Cult of Mac

Take a trip with me to Fantasy Island”¦

The last Tuesday of the month is come and gone, and yet again my dreams of a Mac Tablet are dashed. I know it’s improper to lust after equipment this much, but perhaps that’s just where I am in life. I’ve reached a point (no matter how sad), that were I to see an attractive member of the opposite sex in a park with a Nikon D3 and Macbook Pro, I’m just as likely to think “Man, nice gear!” as any other potentially litigious thoughts. Now I know Apple doesn’t ask consumers about product design, but if they asked me about my oft-dreamed-of-tablet, here’s what I’d say:

#1. It’s an Accessory, not a Computer.
You could say the same thing about the MacBook Air, but the MBA isn’t priced like an accessory, it’s priced like a computer. The “Dream-Tablet” should be an $800 accessory to my existing collection of Macs.

#2 Because of #1, it doesn’t need to be powerful
We’ve already got “Back to My Mac,“ so if Apple beefed up this service a bit to run better over public networks, the Tablet simply becomes a “Cloud Computing” device; allowing me access back to my primary machine, whose power I can harness (alternatively, Apple if you’re listening: work with VMWare and make a “Mac Cloud” that these Tablets could tap into. You could do it if you wanted to, read Nick Carr if you want to know why you should).

Disconnected, if I’m on an airplane, or a cave in Bosnia, I should still be able to read a book, play music, drive iWork, Aperture or (Lord help me) Office. That said: I don’t need to be able to produce HDR images in CS3 un-tethered.

What I’m saying is: “Dream tablet” doesn’t need the latest lap scorching chipset from Intel.

#3 It doesn’t need a big hard drive.
Really. Solid state, instant-on OS is way better than storage for the sake of storage. If I had 16 Gigs to hold documents or photos that I needed to work on (or books I wanted to read) while contemplating the fate of the kid who keeps kicking the back of my seat, that would be plenty.

But lets make it expandable, here’s a novel idea: give me a slot, where I can “dock” my 160gig iPod classic. Just slide the whole sucker in there like some kind of removable drive, and we’re good to go; storage, music, movies whatever, making 2 accessories work together seamlessly, now that’s something uniquely Apple.

#4 Remember, it’s an Accessory.
Really, so when I’m back home, I don’t want to just put it on the shelf until my next trip (which is all too often). Lets make it into an active accessory I can use in my main computing environment. Watcom digitizing tablet anyone? Apple TV remote Control? Portable media hub? (I can totally see hooking this thing up to my TV and streaming video and audio), even just as an extra monitor, whatever, lets be flexible with it.

#5 It does not need to be:
An iPod, iPhone, iTypewriter, or a super-computer capable of composing a sountrack in Logic Pro and cutting a film short in Final Cut while waiting I’m for the First Class lavatory to become available. Nor does it need to use that goofy fake electronic paper stuff from Sony (which is cool for eBooks, but nothing else). None of that, just world-class “Back to my Mac”, and the ability to run regular OS X applications with a reasonable (say Mac Mini) level of performance. That and simply OUTSTANDING battery life.

Is that too much to ask?

Readers: what would YOU want out of a Mac Tablet?

While I’m sticking to my original guess that we won’t see a new version of the iPhone until June to coincide with the final release of the 2.0 firmware and enterprise support, everyone’s starting to agitate for a 3G iPhone sooner rather than later. First it was Kevin Rose, and, continuing the cycle, a credulous analyst has entered the fray.

Gartner’s Ken Dulaney, citing foreign sources, says 10 million 3G iPhones have been ordered by Apple for delivery in the near future. He cites European demand for greater data speed as driving Apple’s decision.

Then again, he also says the next iPhone will have an OLED screen which…ain’t happening, not in this life. We should be in for a couple of fun months, though.

iPod Observer via Epicenter

Hey, remember the late 1990s? It was a heady time of rap-rock records, resurgent sci-fi epics, and, most importantly, the photo mosaic, an art form where computer artists take hundreds of tiny images and make a vaguely unsettling and blurry bigger picture.

