Archive for the ‘Apple’ Category
Thoughts on the Apple TV
I’ve had my Apple TV for a few weeks now and I’m using it every night. I’m a podcast whore, which was one of my main reasons for buying it, because it means I now get to watch them on the big screen in my living room. Diggnation, Tekzilla and the other Revision3 shows do look very nice in HD on there. And for the audio stuff I listen to, the various shows from the TWIT network come out a lot clearer than they do via my laptop speakers. One thing that does bother me though is the necessity to still download this on my laptop and then sync it across, as it seems like an unnecessary step. The unit itself has an Internet connection which is perfectly capable of downloading items, it’s even possible to browse the podcast directory on my television screen, just not actually subscribe to anything. I can only hope this somewhat bizarre oversight is fixed in a future revision.
I don’t yet have my music in a place that is easily accessible for synching over to the unit, but that’s something that I hope to resolve in the coming months as I reorganise my computer setup. But it is nice that the limited music I do have available on my laptop can be streamed to the Apple TV and out of my computer by selecting it as a speaker output within iTunes, just like you’ve been able to do with an Airport Express.
Purchasing content straight from the Apple TV is fast and painless, and although I was initially going to complain that the search functionality was almost completely crippled by the slowness of the on-screen keyboard, I’ve since realised that this is because of some weirdness with my universal remote as switching to the one shipped with the unit makes the interface feel much snappier. I do think though that £1.89 per show for TV is a bit much, and is unlikely to sway me from the less reputable sources of the stuff. Even buying whole series is overly expensive. It’s about £20 for a season of Friends, when the same thing on DVD is easily available for less than £10. They’re going to have to do something about that if they really want to compete with torrents.
Overall, I’m pleased with the purchase, and will get even more from it once my music can be synched across. I’d like to finish by making a special mention of the photo screensaver, it’s an excellent touch that has everyone who sees it just fascinated.
iPhone Hacking
Hacking the iPhone is incredibly easy. I did it with ZiPhone and the process was thus…
1. Close iTunes, disconnect the phone from your Mac.
2. Open up Activity Viewer and find the “iTunes Helper” process and kill it.
3. Plug the phone into your Mac with the supplied cable.
4. Start ZiPhone.
5. Click the option of your choice on the left. I’m sticking with O2, so just wanted to Jailbreak it.
6. Click Go.
7. Wait 45 seconds.
8. Marvel at the new Installer option that’s been added to your home screen.
I don’t guarantee all these steps are required, but these are what worked for me.
The iPhone is a great device, but once it’s jailbroken and you can start installing stuff on there, it becomes an amazing device. I’ve spent a lot of time playing Solitaire and Lights Out, two nice little games. MobileScrobler lets you listen to last.fm radio stations and playlists and automatically updates your profile with what you’ve been listening to on the device as you listen to it, and that’s very cool. ScummVM lets you play Monkey Island and the other Lucasarts games, although I found it quite difficult to point at things just by tapping. And although it has no Google Talk support (really, where is a working Google Talk client? Isn’t it just Jabber?), MobileChat does a good job at connecting to other IM networks like MSN. And don’t underestimate the power of installing SSH and a Terminal client on there, to allow remote access to the servers of your choice.
The app store is coming from Apple in June, at which point a lot of this stuff is going to become a lot more official, but I’m very impressed by what has been made possible without official help. I’m looking forward to seeing where people take it next.
iPhone Musings
Thanks to work, I got myself an iPhone. I’ve been using it now for almost a couple of weeks, and I thought it worth throwing some thoughts up here on my impressions thus far.
I’ve been a Sony Ericsson user ever since I got my first mobile 7 or 8 years ago, as I’ve always just preferred their interface to what Nokia were doing. That means I’m upgrading from a k800i, but it’s not really fair to put both within the same category of mobile phone, the iPhone really is an entirely different beast. Firstly, there’s the feel of the thing, I don’t know what it is, and I don’t quite know how to explain it, but it just feels good in your hand. There’s a solid, weighty feel to the device, and the decision to not make the back shiny like the iPod range means it feels warmer and looks cleaner. Then there’s the screen, so vivid, so clear, even in bright sunshine (tested that today), that any kind of content just looks gorgeous.
Interface wise it’s not too much of a surprise to me, since I’ve been using an iPod Touch for the past few months. It’s all laid out sensibly, and you can find your way around fairly intuitively. The camera is not anywhere near as bad as I’d read, giving nice clear images. The problem seems to be that it updates at a pretty slow rate, and holding the device steady is incredibly difficult. This tends to give you very bright, but slightly blurry, photos. The interface is always responsive, and it’s simply a surprise that it all works as well as the demos on the Apple website have always shown. And it doesn’t matter how many times you turn the device into landscape mode to look at a photo, it’s still cool to see the photo automatically rotate with you.
