Apple - page 72

Programmer Paul Guyot has demonstrated his “Einstein” Newton emulator running on a Sharp Zaurus — and a beta of the software is available as a free download.

“… We’re one step closer to having a Newton running on non-Apple hardware,” wrote long-time Newton devotee Adam Tow, who reported the news.

Guyot demonstrated the emulator at the Worldwide Newton Conference this weekend in San Francisco, held on the tail of Macworld. The emulator runs on any Linux-based PDA with X11 support.

Here’s some background on Guyot and his project.

I know I’m harping on about this, but there’s been a lot of debate about whether or not Apple remade — or was even infuenced by — The Postal Service’s “Such Great Heights” video for its new 30-second TV ad for Intel-based Macs.

In comments here and at my other blog, some people insist the two videos simply use the same setting, a cleanroom, and that’s where the similarities end.

But now ChrisJM at Elite Productions has taken the Apple ad and spliced it with corresponding shots from the Postal Service video to make a side-by-side comparison.

I say it nails it (not that there was any doubt in my mind). The Apple ad is more or less a shot-for-shot remake.

It’s not that Apple’s ad is not artful. I actually think the ad works better than the video, which I found over long and boring. I just find it mystifying there’s any doubt about the source material.

I’ve made enquiries with both Sub Pop Records and Apple’s ad agency, TBWA/Chiat/Day, and will report any findings here next week.

Yeah, those “exploited children” over at Gizmodo are my progeny. My wife took them down to Macworld to promote my Cult of iPod book.

She dressed our three boys in cardboard iPod costumes, and our daughter as a silhouette iPod dancer.

I wasn’t exactly comfortable with the idea, but it achieved its objective. They got their pictures in the paper, which absolutely thrilled them (Exploited kid one; exploited kid two), and she handed a flyer to the scores of people who snapped their picture.

Plus, the kids had a blast. Look at all the free crap they got. This is just a portion of it. My daughter separated hers out and stashed it away.

They got eight pairs of gloves, a ton of flashing Belkin necklaces, half-a-ton of stickers and pins, Postit pads, spring-loaded jumping frogs, badge holders, a gazillion pens, rubber wristbands, iPod covers, some cellphone cleaner thingies, etc., etc.

What was the best stuff they got?

Lyle (the youngest): “Candy.”

Olin: “Candy.”

Milo: “The wristbands, and candy.”

Nadine (the oldest): “The Yoyo, a mini Sharpie, a fish screensaver, a helicopter spinner and a squeezy stress ball. And candy.”

Here’s more of the little angels.

There was something strange about Steve Jobs’ Macworld keynote on Tuesday. The pacing was off.

It started off high energy with reports of unbelievable iPod sales and record revenues, which got the crowd whooping. Then it went into a doldrums with an interminable demo of new features in iLife, which had everyone dying for the One More Thing… “Come on Steve,” we’re all thinking. “Cut the crap and get to the good stuff.”

So tonight I’m sitting in a bar when I run into an old friend, who is very highly placed in the Apple world. I hate to cite an anonymous source, but trust me, he knows.

And he tells me the keynote that Jobs gave was not the keynote he had planned. Some of the speech had been cut out. Key products were missing.

My source said there was some stuff, “some very, very cool stuff,” that Jobs couldn’t unveil because of “supply issues.”

“They can’t get enough Core Duo (chips),” said my source.

He also said that if he were me, he probably wouldn’t order one of the new MacBook Pros.

I asked if there would be MacBook replacements for the 17-inch and 12-inch PowerBooks, but he said, “Oh, it’s much cooler than that. Much cooler.”

Photo credit: Engadget.

Update: Duncan Rawlinson at the Last Minute Blog has created a much better comparison screenshot of the two videos, which I’ve nicked and posted above. Duncan has a slightly higher-resolution version on his site. Also, in the comments, it seems some people think I’m referring to similarities in the music, but it’s the visuals that are similar, if not identical. Plus it’s the whole idea: the concept, the setting, the narrative. Compare the corridor tracking shots, the movements of the wafer-making machines, the interaction between the male and female workers. The Apple ad is not just “influenced” by the Postal Service video, it’s a remake.

Apple is at it again — making TV ads that bear an uncanny resemblance to other people’s videos.

Apple’s latest TV advert, touting Intel chips inside its new Macs, is remarkably similar to a music video from The Postal Service for the song “Such Great Heights.”

