February 6, 2010

Why I (Don’t) Talk About iPad

I’ve been asked to do an article on iPad (by my self and others) and I have tried to sit down and write about it more than a couple times; but I can’t bring my self to get more than a paragraph out. In fact, I’m still struggling to get my thoughts out clearly now, but I’m pretty sure they won’t come out the way I want them too even if I try, so I’m just going to throw it down on the table for you all. I want to talk about iPad. ”OH NOT ANOTHER ONE” is probably your first thought, but bare with me, I’m trying to make this as different as I possibly can. I’ve jumped views on the iPad quite a few times since it’s release, but I am now declaring my self neutral on the topic. After reading this post I do expect you to find “neutral” the completely wrong word to describe my stance, but this blog is about what I think, and if I think I’m neutral, then I’m neutral.

So, iPad. The geeks and Apple fan boys (and girls) take the name very seriously, and the iPod-weilding teenagers listening to crappy music make jokes about it (for obvious reasons). My friend Josh Helfferich had a part of him die when he learned the iPad was called the iPad, but I expect that piece of him to grow back, along with all the others who were disappointed by the iPad’s name. This is just like iPhone. What a completely un-original name! Look at it now. Probably the most-known phone in the entire world. I expect the same thing to happen with iPad, it will grow on people. And I’m not just talking about the name here.

The iPad will continue to grow onto people into all aspects, JUST LIKE THE IPHONE. It’s funny that so many dismiss the iPad because of it’s “lack of features” and “flash” because that was the same reason the first iPhone was dismissed. Look at it now. iPhone users get by easily without flash. We’ve got HTML5 and H.264, so up yours Adobe! There has not been one time were I’ve wanted to visit a website and view it’s content but couldn’t because I didn’t have flash on my iPhone. Not once! It’s because developers saw that the iPhone was a popular platform and they re-designed and re-coded their websites to be compatible with the iPhone. Now, that did take them a while. I know we didn’t get mobile versions of Facebook, Digg, and Twitter right away, but that was because Apple had not allowed third-party applications. Now, iPad is out, and it has that opportunity to be noticed and developed for. We don’t need flash! It’s really that simple. But you’ve heard that a million times, let’s move on.

The iPhone was Apple’s test iPad. The iPhone is the iPad Nano (yeah I stole that deal with it). That’s why they were so slow at improving it. They wanted to see what people could live with and what they couldn’t live without. Now that the iPhone is main-stream and has all the features that people expected for it to be in the first place, Apple is rolling out the iPad. But, I think it’s still a test. I think it’s still the second phase out of three, or four, maybe five. They are going to slowly roll out features on the iPad like with the iPhone. iSight, iChat, iLife, Superdrive, whatever they put it in, unlikely or likely, they are going to do it slowly.

There is still more to come, whether it’s from the Mac, from the iPhone, from the iPad, from the iPod, or from the iWhatever. Take Apple’s tests. When they give you them back you will not be disappointed.

1 Comment

Filed under Apple, Technology

Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

February 4, 2010

Through the Amazon!

Well this is no suprise.

Leave a Comment

Filed under Apple, Link, Technology

Tags: , , , , , , , ,

February 3, 2010

Product Placement & Target Marketing

By DRBUK

Leave a Comment

Filed under Apple, Technology

Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

January 22, 2010

Baseball and Business: Why Apple Cannot Miss the Mark at the January 27th Event

When I hear something like “James is up to the bat. Were down by four and the bases are loaded. He needs to do this. He better not blow it.” I can’t help but think of the business world. Baseball and business is what I like to call it. They are two completely different things, yet they are completely the same thing at the same time. Baseball is a game involving a bat, usually wooden, a field, usually green and grassy, and a ball, usually white and leathery. Businesses (more specifically Apple) are no different. Sure, this is a wide claim for a fourteen year old blogger, but it really does make sense.

