Finally moving to Intel

I thought I'd be able to hold out a little longer, but after a crazy week of rehearsals where it seemed everyone was toting a new MacBook, and after waiting for what seemed like hours (minutes in reality) to open a fairly large Excel file, my patience finally ran out.

A few hours ago, I clicked "Make purchase" on a low-end MacBook Pro. I've been drooling over the updated MBPs ever since they were recently updated. With 2 GB of RAM and an LED backlit screen, it's a pretty sweet machine as is. I considered the mid-range MacBook, but once the RAM is bumped up to 2 GB, the difference in price to move up to a pro machine didn't seem like such a leap.

My only real qualms are a) that I like the smaller form factor of the MacBook, and b) it is my understanding that, like the old iBooks, they get better wifi reception than the MacBook Pros. However, the MPBs are also apparently better than the old PowerBooks in that regard, so we will see. I almost went back and changed my order, but I think the pro machine will serve me better in the long run.

Now I have to wait till it gets here.

Nike+iPod + podcast hack

For my birthday a few months back, my wife kindly bought me a Nike+iPod unit to go along with my new red iPod nano. I must say, I'm seriously impressed with it. It worked flawlessly out of the box, and even before I calibrated the sensor, it was calculating my distance to within 10 percent. Now that it's calibrated, its accuracy is within 2 percent.

Previously, I was never one to listen to music while working out; I preferred the zen state your mind enters during a good run. But there are advantages to running to music, not the least of which is trying to keep up with a song whose tempo is just slightly faster than your normal pace--a great way to improve your speed.

But as any serious runner will tell you, it's also important to work on endurance by slowing down going for distance rather than speed. These are the times when running to music can push you faster than you want to go. In such cases, you could simply unplug your headphones and run without the music (the unit still works sans headphones), but to my mind, a good hour-long podcast (say, MacBreak Weekly... oh wait, that usually runs way overtime...) is the perfect accompaniment to a long, slow run.

Problem is, podcasts are for some reason not available in the Nike+iPod menu (I guess Apple never figured anyone would be crazy enough to listen to a podcast while running). This is where iTunes' smart playlist feature comes in handy once again (see my previous entry about rolling your own autofill feature for iPod nanos using smart playlists).

There are two solutions available, depending on how choosy you are about what you want to listen to. The first is to simply create a smart playlist that has all your most recent podcasts in it. This way, when you select the playlist from the Nike+ menu, you'll get the first podcast in the list.

In iTunes, select "New Smart Playlist..." from the File menu. Then choose Genre from the lefthand dropdown menu, "is" from the next one over and then type "Podcast" in the field at the right. Then click the "+" button to get another rule and select Date Added from the lefthand menu, "is in the last" from the middle menu and "1 weeks" in the righthand field (see screenshot).


If you want to exclude any podcasts from this list, simply add another rule that states "Name... is not... [name of excluded podcast]".


A second option is to create separate smart playlists for every podcast you'll want to run to. It's a little more time consuming, but it gives you more flexibility. In this case, select a new smart playlist, create a rule that states "Name... contains... [podcast name]", then add a rule to exclude all but the most recent episode: "Date Added... is in the last... 1 weeks".


Repeat for all your favourite podcasts. Then connect your nano and under the "Music" tab of your iPod (not Podcasts), make sure to check the new smart playlists you have just created and click "Apply" at the bottom right of the iTunes window.

Assuming you already have these podcasts on your iPod, the new playlists won't even take up any more precious space on your iPod since they are just a different way of addressing the audio file, one that the Nike+ menu can see.

Now, get out there and go on a nice long, relaxing jog!

Jaiku

So, the latest Web 2.0 craze seems to be Twitter (how they avoided losing the "e" I'll never understand), and I signed up a few weeks back, but it was soooo slooow the day I signed up that I lost interest.

Now I'm trying Jaiku, which has its own growing pains but, in my opinion has several advantages over Twitter. Chief among these the plusses is the fact that Jaiku tracks not just the mini-posts you plug into the service, it also tracks things like blog posts and Flickr updates.