Both are set in clean rooms, and feature bunnysuited workers making eyes at each other.

See for yourself. Here’s the Apple ad, and here’s The Postal Service video (Windows Media download).

Apple is currently being threatened legally by Lugz, which claims an apparently actionable similarity between Apple’s iPod ad featuring Eminem and a 2002 spot for Lugz footwear.

Of course, in the latest case, Apple may have an agreement with The Postal Service or its record company, or may have hired the same director, or licensed the work.

Developing…

Except for Intel-based hardware, the big thing here at Macworld seems to be syndicating photos over the net — or Photocasting.

Not only did Steve Jobs showcase a new photocasting feature in iPhoto on Tuesday, on Monday ex-Apple evangelist Guy Kawasaki introduced the Mac version of a new photocasting application called FilmLoop.

Photocasting isn’t new — several photoblogs offer syndicated snaps via RSS, as do photo-sharing websites like Flickr and Buzznet. But until now, few desktop applications made it easy to download pictures from a camera and push them automatically to friends’ and relatives’ machines.

In his keynote speech, Jobs demonstrated how photos and galleries in a new version of iPhoto can be pushed, or photocast, to subscribers’ computers.

“This is podcasting — for photos,” Jobs said.

Instead of publishing to the web, photos are delivered automatically to subscriber’s computers. In iPhoto, the user creates a photocast album. All the pictures added to, or deleted from, this album are automatically pushed to subscriber’s iPhoto libraries, where they show up in a gallery in the source list.

“It’s like magic,” Jobs said, with typical understatement. “You take away the machinery, and it’s just like magic. It’s amazing.”

Publishing a photocast requires the new version of iPhoto, which has been updated as part of Apple’s $80 iLife 06 suite, and a .Mac membership (TK a year) — but subscribers can be on any platform.

“Anyone can subscribe. You don’t even need a Mac,” Jobs said.

Meanwhile, Kawasaki’s FilmLoop combines iPhoto photocasting with Flickr-like photo groups.

Not only can FilmLoop users subscribe to each other’s galleries, or “loops,” they can add comments and even contribute their own snaps.

The FilmLoop network has public loops dedicated a wide range of topics, from news and sports to pictures of all the Corvettes for sale on eBay.

The FilmLoop system is free — but loops are sprinkled with ads.

Kawaski is a member of the company’s board and a backer through his firm, Garage Technology Ventures.

Beyond Macworld, several tinkerers have hacked together homebrew podcasting systems, including Chris Pirillo using a Sony PSP, and Philip Torrone with Flickr and some scripts.

MACWORLD — It’s 1997 all over again! Microsoft and Apple have renewed their marriage vows for another five years, Microsoft said on Tuesday.

Apple and Microsoft’s Macintosh Business Unit have signed a formal “commitment agreement” deeming Microsoft to continue developing Office for Mac for at least another five years, Microsoft said.

“We wanted to comfort our customers around the world that we are in this for the long term,” said Scott Erickson, the Mac BU’s director of product management and marketing. “It makes sense to really publicly show our commitment to the platform.”

The blissful marriage between the two companies looked rocky after Steve Jobs announced Apple will be switching to Intel chips, which may or may not also run Windows. Plus, Apple has been developing its own software to compete with applications traditionally developed for the Mac by Microsoft — Safari, Keynote, etc.

“We’ve been in the Mac software business for more than 20 years,” said Erickson. “And it’s been a great business for us.”

Erickson said the deal was signed in November 2005.

The “commitment agreement” is reminiscent of Macworld in 1997, when Bill Gates joined Steve Jobs’ keynote speech via a satellite linkup. Looming large and Big Brother-like, Gates said he was happy to invest $150 million in Apple, which was in trouble at the time, and sign a five-year commitment to continue developing Mac software.

In addition to renewing its vows, Microsoft said it will enhance Entourage in the spring. The Mac email, contact and calendar software will synchronize with iPods, among other devices.

It’s Macworld, which means it’s time for Mac haircuts.

Here’s Gabe McIntyre, who said he’s always getting his hair styled with one theme or another, usually Apple related.

Above is the haircut he had for Apple Expo Paris in 2004, and below are various haircuts honoring Apple’s operating system updates — Jaguar, Tiger, etc.

“I feel like while I still have hair, I might as well make art from it,” he said. “I feel like I’m doing performance art with my hair… Plus I am a diehard Apple geek.”