The bat, or the batter, is the company it’s self. The company has been given a chance to gain reputation and make lots of money, or in baseball terms; they are next in line to bat or they have stepped up to the plate to get a home run, win the game, and make the crowd go wild over them. Now, the overall success of the hit (or release of the product) all depends on the people, if any, on the bases (product supporters; features, partner companies). It also depends on how fast (demanding) the pitch (public) is. You follow me?

If I release a lamp that completely and utterly shatters all other lamps in that market but no one had asked for it to be made or no one had rumored about it, or created hype about it, it wont sell. It’s the basics of the basics of our known world. My dad once said something very wise: “Nothing sells unless there is demand, no matter how ‘great’ it is.”

In this case, the bases are loaded. There are tons of people who want to see a tablet or another significant update, like iPhone OS four. They are also throwing a fast pitch. They want it quickly and they want it now. Rumors are swirling around and hype is being created. Apple is James, they have the bat. The public is the bases and the ball. The field is opportunity for Apple. They need to hit the ball in the correct part of the field in order to get the runners home and score some points; in order to please the crowd.

Apple needs to hit this ball. Hard.

1 Comment

Filed under Apple, Technology

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

January 15, 2010

Rumor Has it; Interview with Sebastiaan de With about Apple Tablet Rumors

So it’s the beginning of 2010, and Apple is supposedly going to release a tablet at an event scheduled for the 26th of this month (Now 27th). The Apple tablet rumors have swirled around since the death (kind-of) of the Apple Newton. It was not until late 2007 that rumors really started to fly. Several different mockups have popped up in the past couple of years. A mockup by Chris Messina stands out. It was created in November of 2007. Have a look here. Chris not only creates a beautiful concept, but gives also gives a description of what will be inside. He specifically notes that it will run iPhone OS, and says if Apple were to make a tablet, it should run iPhone OS too.

This has sparked lots of debate within the community. Most of the population has said iPhone OS, like Chris has, but that would be very inefficient. the iPhone 3GS, which runs at $199 USD runs the iPhone OS lightning fast. If Apple is going to build a tablet with a price of at least $500 USD (That’s what the WSJ said) don’t you think it would be smarter to put something better on it? Perhaps Mac OS X? (I’m assuming the innards will be pretty decent).

The large group of Mac users looking forward to a tablet from Apple are graphic designers. Macs have continued to gain market share and support from graphic designers because the operating system handles pixels, colors, and graphics in general better than Windows. Graphic designers live by Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Photoshop; does iPhone OS run the full version of either of those? No, therefore, Apple would miss the mark and disappoint a large group of the people who would like this tablet.

To end this post I have interviewed Sebastiaan de With, an extremely talented designer to find out what he would like to see from the tablet. Enjoy.

1. Before we begin, I’d like to note that you were offered a job at Apple, could you tell readers that are unfamiliar with this what kind of work they wanted you to do?

They wanted me to take a place at their OS X design team. This involves doing work on Mac OS X; everything from how Safari looks, for instance, to the Dock, menubar and other UI elements. Almost too much to list :). What it does *not* include are the iLife apps, and the ‘ProApps’ – these have their own design groups. I’d like to go over all the reasons why I’d have liked to work there and why I didn’t go for it eventually, but that warranted an entire blog post of its own on my website, so I won’t get into that.
2. What is your current setup and how does it help you with your work?

I use a 30″ Apple Cinema Display (I’d seriously like an LED model, but I won’t step down from 2560×1600. It’s liberating, and the colors are still great) and an eight-core Mac Pro. I prefer it over an iMac, because it lets me install my own upgrades. I went from a 500 GB drive and 4 GB of RAM to two TB of storage and 16 GB of RAM, which makes a huge difference!
I also love gaming, and it’s a beast with the right graphics card.
As a second monitor / drawing utensil I use the Wacom Cintiq 12WX. It’s a drawing tablet with a screen. I hate regular tablets, but for sketching and doodles it’s a great little device. I don’t ‘draw’ my regular work with it though. For that I use a recently acquired Razer Mamba mouse, which offers fantastic precision. I’m extremely picky when it comes to mouses, so I go through at least two to three per year.
I also use a unibody 17″ Macbook Pro extensively. Its high-resolution screen and amazing battery life are great.
3. Would a tablet replace a current item in your setup? Could you find an Apple tablet useful in your workflow? What would you use it for?

