11.23.2007 | Fired up about Amazon's Kindle

Poster child: Bezos' new toy

Leave it to Newsweek to try to get out in front of a technology trend. But this time they may have gone too far.

It began innocently enough — without notice or a buildup of anticipation that normally accompanies the introduction of such gadgets, Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos unveiled a new eBook reader at an Apple-like special event Monday. What followed was predictable — gadget sites online got their hands on one ASAP to give their take on the device. The verdict? A great leap forward, but not the be-all end-all of eBook readers. (Sony, after all, has had theirs out for a while now; Microsoft took a crack at it with their Reader software nearly a decade ago).

So I walk into a drugstore today, and see this on the cover of Newsweek: "Five centuries after Gutenberg—" stop right there. If anything should be compared to the invention of the printing press, it's the digital word, a phenomenon that goes way beyond any one device. The hyperbole left me wondering whether Newsweek was incapable of making a good analogy at best, or allowing themselves to be used as a free advertisement at worst (c|net's Amy Tiemann "had to check twice to make sure the article wasn't a paid product placement").

I can't be sure how the Kindle will fare, but my guess is that it will remain a niche product for the following reasons:

• One screen is not enough. You read a book two pages at a time; an electronic reader should have two screens (or at least a wide screen that folds in the middle) with opposing faces.


• It should be familiar. Open the cover of a Kindle, and it doesn't feel like a book. It feels like a PDA. People like the way the weight of a book feels in their hands. They like to take the book in their hands and flip through the pages. Until a reader mimics these existing ways of interacting with the medium, I don't think it will have mass appeal.


• Ditch the keyboard. Like Apple's brilliant stroke with the iPhone did to the smartphone, an e-reader should not have a keyboard that distracts you when you're trying to focus on reading the screen. It should just be you and the words. Even Bezos said he wanted the Kindle "to disappear in your hands — to get out of the way — so you can enjoy your reading." It's hard to do that with a keyboard staring back at you at the bottom — and what about accidental taps? Like the iPhone, fixing this will require a touchscreen replacement (all the better to simulate flipping pages with?) — Apple's approach in a recent patent filing is one way.

The X factor in all this is Apple's response. The Kindle's launch has inspired comparisons to the iPod, and reviewers have mentioned the iPod and iPhone's potential to be used as an eReading display. I, for one, wouldn't mind using a click wheel to scroll down a chapter of text after selecting it from a playlist-like selection menu (are you listening, Apple?).

Whatever the case, the Kindle did get two things right: wireless downloads wherever you are, and page-turn buttons that don't leave you feeling all thumbs. Is that enough to spend $400 on a device that looks like it would have been at home next to a 1980s PC? Time will tell. But at least for now, it seems the reports of the book's death at the hands of the Kindle are greatly exaggerated.

10.26.2007 | Liveblogging* Leopard: First impressions

Rite of initiation: Getting a free T-shirt for being one of the first to show up. And Photo Booth doesn't look half bad, either.

Okay, so now that I'm an Apple geek I get to take part in one of the Apple fanboy's time-honored transitions: slavishly whoring oneself out for Apple's marketing purposes the day they launch their new operating system (or is that just all the time?).

In other words, I waited in line. In front of people. Showing up at an Apple Store the day of a software release announces to the world either that their latest release was really worth waiting that long for – or that you're a hopelessly devoted nerd devoid of friends, girlfriends, social skills, or all of the above (there were a few of those in line, no doubt).

But it wasn't all geekiness. Or maybe it was, but it was geek chic.

Apple's stores were closed Friday, presumably to upgrade their machines to Leopard, the latest release of Apple's flagship Mac OS (or Macintosh Operating System, in 1980s speak – this is version 10.5 for those of you who are counting). The 6 p.m. Friday release echoed a similar event this past summer when Apple chose the time and day of the week to release its much-hyped iPhone (and given the iPhone's strong numbers, the hype appears to have been deserved).

