My boss died today. And although there are numerous more eloquent eulogies out there, I thought I’d add one more to the growing pile of accolades.
Continue Reading...Archives For apple
this is difficult. there was a fairly momentous announcement from Steve Jobs yesterday and i`d really like to throw my 2¢ in the ring, but i can`t. one of the things i agreed to when i took this job was not discuss the company in a public forum.
i`m going to say what i can; yesterday, Apple announced that they were going to switch to Intel processors starting 2006 with a complete transition by 2007, there`s been a lot of commentary in a number of places, a lot of people feel betrayed but honestly i think this is for the best. this is not the official word from on high, i just think it`s a step in a new and interesting direction. it`s thinking different taken to an incredibly logical extreme.
and that`s all i can say about that.
edit:
a fairly reasonable article on the whole situation.
well part time at least.
i am the newest part-time Apple Specialist at Green Hills Mall.
i`m getting paid to do something i love with a discount, hopefully i`ll have a pay cheque to take home.
MacWorld SF for the most part was all about the new user experience. For long time or power users, finding personal satisfaction required roaming the vast floor space at the Moscone Center.
There were over 275 exhibitors, with recognisable names in software and hardware like Adobe, Extensis, Filemaker, Microsoft, Nikon, and Quark taking up large amounts of floor space. However with the exception of Griffin Technologies and Roxio, most of the exciting offerings at the show were from the smaller manufacturers.
My runners-up in the Best of Show software category are Ambrosia Software; long time shareware manufacturer of games and utilites; and relative newcomer; Panic. These companies both make practical, stable software cheaply, which some of the bigger names might want to take stock of.
Ambrosia recently released their digital recording application WireTap Pro, as well as an OS X version of their classic game Aperion. WireTap Pro allows users record audio from any running application as well as any input device on your Mac including the microphone, line-in or headset and save it in a variety of formats including mp3, AAC, Quicktime or AIFF.
Panic is a newer arrival in the Mac shareware market and produce a number of cool utilities including Transmit; an FTP client; Unison; a USENET client; and some smaller fun utilities like Destastic; which allows you to make notes on a computer desktop like a whiteboard; and Stattoo; which gives users widgets for mail, weather and time in a translucent desktop bar.
However my Best of Show goes to a tiny start-up company called Delicious Monster who have produced a brilliant piece of software called Delicious Library. Delicious Library allows users to catalogue their books, CDs and DVDs into an easily accessible database. What makes this different is armed with UPC or ISBN numbers and an internet connection the application will pull in all the appropriate information, the application also allows users with an Apple iSight to scan the UPC codes directly into the database. The programme also allows you to import other catalogues your may have created in another programme or have saved in a number of formats and if you have stuff that isn`t in Amazon database where Delicious Library pulls their information from your can enter it manually. For people who value their collections this is the ideal tool for managing and keeping track of your library.
Next time Delicious Library vs Books.
21 years ago, today Steve Jobs launched the Macintosh and neither his sense of showmanship or the response of the faithful have changed.
i`ve mirrored the file here but be forewarned it`s kind of big. not something you want to attempt looking at on dial-up.
Last Tuesday`s keynote address; at the opening of the MacWorld San Francisco conference; by Apple CEO Steve Jobs held little or no suprises for mac users who had been frequenting rumour sites online or following the spate of recent lawsuits by Apple. However it did not stop faithful attendees from reacting joyfully with each new product announcement.
However these new products were not necessarily aimed at the hardcore faithful, but to lure new users to the Macintosh fold. Leading this charge was the Mac Mini; a computer that may possibly be the future of household digital convergence.
The Mac Mini is Apple`s first foray into a sub-$500 computer and standard features include a 1.25Ghz G4 processor, 40Gb hard disk, 256Mb Ram, upgradable to 1Gb, slot-loading combo drive; CD-RW/DVD-Rom, 2 USB 2.0 ports, 1 Firewire (IEEE-1394) 400 port, ethernet and digital and analog video out support. The computer is not necessarily for first time buyers, as it comes bereft of keyboard, mouse or monitor. Because of its small footprint, the machine is not user upgrade, however optional factory installed upgrades include ram, Apple`s wireless solution; Airport, Bluetooth, SuperDrive; DVD-RW/CD-RW and an 80GB HD. There is also a marginally faster version of the Mini Mac with a 1.42Ghz G4 Processor and an 80Gb hard drive standard that retails for $599.
One of the first things you notice about the Mac Mini is the incredibly small profile; the machine measures two inches high by six and a half inches deep and wide; about the same height as a VCR. Although this machine seems primarily geared towards enticing ipod owning PC users to switch, the machine lends itself; with some tweaking; to become the centre piece of the long touted digital convergence. With WebTV attempting a second coming, this may be the ideal time for a device that connects to the internet, can manage your music, edit and create video and can connect through your television.
