Apple on Godlike Nerd

Let's try not to be too glib

Mon, 03 May 2010 11:15:31 +0000

From How Wired.com Tracked the iPhone Finder:

In response to Wired.com’s scoop identifying the finder of the lost iPhone prototype, many have asked me how we did it. The process of uncovering digital footprints to identify Brian Hogan was indeed challenging and enlightening, so I thought I’d tell the story here. Heck, it might even teach police officers a thing or two so they don’t have to kick down doors.

Wired certainly deserves some credit for breaking the story. Initiative in this day and age of blogs usually get you the good kind of attention. However, it doesn’t give you free license to be a jackass and make smarmy comments that make no sense.

Saying it without really saying it

Wed, 28 Apr 2010 09:35:40 +0000

If you were confused about whether Apple was still committed to the Mac, their lack of Apple Design Awards for anything Mac pretty much says it all.

The Apple Design Awards 2010 recognize iPhone OS applications that demonstrate technical excellence, innovation, technology adoption, and quality.

Acting Self Important

Sun, 29 Jan 2006 23:44:15 +0000

Dear Apple,

If you’re going to publish calendars for your iCal users and advertise them, keep them up to date. A movie release calendar that ends late October of last year is useless.

Your pal,

Derik

Post Macworld Roundup

Mon, 23 Jan 2006 22:49:09 +0000

Back in December, I made some predictions.

The quick recap is, I was completely right about the Powerbook (though I didn’t see the moronic name change coming). I didn’t see the iMac coming. The Mac mini rumor was nice, but ultimately, it wasn’t in the cards. My hope clouded my judgment.

iLife ‘06 and iWork ‘06: Yawn. Again.

I’m surprised at the complete lack of information about Leopard. The prospect of getting surprised is actually exciting. Apple may just sit on the features until after Vista appears. That might slow Microsoft just a bit.

Rosetta is Not All That and a Bag of Chips

Fri, 20 Jan 2006 19:11:35 +0000

Macworld’s lab tests of the new intel iMac confirm what I’ve been telling people since the Intel transition was announced.

I can summarize the results pretty quickly. Considering that the Intel processor in the new iMac is a dual core, the speed isn’t really that much better. In fact, taking that into account, it’s slower. Also, Rosetta isn’t the panacea that everyone bought into. I knew it wouldn’t be. It doesn’t work with anything that requires precise timing and it’s slow. Slow.

SmashMyMaturity.com

Fri, 04 Nov 2005 22:27:08 +0000

I’m sure you’ve all read about SmashMyiPod.com. I thought it was infantile in concept before I read the website. You can imagine my shock when I read his classy responses over on Cult of Mac.

I hear ipod video screens cause impotence and hair loss.

Then I made a stupid mistake and went to the site where I got to read the following.

I hear iPods cause cancer and genetic mutations in fetuses.

iPod Video and new iMac Thoughts

Thu, 13 Oct 2005 12:27:34 +0000

We didn’t see Powerbook, Powermac, and Mac mini revisions like most level headed analysts thought. Macrumors’ Buyer’s Guide still has the bright red “Don’t Buy” description next to the Powerbooks. The typical cycle is 185 days, and we’re now 255 in. I wouldn’t be surprised to see them next revised in January as the first Intel Macs (as they stand to benefit the most, being stuck with maxed out G4s).

Instead, the long-awaited video iPod arrived, the iMac got revised (in a rather interesting way), and the eMac has returned to its proper status as an education product.

iTunes 5 is Dead; Long Live iTunes 6

Wed, 12 Oct 2005 13:11:34 +0000

According to live news updates out of Apple’s press conference today, iTunes 6 will be introduced today.

You didn’t misread that. Barely a month after its introduction, iTunes 5 has been superceded by iTunes 6. A month. Good lord.

It’s official: iTunes 5 was most meaningless iTunes update ever. Either that, or we can expect iTunes 7 at Thanksgiving, earning it the name “iTunes Turkey Edition”. That will be followed by a Christmas version 8 with an all red and green interface.

Video iPod Tomorrow?

Tue, 11 Oct 2005 22:15:50 +0000

Think Secret has retracted its earlier statement that there would be no video iPods tomorrow.