The other cool thing about Jaiku is that, just like a blog, you can comment on other people's posts. Which adds another layer of interactivity over Twitter. A case in point: one of my first posts in Jaiku was "I wish Jaiku had a desktop client." I made the comment because I couldn't find anything of the sort on the Jaiku site. In less than an hour, another Jaiku user (thanks Petteri) had directed me to a nice little app called Juhu. It's perfect. Lightweight, easy-to-use, and (so far) bug free.

I'm liking Jaiku so far, even if I have no friends....

New Apple-EMI deal boon for jazz and classical lovers

Unless you've been hiding under a rock the last few hours, you have heard about EMI's plan to offer DRM-free music on Apple's iTunes Store starting sometime in May. Essentially, EMI tracks on iTunes will be offered in two formats: the old DRMed version at 128 kbps for 99 cents and the new un-DRMed version at 256 kbps for $1.29. So iTunes Store patrons will have the choice of paying a premium for better quality audio and interoperability. From what I have read, the general opinion has been mixed.

One little detail that is not mentioned often is that the price for an album will remain the same, whether it is DRMed or not. Now if you're primarily a consumer of pop music, this will likely not change your buying habits. However, for classical and jazz lovers--who usually buy whole albums (actually, I am just assuming this; I have no empirical knowledge)--this is a wonderful development. Essentially, you can buy the same jazz and classical albums you would have purchased anyway, but now you get better quality (apparently, virtually indistinguishable from CD quality), no DRM--and the price is absolutely the same. Any hesitations I have previously had about buying classical and jazz CDs from the iTS have pretty much disappeared.

Assuming the artist is on EMI, that is.

At the very least, however, this should give an even further boost to on-line classical record sales, which saw a significant increase in 2006. Let's hope the other labels jump on the bandwagon soon.

Novell I'm a Mac Spoof

So the big news today seems to be that Novell Linux has posted a couple of spoofs of the now infamous "I'm a Mac" ads. I think they're pretty funny actually, but so far, I haven't seen anyone pick up on the fact that the girl playing "Linux" bears a striking resemblance to Ellen Feiss, whom you will probably remember as the 14-year-old "stoner girl" in that old switcher ad. Heck, "PC" even says "Boy, you sure grew up fast." at the end.

Or is it just me?

Roll-your-own autofill feature for iPod Nano

When Apple released the iPod Shuffle back in 2005, one of the most lauded features was "Autofill," which automatically fills your Shuffle with a random (or not-so-random, depending on how you set it up) selection of music from your library or from the playlist of your choice. When the Nano was released that fall, however, many people lamented its lack of the Autofill feature. I'm not sure what Apple's rationale is for leaving this feature off the Nano, especially given the fact that at one point they sold a 1 GB Nano--the same capacity as their biggest Shuffle at the time--but when I recently received my own Nano, I too felt that this would be a pretty nice feature to have.

But there is a way you can set up your own Autofill feature. Here's how (in the interests of citing sources, I will admit that a part of this idea came from reading a post by David Charlap on the Macintouch site. That said, it isn't rocket science, and I'm sure many people have figured this trick out on their own):

First, in iTunes, select "New Smart Playlist" from the File menu. Now, say you want to autofill from your jazz collection. Select "Genre" from the left-hand dropdown menu, choose "is" from the next parameter, and type in "Jazz" in the field at the right (see screenshot).



Next, click the "+" button to add a parameter, select "Last Played" in the left-hand dropdown list, "is not in the last" from the next parameter, and choose a timeframe (in this example, I have chosen the last two weeks, but you can set any timeframe you like). Then check the "Limit to" checkbox and decide on how much size you want to dedicate to this Autofill playlist. This will depend on your iPod's capacity. The nice thing about such a playlist, however, is that you can have several. So, for instance, on my own 4 GB Nano, I have a 1 GB Autofill classical playlist and a 2 GB jazz playlist.



You can have iTunes fill the playlist randomly, by rating, or by several other criteria. Make sure you also check "Live updating". Click "OK" and name the playlist in iTunes. Finally, attach your iPod, and under the Music tab, click "Sync music" and "Selected playlists:" and check only the smart playlist you just created. Then click Apply.



One drawback to this method is that iTunes only updates the playlist after you connect your iPod, so you'll have to resync, but to my mind, that's a minor irritation.

