Ian Betteridge is a brave man. Not only is he a Mac user who has switched to Ubuntu running on Dell hardware, he’s also decided to say so in public.

Some of you may recognize his name: for some years, he was a writer for, and then editor of, the UK version of MacUser magazine.

Why did he do it? Partly because of price, partly because he cares about open software running on open platforms. Apple, he says, is a long way from open and seems to be closing things ever tighter as time goes on. (See also his follow-up post detailing the apps he’s chosen to use on Linux.)

What really caught my eye, though, was one of Ian’s asides. Half way through his post, he predicts that “sooner or later”, the “development ecosystem will increasingly come to resemble that of the iPhone, and for much the same reasons”.

In other words, there will be an App Store for OS X software. An App Store that Apple will keep just as tight control over. Only apps that met with Apple’s approval would be cleared for distribution, and only apps distributed in that manner would actually run.

A bold prediction indeed. A fair one, though? And does the Better World of free software tempt you to switch to Ubuntu (or any other *nix variant)? What do you think?

(Disclaimers: I sometimes contribute articles to MacUser UK; and I know Ian Betteridge personally, have enjoyed a chat and a pint with him, and consider him a lovely chap.)

“Music of the Night” – she plays through the nose!

Smule, developers of the hit iPhone music app Ocarina, announced the winners of the company’s “This Contest Blows” Ocarina video contest Tuesday. Conceived as a way to reward its raving Ocarina fans with $1,000 per winner, the contest attracted a number of surprising and creative videos. Many contestants demonstrated musical talent, as well as Smulean je ne sais quoi.

Because the contest’s intent was to nurture budding Ocarina talent, Smule is extending the contest to Friday, February 13, and will announce 5 more $1,000 prize winners on Smule’s Mule live broadcast February 16th.

Check out a couple of our favorite winners here, plus more after the jump.

Hardrockgrl’s “Oh Shenandoah”

Monkey Head – rubber bannanas, they never go bad…

Ah, the dead mighty mouse. Who hasn’t been there once or twice?

This pic made me smile, my last Apple mouse had too many trackball issues and I’ve used no-name one ever since…

Photo used under Creative Commons license, thanks to riddle on Flickr, who also tagged the photo of the deceased mouse “fifty bucks on a rope.”

Apple sweetened the pot a bit on its new productivity suite Tuesday, with a “Try it Free for 30 days” offer on iWork ’09. The enhanced spreadsheet, desktop publishing and presentation software package must not be flying off the shelves since its introduction last week at Macworld.

I was aiming to get around to it at some point because I’ve come to really like Pages, especially since I got used to its decidedly-different-than-Word workflow.

I’m also interested in checking out Numbers, Apple’s spreadsheet software that was not part of the copy of iWork ’06 I’ve been hobbling along with. I hope not to be involved again too soon in any venture that requires a lot of work with spreadsheets, but if Numbers is a reasonably robust solution it will be nice to know it’s in the file system.

Of course – and I hate to keep going on about this – Keynote is, to me, the star of the iWork show, a truly full-featured, sophisticated piece of presentation software that puts Powerpoint to shame. I’m looking forward to playing with its new bells and whistles and this little free teaser may be just the thing to get me off my duff to check it out.

Thanks, Apple!

Psystar has raised another desperate, if novel claim in its ongoing legal battle with Apple, arguing before a federal judge that since the Mac clone-maker legally purchased its copies of Mac OS X from Apple and resellers, it has the right to do basically whatever it wants with that software under the first-sale doctrine.

In court filings described by Computerworld, Psystar told the court: “Once a copyright owner consents to the sale of particular copies of a work, the owner may not thereafter exercise distribution rights with respect to those copies. See, e.g., Bobbs-Merrill Co. v. Straus, 210 U.S. 339, 350-51 (1908) (recognizing more than 100 years ago the concept of first sale and the limitations imposed upon a copyright owner in light thereof). Psystar acquired lawful copies of the Mac OS from Apple; those copies were lawfully acquired from authorized distributors including some directly from Apple; Psystar paid good and valuable consideration for those copies; Psystar disposed of those lawfully acquired copies to third-parties.”