They’re now calling for them. To quote them:

The rumor business is not always kind. Reliable evidence has corroborated reports of the development of a video iPod, but information until now had pointed to a release date later than October. Recent notes suggest otherwise, however, and tomorrow may in fact see the release of a video iPod, while Mac updates may not be delivered until next week.

iTunes Says “Keep Up with your Podcasts!”

Sat, 01 Oct 2005 22:55:59 +0000

I regularly have to check my iTunes podcast subscriptions for problems. It’s not necessarily iTunes fault (case in point, Diggnation recently did something to their feed that forced iTunes to download over and over, which I didn’t care about because they can foot the bandwidth bill for their mistake).

From time to time, high volume podcasts such as the Daily Source Code will have their feed download fail. When I saw Accident Hash fail, I was a little perplexed. I clicked the little alert icon.

.Mac Upgrade

Tue, 20 Sep 2005 08:35:30 +0000

Apple bumped .Mac’s storage to 1 GB (1024 MB for those wondering if they’d correctly count). They also released Backup 3.

I’ve been keeping my email allotment steady at 100 MB, but that’s been feeling a bit constricting, especially when Gmail is now allowing more that 2.5 GB and my web host gives me 5 GB. However, I really like using Apple’s Mail.app (Gmail does have POP, but that’s not adequate because I can’t do server side email management that way) and my web host’s webmail package, SquirrelMail, isn’t all that bad, it’s just not all that good, or at least not as good as .Mac.

I'm Not Small, the Water is Cold

Sun, 11 Sep 2005 17:48:56 +0000

Earlier this week, Apple released iTunes 5 and the iPod nano. I didn’t write anything about either because I’m not particularly impressed by either. I’m even less impressed with the iTunes phone aka Motorola ROKR. I should say something though.

iTunes 5

This is perhaps one of the most pathetic iTunes’ “upgrades” yet. No, it wasn’t worthy of a first digit number change. 5.0 doesn’t have to follow 4.9 either. They could have continued with 4.10. There’s even an implicit acknowledgment of this by Apple illustrated by the lack of a color change in the icon. Every other first digit change brought a new number. I love green, but it’s getting stale.

Mighty Mouse Saves the Day

Tue, 02 Aug 2005 03:35:18 +0000

I’m not as surprised as much as I would have been prior to the Macintel announcement, but I still didn’t expect to see this happen. Apple is making a multi-button mouse with a scroll interface, the Mighty Mouse [Amazon link]. It doesn’t look to be a wheel, but a little nub. Apple’s site mentions rolling though.

Mighty Mouse offers 360-degree scrolling capability, thanks to its Scroll Ball, perfectly positioned to roll smoothly under just one finger.

I’ll need to get one for myself to play with (because I doubt I’ll like it more than my Logitech MX1000) so I can figure it out. Is it a mini trackball? A nub? Please let it not be a nub. My finger hurts just think about them.

What’s really interesting is that it’s not a generic three-button mouse. Apple seems to have jumped headfirst by including side buttons, which act as a fourth button. At $50, it has the same suggested retail price as a Logitech MX518 but will likely stay at that price unlike the Logitech, which can be had for $40 right now.

At any rate, this is likely to satisfy many people that have been crying for years for an Apple branded multi-button mouse. The downsides are the price, no fancy optics, and lack of a bluetooth version (big boo for that one). Hopefully Apple will start offering an option to switch out the regular mouse for this on new systems (for a discounted price of $20 or so) or even be so bold as to make it the standard mouse for Powermacs, leaving the single button for the iMacs and eMacs.

Update: It even makes noises when scrolling. Cute!

Update 2: Amazon has it available for pre-order.

OS X Intel Uses DRM

Mon, 01 Aug 2005 08:09:07 +0000

Found via Slashdot, Apple is using DRM to keep parts of the OS from working on unauthorized computers. The Slashdot story includes links to a wiki on x86 Mac OS X, which in turn pulls its information about the TCPA/TPM DRM from this FAQ.

The problem is that the site is titled Against TCPA (which is also their domain name). It’s not exactly an unbiased source, to say the least. I want to find a slightly less paranoid breakdown of the technology.

New iBooks and Mac minis

Tue, 26 Jul 2005 19:14:31 +0000

Apple released new iBooks and Mac minis. All in all, the updates were really minor. The good news is that all Mac models now sport at least 512 MB of RAM. That’s pretty much the whole of the update for the minis.

