Pete Mortensen is a design strategist for consulting firm Jump Associates and the co-author of Wired to Care: How Companies Prosper When They Create Widespread Empathy, a book and blog that are significantly more interesting than you might initially think. Pete's particular Apple avocations are both around design--interface and industrial. Follow him on Twitter!
Because no one asked for it — it’s Netscape Navigator 9 for Mac! How is this better than Safari, Firefox, Omniweb or Camino, you might ask? Well, it’s got a totally non-OS X compliant interface! And it’s from Netscape! Is anyone planning to upgrade? Can you explain why?
Picture and News Via MacUpdate
Last week, Apple introduced a new series of iPhone ads featuring real people talking about the benefits they get from using the device. And, wouldn’t you know it, the very first parody of the campaign has hit the market, featuring a guy named Ben whose iPhone got bricked from the 1.1.1 firmware update, only it’s still TOTALLY useful.
Fun stuff.
Via TUAW
DListed gets the pics as Woz and his lady love Kathy Griffin show up together at the new Diablo’s Cantina at the Monte Carlo in Las Vegas. I guess this is real. Weird, huh?
Via the Raw Feed.
Apple has returned fire at Amazon’s Mp3 service today, introducing indie record labels to its DRM-free iTunes Plus service to only 99 cents per song. It is rumored that Apple will also drop the price of all other iTunes Plus tracks to 99 cents from $1.29.
Amazon MP3 only sells DRM-free MP3s, largely from Universal and EMI, but with indies in the mix, too. Amazon tracks cost $0.89 to $0.99 each. Apple began iTunes plus with only EMI on board, but doesn’t have Universal doing the DRM-free thing, and it’s quite unlikely they ever will. Universal is part of the same company as NBC, and we know how that worked out.
Even so, this reflexive decision by Apple is the first time I can remember the company following a competitor’s lead in the digital download market. This is more proof that Amazon’s offering is the first significant challenge Apple has faced since launching the iTunes Music Store more than three years ago.
Via Ars Technica
You know how Apple thoughtfully included a cell signal, WiFi and Bluetooth-free Airplane Mode on the iPhone so that the wunder-device could be using as a media player in flight?
Well, apparently ATA didn’t get the memo. A passenger named Casey bound for Hawaii was repeatedly harassed by multiple flight attendants for “talking on his cell phone.” (He was actually trying to watch the terrible Jennifer Love Hewitt vehicle “I Know What You Did Last Summer.”) Consumerist has the sordid story:
So I ask what rule I am breaking. He tells me I am talking on my cell phone. I again explain I am not using the cell part and it is disabled. I go on to further explain that I have been on other airlines that have specific written rules that say cell phones in airplane mode are OK above 10,00 feet, so how could it be a FAA rule. And if it is, what rule ? He has no answer for that, but to now yells at me “You have to do anything I say, I am going to have you arrested”….
He ended up detained at the airport for awhile. It’s ridiculous. And, worse, it’s quite likely that the kind of people who would assume an iPhone in Airplane Mode is dangerous would confuse an iPod Touch with an iPhone. It’s a lesson to us all: Keep it out of sight, folks.
Image via Russell Shaw.
Can you guys keep a secret? This is the first post I’ve written in more than a month that I created on my Mac. Right at the end of August, I opened my faithful 12″ Powerbook only to be greeted by the unwelcome sound of the Click of Death.
If you’ve never had a hard drive die, you might have never encountered the Click of Death. Count yourself lucky. It’s a sad sound. A heart-breaking sound. The sound of things falling apart. A tap, a skip, a whir and failure. Over and over and on into the future. And so, part way through a major writing project, my computer was beloved Mac and constant companion was rendered utterly unusable. Not immediately equipped to pay for the repair, I had to hold off until this last week to get a new drive.
I have walked in the valley of darkness, oh my brothers, and I am more convinced of the Mac’s superiority than ever. Fitted with a new drive, my little Mac feels dozens of times faster than the year-old ThinkPad I have to use at work. It just feels like being home. To make it more like home, over the course of the weekend, I’ve been restoring my Mac to just how I like it. I have five easy steps for doing it yourself, so click through to learn how.
Hackers Open iPod Touch and iPhone To 3rd-Party Apps [Engadget]
Guide to Unlocked, Open-Source Touchscreen Phones [Wired News]
Dev Team A Few Steps Away From Re-Unlocking iPhone [TouchDev]
For years now, conventional wisdom has held that Apple’s halo strategy — using iPod marketshare to pump up Mac shipments — will take off any day now, and the company will leap from 3 percent marketshare to much, much more.