As people's digital music libraries continue to grow, I imagine Apple will eventually get around to implementing Autofill for the Nanos and perhaps even the larger capacity iPods, but until that day comes, this little hack does the job pretty well.

Red iPod Nano unboxing pr0n

My red Nano came in the mail today. I've always thought the Nanos were slick players, both the original 1G edition, which my wife owns, and the new version. There's something deeply appealing about the red colour of this particular model, however; I would really love to know how Apple decides on the exact hue of their coloured iPods. Even the plainest seems to scream "Buy me!" and this red one takes it to new heights. I'd also be curious to know how many they've sold, but I guess I'll have to wait until they issue a statement about how much Apple has donated to the (Product) Red project. You know that's going to happen sooner or later.

Normally, I would never post unboxing pictures, especially for a product that has been out for so long (though I must admit enjoying the whole unboxing pr0n phenomenon). But since I recently got a camera-phone, it seemed appropriate to combine my two new toys while both are relatively new acquisitions.


Even the FedEx package is well-designed. No excess here, but the plastic iPod box is completely protected.


No cellophane wrapper around the box...


...merely an easy-to-pull-off plastic tab on one end.


Out of the box.


The plastic piece that holds the iPod itself is also brillant. No twist ties holding the iPod down. And you just bend the plastic back to release the iPod.


Laid out in all its glory.


Free at last!

Joe, I think I love you

Yesterday, I finally entered the 21st century and bought myself a mobile phone. I had been hold off joining in on the cell fun, mostly to do with avoiding needless expenses, but also, of late, to do with stubbornness and a certain misplaced sense of Luddite-like pride. Anyway, the deed is done. I have the phone and a pay-as-you-go plan. I hope use it very little, but you know what they say about the best-laid plans...

I chose Rogers because of the supposedly better coverage and the fact that with the right phone, you can use it worldwide. (What's the point of having a mobile phone, I ask, if you can't use it everywhere?) And I chose the Sony Ericsson W300i for much the same reason: it's a quad-band phone. The W300 is relatively inexpensive and it packs quite a number of features, including still and video camera (albeit of execrable quality), mp3 player (that I doubt I'll ever use), bluetooth, etc. One drawback is that iSync does not support the W300 (why, I have no idea, but there you go). But before buying the phone, I had done my homework and found that iSync 2.3 plugins are available.

So, this morning, thinking I'd have to lay down a few dollars for a plugin, I searched Google and came upon Joe's blog. Joe was kind enough to build a plugin for the W300, based on info he got from a site called iSync Hilife, and hosted it for free on his blog. The plugin works perfectly and I now have all of my Address Book contacts and iCal events on my phone.

I thanked Joe in the comments on his blogpost, but I also want to thank him here. I don't think it's hyperbole to say that Joe's making the world a better place.

Mighty Mouse, it's over

That's it. I've had it. I'm retiring my Mighty Mouse for good, and this time I mean it. One again, the Mighty Mouse has it's tail wrapped around it, but this time, it's not waiting to go to the shop for repair/replacement under warranty, it's been relegated to a box of computer junk.

This evening, I worked that scroll wheel for a good half hour, and while it showed signs of returning to functionality, it never did regain its out-of-the-box glory. Let it be known, I liked the scroll wheel a lot, and it was the main reason I went back to the Mighty Mouse after vowing to go back to the old Microsoft mouse when MM bailed on me the first time.

But Mighty Mouse, you have tested even my stubborn love past the breaking point. I'm sorry, this fighting just can't go on; it's cutting into my sanity and my productivity. The worst thing is I'm probably partly to blame. My jam-covered fingers in the morning and my lunches eaten in your presence were admittedly provocative, but for crying out loud, you're a mouse, you should be used to taking a beating. I'm going back to my old IntelliMouse (though I can hardly believe myself I'm saying this). No, MM, It's doesn't have your sex appeal, but sometimes, a good relationship is more about stability and reliability than flash and good looks.

Sigh.

Damn you, Mighty Mouse, damn you to hell!

Review: Kensington Digital FM transmitter

My wife recently changed jobs, and though she will no longer have to do a bumper-to-bumper commute, when she does drive, it will be for longer distances and times. After a week she basically ordered me to get her an FM transmitter for her iPod because she was sick of stupid radio hosts.

