Right - [9:56 AM]

James Robertson: "It's hard for free software to get there, because free projects usually progress right up to 'useful enough for me (the author), and no more'. Sure, there are exceptions - but they are rare. Usually, to get 'fit and finish', you have to pay." - I work with a bunch of bitheads that absolutely worship Linux. They love things like emacs and the BASH, which should tell you something. This OS is not built for real people. Open, Yes, easy to use, No. The community can't even decided on a unified look and feel, sure you can claim that's a benefit to open source, and it is a form of choice, but what about the average joe trying to get their job done?

The Linux Bithead: Oh, yes, of course you can do that, just start bash and type 'ps aux | cat | grep | more | lex | yacc | stuff', that will do exactly what you want.
The Average Joe: Huh? Where do I click?

Ultimate power for the developer, no doubt, I will NEVER that that away from Linux. But for the Average Joe, it can be daunting.

Apple has, without doubt, proven you can take the power of Unix (Mach + BSD) and make it something the average user can use. To top it off you can get to all that raw developer horse power if you so choose. The best of both worlds. Heck they even have a great IDE in XCode.

P.S. - Yes, I'm perfectly aware that 'command' I typed is complete and utter crap, but it's only for illustrative purposes, and it makes my point.

Labels: Apple, Technology, Usability

Missing the point - [9:02 AM]

Free Software Foundation: "Unfortunately, we are not. The extreme here is represented by Jobs and Apple. The iPhone is an attack on very old and fundamental values -- the value of people having control over their stuff rather than their stuff having control over them, the right to freely communicate and share with others, and the importance of privacy." - Wow. The first item in their five reasons to avoid iPhone 3G says "iPhone completely blocks free software. Developers must pay a tax to Apple, who becomes the sole authority over what can and can't be on everyone's phones." Tax? It's strange someone at the FSF would speak of taxes, the GPL is a tax. Sure, I can get my free software and compile it on my box, but where's the integration? My Mac in combination with my iPod is a complete, beautifully integrated, solution. It's the same with the iPhone. It works with desktops and laptops and Apple TV. I can create free applications and Apple will handle the distribution for me. Hey, that's kinda nice. Open source has its place and if you want it to become the dominant force in the software world here's a tip, write better software. Write it for folks like my grandmother, not for me. That means paying attention to all the little things, just like Apple does. Remember guys, the user interface IS the application to the end user, they could care less about the cool algorithm you implemented under the hood. Seriously.

Labels: Apple, iPhone

iPhone 2.0 is a monster - [8:49 PM]

Gizmodo: "It looks like not everyone in AT&T land loves the iPhone. When reader Dennis' mom went to the AT&T stand in the Moorestown Mall in New Jersey to ask about iPhone insurance, they laughed in her face. They then handed her a bunch of articles written arguing for the BlackBerry over the iPhone, printed from places like Crackberry.com and Pocket PC Magazine. At the end, there was the name and number of an AT&T regional manager." - My brother tells a similar story. He called AT&T and the customer service lady was frustrated with answering iPhone questions. He said she sighed when he said he wanted to talk about iPhone pricing and plans. I guess it's succeeding, everybody hates 'em.

Labels: Apple, iPhone

Apple #3 - [8:40 PM]

AppleInsider: "Macs garnered an 8.5 percent share of the U.S. PC market during the second quarter of the year, pushing Apple past Acer in the national rankings and into third place overall, according to preliminary data released Wednesday by market research firm Gartner." - Apple has nowhere to go but up, amazing.

Labels: Apple

I had a feeling - [8:23 PM]

IT PRO [via NerdyNews]: "All the components are in place – Windows Mobile as the underlying OS, the Zune user interface for the front-end, tweaked and extended using the team and technology at Danger (the company behind the front-end ssoftware for the Sidekick smartphone, which is based on Windows CE)." - I had a feeling something like this would happen. I have a friend there that said he was working on a "really cool" bit of mobile technology he couldn't talk about, but when I said If you're working on a device that plays music, you have a big hill to climb, and I hope you do a lot better than the Zune things got real quiet. That and the iPhone and iPod are a huge success.

