at the great Pile of Photos of Broken iPods. Head over. Grab some hankies. Mourn. Reboot. Via Digg. Technorati Tags: ipod, puppy
Pete Mortensen - Brilliant (and fake) iPhone Ad About New York
Kudos to Alec Sutherland, who has put together the best fake ad for a real product I have ever seen in the form of "iPhone New York," a brilliant, professional spot that shows people of every language and culture raving...
Kudos to Alec Sutherland, who has put together the best fake ad for a real product I have ever seen in the form of "iPhone New York," a brilliant, professional spot that shows people of every language and culture raving about the iPhone. I almost teared up, and I'm all West Coast and stuff. Bonus points for use of "Young Folks" by Peter Bjorn and John, too. I think Apple's very demo-oriented "Here's what it can actually do" campaign is perfect for the iPhone launch, but a treatment like this one could kill for a second phase. They should call Sutherland when the time comes. Via Digg. Technorati Tags: iphone, new york
Pete Mortensen - iPhone in the Wild Spotted On My Commuter Rail
Of all the weeks to need to drive my car. As widely reported on the Net, most notably at Engadget, we've got what looks to be a legit iPhone sighting, courtesy of a snap by Mark Trammell. And not just...
Of all the weeks to need to drive my car. As widely reported on the Net, most notably at Engadget, we've got what looks to be a legit iPhone sighting, courtesy of a snap by Mark Trammell. And not just anywhere, but on Caltrain, the San Francisco to Silicon Valley commuter rail I normally ride twice a day. But this is what happens the second you stop watching for it. The Boy Genius Report suggests the user in question might actually be Mike Matas, an icon designer. I'm not sure the resemblance is strong enough... iPhone spotted in public? - Engadget Technorati Tags: caltrain, iphone
Pete Mortensen - Mozilla COO Calls Jobs on Predatory Safari Plans
No matter what one thinks of Safari for Windows (which has already been patched three days after launch and still can't render A LOT of sites), it's nice to see Apple attacking Microsoft's browser hegemony on its own turf. Right?...
No matter what one thinks of Safari for Windows (which has already been patched three days after launch and still can't render A LOT of sites), it's nice to see Apple attacking Microsoft's browser hegemony on its own turf. Right? Unfortunately, not really. As John Lilly, COO of Mozilla, points out, when Steve showed off a pie chart depicting his vision of Apple's Windows browser marketshare, he didn't depict MS losing any share at all. Instead, the image just eats up all the alternatives, including the still-rising Firefox. And while I have my problems with Firefox (it strikes me as a program only a software engineer could love), I only want to see Apple bite into Internet Explorer's customers, not the folks who have already sought out an alternative. The computer world is not the American political scene, and there is room for way more than two players. And so it should be. The more browsers we have, the fewer "browser-specific" features develop and the more readily standards get adopted across platforms. We all stand to benefit from a diverse, competitive markets. A shame that Apple reveals they have no interest in the same. John???s Blog ?? Blog Archive ?? A Picture???s Worth 100M Users??? Technorati Tags: firefox, safari
Pete Mortensen - Joy of Tech: How Steve Lost His Mojo
The general consensus is that Steve Jobs' most recent keynote speech did not measure up to his typical standard. I'm not anywhere near so down on it (maybe because I didn't go and only watched the online feed during stolen...
The general consensus is that Steve Jobs' most recent keynote speech did not measure up to his typical standard. I'm not anywhere near so down on it (maybe because I didn't go and only watched the online feed during stolen moments at work). This Joy of Tech trip sums up the sentiment pretty well. But you'll have to click through to see the source of Steve's sudden suck. Clever, gentlemen. Clever. Via Digg. Technorati Tags: humor, puppy, steve jobs
Pete Mortensen - No, Economist. Apple is not a Network Innovation Company
With Apple sailing on an all-time high stock price and mere weeks from the launch of its absurdly anticipated iPhone, the serious business press is turning even more attention to the little-Cupertino-company-that-could than normal. Take, for example, The Economist, which...
With Apple sailing on an all-time high stock price and mere weeks from the launch of its absurdly anticipated iPhone, the serious business press is turning even more attention to the little-Cupertino-company-that-could than normal. Take, for example, The Economist, which has placed Apple on the cover of its most recent issue for a story titled "Apple and the art of innovation." It's a pretty good story, nothing careful watchers of Apple don't already know. It does, however, get one aspect quite wrong, based on a simple misunderstanding of how Apple likes to work: In fact, its real skill lies in stitching together its own ideas with technologies from outside and then wrapping the results in elegant software and stylish design. The idea for the iPod, for example, was originally dreamt up by a consultant whom Apple hired to run the project. It was assembled by combining off-the-shelf parts with in-house ingredients such as its distinctive, easily used system of controls. And it was designed to work closely with Apple's iTunes jukebox software, which was also bought in and then overhauled and improved. Apple is, in short, an orchestrator and integrator of technologies, unafraid to bring in ideas from outside but always adding its own twists. This approach, known as ???network innovation???, is not limited to electronics. It has also been embraced by companies such as Procter & Gamble, BT and several drugs giants, all of which have realised the power of admitting that not all good ideas start at home. Making network innovation work involves cultivating contacts with start-ups and academic researchers, constantly scouting for new ideas and ensuring that engineers do not fall prey to ???not invented here??? syndrome, which always values in-house ideas over those from outside. Well, yes and no. Apple has largely gotten over its opposition to "not invented here" technologies, sure. Macs now use motherboards and chips found in virtually every PC on the planet. But it is a shocking mistake to claim the iPod is essentially a leveraged version of off-the-shelf hardware. At a component level, the iPod is quite obviously made up of chips and boards that Apple just buys. But throwing those components into a bag does not an iPod make. Apple is a pure design-driven company. By that I mean that they rarely produce an idea that is truly new, but when they launch a product or service, it tends to be so much better than existing products in the category that it comes off as legitimately innovative and create new markets. Personal computers existed before the Apple II, but they sucked. The Macintosh was not even Apple's first attempt at a computer with a graphical user interface (that was the Lisa), let alone the first ever (the Xerox Alto). The iPod was far from the first Mp3 player, the AppleTV is not the first living room media set-top box, and the iPhone is about as far from the first cell phone as you could get. Yet each product has been or could prove to be truly ground-breaking. Is it because Apple continually looked out to the world and saw a great solution in the world they could buy, brand and ship, as P&G famously did with the Crest SpinBrush? Of course not! The Microsoft Zune is a much better example of Network Innovation than the Apple iPod -- the Zune is simply a Toshiba media player with a slightly different interface, new software and Zune branding. The iPod was invented whole cloth, even if it used individual pieces of tech that existed in the world. This is where Apple excels. They take ideas that people have invented -- adequate functionality, a modest market of hobbyists -- and turn them into innovations by fitting them into what people need. No matter the nascent market, once Apple gets there, their solution will be simpler, prettier and just more lovable than existing ideas in the market. And that's about building a better mousetrap, something Apple does better than anyone in the whole wide world. It's awesome. But it's not a primary strategy of Network Innovation. Via Endless Innovation.
Pete Mortensen - Delicious Library 2 Wins Apple Design Award
Delicious Library 2, which has a snazzy new UI based on Core Animation, wins an Apple's 2007 Design Award for Best Leopard Application. Still no screenshots of it though. For discussion of Core Animation and how it might change interfaces,...
Delicious Library 2, which has a snazzy new UI based on Core Animation, wins an Apple's 2007 Design Award for Best Leopard Application. Still no screenshots of it though. For discussion of Core Animation and how it might change interfaces, see here: Kiss Boring Interfaces Goodbye With Apple's New Animated OS. The other winners are: Best Mac OS X User Experience: Coda. Panic. Best Mac OS X Developer Tool: CSSEdit 2.5. MacRabbit. Best Mac OS X Game: World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade 2.0. Blizzard Entertainment . Best Mac OS X Scientific Computing Solution: Papers 1.0. Alexander Griekspoor and Tom Groothuis. Best Mac OS X Dashboard Widget: BART Widget 1.0. Bret Victor. Best Mac OS X Student Product: Picturesque 1.0. Zac Cohen.
lkahney - Pure Digital Claims it Will Sell Unlocked iPhones
If you're among the many people in the United States who either can't use AT&T/Cingular or choose not to use the carrier's services based on negative experiences, take heart -- there still might be a way to use an iPhone...
If you're among the many people in the United States who either can't use AT&T/Cingular or choose not to use the carrier's services based on negative experiences, take heart -- there still might be a way to use an iPhone without the company's blessing. The iPhone ships in four weeks. And though Apple is officially keeping the device exclusive to AT&T for five years, never underestimate the black market for unlocked phones. According to Ars Technica, Pure Mobile is now claiming it will sell unlocked iPhones for an undisclosed (read: EXORBITANT) rate almost as soon as the devices hit the market. As a T-Mobile user, this is very heartening news, but I can tell you there is no way I'm going to spend $1,000 or more for an iPhone. Maybe when the iPhone nano hits in two years, and someone unlocks that... Anyone willing to take the unlocked plunge? Technorati Tags: iphone, unlock
Pete Mortensen - First iPhone Web Apps Available
For all of the complaining that has tripped down the wire about Apple's total lack of an SDK for the iPhone, a couple of entrepreneurial developers have already created iPhone apps to try out in Safari. Shown above is David...
For all of the complaining that has tripped down the wire about Apple's total lack of an SDK for the iPhone, a couple of entrepreneurial developers have already created iPhone apps to try out in Safari. Shown above is David Cann's alternate interface for Digg. It's quite fun, and I actually find it a better way to navigate Digg than the real site. (Sorry, Kevin!) I especially enjoy the way it implements the "grab and fling" interface for the rest of us. The other contender is OneTrip, a quick (though very elegant) grocery list program put together over-night by Neven Mrgan. Both apps are really nice and fairly clear evidence that sophisticated programs suited to use on the iPhone are possible. I think the new Apple strategy of "the web is the new SDK" is actually a wonderful one. They're pretty unlikely to crash, and really powerful development is a possibility. Anyone want to lay money on how long it will be until Google issues a version of Reader optimized for the iPhone? Via Digg. Twice. Technorati Tags: iphone, software, thirdparty
Pete Mortensen - Video: John "PC" Hodgman Posing As Steve Jobs
Miss the WWDC keynote? Other than a couple of the specific features of Leopard, don't bother. But you should watch the video above -- it's John "PC and also noted pseudo-intellectual" Hodgman posing as Steve Jobs and announcing the demise...
Miss the WWDC keynote? Other than a couple of the specific features of Leopard, don't bother. But you should watch the video above -- it's John "PC and also noted pseudo-intellectual" Hodgman posing as Steve Jobs and announcing the demise of the Mac platform. It was the opening act for real Steve. Hilarious. Technorati Tags: get a mac, john hodgman
Pete Mortensen - Watch the WWDC 2007 Stevenote
So what is Steve Jobs didn't introduce any new hardware in his keynote and the iPhone third-party application support is somewhat bogus? Core Animation, the new Desktop and new Finder or incredibly gorgeous, so watch Steve preach it on Apple's...
So what is Steve Jobs didn't introduce any new hardware in his keynote and the iPhone third-party application support is somewhat bogus? Core Animation, the new Desktop and new Finder or incredibly gorgeous, so watch Steve preach it on Apple's official stream. Technorati Tags: keynote, steve jobs, wwdc
Pete Mortensen - Leopard "Stacks" Implement Ages-Old GUI Concept "Piles"
With all the excitement and, to be frank, disappointment that came with yesterday's WWDC Stevenote, I haven't seen anyone pick out the obvious with Apple's innovative new GUI element Stacks, which allows users to cluster files that would otherwise clutter...
With all the excitement and, to be frank, disappointment that came with yesterday's WWDC Stevenote, I haven't seen anyone pick out the obvious with Apple's innovative new GUI element Stacks, which allows users to cluster files that would otherwise clutter the desktop into a discreet pile of files that blow out into a scannable list with a simple click. It takes the super-janky right-click a folder in the dock movement we're all used to now and replaces it with a sleek Dock launcher we can all get behind. It's really cool. It's also a very old concept, one that Apple has had patented for 15 years. And this doesn't look to be a great implementation of it. Way back in 1992, Apple called the Stacks content "Piles," first demonstrating the new interface at the CHI conference. Gitta Solomon of Apple's Advanced Technology Human Computer Interaction Group created the fascinating interview, which The Register mooted was finally destined for Mac OS X way back in 2003. Only four years too early -- and 11 years too late. Click through to learn more about Piles. Technorati Tags: piles, stacks Former Apple interface guru Bruce Tognazzini is among the most ardent supporters of the old Piles notion, so I'm in the process of connecting with him to find out whether he think the Leopard version does Piles justice, especially since it seems rather feature limited. Here's a classic "Tog" quote about Piles: Piles Apple holds a patent on this one. Developed by Gitta Salomon and her team close to a decade ago, a pile is a loose grouping of documents. Its visual representation is an overlay of all the documents within the pile, one on top of the other, rotated to varying degrees. In other words, a pile on the desktop looked just like a pile on your real desktop. To view the documents within the pile, you clicked on the top of the pile and drew the mouse up the screen. As you did so, one document after another would appear as a thumbnail next to the pile. When you found the one you were looking for, you would release the mouse and the current document would open. Piles, unlike today???s folders, gave you a lot of hints as to their contents. You could judge the number of documents in the pile by its height. You could judge its composition very rapidly by pulling through it. Piles have been among the most-requested UI features among Mac-heads for more than a decade now. In fact, when I told a co-worker that used to work at a design firm with Apple ties about Stacks, he replied, "Oh, yeah. Apple's had that patented for years." The future's the past, people. Steve has finally been in the job long enough that he's ready to re-examine technology that the company developed while he was at NeXT. If that isn't news, I don't know what is.
Pete Mortensen - Fascinating History of Oregon Trail Developer MECC
For a lot of Apple geeks, the love affair with Apple began at school, using an Apple II while playing Oregon Trail, the all-time best game where you could explore the wild west and see your whole family die of...