McIntyre is such an Apple geek, he said his students call him “Gabriel Macintosh” rather than McIntyre.

McIntyre is a 30-year-old film professor from Amsterdam, Holland, who also directs and edits films and commercials with his business partner Gabriel Bauer.

An American living in Holland, McIntyre teaches video podcasting at the College of Arts in Utrecht (HKU). His business site is Whisper Media; his video podcasts can be found at Gabe & Gabe’s World (personal videos) and Xolo.Tv (his video podcast news and review show).

His girlfriend styles his hair.

“(She) loves it and can’t wait for my hair to grow out so she can do another haircut,” he said “She used to be a PC user till she met me. Now she’s an Apple geek as well… My hair is a way to get her creativity out sometimes.”

Take a (virtual) walk along Infinite Loop — the road that loops around Apple’s campus, courtesy of Redbug Technologies, a company that makes virtual reality tours.

The Apple Campus tour is the 3rd down on the left.

Redbug’s Andrew Hagenbuch writes: “Built with love by two Mac users. Kinda cool for those who haven’t been there. Mac love at its best!”

What a weird bunch of crap Disney is rolling out with its latest expanded TV offerings for iTunes.

ITunes will feature a couple of dozen shows, snippets and shorts from several Disney-owned outlets like ESPN, ABC Sports, Disney Channel and others.

Except for the sports, which I personally have zero interest in, the list includes gems like the 70s kids cartoon “Schoolhouse Rock,” SOAPnet’s biog show “Soapography,” and bits of “Good Morning America.”

Good grief America. The only thing I’d take the trouble to download is Ebert and Roeper, which I never catch when it’s broadcast on TV.

I know on-demand video is supposed to be all long tail and niche, that’s half the point, but where’s the HBO? Or Seinfeld? The Shield? Or anything worth watching?

The cleverly-named PyP-Bomb iPod/Guitar Amp is a battery-powered speaker and amp made from a section of PVC pipe.

Optimized for the iPod, the $150 PyP-Bomb generates 18 watts of sound and is “seriously loud,” according to ThinkGeek site, which sells them.

Can that be true? Is 18 watts a lot of sound? Sure looks distinctive.

An exhibition of video art is to be presented entirely on video iPods at the Fine Art in Space gallery in Long Island City, NY.

PodART will feature the work of several multimedia artists whose work has been reformatted for the iPod, including MTAA and Marisa Olson.

The show is “the first group exhibition of video art intended to be viewed and sold solely on the iPod. Apple, the computer of choice by much of the art world is the inspiration for our new exhibition,” a press release says.

The artwork will be sold at the show, pre-installed on an iPod. “Each video object is a limited edition and is sold in iPod format with the player,” the release says. No pricing is given.

The exhibition runs December 9, 2005, to January 17, 2006. The opening reception is December 9, 7pm to 9pm.

(Thanks Walt)

So I just woke up and see that Apple is offering about a dozen new TV shows for download from NBC, USA Network and the Sci Fi Channel. Sorry for being the last person on the Net to post this.

The new shows include:

NBC’s “Law & Order,” “The Office,” “Surface,” “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno,” “Late Night with Conan O’Brien,”

the USA Network’s Emmy Award-winning “Monk”

Sci-Fi Channel’s “Battlestar Galactica”

classic TV shows including “Alfred Hitchcock Presents,” “Dragnet,” “Adam-12” and “Knight Rider.”

Pricing is a bit weird. Entire episodes of “Law & Order” cost $1.99, but so does a 10-minute clip of Conan O’Brien.

This is a big deal:

Britain’s independent music labels are about to make music available for podcasts, reports the BBC. Britain’s indie acts include Franz Ferdinand and The Prodigy.

Songs by acts signed to UK indie record labels are to be made available to podcasters on a trial basis.

The Association of Independent Music is selling six-month worldwide licence deals for its members’ music to be used on download radio programmes.

… “We believe there will be huge global demand for the AIM podcast licence,” (said an AIM spokeswoman)

As one of the BBC’s interviewees points out: “I see podcasting and subscription services as playing a big role in where the music consumer wants to go.”

Steve Wozniak:

My best computer prank involved counterfeiting twenty thousand brochures for a phony computer. I did it at the West Coast Computer Faire, where the Apple was introduced.

Bruce Damer’s ever-excellent Digibarn Computer Museum has a scan of Wozniak’s proudest prank.