Well, like I said, good luck with that Microsoft. There are a bunch of iPhone wannabes showing up now and I'm sure they're not fairing very well. In a way Microsoft has become the underdog even though they still own a gigantor share of the PC market. Apple recovered, but Jobs had to come back to do it. Jobs brought focus back to the company. Microsoft is just doing too much. They need to focus on something and get their mojo back.

I'm not sure a new smartphone platform is it.

Labels: Apple, Microsoft

Twenty iPhone applications - [9:06 PM]

Macworld: "With Apple’s iPhone App Store now online, we decided to take a look at some of the more interesting third-party programs, applications and Web sites that have been developed to help make your iPhone an integral tool for both work and fun."

Labels: Apple, iPhone

New iPhone apps - [9:08 AM]

Apple Gazette: "After spending the last hour or so rummaging through the iPhone App Store in iTunes there are several applications that I just can’t wait to get my hands on." - One of the five applications has a horrible UI, TripLog/1040, very much not what you'd expect to see on an iPhone.

Labels: Apple, iPhone

Going all Mac - [9:29 AM]

9to5Mac: "Axel Springer (no relation to Axel Rose) is doing what no company of its size has ever done. It plans to move its 12,000 desktops to nearly 100% Mac. Besides the GooglePlex which is a mix of Macs, Windows and Linux and Apple itself, Axel Springer will become the biggest Mac shop in the world." - This could be fairly easy for a lot of shops, go buy everybody Mac Mini's for starters. You can use the keyboard, monitor, and mouse you already own.

Labels: Apple, Mac

What a nut - [11:28 AM]

BBC: "Microsoft, Apple, Adobe, and the rest, offer you software that gives them power over you. A change in executives or companies is not important. What we need to change is this system." - This guy is a complete nut job. He wants to trade paid software for free, why can't we have both? There's nothing wrong with someone making a living writing software and there's nothing wrong with giving your software away. You choose, but quit banging the drum for everything to be free. There's a price to pay for free software as well. I can't hack up Linux and sell it without making those changes available to everyone, right? Where's the freedom in that? It forces me to give away the changes that make my system better. That's not freedom, it's a dictatorship. I'm not against free software, I do, however, have a problem with people telling me what I can and can't do.

If Open Source software were truly open I'd be able to distribute it in whatever form I see fit. I know there are licenses that allow this sort of distribution, but Stallman's idea of open isn't one of them.

Labels: Adobe, Apple, Linux, Microsoft

I'm not fussed about it - [8:10 PM]

Daring Fireball: "Talking about technical progress only serves to focus attention on the fact that it is Apple’s decision, and by all appearances, Apple does not want Flash on the iPhone. Even if Adobe eventually gets Flash running well — by any standard for “running well” — on actual iPhone hardware, rather than just in the iPhone simulator, they can’t ship it without Apple’s explicit permission." - I really don't think the iPhone needs to have Flash support. Apple has gone to great lengths to make sure the experience is what you'd expect from an Apple product. Like the decision not to allow background tasks, I'm OK with that as well. Why? Allowing applications to run in the background comes with its own price. I don't own one, yet, but that will be remedied July 11. I may not have one, but my wife will, and that's essentially like having one myself.

Labels: Adobe, Apple, iPhone

Apple gets it - [10:36 AM]

Microsoft should take a page from Apple's playbook, streamline the OS, go work on the guts, forget adding features, in fact it might be a good idea to remove a few!

Hat tip James Robertson.

Labels: Apple, Microsoft, Windows

Public Enemy #1 - [4:58 PM]

MacWorld: "That’s right: Apple is now officially the labels’ number one enemy—with a bullet. As the largest purveyor of music in the U.S., Apple holds tremendous sway over the music-buying population. And that understandably worries the record companies. The labels are used to being the ones controlling the distribution of their product, raking in the profit on every song sold, but more and more, that power is being consolidated into Apple’s hands, thanks to the overwhelming market share of the iPod and iTunes." - That's right, just target someone else, don't change with the times, try to kill them. Good luck with that.

