Fresh Apple: The Apple Blog (16 сообщений)

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The Apple Blog
The Apple Blog, published by and for the day-to-day Apple user, is a prominent source for news, reviews, walkthroughs, and real life application of all Apple products.
http://theappleblog.com
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Apple's RAM Upgrade Pricing Finally Reasonable?

We’re beginning to see companies announce their memory upgrade kits for the MacBook and MacBook Pro models.

In this example, the cost is $139. Apple wants $150 when you order a system, so it appears that they’re finally only charging a slight premium. This isn’t bad considering you have the convenience of not installing it yourself. It’s certainly better than the borderline highway robbery of 6+ months ago when it was $400.

They lowered it to $200 with the last notebook refresh, and then to $150 with the new laptop announcements last week.

Of course, I’m sure there will be lower prices coming along, and if you buy from a third party, then you also have the two 1GB modules from the laptop you can perhaps use elsewhere, or sell to help fund the purchase. Still, for a lot of people I think it’s just easier to order it configured from Apple and not have any of the other hassles.

Earlier this year I would never recommend anyone get their memory configured from Apple, but now I think it’s a reasonable alternative to third party memory.

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iLaugh iPhone App Provides You With a Sense of Humor

If you’ve been looking for a program that replicates the experience of sitting next to that favorite, wacky uncle at Thanksgiving dinner and having him conspiratorially whisper hokey but funny jokes in your ear, look no further than iLaugh for the iPhone and iPod touch.

The app, released by Azure Talon Software, is a jokes database that pulls content from online sources. The end result is a new joke every time you open the app, or hit the easy-to-spot refresh button in the upper right-hand corner of the iPhone’s screen. Only one server is currently available to draw content from, but the developer promises at least two new sources in future updates.

Part of iLaugh’s appeal is its simplicity and ease of use. The app has a grand total of two screens, the first being the main display and the other being a source selection screen. The main screen consists of a top bar with the App’s name and the refresh button, while the bulk of the display is taken up by the content window, which shows the jokes. There is no bottom menu bar, just a small “i” button which flips the screen, taking you to the server selection page. Graphics and palette choices show a keen eye for design, making the app a pleasure to use and the content easy to read.

In my brief test drive of the application, I didn’t run across any duplicated jokes, and I did refresh a number of times to get a good sample of the content. The jokes are not all “jokes” in the traditional set-up/punchline sense. Those are there, to be sure, but there’s also fake news articles and press releases, extended stories, lists and parodies. Maybe this is where funny uncles get their material.

iLaugh is available in the App Store now for $0.99.

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Microsoft SideSight: Should Apple Really Worry?

Keen not to be left behind by Apple’s increasing repertoire of multi-touch interface control gestures, Microsoft recently previewed a new technology called “SideSight.” SideSight is not just Redmond’s version of Apple’s tech, though. In fact, Microsoft’s new offering is not touch tech at all. More like proximity tech.

Gearlog provides an overview of SideSight, based on a paper presented by Microsoft U.K. at the User Interface Software and Technology conference. The paper describes the new input tech in the context of touchscreen interaction, which it claims is unsuitable for small devices which, naturally, have smaller screens. It’s a good point. Even on the iPhone, my meaty digits occasionally obscure some important piece of information.

How does SideSight, ahem, sidestep the problem? By allowing users to interact not only with the device directly, but also with the surrounding space. Using outward facing optical sensors lining the device, movements made by a user on a surface beneath or in the air around it are detected and translated into control actions. Gearlog provided these examples of how this might work in practice:

Pages could be panned and scrolled by moving a hand up and down, and Microsoft also proved that text could be entered and edited on the main screen through a stylus while the other hand scrolled the page — a movement that would be akin to the motions a user’s hands would make if he or she were writing on a sheet of paper.

So should Apple be wary of Microsoft’s latest foray into hand-waving? A lot will depend on third-party support, and integration with Redmond’s own future products. While cell phones are clearly a target market for the tech, the report also cites PMPs and watches as candidates. While I can see the appeal of SideSight in things like eBook readers, I have a hard time picturing a lot of consumer interest in watches with gesture control. What do you need to do with your watch that would require you to flail your hands around like a magician about to pull a rabbit out of a hat? And does Apple even care about those markets? Probably not, since Steve Jobs doesn’t even seem interested in the netbook market, which is much closer to their core business.
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The Apple Tax: Fact or Fiction?
Recently, we’ve seen Microsoft move to respond to Apple’s “I’m a Mac, and I’m a PC” ads, fearing the company’s rapid growth. There was the Seinfeld debacle, which drew plenty of attention. It didn’t seem to be quite the attention Microsoft was looking for, so they turned to the “I’m a PC” campaign. Yes, Pharrell is pretty cool, but the buzz quickly turned embarrassing for Redmond: the campaign was made on Macs. Google “I’m a pc campaign” and you’ll see just how much this contradiction stole Microsoft’s thunder.

