everyday software : blog

Firefox 3 and Bookit

2008-07-20T22:41:00.000-07:00

Hi All,

As many of you already know, Bookit does not currently support Firefox 3. Of course we want Firefox 3 support in your hands as soon as possible, trust us, we do. Unfortunately Firefox 3's release landed at an inopportune time. You see, We are currently knee deep on Bookit 4 (which supports Firefox 3) and aren't quite done with it. But if you buy Bookit now, you'll get Bookit 4 free, so don't worry about that.

Now, all we ask from you is a little patience while we wrap it up. You see, We do this little operation in our free time after our regular 9 to 5 so development isn't as fast as everyone (including us) would like, but we're making progress. With the 'I want it yesterday' attitude of the internet these days it will be hard for some, but I have confidence most of you will be able to do it.

For the next couple months, your Firefox 3 bookmarks won't be in sync, but listen - it will be OK - trust me. So instead of shooting off an email telling us how much we suck because we don't support Firefox 3 yet - which wastes our time and yours - how about you take a big deep breath and do something enjoyable with your time. Luckily, it's summer and there are a lot of great things to do outside while you wait for Bookit 4.

cheers, will

Chirp, chirp

2008-03-19T22:39:00.000-07:00

Hi All,
I thought it'd been long enough since you've heard from either of us, so it's time to let you in on what's going on at ES. Wade and I have been tossing around an iPhone application idea and have started noodling around with the SDK. The iPhone is a whole new world and everyone is starting from ground zero which is super cool. I'm excited to see what people come up with. Most likely we'll be starting our iPhone app later this spring/summer.

In the here and now we've been working on the next version of Bookit which we're pretty stoked about. Besides adding support for all modern browsers we have a laundry list of other new features we think you'll enjoy. That said, if you want to see a specific feature in Bookit, please post a comment and we'll check it out.

We've learned a lot since Bookit 3 was written many moons ago so we're taking time to rewrite a lot of it from scratch. This allows us to clean up, modernize and simplify the code base giving users quicker releases with more features. While we don't know when we'll be done, we just wanted you to know we're work'n on it. :-)

cheers, will
music: meg hutchinson

Time Capsule...what about us Airdisk users?

2008-01-16T11:34:00.000-08:00

Hi All,
Keynote fever has passed and we all lived to see another day...sometimes one can never tell with the rabidness of the Mac faithful. Overall, the keynote was just another keynote - some cool stuff, some lame stuff. But one announcement really got my goat. Time Capsule.

First a history lesson, before Leopard was released Apple had blazoned all over their Airport Extreme/Time Machine product pages that Airdisk would work with Time Machine. I, like many others, thought this was a great deal. I purchased an Airport Extreme (and a 500 GB external drive) in preparation of the great Time Machine. I wanted a gigabit hub and wireless N router and was stoked to get a NAS disk add-on to boot. Well, a week or two before Leopard shipped they pulled any mention of Airdisk working with Time Machine. Needless to say, I was bummed.

To add insult to injury, I've never gotten Airdisk to work correctly. After 12-24 hours it simply will stop accepting logins. Whenever I try and login, it will say the login is incorrect. The only solution is to reboot the router. After a reboot, it will work correctly for another 12-24 hours and then it will stop working again. This issue has been documented all over Apple's forums and I've even logged a bug on it (which is currently open).

So you can start to see the rub here. First, Apple states Airdisk will work with Time Machine. Then they say, 'oops, nevermind.' Then Airdisk doesn't work correctly at all with no fix in sight. But to top it off, they announce a brand new product that is supposed to do what Airdisk was promised to do last spring (or later). All this leaves a sour taste in my mouth. I can only hope that when Time Capsule actually ships, they release a patch to fix all the Airdisk woes as well.

cheers,
will

Another year, another keynote

2008-01-12T12:48:00.001-08:00

With Macworld looming large on the horizon, the internets are a-buzz with rumors and speculation about what Apple will announce during Tuesday's keynote. I, for one, am hoping for the best... an all new Mac Tablet (gasp!). I know, I know, been there done that, it was called the Newton and Jobs personally struck it down, much to the dismay of Newton lovers around the world. Some wonder why Jobs would resurrect a Newton-like tablet when he himself killed it to begin with... well, let me tell ya, the iPhone is not a Newton and therefore opens up the possibility of Apple resurrecting a Newton-like device in the form of a tablet. I think the time is right for Apple to revive the Newton in 2008... just don't call it a Newton.