Labels: Apple, Music

More on iPhone 2.0 - [8:32 PM]

Popular Mechanics: "The first would be the addition of a GPS antenna. I recently sat down with the president of a GPS navigation system manufacturer to ask him how he felt about the prospect of a GPS-enabled iPhone. "Scared [expletive]-less," he said. Hardly a rarity in the handset world, GPS functionality is already used by many carriers to sell location-based services and for Emergency 911 (or E911). And the iPhone already does rough location positioning by cross-referencing tower triangulation with a database of known Wi-Fi hot spots." - Yes, I want one.

Labels: Apple, iPhone

iPhone 2.0 Shipments? - [8:51 AM]

Fortune: "Searching for shipments to Apple, Inc. (AAPL), employees at the Scottsdale, Ariz., company reported on Friday that they’ve spotted a 'major spike' since mid March in ocean containers marked with a mysterious new label: 'electric computers'" - Hey, even if it's not true, it's fascinating to watch the frenzy developing around iPhone 2.0. If I said I didn't want one, I'd be a big fat liar.

Labels: Apple, iPhone

Video intro to Cocoa - [4:21 PM]

The Unofficial Apple Weblog: "Over at Theocacao Scott Stevenson has posted the video of his Introduction to Cocoa talk (entitled "Best of Both Worlds") aimed at those who want to learn a bit about Apple's preferred API for building OS X applications." - For later.

Labels: Apple, Cocoa, Development, Mac, Objective-C

More scripting thoughts - [9:34 AM]

I woke up thinking about this, it's weird how my brain does that.

Anywho, here's what I want to do in MarsEdit when I publish a new post to my weblog, maybe some AppleScript junkie can help me out.

1) Fire a script.
2) That script should receive the post Title and URL.
3) I'd like to make a shortened title via TinyURL.
4) Send the title along with the TinyURL to Twitter.

So, has anyone done that? As far as I can tell there's no eventing support in AppleScript, I'm a newbie so I may have missed it. Maybe if I get some time tonight I'll look into doing the script minus the eventing. I think all the other things can be accomplished.

Labels: Apple, Applications, Development, Mac

Well, of course they did. - [9:21 AM]

MacWorld UK: "Apple holds two-thirds of the retail market for computers costing $1,000 or more, NPD figures claim." - That's because the only Apple box that sells for less than $1000.00 is the Mac Mini. Duh!

Labels: Apple, Mac

iPhone experimentation continues - [9:12 AM]

I've been exploring the iPhone SDK lately, it's been fun. I've finally figured some stuff out so it's really starting to get exciting. My "big" hurdle had been understanding how to take advantage of Interface Builder. I finally figured out how to hookup events now that seems pretty obvious, I knew that would happen, light bulb on, bing!

Here's a question for any Mac developers. Do people actually use the Interface Builder to design visually and hookup events, or do they draw the interface and hookup events in code, or do they build the UI all in code? I know, it's a strange question, and I'm sure I'll get a strange mix of answers, if any at all, but I had to ask. I'd love for Daniel Jalkut, or Brent Simmons to chime in.

Doing Windows C/C++ stuff for years had led to a certain expectation with Mac tools. In Windows I only used the graphical tools to create dialogs (at Visio we didn't even do that), then I'd go hook up event handlers in code. It was very straight forward and after using Interface Builder once I can see how easy it would be to hookup events in code instead of letting Interface Builder generate code for me.

I was very happy to discover a hunk of old C++ code compiled and worked like a charm when mixed with Objective-C. It was a pharmacokinetics library my brother and I created a long time back, and it just built and worked. That is a HUGE leg up for me. I can use my bad habit of writing C++ and slowly move into Objective-C. Very nice.

Next hurdle, gaining a better understanding of Objective-C.

It sure would be nice to build a Cocoa version of the Endura WS5000 software, hint, hint.

Labels: Apple, C++, Cocoa, Development, iPhone, Mac, Objective-C

Refurb iPhones? - [4:36 PM]

The Unofficial Apple Weblog: "I bought one of these up last time round. This time, you can pick up a 16 GB iPhone for just $349 or an 8GB for only $249. Free shipping and a full one year warranty" - This is a nice way to get a phone, not only for personal use, but for development purposes! Don't want to brick your main phone, do you?

