tech ronin

Up and Running in OSX Leopard

I dropped by my local Apple store in Corte Madera last night around 9:25 pm. It was busy but there were lots of Apple staff around so I could get help fairly quickly. I used my iPhone $100 credit and bought the Family size of OS X Leopard. Got my free T-shirt which is still in the bag.

I'm moving this weekend with movers coming early Monday morning. No time for much fun. But, I did think I could stop working around 9:15 pm long enough to get Leopard on Leopard night.

I left pretty quickly and headed over to the new place in Tiburon. There were no special treats other than the T-shirts at check out. Not exactly a party. My new apartment has my new Sony XBR4 40“ HDTV, so I coordinated my trip with a brief visit to the new TV to watch Numbers in HD. Looking good!

While the show was on, I tried to install Leopard on my MacBook (my #2 machine). I just tried the upgrade. First time through it failed. Second time through it was failing and said the only way it would work is if I erased my drive. I forgot about archive and install and erased the drive. Too bad. The install failed which left me with an unusable computer on day 1.

Today, in between packing boxes, I used SuperDuper to copy a backup of my MacBook Pro to the MacBook. That took about an hour. Then I was able to boot the MacBook again. I read the installation instructions a bit more this time and decided to do an archive and install.

Worked like a charm and I am writing this post in Leopard using ecto as we speak. Leopard is definitely snazzy. The consistent look and differences are really nice. I'm already plotting to upgrade my MacBook Pro as soon as possible.

But, after my first bumpy install experience, I think I'll give it at least until Tuesday after the move. Meanwhile, I can use this machine to check my IMAP email in Mail and surf the net. I did upgrade my copy of NetNewsWire when it notified me there was an update and it is running just fine without a problem.

I can't wait to play with Go to My Mac and screen sharing in the near future! I'll make several more posts no doubt as I discover the niceties of this new OS for myself over the next few days.

First take on Amazon DRM-free music downloads

I just downloaded my first Amazon download for 89 cents! I had to download a small downloader application first (a beta).

I had to quit Safari to complete the install. Luckily I didn't have my usual massive number of tabs open, but heads up on that. The downloader put the song right into iTunes for me. This is quick and easy!

I am glad to see Amazon making a credible entry into the music downloading business to provide competition to Apple's iTunes. I'm even happier to see they are doing a DRM-free, relatively high-quality offering. They have two labels, Universal and EMI, so far.

Like anyone, I prefer to skip DRM. Now I can get a lot of music without DRM at a reasonable price. I intend to buy single songs at 89 and 99 cents per song. This deal beats Apple's 1.29 cent price for their DRM-free songs.

Apple has the edge in two areas. First, the iTunes store is way better overall. But, Amazon has better search and I hope that means Apple will give us some decent search to augment their current strengths. Second, Apple uses AAC encoding and Amazon is using MP3. AAC gives you a notch better quality at the same size.

So, Apple's DRM-free music is a little bit better and that difference would probably be noticeable on high quality headphones or high-end speakers. There is one caveat, though, which is that MP3 is supported everywhere and AAC is only supported on some players. If you are an iPod user, you'll be able to take advantage of AAC.

I will continue to use the iTunes store and also check out the Amazon store in some detail. I will report back on my experiences. Right now I want to support the Amazon DRM-free offering, so when I find something I want on the Amazon store, I will purchase there.

When I find a single song on iTunes that I want, I will just buy the DRM-free version there and pay the extra 30 cents. It isn't worth the trouble to go back and buy it on Amazon and I get the small AAC quality advantage to boot.

If there is no DRM-free version on iTunes, I'll buy there only if I don't think the DRM-free version is available on Amazon. DRM-free takes precedence because the convenience later in moving the song to different machines will make up for the inconvenience now of having to find the song again on Amazon.

Keep in mind that Apple wins either way. More good DRM-free music will drive iPod and iPhone sales. Besides, the competition will inspire Apple to do better work.

Finally, we want legal DRM-free music. Amazon, by joining the DRM-free side of the argument, will pressure the other labels that are holding out to open up their music too. This is good!

Whoa iPod touch, $399 iPhone, phatty nanos

Rocking with the rhythm! I didn't dare hope for a trim and gorgeous iPhone-like iPod so soon. I see there's no email button or notes on the iPod touch. There's no stock quotes or weather either.