What’s the most expensive Mac money can buy?

According to Gadget Madness, it’s a “2.5Ghz Quad-core PowerPC G5 with 16GB of RAM, 1 TB of storage, Quadro FX 4500 graphics card with 512MB of memory, 16X dual-layer Superdrive, and two 30″ Apple Cinema HD displays.”

Cost — a cool $24,000 — but shipping is free.

UK blogs Tech Digest and Shiny Shiny have named the iPod Shuffle as this year’s “Must Chav Gadget.”

A chav is slang for a member of Britain’s “peasant underclass” — a lowlife, in other words.

Says Tech digest:

The shuffle is perfect for chavs. It’s cheap. It’s by a cool brand, and you can let others know you have one as it is designed to be worn round your neck. As it is white it also accessorises well with those classy gold chains Chavs wear. The sad part is that the shuffle is the worst player in the Apple range — more like some dodgy back street knock-off than the excellent other iPods. The fact it has no screen so you can’t program it or choose a track — it chooses the music for you — also saves Chav brain cells for the much more important business of, ahem, pimping their rides.

Second prize went to the Motorla Razr — “standard fixture for every Tom Dick and Chav.”

Tomorrow afternoon, I’ll be giving the first of three short talks in the Bay Area about my new book, Cult of iPod.

The talk will be a brief intro to the book and what it’s about: fast-growing iPod culture.

The other appearances will be at the Stanford Bookstore in Palo Alto on Dec. 8 at 2pm — where there’ll be a raffle of an iPod Shuffle — and Borders San Rafael on Dec. 10 at 7pm.

Here’s the details of Saturday’s event:

LOCATION/TIME
Borders Books (Stonestown) Details and MAP
415.731.2025
255 Winston Dr.
San Francisco, CA 94132

Sat 12/03/05 (4:00pm)

Hope to see you there.

If you’re worried about iPods selling out over the holidays, consider the alternative: a fantastic book about iPods and iPod culture — Cult of iPod.

And if you order it here, I’ll autograph the book and write a personal inscription to its lucky recipient. Just fill out the “Your Inscription Here” box on the Paypal order page.

Author Jim Heid has just posted a very nice review.

Coverbuddy is a program that lets you navigate your iTunes library via album artwork rather than lists of songs or artists. It’s nice, but pretty useless.

But now a new version of the software allows iTunes to be accessed via any web browser, including the browser on the Sony PSP, which turns the little game machine into a remote for iTunes.

This is a new player for Windows called Songbird. Recognize the layout?

It seems that they copied iTunes — and there are even links to music stores like Amazon in the player. A wild guess is that it works, and is intended for players other than the iPod.

Songbird.

On Kroll’s Blog:

While I was at the Apple Store last night with my girlfriend getting my nano, some guy brought his old Mac in because he thought it was time to “upgrade”. He had been doing his banking on that machine since he got it, using quicken or something. This mac classic came out in 1990, had 1meg of RAM, and a 8mhz processor!

The machine appears to be a Mac SE, which came out in 1987 — making it almost two decades old. That’s a long time to be using the same computer.

When I was in New York a few years ago, I spent an afternoon at Tekserve, a big Mac repair shop in Chelsea.

While there, a couple of people bought in classic Macs for repair, and there were several on the shelves waiting to be picked up. I was surprised there were so many. Tekserve’s owner said they belonged to the many writers in the neighborhood, who considered them perfectly functional for scribbling on.

In one of the episodes of Futurama there was a parody of the classic Apple commercial “1984”.

For those who missed it, or wants to see it again, mac TV has published a short clip of it. Enjoy!
live.watchmactv.com/featured/futurama

It’s pretty common that people buy a Mac mini and connects it to their big plasma screens and use the mini as a media center.

But where to put the mini?

Put it on the wall! Of course! Maybe easiest with a mount like the one to the right. “Mini mount” is the name and you stick it to the wall with two screws. Something nice for the cords and you are game.

50 dollars, 70 if you want it with backlighting. But you don’t want that.

PodDater.com is a new dating service that allows members to download videos of potential dates to their video iPod.

Members create video profiles, search for matches, and synchronize the ones they’re interested in to watch later.

The free service, launched on Wednesday, has about 130 registered users so far. Predictably, few are women.

Potential mates can be sorted by “tags,” which include “mac,” “sports” and “beer.”