The iBooks on the other hand, have been bumped to 1.33 GHz and 1.42 GHz. They’ve also moved up to Radeon 9550s in lieu of Radeon 9200s. Oddly enough, the 14″ also gained 9 MHz for its bus apparently. This is the only Mac I’ve read of ever to have a 142 MHz bus. That might be the only thing to make this round of revisions memorable.

Konfabulating Your Life with Yahoo!

Mon, 25 Jul 2005 21:24:53 +0000

Along the lines of their other recent moves, like buying Flickr, Yahoo! has acquired Konfabulator. Longtime Mac fans should recognize the product and its author, Arlo Rose, for his role in creating Kaleidoscope. Recent Mac fans should recognize the debacle surrounding Apple’s creation of Dashboard.

This brings the immediate benefit of making Konfabulator free. Previously, the framework itself cost $20 to register. When comparing Konfabulator to Dashboard, the price difference (Dashboard being free with Tiger) gave Dashboard the edge. Yahoo! effecting this price change will have a dramatic effect upon its market share. Mac users will feel free to compare it directly to Dashboard without feeling obligation. As for Windows users, the new Yahoo! association should bring lots of attention. Those two effects should stimulate Widget developers into developing for Konfabulator again. That’s a good thing because as I write this, there is still no working package tracker. Very lame.

Podcasting Done Right… Almost

Sat, 02 Jul 2005 23:57:44 +0000

I stick up for Apple in most cases. This time, they’re on their own. I’m going to bash them for a couple mistakes

Right Here, Right Now

I must admit after having used NetNewsWire so long, I’d gotten used to its somewhat loose connection with iTunes. It would download new episodes and dump them into iTunes (allowing me to specify genre and playlist). I used only the genre option, using Smart Playlists to find two types of podcasts. Listened to and not listened to. This was done by a smart playlist that collected all files with the genre podcast with a play count of zero and another that did the same except looked for files with a play count of at least one.

iTunes RSS 2.0 Podcasting Namespace Additions

Wed, 29 Jun 2005 12:12:21 +0000

Apple, as part of its new podcasting initiative, has added extra metadata for iTunes to use. Naturally, when you touch any existing “open” standard as a corporation, you get a shitstorm of criticism. That’s not to say that sometimes it’s not deserved, but a lot of the time resentment forces out more criticism than is necessary or real. Dave Winer and Edd Dumbill both had some beefs. I know, I know. It’s a real shocker that Dave is pissed. Edd seems to be a little more balanced, but still misses some important points.

iTunes 4.9 with Podcasting has Arrived

Tue, 28 Jun 2005 07:39:22 +0000

I woke up this morning and was alerted to the availability of the much discussed 4.9. Really, it’s the most feature-rich update to iTunes I can remember since version 4 debuted with the iTunes Music Store capability. Every release since has been pretty lackluster.

iTunes 4.8 added the capability to play music videos, but really, there haven’t been any really compelling new features added, in my opinion. I’ll be taking screenshots later as well as reviewing how I’ll be using it. Really, this should have been iTunes 5.0, but maybe Apple has some other really compelling feature(s) to add beyong this, but I doubt it. Here’s a breakdown of what iTunes has added starting with iTunes 4.0.

Fast Enough

Mon, 13 Jun 2005 11:08:46 +0000

This is a strange predicament that I’ve been placed in. Normally, I agree with what most Mac pundits say. However, many of them are being over-confident and taking Steve’s word for gospel. They’re not doing any analysis or technical reviews of the transition. Rather, they believe the marketing hype otherwise known as a keynote.

One of the primary concerns was the ability to run PowerPC software. This was addressed with a slick piece of software called Rosetta. Slick though it may be, it’s still emulation. In other words, it’s slow. To put that concern to rest, Steve told us it was fast enough. Fast enough? What kind of vague bullshit is that? I can let that go because, as I said before, keynotes are marketing hype. What’s sickening is the way in which evangelists are parroting this as if it was the result of some kind of scientific study.

Rosetta is not a Magic Cure-All, or the Death of Classic

Tue, 07 Jun 2005 09:29:17 +0000

One of the more overlooked aspects of the transition from PowerPC to Intel x86 CPUs is the effect it will have on the software you can run. I’ll be discussing this move and my take on it in a later article, but I think a subset of the transition strategy needs highlighting first.

