Cult of Mac

The amazing video application Miro was just updated with a new Torrent engine in version 1.1, and it is incredibly fast. If you haven’t had the pleasure of using Miro, it’s like VLC plus BitTorrent plus an RSS reader — and also a phenomenal program guide. And now it’s significantly better — the Torrent performance is the best I’ve seen on a Mac. I downloaded an entire episode of Peep Show (from Season 3 — not available in the States for no apparent reason) in under a minute. And then deleted it, of course.

Via Boing Boing

Colleague Fred Vogelstein has a great article on the creation of the iPhone in the new issue of Wired. It’s largely written based on anonymous sources (not a shock when dealing with Apple), but the narrative is quite compelling. I wish he got a bit more into just how much the iPhone has shaken up the wireless industry, but the article’s well-worth your time:

It was a late morning in the fall of 2006. Almost a year earlier, Steve Jobs had tasked about 200 of Apple’s top engineers with creating the iPhone. Yet here, in Apple’s boardroom, it was clear that the prototype was still a disaster. It wasn’t just buggy, it flat-out didn’t work. The phone dropped calls constantly, the battery stopped charging before it was full, data and applications routinely became corrupted and unusable. The list of problems seemed endless. At the end of the demo, Jobs fixed the dozen or so people in the room with a level stare and said, “We don’t have a product yet.”

That’s drama, folks.

Thank you for all of your entries (23 in all!), but the winner of our recent Bill Gates retiring contest winner is Church of Apple, who managed to slyly take down all of Microsoft without getting juvenile. Nicely done.

I do have a soft spot for DJ Rizzo’s “The iPhone has nothing on Microsoft’s newest user interface: we call it the ‘multi-clapper.’ Not only can you ‘clap-on’ and ‘clap-off’ but you can also clap ‘ctrl-alt-delete’!” Strong second place. Well done.

My two favorite tech news sites — Gizmodo and Ars Technica — are hosting a pre-keynote party in San Francisco on Monday night (the 14th) at Harlot, 46 Minna Street. 8-11.30pm.

Giz editor Brian Lam is promising to buy everyone a beer, and there’s schwag (likely shite) for early birds. I’ll be there, and so apparently will Dan Lyons, aka Fake Steve.

Here’s a handy map to the bar.

UPDATE: I just discovered that the free schwag are copies of my books. Ooops.

Last month, after a couple of eggnogs at the office, I drenched my keyboard in a cup of coffee. Kind readers suggested running it through the dishwasher. Of course, putting keyboards in dishwashers is the kind of thing you read on the internet all the time, but never believe it actually works.

So, skeptical that it would work, I tried it myself.I’m happy to report that running a filthy, coffee-stained keyboard through the dishwasher works great. The keyboard is spotless, and it works perfectly.

Feel me: dishwashers make keyboards better than new.

Full procedure after the jump.

Apple

Taking some of the fun out of next week’s MacWorld Keynote, Apple announced new Mac Pros and xServes, each offering up to eight cores of Xeon goodness. The Mac Pros come STANDARD with eight cores (ranging from 2.8 up to 3.2Ghz) and support for dual 30-inch Cinema HD Displays, which is just ludicrous by about any standard. Of course, if you’re really a glutton for punishment, you can still install up to four graphics cards, each with support for two 30″ displays, meaning EIGHT giant screens. They’re taking the whole “Pro” thing seriously these days, which is really nice to see.

And now, we can just hope that new MacBooks, MacBook Pros, iMacs, iPhones and other new kinds of hardware are on the docket for next Tuesday.

Tags: macpro, xserve, apple, hardware, announcement

Gizmodo has a fairly long interview with departing Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates in the wake of his final CES keynote. There’s a clip of interest, where Gates defines what he believes the difference between Microsoft and Apple to be. An interesting perspective, up to a point, though I think he continues to underestimate Apple’s strength if he believes it’s all in “usability.” Apple has excelled in introducing new kinds of interfaces to the world, which is a very different kind of strength.

