There’s a slick iPhone ad shot in New York City at iPhoneNewYorkCity.com. It’s clearly made by pros — there was a casting call in April — but there’s no info on the ad’s site except the creators’ names: Alec Sutherland, Anthony Hechanova, Todd DosSantos and Shane Annas.
Reminds me of George Master’s unofficial iPod ad.
I got my first henna Apple tattoo last night. As you can see, it looks every bit as ill-advised as you might hope. More tragically, it happened at an office party, not even like a MacWorld event.
But I learned some stuff. The job was done by Renda Dabit of Henna Garden, who has done many, many Apple tattoos in her time. It sounds, in fact, like she’s the henna artist of the Bay Area Mac Community. I brought an iPod for her to use as reference, but she didn’t need it. Masterful work, but could you expect less from a henna artist regularly hired to work Bay Area Apple enthusiast events? I thought not.
On a less hopeful note, please see the picture below, taken hours after the original. Such a shame. I also had my fortune told, and I just have to assume that the shattered Apple bodes ill for next week’s iPhone launch…
Though Apple still hasn’t released a real iPhone SDK, developers continue to create fun and interesting ways to develop for the breakthrough device. The newest tool in the set is iPhoney, a WebKit-based application that looks just like an iPhone on a given screen and renders websites just as they would appear. Sure, it’s a great way to test a site you’re customizing for the iPhone, but it’s also a great way to pretend that you already own one. In fact, it’s the next generation — fully virtual. I’m not broke, I’m ahead of the curve.
Check it out and give the folks behind it feedback. They tell me it will go open-source soon, and I’m dying to see what people can do with it.
You know, I really didn’t think that iPhone hype could reach a level any higher than where it has been since its announcement in January. And then I get out of bed every day, and a national interest magazine does a cover story, and then Apple ups the battery life and even shows how it works in 3D. I have a feeling it’s only a matter of time before the first folks get in line to buy one the day it gets released.
I mean, seriously? Those Apple website 3D demos? So hot.
Technorati Tags: iphone
New Apple hardware platforms are the new favorite home of interesting software development. When the AppleTV launched, the box was immediately hacked to do a lot of things it was never designed for. Now, the iPhone is rapidly filling with Web 2.0 applications, even 10 days before it actually rolls out the door.
You can see ample evidence of this over at iPhone Application List, which is trying to keep track of every new development for the device. While some apps look great — the shopping list one I linked the other day, news reader iActu — others are not quite up to Apple interface standards, to put it mildly.
It’s interesting proof that good apps can be built solely on Web technology. On the other hand, the applications all behave in pretty much the same way. And we’ve also very rapidly reached the ugly phase of iPhone development. One problem with Apple’s deliberately vague non-SDK approach is that iPhone apps look a lot like the Internet. And at this point, it’s safe to say: The Internet ain’t always pretty.
What are you still waiting to see in iPhone app form? Anything you don’t think is possible (other than anything requiring Flash, obviously)?
I just finished reading John Heileman’s rather critical profile of Steve Jobs, and I have to say I didn’t think it was too bad. It’s definitely written for an audience that has barely even heard of Steve Jobs, so the rehashing of young Steve’s mean temper and early folly seem a bit over-done to the average Apple observer.
Still, I think a lot of the skepticism in the article is fair, even if I do think Heileman misunderstands what drives Steve to continually enter new businesses. Steve loves to make things that he wants to use — it just so happens that Steve’s tastes are often quite compatible with our tastes. And I guarantee that years ago, he started complaining that there wasn’t a single cell phone he could stand to use. Now we have the iPhone. This isn’t really about legacy — Steve has done everything he ever wanted to and more. Now it’s just the continual drive to make cool stuff that he wants.