Everyone I know who's used/seen/fondled an iPhone has been impressed... I mean really, how could you not be? (Lack of cut, copy, paste withstanding.) The smooth form factor, simplicity, multi-touch interface, OS X, the list goes on and on. I found myself suddenly thinking, "wow, this laptop of mine seems awfully clunky." When viewing images in Mail I want to zoom-in by pinch-dragging, not by firing up Preview and hitting the zoom-in toolbar button a few times. How blasé. :)

This leads me back to the Mac Tablet... if Jobs went up on stage and said "Here's the Mac Tablet, it's just like an iPhone, but with a bigger screen (think 8") and lacks the cell phone capabilities of the iPhone." I'd be as happy as a green snake in a sugar cane field. ;) Throw in some bluetooth, wi-max (what the hell, why not?), and maybe a touch screen remote control for any nearby Macs or AppleTVs and all of a sudden this thing is a laptop killer. (An HD-capable AppleTV upgrade would also be a welcome update, but that's another post for another time.)

As I see it, this device would be running OS X (the iPhone operating system), which, as Jobs announced a few months back, will be opening up in February when the official SDK is released. This will allow third-parties to make the "next big thing" on a multi-touch handheld device that's so small and portable, that you'd have it with you everywhere (instead of a laptop or pda). When the SDK is available I'm sure hundreds of eager developers will begin writing applications for OS X, which assures there will be a wide variety of third party applications ready and waiting for the Mac Tablet. The popularity of the iPhone has ensured a thriving third party community of applications which could work seamlessly across the iPhone and Mac Tablet.

This device would be so closely related to the iPhone Apple wouldn't be risking too much to get it off the ground. They already have the software, and could use the iPhone hardware specification as a jumping off point. An 8" touch screen with 20-60 GB of flash memory would be an ideal hardware platform for the tablet.

If Apple were to announce this renaissance of the Netwon, I know it would certainly be replacing the 15" MacBook Pro on my living room coffee table.

In more realistic predictions, I'm guessing all this nonsense about a new sub-notebook is going to pan out. I think Apple will announce a 12" sub-notebook that will "blow your mind" in terms of thinness. (Think the iPod Nano of notebooks.) I would like to see Apple release a 10" variant as well, but I'm not holding my breath, as Apple tends to think bigger is better when it comes to notebook screens.

PS: Will and I will be manning the Panic booth on Thursday and Friday for anyone going to Macworld. We may even be able to do a patented "twin rate" review of the Keynote for ya! ;) See ya there!

Cheers,
Wade

Current Music: Neil Young, Unplugged (1993)

68% of Mac Users are Pirates?

2007-12-03T17:41:00.000-08:00

Hi All,
A software company I'm friends with recently released a new version of their application. This application, which is under $50 (aka affordable), has server side activation due to 'the times we live in.' Without fail, soon after the release the same serial number kept trying to be activated over and over. They realized this serial number had been posted to a pirate forum and blocked the serial number. Over the course of the next several days they watched the number of people trying this number go up and up while the paying customers leveled off. On one day, 68% of all activation requests were with this *one* pirated serial number.

Are small Mac developers, like ourselves, just supposed to accept this rampant amount of piracy? Why do people feel they can simply steal software when it is affordable (they do own a computer after all)? Does every software company need to put in online activation to try and slow piracy? Do we need to increase the price of our applications to offset piracy?