A post at Apple 2.0 suggests that this expected growth has already arrived and might be reaching its limits. For the first half of the 2007 fiscal year, Berstein Research reports, Apple carries nearly 30 percent of the high-end laptop market — the 20 percent of laptop computers sold that fetched the highest prices. This is an increase from 7.8 percent only three years ago. The switch to Intel has obvious made the MacBook and MacBook Pro into runaway hits. When removing business sales from the equation, Apple has almost 50 percent of the high-end laptop market. Which is great, except that it means that Apple’s gotten its boost.
Where’s the new growth going to come from in the computer business?
The One Laptop Per Child initiative seeks to bring technology to the developing world to make up for historic educational and economic inequities. Though I think the project has plenty of problems (Did anyone check to see that a laptop was the best way to repair inequalities in Africa and South America? Or, as Om Malik so succinctly put it, “What about the people?“), the actual XO laptop they’ve produced is quite cool and has capabilities rare on mainstream machines.
The machine is outfitted with a touch screen, a stylus, and a keyboard. In other words, it’s exactly like Apple’s eMate, a Newton product line extension from 1996 targeted at the educational market. Jason O’Grady has a great rundown of both the XO and the eMate over at ZDNet, but there’s a bigger point here that hasn’t been made: Technologies are not inherently interesting or bound to succeed. They require the right context and adoption strategies to take off. Though the XO is far from guaranteed to succeed in the long run, if it does, it won’t be because its technology or design is so superior to the eMate’s. It will be because it connects with people in just the right way. That’s all innovation is — the right idea at the right time for the right people.
Radiohead’s “In Rainbows,” released early this morning over the Internet just nine days after the band announced its completion, is out and completely brilliant. It’s also not for sale through any existing music distribution channel. It’s DRM-free, you can name your own price (no, really), and not one penny goes to the record companies. My thoughts on what that means are over here at my other blog.
What bothers me is that this is exactly the sort of consumer-friendly, content-creator friendly business Apple should be encouraging. Instead, they’re acting in the best interest of record companies, movie studios and TV networks. Kind of disappointing. Either way, the songs still play on my iPod, so away I go!
One of Apple’s messiest business dealings in recent years is the disintegration of its relationship with NBC. Though Steve Jobs routinely showed clips from “The Office” during his keynotes — and many think the iTunes Store saved the series — NBC pulled out of the iTunes universe in a snit this summer. And now a major NBC series that used to have a big tie-up with iTunes, “Heroes,” features a plot with a disappearing shipment of iPods. A subtle slap at Apple?
More curious, however, is the plotline involving Peter Petrelli (Milo Ventimiglia) and a missing shipment of iPods. Considering NBC Universal’s decision last month to pull its programs from iTunes over pricing issues, this struck us as more like product diss-ment. (Indeed, Heroes was among the most popular downloads at iTunes.)
Pure coincidence, said a Universal Media Studios representative. The episode was shot last June.
Broadcasting & Cable calls it “Product Displacement” and says it’s happening with Nissan, too. What do you think? Bizarre coincidence or subtle slap-back by NBC?
Thanks, Buzz!
A guide to what’s new in the Mac OS X Leopard Finder (AppleInsider, pictured)
Man Files Class-Action Lawsuit Over iPhone Bricking (ArsTechnica)
Other Man Claims iPod nano Set His Pants on Fire (NetworkWorld)
Apple Stock Hits $167 a Share — For No Reason (Daring Fireball)
Why I Won’t Buy an iPhone (BusinessWeek)
Apple Classifies Windows a Virus (Flickr)
Leopard Could Add $240 Million in Revenue in Q4 (Fortune)
Anti-Caps Lock Feature in new Apple Keyboards is Hardware-Based (Rentzsch)
The iPhone 1.1.1 firmware Apple unleashed a bit more than a week ago has wreaked havoc on anyone interested in doing more with the iPhone than its manufacturer wants them to. Unlocked phones were closed down and rendered useless. Third-party applications were deleted and prevented from re-installing. It was back to Square 1.1.1 as soon as the update dropped.
But all is not lost. According to Engadget, the hackers who first broke into the iPhone have done it again — and this time they got into the iPod Touch, too. For the time-being, third-party apps are back on the table, so fire up your NES emulators! No one has installed the Mail application on an iPod Touch that has been reported, nor Weather or the other left-out apps. I’ll let you know if I hear anything. The exploit relies on a security hole using TIFF image files that cause Mobile Safari to freak out and open a back door. This TIFF issue has been fixed elsewhere, however, so this won’t last forever. Any new firmware would probably close the loop again. Cat, mouse. Mouse, cat.