Now we can take a trip back courtesy of Charis Tevis, a graphic artist commissioned by Fortune for its recent cover story on the iCEO. The rad image (click through to see it in all its glory) basically builds Steve Jobs out of the full portfolio of Apple products.

He’s got a lot of others on his Flickr account, including another image of Steve and one of Barack Obama.

Charis Tevis via Gizmodo

Filed under pure, wild speculation”¦

Many Mac Pro’s since Leopard are experiencing interment signal drops with their Airport Extreme wireless cards. This issue was first brought to my attention only after I lugged my seventy-pound monster three blocks and hoisted it up on the counter of the Genius Bar.

“It’s a known issue with Leopard,” I was apprised and sent on my way, boat anchor in tow.

Not being content with a computer that’s price compatible with a mid-tier Hyundai, and similarly incapable of navigating the Internet with any reliability, I decided to dig into this a little bit deeper, what follows are my observations only.

#1. The problem seems to be especially active when Bittorrent clients are running.
With a BT client running I’m experiencing a drop at least every 15 minutes or so. I have segregated networks (a G only network, and a N only (5mhz) network) both are Airport networks. My Mac Pro and Macbook pro are the only two computers on the N network. When the Mac Pro drops connection the Macbook Pro does not.

The engineering answer to the problem of signal drop with a BT client active is that we’re pushing bits so hard and fast the silicon might be over heating, which causes signal loss on at the computer. I could believe this except:

#2. The problem doesn’t seem as active (with a BT client running) when the Network Preferences dialog is open.
Now this I discovered purely by accident. But If I leave my network preferences pane open (not minimized) on my second monitor, my signal doesn’t drop hardly at all. I have noticed a signal drop, but it is VERY infrequent. This suggests the problem lay in code, not in hardware.

Evil Speculation: Is there some connection intentional or otherwise between dropping wireless connections and the use of BT clients? Correlation does not equal causation but I have to wonder particularly in light of:
#3 I don’t seem to loose signal when we’re not running a Bittorrent Client.
I can’t go so far as to say that the signal drop problem doesn’t occur at all when my bittorrent client isn’t running, but after several days not running a BT client, I’ve yet to observe a signal drop. I also took steps to push bits as hard and fast as I could, downloading Linux distributions over HTTP, uploading thousands of photos over FTP. The signal seemed to stay rock solid.

So I’m back to Evil Speculation again: Is there something in code that is causing these drops to happen (at all or at least more frequently) when running Bittorrent clients?

I’d like to ask our fellow Cultists to run their own experiments. If you’re not having dropping problems fire up a bittorrent client (the problem happens with either BitRocket or Transmission) and download and seed a legal torrent (can I suggest Leander’s book?) and see if it starts happening. If you are experiencing the dropping problem: are you running a BT client in the background, does it go away when you stop?

If there are any bit-jockeys out there who can trace the actual code in memory, can we find a real connection, or is this just paranoid speculation?

How soon the bloom fades from the fruit. Apple’s controversial distribution method for delivering Safari 3.1 to Windows users is inciting flames of discontent among customers and critics alike, who now accuse the company of unfair practices. The problem stems from Apple’s iTunes Software Update client for Windows, which some claim dupes users into downloading the latest version of Safari by leaving the install option checked by default, whether the browser was previously installed or not, which users then mistake to be a necessary update rather than an option.

Not surprisingly, rivals are jumping on the Safari-gate bandwagon like hungry wolves feeding on a wounded fawn, with angry words flung like cannon balls. Mozilla Chief John Lilly has gone on the offensive, alleging that Apple’s software delivery method “borders on malware distribution practices. What Apple is doing now with their Apple Software Update on Windows is wrong.”

Harsh words. Next will come the accusation that Apple illegally ties its browser with the operating system. Sorry, Microsoft beat them to it.