Ultimately, customers are the real victims here. For example, we do ES as a side project because we simply can't make enough on our software to make a living from it. If we could see a theoretical 68% increase in registrations we would probably be able to make it into a full time gig. That would result in more software, better software and quicker releases. Now think of that across the entire Mac shareware industry; imagine all the new and cool apps people would be making.

The thought that 68% of our users could be pirates really makes me just want to quit. Our software is very affordable, but without a doubt, we still have to block pirated serial numbers every release. Even for a $5 application! Perhaps you might think twice before pirating your next piece of software...

cheers,
will

Leopard, not all that

2007-11-26T15:29:00.001-08:00

Hi All,
Now we've seen the dust settle from the Leopard release, and the subsequent x.0.1 update, I feel confident in doing a little reflection on its release. First and foremost, this is definitely not the most stable release of Mac OS X. If you use your machine for mission critical things or want rock solid stability, stick with Tiger. I've seen some 'odd things' in Apple apps which are new in Leopard - which I won't detail here - but overall it seems Apple applications seem to have weathered the storm OK. 3rd party developers are the ones actually feeling the brunt of the Leopard changes.

We've seen numerous API (application programming interface) bugs throughout the OS, some (most?) being crashers. When they are reported to Apple they are almost all 'known issues.' Try telling a user that the bug is not in your application, but their shiny new $129 OS? Perhaps most alarming is the fact most of these bugs are in the old APIs.

With Apple never having to back-port their applications it seems they are able to use the newer API. It would seem the older API was neglected when testing/fixing bugs in favor of the newer stuff and simply wasn't fixed for the Leopard release. In the past there was some of this happening, but nothing like what we're seeing in Leopard. It truly seems like Leopard was rushed out the door. With the API ever-expanding, I suspect we'll get less stable API with each OS release. The only way I see to stop this cycle is if Apple gives Developers a decent build long before the actual release date and are willing to fix reported bugs. That doesn't seem likely.

I'm sure these issues will be ironed out with the various Leopard maintenance releases, but in the mean time we're left working around bugs in the OS that probably shouldn't be there.

cheers, will
music: tori amos | the beekeeper

Leopard and ES apps

2007-10-27T09:55:00.001-07:00

We, like everyone else, will be installing Leopard this weekend and will be evaluating how our applications run on the new cat. If updates are needed, rest assured we'll get them out as soon as possible. We don't expect any major problems, but one can never be too sure. =)

thanks for listening,
will
music : the watson twins | southern manners

Quick Note to Rick Rubin

2007-09-03T11:55:00.000-07:00

Just a note to Def Jam and Columbia exec Rick Rubin. I will never rent my music. Ever. Period.

cheers, will

NBC: all aboard the sinking ship

2007-08-31T11:08:00.000-07:00

In a bold (read:stupid) move, NBC announced it would not re-sign it's contract with Apple to sell their shows on iTunes. The idea that one would pay $2 for a show you can see for free over-the-air (or by other means) seems like a good one, but alas, NBC didn't think so. They wanted more money. You see, getting people to pay money for something that's free wasn't good enough, they wanted more. When Apple wouldn't agree, they backed out.

With viewership declining year over year, and experts predicting TV's demise; it would seem odd that NBC would cut off this source of revenue and potential avenue for new viewers. This move simply seems like an old flailing giant failing to embrace new forms of distribution because of the almighty dollar.

The ironic thing is, NBC shows were the only shows I bought on the ITMS. Sigh.

Update: Apparently NBC was worried about piracy and wanted the ability to vary pricing. However, this comment on Gizmodo sums it up perfectly, "You know what happens when you take a digital product like this and make it unreasonably expensive? Drive more people to piracy."

cheers, will

Bioshock and the PC way

2007-08-28T10:38:00.000-07:00

Hi All,
As my last post detailed, I'm now an owner of a new iMac. One of the perks of this iMac is it can run Windows. While I wouldn't condone installing Windows, I did. The guys around the office were talking about Bioshock coming out on the Xbox and the PC so I thought, hey, why not pull down the demo and put Windows to good use. :) It's common knowledge around the inter-web that Vista isn't exactly a gamers delight, suffering from performance and other issues. But that wasn't going to stop me from trying. The following trial is the abridged version of what happened. It actually took me 2 days before I could even try the demo because of the 'high quality software' produced by FilePlanet...but I digress.