Text input, the bane of any portable device, actually works quite nicely. The trick is simply to ignore any mistakes you might be making and keep on typing, allowing the auto-correct to pick up any mistakes you’ve made. It really is freakishly accurate, even on words where you’ve barely hit a single key correctly, it still somehow manages to come up with the right word. It would be nice if a similar thing was available on OS X too, it would save me a lot of time. Web access is slow on the EDGE network, but not so slow that it makes it unusable, and it’s certainly just fine for email access. It’s also come in quite handy so far for looking up cinema times when we’ve been out and about, and I’m sure there will be plenty more opportunities in the future for it to shine. Would it be nice if the access was faster? Sure. Is it a deal breaker? Not by a long shot.
There are some annoying things, like notes not synching up with anything, like the Stickies I have on my Mac, or the notes I have in Mail. Or that some applications seem to understand me rotating the screen (like the browser) and others don’t (like Mail). It would be nice to use the entire interface in landscape mode because typing that way is so much easier (bigger keys). But overall, the experience is pleasurable, and simply being able to carry one device in my pocket rather than two (a phone and iPod) is a step forward for me at least.
Coolest moment so far - buying the new Supergrass album directly from the device and having it download all the tracks over the air. It’s like living in the future.
My Mac Editing Prayers Answered
At last. There is now one good Perl editor for OS X. Komodo Edit.
Komodo was promising a couple of years ago when it first came out for OS X, and I actually bought it at the time. But when the switch to Intel came, it was a while before Komodo followed, making it a bit slow and clunky to use. Quite recently I got an email from them saying a new version was out and that I should upgrade, but when I looked, the previously cheap personal edition was gone and it was now quite an expensive application. I didn’t follow up on it.
But then I found out today that the personal edition became Komodo Edit, which in turn became free. So I did what any OS X using Perl programmer would do and headed over there as quickly as I could and you know what, finally somebody gets it.
It has tabs. You can open them whenever you want, no project required (but yes, it has projects too). It has FTP opening and saving in a sensible FTP dialog, complete with bookmarks and the ability to type in your path. When you select a block and press tab, it indents, rather than replacing it with a tab. When you end a line with a brace and press enter, the next line is indented. When you put a brace on a line on it’s own which is already indented, it decreases the indent for you. These (and many more) are the absolute basics of what a code editor should have but which no other Mac text editor gets right. It’s been driving me crazy for years that not one developer has used Editplus or UltraEdit on the PC to see how this should be done and instead keep producing crap like Textmate and Textwrangler.
What’s extra special is the features it has which are the cream on top, like code-sensing for when you type a function name and it tells you the arguments it supports, even in your own custom modules, and there’s even function auto-completion too. And in the FTP functionality (SFTP and SCP too) when you save a file and the remote copy has changed since your version, it doesn’t just warn you, it lets you see a diff of the two of them also. Genius!
Up until now I’ve actually been running a copy of Windows 2000 in vmware, just so I could run Editplus. That’s the difference this is going to make, this is the kind of thing that allows me to throw away my Windows shackles for good and solely use the Mac. I’m just sad that it’s taken almost 10 years of being a Mac owner for somebody to get this right.
Why Thinness Beats Weight
My conclusion with the Macbook Air is that it’s simply easier to advertise thin than it is light.
Saying that you have the lightest notebook ever made is difficult, because you’d have to define what you could class as a notebook. But when it comes to thinness, well it doesn’t matter how you class it, they really are the thinnest one ever made. And being thin has an advantage over being light when it comes to advertising - you can show it. How exactly do you photograph something that’s light? There’s no immediate visual impact there.
The truth of the matter is that they simply wanted to create a really light laptop, a super portable, without sacrificing things like screen and keyboard size that are usually the first to go when it comes to that class of product. As a side effect, because they’re so design concious, along came the opportunity to make it super thin in the process. And when you’re Apple, that’s exactly the kind of feature you jump upon, because it’s a design feature, rather than a practical one.
Does Anybody Care About Thin?
Who cares if the laptop you’re buying is thin or not? I mean, really? Anybody?