You Won’t Feel a Thing

Steve made the transition sound utterly painless. According to him, developers will have to do little more than recompile their cocoa software. But what about existing software? Rosetta is the answer proclaimed Steve. Processor emulation will make it all better. Now, for the time being, I’m willing to ignore the ~~inevitable~~ confirmed speed cost, but what about compatibility and functionality? The keynote seems to make it seem like all your old software will just work. Well, I wasn’t buying that, My suspicion was rewarded when I read Apple’s document on Universal Binaries.

Intel Chip Monday

Sun, 05 Jun 2005 22:25:01 +0000

Well, I’m sure most everyone has read the CNet story on Apple switching Macs to Intel, the Wall Street Journal story, the Inquirer version, the Yahoo/AP version, or even the New York Times version.

The number of sources coming forward to confidently say that they are has turned even ardent disbelievers in the rumor, such as John Gruber, the other way (or maybe not). I’m personally in the “I think this is a load of crap” camp.

Apple News Doubleshot

Mon, 23 May 2005 12:27:57 +0000

Today has yielded two news items from Apple. One is wild speculation. The other is real news. Let’s start with the real news.

iTunes Podcast Support

Steve Jobs, at D: All Things Digital Conference, announced that iTunes 4.9 will have Podcasting support. iTunes will allow you to subscribe Podcast RSS feeds and automatically download the song files into your library. The update is due within 60 days.

In the meantime, I’ll still use NetNewsWire (and I may do so after). Apple adding this is almost trivial now that they have the Safari RSS backbone to use. The question in my mind is whether Apple will try to integrate a bittorrent client. I find podcast feeds that distribute using Bittorrent exceedingly irritating. Currently, the only feed that I subscribe to that does this is This Week in Tech. Ok, ok, so they probably have the largest listening audience out of any podcast, but having to screw around with Bittorrent completely defeats the purpose of podcasts (they’re delivered automatically without user intervention).

Tiger… Monday?

Mon, 02 May 2005 10:21:27 +0000

Okay, so the title for this entry would have been much cooler if Tiger were arriving tomorrow. Tiger Tuesday! I could have had fame and fortune. Instead, I’ll have Tiger one day earlier and be a nobody.

Anyway, posting won’t be on the agenda tonight. I hope to cover one Tiger feature a day. The order I cover those features is still up in there air though. Any of you out there interested in seeing my take on a particular feature first, please leave a comment. I plan on taking a lot of screenshots because no one can get enough.

Tiger Frustration Alleviation

Sat, 30 Apr 2005 13:36:41 +0000

My sadness quickly turned into rage last night because I wouldn’t have my toy this weekend. I read at several places, including Macworld’s forums that if you didn’t get your copy of Tiger on time, you could call Apple to get one of three things for free.

iLife ‘05
iWork
$30 Apple Store coupon

Finding this out, I called up and they promptly offered me iLife ‘05. I didn’t hear him offer the other two options, but personally, I didn’t care as that was what I wanted anyway.

Tiger Release Date Announced

Tue, 12 Apr 2005 09:23:18 +0000

Imagine my surprise when I read of the Tiger release announcement (April 29th) showed up in Bloglines (which I’m only using instead of NetNewsWire because I’m at work). It was almost anticlimactic. Months and months of anticipation built to a single moment when I read that it was (nearly) here and I let out a soft oh.

As usual, MacCentral has done a nice writeup. I’m sure every other Mac news site will have a piece on it, so stop by then if you’ve got some weird aversion to MacCentral.

Tiger Tomorrow?

Thu, 31 Mar 2005 15:10:52 +0000

It’s been rather quiet on the Mac front. Well, that’s not entirely true, we have the continuing saga of Apple versus the rumor sites. Very little has been decided in the courts, but that hasn’t stopped the Mac community at large from giving their fifteen cents. Unfortunately, the battles being waged are being clumped into one, making the debate wandering and unfocused. We have one group shouting “This is a freedom of speech issue!” while the other says (quite accurately) “This particular decision is not.” A pissing contest ensues.

iPods in $50 Increments

Wed, 23 Feb 2005 01:29:53 +0000

Apple updated its line of iPod MP3 players. Specifically, the iPod mini and the iPod photo. The mini now comes in two sizes, and the photo had some pronounced price changing. In fact, it’s created an interesting pattern. For the most part, the pricing of all the models and sizes are separated by $50.

iPod shuffle 512 MB $99
iPod shuffle 1 GB $149
iPod mini 4 GB $199
iPod mini 6 GB $249
iPod 20 GB $299
iPod U2 20 GB $349
iPod photo 30 GB $349
iPod photo 60 GB $449

What’s really interesting about this is that while Apple has established a linear pricing structure, the sizes are exponential. Of course, the biggest bang for your buck change is still the difference between the high-end mini and the regular iPod (14 GB for $50). Apple has bent over backwards to woo the various MP3 player customer types.