First up, I installed the newest version of ATI's drivers to up my chances of having things work. Then, I pulled down the demo from Steam. So far so good. I launched the demo and presto...nothing. A black screen and then the Vista crash reporter. Great. A Google search suggested I update to the latest DirectX 10 drivers, so I downloaded and installed them. Launched Bioshock and to my surprise it ran! I played about 30 minutes but it quickly became apparent things weren't right. Numerous textures weren't loading and sometimes reflections were taking over an entire texture area. Another Google search suggested I try using DirectX 9 by forcing the demo to load using it. I added the 'advanced' setting to the launch arguments in Steam and held my breath. This time, true success. Bioshock looked and played great. Albeit in DirectX 9.

I have to wonder who is at fault for the poor DirectX 10 support - Microsoft, ATI or 2KGames. DirectX 10 is supposed to be this great selling point for Vista but in reality, like most Vista features, it fails spectacularly. I have no doubt one day it will work well, but Vista has been out how long now and only 8% of Steam users are using it. It seems like it's still the odd man out. To be fair, I couldn't imagine the amount of testing that's required for your average Windows game. But even with all kinds of testing it could still end up being a poor user experience.

cheers, will

New iMac buyers beware

2007-08-20T13:34:00.000-07:00

My sorted story begins last weekend buying a new 20" iMac to replace my aging iMac G5. I didn't need the extra 4" of screen real estate so the 20" was my ticket. I was a little worried about the initial reports online about the 20" display having color issues, so I went to the Apple Store and looked at both the 20" and 24" side by side. It was hard to get a good feel for them in the store, but it was clear the 24" was by far the nicer display, but I thought the 20" would be adequate so I happily walked out with one.

I got it home and right way I had concerns. I use a 23" Cinema Display at work so I know what a good display is supposed to look like. I noticed immediately the iMac display was very washed out at the bottom, so much so the gray Finder window almost appeared white. I calibrated the display which increased the contrast and darkened it a bit but the bottom of the display was still washing out. To make matters worse, the top of the display was too dark. So the top was too dark and the bottom was too light. It basically looked like everything on the screen had a gradient fill. I created a sample solid color image and opened it full screen and it was obvious the display was not constant top to bottom.

The long and short of it is I returned it to the Apple Store and the Genius agreed the display had issues. He took my test file to the other 20" iMacs around the store and they too had the color consistency problems. He thought I wouldn't be happy with another 20" so I ended up bumping up to the 24" iMac just for the decent display.

Apple has apparently switched to the cheap TN LCD panel type for the 20" iMacs (which are also used in virtually all cheap PC displays) but are still using the better IPS panel type in the 24". The TN panel has very fast refresh rates, but the color and consistency lack compared to all other LCD types. Historically Apple has used IPS and PVA/MVA panels in all their displays from the iMac to the Cinema Displays (excluding the old 17" iMac which also uses a TN display and looks bad). However, someone decided to go cheap on the new 20" iMacs and it shows. On the one hand, Apple wants to position the iMac as a high end consumer machine, but then turns around and puts cheaper parts in it. I don't get it.

This ultimately brings me back to wanting a Mac Mini tower so I can use any display I want with it. If Apple is going to use cheap components in their computers, I want the choice of not using it. With the iMac, it's all or nothing. The Mac Mini is still too limited and overpriced (a 2.5" drive with both RAM slots filled and a Max of 2 Ghz CPU). Which leaves the tower starting at a whopping $2499 which is simply unaffordable for a home machine.

The 24" iMac is a relatively good deal for what you get and I'll be happy with it. But I'd really like some more choice when it comes to Apple's current consumer/prosumer offerings; especially if this decline in quality is what we can look forward to from Apple.

cheers, will

Quicktime and fullscreen

2007-07-11T16:11:00.000-07:00

Back in the day I blogged about how lame Quicktime was for not being able to go into fullscreen mode with the non-pay version and how it tripped up my wife at work. To my surprise some readers actually thought it was 'right' of Apple not to allow that functionality in the free version even though numerous applications (include iTunes) allowed this behavior for free.

