Cult of Mac

Maker Faire is an amazing event held annually in San Mateo, Calif. where people from all over the place come together to show off the crazy hardware hacks and contraptions they’ve cobbled together. As you might expect, it’s not actually a Mac-heavy location. If you aren’t building your computer from spare parts you found in the neighbor’s trash, you’re sort of a second-class citizen.

Anyway, I went on Saturday, and met up with Tod Kurt, author of Hacking Roomba and the Todbot blog, who was showing off the latest and greatest in mods to make your robot vacuum cleaner do things it was never designed to, like play a sad sort of vacuum music or even act as a giant spirograph doodler (pic after the jump). Best of all, Tod and his boothmate, from the company he runs, ThingM, were an all-Mac shop. Hacking Roombas is great. Doing it with Macs is even better. It’s all very easy over Bluetooth, apparently.

Technorati Tags: makerfaire, roomba

I snapped this photo walking home through Union Square the other night. It was a huge Volkswagen outdoor advertisement on a pillar, and someone decided to let the German carmaker know who runs San Francisco. It can only be Apple.

Technorati Tags: apple, vw, sticker

Mr. Hopkinson’s Computer is, well, a computer that sings cover versions of The Stone Roses, Radiohead and Portishead. You’d think it would be dreadful, but the machine really knocks it out. The computer sounds like a falsetto Stephen Hawking, and it really works, especially singing The Stone Roses’ Fools Gold. Check out the MySpace page.

Via Cool Hunting.

General confusion and ambivalence about the continued value of stand-alone have gone mainstream as of…now. That’s because German developer Gernot Poetsch has released an alpha of a new RSS reader he calls Readomatic. What’s so weird about this app? Well, it’s a standalone application of Google Reader, which is itself a replacement for a standalone RSS reader. Google Reader’s great advantage is that it isn’t standalone — you can use it on any computer connected to the Internet and still have it keep up with all your readings.

We’re now in the age of applications that take the limited functionality and GUI of a web app and give it the restricted, non-portable feature set of a standalone app. We’re through the looking glass here, people. Still, it looks kinda hot. I’m not going to stop using Vienna, though.
Announcing Readomatic [poetsch.org]
Via digg.

Technorati Tags: rss, software

Our long, national nightmare is over: The FCC has approved the iPhone, which means that nothing is holding back the miracle device’s release other than software issues so titanic that people got pulled off of Leopard development to fix it. Yep, all hurdles cleared.

At the product’s intro, Steve Jobs said he was taking the unusual stance of announcing the iPhone early so that the FCC wouldn’t do it for him. So mark this day — in an alternate universe where Steve doesn’t believe in early announcements, even if it means screwing over the FCC, this would be the day that news of the iPhone broke. Can you even imagine how different 2007 would have been without all our wildest iPhone rumors confirmed.
News Flash: Apple iPhone receives FCC approval [AppleInsider]
Via Digg.

Technorati Tags: innovation, iphone

In case you missed it, the full story of how Engadget came to post a fake Apple internal memo announcing delays of the iPhone to October and Leopard to January is now up at the site. It’s pretty a long and pretty involved tale, but the most interesting piece is this: Someone with access to Apple’s internal e-mail systems sent the original memo. Apple sent a second e-mail denying that the first message was real, but it all feels fishy.

After all, we know Apple has started fake rumors in the past just to flush out leakers. Could the Steve now be applying this logic to his own employees?
Regarding yesterday’s Apple news [Engadget]

Technorati Tags: memo, rumor

Microsoft, kings of irony, moved to the new Office Open XML document format with its new Office 2007 for Windows. It’s ironic, because the format, well, won’t really open on Mac OS X. Fortunately the Macintosh Business Unit inside MS is fighting the good fight, and in between latte-fueled coding runs on Office 2008, they put together a nifty little beta of a program designed to make Open XML more, well, open.

It’s got an amazing name, as well: the Microsoft Open Office XML File Format Converter for Mac. I would have added “2007 Home Edition” to the end to really make it an MS, but it’s a beta, so all in good time. The little program changes any .docx file into a charming and useful .rtf, OS X’s lingua franca. Nice work, folks.

Thanks, Tammy!

Technorati Tags: microsoft, Unpacking, vista

Everyone on the planet is buzzing about Apple’s next round of laptop upgrades since the company announced it would switch from LCD screens to LED screens in the very near future. Here we are less than a month later, and Apple has upgraded its consumer MacBook line to include — features roughly equivalent to the existing MacBook line!