For a lot of Apple geeks, the love affair with Apple began at school, using an Apple II while playing Oregon Trail, the all-time best game where you could explore the wild west and see your whole family die of dysentery or snake bite, all before afternoon recess. Silicon User has pulled together a fantastic article detailing the history of the Minnesota Educational Computing Consortium, creators of Oregon Trail, Number Munchers and Word Munchers. Those were the titles that proved that Macs were good for playing games, even back then. What I hadn't realized is that Apple enjoyed a very close relationship with the odd, government-owned corporation: Throughout the 1980s, key individuals from Apple Computer attended MECC conferences as keynote speakers including Apple co-founder and then-Chairman Steve Jobs and Alan Kay (an Apple fellow) in 1982, Flord Kvamme (Executive VP of Sales at Apple) in 1983 and in 1985 John Sculley, then-CEO of Apple. Check it out and get nostalgic. Educational computing for the masses | SiliconUser Technorati Tags: oregon trail, history
Pete Mortensen - WWDC: Safari 3 on Windows Review
Having spent a day with the beta for Apple's much-ballyhooed Safari browser for Windows XP, I'm ready to pronounce it the fastest browser for XP that I've used on a regular basis. On the other hand, it also is riddled...
Having spent a day with the beta for Apple's much-ballyhooed Safari browser for Windows XP, I'm ready to pronounce it the fastest browser for XP that I've used on a regular basis. On the other hand, it also is riddled with the kinds of bizarre bugs only a public beta could expose. Sometimes, it's both the fastest AND the stupidest browser on all of Windows. If you're on the fence, click through to hear whether your working style is ready for this not-quite-ready for primetime browser contender while stranded in the Windows world. Technorati Tags: software, review, safari Since July, I have had to run a fairly old Thinkpad T41 at work, and the loss of my browser of choice, Camino, has been the hardest adjustment, other than the control key being in the wrong place and no cmd key. I've mainly used Firefox over the last 11 months, but it's an eccentric application, given to occasional memory leaks and performance slow-downs I struggle to explain. And Internet Explorer is a dog, no matter what version I pull up. As you can imagine, I was thrilled to bring some more of Apple's subversive software onto my work machine. And I was impressed. Safari blazes on my machine, easily topping the best I've seen from Firefox or IE7. Start-up time is pretty dreadful (30 seconds or so), but pages render faster, and especially blogging and message board sites are snappier than I've ever experienced. Incredibly fast refresh rates, the works. But speed isn't necessarily a measure of quality. Specifically, Windows Safari sometimes decides to "smooth" the text on a given page into an unrecognizable black line -- no text. If, for example, you visit my other blog, you'll note that all of the headlines are just plain missing. At Facebook, a friend request turned into a page full of incoherent squiggles. I've never seen pages render so improperly in my life. It was like visiting an alternate 1995 in Netscape Navigator 1.1 where people devoted web pages to their favorite horizontal lines instead of to puppies. Other than that, I've had no crashes and no other problems. I'll probably switch back to Firefox until I can read every web page I visit, but they have to get that right by the time they're out of beta, right?
Pete Mortensen - WWDC: Safari for Windows Confirmed
Big shocker at WWDC today (seriously!). Apple is going to release a public beta of Safari 3 for Windows at its site this afternoon. I really didn't expect to see this happen -- a really bold move from Apple, especially...
Big shocker at WWDC today (seriously!). Apple is going to release a public beta of Safari 3 for Windows at its site this afternoon. I really didn't expect to see this happen -- a really bold move from Apple, especially if they can find some way to make it play nicer with iTunes than Firefox and Explorer do. And as a workplace Windows user -- I'll definitely download and play with it. It's no Camino, but then, what is? Image via MacRumors.
Pete Mortensen - WWDC: Leaked Agenda Already Proven False
Lest there be any lingering doubts about the total lack of authenticity contained in the supposed agenda for this morning's keynote by Steve Jobs at the Worldwide Developer Conference posted to a German Apple site over the weekend, consider this:...
Lest there be any lingering doubts about the total lack of authenticity contained in the supposed agenda for this morning's keynote by Steve Jobs at the Worldwide Developer Conference posted to a German Apple site over the weekend, consider this: The agenda hasn't gotten a single detail of the presentation correct. Here's the early agenda, as proposed by the site, Apfelkueche: ??? Greetings ??? Sales figures and market share of the Macs ??? Apple net curtain: ??? new Retail store in Italy, ??? first store on European mainland, ??? new stores will open shortly, among other things Munich, Barcelona, Paris ??? iMac: ??? Core2Duo selling great!, ??? New Generation, ??? new Design, which follows itself to iPhone, partly brushed metal ??? even thinner, ??? Santa rosa chip set, ??? LED back light, ??? Sizes: 20 ? and 24 ? ??? Demo new iMacsHere's what Steve has actually done, courtesy of our colleague Michael Calore's live blog:Video with John HodgmanDetails of attendance at largest WWDC everSpecial award to Intel for contributions to AppleGames demos with EA and iD GamesOverview of Tiger successDetails of Leopard features, none of which are enumerated on German siteI mean, I knew it was fake, but who could have guessed it was THAT fake?
Pete Mortensen - Live at WWDC
It's a beautiful sunny morning here in San Francisco, and Wired News will be liveblogging Steve Jobs' keynote at WWDC. We have reporters. We have cameras, and we have press passes. Check it out here at 10 AM. Don't forget...
It's a beautiful sunny morning here in San Francisco, and Wired News will be liveblogging Steve Jobs' keynote at WWDC. We have reporters. We have cameras, and we have press passes. Check it out here at 10 AM. Don't forget to refresh.
lkahney - WWDC: Rumored Keynote "Agenda" is Ludicrous
Wanna know the No. 1 sign that we're less than 12 hours from major product announcements by Apple? People are throwing up completely weak rumors that wouldn't even get mocked normally. Chief among these at this very moment is an...
Wanna know the No. 1 sign that we're less than 12 hours from major product announcements by Apple? People are throwing up completely weak rumors that wouldn't even get mocked normally. Chief among these at this very moment is an alleged rundown of The Stevenote address, which includes some errors so obvious that it even harms the credibility of the rest of the list. The Google translation from the original German at Apfelkueche is quite interesting, but take a look at the detail. The new iMacs are alleged to have LED displays at 20 and 24". Really? I'd be pretty surprised. After all, Apple just rolled out MacBook Pros last week, and only managed to go LED for the 15.4" models, not the 17" SKUs. Could Apple pull together a machine built around a display a full 7" bigger than a model they haven't even shipped? I doubt it. The wackiest rumor of all is, of course, the iPhone@Home, an alleged 10" multitouch tablet mainly for movie-watching and Internet surfer. People have been throwing around rumors for years that Apple would release a tabletMac, and this is the same old rumor, repackaged as a pretend big brother for the iPhone. Who knows? Apple might be ready. But I can tell you this much: NO WAY ON EARTH is Apple releasing a machine called the iPhone@Home that isn't actually a phone and can be used anywhere, not just at home. The company is way too smart to use such a stupid name. Keep your heads up, kids, the FUD is flying right now. Via Digg. Technorati Tags: keynote, rumor, steve jobs, Steve Jobs
Pete Mortensen - WWDC: Apple In Talks For Online Movie Rentals?
Steve Jobs has made a hobby out of letting the world know that people aren't interested in renting their music. We hear you loud and clear, Steve. One thing Steve has never claimed, however, is that people don't like renting...
Steve Jobs has made a hobby out of letting the world know that people aren't interested in renting their music. We hear you loud and clear, Steve. One thing Steve has never claimed, however, is that people don't like renting movies, as Netflix and Blockbuster will attest. On the eve of his WWDC keynote, the Financial Times claims that Steve is about to put Apple at the forefront of the digital movie rental business: A film would cost $2.99 for a 30-day rental. Its digital rights-management software would allow films to be moved from a computer to at least one other device such as the video iPod or iPhone. The software would prevent movies being copied. Interesting notion. After all, Apple has gone through hell trying to sign up movie studios to sell their films through iTunes. A lot more companies than Disney and Paramount will leap in if this is legit. Via MacRumors. Technorati Tags: itunes, movies, rentals
Pete Mortensen - Prediction: Multitouch Input Pad at WWDC?
I predict Steve Jobs will introduce a multitouch mousepad at WWDC tomorrow morning -- and that finger input will be one of the "top secret" features of Leopard. The multitouch pad will look like a standard mousepad, but it'll be...
I predict Steve Jobs will introduce a multitouch mousepad at WWDC tomorrow morning -- and that finger input will be one of the "top secret" features of Leopard. The multitouch pad will look like a standard mousepad, but it'll be finger sensitive, like the touchpads on most notebooks. But instead of one finger, it'll be sensitive to multi-finger gestures and commands, like the iPhone. The pad will completely replace the mouse, allowing users to control the Mac with their fingers -- moving the cursor, selecting files and double clicking with a quick double tap of the index finger. The pad will also respond to a whole new vocabulary of gestures, like Mouse Gestures in Firefox, which execute common commands (backwards, forwards, reload) with a sweep of the mouse. Using your fingers, you'll open files by twisting to the left, as though turning an imaginary dial. Twist your fingers to the right to close the file. The pad will be USB powered, and will have "soft buttons" for common commands like cut and paste, and delete. Jobs will unveil multitouch at WWDC to give Mac programmers time to incorporate gesture commands into their software before Leopard's release in October. Of course, this is pure speculation. I've no evidence whatsoever this is going to happen. I've no idea if it's even realistic. Can developers incorporate an entirely new UI into their software in a few months? Will people even want it? Don't forget, the QWERTY keyboard is still around. People don't like whacky new interfaces. Still, Jobs made a big deal of the multitouch finger interface of the iPhone, proclaiming it the third great "revolutionary" interface after the mouse and the scroll wheel. It seems natural we should be using our fingers to interact with computers. Others are doing it. Microsoft has it's Surface table, and I saw a new HP TouchSmart PC at the weekend, which is controlled by a large touch screen. A woman was playing Solitaire on the screen with her fingers, and it worked really well. I was quite impressed. Apple is already making moves towards gesture interfaces. The touchpads on MacBooks support two finger scrolling. And there's the iPhone. Part of the iPhone's multitouch interface is based on the work of two University of Delaware professors, John Elias and Wayne Westerman. Elias and Westerman owned a company called FingerWorks that sold a multitouch Touchstream keyboard and an iGesture Numeric Keypad, which worked like the multitouch mousepad described above. Apple bought FingerWorks in early 2005, along with the professors' patents, which look like an entire platform for finger-based interfaces. For one thing, using your finger seems to help with RSI, according to FingerWorks' testimonials: "I've been a LP user for about 8 months. It's been the best thing that's ever happened to me in the world of computers. I'm a mechanical engineer and I use it for 2D and 3D CAD drafting, as well as 'normal' office type use. Also, I'm a Linux and Windows user, and I love how it works easily in both environments. I have RSI in both my left and right forearms and wrists. Since using the Touchstream, I've reduced pain considerably, and I am able to do work with much less pain."
lkahney - Analysis: AppleTV Hits Lower Margins Than iPod, iPhone
BusinessWeek and iSuppli partnered to analyze the costs of the AppleTV. Somewhat surprisingly, the $300 gadget was found to cost nearly $237, which yields a significantly lower margin than the iPod or iPhone. Even more interestingly, the analysis shows that...
BusinessWeek and iSuppli partnered to analyze the costs of the AppleTV. Somewhat surprisingly, the $300 gadget was found to cost nearly $237, which yields a significantly lower margin than the iPod or iPhone. Even more interestingly, the analysis shows that Apple makes significantly more money on each $400 AppleTV they sell, as the cost to upgrade the drive is much higher than the difference in raw cost to Apple. It is uncharacteristic for Apple to make this little of anything they sell. Anyone think this might be the source of Steve's calling the device "a hobby"? Thanks, Bill! Technorati Tags: appleTV, margins, profit
Pete Mortensen - iPhone Map App Pinpoints Infinite Loop.
Looks like Apple dropped an easter egg in its iPhone icons. An eagle-eyed blogger noticed something on the iPhone's Map application: it essentially doubles as a Steve Jobs locator. No, it doesn't pinpoint his house, but his office. Or at...
Looks like Apple dropped an easter egg in its iPhone icons. An eagle-eyed blogger noticed something on the iPhone's Map application: it essentially doubles as a Steve Jobs locator. No, it doesn't pinpoint his house, but his office. Or at least, it seems to show the Apple Campus at Infinite Loop in Cupertino.
Mat Honan - New Versions of Camino and NetNewsWire Roll Out
On Tuesday, while Apple was busy releasing new MacBook Pros, two of my favorite Mac apps received substantial updates. Camino was bumped up to version 1.5 while NetNewsWire went to version 3.0. I'm positively smitten with both apps. Camino, the...
On Tuesday, while Apple was busy releasing new MacBook Pros, two of my favorite Mac apps received substantial updates. Camino was bumped up to version 1.5 while NetNewsWire went to version 3.0. I'm positively smitten with both apps. Camino, the mozilla browser written in Cocoa, is noticeably faster--and it already blazed--sports in-browser spell checking, and allows you to save sessions when you quit (so you can start up again with the same web pages you had open when you closed your browser). NetNewsWire added a bevy of new features as well, chief among them tighter Mac integration with Address Book, Spotlight, Growl, iCal, iPhoto and (unbelievably) Twitterific. I've been using both since yesterday, and am absolutely floored with how much faster each is. Go grab them.
Mat Honan - New MacBook Pro Unboxing and Screen Comparison
What would an Apple product launch be without a ceremonial unboxing? Incomplete. GeekSugar grabbed a new LED-screened MacBook Pro this morning and have posted the full results in a gallery. My geek-lust is strong right now... (Thanks, Angelica!) Technorati Tags:...