It wouldn’t really replace anything. If I had a 13″ Macbook, it might replace that. I’d obviously -have- to get the tablet because I need it for design work :) I’ve already had offers from people who aren’t even sure about the device yet, but want designs done in advance to be ready when it hits.
I’d probably use it for video consumption (I love anime and TV series), strategy games (huge possibilities) and browsing the web. And pretending I’m in a science fiction movie, as well.
4. What do you think Apple is going to put into the tablet?

A screen. Perhaps a touchscreen.
No, in all seriousness, a top-grade capacitive touchscreen like the iPhone’s, at about 10″, with some internal storage, probably on par with the iPod touch’s internals or more. Some sort of fast mobile chipset that allows for a long battery life would seem logical, but I am also quite sure they’ll make sure it has some punch in the graphics department. Apple’s seen the opportunity games have now, and I am sure they won’t let go of it anymore.
Apart from that, the most amazing software. It’s not a Mac, it’s not an iPhone, so that leaves us with something new. Since they had a chance to re-imagine the way software looks and works for the iPhone, I am sure they’ll do the same here, building on some conventions from the iPhone and far less from the Mac. The only avenue to put software on it will obviously be the App Store, but I do hope for wireless syncing – it might be a nice alternative to having such a huge clunker tethered to your Mac.
5. What would you like to see in the Apple tablet? (Size, specs, OS)

A bit over 10″. Very little bezel, mostly screen. Fingerprint resistance. An X86 processor (Moblin would be cool) or some sort of power to virtualize old Windows games (hello, Command and Conquer and Total Annihilation). I wouldn’t bet on that though – it’s probably something more power efficient, which’d also be welcome. I’d love 3G connectivity, but I am not sure if that’s in the cards. Lots of RAM for multi-tasking would also be neat.
My biggest dream though? What I detailed in my MobileMe Home post on my blog: total data portability, having my files anywhere on my tablet, my media in ‘the cloud’, being able to listen to my music and watch all my videos on demand. Real sci-fi material. That’s a dream, but a sweet one. Only a tablet can pull that off nicely.
The OS? Eh, it’ll simply be ‘tablet OS’, and I trust Apple has done a kick-ass job on it. They’ve been working on it for a few years now.
6. What is one thing (or a couple of things) that the Apple tablet must have for you to buy it? Would you buy it regardless of what was inside it?

It would have to be shipping, that’s pretty much all. As I mentioned, people are so crazy about it already I’m sure I’ll be designing a lot for it. As a consumer, though: it’d have to be made clear to me why I’d want it, and I’m sure Apple would make that very clear.
7. Any last things you want to add?

I’ve seen a lot of people misunderstanding the tablet. I feel like it’s obvious that it is not a replacement for the Mac or even part of the Mac lineup. It’s not a ‘big iPhone’ either. It’s something new. People should stop treating it as a small extension of Apple’s existing platforms. And that’s probably also what’ll make it so great.
To learn more about Sebastiaan’s work and talent visit his company website or his blog (he’s got a Twitter too).

Leave a Comment

Filed under Apple, Technology

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

December 20, 2009

Top 5 Websites of 2009 – My Picks

Last year I compiled a list of some of the websites I visit most. Since the new year is fast approaching, I thought I would re-compile this list for the year of 2009, but, being the lazy ass that I am, I’m only doing five websites. Firstly, I would like to note that the following websites I have found most interesting this past year. I would also like to note that these websites were not created in the year 2009.

The first website, which actually was created this year, is SoundCloud. SoundCloud was created scary recent to the Apple-LaLa takeover. My guess is that the SoundCloud folks, who created a lighter version of their service for iPhone OS a couple weeks ago, knew that Apple would be buying LaLa before anyone, probably as a tip from the LaLa folks, or they were just really lucky and were at the right place, at the right time, on the right day. Kind of like Bill Gates. SoundCloud is a cloud music sharing service as well as a platform for bands, artists, and fans.

