Jun 10
Apple have posted a nice guided tour of the new iPhone 3G S. It takes you through some of the new features of the version 3 software for the iPhone and will come in very useful as a tutorial for any new iPhone users when they get hold of one over the next few weeks.
Jun 10
Apple, Conferences No Comments
Here's an interesting video of the Apple App Wall that was on show at WWDC.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KiQ62WVvT10
Apple hooked up 10 Mac Pros to 10 30 inch Cinema Displays to provide a near realtime visualisation of the purchase of 20,000 selected applications from the Apple AppStore.
Very cool.
(via TechCrunch)
Sep 05
Looks like my old trusty first generation 5GB iPod is going to have to be replaced.
The new iPod Touch. Just what I was after, an iPhone without the phone.
Apr 02
When I initially read yesterday about the possibility of this happening I thought it must be an April Fools prank. However, it looks like the beginning of a sea change to DRM-free music from on-line music stores has begun with the announcement by EMI and Apple that DRM-free copies of all the EMI catalogue will be available on iTunes starting in May.Not only will DRM-free copies of EMI music be available for purchase, it will be encoded at 256Kbps – twice the bitrate currently available on iTunes – but will incur an additional cost to the purchaser of 20p per track. Any album purchase will be available only as DRM-free and will remain at the same price point as before and as a bonus any previous purchases can be upgraded to DRM-free although I'm not too sure on the cost of doing so.This is the tipping point for me that means that it will now be worth my while buying content from iTunes and I believe I won't be alone. Hopefully all the other major and independent labels will jump on board soon and we can kiss DRM'd music goodbye.
Jan 09
The new Apple iPhone looks absolutely tremendous and apparently Wall Street believes so too. At the close of Steve Jobs keynote, Apple stock was up over 8%.
Jan 08
Apple, Hardware, Mac OS X, Software No Comments
Well, with under 24 hours to go until Steve Jobs walks out onto the stage at the Moscone Center to deliver his Macworld 2007 keynote speech, I thought I should post what I believe we will see tomorrow.
With Apple laptops and iPods literaly flying off the shelves I think it will be safe to say that we'll hear all about it and I wouldn't be surprised if Jobs doesn't take the opportunity to have a little fun at the Zune's expense.
I believe that this is a definite addition to the keynote, but will see just a feature bump to the existing applications rather that anything earth shattering. Ideally I'd like Apple to open up the iLife applications so that they could seamlessly interact with on-line services such as Flickr, YouTube, Google Maps and Odeo but I wouldn't be surprised if there was further integration with .mac, which would be a shame as I'm no longer a member.
I think this will see feature updates for both Pages and Keynote and will also see the release of a simple spreadsheet application along the lines of what is available in AppleWorks. I'm definitely not expecting an Excel killer.
Progress report on how things are coming and a release date announced for late Springtime. Hopefully we'll see some of the super secret features that Jobs eluded to back at WWDC 2006 now that Windows Vista has been released. Expect Jobs to have another dig at Microsoft here.
I think that both the MacBook Pro and Mac Mini will receive slight upgrades—the Mac Mini moving to Core 2 Duo across the line hopefully—but the rest of the hardware line will remain unchanged.
The iTV will be released and we will all learn it's real name. Hopefully it's got something more up it's sleeve than this, but I have my doubts. I really can't see any advantage to the iTV over buying a Mac Mini and sticking it under my TV. Obviously it's cheaper, but with the Mini I get a proper computer and therefore have the ability to play and record DVDs as well as allow my kids to play their favourite games and surf the Internet. I'm hoping to be proved wrong on this one.
The iPod Phone. I think this will be a slider mobile phone that looks like an iPod nano but about twice as thick. When closed it will appear—and act—as if it is an iPod nano with about 4GB of storage, but when the slider is opened it will change into phone mode and the keypad will be revealed. I also expect it to pack a 2 megapixel camera with a flash.That's it. Check back later to see whether I'm gloating over my prediction performance or hiding my face in shame.UPDATE: It appears that Intel have just launched their first Core 2 Quad branded processors so don't be too surprised if the MacPro line get bumped up to these chips.
Sep 05
At the start of the week Google accepted my ‘Google Apps for Your Domain’ application and I've finally made the decision to not renew my .Mac account when it expires in a months time. My reasons for this are highlighted below:
So after considering all of the points above it is heavy heart that I must say “Goodbye .Mac”. We had some good times and hopefully if Apple sees fit to give you a much needed upgrade we can be friends again.
Aug 26
It turns out that the battery in my 12" PowerBook G4 is one of the ones Apple wishes to recall. I've filled in the form and Apple are sending me a new one out in the mail but it's going to take 4-6 weeks to arrive. I'm going to be travelling down to London twice in that timeframe so hope that BA don't decide to follow Quantas' lead and consider banning Apple batteries from the cabin.I know Apple recommend that you remove the offending battery immedisately and run the PowerBook on mains power only, but that isn't really an option for me right now so I will be dicing with death and continuing to use my battery until the replacement arrives. Wish me luck!
Aug 08
Apple, Mac OS X, Ruby on Rails, Software No Comments
This is a great bit of news as the first thing I do on an install of Mac OS X is download compile and install all the various bits and pieces to get Ruby on Rails up and running. My ideal situation would be that this will be upgradable through software update and that setting up Rails apps with Apache would be handled through the Server Admin tools, but I won't hold my breath on that one.Anyway, this is great exposure for Rails so hats off to Apple for including this and congratulations to all the Rails team.
The developer seed that was distributed today at WWDC contains Ruby 1.8.4 and Rails 1.1.2, but we fully expect to have Rails 1.2.x along with Mongrel, SQLite bindings, and lots of other Ruby goodies on the final gold master when it goes out in spring.It’s been no secret that Apple is held in very high regard by the Rails community. Every single Rails Core contributer is running on Apple and the vast majority of Rails developers are too. To see Apple acknowledge this and return the favor is very rewarding.
Ruby on Rails will ship with OS X 10.5 (Leopard) (Via Riding Rails)
Apr 08
Apple, Mac OS X, Software No Comments
A new piece of software came to my attention yesterday called iAlertU. It's specifically written for the MacBookPro and uses the Apple Remote that ships with it to activate what is in effect remote locking — such as you would find on a car — for you laptop.
The best way to do it justice is to see the on-line demo video hosted by YouTube.com.A couple of questions spring to mind, however, after watching the demo:
I suppose it's a cool little application but I can't see any real world uses for it.
Twitter
Facebook
Flickr
RSS