tech ronin

More Evidence of OS X Lite

Now AppleInsider is saying Apple's forthcoming iTV will run a lite version of OS X. Previously we've heard multiple rumors of an iPhone running a lite version of OS X. This could be interesting.

AppleInsider said they expect the iTV to be delayed until late January or early February due to issues they need to resolve with the software.

...the additional time is necessary to fine-tune an embedded version of the Mac OS operating system that will reportedly run on the device...

...software fluidity will be achieved through the core foundations of Mac OS X, which will form the bedrock of iTV by sharing many of the same software assets that have returned the Mac to the forefront of the personal computer industry over the last five years...

I'm used to waiting until early February for things announced at the Expo, so this is pretty normal. I see this rumor of OS X lite strengthening the credibility of the OS X lite on the iPhone rumor. I admit that I'm an easy mark, but this looks awfully good.

Looking at iTV right now, I see it differently. I see it as a computer dedicated to home entertainment that can talk to and be controlled by any Mac running OS X. It's the bridge computer between TV, *stereo* and home computer.

Perhaps the iPhone will make nice with iTV and, of course, your home computer. Interesting might be an understatement.

Black Apple Coming Soon

Let the speculation begin in earnest! We have one more week until the Steve Jobs MacWorld SF keynote. I love it when Apple talks to us.

This is the first of what may be seven images in seven days on the Apple site. I've heard at least one rumor that Leopard was going to get a black theme. I don't think this black is an accident.

The first 30 years were only the beginning.

That's Steve Jobsian in proportion! This means that Apple truly is undertaking a bigger, bolder effort. Beyond computing but also drawing on the firm's strengths in design, miniaturization and computers. This makes me think they are sure of themselves in the digital home entertainment space and in the mobile space. And in the computer space.

Welcome to 2007.

I may be dreaming, but I'm seeing my long hoped for ultraportable notebook, the video iPod, a lot more movies to download, the iPhone(s), iTV and maybe bigger cinema displays and possibly a whole new kind of HDTV this year. Apple is telling us this is going to be a banner year.

With the iPod phenomenon reaching a saturation point sometime in the not too distant future (it would seem), looks to me like Apple thinks they have more and bigger fish to fry. A lot of people seem to think that if anyone can *fix* various personal technologies, it is Apple. Of course, I'm one of them.

Rumored mini OS X for Embedded Devices Sounds Awesome

Wow! This rumor from the well-respected AppleInsider rumor site, is really exciting. According to AppleInsider, Apple “has been developing an operating system based on the core technologies of Mac OS X for use with embedded devices... Apple intends to integrate the software on a couple of devices beginning early next year.”

There have been rumors before about this and it makes a lot of sense. I believe it. Here's why.

OS X is based on Unix which has already been deployed extensively in handheld devices of various types including cell phones.

A lot of the cell phone rumors of late have mentioned iChat, one of Apple's OS X applications.

The cell phone rumors talk about wi-fi and skype phone types of capabilities that are closely associated with full scale computers, not many handhelds - yet.

We know Apple wants to do small devices. That was a major reason given for going intel-based. Portable devices needed to be able to do a lot on not much power due to battery-life considerations. And, all we've seen so far is the iPod which was already out before the whole Intel switch.

The reason I'm excited about OS X in a small device is because that means you would have a lot of brute strength and full computing ability in a handheld device.

We've got rumors for a video ipod with a larger screen, multiple cell phones, a multifunctional PDA kind of device and very small notebooks. We know Apple likes small, thin and light. We know computers are more often mobile and miniaturization marches on.

Doing a lite version of OS X leverages Apple's computer company strengths to extend its reach and success in the mobile devices space.

The ambition of this project matches Steve's ambitious nature. And it would explain why we've been hearing rumors about these other devices for two years now and nothing has shipped. It's hard to do operating systems and might be harder because you have to figure out how to address all the issues of working on a smaller device plus you now have to make the smaller device work synergistically with a notebook or desktop computer.

Apple is not a beginner at doing hard computer projects. They wouldn't undertake something like this lightly and would be very painstaking to get it right. Perhaps we are going to be blown away by this new device *platform* in January. Wouldn't that be nice?

Technorati Tags: Macintosh, OSX

New iMac Thoughts

Apple just released a new iMac line up yesterday. They are based on the new Intel Core 2 Duo chip. This should result in a modest real world speed bump. The two big things here are that (1) the low-end 17" model is priced under $1000 ($999) and a new 24" high-end model has been added. I like the low-end model as a starter computer.

If I were buying a new iMac, it would most likely be as a compact FileMaker server running on the $999 model. I would upgrade the RAM to 1 gig from 512 to get better performance ($75) but that's it.

At the high end, the 24" is appealing for different reasons. I have viewed quite a few downloaded TV shows enjoyably on my 20" Cinema Display. All the new iMacs have a 16:10 wide aspect ratio, so movie/TV-watching is optimized. That 24" would be a nice improvement with at least 30% more room than I'm currently getting with my 20" screen. I'm hoping Apple will be announcing more interesting movie download options next week that would put this 24" model to good use.

I could buy the stock 24" model as is. It comes with 1 gig of RAM, 250 gb hard drive, superdrive, wi-fi and more. I'm doing perfectly well with a G5 dual 2ghz tower with 17" and 20" cinema displays side by side, but 24" all in one piece sounds appealing. The reasons this probably won't happen is (1) it's a hassle to resell my old equipment -- but if someone wanted to buy my G5 tower... and (2) it might be good to keep a PowerPC around for special occasions and (3) the improvement over my current set up is probably pretty minimal. I would switch if I could do so without major cost. After all, I paid $2000 for the G5 tower alone. Getting a 24" screen as a bonus is nice.