Still, I thought this still image was mildly humorous. Your name in lights if you come up with the best caption! Post them in the comments thread.

John Siracusa posted his essential Apple Keynote Bingo Card yesterday. This year, it’s modeled on a Newton MessagePad, which is just a lovely ironic tweak of the nose for the very anti-Newtown Steve Jobs. Remember, you need to print yours out and actually call bingo! at the actual keynote, so head over to Ars to get your PDF copy and decode the various squares.

I have to say, column 2, row three strikes me as the most likely of the card. Maybe even more than the free square.

Design by John McCoy

Image via Sydney Morning Herald

BusinessWeek reports that sources claim Apple has a deal with Fox, Warner Bros., Paramount, and Lionsgate to allow sales, rentals or both through iTunes. If so, this could prove a huge boon for Apple. At last year’s All Things D conference, CEO Steve Jobs referred to its digital television device business as “a hobby.” Though promising an iPod for the living room, the AppleTV has been quite slow to catch on by Apple’s recent standards. That’s according to sales estimates from analysts and also anecdotal evidence: I’ve been to a lot of geeks’ houses in San Francisco and never seen a single AppleTV in the living room.

At this point, I’m ready to admit that Apple’s assumptions for the movie market were flat-out wrong — barely anyone wants to own movies in download format alone. I haven’t bought a single film myself, but there have been plenty of times when I would gladly rent a movie download — it’s faster than NetFlix and easier than walking down the street to Blockbuster. At the same time, for the movies I love, I want a tangible artifact to hold onto. I want to explore their special features and revisit favorite scenes. At the moment, Apple’s downloads are worse than what I can get at the store. But a rental? Heck, if it means staying on the coach, I’m in. Especially if it’s less than $3.

BusinessWeek via EpiCenter

Since Mac OS X replaced the Classic Mac OS, nothing has galled users more than the Spinning Beach Ball of Death, also known as the “I’m thinking, but I’m thinking in rainbow colors!” icon. Ask your Mac for more than it wants to handle at a given moment, watch as your precious pointer becomes a useless spinning beachball.Dutch artist Gijs Gieske has taken that icon of Mac frustration and turned it into a giant work of art to remind us all how much easier our lives could be, although he claims he made it “for no particular reason.” Just look at it — it’s like staring into hell…

Source: MAKE via GadgetLab via Engadget

David Lynch is a famously outsider filmmaker, from Eraserhead  right through Inland Empire. And he is no fan of handheld movie playing, as featured on the iPhone. Very funny iPhone parody ad by Brittney Gilbert.

Thanks, Gabo!

Tags: iphone, humor, David Lynch

MacRumors reader Zippster learned the hard way that iPod Touches and fast-moving treadmills don’t mix:

Insanely Great Tees, a Mac-oriented t-shirt manufacturer, is running a Macworld predictions contest.

Correctly predict what Steve Jobs will announce at Macworld, and you could win an insanely great t-sirt. Prizes also for the funniest entry and the most creative.

But the site warns: “If your predictions are too accurate, expect to hear from some friendly Californian lawyers.”

Certain rumor-mongers (Boy Genius Report, specifically) today made the prospect of an online-only record label owned by Apple and headed by Jay-Z the hot rumor for this year’s MacWorld. After all, Jay-Z just quit as president of Def Jam — he must be going to work for Apple.

Don’t believe the hype. Jay’s tenure at Def Jam was far from an overwhelming success, and he starred in an HP commercial. That alone would give Apple pause in most cases. Secondly, I don’t see what Apple gains by sharing their venture with Jay as the executive in charge. The company would be much better served following the cue of Starbucks and launching a label with high-profile, established artists making new, high-margin recordings under tight distribution. And, on that level, the source of this rumor becomes a bit more clear. I do believe it’s possible that Apple might launch a record label — they got clearance from the last deal with Apple Corps, if I recall correctly. It might even be iTunes-only. But if Jay-Z’s involved, it’s for a recording contract — not as business leader. Then again, “launching” a label could easily mean putting out the first album…

Via BGR.