Well, apparently the coolaid drinkers are in the minority because with the latest Quicktime update, Apple unlocked full screen mode in the free version. Way to class it up Apple, I'm proud of you guys. =)

cheers, will
music : brandi carlile | the story
PS. "The Next Big Thing" at ITMS is great and that's why I now own this record.

Worst Keynote Ever?

2007-06-17T13:19:00.000-07:00

Having recently gotten back from WWDC, I have a unique perspective on the state of Mac OS X and the future Apple has mapped out for developers moving forward. I've read some people have declared last week's keynote as being the worst ever, even going so far as to make up t-shirts saying so. I find this a bit hard to take, as Apple is being held to an incredibly high bar compared to the rest of the computer industry. (This is the sixth update to Mac OS X in about 6 years, see Microsoft working that hard? I think not.)

Sure, the keynote was lacking in surprises and the "sweet solution" that Steve touted as the iPhone development strategy is very disappointing (You too can make a webpage!). But to call the keynote the worst ever, is most certainly not true. I don't want to be an Apple apologist and it's not the Apple Fanboy inside me talking, but Leopard is shaping up to be a very solid update to Mac OS X. Just look at the laundry list of new features in Leopard and you'll start to see what I'm talking about.

Unified User Interface - about time! Apple has even gone the extra mile and finally made it possible to create modern looking applications using standard OS provided controls. (This is a big deal for someone like me who spends a lot of time creating custom controls to match stuff Apple's been doing for years.)

Desktop - Stacks look very useful, and being able to drag stuff out of an expanded Stack is great.

Finder - new sidebar and "Back to Mac" is going to be very useful for .Mac subscribers (like myself)

Quick Look - might seem like a no brainer, but wow, this is going to be integrated into my Finder workflow instantly.

Spaces - I've been wanting virtual desktops for years and finally a supported solution from Apple.

Mail - new notes and to do lists which can be accessed throughout Mac OS X, highly useful... I can already think of a few places where we could add this to some apps I work on. :)

Front Row - new Apple TV-like interface is a nice improvement to an already nice full screen interface.

iChat - all I can say is "help me OB-1 Kenobi"... awesome! Oh, and tabbed chats have finally been added... bye Chax.

Screen Sharing - I have a Mac Mini setup as a media center and I currently use Remote Desktop to control it, so to have screen sharing available directly from the Finder's sidebar is going to be a huge timesaver.

The above list are only *some* of the features that I'm excited about from a user perspective. I haven't even mentioned the many internal changes and additions Apple has made to Mac OS X to support many of the new features in Leopard.

One of the more obvious and exciting features now available to developers is Core Animation. This technology will truly revolutionize the computer interface as we know it. Hopefully third party developers can contain themselves, otherwise we're all going to be stuck with annoying animated transitions everywhere. :) I'm not sure users truly understand the massive effort that's required to make layered drawing work in such a way that Apple can provide an easy to use API for doing fancy animations. In my opinion, this alone is almost worth the price of Leopard.

Then there's the iPhone. If Apple hadn't announced the iPhone *early* last January it would have blown the doors off the keynote. But instead, people forget that it's an all new device running Mac OS X... think about it, an ARM based device running Mac OS X... that's a big deal and has HUGE implications for the future of Apple and computing. Would the disappointed Fanboys prefer that Apple not pre-announce iPhone and then spring it on the masses two weeks before release?

My point is keynotes have to be viewed in perspective and you have to look at the big picture to see what Apple's up to. Sure there wasn't any new hardware, but remember that a week before the keynote Apple announced new MacBook Pros. Apple surely could have waited and released those at WWDC, but then people would have complained that they weren't "good enough" to warrant a keynote announcement, either way Apple loses.