I'm thinking that this 24" iMac will appeal to high-end buyers looking for something incredibly simple to deal with. One thing about 24" is that it will be easy to share photos and whatnot with family members or housemates or co-workers.

Actually, I don't find 24" to be too much space for any active computer user. We need more space for all the applications we have open like: email, browser, calendar, address book, word processor or outliner, news reader, database, spreadsheet... The list goes on.

The non-techy self-employed person with enough money to justify the not-exhorbitant $2000 pricetag would do well with this new model. There will even be a few affluent college students in a dorm rooms who get sent off to college with one of these.

Also, the Mac mini line was speed bumped with the $599 model increasing from Core Solo 1.5 ghz processor to a Core Duo 1.66 ghz processor and the $799 model going from Core Duo 1.66 to 1.83 ghz. I fantasized yesterday about selling my 20" display and G5 tower, buying the 24" iMac and also a low-end Mac mini as a FileMaker server and pairing it with my 17" display. The advantage of the mini for a server is that the mini is so tiny it can be set on a shelf with the display beside it. Out of the way.

Just thinking in my spare time... Apple is good at making me do that. Stay tuned for their announcements on Sep 12, 10am in SF. Wish I could get an invite to that Stevenote!

WWDC: Learning to Love Leopard

I have a confession to make. Yesterday I posted twice about Leopard based on my viewing of the first quarter of the Keynote (which was really about the Mac Pro) and perusal of Apple's Leopard pages. I had not yet watched the rest of the Keynote which covers each of 10 features of Leopard in depth - with demos.

Yes. I got the benefit of the spin. And I learned more that has changed my mind. Steve started the demo of the 10 things by saying there was some Top Secret stuff he wasn't going to show. He emphasized that they are coming and the impression I got is that this stuff was important and worth waiting for. Then he emphasized that he was going to show only 10 of the features in Leopard. And I believe him.

Second, I like the features more. Now that I saw Time Machine demonstrated live, I'm a believer. I liked the new Mail 3 features especially To Do creation but I also learned the To Do capability will be a Service that any Cocoa app can use. It goes on.

The keynote sold me on the new Web Clip feature that will let you make dashboard widgets out of sub-regions of live web pages with a couple clicks and a drag to size the region. I see how cool this is going to be now that I have seen it. And the digital voice that can read text in Leopard is crystal clear! That's going to be handy listening to my email or RSS news.

I had my hopes up high and expected to see all of a dazzling Leopard release. And only saw part of it. That was a let down, but I'm re-equilibrating and things are looking better.

I got a feeling from the keynote. My sense is that Apple is still committed to OS X. They still want to create great computer technology. And they will. I'm good to go.

WWDC After Thoughts

The last post was about real stuff. Now, let's start speculating wildly about what is really going on.

Late Leopard. Some are already saying, now Apple can find out what Vista will have in it by letting Vista come out first. The only problems with that are (1) Vista may take a long time to come out - longer than Spring and (2) Apple can't wait until Spring before they develop whatever is going into Leopard that is supposed to be so cool and top secret.

Lame Leopard. It's not earthshaking is all I'm sayin'. It feels like a bunch of features slapped on top of the OS. Spotlight was supposed to be revolutionary with its meta-data. What's this, Spotlight 2? Now you can search the network. And you can get quick glances but are the problems like the ever-refreshing list of hits going to go away? Or get worse searching further away on distant boxes? Dashboard 2? And now you can program without really programming? Again. First Applescript. Then Automator and iWeb. Now we got Dashcode. And the big feature is easy backup?

Are Mac and Leopard Getting Enough Attention? I like some of it, but I'm not impressed. I'm wondering if Apple has taken its eye off the OS X ball. Remember how many of Apple's top technologists quit in Spring? What was that about? I wonder if it had to do with Apple's lack of aggressive commitment to the Mac and OS X. That would be a reason for someone like Avie Tevanian to leave. Or I could be all wrong and the top secret stuff could be awesome. I hope I'm wrong on this.

Mac Pro on Xeon for $2500. That's a high price and the Xeon is more of a server architecture. Quad Core. It's way up there. Doesn't that leave room underneath for a nice Mac Mini-tower for the rest of us who don't want another 17" or 20" monitor in an iMac? Also, positioning the Mac Pro as such a high-end Pro model is perfect to match up against the Audio/Video Segment and some scientists here and there. This feels like marginalizing. Going for the niche. It seems to be following the idea of taking a stand, doing what you are best at. Going extreme. Not being wishy, washy. Also, saving money perhaps by keeping the design the same on the outside. One thing Steve prides himself on is saying no to things. The height of the Mac Pro feels like it says no to a lot of other uses and users.

Maybe Steve Decided to Take it On the Chin Now. This options investigation is getting hot. Maybe Apple felt, putting too much out there right now would be a waste of goodies. Better to save some of the good stuff until the current storm blows over and you have people's attention back.

Was the Options Thing a Big Distraction? Let's see. The options thing started in June, officially. Could a few months of options scandals that could cause the loss of key executives (hopefully, hopefully not Steve) be enough distraction to screw up the WWDC deliverables?

Maybe WWDC isn't as important to Apple this Year? Maybe they thought they would still be knee deep in the struggle to get Universal apps out there, but realized that people are buying Intel Macs in droves. Almost all the apps that matter have gone Universal except for a few giant-sized apps like Photoshop and Microsoft Office which will go Universal no matter what at this point. I actually don't think I believe this, but I worry sometimes.

Think Positive Thoughts. All right. I'll try to stay cool. OS X rocks already. I'm greedy. The transition to the Intel Macs has been remarkably successful. The doubling of notebook sales since January is quite something. I want Apple to continue to blow me a way. I want that technology high I've gotten used to.