I know, I know, contain your excitement if you can. Why, instead of a base configuration of 512 megs of RAM, now every MacBook will ship with a full gig of RAM at the same price a year later! And instead of featuring either a 1.83 Ghz or 2.0 Ghz processor, now the ‘Books ship with either a 2.0 or 2.16 Ghz part! It’s almost like Moore’s Law is in effect or something!

I’ve got the full specs behind the jump. The new MacBooks also have 802.11n now, which is a very nice feature, and it means that these are very good, very mature pieces of hardware. It also means they’re about to get blown out of the water by Santa Rosa-based, LED-wearing MacBooks Pro. Sign me up for one of those instead, please.

Technorati Tags: macbook, puppy

John Mayer never ceases to irritate. Much as I love Steve Jobs and Apple, their insistence on putting the soft-rock crooner on the stage whenever they roll out a new product always grates. At this January’s iPhone introduction, the rumor was that Paul and Ringo would take the stage to kick off Beatles music on the iTunes Store, but we got John Mayer yet again.

And now, to what purports to be his own blog, Mayer has allegedly announced that he has an advance copy of RIM’s BlackBerry Curve, a direct iPhone competitor with a similar feature set, if implemented in a less-exciting way. In Benedict Arnold’s own words:

Just got an advance of the Blackberry Curve… I guess you could say I’m ahead of the… Nevermind.

lights will guide you home…

But never back to Cupertino. Who’s with me? No more Steve-notes for Mr. Mayer?

Technorati Tags: iphone, blackberry

Confirming long-standing rumors from…earlier this week, Paul McCartney has confirmed to Billboard that his new solo album “Memory Almost Full,” will be distributed via the ITunes Store through Starbucks’s Hear Music label. Of much greater interest to everyone but five of Paul’s most loyal fans is that the Beatles might soon be ready to pull the trigger on a deal for digital distribution.

McCartney also has told Billboard that a deal to finally make the Beatles catalog available for sale online is “virtually settled.”

McCartney added, “I don’t want to pre-empt anything, but we’re well on the way to something happening there, which is very exciting.”

Keep your fingers crossed. If all goes well, there will finally be a way to find the music of the Beatles on the Internet! You’ll be able to visit “Penny Lane,” and “Strawberry Fie…” What’s that? Unauthorized copying? Never heard of it.

McCartney’s “Memory” goes digital – Yahoo! News
Via Digg.

Technorati Tags: beatles, paul mccartney

Cingular/AT&T Wireless CEO Stan Sigman’s 5 minutes of flop sweat hit the lowest point of the otherwise stunningly executed iPhone launch. Amid smooth presentations by the best of Silicon Valley, Sigman did his best to kill the mood with the utterly uninteresting announcement that Cingular had become AT&T’s mom or something. It was kind of hard to follow. I wasn’t paying close attention.

And just as Sigman caused the thunder to fizzle out during the iPhone launch, he’s done it again, becoming the first person to publicly gift the iPhone. He’s apparently a graduate of West Texas A&M University, and he gave the commencement lecture this year, lamely pulling out an iPhone as a gift for the university’s president, Dr. O’Brien.

Man. At this pace, Sigman’s going to start pre-announcing Apple products. You’d best give him the talk, Steve.

Stan Sigman gifts iPhone at West Texas A&M [YouTube]
Via TUAW

Technorati Tags: iphone, stan sigman

Image by Mina Ramzy
His Steveness was in prime form during last week’s Apple Shareholders meeting, and AppleInsider’s got the goods. The iCEO dissed Microsoft, acknowledged interest in 3rd-party iPhone apps and mocked the people of the developing world. He’s so predictable that way:

“I wish developing great products was as easy as writing a check,” he said. “If that were the case, then Microsoft would have great products.”

…

When asked about the iPhone’s closed development platform and whether the company recognized the need of large institutions to build their own applications for the handset, Jobs replied that Apple was “wrestling” to balance the requirements for security and stability with the desire for custom application development.

…

During the shareholders meeting, Jobs also entertained the suggestion that Apple could mimic Microsoft’s strategy of offering developing nations Windows Starter Edition — a low cost version of Windows XP as an alternative to the much more expensive Windows Vista. “Do you think we should offer Mac OS 9?” Jobs quipped in response.

“I think Apple could sell the developing world Tiger while selling Leopard here,” the attendee replied. Jobs paused for a moment and said that could be an option.