What would an Apple product launch be without a ceremonial unboxing? Incomplete. GeekSugar grabbed a new LED-screened MacBook Pro this morning and have posted the full results in a gallery. My geek-lust is strong right now... (Thanks, Angelica!) Technorati Tags: macbook pro, unboxing, Unpacking
Pete Mortensen - Apple Announces New MacBook Pros
As rumored, Apple updated the MacBook Pro line this morning to use the latest screaming processors up to 2.4 Ghz from Intel and a more powerful GeForce 8600M GT graphics processor. The 15.4-inch machines also use mercury-free LED backlit displays,...
As rumored, Apple updated the MacBook Pro line this morning to use the latest screaming processors up to 2.4 Ghz from Intel and a more powerful GeForce 8600M GT graphics processor. The 15.4-inch machines also use mercury-free LED backlit displays, delivering on the announcement that Steve Jobs made in the company's environmental roadmap. Disappointing that the 17" machine is still on LCD, according to the release, but this is a new technology. I can't wait to see how gorgeous the screens look up close. I might make it to an Apple Store this afternoon, so I'll keep you posted. Full details after the jump. They are immediately available. Technorati Tags: apple, intel, macbook pro From Apple's press release: Pricing & Availability The new MacBook Pro models are now shipping and will be available through the Apple Store?? (www.apple.com), Apple???s retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers. The 2.2 GHz, 15-inch MacBook Pro, for a suggested retail price of $1,999 (US), includes: * 15.4-inch widescreen LED-backlit 1440-by-900 LCD display; * 2.2 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor; * 2GB of 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM, expandable to 4GB; * 120GB Serial ATA hard drive running at 5400 rpm, with Sudden Motion Sensor; * a slot-load 8x SuperDrive?? with double-layer support (DVD??R DL/DVD??RW/CD-RW) optical drive; * NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT with 128MB GDDR3 memory; * DVI-out port for external display (VGA-out adapter included, Composite/S-Video out adapter sold separately); * built-in Dual Link support for driving Apple 30-inch Cinema HD Display; * built-in iSight video camera; * Gigabit Ethernet port; * built-in AirPort Extreme?? 802.11n wireless networking and Bluetooth 2.0+EDR; * ExpressCard/34 expansion card slot; * two USB 2.0 ports, one FireWire 800 port, and one FireWire 400 port; * one audio line in and one headphone out port, each supporting optical digital audio; * Scrolling TrackPad and illuminated keyboard; * the infrared Apple Remote; and * 85 Watt Apple MagSafe Power Adapter. The 2.4 GHz, 15-inch MacBook Pro, for a suggested retail price of $2,499 (US), includes: * 15.4-inch widescreen LED-backlit 1440-by-900 LCD display; * 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor; * 2GB of 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM, expandable to 4GB; * 160GB Serial ATA hard drive running at 5400 rpm, with Sudden Motion Sensor; * a slot-load 8x SuperDrive with double-layer support (DVD??R DL/DVD??RW/CD-RW) optical drive; * NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT with 256MB GDDR3 memory; * DVI-out port for external display (VGA-out adapter included, Composite/S-Video out adapter sold separately); * built-in Dual Link support for driving Apple 30-inch Cinema HD Display; * built-in iSight video camera; * Gigabit Ethernet port; * built-in AirPort Extreme 802.11n wireless networking and Bluetooth 2.0+EDR; * ExpressCard/34 expansion card slot; * two USB 2.0 ports, one FireWire 800 port, and one FireWire 400 port; * one audio line in and one headphone out port, each supporting optical digital audio; * Scrolling TrackPad and illuminated keyboard; * the infrared Apple Remote; and * 85 Watt Apple MagSafe Power Adapter. The 2.4 GHz, 17-inch MacBook Pro, for a suggested retail price of $2,799 (US), includes: * 17-inch widescreen 1680-by-1050 LCD display; * 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor; * 2GB of 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM, expandable to 4GB; * 160GB Serial ATA hard drive running at 5400 rpm, with Sudden Motion Sensor; * a slot-load 8x SuperDrive with double-layer support (DVD??R DL/DVD??RW/CD-RW) optical drive; * NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT with 256MB GDDR3 memory; * DVI-out port for external display (VGA-out adapter included, Composite/S-Video out adapter sold separately); * built-in Dual Link support for driving Apple 30-inch Cinema HD Display; * built-in iSight video camera; * Gigabit Ethernet port; * built-in AirPort Extreme 802.11n wireless networking and Bluetooth 2.0+EDR; * ExpressCard/34 expansion card slot; * three USB 2.0 ports, one FireWire 800 port, and one FireWire 400 port; * one audio line in and one headphone out port, each supporting optical digital audio; * Scrolling TrackPad and illuminated keyboard; * the infrared Apple Remote; and * 85 Watt Apple MagSafe Power Adapter. Additional build-to-order options for the MacBook Pro include the ability to upgrade to a 160GB (5400 rpm), 160GB (7200 rpm), 200GB (4200 rpm) or a 250GB (4200 rpm) hard drive, up to 4GB DDR2 SDRAM, Apple MagSafe Airline Adapter, Apple USB Modem, glossy widescreen display, 17-inch 1920-by-1200 high-resolution display and the AppleCare Protection Plan. Additional build-to-order options also include pre-installed copies of iWork??? ???06, Logic Express 7, Final Cut?? Express HD 3.5 and Aperture??? 1.5.
Pete Mortensen - Laptop Mag Picks Tiger Over Vista
The folks over at Laptop magazine ran a head-to-head competition with Mac OS X Tiger and Windows Vista. They compared the big tickets like interfaces, performance and security, along with several other interesting also-rans like widgets and search (which, as...
The folks over at Laptop magazine ran a head-to-head competition with Mac OS X Tiger and Windows Vista. They compared the big tickets like interfaces, performance and security, along with several other interesting also-rans like widgets and search (which, as we approach terrabyte hard drives is probably becoming more of a big ticket item every year). We'll cut to the chase here: The Mac wins. Yet it's an interesting side-by-side comparison, especially given the surprising conclusions some of the ballot issues, such as media. It will be interesting to see what Leopard will bring to this matchup.
Mat Honan - iPhone Fan Ad Spoofs 2001
Apple rolled out its first iPhone ads over the weekend. They are, perhaps predictibly given the track record, cool and stunning. But just as good--well, maybe not just as good, but still damn good--is this new fan ad that parodies...
Apple rolled out its first iPhone ads over the weekend. They are, perhaps predictibly given the track record, cool and stunning. But just as good--well, maybe not just as good, but still damn good--is this new fan ad that parodies 2001 with an iPhone-as-monolith.
Mat Honan - Video: Steve and Bill On-Stage Together
Miss yesterday's historic chat between Apple founder Steve Jobs and Microsoft founder Bill Gates? The whole thing is online and broken into 7 parts at the site for the D -- All Things Digital conference website. I have the remaining...Miss yesterday's historic chat between Apple founder Steve Jobs and Microsoft founder Bill Gates? The whole thing is online and broken into 7 parts at the site for the D -- All Things Digital conference website. I have the remaining six parts after the Jump
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7
Pete Mortensen - Video: Steve Speaks at All Things Digital
Miss Steve's talk with Walt Mossberg at yesterday's D -- All Things Digital conference? Now you can watch the direct-feed video, linked above. Just wait until he admits to reading Fake Steve. Priceless. read the transcript of him admitting to...
Miss Steve's talk with Walt Mossberg at yesterday's D -- All Things Digital conference? Now you can watch the direct-feed video, linked above. Just wait until he admits to reading Fake Steve. Priceless. read the transcript of him admitting to reading Fake Steve while watching the video and imagine what it might sound like. (That'll teach me to read the whole video first...) Via Digg.
Pete Mortensen - Rumor: New MacBook Pros on Tuesday, June 5
One of the most interesting side effects of Apple's switch to Intel chips for its computers is that it is now always possible to tell when Apple's hardware isn't keeping pace with the rest of the market. Take, for example,...
One of the most interesting side effects of Apple's switch to Intel chips for its computers is that it is now always possible to tell when Apple's hardware isn't keeping pace with the rest of the market. Take, for example, Santa Rosa, Intel's newest laptop architecture featuring rev'd Core2 Duo processors. PC-makers started releasing gear based on the high-performance technology on May 9, and Apple still hasn't rolled out new machines. People have been speculating all along that Apple would hold off updated computers until June 11, the beginning of the Worldwide Developers Conference, but now MacRumors suggests we might want to look at next Tuesday, June 5. Let's look at the facts: New MacBook Pros are likely to use the existing case and not innovate beyond updated chips, which isn't the sexiest Steve keynote launch. It is a Tuesday. Apple loves Tuesdays! My name is Pete, and I approve this rumor. It also implies we might get the major iMac update at the WWDC keynote. That could really be something to see.
Pete Mortensen - Apple Rolls Out iTunes Plus, 160GB AppleTV, YouTube on AppleTV
Apple dropped a few lovely and unexpected tidbits in addition to the already anticipated iTunes Plus DRM-free music downloads. Specifically, Apple's new "hobby," the AppleTV, will soon have direct YouTube support, and an build-to-order option to quadruple the device's capacity...
Apple dropped a few lovely and unexpected tidbits in addition to the already anticipated iTunes Plus DRM-free music downloads. Specifically, Apple's new "hobby," the AppleTV, will soon have direct YouTube support, and an build-to-order option to quadruple the device's capacity to 160GB will roll out soon, for $100 extra. It's still not a DVR out of the box, but this thing is getting very capable very fast... iTunes Plus, meanwhile, includes the ability to buy-upgrade ("bupgrade?") any iTunes Store song you already own without copy-protection and a higher bit-rate for 30 cents per song. I must admit, I'd be moving what few iTS songs I have to the superior format, but none of the songs I have are in the first bunch of iT+ selections. Anyone making the move? Technorati Tags: appleTV, itunes, itunes plus, youtube
Pete Mortensen - Steve and Bill Reminisce, Mock Gil Amelio
Today's D: All Things Digital conference has been quite interesting, from the introduction of Palm's ludicrous Foleo device to Microsoft's over-the-top (literally) Surface computing initiative and Apple's more modest but interesting announcements of YouTube for AppleTV, iTunes Plus and the...
Today's D: All Things Digital conference has been quite interesting, from the introduction of Palm's ludicrous Foleo device to Microsoft's over-the-top (literally) Surface computing initiative and Apple's more modest but interesting announcements of YouTube for AppleTV, iTunes Plus and the Big AppleTV upgrade. Nothing, however, compares to the currently rolling Steve Jobs and Bill Gates chat on stage together. They're mostly looking back with humor on their linked history. It's hilarious stuff, from Engadget's liveblog of it: Steve: Gil (Amelio) had a saying, "Apple is like a ship with holes in the bottom leaking water. My job is to get that ship pointed in the right direction." No, no. I'm not crying. It's just been raining...on my face! Technorati Tags: bill gates, Steve Jobs, steve jobs
Pete Mortensen - Steve Jobs Switches Back to New Balance
Steve Jobs is a reverse switcher! He's switched back to New Balance sneakers after a couple of token months wearing Nike. Could his Nike + iPod deal be in trouble? Via Engadget.
Steve Jobs is a reverse switcher! He's switched back to New Balance sneakers after a couple of token months wearing Nike. Could his Nike + iPod deal be in trouble? Via Engadget.
lkahney - Real Steve Reads Fake Steve
At the D Conference today, Steve Jobs admitted he likes the Secret Diary of Steve Jobs. Walt Mossberg asked: Do you read the Fake Steve Jobs blog? Jobs: I have read a few of the FSJ things recently, but I...
At the D Conference today, Steve Jobs admitted he likes the Secret Diary of Steve Jobs. Walt Mossberg asked: Do you read the Fake Steve Jobs blog? Jobs: I have read a few of the FSJ things recently, but I thought it was pretty funny!
lkahney - Apple Releases iTunes 7.2 Supporting DRM-Free iTunes Plus
After midnight Eastern tonight, Apple let its own cat out of the bag to go along with Microsoft's announcement of Surface. The Mac OS X Software update brings iTunes 7.2, featuring support for DRM-free downloads off of the iTunes Store,...
After midnight Eastern tonight, Apple let its own cat out of the bag to go along with Microsoft's announcement of Surface. The Mac OS X Software update brings iTunes 7.2, featuring support for DRM-free downloads off of the iTunes Store, what Apple is calling "iTunes Plus." The update notice mentions this support from "participating labels" (does EMI have friends in its DRM-free world?), and then the help file goes further, as noted by MacRumors: The iTunes Store also offers songs without DRM protection, from participating record labels. These DRM-free songs, called "iTunes Plus," have no usage restrictions and feature higher-quality encoding. The first time you buy an iTunes Plus song, you specify whether to make all future purchases iTunes Plus versions (when available). You can change this setting by accessing your account information on the iTunes Store. If you already have iTunes Store purchases that are now available as iTunes Plus downloads, you may upgrade your existing purchases. To do so, visit the iTunes Store and follow the onscreen instructions. Perhaps there's hope for converting my library of FairPlay-encoded files to come back to life. We can only hope. Tomorrow's going to be exciting. Stay tuned... Technorati Tags: drm, itunes
Pete Mortensen - Oops: MS Launches Huge Multitouch Display Years Away From Home Use
Remember that totally awesome touchscreen demo at huge scale that had broad applications such as natural photo sorting and editing and fingerpaints? Well, in advance of the D Conference today, Microsoft decided it would be a good idea to launch...