Labels: Apple, Development, iPhone

Win32 to Cocoa - [9:50 AM]

ars technica: "This is the second part of a three-part series describing how one developer became disillusioned with the Windows platform and was reinvigorated by the bright lights of Mac OS X." - Stash for later, I'm having a bear of a time getting used to "The Cocoa Way." Anything that'll help make that transition, I'm all for it. Currently my biggest problem is figuring out how to use Interface Builder and hooking up events so my code actually receives them. This is the most difficult platform change I've ever made. I've worked with a bunch of different platforms and frameworks and I've never struggled this much. Eventually the light bulb will go on and I'll be fine, for now I'm very frustrated with the entire exercise. Objective-C is pretty interesting and I'm sure will pose some problems for me, but I can only burn one bridge at a time, and that bridge is the Interface Builder bridge. More to come.

Labels: Apple, Cocoa, Mac, Objective-C

I really, really, want to go to this - [9:48 AM]

Apple.com: "The groundbreaking innovations of Mac OS X Leopard and iPhone OS offer two revolutionary development platforms for developers and IT professionals. The Apple Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) is the only place you can receive technical information on these sophisticated platforms from the engineers who created them. Bring your code to the labs and work one-to-one with Apple engineers, applying development methods and best-practices you gain from sessions to enhance your application."

Labels: Apple, Cocoa, Development, iPhone, Mac, Objective-C

Ruggedized iPhone? - [8:22 AM]

I've worked on a couple of Palm based apps over the years, both made use of bar code readers. Why? They're used by everyday Joes on the job to make their lives easier. My first Palm application was written to track rat bait stations and rat traps. Sounds strange, but when you have to walk around a large processing plant opening 1000+ bait stations and traps, then recording information about each on paper it gets quick. The Palm application ran on a Symbol SPT 1500, it was the perfect device for the job. Nowadays you can purchase blue tooth enabled scanners that work with your Palm, or Windows mobile, device and use it in the same way, I'm sure they'd work with the iPhone, or iTouch.

That brings me to the title of this post. I wonder if Apple would ever consider creating a version of the iPhone, or iTouch, that's intended for a more industrial application? Something that could handle being dropped from five feet up, or dropped in water, mud, or other icky things, and come out the other side working like you'd expect it to work? Would they do that? If they did it would have to be quite a bit cheaper than their current offerings to make it a no brainer purchase for industrial use.

In the end I'd imagine Apple would have zero interest in such a device, but I could see a whole slew of IT style applications built for the device, if it existed.

Labels: Apple

Yes, it's that important - [5:44 PM]

Gizmodo: "The meeting ended with Jobs and Razlaff, now a creative at Frog Design, figuring out how to fix the UI issues, and Jobs asked for the mockups to be made into prototypes. Three weeks later Jobs dropped a compliment on the man." - I've run into folks that don't understand how important the User Interface really is, yes, they actually do exist. The User Interface is the User Experience is the Application. Yeah, you can have really cool algorithms under the hood but if the UI to those algorithms stinks the user won't use the application. Folks will actually live with speed issues as long as their work life is improved.

Labels: Apple, Development, Mac

Indy Mac Developer Links - [9:39 AM]

The Indy Mac Developer scene is amazing. Here are a couple more shops hacking away to bring you great Macintosh applications. Enjoy.

• Stunt Software - On The Job
• mooSoftware - TabletDraw

Labels: Apple, Applications, Mac

Mixing Objective-C and C++ - [9:19 AM]

A couple of weeks back I linked to John Nack's discussion of the 64-bit port of Photoshop, it's not a trivial task, but I'd forgotten you can mix C++ and Objective-C. This will make it easier for the Adobe crew to port Photoshop, but it's still going to be one heckuva chore!

Here's a VERY simple example. The Objective-C file, main in this case, is using the C++ class named CPPClass. Please note I had to rename the main.m file to main.mm so the compiler would treat it properly. I've also heard you can name the file '.M', or find a specific compiler setting that'll do the same trick for you. I don't know what that setting is, sorry.