They didn’t fare so well with their “Mojave” experiment, either. Microsoft rebranded Vista as Mojave, and had a focus group test it as if it were a completely new product. The reactions were filmed and made into commercials, during which participants rave about their (5 minute?) experience with the “new” OS, and then look foolish when their interviewer reveals that they were actually using the company’s much-criticized Vista.

So maybe making people who actually liked your product look dumb wasn’t the greatest idea ever. Microsoft’s PR department must have figured out what went wrong. They’re now trying a less backward approach: make fans of the competition look stupid. Hence the so-called “Apple Tax.” While the term itself is not new, Microsoft VP Brad Brooks would like to expand its meaning. In general use, it refers to the perceived premium Apple fanboys are willing to pay for their Mac fix over and above similarly spec’d PC hardware.
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Experimental Firefox Allows Multitouch Interaction

Hot on the heels of Apple’s new MacBook line — which among other things, offers a multitouch trackpad –coming to market, we’re seeing the first third party applications which support multitouch gestures. Mozilla is the first to the party, and has now made available an experimental build that will support multitouch gestures from within Firefox.

With this experimental build (need we point out, this is OS X only, and then, only if you have a shiny new MacBook or MacBook Pro with full glass trackpad, or MacBook Air) you’ll gain the ability to:
- Swipe forward and backward (like the buttons on your browser)
- Pinch to zoom in and out
- Twist from tab to tab
Any of you who are in a position to take advantage of this cool new feature in Firefox, can thank Edward Lee for his efforts on this work. He details his progress here, if you’re interested in taking a look.

What’s much more interesting to me in this news, is the rapid emergence of the third party software developers taking advantage of the new hardware feature. Adobe’s CS4 suite is supposed to utilize the same thing in some cases. Are there any others out there right now that also leverage this functionality? I’d love to hear your thoughts on killer apps for multitouch trackpads. I think photos and graphics are the obvious targets off the bat. Being the Quicksilver junkie that I am, I’d love to see the Gestures plugin capability expanded to work with multitouch. That kind of feature would really explode the functionality (for me) that I get from Quicksilver!

So let’s hear it — what do you crave (as far as multitouch support goes) from third party software vendors?

Via MozillaLinks

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Apple's Quarterly Earnings Call Summary
Apple announced their quarterly earnings report yesterday, including some great news surrounding iPhone and Mac sales. Steve Jobs also made an appearance on the earnings call — a rare occurrence for this type of event. Much of the financial news was centered around the screaming success of the iPhone this year. Apple’s summary of the quarter is as follows:

For its fiscal 2008 fourth quarter, Apple today posted revenue of $7.9 billion and net quarterly profit of $1.14 billion, or $1.26 per diluted share. Gross margin was 34.7%. In one of the best quarters in its history, Apple shipped 2.6 million Macintosh computers (an all-time high), 11 million iPods, and 6.9 million iPhones.

iPhone

This (financial) quarter, Apple announced sales of 6.9 million iPhones — a huge jump from a total of 6.1 million sales in the previous five quarters. This can be put down to the worldwide launch of the product, huge increase in availability, and customers upgrading to the latest 3G model. This successful quarter means that Apple has already beaten the aim of selling 10 million iPhones in 2008, even before the start of the holiday season — their busiest period of the year.
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I Chose a New MacBook
Fellow TAB writer, Charles Moore, wrote a great article about why it's a good idea to seriously consider the "mature technology" of a refurbished Mac as soon as a new generation is announced. I won't recount the details in that article, but his reasoning is very sound, and it's solid advice.

So solid, in fact, you might almost wonder why it makes sense not to take advantage of the especially good deals that can be had as soon as a new model comes out. Well, I thought I'd look at it from the other side — or, at least my side — and describe why I took a different path and ordered a brand new MacBook.

Keep in mind that a lot of my reasoning stems from the improvement I believe the MacBook experienced with the new model.

A key difference in logic between Charles’ article and mine is that his was limited mostly by price while mine is mostly by size (which, to some extent, also limits price). For me, a move up to the MBP wasn't so easily done because I've had machines with that footprint (though heavier) and the fact is I just didn't take them around much. It's amazing how much quicker I'll grab a MacBook-size machine and take it out than one the size of a MBP.
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Keep the Accent On Productivity With USInternational

Having worked for a few organizations with global footprints and being in a position where I need to switch from Windows to OS X on a regular basis, I can tell you from first-hand experience that it is sometimes quite frustrating when I need to include accented characters in a document and wind up using Windows key sequences out of habit. Many switchers may be in this situation as well, having just entered the world of OS X after being longstanding Windows users.