Another web-based music service, Last.FM, is also on my list. Last.FM is much like Pandora, except you specifically get to choose what you want to listen too. You can listen to just one song over and over, multiple songs, genres, artists, bands, and there is also a “Pandora” mode (radio by what kind of music you like.) Last.FM also stores what music you have listened to through a desktop client or their website. By doing this the Last.FM engine is able to create accurate playlists of artists that you will like. In my experience, it has been much better than Pandora. Oh, and it uses Lucida Grande as a font… So, no question there, better than Pandora.

I’m a big fan, you must know that, of blogs. After all this website is a blog. That being said, I like to visit many other blogs and one of them is OS X Fanatics written by Matt Hartley. The blog is unique. VERY UNIQUE. When an idea for a post pops into my head for this blog, I usually had just seen something on a mothership Apple-news website, such as MacRumors. I don’t know where Matt gets the ideas for his blog, they he writes about so many things that really aren’t relevant to what is going on, but regardless of that, it is some great content. I urge you to go visit his website right now.

Cocoia, a company with one employee, focuses on icon design and runs a variety of other smaller websites, including Cake, a tool used to group together your social websites, and Icon Resource. Icon Resource is a tutorial program that teaches the buyer the basics of icon design. I find it simply amazing that the owner of Icon Resource who is an icon designer himself (and doing quite well might I add) is selling his knowledge to people who would like to compete with him in that profession. Sebastiaan de With, the man behind this magical company, is also an avid gamer, visiting several conventions. He is usually the only person who has Mac at the conventions and we salute him for that. Sebastiaan lives with his girlfriend and cats in the Netherlands. Please visit his blog and commercial website. If you need to have some icons made, this guy better be somewhere at the top of your list.

Many of you know that I absolutely love photography and film. They give messages and morales in their own way and are entertaining and puzzling at the same time. Flickr is the site I use to share and view photos with others who enjoy it. It has been around for a while but it seems to be getting a lot more attention lately. I expect it to he up on the news like Facebook and Twitter are very soon. Although videos can be uploaded to Flickr, I believe Vimeo is much better. YouTube is quite clunky and there isn’t a lot of quality content. Vimeo on the other hand, is home to many great start-up directors or people who are passionate about film.

Leave a Comment

Filed under Apple, Technology

Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

December 15, 2009

Android and iPhone OS

A Twitter update by the well-respected Chris Pirillo sparked outrage in the Android community earlier this evening. Chris, who runs his own website and is broadcasting his office live twenty-four hours a day, said that the Android OS does not even compare with the iPhone’s OS. He was met by an assortment of replies on Twitter. One read “How? Android is win”. Chris responded by saying that Android’s only “win” over iPhone OS is that it is open-source.

Before I give out my opinion, let us lay put the facts on the table between iPhone OS 3.1 and Android 1.5, one by Apple and one by Google. I will give Android a little bit of lee-way here because the iPhone OS has been out much longer and Apple has had time to learn from their mistakes. Both iPhone OS 3.0 and Android 1.5 have MMS and Copy/Cut/Paste abilities; However, iPhone OS did not receive these features until 3.0, whereas Android has had them since beta.

The iPhone has received much praise, as well as criticism, for not allowing applications to run in the background. This angered many users who wanted “push” notifications so they could stay on top of their content. One of the major differences between Android and iPhone OS is that the Android allows applications to run in the background. Since this is an opinion based blog, I’m going to hand this to the iPhone. Having applications not run in the background but also giving push notifications is spectacular, no matter how long it took to get it right.

The one thing that really makes the iPhone come out on top is the seamless interface which makes it unbelievably fast to get information at a glance. This past Sunday night I was out having dinner with my family. Being that classic American family that we are, we were looking at our phones and having a chat at the same time. The topic was snow, and it soon came down to how much snow was at our ski cabin at the moment. I pulled out my iPhone, opened MobileSafari, typed in “snow report for (mountain).” The results appeared within five seconds thanks to AT&T’s unusually good coverage in my city, and I was able to tell everyone how much total snowfall there had been this season, how much there was last night, how much was at the top of the mountain, the middle, and the base. My dad was simply amazed that I was able to get that information so quickly, where he would have had to have used the clunky browser on his BlackBerry. He was also very impressed with the fact that I could scroll in and out and make the font bigger. I think what is even more interesting is that I didn’t even use a dedicated application for that, and I was still able to get the information under thirty seconds.