InfoWorld: Apple’s Safari browser likened to malware

You know, I’m mostly proud to be associated with everyone else who loves Macs. I’ve got my problems with Rush Limbaugh, but he’s done plenty to make people realize that Macs aren’t just for left-wing latte-sipping liberals from San Francisco like myself. A little balance to the card never hurt a bit.

Well, that’s mostly true. You see, in an interview with NewsBusters, Darth Tyrannus himself, Karl Rove, has revealed that he is a born-again Apple lover, carrying both an iPhone and a MacBook Air.

NB: All right, I’ve got just one more quick question for you. Last time I saw you, you’d just gotten an iPhone. How’s that working out for you?

ROVE: I love it. My life has changed. I have a shred of coolness. I’ve got my 3,500 people in my addressbook on the phone, I can sync my calendar. I keep track of my modest little stock investments. I can check the weather of my house in Washington, my house in Florida, my boy at school, my hunt-lease in south Texas. I can surf the web, I’m just–œI get part of my email there.

Rove had no comment on what effect, if any, his toxic touch had on the performance of either device. Let us never speak of this again.

FORTUNE: Apple 2.0 Karl Rove loves his iPhone

Found via Apple Finance Board

Tags: rove, apple, iphone, macbook air, evil

The Hollywood writers’ strike from earlier this year has had some tragic consequences. For one, we never got to see this year’s Christmas episode of “The Office.” For another, even more reality TV was rushed into production.

But Apple is taking steps to remedy at least the most immediate problems that arose for customers of its iTunes Store. Anyone who purchased a Season Pass for a show that was disrupted by the strike will receive a refund for any episodes that won’t air, as well as credits good for the purchase of two additional TV episodes.

It’s an inevitable step, but the additional credits from Apple constitute a nice gesture that it didn’t need to make.

Thanks, Kimra!

Technology analysts are always on the cutting edge of the news out of Silicon Valley. Why, just last night, Gartner Research realized that Apple had licensed Exchange Active Sync, making the iPhone a great option for smart phone users. And they only noticed two weeks after it was announced!

I kid, of course, The report praising the iPhone’s readiness for business customers puts Apple firmly on a competitive plane with Blackberry, Windows Mobile, and S60 phones. Less than a year after its launch as a multimedia device, the iPhone is poised to really take charge in the smart phone space. That’s a big deal, and the endorsement from Gartner does mean a lot to some people making IT support decisions in big companies.

Apple has never had real success in corporate sales, so I can’t wait to see how the iPhone does once it’s ready for its close-up. This note is a sign that it has a fair shot at success.

Via Barrons

Though the Financial Times is without question a vastly more reliable source than most places that spawn rumors of Apple’s impending moves, I just can’t convince myself to buy into reports that Apple wants to create a monthly iTunes subscription plan or all-you-can eat music business model with the purchase of an iPod or iPhone. It isn’t their style

While denials from Steve Jobs are usually a good way to spot what he’s working on, this is an area where he has remained steadfast. He believes that people want to own their music, and I believe that he’s right. Sure, I love to sample music as much as anyone else, but the songs that I keep are really personal to me. Renting music just doesn’t work out. Even if Nokia is doing it, too.

Moreover, the monthly subscription business model is one that Apple hasn’t ever offered before to anyone. Not for movies, TV, or software. In fact, Apple’s only experience of recurring payments are with the iPhone’s service fees, which the company gets just a small slice of. There are far too many accounting headaches to resolve to make it worthwhile, and the record companies are angry at Apple. At Apple’s restaurant, they dine ala carte.

Wired’s Editor in Chief Chris Anderson says the future of business is free, and so my publisher and I are giving away free copies of my books.

Bill Pollock of No Starch Press has seeded full electronic versions of my coffeetable books — Cult of Mac and Cult of iPod — to Bittorrent via Pirate Bay.

We want to see if giving away copies of the books will have any effect on sales.

“I’ve been in publishing for just over 20 years and my training has not been to give books away,” writes Pollock on the No Starch blog. “But I think there’s something to this and logic tells me that if we increase the visibility of our titles, we’ll sell more books.”