Remember that totally awesome touchscreen demo at huge scale that had broad applications such as natural photo sorting and editing and fingerpaints? Well, in advance of the D Conference today, Microsoft decided it would be a good idea to launch a product line that is...exactly that demo. They call it Surface, and if it lives up to the demo videos on the official site, it will be spectacular in use. T-Mobile, Harrah's Entertainment and others plan to roll them out very quickly. You might be playing with one in a few days. So what's the problem? Why isn't Apple panicking? Because this is as far from a consumer application as you can get. A 30" touchscreen display built on a coffee table in the living room is years away from being something people will buy. Granted, Apple's multi-touch product, the iPhone, is also very high-end, but a $600 phone is closer to reality than the Future Table 6000. Don't get me wrong. I'm sure that Microsoft will make money from this selling to stores and casinos. There are many people looking for an interactive table for what I would assume is at least $10,000, if not more. But this is like a new pinball machine, not a technology that will make an impact at home for years to come. It is an amazing demo, but it's far from ready for prime-time. This is for an exciting display in a store. The fact that MS isn't talking about rolling this technology to other platforms yet indicates that they're not playing for those markets. And I will pit the iPhone or a touch-enabled iPod against a to-be-announced Surface Zune any day. If anything, launching this way is a sign that Microsoft knows it doesn't have a product to compete with the iPhone ready to go. So they brought out the circus edition of the technology. I'm sure the clowns and the elephants are psyched. Microsoft Surface: multi-user touch table [MacNN] Technorati Tags: microsoft, iphone, surface
Pete Mortensen - Mac Plus Beats AMD Dualcore In Word, Excel Tests
Ever wondered what we've gained in 20 years of computing advancement? Other than better graphics, the answer is...not much, at least for basic office productivity tasks. Hal Licino at HubPages runs a vintage MacPlus from 1986 against a brand-new PC...
Ever wondered what we've gained in 20 years of computing advancement? Other than better graphics, the answer is...not much, at least for basic office productivity tasks. Hal Licino at HubPages runs a vintage MacPlus from 1986 against a brand-new PC running on AMD dual-core hardware, and finds that the MacPlus is faster for virtually all comparable tasks, including booting and several ordinary MS Office tasks. Just goes to show you -- computing peaked in 1988 (the Mac SE/30 dominates the Plus still). 86 Mac Plus Vs. 07 AMD DualCore. You Won't Believe Who Wins Technorati Tags: macplus, quicktime vr
Pete Mortensen - Nominee For Oddest Mac Mini Case Mod
It's giant friendly green blob Haro from Gundam! And his back ate a Mac mini! Good thing he can dance or something. A very, very odd Japanese import. Check Ubergizmo for more. Via GeekSugar. Technorati Tags: gundam, mac mini, mod,...
It's giant friendly green blob Haro from Gundam! And his back ate a Mac mini! Good thing he can dance or something. A very, very odd Japanese import. Check Ubergizmo for more. Via GeekSugar. Technorati Tags: gundam, mac mini, mod, accessory
Pete Mortensen - Apple v. Sony Difference Made Clear in NY Times Story
Each Apple Store is intimate, friendly, educational and filled with new technologies to discover. They're warm places, filled with helpful "geniuses," great gift ideas and room to learn, fail and succeed. Each interaction is an opportunity for Apple to directly...
Each Apple Store is intimate, friendly, educational and filled with new technologies to discover. They're warm places, filled with helpful "geniuses," great gift ideas and room to learn, fail and succeed. Each interaction is an opportunity for Apple to directly connect in an emotional way with its customers -- a pure brand expression.But as Apple's influence and power as a company has grown, another electronics powerhouse, Sony, has headed straight downhill, with a mediocre retail presence reflecting its overall woes. The NY Times's Randall Stross does an excellent job of chronicling the features that make Apple stand out and the symptoms of Sony's disease in this feature from the Sunday Times. He does not, however, truly diagnose the patient or recommend a cure that people can actually use.
I'll take that chance. Click through to hear what Apple is doing right, and why Sony Style stores feel so cold.
Technorati Tags: apple, retail, sony
Here's why Apple Stores are great: They are exactly like Apple and its products. Modern, simple, rife with false humility. On some deep level, Apple Stores are very proud of the company's achievements. The place unabashedly celebrates all things iPod, Mac, AppleTV and iLife like a proud parent. More than that, everything in the room says "Try me. Take me home. I'll make you better. I work well with the technologies you already own." The design of the retail experience is focused on emotional connections to Apple's customers. And it works really well, because that's what every Apple product, package, and business decision is also designed to do. It's honest.
Stross is very taken with Apple Stores, but I think this advice for Sony from Wendy Liebman of WSL Retail is a bit off. She's telling Sony to be Apple, and that really only works for Apple:
Wendy Liebman, the founder of WSL Strategic Retail in New York, was equally critical of the Sony Style store, which she faulted as being merely ???a place of stuff.??? She said that a successful brand excites a passionate attachment, the way Starbucks or Target do, and that Apple???s stores exemplify ???emotional connection.???
???People can just walk in, absorb the fumes and feel like the smartest technophile in the world,??? she said. Let???s add that there is only one place to buy computers that features Geniuses at all times.The article struggles for a purpose. Is the issue that Sony needs to be more emotional? Or is it that the company needs an exclusive device that will drive traffic to the stores? Here's the big picture. Sony is not an emotional brand. It is a cool brand that pushes for sleek, clean, high-design, high-tech products that really push the edges of technical possibility. And the fact is, that isn't necessarily the most fun brand to embody in an environment. Sony Style is almost true to the overall Sony brand, but I think it tries a little too hard to allow people to experiment and discover, much like the Apple Store. Sony makes technology for people who want the latest and greatest. That says to me that maybe Sony Style should be more about a curated experience -- guided tours of the bleeding edge.
A Sony store feels too much like my living room and not enough like the bridge of the Starship Enterprise. That's the problem. If I could be having this experience at home, I'd rather have Apple get me there. For Sony, I want to feel like I've stepped into the future.
Apple???s Lesson for Sony???s Stores: Just Connect [NY Times]
Pete Mortensen - This Week Will Bring DRM-Free iTunes?
Ever since Apple and EMI shocked the world in April by announcing that they would sell music through the iTunes Store free from copy-protection constraints, the world has been waiting for the company's to actually make that announcement a reality....
Ever since Apple and EMI shocked the world in April by announcing that they would sell music through the iTunes Store free from copy-protection constraints, the world has been waiting for the company's to actually make that announcement a reality. This might be the week, if the rumor mill has it pegged correctly. MacNN claims we've been going through a delay of these products, which I can't say I noticed: The seeming delay for introducing the new tier of content has been primarily attributed to a desire to offer the entire catalog at once in the unprotected format rather than a gradual rollout. The companies' technicians are simply in the later stages of encoding and hosting the files before they go live, the contact says. Not too surprising, here. After all, Apple said they would launch an offering in May -- that means they'll launch it on the last Tuesday of the month, right? Wake me up when Apple actually misses launching during the month. DRM-free iTunes set this week? [MacNN] Technorati Tags: drm, itunes
Pete Mortensen - Fact or Fiction: Video Shot on iPhone?
The next four weeks are going to be crazy. Maybe, once the iPhone is truly released into the wild, hysteria over sightings will recede until that day, however, the Internet is wild with any news of an iPhone in public....The next four weeks are going to be crazy. Maybe, once the iPhone is truly released into the wild, hysteria over sightings will recede until that day, however, the Internet is wild with any news of an iPhone in public. I won't even cover one of the big iPhone stories of the weekend here (a photo of a man who is either holding an iPhone or possibly any other object that fits in the hand is not news), but I am intrigued by this video find.
It purports to be an Apple Store employee sneaking an iPhone onto the floor of the shop, then shooting video of himself being shown on a store iMac's iSight. It looks pretty real. It could be faked pretty easily, though it would basically have to b e done with another camera phone or pocket video recorder dressed in an iPhone costume. What do you think?
iPhone Camera Video Mirror [YouTube]
Via TUAW
Pete Mortensen - Zombies Welcome at the Apple Store
A Zombie flash mob got a friendly reception at the San Francisco Apple Store, CNet's Declan McCullagh reports: It may be worth noting that the Westfield Mall and Disney security tried to bar the zombies from entering, but Apple store...
A Zombie flash mob got a friendly reception at the San Francisco Apple Store, CNet's Declan McCullagh reports: It may be worth noting that the Westfield Mall and Disney security tried to bar the zombies from entering, but Apple store security did not. In fact, salespeople were jostling one another for a position where they could take the best photo of the zombies (or themselves with the zombies, or their brains being eaten by the zombies). More pix at Flickr.
lkahney - Apple: Keep Your Hands off my Power Supply
Apple's MagSafe power connector, the power cord that connects to new Mac laptops magnetically, is one of the more innovative hardware features to hit portables in years. The MagSafe connector doesn't jack in to a laptop; it connects via a...
Apple's MagSafe power connector, the power cord that connects to new Mac laptops magnetically, is one of the more innovative hardware features to hit portables in years. The MagSafe connector doesn't jack in to a laptop; it connects via a magnet so if you stumble over the cord, it just disconnects and your MacBook doesn't come tumbling off the table. It's saved mine from who knows how many spills, and is probably the only reason my MacBook hasn't had to endure frequent trips back to Apple's repair center like my previous Mac laptops. Yet after more than a year on the market, there still are no third-party accessories for it--adapters that will let you jack into the power ports on planes or cars for example. Why not? Dan Frakes discovered that it's because Apple won't license it. Apple owns the patent on the MagSafe, and it's not sharing. Perhaps it wants to corner the market on power accessories, it sells an airplane adapter for about sixty bucks, but that seems short sighted. As Frakes points out, licensing the technology and farming it out to third party vendors could earn the company plenty in licensing fees, while letting consumers get the accessories they want (probably at a lower price).
Mat Honan - Zune Headquarters Hosts iPod Amnesty Bin
Fimoculous brought Microsoft's iPod Amnesty Bin at the Zune Headquarters recently. Looks pretty empty to me -- think team members are taking the discards home to use instead of their Zunes? Or is it a place for iPods to escape...
Fimoculous brought Microsoft's iPod Amnesty Bin at the Zune Headquarters recently. Looks pretty empty to me -- think team members are taking the discards home to use instead of their Zunes? Or is it a place for iPods to escape from Microsoft's labs where they were getting dissected and copied? iPod Amnesty Bin on Flickr Via TUAW. Technorati Tags: ipod, zune
Pete Mortensen - Mac Mini is Unloved, Not Dead in the Water
I'm genuinely puzzled by AppleInsider's melodramatic post pronouncing the death of the Mac mini. The article recounts Apple's many slights of its lowest-end platform and then proceeds to show know evidence that the line will soon be killed off. It...
I'm genuinely puzzled by AppleInsider's melodramatic post pronouncing the death of the Mac mini. The article recounts Apple's many slights of its lowest-end platform and then proceeds to show know evidence that the line will soon be killed off. It has seen just four updates since inception, one of which was so insignificant in Apple's own eyes that the company didn't even bother to draft a press release. Even now, the current minis' 1.66GHz and 1.83GHz Core Duo processors are a far cry from the silicon offered in the rest of Apple's PC offerings. Well, that's actually to be expected. And I would say that hardware is significantly better than a lot of low-end PCs from other manufacturers. But that's neither here nor there. Apple needs the Mac mini just to get people looking for a cheap Mac in the door. The AppleTV might be incredibly popular as a hackable Mac substitute, but that's not what it is out of the box. Apple still needs a low-end entry, and the Mac mini costs very little to develop and revise. I don't see Apple just walking away. And this quote says it all: Whether Apple will squeeze another revision from the mini, and how long it plans to allow existing models to linger, are both unclear. Oh, so at some point in the future, possibly after Apple releases new Mac minis, Apple will stop selling the Mac mini. Yep, dead as a doornail. What? AppleInsider | Closing the book on Apple's Mac mini Technorati Tags: mac mini, puppy
Pete Mortensen - Found Video: Homebrew PVR Software Running on AppleTV
Well, that's the missing link resolved. The above video depicts an AppleTV running MythTV, an open-source PVR program. If the AppleTV hard drive were a little bit bigger, it would officially be a real TiVo challenger. Will Apple ever release...
Well, that's the missing link resolved. The above video depicts an AppleTV running MythTV, an open-source PVR program. If the AppleTV hard drive were a little bit bigger, it would officially be a real TiVo challenger. Will Apple ever release official PVR support? YouTube - MythTV On AppleTV Via Digg. Technorati Tags: appleTV, mythtv
Pete Mortensen - Large Gallery of "See-Through" Powerbook Screens
Remember that video years ago of the "transparent" Powerbook screen? Someone has compiled a gallery of photos demonstrating the same principle. There's an odd beauty here. Check it out. Fun 4 Amdavadi Gujarati Via Digg. Technorati Tags: powerbook
Remember that video years ago of the "transparent" Powerbook screen? Someone has compiled a gallery of photos demonstrating the same principle. There's an odd beauty here. Check it out.
Via Digg.
Technorati Tags: powerbook
Pete Mortensen - Tide iPod Plays Tunes, Fights Stains
I think we have a nominee for ugliest -- or prettiest? -- iPod ever, courtesy of a bizarre promotion that Procter & Gamble is running to benefit the people of New Orleans. If you buy an ugly Tide t-shirt for...
I think we have a nominee for ugliest -- or prettiest? -- iPod ever, courtesy of a bizarre promotion that Procter & Gamble is running to benefit the people of New Orleans. If you buy an ugly Tide t-shirt for $10, you can win an iTunes gift certificate or a bright orange, Tide-branded iPod. A nano, from the looks of it. No word on whether they'll also brand you forehead with Tide. Vintage T-shirts from Tide.com Via Kristofer Brozio. Technorati Tags: ipod, tide
Pete Mortensen - Are Tech Analysts Ganking Rumors from Prominent Mac Sites?
MacRumors founder Arnold Kim makes a very interesting point regarding the rumored new MacBook Pros and iMacs that Piper Jaffrey analyst Gene Munster unleashed on an unwitting public yesterday. Like many others, I was fairly impressed that Munster took the...