As the premiere event approached, a roped-off line snaked halfway down the plaza, cameras snapped, and Apple Store associates served Starbucks coffee to those waiting in line. And at the grand moment, the opening of the door, store associates clapped and cheered, I grabbed my T-shirt and promptly exited the line for those waiting to buy the new software. I headed instead straight for the bank of computers awaiting an OS that I had been waiting for since I got my first Apple in 2005.

Did it live up to the hype? Well, as much as I love Apple, I have to say it doesn't match the groundbreaking release of the iPhone. Instead, Leopard is just a nice refresh to keep the OS as useful as ever and shiny and new. I'll go over the main features here:

• Time Machine. This is the biggie. Basically, your computer is now able to backup every change you ever make in real time, and you can go back in time whenever you want. Pretty cool, but get the largest hard drive you can if you want this feature to work the way it should. A terabyte (1,000 gigabytes) no longer sounds quite so large.
  
  
• Spaces. If you hear something about Leopard "conquering time and spaces," this is why. You can now have multiple desktop spaces to keep windows open in, a handy way for a chronic multitasker like me to stay organized. As you can see, I have my movies playing in one window; working on photos in another; my calendar in notes in one … let's just say I could get used to this. Oh, and one more thing: you can make more than 4 spaces if you want – up to 16.
  
  
• Quick Look. Not revolutionary, but potentially incredibly handy. For applications that support it (Microsoft Office excluded at the moment), you can see what a document looks like without having to open a separate program. It saves time and keystrokes.
  
  
• Grid and Fan. It seems simple enough, but it's probably one of the greatest leaps forward in Mac OS usability yet. It would be even better if Applications were one of the default icons in the dock so you could use it like a faux Start button (something to help the switching Windows users out there). But when you add it, you have instant access to your programs. Cool beans.

• Finally, Cover Flow. Now you can look at the files on your hard drive like you can browse album covers in iTunes. This is especially useful for photos, and as more applications support Quick Look, can get really exciting. But I'll try to contain my enthusiasm for now (Apple has spoiled me into thinking that features like this are something to be taken for granted).
  

So that's a "Quick Look" at the features of Leopard – I didn't even get into the add-on software that comes with the OS, and there are more features that can't be captured in one photo. Aside from having the first computer I tried crash on me twice when I tried to use Photo Booth's more advanced effects (hopefully not an omen), everything was surprisingly slick and smooth. Computing has definitely been vaulted into the next generation, at least until Apple releases its next update in 12-18 months.

* The asterisk in the title? It would have been liveblogging, but I had to yield my computer for about an hour while an Apple Store associate gave some pretty impressive demos of Leopard features (thank goodness for Blogger's autosave feature; I almost lost this post). So while I may not have been impressed with Leopard's features on my first go around, it just goes to show that if you take some time to sit down with it, you might be surprised by what you'll find. In other words: there's more than one way to skin a cat.

9.08.2007 | Apple's 'beat' falls flat

Whither the 16GB iPhone? That was the question I was left with last week as Apple's much-anticipated special event left me wondering, "Huh?"

Blame the rumor mill. Unlike previous Apple events where people were left largely in the dark, this time the analysts got it mostly right. Maybe too much right. So much right, that by the time the event was over, it was what they didn't get right that left me distinctly unsatisfied.

Okay, so nobody predicted a 16GB iPhone (except me), but it's gotta be coming. Apple can't let iPod touch go too long having more storage capacity than its phone-enabled cousin, though I can understand that, large flash drives being a relatively new technology, it would make sense to use the limited supply there first.

But that's not even what has me most riled up. What's got me stinking mad at Apple is for toying with our expectations by using "The beat goes on" as their tag line for the special event. Used in the Beatles' final press release, the phrase got the rumor mill guessing, yet again, that Beatles would be available on iTunes. So when Jobs got to his "one more thing" announcement, downloading music wirelessly at Starbucks wasn't all that fantastic.

"A ship that leaks from the top." It has been said of the ship of state, and of Apple, which has been notorious for acting to squelch rumors (though recently it seems to confirm them). After this year's spoiler, I can understand why.