We came up with the idea after reading about the amazing success to bestselling author Paulo Coelho, who seeds his own books to file-sharing networks and then promotes them on his blog. Coelho claims great success with “pirating” his own books, saying it has had a slow but dramatic effect on sales.

Of course, Coelho is an internationally acclaimed author with a high profile, which may account for his success more than giving away free books. But still, it’s an experiment worth trying.

As Pollock says on his blog: “I think that publishers (music and book) are spending too much time circling the wagons and not enough time thinking of ways that they can use technology to advantage. Certainly, our move here is a bit unusual, but someone has to take the plunge. May as well be us.”

Here’s the torrent for Cult of Mac.

And the torrent for Cult of iPod.

If you download the books, remember to keep your torrent client open so that others can also download the files.

Please let me know what you think of the experiment and the books. Send mail to: [email protected]

Even though it was announced a month ago that “American Idol” had made the iPhone its official phone, and we all know that “Idol” is the most crassly commercial TV show in the history of the galaxy, I don’t think anyone was prepared for the abomination that aired midway through last night’s episode.

After “returning” from an ad break, host Ryan Seacrest reached into the audience to pull an iPhone from the hands of a female “audience member.” He then used the iPhone to visit the “Idol” website, text in a vote for a contestant, and show how easy it is to use the WiFi iTunes Store to download content “directly to your device.” I threw up in my mouth during the segment – A LOT.

I don’t know, can association with Ryan Seacrest make the iPhone less appealing? It’ll take a little while for the taint to wash away, so far as I’m concerned. I’ll post the clip if and when it turns up…

As if we needed another piece of evidence that the MacBook Air is the ultimate lust object of the style-conscious intelligentsia, consider this: Charlie Rose, the PBS talk show host known for his deep, probing and often ponderous conversations with celebrities and authors, appeared on his show the other night with a bandage on his eye that he earned diving to the pavement headfirst to protect his Air. Sooner his face – a TV host’s most important asset – than his computer.

I stand corrected. Without any question, Apple has completely reframed the value of a computer. It’s worth more than a career on PBS.

Via GadgetLab

I’m not a daily Safari user – more of a Camino man myself – but I think all of us should be excited to see Apple pushing some standards forward with this morning’s Safari 3.1 update. Though it’s just a bug fix at first blush, the most significant change in this version is support for CSS Animations, CSS WebFonts, and HTML 5’s video and audio tags. Though WebFonts have shown up in other browsers, Apple is claiming to be first to support Animations and HTML 5 video and audio. And that’s great.

Here’s why: Adding support for standards never has an immediate impact. There simply isn’t much, if any content that Safari users can enjoy today that will make the upgrade worth it. But by building a platform with support for new features, the rest of the web – and other browsers – will start to come along, too. And that means heading toward a web that’s faster, more compelling, and more compatible. Nicely done, Apple.

To learn more about CSS Animations, head over to Snook.
For more on HTML 5 tags, head to W3C.

The Apple nay-sayers love to pretend that Mac OS X and all of Apple’s other products are destined to be destroyed by hackers. Although Apple has marketed its products as being far less hackable than Windows, someday, the Mac will just be riddled with viruses. It’s inevitable! Except that it’s never happened, and what do you know, Mac OS X is far less troubled by malware than Windows is.

Still, the notion persists, and Apple detractors such as the bearded man at right, Roger L. Kay of Endpoint Technologies Associates, will continue to draw irrelevant correlations between minor software hacks on Apple products and overall platform insecurity.

Hilariously, Mr. Kay is under the impression that iPhone jailbreaks and the major unlocking project “Project Pwned” are somehow indicators that virus writers will soon over-run all of Apple’s products. Riiiiiiight. Because individual users finding ways to maximize the value of their own machine is exactly the same as a random prankster taking control of someone else’s machine. His poorly reasoned opinion, courtesy of BusinessWeek, argues that unauthorized iPhone apps will stink, and people will blame Apple for no apparent reason:

Apple, welcome to Microsoft’s world! This is an environment in which you have to support thousands of developers of varying quality, and all sorts of apps, well made or not. Some of these developers make you look good, but others end up trashing your reputation. And despite your best efforts to monetize what they do, it’s not always possible. The elegant simplicity of your platform just makes hacking easier. There is no such thing as real security. All you can do is throw up roadblocks–which, by the way, make it harder for both crooks and law-abiding citizens to drive on your roads.