But a lot of other people have a problem with the piece, particularly Fake Steve, who publishes the funniest critique I have ever read:
Sorry, John Heilemann, but when you set us up with a big cover calling me iGod and making me look like shit, and when you get half the magazine for your story, we expect you to deliver something new, something interesting, something jarring, something smart. In short, something we didn’t know before. We’d also expect you to maybe find out something bad, or to at least have the balls to say you think the iPhone is going to flop, instead of saying “maybe it will, maybe it won’t.” For that matter you might do your readers the courtesy of admitting that you hate me for arousing such feelings of man-lust in your tiny heart, and that your obsession with El Jobso is a way of masking (and, paradoxically, indulging) the hard-on you have for me. You might also just admit that New York magazine is just trying to cash in on the hype around the iPhone and looking for any excuse to put my face on your cover so you can sell more copies; but you think you can look cool if you dress it up as some kind of cynical, pseudo-psychological deep-think business piece.
Instead, John, you just come off looking like some guy who wishes he still worked at the New Yorker.
Right. As if. Friend, you’re getting an Azzie award.
Ow. I mean, OW.
Technorati Tags: fake steve, Steve Jobs
Most of the time, we like to believe our computers have significantly advanced over the last 20 years. But some things remind us little has changed.
Take the video above. Created by James Leathem on an Apple IIe, it creates 3-D renders too complex for the actual machine. Since the computer couldn’t play the animation itself, Leathem shot each frame individually and pieced them together as a continuous stop-motion animation.
Simply incredible.
Via Boing Boing
Right after the iPhone was introduced, Rikard Linde posted a pretty brilliant recommendation for upgrades to the device. The brief scenario made the machine much more context-sensitive and integrated the functions to new degrees.
Rikard has revisited the iPhone again, focusing on the media capabilities on the device. The file-sharing strategy he suggests is really interesting. I’d buy a machine built on his model. On the other hand, the suggested name, Clubline, doesn’t do it for me. Still, it’s great to have someone thinking this deeply about where the technology can go for the next generation.
Read “Introducing Clubline, music sharing done right.” [Enklo]
The vision of the Apple retail store model is a beautiful thing: Gorgeous fixtures, interactive demos, a theater and even a tech-support Genius Bar that make technology friendly. The reality is often a bit different, particularly in major cities. The Genius Bar is over-run with customers, and even making an appointment doesn’t ensure prompt service.
It’s a victim of its own success. The good news, though, is that the system can work. Take, for example, the case of my fiancee’s 12″ Powerbook.
Technorati Tags: genius bar, applecare, retail, warranty
Lots of iPods have bitten the big one over the last six years. But never before have I seen so many totally trashed “breakthrough digital devices” in one place as at the great Pile of Photos of Broken iPods. Head over. Grab some hankies. Mourn. Reboot.
Via Digg.
Kudos to Alec Sutherland, who has put together the best fake ad for a real product I have ever seen in the form of “iPhone New York,” a brilliant, professional spot that shows people of every language and culture raving about the iPhone. I almost teared up, and I’m all West Coast and stuff. Bonus points for use of “Young Folks” by Peter Bjorn and John, too.
I think Apple’s very demo-oriented “Here’s what it can actually do” campaign is perfect for the iPhone launch, but a treatment like this one could kill for a second phase. They should call Sutherland when the time comes.
Via Digg.
Of all the weeks to need to drive my car. As widely reported on the Net, most notably at Engadget, we’ve got what looks to be a legit iPhone sighting, courtesy of a snap by Mark Trammell. And not just anywhere, but on Caltrain, the San Francisco to Silicon Valley commuter rail I normally ride twice a day. But this is what happens the second you stop watching for it.
The Boy Genius Report suggests the user in question might actually be Mike Matas, an icon designer. I’m not sure the resemblance is strong enough…
No matter what one thinks of Safari for Windows (which has already been patched three days after launch and still can’t render A LOT of sites), it’s nice to see Apple attacking Microsoft’s browser hegemony on its own turf.
Right?
Unfortunately, not really. As John Lilly, COO of Mozilla, points out, when Steve showed off a pie chart depicting his vision of Apple’s Windows browser marketshare, he didn’t depict MS losing any share at all. Instead, the image just eats up all the alternatives, including the still-rising Firefox. And while I have my problems with Firefox (it strikes me as a program only a software engineer could love), I only want to see Apple bite into Internet Explorer’s customers, not the folks who have already sought out an alternative.
The computer world is not the American political scene, and there is room for way more than two players. And so it should be. The more browsers we have, the fewer “browser-specific” features develop and the more readily standards get adopted across platforms. We all stand to benefit from a diverse, competitive markets. A shame that Apple reveals they have no interest in the same.