Lots of space for something but I don't know what. Now that OS X drives these little music machines, there's plenty of room for exciting possibilities. Who knows? Maybe Apple will open up the touch while guarding access to the iPhone for a while longer.

Keep in mind that you don't get a speaker or a camera in the iPod touch. But then, not having to pay for a 2 year service contract with AT&T has got to count for something. You get more iPod for your money here. The 8 gig touch is $100 cheaper than the iPhone's new $399 price.

Loving that Stevie Jay put wi-fi in the iPod touch (16 gig version is $399). Safari on an iPod. You can download direct to your iPod touch and iPhone from the iTunes store. Instant gratification. Direct downloads will play well in Asia where not everyone sees the need for a computer when they have a cell phone to take its place.

Trying to figure out what I do next when I buy my next iPod. Do I blow my money and get a 16 gb iPod touch as a compliment to my iPhone? Probably not the smartest move. Seems too redundant and bulky to have two iPhone-sized devices. The touch is slightly smaller but not by much.

How about a cute little 8 gig phatty nano ($199) as a sleek adjunct? All I have to do is divvy up the media storage in a logical way between the two. I'm liking that new green. I can't wait to see that 2" screen boasting an amazing 204 pixels per inch and delivering the same QVGA pixel count, 320x240, as its bigger brother.

My theory on the iPhone price cut: (1) Steve needed to make that cut to drive more sales to meet the Sept 30 deadline for selling a million iPhones. They are on sale right now at the online store for $399 and (2) now there is room to charge $499 for the impending 16 gig iPhone and $599 for the 16 gig with 3G?

The 4 gig iPhone is being phased out. Engadget says you can get them for $299 while they last. Also, if you just bought an iPhone in the last couple of weeks, you can ask for a refund of the difference less a 10% restocking fee. You go!

Stock market dropped AAPL with perhaps a panic that (1) sales must not be brisk if a 33% price cut was needed and (2) hey, the margins just got shot to hell!

And, one more thing. Free wi-fi at Starbucks for your touches and iPhones! A little wheeling and dealing there to get the free wi-fi with this button that will sell Starbucks tunes. Update: on further research, it is not clear that you can use the wi-fi for anything besides the iTunes store. That's weak if true.

Overall, these are awesome new iPods. OK, the shuffle is a disappointment. But, the nano and iPod touch are both extremely cool and you can't beat the iPod classics for storage space. They share the new OS X UI.

Critics were saying the iPod has peaked. Remember when Apple said 30 years and we are just getting started at the beginning of the year? They weren't kidding. With the drop of the iPhone price to a realistic level, who is going to stop Apple now?

See Gizmodo's iPod touch photo gallery.

Picked up a few more shares of APPL

Woo hoo! Got 65 more shares of AAPL at $130.09. Remember that I'm nobody and totally inexperienced with stocks. All my other holdings are mutual funds. But, I wanted to have a round number of shares. Now I have 200. Much easier math. I have an iPhone and I think Steve Jobs is at least as competent as any other corporate exec out there and APPL is worth more than $130. So there!

And that doesn't mean it won't drop below 130. I just think overall it is headed towards 200. And I'm looking forward to iMacs next week, Leopard, upgrades to iPhone, widespread adoption by the non-early-adopters, international sales, and the ultraportable.

State of The Mac - July 2007

Just a note to let you know I wrote a new entry on the front page of my tokerud.com website on the above subject. Enjoy.

iPhone Being Closed at First is the Right Start

For security reasons, Apple has started the iPhone as a closed OS without Flash or Java support. Any of these things can be added after iPhone gains a strong position in the mobile market.

Opening the iPhone in its 1.0 version would subject this incredibly innovative new device to too much security risk. It is increasingly clear to me that iPhone is Apple's biggest game. It has been said that Apple is betting the company on iPhone. Calculated risks yes, but don't be stupid. Steve has struck the perfect balance for right here, right now.

I want more applications and diversity like the next avid mobilephile. And I'm not the most patient person. But, in this case, I'll wait.