Weight, sure. You don’t want to be carrying around a big heavy brick, especially if you’re a user on the go. And actual width and depth is important too, because you want to use it on a cramped airline seat, or you want to try and slip it into a small bag or backpack. But thickness? Do people have particularly large, yet thin, bags? I just don’t get it. Especially when you’re sacrificing ports, an optical drive, memory expandability and the ability to replace the battery. It’s a solution without a problem.
Apple Store Fifth Avenue
From our recent trip to the Big Apple. From the outside, the most impressive looking store in New York.
Leopard
The new version of OS X is here, Leopard and of course I’ve got it.
On the positive side, it’s nice to finally have unified window elements, instead of the mish-mash of different window styles we had before. I can finally use the Finder with the sidebar switched on without being really annoyed at how bad it looks. Spaces is also great, I’ve set up my browser on one space, iTunes on another, Adium on another and Mail on another. It’s so easy to just flick between them, move apps around and for the first time, virtual desktops seem useful to me.
But there are negatives too. The new dock is just no good at all, the background is just too bright with not enough contrast to the icons, while the transparent menu bar just feels totally pointless. Stacks are the biggest mistake though. Since the very first version of OS X I’ve had my Applications and User folder in there and it was always good to not only have drag/drop access, but a single click way to open the window in the Finder. This functionality has now been ruined, because now when you click you get a stack, which if you have a lot of Applications or files, just isn’t big enough to let you see everything. So of course then you click the “show in finder” link, which means you’re now two clicks away instead of one. But worst of all, the stack shows the first icon from the folder you’ve dragged in there, so my Apps folder now shows as the Address Book icon, with some of the other app icons appearing behind. My Users folder shows as a document. What were they thinking? Why does my Applications folder look like Address Book you idiots. I’ve kind of got around this by dropping two alias’s in there instead, which gives me the one click access back, but removes my ability to drag and drop. I had to go get custom folder icons though, since the new folder icons are so bad you can no longer easily tell the difference between different ones. They’ve just broken the functionality, replacing it with something that’s worse.
It’s an odd release, because much of what is new doesn’t immediately effect me. Time Machine does nothing for me, because I don’t have an external drive and even if I did, it’s not exactly convenient having it plugged into a laptop all the time. I don’t actually create a lot of files, since everything is on remote servers, so the updates to Spotlight and the Finder don’t mean much either. Parental Control upgrades? Nope, no kids. Boot Camp? Nope, I use Parallels. iChat? Nope, I use Adium. But where it does get interesting is the sheer number of small improvements across the entire system. Notes and todo lists in a much faster Mail? Great. Virtual desktops that actually seem worthwhile? Excellent. Quick Look, for one keypress, instant previews of all files? Super.
But like all OS X releases, the real reason for having it is all the new developer tools under the hood. The sheer number of new API’s, and especially the introduction of Core Animation, is going to mean that in six months time we’re going to start seeing even more creative applications, as developers are able to leverage the new tools that they’ve been given to play with. No OS X user should want to be left out of all that potential, and that’s what makes upgrading a no-brainer.
Device
My iPod Touch turned up today, and it really is a spectacular piece of hardware. It’s so light, so thin, and the screen is so big, it’s amazing just how far the iPod has come since it’s debut. I’ve not used an iPhone before either, so getting to use what is essentially the same interface for the first time is as much of a joy as I hoped it would be. I’ve watched all the videos, I’ve read and heard all the comments about it and how it would work, but for it to actually be like that in reality is still a surprise. It really does work just like they say it will, and the first time you do a pinch movement and see it zoom in on a photo, or you rotate the device and see the photo rotate with you, a smile is likely to spread over your face.
The video quality is excellent, I didn’t experience any of the contrast problems or washed out issues that some people have been reporting online. I also worked out that I can convert any of my existing videos to play on there using Videolan in about ten minutes, which is perfectly reasonable. I got the 16GB model, and even though I’ve put my last years worth of photos on there, plus a couple of videos and some music, there’s still plenty of space. I need to shift the music around on my network before I can properly fill it up however. The reality is that there isn’t an iPod out there that can take my whole collection, so I’m always going to have to cut it back somehow. And 16GB is more than enough space to keep you going for a good few days without needing to repeat anything. Plus I usually listen to the same artists over and over anyway.
If somebody from 20 years ago saw this thing, they just wouldn’t believe it. It’s all your music, your photos, your TV shows/movies, all your contacts and calendar, and thanks to the internet connection; your library, news feed, and the sum of human knowledge, all in a device that fits in your pocket. I can’t even being to imagine what we’ll be putting in our pockets in another 20 years.