Until Google can develop an operating system that is capable of having a great interface that allows the user to navigate quickly and get information, it is definitely not in the same league as the iPhone. Let me restate, I was not using a dedicated application to do this. There are plenty of applications that I could have tapped on and received the information from as well and in a much faster time period. Google needs to revamp the interface and give developers the opportunity to create great applications with great interfaces; Google needs to give developers what they need to have great potential. I think Apple has done a fantastic job of doing that; It is what accounts for the third-party applications we use daily.

Leave a Comment

Filed under Apple, Technology

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

December 5, 2009

Apple Buys LaLa, Interested in Cloud Music Services

Brad Stone, a journalist for The New York Times, has reported that: “Apple has acquired digital music startup Lala…” via a Twitter update. Brad Stone wrote an article for the newspaper on the subject, which can be found here. If you are unfamiliar with LaLa (click the link), it is essentially iTunes, except within a web browser, and you can listen to full songs as many times as you want. Like iTunes, if you want to listen to them on the go, you will have to buy the song.

Cloud computing continues to grow rapidly, and LaLa is no exception. LaLa has been described as a cloud music service. When you want to play a song, you click “play” and LaLa will contact the cloud, where all the music is stored, and have it “rain” down (sent to your computer). Apple has not shown an interest in cloud computing since the release of MobileMe in June of 2008. However, Apple did released iTunes LP earlier this Fall, showing that they have not lost interest in iTunes and the music market.

According to unauthorized sources (scroll down to the quoted text), Apple will be buying LaLa primarily for their cloud computing engineers. We can conclude quite a lot from this. Apple has iTunes, the most popular music store for several years. LaLa was just a startup company with a brilliant idea, but they couldn’t turn a profit. Since Apple is already making a profit with iTunes, why not buy LaLa, implement the cloud music services, and further crush the competition?

I also think it possible for Apple to include MobileMe and connect iTunes cloud music (if it happens) with your iDisk storage. Let me give an example: You are preparing for a train trip to the opposite coast and purchased an iPod or iPhone so you can pass the time. You wake up late and discover you have no time to sync your device with your computer’s music library. Luckily, you uploaded your music library to your iDisk the night before; this means that once you are on the train, you can open up your iDisk application, and select the songs you want to listen to, all from the cloud.

No details on how much Apple will buying LaLa for has been released to the press.

Leave a Comment

Filed under Apple, Technology

Tags: , , , , , , ,

November 23, 2009

iMac is the new Mac Pro, right?

I’m sure you have heard about this. Apple has released the i7 iMacs. Yes, you heard me correctly; i7, perhaps one of the fastest chips known to date. After running several tests, MacWorld’s Jason Snell confirmed via Twitter update that the 27 inch iMac was the fastest stock Mac they have tested to date, i.e., the iMac is faster than the current Mac Pro.

Problem? Not necessarily, but to does raise some questions.

One of these questions is: “If the iMac is better than the Mac Pro right now, then doesn’t that mean Apple will upgrade the Mac Pro in the future?” I have an answer to this question, and I believe it is “yes.” But just because I am answering yes doesn’t mean I think that’s the best thing to do.

If you follow my Twitter updates you may remember a specific one in which I suggested that Apple drop the iPod Shuffle from it’s line. I suggest this because it is simply irrelevant. I can’t imagine anyone buying it unless they are completely clueless about MP3 players or they simply want to have proof to back up them saying “I own an iPod”. It’s too cheap, and frankly, too useless (but not completely, I have to give Apple that.)