Nice one, Steve! You just looked like a big ol’ jerk. We’re keenly aware that you’re not interested in being perceived as a major philanthropist, but you could at least pretend some times… There’s much more at the AI story.
Apple’s Jobs addresses critics, new product directions [AppleInsider]

Technorati Tags: iphone, OS 9, Steve Jobs

Technorati Tags: iphone, OS 9, Steve Jobs

Image by Mina Ramzy

His Steveness was in prime form during last week’s Apple Shareholders meeting, and AppleInsider’s got the goods. The iCEO dissed Microsoft, acknowledged interest in 3rd-party iPhone apps and mocked the people of the developing world. He’s so predictable that way:

“I wish developing great products was as easy as writing a check,” he said. “If that were the case, then Microsoft would have great products.”

…

When asked about the iPhone’s closed development platform and whether the company recognized the need of large institutions to build their own applications for the handset, Jobs replied that Apple was “wrestling” to balance the requirements for security and stability with the desire for custom application development.

…

During the shareholders meeting, Jobs also entertained the suggestion that Apple could mimic Microsoft’s strategy of offering developing nations Windows Starter Edition — a low cost version of Windows XP as an alternative to the much more expensive Windows Vista. “Do you think we should offer Mac OS 9?” Jobs quipped in response.

“I think Apple could sell the developing world Tiger while selling Leopard here,” the attendee replied. Jobs paused for a moment and said that could be an option.

Nice one, Steve! You just looked like a big ol’ jerk. We’re keenly aware that you’re not interested in being perceived as a major philanthropist, but you could at least pretend some times… There’s much more at the AI story.

Apple’s Jobs addresses critics, new product directions [AppleInsider]

Technorati Tags: iphone, OS 9, Steve Jobs

As if we need evidence that Apple’s continued commitment to innovation and great design is paying off beyond the iPod line, check the March sales numbers of the company’s computers. Through retail channels, Apple’s MacBook family are the fourth-most popular laptop offerings in the U.S. at 10 percent of all sales, and its desktops are No. 5 with 8 percent. This does leave out Dell from the conversation, but it’s always better to leave Dell out of things, isn’t it?
Click through for the final numbers.
Apple Laptops Grab 9.9% of Retail Sales, Desktops 7.7%[Apple 2.0]

Technorati Tags: marketshare, sales

The Chop Shop t-shirt website has a very unusual Apple II t-shirt design for sale. The front of the shirt looks like a template for a plastic toy — like a model airplane.
But turn the shirt around and the assembled model is on the back — an Apple II. The site says each tee comes with a limited edition temporary tattoo.

Since Apple introduced the iPhone, we haven’t had a fun product to speculation about in a month or two, and that means no ridiculous Photoshop renderings of unannounced hardware products. Well, we can’t have that, can we? Thank goodness that we have the still-mysterious Mac Tablet to think about. After all, it’s not like Apple would create a truly mind-blowing form factor for the anticipated Centrino Pro (Santa Rosa) MacBook Pros, is it?
A forum linking off of Chinese site TechWeb posted some photos it purports to have uncovered of the actual Mac Tablet. Except that it’s quite obviously cgi. Still, it looks cool, doesn’t it? I’d use one.
Via Digg.

Technorati Tags: mac, rumor, tablet

Though Apple still won’t acknowledge rumors that it’s about to make a serious video gaming play beyond iPod games, a third party has stepped in and shown that the AppleTV is ready for games now. It’s called Omelette, and it’s basically just Bejeweled. But hey, it works, right? Counterstrike is definitely going to be next.
Via Ars Technica.

Technorati Tags: appleTV, game, hack

Though Apple still won’t acknowledge rumors that it’s about to make a serious video gaming play beyond iPod games, a third party has stepped in and shown that the AppleTV is ready for games now. It’s called Omelette, and it’s basically just Bejeweled. But hey, it works, right? Counterstrike is definitely going to be next.
Via Ars Technica.

Technorati Tags: appleTV, game, hack

Silicon Valley makes no sense. In January, Apple and Google got so close that the rumor mills buzzed with word that they would form an alliance with Sun to take on Microsoft…again. Yesterday, Sun made some pretty big announcements: They rolled out JavaFX development platform, which truly promises to deliver on the dream of “write once, run everywhere” that the company has promised since it launched Java more than a decade ago, and that always means more opportunity for apps to come to the Mac.
On the other hand, they showed off a mobile phone platform that will try to compete with Apple’s iPhone by, you know, LOOKING EXACTLY LIKE AN iPHONE, but across manufacturers and at a cheap price. While I think Apple’s ability to make data syncing a snap is the real competitive advantage of the iPhone and that the company’s implementation of multitouch will be better than anyone else’s, I still think other companies aren’t out for the count yet. Sun might be making the platform for that competition. And the Valley is still buzzing on word that Google might release its own phone. So why are Apple, Google and Sun best buds one moment and worst enemies the next?