MacRumors founder Arnold Kim makes a very interesting point regarding the rumored new MacBook Pros and iMacs that Piper Jaffrey analyst Gene Munster unleashed on an unwitting public yesterday. Like many others, I was fairly impressed that Munster took the trouble to determine the average life cycle of both iMac and MacBook Pro generations. Well, as it turns out, Munster might not have calculated the numbers himself: These numbers correlate exactly to the [MacRumors] Buyer???s Guide averages. Some have asked couldn???t he have come up with these numbers on his own? It???s possible, but exceedingly unlikely as he would have had to choose the same releases (2002 PowerBook, 2003 iMac) to start counting in order to achieve the exact same averages. Kim also implies that Munster's assumption that Apple will release new Macs at WWDC might be directly drawn from an earlier ThinkSecret report, which makes the reliability of tech analysts' reports about Macs questionable. Which they absolutely are. Apple is the rare computer company that won't play nice and let analysts see their stuff earlier than the general public. There's no question that most reports or based on assumptions and reading rumor sites. I do question a commenter's conclusion that any of this is new. From what I can tell, the Mac rumor sites have been ahead of the analysts since the day Steve came back. Technorati Tags: analysts, rumor
Pete Mortensen - New Macs at WWDC? (Well, yeah)
Analyst Gene Munster (not to be confused with Herman) today predicted that Apple will roll out new MacBook Pros and iMacs at the Worldwide Developer Conference in June. That's not the world's edgiest guess, given that it's been almost nine...
Analyst Gene Munster (not to be confused with Herman) today predicted that Apple will roll out new MacBook Pros and iMacs at the Worldwide Developer Conference in June. That's not the world's edgiest guess, given that it's been almost nine months since either product line was updated. What is rather shocking is Munster's baffling logic for the update:Munster added that he "expects" new MacBook Pros (1, 2) to make a showing at the developer conference and that it's "also possible" that Apple will introduce a redesigned iMac. He notes that on average, the Cupertino-based company has updated its professional notebooks every 182 days, with the most recent generation having launched 209 days ago (data presumably gathered via help from the MacRumors buyer's guide). Similarly, he said, iMacs have traditionally seen updates every 168 days but the current generation is now a whopping 257 days old.Wow, and I thought it was just that Intel had new processors on the market and Apple's just about last to roll out hardware sporting the chips. I am mildly interested in the rumor that the iMac would actually be redesigned and not just refreshed. Looking back at it, the timing might be right. The iMac G4 was on the market for about 30 months, and we're now at 33 months for the iMac G5 enclosure. I think Apple is more than due for a real new design statement on its computers, so this will be one to watch. Image via WikipediaVia Engadget
Pete Mortensen - Hello Again, 'Hello.' Apple Leads Ad Revival
Interesting article in the New York Times today about the resurgence of the world "Hello" as an ad tagline. Apple has a long tradition of using the word dating to the original Mac, so it's only fitting that they've revived...
Interesting article in the New York Times today about the resurgence of the world "Hello" as an ad tagline. Apple has a long tradition of using the word dating to the original Mac, so it's only fitting that they've revived it for the iPhone, but this is a bigger trend, as reflected in the creepy "Hello, Delicious" ads for Level Vodka:???Advertising being an annoying, interruptive medium, ???Hello??? is kind of a nice salutation, a friendly way of introducing yourself,??? said Lee Clow, chairman and chief creative officer at the TBWA Worldwide unit of the Omnicom Group who has long worked for Apple.That's one way to view it. You know what I think it is? It's Thursday, that's what it is.
Pete Mortensen - No, DRM-Free Music Won't Create a New Bonanza
Silicon Valley raconteur Om Malik is always keeping his eyes peeled for something to surpass Apple's killer iPod+iTunes combo, and after endorsing Real Rhapsody the other day, he's now generally supporting the idea that a new generation of DRM-free music...
Silicon Valley raconteur Om Malik is always keeping his eyes peeled for something to surpass Apple's killer iPod+iTunes combo, and after endorsing Real Rhapsody the other day, he's now generally supporting the idea that a new generation of DRM-free music will fuel a surge in digital music sales.While online music downloads have grown rapidly, DRM (regardless of the flavor) has added more friction than security to the process, often slowing total sales, especially amongst the non-techie music fans.I still don't buy it. Most people are willing to put up with minor DRM headaches for convenience. Most other people that really want to own their music are using services like eMusic or buying CDs. I don't think we're at a point where a lack of DRM-free Greatest Hits of the Eagles downloads is the bottleneck. Granted, Om thinks Apple stands to benefit here, but he also implies that the Sonos hardware that connects to Pandora could be the wave of the future. Which it isn't. I'm sorry, but radio, however evolved, doesn't hold the same long-term value as buying what you want. Pandora's a fun trick right now, but it's a long way from the music-brain I never realized I needed.
Pete Mortensen - Extra Reading, if you're bored.
If you've ever wondered exactly what I mean when I talk about innovation, feel free to take a gander at my other two blogs, both of which pertain to the subject. This is what I do for a living, so...
If you've ever wondered exactly what I mean when I talk about innovation, feel free to take a gander at my other two blogs, both of which pertain to the subject. This is what I do for a living, so I think you should get a bit of my perspective on it. The first blog, Better than New, is one I run with a friend. It's basically like what we do here, but as it pertains to design, innovation, cultural needs, stuff like that. It's newer but way more frequently updated. The second, Pattern Linguist, is a misguided attempt to blog the complete history of the field of innovation as we know it today. It takes a long time to research, and I tend to be thoughtful instead of snarky here. Still, there's ample fodder at both. Check 'em out!
Pete Mortensen - MacBook Screen Lawsuit is a Tempest in a Teapot
About 95 percent of quality in a computer is subjective When a machine runs well, people aren't likely to become concerned about the specification of its memory controllers or the speed of its hard disk. But when things are bad,...
About 95 percent of quality in a computer is subjective When a machine runs well, people aren't likely to become concerned about the specification of its memory controllers or the speed of its hard disk. But when things are bad, it doesn't matter if the machine is tricked out with the best components in the entire world -- it's a pile of junk.
This is all relevant to the current tempest in a teapot that goes by day as a lawsuit against Apple for "deceptively" using 6-bit LCD screens instead of 8-bit color on its MacBooks and MacBooks Pro. What this essentially means is that Apple advertises its computers as displaying millions of colors (presumably a full 16,777,216) but that they instead show only several hundred thousand (262,244). I am outraged! OUTRAGED!*
Why, just read this shocking quote from the lawsuit!
The reality is that notwithstanding Apple's misrepresentations and suggestions that its MacBook and MacBook Pro display "millions of colors," the displays are only capable of displaying the illusion of millions of colors through the use of a software technique referred to as "dithering," which causes nearby pixels on the display to use slightly varying shades of colors that trick the human eye into perceiving the desired color even though it is not truly that color.
And just imagine, if you sell that same computer to a color-blind person, they see far fewer than even the 262,244 colors you should be seeing! Horrors! And dogs can only see the screens in black and white -- a double-insult!
As several very insightful people have pointed out, virtually no laptop screens capable of displaying millions of colors are on the market. The fact that it's taken people this long to notice really is more indicative of what a non-issue it is. The only people who need such color range are graphics and video professionals, and we can only pray they're not relying on built-in laptop displays for their work!
(In case you're wondering where the figures come from, 6-bit and 8-bit refer to each color channel. That means (2^6)^3 versus (2^8)^3. That's because we're talking about the color-depth for red, green and blue. We're actually talking about 18-bit and 24-bit color. And none of it has anything to do with 64-bit processing)
So, yes, Apple shouldn't lie about it, but neither should other PC makers, and no one should be using laptops exclusively for mission-critical graphic design and color balancing. Can we go home now?
*I am not outraged.
Image and quote via Ars Technica.
Pete Mortensen - Jobs Says Gore Can Be Next President
Never one to pull a punch, Steve Jobs recently told Time Magazine that Al Gore can win the 2008 presidential election if the pro-environmental Apple board member wants to: "If he ran, there's no question in my mind that he...
Never one to pull a punch, Steve Jobs recently told Time Magazine that Al Gore can win the 2008 presidential election if the pro-environmental Apple board member wants to:"If he ran, there's no question in my mind that he would be elected," said Jobs, referring to Gore. "But I think there's a question in his mind, perhaps because the pain of the last election runs a lot deeper than he lets most of us see."I have to assume that last sentence is humor. No one has ever seen Al Gore express emotion about the election, ever. Any pain at all would be the first anyone has seen. What do you think -- is the world ready for America's first iPresident? Via MacNN.
Pete Mortensen - Apple's 5-year Deal With AT&T is Annoying, Strategic
Just in case anyone still had doubts about Apple's commitment to AT&T as the exclusive carrier of the iPhone, wonder no longer: USA Today reported that Apple will be married to AT&T for FIVE YEARS. FIVE YEARS! To put that...
Just in case anyone still had doubts about Apple's commitment to AT&T as the exclusive carrier of the iPhone, wonder no longer: USA Today reported that Apple will be married to AT&T for FIVE YEARS. FIVE YEARS! To put that in perspective, that's the same amount of time between the introduction of the original iPod and the release of the clip-on model of the Shuffle. And while this announcement is thoroughly irritating to me (I use T-Mobile...grumble, grumble), it might prove strategic for Apple. Click through to read why.Handset exclusivity is a mixed bag in the U.S. market these days. Almost any phone, bar a tiny handful, will eventually make its way to all four of the major carriers. It's a slow process, but it happens. The carriers play off each other, and the prices of the phones go lower and lower, harming the perceived value of the the actual handsets. Just ask Motorola how this worked with the RAZR. So by really committing to one carrier, Apple creates tremendous value for AT&T by giving them an unbelievably premium offering that only they may carry, and they also preserve value for Apple by ensuring that the iPhone never becomes a $29 device with a commitment to a two-year plan. This can allow Apple to hold more tightly to their user interface, feature set and design in a way that working with the big four would not. This deal is an outright declaration of war on the other mobile carriers, nothing less. If you thought Apple only had it in for Palm and RIM, you have another thing coming. What I still can't tell is how much this deal pertains to the exact phone Apple will roll out at the end of June. The company is prohibited from making a CDMA version of the iPhone during the five-year period, but I still don't see details that speak about exclusivity of future models. I can only assume that AT&T thought of that and we won't see unlocked iPhone nanos on the market in two years, but I guess we can keep hoping. This does confirm one more thing, to my mind, however: It will be less than an hour after launch that people start selling allegedly unlocked iPhones on eBay at prices well above $1,000. Within a week, someone will have the iPhone running on T-Mobile networks. Apple drives me nuts sometimes, and rarely so much as with this announcement. But let's face facts: I couldn't afford an iPhone until at least late 2008 regardless (the whole wedding thing), and I can't leave my current carrier until then, either. It was a long shot either way. Still, it leaves me with a quandary: I'm desperate for a good smart phone, and I absolutely can't stand the user interfaces of Treos, BlackBerrys or Sidekicks. What's a nerd to do? Buy a Nokia N95?
Pete Mortensen - Sculptor Releases Wooden 128k Mac Replica
Artist Lee Stoetzel has a show of unique scale replicas of iconic products. The best, by far, is the Mac shown above. From what I can tell, even though it's non-operable, it's actually more powerful than the original 128k Mac....
Artist Lee Stoetzel has a show of unique scale replicas of iconic products. The best, by far, is the Mac shown above. From what I can tell, even though it's non-operable, it's actually more powerful than the original 128k Mac. Especially is you drop it on your foot. Wood Mac | The Apple Core Via Digg. Technorati Tags: mac, wood
Pete Mortensen - Found Video: Precocious 7-Year-Old Raves About Apple II in 1982
Future Cruxy blogger Nat Freitas has been at this tech thing for a long time. In the above video, he talks about the Apple II in glowing terms on a local cable access show. It rocks. 7 year old kid...
Future Cruxy blogger Nat Freitas has been at this tech thing for a long time. In the above video, he talks about the Apple II in glowing terms on a local cable access show. It rocks. 7 year old kid (me) talking about Apple IIs back in '82 from natdefreitas on Vimeo
Via Digg.
Pete Mortensen - Macs Used for Roomba Hacks at Maker Faire 2007
Maker Faire is an amazing event held annually in San Mateo, Calif. where people from all over the place come together to show off the crazy hardware hacks and contraptions they've cobbled together. As you might expect, it's not actually...
Maker Faire is an amazing event held annually in San Mateo, Calif. where people from all over the place come together to show off the crazy hardware hacks and contraptions they've cobbled together. As you might expect, it's not actually a Mac-heavy location. If you aren't building your computer from spare parts you found in the neighbor's trash, you're sort of a second-class citizen. Anyway, I went on Saturday, and met up with Tod Kurt, author of Hacking Roomba and the Todbot blog, who was showing off the latest and greatest in mods to make your robot vacuum cleaner do things it was never designed to, like play a sad sort of vacuum music or even act as a giant spirograph doodler (pic after the jump). Best of all, Tod and his boothmate, from the company he runs, ThingM, were an all-Mac shop. Hacking Roombas is great. Doing it with Macs is even better. It's all very easy over Bluetooth, apparently. Technorati Tags: makerfaire, roomba
Pete Mortensen - Whose House? Apple's House
I snapped this photo walking home through Union Square the other night. It was a huge Volkswagen outdoor advertisement on a pillar, and someone decided to let the German carmaker know who runs San Francisco. It can only be Apple....
I snapped this photo walking home through Union Square the other night. It was a huge Volkswagen outdoor advertisement on a pillar, and someone decided to let the German carmaker know who runs San Francisco. It can only be Apple. Technorati Tags: apple, vw, sticker
Pete Mortensen - Readomatic Alpha Release: A Standalone App of Web App of Standalone App
General confusion and ambivalence about the continued value of stand-alone have gone mainstream as of...now. That's because German developer Gernot Poetsch has released an alpha of a new RSS reader he calls Readomatic. What's so weird about this app? Well,...