John’s Blog » Blog Archive » A Picture’s Worth 100M Users???
The general consensus is that Steve Jobs’ most recent keynote speech did not measure up to his typical standard. I’m not anywhere near so down on it (maybe because I didn’t go and only watched the online feed during stolen moments at work). This Joy of Tech trip sums up the sentiment pretty well. But you’ll have to click through to see the source of Steve’s sudden suck. Clever, gentlemen. Clever.
Via Digg.
Technorati Tags: humor, puppy, steve jobs
Delicious Library 2, which has a snazzy new UI based on Core Animation, wins an Apple’s 2007 Design Award for Best Leopard Application. Still no screenshots of it though.
For discussion of Core Animation and how it might change interfaces, see here: Kiss Boring Interfaces Goodbye With Apple’s New Animated OS.
The other winners are:
Best Mac OS X User Experience: Coda. Panic.
Best Mac OS X Developer Tool: CSSEdit 2.5. MacRabbit.
Best Mac OS X Game: World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade 2.0. Blizzard Entertainment .
Best Mac OS X Scientific Computing Solution: Papers 1.0. Alexander Griekspoor and Tom Groothuis.
Best Mac OS X Dashboard Widget: BART Widget 1.0. Bret Victor.
Best Mac OS X Student Product: Picturesque 1.0. Zac Cohen.
If you’re among the many people in the United States who either can’t use AT&T/Cingular or choose not to use the carrier’s services based on negative experiences, take heart — there still might be a way to use an iPhone without the company’s blessing. The iPhone ships in four weeks. And though Apple is officially keeping the device exclusive to AT&T for five years, never underestimate the black market for unlocked phones.
According to Ars Technica, Pure Mobile is now claiming it will sell unlocked iPhones for an undisclosed (read: EXORBITANT) rate almost as soon as the devices hit the market. As a T-Mobile user, this is very heartening news, but I can tell you there is no way I’m going to spend $1,000 or more for an iPhone. Maybe when the iPhone nano hits in two years, and someone unlocks that…
Anyone willing to take the unlocked plunge?
For all of the complaining that has tripped down the wire about Apple’s total lack of an SDK for the iPhone, a couple of entrepreneurial developers have already created iPhone apps to try out in Safari.
Shown above is David Cann’s alternate interface for Digg. It’s quite fun, and I actually find it a better way to navigate Digg than the real site. (Sorry, Kevin!) I especially enjoy the way it implements the “grab and fling” interface for the rest of us.
The other contender is OneTrip, a quick (though very elegant) grocery list program put together over-night by Neven Mrgan. Both apps are really nice and fairly clear evidence that sophisticated programs suited to use on the iPhone are possible. I think the new Apple strategy of “the web is the new SDK” is actually a wonderful one. They’re pretty unlikely to crash, and really powerful development is a possibility.
Anyone want to lay money on how long it will be until Google issues a version of Reader optimized for the iPhone?
Technorati Tags: iphone, thirdparty, software
Miss the WWDC keynote? Other than a couple of the specific features of Leopard, don’t bother. But you should watch the video above — it’s John “PC and also noted pseudo-intellectual” Hodgman posing as Steve Jobs and announcing the demise of the Mac platform. It was the opening act for real Steve. Hilarious.
Technorati Tags: get a mac, john hodgman
So what is Steve Jobs didn’t introduce any new hardware in his keynote and the iPhone third-party application support is somewhat bogus? Core Animation, the new Desktop and new Finder or incredibly gorgeous, so watch Steve preach it on Apple’s official stream.
Technorati Tags: keynote, steve jobs, wwdc
With all the excitement and, to be frank, disappointment that came with yesterday’s WWDC Stevenote, I haven’t seen anyone pick out the obvious with Apple’s innovative new GUI element Stacks, which allows users to cluster files that would otherwise clutter the desktop into a discreet pile of files that blow out into a scannable list with a simple click. It takes the super-janky right-click a folder in the dock movement we’re all used to now and replaces it with a sleek Dock launcher we can all get behind.