Hit and miss

Rumor	Result
Touchscreen, wireless, flash-based iPod	iPod Touch
OS X-based iPod with Cover Flow	iPod Touch, iPod Classic, iPod Nano
"Fatty"	iPod Nano
iPod Touch	iPod Touch
Ringtones for iPhone	Ringtones for iPhone
Wireless iTunes downloads	iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store
Beatles on iTunes	—
—	Free downloads at Starbucks
—	$200 iPhone price cut

8.11.2007 | iPod to iPhone: The War on Terror

In an example of how print doesn't always translate well online, one alternative weekly columnist's look at the “War on Terror™” lacked a direct link with the sidebar that did a better job (in my view) of putting into perspective how long we've been at war: the distance of time between the release of two seminal Apple products. Even the online version of the sidebar lacked the graphics of Apple technology that — especially for an Apple fanboy like me — gave a sense of progression to the story. Compare what you see online with this photo from the print version below:

8.07.2007 | Anorexics protest new iMac slogan

Okay, not quite. But Apple is definitely relying on sex appeal to sell these new, thinner iMacs. When they introduced the 3rd-generation iMac in 2005, they looked to the iPod for design cues. Is it any coincidence, then, that this new iMac looks more like an iPhone? I don't know what Apple had in mind — that the new iMac was supposed to sell more iPhones or vice-versa, but the effect is clear: I want one.

In the days leading up to the iMac's release, a fake article made it to the front page of Digg.com promoting "leaked" pictures of the "new iMac." It was just a photoshopped version of the Apple Cinema Display, but darn if I don't want the next iMac to look more like that. Perhaps the faker of the photos achieved an insidious alternative effect: spoiling the release of Apple's new product by creating unreachable expectations. Cointelpro from one of Apple's competitors? Say it ain't so.

5.31.2007 | When crashing can be a pleasant surprise

My PowerBook G4 has served me faithfully for nearly two years now, and for the first time I had reason to bring it into the Apple Store for a potentially perplexing problem – when I selected a certain font in Fireworks MX 2004, the whole program came crashing down, and sometimes it brought down other applications with it. One incident caused a systemwide crash.

But even as I was experiencing these problems, I was still impressed with some of the recovery features of Mac OS X. For one, the systemwide crash I mentioned simply closed all my programs and logged me out instead of giving me a blue screen of death – no restart necessary. But the biggest surprise came after I took my computer in for repair.

I was told I was going to have to reinstall the operating system. Instantly I had painful flashbacks of sitting in front of a screen for hours watching a progress indicator while backing up important files before having to go through the laborious process of changing all my settings in every application. But this is Mac – they have something better.

By selecting an option during the reinstall process, Mac OS saved all my settings and applications exactly the way they were. After the process was complete, everything was preserved so perfectly that even my Firefox browser remembered the page I had been looking at when I last used it. I encountered only two minor glitches – I lost my user account picture, and I had to reinstall Flip4Mac, a program that lets me see Windows Media in QuickTime on Mac OS. But other than that, the process was painless and flawless. And most importantly, my problem was fixed.

So now though I can't say my Mac hasn't crashed, I can say that when it does, it does so more gracefully than Windows, and with a lot less time and effort lost. Kudos to the designers at Apple, and I look forward to their next release of Mac OS (10.5 "Leopard") in the fall.

11.23.2005 | Lugz to Apple: 'Cease and Desist'

Seen that new Apple ad with Eminem lately? It might have looked familiar for a reason:

Lugz (2002)	Apple (2005)

Plagiarism? You be the judge. I love Apple, but it does seem like their ad agency used the Lugz commercial as a jumping off point for theirs. I remember the ad seemed familiar when I saw it, but I couldn't quite place it. This definitely explains it. But then again, who's going to confuse an iPod ad with an ad for shoes? Apple's ad clearly follows the silhouette covnention used in previous ads, and there enough differences that copyright may not be an issue. Still, it shows that when people use ideas they should try to ask permission first.