General confusion and ambivalence about the continued value of stand-alone have gone mainstream as of...now. That's because German developer Gernot Poetsch has released an alpha of a new RSS reader he calls Readomatic. What's so weird about this app? Well, it's a standalone application of Google Reader, which is itself a replacement for a standalone RSS reader. Google Reader's great advantage is that it isn't standalone -- you can use it on any computer connected to the Internet and still have it keep up with all your readings. We're now in the age of applications that take the limited functionality and GUI of a web app and give it the restricted, non-portable feature set of a standalone app. We're through the looking glass here, people. Still, it looks kinda hot. I'm not going to stop using Vienna, though. Announcing Readomatic [poetsch.org] Via digg. Technorati Tags: rss, software
Pete Mortensen - FCC Says iPhone OK For Public Consumption
Our long, national nightmare is over: The FCC has approved the iPhone, which means that nothing is holding back the miracle device's release other than software issues so titanic that people got pulled off of Leopard development to fix it....
Our long, national nightmare is over: The FCC has approved the iPhone, which means that nothing is holding back the miracle device's release other than software issues so titanic that people got pulled off of Leopard development to fix it. Yep, all hurdles cleared. At the product's intro, Steve Jobs said he was taking the unusual stance of announcing the iPhone early so that the FCC wouldn't do it for him. So mark this day -- in an alternate universe where Steve doesn't believe in early announcements, even if it means screwing over the FCC, this would be the day that news of the iPhone broke. Can you even imagine how different 2007 would have been without all our wildest iPhone rumors confirmed. News Flash: Apple iPhone receives FCC approval [AppleInsider] Via Digg. Technorati Tags: innovation, iphone
Pete Mortensen - The Saga of a Fake Apple Internal Memo
In case you missed it, the full story of how Engadget came to post a fake Apple internal memo announcing delays of the iPhone to October and Leopard to January is now up at the site. The false news allegedly...
In case you missed it, the full story of how Engadget came to post a fake Apple internal memo announcing delays of the iPhone to October and Leopard to January is now up at the site. The false news allegedly caused Apple to lose $4 billion in market cap in just six minutes. It's pretty a long and pretty involved tale, but the most interesting piece is this: Someone with access to Apple's internal e-mail systems sent the original memo. Apple sent a second e-mail denying that the first message was real, but it all feels fishy. After all, we know Apple has started fake rumors in the past just to flush out leakers. Could the Steve now be applying this logic to his own employees? Regarding yesterday's Apple news [Engadget]
Pete Mortensen - MacBU Releases Word 2007 Document Converter
Microsoft, kings of irony, moved to the new Office Open XML document format with its new Office 2007 for Windows. It's ironic, because the format, well, won't really open on Mac OS X. Fortunately the Macintosh Business Unit inside MS...
Microsoft, kings of irony, moved to the new Office Open XML document format with its new Office 2007 for Windows. It's ironic, because the format, well, won't really open on Mac OS X. Fortunately the Macintosh Business Unit inside MS is fighting the good fight, and in between latte-fueled coding runs on Office 2008, they put together a nifty little beta of a program designed to make Open XML more, well, open. It's got an amazing name, as well: the Microsoft Open Office XML File Format Converter for Mac. I would have added "2007 Home Edition" to the end to really make it an MS, but it's a beta, so all in good time. The little program changes any .docx file into a charming and useful .rtf, OS X's lingua franca. Nice work, folks. Thanks, Tammy! Technorati Tags: microsoft, Unpacking, vista
Pete Mortensen - Apple Takes Page from Dell Playbook, Announces Most Incremental MacBook Upgrade EVAR!
Everyone on the planet is buzzing about Apple's next round of laptop upgrades since the company announced it would switch from LCD screens to LED screens in the very near future. Here we are less than a month later, and...
Everyone on the planet is buzzing about Apple's next round of laptop upgrades since the company announced it would switch from LCD screens to LED screens in the very near future. Here we are less than a month later, and Apple has upgraded its consumer MacBook line to include -- features roughly equivalent to the existing MacBook line! I know, I know, contain your excitement if you can. Why, instead of a base configuration of 512 megs of RAM, now every MacBook will ship with a full gig of RAM at the same price a year later! And instead of featuring either a 1.83 Ghz or 2.0 Ghz processor, now the 'Books ship with either a 2.0 or 2.16 Ghz part! It's almost like Moore's Law is in effect or something! I've got the full specs behind the jump. The new MacBooks also have 802.11n now, which is a very nice feature, and it means that these are very good, very mature pieces of hardware. It also means they're about to get blown out of the water by Santa Rosa-based, LED-wearing MacBooks Pro. Sign me up for one of those instead, please. Technorati Tags: macbook, puppy The 2.0 GHz, 13-inch white MacBook, for a suggested retail price of $1,099 (US), includes: 13.3-inch glossy widescreen 1280 x 800 display; 2.0 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor; 667 MHz front-side bus; 1GB of 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM, expandable to 2GB; 80GB Serial ATA hard drive running at 5400 rpm, with Sudden Motion Sensor; a slot-load Combo (DVD-ROM/CD-RW) optical drive; Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950; Mini-DVI out (adapters for DVI, VGA and Composite/S-Video sold separately); built-in iSight video camera; Gigabit Ethernet port; built-in AirPort Extreme?? 802.11n wireless networking and Bluetooth 2.0+EDR; two USB 2.0 ports and one FireWire?? 400 port; one audio line in and one audio line out port, each supporting both optical digital and analog; Scrolling TrackPad; the infrared Apple Remote; and 60 Watt MagSafe Power Adapter. The 2.16 GHz, 13-inch white MacBook, for a suggested retail price of $1,299 (US), includes: 13.3-inch glossy widescreen 1280 x 800 display; 2.16 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor; 667 MHz front-side bus; 1GB of 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM, expandable to 2GB; 120GB Serial ATA hard drive running at 5400 rpm, with Sudden Motion Sensor; a slot-load 8x SuperDrive with double-layer support (DVD+R DL/DVD??RW/CD-RW) optical drive; Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950; Mini-DVI out (adapters for DVI, VGA and Composite/S-Video sold separately); built-in iSight video camera; Gigabit Ethernet port; built-in AirPort Extreme 802.11n wireless networking and Bluetooth 2.0+EDR; two USB 2.0 ports and one FireWire 400 port; one audio line in and one audio line out port, each supporting both optical digital and analog; Scrolling TrackPad; the infrared Apple Remote; and 60 Watt MagSafe Power Adapter. The 2.16 GHz, 13-inch black MacBook, for a suggested retail price of $1,499 (US), includes: 13.3-inch glossy widescreen 1280 x 800 display; 2.16 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor; 667 MHz front-side bus; 1GB of 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM, expandable to 2GB; 160GB Serial ATA hard drive running at 5400 rpm, with Sudden Motion Sensor; a slot-load 8x SuperDrive with double-layer support (DVD+R DL/DVD??RW/CD-RW) optical drive; Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950; Mini-DVI out (adapters for DVI, VGA and Composite/S-Video sold separately); built-in iSight video camera; Gigabit Ethernet port; built-in AirPort Extreme wireless networking and Bluetooth 2.0+EDR; two USB 2.0 ports and one FireWire 400 port; one audio line in and one audio line out port, each supporting both optical digital and analog; Scrolling TrackPad; the infrared Apple Remote; and 60 Watt MagSafe Power Adapter. Apple Updates Popular MacBook
Pete Mortensen - John Mayer Betrays Apple with a (BlackBerry) Curve-ball?
John Mayer never ceases to irritate. Much as I love Steve Jobs and Apple, their insistence on putting the soft-rock crooner on the stage whenever they roll out a new product always grates. At this January's iPhone introduction, the rumor...
John Mayer never ceases to irritate. Much as I love Steve Jobs and Apple, their insistence on putting the soft-rock crooner on the stage whenever they roll out a new product always grates. At this January's iPhone introduction, the rumor was that Paul and Ringo would take the stage to kick off Beatles music on the iTunes Store, but we got John Mayer yet again. And now, to what purports to be his own blog, Mayer has allegedly announced that he has an advance copy of RIM's BlackBerry Curve, a direct iPhone competitor with a similar feature set, if implemented in a less-exciting way. In Benedict Arnold's own words: Just got an advance of the Blackberry Curve... I guess you could say I'm ahead of the... Nevermind. lights will guide you home... But never back to Cupertino. Who's with me? No more Steve-notes for Mr. Mayer? Technorati Tags: blackberry, iphone
Pete Mortensen - Awkward AT&T CEO Gives iPhone to University President -- Awkwardly
Cingular/AT&T Wireless CEO Stan Sigman's 5 minutes of flop sweat hit the lowest point of the otherwise stunningly executed iPhone launch. Amid smooth presentations by the best of Silicon Valley, Sigman did his best to kill the mood with the...Cingular/AT&T Wireless CEO Stan Sigman's 5 minutes of flop sweat hit the lowest point of the otherwise stunningly executed iPhone launch. Amid smooth presentations by the best of Silicon Valley, Sigman did his best to kill the mood with the utterly uninteresting announcement that Cingular had become AT&T's mom or something. It was kind of hard to follow. I wasn't paying close attention.
And just as Sigman caused the thunder to fizzle out during the iPhone launch, he's done it again, becoming the first person to publicly gift the iPhone. He's apparently a graduate of West Texas A&M University, and he gave the commencement lecture this year, lamely pulling out an iPhone as a gift for the university's president, Dr. O'Brien.
Man. At this pace, Sigman's going to start pre-announcing Apple products. You'd best give him the talk, Steve.
Stan Sigman gifts iPhone at West Texas A&M [YouTube]
Via TUAWTechnorati Tags: iphone, stan sigman
Pete Mortensen - Jobs Rolls Out The Zingers for Shareholders Meeting
Image by Mina Ramzy His Steveness was in prime form during last week's Apple Shareholders meeting, and AppleInsider's got the goods. The iCEO dissed Microsoft, acknowledged interest in 3rd-party iPhone apps and mocked the people of the developing world. He's...
Image by Mina RamzyHis Steveness was in prime form during last week's Apple Shareholders meeting, and AppleInsider's got the goods. The iCEO dissed Microsoft, acknowledged interest in 3rd-party iPhone apps and mocked the people of the developing world. He's so predictable that way:
"I wish developing great products was as easy as writing a check," he said. "If that were the case, then Microsoft would have great products."
...
When asked about the iPhone's closed development platform and whether the company recognized the need of large institutions to build their own applications for the handset, Jobs replied that Apple was "wrestling" to balance the requirements for security and stability with the desire for custom application development.
...
During the shareholders meeting, Jobs also entertained the suggestion that Apple could mimic Microsoft's strategy of offering developing nations Windows Starter Edition -- a low cost version of Windows XP as an alternative to the much more expensive Windows Vista. "Do you think we should offer Mac OS 9?" Jobs quipped in response.
"I think Apple could sell the developing world Tiger while selling Leopard here," the attendee replied. Jobs paused for a moment and said that could be an option.
Nice one, Steve! You just looked like a big ol' jerk. We're keenly aware that you're not interested in being perceived as a major philanthropist, but you could at least pretend some times... There's much more at the AI story.
Apple's Jobs addresses critics, new product directions [AppleInsider]
Technorati Tags: iphone, OS 9, Steve Jobs
Pete Mortensen - Apple's Retail Sales In Top 5 for First Time this Year
As if we need evidence that Apple's continued commitment to innovation and great design is paying off beyond the iPod line, check the March sales numbers of the company's computers. Through retail channels, Apple's MacBook family are the fourth-most popular...
As if we need evidence that Apple's continued commitment to innovation and great design is paying off beyond the iPod line, check the March sales numbers of the company's computers. Through retail channels, Apple's MacBook family are the fourth-most popular laptop offerings in the U.S. at 10 percent of all sales, and its desktops are No. 5 with 8 percent. This does leave out Dell from the conversation, but it's always better to leave Dell out of things, isn't it? Click through for the final numbers. Apple Laptops Grab 9.9% of Retail Sales, Desktops 7.7%[Apple 2.0] Technorati Tags: marketshare, sales Category: Laptops Rank Brand Unit Share 1 Toshiba 26.2% 2 Hewlett Packard 23.9% 3 Gateway 13.0% 4 Apple 9.9% 5 Compaq 8.5% Total Dollar Volume: $696,976,800 Category: Desktops Rank Brand Unit Share 1 Hewlett Packard 35.0% 2 Compaq 16.7% 3 Gateway 16.6% 4 Emachines 16.4% 5 Apple 7.7% Total Dollar Volume: $304,787,600
Pete Mortensen - Apple II Plastic Model Tshirt
The Chop Shop t-shirt website has a very unusual Apple II t-shirt design for sale. The front of the shirt looks like a template for a plastic toy -- like a model airplane. But turn the shirt around and the...
The Chop Shop t-shirt website has a very unusual Apple II t-shirt design for sale. The front of the shirt looks like a template for a plastic toy -- like a model airplane. But turn the shirt around and the assembled model is on the back -- an Apple II. The site says each tee comes with a limited edition temporary tattoo.
lkahney - Pretty, Obviously Fake MacTablet Images
Since Apple introduced the iPhone, we haven't had a fun product to speculation about in a month or two, and that means no ridiculous Photoshop renderings of unannounced hardware products. Well, we can't have that, can we? Thank goodness that...
Since Apple introduced the iPhone, we haven't had a fun product to speculation about in a month or two, and that means no ridiculous Photoshop renderings of unannounced hardware products. Well, we can't have that, can we? Thank goodness that we have the still-mysterious Mac Tablet to think about. After all, it's not like Apple would create a truly mind-blowing form factor for the anticipated Centrino Pro (Santa Rosa) MacBook Pros, is it? A forum linking off of Chinese site TechWeb posted some photos it purports to have uncovered of the actual Mac Tablet. Except that it's quite obviously cgi. Still, it looks cool, doesn't it? I'd use one. Via Digg. Technorati Tags: mac, rumor, tablet
Pete Mortensen - AwkwardTV Releases First-Ever Game for AppleTV, Omelette
Though Apple still won't acknowledge rumors that it's about to make a serious video gaming play beyond iPod games, a third party has stepped in and shown that the AppleTV is ready for games now. It's called Omelette, and it's...