It’s really cool. It’s also a very old concept, one that Apple has had patented for 15 years. And this doesn’t look to be a great implementation of it. Way back in 1992, Apple called the Stacks content “Piles,” first demonstrating the new interface at the CHI conference. Gitta Solomon of Apple’s Advanced Technology Human Computer Interaction Group created the fascinating interview, which The Register mooted was finally destined for Mac OS X way back in 2003. Only four years too early — and 11 years too late. Click through to learn more about Piles.
For a lot of Apple geeks, the love affair with Apple began at school, using an Apple II while playing Oregon Trail, the all-time best game where you could explore the wild west and see your whole family die of dysentery or snake bite, all before afternoon recess.
Silicon User has pulled together a fantastic article detailing the history of the Minnesota Educational Computing Consortium, creators of Oregon Trail, Number Munchers and Word Munchers. Those were the titles that proved that Macs were good for playing games, even back then. What I hadn’t realized is that Apple enjoyed a very close relationship with the odd, government-owned corporation:
Throughout the 1980s, key individuals from Apple Computer attended MECC conferences as keynote speakers including Apple co-founder and then-Chairman Steve Jobs and Alan Kay (an Apple fellow) in 1982, Flord Kvamme (Executive VP of Sales at Apple) in 1983 and in 1985 John Sculley, then-CEO of Apple.
Check it out and get nostalgic.
Educational computing for the masses | SiliconUser
Technorati Tags: history, oregon trail
Having spent a day with the beta for Apple’s much-ballyhooed Safari browser for Windows XP, I’m ready to pronounce it the fastest browser for XP that I’ve used on a regular basis. On the other hand, it also is riddled with the kinds of bizarre bugs only a public beta could expose.
Sometimes, it’s both the fastest and the stupidest browser on all of Windows. If you’re on the fence, click through to hear whether your working style is ready for this not-quite-ready-for-prime-time browser contender while stranded in the Windows world.
It’s a beautiful sunny morning here in San Francisco, and Wired News will be liveblogging Steve Jobs’ keynote at WWDC. We have reporters. We have cameras, and we have press passes. Check it out here at 10 AM. Don’t forget to refresh.
Wanna know the No. 1 sign that we’re less than 12 hours from major product announcements by Apple? People are throwing up completely weak rumors that wouldn’t even get mocked normally. Chief among these at this very moment is an alleged rundown of The Stevenote address, which includes some errors so obvious that it even harms the credibility of the rest of the list.
The Google translation from the original German at Apfelkueche is quite interesting, but take a look at the detail. The new iMacs are alleged to have LED displays at 20 and 24″. Really? I’d be pretty surprised. After all, Apple just rolled out MacBook Pros last week, and only managed to go LED for the 15.4″ models, not the 17″ SKUs. Could Apple pull together a machine built around a display a full 7″ bigger than a model they haven’t even shipped? I doubt it.
The wackiest rumor of all is, of course, the iPhone@Home, an alleged 10″ multitouch tablet mainly for movie-watching and Internet surfer. People have been throwing around rumors for years that Apple would release a tabletMac, and this is the same old rumor, repackaged as a pretend big brother for the iPhone. Who knows? Apple might be ready. But I can tell you this much: NO WAY ON EARTH is Apple releasing a machine called the iPhone@Home that isn’t actually a phone and can be used anywhere, not just at home. The company is way too smart to use such a stupid name. Keep your heads up, kids, the FUD is flying right now.
Via Digg.
Technorati Tags: keynote, rumor, steve jobs
Steve Jobs has made a hobby out of letting the world know that people aren’t interested in renting their music. We hear you loud and clear, Steve. One thing Steve has never claimed, however, is that people don’t like renting movies, as Netflix and Blockbuster will attest.
On the eve of his WWDC keynote, the Financial Times claims that Steve is about to put Apple at the forefront of the digital movie rental business:
A film would cost $2.99 for a 30-day rental. Its digital rights-management software would allow films to be moved from a computer to at least one other device such as the video iPod or iPhone. The software would prevent movies being copied.
Interesting notion. After all, Apple has gone through hell trying to sign up movie studios to sell their films through iTunes. A lot more companies than Disney and Paramount will leap in if this is legit.
Via MacRumors.