OS X aficionado, Rainer Brockerhoff, feels this pain too and has released an new OS X Leopard-compatible key layout called USInternational which maps Windows key shortcuts while preserving most of the standard OS X option-key sequences.
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TAB Welcomes: Omar McFarlane
About time for a bit of a formal introduction. I officially started writing for TAB about a week ago and thus far have been loving my cohorts. I’m known to be a “jack of all trades”, so you will be seeing a wide array of posts coming from my direction. I tend to be a bleeding edge consumer when it comes to gadgets and am overly conscious of products’ designs—nine times out of ten, if it looks unpleasant, I won’t buy it. In terms of Apple fan-boy-ism, I’m no so much one as I am a person that generally agrees with Apple’s overall decisions.

As for my setup, I work on a Rev. A white MacBook, a 24″ iMac, iPhone 3G, and an Airport Express (which is solely for its AirTunes capabilities). Hopefully, come November, I’ll be upgrading to the new MacBook, add on the LED Cinema Display, and bump up my Airport Express to the 802.11n version. Anything that increases productivity and reduces cable clutter is a plus in my book.

I am so excited to be part of The Apple Blog team and look forward to reading your comments on what I write in the future. Cheers!

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Sonic Boom Makes a Firecracker Out of Your iPhone

Smule — of Sonic Lighter fame — launched their second app over the weekend, Sonic Boom. As you can probably imagine, it turns your iPhone into a virtual firecracker that can be lit, either with your finger (as a virtual match that you actually have to strike to ignite) or a second iPhone running Sonic Lighter.

Sonic Boom, like its sister app, is more gimmicky than anything else and is hardly feature intensive. You can change the size of the firecracker or the fuse, slow down the explosion, and wrap your stick with a picture from your camera roll. You can also rummage through the debris afterward, however the graphics are nothing to phone home about and are on par with what you would expect from a 99¢ app.
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Macs in Your Neighborhood: Des Moines, IA

I recently had the pleasure of interviewing Richard Haddock, President of the Haddock Corporation, an Apple reseller that has been in the Mac business seriously since there have been Macs.

I first found Haddock a couple of years ago when, in a panic over accidentally wiping out my hard drive in some kind of strange Linux experiment, I needed OS X installed and couldn’t find my install disks. Not only that, but loading Linux had rewritten the boot record of the disk and wiped out how the Mac looked at it, resetting it from GUID, which the Mac installer requires, to MBR.

Long story short, I couldn’t load OS X back on my MacBook. So, I called around town and was pointed at Haddock. I dropped by and explained my problem, and the staff booted my MacBook into target disk mode and mounted it on another Mac, and then fixed the disk with Disk Utility. I was very, very grateful for their help, I almost thought I had ruined my Mac! Haddock earned a customer that day with their honest help and technical expertise.
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LittleSnapper Preview Screencast

After loving Plasq’s Skitch for a while now, I didn’t think I could have feelings for another screen capture utility. At an early glance, it appears I may need to re-evaluate my former stance. Now a days, I’m really looking forward to LittleSnapper from Real Mac Software.

Today the Real Mac folks have released a great screencast of the application doing its thing, sharing screen captures, and I can’t be more excited! It looks very slick visually, and extremely organized for those hoping to keep their Pictures folder in a somewhat presentable state. Writing for The Apple Blog — and for far less important reasons — I take lots of screen shots, so features such as these have a lot of utility for me.

There’s a lot of other great looking features that I can’t wait to play with. Go ahead and take a look at the video below and you too can get excited.
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Goodnight, Mac Mini — Apple Stops Mac Mini Shipments to Retailers
In what is sure to be devastating news to those who who’ve been holding off on a new Mac purchase for the long-awaited Mini update, Gizmodo is reporting that Apple has ceased shipping new units to retailers. Two major European retailers are cited as the source for the news, both of which claim they’ve also been told not to expect any future shipments, either, dousing hopes that this might signal the arrival of a refreshed version.

We mentioned in an earlier post that the Mini hasn’t seen an update since November of 2007, and it shows its age in hardware specs. Slower processor, slower wireless networking, and dismal integrated Intel 945GM graphics all stand as signs of an old work-horse put out to pasture. Or was it more of a pony?

Sales of the Mini exceeded expectations early on, but have tapered off more recently, to the point where the bare bones computer is the weakest link in Apple’s chain of Mac offerings. When introduced at Macworld 2005, it was positioned as a key weapon in the battle to convert Windows users, since it was affordable and could easily be swapped into an existing PC set up in place of a Windows-based tower.