Technorati Tags: google, iphone, java

Every few years, another writer who hasn’t followed Apple’s design heritage for very long decides to figure out where it comes from and why it’s been such a success. And every few readers, they end up talking with people extremely tangential to the process who haven’t been involved for at least 9 years. The latest is poor Daniel Turner, writing for the MIT Technology Review:

But the omerta that prevails at Apple proved too strong. Company representatives declined to speak with me, and sources only tangentially engaged with the industrial-design process said that they could not talk either. When I asked Paul Kunkel, author of the 1997 book AppleDesign, for tips on obtaining interviews, he laughed and said, “Go sit outside the design-group offices with a pizza.” What follows is as clear a picture of the Apple design process as we could get.

Which is to say, very out of date and filled with speculation. Don’t get me wrong — I think this as good a job as anyone could do analyzing Apple’s design group without getting behind the veil, but it’s nothing new to anyone following Apple long-term. I think it’s particularly telling that the writer couldn’t even get someone from Frog that worked on Apple products in the 1980s to speak on the record. A designer with no Apple ties had to step up.
Give it a read, though: It’s worth it just for the shocking revelation that Steve Jobs just might have a major impact on the final design of the company’s products. Huh. Couldn’t have guessed that!
The Secret of Apple Design: Technology Review
Via Digg.

Technorati Tags: apple, design, innovation

As if to counter the high quality of “Choose a Vista” and the other two official “Get a Mac” ads rolled out yesterday, two rather poor and underdone unreleased ads have trickled to the web. And they’re dire, making lame jokes about drivers and viruses. Let’s just hope these literally came from the cutting-room floor, shall we?

Technorati Tags: get a mac, viruses, vista

The more I try to cantankerously deny my love for Apple’s “Get a Mac” ad campaign, the more they manage to win me over. The best of a new crop posted Monday night is “Choose a Vista,” which features John “PC” Hodgman spinning a game wheel to select a version of Vista. Cries of “Big Operating System! Big Operating System! Daddy needs an upgrade!” Will stay with me for a long time. The other ads, “Genius” and “The Party’s Over” are after the jump.

Technorati Tags: get a mac, vista

We at Wired set off quite a catty-wumpus last week by reporting that one of the reasons PC World Editor in Chief Harry McCracken departed the publication was that a piece called “10 Things We Hate About Apple” upset the company’s publisher, who supposedly favored a pro-advertiser bent to editorial.

As if to deny such reports, the magazine has now posted the article and its lovey-dovey companion piece, along with a cryptic reference to its tortured origins that doesn’t quite mention what really happened:

By now, you may have heard something about a couple of articles we’ve been planning about Apple and its products. We sure have.

The article itself is pretty toothless: “5. Where’s the BluRay?” Ooooooo. I’m shaking in my boots. Can this really have ended a respected tech journalist’s career?
PC World – 10 Things We Hate About Apple
Via Digg.

Technorati Tags: ethics, PC World

BusinessWeek released its list of the top 50 most innovative companies over the weekend, and, as usual, Apple won. This is the third time in a row. Now, far be it for me to knock any effort that names Apple the winner of anything, but I’m not terribly convinced by the methodology used to put the ranking together by BW and Boston Consulting Group. Surveying senior executives just seems so 1980s, and it inevitably means that quite shallow measurements are advantaged — flashiest product intros, most profitability attributable to new products, etc.

I mean, how honored can you be as most innovative in the world when Microsoft is No. 5? Or Sony moving up three slots to No. 10 in the year that they introduced the PS3 while Nintendo is at No. 39? Or Wal-Mart at No. 11 when Target’s down at No. 15? The entire index is suspect. Except for the part where Apple wins, of course.

Note to the senior executives of America: “Most Innovative” does not mean “hottest on the stock market.”

The 50 Most Innovative Companies [BusinessWeek]

Technorati Tags: apple, innovation

Apple: Get Your Defective Laptop Replaced By Sending Well-Written Emails To Steve Jobs – Consumerist

Steve Jobs on Flickr – Photo Sharing!