Ringtone
Also in the Apple announcement last week was the fact that you could now buy ringtones for your iPhone from the iTunes Music Store for 99 cents. As long as you’ve already bought the track itself from them. Oh yea, and as long as it’s included in the 500,000 songs that qualify.
So let me get this right, I already own the song, and can play it at any time I want just by hitting play or copying it to my iPhone and playing it on there. But now I’m expected to pay more in order to cut most of the song out and have it play automatically when my phone is receiving a call, rather than manually. So I’m paying for what exactly? The convenience of hearing only the middle of a song at random points throughout the day, rather than the whole song any time I want?
There must be something in the water over in Cupertino.
Touch
There was an Apple special event today, and you know how much I like writing about these things.
Straight off the bat, a $200 price cut for the iPhone. That was a surprise to everyone, especially those early adopters that have already shelled out for one. But they should know that’s what happens in tech, things get cheaper. Even if Apple had waited a year to drop the price, those that had bought one in the two months before the price drop would still be pissed. Somebody is always going to be. I’ve been bitten by this problem many times before.
The rest of the announcements were all iPod updates. Shuffle gets new colours. Nano is now wider and shorter, and can play video, also in new colours. The iPod itself is now the iPod Classic, with up to 160GB of hard disk space. Which still isn’t big enough for my whole music collection.
The interesting bit, for me anyway, was the iPod Touch. Which essentially looks like the iPhone without the phone part. And I’ve already placed my order for the 16GB model, as it seems like it’ll come in handy on those long journeys down to London to see Andrea. Oddly it looks like it lacks the email program, which seems like a strange decision to make. Why keep some iPhone style functionality on there (web browser, calendar, contacts) but remove others? Surely they should just be running the same software on it. Google Maps and YouTube also appear to be missing in action.
Not out until the end of the month, at which point I’ll post a picture of it’s shiny body being held by my fair hand.
Fever
The US has iPhone launch fever, which is certainly the first time I’ve heard of that happening for a mobile phone. Usually they just sneak out without much fanfare. I mean who can honestly say that they know when a new Sony Ericsson or Nokia phone is really released? They’re announced months in advance and then they kinda just appear as an option from your carrier. Nobody queues up outside a store to get one.
For me, I’m still not convinced. I don’t think the price is a problem, there are plenty of PDA’s and even phones (some Nokia models) that come in around the same price point, but I like my phones to be small, robust, and generally just be phones. That’s why I always go with the Sony Ericsson models, they’re simply, light, have good cameras and just kinda work, even after I’ve dropped them twenty times. I don’t know how often I can see myself using it to play video or listen to music, I have iPod’s that can do that and I don’t use them either. Maybe it’ll come down to the convergence factor, just having all these things in one device might be the differentiating factor, once I don’t need to carry all these things separately I may be more inclined to use them. But at the moment I’m afraid I just don’t have iPhone fever. It’s very cool, don’t get me wrong, and I’d love to just play with one for a bit, but I don’t think it’s the second coming, nor do I think it’s going to come close to being as successful as the iPod is.
Mandolin
With the Apple Corps versus Apple Computer lawsuit behind him (which I’m still surprised Apple Computer won outright), Paul McCartney is now free to work on an advert for iTunes. And I found it to be quite lovely.
Shiny
It’s Apple’s worldwide developer conference this week and today was the opening keynote from Steve Jobs, telling us everything we can expect from Leopard, the next version of OS X, when it’s released later this year. Straight off the bat, the new transparent menu bar looks stupid and the idea that the dock is a table on which things reflect is pointless eye-candy (and the icons are still flat, rather than having depth like the dock itself, which makes it worse), and both seem like change for change sake, rather than actually bringing anything new and worthwhile to the table.
The rest of the system is all incremental updates and improvements, and I’m not sure how many of them will actually affect me in my day to day usage. I don’t work with lots of files so being able to search through them quickly is rarely required, and while Quick Look looks helpful almost everything I look at is online anyway. I don’t use iChat, have never found a need for virtual desktops (Spaces), don’t have a secondary drive to backup onto and never make meetings via iCal.
But what will make me upgrade is the potential for software developers to do cool things with new API’s like CoreAnimation, or the addition of all those little features that you’ll run into every day, like Stacks. There’s also the fact that every OS X install I’ve ever done has made the computer feel faster than every before, which is more than can be said for any Windows upgrade. Plus, like a magpie, I like new, shiny things.