We already own one FM transmitter, an AirPlay from XtremeMac. It's a decent unit but not spectacular. Its pros are that it's small, tunes to any station, and doesn't need batteries. However sound quality is mediocre and it doesn't work with post-4G iPods. Since my wife's iPod is a 1G nano, we needed to find her another solution.

So I did some research, primarily over at iLounge and quickly found that very few FM transmitters get good grades from their review section. One of the few exceptions was the Kensington Digital FM transmitter, which iLounge gave a grade of A-.

And I'm here to say that though it's expensive, this little unit is simply awesome. Audio quality is just as good as if not better than the radio, it charges your iPod, and it works with all iPods with a dock connector (which basically means anything after the very first generation iPod, with the exception of the iPod Shuffle). Since Apple is not likely to abandon its proprietary dock system anytime soon, it means that I won't have to buy another FM transmitter when I buy another iPod. It plugs into your car's 12-volt accessory outlet, tunes to any station and has three pre-sets.

Yes, it's expensive (US$80), but in this case, you definitely get what you pay for. Highly recommended.

Oh iPod, how you've changed my life.

I've been musing on an iPod piece for a while but never got around to it before. But with the iPod turning 5 on Monday, it seems like the appropriate time for it. I hesitated to write this piece. So much has been written about the iPod; what could I possible add? But any way I look at it, my iPod has had such an important effect on my life that I feel compelled to write about it. If you think such an article will bore you, stop reading now. But if you're an iPod lover, or if you need some encouragement to take the plunge, read on.

When I bought my iPod--a 4th generation monochrome 40 GB model--about 18 months ago, it was mostly an indulgence, a toy to ease me over the 40th birthday blues (40 years, 40 GB, get it?). Oh, I was able to justify it in part by using it as a backup drive, but to say that it was a completely utilitarian purchase would be disingenuous. Even so, I had little inkling of just how thoroughly this diminutive piece of consumer electronics would rock my world, both literally and figuratively.

At first, merely the idea that I could carry my entire not-inconsiderable CD collection around in my pocket was amazing to me. Somehow, this simple fact makes me feel both powerful and free. In any given situation, I can set the soundtrack of my life to whatever music I fancy. And then there is the whole idea of shuffle. When you set your entire music collection--in my case almost 3800 songs from just about every genre you can think of--on shuffle, that "soundtrack" becomes an incredibly varied and unpredictable string of music. Just imagine walking down the street on a crisp October evening, while your iPod jumps from Gesualdo to the Allan Parson's Project to Alessandro Scarlatti to the Yellowjackets to David Bowie to Mahler to Bach to Franz Ferdinand... and on it goes. At first it's somewhat disconcerting, but once in a while, iPod and shuffle create a serendipitous union of moment and music that could never have happened any other way. Plus, shuffle means random (or so they say; I sometimes wonder), so it burrows into your music collection with ruthless objectivity, helping you to discover albums and artists that you had almost forgotten you had.

Another beautiful thing about having your entire music collection in your pocket is that it's always there. I know that sounds obvious, but if your soundtrack is crying out for a certain piece of music, genre or artist, and you know it's just a few clicks of the scroll wheel away, it's an incredibly liberating feeling. If you're on a train in Norway, as I recently was, and you want to listen to what Grieg had to say about the fjords, you can do that, and it's only a matter of time before it brings tears to your eyes.

Of course, the other great thing about the modern digital media player and the new Internet is podcasting. Podcasts have changed the way I listen to radio. To be more accurate, I don't listen to radio anymore. It's all podcasts now. An FM transmitter for my iPod means I'm not a slave to the radio DJ even in the car. Even before I got the iPod, I listened mostly to talk radio anyway, but with the iPod, talk radio has become a much more diverse ecosystem. I'm a huge fan of public radio, and most public radio networks around the world are making at least some of their programming available as podcasts now. Which means I have access to great programming from the BBC, Australia's ABC, U.S. NPR, and of course Canada's own CBC. And then there are the thousands of private podcasters springing up. Sure, there is a lot of chaff, but there are also some really fantastic programs out there that would never have made it onto the traditional airwaves.