From a developer perspective Mac OS X Leopard is looking like a dandy release and I think users will be surprised when they see what's possible using the new technologies provided in Leopard. I just hope they can calm down enough to look at the substance of the keynote rather than having a knee-jerk reaction to the lack of surprises and shiny new toys.

Current music - "Open Door" by Lisa Ekdahl
Wade

Thank you, may I have another?

2007-06-12T11:02:00.000-07:00

As I sit here at WWDC a day after the keynote I keep coming back to one thought. But first, let me recap. Back when OS X first appeared, we all had to suck it up and port (or rewrite) our apps. The API changed a lot and it took some effort to be a first class citizen, but we did it because we got all these great features in OS X. Sure performance & support was lacking but it was an all-new OS after all.

It took a while but Apple worked out the kinks. No sooner than that happened Apple introduced Intel machines and we had to convert our code again to be endian agnostic...but once again we did it. Well, yesterday all the developers that stuck with Apple for all these years got our reward. We all now get to write web page 'applications' for the iPhone. The Jobs boldly claimed this option was 'sweet' for developers not once, but twice in the keynote. First no iPod SDK, then no Apple TV SDK and now no iPhone SDK. As Apple expands its reach and puts less focus on computers, it turns around and limits 3rd party developer access to these new markets. For once, just once, it'd be nice if Apple threw us a bone.

cheers, will

Netscape 9 beta

2007-06-07T23:52:00.000-07:00

We're working on an update to Bookit that correctly supports Netscape 9 beta. Currently Netscape beta commandeers the Firefox creator code making it appear that Firefox is Netscape in the main Bookit window. This is a bug in Netscape which we're working around. We're also wrapping up a couple other minor issues that have come up and hope to have an update out soon. With WWDC next week, it will probably the week after so stay tuned.

cheers, will

Pixelmator - finally Photoshop lite?

2007-05-31T14:57:00.000-07:00

We noticed a new kid on the block that frankly, has us a bit excited. Pixelmator, by the guys behind Jumsoft might just be the Photoshop lite we've been looking for for years. Right now details are light, but it supports layers and sports the standard toolbox we've grown to require in Photoshop. Unlike other Photoshop lite contenders, Pixelmator has a very pleasing and out of the way UI. We'll have to wait until July to see if it delievers, but until then, enjoy the screenshots on the Pixelmator website.

cheers, will

New Netflix 'Watch Now' prototype

2007-05-02T19:46:00.000-07:00

As a Netflix subscriber I was very excited to hear they are working on a download service to stay relevant in the world of digital downloads. Netflix recently showed off the fruits of their labor and revealed they are using the new Microsoft Siverlight technology and it looks amazing. I'm looking forward to this shipping. :)

cheers, will

Shirra 2.0 and Bookit

2007-04-23T19:35:00.000-07:00

Shiira 2.0 was released today and Bookit currently does *not* support it. Shiira changed their bookmark storage and now use a database so we need to investigate reading and writing to this database. Needless to say, this is not a trivial task and we certainly don't want to corrupt user's bookmarks. We want to support Shiira 2.0 in Bookit, but in the mean time, simply sync to Safari or Firefox and use those bookmarks in Shiira (selectable in the Shiira preferences).

cheers, will

Coda

2007-04-23T11:45:00.000-07:00

I'm pleased to present Coda, a professional web developer IDE. Wade and I have been working on this for the last year and a half, 40 hours a week. Sometimes this day seemed like it would never come, but alas, it's here and we're all breathing a sigh of relief. I can safely say it's a solid 1.0 offering, but we still have 200+ features on the drawing board and will be turning out more releases as fast as we can. So download Coda, kick the tires, take it around the block and give it the once over. We think you'll be glad you did.

cheers, will

New music recommendations

2007-03-17T14:47:00.000-07:00

Last weekend the Misses and I went to a local hot spot to check check out Rosie Thomas who's music we both enjoy. She played a 45 minute set and sounded great. Rosie Thomas has a new record out, "These Friends of Mine", which I recommend checking out.