Unfortunately for Psystar, courts have rarely held the first sale doctrine applies to software, considering it a product that is licensed, not sold, and can therefore be distributed with restrictions on further distribution. Psystar’s thin hopes likely hang on the precedent of a case involving Adobe, in which a court upheld the first sale doctrine’s application to software.

Via Cnet

The Juice Wireless iPhone and iPod Touch app Mirror deserves some credit, we suppose, for putting a big bold **DISCLAIMER** right at the top of its description page on the AppStore, calling the application a “fun, joke…for your amusement only.”

99¢ buys you a selection of 9 frames which can be used to border the reflective glossy surface of the models released in 2008, giving the impression you’re holding a mirror instead of a mobile computing device. The developers say they’ve brought you this hilarious bit of software engineering and design so “you’ll never look stupid staring at your iPhone again.” Um, OK.

If you’re really interested in turning your iPhone or iPod Touch into a mirror, you may want to look into the benefits of a protective mylar screen cover from RadTech.

ClearCal is an ultra thin (5 mil) tension adhering screen cover available in Anti-Glare, Transparent and Mirror surface finishes. Its high quality adhesive stays on the film – which can be removed, cleaned and reapplied several times – magically leaving no residue on your device.

Two sets of protective films are included per pack, priced at $9.95 for the transparent version and $12.95 for the other two. The mirror version gives a clear, fully reflective appearance when the device display is off, turning it into a trés chic silver brick. When the display comes on the mirrored appearance fades away and the cover becomes completely transparent; it’s a very cool effect.

OK so the name isn’t quite as snappy as Quicksilver, but the intent is very similar. And at least one of the developers is exactly the same.

Google’s new Quick Search Box for Mac was coded in part by Alcor, aka Nicholas Jitkoff, aka the guy who created Quicksilver and made keyboard-centric launchers the big hit they are today (on pretty much every platform, not just OS X).

This beta release is a good start. It doesn’t spend ages cataloguing your hard disk (at least, not in an intrusive, tie-your-Mac-up-for-minutes sort of way). And the architecture is designed for expansion; more features can be plugged in via, um, plugins.

Note that this is NOT the same as the Google Desktop Search app that you might have played with a while back. Desktop Search used the same Command+Command shortcut but made much greater demands on your system (at least, that’s how I remember it – it lasted about a day on my machine before I removed it, dissatisfied to put it mildly). I’m not very clear right now whether or not Quick Search Box is a replacement for Desktop Search, although I suspect that is the case, or will be in the medium to long term.

The only thing that the older Desktop Search product has got going for it is that it will run on Tiger, whereas the newer app is Leopard-only.

There’s a way to go yet. This new beast crashes, twice in the time it’s taken me to write these words. But hey, if Alcor’s in charge I have high hopes. High hopes indeed.

Image © 2009 Robert Lachman

OK, the AppStore has over 10,000 apps for iPhone and iPod Touch. It’s a nice round number, impressive even. But it’s kind of like saying there are over 10,000 medicinal plants in the rainforests of the Amazon.

That’s great, but how do I find them and which ones are good for me?

I’m not paid enough, nor am I interested in wading through all 10,000 iPhone apps to cull pearls from the sea of fart and ringtone gems on offer, but I am happy to pass on a bit of wisdom published by the editors of Mashable, who’ve gone to the trouble of picking out 70+ free social media apps. Since the iPhone is essentially a mobile communication device, it seems to me social media is at least a good place to start.

Follow me after the jump for my picks of the best from Mashable’s list.

Apple could control up to 40 percent of the smartphone market by 2013, UK-based Generator Research announced Tuesday. The company predicted the iPhone would grab marketshare at a time when Nokia and other cell phone players are battered by poor economic conditions.