This may be the case for the Mac Pro now. I do understand that there are “super” people who need to pimp out with Mac Pro with 32GB of RAM and 8-core 3.2 Ghz Processors, and I do understand there are some people that need 4TB of HDD space, but with the iMac screen getting larger, and it being an all-in-one machine after all, don’t you see those possibilities within the near future?

Yes, I am suggesting that the Mac Pro be dropped, but not soon, not soon at all. I’m saying that the iMac is up there in terms of speed with the Mac Pro, and it only makes sense that you upgrade the Mac Pro, get rid of it if the iMac is testing faster than it.

But, I do know that Apple will update the Mac Pro, and this post is nonetheless, a thought.

NOTE: While I was writing this blog post Mark Jardine, a fantastic designer updated Twitter saying that the iMac i7 does slow as you use it more, here is the direct link.

2 Comments

Filed under Apple, Technology

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

November 4, 2009

More is More in 10GUI

Over a quarter-century ago, Xerox introduced the modern graphical user interface paradigm we today take for granted. 10/GUI aims to bridge this gap by rethinking the desktop to leverage technology in an intuitive and powerful way.

A friend of mine introduced the 10GUI project to me a couple months ago. I watched the video for a couple minutes, lost interest, and shut down the computer; It was late and I wanted to get to sleep. Yesterday I revisited the site, and watched the entire video. Please visit the website, read the information, and watch this ten minute video. It will be worth your time, I can guarantee it. Before I get into what my real thoughts about 10GUI are, I want to talk about the brief history of touch sensitive computing.

The first touch sensor was invented in 1971, from that year all thew way up to the beginning of the 21st century, I believe there was no improvement on a large scale. Sure, the sensors got smaller, sure they became more sensitive, and sure, the screens got bigger, but there was never a large advancement in usability, or interaction. This is because there are many problems that arise when trying to make a large change, which I will get to within the next few paragraphs.

I believe that Apple’s Multi-Touch, or Cocoa-Touch technology has been the foundation for touch screen computing in these past few years. Upon the release of the original iPhone, other cellular carriers designed and developed touch-screen phones like rapid-fire to compete with the iPhone. Droid, Storm, and myTouch all have their own “Multi-Touch” features, but it’s not like they would be here as they are if the Apple had not developed the iPhone with it’s own “touch” capability. Apple, along with it’s competitors has given us the opportunity to realize that touch-screen computing is the future, and for me, 10GUI is the future.

Touch technology did not take off so quickly in the computing sector because of the problems that arise. When you are using a touch computing mobile device, such as an iPhone, your fingers are not always on the screen when using an application. However, when using a computer, your fingers and hands are always resting on the keyboard or mouse. Therefore, if you were to enlarge the screen of a touch enabled mobile device and put on a desktop operating system on it, your fingers would always be resting on the screen; with your hands resting on the screen, much of your viewing space is taken up. 10GUI solves this problem by using a keyboard shaped pad.

Take a look at your current desktop, what do you see? If you are the “average” person, it is likely that you have more than one window open, one, being the browser window, which takes up a decent percentage of your screen size. Then you have the other windows that take up any remaining space, or are too large and must be minimized. 10GUI solves this problem by turning your monitor into one linear window. New applications will appear as they are launched, and navigation is possible by multi-touch gestures. As you switch Applications, different multi-touch gestures become available, and there are hundreds of combinations because of the number of fingers you have.

Imagine yourself as a sound technician in a recording studio. You are manning the equalizer on a non-touch screen computer. To adjust, you must use your mouse, and singularly move each dial or fob until satisfactory; this is completely different than using a real EQ, because you have all your fingers available to move the dials and fobs at the same time.

This is one of the main phenomenons about 10GUI. It allows the user to not be limited to “a single pair of coordinates”. Using more of your fingers will increase the speed of which you complete tasks. Since multiple fingers can be doing multiple things at the same time, this makes multi-tasking a breeze. The touch-pad also has three layers of sensitivity, which triples the number of actions you can do with your fingers, depending on the number you use, and the pressure that is applied. In 10GUI, more is more.

Leave a Comment

Filed under Apple, Technology

Tags: ,

Older Entries