Anywho, here's the simple sample.

#import 
#import "cppclass.h"

int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
    CPPClass* c = new CPPClass();
    c->Method1(99);
    c->Method2("Rob was here");
    delete c;
    
    return NSApplicationMain(argc,  (const char **) argv);
}

Labels: Adobe, Apple, Development, Mac, Objective-C

NBC and iTunes - [8:08 AM]

Ars Technica: "NBC says it wants to be able to put its TV content back on the iTunes Store, but still has a few reservations—one of which could hold the network back from joining iTunes forever." - NBC, good riddance, don't let the door hit you on the backside on the way out, your loss, make something better, and good luck with that. Look, if you don't want to distribute your content on iTunes, it's no big deal, just move along.

Labels: Apple, Music

Keynote vs. PowerPoint - [7:56 AM]

Macworld: "PowerPoint has caught up to Keynote in many areas and surpassed it in some. But Keynote’s workflow and overall feature set remain superior. Practically speaking, your choice of software probably depends more on the hardware you’ll be using to deliver your presentation (and the software installed on it) than on the features of your authoring program. For that reason, unless Apple releases a Keynote player application for Windows, which isn’t likely, PowerPoint may be a more sensible choice for many speakers." - Interesting wrap up. It looks like Apple has done a great job, as usual, of catching up to the leader, Microsoft in turn has responded. The idea of a Keynote player for Windows isn't such a bad idea, do one for Linux as well to cover all your bases.

The bottom line: Keynote 4.5 mice, PowerPoint 4 mice.

Labels: Apple, Mac, Microsoft, Windows

Hey Microsoft - [1:43 PM]

The Unofficial Apple Weblog: "Throughout the years, Mac OS X has definitely seen its share of changes. In these 7 years, OS X has been through 6 versions (7 if you include the first public beta version)." - Microsoft should consider releasing an update, not labeled as a Service Pack, every year. Something that improves on the Vista experience, be that performance, or a nice subtle UI improvement. It might make people feel a bit better about Vista given it hasn't been well received.

Labels: Apple, Mac, Microsoft, Windows

Very unique Mac - [12:49 PM]

MAKE Magazine: "MAKE chum Jake von Slatt points us to a beautiful remake of his steampunk Mac Mini workstation by Dave Veloz, who made it for his fiance, no less!" - Very nice.

Labels: Apple, Mac

Mac running Windows - [9:28 AM]

The Unofficial Apple Weblog: "Actually, let's not do this. Let's realize that Microsoft is a company and Apple is a company, and while yes, in some fields they are competitors, let's just put the whole Apple vs. PC idea to bed. Guess what: a Mac actually is a PC. It's a very, very well-made PC (in fact, the best made, in this blog's humble opinion)." - Yes, the Macintosh is a great Windows box. Just check out the hardware, who wouldn't want that kind of power behind Windows? And, yes, I'm fairly certain the Linux crowd would be happy with a Mac as well, but I wouldn't want to do that to my Mac, it would be like putting a pig on lipstick. You read that right "Putting a pig(Linux) on lipstick(Mac)."

Labels: Apple, Linux, Mac, Microsoft, Windows

Leopard floating clock - [11:55 AM]

I like to display, or float, the analog clock on my desktop, call me strange, but it would appear that Apple has removed that as an option from Leopard.

I for one would like it back.

Labels: Apple, Mac

Pictures inside Apple's HQ - [9:44 AM]

Office Snapshots: "Then, after the Apple guards took me away and threw me in Apple hell (which consisted of using a first generation iPod for an hour), I was able to easily escape during one of the Macworld reruns that play each hour. While everyone was in their trance-like state, I had free reign to take as many pictures as I wanted. And here they are." - I love stuff like this. Apple is obviously one of those places with great freedoms and really great side benefits for their employees. You don't get bennies like this if you work for a manufacturing company.

Labels: Apple

Oh my... - [11:59 AM]

Apple TV is now something on my gotta get me one of these list.