Has it only been 10 years since Michael Dell made himself public enemy No. 1 to all lovers of Apple? As Apple 2.0 reminds us, the Dell Computer founder painted the bullseye on his forehead at ITxpo97:
“What would I do? I’d shut it down and give the money back to the shareholders.”
Visionary! Because as Apple 2.0 also points out, Apple’s market capitalization, $140.4 billion, is no more than twice Dell’s, $62.27 billion. Is it time to give the money back to shareholders in Austin, Mikey?
It’s so nice to see how different things can be a decade later. Steve Jobs wasn’t even iCEO yet back then. Less than a year later, the iMac dropped, and Apple hasn’t stopped turning out the hits since. The mid-’90s were a scary time for the Mac. Things are so much more on track these days that it isn’t even funny.
Answering preliminary speculation about their departure, former Mac gaming kingpins and latter-day Halo-bearers Bungie Studios have addressed the subject of their imminent separation from Microsoft, which purchased the firm in 2000. My colleague Chris Kohler at Wired has the interview with spokesman Frank O’Connor. It doesn’t look good for a return to glory of Mac gaming:
The reality is that we like the 360, it’s a very comfortable environment for us to work. Realistically, for the types of games that we make, it is the most successful platform for us to work on, given the types of titles that we work on. So it makes prudent fiscal sense for us to continue working on it. And certainly all of our near- and mid-term projects are all Xbox 360.
Still, it doesn’t rule out the long-term projects…
My lord: They’ve turned C-3PO into a computer! Alarming work over there at Computer Choppers. Anyone interested in picking one up? Why?
Via Engadget
Looks uncomfortable, doesn’t it? The Mac Store in Maryland Heights, Missouri, blew out some old stock by building a couch from a few dozens Macintosh IIs. Wouldn’t a collection of Performa 6500s be a big nicer to sit on? Always to nice to see the spirit of the original Macquarium kept alive.
Via Digg Via New Launches.
It’s remarkable how rapidly Apple is upping the sophistication of its marketing for the iPhone. The initial ads stressed the coolness of multitouch and whipping the phone around, appealing to the slavering Early Adopters who ran out to pay $600 on the first pressing. Now that the iPhone has dropped to $400, though, Apple has created a new ad campaign that focuses on the way people use it in the real world — the crazy interface barely even shows up.
The three new ads were shot against black back-drops in New York. Some enterprising blogs have already tracked down the locations of the shoots, but I’m more fascinated by the overall messages Apple is sending by letting people tell their stories. Take “Mankind,” told by Doug and shown above. In the spot, he talks about Visual Voicemail and nothing else, how it lets you see the length and sender of all messages and ignore the ones you hate. The picture he paints is rich, complaining about the guy who owes you money and leaves a four-minute message — it’s obviously a bunch of excuses, and he’s not going to pay you. Skip it!
Perhaps the most effective piece for me stars Stephano. It’s called “One Thing.” In it, he mentions that he used to carry an iPod, a camera, a regular cell phone and a cell phone for texting and e-mail. Now he has just one thing. Exactly. Apple is showing how this thing fits into people’s lives. It’s really pretty compelling.
What iPhone story would you tell the world?
(Screencap from TUAW)
David Early, a MacRumors member, shot off an e-mail to Apple complaining about a number of limitations on the device, such as its lack of disk mode, incompatibility with older iPod games, and crippled Calendar application that doesn’t allow the creation or editing of new events. And he actually got a reply, signed by Steve Jobs (though possibly composed by an assistant of his) that ignores most of Dave’s questions but speaks directly to the Calendar issue, which he says will be fixed via software update soon. Click on the thumbnail to read the full note.
It’s pretty awesome. Anyone else ever get an actual e-mail back from Steve?
Via Digg.
Remember 1988? Bill McEwen certainly does. And that’s why he’s the CEO of Amiga, Inc., a little company still churning along based on the stellar reputation that Commodore’s Amiga enjoyed back in the late ’80s. For awhile there, some actually thought the Amiga would really duke it out with Apple for supremacy. And Bill McEwen still thinks it can happen, as he lays out in a baffling interview on Amiga Web:
16) You’ve claimed earlier that OS5 will be better than Mac OS X. Can you tell us in what way?
Details for OS 5 will be made public in the 4th quarter of 2007, and then you will have a much clearer understanding and I will let you decide if what I know to be true is accurate.