Expo Product Thoughts

Wed, 12 Jan 2005 13:16:31 +0000

I’m going to review the new Apple product announcements inwhat I consider increasing importance.

iLife ‘05

To me, this is pretty incremental. I don’t use anything in iLife (sans the free iTunes and iPhoto). Garageband fans will be overjoyed with a full 8 tracks to manipulate. At $79, I’m not sure I’ll be getting it though. I don’t need the new version of iPhoto that badly.

iWork

Apple finally tried to update AppleWorks for the new millenium with iWork ($79). Apparently though, they only had two tickets for the trip, taking along a word processor (Pages) and a slideshow app (Keynote). Spreadsheets and database manipulation were sadly left at the station with their heads hanging dejectedly. Pages looks really cool, like a publishing application more than a wordprocessor. However, if I’m going to have an office suite, I want a speadsheet application. End of story.

Expo Announcements

Tue, 11 Jan 2005 14:47:38 +0000

New from the expo:

The other announcements aren’t terribly exciting and the lack of a Tiger release date was disappointing. More tonight.

Can you feel it?

Tue, 11 Jan 2005 08:18:47 +0000

The Macworld Expo San Francisco keynote is less than 4 hours away. The whole Mac community is waiting with baited breath. Personally, I want to find out more about Tiger. In particular, a release date more specific than “first half of 2005” and hopefully sooner rather than later.

We also get to find out which rumors were worth something. The current most popular rumors are:

iWork Apple’s new office suite
flash-based iPod
headless iMac the $500 Mac
Mac OS X Tiger info and release date
Powerbook updates with slightly faster processors

I still don’t get the head-popping excitement being generated by the flash-based iPod. Shortly after the keynote is done, I’ll do a quick summary. Later tonight, I’ll do my little rant on what all the news will mean for the future.

When in Doubt, Go with the Old Favorites

Tue, 04 Jan 2005 09:07:21 +0000

As we draw close to Macworld Expo San Francisco, the number of rumors generally increases. The reason is multiple fold. First, supposedly more leaks happen closer to the expo. Second, people’s desire for rumors increases exponentially. Finally, it’s a quick and easy way to draw traffic as a Mac based website. Yes, I’m a traffic whore too, so let’s review

Flash-based iPod

For almost as long as the iPod has been around, this has been the popular rumor. And why not? It seems like a natural progression. Flash memory based MP3 players tend to be smaller and cheaper than hard drive based players. The ridiculous, respect-less rumor wells throw caution to the wind, ignoring hard real analysis (done by such people as John Gruber). It combines tiny size (as if the iPod mini’s compact flash hard drive is bloating it terribly and flash memory is that much small) and low costs (as flash memory is so cheap, still hundreds of dollars for any significant size) to make for a some people’s wet dreams. Ignore the fact that the iPod’s main attraction is having your entire music collection in your pocket. We’ve got a rumor to foist upon the public and get attention. To make the situation worse, iPod sites such as iPodlounge are encouraging the rumor with iPod flash Concepts contest. Dangle some expensive headphones in front of work starved artists and watch as you get hundreds of designs that are either physically impossible or hopelessly stupid. Yeesh.

Apple Locks Out Real

Wed, 15 Dec 2004 09:05:53 +0000

There was quite a stir when Real announced that they would make songs for their new online music service available for use on iPods. What made this so provocative was that their music service uses Digital Rights Management (DRM) to prevent copying, exactly as Apple does with FairPlay and Microsoft does with their own scheme. However, Apple didn’t license FairPlay to Real.

That was the rub. Real was maintaining DRM without a license to use FairPlay. In order to accomplish this feat, they reverse engineered FairPlay. They got to use software that Apple supplied without paying for it in some way. The fact that Apple didn’t want to license at any price is a moot point. They are the legal owners and it is their decision whether to sell licenses or not. Just because I’m not willing to sell my car to you doesn’t give you the right to jack it.