Nokia, the current cell phone leader, could shrink to just 20 percent of the market, contends the research firm. The prediction is counter to Nokia’s own outlook. Earlier this month, Nokia CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo told the Financial Times the economic mess could hurt rivals and help the Finnish company known for low-cost phones.

Not to be deterred, the British researchers said Apple could parlay the combination iPhone and App Store into another iPod-iTunes success.

Crime is ugly. But it’s hard not to crack a smile at an enterprising thief who bought iPods, then returned the packages weighted down with rocks.

The thief took the empty Apple boxes back and exchanged them for four Zunes at a Wal-Mart Supercenter in Nebraska.

Police believe the culprit used heat to reseal the plastic packaging. The iPods were put back on shelves, a customer who bought the iPod box without the MP3 device alerted the store.

Authorities warned that other stores in the area may have been hit by the same bait-and-switch scam.

Photo used under Creative Commons license, thanks to Dan Taylor on Flickr

Via Sioux City Journal

Safari users are being advised to avoid the Apple-made browser’s built-in RSS reader, according to reports Tuesday. A security vulnerability in both Mac and Windows versions of Safari could allow hackers to snoop through the contents of computer hard-drives.

Although Apple reportedly knows about the software problem, the Cupertino, Calif.-based company has remained silent on when or if it will release a fix.

For Mac users, the security flaw targets Mac OS X Leopard, according to Brian Mastenbrook, a developer who first spotted the glitch. An alternate Mac RSS reader can be selected via Safari’s Preferences menu.

Windows users can switch to Firefox or another alternative to Safari, reports suggested.

If you’re looking for a compact, efficient solution to shooting and editing high definition video, you’d probably be very interested in Florent Porta’s work with the new Canon 5D Mark II and a Macbook Pro. The video above (best appreciated at the Vimeo page or at Dailymotion) was shot in three days and edited in two. This was released shortly after the last Macbook/Macbook Pro announcement, so it likely wasn’t on the latest Macbook Pro.

With the significant upgrade of the new Macbooks and the Canon 5D bringing fantastic high quality photo and video to consumers, a few thousand dollars certainly goes a lot farther and a lot lighter than other shooting and editing solutions. Some suggest that tethering for video might even work, but there doesn’t seem to be any real solid confirmation on that.

Despite the many times I’ve had the “Mac is better than PC” argument, I’ve never had a fight break out.
Youtube Link [via Neatorama]

Comedian Amy Sedaris narrates a three-part PBS series called “Make ’em Laugh” that debuts Jan. 14.

Her companion web video about online comedy provides more than a few chuckles and a nice Apple reference:

“I got a computer maybe four years ago because I have a rabbit and the rabbit got sick. It was too late to call the House Rabbit Society, so I thought I better get a computer because the next time she gets sick, I’ll be able to go on Ether Bunny and find out what’s going on.”

“Then I got iChat because I can just hold my rabbit up, call the House Rabbit Society and say, “Do you see this scab? What does it mean?” And then they can see it. See, I’m getting there.”

You can catch her 30-minute video on “Teh Internets” (sic) online, but put your headphones on — it rightly warns, “The following video contains mature content. Or immature content, depending on how you look at it. But it is not for kids.”

Via After Ellen

iPhones sold on the black market in Bangkok cost about $800, about eight times the U.S. retail price and over twice the average Thai’s monthly salary, a price people are willing to pay to carry around what one local tech reporter calls the Louis Vuitton of status phones.

Thailand is on Apple’s “coming soon” list for legit iPhones but correspondent Patrick Winn, who poked around the stalls at a Thai tech market for Global Post, says that in a country where about 70% of people have cell phones, not everyone is willing to wait.

Legit iPhones will contend with an existing iPhone black market, which for years has thrived in the vacuum and given rise to a network of smugglers and code breakers.

“The iPhones move fast, ” a vendor told Winn. “It’s hip. It’s sharp.”

Though the underground phones are exorbitantly priced the profit margin isn’t what attracts underground vendors. It’s the turnover that makes them worth smuggling and worth selling.
Image courtesy Global Post, full story here.