Fake Steve points us to a provocative Discover Magazine commentary by technology visionary Jaron Lanier, best known for putting the virtual reality bug in everybody’s ears at TED II way back in the ’80s. Lanier argues emphatically that open-source software doesn’t automatically yield creativity or innovation.

Twenty-five years later, that concern seems to have been justified. Open wisdom-of-crowds software movements have become influential, but they haven’t promoted the kind of radical creativity I love most in computer science. If anything, they’ve been hindrances. Some of the youngest, brightest minds have been trapped in a 1970s intellectual framework because they are hypnotized into accepting old software designs as if they were facts of nature. Linux is a superbly polished copy of an antique, shinier than the original, perhaps, but still defined by it.

I think he’s mostly right, although it’s worth noting that many of the works of art in software that he speaks of were built on the backs of open-source software. For example, the iPhone runs on the Mach Kernel, which is open-source, and then OS X BSD above that, all available in Darwin and featuring contributions from the open-dev community.

What Lanier speaks to instead is that different methods are suited best to different kinds of innovation. Vision-driven projects plotting new directions in interface design, radical improvements and others are best served in proprietary contexts. Under-the-hood improvements and refinement can be driven quite effectively through the work of open communities. This is something that Apple has demonstrated for a long time — it’s very hard to come up with the right questions to ask. It’s relatively easy to answer them once asked. Apple and other proprietary visionaries cited by Lanier are asking the right questions. The open-sourcers answer well-known questions that have bubbled up for years. It’s incremental improvement, but no less critical for the future of software and hardware development.

I love the marriage proposals of Mac geeks. The above video is the latest and greatest, adopting the form of an iPhone demo commercial to find new, sweet ways to propose in virtually every mode of the wunderphone’s operation. I still have a soft spot for James and Uschi. Makes me tear up every time. Video after the jump.

So cool. Ben Fino-Radin is doing some awesome work with retro-tech. In addition to the Hacked Mac shown here, he has made needlepoint 128k Mac replica. He hasn’t done anything new in several months, but I’d say he’s earned a break.

Via Boing Boing‘s Mark Frauenfelder.

Image copyright Andre Gunther

As another year in the Apple-watching game comes to an end, I wanted to take a quick moment to look back on the year that was and search for themes. Given how much Apple got done in 2007, there were a lot to choose from, but one really stands out: Golden Convergence Strikes Back.

For those who weren’t closely watching the moves of Apple closely during the mid-’90s, this might be a new term for you, but it’s a long-time idea in Mac circles. Variously credited to Bahamut of MacEdition and Robert Morgan of Recon for Investors, Golden Convergence speaks to the idea of taking a lot of seemingly divergent technologies and suddenly integrating them into a superior and seamless whole. Originally tagged to the rumored launch of the Apple Media Player in early 1998 (never happened), Golden Convergence has shown up dramatically throughout the second coming of Steve Jobs, from the standardization of USB and FireWire down to the wide use of Mac OS X despite initial resistance by the installed base.

But 2007 was when it really blossomed. We saw Apple take dozens technologies and roll them out to multiple platforms. OS X mutated and got optimized for the AppleTV, iPhone and, later, the iPod Touch. CoverFlow, initially created for iTunes 7, showed up first on the AppleTV, then the iPhone, then the iPod Classic, Nano and Touch before becoming the centerpiece of the Leopard UI. Front Row moved from the AppleTV to virtually every Mac on the market. Flexibility bred new uses, new interactions, new consistency. Everything Apple worked on had a tighter link than ever to another Apple product.

And nowhere is this more evident than the iPhone, the most flexible platform Apple has created since the original Mac. For now, it’s officially impossible to install third-party software on it, but that will change in early 2008 with the release of the iPhone and iPod touch Software Developer’s Kit. The reason that the iPhone is great is that nothing about it makes it a phone only. Its form is built for maximum flexibility. Few hardware buttons. Multi-touch creating hardware controls where and as they are needed. It can be an Internet browsing tablet, an iPod and an e-mail reader. Nothing about its hardware design precludes any future uses. If you build it, this thing will come along.