The other big hardware announcement at MacWorld was the ipod Shuffle; Apple`s entry into the flash MP3 player market. The Shuffle is incredibly small; and the assertion that it`s smaller than most packs of gum is not an exaggeration; in an average adult hand, it is barely visible and the retail prices of $99 and $149 for the 512MB and 1Gb versions make them readily accessible to almost everyone. On the day of the show, 20,000 were available for sale at the San Francisco Apple store two blocks away and within three and a half hours they were completely sold out. Ideal for users on the go and parents pandering to their children`s desire for an MP3 player, the Shuffle is an ideal size at an ideal price.
Lost in all the hardware hype at MacWorld was Apple`s attempt at not offending software manufactures with the iWork suite. iWork features two applications, Keynote 2; an upgrade to the original presentation application and a brand new piece of software called Pages.
Pages fills a void on the mac platform somewhere between Microsoft Publisher and Adobe Pagemaker; a simple user-friendly publishing application. With Adobe`s discontinuation of Pagemaker, low end users no longer had an option on the mac until now. Pages offers a multitude of templates for letters, newsletters, reports, brochures and resumes, that allow users to drag and drop their existing photos and text into.
Apple`s announcements at this expo catered to new and basic users, leaving high end users some what out in the cold, however there were many other exhibitors at MacWorld expo that filled that void.
the tease begins, he`s talking about the ipods now. 4.5 million ipods sold last christmas. 10 Million total, over 8 million in calendar year 2004.
and here it comes, more car manufacturers adding built-in ipod adaptors; nissan, mercedes, volvo, ferarri, alfa romero and scion.
itunes on motorola phones announced at CES.
and now the show stopper, a flash ipod player; ipod shuffle. no display, smaller than most packs of gum, weighs less than an ounce. smalled LED display. either shuffle or playlist. USB 2.0, 12 hour rechargable battery, autofill feature from iTunes, share songs and data. two models; 512Mb, 120 songs, $99, 1Gb, 240 songs, $149.
available today.
acessories include a battery extender, sports case, arm band and a dock, available in 4 weeks, $29 each.
oh iWork is $79 and is available January 22.
time for the hardware annoucements. and the rumour sites were right; the Mac Mini.
slot loading combo optical drive, FW, USB2, Ehternet, modem DVI and analog video. it`s small and it`s bring your own display, keyboard and mouse. shipping with Panther and iLife `05, priced at $499 and $599; 256MB, 1.25Ghz G4 and 40 and 80Gb HD.
i apologise for the stuccato nature of these posts but i`m trying to post as fast as it happens, there will be a more coherent summation either tonight, depending on my access to an internet connection otherwise, it`s going to happen tomorrow.
we`re back to demoing idvd, with all the new features i`m not really getting into because you can read all about it on the regular channels later today.
next up is GarageBand and a new jam pack that features orchestral instruments plus a whole new host of features that will be demoed again by John Mayer who seems to be having a great deal of fun with it. now they`re recording four tracks live which is kind of cool to observe and experience.
iLife `05 free with all new Macs or retailing for $79 and available a week from Friday.
holy shit, Apple takes on MS to some extent with iWork, which features a new version of Keynote and a new word processor called Pages, which is now being demoed by Phil Schiller
with blather about the new apple stores, 101 to date, 1,000,000 visitors a day. now we`re on the new imac, more blather. we know all this. i`m waiting to be impressed. does this mean the noted reality disrtortion field doesn`t extend into the over flow room.
ooooh tiger, shipping first half of this year, but all the features we knew about all that already. oh wait, a preview.
steve`s demoing spotlight, which is the content finder built into tiger from almost anywhere, in any format. and it crashed, sort of.
next up is the mail app, integrated with spotlight, more integration with all mailboxes, smart mailboxes; allowing you to sort by content; and a slideshow built into the mail application.
also coming with tiger is quicktime 7 with a new codec H.264 and on-screen controls, realtime scaling etc, etc, etc
now dashboard; a series of widgets, including weather, currency exchange, calculator which thus far is the most impressive thing i`ve seen.
ichat also gets a bump, with up to four to video conferences at once using the new H.264 codec and up to 10 simultaneous
audio chats.
on to more stuff, steve has just declared 2005 the year of High Definition Video and just introduced FinalCut Express HD for editing HD.
and as expected iLife `05, with new versions of iPhoto, iDVD, iMovie and GarageBand, not updates for iTunes just yet. more editing features for iPhoto as well as support for RAW format.
in an interesting development, i can`t seem to log into journalspace from the overflow room`s wireless network anymore.
so i`ll just keep typing and hope for the best. imovie has new features including support for HD.
interesting developments, on stage now is the president of Sony to talk about their HD consumer cameras and is singing Apple`s praises as part of making 2005 the year of HD.