Though Apple still won't acknowledge rumors that it's about to make a serious video gaming play beyond iPod games, a third party has stepped in and shown that the AppleTV is ready for games now. It's called Omelette, and it's basically just Bejeweled. But hey, it works, right? Counterstrike is definitely going to be next. Via Ars Technica. Technorati Tags: appleTV, game, hack
Pete Mortensen - Analysis: Wait, Are Sun, Google and Apple Teaming Up or Ready to Kill Each Other?
Silicon Valley makes no sense. In January, Apple and Google got so close that the rumor mills buzzed with word that they would form an alliance with Sun to take on Microsoft...again. Yesterday, Sun made some pretty big announcements: They...
Silicon Valley makes no sense. In January, Apple and Google got so close that the rumor mills buzzed with word that they would form an alliance with Sun to take on Microsoft...again. Yesterday, Sun made some pretty big announcements: They rolled out JavaFX development platform, which truly promises to deliver on the dream of "write once, run everywhere" that the company has promised since it launched Java more than a decade ago, and that always means more opportunity for apps to come to the Mac. On the other hand, they showed off a mobile phone platform that will try to compete with Apple's iPhone by, you know, LOOKING EXACTLY LIKE AN iPHONE, but across manufacturers and at a cheap price. While I think Apple's ability to make data syncing a snap is the real competitive advantage of the iPhone and that the company's implementation of multitouch will be better than anyone else's, I still think other companies aren't out for the count yet. Sun might be making the platform for that competition. And the Valley is still buzzing on word that Google might release its own phone. So why are Apple, Google and Sun best buds one moment and worst enemies the next? Technorati Tags: google, iphone, java Seth Weintraub of 9 to 5 Mac makes some interesting points about Sun's recent love for Apple, but I don't know if it outweighs an overt competitive action like this. The only thing I can think is that it's simply a matter of battles chosen. There are places (enterprise, software development) where Apple and Sun can be natural allies because they have complementary strengths, with Google as a third leg in the triumvirate. Each has capabilities the others can't match There are other markets -- mobile phones, for example -- where Apple, Google and Sun each have the opportunity to carve out a major piece of the market, and current alliances aren't set up to last. And I think that's just the way Silicon Valley acts. Everyone is close friends until they betray each other, and then they become friends again later when it suits them. If you're outside of that social context, it just doesn't make sense. But failure and competition get things done here. After all, Yahoo and Google are as likely to be teaming up as they are to be at each other's throats. Sun and Apple Forging Alliance | 9 to 5 Mac Found on Digg.
Pete Mortensen - Academic Journal Beaten Down In Pursuit of Apple Design Group
Every few years, another writer who hasn't followed Apple's design heritage for very long decides to figure out where it comes from and why it's been such a success. And every few readers, they end up talking with people extremely...
Every few years, another writer who hasn't followed Apple's design heritage for very long decides to figure out where it comes from and why it's been such a success. And every few readers, they end up talking with people extremely tangential to the process who haven't been involved for at least 9 years. The latest is poor Daniel Turner, writing for the MIT Technology Review: But the omerta that prevails at Apple proved too strong. Company representatives declined to speak with me, and sources only tangentially engaged with the industrial-design process said that they could not talk either. When I asked Paul Kunkel, author of the 1997 book AppleDesign, for tips on obtaining interviews, he laughed and said, "Go sit outside the design-group offices with a pizza." What follows is as clear a picture of the Apple design process as we could get. Which is to say, very out of date and filled with speculation. Don't get me wrong -- I think this as good a job as anyone could do analyzing Apple's design group without getting behind the veil, but it's nothing new to anyone following Apple long-term. I think it's particularly telling that the writer couldn't even get someone from Frog that worked on Apple products in the 1980s to speak on the record. A designer with no Apple ties had to step up. Give it a read, though: It's worth it just for the shocking revelation that Steve Jobs just might have a major impact on the final design of the company's products. Huh. Couldn't have guessed that! The Secret of Apple Design: Technology Review Via Digg. Technorati Tags: apple, design, innovation
Pete Mortensen - Two Online-Only "Get a Mac" Ads Available -- And Bad
As if to counter the high quality of "Choose a Vista" and the other two official "Get a Mac" ads rolled out yesterday, two rather poor and underdone unreleased ads have trickled to the web. And they're dire, making lame...
As if to counter the high quality of "Choose a Vista" and the other two official "Get a Mac" ads rolled out yesterday, two rather poor and underdone unreleased ads have trickled to the web. And they're dire, making lame jokes about drivers and viruses. Let's just hope these literally came from the cutting-room floor, shall we? Technorati Tags: get a mac, viruses, vista Digg - Two New Websclusive "Get A Mac" ads:
Pete Mortensen - New 'Get a Mac' Ads Mock Vista Again and Again
The more I try to cantankerously deny my love for Apple's "Get a Mac" ad campaign, the more they manage to win me over. The best of a new crop posted Monday night is "Choose a Vista," which features John...
The more I try to cantankerously deny my love for Apple's "Get a Mac" ad campaign, the more they manage to win me over. The best of a new crop posted Monday night is "Choose a Vista," which features John "PC" Hodgman spinning a game wheel to select a version of Vista. Cries of "Big Operating System! Big Operating System! Daddy needs an upgrade!" Will stay with me for a long time. The other ads, "Genius" and "The Party's Over" are after the jump. Technorati Tags: get a mac, vista
Pete Mortensen - PC World Posts Anti-Apple Article Editor Allegedly Quit Over
We at Wired set off quite a catty-wumpus last week by reporting that one of the reasons PC World Editor in Chief Harry McCracken departed the publication was that a piece called "10 Things We Hate About Apple" upset the...
We at Wired set off quite a catty-wumpus last week by reporting that one of the reasons PC World Editor in Chief Harry McCracken departed the publication was that a piece called "10 Things We Hate About Apple" upset the company's publisher, who supposedly favored a pro-advertiser bent to editorial. As if to deny such reports, the magazine has now posted the article and its lovey-dovey companion piece, along with a cryptic reference to its tortured origins that doesn't quite mention what really happened: By now, you may have heard something about a couple of articles we've been planning about Apple and its products. We sure have. The article itself is pretty toothless: "5. Where's the BluRay?" Ooooooo. I'm shaking in my boots. Can this really have ended a respected tech journalist's career? PC World - 10 Things We Hate About Apple Via Digg. Technorati Tags: ethics, PC World
Pete Mortensen - Apple Most Innovative Company for Third Year Running
BusinessWeek released its list of the top 50 most innovative companies over the weekend, and, as usual, Apple won. This is the third time in a row. Now, far be it for me to knock any effort that names Apple...
BusinessWeek released its list of the top 50 most innovative companies over the weekend, and, as usual, Apple won. This is the third time in a row. Now, far be it for me to knock any effort that names Apple the winner of anything, but I'm not terribly convinced by the methodology used to put the ranking together by BW and Boston Consulting Group. Surveying senior executives just seems so 1980s, and it inevitably means that quite shallow measurements are advantaged -- flashiest product intros, most profitability attributable to new products, etc. I mean, how honored can you be as most innovative in the world when Microsoft is No. 5? Or Sony moving up three slots to No. 10 in the year that they introduced the PS3 while Nintendo is at No. 39? Or Wal-Mart at No. 11 when Target's down at No. 15? The entire index is suspect. Except for the part where Apple wins, of course. Note to the senior executives of America: "Most Innovative" does not mean "hottest on the stock market." The 50 Most Innovative Companies [BusinessWeek] Technorati Tags: apple, innovation
Pete Mortensen - New UK Get a Mac Subway Underground Ad
The Macbook's power cable is--bar none--one of the most useful hardware innovations to come about it years, on any platform. So it's always surprising that Apple doesn't make more of it in its advertising. It's saved me from many disasters,...
The Macbook's power cable is--bar none--one of the most useful hardware innovations to come about it years, on any platform. So it's always surprising that Apple doesn't make more of it in its advertising. It's saved me from many disasters, and I'm glad to see it turning up in this London Tube ad. Be sure to see the entire set. Photo by quatzacoalt
Mat Honan - iPods Should Be Required in Schools, Not Banned
Pix by nathan Mike Elgan in Computerworld makes the convincing argument that iPods should be required in schools, not banned: So many college students I've met -- even at some of the nation's top universities -- are there because they...
Pix by nathan Mike Elgan in Computerworld makes the convincing argument that iPods should be required in schools, not banned: So many college students I've met -- even at some of the nation's top universities -- are there because they have an aptitude for memorization. Many straight-A high school students have few interests, little curiosity and zero inclination toward intellectual discovery. Our system rewards the memorizers and punishes the creative thinkers. An iPod, when used during tests, is nothing more than a machine that stores and spits out data. By banning iPods and other gadgets, we're teaching kids to actually become iPods -- to become machines that store and spit out data. Instead, we should be teaching them to use iPods -- to use that data and to be human beings who can think -- and leave data storage to the machines.
lkahney - Leopard to Feature 3-D Dashboard Implementation?
We're down to just a month until Apple takes the wraps off what few unannounced features remain for Mac OS X Leopard. So let's all sit back and revel in rumors of what Apple might do next, courtesy of AppleInsider:...
We're down to just a month until Apple takes the wraps off what few unannounced features remain for Mac OS X Leopard. So let's all sit back and revel in rumors of what Apple might do next, courtesy of AppleInsider: According to the filing, different Dashboards could contain one or more of the same widgets and "state" information for a widget could be maintained separately for each Dashboard in which the widget appears, or it can be commonly maintained across all Dashboards in which the widget appears. "Different Dashboards can be available or 'owned' for different users of a computer or other electronic device, such that each user can only access their own Dashboard(s)," Apple said in the filing. "A user can specify a Dashboard as being available to other users, if desired. A user can also specify, for any or all of the Dashboards he or she creates, whether other users are permitted to make changes to the Dashboard(s)." Uh...sounds good! Apple filing depicts interactive Dashboard cube interface [AppleInsider] Technorati Tags: leopard, mac os x, dashboard
Pete Mortensen - Get a Mac on 'South Park'
Yep, we just jumped the shark. Time to move on, Apple. YouTube - South Park Mac vs. PC Via Digg. Technorati Tags: get a mac, South Park
Yep, we just jumped the shark. Time to move on, Apple.YouTube - South Park Mac vs. PC
Via Digg.
Technorati Tags: get a mac, South Park
Pete Mortensen - Crazy Rumor: Apple Seeds OS 9.3 to Developers
Sometimes, the alternate-universe humor mocking Apple is only 3 percent more insane than actual Apple news. The hilarious Crazy Apple Rumors Site just announced the launch of Mac OS 9.3: According to sources at Apple, the company is entirely at...
Sometimes, the alternate-universe humor mocking Apple is only 3 percent more insane than actual Apple news. The hilarious Crazy Apple Rumors Site just announced the launch of Mac OS 9.3: According to sources at Apple, the company is entirely at a loss to explain where this seed came from. ???I didn???t do it,??? said senior vice president of software engineering Bertrand Serlet. ???I can???t even get Leopard done in time. I???m swamped. Stupid iPhone and Apple TV. Nobody asked me whether or not we should make those. I mean, I haven???t gone to the bathroom in three weeks. OS 9? Je pense que non.??? Sign me up! Image via Answers.com Via Digg. Crazy Apple Rumors Site ?? Blog Archive ?? Apple Seeds OS 9.3 Technorati Tags: mac, OS 9
Pete Mortensen - Greenpeace Thrilled By Apple's Green Announcement
Wondering whether Apple's public pledges of environmental responsibility would appease the company's Green critics? Wonder no more. Greenpeace just publicly lauded the company's suddenly forward-thinking stance on its own impact on the environment: It's not everything we asked for. Apple...
Wondering whether Apple's public pledges of environmental responsibility would appease the company's Green critics? Wonder no more. Greenpeace just publicly lauded the company's suddenly forward-thinking stance on its own impact on the environment: It's not everything we asked for. Apple has declared a phase out of the worst chemicals in its product range, Brominated Fire Retardants (BFRs) and Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) by 2008. That beats Dell and other computer manufactures' pledge to phase them out by 2009. Way to go Steve! But there's always more to be done, of course: But while customers in the US will be able to return their Apple products for recycling knowing that their gear won't end up in the e-waste mountains of Asia and India, Apple isn't making that promise to anyone but customers in the USA. Elsewhere in the world, an Apple product today can still be tomorrow's e-waste. Other manufacturers offer worldwide takeback and recycling. Apple should too! Either way, a big change. One other note: In all the excitement yesterday, I somehow missed that Steve's environment made a public commitment to start using LED displays this year, all but confirming a long-standing rumor that upcoming laptops would soon transition away from LCD technology. All of which makes me extra-happy that I have held off on buying a new computer, eh? Eh? Enh. Tasty news from Apple! | Greenpeace International Technorati Tags: apple, green, Greenpeace
Pete Mortensen - PC World Editor Quits Over Anti-Apple Story
PC World Editor-in-Chief Harry McCracken quit suddenly on Wednesday. According to our colleagues at the magazine, the sudden departure resulted from pressure to kill a story called "10 Things We Hate About Apple" that allegedly displeased CEO Colin Crawford. It's...
PC World Editor-in-Chief Harry McCracken quit suddenly on Wednesday. According to our colleagues at the magazine, the sudden departure resulted from pressure to kill a story called "10 Things We Hate About Apple" that allegedly displeased CEO Colin Crawford. It's pretty sordid. The piece, a whimsical article titled "Ten Things We Hate About Apple," was still in draft form when Crawford killed it. McCracken said no way and walked after Crawford refused to compromise. Apparently Crawford also told editors that product reviews in the magazine were too critical of vendors, especially ones who advertise in the magazine, and that they had to start being nicer to advertisers. Yikes. Good for you, Harry. Epicenter - Wired Blogs Technorati Tags: PC World, ethics
Pete Mortensen - Real Steve Follows Fake Steve's Lead on Being Green
Weight Recycled as % of Past Sales. Credit: Apple In a case of life imitating art, the Real Steve Jobs is following the Fake Steve Jobs' green lead. On Wed. April 11, Fake Steve wrote: By the end of this...