Blu-ray or HD DVD? Who cares. I'll purchase an Apple TV box and watch what I want when I want and I won't have to return the movie.

Labels: Apple, Movies

Apple as Record Label - [4:11 PM]

Gizmodo: "Looks like there might another major announcement at MacWorld. BGR says they've 'confirmed' that Apple is launching a record label with Jay-Z, who's set to step down from Def Jam." - This could get very interesting.

Labels: Apple, Music

Give it back - [11:04 AM]

Scripting News: "A screen shot of an email I sent to Steve Jobs at Apple." - Dave's been trying to retrieve his busted hard drive from Apple since having it replaced. I don't see how Apple can keep this piece of hardware? If my drive contained private information, and source code, I'd DEMAND they return it. Like a commenter said, when you have parts replaced on your car the shop has to offer to give the parts back. We should have the same option with computer parts replacement.

Apple, I love you to death, but pull your head out and return the drive.

Read the full text of Dave's e-mail.

Labels: Apple

Upgrading to Leopard - [10:14 AM]

I think we've all heard a story or two about Leopard upgrade issues. Here's what I've been told. If you're using apps like Shimo, or Growl, uninstall them before upgrading. Apparently they've been a source of upgrade issues. Other than that the folks I work with have had zero issues.

Labels: Apple, Mac

Even Apple makes mistakes - [8:35 AM]

Think Secret: "Apple and Think Secret have settled their lawsuit, reaching an agreement that results in a positive solution for both sides. As part of the confidential settlement, no sources were revealed and Think Secret will no longer be published." - Apple, shame on you.

Labels: Apple

Hog Bay - [11:16 AM]

Jesse Grosjean: "That reaction is certainly not representative, in fact it's the only such comment that I've seen. But in the interest of full discloser, and because I think it might be fun for some people to read, I've decided to fully document everything that I can remember about TaskPaper's launch, and tell you what I think helped make it a success." - An Indy Mac developer talks his latest creation, TaskPaper.

Labels: Apple, Development, Mac

Mac Santa? - [11:03 AM]

That's right, it's time to visit MacSanta!

Labels: Apple, Mac

The Mac is now a target - [9:59 AM]

Reed Me: "After all the Mac v. PC commercials, I will laugh my considerable posterior off if Apple winds up creating a UAC-style prompt to warn their customers that an application is attempting to access critical system components..." - It was inevitable. The kiddies can't resist being destructive. I'm fairly certain they'll come up with an elegant solution, but who knows.

There is one point that's not correct in the post however, Linux does not live inside Mac OS X. It's a Mach Kernel + BSD, which is very, very different than Linux. Inside they call it Darwin, also called XNU.

Labels: Apple, Mac

Software, Beer, and Mac - [9:36 AM]

Steve Mitchell: "My parents bought me my first computer in 1984. It was the original 128K Macintosh. According to the sales guy, they'd already sold out of their first shipment, and more were back ordered. So I had to spend an agonizing six weeks waiting for my computer." - Great story Steve, and welcome back to Mac.

Labels: Apple, Mac

To upgrade, or not to upgrade - [7:25 AM]

I haven't upgraded to Leopard yet. There, I said it. I think most folks at work have and I've heard mixed results. My office mate had some minor issues and had trouble with X after installing.

So the question is, should I wait or should I install now?

Labels: Apple, Mac

Mac coding headstart - [7:13 AM]

Apple.com: "Complete with introductory video, lesson guide and sample code in an Xcode project, you'll learn to create new and compelling features in your application using the development languages, APIs and frameworks of Mac OS X Leopard."

Labels: Apple, Development, Mac

How to move to a Mac - [9:59 AM]

Apple.com: "Why upgrade to Vista when you can upgrade to Mac? Especially when you can move all your stuff from an old PC to a shiny new Mac in less time than it takes to add the memory, hard disk space, and graphics card you’ll probably need to install Vista. Here are three easy ways to make your move."

Labels: Apple, Mac

How do you use your Mac? - [12:33 PM]

A typical day with my Mac.

0) Auto start Quicksilver.
1) Start Entourage.
2) Start Safari.
3) Start VMWare Fusion.
4) Start MarsEdit.
5) Start NetNewsWire.
6) Start Terminal.

