Apple sells out (WWDC)
For the first time in the history of Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference, the event has sold out.
I attended the event last year, and the 4000 plus attendance was one of the largest showings to date. It’s pretty safe to say that this year’s record attendance is fuled by the dual punch of new iPhone developers and increasing Mac sales.
Great news for Mac users, as WWDC attendance is a great barometer for interest in the platform.
Posted: May 14, 2008 / Category: Apple, Developers, News
The iPhone is missing!
I was thoroughly convinced an iPhone update would be coming at WWDC. However, with iPhone supply drying up in the UK, and now here in the US, I’m not so sure that Apple won’t drop the 3G iPhone before WWDC. It seems crazy for Apple to go 2-3 weeks with no iPhone inventory to sell in it’s biggest market, doesn’t it?
Posted: May 12, 2008 / Category: iPhone
Pixelmator 1.2 “Draftsman”
Pixelmator continues it’s steady pace of adding features and fixing bugs with the new 1.2 “Draftsman” release. New for this version is a stellar implementation of guides and grids, along with some superb curves and auto adjustment features. If you’re looking for an image editor, the $59 you spend on Pixelmator may just be your best investment option.
Posted: / Category: Software
OpenOffice 3.0 beta
OpenOffice 3.0 beta has been released (click to download). Why do you care? Because this is the first version for Mac OS X that doesn’t require X11 to operate. OpenOffice 3.0 for Mac OS X features an Aqua interface, among the other new features present in version 3.0.
My initial impressions are:
- Finally!
- Damn, that’s a big file (167.4 MB)…
- and - man, is this thing SLOW!
Still, it is nice to see a native version of OpenOffice available for Mac OS X. Personally, I love iWork and it does a great job at handling my word processing, presentations and spreadsheet needs, along with conversion of Office 2007 and older docs. But one can’t argue with a decent free product that handles the same tasks. If the community can get OpenOffice 3.0 a speed boost, it may just become a hit on the Mac.
Oh, and why you’re at it, get rid of the icon. It sucks.
Posted: May 7, 2008 / Category: Software
NBC slumming with the Zune
So, after a public spat with Apple over pricing of their content on the iTunes Store, NBC is now schilling their shows on the Zune Marketplace at a hefty increase of zero dollars and zero cents. NBC ditched Apple when their contract expired in a public rift that seems to have centered on pricing flexibility. Apple wanted the programs to sell for $1.99 like every other TV show in the store, and NBC wanted the flexibility to increase the price on more popular shows. Although the programs are currently $1.99 in the Zune Marketplace, Microsoft states that NBC has the flexibility to increase prices if they see fit.
So, to recap - NBC pulls it’s programming from the #1 retailer of music and video content in the world, which serves up programming to over 100 million iPods, over a pricing dispute. It then signs a contract with Microsoft to offer it’s content to a marketplace that serves around 2 million Zunes.
In my world, we call that crazy.
Have fun with your “flexible” pricing NBC. I’m sure it will be real successful.
Posted: May 6, 2008 / Category: Digital Music
The Psystar Scenario
So, this company called Psystar apparently didn’t get the memo that Steve Jobs killed the Mac clones back in 1998. That, or they just aren’t really that smart. Either way, their site is back up and their $399 Open Computer (changed from Open Mac) is available for purchase. (more…)
Posted: April 15, 2008 / Category: Hardware
Adobe Photoshop CS4: 64-bit for Windows only
Adobe blogger John Nack has let it slip that the next version of Adobe Photoshop (CS4 for those wondering) will be 64-bit… but for Windows only. While I’m usually one to cast blame at Adobe’s feet for decisions like these, I have to admit Adobe is doing the best they can with the situation they’ve been dealt.
Last year at WWDC, during the Mac OS X State of the Union, Apple dropped a pretty significant bomb that didn’t get much attention (probably due to the whole NDA thing, I guess). While Leopard would be a 64-bit OS through and through, Carbon would not gain 64-bit memory addressing. This essentially leaves developers with Carbon apps stuck in 32-bit land, with the only other option being migrate to Cocoa. This was counter to Apple’s promise in August of 2006 that Carbon would be 64-bit.
When I heard this news at the session, I immediately thought that apps like Photoshop, Flash, Office were going to suffer, long term. As Nack points out on his blog, this decision really did throw Adobe a curve ball. They were in the middle of developing against the previous Leopard seed from August of 2006, which did feature a work-in-progress 64-bit Carbon. (more…)
Posted: April 3, 2008 / Category: Blog Watch, Opinion, Software
AppleTV updated to version 2.01
Apple issued an update to the AppleTV software this weekend, bringing it to version 2.01. The new version features a “Genres” option for searching through movies in your library. The update is free to AppleTV users through the AppleTV software update. At the time of this writing, there were no release notes associated with this update.
Apple posts updated iPhone SDK
Apple has posted an updated version of their iPhone SDK for developers. Version 9A2151 includes iPhone support in Interface Builder. The 1.36GB download is available for registered developers at the Apple Developer Connection website.
Posted: March 27, 2008 / Category: Developers, iPhone
Updated: Review: AppleTV
The AppleTV has been out for over a year now, but with the Febrauary “Take Two” update, it is enjoying a renaissance of sorts. While the original AppleTV looked appealing to me, I passed on it. The original 40GB size was just too small (since rectified with a 160GB version), and apart from a few iTunes TV shows, content was hard to come by. That problem seems to resolved with the new movie rentals options. What follows is a look at the hardware, software, and real world usage of AppleTV.
(more…)
Posted: / Category: Reviews