Weight Recycled as % of Past Sales. Credit: Apple In a case of life imitating art, the Real Steve Jobs is following the Fake Steve Jobs' green lead. On Wed. April 11, Fake Steve wrote: By the end of this year I want Apple to be known as the greenest company in the world -- not just in tech but in everything. If we've got to make hydrogen-powered computers and iPods that run on solar energy, so be it. Let's get this done. On Tue. May 2, Real Steve wrote: Apple has been criticized by some environmental organizations for not being a leader in removing toxic chemicals from its new products, and for not aggressively or properly recycling its old products. Upon investigating Apple???s current practices and progress towards these goals, I was surprised to learn that in many cases Apple is ahead of, or will soon be ahead of, most of its competitors in these areas.
lkahney - Jobs Announces 'A Greener Apple'
Steve Jobs just broke Apple's relative silence about its environmental policies, a move that will either hearten or frustrate the company's critics, who contend that Apple is not sustainable enough. One of the larger bones of contention over time has...
Steve Jobs just broke Apple's relative silence about its environmental policies, a move that will either hearten or frustrate the company's critics, who contend that Apple is not sustainable enough. One of the larger bones of contention over time has been the company's unwillingness to declare public goals for its electronics recycling programs. That unwillingness is gone, and Steve's personal letter to the world even explains why it was there in the first place.It is generally not Apple???s policy to trumpet our plans for the future; we tend to talk about the things we have just accomplished. Unfortunately this policy has left our customers, shareholders, employees and the industry in the dark about Apple???s desires and plans to become greener. Our stakeholders deserve and expect more from us, and they???re right to do so. They want us to be a leader in this area, just as we are in the other areas of our business. So today we???re changing our policy.
The rest of the letter details what Apple has done for the environment and intends to do in the future. It's pretty much a point-by-point rebuttal to their critics, including public pledges to remove the use of polyvinyl chlorides form all Apple products by next year, and audacious recycling figures that ramp up to 28 percent of weight of products sold by 2010. The company claims that figure will surpass HP and Dell in the next three years.
At any rate, this is a stunning announcement. Next thing you know, Apple will pre-announce one of its flagship hardware products more than five months before it ships. Oh, wait...
What do you think? Has Apple finally gone far enough? What additional environmental commitments do they still need to make? Will Greenpeace stop showing up with giant worm-ridden apples at major conferences?
Thanks, Andrew!
Image via Greenpeace.
Pete Mortensen - SlingBox Now Rocking a Mac Near You
Though DVRs are still far from mainstream technology, some folks are already moving from the time-shifting of a DVR to the place-shifting offered by Sling Media, which uses a hardware/software combo to take incoming TV streams and make them available...
Though DVRs are still far from mainstream technology, some folks are already moving from the time-shifting of a DVR to the place-shifting offered by Sling Media, which uses a hardware/software combo to take incoming TV streams and make them available at any time at any place over the Internet. But until yesterday, the software didn't run on Mac. No more. the new Sling Player for Mac OS X is compatible with a wide variety of sources and viewing hardware: With this software release, Slingbox owners can now view their television directly on their Macintosh computer screen. With full remote control, they can watch content from their home entertainment system whether from cable, DVR, DVD and even a full range of Apple entertainment products including: Apple TV??, Front Row, iPod?? in Apple's Universal Dock?? or iPod in an iPod Hi-Fi???. They did a great job meeting Apple's own interface standards, judging from the screenshot. Anyone already got it up and running? How's it going? Sling Media - Sling Media???s Popular SlingPlayer Now Ready For A Mac Near You Technorati Tags: slingplayer, slingbox
Pete Mortensen - The Face of Steve Appears in a Latte
\ The Virgin Mary has nothing on the patron saint of our cult! Photo by Luke Edgar Seeley, who notes: I ordered a medium latte at a local cafe and was surprised to find that the barista had, with his...
\ The Virgin Mary has nothing on the patron saint of our cult! Photo by Luke Edgar Seeley, who notes: I ordered a medium latte at a local cafe and was surprised to find that the barista had, with his mastery of steamed milk, poured a face and the words "I Love Steve Jobs" into my latte. I don't know if I believe it, but I want to believe. Who could ask for more? A Steve Jobs Latte on Flickr - Photo Sharing Via Digg. Technorati Tags: espresso, Steve Jobs
Pete Mortensen - Pay Tribute to the HD-DVD Crack with a Screensaver
As you might have heard, all hell broke loose today as the code to crack HD-DVD encryption spread all over the Intarwebs, to the chagrin of Digg Founder Kevin Rose. It's a pretty big day, no matter how you feel...
As you might have heard, all hell broke loose today as the code to crack HD-DVD encryption spread all over the Intarwebs, to the chagrin of Digg Founder Kevin Rose. It's a pretty big day, no matter how you feel about DRM. I'm not going to link directly to the code, because I'm not about that, but a playful OS X developer has created a screensaver that takes the 16 numbers in the code and randomly moves them around, so the actual order isn't certain. To be clear, the configuration in the image above is not the correct order. Keep it clean, kids, but remember the events of the day in style. Sixteen_Hexadecimal_Digits_Screensaver_for_Mac_OS_X [Via Digg] Technorati Tags: hd-dvd, screensaver, software
Pete Mortensen - John Gruber Engulfs Steve Ballmer at Daring Fireball
Some of the best Apple theorists just don't write enough. That's certainly true of Daring Fireball creator John Gruber, who makes an impact every time he posts a major essay, but doesn't post all that many essays. In his newest...
Some of the best Apple theorists just don't write enough. That's certainly true of Daring Fireball creator John Gruber, who makes an impact every time he posts a major essay, but doesn't post all that many essays. In his newest missive, he deconstructs Steve Ballmer's arguments against the iPhone. It's a laudable effort. Check it. Some of these pundits and analysts are morons. Ballmer, however, is a very smart man, but what he???s saying about the iPhone is going to make him look stupid if it???s successful. He clearly doesn???t get what makes the iPhone so appealing, and his dual obsession with the price and business users is baffling. Daring Fireball: The iPhone's Funny Price Technorati Tags: ballmer, iphone
Pete Mortensen - Stop the Presses! Steve Jobs to Give Apple Keynote
Apple loves to make big announcements on Tuesday mornings. Today, they reminded us that not all big announcements are created equal. Apple PR informed the world that -- brace for it -- none other than Apple CEO Steve Jobs will...
Apple loves to make big announcements on Tuesday mornings. Today, they reminded us that not all big announcements are created equal. Apple PR informed the world that -- brace for it -- none other than Apple CEO Steve Jobs will kick off the company's Worldwide Developer Conference on Monday, June 11. Don't all of you wet your pants with excitement at once. Apple did confirm that Jobs would show off a feature-complete version of Mac OS X Leopard, including whatever mystery functions got left out of the 2006 showcase, and the company will will distribute a beta to all in attendance. And that's something to get worked up over. Steve Jobs to Kick Off WWDC 2007 Technorati Tags: leopard, Steve Jobs, wwdc
Pete Mortensen - Fake Steve Wants To Destroy His House
I don't know where we in the Mac game would be without Fake Steve Jobs, the anonymous blogger who pretends to be Apple's CEO so we don't have to. Today, he tackles the continued resistance to the iCEO's attempts to...
I don't know where we in the Mac game would be without Fake Steve Jobs, the anonymous blogger who pretends to be Apple's CEO so we don't have to. Today, he tackles the continued resistance to the iCEO's attempts to demolish his historic mansion, the Jackling house. And if you think Fake Steve is cowed by the California Supreme Court's rejection of his request, you don't know Steve: These nuts got a court to say that I can't destroy my own house and instead have to find a way to move the house from the location. But they can't come up with any money to move the house. Or a place to put it. Or something. Gold. Technorati Tags: fake steve
Pete Mortensen - Why the Nike+iPod is Boring -- And Why That's Good!
As promised, here is the paper that formed the basis for the presentation I gave at Stanford on the success of the Nike+iPod last week with my colleague Conrad Wai. It's a little dry, but what can you do? It's...
As promised, here is the paper that formed the basis for the presentation I gave at Stanford on the success of the Nike+iPod last week with my colleague Conrad Wai. It's a little dry, but what can you do? It's an academic paper. We think we kept it interesting regardless. Let me know what you think -- designing for technology adoption is a critical consideration in new product launches, so I'm interested to hear what you think -- particularly if you think I'm completely out of line.
Pete Mortensen - Is This The First Picture on the Internet Shot With An iPhone?
Yes, this image of an woman unfortunately misidentified man in a hoodie eating a piece of toast might well be the first image ever uploaded to the Internet from an iPhone. Remember this moment -- I'm sure your grandkids will...
Yes, this image of an woman unfortunately misidentified man in a hoodie eating a piece of toast might well be the first image ever uploaded to the Internet from an iPhone. Remember this moment -- I'm sure your grandkids will ask you about where you were when you saw the first iPhone picture. It came from a set of two that got posted to Flickr, got marked private and finally got deleted. The EXIF data is interesting, but could easily be fraudulent -- this is editable stuff. Still, I like this story, because it involves toast. A second photo, along with the EXIF data, is posted after the jump. Technorati Tags: camera, iphone, rumor Camera: Apple iPhone Aperture: f/2.8 Orientation: Rotated 90 degrees clockwise Date and Time: 2007:04:21 10:23:45 Color Space: sRGB Tag::EXIF::0xA500: 11/5 Compression: JPEG Image Width: 1600 pixels Image Height: 1200 pixels The second photo below, which was also EXIFed as coming from an iPhone, is reputed to be from Alexander's restaurant in Cupertino, very near to AppleHQ. That tip comes courtesy of MobileGuerilla reader YourMom. Anyone know for sure? First Pictures Taken With an Apple iPhone - MobileGuerilla Via Digg.
Pete Mortensen - iLounge Opens Can of Whoop-Ass on iLoad
Most of you have probably never heard of iLoad, a $300 device designed to rip CDs to iPod without the use of a computer. Granted, it is a high price, but I can see the market need, as many people...
Most of you have probably never heard of iLoad, a $300 device designed to rip CDs to iPod without the use of a computer. Granted, it is a high price, but I can see the market need, as many people can't afford to buy a computer, but at $300, there's no reason they couldn't get a computer instead. It's been pretty niche, but the product's manufacturer has promoted it fairly aggressively. As they are wont to do with all things iPod, the venerable iLounge reviewed the little box in a not-so favorable light, and then the fun began. Wingspan, the maker of iLoad, allegedly declared war on iLounge. And that's when the fun began. Check out this hilarious YouTube video, then head over to iLounge for the full sordid story. It's well worth your time. Getting Rid of iLoad and Wingspan: The Full Story | iLounge Technorati Tags: humor, iload, ipod
Pete Mortensen - Report: iPhone Battery Life Great, But Device is 'Slippery'
The iPhone hype-tornado is blowing at full gale now. Best sign? The rumored problems with it change from day to day. You know how it is: Massively anticipated device is less than two months from shipping, but an anonymous tipster...
The iPhone hype-tornado is blowing at full gale now. Best sign? The rumored problems with it change from day to day. You know how it is: Massively anticipated device is less than two months from shipping, but an anonymous tipster has uncovered a DISASTROUS design flaw! This time, MacScoop reports that it might be doomed by a slippery case! Look out! It might slip out of your hand, which would be a first for a phone! Overall, our source found the iPhone awesome but he mentioned, as a sole negative point, that the material used on the device's case makes it feel even more slippery than the iPod and will probably require the purchase of a protective skin or case so as to avoid unintentionally dropping it. And we all know just how slippery the iPod is! Or something. This is too funny. Apple always ships its products without the rubberized handles or raised edges that Palm and some competitors do, but it seems to work out OK most of the time. My phone is covered in rubber to prevent slipping, but I'm STILL thrown it across the room. Sometimes, it's about the person, not the product. That said, MacScoop does report that the battery life of the iPhone is even better than anticipated. And that's all I care about. If this thing can keep on ticking for hours and hours of talking and mobile web-browsing, it has a right to be the smuggest phone on the block. Sign me up. iPhone's true battery-life to surprise us - source | MacScoop Via Business 2.0 Technorati Tags: iphone, slippery, speculation
Pete Mortensen - Great 2001 iPod Image From TUAW
Great visual joke from TUAW. Link.
Great visual joke from TUAW. Link.
lkahney - Cult of Mac Invades BusinessWeek Innovation Blog
Apple owns the discourse around design and innovation these days. Everyone wants to be like Steve Jobs, and everyone wants to invent the new iPod. People also want to be Google, but being Google seems to be a lot harder,...
Apple owns the discourse around design and innovation these days. Everyone wants to be like Steve Jobs, and everyone wants to invent the new iPod. People also want to be Google, but being Google seems to be a lot harder, and the founders aren't terribly charismatic, so Apple gets a lot more attention regardless. As a result, and because of the world I live in at my day job, I get into a lot of discussions about the role of design strategy and the value of innovation. Specifically, that understanding what people really need is the best way to create new products, services and businesses that will really connect with people. All of which is a preface to encourage you to check out a comment of mine that BusinessWeek Innovation honcho Bruce Nussbaum highlighted into a blog post over there. It was at the end of a business day, so I think I might sound a little more snarky than I meant to:YouTube's actual future is far from certain, and Second Life will surely be passed by another player, as it superceded The Sims, which superceded a lot of MUDDs and the like. Bill Moggridge even asked, "What is the YouTube of design?" And I have to say, I don't particularly care. YouTube, Second Life, Flickr, Vlogs, blogs, they're all different solutions trying to meet some very core needs of people, whether they know it or not. And needs outlast solutions. I won't perform a straight-up needs analysis on these sites, but they definitely come from wanting to express oneself creatively, connect with other people, feel famous or even lead a different life, as in the case of Lonely Girl 15 and some others. By the time we start analyzing a solution, the next way to meet the needs it addresses is already underway. We're going to miss the most important opportunities unless we see beyond the fun and exciting solution we hold in our hands.Check it out.
Pete Mortensen
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