My iPhone Experience 2 Weeks In

Great little device. The favorite thing for me is the high resolution user interface. The screens are gorgeous. Doesn't hurt to have the safari browser for web browsing even on Edge.

Enjoying the SMS texting with my iPhone friends - a new group in my Address Book. None of my other friends text for the most part. Hope that changes fast!

Liking the Stock tracker application to watch my Apple stock go up and up. It's gained $16 since release of the iPhone. I'm still expecting it to go into the $140 range. I didn't think it would go this fast, so perhaps it will drop back a bit before settling into the low $140's for a while.

Still missing several features like copy and paste, syncing notes, a to do list, mounting the iPhone as a drive on the desktop, being able to drag songs and podcasts to the iPhone icon in iTunes. None of these things work yet. Come on Apple! I know you are busy, busy, but please give us a few more goodies soon!

iCal idea. How about several views of iCal that you can just page through like they were cities in the weather app? That would let me have favorite category views and a to do list only view. That seems better than the buttons for Day etc. or perhaps an adjunct to that. I know you gotta make the user interface pristine, but I like that flipping with the finger thing and it seems like a good way to add views.

Challenge for iPhone users. What do you want for those 4 empty button slots on your iPhone? Here are my top four choices: (1) Games or 1 favorite game of my choice like solitaire, crossword puzzle, (2) iChat, (3) RSS reader, (4) Remote desktop.

I would like to be able to control more of those buttons, not just the blank row. On a BlackBerry, you decide where the buttons are and which ones go into the More buttons... category. I looked, though, and wasn't ready to eliminate any of the buttons Apple puts in as standard.

iPhone has 128 mb of RAM. That's what the latest blog post on Roughly Drafted says, anyway. I don't know why all the mobiles are so stingy on RAM. All the leading smartphones have only 64 mb. Glad we got double on the iPhone. But, why not 256 mb just to have a little extra? I guess it is all about costs, but looking at the iPhone cost structure - $265 for the 8 gig, it seems they had a little more room for more RAM.

Advice to fanatical new iPhone users. Think twice about getting a new iPhone for your significant other right now. Just in case an even better iPhone (say a 16 gb model) comes out in a few months, you may want to have someone to give your v1 iPhone to. All I am saying is don't push it. If he or she really wants one now, that's different.

Technorati Tags: iPhone

One More Vote for Opening up iPhone

I've heard lots of different ideas about iPhone being locked to native application development. It may be that limiting development to web-apps will cause a great flowering of cool web-apps for the phone. I don't doubt that.

But, locking your loyal developer community out of doing native Cocoa, OS X applications is a slap in the face and not a good idea for Apple. The developer community is full of little guy Cocoa developers who could write some great little apps for iPhone.

Apple does not have unlimited capacity for development. That's why Leopard got delayed. I think Apple is (1) probably not ready for managing a supporting the developer community who isn't experienced doing mobile applications and (2) they are favoring big guys like Yahoo! and Google and letting them have first dibs.

Apple may just be too darned busy to handle the one more thing of opening up the iPhone at this time. They have to somehow do all these deals and get software that works with the European and Asian carriers in the next little while.

I still think Steve needs to apologize to the developer community for the way he treated them at the developer's conference June 11 and give them more information. Tell them he is committed to eventually opening up the iPhone for developers. At least say he is not ready to give more details but will as soon as possible. Something.

For me, I would prefer native apps. I don't want to wait for Edge or Wi-fi to load something before I can operate. I want to be able to save data to my iPhone and not depend on a connection to a Net application.

In the back of my mind, I am thinking this whole mums-the-word approach that Steve is taking on iPhone development may have to do with Windows development. The iPhone will sell to a lot of Windows users I would guess. If you only develop on Cocoa, you would need a Mac. That may not be inviting to all Windows people. They want to develop on Windows. Does that mean Cocoa for Windows?

Technorati Tags: iPhone

iPhone Day 4

A few quick bits this morning on iPhone:

Now I can be more easily reached when I am listening to music or podcasts. I walk every day with my iPod and now with my iPhone. The differences are. Now, I will get phone calls. Before I would miss calls sometimes. I also would sometimes not listen to music from my iPod in my car when expecting a call. That problem goes away.