And that right there is the essence of Apple’s new spin on Golden Convergence. Don’t design anything in hardware that locks you into a current use or goal. Instead, build an interface flexible enough to accommodate all kinds of future uses or even new businesses. The iPhone could become a very powerful gaming platform is Apple decided to steer it in that direction. It could be slightly modified into a point of purchase device. The next version, upgraded with 3G and a GPS chip, could easily become a navigation device to challenge Garmin’s product line. Get a decent CCD into it with a better lens and a flash, and it’s a decent consumer digital camera.

It’s brilliant design, and it flips on its head the way that Apple approached new technologies in the 1990s. Back then, Apple wanted to make everything: printers, digital cameras, scanners, PDAs, stereos, game consoles — everything. Now, Apple still wants to play in all kinds of product categories, but they’re setting themselves up to do that with a single device. Don’t sell everything. Sell everyone iPhones. You’ll reduce your number of SKUs while also locking people into a product that generates monthly revenue long after its purchase price has been swallowed. Every year, build in faster chips and add a few features that are locked into hardware. Do everything else via software.

Apple already started this process in 2007, and I expect to see it increase dramatically over the next five years. After all, would you rather by an Apple TV or just get a high-capacity next-gen iPhone that can wirelessly stream video to your TV? It’s the safest way to innovate, and Apple nailed it. Happy New Year, everyone!

UPDATE: I just got off the phone with Nick Ciarelli, Think Secret’s publisher, and wrote it up for my day job over at Wired: Apple Kills Think Secret: Publisher Nick Ciarelli Talks

Apple rumor reporter extraordinaire Nick Ciarelli is shuttering his Think Secret website after settling a trade secrets lawsuit with Apple, Ciarelli writes on his website.

Apple had sued Ciarelli, who is studying at Harvard, after he published details of an unreleased music breakout box codenamed “Asteroid.” Apple sought the identity of whoever leaked the product details.

The settlement of the suit is confidential Ciarelli says, but doesn’t involve the identity of the leaker. But it does include closing his site.

“I’m pleased to have reached this amicable settlement, and will now be able to move forward with my college studies and broader journalistic pursuits,” Ciarelli said in a statement.

I’ve already sent Nick an email asking if he’ll contribute to Wired News.

Apple’s support of Java in Mac OS X continues to be totally pathetic, as Alex Popescu points out.

I’m usually calm and trying to understand the decisions some are making. But this is f%^$% unbelievable: Apple has released a developer preview of Java6, but it is meant only for 10.5.1 or later. Are they kidding me? A guy has been able to build Java6 for Mac by his own, has packaged it for both Tiger and Leopard, and Apple comes out 1 month later with a 10.5.1 only? That’s incredible arrogant.

Yeah, and it’s only for 64-bit Macs, so first-gen Intel iMacs, MacBook Pros and MacBooks are out of look. BOO. When a hobbyist can put together more useful and broad implementations of a freaking API than you can, it’s time to wonder why you even bother. Come on, Apple. What’s the deal?

Unbelievable: Apple releases Java6, but”¦ « mindstorms

Via Digg. Image from the Apple Collection

Blogged with Flock

Tags: apple, java, developers, pathetic

How could this have failed? The Apple Lisa is the computer for Type A personalities who go to work at dawn with their dogs via bike and then continually stare at the same spreadsheet for a half-hour. Sign me up!