Wait, what? You think Apple will feel bad that some of the jail-broken apps will suck? That will provide additional evidence that Apple is right to lock down the iPhone. I think the iPhone should be a lot more open than it is, but the only possible conclusion to this situation is the opposite of what Kay argues. But who am I to disagree with a man who has this to say?

Though Apple’s Swiss online store retracted the announcement of an updated version of Apple’s venerable Airport Express basestation, the mother ship in Cupertino today unleashed the $99 gadget, now with speedy 802.11n data, on the rest of the world. I’m a big proponent of the Express for home use, particularly given its music sharing capabilities. It’s Apple’s best device for making iTunes more than just a support system for iPods and iPhones – even more so than the AppleTV — when it comes to music.

Apple – AirPort Express via Engadget

Tags: apple, hardware, 802.11n, airport, airport express

You want to know what’s 800 times as expensive as a 1GB iPod shuffle and twice as ugly? That would be the iDiamond shuffle, an absurdly encrusted former Apple product coated in white and pink gold and dozens of diamonds. See that ear bud? It still doesn’t sound any good. But hey, only $40,000!

Techotic via Digg

Int13, a prominent mobile games developer, has released a video showing its racing game, “Crazy Kart 2,” running on the iPhone. I hadn’t seen the title before, but I’m pretty impressed by the demo. Nice environments and graphics, wacky gameplay highly reminiscent of “Mario Kart,” but, you know, touch-controlled steering wheel! I can’t wait to see the state of the iPhone gaming platform a year from today…

Via iPhoneAlley

Just, um…21 years…after its predecessor, the long-anticipated “Return to Dark Castle” has finally been released for Mac OS X. This is some seriously old-school Mac gaming, stretching back to 1986 and the hey-day of WASD controls. I remember playing Dark Castle on a Mac SE FD/HD that I picked up from the local school district for a nominal fee. Truly innovative for its day, though Return to Dark Castle is all about staying true to the DNA. The screenshots look great, so if you’ve been itching to get some vintage exploration and adventuring on, get over to download a game more than two decades in the waiting.

Via Digg.

Cool tech demo for something new called “NeXTStep 3.” Could be big. Just kidding, of course. Always interesting to see Steve before his more recent, peak form. A little less suave than you might be used to. Still, NeXTStep 3 was awesome for its era – just barely shy of the first few releases of OS X.

Except that GUI. YEESH. Who on earth thought that all those floating palettes was a good idea?

Via Macenstein

French Mac site MacGeneration discovered that the Swiss Apple Store touted a new version of Apple’s delightfully compact and stereo-friendly Airport Express that would stay the same on the outside but throw in blazing hot 802.11n WiFi on the inside, too. The evidence is in the picture above. Unfortunately, there is no word that this upgrade is on its way at any other Apple Stores, and even Switzerland, breaking neutrality, now bears not a trace of any 802.11n verbiage.

As MacGeneration puts it,

Le webmaster qui a fait la bourde a se faire taper sur les doigts. La page consacrée  la borne Airport Express sur l’Apple Store suisse a été modifiée et ne fait plus mention de la prise en charge du 802.11n.

Or, if you’re into the whole English thing,

[Update: 16/03 23:30] webmaster who made the bourde had to be done to tap on the wrist. The page devoted to the Airport Express at the Apple Store Swiss has been modified and no longer refer to the taking over of 802.11n.

Let’s hope the wrist-tap is temporary. How soon is next Tuesday, anyway?

MacGeneration via AppleInsider

Look closely at the driver’s side window on Space Shuttle Endeavour. What’s that white thing floating around the cabin in zero G?

Look closer…

It looks like an iPod Classic!