Also:
28) In the era of the Mac mini, iPhone, $100 laptop, and Efika, what innovative products can Amiga Inc. bring to the information technology market?
Our plans and product strategy take all of the above question items and others into account. Until I am able to show it to you, I will just have to say that there is plenty of places for Amiga to succeed.
You hear that Apple? A company that thinks this weird picture of a woman with a cell phone belongs on the front page of their website is taking the Mac mini and the iPhone into account. So there! Just consider yourself accounted for! I love true believers.
Via Slashdot
Mac game OGs and Halo creators Bungie Studios are about to emerge from their indentured servitude to Microsoft, according to official PR from Redmond. The companies are about to evolve their relationship, which apparently means MS would be an investor in a newly independent Bungie Studios and publish any games they create. No potential for Bungie work that isn’t focused on “Microsoft platforms” is indicated.
I’m not quite sure what to make of the announcement. The timing makes some sense, as Halo 3 is newly out the door and a hit. The guys at Bungie made the best Mac games ever back in the ’90s (particularly Marathon 2 and Myth II), and the tie-up to launch Halo on Xbox brought an end to that. Let’s just hope their new agreement gives them the flexibility to embrace the Mac wholeheartedly again. Seems unlikely, but this is the best it’s been in almost 7 years.
Via Daring Fireball
There’s nothing worse than randomly turning on Caps Lock in the middle of writTING A DOCUMENT AND SUDDENLY YOU TYPE LIKE THIS.
To combad that problem, it would appear that Apple has made it hard to turn on Caps Lock on its new thinline keyboards that shipped with the iMac. Wolf Rentzsch discovered the change:
I’ve discovered something shocking. An anti-Caps Lock conspiracy silently bubbling up from the darkest trenches inside Apple:
Apple’s Caps Lock key has undocumented anti-jab protection.
Unique among the rest of the keys, Caps Lock doesn’t activate immediately upon strike. There’s a very small time window perhaps a quarter of a second where if you release the key inside the window, the keystroke is ignored.
He even shot a video to show how it works. Apple — they think of everything.
Via Daring Fireball
Image from Wikipedia
Let’s face it: There are Mac cultists — folks like you and me — and then there are Mac cult leaders. Take James Savage, a man who has more than 100 Macs in his house. The picture above doesn’t quite do justice. You must read the Gizmodo interview and see the gallery…
Jesus Diaz: The first time I saw your photo I couldn’t believe anyone could have as many Apple computers as you do, at least not outside of a museum. How many do you actually have?
James Savage: About 100 Macs and Apple computers (one NeXT) are in Macca [the spare room], with another 25 or so Macs in our home office and the rest of the Macs are in use throughout the house.
Yikes.
Via Digg.
Members of the Hackin0sh development community report that an old exploit that was used to crack the PlayStation Portable’s firmware almost two years ago could hold the key to re-opening up iPhones loaded with the 1.1.1 firmware that closed them back up.
Notes Hackint0sh reader Locked:
It looks like the dev team is up to something. I have been following them over at IRC and it looks like Mobile Safari on both the touch and the iPhone are suffering from a one year old TIFF exploit.
Basically, opening a carefully crafted TIFF image will crash mobile safari, causing a buffer overflow and allow for arbitrary code execution. This same exploit was used more than 1.5 years ago to crack the PSP firmware.
So, nothing to report, yet, but there might yet be life for third-party applications on the iPhone. As Steve Jobs himself has said, this is a game of cat and mouse, and with application development, at least, I want the mice to win…
The Apple blogosphere hills are alive with the sound of rumors!
So, it’s pretty clear that Apple’s iPod and iPhone product line is locked down for the holiday season following last month’s “Beat Goes On” event, right? Right. What’s that leave for new product updates? Why, the glory of the Mac, of course.
The always-enthusiastic, rarely-on-the-money Mac OS Rumors claims that a bevy of big product announcements are coming from Apple “between now and mid-December.”
These include the MacBook Nano (another spin on the long-rumored MacBook Thin) and a rather oddly muddle rumor about both an AppleTV product line featuring optical disc drives (presumably HD-DVD or BluRay) and also a new, even smaller Mac mini replacement called the Mac nano. Now, I have to say, that sounds like exactly the same rumor to me, unless Apple really wants to position the AppleTV as a DVD-player replacement instead of a new device. Personally, I’d rather see them just install some DVR software. But really, would Apple introduce a new AppleTV with a disc slot and lower the profile of the Mac mini? They would look exactly the same.
What are you expecting for Christmas from Apple this year?
Image via Guardian.