Citi has lowered its target price of Apple shares to $132 from $153, citing the need to “reflect a more conservative view of consumer spending.”

Richard Gardner told clients Apple may have sold fewer than 4 million iPhones for the last quarter of 2008, slipping from the record 6.9 million handsets Cupertino sold during the third quarter of 2008. Gardner based his estimate on a check of iPhone shipments.

The lower expectation is because Apple reduced iPhone inventory heading into the first quarter, a generally weaker period, the analyst suggests. However, the reduced inventory could signal Apple is readying an iPhone “refresh” in April or May, according to Gardner.

The analyst also cut his earnings expectations for Apple during fiscal 2009, 2010 and 2011. Gardner retained a “Buy” recommendation for Apple stock, however.

Apple’s Board of Directors is opposing a shareholder initiative to require the company to produce a Corporate Responsibility Report (CSR) detailing Apple’s approach to greenhouse gases, toxins, recycling, and more, according to a report at Environmental Leader.

A shareholder group called “As You Sow,” co-sponsored by the Green Century Equity Fund, reasons that many of Apple’s direct competitors, including Dell, IBM, and HP, already publish CSR reports, as do over 2,700 other public companies. Apple’s board, however, has issued a proxy filing asking shareholders to vote against the resolution, saying publication would be an unnecessary expense and would “produce little added value.”

Apple publishes a Supplier Responsibility report and environmental policies on its website, in spite of which As You Sow and a number of less organized parties have pressured Apple to do more official reporting.

If you have ever wondered why you might want to jailbreak your iPhone, or considered the relative merits of Apple’s policy giving it complete control over applications that might run on its mobile operating system, Sarah Perez’s article at ReadWriteWeb should be grist for your mill.

“Jailbreaking” is a straightforward process that allows you to install unapproved third-party applications on your device. It can be confused with “unlocking” – the process that makes the phone capable of working on other carriers besides the one chosen by Apple for exclusive carrier status in a given market. But the bottom line is that, despite the 10,000+ apps available on the AppStore and despite the longterm service contracts Apple’s chosen cellular partners use to tie you down financially with the iPhone, “a non-jailbroken phone is only half the phone it could be,” according to Perez.

Perez recommends the user-friendly instructions at iPhone-Hacks.com for the easiest-to-understand instructions on how to make your iPhone be all it can be. There are a number of other useful tutorials on methods for jailbreaking and unlocking your device available at iClarified.

The Read Write Web artilce linked above has a list of the best “illegal” apps you can put on the phone as well as a reassuring method for hiding the fact you jailbroke your iPhone the next time you want to download Apple’s latest iPhone firmware.

Metafilter user Mr. Zarquon has taken the hilarious Microsoft Research application Songsmith (previously profiled in this Cult post from Giles) and used it to transform the vocal tracks of David Lee Roth from Van Halen’s “Running With The Devil” into a song all its own.

This… this might be the future of music.

News Monday that CES attendance figures for 2009 are down 22% comes as no surprise to anyone who has been paying attention to the big picture in the past six months..

In the wake of Apple’s decision to abandon Macworld, and despite rumors the Cupertino computer maker will join the big consumer electronics circus in Las Vegas next year, the fact remains the global economy is in a tailspin.

It says here expecting corporations to continue sinking major investment into expensive trade show PR going forward is a bad bet.

Which is not to say that innovation will come to a halt, or that producers of technology and electronic gadgetry are about to vanish from the landscape.

In the spirit of the relative dispersal of brick and mortar distribution outlets for any number of goods among an increasing web of online marketing vehicles, this writer believes it only makes sense that in a contracting economy, chances are the standard-bearers of communication and computing and entertainment will soon focus marketing budgets less on trying to woo live bodies to vast acreages of real-time exhibition space and more on leveraging the enticements of Web 2.0 and unified communications capabilities to rely on drawing eyeballs and attention to virtual marketing platforms.