I am using the Notes quite a bit to jot down my observations about iPhone. Too bad there is no note syncing yet. For years I've wanted to be able to type notes into my iPod. To Do lists need to be handled as notes right now. Hey, that's what Mr. GTD, David Allen, does.

RSS Reading. I really want an RSS reader in the iPhone. Apparently there already is an RSS-reading capability. You can type an RSS URL into Safari and get that feed but there are no amenities for switching between feeds and such. [Kottke]

Apple's in-store iPhone training. It is great they offer training. I went for two hours on Sunday but the instructor didn't really know much more than we knew. It wasn't a slick presentation as I was expecting it to be and it didn't go into enough depth. I am guessing if I try the Apple flagship store in SF, the results would be better. But, of course, the staff has only had an iPhone since Friday as well.

Multi-touch. It gets better as you learn exactly how to touch. For example, when I first would touch the screen in Safari, I would often hit a link and be taken off to another page. Frustrating if you are using EDGE. But now I can tell how this thing works. You'll get the hang of it pretty quickly. It works well enough for a brand new device and once you get it, you are flying!

Making your web pages iPhone friendly. Now, wait a minute, I didn't think that was necessary with the iPhone. It isn't necessary, but if you have text no more than about 4-5 inches wide, when you zoom in with iPhone you get nice readable text. If you double-tap an 8 inch wide column, the type is kind of tiny. You can still pinch out to make the type bigger but then you need to drag back and forth left and right to see everything. The text in this column is about perfect.

Safari Market Share. I wonder what Safari usage is gonna do with all these new iPhone users. I wonder if the online stats will be able to distiguish between a Safari user on a Mac and one on an iPhone. I doubt it. Safari may have a pleasant surge in its market share. Of course, Safari for Windows might be a help as well.

Apple Stock. In the last week and a half, I had sold 3/4ths of my Apple stock. But Monday I bought back 2/3rds of that so, I now have enough sold that I have covered my original investment and I am going to stay in for at least a little while longer since I think this whole iPhone thing is a huge deal.

Bookmarks. The bookmarks in iPhone Safari are incredibly easy to work with. I don't have the bookmarks bar across which is great on my Mac, of course. But it is really easy to move my bookmarks up and down to get them in the best order for quick access to my favorite sites of the moment. This experience has no relationship at all to my efforts on my BlackBerry Pearl which was a real struggle in many ways when it came to Net access.

OSX iPod. Steve mentioned that an OS X iPod is coming when he gave away free iPhones to all his full-time employees (who had been there at least a year) the other day. If you happen to have great wi-fi access in your daily routines and the new iPod is essentially an iPhone without cellular access, the new iPod could be great for people who aren't into spending $20 or more a month on a data plan. The internet access is the killer app on the iPhone (if you don't count visual voicemail).

If you are going to do some music listening on the iPhone speakerphone, I recommend you turn on the Small Speakers EQ in Settings.

I am enjoying my iMap access where changes i make on the phone stick when I get back to my Mac.

Technorati Tags: iPhone

iPhone Day 2 - More Features in the Works

Cool news. According to a HowardForums post, lots more stuff is on the way. This is still unverified but tantalizing and I expect it will pan out.

iChat is coming very soon

a Finder like Leopard will be added at Leopard launch probably or sooner

widescreen keyboard support in every app not just Safari

Disk mode will be there, so the iPhone will mount on the desktop

Stabilization will be added to the camera (in software)

.Mac syncing eventually (that will be great for backup)

Flash is coming to the Safari browser

Keynote presentations are coming

Copy and paste, clipboard is coming

Engadget says there is a 620 mHz ARM chip in the iPhone with 3D graphics and energy saving functions. They say they are getting way better than expected battery life out of their 12 iPhones.

Other than that. Everywhere I have been in public using my iPhone, people have come up and asked about it. I've done a lot of demos quite gladly.

I have barely used the keyboard but I am glad widescreen is coming and I already like it as well as a Treo or the BlackBerry Pearl. Word guessing helps a lot since it tailors to your own vocabulary and gets better as you type more. When you type into the sender field in email, it uses your most recent sender that starts with that letter as its guess immediately and gives you all the other matches in a finger scrollable list to choose from.

Will get back to you once I've taken the 2 hours of free training at the Apple store this afternoon.