Having all my music and talk radio with me in my pocket also makes doing chores and yard work much less tedious. Heck, I even look forward to mowing the lawn now. Walking to the bus or subway station used to be a boring prospect; now I just have to make sure my iPod is updated with my latest podcasts and I'm all set. There's never any reason to be bored with my iPod in my pocket.

And believe me, my iPod is ALWAYS in my pocket. And not just for all the aforementioned reasons. My iPod also serves as my computer backup. Yes, even with my entire music collection and a serious line up of podcasts, along with my calendars and contacts, there is still enough room to do a substantial backup. I generally keep all my work-critical files, along with any personal documents I wouldn't want to lose, and my Mail.app archive. I also keep a backup of my pictures, and of course, my music is backed up just by being on my iPod. So I can leave home knowing that even if my computers are stolen or, god forbid, the house burns down, my most precious data is safely tucked away in my pocket.

So happy birthday iPod. I'm so glad we met. I can't imagine life without you now.

Technorati Tags: Apple, iPod, Podcasting, Public Broadcasting

Thoughts on Apple's movie strategy

Yesterday's story in the New York Post that Wal-Mart was threatening some movie studios with retaliation if they sold movies on the iTunes Store, and Wal-Mart's subsequent dispute of the allegations, got me to thinking again about Apple's move into the movie distribution business.



Some people were predicting Apple would start a movie download service, along with some sort of streaming device, as early as 18 months ago. And let's face it, it's probably going to be another six months before Apple starts selling its "iTV" device, by which time, the company will probably have a few more studios lined up to sell their wares through the newly named iTunes Store.


So, come next March or April, we Mac users will likely have a new operating system in the name of Leopard, a fairly good range of movies in the iTunes Store from which to choose and a way to get those newly purchased flicks onto our HDTVs (we'll overlook for the moment that these movies won't be in HD).


Now I admit I'm not the typical consumer of movies. I rarely go to the movie theatre and rent maybe two or three DVDs a year, mostly because the offerings are decidedly mediocre, and it's a PITA to drive down to Blockbuster (or wherever) to rent a DVD. That said, if I could watch a movie on Saturday night with a click of a mouse, I'd probably be much more inclined to partake of Hollywood's fine products. But a few things will have to change before I jump on this bandwagon (and assuming of course that movies will be available in the Canadian iTS before the turn of the next century).


First and foremost is that I'm not interested in buying movies. I have no desire to own a collection of movies like I own a music collection, and I suspect I'm not the only one. There are those who go out and buy movies at Wal-Mart, but most people rent movies; after all who wants to watch a so-so movie more than once, especially when Hollywood pumps out a seemly endless flow of them? So the lack thus far of a way to rent downloaded movies is a huge drawback for me. I just want to pay a few dollars to watch a movie once, and I might even pay a little extra to NOT have to drive down to Blockbuster to get it. Four or five bucks a pop would be about my threshold. More than that and I'm just not going to bother.


Which brings me to my other main hesitation: price. Even if I were interested in buying a movie, why would I pay $15 for an "almost DVD quality" movie when I can get the real thing at Wal-Mart for the same price and get more features to boot, AND, have the physical DVD (which I cannot have with movies from iTunes)? Ten bucks seems about right to me, so Apple's not that far off the mark, and there are some titles available for that price. I suspect that Steve Jobs agrees with me on this one but had to concede the argument to Disney or risk not launching before Christmas.


I also find the iTV unit a little pricey, but I can see it coming down in price at some point. The fact remains, however, that there are still a number of obstacles to this service becoming really ubiquitous, and I suspect that in my case it will be at least another two years before I'll be downloading any movies from the iTS. But then again, I bought my first iPod 18 months ago, so I'm hardly an early adopter. In 18 months, everyone will be clamouring for an iTV and downloading movies like crazy, and Apple and the movie studios will be making money hand-over-fist, so we'll all be happy as clams. Just you wait, Mr. Cringely. As usual, you're way ahead of yourself.

Technorati Tags: Apple, iTunes Music Store, iTunes Store, iTV, Movie downloads, Robert Cringely

New podcast reveiw is up at the Podcritical Review

Over at the Podcritical Review, I take a look at a nifty new tech podcast from down under: Bran. Check it out.