The surprise of the night was a local artist Alela Diane who performed before Rosie. She combines a clean folk sound with intriguing lyrics, a guaranteed winner in my book. :) I picked up her current record, "The Pirate's Gospel", and it is a good listen. I look forward to hearing her new record coming out later this spring.

Lastly, Dolorean has a new record out, "You can't win." I've only had a chance to listen to it a hand full of times, but it is a nice evolution from their previous records. One song, "Buffalo Gal", is particularly haunting.

If you enjoy mellow 'folkie' music, it's worth taking a moment and checking out these artists.

cheers, will
tv : cubs baseball

Bookit tomorrow

2007-02-17T16:52:00.000-08:00

We are *finally* releasing the latest update to Bookit tomorrow. Bookit has been in beta forever and it's about time for a release!

cheers, will

Why is Apple being so cheap with Quicktime?

2007-02-03T15:17:00.000-08:00

This week my wife, who is an elementary teacher, was working on an iMovie for her class and contacted me in a tizzy. Was iMovie too complicated? Could she not figure out how to connect a camera and import? Could she not figure out the fancy transitions and effects? Nope. I'm happy to report she had already completed the movie and exported it as Quicktime movie. She even had transfered it to a laptop to connect to the projector to show the class. Things were going swimmingly, so what's the problem? The problem, she couldn't figure out how to play the movie full screen. Yup, that's it.

You see, some accountant/marketeer/undesirable decided to gimp Quicktime and not allow it to play full screen without buying a lame $20 license to Quicktime Pro. Did my wife know that? No. Is she authorized to purchase computer software for her school? No. Could she have gotten a license the day before the presentation? No. Would it have been a pain in the butt to get a license for her computer? Most definitely yes. But aren't Macs supposed to be the best computer for education?

In the world of iMovies and downloadable content Apple is still insisting to cripple Quicktime just to make a couple bucks. Luckily there are numerous third party applications that will play a Quicktime movie full screen for free. I pointed her to one and the crisis was averted. But the lesson of this experience shouldn't be lost. Although advanced users can easily download work-arounds; normal users simply curse Apple. I hope Apple sees their holistic approach to the 'whole widget' is breaking down in this scenario and address it in a future release of Quicktime....and stop being so cheap already.

cheers, will
music : damien rice | 9

What's planned for the Apple TV? Part Deux.

2007-01-17T16:18:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I was commenting about the Apple TV and its future. Before the ink could dry on my post Apple turns around and says something very odd at their Q1 earnings today. It went something like this:

Question: Do you see the Apple TV a niche platform or broad platform?
Answer: We see it as the DVD player of the 21st century.

OK, one of the following things is happening:
A) Apple officially has no clue and thinks people only watch Disney (and catalog Paramount) movies and no longer rent movies.
B) Apple is not done adding features to the Apple TV.

Another problem with this 'player of the 21st century' is it doesn't have access to HD content yet. In fact, it's not even close to HD and I don't think the Apple TV does upscaling. It should be interesting how this all plays out and what timeframe we're looking at.

cheers, will
tv : mythbusters

iPhone redux

2007-01-17T12:25:00.001-08:00

Having just gotten back from Macworld, I thought I'd just post a few comments on Apple's newly announced iPhone. First off, let me just say that this is by far the coolest handheld device I've ever seen. To think I could replace my iPod, phone and Powerbook with this device is mind-blowing! Just think, instead of lugging around a 5 pound laptop I can use a handheld that's about the size of a video iPod.

As impressive as the iPhone looks in photos & movies online, it really has to be seen to be believed. It's definitely smaller than it appears in the photos and the screen is truly amazing. It's bright, crisp and clear, not to mention the fantastic interface Apple has developed around the multi-touch screen.

As you may have noticed I'm a big fan of the iPhone, but I'm not sure if it's quite ready for mass adoption. There are several things about the iPhone that might slow mass adoption and Apple should definitely address these in future updates to the device.

