October 24, 2007

Classic is Dead

Still have MacOS 9 apps banging around on a PPC Mac, running in the Classic environment? As of MacOS X 10.5, they’re no more:

Classic applications do not work on Intel processor-based Macs or with Mac OS X 10.5.

[From the Apple Support knowledge base:]

Posted by jim at 07:04 PM

Leopard: Final Dock

Another good piece of news. MacOS X 10.5 Leopard has a new appearance for the Dock; it looks like a reflective 3-D shelf for your application icons. There’s been a lot of debate about this, centering around two arguments.

It flies in the face of Apple’s human interface guidelines in terms of the 3-D perspective and light-sources. If you aren’t aware of such things, then it just looks a little… wrong. If you’re aware of such things, it screams like a misused “it’s” to an editor.

It looks horrible at the side of the screen. Many users - especially those with multiscreen or widescreen setups - place the dock at the side of the screen. The sideways shelf looks really…. wrong.

Apple apparently listened. One last-minute change in the final release version of Leopard is an alternate appearance for the Dock that’s “flat” - avoiding the perspective and positioning issues of the Shelf appearance.

Whew.

Posted by jim at 10:14 AM

IMAP on GMail

It’s been long-awaited, but Google has finally added IMAP to GMail.

This generally has two reactions. If you’re in the “W00t! IMAP!” camp, then have at it.

If you’re in the “what’s IMAP?” camp, and ever have a desire to access Gmail from something other than the web interface, then rest assured this is Good News.

Posted by jim at 10:05 AM

September 06, 2007

Pat on the back

I called it. Apple’s posted An open letter to iPhone owners from Steve Jobs. Long story short, Apple will offer a $100 Apple Store credit to early iPhone buyers.

The money quote?

Our early customers trusted us, and we must live up to that trust with our actions in moments like these.

Exactly. Good response, Apple.

Posted by jim at 01:29 PM

September 05, 2007

What's missing from the iPod touch.

With today’s announcements and price cuts, the iPhone is the same price as the high-end iPod touch - $399US. They have the same screen, same UI, both have Wi-Fi. Looks like they both have the same annoying ultra-narrow sunk headphone jack. So you lose 8GB of storage buying an iPhone rather than a Touch… what do you get? Well the iPhone has:

  • A phone, including voice and 2.5G data.
  • 2MP camera.
  • A little more size and weight (15 grams more)
  • 2 hrs more audio playback, 2 hrs more video.
  • Speakers and a mic. Headphones only on Touch.
  • A power adaptor for recharging without a computer. Sold separately on iPod touch.

Here’s something else the iPhone has that the Touch doesn’t. Email.

That’s right. The iPod touch lists “Wi-Fi Web Brower”, not “Breakthrough Internet Device.” No Mail. Go ahead, look around the Apple site. There’s no Mail button on the Home screen, no mention of email anywhere on the iPod touch site. Steve didn’t demo it.

While we’re at it - there’s no Google Maps application visible, no Stocks widget, no Weather widget. The iPod touch is an iPod first and foremost. Wi-Fi is there to allow you to get to the iTunes Wi-Fi Store, and Apple knew people would scream murder if they didn’t put in mobile Safari and YouTube.

Looks like Apple may try the road of differentiation by bundled software. We’ll have to wait and see if the iPhone and Touch share similar enough hardware that the hackers can migrate apps from one to the other but, until then… email only lives on the iPhone.

Posted by jim at 02:49 PM

Appease the Cult

Apple’s iPod revamp is impressive, but one of the announcements bound to piss people off is the new iPhone pricing. The 4GB iPhone is dead, dead, dead, and the 8GB iPhone has dropped to $399 from its launch price of $599. That’s a 33% price cut - $200 - just 2 months after launch.

Yes, you pay to early adopt. Price cuts are a reality of technology - costs of flash memory and other components have likely dropped since iPhone pricing was established earlier this year. Not to mention the price point had to be aligned with the iPod Touch.

But the scale of this price cut is pretty big - I’d hazard that $100 would have been easier to swallow. $200, to judge the responses so far, makes the early adopters - the “Cult” that has helped promote the iPhone to friends and strangers - feel stupid. It would be good if Apple could address this, even in a symbolic fashion.

And they can.

Every iPhone had to be registered with Apple via an iTunes account. Apple knows when each iPhone was registered. Apple could easily announce that any iTunes account that registered an iPhone before September 1st receives a credit for the iTunes Music Store - some placating amount - effective upon the launch of the wireless version of the store.

There’s the gimme. Acknowledge the early adopters, don’t piss off what Guy Kawasaki long ago described as The Cult.

Posted by jim at 01:37 PM

August 20, 2007

Why comments are disabled

What if you fired up your business with a little Internet-style participation? [NSFW - language]

Yeah, I thought so.

(Edited to point to original source)

Posted by jim at 10:21 AM