Technorati Tags: Podcast Review

Vienna

Now that summer is over, I guess I should start taking this blog a little more seriously. After all, blogging is serious business (if Gates says it, it must be true, even if that story is from over two years ago). My how things have changed.

To start things off, I thought I'd write about something dear to my heart: RSS readers. One of my readers suggested I give the open source reader Vienna a try. I usually pride myself on keeping tabs on the Mac open source community, but somehow, this nifty little app slipped under my radar.

I started my RSS journey with Safari and was soon hooked. And while Safari's RSS capabilities are limited, I was quite happy with them--until I gave NetNewsWire a real workout, that is. NNW changed the way I used the Internet; many feel it's the gold standard by which all other RSS apps--Mac or PC--are judged. And with good reason. It's a really excellent, full-featured RSS reader. What makes it so powerful is that along with regular feeds and podcasts, you can also subscribe to tags, scripts, search engines queries and the like.

Now Vienna doesn't have NNW's full feature set, but if, like me, you don't really use most of that fancy stuff, then you might want to consider Vienna. It does pretty much everything that NNW's free cousin, NNW Lite, does, and it does it with style. You can arrange your feeds into groups, you can modify how articles appear and you can create smart groups. However, like NNW Lite, Vienna doesn't do podcasts or syncing, nor does it allow you to subscribe to tags or search engines.

The latest stable release of Vienna is 2.0.4, but this version doesn't allow for manual sorting of feeds; instead, it sorts feeds alphabetically by default. For me, this was a potential a deal breaker; happily, though, the latest preview version, which as of this posting is 2.1, does offer manual sorting, and thus far, it has been quite stable.

The nice thing about Vienna is that because it's open source, it will only get better. Personally, the only main feature it lacks is syncing, and frankly, I can live without it. Give it a try. I think you'll like it too, and you'll be supporting the open source community.

Technorati Tags: Bill Gates, Blogging, NetNewsWire, RSS, RSS readers, Safari, Vienna

Chanton le magazine pomme!

I went to my first Apple Store opening today, the one opening in Carrefour Laval, just north of Montreal, and, somewhat to my surprise, it was kind of fun. I certainly didn't camp out or anything, and in fact I only arrived at about 8:30--a half hour before the official opening. By that time there were already many hundreds of people in line. I'm glad I went with a couple of buddies or the two-hour wait to get in might have been tedious. As it was, we had a good time chewing over all the rumours about the upcoming September 12 announcement(s).


We got in at about 10:45, picked up our t-shirts (which are very high quality and made in the US "sweatshop free" t-shirts) and bummed around the store for a half-hour. I checked out the new MacBooks, which I had never seen before and I must admit being drawn to them. No wonder Apple can't keep them in the stores.


The staff was very upbeat and friendly, as one would expect, and it was all in all a very satisfying experience. If Apple ever does open up a downtown Montreal store, I'll definitely be there for the opening.

Technorati Tags: Apple Store, Apple, Carrefour Laval

Hello again Safari

It must be middle age, but my tryst with FireFox was only a brief affair. And while I can't say I have any regrets, I'm very happy to be back in the metaphorical arms of my first love, Safari.

The number one reason? Speed. Safari is simply the fastest browser for Mac that I've tried. FireFox doesn't even come close. Sure, FF has all those extensions, but I don't use that stuff. And Safari is just prettier than FireFox. Again, the latter has extensions, but for deep-down, natural UI loveliness, Safari is my gal.

OK, I'll stop with the hokey metaphor... One thing that the brief switch did do, however, was to make NetNewsWire a permanent fixture in my computing experience. I was using Safari's RSS reader, but after trying out NNW for a few weeks, I can't go back. With NNW, it's so easy to sift through hundreds of feeds for the few readable nuggets. In fact, NNW is almost a browser itself, and surely browsers of the future will have to include a NNW-like interface.

The new Flock browser, just released in beta, also implements RSS, and while it does a better job than Safari, it has a ways to go before it achieves NNW's usefulness. But Flock has the right idea, I think, which is to start incorporating Web 2.0 features such as Flickr and blogging into the browser. I have yet to try out the blogging feature, but again, it appears to be a step in the right direction. (BTW, if anyone can tell me how to put folders into Flock's bookmarks toolbar, I'd be grateful. There must be a way to do this, but I can't for the life of me figure it out.)