It was spotted in this high-res photo of the Endeavour, by eagle-eyed TUAW reader Walker. The Space Shuttle is presently docked with the International Space Station.

According to TUAW, space-bound iPods have to have their lithium batteries replaced with specially certified alkaline ones. And iPods aren;t allowed inside the ISS, since they aren’t certified as safe on the space station.

UPDATE: The survey has concluded. Thanks to everyone who took part.We’d like to ask you — the readers — for a favor.We’re trying to get a better idea of who you are and what you like to do — more than your thoughtfully-written comments can tell us.So, we’ve crafted a little questionnaire. Click here to take our Cult of Mac reader survey. We’ve kept it as painless as possible. It’s just two pages and it takes about a minute or so to complete. Everything is totally anonymous.Most of it is the standard reader survey stuff (did we mention it’s fast and anonymous?), but when you’re done, we’ll have a better understanding of each other. And really, isn’t that reason enough?

Auto sales are collapsing in Japan, especially among young people who view the car as a climate-destroying anachronism, according to a fascinating report in the Wall Street Journal.

“Young people can borrow their parents’ car, and I think they’d rather spend money on PCs or iPods than cars,” says the student with shaggy hair who is in no rush to get a driver’s license.

Sales of cars in Japan have dropped to the lowest level in a decade. Only 25 percent of Japanese in their 20s want a car, down from about 50 percent in 2000, according to a recent survey cited by the Journal.

Disdain for the car is a growing phenomenon worldwide, the Journal notes.

The drama caused by lithium-ion batteries just continues to snap, crackle and pop along, according to our friends at Epicenter, as an old-school iPod nano reportedly began shooting sparks out while recharging at a home in Japan.

Overall, details remain spotty about the case, but the problem supposedly surfaced in January in Kanagawa Prefecture southwest of Tokyo. Once again, officials are blaming those occasionally unstable lithium-ion batteries. While no one was injured during the mini fireworks show, Japanese officials have publicly chastised Apple for failing to report the incident earlier (the company submitted its report on March 7). In the meantime, Apple has been ordered to look into the matter further and report back to the Ministry.

This could be a major black eye for Apple is it turns out to be a widespread problem. A recall on the previous generation iPod nano would be extraordinarily costly. Has anyone ever had problems with older nano batteries?

Back in January, I was fairly effusive in my disappointment in the MacBook Air. I still think it’s a product that has a long way to go before it fulfills its promise as a thin, light, road warrior’s machine (the fact that it isn’t standard with an SSD is a pretty poor statement about its long-term reliability), but I’m now willing to admit that it hits the mark with at least some people, including people I really respect, like BusinessWeek’s Reena Jana, their innovation editor.

I’ve had a lot of conversations with Reena in the past, and she’s a constantly on-the-go kind of person, meeting with design and innovation leaders around the country. She probably travels for business more than I do. And she loves her MacBook Air:

OK, so I personally don’t have the need for many USB ports, nor for a huge, huge hard drive. And I don’t even feel that bad that there’s no Ethernet port, although I could get an attachment for it, which to me isn’t such a big deal (I rarely use the Ethernet jack). I’m reminded of when MacBook’s stopped having a floppy drive, or a dial-up jack. People were upset. But other laptops followed, because these features became obsolete. I see a parallel here, and my laptop lifestyle was starting to reflect the phasing out of DVDs and Ethernet jacks before the Air was released.

Fair points all, though I think I’d be more comfortable with the Air’s lack of a DVD drive if Apple distributed its own software, such as iWork, on USB key instead of DVD… Still, this is another reminder that a lot of people don’t need anywhere near the file storage capacity that I do. Just this weekend, I learned that my sister-in-law is desperate for an Air, as well. I’ll be very interested to hear how the Air performs in the market. I still think it will meet a fate similar to the G4 Cube, but there are some people who are incredibly excited by it.

For me, I think I’m stuck in Steven Levy’s camp: If I even had one, I think I’d probably throw it out with the newspapers by accident.