Interface
Most technology ads these days don’t make much of an effort to show you exactly why you might be interested in buying the product. They’re all about lifestyle, showing the product to be cool so that you think you’ll be cool if you buy it. Intel have always been the masters of this, never even mentioning how many Mhz their new processor happens to be or any other technical information, it’s always about the music you’ll be able to create or the things you’ll be able to do with your pictures, but always in a very abstract way.
Apple have followed this example as well, the iPod ads are always just figures dancing to some form of upbeat tune, rather than a demonstration of the scroll wheel capabilities, or how easy it is to sync with the music on your computer. For years they’ve been criticised in their Mac adverts for not better showing off OS X and what it can do, but how do you cram the feel of a desktop user interface into 30 seconds when on the face of it, it’s all just windows, icons and a pointer.
All of this is what makes the new iPhone ads so special, because unlike any other technology ad, and especially unlike any mobile phone ad, they’re actually all about the interface. Thirty seconds designed to quickly and succinctly show what makes the phone so special, without any fast music, without any quick cuts, just a camera looking at a phone held in someone’s hand, being touched by a finger in real time. No need to shout about it, no need to fancy it up with special effects, just exactly the kind of demonstration you’d give to someone if they were standing next to you and had never seen one before.
If it works as well as is advertised, and of course we have no reason to suspect it won’t, then it cannot fail to make an impact on the market. If only to shake all the other manufacturers up a bit.
Library
Recently my brother moved from a PC to a Mac and needed to move his sizeable iTunes collection with him, taking all the play counts, ratings and so forth. There are software tools that will make this easy for you and searching online I found a few guides as well, but none of them seemed to be as straightforward as you would think. So instead after a little experimentation I present this, my how to move itunes library between computers guide. This has been tested both from PC to Mac as well as from Mac to PC.
Basically the key to this is simply the iTunes Music Library.xml file, which you can find by simply searching your computer (I could try and describe where it is, but it’s going to depend on your setup). Alternatively you can create a new XML file by choosing the File/Export Library option from within iTunes. This XML file contains details on every track within your library, including it’s location on your computer. Open it up in a text editor to take a look and you’ll easily be able to spot the detail about each track, including the path to the file. Without doubt the simplest way to move your library between computers is simply to copy all your music from one machine to another and then search and replace this file to replace the old path to your music with your new one.
For example, I had to replace /Users/richard/Music/ with d:/music/. This can be done easily from within a text editor on either platform, although be warned that this is can be a big file depending on the size of your library and something like Notepad may choke a bit. Once you’ve done this, simply goto the File/Import option within iTunes on your new machine and select the file to import, and watch how all your song information fills back in again. And since the file contained all the correct path information, they’ll all be ready to play.
Funny
An excellent article from the excellent John Gruber regarding the cost of the iPhone.
I don’t understand the people who criticise the high cost either, for years Pocket PC devices and similar high-end phones have been selling for prices in a similar range.
Crippled
I knocked my laptop from the arm of the couch and it landed on the floor with a thud. I didn’t notice at first, but in time I saw that the left hand side (it’s a MacBook Pro) around the card slot was all bent. A little bit of knife action and I’ve managed to bend the metal back into some sort of reasonable shape again, but it’s not the same. I shall for ever more have to deal with the shame of having a little, crippled laptop.
Earth
TUAW pointed me towards OSXplanet, a Mac version of the UNIX xplanet program which renders pictures of the Earth, Mars and other planets, and allows you to put markers on them if you know the appropriate co-ordinates.
OSXplanet renders out a background image for you at a set interval, with a number of configuration options including whether or not you want to include live cloud data, earthquakes and satellite positions. You can even put markers in your favourite cities. And since it’s xplanet, it draws really nice maps complete with the current position of the sun lighting the planet.
If you’re a Mac user, it’s worth a look.
Arrived
My new laptop arrived yesterday, but with the film last night I didn’t really get the chance to play with it until today. It’s all as expected, but I’m a two time Powerbook owner so that’s hardly a surprise. It’s all the little touches that make it such a nice piece of kit, from the magnetic power supply cord that pulls out so that nobody can trip over it and pull your expensive laptop off the table, to the keyboard and screen that change brightness depending on the ambient light.
When you first switch it on you get the option to transfer all your settings from an existing Mac, which is incredibly helpful. I was able to copy my entire user account from my iMac, and it really does copy everything. It meant that when I first got into the OS properly everything was identical to what I’ve been used to, all my settings, all my applications, even my desktop wallpaper and the position of the icons on my desktop was all there. Next job is to wipe the iMac and prepare to sell it, but first I need to work out what I’m doing to do with my 250GB of music.