1. Cingular exclusive - Personally, I don't have any experience with Cingular, but from what I can tell, they can't be any worse than the other major cell phone companies. I'm currently with Verizon and am out of my contract, so to me, switching to Cingular isn't a big deal. (And I definitely look forward to being able to use bluetooth again!)

2. Lack of Microsoft Office compatibility - If Apple wants to sell iPhones to business users, which make up a large number of Smart Phone users, they need to address the lack of Exchange support as well as other business-type applications, such as MS Office.

3. No third party application support - Number two on the list leads directly to the inability for third party developers to make applications for the iPhone. If Apple opens up the platform (OS X), they could also allow some ambitious third party developers to create solutions to problems that they don't have the time or resources to do themselves (EG: Office). Personally, I can see why Apple isn't opening up the platform, since it is a 1.0 device and it opens it up to all kinds of stability concerns.

4. No games - I imagine Apple will be adding games to the iPhone platform at some point in the future, but for now, this is something that should be there and isn't. I can see Apple developing games for the iPhone in a similar manner as games for the iPod.

5. Missing iChat - I'd really like to have an AIM client built into the iPhone, so I can chat, rather than SMS my buddies. This seems like a no-brainer, maybe for iPhone 2?

6. Requires data plan - To get the most out of the iPhone it requires users to subscribe to a data plan from Cingular. This is unfortunate since it's another $10-40 a month on top of already outrageously priced cell phone service. At least it works via Wi-Fi, so it isn't totally useless if you don't get a data plan.

7. Price - If only they were $400 & $500, it would make all the difference. I can see why Apple priced them as they did (don't want to kill all iPod sales), but still, they are definitely "up there" for an average consumer. For the price Apple is asking, they should bump the memory on the low-end to 8 gig and the high-end to 12 or 16 gig. This would at least separate it from the iPod Nanos and allow the user more space for storing their media.

The above is just a sort run down of some of the first generation problems I think Apple should address as they move forward with the iPhone. Despite the issues above, Apple has done a fantastic job on the iPhone for a 1.0 version and I'm seriously considering picking one up when they're released in June.

Current music: Flaming Lips - Unconsciously Screamin' (shuffle active)

Wade

What's planned for the Apple TV?

2007-01-16T11:38:00.000-08:00

Now that we've all had time to digest the 'iPhone keynote' the other product announcement lost in the shuffle is the Apple TV. It has gotten a 'ho hum' response from the people I've talked to. At first glance it seems like a compelling product; it syncs to iTunes and allows all your media in iTunes to be available through your home theatre. In fact, about a year ago I was in the market for such a device. I currently have an iPod video serving this function and it won't be replaced with an Apple TV and here's why.

First, compatibility. For those who don't live in Apple's dream world where we all buy our movies and tv shows via iTunes compatibility is a real concern. The Apple TV only supports MPEG 4 and H.264 video. If you have video in other formats you're out of luck. That means transcoding all the video you might have to a supported format. This wouldn't be terrible if the process was fast, but it's not. In fact, transcoding a 2 hour DVD to H.264 on my iMac G5 takes 14 hours or so. MPEG 4 only takes about 2.5-3 hours, but that's still not fast by any means. Using eyeTV as a PVR? You'll have to transcode all the recorded video as well.

Second, price. This is the big question mark. $300 dollars is a steep price for something that is not especially convenient to use nor all that innovative. For example, for $250 I could get the Buffalo PC-P3LWG which supports all kinds of media and is a DVD player to boot. Or for $100 more I could get an Xbox 360 which does media streaming and much more. Sure, I'd still have to transcode movies to wmv, but there are solutions to do this in real-time and should be coming to the Mac soon. The kicker is it also does movie rentals, movie downloads and in an up-coming version will support IP TV. Oh, did I mention it also plays games?

My guess is we haven't seen all there is to see with the Apple TV. I wouldn't be surprised if Apple rolled out a streaming rental service and/or a movie purchasing service through the Apple TV interface. I'm not holding my breath for expanded format support, but I hope to see the value improved.

cheers, will