Oddly enough, the reason that motivated my short-lasted defection to FireFox-- Quicksilver's Google Calendar module--turned out to be a bit of a bust as far as my workflow is concerned. I didn't use it once, and now that I'm back to Safari, I think it will be more useful to use QS's iCal module instead, which doesn't work quite as well as the Gcal module, but gets the job done.

Technorati Tags: Blogging, Firefox, Flickr, Google Calendar, Flock, NetNewsWire, Quicksliver, Safari

Will Apple release a phone?

One of the early posts on this blog had to do with speculation last year that Apple would release a mobile phone in the near future (check out that older post here). Today, an article in Wired talked about the supposedly necessary convergence of the mobile phone and the mp3 player. One of the points the author made (one that I agreed with, though I don't own a mobile phone) was that if such a marriage is to be successful, it would have to be as easy to use as the iPod is.

Though I don't own a mobile phone, my impression is that most of them have a lot of bells and whistles that most people don't use because they are too complicated. Which is where Apple comes in. But I don't think Steve Jobs and Company will, or should, come out with a simple "iPhone," mostly because the competition has too much of a head start in the field.

But while Apple would normally have trouble getting a toe-hold in the mobile phone business, they have a huge lead in the mp3 player side of things, and I think they could become a major player if the next iPod they release has some sort of mobile functionality too. In other words, this wouldn't be a phone that plays music, it would be an iPod that does mobile. With flash memory getting cheaper and cheaper, I think a 4- or 8-Gb flash-based iPod with telephone (and Bluetooth) functionality would be a big hit. And one of the main draws would be simplicity of design. Much of the work is already done, with contact and calendar info already integrated into the iPod OS. Just add a slip-out numeric keypad, or evolve the click wheel along these lines and you're off to the races. Heck, I would even consider getting one.

Technorati Tags: Apple, iPhone, iPod, mobile telephony, mp3 players

Hello Firefox!

This afternoon, I made a seemingly small decision that had far-reaching repercussions in my computer use.

It all started with an innocuous Quicksilver notification for a new gCal plug-in. I promptly installed it and tested it out. It worked like a charm. Adding an event to gCal via Quicksilver is, like most QS actions, now a matter of a few keystrokes. Great. One problem. I don't really use gCal, mostly because it doesn't play nice with Safari.

So I fired up FireFox and played around a little with gCal (I am of course referring to Google Calendar) and found I quite like it. It's not everything I want in a Calendar, but it's at least as good as iCal.

So I made a decision then and there to try using FireFox as my default browser for a while. There are pros and cons here: I won't need to have two browsers open (previously I had been using FF for a couple of specific sites that don't work well in Safari). On the other hand, I'll need to have a separate RSS feeder open alongside FF, so any CPU usage I'm saving by shutting down Safari I lose by having to run NetNewsWire.

Now all I need is some party invitations that I can add to gCal so I can justify such a grand dérangement.

(Sigh)

Technorati Tags: Firefox, Quicksliver, Safari, Google Calendar

CBC's expanded podcast lineup

As I have mentioned before the CBC's podcast lineup has been woefully inadequate for some time. I say this only slightly tongue-in-cheek, given that podcasting has only really been around for, a couple of years. Given the CBC's chronic underfunding and the fact that most of their resources are going into producing the Stanley Cup Playoff broadcasts these days, I suppose they can be forgiven for not setting the trend. But compared to other public broadcasters, they are definitely dragging their heels.

Well, that has now changed, at least somewhat, with the announcement yesterday that Canada's public broadcaster has expanded its offering to 22 podcasts. They have a series of seven daily podcasts, with a different one updated every day of the week; these include the excellent program Ideas, as well as other more newsy programs such as Dispaches, The Current and As It Happens.

A second series, called "Features" has five podcasts, most of which compile segments of CBC programs around a common theme. For example, the Words at Large podcast features snippets of literary interviews culled from a variety of programs. (Incidentally, I was not that impressed with this particular podcast. The host talked too much, and the interviews were truncated to the extreme. It was more frustrating than anything else. I'll be dropping the producer an e-mail for sure).