In the coming year, look for fewer big-time confabs and more small-town events. Fewer shows at the Garden and more online specials.

It’s a brave new marketing world. Think different.

Recently-released movie “Bride Wars” stars Kate Hudson and Anne Hathaway squaring off as two BFFs who stage competing weddings on the same day at New York’s Plaza Hotel.

Candice Bergen, who plays the wedding planner caught between the pair of bridezillas, is shown in the trailer using Macs in a couple of shots.

Early reviews warn “Bridal Wars” isn’t worth the 90-minute commitment, citing, among other things, the onslaught of product placement.

A lot of leading lights in popular music went to public schools in the windy city: Kanye West, Jennifer Hudson, Chaka Khan, Lou Rawls, Bo Diddley, Curtis Mayfield, Quincy Jones and Nat “King” Cole.

54 of these Chicago-themed tracks are on an iMix playlist on iTunes. The playlist was the brainchild of Brad Harbaugh, who runs the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) alumni website.  Struck by the number of famous musicians when he was going through the alumni’s honor roll,  he drew up a list of Chicago’s best.

CPS doesn’t profit directly from the sale of the $0.99USD tracks, but it is a nice way to promote schools and a cool idea for Chicago lovers in general. You can also see a list of the tracks, as well as exactly where the artists went to school in Chicago and when, on the alumni site.

There are a few unexpected tracks on the Chicago playlist like “A Boy Named Sue”  by Shel Silverstein, “City of New Orleans” by Steve Goodman and “Rawhide” by Frankie Laine alongside the Jones’ theme to TV show “Sanford and Son,” “Change Gonna Come” by Sam Cooke and “Chuck E’s in Love”  by Rickie Lee Jones.

On the downside, some alums whose lyrics were too deemed too explicit like Rhymefest and DaBrat  were kept off the playlist.

More than just hot air, the idea is that music is an important part of the curriculum at Chicago public schools. Students from 50 high schools perform in a solo and ensemble concerts every spring at various high schools and elementary schools. The program, in its 84th year, is said to be the longest-running public-school concert series in the country.

The Chicago playlist is also a work in progress — if you know for sure what school Lupe Fiasco went to, let them know.

Via Chitown Daily News

A nice idea for a “retired” Mac: new life as clocks.

Here are two versions using the side panel and front cover of a G4, which sort of looks like a giant Swatch but has an operating CD drive door and zip drive opening.

The creator is a guy (handle: pixelthis) with a fondness for all things Apple who has been taking things apart since the day he could walk and occasionally putting them back together.

These Mac clocks run about $60 each, available on Etsy.

His other clocks made from computer hard drives, bike wheels and bike gears are also worth a gander.

Some Nebraska state senators will go back to work with new MacBook Airs.

The government paid a discount price of $1,524 each for 70 laptops (49 of them go to lawmakers, the rest to staff), causing some to complain about expenses for “designer” computers:

Senator Tony Fulton of Lincoln questioned the purchase saying the Legislature could have managed with less than “designer laptops,” particularly during these tough economic times, according to the Omaha World Herald (The story didn’t specify which model was purchased.)

The state might have been able to buy laptops for $400 to $500 each, said Fulton, an engineer. “The decision was made with proper authority, and I’ll accept it,” he said, “but I don’t like it.”

A handful of other laptop models, in prices ranging from $1,100 to $2,200 were reviewed before deciding for the MacBook Airs. The Macs replace four-year-old Fujitsu Lifebook laptops.

French cell phone carrier Orange is reportedly “satisfied” with December iPhone sales that hit 210,000 – triple the 70,000 handsets the France Telecom-owned company sold during the same period in 2007.

The news comes from French newspaper La Tribune, which quoted unnamed sources within Orange and SFR. If true, the iPhone sales would appear to counter worries that a recent French competition decision would dilute the cell phone market.

France’s competition body recently temporarily ruled against Orange’s exclusive iPhone deal, permitting rival Bouygues to also offer the Apple handset.