The interesting one in the list is #3, VMWare Fusion. Why? Well we develop software for Windows and Linux, so I use both OS's on a daily basis, right from within my MacBook. I'll typically start Windows or Linux(Ubuntu) up and when I have need for the other I simply suspend the current session, minimize it, and fire up the other OS. This tends to happen when I need to make sure my changes didn't break anything in the other OS, whichever it may be at the time. This works beautifully. So much so I'm still surprised by it just about every day.

I use other apps on occasion, like...

OmniPlan
OmniGraffle
MindJet Mindmanager
Chicken of the VNC
Remote Desktop Connection
TextMate
SmartSVN
XCode
Dashboard
Shimo
Growl (indirectly of course)

Labels: Apple, Mac

Why aren't you running Vista? - [12:23 PM]

The other day the VP of our little software division came into my office while I was building some code, in Windows, I'd just added some functionality to on the Linux side of my universe; making sure I didn't break anything, and he says "I'm surprised you're not running Vista?" to which I replied "I have a Mac, I don't need Vista."

The reply seemed to satisfy him.

Labels: Apple, Mac, Microsoft, Windows

I couldn't agree more Chris - [9:03 AM]

Chris Pirillo: "I’m still not so sure I’d recommend the OS (or any Linux distribution) to anybody who considers themselves less than an “average” user. OS X has geeky underpinnings (in UNIX), but Apple has rightfully gone to great lengths to hide inadvertent access that power.

For Ubuntu to succeed in widespread adoption, it must gain wider hardware support and become a lot less… Linuxy. ;)" - Ties nicely into what I said yesterday. It looks like he said it a day before I did, but you get what I mean.

Labels: Apple, Linux, Mac

Linux for my parents? - [8:32 AM]

Foogazi: "The most obvious and important reason your parents should run Linux is the security the Linux operating system provides." - I don't think so folks. The most obvious choice is Macintosh, period. If your parents already have a Windows box and $600.00 they can score a Mac mini and hook it up to their existing monitor, keyboard, and mouse. Apple pays very close attention to the user experience, everything just works. When we bought our daughter a Mac laptop she popped it open and started working day one, without Dad's help. The only reason I knew it had arrived is she called for the wireless password. I've provided ZERO technical support in a year-and-a-half. Try that with a Linux box.

The open source camp should take a close look at the Macintosh user experience and clone that instead of the Windows experience. If people want Linux to be adopted by mom and pop it's going to have to work WITHOUT configuration when the box is started, no matter what the environment. That has been my experience with Mac.

Labels: Apple, Linux, Mac, Open Source, Usability

Windows to Mac development - [3:13 PM]

Now I'm using a Macintosh I have a huge desire to write applications for it.

How do you get a C/C++, Win32, COM guy over to writing Objective-C for Cocoa? I may never find the time to do anything but it would be nice to have a set of references if I ever do.

Thank You.

Labels: Apple, Development, Mac, Tools

How to create Apple Dashboard Widgets - [9:49 AM]

For future reference, Developing Dashboard Widgets.

Labels: Apple, Development, Mac

Where can Apple go from here? - [9:38 AM]

The new Apple iTouch has the opportunity to take Apple in yet another new direction. How? Have you see the Starbucks Music Demo on the Apple website? Go check it out, it's short, I'll wait.

Back? Ok, what did you think? Did it open your eyes to other possibilities? How about a deal with Blockbuster? You walk into a Blockbuster and can view previews automagically, and better yet you can purchase a movie. I know, I know, that cuts into iTunes, but you get the idea. What about an iTouch enabled grocery store? You create a shopping list and when you walk into your local grocery store you can see a map of the store along with the location of all the items on your list and a list of products on sale, or better yet a personalized list of products you like to purchase based on past purchasing. That's just scratching the surface!

In the end I can see a whole new class of consumer oriented applications springing up targeted specifically at the iTouch. Something tells me Apple is already way ahead of my thinking on the subject, and the Starbucks Music application is the start of something special.

Labels: Apple