A third series has roundups of local news and stories from various regions of Canada.

Overall, I'd say it's a promising start. I'm particularly thrilled that I can now listen to Ideas at my leisure; this podcast will surely be on my weekly must-listen list. Now, if they would only get Writers & Co. for download, I'd be completely satisfied.

Technorati Tags: CBC, Podcasting, Public Broadcasting

Windows users: have your cake and eat it--but in separate rooms

Much ink has been spilled over the last 24 hours about the implications of Boot Camp, but so far, I haven't read a single article that really hits the mark as far as I'm concerned. Read on to find out the real reason Boot Camp is good for Apple, and what I think it will mean over the short and medium terms.

First, when Steve Jobs announced the switch to Intel chips--the first salvo of what is turning out to be a barrage--he mentioned that Apple had been building Intel versions of OS X since the very beginning. Many an eyebrow was raised at this, though it was probably the reason behind the long-standing and persistant rumours of the Intel switch. Jobs' purported explanation for the move to Intel was that the Power PC chip was no longer meeting the company's expectations and that Intel's chips provided a better roadmap toward the future. And while there is undoubtedly some truth to this, the real reason for OS X's "secret double life" is now beginning to emerge with the release of Boot Camp and the announcement that this functionality will be integrated into the next update of OS X, Leopard: an all-out, no-holds-barred assault on Windows. Such an offensive is not without risks, but Apple has always been a company that takes risks, especially with SJ at the helm, so it's not all that surprising.

As many others have said before, there is now no reason for the Mac-curious Windows user not to buy a Mac. The ability to boot Windows on the new Macs (and by some accounts at least, Windows runs blazingly fast on a Mac) means switchers can benefit from Apple's solid hardware and stylish good looks and not have to give up all their Windows "legacy" software. And of course there's the added benefit of being able to use OS X when they get tired of Windows' crashing or filling up with malware.

And this is undoubtedly what Apple is counting on: an initial boost to hardware sales as switchers buy Macs, followed by a gradual increase in the adoption of OS X.

So far, this plan sounds pretty solid and may be successful. However some have said that this spells the end of software development for OS X, since developers such as Adobe will simply throw their hands up and force users to use the Windows version of, say, PhotoShop, even on the Mac, since they don't want to spend the time and money developing an OS X-native version. But I don't buy this argument, at least not yet. First of all, in the short term, there are still a lot of power users on PPC Macs that will demand OS X native software, and it will be many years before the majority of Mac users have upgraded to Intel machines (heck, nearly 6 years into OS X, there are still a lot of people who swear by OS 9). This is even more the case now than it was during the last Apple transition because computers have much longer useful lives today than they did five years ago.

Of course, as is always the case with announcements like this, there were those who said Apple hadn't gone far enough. As soon as Bootcamp was announced, Apple forums and blogs began to fill up with comments like "this is great, but if I have to re-boot into Windows to use a Windows app, this is useless to me." And therein lies the crux of this whole issue, as I see it. Boot Camp is not for today's Mac users. It's for Windows users. It is a tool to entice switchers over to the Mac and eventually to OS X. I'm going to make a bold prediction here: Leopard will not have virtualization built in because Windows virtualization, much more than the ability to boot into Windows on a separate partition, WOULD threaten OS X software development. I don't think it's the goal of Steve Jobs and company to blur the lines between Windows and OS X. Apple wants Windows users to adopt Macs, and that includes OS X. Allowing Leopard to virtually run Windows would be a mistake, at least in the short term. If you'll indulge me in stretching a metaphor, letting Windows users have their Windows cake and eat their OS X cake in separate rooms is a brilliant move. But allowing them to have both cakes and eat them too would be disastrous. Of course, third parties will release virtualization software (in fact, it has already started), and there's no reason to think that Microsoft itself won't eventually release a version of Virtual PC that runs at native or near-native speeds. But I doubt Apple wants to make it too easy.

Only if and when OS X achieves a significantly higher portion of the OS market share will it be something Apple might consider. But we're still many years away from that.

Technorati Tags: Apple, Boot Camp, Leopard, OS X, OS X vs. Windows, Windows