Many users have found a place for the Mini as an effective home theatre PC, since it offers similar functionality to the Apple TV while providing the expanded feature set of a computer, with a nearly identical physical footprint. The potential for the device to cannibalize Apple TV sales may have figured in the rumored decision to axe it.

Gizmodo’s Jesus Diaz suggests the product line’s demise could be announced as early as the Q4 Earnings conference call happening today at 2:00 PT/5:00 ET, so if you’re interested in the fate the once mighty box, tune in here for the webcast.

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Firewire Over Ethernet? Maybe If We Ask Loudly Enough
Clearly, Apple’s decision to leave out FireWire ports on the MacBook line has ruffled some feathers. For their part, Apple claims to have left it out to save the $0.25 per port licensing fee attached to including the hardware, which, when considered on the scale of a massive production run, does amount to significant savings. Of course, they recoup some of that amount as royalties, since they are a FireWire patent holder, and therefore a member of the 1394 Trade Association. Which has led some to claim that the decision to axe FireWire was not a cost-saving measure, but instead a profit-boosting one, by forcing consumers who need FW to scale up to a MacBook Pro.

Since Macs support internet and disk sharing over FireWire, it’s only natural to consider the possibility of running FireWire in a similar manner over Ethernet, allowing users to to perhaps plug their video cameras or audio peripherals into older Macs to perform large transfers if they have one, or into specially designed FireWire-to-Ethernet cables or adapters.

Unfortunately, it is not possible to run FireWire over Ethernet using current standards (IEEE 1394/a/b). According to ZDNet, FireWire has more in common with SATA or SCSI which is “dumb” (point-to-point), than Ethernet, which is “smart” (co-ax cable was its “dumb” predecessor).

A new standard in the process of being developed, IEEE 1394c, would allow FireWire to run over cat5 twisted pair cables (Ethernet), at speeds of up to 800Mbps. Implementing IEEE 1394c would require support from Apple via an adapter or changes onboard. Since it’s ultimately still in Apple’s hands, demand from irate consumers will have to outweigh any financial benefit they stand to lose from giving users a cheaper option than upgrading to the Macbook Pro. If the IEEE 1394c standard is passed in time, the speculation is that Apple could include FireWire over Ethernet support with Snow Leopard.

Would this move restore your faith in Cupertino, FireWire faithful, or is it too little, too late?

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PhoneGap Provides Javascript Access to iPhone API
There is no doubt that developers are coming from far and wide to write iPhone applications. While some are coming from household names Mac users have come to know and love, others are coming from developers who have never laid hands on a Mac before.

However, regardless of background, sometimes, learning a whole new programming language can be a tall order. Enter PhoneGap.

Developed by Brock Whitten, Rob Ellis, Colin Toomey and Eric Oesterle; PhoneGap hopes to be the bridge between Javascript and the iPhone’s Objective-C by acting as a Webkit wrapper for a web app. Having currently implemented the Geo Locating and Accelerometer, the PhoneGap team plans to provide access to the camera, sounds, vibration, local SQLite, and push services. This should come as good news to web app developers looking to write more robust programs and to those who have since avoided writing programs due to the disparities between the iPhone SDK and the web app SDK.

Give PhoneGap a try and let us know what you think.

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MacHEADS — A Fanboy Documentary

Everyone remembers when they get their first Mac — the instant feeling of belonging in an elitist group of technologists. You go to class, a coffee shop, or down the street and see cars driving past with an Apple sticker on their back windshield as you ask yourself where you’re going to put your sticker. There is no other company on the planet that makes its fans feel this way. This is one of the main factors that makes Apple such an incredible company while making its fans even more incredible.

The loyalty of a Mac user to its company is like that of a child to its mother, and only other Mac fans understand this. Apple has surpassed being a simple company and transitioned into a religion. Just as everyone has the story of their first kiss, or their first car, they have one of their first Mac. The film MacHEADS is about just this — the symbiotic devotion between a company, its product line, and its customers.

MacHEADS is a feature length documentary directed by Kobi Shely which exploits this loyalty of Apple Fanatics and their obsession. Aside from Pirates of Silicon Valley, this is one of the few films solely based on Apple and its fans, for its fans.

The film explores the nature of the Apple fan base and what turned a simple computer company into a worldwide phenomenon and religion. Featuring various interviews with key Apple enthusiasts, including Apple’s first employee, it shows the unrivaled dedication to this company and brand.

The film is currently scheduled for a Fall release. You can check out the trailer and website here.

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