6.06.2005 | Apple & Intel together "at last"

So I learned today that Apple is finally switching to the dark side. After shunning Intel's x86 architecture in the entire 20-30 year history of computing, Apple is finally making the switch to Intel, meaning no major computer manufacturer will be using non-x86 architecture. What is x86 architecture? It's the same thing that powered the first IBM personal computer, MS-DOS, and all the old junky stuff we'd like to forget from the early days of computing.

This isn't the first time Apple has made a deal with the devil. In 1998 it announced a partnership with Microsoft in which it distributed Microsoft's Internet Explorer with every Mac, for a time making every computer in the world come with Microsoft's ubiquitous browser. It seems with each new deal Apple's reason for existence -- raison d'être, that is -- seems to fade into the distance.

Not necessarily. The adaptation of Mac OS X to Intel's x86 architecture means that the operating system could someday be offered for ordinary PC users to be installed on their systems, which was always maintained as a possibility when Mac OS X, based on NextStep/OpenStep, Steve Jobs' old company, became the primary operating system for Macintosh systems. In fact Jobs revealed at this week's conference that every version of OS X since the first in 2001 has been "living a secret life" -- capable of running on both Intel-based and PowerPC-based systems (PowerPC are the IBM chips Apple currently uses to power its systems).

The ability to run on Intel processors also introduces some tantalizing propositions. In 2007 the new version of Windows (codenamed Longhorn) will be out, and its requirements of advanced graphics rendering capabilities similar to those already found on the Mac might enable PC users to run Mac OS X on their PCs (though we'll have to see if this is the route Apple decides to take to promote its OS).

The most powerful case Steve Jobs made for switching to Intel was a performance indicator called "performance per watt" -- a watt being the amount of power a processor has to use to achieve a certain number of functions. PowerPC chips, including the latest G5 which for now can only run on desktops, require too much power to fit into laptops and provide the advanced performance that Intel will be offering in the near future. This is the most commonsense reason Apple had to make the switch.

Now, what does it mean to Mac users, or those who are planning to buy a Mac? Not to worry. The switch to Intel in no way means your existing PowerPC Mac is outdated. At the conference Jobs demonstrated some amazing capabilities of OS X which will provide backward-compatible support for PowerPC programs on Intel computers, and the transition to Intel-based programs will allow for "double binary" programs that can run on both Intel and PowerPC systems for the foreseeable future.

The most exciting aspect is that PowerPC programs will be able to run on the Intel machines with amazing smoothness and reliability, with no visible program or emulator running. A feature of OS X called "Rosetta" automatically translates PowerPC programs onto the Intel architecture, allowing the system to run flawlessly. Meanwhile, existing PowerPC users will be able to continue to purchase new programs offering support for both PowerPC and Intel-based OS X processors.

After watching the Developers Conference video on apple.com, I am still 100% convinced that I still need to buy a Mac now to take advantage of OS X Tiger's latest features, features that won't be available on Windows until 2007. By then, Apple will have a new version out already, and you can buy a new Intel-based Apple as time (and budget) permits. This is a major shakeup in the computing world, but everyone can continue to benefit from Apple's superior feature set and enjoyable user experience.

If you haven't already, you can watch the video here. On Apple QuickTime, of course.

3.05.2005 | More Apple coolness

A few weeks ago I got an Apple AirPort Express, a handy portable little device that lets me bring wireless Internet wherever there's a wired Ethernet port and a power outlet close by.

It also has ports on the bottom for a printer to be able to print wirelessly, and an audio out port for AirTunes, which lets me use iTunes to listen to my songs wirelessly through powered speakers connected to the AirPort Express. I'm definitely loving the Apple lifestyle. Setup was a snap (just insert the CD and go), and the price wasn't too bad, either -- the only other wireless router out there that lets you print wirelessly costs $30 more, and it isn't portable.



What surprises most people: AirPort Express uses the 802.11g wireless standard, which means it works with PCs just as well as Macs. Thank you Apple, for learning to play nicely with Windows. I'll buy a Mac one of these days...