YouTube – Kevin Costner in Apple ad

Via SFist

Blogged with Flock

Tags: lisa, apple, costner, advertising

Apple’s entry into the mobile phone market has been a pretty spectacular success in its first six months on the market, according to research house Canalys. As Roughly Drafted notes, in North America, the iPhone is the No. 2 smartphone platform, not just model. It trails only the full BlackBerry market at this point, but is ahead of all combined Windows Mobile devices. This confirms an earlier NPD report that Apple was commanding about 27 percent of the smartphone market. In honor of this moment, let’s look back at some memorable quotes of the last year:

“There’s no chance that the iPhone is going to get any significant market share. No chance.”
— Steve Ballmer, Microsoft CEO

“We’ve learned and struggled for a few years here figuring out how to make a decent phone. PC guys are not going to just figure this out. They’re not going to just walk in.”
— Ed Colligan, Palm CEO

“They would have been stepping in between us and our customers to the point where we would have almost had to take a back seat “¦ on hardware and service support.”
— Jim Gerace, Verizon Wireless VP

“What Apple risks here is its reputation as a hot company that can do no wrong. If it’s smart it will call the iPhone a ‘reference design’ and pass it to some suckers to build with someone else’s marketing budget. Then it can wash its hands of any marketplace failures.”
— John Dvorak, International Tool
Ah, memories.

Via Daring Fireball

I don’t think I’ll ever get sick of stupid crap vaguely inspired by the iPod. The best of these in recent memory is the iPond, an Australian product that crams a really tiny fish tank — and a Siamese fighting fish — into a weird package that looks sort of like an iPod (and more like a 1G Zune). Oh, and it plays music through a really crummy speaker.

The best part of all of this? The iPond is virtually guaranteed to kill any fish unfortunate enough to get put into the iPond. Fighting fish need 10 liters to live, and the iPond is .65 liters. Oops. The Sydney Morning Herald has the story:

Studies proved fish had memories well beyond a few seconds and were social creatures that experienced pain and boredom, he said.

“The fish in this thing does not look like it has very long to live and it can barely move,” he said.

“Even if it does live it’s not [a] life worth living … it’s really just a torture box.”

Even better? The sound from the speaker leaks inside the tank. So it’s a really loud torture box. I know it’s a little late, but how do I get this on my wishlist?

Via Gizmodo.

Once Apple began to work with Intel, it got a lot easier to begin predicting the future development of Mac hardware. When IBM and Motorola provided the horsepower (or lack thereof, as the case may be) for the Mac platform, it was anybody’s guess when Apple might ship new machines — or what would cause the shipping delay this time. Intel, however, is an open book. They show off their processor roadmap up to a year in advance.

RIght now, everyone is waiting for Apple to unveil new portable Macs using the Penryn chip, the world’s first consumer 45nm CPU. They should drop at MacWorld. But Intel’s way out in front. According to BusinessWeek’s Reena Jana, the future will be ultra-efficient chips powering greener laptops with longer battery life. She writes about her exclusive preview on the Next blog.

Yet Intel seems to really be walking the walk on these two matters. Chip-wise, the company will be rolling out a platform code-named “Menlow,” in Q2 or Q3 of 2008. It’s the first-generation of low-power platforms, which promises to run on 10 times less CPU power and is 5 times smaller than previous chips.

Sounds like the ideal way to make a tiny MacBook with extremely efficient battery life that won’t burn your knees. I’m just waiting for the first Mac portable that can operate for 9 hours without a charge.

Image: Linksys

Remember a year ago, when the iPhone was announced? No, not Apple’s iPhone, the VoIP product line from Cisco’s Linksys product line! Though Cisco enjoyed a lot of press after Steve Jobs gave Apple’s revolutionary multi-touch wonderphone the same name, but then the other iPhone sort of vanished. What’s happened since?

Not much, actually. As our colleague Rob Beschizza reports for Wired News, the Linksys iPhone is selling OK, and the company plans to roll out new models under the name. But the name iPhone is Apple’s. No one, not even the most contrarian anti-Apple antagonists, thinks of seamless VoIP calls when they hear the name.

But a year on, Apple has its iPhone and Cisco has its iPhone, and no one confuses one with the other. And everybody’s happy with that, as Cisco spokesperson Karen Sohl says:

Relations with Apple, Sohl said, are good. “There’s no bad blood,” she said. “We enjoy working with Apple.”

Whatever Happened to the Other iPhone? [Wired News]